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117 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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reductionism
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the attempt to explain objects or events in one domain by using terminology, concepts, laws or principles from another domain
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epistemology
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how do people acquire knowledge about the world (one of the origins of psychology)
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metaphysics
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what kinds of objects exist in the universe (one of the origins of psychology)
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elements of scientific explanation
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description, prediction, control, falsifiability
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empiricism vs. rationalism
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empiricism: the belief that all knowledge is derived from experience of the outside world
rationalism: the belief that knowledge can only be obtained by mental activity |
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determinism
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the view that everything occurs as a result of known or identifiable causes
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dualism vs. monism
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dualism: the position that the world is made up of two kinds of things, physical and mental.
monism: the position that there is only one kind of substance (mental or physical) |
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zeitgeist
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the idea that progress in science is linked to previous discoveries and theories. The prevailing ideas, concepts, and habits of thought of a period in history are referred to as its zeitgeist
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The renaissance
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(1450-1600). Rediscovery of classic greek and roman writings. rejection of scholasticism, dominant philosophical position derived from Aristotle.
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rene descartes contributions
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unification of algebra and geometry/cartesian coordinate system. theory of reflex movement, mind-body relationship, skepticism
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skepticism/ Decartes' method
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1.never accept anything as true unless it can be clearly shown.
2. separate each problem into as many parts as possible and solve separately. 3. rank problems by difficulty and start with simplest 4. make review of conclusions and process so nothing is left out |
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cartesian doubt
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systematically calls into question and challenges assumtions and ideas, so that what is left is unquestionable and solid
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cogito argument
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something must exist (a conscious agent) in order to do the thinking and doubting. Decartes used this to argue for the existence of God
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hydromechanical theory of nerve transmission
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William Harvey.
sense receptors flow through the body as animal spirits through a series of pipes. |
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nativism
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some ideas are not invented or discovered, but inherent or innate, the truth is self-evident, not derived from experience.
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Baruch Spinoza (rejection of dualism)
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dual aspect (neutral) monism: evivalence of mind and matter. Pantheism: inseparability of nature and God. Deductive method: start with small # of principles regarded as self-evident and use to arrive at other true statements. his solution to the mind-body problem implies that mental experiences are subject to natural laws and can be studied the same way as the physical world.
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Baruch Spinoza (moral/ethical philosophy)
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determinism. freedom: consists in knowing that all events have causes and living one's life in pursuit of the knowledge of the causes of things. Hedonism.
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Gottfried Willhelm von Leibniz
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dualist, correlation between mental and physical events only, pre-established harmony. Nativism (the mind is like a block of veined marble), apperception, minute perceptions.
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Monadology
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Anton van Leewenhoek. monads, invisible units that make up the universe. Rational, sentient, and simple monads.
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The british empiricists
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Francis Bacon, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, George Berkeley, David Hume.
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The British empiricist approach
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respect for facts, virtues of careful observation, focus on learning rather than innate structure, emphasis on individual, idea of human potential, focus on practical aspectsof philosophy, egalitarian. Empiricism: view that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience. search for principles or laws of human cognitive experience.
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Thomas Hobbes
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all knowledge is derived from observation, material monist, determinist, materialism, priciple of association (interconectedness of ideas), drives (appetites and aversions), hedonism, free will as an illusion created by conflicts between appetites and aversions, Leviathan.
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materialism
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thomas hobbes. cognition and mental processes are based on the same laws that govern physical objects. perception, memory, attention.
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leviathan
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thomas hobbes. great beast. view of mankind in the natural state. laws are rules are the product of fear of the consequences of everyone acting out of self interest, laws and rules are conventions, not binding in any absolute sense, rational self-interest leads to support of a strong monarch.
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John Locke
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empiricist, blank slate (tabula rasa), no innate ideas(basic unit of thought), simple ideas come from sensation or reflection, complex ideas composed of simple ideas, secondary qualities do not correspond to physical properties, physical realism, molyneux's problem,animals have memory, learning and personality develop from experience, two treatises on government (social contract, people born equal, universal education as a right)
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physical realism
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John Locke. physical objects stimulate the sense organs and cause the mind to form an accurate representation of external reality
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Molyneux's problem
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John Locke. If a blind man knew how to feel the difference between a block and a sphere was suddenly able to see, would he know which object was the block without touching and only seeing the block and sphere.
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George Berkeley
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mental monism(idealism), denies existence of physical world distinct from perception, knowledge based on ideas, principle of association(object just combination of percieved qualities),
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George Berkeley's theory of vision
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distance perception is learned not innate. distance perception is not based on abstract geometrical relationships, but on learned associations between cues derived from different senses.
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David Hume
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radical skepticism, theory of meaning, causality, impressions(raw sensory data) leads to ideas, no innate ideas, only way to establish truth is through experience,Hume's microscope(reducing complex ideas to impressions), Hume's razor(a term that cannot be broken down into simple ideas has no meaning), theory of meaning, theory of causality
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Radical skepticism
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David Hume. strategy of suspending disbelief about an idea, proposition, or scientific claim. skepticism as a style of inquiry, skepticism as a psychological feeling.
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Hume's Theory of Meaning
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How can words stand for ideas:
1. they can be derived from empirical facts (matters of fact) 2. they can be derived analytically, based on the relationships among the ideas they contain (relations of ideas) |
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Hume's Theory of Causality
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What creates the link between cause and effect?
1. no necessary link between cause and effect 2. habitual association 3. feeling of necessity (natural belief) |
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Abstract concepts: Locke
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Locke: general concepts are contructed by a process of abstraction. Particular ideas derived from sensory experience are combined to arrive at general ideas, which represent all of the things held in common by all the examples and omit the features they do not share
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Abstract concepts: Hume
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all abstract concepts are derived from experience(from impressions). These include: space, time, math, causality, matter, force, energy, necessity. Agrees with Berkely and proposes that a general idea is used to stand for a set of particualr ideas as a result of a process of habitual association
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Abstract concepts: Berkeley
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if you eliminate all the feautres that are unique to a triangle, chair, or a person, you have nothing left behind. There are no abstract ideas.
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Hume's view of free will
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there is no logical necessity in events, the feeling of necessity is an illusion, a psychological projection based on the association of ideas, this illusion has great utility for everyday life.
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Causal theories of perception
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the philosophical position that our perceptual experiences are caused by external objects in the real world
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representative theory of perception
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the idea that our percepts resemble these external objects or represent them to us
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naive realism
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the belief that our percetions are the external objects, that they are one and the same
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Hume's problem with Locke's realism
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if our ideas are representations and our thoughts are simply copies of those representaions, then we can never know how accurate our sensory representations are, nor can we ever form any ideas of the real world, outside our impressions of it.
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Who is an interactionist dualist?
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Descartes
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Who believes in psychoparallelism?
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Leibniz
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Who believed in mental monism?
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Berkeley
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Who beleived in physical monism?
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Hobbes, Gassendi
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Who beleived in dual aspect (neutral) monism?
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Spinoza
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Physical monism
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the mind is a byproduct of the body
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mental monism
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the physical world is an illusion, everything that you perceive is mental
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dual aspect monism
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existance consists of one kind of substance which is itself neither mental nor physical, but is capable of mental and physical aspects
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solipsism
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concept that Descartes came up with; the idea that the mind is the only thing a person can know actually exists
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reflex movement according to Descartes
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animal spirits activated in nerve endings, send message to brain to, for example, move your foot after stepping on something sharp.
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induction
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starting point of argument is believed to support the conclusion but does not guarantee its truth
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deduction
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starting from basic axioms, arriving at conclusions through logical reasoning
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zeitgeist
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the idea that progress in science is linked to previous discoveries and theories
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interactionist dualism
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Descartes beleived that the mind and body are separate entities, but many important phenomena are a result of the interactions between the two
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psychophysical parallelism
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Leibnitz beleived that mind monads and body monads are separate entities that do not interact with one another but rather reflect differeing aspects or perspectives on the same harmonious universe
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reductionism
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the attempt to explain objects or events in one domain by using terminology, concepts, laws or principles from another domain
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epistemology
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how do people acquire knowledge of the world
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kinesthesis
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the ability to sense the position and location and orientation and movement of the body and its parts
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psychophysics
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fechner wanted to find quantitative measurement of mental processes, used complementary colors and subjective afterimages, found Weber's law. Three methods for measuring sensory thresholds: method of limits, constant stimuli and adjustment
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paradox of the basins
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John Locke: if you put one hand in cold water and the other in hot water, then put both in luke-warm water, one feels hot and the other cold
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tabula rasa
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John Locke's theory that the mind of a newborn is a blank slate and there are no innate ideas
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principle of association
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Thomas Hobbes beleived in the continuity, cohesion, interconnectedness of ideas
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Laws of association
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David Hume's two laws of association: association by contiguity(occur simultaneously), law of similarity. How ideas are linked together by experience
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pineal gland
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Descartes believed that the soul's contact with the body resided in the pineal gland because it was the only part of the brain not duplicated. It actually secretes melatonin which modulates the wake/sleep cycle
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monads
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Leibniz beleived the individual units that make up the universe are called monads: rational, sentient and simple monads.
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hedonism
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living for pleasure. followed by Spinoza who beleived that good and evil are nothing more than experiences of pleasure and pain. Followed by Hobbes who beleived in rational self interest.
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nativism
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Descartes beleived that some ideas are not invented or discovered, but are innate, their truth is self-evident, not derived from experience. Leibniz beleived that the mind is like veined marble with inclinations toward ideas.
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Weber's law
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the jnd for detecting a change in intensity is proportional to the intensity of the standard stimulus. Perceived intensity is equal to k log P, where P is the physical stimulus and k is a constant.
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place theory of hearing
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Helmholtz proposed that the basilar membrane, housed within the cochlea of the inner ear responds selectively to the different frequency components of sound waves.
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equipotentiality
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Lashley coined the term to describe the capactiy of an intact part of the brain to take over the functions of a damaged portion
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localization of function
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the idea that nervous functions are localized within regions of the brain, started with Franz Gall and phrenology and continued more scientifically with Paul Flourens.
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Speed of nerve transmission
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Muller beleived that this was close to infinite and could not be measured. Helmholtz foudn that it was relatively slow and vaired with the distance from the electrical stimulation
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double aspect monism
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beleived by Spinoza and Fechner, the view that the mental and physcial are two aspects of the same substance
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categorical imperative
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Kant said the categorical imperative dictates a course of action that must be followed because of its rightness and necessity
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psychic determinism
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Spinoza's monist solution to the mind-body problem implies that mental experiences are subject to natural laws and can be studied in the same way as the physical world.
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Hobbes Leviathan
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view of mankind in the natural state. laws and rules are the product of fear of the consequences of everyone acting out of self interest. laws and rules are conventions, not binding. rational self interest leads to support of a strong monarch
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unconscious inference
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helmholtz beleived that perceptions are formed through unconscious inferences made of the sensory information received
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action potentials
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is a pulse-like wave of voltage that travels along the axon of a neuron
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trichromatic theory of color vision
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Helmholtz beleived that human color vision involves three color receptors; red, green and blue
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pitch perception
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Helmholtz proposed that the location of maximum vibration along the basilar membrane determines the pitch we percieve
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doctrine of specific nerve energies
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Muller beleived sensory nerves could be stimulated in different ways to produce the same characteristic energy resulting in the same sensation. rejected the theory of animal spirits, hypothesized that nerve impulses were electrical
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clockwork universe
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can be thought of as being a clock wound up by God and ticking along as a perfect machin beleived by Descartes
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just noticeable difference
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Weber. The minimum amount by which stimulus intensity must be changed in order to produce a noticeable variation in sensory experience
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Descartes
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unified algebra and geometry, beleived in skepticism, something must exist in order to do the thinking, rationalism, nativism, believed the mind and body are separate
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Locke
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beleived the mind is a blank slate with no innate ideas, beleived all knowledge comes from sensation and reflection, simple ideas from sensation or reflection, complex ideas from composites of simple ideas, physical realism, two treatises on goverment, social contract
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Berkeley
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denied the existence of matter, beleived materialism is responsible for decline in morals, mental monism, knowledge based on sensory experience plus reflection, principle of association, no abstract ideas, distance perception is learned associations
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Hume
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radical skepticism, impressions are raw sensory data, ideas are derived from impressions, no innate ideas, all ideas derived from sensory experience or inner feelings, only through experience can truth be established, theory of meaning, theory of causality (habitual association)
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Kant
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mathematics is synthetic a priori because it depends on pure intuitions, transcendentalism, space and time exist only as part of the mind, categorical imperative, causality is fundamental to science, sythesis of empiricism and rationalism, perception as active process, mind studied only through introspection
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Helmholtz
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measured the speed of nerve conduction, unconsious inference, role of learning and memory in transforming sensory information, trichromatic theory of color vision, place theory of hearing, principle of energy in biology, theory of musical pitch
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Fechner
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psychophysics, double aspect monism, quantitative measurement of mental processes, used complementary colors and afterimages, rediscovered Weber's law, developed three methods for measuring sensory thresholds: method of limits, method of constant stimuli, method of adjustment
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Spinoza
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determinism, freedom (living for pursuit of knowledge), hedonism, deductive method, pantheism (inseparability of nature and God), psychic determinism
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Leibniz
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psychophysical parallelism, monadology, nativism, apperception (combination of present and past experiences) minute perceptions
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Willis
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taught Locke, detailed brain anatomy, gray matter and white matter, cerebral cortex has convolutions, blood vessels
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Flourens
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used ablation studies to disprove phrenology, found that cerebellum is importnat for coordinated movements
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Wernicke
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described a differt pattern of language breakdown with injury to the temporal lobe of the left hemisphere, which he described as sensory aphasia. Lesion in the temporal parietal lobe region, patient can speak fluently but incoherent
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Muller
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doctrine of specific nerve energies, beleived nerve transmission was infinite
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fourier
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fourier analysis (mathematical decomposition of any complex waverform into simple sinuoida), fourier synthesis (any complex wave form can be reconstructed from sine waves)
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bell
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two distinct types of nerves: ventral roots of spinal cord contain motor nerves, dorsal roots contain sensory nerves, differentiation of function
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broca
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case study of a stroke pateint with a lesion in the left frontal lobe, who could understand language but could not speak
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gall
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founder of phrenology
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donders
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measured simple reaction time to visual stimuli, subtractive method (time taken to discriminate the complex stimulus minus the time to discriminate the simple stimulus), choice reaction time (several different stimuli are presented and the response to each one is different), the time required to make a choice is determined by subtracting both simple and discrimination reaction times from the choice reaction time
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primary and secondary qualities
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John Locke. Primary qualities are perceived attributes resemble the physical objects that cause them. Secondary qualities are percieved attributes do not correspond to any physical properties
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Descartes vs. Berkeley on distance perception
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Descartes beleived in the role of geometry and binocular vision. Berkeley beleived distance perception was based on learned association between cues derived from different senses
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absolute and differential threshold
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Weber. absolute threshold is the minimum value of a stimulus that can be detected. differential threshold (jnd) is the smallest difference in a specified modality of sensory input that is detectable by a human being.
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pitch/frequency of sine wave and complex wave
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Helmholtz. Sine wave is a pure tone and a complex wave consists of varying tones, the activation produced by the lowest frequency of the complex wave determines the pitch
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simple vs. choice reaction time
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Helmholtz and Donders. Simple reaction time: subjects press a button in response to tactile stimulus. Choice reaction time: several different stimuli are presented and the response to each one is different
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vitalism and mechanism
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vitalism (muller): living things share a vital force that cannot be explained by the physical sciences. Mechanism (Helmholtz): the same laws apply to living and non-living things
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deduction and induction
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deduction: inference in which the conclusion is of no greater generality than the premises. Induction: the process of reasoning in which the premises of an argument are beleived to support the conclusion but do not entail it
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rationalism vs. empiricism
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rationalism (descartes, Leibniz, Kand): true knowledge is ultimately derived from a process of rational thought. Empiricism (Bacon, Locke, Hobbes, Berkeley, Hume): respect for the facts, careful observation, focus on learning rather than innate structure, emphasis on individual idea of human potential
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analytic vs. synthetic truths
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Kant. Analytic: a statement or item of knowledge that is known to be true solely because of its conformity to rules of logic. Synthetic: a statement or item of knowledge that is known to be true because of its connection with some intuition
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a priori vs. a posteriori truths
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Kant. a priori: a way of gaining knowledge without appealing to any particular experience. This method is used to establish transcendental and logical truths. a posteriori: a method of acquiring knowledge by appealing to some particular experience. This method is used to establish empirical facts and hypothetical truths.
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inductive and deductive method
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deductive method (Spinoza): start with a small number of principles or axioms regarded as self-evident and use them to arrive at other true statements
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noumena and phenomena
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Kant. Noumena: things in themselves, objects in a pure state independent of human experience; cannot be known directly. Phenomena: anything experienced is transformed by the mind into a subjective phenomenon
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Hume vs. Kant on causality
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Hume: there is no necessary link between cause and effect, habitual association, feeling of necessity. Kant: Causality is fundamental to science and human knowledge, a relationship not based on observation or logic and is imposed by the structure of the human mind.
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What are the four reasons why Kant beleived mental phenomena could not be studied using the scientific method
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because mental phenomena lack spatial dimensions, are too transient, cannot be experimentally manipulated, cannot be described mathematically
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What are some sources of evidence that led Helmholtz to postulate that unconscious inference plays an important role in human perception?
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when people wear distorted lenses, eventually they accommodate to the lenses and perform tasks normally, motion pictures are a succession of images seen as continuous, railroad tracks are parallel but seem to converge in the distance and other optical illusions, the physical properties of the eye allow for a distorted image that the brain counteracts.
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