The Rise of the New Philosophy
Unit 4B: Chapter 8 Notes
Adapted from History of Psychology: The Making of a Science (Edward P. Kardas, 2014)
Susanne Nishino, Ph.D. 2013
Chapter 8: The Rise of the New Philosophy
Marin Mersenne (1588 – 1648)
• French friar, theologian, & mathematician who played critical role in development of modern psychology
• Mersenne’s cell at monastery in Paris played role like the “invisible college” informal meetings of early scientists in England before chartering of Royal Society
• Followed Francis Bacon’s recommendations that scientists should work collaboratively
• Rationalist who helped nurture early days of Enlightenment
Enlightenment
• Enlightenment = the period spanning the midpoints of the 17th and 18th centuries characterized by radical changes in thinking about science, politics, and the arts
• Enlightenment = historical period between Renaissance and Modernism
• Thinkers skeptical about early claims of knowledge from religion & metaphysics
• Astronomical discoveries that led to heliocentric model of universe early stimuli for change in worldview
• Eventually Enlightenment broadened from astronomy to include all science and gave rise to new disciplines, including psychology
• Enlightenment thinkers believed human mind capable of understanding nature in any of its guises
Rationalism & Empiricism: New Philosophy
• Philosophy’s responses to empirical research of the early scientists, new intellectual process, science, inspired by Copernicus and pioneered by Kepler & Newton soon served as example for variety of disciplines
• Two new and competing forms of philosophy arose
– Empiricism
– Rationalism
• Both important in issues and creation of the psychology disciple itself
• Rationalism & Empiricism new philosophy from which psychology emerged in 19th century
• Rationalism = the universe, including physical events, can only be explained through the action of human thought
• Empiricism – the view that holds that all knowledge comes from experience, especially from sensory experience
• Rene Descartes founder of rationalism, 1st of new philosophers, writings in mathematics, physics, & metaphysics influenced generations of philosophers, led to creation of rationalism, and later to its oppositional counterpart, empiricism
• Descartes inspired supporters and opposition
• Majority of rationalist philosophers = Continental philosophers
• Majority of empiricist philosophers = British empiricists
Rene Descartes & Roger Bacon
• Descartes & Francis Bacon in England among first to break away from Scholasticism & its methods
• Descartes searched for universal knowledge independent of sensory observations
• Bacon promoted role of sensory observations in his philosophy, proposed radical form of empiricism called induction
• Modern philosophy, and by extension, psychology, is still affected by competing visions
Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650): Rationalism
• Elucidation of basic principles of analytic geometry, showed problems in geometry could be solved algebraically, later mathematicians developed x, y, x coordinate system using his notation, named Cartesian in his honor
• Sought to explain reflexes by hydraulic model of nerve action, mechanistic model
• Distinguished between humans and animals by assigning mind only to humans, animals no minds behaved only as result of mechanistic principles
• Descartes contribution to mathematics profoundly important to later development of calculus by Newton & Leibniz
• Determined to reform natural philosophy or physics
• Explained phenomenon of refraction, would later use phenomenon to explain his approach to proper methods of gathering knowledge, Central to later thinking was that immersed in water object only looked broken
• Therefore , information presented by the senses was false: However, mathematically derived rules explaining phenomena were true
Descartes: New Philosophy
• Descartes realized physics needed a firm metaphysical foundation to explain discordant sensory & mathematic results
• In Meditations moved into metaphysics and helped found new philosophy
• Metaphysics = study of first principles and of how knowledge is acquired
• Breakthrough when realized he was thinking “Cognito, ergo sum” “I think, therefore I am,” bedrock foundation of his knowledge
• Proposed radically new classification of knowledge, separate theology from philosophy and divided faculties of mind into categories of history, imagination, & reason
Descartes: Dualism – Mind & Matter
• Then went on to divide world into two parts
– External, physical world = matter
– Internal, immaterial, & independent = human mind
• Matter could be studied mechanistically by measuring size, shape, position, & motion
• Mind could think, imagine, & sense, operated on ideas and possessed will that allowed it to seek pleasure or avoid pain
• Defined one of most persistent modern philosophical questions = the mind-body problem
The Mind-Body Problem & Scientific Progress
• Division of world into mind and body revolutionary
• According to Descartes
– Now physics only concerned with material parts of universe (e.g. body)
– Mathematics could ultimately explain workings of the universe beyond all doubt using minimum of measureable variables
– The mind was where variables such as color, sound, smells, & tastes originated, variables highly individualized and could not be explained
• Left with the problem of explaining how body and mind interacted
• Descartes solution to mind-body problem = interactionism, a type of dualism
• Believed both mind and body existed and that each affected the other “. . .body is by nature always divisible, and the mind is entirely indivisible”
• Descartes interactive dualism claimed pineal gland of brain locus of where interaction occurred
• His mind-body distinction has lasted until present day
• Other philosophers have proposed solutions to mind-body problem
– Monistic solutions of idealism (either mind or body)
– Materialism
– Dualistic solutions (mind & body) of epiphenomenalism, occasionalism, parallelism, double aspectism, and pre-established harmony
Mind-Body Problem: Border with Social Science
• Descartes founder of new philosophy, legacy is vast, inspired others to complete & refine his rationalist approach or create new to counter
• Synergy between physics, mathematics, & mind-body problem advantageous to physical science
• Separation of body from mind meant sciences whose subject matters could be studied by measuring primary qualities quickly prospered
• 1st physics, later chemistry developed quickly, could be profitably studied only by examining physical universe
• Psychology & social sciences 1st to emerge from moral philosophy, Descartes saw as concerned with passions & their control, along with methods of directing will toward good
• Physics & hard sciences smoother historical past, social sciences have to cope with both halves of the problem
Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626): Empiricism
• Proposed radically new classification of knowledge, separate theology from philosophy and divided faculties of mind into categories of history, imagination, & reason
• Believed only proper role of theology was to prove existence of god, philosophies job to illuminate wonders of god’s creation
• Revived & expanded logical method of induction
• Believed scientists could successfully understand world through the use of their senses, however scientific facts could only be obtained if sensory information was collected properly
• Discounted phenomena that could not be repeated, railed against imprecise words
• Noted humans inherently biased, proposed methods to control for biases
• Biases via four idols if not accounted for would lead to falsehoods derived from observation
– Idols of the Tribe = common human errors in perception, sensory errors, correctable by multiple observers or instrumentation, conclusions on small sample, desire to confirm preconceived notions
– Idols of the Cave = culture & individual differences, families, schools, religions, gender, social class, alter perceptions of same observations
– Idols of the Market Place = social interactions & miscommunications, jargon,
– Idols of the Theatre = competing systems of philosophy, required viewers to suspend belief
• Proposed new kind of induction methodology to address problems of biased observation, wanted scientists to guarantee accurate results & facts from observations, facts then would become reliable databases of science, believed all sciences could collect reliable data
• Next step to develop tables of how facts were related to each other, presence, absence, or degree of common factors, looking for primitive type of correlation, recognized contradictions in observations logically important
• Never proposed role of hypothesis, proposed another essential feature of modern science, the close collaboration of scientists, idea led to Royal Society
• Divided science into two categories
– Theoretical
– Applied
• Recognized intimate relationship between science & technology
• Ideas contrasted sharply with Descartes, set up long running conflict between empiricism & rationalism
English Civil Wars (1642 -1651)
• England, Scotland, Ireland
• Issues of divine right of kinds, religious toleration, civil rights central
• Greatly affected fortunes of two empiricists
– Thomas Hobbes
– John Locke
The British Empiricists
• Thomas Hobbes
• John Locke
• George Berkley
• David Hume
Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679): Materialism
• Disagreed with Descartes on important issue of notion of separate and incorporeal mind existing without a physical substrate
• Materialist, for everything including god had to possess physical existence
• Categorically opposed to dualism
• Agree with Descartes that philosophy should proceed from rationalist precepts
• Believed…
