Lecture 1 - Prehistory and the Classical Antiquity Flashcards
1
Q
Exam information
just read through it
A
- 25 multiple-choice
- 3 open-ended (one per week)
> original texts are exam material as well
> book is important, and it is not possible to pass exam just by focusing on the lectures
> look at posted multiple choice questions in discussion board, because if there are enough, two of them will be in the exam
! don’t focus on small details. It is important to know order, general time frame of philosophers, but not necessarily specific years
2
Q
Learning Goals
just read through it
A
- paraphrase traditional and modern ideas on fundamental problems in psychology
- use valid arguments about fundamental issues in psychology (e.g. empiricism vs rationalism)
> e.g. in exam they might ask us to give n. arguments from Hume on causality, in open-ended (it is just an example of how and open-ended might be) - evaluate the approaches to science in terms of their strengths and weaknesses
> e.g. how philosophers respond to each other, what came first, what followed and why - explain the effect of a stance of phylosophy of science to the practice of science
- explain the difference between different views on the philosophy of science
3
Q
In this lecture:
just read through it
A
- Prehistory
- Classical Antiquity
- Plato and Aristotle
- Rationalism and Empiricism
> at the beginning we would study anything that we could observe, afterwards we started studying ourselves as well
4
Q
Prehistory - the beginning of language
just read through it
A
- on walls: it started with images, then writings and numbers
> this is a way to record knowledge, facts
> this was a starting point for knowledge to grow, because we were able to capture it and build on it
1. with language a representation communicated from one person to another
2. with writing, representations can be brought into someone’s head without the other being physically present
3. it becomes possible to have shared representations: ideas can easily spread and can also be sustained over generations
5
Q
What arised from shared representations?
just read through it
A
- religion (could be discussed and shared among people)
- money (their valued had to be agreed upon)
- complex social structures (society with people with different roles, people start collaborating with structure)
- agriculture (even for exchange with other tribes)
6
Q
Social developments - from agriculture to society
just read through it
A
- through the discovery of agriculture, a man can
> stay in one place and establish settlements
> produce more food than is needed to feed everyone, so not everyone has to constantly arrange food - there is the possibility of creating a community in which different people fulfil different roles
- a hierarchy typically emerges, in which higher ranked individuals have time
7
Q
Greek Antiquity - what is the difference between Greece and the other early civilizations?
A
> among the earlier civilizations, we have Egypt and mesopotamia
- in Greece, higher-ranked individuals start thinking about science and knowledge
- here systematic research is born
8
Q
What disciplines did Greeks create?
A
- Ontology (what is the world like?)
- Epistemology (how do we know what’s true?)
- Aestethics (what makes some things beautiful and others ugly?)
- Ethics (what makes some deeds good and some bad?)
> in this course, we’ll focus on Ontology and Epistemiology
9
Q
What are Ontology and Epistemology?
- e.g. in psychology
A
- Ontology: what is the world like? what is an emotion?
- Epistemology: how do we know? how do we learn about emotions?
10
Q
What are the first main philosophers?
A
- (Heraclitus)
- Socrates
- Plato
- Aristotle
- (the stoics, the Epicureans, the skeptics)
11
Q
Heraclitus
- when and main idea
A
- 535-475 BC
- called “The Obscure”
- doubts whether something ever stays the same
- “no man ever steps in the same river twice”
12
Q
What was Heraclitus’ main point?
Is this idea ontological or epistemological? Why?
A
- the only constant is change itself
- everything always flows and changes
- “Panta Rhei” → everything flows
> this is an ontological statement, because it’s about what he thought the world was like
13
Q
Heraclitus nowadays - how do his ideas apply to psychology today?
A
- “everything changes” depends on the school of psychology you look at
> e.g. in experimental psychology, we look at human beings as interchangeable (through random assignment the noise cancels out → Invariance principle)
14
Q
The invariance principle - what is the dilemma in psychology?
A
- many sciences now rely on this principle:
> through random assignment, participants are interchangeable
> all electrons are interchangeable - in psychology however, are people really interchangeable? Are there psychological invarances?
> if in experimental psychology we assume that people don’t differ, in psychometric research we have opposite assumption, and we investigate those differences
15
Q
What are the two main contrasting epistemological concepts?
Which one is the more dominant now in psychology?
A
- Rationalism vs Empiricism
> Rationalism: knowledge comes from reason (ratio)
> Empiricism: knowledge comes from a sensory experience - for now, psychology focuses mostly on empiricism
! these two themes are still relevant in present psychology and philosophy, the debate is still ongoing
15
Q
Disclaimer!
A
- For now we associate Plato to Rationalism and Aristotle to Empiricism
- However, it is not a black-and-white difference; there are nuances of both concepts in both philosophers
15
Q
Plato vs Aristotle - what is their main disagreement? What was their relationship?
A
- Plato: world of forms, ideas come from something apart from this planet
- Aristotle: knowledge comes from observations
! Main difference is about their epistemological perspective (how to gain knowledge)
> Plato was the teacher of Aristotle
16
Q
Plato - what is his central thesis?
A
- Central Thesis: Knowledge comes from the ratio (intelligence)
- practical knowledge is partly based on observation, but not the real knowledge
16
Q
What is real knowledge? What knowledge is superior?
A
- Real knowledge: about the good, the true and the beautiful
- knowledge from reason is superior to knowledge from experience
17
Q
What is idea/concept associated to Plato and Rationalism? How is it called?
A
- There is innate knowledge
> Nativism
18
Q
How can we use a circle to explain Plato’s rationalism?
A
- in nature, no observable circle is ever perfect
- so then, how do we know what a perfect circle looks like?
> this is because we already have the perfect shapes in our minds!
~ “idea” comes from “eidos”, which means form or image
19
Q
According to Plato, how do we access ideas?
A
- we remember these ideas from our divine origin
- knowledge is recognized, therefore we know it must be true
20
Q
Where does our mind come from?
According to Plato
A
- from the world of forms
> this is a transcendent world where the perfect forms are - reincarnation explains our prior knowledge on perfect forms
21
Q
Plato’s cave - what does it explain?
A
- we are like prisoners in a cave, and all we see are faulty observations (the shadows), e.g. about circles
- some of us escape the cave and experience what true knowledge is; it’s very hard to escape
→ it’s very hard to get from faulty observations to real knowledge - escaped people (with real knowledge) cannot communicate with people in the cave
22
Plato and Socrates - What are the Socratic Dialogues?
- Socrates was Plato's teacher
- Socrates didn't write anything, but Plato wrote Socrate's teachings in the Socratic Dialogues
> Socratic Dialogues: written dialogues where Socrates asks questions, to prove his point
23
Socrates and Meno - What was their dialogue about?
- Socrates asked Meno where his slave got the geometrical knowledge → Meno replied that his slave was never thaught anything about it
- so Socrates said that then he must have gotten that knowledge in the realm before being a man, and the soul possessed this knowledge
- since the truth of all things always existed in the soul, the soul must be immortal
24
Nativism in modern psychology
- studies show that even very young children can reason casually and that babies are surprised when natural laws are violated
> e.g. study with puppets, babies surprised when something fell upwards
- according to many, language ability is innate
! however, now nativism is not rooted in reincarnation, but in the evolution of the brain
25
Empiricism
- Central Thesis: knowledge lies in observation
> associated thesis: if all knowledge comes from experience, there is no need for innate knowledge
26
Who is the founding father of empiricism? What did he add to rationalism?
- Aristotle
> Self-evident axioms cannot be rejected by observations
→ e.g. geometrycan be deduced using maths, you don't need observations in this case
→ he understood that observations can be faulty
> BUT! these axioms are acquired through experience, they are not innate or shown to us before birth
→ e.g. we are not born with maths skills
27
Peripatetic Principle
- what is it? What was it later known as?
- "nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses"
- called Paripatetic Principle because Aristotle was teaching in the lyceum (peripateo in Greek)
- later known as "Tabula Rasa" theory
→ the mind is an unwritten tablet (blank state) at birth
28
How does Aristotle interpret the circle?
How does this apply to modern psychology?
- even if circles in nature are not precise, we can collect many observations and extract general knowledge about how the perfect circle should be
> in experiments we know that participants are not accurate when answering self-reports, but when we collect enough data we can still see patterns and infer knowledge
29
Aristotle vs Plato
- Aristotle rejects Plato's idea of two-worlds theory (there is only the world we can observe)
- A: everything around us consists of forms and matter
- A: the forms are not just something in our heads, but are the essence of being
30
the Paripatetic Principle throughout history, until now
- John Locke became famous because of it
- John Watson based his behaviorism on this idea
- the nature-nurture debate still plays a role (e.g. individual differences in intelligence)
31
Aristotle's view on knowledge - what is knowledge based on? + example
- **sensory experiences**
> e.g. we observe swans
- **induction**
> we induce that swans have specific properties
- **logic**: combining laws in a way that is truthful
> from *self-evident laws* (the axioms) we can deduce *theoretical statements* using logic
> e.g. all swans are white + Cygnus is a swan → Cygnus is white
! Logic does not tell us what to think, but *how* we get from premises to a conclusion
32
The overlap between empiricism and rationalism:
Plato & Aristotle - a summary
- A: ability to know is a natural quality of the soul
- A: knowledge however comes from perception (not the soul)
- A: knowledge deduced from self-evident laws is stronger than the observations that contradict this knowledge
- P: some knowledge comes from observation
- P: important knowledge (true, good and beautiful) comes from the ratio
! pure empiricism and pure rationalism are mostly two ends of a continuum that are useful to compare different views
33
Hellenistic period - what are other schools of thought?
- **Stoicism**: it is best to minimize your feelings
- **Epicureanism**: happiness is the ultimate pursuit, which you achieve by living your life as balanced possible
- **Skepticism**: refrain from judgement
! These are more philosophical takes on life, but still influencial in the scientific/psychological field
34
Pyrrho - what school of thought did he follow?
| she went through this very quickly
- 360-270 BC
- Articulates Skepticism: one can never know anything for sure
- it comes from a new quest for justifying knowledge claims
- the freedom to question anything is now a core value of science
35
How was Pyrrho related to other philosophers?
| she went through this very quickly
- he was the primary motivation for René Descartes ("I think therefore I am")
- Inspired David Hume
36
The Romans
- they built many innovations, but cared less about science and knowledge compared to the Greeks
- care less for the "beautiful" and the "good", but focused more on practical knowledge
37
"*The mind is in a sense potentially whatever is thinkable, though actually it is nothing until it has thought. We must be in it just as characters may be said to be on a writing-tablet on which as yet nothing stands written: this is exactly what happens with the mind*"
> who is this quote from?
- Plato - Heraclitus - Aristotle - Pyrrho
Aristotle (mind as a tabula rasa)
38
"*We must, therefore, pursue the things that make for happiness, seeing what when happiness is present, we have everything; but when it is absent, we do everything to possess it* "
> who is this quote from?
- Heraclitus - Zeno of Citium - Epicurus - Pyrrho
Epicurus
39
Summary
- some of the greatest inventions stem from prehistoric times (language, numbers, representations)
- the development of agriculture has made it possible for elites to be exempted from working the land
- the Greeks start wondering where knowledeg comes from
- Rationalism and empiricism are first elementary answers to this question
- but it will be many hundreds of years before humans invent the Great Knowledge Machine: *The Scientific Method*
40
# from now on, the flashcards are about the book
"The wider picture" -
- what does this chapter include?
1- the invention of writing
2- the discovery of numbers
3- the fertile crescent
4- the Greeks
5- developments from the Roman Empire to the end of the Middle Ages
6- turning the tide in the West
7- the limits of history writing
41
# 1. Writing
What are three characteristics of knowledge in preliterate civilisations?
- the skills are not based on understanding of how things work, rather on practicality
- knowledge on the history of the tribe is limited to two generations, and the function of oral tradition is the transmission of practical skills
- myths and stories, in which human traits are portraid onto objects and events (animism)
> because myths are very inconsistent when oral (...), Lindberg argued that scientific thinking cannot occur without written records
42
# 1. Writing
What is animism?
explanation of the workings of the world and the universe by means of spirits with human-like characteristics
43
# 1. Writing
What are pictograms, phonograms and logographs?
- **pictograms**: information-conveying sign that consists of a picture resemblig the person, animal or object it represents
- **phonograms**: sign that represents a sound or a syllable of spoken language; forms the basis of writing system
- **logographs**: sign representing a spoken word, which no longer has a physical resemblance to the word's meaning
44
# 1. Writing
what is the importance of written documents for external memory?
What was Socrates' perspective?
- by having written documents, people don't have to "waste time" redescovering what was already discovered, and they can move on and add onto it
- Socrates stated that written documents would make students lazy, as they would not spend time memorizing the oral teachings
> however, if Plato did not write down these dialogues, we would not have known about Socrates' ideas
45
# 1. Writing
General characteristics of reading
- for the longest time reading was a luxury of a certain class of people
- at first in texts there were no spaces between the words, so it was harder to read and people read out loud. When spaces were introduced, silent reading started
- in languages where sound and spelling correspond (e.g. Italian), children take up to a year to learn how to read. In languages where they don't (e.g. English), children take up to four year
- for a long time the *scholastic method* was used (memorizing knowledge without questioning it), now we are taught *critical thinking*
46
# Numbers
The beginning of numbers
- first evidence of numbers dates back to three decades BCE
- early humans could distinguish up to three
> **Subitising**: newborn babies and animals can distinguish between one, two and three entities
- while it is easy to perceive IIII without counting, five entities already require the grouping of tallies (5: V)
- numbers were given names first, and then symbols
47
# Numbers
How did numbers' symbols develop around the world?
- *Greeks*: based symbols for numbers on the 24 letters of the alphabet
- *Indians*: invented the **place coding system** (meansing of a sign depends on its form and position; e.g. first symbol is units, 2nd symbol the tens, 3rd the hundreds etc)
- 0 was introduced
- *Arabs*: extended the method, and Europe adopted it
48
# Fertile Crescent
The Fertile Crescent - what is it?
- region in the Middle East with a high level of civilisations around 3000BCE
- included in the ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilisations
(see picture 1)
49
# Fertile Crescent
- What marks the distinction between prehistory and history?
- Where did it start?
- the presence of written records
- independently in China, Egypt, Sumer and America
- Mesopotamia and Egypt particularly important for psychology
50
# Fertile Crescent
Mesopotamia and Egypt - what did they introduce?
> invented the wheel
>started keeping written records
>developed number system
- *Mesopotamia*: astronomy, number system, basic algebraic equations
- *Egypt*: geometrical knowledge, divided calendar in 12 months with 30 (+5) days
51
# The Greeks
What is Philosophy? When and how did it start?
- means "love of wisdom"
- it's the critical reflection on the universe and human functioning
- started in Ancient Greece, around 600 BCE
52
# The Greeks
Plato
- first thinker to establish subject and method of philosophy
- his texts were mainly dialogues between philosophers (e.g. with Socrates)
! > the realm of ideal forms
! > the three parts of the soul
(picture 2)
53
# The Greeks - Plato
The realm of ideal forms
- he distinguished between:
> realm of eternal, never-changing ideal forms
> realm of ever-changing material reality (the forms or ideas are imperfectly realized, and it's what we perceive)
- differentiated between body and soul
54
# The Greeks - Plato
How did Plato describe souls?
- immortal, made of leftovers of the cosmo-soul
- travelled between the stars and human body it temporarely inhabited
- they had knowledge of the perfect realm
> path to knowledge was the inward path of reasoning (rather than outward path of perception)
> mathematical and geometrical knowledge was the most prestigious (bc from reasoning)
(see picture 3)
55
# The Greeks - Plato
What are the three parts of the soul?
| not in the lecture, but could easily be in exam
- **reason**
> grants humans access to the realm of ideal forms; leads them on a quest for abstract perception
> situated in the *brain*
- **sensations** and **emotions** (e.g. anger, pride, courage)
> mortal, situated in the *heart*
! neck separates the two, not to pollute the divine soul
- **appetite** and **lower passions** (e.g. lust, greed and desire)
> localised in the *liver*
(look at picture 4)
56
# The Greeks
Aristotle
- most of his writings were lost, and we know his thoughts through lecture notes of his students found in a cave (the notes, not the students) → hard to interpret without oral explanation
(picture 5)
57
# The Greeks - Aristotle
What are the three kinds of knowledge?
| not in the lecture, but could easily be in exam
- **Productive** knowledge
> concerned with making things
> e.g. farming, engineering, art, rehoric
- **Practical** knowledge
> how men should act in various circumstances (both private and public life)
- **Theoretical** knowledge
> about the truth
> divided in: mathematics, natural sciences (biology, psychology, meteorology, physics...), theology (astronomy, logic)
58
# The Greeks - Aristotle
Theoretical knowledge
- Axioms
| not in the lecture, but could easily be in exam
- consists of axioms, from which remaining knowledge was derived through logic
- **Axioms**: self-evident truths about nature, acquired through observation and intuition, that lead to final causes
> **Final cause**: purpose of things within the universe
59
# The Greeks - Aristotle
How was the universe structured?
- Earth in the center, surrounded by the moon, mercury, venus, the sun, mars, jupiter, saturn and the fixed stars
> *sub-lunar region*: from Earth to Moon (filled with air, earth, fire and water)
> *super-lunar region*: from Moon to end of universe (filled with aether)
60
# The Greeks - Aristotle
What are the natural places of the elements?
- earth and water: center of the Earth
> this is why objects and water fall to the ground
- air and fire: Moon's orbit
> this is why they spontaneously go up
! all elements travel in a straight line to their natural place, and no other motions are possible
! horror of vacuum: did not allow a part without one of the elements
61
# The Greeks - Aristotle
How are humans provided with the axioms?
- *axioms*: first principles
→ knowledge of the organization of the universe and propensities in it + perceptual information
! know, with axioms + logic, all other knowledge can be derived
62
# The Greeks - Aristotle
what are Propositions?
- elementary statements
- two terms related to each other (affirmatively or negatively)
- combined into syllogisms
63
# The Greeks - Aristotle
What are **syllogisms**?
What is the goal of logic?
- argument consisting of three propositions
> major premise
> minor premise
> conclusion
→ goal of logic: determine which syllogisms lead to valid conclusions
64
# The Greeks - Aristotle
Why did Aristotle write texts on logic?
What was the game about?
- Aristotle wrote texts with general rules to establish validity of syllogysms
- Minto said that these texts were written by Aristotle to help students in a popular game of the time
> the scope of the game was to put the adversary in a position forced to admit the opposite of an original "Socratic disputation"
65
# The Greeks - Aristotle
What are Aristotle's opposing views on observation?
| not in the lecture, but could easily be in exam
- he attached much importance to careful observation and documentation in science
> e.g. he studied more than 500 types of animals (basis of biology), and collected much data on many subjects
> (picture 6)
- observation alone is not enough for true knowledge
> theoretical knowledge is reached through axioms + logic
> observation helped formulate the axioms, but was not enough
> (picture 7)
66
# The Greeks - Aristotle
Axioms > observations
- axioms were more fundamental than observations
- they defined the essence of things (what it was to be that thing in the universe)
(picture 8)
67
# The Greeks - Aristotle
Perception vs knowledge
- it was the source of knowledge, but not knowledge itself
> animals have perceptions but no theoretical knowledge
(picture 9)
68
# The Greeks - Aristotle
**Psyche**
- what is it?
- what are its three kinds?
| not in the lecture, but could easily be in exam
- animating force in the universe
- discriminates living and non-living things
- kinds:
> vegetative soul
> animal soul
> rational soul
69
# The Greeks - Aristotle
Vegetative, Animal and Rational soul
| not in the lecture, but could easily be in exam
- **Vegetative** soul:
> present in all living things, including plants
> enables organisms to nourish themselves and reproduce
- **Animal** soul:
> "sensitive soul"
> provides locomotion, sensation, memory and imagination
- **Rational** soul
> reason consciously and lead virtuous lives
70
# The Greeks - schools
What is the foundation of schools?
- in Greek society, a class of literate individuals started teaching and transferring the culture
> 1st: the Academy (Plato, 388BCE)
> 2nd: the Lyceum (Aristotle, 335BCE)
> ...: the Stoa (promoted lifestyle of self-control, fortitude and detachment from distracting emotions
>...: the Garden (Epicurean approach, based on virtuous and temperate life with enjoyment of simple pleasures)
71
# The Greeks - schools
The shift to Alexandria (+ new scholars)
- Alexander the Great expanded Greek culture (Hellenistic culture)
- new scholars:
> Euclid (Euclidian geometry)
> Herophilos & Erasistratos (human anatomy)
> Archimedes (geometry & physics)
> Ptolemy (astronomy)
72
# Roman Empire → Middle Ages
The Romans
1. assimilation of Greek culture
2. practical knowledge
1. The Romans conquered Greece and assimilated it's culture. They learnt from Greek scholars and built on this knowledge
2. Romans focused way more on practical knowledge. Romans are known more for practical inventions and improvements, than for philosophical writings
73
# Roman Empire → Middle Ages
The Byzantine Empire
- focus shifted on East, in Byzantine Empire with capital Constantinople (now Instanbul)
- preserved the legacy of Ancient Greece
- there was a decline of scientific advancement with the rise of Christianity, most likely due to focus on practicality rather than science
74
# Roman Empire → Middle Ages
The Arab Empire
- the Arabian peninsula was untouched by Alexander; Mohammed was born in Mecca in 6th century and the empire started expanding
- all scripts and book started being translated to Arabic, and Arab Empire started marking new developments in science and maths
75
# Roman Empire → Middle Ages
The decrease of Greek knowledge
- what were the reasons?
- when latin was being learnt, the motivation to learn Greek diminished. The romans translated to latin mostly texts useful for practicality, and much culture got lost in translation. Therefore, less and less people were learning Greek
- theological, ecclesiastical and literary knowledge became more important than science, when the Catholic church arised, and critical thinking was not fostered
> **Dark Ages**: middle ages in western europe as called by scholars
76
# The West
What factors contributed to the revival of learning in the West?
- Charles the Great
- better agricultural techniques→ increase in population
- foundation of large cathedrals for educational use
- creation of universities (Bologna, Paris and Oxford); students with master degree could teach anywhere
- increased translation of Arabic and Greek texts into Latin
77
# The West
At the beginning, some universities banned Aristotle from being studied
- why?
- he claimed that the universe was eternal, while the Bible states that there is a beginning and an end
- Aristotle saw the soul as the actualisation of the potentialities of the body (might mean that sould could not exist without a body); in Christian doctrine the soul is immortal
78
# The West
Reinassance
- Italy, 14th to 17th century
- cultural movement based on a rediscovery and imitation of the classical Greek and Roman civilisations
> Leaonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Copernicus, Vesalius, ...
79
# The West
Protestant Reformation
- what it is + consequences
- 16th century
- movement against the Roman Catholic Church
- important for science→ emphasised the need for education, critical thinking, hard work and wordly success
! later colonization led to Aristotle being proven fallible
80
# The West
Book Printing
- how did it develop?
- why is it important?
- first letters were carved in a woodblock and printed on cloth, then movable printing on paper (metal letters in matrix)
> knowledge more within reach
> less danger of knowledge being lost
> avoid human error while writing (esp. in mathematics)
> scholars can work on same copy of a book
81
# History Writing
what are the biases in History Writing?
- **too centered on persons**
> discoveries would have been made eventually even if the ones acclaimed for them never existed
- **Matthew effect**
> tendency to give more credit to well-known scientists that they deserve (increases perceived impact of these scientists)
- **Hindsight bias**
> assumption that the discoverers knew way more than they actually did
- **Ethnocentrism**
> tendency to attach excessive weight to the contribution of their own group (too much credit to input of economically dominant groups)
82
# History Writing
History writing, the good and the bad
- *advantage*: it should be considered that when writing history, we have to summarize decades and centuries of evolution, therefore we must focus on the most prominent discoveries and sometimes, oversee the details
- *limitation*: all the biases mentioned before prove historical books to be inaccurate, and sometimes overall just wrong
