Intellectual Revolutions Lecture Notes

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers intellectual revolutions including the works of Kuhn, Copernicus, Darwin, Freud, and the history of the Information Revolution as presented in Chapter 1.2 and 1.3 of the lecture notes.

Science as an idea

A concept that includes ideas, theories, and all available systematic explanations and observations about the natural and physical world.

Science as an intellectual activity

A systematic study of the real world involving a disciplined observation and experimentation.

Science as a body of knowledge

A subject or a discipline, a field of study, or a body of knowledge that individuals learn to understand the world.

Science as a personal and social activity

The application of knowledge and understanding of the world through a systematic methodology based on evidence.

Scientific Revolution

A period of enlightenment where developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology, and chemistry transformed societal views about nature.

Intellectual Revolutions

Periods of significant change in the way people think about the world and their place in it, shaping the course of human history.

Thomas Kuhn

Author of ‐The Structure of Scientific Revolution‐ ($1962$) who stated that different sciences undergo revolutions.

Paradigm shift

A fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline; shifting from ‐normal to the new normal.‐

Pre-paradigmatic Phase

Phase $1$ of the Kuhn Cycle, referring to a period before a scientific consensus has been reached.

Normal Science

Phase $2$ of the Kuhn Cycle where a scientific discipline operates under a well-functioned paradigm.

Crisis Phase

Phase $3$ of the Kuhn Cycle where anomalies become serious, undermine basic assumptions, and attempts to remove them fail, leading to a possible paradigm shift.

Scientific Revolution (Kuhn Cycle)

Phase $4$ of the Kuhn Cycle where one paradigm is abandoned and another is accepted.

Geocentric Theory

The model taught by Claudius Ptolemy stating that the Earth was the center of the universe.

Nicolaus Copernicus

The scientist whose model of the universe placed the Sun as the centerpiece of the universe.

Tycho Brahe

An astronomer who mapped over $700$ stars over a $20$-year period and provided evidence for the heliocentric theory.

Johannes Kepler

A scientist who used Tycho Brahe's data to calculate orbits and showed that planets moved in oval-shaped orbits rather than perfect circles.

Charles Robert Darwin

An English naturalist famous for his Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection.

On The Origin of Species ($1589$)

Darwin's book that presented evidence on how species evolved over time and traits that differentiate species.

Common Descent

The Darwinian principle that all organisms have one common ancestor and changed over time due to climate and habitat through adaptation.

Gradualism

The theory that evolution is a slow and gradual process involving the accumulation of changes over a period.

Multiplication (Darwinian)

The process where species multiply over time, resulting in offspring similar or different in appearance and behavior compared to ancestors.

Natural Selection

The major mechanism in evolution where nature selects beneficial variations to increase the survival rate of offspring.

Sigmund Freud

The Father of Psychoanalysis who proposed how the human psyche influences psychological development.

Psychoanalysis

A philosophy and method of treatment based on the idea that everyone has unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires, and memories.

Conscious Mind

One of Freud's three levels of the mind, consisting of mental processes we are currently aware of, such as thoughts and perception.

Preconscious Mind

Contains thoughts and feelings a person is not currently aware of but can easily be brought to consciousness, such as memories and stored knowledge.

Unconscious Mind

Mental processes inaccessible to consciousness, including fears, immoral urges, and shameful experiences, that influence judgments and behavior.

Id

The part of the personality containing basic animal and primitive impulses that demand satisfaction based on the pleasure principle.

Ego

The moderator between the Id and Superego that operates on the reality principle, representing the ‐self.‐

Superego

The last part of the personality to develop, representing internalized ideas of right and wrong and providing standards for judgment based on morality.

Oral Stage

The first psychosexual stage ($0-1$ year) focused on oral stimulation such as eating, drinking, and sucking.

Anal Stage

The psychosexual stage ($1-3$ years) focused on toilet activities; failure to gratify can result in anal retentive or anal expulsive personalities.

Phallic Stage

The psychosexual stage ($3-6$ years) where sexual identity is learned; involves the Oedipus and Electra complexes.

Latent Stage

The psychosexual stage ($6-12$ years) where the libido is suppressed and energy is directed toward education and social activities.

Genital Stage

The final psychosexual stage from adolescence to death, where an interest in the opposite sex is developed.

Defense Mechanism

Unconscious psychological strategies used to protect a person from anxiety by distorting reality.

Denial

A defense mechanism involving a refusal to accept reality, thus blocking external events from awareness.

Repression

Also called ‐motivated forgetting,‐ it involves forcing disturbing wishes or memories into the unconscious.

Projection

Attributing unwanted thoughts, feelings, and motives onto another person, also called ‐displacement outward.‐

Displacement

The redirection of an impulse, usually aggression, onto a powerless substitute target.

Regression

A defense mechanism where the ego reverts to an earlier stage of development in response to stress.

Sublimation

Displacing unacceptable emotions into behaviors that are constructive and socially acceptable.

Rationalization

A cognitive distortion of ‐the facts‐ to make an event or impulse less threatening by providing excuses.

Reaction Formation

Also called ‐believing the opposite,‐ it occurs when a person behaves in the opposite way to their unacceptable unconscious thoughts.

Introjection

Taking characteristics of someone else into your own personality, often called ‐identification.‐

Identification with the aggressor

A version of introjection involving the adoption of negative or feared traits of a more powerful and hostile person.

Information Age

Also known as the Computer or Digital Age, an era characterized by the production, distribution, and consumption of information.

Petroglyphs

Rock carvings made by pecking directly on the surface using a stone chisel and hammerstone to represent ideas or messages.

Hieroglyphics

A system of pictorial writing used on ancient Egyptian monuments for religion and government records.

Johannes Gutenberg

Inventor of the printing press in the $15$th century, starting the Gutenberg Revolution.

Claude E. Shannon

The ‐Father of Information Age‐ who quantified information in bit.

Tim Berners-Lee

Inventor of the World Wide Web in ($1989$), marking the third modern information revolution.