Philosophical Roots of Psychology

5 Timelines

  1. Greek philosophers

  2. Middle Ages

  3. Islamic Gold Age

  4. Renaissance

  5. Post-Renaissance

Greek Philosophers

  • Ancient Greece

    • Origins of philosophy and natural sciences

  • Before Greeks

    • Supernatural explanations

      • Magic

      • Spirits

      • Demons

  • After Greeks

    • Natural explanations

  • Democritus (460 BC)

    • “Atoms compose everything”

    • Reductionism

      • Understand complex phenomena by studying their individual parts

  • Pythagoras (580 BC)

    • Influential on Western thought

      • Mathematics explains phenomenon

    • Emphasized dualism

      • Mind and body are separate

    • Humans have 2 natures

      • Flesh

      • Reasoning Powers

  • Socrates (469 BC)

    • Unexamined life is not worth living

    • Questioned every assumption

    • Truth is NOT defined by absolute authority and is hidden in the mind

    • A teacher’s job is to uncover ideas by asking questions and pointing out logical flaws

  • Plato (427 BC)

    • Socrates’ pupil

    • Use reasoning + measurements (geometry) to gain knowledge

    • If you can measure the physical world, you can measure the human mind

    • People differ in terms of skills and abilities (but comes from gods)

    • Nativism in which human behavior → innate

  • Aristotle (385 BC)

    • Student of Plato

    • Mind is a blank slate in which experiences fill it up

    • Empiricism which are experiences that lead to certain behaviors and knowledge

    • All organisms have a soul

    • Plants only have growth and reproduction (vegetative)

    • Animals experience sensations and have memory (sensitive)

    • Humans allow for rational thought (rational)

Middle Ages

  • Roman Empire fell

  • People concerned with safety

    • Not philosophy and science

  • Education was associated with clergy and nobility

  • Greek philosophy became forgotten

Islamic Golden Age

  • Islam spread throughout the world

  • Early Muslin Leaders

    • Tolerant of different cultures

    • Supported research

      • Scholars knew of Greek philosophers

William of Occam

  • Franciscan Monk

  • Occam’s Razor

    • Explanations → simple as possible

    • Parsimony

Averroes (1126)

  • Mental processes are determined by the brain

  • Model of Brain Localization

    • Different parts of brain perform different functions

    • The front controls imagination

    • The back controls memory

  • Rediscovered Greek philosophy

    • Led to the Renaissance

The Renaissance (1450-1600)

  • Began in Florence, Italy

  • Rediscovery of Greek philosophy

  • New ways to gain knowledge

    • Natural observation replaced church dogma

  • Greater acceptance to study nature

    • Interacting and exploring other cultures

    • Printing press

  • People wanted a new perspective and find answers on their own

  • Galileo (1564)

    • Constructed the telescope

      • Confirmed heliocentrism, which is when the Earth revolves around the sun

    • Laid foundations for experimentation, such as controlling and manipulating variables

  • Isaac Newton (1642)

    • The universe is a lawful and complex machine created by God

    • Created a model of how the universe works

    • Make use of observation, mathematics, and experimentation to understand the universe

Post-Renaissance Philosophers

  • RenĂ© Descartes (1596 - Nativist)

    • “I think, therefore I am”

    • Interactive Dualism in which the mind and body are separate, but different laws govern each one

    • The mind is used for thinking and free from substance

    • The body has substance and a self-regulating system that results in reflexes

    • Interaction is within the Pineal Gland

    • The human body is a machine with hollow tubes containing animal spirits that are heated and pressurized by the heart

    • Reflex arc → Touch hot flame

      • Animal spirits flow from hand to brain

      • Brain’s sensory area fills up and presses on motor areas

      • Motor area sends animal spirits down to muscles in hand

      • Moves hand

      • Pores in the brain control the passage of animal spirits

  • Immanuel Kant (1724 - Nativist)

    • Brought together empiricism and nativism

    • A Priori → innate knowledge

    • Posteriori → Knowledge from experience

      • Ability to learn any language is A Priori

      • Language learned depending on the culture is Posteriori

  • John Locke (1632 - Empiricist)

    • Associationism is the idea that simple ideas combine to form complex ideas

    • Simple ideas can include sensations

      • Sweetness

      • Redness

      • Roundness

    • Complex ideas can be a concept or object

      • Apple

  • David Hume (1711 - Empiricist)

    • Came up with the 3 Laws of Association

      • Law of Resemblance

        • One thought leads to similar thoughts

      • Law of Contiguity

        • When one thinks of an object, they can recall a time and place when the object was experienced

      • Law of Cause and Effect

        • When one thinks of an effect, they also think of a cause

  • James Mill (1773 - Empiricist)

    • A child’s mind is like a blank tablet (Tabula Rasa)

    • Mental experiences are composed of simple ideas held together by laws of association

    • Similar to Newton’s idea of universe

      • Elements held together by physical forces

    • Mental and physical experiences can be predictable

  • John Stuart Mill (1806 - Empiricist)

    • Updated father’s mind model

      • Chemical component to how ideas combine

        • H2O → Properties that H and O don’t have

      • Complex idea more than sum of simple ideas

        • Laid foundation for Gestalt Psych

    • Science of human nature

      • CAN apply to all humans + predict general human behaviors

      • CAN’T predict individual behavior

    • Complex = simple + simple