Philosophers in Psychology

Philosophers and Their Definitions

Alexander Bain (1818-1903)

• Attempted to relate physiological facts to psychological phenomena
• Explained voluntary behavior similar to modern learning theorists' explanation of trial-and-error behavior

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)

• Believed that seeking pleasure and avoiding pain governed most human behavior
• Advocated for the greatest good for the greatest number of people

George Berkeley (1685-1753)

• Believed that the only thing we experience directly is our own perceptions or secondary qualities
• Explained the perception of distance by associating sensations caused by eye convergence and divergence with different distances

Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

• Founder of positivism and coined the term sociology
• Believed that cultures passed through three stages: theological, metaphysical, and scientific

Étienne Bonnot de Condillac (1714-1780)

• Believed that all human mental attributes could be explained using only the concept of sensation
• Denied the existence of an autonomous mind

David Hartley (1705-1757)

• Combined empiricism, associationism, and rudimentary physiological notions

Claude-Adrien Helvétius (1715-1771)

• Elaborated the implications of empiricism and sensationalism for education
• Believed that a person's intellectual development is determined by controlling their experiences

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

• Believed that the primary motive in human behavior is seeking pleasure and avoiding pain
• Thought that the function of government is to satisfy human needs and prevent fighting

David Hume (1711-1776)

• Agreed with Berkeley that we can only experience our own subjective reality
• Disagreed with Berkeley's contention that our perceptions accurately reflect the physical world because God would not deceive us

John Locke (1632-1704)

• An empiricist who denied the existence of innate ideas
• Assumed many nativistically determined powers of the mind

Ernst Mach (1838-1916)

• Proposed a brand of positivism based on phenomenological experiences of scientists
• Believed that scientists should precisely describe relationships among mental phenomena without metaphysical speculation

James Mill (1773-1836) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

• James Mill: believed that all mental events consisted of sensations and ideas held together by association
• John Stuart Mill: disagreed with his father, proposing a process of mental chemistry where complex ideas could be distinctly different from simple ideas

Vocabulary Words and Their Definitions

Associationism

• The belief that laws of association provide the fundamental principles by which all mental phenomena can be explained

Complex Ideas

• Configurations of simple ideas

Empiricism

• The belief that all knowledge is derived from experience, especially sensory experience

Imagination

• According to Hume, the power of the mind to arrange and rearrange ideas into countless configurations

Impressions

• According to Hume, relatively strong mental experiences caused by sensory stimulation