Chapter 2: Part 1 The “Dark Ages”

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

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

5. Distinguishing Features of Science • Observation • Experimentation • Measurement • If scientists could grasp the laws by which the world functioned, they could determine its future course

6. The Clockwork Universe • Clock as metaphor for mechanism • Produced in quantity and variety • Clocks were • Available to all people • Regular • Predictable • Precise

7. 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

8. 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

9. Automata • Designs were mimicking human behavior and cognitive function Vaucanson's Flute-Player (1738) Babbage’s Calculator (1820s)

10. 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

11. René Decartes (1596-1650) • Born in France • Inherited wealth allowed him to travel and pursue intellectual and scientific interests • Attracted to applied research

12. 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!

13. 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

14. Descartes (continued) • TheBody 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

15. 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

16. Descartes (continued) • Conarium (pineal gland) • Single and unitary • Material • The site of the mind-body interaction

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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.

20. 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”

21. 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

22. Foundations of Psychology • European philosophy • Empiricism: “the pursuit of knowledge through objective observation and sensory experience • This is the foundation of the scientific method

23. 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.

24. 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

25. 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 rasaor blank slate

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. John Locke (1632-1704) • Locke was the first philosopher to define the self through a continuity of "consciousness."

31. 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

32. 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.”

33. 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

34. 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)

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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

38. 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)