History Of Psychology Flashcards
Ancient Greek
Homer - what is his idea about ‘pusche’ (mind/soul)?
It accompanies the body, but doesn’t cause behaviour and survives death
Behaviour is motivated by the gods
Archaic Greek
Alcmaeon of Croton - what is his view of perception and sensation?
Perception distinct from understanding
Sensory organs connected to brain by channels (porous)
Sensation and thought occur in brain
Archaic Greek
Empedocles of Acragas - what are his thought on objects?
Objects emit copies - our senses catch the copies and pass on to the heart where thinking takes place
Archaic Greek
Pythagoras - what was Pythagoras’ view between mind and body?
Created Pythagoras theorem
Thought musical notes could be translated into mathematical equations - explaining harmony of plants
There’s a distinction between king and body - soul moves to divine if pure enough otherwise reincarnated into animal
Classical Greek
Socrates - what was his method for to find the truth?
Midwife method - rational method to help people discover what is true using critical reasoning
Classical Greek
Plato - what is Plato’s idea of categorisation?
Appearance relates to our world but reality relates to world of Ideas or Forms - forms explain our knowledge of categories
Classical Greek
Plato - how does Plato believe we can remember the forms?
By doing philosophy - we lost this knowledge at birth - idea of forms leads to hierarchy of things that exist and of states of minds
Classical Greek
Plato - what are his 3 souls personality is made up of?
Rational soul - motivates quest for forms and located in head (immortal) - philosophers
Spirited soul - motivates quest for glory and fame, located in chest (mortal) - military
Desiring soul - irrational wants, located in belly/genitals (mortal) - farmers
Classical Greek
Plato - what did Plato mean by visual perception?
Eyes emit rays and strike objects, sunlight necessary as it’s an extra factor for vision to occur
Classical Greek
Plato - why did he think reason and logic were necessary?
To grasp the forms
Classical Greek
Aristotle - what was his idea of perception?
Mind receives an objects form - matter and form (‘essence’) are distinct, forms explain knowledge of abstract categories eg. ‘Chair’
Classical Greek
Aristotle - what was Aristotle’s 4 causes?
Efficient cause - behaviour
Material cause - made of
Formal cause - what defines them
Final cause - purpose
Classical Greek
Aristotle - what was Aristotle’s view of body and soul?
Soul and body can be distinguished but not separated - soul can’t exist without body
Classical Greek
Aristotle- what are his 3 elements of soul?
Nutritive - nutrition, reproduction, growth
Sensitive - awareness, imagination, memory
Rational - higher level thinking, power to think
Classical Greek
Aristotle - what were his 3 laws of association (explaining memory)?
Similarity
Contiguity (same time, same place, same actions)
Contrast
Medieval
What was neo-Platonism?
Soul seen as a hierarchy - higher part of soul (divine) and lower part (seat of personality)
Inspired western and eastern philosophers
Chapter 1
What are Lindberg’s 3 important characteristics of cultures before writing invented?
‘Know-how’ - know how to make tools, fire, hunt etc - skills not based on understanding but practical rules of when to do it
Fluidity of knowledge - oral transmission of prictical skills
Collection of myths and stories about beginnings of universe, life etc where human traits projected onto objects and events - Animism (explanation of world by means of spirits it’s human-like characteristics)
Chapter 1
What were the early stages of writing systems?
Combinations of
Pictograms - pics resembling people, animals and objects they represent
Phonograms - signs to represent sounds of spoken language
Chapter 1
How did writing change the acucumulation of knowledge?
Meant insights could be retrieved if they wanted to be looked for and made information available, subtly changing the way knowledge was preserved
Chapter 1
What was the purpose of the base 5?
Lines/markings most common evidence if counting - larger numbers difficult to represent = tallies used in indecent cultures with 5 the grouping base - coincides with no of fingers on hand
Chapter 1
Aristotle - what are the 3 types of knowledge?
Productive - making things
Practical - how ought to act in various circumstances
Theoretical - truth -> mathematics, natural science, theology
Chapter 1
Aristotle - what are axioms?
Self-evident truths about nature acquired through observations and intuition and of which final cause can be found out
Chapter 1
How did book printing change lives?
Knowledge came more available
Books so rare constant danger of loss or destruction
Manually copied books had many transcription errors especially with scientific materials
Scholars could work on same copy of a book - easier to correspond and collaborate
