Psy 421: Systems and Theories of Psychology

Chapter 3--The middle ages, the renaissance and the new science

 I.    From Greeks to Renaissance
  1. St Augustine (354-430)--truth through subjective experience or introspection
  2. Arab influence Avicenna (980-1037), Averroes (1126-1198), philosophy, math and science
  3. St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)--Aristotle and Religious doctrine
  4. William of Occam (1285-1349)--Occam’s razor, law of parsimony
II.   Changes around Renaissance
  1. Marco Polo (c1254-1324)
  2. Crusades (11-13 cent)
  3. Columbus (1446-1546)
  4. Guttenberg (ca 1400-1468)
  5. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
  6. Michelangelo (1475-1564)
  7. Vesalius (1514-1564)
  8. Harvey (1574-1657)
  9. Luther (1483-1546)
  10. Copernicus (1473-1543)
  11. Kepler (1571-1630)
  12. Galileo (1564-1642)
III.   Renaissance effects
  1. The world got larger--discovery of America and rediscovery of Asia
  2. challenges to religious authority
  3. details of anatomy and physiology discovered
  4. Experimentation
  5. New technology--clocks, telescope, precision tools
  6. More books were published and increase in literacy
IV.  Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
  1. Discourse on Method
  2. Cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am)
  3. Mind-Body Interactionism

    4. specific locus of interaction
  4. Mechanism of body action
  5. Innate ideas, reason and language
V.  Spinoza (1632-1677)
  1. Concern for truth and clarity
  2. Opposed dualism
  3. Necessity of a natural order everything is unified
  4. Small things understood in terms of the large (God=Nature)
  5. Confused, adequate and intuitive ideas.
  6. Drive towards self-preservation
VI.  Leibniz (1646-1716)
  1. Rival of Newton (1642-1727)
  2. Monadology--active noninteractive simple indestructible monads

    3. (tiny units)
  3. Preestablished harmony
  4. petite perceptions--threshold of consciousness
  5. Thought is computation
VII.  Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
  1. Heavenly and earthly forces are the same
  2. three laws of motion
  3. A body in motion will continue unless acted upon from outside
  4. F=ma
  5. for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction
    6.
  6. mechanism underlies change
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