Chapter 2 - The Ancient World

Question 1

theory of mind

Answer 1

our ability to observe and understand others is an evolutionary adaptation (ex: understanding facial expressions, detecting ‘cheating’ vs. ‘altruism’)
- we don’t need to learn how to understand others feelings- we automatically can detect emotions

Question 2

neolithic revolution

Answer 2

the transition from hunter-gatherer groups to villages, temple builders, and city dwellers
- becoming more socialized because we need to get along w/ each other to survive, everyone given job in society
- began around 12,000 years ago
- sparked by agriculture and/or large-scale social gatherings, which required social stratification

Question 3

animism

Answer 3

looking at nature as though it is alive (ex: seeing sun as a living thing)
- before civilization and science, we relied on supernatural interpretations

Question 4

anthropomorphism

Answer 4

projecting human attributes onto nature
- “the sky is angry”, “lost crop because you did something wrong”, mental health seen as demonic possession
- reflects ideas that everything has a soul/spirit/psyche
- if it can be thought of, it exists
- the ‘sun’ as ‘god’

Question 5

magic

Answer 5

elaborate methods designed to influence ‘spirits’ (to control nature)
- ex: human sacrifice to prevent drought, exorcism to treat mental illness
- humans have always felt the need to understand, predict, and control nature (through animism, anthropomorphism, religion, science, etc)

Question 6

Thales

Answer 6

in his ‘cosmology’, he asserted that the universe consists of natural substances that are governed by natural principles
- these natural principles do not reflect whims of gods
- knowledge of nature can bring control over the environment
- wanted to find the physis (primary substance) -> water (H2O)
- navigation based on stars, planets, weather prediction, etc
- he presented his ideas as speculation and welcomed criticism

Question 7

Hippocrates

Answer 7

claimed that all disorders were caused by natural factors such as susceptibility to disease, organic injury, and imbalance of bodily fluids
he stated that normal brain functioning depends on balance of 4 ‘humours’ (bodily fluids) MBMBSPIY
- Melancholia - too much black bile (earth)
- sluggishness - too much phlegm (water)
- irritability - too much yellow bile (air)
- moodiness - too much blood (fire)

treatment involved facilitating the body’s natural healing process (rest, proper diet, exercise, massage, etc.. body has natural ability to heal itself)

Question 8

sophists

Answer 8

truth is subjective and relative - there is no single “truth” to exist
- move natural questions to epistemological ones (study of knowledge)

Question 9

protagoras

Answer 9

• the best known kind of sophists
• truth depends on the perceiver
• perceptions vary
• what is true is culturally determined

Question 10

postmodern psychology

Answer 10

psychological phenomena are to an extent culturally-determined (‘truth’/knowledge are socially constructed)
- schizophrenia, depression, suicide; the history of hysteria
- mental health concerns: how much of it is biological, cultural, social, environmental?

Question 11

socrates

Answer 11

disagreed with sophists that no truth exists beyond personal perception, though he did agree that individual experience is important
- sentenced to death for “disrespecting the gods and corrupting the youths of Athens”
- considered the wisest of men because he “neither knew anything nor thought he did”

Question 12

socrates - inductive definition and essence

Answer 12

inductive definition: method for examining instances of concepts like beauty, justice, or truth, to make general conclusions about their essence

essence: basic nature and identifying characteristics (of all the beautiful things in the world, what do they have in common? why are they beautiful?)
- to know something is to understand its essence
- knowledge (ex: of justice) is required to act morally

Question 13

Plato’s theory of forms

Answer 13

Plato: used socratic method mixed w/ Pythagorean philosophy

theory of forms: everything in the natural world is an imperfect manifestation of a pure form (idea/essence) that exists in the abstract
- ex: there are perfect abstract calculations to create perfect things, but a perfect right angle will never exist in nature
- what we experience through the senses results from the pure form interacting w/ matter

Question 14

Plato’s allegory of the cave

Answer 14

• bound prisoners mistake shadowy world of sense experience for reality
• escaped prisoners are governed by reason instead of sensory impression
• we must aim to understand and perceive higher forms of reality, not just use the senses (this is where our soul comes from, comes into a body that has impulses)
• highest form of thought is reason
• Plato says this story explains what it feels like to be philosopher trying to educate the public- people are stubborn in their ignorance

Question 15

Plato: the three-part soul

Answer 15

1) Rational component - the immortal part, experiences world imperfectly
2) courageous/ emotional/spirited component - mortal part of us
3) appetitive component - mortal, includes sexual appetite, eat/drink

a person’s soul is almost always in conflict (Freud)
- people must suppress emotions and appetites in order to attain true knowledge and morality, we must control our appetites
- the appetitive component dominates in dreams/sleep

Question 16

Aristotle

Answer 16

• often called the forerunner of empiricism
• unlike Plato, he believed we could understand essence by examining nature (through the senses)

Question 17

Aristotle: sensation and reason

Answer 17

sensation explained by: the motion of objects (air vibrations/pressure) that stimulates the senses of organs (eyes/ears)
- our senses (ex: vision) are sensitive to different media (light/electromagnetic radiation) and are accurate in their detection
- perception is explained by the consolidation of sensory info so that we can make sense of it (ex: we hear, see, hold, smell a baby to understand why it’s in distress)

Question 18

Aristotle’s 4 levels of knowing** (on test)

Answer 18

1) Sensory information: isolated experience (feel warm from sun)
2) Common sense: synthesized experience - the ‘heart’ coordinates info to make it meaningful (knowing you’re experiencing the sun)
3) Passive reason: utilization of sensory experience (using a sun dial to tell time)
4) Active reason: highest form of thinking, abstraction of essences from synthesized experiences (able to explain why/how sun dial works)

Question 19

Aristotle’s 4 laws of association

Answer 19

Law of contiguity - when we think of something, we think of things we’ve experienced with it
Law of similarity - when we think of something, we think of things similar to it
Law of contrast - when we think of something, we think of things opposite to it
Law of frequency - the more often experiences occur together, the stronger the association will be (ex: classical conditioning)

Question 20

Aristotle: motivation and emotion

Answer 20

for humans, our purpose is to think rationally, but we are also driven to satisfy appetites. We can practice self control
- happiness (rationality) comes from moderation - called the golden mean
- ex: courage as the mean b/t cowardice and foolhardiness
- ex: generosity as the mean b/t meanness and extravagance