the continental philosophers mental passivity vs. mental activity empiricism vs. rationalism nurture...

The Continental Philosophers

• Mental Passivity vs. Mental Activity• Empiricism vs. Rationalism• Nurture vs. Nature

German Rationalism

• A reaction against empiricism and associationism

• The mind is active

Immanuel Kant (b. 1724)

• An eccentric guy• Hume woke him up

from a “dogmatic slumber”

• Critique of Pure Reason (1781)

• Views on science

Kant’s View

• All knowledge does not rise out of experience, because experience is finite

• Sensations are ordered by the mind's structure (architecture) into perceptions and knowledge

• Mind is an active entity governed by innate structures

Upshot on Kant

• Mind is an active entity• Mind has innate structures• Mind consists of categories of thought• Kant did not think psychology would ever be a

true science

The Neo-Kantians

Hegel (b. 1770)

• Expanded Kant’s views• Argued that categories

of thought exist independently of any one individual’s thought

The Hegelian Dialectic

• Dialectical approach to change, movement, and progress

• Thesis - antithesis - synthesis - New Thesis..................

• Textbook says that this is like id-superego-ego…. Bullpoop.

Herbart (b. 1776)

• ”Founder of Educational Psychology“

• “Preview, Present, Review”

Contributions to Psychology

• Lehrbuch zur Psychologie (1816)• Psychology is a separate science from philosophy or

physiology• ”Threshold of Consciousness"• Ideas may strive to enter consciousness, but may be

prevented through repression

Schopenhauer (b. 1788)

• "The World as Will and Representation"• "The World is my Idea“

Schopenhauer on Will

• The driving impulse of all nature is will, our essence is will

• Freud’s id similar to his concept of will• Spoke of repression

The Philosopher of Pessimism

• “God is Dead”• “There can be no true happiness, because

happiness is only a brief respite from pain. Pain results from unfilled desires, which most of them are.”

• But, can escape this through celibacy, avoiding gluttony and drink, and appreciating art

Schopenhauer’s Dog

Other Strains of Thought at this Time

Positivism

• Movement to replace religion and philosophy with science

• No ultimate goal or purpose to nature

• Scientific approach to social order and social development

Comte (b. 1798)

• "Course on Positive Philosophy“

• Wished to form a "religion of humanity“

Comte and Science

• Explanations of life shift from theological to metaphysical to scientific as human intellectual progress occurs

• Different fields progress at different rates• 6 basic sciences: mathematics, astronomy,

physics, chemistry, physiology (biology), social physics (sociology)

• Law of Stages: Theological, Metaphysical, Positivistic

Comte and Psychology

• Psychology should be subsumed under physiology

• A science of mind wasn't possible• Founder of sociology, term coined in 1830

Mach (b. 1838)

• Physicist and "modern positivist" philosopher

• A basic set of rules must be established in order to assure the integrity of science

Contributions to Science/Psychology

• Sensations are the basic data of psychological science ("Analysis of Sensations,” 1886)

• Visual perception (Mach bands)• Rejected Newton's concepts of absolute space and

time• Matter traveling through air moving faster than speed

of sound altered the quality of the space through which it moved

Romanticism

• Reaction against empiricism and rationalism

• Emphasized the whole person, especially feelings and emotions

Rosseau (b. 1712)

• Man is born naturally good but through society becomes corrupt

• Morality corrupted by the shift from religion towards science

• The Social Contract• "Liberty, Equality,

Fraternity"

The Myth of Marie Antoinette

• “At length I recollected the thoughtless saying of a great princess, who, on being informed that the country people had no bread, replied, Let them eat cake!”

Goethe (b. 1749)

• Writer, scientist, musician, philosopher

• FAUST!• Contributed to

psychology, anatomy, zoology, optics, mineralogy, meteorology

Contributions to Psychology

• Believed in exact observation of phenomena• Pioneer in implosive therapy? • Research on color vision

Existentialism

• A happy, positive outlook on life… NOT!

• Preoccupation with the consequences of using one’s free will in an isolated and hostile universe where depression, despair, and death abounds…

Soren Kierkegaard (b. 1813)

• Founder of Existentialism

• “Fear and Trembling”• “The Concept of Dread”• “Sickness unto Death”

Kierkegaard’s Philosophy

• The most important human activity is decision-making

• It is through the choices we make that we create ourselves and become ourselves

• Aesthetic vs. Ethical vs. Religious planes

Friedrich Nietzsche (b. 1844)

• “The Birth of Tragedy”• “Human All Too

Human”• “Beyond Good and

Evil”• “Thus Spoke

Zarathustra”

Famous Quotes

• “God is Dead”• “Art raises its head when religions relax their

hold”• “A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum

shows that faith does not prove anything.”• “And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the

abyss gazes also into you.”• “What does not kill him, makes him stronger.”

Nietzsche’s Philosophy

• Life is a largely meaningless business of suffering and striving

• Morals, ethics, and values are human creations

• “Will to Power”• “The Superman”• Dionysus/Apollo