PSYC1003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Tabula Rasa, Bodymind, Scientific Method
Document Summary
People have brains the most complex thing known in the universe. People are naturally interested in other people and in what goes on in our minds. Buddha, confucius, and hebrew scholars philosophized on the mind in a broad sense. The ancient greeks philosophized on the mind as well. Socrates and plato used logic to decide that the mind is separate from the body and that knowledge is innate (born with us). Aristotle disagreed and said knowledge comes from observing experiences. Little happened through the dark ages until the renaissance (1500s) that awakened people. In the 1600s, rene descartes agreed with socrates" and plato"s ideas. He was interested in how the physical body and non-physical mind work together. Trying to figure out the body-mind connection, he dissected animals to view their brains and nerves. At the same time, francis bacon used the scientific method to conduct experiments. For this, he"s known as a father of modern science.