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 Thomas Kuhn Paul Feyeraben 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 Teleology 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