Week 3 Flashcards
Two most basic questions to define the discipline of psychology
1 - who are we (what is the mind) ?
2 - how do we know (how do we find truth)?
On the “mind” side a better way to express the question
“What did the historical person see as the appropriate object of study in psychology?”
This is better because some psychologists reject the idea of the “mind” as meaningless
On the how do we knows side, it might be preferred to say
“What methods of investigation did this psychologist believe would produce valid, reliable, and significant insights into their object of study”
This is better because most psychologists don’t worry about the nature of truth. They seek reliable knowledge within the methodological frameworks of the era
Where does psych come from
Greek - psyche. The word for soul
The psyche (or the mind) is subjective, internal, and known only to ourselves
Where does ”ology” come from
Greek - logos that means knowledge, truth, or science
The logos refers to the objective, external methods we use to find truth as a community. The methods need to be visible and collectively verifiable
Define phenomenology
The phenomenological aspect of experience is the world as it appears to us, constructed by the mind. It is the world as we experience it subjectively, but we cannot compare it directly with anyone else’s.
Cardiocentric
The mind is seated in the heart
Encephalocentric
The mind is seated in the brain
Polycentric
Mental functions are distributed across multiple structures and organs
Four periods of Ancient Greece
1- archaic (776-479BCE) from first Olympic Games to end of Persian wars
2- classical (480-336BCE) ends with conquest of Greece by Philip II of Macedon , father of Alexander the Great
3- Hellenistic (335-146BCE) ends with conquest of Greek-influenced regions by Rome
4- Roman (145-27BCE) ends with absorption of Greece into Roman province of Achea.
Archaic Greece saw the rise of
Natural reasoning about the world, not involving magic
Classical and Roman Greece saw
Advances in medicine and philosophy (Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Galen)
The dominant civilization at the time was not the Greek Civilization but
The Persian empire
Reductionism
Effort to explain complex natural phenomena in terms of simple natural elements or unifying logical principles
Who’s referred to as the first philosopher in Ancient Greece
Thales (624 - 546 BCE)
