Lecture 10 - Naturalism Flashcards
What are the period markers from the end of the renaissance to the french revolution? What is the Zeitgeist? What are the scientific and technological discoveries of Naturalism?
- Naturalism and discoveries in science
- Enlightenment in education and social appearance
- Baroque, Rococo and Classicism in arts
Zeitgeist: Several scientific and technological discoveries have
prompted a transition from “divine powers” to ”natural
powers” to explain everything in the universe.
It became fashionable to appear “enlightened” by scientific
or pseudo-scientific novelties, public lectures and discussion
clubs. Neuvo-riches merchants and banksters would pose as
enlightened and … artistically sensible too. Snobbism.
Excellence in Baroque …but trash in Rococo
Scientific and technical discoveries:
Telescope, observation of the Moon Galileo Galilei
Light spectrum. Gravitation law I. Newton
Calculus G. Leibniz
Blood circulation: W. Harvey!!
Microscope: Leeuwenhoek, Bacteria observed
Thermometer: D. Fahrenheit Germ. A. Celsius Sweden
Oxygen, combustion & respiration: A. Lavoisier & J. Priestley
Vaccination: cowpox immunizes against smallpox - E. Jenner
Animal electricity: L. Galvani Battery - A. Volta!!
Navigation and colonization
See details in slides
1867 Confederation of Upper Canada Ontario
with Lower Canada Québec
Probably don’t need to know this:
Famous names and events in 17th - 18th c.
René Descartes 1596 - 1650
(Molière) Jean Baptiste Poquelin 1622 - 1673
Blais Pascal 1623 - 1662
De La Fontaine 1621 - 1695
John Locke 1632 - 1704
“Academy” in: Florence 1657, London 1660,
and
Baruch Spinoza 1632 - 1677 Paris 1666
Isaac Newton 1642 - 1727 Luis XIV reign. 1643 - 1715 “L’état ç’est moi”
Gottfried Leibniz 1646 - 1716
George Berkeley 1685 - 1753
J. S. Bach 1685 - 1750 Baroque music
Immanuel Kant 1724 - 1804
French Revolution 1789 - 1799 the reign of terror
Anton Mesmer 1734 - 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte reigned: 1799 - 1814
“Academy” in: St.-Petersburg 1724; Uppsala 1739
Mozart 1756 - 1791 Classic music
Beethoven 1770 - 1827 Classic, later Romant
What are learned societies (academies)?
Probably don’t need to know this but history:
1657 Accademia del Cimento, Florence, by Dukes Ferdinand
II
1660 Royal Society for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge,
London by King Charles II
1666 Académie des sciences, Paris by King Louis XIV
1700 Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin Emperor Frederick I
1724 Petersburgskaya Akademya Nauk St-Petersburg, Emperor Peter The Great
1739 Royal Academy of Sciences, Uppsala by Swedish King Frederick I
Reminder of empiricism vs. rationalism:
–Empiricism:
Greek: emperia = experience
Starting point: the experiences,
the observations
Á posteriori conclusion about the
class of objects is made AFTER
numerous observations.
Is based on inductive thinking.
Ex:
Numerous swans seen were white.
Therefore all swans are white.
From specific - to general.
Aristotelian tradition:
F. Bacon, J. Locke, G. Berkeley,
James Mill, John Stewart Mill
–Rationalism:
Latin: ratio = a reason, the why…
Starting point: a general concept or
axiom assumed
Á priori conclusion about specific
object is made, BEFORE seeing it.
Is based on deductive thinking.
A pattern of reasoning, called the syllogism includes:
the major premise (an axiom or general concept),
the minor premise (a particular clue), and
the specific conclusion
Since all swans are white, and this
bird is a swan; therefore this swan
is white.
From general to specific.
Pythagorean-Platonian tradition:
R. Descartes!!, B. Spinoza,
G. Leibniz, I. Kant
René Descartes is part of it. See next slide.
René Descartes
Rene Descartes
* His father - was a lawyer; his mother died after his birth
* Jesuit school at La Fleche
* Studying law: University in Poitiers
* Identity crisis:
From a vagabond, swordsman, gambling
via intuitive dreams and intellectual insight,
to the choice of a career in mathematics,
geometry, logic and philosophy
* An intensely private person; prefers solitude
* Intellectual meditations.
* “invited” by the Queen Christina of Sweden
* Six months later Descartes caught pneumonia and died on February
11, 1650.
* Pythagoras - Plato - Descartes - later, Newton: the essence of reality is
* contained in the mathematical theorems &
models
* Through rational deductive thinking (rationalism), Descartes arrived at the
* conclusion, known as psychological and logical proof of
existence:
* The act of thinking requires somebody to do it.
* I am thinking, therefore I exist.
* Je pense, donc j’existe. Cogito, ergo sum
Cartesian Consciousness
Consciousness:
self-awareness, contemplation of oneself as a unique person existing in the
Universe
Me, who am I in the context of the Universe and other people?
* Innate intuitions: axioms of geometry, unity, infinity,
perfection and God.
“The only hypothesis left was that these ideas
were put in my mind by a nature that was more
perfect than I was… in a word, God.”
Rationalist: the importance of logical deduction.
* The mind (soul) exists only in humans and provides
consciousness, rationality, free will and self-control.
* The mind is immaterial “res cogitans”,
The body is material “res extensa”.
* Dualism; interactionism (pineal gland)
* Animal spirits - a concept of the nerve impulse
* The reflex: afferent nerve + a center in spinal cord/brain + efferent
nerve
* Emotions (les passions de l’ame) - resulting from an interaction
* between visceral processes and brain processes
* See its “echo” later in William James’ theory of emotions
* The passions must be controlled by the reason (rational thinking)
* Rational ethics is based on the awareness of the:
* - moral code
* - freedom of choice
and
* - responsibility
* Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, R. Descartes, B. Spinoza, I.
Kant…
Cartesian - Newtonian mechanics
Planetary systems and living organisms are machines:
once created and set in motion,
they function on their own (like a clock)
Physical objects, plants and animals belong to res extensa.
The animals exist without knowing it (awareness but not
consciousness).
The human body is a machine and belongs to res extensa too),
but the human mind (soul) - exists, knowing it (consciousness) -
and belongs to eternal spiritual reality (res cogitans)
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
Studies of mathematics, astronomy and optics at Cambridge University;
later, a professor of math there “Principia Mathematica”
Studies of the light spectrum - using the prism
Experiments in alchemy - intoxicated by Hg vapour - a crisis
The lawful clockwork universe
designed by God - “the Great Clockmaster”
Laws of planetary motion and gravitation
in terms of mathematical relationships
Mathematical models of reality
How does the Earth hold onto the Moon to keep it from flying away?
How do they act upon each other?
Instead of an explanatory hypothesis
a mathematical equation
to describe and predict the planetary motions
“Hypotheses non fingo” (I don’t feign hypotheses):
Instead, he offered some mathematical models
to describe the observed regularities.
A new way of doing science.
Post-Newtonian mechanics
uncritically extrapolated onto humans. A trivial reductionism
J. de La Mettrie “L’homme Machine” - primitive materialism
Thomas Hobbes: “The Leviathan - a combination of atomism of
Democritus (a soul = smooth atoms) and the theory of
Heraclitus (everything moves & changes)
The Universe = a set of permanent mechanical motions
Bodily and mental processes are mechanical motions
Movements of atoms and objects → sensations
Movement of physiological processes → motives →
emotions → up to the muscle motor actions
Its echo is easy to find in the behaviourism and XXI c. fantasy about
“human-like” AI robots.
British Associationists: John Locke, James Mill and John Stewart Mil
John Locke:
1632 – 1704
British empiricist, sensualist, associationist
“Nihil est in intellectu nisi quod prius fuerit in sensu”
There is nothing in the mind that is not first in the senses
“Tabula rasa” - blank slate at birth
The content of the mind versus
the capacity of the mind
Basic mental processes: sensations and reflections
Sensory input simple ideas
Reflecting upon & combining
complex ideas
Aristotle: sensation - common sense - perception
associating, memorizing, imagining, thinking
Aristotle and G. Galilei revisited by J. Locke.
Associations by contrast, similarity and contiguity
Primary qualities: shape, solidity, mobility, number.
Objective, independent of a perceiver
Secondary qualities: taste, colour, odour
Subjective, dependent of a perceiver
Learning, discipline and “hardening” in the education
“Some Thoughts Concerning Education”
“An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”
James Mill (the father of British Associationism) 1773 - 1836
“Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind”
The principle of association in the analysis of emotional states:
Affections, aesthetic emotions and moral sentiments
Extreme associationism: The mind is a passive recorder and a
storage of associations.
The ideas represent the reality “as is”
The complex ideas = aggregates of simple ideas
Education: “loading into the mind” as much as possible. Strict discipline and
hardening are recommended for raising children.
John Stewart Mill ( the son) 1806 – 1873
“System of Logic” 1843
The mind:
- registers the sensory data
- combines them into complex ideas
- processes them according to
pragmatic and logical rules and
- creates new original ideas
Psychology task: observe the regularities in behaviour (habits,
customs) to predict future behaviour.
“Ethology” on the impact of external circumstances
(individual experiences and social influences)
on the formation of the intellectual & moral
character. Ethos = custom, habit
Utilitarianism - contribution of each citizen to the betterment
of the quality of life through equal access
to education, politics, employment and justice
British Empiricism: John Locke, James Mill and John Stewart Mil AND George Berkeley
George Berkeley 1685 - 1753
SUBJECTIVE empiricist!
All qualities are secondary thus, all our perceptions are subjective.
“Esse est percipi” = to exist is to be perceived.*
God – the constant perceiver
Human perception - a divine ability to see an order and meaning
Cartesius: To exist is to think. Berkeley: To exist is to be
perceived
Locke: The mind depends on the objects. Berkeley: the objects depend on
the mind
(*) compare it with the modern quantum physics: the observation modifies
its object
Another subjective:
David Hume (1711 - 1776) Radical subjectivism, agnosticism, solipsism
Latin: solus = alone, ipse =
Baruch - Benedict SPINOZA
1632 - 1677
Amsterdam. Dutch philosopher
of Portuguese Jewish immigrants
Cartesian dualism challenged
There is no need for division into res extensa vs. res cogitans. In the view of
metaphysics, there is only one substance, one reality: God = Nature
Double aspectism: There is one reality
but seen from two different perspectives:
Spiritual or material
God is spiritual and material (like the Nature)
The mind is spiritual and material (like the brain)
God exists not outside or above the Universe but rather inside of it as its
inherent aspect.
- its primary cause and motor.
Nature/God manifests itself in a lawful harmony*
* “I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself
in the orderly harmony of what exists…“ Albert Einstein 1929
The natural world and the spiritual world are two aspects or “modes of
existence” of the same Universe,
e.g. Two aspects of the light: photons versus waives?
* Everything has its natural cause.
* “The Ethics” 1677. We should learn the causes of behaviour to predict,
control & prevent the actions.
* The knowledge of consequences and awareness of choices (alternative
ways of action) can increase our freedom of decision,
and make us feel responsible for our choices
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Using the non-verbal and verbal symbols, the humans are:
- encoding the individual and collective experiences
- storing them, and
- sharing, communicating them
What are the universal characters the mind uses for coding?
A set of phonemes, syllables or meaningful ideas?
What is “the alphabet” of thoughts & feelings?
Leibniz: fascinated with the binary system of hexagrams
in the old Chinese coding system, I Ching
* Promoted the formation of learned societies (academies): the British
Royal Society and the French Académie Royale des Sciences.
* 1700 the Berlin Academy of Sciences was created with G. W.
Leibniz as its 1st president.
* As an ambassador, he promoted the
ecumenical reconciliation between the Roman
Catholic and Protestant Church
Don’t know if necessary to know but:
ontributions to:
Mathematics: calculus, review of coding systems
Philosophy: monadology
Physics: relativity of space, time and motion
Psychology: the intensity & threshold of awareness
Engineering: designing water pumps, clocks, lamps,
mining machines, hydraulic press…
Academy: 1st president of the Prussian Academy
Diplomacy: Ecumenical reconciliation, peace promotion
What is Monadology (Leibniz)?
THE MONADS - meaningful units of reality
metaphysical = beyond space, time,
cause-effect, beginning-end
containing the pre-programmed instructions
“animating potentials” for:
- movement energy
- development actualization
- consciousness awareness
differing from each other by the intensity of
those potentials. The perfect monad = God
Like a set of genetic instructions, pre-programmed in the cell
Metaphysical universe of the pre-established
harmony and consciousness
All objects are manifestations of the monads
The monads differ on the level of energy, actualization & Consciousness
The soul is a monad. The body is another one.
God - a perfect monad: absolute energy, actualization &
consciousness
Exists beyond the relationships of space or time
Independent, not causally related yet
co-related, harmonized, mutually networking,
and potentially aware of each other (representation)
Gradation (intensity) of awareness/consciousness
- The weak stimuli - below the level of awareness -subconsciously
represented as “petite perceptions”
- Stimuli below the threshold of conscious detection
- Threshold - Latin - limen
* Subliminal perception
* Inspiration for a new domain - psychophysics -by Weber and Fechner
at Leipzig University
Christian von WOLFF (1679 - 1754)
Christian von WOLFF (1679 - 1754), University of Halle.
German rationalist
empiricism was recognized but rationalism preferred
* Reintroduced “psychology” into the scholar terminology at the Univ. of
Halle.
* An inspiration for Immanuel Kant.
* “Psychologia empirica” 1732 (a)
* “Psychologia rationalis” 1734 (b)
Two aspects of psychology:
- empirical studies of sensation, perception & feelings
- rational (theoretical) analysis of the human mind.
Reminder: The history of the ontological question:
what is real versus what is an illusion
*Parmenides, pre-Socratic 5th c. Greek philosopher: The world of
sensory appearances (The mortals Way of Opinion) and the world of
understanding (the Immortals Way of Truth)
* Plato: the imperfect sensory reality of the shadows and the perfect
reality of the Pure Ideas or Pure Forms
* G. Galilei (and later, John Locke): the objective qualities of the
perceived objects and the subjective qualities of the perceived objects
* G. Berkeley: all objects of our perceptions are known only for their
subjective qualities; we have no access to their objective qualities
* I. Kant: the reality of phenomena (things in their sensory
appearance)) and the reality of noumena (things-in-themselves, their
rational essence)
Immanuel KANT 1724 – 1804
Professor of philosophy at the University of Königsberg
It is impossible to transcend the bounds
of our cognitive apparatus We have no direct access to
the essential core “thing-in-itself” Dinge-an-sich
Phenomenon (appearance) versus
Noumenon (essence, thing-in-itself)
Kant’s rationalism
Sensory, imperfect but practically useful view of reality,
complemented by a rational model of the true
reality-in-itself through rational thinking
“Kritik der reinen Vernunft” 1781 pure reason
“Kritik der praktischen Vernunft” 1788 practical reason
Pragmatic vs. rational:
Engineering vs. theoretical physics
Law & customs vs. rational ethics
musical performance vs. theory of music
pragmatic anthropology/psychology only
no rational psychology
introspection cannot be a “meta-inspection”
* Cartesius: axioms of geometry, logic, God
* Kant: cognitive intuitions “categories of the mind
time, space, cause-and-effect, reality, negation,
beginning-and the-end, existence-nonexistence,
unity, totality, God.
The inborn intuitions “categories of the mind”
Anschauungen
other preparations of the reason: the soul, the responsibility
Inborn ethical predispositions “the categorical imperatives”
* The absolute non-negotiable universal moral law
* The inborn need to fulfil it - a need of the rational soul
* The moral rules are intrinsically valid and must be obeyed in all
situations and circumstances.
*
No relativism, no negotiation, no “crying majority”.
“Democracy is necessarily a despotism,
because it establishes an executive power in which
all decide for - or even against - somebody who has different preferences;
that is a contradiction of the freedom”.
Comparing I. Kant with J. Locke and G. Berkeley
J. Locke: Primary (objective) and secondary (subjective) qualities
The matter projects itself onto the mind.
The sensory input makes our gnosis and serves
as a proof and guarantor of reality (This is an axiom of
materialism)
G. Berkeley: Only secondary (subjective) qualities
The mind projects itself onto the matter.
The subjective view makes our gnosis.
The proof & guarantor of reality: The axiom of God
I. Kant: Sensory gnosis (“phenomenon”) and rational gnosis
“noumenon” (essence, thing-in-itself)
The proof & guarantor of reality: The axiom of God and
rationality.
Johann F. HERBART 1776 - 1841
Follower of Immanuel Kant at the University of Königsberg
From ontology to psychology:
Galilei – Locke – Berkeley – Hume – Leibniz - Kant - Herbart
Galilei: primary vs. secondary qualities of the perceived object
Locke: both the objective and subjective qualities are real
Berkeley: We only have access to the subjective qualities
Hume: It is impossible to know if objects truly exist (solipsism)
Leibniz: The world of kinetic, developing, cognitive monads
Kant: Sensory access to phenomena, rational access to noumena
Herbart: Phenomena (the reals) are represented in the mind as
ideas equipped with kinetic energy and
cognitive need for meaning
* The real things exist because they produce phenomena.
* The “reals” have a status of Leibniz’s monads.
* Reals - represented in the mind as ideas, have the kinetic and
cognitive capability of grouping and regrouping according to
meaning.
* When a group of ideas reaches a critical apperceptive mass, it
crosses the threshold (limen) between the conscious and unconscious
content of the mind.
* Apperception is a preliminary, primed, subliminal perception - -
before being a conscious, verbalizable recognition.
(see: Leibniz’s notion of petites perceptions)
* With their natural energy and inclination to form meaningful
connections, group, and regroup, ideas attract or repel each other
to gain attention and expression in consciousness.
* As ideas come together, they reach a “critical mass”
that allows them to cross the threshold of awareness
(limen).
* Ideas that fail to win this struggle remain subliminal.
* Compatible, meaningfully related ideas cluster
together, creating an apperceptive mass
capable of remaining in the center of attention
and awareness.
* A strong group of ideas can include new elements (ideas) or
recombine itself.
The kinetic and cognitive capability of the apperceptive
mass is the basis of creative thinking.
