Philosophical Roots Psychology 4006 Introduction People have been
Philosophical Roots Psychology 4006
Introduction • People have been thinking about thinking (probably) ever since there were people thinking about things. • Remember, psychology grew out of philosophy, indeed, all sciences did. • Now, we have to get a few terms out of the way first, just so we can talk about this stuff.
Epistemology • How do we know the truth? • • • Authority Empiricism Rationalism Aestheticism Pragmatism Skepticism
Models of Science • Karl Popper • Stuff has to be testable • Thomas Kuhn • A community of scientists shares a paradigm describing the accepted beliefs, values, and methods of a science • Anomalies lead to revolution • Paul Feyeraben • Does it work? Then it’s fine…
Looks like a fun bunch of guys
Causality • Aristotle’s four causes • • Efficient Material Formal Final • Teleology • Intrinsic teleology, the purpose imminent in nature • Extrinsic teleology, purpose comes from a designer
Free Will and Determinism • Free will is necessary to adequately explain human experince • Choosing to believe in determinism is inherently illogical • Determinism makes a mess of morality • What about all that quantum stuff?
On the other hand…. • Deterministic accounts have become more effective throughout history • Who cares about morality? • Determinism allows us to make causal explanations
The Mind Body Problem • What is the relationship between the physical body and the mind? • Monism vs dualism • Neuroscience and all of that is great, but, can it explain psychological phenomena?
The Golden Age of Greece • Socrates, Plato, Aristotle • Socrates didn’t like relativism, the idea that humans are the standard and everything else in nature should be judged accordingly • Instead, he was into reason. So, through reason we could come to the truth • Knowledge is virtue • Ignorance makes evil
Plato • Student of Socrates, eventually sets up his own shop • Argued that senses provide only illusion and that reason provides true knowledge (you can see the influence of his academic dad there) • Theory of forms • We get meaning from forms that are timeless. Changes in objects make us perceive time.
Still with the Plato • Tripartite mind, appetitive, affective and rational souls • Pain vs pleasure • Sensory function and perception • Mental illness might be associated with irrational drives, discord among the bits of the soul, or, ignorance • Different kinds of love, in a hierarchy, going from erotic to love of knowledge
Aristotle • Plato’s student • Wasn’t much on the whole form thing • How could it be independent of experience and matter? • Soul does nutritive stuff, sensation, movement and reason • Memory vs recollection • Associationist account of learning • Imagination vs reality
More from Ari • The importance of pleasure and pain • ’Golden Mean’ • Four factors affect human ability to achieve good • • Individual differences Habit Social support Freedom of choice
Who cares? • Well, I think if we look at this stuff it gives us an idea about how many of the ideas we have today have a history of their own • It also gives us some perspective, many of these ideas are still talked about today
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