PSYC104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Renaissance Humanism, Crop Circle, Reductionism
30 May 2018
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Week 1 Introduction to Psychology
What is Psychology?
Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, brain and behaviour. Although we
often rely on commonsense to understand the psychological world, our intuitive
understanding of ourselves and others is often wrong. Naive realism can lead us to
false beliefs about ourselves and the world.
Current questions have long historical roots
- What is it to be human? E.g. car driving themselves
- Existence between the body and the mind? E.g. dream studies
- Knowledge and how to obtain it? E.g. Rationalism or Empiricism
- Emotion and its role in human existence? E.g. how we learn effectively and
think
Greek Origins in Western Thought
Pythagoras (580-500 BCE)
- Numbers can explain the universe
- First person to connect physical events (tones) to psychical events (pleasure)
- Perfection is only found in the mathematical world
- Reason is found in quantitative work
- First to come up with mind-body dualism and that senses are inferior
- Plato was a member of the Pythagoreans
Plato (427-347 BCE)
- A pupil of Socrates
- Combined both Socrates and Pythagoras
- Theory of Forms: objects are inferior representations of the objects in the
world of pure forms (ideas)
- True knowledge is attained by grasping forms of self by ignoring senses
- Agrees that math is a higher form of knowledge but is not ultimate (The Cave)
- Knowledge is brought to the body with the soul to attain the truth
Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
- A pupil of Aristotle and Alexander the Great
- Founded ‘Lyceum’, regarded as the first University
- Put to death for teaching kids to think
- First to examine memory, sensation, sleep, dreams, geriatrics (growing up)
and learning
- Senses bring in information by studying lots of examples of types of events
and objects
- Known as a Rationalist Empiricist to analyse information
- Sought to explain psychological events by biology
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- The first physiological psychologist
- Emphasised the purpose of technology
- Produced laws of association in respect to memory and learning
Significance:
- Axial period around 600 BCE in the West (no longer accept but question)
- Established rigor analytical thinking
- Critical evaluation of arguments
- Knowledge in a continual process of development and change (ideas never
settle)
The Dark Ages in the West 400s - 1300s CE:
- Greek learning was lost to the West
- Academy of Athens was closed in the 500s CE
- Roman world of Law and Order was fragmented
- Domination of mysticism, superstition and anti-intellectualism (wanted God to
fix all)
- Greek learning continued by Islamic scholars according to Russell.
- During this time Islamic scholarship flourished
Significance:
- This time put a stop to concerning the nature of humans
- Stop thinking because they have God and faith
- Towards the end a rediscovery was made of discussion and inquiry during
The Plague period
- Many world universities around 1200s - 1300s CE showing the importance of
scholarship
- Germ of Humanism began. Humans are the measure of all things would be
dominant during the middle to the second millennium
- Became accepted to study humans and expand engagement with the world
Renaissance Humanism (1400s - 1600s CE):
- Period when social and intellectual focus turned onto humans and activities
- Four themes are prominent (individualism, personal religion, interest in the
past Greek and Roman writers, and Anti-Aristotelianism)
- Aristotle became an opinion (dogma)
Renaissance Humanism ctd:
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- Dogma no longer unchallenged
- Rise of princely kingdoms that contributed to the rejection of centralised
control
- Corruption was evident (this was affronted by many like Martin Luther)
- The rise of Skepticism meant that intellectualised Aristotelian religion of the
day was challenged
- The world was conceptually shrinking (Marco Polo, Columbus, Magellan) led
to the realisation that the ideas of the world were wrong
- A time to characterise and upheave authority
Principles of Newtonian Science
- God created but does not micromanage
- The material world is governed by laws
- He rejected Aristotle’s final cause concept
- Accepted Occam’s Razor
- Knowledge is imperfect because of limitations of human beings
- Classification is not an explanation
Francis Bacon (1561-1626 CE)
- Stressed the observation of events
- Desired no theories by only induction. A true scientist must come to their task
without perception
- Bacon recognised only empirical observation as the ultimate authority in
matters scientific
- Scientific endeavours should benefit society. Practical knowledge was the
rationale for explaining public funds on science
- Bacon died from stuffing a chicken with snow
Significance
- The challenge of dogma is not exempt from criticism
Rationalism
Descartes (1596-1650 CE)
- Invented analytic geometry from observing flies in a room
- He wanted to be able to locate them in exactly three dimensions
- Similar to Copernicus, Galileo and Newton
- He wanted to establish human knowledge on the same certain basis as the
truths of mathematics
- He suffered major doubt about this theory
- He found that knowledge comes from doubt
Method consisted four rules
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Document Summary
Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, brain and behaviour. Although we often rely on commonsense to understand the psychological world, our intuitive understanding of ourselves and others is often wrong. Naive realism can lead us to false beliefs about ourselves and the world. First person to connect physical events (tones) to psychical events (pleasure) Perfection is only found in the mathematical world. First to come up with mind-body dualism and that senses are inferior. Plato was a member of the pythagoreans. Theory of forms: objects are inferior representations of the objects in the world of pure forms (ideas) True knowledge is attained by grasping forms of self by ignoring senses. Agrees that math is a higher form of knowledge but is not ultimate (the cave) Knowledge is brought to the body with the soul to attain the truth. A pupil of aristotle and alexander the great. Founded lyceum", regarded as the first university.
