Unit 3: Chapter 5: Empiricism, Sensationalism, and Positivism

reflection

According to Locke, the ability to use the powers of the mind to creatively rearrange ideas derived from sensory experience.

Briefly describe the life and work of Auguste Comte (1798-1857). Describe the following aspects of his work: (a) positivism, (b) the law of three stages, (c) humanistic religion, and (d) the hierarchy of the sciences. (pp. 168-171)

Auguste Comte, Born Into the French city of Montpellier on January 19th, grew up in the period of great political turmoil that followed the French Revolution of 1789 to 1799. He met the social philosopher Henry de Saint-Simon, who converted comte from an Ardent advocate of Liberty and equality to a supporter of a more elitist view of society. He began giving lectures in his home on his positivist philosophy--that is, the attempt to use the methods of the physical sciences to create a science of history and human social behavior. He suffered a serious mental collapse. Despite being treated in a hospital for a while, he fell into a deep depression and even attempted suicide. (a) positivism: According to him, the only thing we can be sure of is that which is publicly observable--that is, since experiences that can be shared with other individuals. The data of science are publicly observable and therefore can be trusted. For example, scientific laws are statements about how empirical events very together, and once determined, they can be experienced by any interested party. His insistence on equating knowledge with empirical observations was called positivism. According to Comte, science should seek to discover the lawful relationships among physical phenomena. Once such laws are known, they can be used to predict and control events and less improve life. His approach to science was very much like the one suggested earlier by Francis Bacon. According to both Comte and bacon, science should be practical and non-speculative. (b) the law of three stages: According to him, societies pass through stages that are defined in terms of the way its members Explain natural events. The first stage, and the most primitive, is theological, and explanations are based on Superstition and mysticism. In the second stage, which is metaphysical, explanations are based on unseen Essences, principles, causes, or laws. During the third and highest stage of development, the scientific description is emphasized over explanation, and the prediction and control of natural phenomena becomes all important. In other words during the Scientific stage, positivism is accepted. Comte used the term sociology to describe the study of how different societies compared in terms of the three stages of development. According to him, the beliefs characteristic of a particular stage become a way of life for the people within a society. It is only a few of the society's wisest individuals hoodlums the next stage and begin to pave the way for it. There follows a critical. During which a society is in transition between one stage and another. The beliefs characterizing the new stage then become a way of life until the process is repeated. As with a paradigmatic shift in science, there are always remnants of earlier stages and the newly-established ones. (c) humanistic religion: By the late 1840s, Comte was discussing positivism as if it were religion. To him, science was all that one needed to believe in and all that one should believe in. He described a utopian society based on scientific principles and beliefs and whose organization was remarkably similar to the Roman Catholic Church. However, Humanity replaced God, and scientists and philosophers replaced priests. Disciples of the new religion would be drawn from the working classes and especially from among women. (d) the hierarchy of the sciences: Comte arrange to The Sciences in a hierarchy from the first developed and most basic to the last developed and most comprehensive as follows: mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, physiology and biology, and sociology. It is of special interest to note that psychology did not appear on his list of Sciences. Science, for him, dealt with what could be publicly observed, and that excluded introspective data. For Comte, two methods, however, were available by which the individual could be studied objectively. One way was to embrace phrenology, which was an effort to relate mental events to brain anatomy and processes. Phrenological analysis essentially reduced psychology to physiology. The second way was to study the mind by its products--that is, to study the mind by studying overt Behavior, especially social behavior. The study of human social behavior is a second sense in which Comte used the term sociology. So, the first objective way of studying humans reduced psychology to physiology and II reduced it to Sociology.

John Stuart Mill

He disagreed with his father James that all complex ideas could be reduced to simple ideas. He proposed a process of mental chemistry According to which complex ideas could be distinctly different from the simple ideas (elements) that constituted them. He believed strongly that a science of human nature could be and should be developed.

Define scientism. (p. 168)

The British empiricists and the French sensationalists had the belief that all knowledge, even moral knowledge, was derived from experience. If the denial of innate moral principles did not place the empiricists and the sensationalist in direct opposition to religion, it certainly placed them in direct opposition to religious Dogma. As the success of the physical and mental Sciences spread throughout Europe, and as religious doctor and became increasingly suspect, a new belief emerged--the belief that science can solve all human problems. Such a belief is called scientism. To those embracing scientism, scientific knowledge is the only valid knowledge; therefore, it provides the only information one can believe. For these individuals, science takes on some of the characteristics of a religion.

scientism

The almost religious belief that science can answer all questions and solve all problems.

Auguste Comte

The founder of positivism and coiner of the term sociology. He felt that culture is passed through three stages in the way they explain phenomena: the feel logical, the metaphysical, and the scientific.

law of resemblance

According to Hume, the tendency for our thoughts to run from one event two similar events the same as what others call the law, or principle, of similarity.

spontaneous activity

According to Bain, behavior that is simply emitted by an organism rather than being elicited by external stimulation.

law of compound association

According to Bain, contiguous or similar events form compound ideas and our remember together. If one or a few elements of the compound idea are experienced, they may elicit the memory of the entire compound.

law of constructive association

According to Bain, the mind can rearrange the memories of various experiences so that the creative associations formed are different from the experiences that gave rise to the associations.

voluntary behavior

According to Bain, under some circumstances, an organism's spontaneous activity leads to pleasurable consequences. After several such occurrences the organism will come to voluntarily engage in the behavior that was originally spontaneous.

vibratiuncles

According to Hartley, the vibrations that linger in the brain after the initial vibrations caused by external stimulation cease.

law of cause and effect

According to Hume, if in our experience one event always precedes the occurrence of another event, we tend to believe that the former event is the cause of the latter.

primary laws

According to J.S. Mill, the general laws that determine the overall behavior of events within a system.

secondary laws

According to J.S. Mill, the laws that interact with primary laws and determine the nature of individual events under specific circumstances.

quality

According to Locke, that aspect of a physical object that has the power to produce an idea.

Define empiricism, and describe its general characteristics. (p. 131)

An empiricist is anyone who believes that knowledge is derived from experience. The importance of experience is usually stressed instead of innate ideas, which are supposed to emerge independently of experience. Empiricism, then, is a philosophy that stresses the importance of experience in the attainment of knowledge. The term experience, in the definition of empiricism, complicates matters because there are many types of experience. There are "inner" experiences such as dreams, imaginings, fantasies, and a variety of emotions. Also, when one thinks logically, such as during mathematical deduction, one is having Vivid mental (inner) experiences. It has become general practice, however, to exclude in our experience from a definition of empiricism and to refer exclusively to sensory experience. In psychology, and parasitism is often contrasted with mentalism; this is a mistake, however, because most modern empiricists were also mentalistic. In fact, their main research tool was intersection, and their main goal was to explain mental phenomena. It is important to highlight a number of terms in Robinson's definition. First, this definition of sorts that sensory experience constitutes the primary data of all knowledge; it does not say that such experience alone constitutes knowledge. Second, it asserts that knowledge cannot exist until sensory evidence has first been gathered; so for the empiricist, attaining knowledge begins with sensory experience. Third, all subsequent intellectual processes must Focus only on sensory experience in formulating propositions about the world. Thus, it is not the recognition of mental processes that distinguishes the empiricist from the rationalist; rather, it is the thought processes are focused on. Again, most epistemological approaches use sensory experience as part of their explanation of the origins of knowledge; for the empiricist, however, sensory experience is of supreme importance.

Briefly describe the life and work of Ernst Mach (1838-1916), focusing especially on his view of positivism. Compare and contrast the positivism of Comte and Mach. (pp. 171-172)

Another brand of positivism emerged later, however, under the leadership of the physicist Ernst Mach. Mach, like Comte, insisted that science concentrate only on what could be known with certainty. Neither of them allowed metaphysical speculation in their views of science. The two men differed radically, however, in what they thought scientist could be certain about. For Comte, it was physical events that could be experienced by any interested Observer. Mach, however, agreed with the contention of Berkeley and Hume--that we can never experience the physical world directly. We experience only Sensations or mental phenomena. For Mach, the job of the scientist was to note which Sensations typically cluster together and described in precisely mathematical terms the relationships among them. In agreement with Hume, Mach concluded that so-called cause and effect relationships are nothing more than functional relationships among mental phenomena. positivism was revised through the years and it was eventually transformed into logical positivism. It was through logical positivism that positivistic philosophy had its greatest impact on psychology.

Julien de La Mettrie

Believed humans were machines that differed from other animals only in complexity. He believed that so-called mental experiences are nothing but movements of particles in the brain. He also believed that accepting materialism would result in a better more Humane world.

Briefly describe the life and work of David Hume (1711-1776). Describe his (a) goal as a philosopher, (b) ideas regarding physical reality and perceptions of it, (c) notion of simple and complex ideas and the imagination, (d) account of the association of ideas (including the three laws of association), (e) analysis of causation, (f) analysis of mind and self, (g) conception of the role of emotions in determining behavior, and (h) influence on the development of psychology. (pp. 143-150)

Born April 26th in Edinboro, Scotland, David Hume was educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he studied law and commerce but left without a degree. Given relative Freedom by an inheritance, you moved to La Flèche in France, where Descartes had studied as a Young Man. Unlikemany of the other philosophers of his time, Hume was never a university Professor. He was nominated for an academic position twice, but the opposition of the Scottish clergy denied him the posts. Hume was skeptical of most religious beliefs, and friction with the church was a constant theme in his life. (a) goal as a philosopher: Under The Heading of a science, human cluded such topics as mathematics, natural philosophy, religion, logic, morals, criticism, and politics. In other words, all important matters reflect human nature, and understanding that nature is there for essential. In developing his science of man, Hume followed in the empirical tradition of Occam, Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, and Berkeley. Hume, however, was very impressed by the achievements of Newtonian science, and he wanted to do for moral philosophy what Newton had done for natural philosophy. In Hume's day, moral philosophy referred roughly to what we now call the social sciences, and natural philosophy referred to what we now call the physical sciences. As we will see, the major determinants of behavior in Hume's system or cognitive and not directly observable. for him, the term experience mint cognitive experience. What could the term experiment mean to Hume? By experiment, Hume meant careful observation of how experiences are related to one another and how experience is related to behavior. He noted that his experimental science of human nature would be different from the physical sciences, but different did not mean inferior. In fact, His science might even be superior to the other Sciences. Hume's goal, was to combine the empirical philosophy of his predecessors with the principles of Newtonian science and, in the process, create a science of human nature. It is ironic that with all of Humes admiration for Newton, Hume tended to use the baconian inductive method more so than the Newtonian deductive method. The major thrust of Hume's approach was to make careful observations and then carefully generalize from those observations. Hume occasionally did formulate a hypothesis and test it against experience, but his emphasis was clearly on induction rather than deduction. (b) ideas regarding physical reality and perceptions of it: Like the empiricists that preceded him, Hume believed that the contents of the Mind came only from experience. Also, like his predecessors, he believed that experience could be stimulated by either internal or external events. He agreed with Berkeley that we never experience the physical directly and can have only perceptions of It. Hume did not deny the existence of physical reality; he denied only the possibility of knowing it directly. Although the ultimate nature of physical reality must necessarily remain obscure, its existence, according to Hume, must be assumed in all rational deliberations. Hume distinguished between Impressions, which were strong, Vivid perceptions, and ideas, which were relatively weak perceptions. (c) notion of simple and complex ideas and the imagination: Hume had made the same distinction that Locke had made between simple ideas and complex ideas. Although, according to Hume, all simple ideas were once Impressions, not all complex ideas necessarily correspond to complex Impressions. Once ideas exist in the mind, they can be rearranged in an almost infinite number of ways by the imagination. It is interesting to note that, for Hume, the only difference between fact and fiction is the different feelings and experience produces. Ideas that have been consistently experienced together create the belief that one will follow the other. Such beliefs constitute reality. Ideas simply explored by the imagination do not have a history of concordance, and therefore they do not elicit a strong belief that one belongs to the other. What distinguishes fact from fantasy is the degree of belief that one idea belongs with another, and such belief is determined only by experience. (d) account of the association of ideas (including the three laws of association): Hume discussed three laws of Association that influence our thoughts. The law of resemblance states that our thoughts weren't easily from one idea to other similar ideas, such as when thinking of one friend stimulates the recollection of other friends. The law of contiguity states that when one thinks of an object, there is a tendency to recall other objects that were experienced at the same time and place as the object being pondered, such as when remembering a gift stimulates thoughts of The Giver. The law of cause and effect states that when we think of an outcome, we tend to also think of the events that typically proceed that outcome, such as when we see lightning and consequently think of thunder. (e) analysis of causation: "A causes B" was to State sign of variances of A and B. Hume completely disagreed with this analysis of causation. For him, we can never know that two events occur together unless we have experienced them occurring together. In fact, for him, a causal relationship is a consistently observed relationship and nothing more. Causation is not a logical necessity; it is a psychological experience. Hume describe the observations that need to be made in order to conclude that two events are causally related: 1) the cause and effect must be continuous in space and time. 2) the cause must be prior to the effect. 3) there must be a constant Union betwixt the cause and effect. It is chiefly this quality that constitutes the relation. 4) the same cause always produces the same effect, and the same effect never arises but from the same cause. Thus, it is on the basis of consistent observations that causal inferences are drawn. Predictions based on such observations assume that what happened in the past will continue to happen in the future, but there is no guarantee of that being the case. According to Hume then, it is not rationality that allows us to live effectively lives, it is the cumulative experience, or what human called custom. (f) analysis of mind and self: All beliefs, according to Hume, result from recurring experiences and are explained by the laws of Association. All metaphysical entities, such as God, soul, and matter, are products of the imagination as are the so-called laws of nature. Hume extended his skepticism to include the concept of mind that was so important to many philosophers, including Descartes, Locke, and Berkeley. According to Hume, the mind is no more than the perceptions we are having at any given moment. Just says there is no mind independent apperceptions, there is also no self independent of perceptions. (g) conception of the role of emotions in determining behavior: Hume noted that even though all humans possess the same passions, they do not do so in the same degree and, because different individuals possess different patterns of passions, they will respond differently to situations. The pattern of passions that a person possesses determines his or her character, and it is character that determines Behavior. It is a person's character that allows for his or her consistent interactions with people. It is through individual experience that certain Impressions and ideas become associated with certain emotions. It is the passions elicited by these Impressions and ideas, however, that will determine one's Behavior. This is another application of the laws of Association, only in this case the association's are between various experiences and the Passions and between passions and behavior. In general, we can say that individuals will seek experiences associated with pleasure and avoid experiences associated with pain. (h) influence on the development of psychology: Hume vastly increased the importance of what we now call psychology. In fact, he reduced philosophy, religion, and science to psychology. Everything that humans know is learned from experience. According to Hume then, humans can be certain of nothing. It is for this reason that humans sometimes referred to as the Supreme skeptic. Hume accepted only two types of knowledge: demonstrative and empirical. Demonstrative knowledge relates ideas to ideas such as in mathematics. Such knowledge is true only by accepted definitions and does not necessarily say anything about facts or objects outside the Mind. Demonstrative knowledge is entirely abstract and entirely the product of the imagination. This is not to say that demonstrate of knowledge is useless, because their relations gleaning in arithmetic, algebra, and geometry are of this type and represent clear and precise thinking. Such knowledge, however, is based entirely on deduction from one idea to another; therefore, it does not necessarily say anything about empirical events. Conversely, empirical knowledge is based on experience, and it alone can furnish knowledge that can effectively guide our conduct in the world. According to Hume, for knowledge to be useful, it must be either demonstrative or empirical; if it is neither, it is not real knowledge and therefore is useless. Hume's insistence that all propositions must be either demonstrably or empirically true places him clearly in the positivistic tradition of Bacon.

Briefly describe the life and work of Claude Helvétius (1715-1771). (pp. 167-168)

Claude-Adrien Helvétius was born in Paris and educated by jesuits. He became wealthy as a tax collector, married and attractive Countess, and retired to the countryside where he wrote and socialized with some of Europe's finest Minds. Rather, he explored in-depth the implication of the contention that the contents of the Mind come only from experience. In other words, control experiences and you control the contents of the Mind. The implications of this belief for education and even the structure of society were clear, and in the hands of helvétius, empiricism became radical environmentalism. All manner of social skills, moral behavior, and even genius could be taught through the control of experiences. Because Helvétius too was a hedonist, education in general terms could be viewed as the manipulation of pleasurable and painful experiences. Today we might stay at this as reinforcing desirable thoughts and behavior and either ignoring or punishing undesirable thoughts and behavior. In this sense, helvétius's position has much in common with that of the modern behaviorist.

David Hartley

Combined empiricism and associationism with rudimentary physiological Notions.

Briefly describe the life and work of David Hartley (1705-1757). Describe his (a) goal as a philosopher, (b) account of association, (c) notion of simple and complex ideas, (d) application of the laws of association to voluntary behavior, (e) analysis of emotion, and (f) influence on the development of psychology. (pp. 150-152) Comment: The notion that complex behaviors, such as walking, develop from simple reflexes was also popular with John B. Watson, a behaviorist who flourished in the early twentieth century. However, as reflexes became more well understood, it became increasingly difficult to maintain that reflexive muscle twitches were the basis for skilled coordinated performances as seen in walking and other complex motor skills. Hartley's ideas here, although intriguing, were not ultimately validated.

David Hartley, the son of a clergyman, had completed his training as a minister of the University of Cambridge before an interest in biology caused him to seek a career as a physician. Hartley remains deeply religious all his life, believing that understanding natural phenomena increased one's faith in God. (a) goal as a philosopher: his two major influences were Locke and Newton. Hartley accepted Newton's contention that nerves are solid (not Hollow, as Descartes had believed) and that sensory experience caused by vibrations in the nerves. These vibrations were called Impressions. The Impressions reach the brain and cause vibrations in the infinitesimal, medullary particles, which cause Sensations. For Hartley, it was the lingering vibrations in the brain following a sensation that constituted ideas. Ideas were faint replications of Sensations. Hartley's goal was to synthesize Newton's conception of nerve transmission by vibration with previous versions of empiricism, especially Locke's. (b) account of association: As we have seen, Hartley believed that sense Impressions produced vibrations in the nerves, which travel to the brain and causes similar vibrations in the medullary substance of the brain. The brain vibrations caused by sense Impressions give rise to Sensations. After sense impression Sease, they remain in the brain diminutive vibrations that Hartley called vibratiuncles. It is the vibratiuncles that correspond to ideas. Ideas, then, are weaker copies of Sensations. Vibratiuncles are like the brain vibrations associated with Sensations in every way except they are weaker. Hartley's notion that experiences consistently occurring together are recorded in the brain as an interrelated package and that experiencing one element in the package will make one conscious of the entire package is remarkably modern. As with most accounts of Association then, the law of can take what he was at the heart of Hartley's. What made Hartley's account of Association significantly different from previous accounts was his attempt to correlate all mental activity with neurophysiological activity. (c) notion of simple and complex ideas: Hartley believed that all complex ideas are formed automatically by the process of Association. For Hartley, there were no active mind processes involved at all. Simple ideas that are associated by contiguity form complex ideas. Similarly, complex ideas that are associated bike Integrity to become associated in decomplex ideas. As simple ideas combined into complex ideas and complex ideas combine to form Decomplex ideas, it may be difficult to remember the individual Sensations that make up such ideas. However, all ideas, no matter how complex, are made up of Sensations. Furthermore, Association is the only process responsible for converting simple ideas into complex ones. (d) application of the laws of association to voluntary behavior: Hartley attempted to show that so-called voluntary Behavior developed from involuntary, or reflexive, Behavior. He used the law of Association to explain how involuntary Behavior gradually becomes voluntary and then becomes almost involuntary (automatic) again. Involuntary Behavior occurs automatically (reflexively) in response to sensory stimulation. Voluntary Behavior occurs in response to one's ideas or to stimuli not originally associated with the behavior, involuntary Behavior itself can become so habitual that it too becomes automatic, not unlike involuntary Behavior. The basic assumption in Hartley's explanation is that all behavior is at first involuntary and gradually becomes voluntary through the process of Association. Thus, behavior is first involuntary, and then it becomes increasingly voluntary as, through the process of Association, more and more stimuli become capable of eliciting the behavior. Finally, when performing the voluntary action becomes habitual, it is said to be secondarily automatic. It should be clear that Hartley did not employ the term voluntary to mean freely chosen. For him, voluntary behavior is determined by the law of contiguity and, therefore, no free choice is involved. (e) analysis of emotion: In General, Hartley believed that excessive vibrations caused the experience of pain and that mild or moderate vibrations caused the experience of pleasure. Again, Association plays a prominent role in Hartley's analysis. Through experience, certain objects, events, and people become associated with pain and others with pleasure. (f) influence on the development of psychology: Hartley took the speculations concerning neurophysiology of his time and used them in his gnosis of Association. His effort was the first major attempt to explain the neurophysiology of thought and behavior since Descartes. The neurophysiological mechanisms that Hartley postulated were largely fictitious, but as more became known about neural transmission and brain mechanisms, the more accurate information replaced the older fictions. Thus, Hartley started the search for the biological correlates of mental events that has continued to the present.

Claude Helvétius

Elaborated the implications of empiricism and sensationalism for Education. That is, a person's intellectual development can be determined by controlling his or her experiences.

Briefly describe the life and work of Étienne Bonnot de Condillac (1715-1780). Describe his idea of the imaginary sentient statue and explain its relevance to human mental abilities. (pp. 166-167) Comment: The sentient statue notion is helpful because it simplifies the analysis of sensation, perception, and consciousness by reducing the sensory channels.

Etienne Bonnet de Condillac was born into an aristocratic family at in Grenoble. He was educated at Jesuit seminary in Paris, but shortly after his ordination as a Roman Catholic priest, he began frequent thing the literary and philosophical salons of Paris and gradually lost interest in his religious career. In fact, he became an outspoken critic of religious Dogma. Condillac suggested that lock had unnecessarily attributed to many innate powers to the mind. Condillac was convinced that all powers lock attributed to the mine could be derived simply from the ability to sense, to remember, and to experience Pleasure and Pain. He was not writing about statues but was discussing how human mental abilities could be derived from Sensations, memories, and a few basic feelings. Humans have more than one sense modality; that fact makes humans much more complicated than the statue, but the principal is the same. There was no need therefore for Locke and others to postulate a number of innate powers of the Mind. According to him, the powers of the Mind developed as a natural consequence of sensation.

sociology

For Comte, a study of the types of explanations various societies accepted for natural phenomena. He believed that, as societies progressed, they go from theological explanations, to metaphysical, to positivistic. By sociology, he also meant the study of the overt behavior of humans, especially social behavior.

Briefly describe the life and work of George Berkeley (1685-1753). Describe Berkeley's ideas with respect to (a) materialism, (b) the existence theory of perception, (c) primary and secondary qualities, (d) the existence of external reality, (e) the principle of association, and (f) his theory of distance perception. (pp. 140-143) Comment: In Berkeley we see a reactionary philosopher who argued against the bold ideas of Hobbes in advocating physical monism and materialism. This led Berkeley to an odd philosophy, motivated by his desire to preserve religious beliefs that held that matter does not exist. It is not entirely fair to compare Berkeley's philosophy to the ostrich's fabled practice of burying its head in the sand in order to escape from enemies, but there are parallels.

George Berkeley first attended Kilkenny College; then in 1700 at the age of 15, he entered Trinity College, where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1704 at the age of 19 and his master's degree in 1707 at the age of 22. He received ordination as a deacon of the angelican church at the age of 24. He continued on at Trinity College and lectured in Divinity and Greek philosophy until 1724, when he became involved in the founding of a new College in Bermuda intended for both native and white Colonial Americans. In 1728 he sailed to Newport, Rhode Island, where he waited for funding for his project. The hoped for government grants were not forthcoming. For the last 18 years of his life, Berkeley was an angelican Bishop of Cloyne in County Cork, Ireland. He died suddenly on January 14th, 1753, at Oxford, where he had been helping his son and role as an undergraduate. Just over a hundred years later, the site of the first University of California Campus was named for Bishop Berkeley. (a) materialism: Berkeley observed that the downfall of scholasticism, caused by attacks on Aristotle's philosophy, had resulted in widespread religious skepticism, if not actual atheism. While at Trinity College, Berkeley study the works of such individuals as Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, and Newton, and he held these individuals responsible for the dissemination of materialistic philosophy. Berkeley correctly perceived that materialistic philosophy was pushing God farther and farther out of the picture, and that's it was dangerous, if not potentially fatal, to both religion and morality. Berkeley there for decided to attack materialism at its foundation--it's assumption that matter exists. (b) the existence theory of perception: Berkeley solution to the problem was bold and sweeping; he attempted to demonstrate that matter does not exist and that all claims made by materialistic philosophy must therefore be false. In Berkeley's denial of matter, he both agreed and disagreed with Locke. They agreed with Locke that human knowledge is based only on ideas. However, Berkeley strongly disagreed with Locke's contention that all ideas are derived from interactions with the empirical world. Even if there were such a world, we would never know it directly. All things come into existence when they are perceived, and therefore reality consists of our perceptions and nothing more. (c) primary and secondary qualities: In his discussion of primary and secondary qualities, Berkeley referred to the former as the supposed attributes of physical things and to the ladder as ideas or perceptions. Having made this distinction, he then rejected the existence of primary qualities. For him, only secondary qualities exist. This follows from his contention that " to be is to be perceived." Berkeley argued that materialism could be rejected because there was no physical world. (d) the existence of external reality: First, we must realize that Berkeley did not deny the existence of external reality. What he did deny was that external reality consisted of inert matter, as the materialist maintained. What create external reality is God's perception. It is the fact that external reality is God's perception that makes it stable over time and the same for everyone. The so-called laws of nature are ideas in God's mind. On rare occasions, God may change his mind and this vary the " laws of nature," creating Miracles, but most of the time has perceptions remain the same. If secondary qualities are understood as ideas whose existence depends on a perceiver, then all reality consists of secondary qualities. (e) the principle of association: According to Berkley, each sense modality furnishes a different and separate type of information about an object. It is only through experience that we learned that certain ideas are always associated with a specific object. Thus, the object we name our Aggregates of Sensations that typically accompanied each other. Like Locke, Berkeley accepted the law of contiguity as his associative principle. Unlike Locke, however, he did not focus on fortuitous or arbitrate associations. For Berkeley, all Sensations that are consistently experienced together become associated. For Berkeley, objects are Aggregates of Sensations and nothing more. (f) his theory of distance perception: Berkeley agreed with lock that if a person who was born blind was later able to see, he or she would not be able to distinguish a cube from a triangle. Such discrimination requires the association of visual and tactile experiences. Berkeley went further by saying that such a person would be also be incapable of perceiving distance. The reason is the same. for the distance of an object to be judged properly, the many Sensations must be Associated. For example, when viewing an object, the person receives tactile stimulation while walking to it. After several such experiences from the same and from different distances, the visual characteristics of an object alone suggest its distance. That is, when the object is small, it suggests great distance, and when large, it suggests a shorter distance. Thus, the cues for distance are learned through the process of Association. Also, stimulation from other sense modalities become a cue for distance for the same reason. With his empirical theory of distance perception, Berkeley was refuting the theory held by descarte and others that distance perception was based on the geometry of Optics. According to the ladder Theory, a triangle is formed with the distance between the two eyes as its base and the object fixated on as its apex. A distant object forms a long, narrow triangle, and a nearby object forms a short, broad triangle. The Apex angle of the triangle will vary directly with the distance of the object attended to; the greater the distance, the greater the Apex angle and vice versa. The convergence and Divergence of the eyes are important to this Theory, but only because it is such movement of the eyes that creates the geometry of distance perception. The analysis of the perception of magnitude is the same as for distance perception. The meaning that any word has is determined by the sensations that typically a company that word. We have already seen this in the case of Apple.

David Hume

He agreed with Berkeley that we could experience only our own subjective reality but disagreed with Berkley's contention that we could assume that our perceptions accurately reflect the physical world because God would not deceive us. For him, we can be sure of nothing. Even the notion of cause and effect, which is so important to Newtonian physics, is nothing more than a habit of thought. He distinguished between Impressions, which are vivid, and ideas, which are faint copies of impressions.

Thomas Hobbes

He believed that the primary motive in human behavior is the seeking of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. For him, the function of government is to satisfy as many human needs as possible and to prevent humans from fighting with each other. He believed that all human activity, including mental activity, could be reduced to atoms in motion; therefore, he was a materialist.

John Locke

He is an empiricist who denied the existence of innate ideas but who assumed many nativistically determined powers of the Mind. Locke distinguished between primary qualities, which cause Sensations that correspond to actual attributes of physical bodies, and secondary qualities, which cause Sensations that have no counterparts in the physical world. The types of ideas postulated by him included those caused by sensory stimulation, those caused by reflection, simple ideas, and complex ideas, which were composite of simple ideas.

James Mill

He maintained that all mental events consisted of Sensations and ideas (copies of Sensations) held together by association. No matter how complex an idea was, he felt that it could be reduced to simple ideas.

Ernst Mach

He proposed a brand of positivism based on the phenomenological experiences of scientists. Because scientists, or anyone else, never experience the physical world directly, the scientist job is to precisely describe the relationship among mental phenomena, and to do so without the aid of metaphysical speculation.

Pierre Gassendi

He saw humans as nothing but complex, physical machines, and he saw no need to assume a non-physical mind. He had much in common with Hobbes.

ethology

J.S. Mill's proposed study of how specific individuals act under specific circumstances. In other words, it is the study of how the primary laws governing human behavior interact with secondary laws to produce an individual's behavior in a situation.

Briefly describe the life and work of James Mill (1773-1836). Describe his positions on the following: (a) utilitarianism (and hedonism, including Jeremy Bentham's perspectives), (b) association, and (c) factors that determine the strength of associations. Summarize James Mill's influence on psychology. (pp. 152-154)

James Mill, a Scotsman born on April 6th, was educated for the ministry at the University of Edinburgh. In 1802 he moved to London to start a literary career. Mill entered a successful career with the East India Company. Mills most significant contribution to psychology was analysis of the phenomena of the human mind. Mills analysis of Association was influenced by Hume and especially by Hartley. (a) utilitarianism (and hedonism, including Jeremy Bentham's perspectives): Bentham was the major spokesman for the British political and ethical movement called utilitarianism. Bentham to find human happiness entirely in terms of the ability to obtain pleasure and avoid pain. Similarly, the best government was defined as one that brought the greatest amount of Happiness to the greatest number of people. In Psychology, bentham's Pleasure Principle showed up later not only in Freudian Theory but also in a number of learning theories. James Mill was one of bentham's most enthusiastic disciples, and utilitarianism entered Mills version of associationism. Mill is best known for his Newtonian, mechanistic, and elementistic view of the Mind. (b) association: All things we refer to as external objects are clusters of Sensations that have been consistently experienced together. In other words, they are complex ideas and are reducible to simple ideas. Like Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Hartley, no matter how complex an idea becomes, it can always be reduced to the simple ideas of which it is constructed. Simple ideas can be added to other simple ideas, making a complex idea; complex ideas can be added to complex ideas, making a still more complex idea. Still, at the base of all mental experience our Sensations and the ideas they initiate. (c) factors that determine the strength of associations: Mill believed that two factors caused variation in strength of associations: vividness and frequency. That is, the more Vivid Sensations or ideas form stronger associations then less Vivid ones do; and more frequently paired Sensations and ideas form stronger associations then do those paired less frequently. As far as vividness is concerned, Mill said that (1) Sensations are more Vivid than ideas, and therefore the associations between Sensations are stronger than those between ideas; (2) Sensations and ideas associated with pleasure or pain are more Vivid and therefore form stronger associations than Sensations and ideas not related to pleasure or pain; (3) recent ideas are more Vivid and therefore form stronger association's than more remote ideas. (d) Summarize James Mill's influence on psychology: Mills analysis is regarded as the most complete summary of associationism ever offered. Thus, he gave us a conception of the Mind based on Newtonian physics. For Mill, the mine consisted of mental elements held together by the laws of Association; therefore, mental experience was as predictable as physical events.

Briefly describe the life and work of John Locke (1632-1704). Describe Locke's position on the following topics: (a) empiricism, (b) the mind-body distinction, (c) innate ideas, (d) sensation and reflection, (e) simple and complex ideas, (f) emotions, (g) primary and secondary qualities, (h) association of ideas, (i) education, and (j) government. (pp. 134-140) Comment: Much of Locke's thinking with respect to associationism anticipates contemporary work in the field of behavior analysis. Behavior analysts interpret phobias and irrational ideas in terms of past associations of pleasant and aversive stimuli in much the same way Locke did. With Locke we see surprisingly modern attitudes insofar as he explains current behavior in terms of specific past interactions with the environment. In addition, his suggested method for dealing with a fear of frogs (described by Hergenhahn on p. 118) is much like the graduated exposure techniques that contemporary behavior therapists use. Locke was also advanced in his admonitions against the use of intense physical punishment, which anticipates B. F. Skinner's strong stand against the use of punitive forms of behavior control. In Locke's own time, of course, physical punishment was much more accepted as an educational method than it is today.

John Locke was born on August 29th at Remington in Somerset, England, 6 years after the death of Francis Bacon. His father was a Puritan, a small landowner, and an attorney. Locke was a seventeen-year-old student at Westminster school when, on January 30th, 1649, King Charles the first was executed. Lock was born 10 years before the outbreak of Civil War, and he lived through this Great Rebellion that was so important to his English History. It was at least partially due to the zeitgeist, then, that lock, as well as several of his fellow students, was to develop a lifelong interest in politics. Indeed, Locke was to become one of the most influential political philosophers in post Renaissance Europe. It was through his medical and empirical studies that lock met Robert Boyle, who was to have a major influence on him. Boyle was one of the founders of the Royal Society and of modern chemistry. Locke became Boyle's friend, student, and research assistant. From Boyle, Locke learned that physical objects were composed of " minute corpuscles" that have a few intrinsic qualities. These corpuscles can be experienced in many numbers and arrangements. Some Arrangements result in the experience of primary qualities and some in the experience of secondary qualities. Where as Hobbs equated mental images with the motions in the brain that were caused by external motions acting on the sense receptors, lock was content to say that somehow sensory stimulation caused ideas. (a) empiricism: (b) the mind-body distinction: (c) innate ideas: Locke observed that if the Mind contained any ideas, that all humans should have those ideas, and clearly they do not. Humans, he said, are not born with any innate ideas, whether they be moral, the illogical, logical, or mathematical. (d) sensation and reflection: For Locke, all ideas come from either sensation or reflection. That is, ideas for adult either by direct sensory stimulation or by reflection on the remnants of Prior sensory stimulation. Reflection, the second Fountain of Knowledge referred to in the preceding quotation, is the mind's ability to reflect on itself. Thus, the source of all ideas is sensation, but the ideas obtained by sensation can be acted on and rearranged by the operations of the Mind, thereby giving rise to new ideas. The operations the mind can bring to bear on the ideas furnished by sensation include "perception, thinking, doubting, believing, reasoning, knowing, and willing". It is important to note that it is Locke's insistence that all knowledge is ultimately derived from sensory experience that allows him to be properly labeled an empiricist. However, although the content of the mind is derived from sensory stimulation, the operations of the Mind are not. The operations of the Mind are part of human nature; they are innate. Thus, Locke's philosophy, although labeled empirical, is partially nativistic. Locke opposed the notion of specific any ideas but not in eight operations of the Mind. Simple ideas concerning the physical world come from Sensation, and simple ideas concerning our minds come from reflection. (e) simple and complex ideas: Simple ideas, whether from sensation or reflection, constitute the atoms (corpuscles) of experience because they cannot be divided or analyzed further into other ideas. Complex ideas, however, are Composites of simple ideas and therefore can be analyzed into their component parts (simple ideas). when the operations of the Mind are applied to simple ideas through reflection, complex ideas are formed. (f) emotions: Locke maintained that the feelings of pleasure or pain a company both simple and complex ideas. He believed that the other Passions--like love, desire, Joy, hatred, sorrow, anger, fear, Despair, and lie, shame, and Hope--we're all derived from the two basic feelings of Pleasure and Pain. (g) primary and secondary qualities: Locke's friend and teacher Robert Boyle introduced the terms primary qualities and secondary qualities, and Locke borrowed the terms from him. One way has been to Define primary qualities as attributes of physical reality and secondary qualities as attributes of subjective or psychological reality. That is, primary qualities refer to actual attributes of physical objects or events that have no counterparts in the physical world. Boyle and Locke both took a different approach from Galileo, both primary and secondary qualities referred to characteristics of the physical world; what distinguished them was the type of psychological experience they caused. Following Boyle, Locke referred to any aspect of a physical object that had the power to produce an idea as a quality. Primary qualities have the power to create in us ideas that correspond to actual physical attributes of physical objects. With primary qualities, there is a match between what is physically present and what is experienced psychologically. The secondary qualities of objects also have the power to produce ideas, but the ideas they produced do not correspond anything in the physical world. These ideas produced by secondary qualities include those of color, sound, temperature, and taste. Both primary and secondary qualities produce ideas. The difference between the ideas caused by primary and secondary qualities that's come down to a matter of the acuteness of the senses. Locke's Paradox of the basins dramatically demonstrated the nature of ideas caused by secondary qualities. Locke beckoned his readers to take 3 water basins: one containing cold water, one containing hot water, and the other containing warm water. If a person places one hand in Basin a and the other in Basin B, one hand will feel hot and the other cold, supporting the contention that hot and cold properties of the water (that is, that temperature is a primary quality). Next, Locke instructed the reader to place both hands in Basin C, which contains the warm water. To the hand that way, the water and Basin C will feel hot; to the hand that was previously in Basin be, the water will feel cold, even though the temperature of the water in Basin C is physically the same for both hands. Thus, Locke demonstrated that the experience of hot and cold depended on the experiencing person, and temperature there for reflected secondary qualities. For Locke, the important point was that some of our psychological experiences reflected the physical world as it actually was (those experiences caused by primary qualities) and some did not (those experiences caused by secondary qualities). For Locke, subjective reality could be studied as objectively as physical reality, and he set out to do just that. (h) association of ideas: Association is a psychological theory which takes Association to be the fundamental principle of mental life, in terms of which even the higher thought processes are to be explained. According to this definition, it is possible to reject associationism and still accept the fact that associative learning does occur. Locke used Association to explain the faulty beliefs that can result from accidents of time or circumstance. Locke called the beliefs that resulted from associative learning a degree of Madness because they were in opposition to reason. In addition to ideas that are clustered in the mind because of some logical connection among them, some ideas are naturally Associated, such as when the odor of baking bread causes one to have the idea of bread. These are safe and sure types of associations because they are determined by natural relationships. The types of associations that constitute a degree of Madness or learned by chance, custom, or mistake. These associations lead to errors in understanding, whereas natural associations cannot. (i) education: his book had a long lasting influence on education throughout the Western World. By insisting that nurture was much more important than nature for character development. To him, important education took place both at home and at school. He encouraged parents to increase stress tolerance and their children. The advice given by Locke for dealing with irrational fears was remarkably similar to the kind of behavioral therapy employed many years later by Mary Cover Jones. (j) government: He attacked not only the notion of innate ideas but also the notion of innate moral principles. He believed that much Dogma was built on the Assumption of One innate moral Truth Or Another and that people should seek the truth for themselves rather than having it imposed on them. His political philosophy was accepted enthusiastically by the 19th century utilitarians, and it was influential in the drafting of the US declaration of independence.

Briefly describe the life and work of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). Describe his philosophy with respect to (a) mental chemistry, (b) psychology as a science, (c) ethology, and (d) social reform. (pp. 154-158) Comment: In evidence in John Stuart Mill's work is a clear recognition of the oddity of his own culture's unwillingness to consider women as fully human and equal to men. It is rare for people to be able to step out of their cultural context and recognize injustices of this sort, but it does occasionally occur. Mill married relatively late in life to a woman who had been a friend with whom he enjoyed intellectual companionship for many years. Much of Mill's appreciation of women as intellectuals and as the equals of men may have been due to the nature of the relationship he had with his wife. John Stuart Mill's father, James Mill, also held unconventional attitudes for his time, and this unconventionality may have also influenced him. John Stuart Mill wrote a fascinating autobiography (1873/1989) that includes a description of the early educational experiences his father gave him. His father was a demanding taskmaster who had difficulty expressing affection toward others, including young John Stuart. John Stuart Mill nonetheless came to appreciate his father's contribution to his education.

John Stuart Mill, born on May 20th. James Mills attempt at using associative principles and raising his son must have been at least partially successful because Jon Stewart had learned Greek by the time he was 3 years old, Latin and algebra by age 8, and logic by age 12. Perhaps as a result of his father's intense educational practices, j. S. Mill suffered several bouts of depression in his lifetime. perhaps it was also because, as he noted in his autobiography, his parents locked tenderness toward each other and their children. However Mill himself was able to have at least one loving relationship. J. S. Mill responded to criticisms of his philosophy and elaborated and defended the views of human nature he had presented in his system of logic. In 1869 he published a new edition of his father's analysis, adding numerous footnotes of his own that extended and clarified his father's view on associationistic psychology and sometimes criticized his father's ideas. (a) mental chemistry: j. S. Mill believed that (1) every sensation leaves in the mind and idea that resembles the sensation but is weaker in intensity (J. S. Mill cold ideas secondary mental States, Sensations being primary); (2) similar ideas tend to excite one another (James Mill had reduced the law of similarity to the law of frequency, but j. S. Mill accepted it as a separate law); (3) when Sensations or ideas are frequently experienced together, either simultaneously or successively, they become associated (law of contiguity); (4) more Vivid Sensations or ideas form stronger association's then do less Vivid ones; (5) strength of Association varies with frequency of occurrence. With only the minor exception of the law of similarity, this list summarizes James Mills notion of mentalphysics or mental mechanics, a view that j. S. Mill accepted to a large extent. Jon Stewart took issue with his father on one important issue. Instead of agreeing that complex ideas are always Aggregates of simple ideas, he proposed a type of mental chemistry. (b) psychology as a science: He contributed most to the development of psychology as a science. J. S. Mill began his analysis by attacking the common belief that human thoughts, feelings, and actions are not subject to scientific investigation in the same way that physical nature is. He stressed the point that any system governed by laws is subject to Scientific scrutiny, and this is true even if those laws are not presently understood. Sciences, can range from those whose laws are known and the manifestations of those laws easily and precisely measure to those whose laws are only partially understood and the manifestations of those laws measured only with great difficulty. In the latter category, Mill placed Sciences whose primary laws are known and, if no other causes intervene, whose phenomena can be observed, measured, and predicted precisely. However, secondary laws often interact with primary laws, making precise understanding and prediction impossible. Because the primary laws are still operating, principal effects will still be observable, but the secondary laws create variations and modifications that cause predictions to be probabilistic rather than certain. millview the science of human nature (Psychology) as roughly in the same position as tidology or astronomy before secondary causation was understood. The thoughts, feelings, and actions of individuals cannot be predicted with great accuracy because we cannot foresee the circumstances in which individuals will be placed. This in no way means that human thoughts, feelings, and actions are not caused; it means that the primary causes of thoughts, feelings, and actions interact with a large number of secondary causes, making accurate prediction extremely difficult. (c) ethology: Mill argued for the development of a science of the formation of character, and he called the science of ethology. It should be noted that Mills proposed science of ethology bore little resemblance to Modern mythology, which studies animal behavior in the animals natural habitat and then attempts to explain that behavior in evolutionary terms. As Mill saw it, ethology would be derived from a more basic science of human nature. That is, first the science of human nature would discover the universal laws According to which all human Minds operate, and then ethology would explain how individual minds are characters form under specific circumstances. The science of human nature wood furnace the primary mental laws, and a fella G would furnish the secondary laws. Putting the matter another way, we can say that the science of human nature provides information concerning what all humans have in common (human nature), and ethology explains individual personalities (individual differences). (d) social reform: like his father, j. S. Mill was a dedicated social reformer. His causes included freedom of speech, representative government, and the emancipation of women. He went on to note that male chauvinism was often defended on the basis of natural law (biologically inferior to males) or on the basis of some religious belief or another. Milk considered both defenses invalid and believed that a sound science of human nature would provide the basis for social inequality. Although j. S. Mill accepted bentham's General principle of utilitarianism, his version of it differed significantly but from bentham's. In bentham's calculation of Happiness, all forms of pleasure counted equally. For example Sublime intellectual Pleasures counted no more than eating a good meal. J. S. Mill disagreed, saying that, for most humans, intellectual Pleasures were far more important than the biological Pleasures we share with non-human animals. He said, it is better to be human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied.

Briefly describe the life and work of Julien de La Mettrie (1709-1751). Describe his views concerning (a) man as a machine, (b) the differences between humans and nonhuman animals, and (c) the desirability of accepting materialism as a worldview. (pp. 163-166)

Julien de la Mettrie, upon receiving his medical degree, soon distinguished himself in the medical community by writing articles on such topics as venereal disease, vertigo, and smallpox. A military coup campaign, la Mettrie contracted a violent fever; well convalescing, he began to ponder the relationship between the mind and the body. To him, it was clear that whatever influences the body influences the so-called thought processes. He believe that there's nothing in the universe but matter and motion. Sensations and thoughts are also nothing but movements of particles in the brain. (a) man as a machine: in the whole universe there is but a single substance differently modified. Single substance, of course, was matter, and this belief that every existing thing, including humans, consists of matter and nothing else makes La Mettrie a phsycial monist. (b) the differences between humans and nonhuman animals: La Mettrie creative intelligence and some personality characteristics with the size and quality of the brain. According to him, intelligence was influenced by three factors: brain size, bring complexity, and education. Humans are typically Superior and intelligence to other animals because we have bigger, more complex brains and because we are better educated. In any case humans differ from non-human animals only in degree, not in type. (c) the desirability of accepting materialism as a worldview: Humans would be much better served by accepting their continuity with the animal world. That is, we should accept the fact that, like other animals, humans are machines--complex machines, but machines none the less.

paradox of the basins

Locke's observation that warm water will feel either hot or cold depending on whether hand is first place in hot water or cold water. Because water cannot be hot and cold at the same time, temperature must be a secondary, not a primary, quality.

Étienne Bonnot de Condillac

Maintained that all human mental attributes could be explained using only the concept of sensation and that it was there for Unnecessary to postulate an autonomous mind.

Describe the life and work of Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655). (pp. 162-163)

Please Gassendi, a contemporary of both Descartes and Hobbes, lived the quiet life of a studious priest and was respected as a mathematician and philosopher. Both Locke and Newton acknowledged a debt to Gassendi, who's major goal was to denounce Descartes's purely deductive (axiomatic) and dualistic philosophy and replace it with an observational (inductive) science based on physical monism. Gassensi offered several criticisms of Descartes proposed mind-body dualism, the most telling of which was the observation that the mind, if unextended (immaterial), could have no knowledge of extended things. Only physical things can influence and be influenced by physical things. Gassendi concluded that humans are nothing but matter and therefore could be studied and understood just as anything else in the universe could. Gassendi suggested a physical monism not unlike the one that the early Greek atomist, such as Democritus and later the epicureans, had suggested.

George Berkeley

Said that the only thing we experience directly is our own perceptions, or secondary qualities. He offered an empirical explanation of the perception of distance, saying that we learn to associate the sensations caused by the convergence and Divergence of the eyes with different distances. He denied materialism, saying instead that reality exists because God precedes it. We can trust our senses to reflect God's perceptions because God would not create a sensory system that would deceive us.

Jeremy Bentham

Said that the seeking of pleasure and the avoidance of pain governed most human behaviour. He also said that the best Society was one that did the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Describe the general features of French sensationalism. (p. 162)

The French newtonians of the Mind have been referred to as naturalist, mechanists, empiricist, material list, and sensationalist. The French philosophers to be considered here and would be equally applicable to the majority of the British philosophers whose work we just reviewed. The goal for both the French and British philosophers was to explain the mind as Newton had explained the physical world-- that is, in a way that stressed the mind's mechanical nature, that reduced all mental activity to its basic elements, that used only a few basic principles, and that minimized or eliminated metaphysical speculation. We refer to the French philosophers as sensationalist because some of them intentionally stressed the importance of Sensations in explaining all conscious experience and because the label provides a convenient way of distinguishing between the British and the French philosopher first. In general, the French and the British philosophers were more similar than they were different. Besides both being influenced by Newton (or Galileo in Hobbes's case), they both strongly opposed the rationalism of Descartes, especially his beliefs in any ideas and in an autonomous mind. All ideas, said both the British empiricists and the French sensationalists, came from experience, and most, if not all, mental activity could be explained by the laws of Association acting on those ideas.

empiricism

The belief that all knowledge is derived from experience, especially sensory experience.

utilitarianism

The belief that the best Society or government is one that provides the greatest good (happiness) for the greatest number of individuals. Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, and John Stuart Mill were all utilitarians.

associationism

The belief that the laws of Association provide the fundamental principles by which all mental phenomena can be explained.

positivism

The contention that science should study only that which can be directly experienced. For Comte, that was publicly observed events or overt Behavior. For Mach, it was the sensations of the scientist.

Alexander Bain

The first to attempt to relate known physiological facts to psychological phenomena. He also wrote the first psychology text, and he founded psychology's first Journal. He explained voluntary behavior in much the same way that modern learning theorists later explain to trial and error Behavior. Finally, he added the law of compound Association and the law of constructive Association to the older, traditional laws of Association.

mental chemistry

The process by which individual Sensations can combine to form a new Sensation that is different from any of the individual Sensations that constitute it.

sensation

The rudimentary mental experience that results from the stimulation of one or more sense receptors.

law of contiguity

The tendency for events that are experienced together to be remembered together.

Briefly describe the life and work of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). Describe Hobbes's position with respect to (a) empiricism, (b) materialism, (c) psychological phenomena (i.e., attention, imagination, and dreams), (d) motivation, (e) free will, and (f) complex thought processes (i.e., trains of thought). (pp. 131-134) Comment: Hobbes is one of the more readable philosophers. Having a try at reading his major work, Leviathan (1651, as cited in Hergenhahn, 2001), may prove to be a worthwhile and even entertaining experience. It does, however, require that you become adapted to the syntax and vocabulary of his day. For example, he uses the word "fancy" as a synonym for an idea or notion. Getting past these kinds of minor changes in usage is an important key to becoming successful at reading philosophers and scientists of earlier centuries. Physical monism is the idea that everything that exists has a concrete physical basis and that there is no nonphysical mental world. According to this view, mental processes are seen as biological processes that have a physical basis.

Thomas Hobbes is often referred to as the founder of British empiricism. Hobbs was educated at Oxford and was friends with Galileo and Descartes. He also served as Bacon's secretary for short time. Hobbs did not become serious about psychology and philosophy until the age of 40. Euclid's book, elements, convinced him that humans could be understood using the techniques of geometry. That is, starting with a few undeniable premises, a number of undeniable conclusions could be drawn. The question was what premises to begin with, and the answer came from Galileo. After visiting Galileo and 1635, Hobbs became convinced that the Universe consisted only of matter and motion and that both could be understood in terms of mechanistic principles. it is interesting to note that although Hobbs was a close friend of Bacon and had himself a considerable reputation, Hobbs was never asked to join the prestigious British royal Society. The reason was that the society was dominated by Baconians, and Hobbes had nothing but contempt for Bacon's inductive method. He accused the baconian's of spending too much time on gadgets and experiments and of preferring their eyes, ears, and fingertips to their brains. Instead, Hobbs chose the deductive method of Galileo and Descartes. With Hobbs, we have the first serious attempt to to apply the ideas and techniques of Galileo to the study of humans. Hobbes' Infamous conclusion, 'homo homini lupus' (man is a wolf to man) is, according to Hobbes, fear of death that motivates humans to create social order. In other words, civilization is created as a matter of self-defense; each of us must be discouraged from committing crimes against the other. Unless interfered with, humans would selfishly seek power over others so as to guarantee the satisfaction of their own personal needs. Hobbs went on to live a long, productive life. He died on December 4th 1679 at the age of 91. (a) empiricism: Although Hobbes rejected Bacon's inductive method in favor of the deductive method, he did agree with Bacon on the importance of sensory experience. Although Hobbes accepted descarte deductive method, he rejected his to his concept of innate ideas. For Hobbes all ideas came from experience or, more specifically, from sensory experience. (b) materialism: All so cold mental phenomena could be explained by the sense experiences that result when the motion of external bodies stimulates the sense receptors, thereby causing internal motion. What other is referred to as "mind," for Hobbs, was nothing more than the sum total of a person's thinking activities--that is, a series of motions within the individual. Concerning the mind-body problem, Hobbs was a physical monist; he denied the existence of a non-material mind. (c) psychological phenomena: attention was explained by the fact that as long as sense organs retained the motion caused by certain external objects, they cannot respond to others. Imagination was explained by the fact that sense Impressions Decay over time. When a sense impression has decayed for considerable amount of time, it is called memory. Dreams too have a sensory origin: "the imaginations of them that sleep are are those we called dreams. And these also, as all other imaginations, have been before, either totally or by Parcels, in the sense". The reason that dreams are typically so vivid is because during sleep there are no new sensory Impressions to compete with the imagination. (d) motivation: Hobbes argued that external objects not only produces sense Impressions but also influence the vital functions of the body. Those incoming Impressions that facilitate vital functions are experienced as pleasurable, and the person seeks to preserve them or to seek them out. Conversely, since Impressions incompatible with the vital functions are experienced as painful, and the person seeks to terminate or avoid them. Human behavior, then, is motivated by appetite (the seeking or maintaining of pleasurable experiences) and aversion (the avoidance or termination of painful experiences). In other words, Hobbs accepted a hedonistic theory of motivation. Hobbes had both stated and explained moral relativism: there were no objective moral properties, but what seemed good was what pleased any individual or was good for him". (e) free will: in Hobbs deterministic view of human behavior, there was no place for 'free will'. People may 'believe' they are 'choosing' because at any given moment one may be confronted with a number of appetites and diversions and therefore there may be conflicting Tendencies to act. hubs referred to the recognition of such conflicting Tendencies as "deliberation" and to to the behavioral tendency that survives that deliberation as 'will.' (f) complex thought processes: Hobbs attempted to explain " trains of thought," by which he meant the tendency of one thought to follow another in some coherent manner. The question was how such a phenomenon occurs, and Hobbes answer reintroduced the law of contiguity first proposed by Aristotle. That is, events that are experience together are remembered together and are subsequently thought of together. To summarize Hobbes's position, we can say that he was a 'materialist' because he believed that all that existed was physical; he was a 'mechanist' just because he believed that the Universe and everything in it (including humans) were machines; he was a 'determinist' because he believed that all activity (including human behavior) is caused by forces acting on physical objects; he was an 'empiricist' because he believed that all knowledge was derived from sensory experience; and he was a 'hedonist' because he believed that all human behavior (as well as the behavior of non-human animals) was motivated by the seeking of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Although, not all the empiricists that followed Hobbs were as materialistic or mechanistic as he was, they all joined him in denying the existence of innate ideas.

Briefly describe the life and work of Alexander Bain (1818-1903). Describe (a) Bain's goal, (b) his laws of association, and (c) his ideas regarding voluntary behavior. (pp. 158-162) Comment: Bain's notion that recall is facilitated by making the conditions of recall similar to the conditions under which learning originally occurred has been empirically validated in modern experiments in the field of cue-dependent and state-dependent learning. (See Catania, 1984, for a discussion of the phenomenon.)

born in Aberdeen, Scotland, Alexander Bain was a precocious child whose father was a weaver; from an early age, Bane himself had to work at the loom to earn money for his education. He attended Marisol College, which in 1858 became the University of Aberdeen. Following graduation, being moved to London, where he worked as a freelance journalist. While in London, being joined a lively intellectual Circle, which included John Stuart Mill, and the two became close, lifelong friends. At the age of 42, with his reputation established, he finally obtained an academic post at the University of Aberdeen. Bain is often referred to as the First full fledged psychologist. besides writing the first textbooks in Psychology, Bain was also the first to write a book exclusively dedicated to the relationship between the mind and the body. (a) Bain's goal: his primary goal was to describe the physiological correlates of mental and behavioral phenomena. His text was Modern in the sense that it started with a chapter on neurology, he practice many introductory psychology textbooks haven't followed ever since. He was the first to attempt to relate real physiological processes to psychological phenomena. (b) his laws of association: For him, the Mind had three components: feeling, volition, and intellect. The intellect was explained by the laws of Association. Bane stressed the laws of contiguity as the basic associative principle. he supplemented the law of contiguity with the law of frequency. What was unusual about veins presentations of the laws of contiguity and frequency was his suggestion that both laws had their effects because of neurological changes, or what we would Now call changes in the synapses between neurons. Like John Stuart Mill, Bane also accepted the law of similarity as one of his associative principles. Whereas the law of contiguity associate events that are experienced at the same time or in close succession, the law of similarity explains why events separated in time can come to be associated. To the traditional laws of Association, he added two of his own: the law of compound Association and the law of constructive Association. The law of compound Association states that associations are seldom links between one idea and another. Rather, and idea is usually associated with several other ideas either through contiguity or similarity. When this is true, we have a compound association. With such a sociations, sometimes experiencing one element, or perhaps even a few elements, in the compound will not be enough to elicit the associated idea. However, if the idea is associated with many elements and several of those elements are present, the associated idea will be recalled. He thought that this law suggested a way to improve memory and recall. With his law of constructive Association, he inserted a creative element into associationism in which the way humans had done. Both bain and Hume insisted that the Mind had an imaginary powers. Bain thought that the law of constructive Association accounted for the creativity shown by Poets, artists, inventors, and the like. (c) his ideas regarding voluntary behavior: in his analysis of voluntary Behavior, he made an important distinction between reflexive Behavior, which was so important to the physiology of his time, and spontaneous activity. Reflexive Behavior occurred on matically in response to some external stimulus because of the structure of an organism's nerve system. Conversely, organisms sometimes simply act spontaneously. In the terminology of modern Skinnerians, Bain was saying that some behavior is emitted rather than elicited. Spontaneous activity is one ingredient of voluntary Behavior; the other ingredient is hedonism. he to accepted the fundamental importance of Pleasure and Pain in his psychology and especially in his analysis of voluntary Behavior. Apparently, the thought of combining spontaneous Behavior and the emotions of Pleasure and Pain in his analysis first occurred when, while accompanying a shepherd, He observed the first few hours of the life of a lamb. With voluntary Behavior, we still have the laws of Association at work. Some spontaneous actions become associated with pleasure and therefore repeated; others are associated with pain and therefore reduced in frequency of occurrence. Also, in accordance with the law of frequency, the tendency to repeat pleasurable responses or to avoid painful ones increase with the frequency of pleasurable or painful consequences. As was the case earlier with Hartley, it is important to note that for Bain, voluntary did not mean free. So-called voluntary Behavior was a deterministically controlled as reflexive Behavior; it was just controlled differently. The development of voluntary Behavior: 1) When some need such as hunger or the need to be released from confinement occurs, there is random or spontaneous activity. 2) Some of these random movements will produce or approximate conditions necessary for satisfying the need, and others will not. 3) The activities that bring need satisfaction are remembered. 4) The next time the organism is in a similar situation, it will perform the activities that previously brought about need satisfaction. Actions that are performed because of their previous Effectiveness in a given situation or voluntary rather than reflexive.