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Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes. French philosopher of the mid -1600’s – end of the Renaissance Period Greatly influenced by the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, and Copernicus Also influenced by development of mechanical toys and clocks

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Rene Descartes

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  1. Rene Descartes • French philosopher of the mid -1600’s – end of the Renaissance Period • Greatly influenced by the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, and Copernicus • Also influenced by development of mechanical toys and clocks • Major contribution for psychology was his focus on behavior and the mind – in the mind-body issue

  2. Philosophy Influenced by Authorities of the time • 1st book written in 1638 very mechanistic – like the toys and clocks he saw • Human behavior the result of reflexes • Eliminated the idea of free will • No evidence of a soul • This book was not published until after his death • Shortly after the reformation • The trial and imprisonment of Galileo

  3. New Philosophy of Descartes • Nonhumans are mechanical and fully automated • Humans are somewhat mechanized, but we have a soul, are unique in our ability to think and reason • Led to Dualism – humans have a mechanical body but also a mind that was different from the body

  4. Dualism • Mind and body coordinated their activities in the brain – pineal gland • The mind has structure, it is a thing • The content of the mind was ideas • Innate ideas – such as ideas about God and self “I think, therefore I am.” Concepts of space, time, and motion • Derived ideas – come from experience and they alter the nervous system

  5. Descartes – Deductive Rationalism • Method of Scientific inquiry was deductive reasoning • Sensory information unreliable and can not be totally trusted

  6. Example of Descartes' Reasoning • My body and objects in the environment are real. I can see, touch, hear, and taste them. I get thirsty, feel pain, etc. • However, I dream and people report pain long after a limb has been amputated – these feelings and sensations are not real • Therefore how do I know things really exist, maybe I shouldn’t trust my experiences as evidence of the existence of self and objects • God gave us these senses, God is not deceitful, therefore we can use trust the senses God gave us

  7. Descartes as a Foundation for Psychology • First attempt to develop a model of the Mind-Body position – Dualism • Methodology – breaking a large complicated problem down into simpler individual parts • Learning and experience alter the Brain

  8. British Empiricism • John Locke, John Stuart Mills among others • Not interested in the content of the mind; most interested in how the mind worked • Wanted to understand how the mind acquires knowledge, not what it knows • The importance of learning through experience

  9. John Locke • Many of his philosophical ideas were the basis for our American form of democracy • But he was also an important foundation of psychology • We develop ideas – sensations, perceptions, and abstractions through experience • Concept of Tabula Rosa – used by Descartes, but Locke denied the idea of innate ideas • Yes, sensory experiences maybe inaccurate at times, but we have no choice; there is no other source of information

  10. Qualities and Ideas • Addressed accuracy of sensory systems using 2 terms: • Qualities – the ability of the physical properties of an object to produce an idea – wavelength is a quality of light • Ideas – a mental image that could be employed while thinking – results from sensations or reflections • The source of all ideas is sensation • But these ideas can be acted upon and rearranged by operations of the mind

  11. Qualities of an Object or Event • 2 types of qualities • Primary qualities- the actual attributes of the object or event • Secondary qualities – the type of psychological experience they cause • Paradox of the basins – 3 basins - hot water, cold water, and lukewarm water

  12. Ideas • 2 kinds of ideas: • Simple ideas - the basic elements of experience because they cannot divided or analyzed further into other ideas • Complex ideas – combinations of simple ideas • Mental processes operate on simple ideas to form complex ideas • Complex ideas have attractive forces that bring simple ideas together • Mutual attraction of ideas became the basis for many learning theories

  13. John Stuart Mills -Associationism • Interested in how sensations and ideas became associated or combined • People who study his work and compare it to others estimate his IQ was about 200, the highest in history • Strong advocate for women’s rights and was anti-slavery – all people created equal

  14. Mills: A Foundation of Psychology • Human thinking involved actively restructuring and rearranging the ideas provided by experience • Mental chemistry – ideas, like chemicals, could be combined to produce a combination with properties not found in the individual ideas • Argued against the ideas of Auguste Compte that it was impossible to scientifically study the mind • Many of the questions that concerned him are relevant to psychology today

  15. Alexander Baine • British associationist who was more similar to a psychologist than the others • Wrote what was later to become the 1st British Psychology textbook • An important foundation for Edward Thorndike’s Law of Effect • Supported the study of psychology using naturalistic observation and experimentation • Created the first “psychological” journal, Mind

  16. Opposition to Associationism • Emmual Kant – a strong nativist • We learn through experience, but what we learn is innately determined • We learn a language through experience, but the ability to learn a language is an innate quality of the mind • A foundation for a number of current developmental theories attempting to explain the interaction between innate processes and experiences

  17. Importance of Early Philosophers • Raised some of the basic questions psychologists strive to answer today • Developed the methods of deductive and inductive reasoning • Stressed the importance of understanding the mind

  18. Differences in Ideas About the Nature of Humans • Christian Church – humans bad, need religion to control instincts • Hobbs agreed – humans are basically aggressive animals. Society has to teach them to control aggression • Locke – humans are naturally good and people are born with equal potential • Rousseau – French Romanticist – children have an innate knowledge of right and wrong. They will be good unless society interferes • Freud – humans born with need for instant gratification, selfish, etc. • Maslow and Rogers – humans born to strive to be good

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