Week 2 Flashcards
List the major philosophical antecedents of psychological science
- natural philosophers taking an interest in the human condition
- scientific revolution
- descarte’s mechanistic worldview
- the enlightenment
- ancient Greece: socratic method; asking about nature of behaviour
- Galilei, Newton, Descartes
Explain Cartesian Dualism
Theories in which the mind is seen as radically different from the body, and independent of the biological processes in the brain
Describe the mind body problem
issue of how the mind is related to the brain; three main views: dualism, materialism and functionalism.
Describe Descartes’ mechanistic worldview
The world is a complicated machine; universe perfectly designed. Study of body should be mechanic, study of soul left to church/religion.
How have Descartes’ ideas contributed to the dualism debate in neuroscience?
Dualism in the new millennium
Agency and free will problem
Consciousness problem
Describe dualistic paradigms
Mind and body are two distinct substances, that are separate but interact
What are some of the applications related to philosophy of mind?
Alien hand syndrome, neural correlates of consciousness
What did a natural philosopher do?
- observe phenomena in the natural world
- grouped phenomena to make meaning and links
- recognise not all knowledge has been discovered
Define epistemology
The study of knowledge, including the nature and extent of human knowing
What are the three phases of Comte’s theory?
Theocratic, metaphysical and positivist
Describe the theocratic stage
Society dominated by religion and god
Describe the metaphysical stage
Concerned with being, existence, knowing etc; ‘first principles’
Describe the positivistic stage
Explanations provided by scientific method
What were the three main changes in the scientific revolution?
Geocentric - heliocentric
Reductionist/mechanistic approach
Simple mathematical equations to explain universe
What are the three aspects behind the rise of reason?
- truth can only be learned via observation and experimentation
- scientific theories summarise empirical observations, therefore they are always right
- since scientific knowledge is always true, it should be the sole motor of all progress and inform all policy/societal related decisions
Describe Descarte’s evil demon
- our senses deceive our perception of things
- senses cloud our views
- hard to distinguish whats reality and what is deception
- Descartes believed the only thing he could tell was real was that he was thinking, therefore he was real
Which paradigm suits mind = brain?
Materialism
Which paradigm suits mind != brain?
Dualism
What paradigm suits brain = mind?
Idealism
What is meant by geocentric to heliocentric?
Geocentrism says that the world is the centre of the universe. Heliocentrism says that the sun is the centre of the universe.
What were the lessons learnt by Gallilei?
- science can be a threat to political or social authority
- radical ideas may only become accepted after the broader public accepts them
What is a major problem with materialism?
Doesn’t address phenomenal consciousness adequately yet
What is a major problem with dualism?
Why is the soul/consciousness special and not subject to physical properties that govern other human function?
What did Kuhn suggest about paradigms?
They assist us to grasp reality but may never provide an error free reflection of it
List the four emergent and dominant ideologies
- ancient era
- medieval era
- industrial era
- information era
Describe the ancient era
Universe is created by Gods, who speak to us
Describe the medieval era
Universe is created by Gods, who speak to priests/holy people for us
Describe the industrial era
Universe is a giant machine, finely tuned to the smallest perfect detail
Describe the information era
Universe is a giant computer stimulation, and we’re stimulations too
Inductive reasoning
Likely conclusions are drawn on the basis of a series of converging observations
Deductive reasoning
We start from a number of disputable premises from which new conclusions are drawn
