HNS unit 2

Biological orientation
 Emphasized the internal state and physiology of humans
 The biological orientation separated the uniqueness of human activity from the rest of
natural relationships
1] Alcmaeon [ 5th century B.C.]
Father of greek medicine
Animal dissection - optic nerve and eustachian tube
Importance of the brain
Distinguished between sensory perceiving and thinking
The causal determinants of human activity lie within the mechanisms of the body.
2] Hippocrates [ 460-377 B.C.]
Father of medicine
On Regimen [ Treatise on medicine]

Diseases were caused naturally and not because of superstition and gods [ separation of the
practice of medicine from religion]
Role of the brain in psychological processes
Patient care and prognosis - Development in clinical practice
Code of ethics for medical professionals
Humoural theory - 4 humors - Blood, Yellow bile, Black bile, and phlegm
1. Sanguine - Blood
2. Chloreic - Yellow Bile
3. Melancholic - Black bile
4. Phlegmatic - Phlegm
Perfect health is a result of the proportionate mixture of this humor.
3] Empedocles [ 500-430 B.C.]
All substances are made of four pure, indestructible elements: air, fire, water, earth
Sensations are the product of particles from stimuli falling upon the pores of the sense
organs
1. Vision - the contact of fire with fire in our eyes
2. Touch - Depends on the contact of the earth with the earth
3. Audition - The air in our ear contacts the outer air
4. Taste and smell - contact of water in us and from without us
Change develops from the conflicting forces of love and strife - that is, between attraction
and repulsion.
 THEORY OF EVOLUTION - human activity is intimately bound up in nature using an
evolutionary process wherein change serves to differentiate the aspects of the
universe
For human activity, life’s focus is in the heart - the dynamics of change.

Mathematical Orientation

 Focused on the ordered nature of mathematical structures

 The mathematical orientation attempted to extrapolate from the material level to general
principle for all life
 Pythagoras
 Hippocrates
 Euclid
 1. Pythagoras
-Most famous mathematician of ancient Greece
- Philosophy
- Pythagorean theorems of geometry- The square of the hypotenuse of a right angle
triangle is precisely equal to the sum of the courts of its other two sides – examined
the basis of life
-The Pythagoreans believed that the universe was characterized by mathematical
harmony and that everything in nature was interconnected
- Pythagoras also observed that a harmonious blending of tone results when one
string on a lyre is precisely twice as long as another
- This observation that strings of a lyre must bear certain relationships with one
another to produce pleasant, harmonious sounds was perhaps psychology’s first
psychophysical law
- Indeed, physical events were demonstrated to be systematically related to
psychological events
- Pythagoreans expressed this psychophysical relationship in mathematical terms
- Health = Harmonious blending of bodily elements
- Nothing is perfect in the empirical world
- Perfection is found only in the abstract Mathematical world
- Beyond the senses
- Embraced only by Reason

DUALISTIC NATURE – physical and abstract, the two interacting with each other.

Abstract- better

Dualism in humans- flesh of the body + human reasoning

The first clear-cut mind-body dualisms in the history of western

ECLECTIC ORIENTATION
- Doesn’t hold a single paradigm
- ‘ekelktikos’- choosing the best
- Sophists
- Truth was relative
- Nihilism- there is no truth, only truths
- Mobile university of sorts
- Sophists taught – PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF LIFE
1. Rhetoric – The art of public speaking
2. Dialectic – The art of reasoning [exchange of logical arguments]
3. Politic – The art of government
4. Eristic- The art of making the worse appear to be the better case [debate]

1] Protagoras [481-411]

- sensory information – the pursuit of knowledge

- Extreme Empiricist- “experience.”

- William James [ book- principles of psychology] – “When we go, the ‘world’ goes with us – all
things end their existence

-What is ‘real’ is the product of our personal experience

- Experience is a succession of everlasting transitions- interchanges with our environment

- Perception is an exchange

- Interchange between two realities

- For example – seeing an apple

- “Man is the measure of all things” – truth, goodness, beauty

1. Truth depends on the perceiver

2. Perception varies from person to person
3. Truth is culturally determined
To understand why a person believes as they do, one must understand the person.

SOCRATES, PLATO, ARISTOTLE

SOCRATES – I only know that I know nothing

- Self-examination – “know thyself.”

Virtue truth

- “The life which is unexamined is not worth living” [ Jowett, 1988, page 49]
- LIFE and its explanation
- Sensation and perception
- Acquisition of knowledge is the ultimate good
- Believed that wrongdoing was a result of ignorance
- Nobody truly desires to be evil
- Those who possess knowledge can do no wrong
- Those capable of governing society are those who have knowledge

DIALECTIC METHOD [ SOCRATAIC METHOD]

- A discussion involving opposing views- derived inspiration from views of life

- Begins with commonly held views and opinions
- Questions are then asked to test the logic behind these views
- Contradicting ideas are eliminated until the consistency is reached
- A critical issue at a general level
- Questioned the adequacy of the definition
- Finally, moved logically to a more unambiguous statement of the question
- Inductive method of reasoning
- Ultimate level of discovering the truth
- “Philosopher – kings.”
 - The study of human activity, whether through psychology or Philosophy, focuses
ultimately on –
1. Ethics and Policies
2. Logic
- Knowledge – inherently good – leads to happiness
- Ignorance – evil
- Proper knowledge leads the individual to proper action

ANCIENT GREEK CIVILIZATION

1. The intellectual abilities of unity, autonomy, consistency, and creativity

2. The behavioral manifestations of variability, contingency, and stereotypy
3. The purposeful or determining aspects of human activity

PLATO –
- One of the shapers of the whole intellectual tradition of the west
- Came from an influential family – Athenian Politics
- Disgusted by the violence and corruption of the Athenian political life
- Execution of his teacher – Socrates
- Inspired by Socrates’ inquiries into the nature of ethical standards
- Cure for all the ills of the society- not in politics, but philosophy- Philosopher Kings
- Early 4th century – The Academy in Athens – The prototype of all western universities
- Quantitative research
- Most of Plato’s work is in the book ‘The Republic.’
- The principles of philosophy to political affairs
- A discussion on the nature of justice
- Plato’s vision of an ideal state
- Covers a wide range of topics: Social, Educational, Psychological, moral, and
Philosophical
- The most influential work of philosophy and political theory
- The theory of forms
- The immortality of the soul
- Role of Philosopher – philosopher- kings
- The role of poetry in society
Plato’s Allegory of the cave

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

Purpose of the allegory of the cave :

- The world of sights and sounds is mistaken for the real world of forms
- The world of sense experience is as unreliable a sign of truth as would be the
shadows thrown on the wall of a cave
- The ignorance of humanity trapped in the conventional ethics formed by the society

What are shadows?

- Relationships
- Beliefs
- Education
- Authority figures

The Theory of forms

- According to his theory of forms, everything in the empirical world is a manifestation
of a pure form [idea] that exists in the abstract

- The physical world surrounds us – a world of change and uncertainty

- The physical world is not as natural accuraterue as the unchangeable ideas

 - The intelligible world is made up of the unchanging products of human reason;
anything arising from reason alone is the world of reality

- The intelligible world contains the external “forms” of things

- Plato’s theory of ideas or forms held that the realm of immaterial, self-existent, and
external entities comprise the perfect prototypes for all earthly, imperfect objects

- The earthly objects are imperfect reflections of the perfect ideas or forms

- Example – the “form” or idea of dinosaur is intelligible, abstract, and applies to all
dinosaurs

THE FORMS
- Eternal

- Transcend – do not exist in our time and space

- Unchanging

- Perfect

- Pure

Two Sources of Knowledge:

- Opinion
- Knowledge – unchanging, absolute, and eternal
- Exists in ‘forms,’ ‘ideas’

Knowledge

Intelligence or dialectic

Mathematical reasoning

Opinion Belief

Illusion
The Nature of the soul

- Stores and forms ideas is the soul

- Spiritual substance
- two2 components of the soul – 1. Reason 2.appetite
- The rational and irrational parts, the former center in the head and the latter in the
body
- The soul is the mobilizing force in people, having the things, having the properties of
vitality, immortality, and spirituality

Reminiscence theory of Knowledge

- All knowledge is innate and can be attained only through introspection, which is
searching for one’s inner understanding
- Therefore, for Plato, all knowledge comes from reminiscence, from remembering
the experiences the soul had before entering the body
- Plato believed that the soul existed before the body and that it brings knowledge
with it from previous incarnations so that innate ideas of the mind are residual
knowledge from the previous lives of individuals.

Mind-body dualism

- Mind/soul – formation of ideas in the intellect, leading to rational thought. Provides

order, symmetry, and beauty in life
- Body – ideas do not rely on the physical level
- THE SUPREME GOAL IN LIFE, ACCORDING TO PLATO, SHOULD BE TO FREE THE SOUL
AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE FROM THE ADULTERATIONS OF THE FLESH.

- For Plato, essences [truths that go beyond the mere appearance of things]
corresponded to the forms that existed independently of nature, and that could be
arrived at only by ignoring sensory experience and turning one’s thoughts inward

ARISTOTLE
- Aristotle brought to the study of Plato’s teachings a recognition of the diversity and
the dynamics of nature
- Aristotle tried to understand the relationship between the abstract idea, or form,
and the world of matter
- Essences existed but could best become known by studying nature
- Hippocratic tradition – biological
 - Context is important
- Qualitative research

Aristotle’s Methodological approach –

- In his discourses on logic

- His reasoning is called Syllogism- Syllogisms are a logical argument of statements
using deductive reasoning to arrive at a conclusion
- three3 parts of syllogism: the central premise, minor premise, and conclusion

Levels of thinking

- Active reason: The abstraction of principles or essence from synthesized experience

- Passive reason: Utilization of synthesized experience
- Common sense: Synthesized experience
- Sensory information: Isolated experience

Metaphysics

- ‘After the physics.’

- Study of the most general aspects of reality, such as substance, identity, the nature
of the mind, and free will
- Metaphysics may be divided into
1. The study of the origins and development of the world [ cosmology]
2. The study of being [ ontology]
3. The study of knowing [ epistemology]

Types of Causality

- Material Cause: It is the kind of matter in which a thing is made

- Formal cause: a particular form or pattern of a thing
- Efficient Cause: the form that transforms that material thing into a certain form
- Final Cause: The purpose for which a thing exists
- Eg: A statue

De Anima

- Treatise on the soul

- Major pronouncements of his psychology
- Dualism of mind and soul
- Body- receives information – primitive sensory level – touch, smell, taste, hearing,
and vision
- The Soul – is the life-giving element of all life-giving existence

Hierarchy of Souls

- A soul is that which gives life HUMANS

Ani
 - He stated that the emotions of anger, courage, and desire, as well as the sensations,
are functions of the soul, but they can act only through the body

Properties of Physical events ten categories

The rational powers of the soul to classify our knowledge of ourselves and the
environment
- Substance
- Quantity
- Quality
- Relation
- Activity
- Passivity
- When
- Where
- Position
- Dress

Conclusion

- The philosophy of ancient Greece leaves us with a rich myriad of views on the nature
of life
- The classical Greek scholars successfully recognized the critical issues of psychology,
and these scholars, especially Aristotle, tried to devise a systematic approach to
investigate the issues
ROMAN PHILOSOPHY
Stoicism
Epicureanism
Neo-Platonism

- Soon after Aristotle’s death, Romans invaded Greek territory

- Personal trouble, complex, …
- Abstract philosophies no longer provided comfort
- A philosophy that addressed the problems of everyday life
- The directions of major questions shifted
- What is the nature of a good life
- How to live the best life

STOICISM

- The art of controlling emotions and pursuing happiness

- The stoic period of Rome was characterized by a system of beliefs contained in the
religion of ancient Rome which greatly affected the moral and social values of the
Romans
- The stoics derived their views from the Greek philosopher Zeno
- Believed in fate, whatever happens, happens for a reason

ZENO

- The father of stoicism

- Zeno believed that by changing the manner in which people thought about life
events, they could detach from negative and harmful emotions, reducing suffering
towards improving life
- believeded that the world was ruled by a divine plan and that everything in nature,
including humans, was there for a reason
- Divine plan theory – The belief that whatever happens, happens for a reason, there
are no accidents, and all must simply be accepted as a part of the divine plan
- The universe determines life
- The stoics shifted the emphasis from inner determinism to universal determinism
governed by the forces of fate
- Humans- part of the environmental order
- Human freedom – The capability of cooperating with the causality of the universe
- Freedom – The key to stoic life
- Fate – Good life is accepting fate with indifference
- Stoicism takes a hard look at destructive emotions
- Emphasis on the importance of detaching from one’s emotions to live a life of virtue
and to develop one’s self as a moral being
 - Self-control and fortitude
- Viewed individual as a reactive, not an active, organism
- The stoic solution left the person as a part of the environment and subject to the
governing pressures of environmental determinants

EPICUREANISM [ 50 B.C. – A.D. 100]

- The end or goal of life is happiness

- Greek philosopher Epicurus [ 342 – 270 B.C.]
- Democritus’ atomism
- The soul is a material part of the body
- Soul has two functions –
1. Knowledgeable function of sensation and anticipation
2. Activity function of passion
- Thought process – Atoms of the environment  -> Atoms of the soul
- Epicurus – no afterlife – because the soul was made up of freely moving atoms that
scattered upon death
- The guiding determination of human activity is the seeking of pleasure and
avoidance of pain [hedonism]

Neo-Platonism

- Followers of Plato’s philosophy

- Neoplatonism, however, stressed the most mystical aspects of Plato’s philosophy
over its rational aspects
- Neoplatonism combined platonic philosophy with Judaism
 Plotinus
- Arranged all things into a hierarchy
- I) one – God
- II) Spirit – Image of the God
- III) Soul – The cause of all things that existed in the physical world was nature
- When the soul entered something material, like a body, it attempted to create a
copy of the spirit, which was a copy of the One, Because the One was reflected in
spirit, the spirit was reflected in the Soul, and the soul created the physical world,
the unknowable one was very much a part of nature.
- Sensory experience
- Plotinus believed that the sensible world was beautiful
- It is not that the sensible world is evil; it is simply less perfect than the spiritual
world
- However, he concluded that the physical world was an inferior copy of the divine
realm
- Human beings aspire to learn about the world beyond the physical world
- Eternal, immutable, and in a state of bliss
 Philo
- Biblical account of the creation of men
- All knowledge comes from god
- To receive god’s wisdom, the soul must be purified
- Mind must be free from all sensory distractions
- For Philo, knowledge came from a direct personal relationship with god
EMPHASIS ON SPIRIT

- The collapse of the roman empire brought several influences to bear on Roman
Culture
- Vedantism – perfection could be approximated by entering into semi-ecstatic
trances
- Zoroastrianism – individuals are caught in an eternal struggle between wisdom and
correctness on one hand and ignorance and evil on the other
- Ancient mystery religions- Three examples are the cults of Magna Mater [great
mother], Isis, and Mithras [Angus, 1975]
- Many things in common – ceremonies, rites, emphasis on birth and rebirth, rituals
providing purification and forgiveness of sins
- Mystery religions had few things in common with early Christianity
- Judaism
- Christianity

CHRISTIANITY

- The Early leaders

- The church fathers
- Church defenders
- St. Augustine

- Jesus Christ
- Christianity- Plato’s philosophy
- Judea- Christian tradition with Platonism or Neoplatonism
- A significant shift in emphasis- from the rational [Ancient Greece] to the spiritual
[Judeo-Christian Tradition]

The Dark Ages

- The Eastern empire

- The Islamic Civilization
- The Feudal west

The Islamic Civilisation

- The birth of Mohammed in the poor desert region of Arabia marked one of the
most extraordinary phenomena of the medieval period
- Within a century, Mohammed’s followers had conquered most of the byzantine
territories in Asia, all of Persia, Egypt, and North Africa and were preparing to invade
Spain
- In 610, Mohammed experienced his first vision of the angel Gabriel, who informed
him that he had been chosen as a messenger of god, or Allah, and began to reveal
the sacred writings that eventually formed the holy book of Islam, The Koran
 - Mohammed gathered avid followers among the nomadic tribes of Arabia, and he
soon conquered the holy cities of Mecca and Medina
- By the time of his death, Mohammed had established the essential doctrines of
Islam, and his successors extended the theocratic state to an ever-expanding empire
- Muslim invaders – Byzantine Empire [ Istanbul] – Cultural heritage of Greek
scholarship

Abbasid Caliphs [Abbasis dynasty]

- Classical Greek scholars – Translated into Syrian

- Arithmetic and Algebra – Studied mathematical treatises of the Greeks

Avicanna [ 980- 1037]

- Abu Ibn Sina – known as Avicenna

- Was a renowned physician who published a synopsis of medical treatments in his
canon of medicine
- Scholasticism – Influenced by Aristotle – Metaphysics and Psychology

The Crusades

- series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims

- Organised by Popes and Christian
- Purpose – To secure Jerusalem and the Holy Lands from Muslim control.
- 8 crusades / military campaigns from 1095 to 1291
- Represented the zenith power of
- Christianity
- Although unsuccessful in the long run, the crusades reflected a fervent expression
for Christianity
- However, on another level, the crusades may be viewed as the beginning of the
reawakening of western Europe

Consequences

- Brought contact and commerce with other civilizations

- The crusades produced the stimulation from the intellectual life of Islam – Islamic
activities had preserved the Greek masters
- The crusades began to shake Europe out of its Feudal Provincialism
- The political life of Europe and the rise of national states were facilitated by the
crusades
- In the longer term, there was development of the military orders in Europe
- Europeans developed a greater sense of their mutual common identity and culture
- Literature and art perpetuated crusading legends on both sides – Christian and
Muslims
- The crusades served as a catalyst to move western Europe out of Feudalism and
intellectual lethargy
Crusades and Psychology

- With the Fall of Roman empire, scholarly pursuit [including Psychology] was halted
and regressed
- Feudal society – mixed religion with Psychology and Science. Psychology was
reduced to practice of Christianity
- 2 levels
1. Psychology became a part of the moral doctrines
2. Mental illness – Demonic possession