Week 2: Immanuel Kant and the Idea of Scientific Psychology Flashcards
What were the British Empiricist Theories after Locke?
In the 18th century:
Berkeley-Visual System works like a blank slate. 3D Vision learnt by association
Hume-“matters of fact” based on observation.
Hartley-Physiology-nerve fibre vibrations- biological basis of association
What was the Enlightenment Period?
- Period of Growth in European Philosophy
- Scientific Revolution
- Rational Self Government
- Prompted French and American Revolutions
What was Scientific Philosophy?
The application of Science and experiments to answer questions of the philosophy of mind
IMMANUEL KANT 19th CENTURY
What is Hume’s attitude towards custom?
Critiques matters of fact.
Assume a certainty-patterns of expectation- the problem of induction- no guarantee that patterns will consistently occur.
But we can’t prove a “causal” relationship and our inferences are a result of custom.
What is Kant’s Ontology of the Mind as a nativist?
Phenomenal world-mind always follows certain rules
Phenomena (Human mind’s experience, how we perceive things as existing) and Noumena-(things that DO EXIST things in themselves, physical world watch and phone)
What is Kant’s Epistemology of the Mind?
We can’t observe how our mind causes anything.
We can’t study the mind-sceptical
How does Kant reject “the real world”?
What we perceive as objects are not necessarily their
actual true natures but can be a product of our senses.
Kant is responding to Hume-causality is something we PERCEIVE because our mind is set up to perceive things in that way.
(It’s real but how do you know it’s real….or is it?)
What did Locke say simple and complex ideas?
Simple ideas-Properties of objects that even children can get before they have done any learning
Complex ideas- Conceptual knowledge of things we form. (Things used for a purpose)
How is Kant’s ideas linked to Plato?
Plato’s Cavemen- there in a cave but backs against a wall- only things we see around us and shadows from outside but our perception of shadows is different to each individual. Our perception of the shadow may not be what the shadow is. Our minds are limited to what we perceive.
How is Kant’s ideas linked to Plato?*
Plato’s Cavemen- there in a cave but backs against a wall- only things we see around us and shadows from outside but our perception of shadows is different to each individual. Our perception of the shadow may not be what the shadow is. Our minds are limited to what we perceive.
How did Kant’s Philosophy critique of scientific Psychology?
1) Doesn’t exist in space like the body-difficult to study
2) Can’t time our mind e.g. when they begin and end
3) Can’t observe our mind*
4) Can’t measure our kind
Set up a challenge for later scientists
What was Muller’s challenge from physiology to Kant (counter-argument to Kant)?
Vitalism-all living things have a specific ‘life force’
Nerve energies- Excitation of specific nerves, leads to the same sensation
Abandon this and form mechanistic theory
What is the theory of Mechanistic Physiology?
Electrical impulses in the nervous system. Galvani- frog legs twitch because of electrical current
Helmholtz- timed speed of nerve impulse- camera as a metaphor for mechanics of the eye
Perceptual adaptation-gave ppl glasses that had prisms on the lens and flip image upside down- disorientated but then adapt to it after a while
