Chapter 2: The Origins of Psychological

Thought

A History of Psychology

(3rd Edition)

John G. Benjafield

Origins of Psychological Thought

• Western psychology has its roots among the ancient Greeks

• Psychology is not a purely Western invention

Pythagoras (570–495 BCE)

• Myth and real person

• Pythagorean myth:– He founded a semi-secret society in Italy– Members were supposed to have been able

to attune themselves to the harmony that ordered the universe

Pythagoreans

• Convinced of the virtue of unity – Opposite of unity leads to chaos

• Our experience can only be described in terms of contradictory tendencies

Pythagorean Cosmology

• Similarities to yin/yang philosophy of Chinese Taoism– Universe as a unity that becomes

differentiated into pairs of opposites– Opposites are then reunited to generate the

forms of life we witness

The Pythagorean Opposites

• Believed that some pairs of opposites particularly useful for describing our experience– Most important: limited vs. unlimited– Crucial to the process of creation– Everything we experience has a limit– Union of limited and unlimited produces the

world we experience

The Pythagorean Opposites

• Harmony: result that occurs when the mixture of opposite tendencies is just right

• Union of opposites: the harmonious outcome of the mixing of opposites in the right proportion– The psyche or soul seeks such a harmony

The Pythagorean Opposites

• Good vs. Evil• Light vs. Dark• Odd vs. Even• Unity vs. Disunity• Square vs. Oblong

• Left = positive quality• Right = negative quality

Pythagorean Mathematics

• Numbers underlie all phenomena

• Numbers are responsible for uniting the opposites in a harmonious manner

• A number is the property of everything

Pythagorean Mathematics

• Theorem of Pythagoras: a demonstration of invariant proportions– The square on the hypothenuse of a right-

angled triangle always equals the sum of the squares on the other two sides

The Irrational

• Right-angled triangle: the numbers describing the lengths of the sides were rational

• Other triangles: no rational solution possible

• = Problem of the irrational– Pythagoreans considered the irrational an

unavoidable aspect of reality

The Golden Section

• An attempt to solve the problem of the irrational

• Golden section: an irrational proportion– Obtained by dividing a line into two segments

such that the smaller is to the larger as the larger is to the whole line

– Used frequently by artists in their work– Its value can be approximated using

Fibonacci numbers

Plato (427–347 BCE)

• Philosophy has been the benchmark against which all other subsequent systems of thought have been measured

• Much of Platonic thought was an extension of Pythagorean doctrines/dùal

The Forms

• Plato advanced the notion that there are:– Perfect forms – Imperfect appearances

• Possible outcome of the search for the irrational: – A belief in perfect forms that underlie the

world of appearances

The Meno

• Plato advanced his theories by means of dialogues– Socrates was the protagonist

• The Meno contains famous example of the process of awakening innate knowledge– Innate knowledge: knowledge that is known

without learning

Confucius (551–479 BCE)

• Chinese sage

• Emphasized the importance of developing one’s intelligence through education and by following traditional values

• Emphasized social and moral order

Lao-tzu (6th century BCE)

• As much a mythical figure as Pythagoras

• Is said to have lived a long life– One of the meanings of ‘Lao-tzu’ is ‘old man’

• Sage: a person of profound wisdom

• Taosim: the wisdom of Lao-tzu

What is Tao?

• Tao: – ‘The Way’– The way in which the Universe works– Tao cannot be discovered or named

• Tao Te Ching: the writings attributed to Lao-tzu– Emphasis on the pervasiveness of change

The Book of Changes

• Has an affinity with both Confucian and Taoist ideas

• Superficial level = fortune-telling device• Binary system: yang and yin• Represent the fundamental cosmic forces

– Yang = masculine, firm, light– Yin = feminine, yielding, dark

• Change is cyclical– I Ching uses a circular diagram generated by

combining trigrams which are composed of three lines– Eight unique trigrams= Circumplex: circular model

• Ex. Galen’s typology

Aristotle (384–323 BCE)

• Studied at the Academy in Athens with Plato

• Left Athens after Plato’s death– Tutored Alexander the Great

• Returned to Athens to found his own school, the Lyceum

Aristotle’s Differences with Plato

• Aristotle rejected Plato’s theory of forms– Plato believed there was a world of ideal

forms existing independently of the world of ordinary experience

– Aristotle argued that form and matter were intertwined

• Potentiality: substances have a potential to take on different forms

• Actuality: what a substance actually becomes depends on the form it takes

Aristotle’s Syllogisms

• Syllogism: consists of two premises and a conclusion

• Valid syllogism: the conclusion follows necessarily from the premises

• Practical syllogism: the conclusion drawn from the two premises becomes an action

Aristotle and The Nature of Human Action

• Human behaviour can be regulated by reason

• Human behaviour appears to be purposive

• Action vs. Motion

• Teleological explanation: explanations in terms of goals

Aristotle and Memory

• Memory: the process by which a person revives a previous experience

• Memory is governed by associations– When we try to remember something we follow a

chain of associated ideas until we succeed in recovering what we want to recall

• Laws of Association:– Similarity– Contrast– Continguity

Mnemonics

• Mnemonic techniques: ways of improving one’s memory

• Ad Herennium (1st century BCE)– Describes artifical memory

• Two parts:– Places (loci)– Images

– Training required to develop artifical memory

The Scala Naturae

• Scala naturae = scale of nature

• Hierarchy with humans at the top, followed by animals, and then plants

• Aristotle conceived of this scale as a measure of the degree of perfection of each creature

St Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)

• Catholic theologian

• Demonstrated that much of what Aristotle said was consistent with a Christian world view– Ex. Scala naturae consistent with Catholic

theology (‘great chain of being’)• Creatures are ordered hierarchically, reflecting

God’s purpose• Nothing in the plan occurs by chance• Consistent with what is told in the Bible