the Discussion is based on the topic of your choice from chapters 2. Explain your understanding of the chapter, include examples, experiences, and theories. Class Book: Hergenhahn’s An Introduction to the History of Psychology ISBN: 978-1-337-56415-1
Hergenhahn’s An Introduction to the History
of Psychology
Eighth Edition
Chapter 2
Ancient Greece
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
After reading and discussing Chapter 2, students
should:
• Be familiar with how early humans explained their
world including animism, anthropomorphism, “magic,”
and early forms of Greek religion.
• Be acquainted with the pre-Socratic philosophers.
• Understand early Greek medicine.
• Be familiar with the relativity of truth and the
Sophists.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
• Understand Socrates’ method of inductive definition, his
reaction to the relativity of the Sophists, and the goal of
life.
• Understand Plato’s philosophy of the world, including the
theory of forms, and use of empirical knowledge, the
allegory of the cave, reminiscence theory of knowledge,
his theory of knowledge, his tripartite nature of the soul,
and his impact on science.
• Understand of Aristotle’s contributions to philosophy on
topics including causation and teleology, sensation and
reason, memory and recall, and motivation and emotion.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
The Ancient World
•
Animism
– Giving life to nature and natural phenomena.
•
Anthropomorphism
– Attributing human qualities and abilities to nonhuman
animals and natural phenomena
•
Magic
– Methods developed to influence the spirits to change
the situation
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Early Greek Religion
•
Olympian religion
– Social elites
•
Dionysiac-Orphic religion
– Common people
– Transmigration of the soul
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The First Philosophers (1of 12)
•
Philosophy (love of knowledge and wisdom)
– Began with natural explanations (logos) replacing
supernatural explanations (mythos).
•
Cosmology
– The explanation of origin, structure, and processes
governing the universe (cosmos).
– The universe was orderly and thus, in principle,
explainable.
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The First Philosophers (2 of 12)
• Philosophers
– Thales
?
?
?
?
Physis = water
Emphasized natural explanations while minimizing
supernatural ones.
Universe is knowable and understandable.
He ushered in the critical tradition—the criticism and
questioning of others’ teachings and views.
– Anaximander
?
?
Physis could become anything
Called the “boundless” or the “indefinite.”
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The First Philosophers (3 of 12)
– Heraclitus
?
?
?
?
?
Nature is in a constant state of flux or change.
Physis is fire because it transforms all things into
something else.
World is always “becoming” —never “is”
All things exist between polar opposites—must have
opposites.
Rationalism versus empiricism
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The First Philosophers (4 of 12)
– Parmenides
?
?
?
?
All things are constant; change is an illusion
One reality—finite, uniform, motionless, and fixed
Knowledge comes only through reason (rationalism)
Sensory experience is not real, not to be trusted.
– Zeno
?
?
Disciple of Parmenides
Used logical arguments (paradoxes) to show that
motion was an illusion to support Parmenides.
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The First Philosophers (5 of 12)
– Pythagoras
?
First to use the term philosopher and call himself a
philosopher
?
Explanation of the universe is found in numbers and
numerical relationships
?
Applied mathematical principles to human experience
?
Numbers and numerical relationships were real and
influenced the empirical world
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The First Philosophers (6 of 12)
?
Illness was thought to result from a disruption of the
body’s equilibrium
?
Nothing is perfect in the empirical world; perfection is
in abstract mathematical world and known only by
reason
?
The Pythagoreans proposed a dualistic universe
o
o
One part abstract, permanent, and knowable (similar to
Parmenides)
One part empirical, changing, and known through the
senses, but senses cannot provide knowledge (similar to
Heraclitus)
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The First Philosophers (7 of 12)
?
?
The Pythagoreans lived a strict, disciplined life
including a crusade against vice, lawlessness, and
bodily excess.
They believed that experiences in the flesh (senses)
were inferior to experiences in the mind
o
Affected Plato’s views and impacted early Christian
thought.
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The First Philosophers (8 of 12)
•
Philosophers
– Empedocles
?
Not just one physis but four elements that make up the
world—earth, fire, air, and water
o
?
?
Humans also made of these elements.
Postulated two causal powers in the universe: love and
strife
Causal powers and the elements operate together to
produce unending cosmic cycle of recurring phases.
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The First Philosophers (9 of 12)
?
?
He proposed a theory of evolution more complex than
Anaximander’s.
Proposed an early theory of perception
o
o
o
Each of the four elements are found in the blood
Objects in the world throw off tiny copies of themselves
called eidola which enter the blood through pores in the
body and combine with elements like themselves.
The fusion of external and internal elements results in
perception, which takes place in the heart
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The First Philosophers (10 of 12)
– Anaxagoras
?
Proposed an infinite number of elements called
“seeds” from which all things were created
o
o
?
every element contains all other elements.
A thing’s characteristics is determined by the proportion
of the elements present.
One exception—the mind is pure, contains no other
elements
o
Mind is part of all living things, but not a part of nonliving things
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The First Philosophers (11 of 12)
•
Philosophers
– Democritus
?
?
First completely naturalistic description of the universe
All things were made of tiny particles called atoms
o
?
?
Characteristics of things are determined by shape, size,
number, location, and arrangement of atoms.
All things and events, animate, inanimate, and
cognitive can be reduced to atoms and atomic activity.
Atoms’ behavior is lawful (determinism)
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The First Philosophers (12 of 12)
?
?
?
All things explained by atomic activity (elementism)
Events and phenomena explained in terms of another,
more elemental level (reductionism).
Described sensation and perception in terms of atoms
emanating from the surface of objects and entering
the body through the sensory systems and then
transmitted to the brain.
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Early Greek Medicine (1 of 2)
•
Early medicine
– Temple medicine, healing rituals practiced by priests
(kept secret and guarded), accompanied by much
ritual and ceremony by patients.
•
“Doctors”
– Alcmaeon
?
naturalized medicine
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Early Greek Medicine (2 of 2)
– Hippocrates
?
Illnesses caused by natural rather than supernatural
forces
?
Treat the whole patient
– Galen
?
Hypothesized Personality
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The Relativity of Truth (1 of 4)
•
The Sophists
– Professional teachers of rhetoric and logic, truth is
relative—no single truth exists
•
Sophists
– Protogoras
– Gorgias
– Xenophanes
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The Relativity of Truth (2 of 4)
•
Sophists
– Protogoras
?
Summary of position
o
Truth depends on the perceiver.
?
o
o
Perception varies from person to person because each
perceiver has different experiences.
Truth is partially determined by culture
To understand why a person believes as a person does,
one must understand the person.
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The Relativity of Truth (3 of 4)
– Gorgias
?
?
?
Gorgias took a more extreme position than
Protogoras—all things are equally false
Nihilism, solipsism
He came to three conclusions:
o
o
o
?
Nothing exists
If it did exist, it could not be comprehended
If it could be comprehended, it could not be
Spoken words had power but they were essentially
deceitful.
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The Relativity of Truth (4 of 4)
– Xenophanes
?
?
Attacked veracity of religion before the Sophists
Xenophanes stated that religion is a human invention.
His evidence was:
o
o
?
?
Olympian gods act suspiciously like humans
Gods of different peoples look like the people
themselves
Humans create religion—moral codes come from man
He was not an atheist; he postulated a god that was
unlike any other described during that time.
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Socrates (1 of 2)
•
•
Socrates agreed with sophists that personal
experience is important, but disagreed that no truth
exists beyond personal opinion.
Employed method of inductive definition
– Examine instances of a concept
– Ask the question—what is it that all instances have in
common?
– Find the essence of the instances of the concept.
– Seek to find general concepts by examining isolated
instances.
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Socrates (2 of 2)
•
•
•
The essence was a universally accepted definition of
a concept.
Understanding essences constituted knowledge and
goal of life was to gain knowledge.
Socrates was sentenced to death at the age of 70
years for corrupting the youth of Athens
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Plato (1 of 8)
•
Theory of forms
– Everything in the empirical world is an inferior
manifestation of the pure form, which exists in the
abstract.
– Experience through our senses comes from
interaction of the pure form and matter of the world
?
Result is an experience less than perfect.
– True knowledge can be attained only through reason;
rational thought regarding the forms.
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Plato (2 of 8)
•
The analogy of the divided line
– Description of Plato’s view of acquisition of true
knowledge.
?
?
?
?
People attempting to gain knowledge through sensory
experience are doomed to ignorance or, at best,
opinion
Imagining is lowest form of understanding
Direct experience with objects is slightly better, but still
just beliefs or opinions.
Contemplation of mathematical relationships is better
than the other two.
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Plato (3 of 8)
?
?
•
Highest form of thinking involves embracing the forms.
True knowledge and intelligence comes only from
understanding the abstract forms.
The allegory of the cave
– Demonstrates how difficult it is to deliver humans
from ignorance.
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Plato (4 of 8)
•
The reminiscence theory of knowledge
– How do we know the forms if they cannot be known
through sensory experiences?
?
?
?
Prior to coming into the body, the soul dwelt in pure,
complete knowledge.
All knowledge is innate and can be attained only
through introspection—thus, all true knowledge comes
only from reminiscence, from remembering the
experiences the soul had prior to entering the body.
Therefore, Plato was a rationalist—stressed mental
operations to gain knowledge already in the soul.
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Plato (5 of 8)
•
The nature of the soul
– Soul comprised of three parts (tripartite)
?
Rational component
o
?
Courageous (emotional or spirited) component
o
?
immortal, existed with the forms.
mortal emotions such as fear, rage, and love
Appetite component
o
mortal needs such as hunger, thirst, and sexual behavior
that must be satisfied.
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Plato (6 of 8)
– To obtain knowledge, one must suppress bodily
needs and concentrate on rational pursuits.
?
Job of rational component is to postpone and inhibit
immediate gratification when in the best long-term
benefit of the person.
– In Republic, Plato described a utopian society with
three types of people performing specific functions:
?
?
?
appetitive individuals—workers and slaves.
courageous individuals —soldiers.
rational individuals—philosopher-kings.
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Plato (7 of 8)
•
Plato felt that all was predetermined
– A complete nativist, people are destined to be slave,
soldier, or philosopher-king.
•
Sleep and dreams
– While awake some individuals are better able to
rationally control their appetites than are others;
during sleep, however, it’s another matter.
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Plato (8 of 8)
•
Plato’s legacy
– Because of his disdain for empirical observation and
sensory experience as means of gaining knowledge,
he actually inhibited progress in science.
– Dualism in humans
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Aristotle (1 of 10)
•
Aristotle and Plato contrasted.
– Plato
?
Essences (truths) in the forms that exist independent
of nature, known only by using introspection (rationalism)
– Aristotle
?
Essences could be known only by studying nature
through individual observation of phenomena (empiricism).
– Aristotle embraced both rationalism and empiricism.
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Aristotle (2 of 10)
– Mind must be employed to gain knowledge
(rationalism), object of the rational thought was
information from sensory experience (empiricism).
•
Aristotle’s Lyceum
– Categorized and catalogued a large number of
observations made of physical and biological
phenomena.
•
Contrasting views of Plato and Aristotle set stage for
epistemological arguments throughout history.
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Aristotle (3 of 10)
•
Aristotle’s causation, teleology, and entelechy
–
Aristotle’s four causes, to understand object or
phenomenon, one must know causes.
?
Material cause
o matter of which it is made
?
Formal cause
o form or pattern of the object—what is it?
?
Efficient cause
o force that transforms the matter—who made it?
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Aristotle (4 of 10)
?
Final cause
o
purpose—why it exists.
– Everything has a purpose
?
Teleology, meaning that everything has a function
(entelechy) built into it.
– Entelechy keeps an object moving and developing in
its prescribed direction to full potential
– Scala naturae is the idea that nature is arranged in a
hierarchy ranging from neutral matter to the unmoved
mover, which is the cause of everything in nature
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Aristotle (5 of 10)
•
Hierarchy of souls: a soul is what gives life
– Vegetative (nutritive) soul (plants)
?
Provides growth, assimilation of food, and reproduction
– Sensitive soul (animals)
?
Functions of vegetative soul plus the ability to sense
and respond to the environment, experience pleasure
and pain, and use memory.
– Rational soul (humans)
?
Functions of vegetative and sensitive souls plus ability of
thinking and rational thought.
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Aristotle (6 of 10)
– Common sense
?
Coordinates and synthesizes information from all of the
senses for more meaningful and effective experience.
– Passive reason
?
Uses synthesized experience to function in everyday
life
– Active reason
?
?
Uses synthesized experience to abstract principles and
essences
Highest form of thinking
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Aristotle (7 of 10)
•
Memory and recall
– Remembering
?
Spontaneous recollection of a previous experience
– Recall
?
An actual mental search for a previous experience
– Practice of recall affected by laws of association
?
?
?
?
Law of contiguity
Law of similarity
Law of contrast
Law of frequency
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Aristotle (8 of 10)
?
Associationism
o Belief that one or more laws of association can be used
to explain the origins of ideas, memory, or how complex
ideas are formed from simple ones
•
Imagination and dreaming
– Imagination is lingering effects of sensory experience.
•
Dreaming
– Images from past experience which are stimulated by
events inside and outside the body
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Aristotle (9 of 10)
•
Motivation and emotion
– Happiness is doing what is natural
?
Fulfills one’s purpose
o
Purpose for humans is to think rationally
– Humans, being biological organisms, are motivated
by appetites.
?
However, humans can use rational powers to inhibit
appetites.
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Aristotle (10 of 10)
– Conflicts arise between immediate satisfaction and
biological drives and more remote rational goals.
– Like most Greeks, Aristotle held self-control and
moderation as a high ideal.
?
The best life was one lived in accordance to the golden
mean.
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Importance of Greek Philosophy
•
•
•
•
In Popper’s view, science began when humans began to
question the prevailing stories about themselves and the
world.
The Greek cosmologists broke loose from the accepted
traditions and speculated; they also engaged in critical
discussion.
After Aristotle’s death, philosophers either relied on
teachings of past authorities, particularly Aristotle, or turned
attention from descriptions of the universe to models of
human conduct.
The critical, questioning tradition of the Greeks was not
present until revived during the Renaissance.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
History and Theories of Psychology
Class Book:
Hergenhahn’s An Introduction to the History
of Psychology
ISBN: 978-1-337-56415-1
Cengage