Hystory and Systems Spring 2016

“Psychology has a long past but only a short history” ~Ebbinghaus Why Study the History of Psychology? History repeats itself: that’s just one of the things that’s wrong with history. (Clarence Darrow)

Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. (George Santayana ~ 20 th Century Philosopher)

History by apprising of the past, will enable them to judge the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations (Thomas Jefferson ~ Third American President)

If I have seen further than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants (Issac Newton). The less we know of the past, the more unreliable our judgment of the present and future (Sigmund Freud).

Science progresses when the old guys die off and take their outmoded beliefs with them (Max Planck, 1858–1947 ~ father of the quantum theory).

The history of Psychology doesn’t build one piece of knowledge upon another. Instead it tends to act more like a pendulum. One generation of thought reacting (and perhaps overreacting) to the previous).

History must look at both successes and failures. ~Boring Zeitgeist – “spirit of the times”.

2000 BC Mesopotamia They might be Giants Mesilin king of Kish at the command of his deity Kadi concerning the plantation of that field set up a stele in that place.... Ningirsu, the hero of Enlil, by his righteous command, upon Umma war made. At the command of Enlil his great net ensnared

Dr. Julian Jaynes The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976). Analysis of early literature (e.g., Iliad, old Testament) No words used to refer to consciousness nor to mental acts (e.g., thoughts)

Thoughts and feelings of the people are put directly into their minds by the “gods” or “muses”. Achilles called the men to gather, this having been put into his mind by the goddess of the white arms, Hera, who had pity on the Greeks when she saw them dying... and he said to them “I believe that backwards we must make our way home if we are to escape death through fighting and the plague”. (Iliad - 760–710 BC) Now the word of the lord came unto Jonah... Saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness has come up before me. (Jonah, 1:1-2)

Based on research showing the brain is right-left specialized, Jaynes hypothesized that in the evolutionary past the left brain must have been completely separated from the right brain. The effect, according to Jaynes, would have been that language generated in the left brain would have been interpreted by the right brain as coming from outside or somewhere else.

According to Jaynes many human behaviors are older than consciousness 400,000 years – fire 100,000 years tools 8,000 years farming 1,000 years anatomy and medicine 1800 BC

7 th Century BC ~Egypt Psamtik I - language experiment Psamtik sought to discover the origin of language by conducting an experiment with two children. Allegedly he gave two newborn babies to a shepherd, with the instructions that no one should speak to them, but that the shepherd should feed and care for them while listening to determine their first words. The hypothesis was that the first word would be uttered in the root language of all people.

When one of the children cried "bekos" with outstretched arms the shepherd concluded that the word was Phrygian because that was the sound of Phrygian word for "bread." Thus, they concluded that the Phrygians were an older people than the Egyptians, and that Phrygian was the original language of men.

6 th century BC The Discovery of the Mind Philosophy -from the Greek words philos and sophia meaning “love of wisdom”. Discussion and speculation about psychological issues. Nous – new world which refers to mind, knowlegde or thought.

Today in the News Hundreds of papyrus rolls, buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD and belonging to the only library passed on from Antiquity, were discovered 260 years ago at Herculaneum. These carbonized papyri are extremely fragile and are inevitably damaged or destroyed in the process of trying to open them to read their contents.

In recent years, new imaging techniques have been developed to read the texts without unwrapping the rolls. Until now, specialists have been unable to view the carbon-based ink of these papyri, even when they could penetrate the different layers of their spiral structure. Here for the first time, we show that X-ray phase-contrast tomography can reveal various letters hidden inside the precious papyri without unrolling them. This attempt opens up new opportunities to read many Herculaneum papyri, which are still rolled up, thus enhancing our knowledge of ancient Greek literature and philosophy. omms6895.html

Thales (ca 580 BC)

Philosophical Roots Questions about the Nature of Human Beings? Is there only one substance, or is the “mind” something different than matter? Do we have souls? Do they exist after the body dies? How are mind and body connected? Is the mind part of the soul, and if so can it exist apart from the body?

Is human nature the product of inborn tendencies or of experience and upbringing? How do we know what we know? Are our ideas built into our minds, or do we develop them from our perceptions and experience? How does perception work? Are our impressions of the world around us true representations of what is out there? How can we know whether they are or not? Which is the right road to true knowledge – pure reason or data gathering by observation. What are the principles of valid thinking? What are the causes of invalid thinking? Does the mind rule the emotions or visa versa?

Ancient Greece - Golden Age BC In all history, nothing is so surprising or so difficult to account for as the sudden rise of civilization in Greece” Bertrand Russell

Literature, Art, Architecture Written History Mathematics and Science Schools and formal education Philosophy – attempts to understand the nature of the world and the human mind

Political Climate 150 city states Invented Democracy

Athens Total Population = 315,000 persons Slaves 115,000 persons Free Athenians 200,000 persons Only 43,000 (men born of two Athenian parents) were given full civil rights (including the right to vote).

Few Greeks could read or write Time - The sundial dates back to the Egyptian Period, around 1500 B.C.

Explanations for the dramatic growth in learning and Culture The Climate Commerce and Conquest Mix of cultural influences Polytheism

People came from all over Greece and beyond to have their questions about the future answered by the Pythia, the priestess of Apollo. And her answers, usually cryptic, could determine the course of everything from when a farmer planted his seedlings, to when an empire declared war.

Thales of Miletus 585 B.C. (1 st Philosopher ?) Used Mathematics and Astronomy to predicted a solar eclipse and farm yields.

Pythagoras founded a philosophical and religious school based on Mathematics Followers known as mathematikoi, had no personal possessions and were vegetarians, obeyed strict rules. The beliefs that Pythagoras held were (1) that at its deepest level, reality is mathematical in nature, (2) that philosophy can be used for spiritual purification, (3) that the soul can rise to union with the divine, (4) that certain symbols have a mystical significance, and (5) that all brothers of the order should observe strict loyalty and secrecy.

Each number had its own personality - masculine or feminine, perfect or incomplete, beautiful or ugly. Ten was the very best number: it contained in itself the first four integers - one, two, three, and four [ = 10] - and these written in dot notation formed a perfect triangle.

Discovered numerical principles of Music and Astrology. ~ Dynamics of world structure depends on the interaction of contraries,(pairs of opposites) ~ soul is a self-moving number experiencing successive reincarnation in different species until its eventual purification ~ all existing objects were fundamentally composed of form and not of material substance. Pythagoras believed that the planets produced sounds while tracing out their orbits, producing the "harmony of the spheres."

The search for the first Material Principle

Metaphysics. “What is the world made of?" and "What is the ultimate substance of all reality?” Something physical? (Matter or Energy) This is called materialism. Something more spiritual or mental, such as ideas or ideals? This is called idealism.

Ultimate nature was known in Greek as physis, (root of Physics and Physiology). Looking For Element and first principle of existing things Most of the first philosophers thought that principles in the form of matter were the only principles of all things (Monist Materialists).

The original source of all existing things is that from which a thing first comes- into-being and into which it is finally destroyed. The substance persists but changing in its qualities, No absolute coming-to-be or passing away, on the ground that such a nature is always preserved... for there must be some natural substance, either one or more than one (pluralist), from which the other things come-into-being, while it is preserved.”

Thales "For moist natural substance, since it is easily formed into each different thing, is accustomed to undergo very various changes; that part of it which is exhaled is made into air, and the finest part is kindled from air into aether, while when water is compacted and changes into slime it becomes earth. Therefore Thales declared that water, of the four elements, was the most active, as it were, as cause." Anaximander - Air

Heraclitus – Fire "This universe, which is the same for all, has not been made by any god or man, but it always has been, is, and will be, an ever-living fire, kindling itself by regular measures and going out by regular measures." “Into the same rivers we step and do not step, we are and are not.” (Heraclitus)

Studied the disappearance and reappearance of the moon at the end and beginning of a month He explained the sun and moon as bowls full of fire. As the moon's bowl rotated it caused the phases. Eclipses were the result of a rotation of the convex side of the bowls to face the earth. We have no reports about the earth itself, but we may suppose that, like his predecessors, Heraclitus viewed it as flat. Evaporations from the earth and sea apparently provided fuel for the heavenly bodies, which burned like oil lamps. All things that happen are good, but humans do not perceive them to be so. To God all things are fair, good and just, but men suppose some things are unjust, some just. Conflict (including presumably human conflict) keeps the world going.

Anaximander a different substance (apeiron )that is limitless or indeterminate, from which there come into being all the heavens and the worlds within them. Things perish into those things out of which they have their being, according to necessity. (Aristotole).

From the apeiron opposing pairs emerge (e.g., the wet/dry and the hot/cold) and contend with one another, until one of the pair is annihilated, becoming the other. For example, day will be transformed into night or winter into summer. This is what Anaximander means when he says that things do injustices to one another. “God is day night, winter summer, war peace, satiety hunger, and he alters just as fire when it is mixed with spices is named according to the aroma of each of them.”

Leucippus and Democritus These ancient atomists theorized that the two fundamental and oppositely characterized constituents of the natural world are indivisible bodies—atoms—and void. Void is described simply as nothing, or the negation of body.

Atoms are by their nature intrinsically unchangeable; they can only move about in the void and combine into different clusters. Since the atoms are separated by void, they cannot fuse, but must rather bounce off one another when they collide. Because all macroscopic objects are in fact combinations of atoms, everything in the macroscopic world is subject to change, as their constituent atoms shift or move away. Thus, while the atoms themselves persist through all time, everything in the world of our experience is transitory and subject to dissolution.

Because all macroscopic objects are in fact combinations of atoms, everything in the macroscopic world is subject to change, as their constituent atoms shift or move away. Thus, while the atoms themselves persist through all time, everything in the world of our experience is transitory and subject to dissolution. The cosmos consists of nothing but identical, indestructible particles moving randomly in a void.

What Motivates Human Behavior Thales – soul or mind produces physical force that is the source of human behavior.

Epistemology How do we know what is true or false, what is real or not? Can we know anything for certain, or is it ultimately hopeless? True” reality (noumenon) and “apparent” reality (phenomenon). Explored the idea that there is an “unreal seen” beneath the seen real. Empiricism, which says that all knowledge comes through the senses. Rationalism, which says that knowledge is a matter of reason, thought. These are not mutually exclusive ideas!! If not from the gods, where does the mind obtain the raw materials of thought?

Philosophy Explore the Parameters Nativist Empiricist Idealist Materialism MonistDualist DeterminismFreewill

Solipsism: Belief that one can know nothing but oneself and that the self is the only thing that is real. Nothing exists; Even if something exists, nothing can be known about it; and even if something could be known about it, knowledge about it can't be communicated to others. Imagine there is..

Solipsism: the belief that nothing can be proven to exist outside of one's own mind. Since an external world cannot be proven to truly exist, it does not exist at all, and the entire universe and all its contents have been created by the subconscious of the individual. Of course, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, there are many arguments that solipsism is completely false; not only does the external world exist, but everything exists exactly as it is perceived, and it is perceived in exactly the same way by everyone. And still between the two there is a very wide range of middle ground; perhaps everything (or at least most things) that are seen do exist, but maybe not quite exactly as they are seen.

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In fifth century Athens a small band of philosophers controlled the public dialogue. They were called Sophists, Greek for “One Who Does Wisdom.” Originally, they were itinerant teachers in who provided education through lectures and in return received fees from their audiences.

Sophomore Sophos = wise and moros = foolish The etymology is from the Greek and Latin "Sophisme", meaning wisdom. The English converted it to "sophume", and one who practiced wisdom was a "Sophumer". It wasn't until 1726 that the spelling was established in America as "Sophomore.“ * literally speaking, a wise fool is someone who has gained knowledge but hasn't yet learned, or acquired the skills, to apply it correctly. He knows enough to sound smart, but not enough to be wise.

Protagoras “Man is the measure of all things” The essential claim of sophistry is that the actual logical validity of an argument is irrelevant (if not non-existent); it is only the ruling of the audience which ultimately determines whether a conclusion is considered "true" or not. By appealing to the prejudices and emotions of the judges, one can garner favorable treatment for one's side of the argument and cause a factually false position to be ruled true. Rhetoric Humanism

Idealist – Knowledge is innate. ~ believed in the reincarnation of an eternal soul which contained all knowledge. We lose touch with that knowledge at every birth, and so we need to be reminded of what we already know (rather than learning something new). Socrates “Midwife of Thought” Socratic (Dialectic) method - Knowledge is recollection Theory of Forms - universal truths ( Ideal forms) exist. Our perceptions however, are faulty. The only way we can know these forms it through rational thought.

Ethics Socrates – what it to be considered a good act is not good because the gods say it is, but is good because it is useful to us in our efforts to be better and happier people. To one own self be true.

Plato: ( ) (Aristocles) Like Socrates, Plato is an idealist and rationalist. He divides reality into two: On the one hand we have ontos, idea or ideal. This is ultimate reality, permanent, eternal, spiritual. On the other hand, there’s phenomena, which is a manifestation of the ideal. Phenomena are appearances -- things as they seem to us -- and are associated with matter, time, and space. Senses can only give information about the ever changing and imperfect world of phenomenon. From sensations we imply the ideal reality but the only way to know truth is through rational thought.

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Dualist Body - material, mortal, and moved (subject to physical principles). Soul – ideal, immortal, and unmoved (subject to free will). Ethics – soul will always choose to do good, if it recognizes what is good. Sin (bad) is considered a matter of ignorance. People who sin are in need of education, not punishment. Three Levels of Pleasure 1)Sensual or Physical (sex) 2)Senuous or esthetic (beauty or relationship in a marriage) 3)Ideal pleasure of the mind Platonic love – intellectual love for another person unsullied by physical love.

Plato's School of Athens

Three levels of soul Appetite – mortal and resides in the gut. Spirit or courage – also mortal and resides in the heart. Reason – immortal and resides in the brain. Connected by cerebrospinal canal.

Likens the soul to two steeds, one that is lively but obedient (spirit), the other is unruly and violent (appetite). These are yoked together and driven by Reason (the charioteer) who through considerable effort makes them pull together and cooperate.

The Republic- designs a society (Utopia) Written to explore the meaning of justice Peasants – foundation of society - produce the goods - take care of appetite Warriors – spirit and courage Philosphers (kings) – reason that guides the society.

Aristotle – Empiricist/Materialist Plato’s student, but disagreed with him on many points. - as much a scientist as a philosopher. What Plato called Idea (ideal) Aristotle called essence. Invented modern logic (inductive reasoning – from particular to general).

Dualist The ideal is found within phenomenon. Empiricist All knowledge comes from the senses and through experience. The mind is like a blank writing tablet - Tabula Rasa Knowledge should be based on observations of the external world

Ideas about Memory: Socrates - thought that humans already possessed knowledge, and that they only had to be led to discover what they already knew. Plato – Wax Tablet and a Bird Aviary Aristotle – learning is through experience So is it Psychology …?