THE CONTRIBUTION OF ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHERS TO PSYCHOLOGY
The ancient Greek philosophers contributed to the development of knowledge in all fields Under philosophy because the various disciplines had not differentiated.
PYTHAGORAS
Pythagoras had a lasting influence on western thought. Some of his ideas that influenced the development of psychology as a discipline include:- • The basic explanation for everything in the universe was in numbers and in numerical relationships. The sound of a lyre is harmonious only if one string is twice as long as the others. There is a relationship between string size and perceived pleasantness. This is the first psycho physical law in psychology. Later psycho physics became a huge topic in psychology. Numbers are real and they exert influence on the empirical world In spite of their abstraction. So he concluded that mathematical laws should be employed on every aspect of human existence. This way he anticipated the scientific method used by psychologists and more so the position taken by behaviorists. Define the terms psycho physics and the scientific method. • Ironically the Pythagorean school of thought distrusted the senses." Perfection cannot be achieved in the empirical world only in the world beyond the senses. Senses interfered with the gaining of knowledge". So members of the Pythagorean School of thought imposed on themselves long periods of silence, vegetarianism, fasting, exercise etc. This way the Pythagorean School became a cult and lost the spirit of free open inquiry. Today there is a vigorous debate on the impact of stimulus restriction and stimulus over load.
SOCRATES
His views were recorded by Plato and xenophone his student when Socrates was forced to take hemlock after antagonizing the powers that be in orthodox Greece with his critical inquiry and influence on the youth. Some of his ideas include:- • The mind vs. the body He was a dualist who believed that the soul was everything that transcended the physical world like beauty, morality, goodness and mathematical relationships. These he argued represented the ultimate truths. • Concern with justice He was concerned with the problems related to human existence and what it meant to be human. In this he anticipated the subject matter of psychology today. The branch of psychology most related to concerns of justice and fairness is community psychology. Existential psychology is very concerned about the meaning of existence. Check in the internet or the library the main concerns of community psychology. Also check the main domains of existential psychology. • Psychology as an introspective science Socrates was the earliest founder of psychology as an introspective science. He designed a method for extracting truths hidden in the unconsciousness simply by asking questions. He anticipated Carl Rogers's person centered therapy in which merely making empathetic response to the feeling and context the client leads the way towards solving his or her problems in the unfolding counseling relationship. Do a research on Carl Rogers person centered therapy. • The unconscious mind Socrates argued that there was a universal unconscious mind that was the repositor of truth and knowledge. He anticipated the psychoanalytic focus on the unconscious mind as the basis of personality. Carl Jung used this notion to develop his theory of the collective unconscious and its archetypes. Research on the terms unconscious mind, therapeutic relationship, and person centered therapy and the collective unconscious.
Quotes from Socrates Man know thyself. Knowledge is the highest goal of life acquired by reasoning. Knowledge and morality are intricately related.
PLATO Plato was Socrates student who was inspired also by the Pythagorean school of thought. He wrote Socrates ideas and also traveled to Egypt, Sicily, and Cyrene etc. He went back to Athens to establish the world's oldest university which was destroyed by Emperor Justine in Ad 529 A.D. • The theory of purer forms Plato proposed that everything in the empirical world was a manifestation of a purer forms. All cats and all dogs were a manifestation of a purer form of catness or dogness. Human beings were the same. • On the senses and acquiring knowledge All knowledge was innate and native to man by birth. This knowledge could be accessed through introspection. All knowledge comes from reminiscence that is recalling and crystallizing. Introspection is method of acquiring knowledge through reason and searching Inner experiences. • Personality In his book The Republic he came up with a type theory of personality which put all human beings in three categories that is the appetitive, the courageous, and the philosopher kings. Personality had a triune structure characterized by the intellect (head), the will (heart) and the appetite (stomach). The psyche is a unity with the above three unconscious activities that surface to conscious awareness. While the controlling force was the intellect, psyches may also be dominated by the will or appetites giving people their own personality type. A person adjusts psychologically only when he or she cultivates his most dominant traits and finds a suitable place in society where he or she can best function with respect to his dominant trait. The individual otherwise becomes a societal misfit, maladjusted, frustrated and miserable. A society in which everyone functions as he or she is best suited according to his psychological nature produces people who are well adjusted, happy and socially just. A society should hence ensure that peoples personality traits are brought out through testing to bring out individual differences. To enhance the native acquisition of the finest possible innate characteristics Plato advocated mating of psychological aristocrats to produce superior progeny. Education should also be used as a tool to develop to the finest possible peak, those natural endowments and psychological constitution. Plato anticipated humanistic psychology's notion of self actualization, psychological testing, educational psychology, career guidance, and the science of eugenics, psychoanalysisand social psychology. He wrote the republic and Pheado in which he discussed some dreams. HIPPOCRATES (460 - 377 B.C) He was born and educated in family of priests and physicians when the dominant clinical approach was temple medicine (holy bathes, smoke, water, costume, and exorcism). He acquired proficiency in diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of diseases. He kept records on epilepsy, hysteria, arthritis, and tuberculosis. He concluded that:- • All disorders physical and mental were caused by natural factors like inherited susceptibility, organic injury, and imbalance of bodily fluids. • He denounced medical practice based on spiritism and magic • He took naturalistcic medicine to new heights. • He agreed with another philosopher called Empedocles that everything was made from the four elements: fire, water, earth and air. • He associated the four elements with the four humors of the body Earth - black bile Air - yellow bile Fire - blood Water - phlegm If the elements and the humors were balanced there was health but if they were not balanced there was ill health. The work of the physician is to restore health by aiding the body's natural powers. The body can heal itself. He recommended treating the total unique person. Patients should experience kindness, get fresh air, rest, get massaged, eat healthy food etc.
Galen (AD 130 - 200) Galen associated the four humors of the body with the four temperaments hence coming up with the Galen - hippo Cretan theory of personality. Element humor temperament characteristics Water phlegm phlegmatic sluggish, unemotional Fire blood sanguine cheerful Air yellow bile choleric quick tempered Earth black bile melancholic sad
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