Philosophical Issues: More Background

• A good starting point for our discussion of relevant, overriding philosophical issues is to define EPISTEMOLOGY.

• -- The branch of philosophy which deals with theories of knowledge or ways of explaining how we understand concepts about nature and human behavior.

• The work of Jean Piaget.

A Priori vs. PosterioriKnowledge

• A Priori knowledge is derived from what is prior or comes before.

• This type of knowledge does not come from experience; we are born with it.

• Like lower animal, humans also posses an array of instincts which help us survive and even thrive as we learn to interact with our world.

• Some argue that our understanding of good and evil constitutes a priori knowledge.

Posteriori Knowledge

• By contrast, Posteriori Knowledge is derived from what comes later via experience with our world.

• In other words, this is knowledge acquired through experiential learning.

• To be sure, this is a contention which enjoys enormous support among psychologists.

Other Opposing Concepts

• Nativism versus Empiricism

• Instinct versus Learning

Is Truth Knowable?• How can we be sure a given theory or

explanation is true?• Authority – it’s true because an

authoritative source or person says so.

• Empiricism – the use of observable facts to confirm or deny truth. Seeing is believing!

• Rationalism – we posses, a priori, the organizing mental capabilities to know truth. We are born with the capacity to reason and this is how we can come to know truth.

How we Know truth…

• Aestheticism – beauty always accompanies truth. Truth is aesthetically pleasing.

• Pragmatism – we can only know truths which can be subject to test.

• Skepticism – we start by questioning any proposed truth and never let go of our doubts completely.

Mixing Science and Epistemology

• Ostensibly science combines rational, empirical, pragmatic, and aesthetic dimension of Epistemology.

• Despite debates dating back to ancient Greek philosophers, we have entered the 21st century not having resolved many long-standing controversies regarding proper philosophy of science and research methodology.

Attributing Cause

Causality remains a central questionfor psychologists.

Aristotle proposed four levels of causation:1. Material Cause2. Efficient Cause3. Formal Cause4. Final Cause

Four Levels of Causation

• The Material Cause of an event is the physical substrate through which the objects affect each other. The physical substrate must be appropriate for the action to take place.

• The Efficient Cause is that which immediately sets an object in motion.

• The Formal Cause is the shape of the objects in the action. The functional or causal properties of an object depend on its shape.

• The Final Cause is the end or purpose for which an event occurred.

Final Cause and Teleology

• Teleology refers to purpose or design and is an integral component of Final Cause.

• Intrinsic teleology suggests that design, order, and purpose are imminent in nature, while

• Extrinsic teleology is the belief that any design in nature reflects an external designer.

Cause and Psychology

• David Hume suggests that cause does not exist in the world and that the word “cause” is only descriptive of the behavior of two objects interacting with one another.

• Cause provides additional difficulties; causation is complex, and it may not be possible to cleanly derive a single cause for an event.

Free Will and Determinism• The debate surrounding free will and

determinism is one of the oldest in psychology, and there are several influential psychologists on each side.

• Free will is the doctrine that human beings make choices that are, to some degree, independent of the antecedent conditions. Even though there exist several physical, genetic, biological, psychological, and cultural limits to human behavior, we may be able to transcend these influences via free will.

Free Will and Determinism

• Proponents of free will provide several arguments for their position.

• Free will is necessary to adequately explain human experience.

• Saying “I believe in determinism” implies a logical contradiction.

• Determinism makes a mess of morality by eliminating responsibility.

• True randomness or indeterminism may exist.

Psychological Determinism

• Psychological determinism states that there are causes, both known and unknown, for every behavior or experience. Determinists argue their case in numerous ways.

• Historically, deterministic accounts are gaining ground and are explaining areas of psychology once believed to be driven by free will.

Psychological Determinism

• Free will makes a mess of morality because a belief in free will can justify excessive punishment of someone who has misused his or her free will.

• Determinists argue that our world is predictable in part because causes provide us with reasonable expectancies as to possible outcomes.

Mind vs. Body

• The mind-body problem is related to the branch of philosophy called ontology, the study of the nature and relations of being and existence. What is the relationship between the subjective mind and the physical brain?

• Possible relationships:• monisms,• dualisms, or• pluralisms

Mind vs. Body

• Monistic positions maintain that everything is related to everything else in an intimate way as one fundamental substance or unit.

• Materialism is the belief that mind and brain are one thing, and that is matter.

• Idealism suggests that mind and the mental world are fundamental and that matter is not verifiable outside of experience.

Mind vs. Body

• Double-aspect monism maintains that the different languages humans use for mental states and brain states are only different languages and not references to different sides of the same coin.

• Epiphenomenalism suggests that mental states exist but that mental states are only the overflow or byproduct of brain activity.

• Dualism asserts that the mental and the physical are two qualitatively different orders of reality.

Mind vs. Body

• Interactionism is the common sense position that the mind and the body are fundamentally different but interact with each other. Interactionists have had difficulty specifying the mode of interaction.

• Psychophysical parallelism solves the problem faced by the interactionists by eliminating the interaction. Mind and body coexist in a beautiful preestablished harmony as two clocks, independent of each other yet perfectly synchronized.

Psychogeny• Psychogeny is the study of the origin of

consciousness or experience (mind or psyche).

• There are two primary theories of psychogeny:

• Identity theory maintains that psyche is instilled into the biology of the organism at one point in time and that the psyche instilled at that point remains identical throughout the lifespan.

Psychogeny

• Problems with Identity Theory:• (1) Although most contemporary identity

theorists accept conception as the time of infusion, the time of the arrival of the psyche is a matter of historical debate.

• (2) After fertilization, a blastocyst can divide into two bodies and presumably two psyches. When did the second psyche arrive? How many were present at conception?

• (3) How is a conscious adult identical to a fertilized egg?

Psychogeny

• The other theory, psychogenic emergentism, suggests that the psyche develops as the body or the neurological substrate develops.

• Psyche can grow and decline with age.• Emergentists do not agree on a time at which

psyche emerges.• Humans feel like we are the same people we

were at age 5; have we changed as much as emergentists suggest that we change?

• How do we value individuals who are developing psyche at an atypical rate or who are declining with age?

The Greek Philosophers

• The Greek philosophers, primarily Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, are commonly considered the intellectual foundation of Western Civilization (450-300 b.c.)

• Originators of many “ideas”, including medicine, history, geometry, astronomy, democracy, the “modern military”, the scientific method, logic, and philosophy.

Before Socrates

According to Early Greeks, the ultimate cause of everything was to be found somewhere in nature.

Thales – proposed the idea that all things are made from basic elemental, physical substances, e.g., water.

Heraclitus – proposed idea that everything is changing, thus perception can be deceiving. (the basic problem with empirical knowledge)

.

Before SocratesPythagoras – the ultimate explanations were

to be found in numbers

Pythagoras was the first scientist to suggest that the world was a sphere, not flat.

Democritus – all explanations were to be found in nature.Contended nature was made up of tiny particles (atoms) constantly in motion.Provided the first recorded explanation of sensation --- immediate particles contact

Before Socrates (2)• Hippocrates – “father of medicine” proposed

natural causes of mental and physical disorders, such as heredity, organ damage, and imbalance of fluids. (namesake of “Hippocratic Oath”)

Borrowed four basic elements from Empedoclesearth, air, fire, and water

Proposed a theory of humors within the body to account for four basic human temperaments:

Before Socrates (3)

Blood = sanguine (cheerful) temperament

Yellow bile = choleric (fiery) temperament

Phlegm = phlegmatic (slow) Temperament

Black bile = melancholic (sad) temperament

According to Hippocrates, psychological problems are caused by humors that are out of balance

FIVE FACTOR THEORY OF PERSONALITY“The Big Five”

• Neuroticism (N3)

Depression: a tendency to experience dysphoric effect (sadness, helplessness & guilt).

• Extraversion (E2)

Gregariousness: a preference for companionship and social stimulation.

FIVE FACTOR THEORY OF PERSONALITY“The Big Five”

• Openness to Experience (O4)

Action: a need for variety, novelty & change.

• Agreeableness (A4)

Compliance: a willingness to defer to others during interpersonal conflict.

FIVE FACTOR THEORY OF PERSONALITY“The Big Five”

• Conscientiousness (C4)

Achievement striving: a strong sense of purpose and high aspiration levels.

“Western Civilization”• Socrates taught Plato. Plato taught

Aristotle. Aristotle taught Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great builds Greek Empire by the age of thirty. This is the origins of modern philosophy, modern science, and the modern military, all in the years 400-300 b.c.

“Western Civilization”

• Greek Empire (300-100 BC) is the foundation of Roman Empire (100 BC to 400 AD). The revival of Greek knowledge is also the root of the Renaissance (1450-1600 AD), which ends the “Dark Ages” and “Middle Ages” (400-1450 AD).