Early Foundations Flashcards
Zeitgeist
Preceding factors act as a precursor for a certain discovery to be made
Matthew Effect
Attributes more success and credit to well known people
Causes inflation of their perceived impact
Presentism (Stocking, 1965)
Looks at the past and interprets them in the values and context of the present
Annism
Early civilisations relied on everyday practical knowledge to survive
Skill is based on manual labour
Socratic questioning principle
Deals with hypothetical scenarios and justification of belief
Constant questioning is needed to ensure answers come from within
Plato (427-347 BC) on variation
Objects seen are based on an ideal, which then becomes the template for other subsequent templates
Explains variation whilst having the same taxonomy
Plato (427-347 BC) on sleep and dreams
Ideal towards rational solving of problems and control of appetite
Dreams are where base appetites flourish, and pleasure and violence takes over
Rationalism
Sensory experiences are volatile and unpredictable
Inherent truths come from inherent knowledge
Deductive reasoning
To arrive at conclusions there must be statements wtith inherent truth
Conclusion is an assessment of one statement in relation to the truth
Scientific theories and deductive reasoning
Theories can be tested by using “a priori” innate facts to create more hypotheses based on conclusions
Syllogisms
Type of deductive reasoning
Uses two premises and a conclusion
Example of a syllogism
All men are mortal, Socrates is a man, and therefore Socrates is mortal
Aristotle (384-322 BC)
Showed early signs of empiricism
Developed inductive reasoning
Empiricism
The way of acquiring knowledge by cumulative perceptual experience
Inductive reasoning
Sensory observations are taken and used to form a general conclusion
Accumulative in nature
Scientific theories and inductive reasoning
Uses observed phenomena to try and generalise and create scientific laws of nature
Example of inductive reasoning
Monday morning the sun rises, Tuesday morning the sun rises, so by inductive reasons the sun should rise on Wednesday morning
Limitation of inductive reasoning
Just because something usually happens doesn’t mean it always will
Entelechy (Aristotle)
Everything in nature has an innate function
Aristotle’s four aspects of causation
Material, formal, efficient, final
Aristotle’s geocentric model
All things are comrpised of earth, wind, fire and/or water
Air and fire came from the moon’s orbit
Earth is at the centre and other planets move around it
Ptolemy’s modification of the geocentric model
Emphasised perfection and regularity through concentric circles
Brain and behaviour in the Egyptians
Created canopic jars which only held essential organs for the afterlife
Documents show incidence of a relationship between brain damage and leg functionality
Provides early accounts of the brain’s importance in behaviour
Plato’s view on characterstics of the soul
Inner essence, spiritual and basis of being and consciousness
Form-like and from the universe, but not physical
Emotions controlled by the heart
Plato’s parts of the soul
Reasoning, done by the brain
Sensation, done by the heart
Appetite, done by the liver
Neck acts as a gateway to stop raw sensations contaminating pure reasoning in the brain
Plato’s functions of the soul
Rational and immortal
Bodily needs have to be controlled, which requires energy
Considers long-term benefit of freeing the person from flesh
Inhibits desires
Aristotle’s view on characteristics of the soul
Split into the heart and the brain
Aristotle’s view on the heart
Animalistic and hot and essential for life
Connects to all parts of the body
Affected by emotion
Aristotle’s view on the brain
Cools tempers of the heart
Secondary in creation
Not connected to all parts of the body
Unaffected by emotion, rational and insensitive
Aristotle’s functions of the soul
Hierarchical in nature
All living things have souls
Souls determine the organism
Vegetative/nutritive soul
Sensitive and rational
Aristotle on memory
Remembering is spontaneous
Recall is an active search into the past
Aristotle’s laws of association
Contiguity, similarity, contrast, frequency
Galen (130-200 CE) and ventricles
Brain ventricles are responsible for life
Spirits enter ventricles and produce different behaviours for different ventricles
Very influential in medieval and renaissance periods
Augustine (354-430 CE)
Human discovery of truth or other scientific facts and knowledge is guided by divine illumination
Medieval period
Aminism still prevalent
Science is approved by authorities
Reading and translations allowed for wider understanding but also controversial differences in interpretation
Heliocentric model
Sun is centre of the universe
Observation was based on the naked eye until development of telescope
Ockham’s razor
Strive for explanatory parsimony
Simple theories are easier to explain
Parismony
Most complex ideas explained in the simplest of manners
Jewish influences
Maimonides (1135-1204) attemped to reconcile faith and reason
Wrote “guide for the perplexed”
Islamic influences
Avicenna (980-1037)
Humans have 7 interior senses and 5 external senses and active intellect
Wrote “the canon”, main medical textbook in europe for 500 years
Middle ages
Attempts to bridge and modify philosophical thought to fit with the church
St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Sensory information is perceived inductively but doesn’t reveal information about universal truths
Faith and reason both lead to the ultimate reality of God
