PSY 421 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Étienne Bonnot De Condillac, John Stuart Mill, Julien Offray De La Mettrie
Document Summary
Proposed a mental chemistry in which complex ideas are not made up of aggregates of simple ideas but that ideas can fuse to produce an idea that is completely different from the elements of which it is made. Mill argued for the development of a science of the formation of character, which he called ethology. His ethology would explain how individual minds or characters form under specific circumstances. Mill was a social reformer who took up the causes of freedom of speech, representative government, and the emancipation of women. Often referred to as the first full-fledged psychologist. Goal was to describe the physiological correlates of mental and behavioral phenomena. Intellect is explained by the laws of association, primarily the law of contiguity which applies to sensations, ideas, actions, and feelings. The laws had their effect in neuronal changes in the nervous system.
