Introduction Psychology and History of Psychology
Chapter 0 – Foundational Ideas from Antiquity
re exivity: re ect upon one’s activity
internalism: strictly within one discipline
externalism: focus on contextual, extradisciplinary in uences
Great Man approach: neglect external factors; only eminent people shaped the eld
Zeitgeist approach: „spirit of times“ a ects ability of a person and his ideas
presentism: our predecessors overcame mistaken assumptions —> we processed to superior
historicism: recreate past without foreknowledge and for its own sake
sophisticated presentism: current not the best, but striving to better understand contemporary issues
new history of psychology: contextual diverse actors, recurring ideas
critical history history of psychology: misleading and oversimpli es
—> origin myth process: selectively written without controversy that occurred along the way etc.
„Psychology has a long past but a short history.“ - Ebbinghaus
continuity-discontinuity debate: stable meaning and continuous development/ no identi able
ancient precursors
How do you look at the past?
indigenization: local/national context a ects development of psychology (e.g. behaviorism)
The historiographic approach
„personalistic-contextual“: individual lives in contact, how/why certain psychological ideas took from
the way they did
Chapter 1 – Foundational Ideas from Antiquity
Atomic Footnote
Democritus: atomic theory
Epicurus: atomic theory
Lucretius: poem atomic theory
largely disapproved
The Greek Miracle and Presocratic Philosophers
Thales: physics, astronomical and meteorological observations
Pythagoras: mathematics <—> physical world
Heraclitus: stability <—> change „You can never step in the same river twice.“
Zeno: concept of in nity: Achilles and tortoise
Protagoras: „Man is the measurement of all things“ —> purely human experiences/behavior
Hippocrates: humoral theroy - balance of humors <— mechanistic explanation of disease
Xenophon: rst great historian
1
fl fifl fi ffff fl fi fi fi
, Greek Philosophers
WHERE DOES KNOWLEDGE COME FROM?
Socrates: rationalism (only know what you don’t know); philosophical nativism: dialogues meno
(reincarnation)
WHAT IS INNATE?
Plato: idealism vs. appearance: allegory of the cave; nativism (mind); 3 di erent mind/class society:
appetite, courage, reason
HOW DO WE GET KNOWLEDGE?
Aristotle: empiricism, tabula rasa; taxonomy; Peri Psyche —> Scale of Nature: vegetative soul -
plants, simple animals, sensitive soul - complex animals, rationals soul - humans: substance,
quantity, quality, location, time, relation, activity —> Aristotelian logic (associations); brain —>
useless; causality: material cause, formal cause, e cient cause, nal cause; atomic theory outdated
Three Islamic Pioneers
Al-Kindi: Indo-Arabic numerals, Algebra
Alhazen: Book of Optics, optical illusions: camera obscura
Avicenna: The Book of Healing & Canon of the Medicine; self awareness, innate mind—> oating
man <— interior (appetition — motivation for approach and avoidance) & exterior: mind independent
of body,;
Fibonacci: Book of Calcutaion
Europe’s Intellectual Reawakening: Fibonacci: Book of Calculation, Aquinas: Translator
Chapter 2 – Pioneering Philosophers of Mind: Descartes, Locke & Leibniz
MIND-BODY - MECHANISTIC - RATIONALISM - PRIMARY QUALITIES
Descartes: Cartesian coordinates: analytic geometry (x- and y-axes); simple natures (axioms) —>
primary qualities (external in uences); mechanistic physiology: brain —> animal spirit, nerves —>
hollow tubes, ventricle in the day —> lled, automatic/learned re ex, particles correspond with air,
re and earth; innate ideas; interactive dualism: body double, soul is one; pineals gland —> passion
= conscious awareness; rationalism: systematic doubting
Galileo, Harvey: mechanistic approach of body
Is the mind active (Leibniz) or passive? Nurture vs. Nature
EMPIRICIST - PERCEPTION - ASSOCIATIONS - KNOWLEDGE - SECONDARY QUALITIES
Locke: experience makes know, blank slate: sensation and re ection: simple ideas —> complex
ideas, intuitive knowledge via immediate perception, demonstrative knowledge via reasoning,
sensory knowledge via observation - natural & accidental associations; law of associations by
contiguity, law of association by similarity; primary qualities + secondary qualities; authorities exceed
limits of authority; systematic observation & experiments
British associatiionism; Hume: law of associations, Hobbes: social contract; Mill: associationistic principles (individual di erences); in uence on
behaviorism
2
fi
fl fi ffi fl flfi ff ff fl fl
Chapter 0 – Foundational Ideas from Antiquity
re exivity: re ect upon one’s activity
internalism: strictly within one discipline
externalism: focus on contextual, extradisciplinary in uences
Great Man approach: neglect external factors; only eminent people shaped the eld
Zeitgeist approach: „spirit of times“ a ects ability of a person and his ideas
presentism: our predecessors overcame mistaken assumptions —> we processed to superior
historicism: recreate past without foreknowledge and for its own sake
sophisticated presentism: current not the best, but striving to better understand contemporary issues
new history of psychology: contextual diverse actors, recurring ideas
critical history history of psychology: misleading and oversimpli es
—> origin myth process: selectively written without controversy that occurred along the way etc.
„Psychology has a long past but a short history.“ - Ebbinghaus
continuity-discontinuity debate: stable meaning and continuous development/ no identi able
ancient precursors
How do you look at the past?
indigenization: local/national context a ects development of psychology (e.g. behaviorism)
The historiographic approach
„personalistic-contextual“: individual lives in contact, how/why certain psychological ideas took from
the way they did
Chapter 1 – Foundational Ideas from Antiquity
Atomic Footnote
Democritus: atomic theory
Epicurus: atomic theory
Lucretius: poem atomic theory
largely disapproved
The Greek Miracle and Presocratic Philosophers
Thales: physics, astronomical and meteorological observations
Pythagoras: mathematics <—> physical world
Heraclitus: stability <—> change „You can never step in the same river twice.“
Zeno: concept of in nity: Achilles and tortoise
Protagoras: „Man is the measurement of all things“ —> purely human experiences/behavior
Hippocrates: humoral theroy - balance of humors <— mechanistic explanation of disease
Xenophon: rst great historian
1
fl fifl fi ffff fl fi fi fi
, Greek Philosophers
WHERE DOES KNOWLEDGE COME FROM?
Socrates: rationalism (only know what you don’t know); philosophical nativism: dialogues meno
(reincarnation)
WHAT IS INNATE?
Plato: idealism vs. appearance: allegory of the cave; nativism (mind); 3 di erent mind/class society:
appetite, courage, reason
HOW DO WE GET KNOWLEDGE?
Aristotle: empiricism, tabula rasa; taxonomy; Peri Psyche —> Scale of Nature: vegetative soul -
plants, simple animals, sensitive soul - complex animals, rationals soul - humans: substance,
quantity, quality, location, time, relation, activity —> Aristotelian logic (associations); brain —>
useless; causality: material cause, formal cause, e cient cause, nal cause; atomic theory outdated
Three Islamic Pioneers
Al-Kindi: Indo-Arabic numerals, Algebra
Alhazen: Book of Optics, optical illusions: camera obscura
Avicenna: The Book of Healing & Canon of the Medicine; self awareness, innate mind—> oating
man <— interior (appetition — motivation for approach and avoidance) & exterior: mind independent
of body,;
Fibonacci: Book of Calcutaion
Europe’s Intellectual Reawakening: Fibonacci: Book of Calculation, Aquinas: Translator
Chapter 2 – Pioneering Philosophers of Mind: Descartes, Locke & Leibniz
MIND-BODY - MECHANISTIC - RATIONALISM - PRIMARY QUALITIES
Descartes: Cartesian coordinates: analytic geometry (x- and y-axes); simple natures (axioms) —>
primary qualities (external in uences); mechanistic physiology: brain —> animal spirit, nerves —>
hollow tubes, ventricle in the day —> lled, automatic/learned re ex, particles correspond with air,
re and earth; innate ideas; interactive dualism: body double, soul is one; pineals gland —> passion
= conscious awareness; rationalism: systematic doubting
Galileo, Harvey: mechanistic approach of body
Is the mind active (Leibniz) or passive? Nurture vs. Nature
EMPIRICIST - PERCEPTION - ASSOCIATIONS - KNOWLEDGE - SECONDARY QUALITIES
Locke: experience makes know, blank slate: sensation and re ection: simple ideas —> complex
ideas, intuitive knowledge via immediate perception, demonstrative knowledge via reasoning,
sensory knowledge via observation - natural & accidental associations; law of associations by
contiguity, law of association by similarity; primary qualities + secondary qualities; authorities exceed
limits of authority; systematic observation & experiments
British associatiionism; Hume: law of associations, Hobbes: social contract; Mill: associationistic principles (individual di erences); in uence on
behaviorism
2
fi
fl fi ffi fl flfi ff ff fl fl
