PSYA01H3 Lecture Notes - Hermann Ebbinghaus, René Descartes, Dualism (Philosophy Of Mind)
Document Summary
To pursue something scientifically one must first assume that the behaviour of that thing conforms to some sort of natural laws, laws that can eventually be understood, specified, and used to predict future behaviour. Souls are spiritual entities and, as such, they do not conform to natural laws given this, trying to understand them via a scientific process is pure folly. Animism- suggesting that something has a soul or desire. Magician, if a guy shows how they do their tricks its no longer magic. Something they do which you do not understand. Believed animals had no souls they are machines which create an illusion. Cartesian dualism- we are partly machines we are hydraulic machines our bodies are controlled by our soul. When people died he cut open their bodies because the soul had left. We are born knowing nothing (nature) and people become who they are because of life experiences. Empiricism need to test ideas and reasoning.
