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The Premodern World 1000 – 1600 CE Chapter 4

Premodern: from Antiquity to Scientific Revolution.

The Middle Ages: Overview

The Middle Ages: 1000 – 1350 CE; period of economic and population recovery following Late Antiquity.

• Appearance of cities • Autonomy (of the citizens)

• Business (profits), not virtue, was the drive • Technological development – necessary to be productive • Opened up world trade

• No slavery Machine-thinking: began in the High Middle Ages; this was a belief that the world is a machine. This idea would become central during the Scientific Revolution. Middle Ages were important for science and philosophy.

• Many of Aristotle’s works were recovered • Developed his works and natural science flourished

Magna Carta (1215) limited the power of the monarchy and gave power to the citizens. Bubonic Plague divides the High Middle Ages from the Late Middle Ages. Bubonic Plague

• Time of turmoil and fear • 1/3 of Europe’s population wiped out • Conflict between religious and secular leaders • Luther’s Reformation (challenging authority of Catholic church)

High Middle Ages à Late Middle Ages à Renaissance Renaissance

• More Greek and Roman works recovered • Authorities of the Catholic church and feudal system were taken away

• Catalyzed the modern way of life

Medieval Psychology

• Change was seen as bad, because it often made life more difficult (e.g., poverty, bad rulers)

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• Even in times of prosperity, children would eat the surplus and then hard times would return • This was the model proposed by Malthus, therefore it is noted as the Malthusian economy

Medieval philosophy can be summarized by the phrase “as above, so below.” This was derived by extending the hierarchy to the right into the social world. This resulted in the Great Chain of Being:

God King

Aristocats Freemen

Serfs

• Status quo was maintained because kings were considered to be servants of God (being the closest to God on the hierarchy)

“As above, so below” is important because it ignores human nature. It prescribed characteristics to people and has not interest in exploring human nature. This premodern philosophy is different from the Greek philosophies preceding it and the modern ideas to come. 12th and 13th centuries: universities. These were associated with the church, and thus produced theologian-philosophers. Two figures in this school: St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas.

• The beliefs of St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas represent the two great Medieval approaches to human nature, knowledge, and God.

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St. Bonaventure (1221 – 1274)

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274)

Platonic-Augustinian: Christian Neoplatonic philosophy.

• Mystical • Dualistic

Soul capable of two forms of knowledge: i. Knowledge of the external world

• This is shared with the body • Not a representation of true reality, which

involves illumination from God ii. Knowledge of the spiritual world

• Includes knowledge of God • Comes from introspective meditation

o Goal was to gain a vision of God, not understanding of the self

Mental faculties

1. Vegetative faculties 2. Sensitive faculties 3. Intellect 4. Will

• Mental faculties contain “higher” and

“lower” aspects • System is similar Ibn Sina’s

Aristotelian-Thomistic: way of natural reason constrained by faith.

• Showed that Aristotle’s (scientific) philosophy and Christianity could be combined

• Believed that human reason is limited by

knowledge of the natural world

• Not a dualist We can only determine truth through what we observe empirically in nature. Through this, we cannot know God, but we can make inferences and come to know him by observing His work in the world.

• He drew from the works of Aristotle and

Ibn Sina

• Refined understanding (within Aristotelian psychology) of the aspects of human nature

• Wanted to know what distinguished

humans from animals Unlike Ibn Sina’s model, Aquinas differentiated two types of estimation (not pictured in diagram). Estimation proper: reflexive harm/benefit analysis belonging to animals.

• E.g., the lamb must flee the wolf, the cat must pounce on the mouse

Cogitava: higher order, rational harm/benefit analysis belonging to humans. We may approach/avoid at will, we do not act reflexively

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Intellectual appetite: will; ability to be motivated by morals and reason.

• Right and wrong • Humans

Sensitive appetite: reflexive actions of approach/avoid, and reducing obstacles in way of goals.

• Pleasure and pain • Animals

Differences from Ibn Sina’s model

• Differentiated human and animal estimation o Estimation proper & cogitava

• No compositive imagination (unnecessary because of description of memory and estimation) • No practical intellect (unnecessary because of description of cogitava) • Returned active intellect into the rational (human) soul – Saw knowledge not as a divine gift but

as a human ability

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Psychology in the Late Middle Ages (before the plague) saw a rebirth of empiricism. Ontology: study of existence. The Classical philosophers melded this into studies of psychology.

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William of Ockham: responsible for reviving empiricism in psychology during the Late Middle Ages. Differentiated psychology from metaphysics. Ockham’s razor: he always sought the most parsimonious explanations. Intuitive cognition: our perceptions give us real understanding about what is true and false in the world. From here it is possible to abstract (see next).

• Reality Abstractive cognition: concerning universals. Universals are mental concepts only that do not exist outside of the mind.

• Hypothetical (we may abstract ideas that do not exist or are false) He asked questions pertaining to psychology where the Greeks had asked metaphysical questions (e.g., how can we transcend illusion and access the Forms?).

• How do we acquire universal concepts when we have direct knowledge of only individuals? • Perception, object classification

Took cognitive abilities away from the soul (where Aquinas, Aristotle, and Ibn Sina had placed them) and attributed them to the mind. Habit: concepts we hold are derived from our experiences.

• Therefore universals are learned habits • Allow thought to be independent of actually sensed objects • Mental concepts (not behaviours, which was believed in the behaviourist tradition)

Proclaimed that there are no scientific grounds to think that the soul is immortal. This proclamation separated science and religion, and was a first step in the development of science.

Physical science: developed in the 14th century as a result of William of Ockham’s work. Summa theologica: St. Thomas Aquinas’ idea that philosophical truth and God’s truth are the same. St. Bernard of Clairvaux rejected the idea of summa theologica, stating that God could be known through faith alone.

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Realism: idea that truth has a divine property, and that universal human concepts correspond to enduring Forms. In medieval times, this was a popular belief. The most common manifestation was that universal human concepts are an Idea in the mind of God.

• Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas all held this belief Nominalism: idea that universal concepts are puffs of air that occur when we speak a name. That is to say, that there is no divine nature in universal concepts. This is the opposite of realism. Trying to analyze universal concepts would constrain 14th century thinkers in their belief of what humans could know. Peter Abelard: greatest medieval philosopher before the High Middle Ages (when Aristotle’s works were recovered). Conceptualism: universal concepts are not divine ideas but rather are mental labels.

Major consequence of conceptualism:

• Before, it was believed that humans could have complete knowledge – that is, they could transcend perception and have knowledge of the Forms or Ideas in the mind of God.

• Now, conceptualism called into question whether or not beliefs reflect mere opinion • Skepticism came back

If God created our realities, he could make illusions that we think we see but do not truly exist. Nicholas of Autrecourt: believed that thinking is a human activity that requires understanding, not divine intervention. Appearances are reality; even though we cannot know this for certain, it is more worthwhile than the opposite assumption that all appearances are false.

• Follower of Ockham The modern concept of the individual came about during the High Middle Ages.

• Biographies and autobiographies • Mirrors • Portraits reflecting the person, not just their status • Literature

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In early Christianity, women were allowed in every part of religious life: they could preach, worship, and often lived in chaste, mix-sex monasteries. Christianity began to take on Classical culture, and with it brought the misogyny of the Romans and rejection of sensual pleasure (a la Plato). Women, then, were ...

• Oppressed • No longer allowed to preach • Not allowed at holy relics • Considered man’s helper (as if this was their only calling)

• Sex considered sinful (whether married or not)

• Virgin women considered holy, and yet all women seen as temptresses

St. Jerome: Christian misogynist who described womanhood as the temptation of flesh. Fin amour: “courtly love.” This idea came about through popular literature with romantic themes.

• Romantic sexual love • Knightly honour • Adultery

Marie of France was one author who wrote fiction in the fin amour canon. Consequences of fin amour

• Brought about more focus on the individual and the individual’s feelings o People ought to be valued

• Internalization of behavioural motivations, as opposed to previous beliefs of external forces acting on us (e.g., Virtue and Vice)

• Romantic love as a motivator Sex in popular media – it was a common theme across literature at the time.

• Theme of many folk tales and fabliaux (tales) • Focus of the work of goliards (student poets and singers of the High Middle Ages)

o Most notable works: Carmina Burana, a collection of songs that portrays Venus in a sexual light

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• Theories on motivation take romantic love into account • Limerence (romantic love) coined by Tennov

Ars Amatoria: work by pagan Roman Ovid, whose tales were refashioned to be more Christian. This inspired later tales, such as those of King Arthur (which is a fin amour).

The Individual in Academic Psychology

Medieval paradigm shift to focus on the individual – roots were laid by pop culture, but were continued • Ethics • Mystic religions

12th century can be seen as a before-and-after for outlook on sin. Before, people thought that sin was not a personal issue and neither was penance. After the 12th century, people starting thinking about intent and how personal this is when it comes to sin. Voluntaristic ethics: sin should be judged on intention, not on action.

• Peter Abelard • Notice that actions are an outward idea, but intention is the domain of the individual

Confessional was an early form of psychotherapy.

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Mysticism: the way to God is through contemplation; marries medieval conceptions of science and God.

• St. Francis of Assisi (13th century) • Ascetic

o Similar to Buddhist, Hindu, druid, and Celtic Christian ideals • Individualism

Witchcraft

• Rooted in European paganism • Clerical conception (that witches were true things of evil, possessed by demons and soulless)

eventually because the widespread notion o This suited oppressed women, because although it was socially undesirable to be a witch,

it gave them a means of power over others (by being feared)

The Renaissance

Renaissance: 1350 – 1600. • Creativity in the arts • Medieval à Modern (as far as history of psychology is concerned)

• Return of humanism

o Previous focus on the feudal system (social class) and religion (Heaven or Hell?)

Party of the Ancients: those who believed that Classical Greece and Rome had it right, while medieval philosophy was irrational. People in this camp brought back the Classical ideas, and with it brought back humanism. This influence lasted all the way until the 18th century (around the times of the Enlightenment and Age of Reason).

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• Responsible for the Scientific Revolution During the Middle Ages, knowledge Aristotle’s works was limited to his theories on the universe. During the Renaissance, more translations were done for Aristotle’s natural philosophies, and the work of the Stoics and atomists came to light.

• “Revival” helped the Party of the Ancients think of problems in new ways o Cumulated in the Scientific Revolution

Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626): lead new practice of exploring nature through experimentation. • Includes human nature • “Knowledge is power” • The need to understand (human) nature comes from the need to control (human) nature. This is

still an important part of psychology o Uncover determinants so that we can provide treatments and essentially change the

natural way Machiavelli: first social psychologist; founded modern applied psychology by linking human nature to pursuit of political power.

• Humans inclined to sin • Taught princes how to exploit human nature while avoiding negative consequences • Our motivations are not necessarily divine, but human (e.g., ambition)

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Renaissance naturalism Renaissance naturalism: rejection of supernatural explanations and development of secular hypotheses of causalities.

• On life and mind, posited that perhaps we lived because we had some inherent life force – not because of animation by a divine soul

o This does not help explain why we experience mental activity (no explanation of mind) o Finality in death

Natural magic: the basis of experimentalism, whereby the supernatural element behind explanations was simply that humans were able to alter the course of nature. Party of Moderns: challenged the Party of Ancients, believing that modern thinkers could surpass the wisdom of the Ancients. Popular psychology in the Renaissance: the mind within Florence: most important city in the development of individualism and the mind.

• Machiavelli & Dante from here Divine Comedy: early 14th century allegory of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory.

• Uses real people to personify different types of sin • Hell is based on Aristotle’s ideas

o Sins must be repented for before death, otherwise entry to Hell o Sins of the flesh (eating and flesh) are the smallest crimes because God wants them to be

committed (“go forth and multiply”) and thus created them to be pleasurable • Crimes committed voluntarily are more sinful

o Taking the Lord’s name in vain is considered the worst o Unnatural breeding

§ Usury (lending money for an interest fee) § Sodomy

o Lust (reference to fin amour – Dante warned of its dangers) Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 – 1400): Fourteenth century poet who created the first individualized, realistic characters in English. The Canterbury Tales

• Representative characters from each social class • Realistic characters • Sex, love, marriage

Wife of Bath’s Tale (“Dame Alison”)

• Widowed 5 times, wealthy from inheritance • Loathly damsel • Looking for a young, sexy, and obedient “boy toy” for her sixth husband

o Demonstrates sexual liberty of 14th century women

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Wife of Bath’s Tale (cont’d) Guinevere’s lover has raped a woman while questing, a crime for which Arthur seeks to have

him beheaded. Guinevere promises the knight his life if he can answer the question, “what do women want?” (This question would later be posed by Freud). The knight finds an old hag, who agrees to give him the answer in exchange for a boon. The knight agrees. The hag tells him that women wish to be in charge – to have power over their men (a fin amour notion). This answer saves the knight’s life. The hag comes to collect her boon, which turns out to be marriage. She marries the knight and gives him an ultimatum: she may stay a hag and be faithful to him, or she can become beautiful but unfaithful. The knight cannot decide, so he gives the hag the choice. Seeing that she has control over him, she becomes beautiful and remains faithful. Importance of the Wife of Bath’s Tale

• Fin amour language and setting • Social class

o The knight is noble in class but not in action – he has committed rape and tried to break his word (get out of his boon), even though he could not

• Marriage & gentilesse o One should love, honour, and obey his wife

• Chaucer’s way of lecturing the nobility (particularly men) in how to behave in marriage William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)

• 16th century • Unlikely to have been influenced by Dante or Chaucer • Grew up with passion plays and morality plays

Othello contains elements of morality plays, with the character Iago being a personification of Vice or the Devil. What’s different about Othello is that Iago, although perhaps a personification, is also a life-like individual, as are the other main characters Othello and Desdemona.

Psychomachia: conflict of the soul. Miguel Cervantes (1547 – 1616)

• Don Quixote may be the first novel that explores elements of psychology (e.g., character, personality, consciousness) in an artistic way

In Don Quixote, the title character is poor but is too proud of his aristocratic heritage to work. He spends his days reading fin amour manuscripts until he goes insane. Out of delusion, he starts treating common

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people nicely. He is summoned by nobles, who have heard of his madness and want to exploit it for entertainment. He tells them that he found Dulcinea (the bar maiden he found and took as his woman) and believes her to be under a spell of ugliness by the evil enchanters that persecute him. As a good knight, he treats her with valiant service and does not ignore her as the enchanters would intend.

• This last point is significant in that it describes fin amour depictions (minus the adultery) When challenged as to the existence of Dulcinea (who does indeed exist but is truly a simple bar maiden, not a lady cursed to be a simpleton), Don Quixote answers that she is the Form of Lady, ageless and perfect.

• Platonic description of the Forms

Both Cervantes and Defoe tried to depict their characters as real people, and were so successful in making them realistic that they received trouble when their characters turned out to be fictitious. Pamela by: Samuel Richardson

• First novel openly published as a work of fiction • IMPORTANT! Because it begets the establishment of the individual by presenting characters as

realistic individuals The Reformation

Began in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral as a challenge to Catholic hierarchy. (I will return to this after explaining the context, next). Salvation happened when you attended Mass and said prayers (for yourself and for the dead).

Purgatory was an important notion at the time, because it meant that sins could be expiated without facing the damnation of Hell.

• Family could represent you by doing good deeds on earth after your passing • Could also buy a family member a ticket out of Purgatory by hiring people to pray for them

and/or by giving money to the church

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Luther did not like the idea of the soul being released from Purgatory through relatives’ prayers, or even worse, by buying a way out. Redemption from:

• Faith. Faith in that sins had been redeemed through the death of Christ. Luther wanted a religion that was based on faith and devotion – not rituals and priests and hierarchies.

Counter-Reformation fought the Protestant (of which Lutheranism is a denomination) rebellion and sought to reform its own practices, namely in making more stringent rules surrounding sexual behaviour.

The Renaissance had been a time of anxiety, fear, and stress, all surrounding death. The Black Plague had all but wiped out most of England. The people sought scapegoats, and they hunted Jews and witches. Late 16th century: doubt and skepticism. In Shakespeare you can see that there was humanistic optimism, but at the same time there was existentialism and disdain. Michael de Montaigne

• Rejected idea of humans being above animals • Humans and animals equal creations of God • Experience > Reason

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• Books demonstrate our beliefs, our belief systems, and tell you something about the times “Courtier’s academy” by: Annibale Romei

• Humans as the centre of our own microcosm • Humans as model of the sensible world, with our souls representing Plato’s intelligible world • In this way, the body represents physical world and the mind exists in the invisible world • Both natural and supernatural, animalistic and angelic