Chapter 2: Part 1The “Dark Ages”

• Rome Collapses in the 5th Century C.E.

• European communities fracture and disconnect from North Africa and the Byzantine Empire

The European Renaissance

• Florence Italy ~ 1400– Art meets architecture

– Availability of paper makes communication efficient

– Travel and commerce generate wealth and drive the formalization of politics

– The Catholic Church loses its authority in explaining the natural world

The Spirit of Mechanism

• 17th to 19th century zeitgeist reflected in:– Amusement with mechanical

figures

– The universe as a enormous machine

– Mechanism: all natural processes are mechanically determined

Beginnings of Modern Science and Physics (natural philosophy)

• Bacon: Methodological unity of science

• Galileo: Planetary movement and challenges to dogma

• Newton: Planets moved by invisible forces, not by contact

Newton (1643-1747)Galileo (1564-1642)Bacon (1561-1626)

Distinguishing Features of Science

• Observation

• Experimentation

• Measurement

– If scientists could grasp the laws by which the world functioned, they could determine its future course

The Clockwork Universe• Clock as metaphor for mechanism

– Produced in quantity and variety

– Clocks were• Available to all people• Regular• Predictable• Precise

Determinism and Reductionism• Determinism: acts are caused by past events

• For the universe as with a clock, – Its parts function with order and regularity

– We can understand its functions and functioning

– We can predict changes that will occur from its past and present characteristics

Determinism and Reductionism• Reductionism: If you break it down, it

can be understood– Reduce a clock to its components such as

springs and wheels to understand its functioning

• Analyzing or reducing the universe to its simplest parts will produce understanding

• Characteristic of every science

Automata• Designs were mimicking human

behavior and cognitive function

Vaucanson's Flute-Player (1738) Babbage’s Calculator (1820s)

The Beginnings of Modern Science

• The pursuit of knowledge through observation and sensory experience– Replaced dogma and church doctrine as

ruling forces of inquiry

– Descartes: symbol of the transition to free scientific inquiry and forerunner of modern psychology

René Decartes (1596-1650)

– Born in France

– Inherited wealth allowed him to travel and pursue intellectual and scientific interests

– Attracted to applied research

The Contributions of Descartes

• The mind-body problem– “Are mind and body—the mental world

and the material world—distinct, or one?”

– Pre-Descartes direction: mind influences body, but not vice versa; Mind is master of mental and material aspects.

– Descartes: A two-way street!

Descartes (continued)

• Single function of mind: thought

• Diverted attention from the soul to the scientific study of mind. Descartes shifted the methods of intellectuals: from metaphysical analysis to objective observation and experimentation

Descartes (continued)• The Body is matter (an automaton)

– Has extension and capacity for movement

– Laws of physics and mechanics

– Nerves are pipes, muscles and tendons are engines and springs

– Reflex action is not voluntary but due to external objects

– Human behavior is predictable if inputs are known

Descartes (continued)

• The mind-body interaction– Mind

• Is nonmaterial• Is unitary• Thinks, perceives, wills• Provides information about the external

world• Influences and is influenced by the body• Has the brain as its focal point

Descartes (continued)• Conarium (pineal gland)

– Single and unitary– Material – The site of the mind-body interaction

Descartes (continued)• The Doctrine of Ideas

– Derived ideas

• Occur from contact with an external stimulus such as the touch of a hot stove

• Are products of the experiences of the senses (e.g., The concept of heat)

– Innate ideas• Develop from within the mind rather than

through the senses

Descartes in Sum

– The mechanistic conception of the body

– The theory of reflex action

– The mind-body interaction

– The localization of mental functions in the brain

– The Doctrine of Ideas

Part 2: Scientific Revolution

• What events led to the scientific revolution in Europe?

• Who were the major figures?

• Consider how this will be important for Psychology.

• Next: Quick review of European Philosophers.

Foundations of Psychology

• European philosophy– Auguste Comte (1798-1857):

Father of Positivism• In the attempt to review all

human knowledge, limited his work to scientific facts refers to the “objects of sense,” rather than “nonsense”

Foundations of Psychology

• European philosophy– Materialism: “the doctrine that

considers the facts of the universe can be described in physical terms.” • Consciousness explained in terms of

physics and chemistry• Mental processes due to physical

properties: brain anatomy and physiology

Foundations of Psychology

• European philosophy– Empiricism: “the pursuit of knowledge

through objective observation and sensory experience

– This is the foundation of the scientific method

Philosophical Movements (17-1800s)

• Positivism, Materialism, Empiricism all supported the foundations of modern science

• For psychology: If behavior and consciousness is the result of material forces (materialism) and if material forces can be understood through observation (empiricism), then behavior can be studied scientifically.

John Locke (1632-1704)

• Taught Greek, writing, and philosophy and practiced medicine in England

• Politics: secretary to the Earl of Shaftsbury

• Fled to Holland when the earl was found to be part of a plot to overthrow King Charles II

• Returned to England, resumed politics, wrote education, religion, and economics books

Locke (continued)• How does the mind acquire knowledge?

– Rejected existence of innate ideas– Any apparent innateness due to early

learning and habit– All knowledge is empirically derived:

mind as a tabula rasa or blank slate

Locke’s Types of Experience

– Sensations: input from external physical objects experienced as sense impressions, which operate on the mind

– Reflections: mind operates on the sense impressions to produce ideas

– Reflections require info from past sensations – can be combined to form new ideas

Locke’s Types of Ideas– Simple

• Arise from either sensation or reflection• “Received passively from the mind”• “Cannot be analyzed or reduced to even

simpler ideas”

– Complex• Creation of new ideas through reflection• Combinations of simple ideas• Can be analyzed and/or reduced

Locke’s Theory of Association

– Association = learning

– Linking of simple ideas/elements into complex ones

– Complex ideas do not appear from thin air, they are built from simple experiences

– Laws of association akin to laws of mechanics; Mind = machine

Lockes’ Types of Qualities

• Primary qualities: objective, exist independently of being experienced (perceived)– Object size, shape, weight

• Secondary qualities: subjective, exist in the experience of the object– Color, odor, sound, taste, warmth or coldness

• A feather tickles because of our reaction to it, not the feather itself

John Locke (1632-1704)

• Locke was the first philosopher to define the self through a continuity of "consciousness."

George Berkeley (1685 – 1753)• George Berkeley (1685-1753)

– Nothing exists without our perceptions.

– Q: Why do we all perceive the same thing?

– A constant observer (God) maintains constant qualities

George Berkeley (1685 – 1753)

• Agreed with Locke’s assertion that all knowledge comes from experience, but..

• Perception is the only reality– Primary qualities do not exist if not perceived,

thus ALL qualities are secondary qualities

– Mentalism: “the doctrine that all knowledge is a function of mental phenomena and dependent on the perceiving or experiencing person.”

David Hume (1711-1776)

• Extremely reductionist approach; we are just organisms reacting to the environment

• Denied the concept of self

• Our personalities are just collections of perceptions

British Empiricism• David Hume (1711-1776)

– So, Mr. Hume, from what do we get our sense of self?

– The self is nothing but our own way of perceiving a succession of ideas.

– Causation is nothing but our impulse to attach corresponding events (the view of a fire and the feeling of heat)

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

– Unceasingly drilled with hours and hours of facts

– Could read Plato in Greek at 3– Was a child prodigy who was

clinically depressed by 21– Harriet Taylor was the love of

his life– Championed women’s rights

Mill (continued)

• Mental chemistry– “Complex ideas are more than the

sum of simple ideas.”– Creative synthesis: a combination of

mental elements always produces some distinct quality

– His model: research in chemistry rather than physics

Empiricism’s Legacy

• Methods of approach: atomistic, mechanistic, positivistic

• Emphases of empiricism– Primary role of sensation– Analysis of conscious experience into elements– Synthesis of elements through association– Focus on conscious processes

• Mid-19th century: philosophy augmented by the methods of experimental physiology

Empiricism’s Legacy

• The theoretical stage is set.– The mind is not mystical and is

influenced, or even created, by events in the natural world.

– We need someone to provide some experimental support.

– This will come from medicine, anatomy, and physiology. (Chapter 3)