...René Descartes was born on March 31, 1596. He was born in La Haye en Touraine, France. He was very educated. He first attended a boarding school at a Jesuit college at age eight. He then earned a law degree at age twenty-two, where he met a teacher that guided him into using math and logic to understand the natural world. René was the youngest of three children and his mother Jeanne Brochard died when he was just one year old. His father, Joachim, sent all the children to live with their grandmother, and they stayed with their grandmother for several years. Their dad got remarried. Although the kids stayed with their grandmother their father was still very concerned about their education. Descartes was a good student, although he didn’t have to follow the school's extremely strict schedule and was allowed to sleep in until...
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...“It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well, said Rene Descartes”. All throughout history there have been many remarkable minds, but as was stated by Descartes; it is not about how good the mind is, it is about how the mind is used. Descartes has always been regarded as a great philosopher; as a matter of fact, he is known as the father of modern philosophy. However, he was more than a philosopher. He was also a great mathematician and an eminent rationalist amid other things. Descartes has played as a major piece in the realms of mathematics, philosophy, and even science; therefore, he had a great impact in the course of history. Rene Descartes was born on March 31, 1596 in the small town of La Haye en Touraine, France. He was the youngest son of Joachim Descartes, his father who was a council member in the parliament, and Jeanne Brochard, his mother who sadly passed away within the first year of Descartes life. After the death of his wife; Joachim had his children live with their maternal grandmother. Joachim was very adamant about his children’s education. He wanted his children to get a good education and so he sent Rene to a boarding school. Rene was eight years old when he was sent to the boarding at the Jesuit college of Henri IV in La Fleche....
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...Foundations of Psychology Paper University of Phoenix PSY/300 General Psychology 9/11/12 The roots of Psychology as we know today stems from the early Greek and Roman philosophers. If it was not for these philosophers the people of today would not been have able to interpret their writings and words; passing them down from generations and adapting their theories and concepts to present day. In general, all these different theories all genuinely revert back to these innovators and if it were not for them we would not have this subject that we have today called psychology. Starting off with the Greek Philosopher Socrates. Born in 469 BC to 399 BC, Socrates is known today as one of the founders of what people today call today as Western Philosophy. Socrates contributed a lot to the field of psychology he is especially known for forming a style of questioning which today we call Socratic method. According to "Socratic Method" (2011), “The Socratic Method, named after the classical Greek philosopher Socrates, is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas.” This allowed people the ability to discover more about themselves then ever before. Plato was a Greek Philosopher and mathematician born in 427 BC to 437 BC; he was one of Socrates’ students and was known to be a few that recorded Socrates’ teachings. He, like Socrates believed that people or individuals...
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... Every culture tends to vary from a different period. However, many philosophers have different arguments on culture in various time periods. This term paper will explain the life, times, and critical theories of Rene Descartes who is one of the most significant thinkers who ever inquired into the connection between mind and body. It will also explain how culture and period influenced his ideas. Also, it will identify and evaluate the key concepts and analyzes that comprised Descartes' theories. Furthermore, it will detect and describe Descartes' contributions to the field of philosophy as discussed below. The key concepts and analysis that comprises his theories that include the theory of sense perception and the theory of ideas which he mostly concentrates on. According to Descartes' ontology, there are three levels of being which are mode attribute and substance.. The levels of being are agreed regarding ontological requirement, Modes rely on attributes of their being in a way that those same attributes do not depend on methods used and but to rely on the substances for their being in a way that elements do not depend on characteristics. The spirit or nature of a mind, Descartes says, is to think. If a thing does not have faith in, it is not a mind. In his analytical, this very feature of Descartes' theory of ideas, Vere Chappell introduced the terminology of “counterparts” (Chappell, 1986). The sun as symbolized in an approach, which might be taken to be...
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...Mechanical Philosophy During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, natural philosophers were starting to reject Aristotelianism and began finding other forms of natural philosophy to study and believe in. One of the popular philosophies in the seventeenth century was mechanical philosophy. “Mechanical Philosophy sought to explain all natural phenomena in the terms of matter and motion without recourse to any kind of action at a distance (cause and effect without any physical contact) (Mechanical Philosophy).” This paper will go into detail about the mechanical philosophy’s background, advocates of the philosophy and later developments. The mechanical philosophy was foreshadowed in Galileo and Kepler. As the seventeenth century was coming to an end, the general public agreed that the universe was made up of small solid corpuscles, which moved and changed in direction as they were bumped by each other. The material atom was in favor of the mechanical philosophy. This philosophy originated from the views of the Greek philosopher Epicurus. He always looked for the main key for a good life. “Epicurus believed that the greatest sources of human unhappiness, apart from bodily pain, are fear of the gods and anxiety about punishment after death (“Mechanical Philosophy”).” His version of atomism is how the conclusion of a human soul is material, composed of atoms that are very small came up in science. Soon after Epicurus claimed this was true he exposed that the gods’...
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...the scientific study of human behavior and mental processes. The science of psychology has a history that goes back to ancient past. Back to the time of Plato and Aristotle but began to flourish and take shape in the 1600’s. For one to have an appreciation for this science he or she must consider the root and various perspectives of psychology. Modern psychology has come a long way since Rene Descartes and john Locke in the 16th century. The science of psychology began to flourish in the 1600’s with philosophers Descartes and Locke contributing significant theories on human behavior, impacting the rise of modern psychology. “As a science psychology evaluates competing ideas with careful observations and vigorous analysis” (Myers, 2007. p. 2). Rene Descartes was a French philosopher and mathematician who became influential and well-known in the field of psychology. He is the father of the mind-body interaction also known as the dualism theory. According to the dualism theory the mind and body are separate entities working together to build human experiences (Goodwin, 2008). While Descartes was working on his theory a British scientist Francis bacon was taking the science of psychology into a down-to-earth forum (Myers, 2007). Bacon’s theories were centered on experiments, experience, and common sense. He became one of the founding father of modern science, and his influence still hovers...
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...was a very famous philosopher and was called the father of psychology. Aristotle created idealism which believes that the mind and reasoning cannot exist without the body. Plato was also a philosopher. He taught theories based on the behaviors of humans like impulses and reasoning. Rene Descartes, another philosopher determined that psychology is an actual discipline. There are several philosophers that have influenced 19th Century philosophy. Edward Hitzig and John Locke are respected 19th Century philosophers, just to name a few. These philosophers have had an impact on 19th Century philosophy like no other. Their discoveries provide a different perspective on modern psychology. ("Understanding Learners", n.d.). Psychology as a Discipline According to "Understanding Learners" (n.d.), “Psychology as a discipline aims to describe behavior, explain behavior, predict behavior and control or modify some behavior”. (2). Rene Descartes was a French philosopher and mathematician. Descartes believed that ideas of the mind body and inherit knowledge. Descartes also believed that humans have a material body and a non-material spiritual mind. The human mind’s powers are supreme according to Descartes. He believed that the body could have an influence...
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...Modern Psychology reflects the discipline’s diverse history; the formation of psychology differs dramatically from modern-day conceptions of the field of study. To acquire a complete grasp of psychology, it is important to spend more time exploring the history and origins of this particular study in science. In this particular paper, the main concepts that is being explored is philosophers that historically relate to the beginnings of psychology as a formal discipline, major philosophers in the western tradition that were primary contributors to the formation of psychology as a discipline, and the development of the science of psychology during the 19th century. History of Psychology Psychology was not well known as a separate discipline until the late 1800’s, its initial history can be traced back to the era of the early Greeks. All throughout the 17th century, Rena Descartes, a French philosopher, introduced the first idea of dualism, which is the explanation that the mind and body are separate parts that work together to create the human experience. “Many other issues still debated by psychologists today, such as relative contributions of nature vs. nurture are rooted in these early philosophical traditions” (Citizendium, 2010). Psychology has been often mistakenly viewed as a young discipline, in all actuality Psychology has roots extending from ancient Greece. The father of psychology is known as Aristotle, he wrote his thesis “ De Anima, Parva Naturalia approximately...
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...History of Psychology Danielle Shank PSY/310 February 18, 2013 Kelle Daniels History of Psychology To understand psychology today, one must understand the past of psychology. Rene’ Descartes believes a person’s mind to have an ability to reason and the body to be a machine. However, John Locke believed a person’s mind to be a clean slate and it is filled from experiences. These are two amazing theories about the mind and body. However, if all of the theories were to be discussed this would not be an essay; this would be a book series. Psychology dates back to the 1900’s but the true history goes back to the Greek philosophers or even farther to the 17th century B.C. with Psamtik 1 (King of Egypt). He believed the Egyptians were the oldest race and was curious about how. The foundation of psychology starts with philosophy and medicine than later becomes its own category of psychology. Psychology gets broken down into smaller parts. This paper will go over different philosophers of the past that brought the start of psychology and then a man who was in the 19th century of psychology. Philosophers That Began Psychology Hermann Ebbinghaus states in his textbook called “Psychology An Elementary textbook”, “Psychology has a long past, yet its real history is very short” (Ebbinghaus, 1908, p. 3). When this statement is broken...
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...not something that came about over night. Through the years and centuries psychology has grown from simple ideals of philosophers into its own kind of science. There are not a lot of people who know very much about when psychology and philosophy first came together, which was during this century, “a period that to a large extent defined the philosophical-methodological distinctiveness of our psychological science in comparison to world psychology” (Abul'khanova & Slavskaia, 2007,p. 1). This paper will look at the early philosophers and the beginning of psychology. I will also research psychology and its development into a real science. One of the early philosophers was Plato, “Plato is one of the founding fathers of philosophy and has had a massive impact on the history of western thought” (In Great Thinkers A-Z, 2004, p. 1). Another early philosopher was Descartes, he believed that by using your own abilities to reason then the truth will come out (Goodwin, 2008). “Descartes identified the ‘thinking thing’ or mind, with the human soul or consciousness; the body, though somehow interacting with the soul, was a physical machine, secondary to, and in principle separable from, the soul” (The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide, 2009, p. 1). For centuries philosophers and psychologist have tried to figure out what the connection between the mind and body is and they have also tried to find out if the mind and body can function on their own their...
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...Are some methods of gaining knowledge (e.g., scientific methods) more reliable and rational than others? And can we ultimately justify fundamental beliefs concerning such things as the laws of logic, the existence of other minds (in addition to our own), and the durability of causal relationships?” (Fletcher, 1996). The origins of modern psychology have their roots in philosophy harking back to the beginning with the Greeks, and on to the age of enlightenment and into the 19th century. In the 17th century philosophers like Rene Descartes took their observations about human behavior and tried to explain how the mind and body worked. Descartes created a distinction between mind and body. He posited that the mind was in the pineal gland and the body composed of “animal spirits” that coursed through the nervous system and caused movement. He proposed that some ideas are innate, and some are derived from the environment. (Goodwin, 2008) Unlike Descartes, John Locke thought the accumulation of experiences is what shaped the mind. He believed that humans are a born a “tabula rasa and it is their environment that shapes their behavior. “"Let us then...
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...Cognitive psychology today has a huge influential role in determining how people think and how we learn. Cognitive psychology has been in existence since about the 1600’s. There are many interesting milestones in the development of cognitive psychology throughout the years. In the following paper I will discuss some of these milestones as well as discuss the importance of behavioral observation in cognitive psychology. According to Kendra Cherry (2012) “Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember and learn”. Cognitive psychology dwells heavily in how people acquire, process and store information. This branch of psychology has several forms of treatment, which help to improve memory, decision making accuracy as well as enhancing learning (Cherry, 2012). Plato and other early Greek philosophers were created the foundation for what would be known as cognitive psychology (Anderson, 2005). Plato's principles of rationalism described how reality should be viewed. Plato states that reality is not in the concrete objects we perceive but in abstract forms that the objects represent (University of Arizona, 2008). Plato also believed that logical analysis is how knowledge is found. Aristotle had the same thought process with his belief that reality lies only in the concrete world of objects that our body can sense (University of Arizona, 2008)." Aristotle also believed that knowledge could be obtained...
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...Does God Exist? Descartes’ Arguments and Proofs Rene Descartes considers what he can be sure to be true in his Meditations on First Philosophy. His meditations cover a vast variety of areas: the nature of the mind and body, the senses, the essence and existence of material things; but of all of these topics, one of his most thought-provoking and fascinating meditations is that on the existence of God. His argument is fairly well stated, but it is not flawless in its reasoning and logic. Through explanation and analysis of his position, this paper will set out his belief on the existence of God, the importance of this argument to his overall position, and to discuss several of the problems in his reasoning. The first proof at which Descartes considers God is the in the third meditation. By this point, Descartes has already concluded that the only thing thus far that he can be sure of is that he exists as some sort of thinking thing. He has considered the existence of a malevolent spirit that has set out specifically to deceive him at every turn, which has the effect of rendering any other belief spurious at best. In the face of the possibility that something is deliberately setting out to deceive him, he is left only with the knowledge that he is a thinking thing. From there, we get into the third meditation, wherein Descartes considers the possibility of the existence of God, and what precisely that would entail. (Beyssade) Descartes starts by pointing out that in order...
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...word “paradigm” to use in science -These paradigms I take to be universally recognized scientific achievements that for a time provide model problems and solutions to a community of practitioners. -Provide models (in law, theory, instrumentation, application) from which spring particular coherent traditions of scientific research. -Ex. Copernician revolution, Newtonian dynamic (new version of the world-the change of paradigm ) -Ex. Theory of light -today (in the 1960): light is photon. Ie. Quantum-mechanical entities( Planck Einstein) -In the 19th century, light was transverse wave motion (young and Fresnel ) -during the 18th century, light was material corpuscles (Newton) -in each case, research proceed accordingly -Understanding assumptions -Ontological: what reality is -Epistemological: how to access to knowledge, how knowledge is defined -Define valid knowledge at a time- it is always link on social conventions. Knowledge is never pure knowledge. It is link to the time of what is the social context. -upon which, research problems and analysis are designed (the questions that we asked are always link to the two term) -accepted view of science, of scientific knowledge at a time and scientific methods -Competing paradigms -competing visions at any time -winner: never explain all the facts to which it is confronted but -Do the job more effectively...
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...Massachusetts Lowell Philosophy Department Introduction to Philosophy Philosophy 45. 201.201/02S Spring 2013 Syllabusi Conference Time and Location Tu & Th 3:30-4:45PM Class meet at SOU 403 NC Instructor: Andrés Paniagua andres_paniagua@uml.edu Office Hours T&R 3:00-3:25PM & W. 6:00-6:25 Office TBD Course Description. The practice and study of philosophy constitute one of the most distinctive strands of Western intellectual tradition. In order to understand-even simply recognize-the deepest assumptions we make as a culture we must turn to philosophy and to those thinkers whose ideas have shaped our assumptions. We will approach the study of philosophy as a conversation among the greatest thinkers of all the time, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Locke, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre. Our focus will be on each philosopher’s ideas and their impact on Western Civilization. We will also delve briefly into the cultural and historical context of each philosopher, evaluate weather their ideas are still relevant and some of their argument remain compelling. Course outline. The approach of this class is hybrid. The first part following an historical and chronological sequence, the second part follows a topical approach. Part I (a), Ancient philosophy, with our main focus on Plato and Aristotle. Part 1 (b) Late Renaissance and to Kant. Part II Empiricism and Positivism and part II (b) Existentialism. We will wrap the class pointing to some recent issues in philosophy:...
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