3: Enlightenment Period Flashcards
What was Hume’s major ideas in his work ‘Treatise on human nature and causality’?
We can’t gain certain knowledge from observation
We can only recall past events to predict the future but can’t prove causality, only infer it
Who wrote Treatise on human nature and causality?
Hume
What were Kant’s major ideas?
Both primary amd secondary qualities can be doubted
Nativism
Study of epistemology of the mind
What two kinds of realities did Kant distinguish between?
Phenomenal world: Our mind’s perceptions such as space and time which we construct
Noumenal world: External reality that can’t be experianced directly
According to Kant, what is the phenomenal world?
Our mind’s perceptions such as space and time which we construct
According to Kant, what is the noumenal world?
External reality that can’t be experianced directly
What is epistemology of the mind?
The study of how we come to know things
What did Kant argue about epistemology of the mind and psychology as a disipline?
Only philosophy can be used to understand the mind and can’t be subjected to empirical science
Why did Kant argue that psychology should not be an empirical science?
The mind doesn’t excist in space so can’t be studied
We can’t locate in time when mental events happen
It can’t be measured or observed directly
What were Muller’s main ideas?
Each sensory nerve in the body conveys one type of sensation (Anything that excites the optic nerve is perceived as light and colour)
Vitalism: All living things are animated by a specific life force
This later became mechanistic theory
Who was the main influence of mechanistic theory?
Muller
Which psychologists studied mechanistic theory?
Muller’s earlier ideas were adapted and included
Raymond
Helmholtz
What work did Helmholtz study in mechanistic theory?
Timed the speed of the nerve impulse in frogs with the Hipp Chronoscope
Studied the mechanics of the eye
Discovered that the visual system can adapt
What is the Hipp Chronoscope?
Allows people to acurately time events to 1 milisecond
Used by Helmholtz to time the speed of nerve impulses in frog legs
How did Helmholtz discover that the visual system can adapt?
Gave participants glasses to invert vision, after a few days their vision adapted and when the glasses were taken off, they say the world upside down
