Rationalism in Psychology (PDF)

Rationalism PSYCH 303: History of Ideas in Psychology Topic 6 Rationalism Empiricists describe a passive mind which acts in mechanical way Rationalists proposed an active mind that acts on information from the senses and gives it meaning Empiricists pro...

Rationalism PSYCH 303: History of Ideas in Psychology Topic 6 Rationalism Empiricists describe a passive mind which acts in mechanical way Rationalists proposed an active mind that acts on information from the senses and gives it meaning Empiricists proposed that experience, memory, associations, and hedonism determine not only how a person thinks and acts but also his or her morality. For rationalists, there are rational reasons some acts or thoughts are more desirable than others. Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) Pantheism Mind-Body Relationship Proposed that God, nature, and mind were aspects of the same substance God, nature, and mind were inseparable. Pantheism God was nature To understand nature is to understand God. God is present everywhere and in everything. Double Aspectism The mind-body issue was dealt with by assuming that the mind and body were two aspects of the same thing Denial of Free Will We really do not have free will. Nature (God) is lawful. Humans are part of nature Thus thoughts and behavior are lawful—determined. Our “freedom” is realizing that everything that is must necessarily be and everything that happens must necessarily happen—because everything results from God. Motivation and Emotion Pleasure comes from entertaining clear ideas, which are conducive to the mind’s survival When the mind entertains unclear ideas, it feels weak and vulnerable. Emotions and Passions Passion is a general upheaval not associated with a particular thought. – Emotion is linked to a particular thought. Emotions derived from pleasure and pain Spinoza’s Influence Spinoza & Emotions (Exercise) https://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/spinozasemotions.html Consider the following list of emotions that Spinoza identified. Is there anything you would add? Does this exhaust your experience or does a list like this (or any attempt to categorize emotions) overlook something? Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646- 1716)  Disagreement with Locke Disagreed with Locke, believing ideas do not come from experience. Ideas are nonmaterial and cannot be caused by material activity such as sense activity. Ideas must be innate—which means the potential for an idea. Monadology The universe consisted of an infinite number of life units called monads. A monad is like a living atom; all monads are active and conscious. Monads differ in clarity of consciousness in a hierarchy In general the hierarchy goes from God, the highest, to humans, then to animals, followed by animals, plants, and nonliving matter. Review: Nicolas Malebranche & Occasionalism Malebranche (1638-1715) was a French priest and rationalist philosopher and theologian. Accepted Descartes’ interactionism. Refined this view via Occasionalism. Occasionalism: God is the only causal agent in the universe. All entities provide occasions for divine interaction. The mind and body are separate, but our mental desires act as the ‘occasion’ for God’s intervention. Mind-Body Relationship Mind-body issue Leibniz proposed a psychophysical parallelism with a preestablished harmony. Monads never influence each other; it only seems that they do. The mind and body appear to influence each other, but they do not interact in parallel. They work in harmony because God planned it that way. Conscious and Unconscious Perception There are perceptions which are conscious and those which are below consciousness (petites perceptions). – As petites perceptions accumulate, their force causes apperception. Law of Continuity All differences in nature are characterized by small gradations. Limen Threshold Leibniz’s Legacy Christian von Wolff (1679- 1754) Thomas Reid (1710- 1796) Common Sense Common Sense Psychology Because all humans are convinced of the existence of physical reality, it must exist. We can trust our impressions of the physical world because it makes common sense to do so. Direct Realism Direct Realism Sensations are an accurate reflection of reality immediately, not after the mind has operated on them. Faculty Psychology Reasoning powers of the mind include several faculties. More than a classification (as other faculty psychologists). Mental faculties were active powers of the mind They actually existed and influenced people’s thoughts and behavior. Exercise: Enlightenment Perspectives What position would rationalists and empiricists take concerning the following issues? Mind-Body Relationship Human Nature Objective/Subjective Reality Determinism vs. Free Will Nature vs. Nurture Where does knowledge come from? Relationship between humans and nonhuman animals. Immanuel Kant (1724- 1804) Background for Kant’s Project Critique of Pure Reason Kant’s magnum opus (and the bane of undergraduate philosophy students everywhere) is his Critique of Pure Reason, a work that took him a few months to write, but 12 years plus to fully work out. Much of it was summarized in the Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics, a much easier work to understand. His dense, convoluted prose is horrible to read. I have heard that some German students sometimes find it easier to read in English instead of in the original German because the translator is forced to make the effort to clean it up a little. A priori knowledge = Analytic judgements In the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant tried to extend the idea (rejected by Hume) of a priori knowledge (or knowledge achieved without sensory input). This was in part the goal in order to address Hume’s skeptical ideas around causation. Kant argued that the very ingredients necessary for even thinking in terms of a causal relationship could not be derived from experience and therefore must exist a priori, or before experience. A priori Since Aristotle’s time, it had been assumed that all a priori knowledge (if any) had to be knowledge = analytic: that is, it had to be true by definition (or tautologically true). Analytic Analytic knowledge is universally and necessarily true. judgements E.g. ‘No bachelor is married.’ This seems like a reasonable assumption: If a piece of analytic knowledge was not true by definition, then it would mean that we needed ‘built in’ knowledge about how things are structured. There seemed to be no way for such knowledge to get built-in. A priori knowledge = Most assumed that mathematical Analytic knowledge is analytic in this way. Kant argued that it (among other Knowledge forms of knowledge) was actually the opposite of analytic = synthetic (e.g. it synthesized elements that were not tautologically related). Synthetic a priori knowledge Kant thereby proposed a new (previously contradictory) category of knowledge: synthetic a priori knowledge. These are truths that are not logically required to be true (so not analytic, therefore synthetic) but that are eternally true and do not require any experience to verify (so a priori). The Critique of Pure Reason is an attempt to answer the question of how such judgements are possible.  Kant uses the existence of synthetic a Synthetic a priori knowledge to justify the claim that the mind does not conform to its priori contents. knowledge Instead, the contents of consciousness conform to the structure and workings of the mind. In other words, the mind has priority over reality; it is the mind’s categories that determine our experience. Categories of Thought Categories of thought: unity, totality, time, space, cause and effect, reality, quantity, quality, negation, possibility–impossibility, and existence–nonexistence. Kant pushed the idea that the mind categorized its input based on its own organization. Causes of Mental Experience Our mental experience Always structured by the categories of thought. Our phenomenological experience (mental experience) is an interaction of sensations and the categories of thought. Can never know the true physical reality just appearances (phenomena) that are controlled by the categories of thought. Perception of Time The mind adds the concept of time and space to sensory information. They are both provided by an a priori category of thought. Perception of Space The mind adds the concept of time and space to sensory information. They are both provided by an a priori category of thought. The Categorical Imperative Categorical Imperative The rational principle which governs or should govern moral behavior Similar to older moral precepts such as the “golden rule.” The Categorical Imperative as Great Wisdom “Now this is the command: Do to the doer to cause that he do thus to you.” (Ancient Egyptian story, c. 2000 BCE) "Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing.” (Thales, 624-546 BCE) “by self-control and by making dharma (right conduct) your main focus, treat others as you treat yourself.” (Indian Mahābhārata, c. 400 BCE) “Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.” (Confucius, Analects, c. 300 BCE) “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” (Buddhist Udanavarga, c. 150 CE)  Kant did not believe that psychology could be a science. Kant and 1) The mind could never be objectively studied because it is not a physical thing. Psychology 2) The mind cannot be studied via introspection because it does not make itself amenable to analysis. Kant’s Influence Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) The Absolute The Absolute Universe is interrelated unity True knowledge is attained by relating isolated instances to the “whole.” Dialectic Process Our understanding progresses toward the absolute by the dialectic process, First have a thesis (a point of view) and an antithesis (opposite point of view), Then have a synthesis (a compromise between the thesis and the antithesis), which is a new point of view. This new point of view now becomes the thesis for the next dialectic process. Hegel’s Influence Hegel proposed the concept of alienation (self-estrangement) Later used in theories of Eric Fromm, Carl Rogers, and the existentialists. Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841) Psychology as a Science Did not believe psychology could be an experimental science Believed that experimentation necessarily divided up its subject matter The mind acts as an integrated whole therefore it could not be fractionated. Psychic Mechanics Psychic Mechanics Ideas had a force or energy of their own and the laws of association were not necessarily to bind them. Ideas have the power to attract or repel other ideas, depending on their compatibility. Ideas attempt to gain expression in consciousness and compete with each other to do so. The Appreceptive Mass Apperceptive Mass – The group of compatible ideas that are in consciousness to which we are attending at given moment. The Apperceptive Mass Ideas outside the apperceptive mass (incompatible ideas) will be repressed by the powers of the ideas in the mass. Limen – The threshold between conscious and unconscious Goal was to mathematically express the relationships among the apperceptive mass, the limen, and the conflict among ideas Emotion Herbart also believed that ideas ‘resisted’ repression, and that this repression was experienced emotionally Having unconscious ideas was emotionally unpleasant Having conscious (therefore consistent) ideas was pleasant Educational Psychology Applied his ideas to educational psychology by offering suggestions on how to teach effectively: Review material already learned Prepare students for new material by giving overview of upcoming material Present new material Relate new material to what has already been learned Show applications of new material Give an overview of next material to be learned Herbart’s Legacy Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814) Fichte distinguished between the “realists” and the “idealists” Set the stage for Romanticism. Friedrich Eduard Beneke (1798- 1854)  Friedrich von Schelling (1775- 1854) Rudolf Hermann Lotze (1817- 1881) Discussion: Psychology as a Science Both Kant and Herbart argued that psychology could not be an experimental science. Do you agree or disagree with their perspectives? Questions?  What was Spinoza’s conception of nature? What was his position on the mind–body relationship? How did Spinoza distinguish between emotions and passions? Leibniz disagreed with Locke’s contention that all ideas are derived from experience. How did Leibniz explain the origin of ideas? Questions Summarize Reid’s philosophy of common sense. Include in your answer a definition of direct realism. to Consider What did Kant mean by an a priori category of thought? According to Kant, how do such categories influence what we experience consciously? Briefly summarize Kant’s explanation of the experiences of causality, time, and space. Discuss Hegel’s notion of the Absolute. Describe the dialectic process by which Hegel felt the Absolute was approximated. Discuss Herbart’s notion of the apperceptive mass. For example, how does the apperceptive mass determine which ideas are experienced consciously and which are not? Include in your answer the concept of the limen, or threshold. Readings for Next Class Optional: Henley- Nietzsche- The Chapter 7 Birth of Tragedy