Philosophical Influences on Psychology LECTURE PREPARED BY: DR. M. SAWHNEY

Topics 1. The Spirit of Mechanism 2. The Clockwork Universe 3. The Beginnings of Modern Science 4. The Contributions of Descartes: Mechanism and the Mind-Body Problem 6. Philosophical Foundations of the New Psychology: Positivism, Materialism, and Empiricism 7. Contributions of Empiricism to Psychology

The Defecating Duck & the Glory of France  My second Machine, or Automaton, is a Duck... The Duck stretches out its Neck to take Corn out of your Hand; it swallows it, digests it, and discharges it digested by the usual Passage. - Vaucanson, letter to Abbe Desfoutaines, 1738’

The Spirit of Mechanism  England and Western Europe:  Machines put to daily use  Examples: pulleys, cranes, wheels, gears, powered wind mills  Machines freed industry from dependence on human brawn  Machines familiar to all levels of society  Some were even for entertainment

The Spirit of Mechanism (cont’d.)  17th to 19th Centuries:  Zeitgeist was the spirit of mechanism  Mechanism: the image of the universe as a great machine  Idea originated in physics  Originally called “natural philosophy”  Galileo  Used scientific observations to exemplify laws and then followed by using mathematical deduction to describe the law, and thus, the universe.

Newton  Isaac Newton  Conceived of the universe as a complex, lawful machine created by God who then set in motion, after which He ceased involvement (later called deism).  Every physical effect follows from a direct cause  The physical world is like a clock: predictable, smooth, orderly

The Clockwork Universe Clocks were the impetus  o Doctrine that natural processes are mechanically determined and capable of explanation by the laws of physics and chemistry  Clock: “Mother of Machines”  Symbol of wealth  Available to all: rich and poor  Lead to activities being more regularized and predictable  Clocks became model for life

The Clockwork Universe (cont’d.)  Determinism  The doctrine that acts are determined by past events  Reductionism  The doctrine that explains phenomena on one level in terms of phenomena on another level  Automata  Machines capable of performing feats with precision and regularity

The Clockwork Universe (cont’d.)  People as machines  Automata model applied to human beings  Human functioning governed by mechanical laws  Driving force of Zeitgeist in science and philosophy  Human beings were considered machines which could think Automaton figure of a monk. National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center, Smithsonian Institution

Babbage’s calculating machine, which survives intact at the Science Museum in London, England. Science Museum, UK  The calculating engine  Charles Babbage ( )  Calculator imitated human mental actions  Difference engine  Analytical Engines  ?v=QVxbNZWLP60 The Calculating Engine

The Beginnings of Modern Science  New Force: Empiricism  Empiricism: the pursuit of knowledge through observation and experimentation.  Rene Descartes ( )  Contributed most to empiricism  Wrote extensively on mathematics and physics

Rene Descartes ( )  Rene Descartes ( )  Inherited a lot money to travel and intellectual pursuits  Poor health  Applied scientific knowledge to practical concerns  Queen in Sweden requested him to teach her philosophy in 1649  However, early morning lessons and cold weather, he died after four months in 1650.

The Contributions of Descartes: Mechanism and the Mind-Body Problem  Mind-body problem  The question of the distinction between mental and physical qualities  Previous theory suggested, that the mind influences the body and not vice versa.  Descartes: proposed the mind and body are joined  Mind influences body  Body also influences mind (more so than previously assumed)

The Contributions of Descartes: Mechanism and the Mind-Body Problem (cont’d.)  The nature of the body  Physical matter  Govern by laws of the physical world: Mechanical laws  Reflex action theory  The idea that an external object can bring about an involuntary response  Precursor to stimulus-response (S-R) psychology The mechanism for automatic reaction to external events.

The Contributions of Descartes: Mechanism and the Mind-Body Problem (cont’d.)  The mind-body interaction  Mind provides human with information about the external world  Interaction between mind and body occurs in the brain  Quantity of physical motion produces a mental

The Contributions of Descartes: Mechanism and the Mind-Body Problem (cont’d.)  The doctrine of ideas  Mind produces two kinds of ideas  Derived ideas: produced by the direct application of an external stimulus. Ex: Sun  Innate ideas: ideas that arise from the mind or consciousness, independent of sensory experiences or external stimuli. Ex: God

Auguste Comte (1798–1857)  Introduced positivism  Positivism  Recognizes only natural phenomena or facts that are objectively observable  Supports anti-metaphysical positivism  Considers the facts of the universe to be sufficiently explained in physical terms by the existence and nature of matter August Comte ( )

The Law of three stages  “ Each of our leading conceptions—each branch of our knowledge, passes through three theoretical conditions.”  Theological Stage  Metaphysical Stage  Scientific Stage  Each stage grew out of the preceding stage

Auguste Comte (1798–1857)  Proposed a religion of humanity which was a utopian society based on scientific principles and beliefs.  Humanity replaced God; scientists and philosophers would be the priests in this religion  Also arranged sciences in a hierarchy from the first developed and most basic to the most recently developed and most comprehensive in this order:  Mathematics → astronomy → physics → chemistry → physiological biology → sociology  Doctrine of Materialism

John Locke (1632–1704)  In 1690, published “An essay concerning human understanding”  Concerned with how the mind acquires knowledge  Tabula Rasa: blank slate  There are no innate ideas as Descartes proposed.  All ideas come from sensory experience

John Locke (1632–1704) (cont’d.)  Sensation and reflection  Sensation: derived from direct sensory input  Reflection: forming ideas from that input  Simple ideas: elementary ideas that arise from sensation and reflection  Complex ideas: derived ideas that are compounded of simple ideas and can be reduced to smaller components

John Locke (1632–1704) (cont’d.)  The Theory of Association:  The notion that knowledge results from linking or associating simple ideas to form complex ideas  Primary qualities: characteristics that exist whether or not we perceive them; do not change  Secondary qualities: exist in our perception of the object  Example: Three containers of water, hot, cold and lukewarm.

George Berkeley ( )  Opposed materialism because it left no room for God.  Matter does not exist  Both agreed and disagreed with Locke  Mentalism: the doctrine that all knowledge is a function of mental phenomena and dependent on the perceiving/experiencing person  if reality is only a matter of perception, does reality cease to exist when one is not perceiving it?

George Berkeley ( )  Association of sensations:  Applied principles of association to real world  All sensations that are consistently together (contiguity) become associated.  Berkeley’s theory of distance perception suggests that for distance to be judged, several sensations from different modalities must be associated  For example, viewing an object and the tactile sensation of walking toward it.  Depth perception is a result of our experience.

James Mill ( )  The mind is a machine  Mind is totally passive entity  Run by internal physical forces  Acted on by external stimuli  No place for free will  No creative function  “From a stone I have had simultaneously the sensation of color, the sensation of hardness, the sensations of shape, and size, the sensation of weight. When the idea of one of these sensations occurs, the ideas of all of them occur. They exist in my mind simultaneously and their simultaneous existence is called the idea of the stone.”

John Stuart Mill ( )  He had a harsh upbringing. At the age of 21, he suffered from major depressive disorder.  Mental chemistry  Complex ideas not summations of simple ideas  Creative synthesis: complex ideas formed from simple ideas also take on new qualities  Combination of mental elements creates something greater than/different from the elements

Contributions of Empiricism to Psychology  Principles of empiricism:  Primary role of the process of sensation  Analysis of conscious experience into mental elements  Synthesis of elements into complex mental experiences through the process of association  Focus on conscious processes