Class 10

The period from the end of the Renaissance to the French Revolution

has several markers:

- Naturalism and discoveries in science

- Enlightenment in education and social appearance

- Baroque, Rococo and Classicism in arts

Zeitgeist: Several scientific and technological discoveries have

prompted a transition from “divine powers” to ”natural

powers” to explain everything in the universe.

It became fashionable to appear “enlightened” by scientific

or pseudo-scientific novelties, public lectures and discussion

clubs. Neuvo-riches merchants and banksters would pose as

enlightened and … artistically sensible too. Snobbism.

Excellence in Baroque …but trash in Rococo

Scientific and technical discoveries

Telescope, observation of the Moon Galileo Galilei

Light spectrum. Gravitation law I. Newton

Calculus G. Leibniz

Blood circulation: W. Harvey

Microscope: Leeuwenhoek, Bacteria observed

Thermometer: D. Fahrenheit Germ. A. Celsius Sweden

Oxygen, combustion & respiration: A. Lavoisier & J. Priestley

Vaccination: cowpox immunizes against smallpox - E. Jenner

Animal electricity: L. Galvani Battery - A. Volta

Navigation and colonization

Learned Societies (Academies)

Rene Descartes

His father - was a lawyer; his mother died after his birth
Jesuit school at La Fleche
Studying law: University in Poitiers

* Identity crisis:

From a vagabond, swordsman, gambling

via intuitive dreams and intellectual insight,

to the choice of a career in mathematics,

geometry, logic and philosophy

An intensely private person; prefers solitude
Intellectual meditations.
“invited” by the Queen Christina of Sweden
Six months later Descartes caught pneumonia and died on February 11, 1650.
Pythagoras - Plato - Descartes - later, Newton: the essence of reality is
contained in the mathematical theorems & models
Through rational deductive thinking, Descartes arrived at the
conclusion, known as psychological and logical proof of existence:
The act of thinking requires somebody to do it.
I am thinking, therefore I exist.
Je pense, donc j’existe. Cogito, ergo sum.

Consciousness:

self-awareness, contemplation of oneself as a unique person existing in the Universe

Me, who am I in the context of the Universe and other people?

Innate intuitions: axioms of geometry, unity, infinity,

perfection and God.

“The only hypothesis left was that these ideas

were put in my mind by a nature that was more

perfect than I was… in a word, God.”

Rationalist: the importance of logical deduction.

The mind (soul) exists only in humans and provides

consciousness, rationality, free will and self-control.

The mind is immaterial “res cogitans”,

The body is material "res extensa”.

Dualism; interactionism (pineal gland)
Animal spirits - a concept of the nerve impulse
The reflex: afferent nerve + a center in spinal cord/brain + efferent nerve
Emotions (les passions de l’ame) - resulting from an interaction
between visceral processes and brain processes
See its “echo” later in William James’ theory of emotions
The passions must be controlled by the reason (rational thinking)
Rational ethics is based on the awareness of the:
- moral code
- freedom of choice and
- responsibility
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, R. Descartes, B. Spinoza, I. Kant...

Cartesian - Newtonian mechanics

Planetary systems and living organisms are machines:

once created and set in motion,

they function on their own (like a clock)

Physical objects, plants and animals belong to res extensa.

The animals exist without knowing it (awareness but not consciousness).

The human body is a machine and belongs to res extensa too),

but the human mind (soul) - exists, knowing it (consciousness) -

and belongs to eternal spiritual reality (res cogitans)

Isaac Newton 1642 – 1727

Studies of mathematics, astronomy and optics at Cambridge University;

later, a professor of math there “Principia Mathematica”

Studies of the light spectrum - using the prism

Experiments in alchemy - intoxicated by Hg vapour - a crisis

The lawful clockwork universe

Laws of planetary motion and gravitation

in terms of mathematical relationships

Mathematical models of reality

How does the Earth hold onto the Moon to keep it from flying away?

How do they act upon each other?

Instead of an explanatory hypothesis

a mathematical equation

to describe and predict the planetary motions

“Hypotheses non fingo” (I don’t feign hypotheses):

Instead, he offered some mathematical models

to describe the observed regularities.

A new way of doing science.

Post-Newtonian mechanics

uncritically extrapolated onto humans. A trivial reductionism

J. de La Mettrie “L’homme Machine” - primitive materialism

Thomas Hobbes: “The Leviathan - a combination of atomism of

Democritus (a soul = smooth atoms) and the theory of

Heraclitus (everything moves & changes)

The Universe = a set of permanent mechanical motions

Bodily and mental processes are mechanical motions

Movements of atoms and objects → sensations

Movement of physiological processes → motives →

emotions → up to the muscle motor actions

Its echo is easy to find in the behaviourism and XXI c. fantasy about "human-like" AI robots.

John Locke 1632 – 1704

British empiricist, sensualist, associationist

“Nihil est in intellectu nisi quod prius fuerit in sensu”

There is nothing in the mind that is not first in the senses

“Tabula rasa” - blank slate at birth

The content of the mind versus

the capacity of the mind

Basic mental processes: sensations and reflections

Sensory input simple ideas

Reflecting upon & combining ➔ complex ideas

Aristotle: sensation - common sense - perception

associating, memorizing, imagining, thinking

Aristotle and G. Galilei revisited by J. Locke.

Associations by contrast, similarity and contiguity

Primary qualities: shape, solidity, mobility, number.

Objective, independent of a perceiver

Secondary qualities: taste, colour, odour

Subjective, dependent of a perceiver

Learning, discipline and “hardening” in the education

“Some Thoughts Concerning Education”

“An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”

BRITISH ASSOCIATIONISTS:

John Locke, James Mill and John Stewart Mill

James Mill (the father) 1773 - 1836

“Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind”

The principle of association in the analysis of emotional states:

Affections, aesthetic emotions and moral sentiments

Extreme associationism: The mind is a passive recorder and a

storage of associations.

The ideas represent the reality “as is”

The complex ideas = aggregates of simple ideas

Education: "loading into the mind" as much as possible. Strict discipline and hardening are recommended for raising children.

John Stewart Mill ( the son) 1806 – 1873

“System of Logic” 1843

The mind:

- registers the sensory data

- combines them into complex ideas

- processes them according to

pragmatic and logical rules and

- creates new original ideas

John Stewart Mill

Psychology task: observe the regularities in behaviour (habits,

customs) to predict future behaviour.

“Ethology” on the impact of external circumstances

(individual experiences and social influences)

on the formation of the intellectual & moral

character. Ethos = custom, habit

Utilitarianism - contribution of each citizen to the betterment

of the quality of life through equal access

to education, politics, employment and justice

British empiricism

John Locke 1632 - 1704
George Berkeley 1685 - 1753
James Mill 1773 - 1836
John Stewart Mill 1806 - 1873

George Berkeley 1685 - 1753

subjective empiricist

All qualities are secondary thus, all our perceptions are subjective.

“Esse est percipi” = to exist is to be perceived.*

God – the constant perceiver

Human perception - a divine ability to see an order and meaning

Cartesius: To exist is to think. Berkeley: To exist is to be perceived

Locke: The mind depends on the objects. Berkeley: the objects depend on the mind

(*) compare it with the modern quantum physics: the observation modifies its object

David Hume (1711 - 1776) Radical subjectivism, agnosticism, solipsism

Latin: solus = alone, ipse = self

Baruch - Benedict SPINOZA

1632 - 1677 Amsterdam. Dutch philosopher

of Portuguese Jewish immigrants

Cartesian dualism challenged

There is no need for division into res extensa vs. res cogitans. In the view of metaphysics, there is only one substance, one reality: God = Nature

Double aspectism: There is one reality

but seen from two different perspectives:

Spiritual or material

God is spiritual and material (like the Nature)

The mind is spiritual and material (like the brain)

God exists not outside or above the Universe but rather inside of it as its inherent aspect.

- its primary cause and motor.

Nature/God manifests itself in a lawful harmony*

* "I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself

in the orderly harmony of what exists…“ Albert Einstein 1929

The natural world and the spiritual world are two aspects or “modes of existence” of the same Universe,

e.g. Two aspects of the light: photons versus waives?

Everything has its natural cause.
“The Ethics” 1677. We should learn the causes of behaviour to predict, control & prevent the actions.
The knowledge of consequences and awareness of choices (alternative ways of action) can increase our freedom of decision,

and make us feel responsible for our choices.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Using the non-verbal and verbal symbols, the humans are:

- encoding the individual and collective experiences

- storing them, and

- sharing, communicating them

What are the universal characters the mind uses for coding?

A set of phonemes, syllables or meaningful ideas?

What is “the alphabet” of thoughts & feelings?

Leibniz: fascinated with the binary system of hexagrams

in the old Chinese coding system, I Ching

Promoted the formation of learned societies (academies): the British Royal Society and the French Académie Royale des Sciences.
1700 the Berlin Academy of Sciences was created with G. W. Leibniz as its 1^st president.
As an ambassador, he promoted the

ecumenical reconciliation between the Roman

Catholic and Protestant Church.

Monadology

THE MONADS - meaningful units of reality

metaphysical = beyond space, time,

cause-effect, beginning-end

containing the pre-programmed instructions

“animating potentials” for:

- movement energy

- development actualization

- consciousness awareness

differing from each other by the intensity of

those potentials. The perfect monad = God

Like a set of genetic instructions, pre-programmed in the cell

Metaphysical universe of the pre-established

harmony and consciousness

All objects are manifestations of the monads

The monads differ on the level of energy, actualization & Consciousness

The soul is a monad. The body is another one.

God - a perfect monad: absolute energy, actualization &

consciousness

Exists beyond the relationships of space or time

Independent, not causally related yet

co-related, harmonized, mutually networking,

and potentially aware of each other (representation)

Gradation (intensity) of awareness/consciousness

The weak stimuli - below the level of awareness -subconsciously represented as "petite perceptions"
Stimuli below the threshold of conscious detection
Threshold - Latin - limen

Subliminal perception
Inspiration for a new domain - psychophysics -by Weber and Fechner at Leipzig University

Christian von WOLFF (1679 - 1754), University of Halle.

German rationalist

empiricism was recognized but rationalism preferred

Reintroduced "psychology" into the scholar terminology at the Univ. of Halle.
An inspiration for Immanuel Kant.
“Psychologia empirica” 1732 (a)
“Psychologia rationalis” 1734 (b)

Two aspects of psychology:

- empirical studies of sensation, perception & feelings

- rational (theoretical) analysis of the human mind.

Immanuel KANT 1724 – 1804

Professor of philosophy at the University of Königsberg

It is impossible to transcend the bounds

of our cognitive apparatus We have no direct access to

the essential core "thing-in-itself” Dinge-an-sich

Phenomenon (appearance) versus

Noumenon (essence, thing-in-itself)

Kant’s rationalism

Sensory, imperfect but practically useful view of reality,

complemented by a rational model of the true

reality-in-itself through rational thinking

“Kritik der reinen Vernunft” 1781 pure reason

“Kritik der praktischen Vernunft” 1788 practical reason

Pragmatic vs. rational:

Engineering vs. theoretical physics

Law & customs vs. rational ethics

musical performance vs. theory of music

pragmatic anthropology/psychology only

no rational psychology

introspection cannot be a “meta-inspection”

Cartesius: axioms of geometry, logic, God
Kant: cognitive intuitions “categories of the mind

time, space, cause-and-effect, reality, negation,

beginning-and the-end, existence-nonexistence,

unity, totality, God.

The inborn intuitions “categories of the mind”

Anschauungen

other preparations of the reason: the soul, the responsibility

Inborn ethical predispositions “the categorical imperatives”

The absolute non-negotiable universal moral law
The inborn need to fulfil it - a need of the rational soul
The moral rules are intrinsically valid and must be obeyed in all situations and circumstances.

No relativism, no negotiation, no “crying majority”.

“Democracy is necessarily a despotism,

because it establishes an executive power in which

all decide for - or even against - somebody who has different preferences;

that is a contradiction of the freedom”.

Comparing I. Kant with J. Locke and G. Berkeley

J. Locke: Primary (objective) and secondary (subjective) qualities

The matter projects itself onto the mind.

The sensory input makes our gnosis and serves

as a proof and guarantor of reality (This is an axiom of materialism)

G. Berkeley: Only secondary (subjective) qualities

The mind projects itself onto the matter.

The subjective view makes our gnosis.

The proof & guarantor of reality: The axiom of God

I. Kant: Sensory gnosis (“phenomenon”) and rational gnosis

“noumenon” (essence, thing-in-itself)

The proof & guarantor of reality: The axiom of God and

rationality.

Johann F. HERBART 1776 - 1841

Follower of Immanuel Kant at the University of Königsberg

From ontology to psychology:
Galilei – Locke – Berkeley – Hume – Leibniz - Kant - Herbart

Galilei: primary vs. secondary qualities of the perceived object

Locke: both the objective and subjective qualities are real

Berkeley: We only have access to the subjective qualities

Hume: It is impossible to know if objects truly exist (solipsism)

Leibniz: The world of kinetic, developing, cognitive monads

Kant: Sensory access to phenomena, rational access to noumena

Herbart: Phenomena (the reals) are represented in the mind as

ideas equipped with kinetic energy and

cognitive need for meaning

The real things exist because they produce phenomena.
The “reals” have a status of Leibniz’s monads.
Reals - represented in the mind as ideas, have the kinetic and cognitive capability of grouping and regrouping according to meaning.
When a group of ideas reaches a critical apperceptive mass, it crosses the threshold (limen) between the conscious and unconscious content of the mind.
Apperception is a preliminary, primed, subliminal perception - - before being a conscious, verbalizable recognition.

(see: Leibniz’s notion of petites perceptions)

With their natural energy and inclination to form meaningful connections, group, and regroup, ideas attract or repel each other to gain attention and expression in consciousness.
As ideas come together, they reach a "critical mass”

that allows them to cross the threshold of awareness

(limen).

Ideas that fail to win this struggle remain subliminal.

Compatible, meaningfully related ideas cluster

together, creating an apperceptive mass

capable of remaining in the center of attention

and awareness.

A strong group of ideas can include new elements (ideas) or recombine itself.

The kinetic and cognitive capability of the apperceptive

mass is the basis of creative thinking.

Jean Piaget: The cognitive scheme is maintained through

assimilation-accommodation processes

Hitchcock-style films: The perception primed by

suggestive expectations

Henry Murray: Thematic Apperception Test (T.A.T.)

a projective test to detect

temporary motivation or

permanent personality attitude, beliefs,

motives, needs and expectations