La Mettrie, Julien (de) (1709-1751)

Born on December 25, La Mettrie was encouraged to become a priest but turned to medicine instead. Quick-witted and quick-tempered, La Mettrie wrote pointed and often satirical articles on medicine and its practice. During the war between France and Austria (1742), La Mettrie caught a high fever. During his recovery, he considered the relationship between the mind and body, and concluded that they are more fully intertwined that Descartes had proposed. Indeed, La Mettrie’s solution was to disavow any spiritual aspect of the mind. Like Hobbes, La Mettrie was a physical monist: all that exists is matter. Matter could be rearranged, which explained humans as being more complex animals, but there is no qualitative difference between them.

 

Lashley, Karl (1890-1958)

A student of Watson at Johns Hopkins, Karl Lashley more physiologist than psychologist. Best known for his doctrine of “mass action,” Lashley showed that the “brain fields” proposed by Gestalt psychology did not exist. Kohler had held that the brain functions by electrical fields; Lashley short-circuited the “field” by putting silver foil on the cortex and yet the behavior still occurred.

In another animal study, Lashley showed that when brain portions are damaged (i.e., surgically removed), rats don’t lose the ability to make light-dark discriminations. Although limited in scope, other parts of the brain take over functions when the brain is incapacitated. Similarly, when cats and monkeys were taught to escape, and portions of the cortex are removed (“extirpation”), the animals could not initially perform the task but were able to relearn it. Technically called “equipotentiality,” Lashley maintained that each part of the brain was equally important.

 

Leibniz, Gottfried (1646-1716)

A proponent of parallelism (the mind and body are separate and independent), Leibnitz is best known as a mathematician. Born in Leipzig, Germany, Leibnitz misunderstood or mistranslated Loche’s philosophy; consequently his views, partly in reaction to what he thought Loche said, emphasize an active mind. In philosophy, Leibnitz is credited for introducing the idea of the unconscious mind and for proposing atom-like entities he called monads. Using the latest technological advances of his day (the microscope), Leibnitz concluded that life was present in everything. This observation didn’t coincide with Leibnitz view of God, so he proposed an elaborate theory which reconciled his two beliefs. According to Leibnitz, the universe was established by God with a preset harmony. This harmony is composed of indestructible points of life force. Each point of force (monad) is self-contained, living and conscious. Monads, however, vary in intelligence and consciousness. Like atoms, there is an infinite supply; unlike atoms, monads are alive. Indeed, everything is alive, even inanimate objects. There is variety in size, style and number but everything is composed of monads. According to Leibnitz, humans are made up of the most intelligent monads, most of which are highly conscious. Less conscious monads produce “petite perceptions” (less conscious states). Although monads helped explain some phenomena, Liebnitz believed that the mind and body were parallel, independent systems. For him, the brain (composed of physiological material) could produce anything immaterial (such as ideas), so they must be correlated but separate.

Lewin, Kurt (1890-1947)

Like Koffka, Kurt Lewin studied with Stumpf. Although part of the general Gestalt movement, Lewin is best known for his field theory. Using geometry’s terms and Gestalt ideas, he held that people live in a psychological life space.

At the center of this field in the individual, who is surrounded by concentric circles of influence. The inner field is inner-personal, and the outer part is perceptual-motor. Behavior is a function of one’s life space (how you perceive the world).

According to Lewin, life space can be subdivided into regions. The boundaries between these regions can vary in firmness-weakness and nearness-remoteness. The topology of the fields is different for each individual but vectors of psychic force can describe an individual’s wants and fears.

For Lewin, there are levels of reality. Each person seeks to resolve the disequilibrium (tension) between their inner self and the outside environment. It is possible to move from region to region (locomotion) along pathways in those regions (hodos). But when a goal is obstructed (a barrier), positive valences grow stronger (we want what we can’t have).

Needs give rise to tension which are a particular valence (positive or negative attraction). When two positive valences are present, the person experiences an approach-approach conflict (i.e., must choose between two equally attractive alternatives). When the valences are negative, the result is an avoidance-avoidance conflict (i.e., two equally unattractive alternatives. Naturally, the most difficult conflict is when we want and don’t the same thing (an approach-avoidance conflict).

 

Little Albert Experiment 

In their 1920 article, Watson & Raynor show that fear can be classically conditioned. Their subject was a small child, named Albert B (affectionately called Little Albert).

 

Locke, John (1632-1704)

Educated at Oxford, Locke is best known for his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, which was 17 years in the making. Locke disputed Descartes’ emphasis on innate ideas. It was commonly held in Locke’s time that morality was instilled in people by God. That is, people are born with knowing right from wrong. In contrast, Locke proposed that the mind is as a blank slate (tabula rasa) and that ideas come from experience. Borrowing from his teacher Robert Boyle, Locke differentiated between primary and secondary qualities. Qualities are idea producers. Primary qualities are inseparable from the object, and generate in us ideas of solidity, shape, and movement. Secondary qualities (such as color and taste) do not correspond to the physical world but are psychological in nature. Locke was a dualist (mind and body exist separately), an empiricist (emphasized experience, and an associationist. He held that if the blind could be made to see, they would not be able to visually identify a cube because they had only experienced it by touch. They would need to learn to associate the shape with touch.

 

Loeb, Jacques (1859-1924)

The German biologist Jacques Loeb (1859-1924) believed that behavior was the result of biological and chemical processes. Best known for inspiring his student (John Watson), Loeb proposed that animals are similar to plants; both react selectively to chemical and environment input.

 

 

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Maimonides, Moses (1138-1204)

Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) was a great Spanish philosopher, an authority on Jewish oral laws, and a major intellectual figure of the Middle Ages. What Saint Augustine was to Christianity, Maimonides was to Judaism. So extensive was his influence that he has been called the Second Moses.

He was born in Cordoba, Spain, which is about 75 miles northeast and upstream of Seville. Although it had been under Islamic rule since 780, Cordoba was a cosmopolitan city of Muslims, Jews and Christians. For 250 years, it was one of the largest cities in Europe and was well known for its leather works, jewelry and silk brocades.

Although some of the splendor had waned by the time Maimonides was born, Cordoba was a major center in south-central Spain. Like much of the Islamic world, the city shaken from its comfortable existence by the revolt of a radical fundamentalist Muslim group, the Almohads. Over a period of 25 years, the Almohads (Affirming The Unity of God) captured Marrakech (1147), Cordoba (1148) and Seville (1172).

Combining tribal rule and centralized government, the Almohads consolidated their power. Interpreted religious purity as the exclusion of other faiths, they outlawed all other religions and made their practice punishable by death. Faced with converting to Islam or leaving Cordoba, the Maimonides family chose a third option: to act Muslim in public and practice Judaism in private. Consequently, from the ages 13-24, Moses and his brother David received a public Islamic education from their schools and a private Jewish education from their father.

Although successful for over a decade, the deception grew increasingly difficult to maintain. In 1159, the Maimonides family moved to Fez, Morocco, where they were unknown and continued their dual existence. But in 1165, after Moses’ teacher (Rabbi Judah ibn Shoshan) was executed for practicing Judaism, the family moved to Cairo, Egypt.

Although re-conversion from Islam was not allowed, Jews in Cairo could practice their religion openly. David (the younger brother) supported the family as a merchant of jewelry and precious gems. Moses gave his life to scholarly pursuits and was active in the Jewish community. Three years later, at the age of 33, Moses completed his 14-volume commentary on the Mishneh. This major work was an analysis of the oral traditions and legal literature of Judaism. It had taken him 10 years to write but the Mishneh Torah is one of most important works of Jewish scholarship ever produced.

Moses’ great success was tempered by the loss of both his father and brother. His father died en route to Cairo or shortly after their arrival. David drowned in the Indian Ocean on a buying trip, taking the family fortune with him. Moses was devastated and consumed with grief for nearly a year. But through no choice of his own, he became the head of the family and responsible for the support of the family, including David’s wife and two children.

Moses turned to the practice of medicine and achieved international acclaim when he was appointed as physician to the sultan of Egypt in 1185. But even with his new responsibilities, Maimonides continued to write. In 1191, he completed his Guide For The Perplexed, an integration of Jewish faith and Aristotelian philosophy. It took 15 years to complete and includes discussions on free will, rationalism, and how to reconcile the nature of God and the presence of evil in the world.

Maimonides was a prolific writer whose works covered medicine, philosophy, science and religion. His works influenced both Christians (including Thomas Aquinas) and Jews. He is best known for his Mishneh Torah and his Guide For The Perplexed, but his Thirteen Articles of Faith is a creed still used by many Orthodox Jews today. So famous was he that his formal name (Rabbi Moses ben Maimon) was simplified to Rambam (an acrostic formed from his initials).

 

Mani (216-274)

Mani was the founder of Manichaeism, a major contender to Christianity until the Middle Ages. Based on two visions he had (at age 12 and 24), Mani declared himself a prophet, traveled to India, and then returned to Persia to preach. He viewed life as a dualistic struggle between two worlds. The spiritual world was light, good, and God; the material world was dark, evil, and Satan. Like the aristocrats and the peasants, there were two classes of people: the elect and auditors. The auditors went on weekly fasts, gave themselves to good works and hoped to be reborn as the elect. The elect sought a life devoid of the material and carnal desires. They ate no meat, drank no wine, and remained celibate. They were above doing work; they were spiritual leaders.

 

Colleague of Kulpe, Karl Marbe conducted imageless thought studies, and introduced the concept of a mental set. Essentially, people acquire a rule of how to solve problems and apply that rule even after the circumstances have changed and the rule is no longer valid.

 

Maslow, Abraham (1908-1970)

He helped shift psychology from behaviorism to humanism. He is the “father” of the Third Force of Psychology. The first force was Freud’s psychoanalytic approach. The second force or wave was Pavlov’s behaviorism. And the third major force in American psychology was humanism.

Maslow is best known for his hierarchy of needs. Building on the ideas of Henry Murray, Maslow theorized that needs are not all the same. Some needs must be met before others. Like Harlow’s monkeys, people their biological and safety needs met first. After the essentials are met, people can then pursue their psychological and spiritual needs.

D motives (deficit needs) push people to get food, water, shelter and safety. Once these deficits are met, progress can be made on other fronts. Motivation is the push toward satisfying deficits (d needs).

Meta-motivation, on the other hand, is the push toward being (b needs). Our psychological needs push us to seek love, belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization. According to Maslow, people are inherently good and moving toward growth. We are not the slaves of Freudian drives. We are headed toward the goal of reaching our full potential. This push toward growth is innate. Just as plants grow toward light, people grow to be more integrated, more mature and wiser. We are in the process of “being,” not just existing.

Deficit needs are seeking to establish a more orderly, stable environment. We need food and water to sustain life, and maintain equilibrium. Similarly, we need to satisfy safety needs for our long-term success. If these needs are not met, we will continually try to become safe. We might hoard or over-structure your life. If we don’t fill the deficit, we can’t move on.

When originally presented in 1954, Maslow’s pyramid of needs had five levels: physiological, safety, love-belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Only self-actualization represented B-needs; the first four levels of the pyramid were D-needs. In his revised pyramid (1970), three more B-need levels are included. He wanted to include the need to acquire and understand knowledge (cognitive needs), and the need to create and experience beauty, balance and structure (aesthetic needs). So cognitive needs and aesthetic needs were inserted above esteem needs but below self-actualization. Finally, a new level (transcendence) was added to the pyramid’s top. If self-actualization is reaching your own potential, transcendence is helping other reach their full potential. It transcends beyond the person and beyond ego. It’s helping others become more enlightened and empowered. It is striving for the fullest potential of the human race.

Maslow assumed that the higher needs could only be met after the basic ones had been satisfied. An extension of his philosophy into social policy might be to solve world hunger before world peace. Hunger would take precedence over safety, and safety would take precedence over love and belonging. According to this view, people cannot find love and belonging until their physical and safety needs are met.

Although Maslow didn’t invent the idea of self-actualization, he certainly popularized the term. For him, self-actualization was people at their best. It was the ultimate in human development, the best one could possibly be. It was both a process and the ultimate goal. Self-actualization wasn’t simply what one did once in their life. It was how people should best live their lives.

To help define it, Maslow selected people he thought represented this ideal. The list included: Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Thomas Jefferson, Mahatma Gandhi, and William James. Eleanor Roosevelt made the list but FDR didn’t. It wasn’t an exhaustive list, more of a sampling of personal favorites.

To understand self-actualization, Maslow read the biographies and writings of those he thought modeled it. From his investigation, he developed a list of qualities that would define one as self-actualized. Self-actualized people are reality-centered (genuine, not fake), problem-centered (solution seekers, not blamers or quitters), and process-centered (means oriented, not using ends to justify the means). Self-actualized people relate to others authentically. They resist social pressure, rely on their own judgment, and set their own direction. Although the self-actualized have intimate personal relationships with family and a few close friends, they enjoy their own company and don’t mind being alone. They are open to diversity, compassionate for others, and hold democratic values. They accept you as you are, and don’t try to change you into what they think you should be. They are able to laugh at themselves, and are not pretentious or moody.

Maslow would not want you to think that self-actualizers are perfect. They’re not. Often they have considerable guilt and anxiety…but it’s realistic guilt and anxiety, not neurotic guilt and anxiety. And they can have moments of ruthlessness and bad humor…but it doesn’t last long. And they can be absentminded or overly kind.

All right, so maybe that does sounds like perfection.

But for Maslow, striving for perfection is okay. People are self-perfecting systems. The self is intrinsically good and gradually getting better. It grows toward perfection as its needs are met. These needs are organized in a hierarchy where lower needs must be met before higher needs. As people growth, they must satisfy the strong needs caused by biological and psychological deficits before they work on the weaker but more growth oriented needs of self-esteem and self-actualization.

Everyone has those mystical moments in life when you feel both infinitely small and eternally connected. You go to the ocean or mountains, and feel both more alone and more connected. Self-actualized people have more of “peak experiences” than the rest of us.

Like Freud, Maslow based his conclusions on logical arguments, not empirical data. His “armchair philosopher” approach was theoretical and deductive. He offered no proof for his assertions; no experiments, no naturalistic observations, and no clinical data. So it’s not surprising that there are inconsistencies in his model. Many examples can be given of situations that don’t fit Maslow’s model. People who are poor or hungry do show love and affection. Happiness does not seem to be confined to rich countries. Maslow’s theory doesn’t explain why police, fire fighters, military, missionaries, and Peace Corp workers regularly give up safety and physiological needs in order to help others.

Also like Freud, an inconsistent theory doesn’t make Maslow’s approach unhelpful or unpopular. Maslow highlights what behaviorist ignored. He emphasizes the importance of love, self-esteem and personal fulfillment. Instead of stimuli eliciting reflexes, Maslow suggests that people can think, have goals, and strive to reach their full potential. Instead of external rewards and punishments, people have an internal need to be creative, social and productive. None of these ideas were included in behaviorism.

Maslow is also in sharp contrast to Freud. Instead of an unconscious id making self-pleasuring wishes, people are active processors. They respect themselves and others. They seek intimate relationships and enjoy being part of a group. And instead of reacting to neurotic needs, people seek growth, health and self-actualization. Maslow is much more optimistic than Freud.

Maslow’s approach is not without problems. The theory does not specify how or when to declare someone as self-actualized, nor does it indicate which famous, powerful, successful people should be categorized as non-actualized. Also, why does it take time to acquire self-actualization? Wouldn’t Maslow’s description of a self-actualized person describe any infant? Is there anyone more authentic than a baby?

The basic problem with Maslow’s hierarchy is that there are many people who regularly give up safety needs to meet higher needs. Poets and artists starve for beauty. Police officers, fire fighters and the military regularly put their lives at risk. And don’t doctors, parents and teachers put the welfare of others before their own needs? As a predictor of behavior, Maslow’s hierarchy doesn’t seem hold up.

According to Maslow, people overcome loneliness because they have a need for love, affection and belongingness. But that’s a circular argument: people can only satisfy higher needs if they meet lower needs first; you know they’ve met lower needs because they are working on higher needs. Giving love and affection are normal human activities because they satisfy the need to connect with others; we know there is a need to connect to others because people give love and affection.

Finally, the theory isn’t clear on how people move from level to level. He believes the reason we don’t all reach self-actualization is that society hinders our growth. He recommends children should be taught how to be authentic. He also maintains that we fear self-knowledge (the Jonah complex). So is moving up the hierarchy the result of training, removing societal influences, overcoming personal hindrances, or somehow stimulating natural growth? Maslow doesn’t specify the mechanisms of change.

Maslow’s theory does infer principles of social policy. If people need air before water, and water before food, there is an implied proper order to helping others. If Maslow’s theory is applied to the solving world problems, it would suggest that people must be fed before they are helped with growth needs. This might suggest that democracy could not occur in poor countries, or at least not until people’s basic needs were met. Some might argue that the maxim would be food before art. But others might hold that it would not necessarily mean food before dignity. The great advantage of an ambiguous theory is that it can be interpreted in many ways.

 

May, Rollo (1909-1994)

Born in Ada, Ohio, Rollo May introduced Heidegger’s existentialism to America. While he recovered from tuberculosis (just prior to receiving his Ph.D.), May read Kierkegaard and Freud, and ultimately wrote his dissertation of their views on anxiety.

Differentiating between normal and neurotic anxiety, May maintained that normal anxiety can help you grow. Emphasizing man’s capacity to “will” (actively choosing the best of possibilities), May maintained that we must choose to love. Love is composed of sex, eros(the need to unite with others), phila (brotherly love), and agape (love for all mankind).

 

McDougall, William (1871-1938)

Born in Lancashire, England, William McDougall was a major opponent of Watson’s behaviorism. Trained as a medical doctor, his interest in psychology was sparked by William James.

McDougall’s basically animistic philosophy (there is a bit of soul in everything) was in stark contrast to Watson’s mechanistic approach. According to McDougall, behavior is not simply a response to a stimuli but is goal seeking and purposive. Calling his approach “hormic psychology,” McDougall viewed behavior as being spontaneous, persistent, and goal directed.

McDougall opposed the use of introspection for studying mental processes. He held that behavior is instinctive and composed of cognitive, conative, and affective aspects. Cognition includes the perception and recognition of a stimulus. The predisposition to goal seeking action is the conative process. The affective aspect of behavior is what occurs between cognition and goal attainment. It is the “emotional core” of the individual.

For McDougall, a person’s emotional core was stable and unimpacted by learning. Learning can change perception (i.e., different stimuli can be used) and/or it can change action (i.e., improved performance) but a person’s emotional core remains untouched.

If McDougall’s emphasis on action as a discharge of energy is reminiscent of Jung, perhaps it reflects the fact that McDougall was personally psychoanalyzed by Jung. In any event, McDougall lists of basic instincts (which varied over time) included: hunger, curiosity, escape, self-assertion and sex. Later, McDougall differentiated between seven basic instincts (e.g., rejection, curiosity, escape, etc.) and their corresponding “emotional cores” (e.g., disgust, wonder, fear, etc.). Still later, the list was expanded to include 17 instincts.

Behavior was the result of individual and groups of instincts. If two or more instincts become attached to the same object, the tendency toward action is called a “sentiment.”

McDougall proposed that group behavior also was the result of instinctive behavior. Socialization is not a single instinct but is composed of instinct combinations. According to McDougall, emotions become stronger in groups. Coining the term “group mind,” McDougall applied his model of individual motivation to group process. Group action and emotion are essentially the same as for individuals but more intense.

 

Mead, George Herbert (1863-1931)

A good example of the humanistic movement, George Herbert Mead emphasized self-awareness as a function of psychological evolution. He argued that self evolves out of object awareness. Although there is no self at birth, it develops through a socialization process. Language is critical to this process because interaction with the environment creates self awareness.

Mead’s theory reflected his personal experience. He was born in a small town in Massachusetts, received his education at Oberlin and Harvard, and became a major influence at the U of Chicago. His self-awareness no doubt grew as he experienced more of his environment.

Even Mead’s career was a social product. He never published a book but his articles and students continued to preach Mead’s humanistic views. For Mead, problem solving should be rational and useful. We develop different selves for different audiences, but the self is a product of those experiences, not a process we undertake.

 

Mesmer Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815

 

Mill, John (1773-1836)

According to Mill, the vividness and frequency of associations between sensations glues simple sensations into complex ideas. Mill’s “mental mechanics” accentuated the composite nature of ideas. The concept of a window, for example, is made of smaller ideas (glass, wood, etc.). For Mill, the mind is predictable and passive. He was a enthusiastic follower of utilitarianism. As proposed by Mill’s friend Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), personal and governmental decisions should be based on the usefulness (utilitarianism) of the outcome. Essentially a hedonistic view of the world, utilitarianists sought to maximize personal and corporate pleasure. Right and wrong were replaced with pleasure and pain. Mill’s greatest contribution was not in generating new insights but in providing a thorough summary of associationism. In 1829, he published Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind (revised by his son, John Stuart Mill, in 1869).

 

Mill, John Stuart (1806-1873)

Although psychology was more of a hobby than a vocation for James Mill, his son, JS Mill was a major proponent of the systematic study of human nature. Like his father, JS was an elementalist. Like his father, JS Mill accepted contiguity as a law of association, but also believed that similarity and intensity were important. Unlike his father, JS held that the mind is active, and that the process of thinking was more like “mental chemistry” than mental mechanics. According the JS, ideas can fuse together, creating something new out of simple sensory elements.

 

Miller, Neal (1909-2002).

 

Mohammed (570-632)

The birth of a new religion always makes a splash in human history. Born in Meca around 570 AD, Mohammed (literally, “the sword”) founded a new religion, Islam (surrender to God). In a revelation he received at age 30, Mohammed was selected as a prophet of God. In 622, he was forced to flee to Medina, but by 711, Islam was the accepted religion of Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and Purisa, and had crossed into Iberia, Spain. A great tribal leader, Mohammed unified various factions into an effective force. When Mecca wanted Mohammed extradited, Medina refused. When Mecca pressed the matter, Mohammed’s army cut off Mecca’s supply lines. Even when the Melina was besieged by 10,000 troops from Mecca, Mohammed’s outnumbered army wouldn’t surrender. After peace was established, Mohammed made annual pilgrimages to Mecca. Like Confucius, Mohammed presented an integrated view of life. Spiritual, social, political and economic parts of life are all intertwined. Faith requires good works, political power allows social reform.

 

Morgan, C Lloyd (1852-1936)

Morgan took sort of a semi-experimental approach but is best known for his “cannon.” Morgan’s cannonis that higher level inferences should not be made if a lower level inference can explain the behavior. That is, scientific explanations should use the difficult explanations only when needed.

 

Morita Masatake Morita (1874-1938)

 

Motora Yūjirō Motora (1858-1912)

 

Muller, Johannes (1801-1858)

In contrast the thinking of his day, Johannes Muller held that each nerve leads to one sensation only. The message nerves carry is not determined by the stimulation (visual, auditory or tactile) but by the brain. If the eye is stimulated by touch (pressure), electricity or by light waves, the result is a visual sensation.

This is the Muller who lived from 1801-1858). The other Muller (with dates of 1752-1809) is a Swiss historian. Keep this in mind when you watch this video on Psychology and Experimental Physiology.

 

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Nishi Amane Nishi (1829-1897)

 

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Parmenides (~500-540 BC )

 

Pascal, Constance (1877-1937)

 

Pavlov, Ivan (1848-1936)

Although he won a Nobel prize for his work in explaining the processes of digestion, Ivan Pavlov is best remembered for his discovery of classical conditioning. A physiologist by training and in practice, Pavlov thought psychology was a fad. His explanations of conditioning were pure physiological but they were interpreted by Watson and others as psychological.

Born in Ryazen (central Russia), Pavlov attended the University of St. Petersburg where he studied under Ivan Schenov (who had been a student of Muller and Helmholtz). After receiving his MD in 1883, he studied physiology for two years in Leipzig, Germany. In 1889, Pavlov’s experiments on the digestive process brought about a curious observation. He noted that the dogs being used as subjects in his experiments salivated not only to the presence of food but to associated stimuli (sound of keeper’s bell jingling, etc.). Exploring the matter as a good physiologist would, Pavlov employed a surgical procedure which allowed him to collect and measure the amount of saliva produced by each dog. Having established a reliable dependent variable, Pavlov varied one independent variable at a time and noted the results.

Pavlov’s classical description notes that the presence of an unconditioned stimulus (food) produces an unconditioned response (saliva of a given amount; varying somewhat between trials and between dogs). After sufficient pairings of the food with another, previously unused stimulus (e.g., light), the conditioned stimulus (light) could bring about a response (conditioned response). The conditioned response was weaker than the unconditioned response (i.e., less saliva) and forgettable (if repeated too often without food being presented).

Pavlov called the conditioned response “psychic secretion,” and explained it as being the result of higher cortical involvement. Interestingly, when the conditioned stimulus was repeatedly given until no psychic secretions occurred, a period of rest was all that was needed for the conditioned response to reappear. Pavlov assumed that this “spontaneous recovery” of the association was due to excitation of neural connections.

Pavlov studied classical conditioning quite thoroughly. He showed that similar stimuli to a conditioned stimulus produced similar results. That is, there was “irradition” (a spread of effect to other parts of the brain). For Pavlov, stimulus generalization was a neurological process. Similarly, neural physiology was assumed to explain discrimination. That is, subjects were able to learn to salivate in response to a particular tone but not salivate when other tones were presented. Naturally, if too fine of a discrimination was required, the dogs could not solve the problem. Pavlov called their resultant barking and unmanageability “experimental neurosis.”

For Pavlov, reinforcement was in terms of reiteration. One reinforced behavior as in reinforcing steel (added more of it). Pavlov believed that mental functioning was completely neurological. He proposed a “dynamic stereotype,” a neurological mapping of the environment.

 

Piaget, Jean (1896-1980)

Born and raised in Neuchatel, Switzerland, Jean Piaget was always interested in biology and zoology. After earning his Ph.D. in biology, he became interested in psychology, particularly in how cognition develops. While working for Binet at the Sorbonne, Piaget noticed that children don’t solve problems like adults do. Children are not miniature adults but have their own distinctive style of thinking which develops in stages.

Piaget proposed four stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete and abstract. The sensorimotor stage occupies the first two years of a child’s life. In this stage, children acquire motor control, and learn to interact with objects and accommodate to the world.

In the peroperational stage (ages 2 to 7, children acquire language. Their thinking is egocentric and contradict themselves but are not bothered by it. They can name objects, think intuitively, and argue their point of view. They cannot argue from someone else’s point of view, and believe that tall and thin containers hold more than short, fat ones).

In the concrete operational stage (ages 7 to 12), children can manipulate numbers, develop rules for classifying objects, and acquire conservation (e.g., know that shape is not the same as quantity).

In the formal operational stage of development (ages 12 to adult), children acquire abstract thinking, can discuss hypothetical situations, and perform systematic searches for solutions.

 

Plato (427-347 BC)

TA student of Socrates, Plato (427-347 BC) introduced a dualistic view of the world. Ideas are separate from matter and exist in their own world; matter is an imperfect copy of that reality. 

Although Socrates never founded a school, Plato’s Academy offered courses in astronomy, mathematics, philosophy and political science. Differentiating between perfect ideas and imperfect matter, Plato introduced a dualistic view of the world. Ideas are separate from matter and exist in their own world. What we see are imperfect representations of those perfect forms. For Plato, knowledge is reminiscent (existing in the soul before birth), and the psyche is the source of thinking and moral actions.

Plato held that ideas are reality but that matter is an imperfect copy of that reality. For Plato the Form (the general abstraction of the principle) was more important than material example. The Form of circularity is good and pure but a drawn circle is only an approximation of that ideal. Obviously, art would not be highly valued by Plato because it was an imperfect copy of an imperfect copy of reality.

Plato was a dualist, in the sense that he separated ideas (which were good) from matter (which was at worse evil and at best imperfect). In his 35 dialogues, Plato describes the search for wisdom. Ultimately, he concludes that the essence of people (the psyche) are made of three parts: the rational, the will and the appetites. Education raised people from lowly appetites to the use of will and ultimately to the highest human achievement – philosophy. Naturally, Plato suggests that society should be composed of three classes: the philosopher-kings, the military and the merchants.

Although Plato allowed that some knowledge may exist in the soul prior to birth (which he called reminiscence), his emphasis was on learned, infallible knowledge. For Plato, bad behavior was due to the lack of knowledge. He rejected the empiricism of direct observation because is a derived experience and was merely opinion. In contrast, knowledge brings justice, light, and reason.

 

Plotinus (205-270)

Plotinus (205-270) was the founder of Neoplatonism. He didn’t just revive Plato’s ideas; he revamped them and combined them with those of Pythagorus. The result is a dualism that contends that the soul and body are completely separate.

Little is known of the childhood and origins of Plotinus. He was said to have been born in Egypt but the exact location is unknown. At 28, he went to Alexandria to study philosophy. In 245, Plotinus moved to Rome. In that same year, Norway was building the last of its sewn boats (sewing was soon to be replaced by iron nails), China invaded what is now South Korea, and both St Nicholas and the Roman Emperor Diocletian were born.

Plotinus coined an illumination metaphor that survived for hundred of years and was used by Descartes. He said the mind is like an eye: it can see truth but only when it is illuminated by God (nous). But God was not the man-God of Christianity or the special revelation of secret knowledge the Gnostics sought. For Plotinus, nous was the essence of eternal, spiritual intelligence and can only be detected by the soul. Everything flows from the central, eternal unity of nous and forms a hierarchy of truth. The soul (psyche), which is derived from nous, emanates to the real world (physis). In this integrated system, then, God is an intellectual unifying construct and is a part of all nature. And truth comes from the spiritual (nous) to the mental (psyche) to the physical (physis).

Plotinus was opposed to Gnosticism because it seemed irrational and presumptuous. He undoubtedly would have held a similar opinion of Christianity or other religions. For Plotinus, the essence of religion was the mystical union one achieves with universal truth. Anything un-Greek just wouldn’t do.

Although not a Christian, Plotinus influenced their view of the soul. Prior to Plotinus, Christians has accepted a more integrated view of body-soul, comparable to that of Jewish traditions. After Plotinus, the soul was thought of as separate from the body. Interestingly, Plotinus would not have conceived of reuniting the soul and body after death but Christian thought clearly teaches such a reunification.

 

Protagoras

(490-420)   Like Gargias, Protagorus taught grammar and rhetoric. So skilled was he as persuasive speech that he called himself a Sophist (expert craftsman) and gave lessons for a fee (unlike the philosophers of the time). Although Sophists instituted the first educational system, they were criticized for being money oriented. If info-mercials had been available at the time, Protagorus would have had one on persuasive speech. He would have told the audience that truth is not absolute; it is a matter of opinion. And opinions can be changed with persuasive speech, if you know how; and for a fee Protagorus (like “spin doctors” of today) would teach you how. Not only was Protagorus criticized for distorting philosophy into a business, his ideas were considered dangerous. If “man is the measure of all things,” no rules could be uniformly applied. Such radical teaching was thought to be subversive, and Protagoras was forced into exile. He drowned enroute to Sicily.

 

Ptahhotep (2400 BC)

 

Pyrrho (360-270) BC)

He was the leader of the Skeptics. Traveling as part of Alexander’s entourage to Persia and India, Pyrrho discovered that all of the truths he firmly held were not accepted everywhere. Travel is such an eye-opening experience because you not only see places, you meet people with different backgrounds, cultures and values. It is not uncommon to re-evaluate your assumptions about life the first time you meet a person from a different culture who is nice, reasonable, thoughtful, and yet has an entirely different view of life. Having found truth in other cultures, Pyrrho maintained that we should withhold judgment of other people and their beliefs. Truth is not absolute, and, indeed, cannot be known. Consequently, we examine our lives and maintain a spiritual attitude of tranquillity, calm and freedom from passion. Because this process of examination (skeptesthai) involves the questioning of assumptions, skepticism has come to represent the questioning of reality.

 

Pythagoras (582-500 BC)

Pythagoras (582-500 BC) is best known for the Pythagorean theorem but he viewed mathematics as a religious-philosophical system. He believed in harmony of the universe, orderliness of thought, and transmigration of souls.

Nearly fifty years after Solon and Thales, Pythagoras was born on the island of Sámos, close to the coast of Turkey. The city, which is now called Pythagorion in his honor, was known for its man-made harbor in the shape of frying pan and a tunnel that brought in fresh mountain water. A strong, if not bitter, rival of Miletus, the island of Sámos was a major center for commerce, sculpture and philosophy.

Like Thales, much of what is known about Pythagoras is a combination of fact and fancy. There are apocryphal accounts of his travels to Egypt, the invention of musical scales, miraculous cures and secret writings. More reliable are the accounts that his mother was from Sámos, his father was a tradesman from Tyre, and that he was born sometime between 582-560 BC. In about 530 BC, Pythagoras moved to Crotona, Italy and founded his school of religious-philosophical thought.

Although the Pythagorean Theorem is named in his honor, it is difficult to separate individual accomplishment from its larger context. The Pythagoreans studied prime numbers, the squaring of numbers, and mathematics as part of a religious, political and philosophical approach to life. They believed in the harmony of the universe, the ultimate principle of proportion, and the orderliness of thought. According to this view, the best way to understand the mysteries of life is through obedience, self-examination, and simplicity of food and dress. They believed that planets, including the earth, were not flat but were spheres rotating around a common fire. The Pythagoreans also believed in the transmigration of souls, so it was not unusual that Pythagoras said he could remember all of his previous lives, including having been a warrior in the Trojan War.

Believing that the ultimate explanation of everything could be found in numbers, the Pythagoreans observed the world around them and looked for patterns. At first, numbers were symbols used to describe reality. Eventually, numbers took on a life of their own and this numerology was used to explain everything. Life was a combination of opposites: odd-even, left-right, good-bad, dark-light, masculine-feminine.

Each number had its own properties and power. One was a point, 2 a line, 3 a surface, and 4 a solid. Five was the number of planets, and 6 was a perfect number for it is equal to the sum of its aliquot parts (could be divided by 1, 2 and 3). Seven was a prime number and regulated life (baby until 7, child until 14, married at 21, dead at 70). Eight was harmony for there are eight tones in an octave and 8 objects in the sky (5 planets, sun, moon and earth). Nine was the square of 3 and 10 was the sum of life (the sum of 1, 2, 3 and 4).