Classical theories on human nature

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Classical theories on human nature

• Aristotle Plato

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PLATO (427-347 BCE)

• Basic interest The world of truth (Absolutes)
  beyond the unreliable senses.
• -gt Ideas or Forms are beyond phenomena
• -gt Everything in the empirical world is a
  manifestation of a pure Form (Idea) (Chairs,
  rocks, cats, and people are inferior
  manifestations of pure forms).
• -gt Sensory experience --gt Ignorance or opinion.
• -gt True knowledge Grasping forms by rational
  thought.

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OBJECTS STATES
WORLD OF Forms Knowledge
Truth Mathematics Thinking
WORLD OF Visible things Belief
Phenomena Images Imagining
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Platonism in psychology?

• Are personality factors more real than
  manifestations?
• How real are the five factors?
• We believe it is an empirical fact, like the
  fact that there are seven continents on earth and
  eight American presidents from Virginia (McCrae,
  John, 1992, p. 194).

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Story of the Cave

• Story of the Cave is part of The
  RepublicPrisoners represent humans who confuse
  the shadowy world of sense experience with
  reality.
• Interpretations
• Human condition / human nature Are we condemned
  to remain prisoners of sense experience /
  appearance?
• Historical interpretation Socrates' life.
• Christian interpretation Jesus Christ.

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The Nature of the Soul

• How many parts does the soul have?
• Soul has three parts(a) rational component (the
  soul reflects) (immortal)(b) spirited,
  courageous component (mortal)(c) appetitive
  component (desires) (mortal)
• True knowledge Person must suppress the needs of
  the body and concentrate on rational pursuits.
• Differential theory of human nature In some
  individuals appetitive aspect of the soul
  dominates -gt workers and slaves in others the
  courageous aspect of the soul dominates -gt
  soldiers and in still others the rational aspect
  dominates -gt philosopher kings.

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Platos Reminiscence Theory of Knowledge

• How does one come to know the forms if they
  cannot be known through sensory experience?
• -gt The soul is implanted in the body. It dwells
  in pure and complete knowledge that is, it
  dwells among the forms.
• -gt After the soul enters the body, this knowledge
  begins to be contaminated by sensory information.
• -gt True knowledge -gt ignore sensory experience.
  All knowledge comes from remembering the
  experiences the soul had before entering the body.

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Plato on Gender

• Was Plato a feminist?
• Equal opportunity but difference in ability.
• One education for both sexes, for example, in
  training to become a guardian.
• Both sexes should be taught the art of war, carry
  arms, ride on horseback, and receive the same
  treatment.
• Women have the same nature as men -gt every
  occupation should be accessible to them.
• The difference Women were not quite as strong as
  men.

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ARISTOTLE (384-322 BCE)

• Aristotle was the first philosopher to treat
  extensively topics that were later to become part
  of psychology.
• Tutor to Philip's son, Alexander, who was to
  become Alexander the Great.
• Athens. Founded a school Lyceum (empirical and
  philosophical)

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The works of Aristotle

• Collected works Arranged many centuries after
  his death (e.g., physics, metaphysics)
• Topics
• Logic, dialectic, metaphysics (founded the field
  of logic e.g. syllogism).
• Science and philosophy of science
• Psychology and philosophy of mind
• Soul, senses, memory, sleep, dreams,
  developmental stages, death, etc.
• The psychological master work De Anima (On the
  Soul).
• Ethics and politics
• Aesthetics

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Divergence from Plato

• Aristotle Forms do not have a separate existence
  from particulars.
• Interested in studying the things in the
  empirical world and their functions.
• Nothing can exist without matter, and matter
  cannot exist without form.

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On knowledge

• Every kind of knowledge is to be prized.
• Psyche is a substance capable of receiving
  knowledge.
• Three kinds of knowledge
• Theoretical knowledge.
• Practical knowledge.
• Productive knowledge.
• Without sensation thought is not possible.
  Compared the mind to a blank writing tablet
  (tabula rasa).
• Not the senses fool us but our incorrect
  interpretations of the sensory information.
• However, knowledge is not possible through sense
  perception alone, since the senses give us only
  particulars.
• Deduction and induction.

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Causeand Teleology

• Everything has four causes
• Material cause. What an object or thing is made
  of.
• Formal cause. The particular form or pattern of
  an object.
• Efficient cause. The force that transforms the
  matter into a certain form.
• Final cause. The purpose for which an object
  exists.
• Aristotle was a teleologist He believed there
  was a plan or design to the universe. Developing
  and moving to an end, the final cause of motion

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Aristotle's Psychology De Anima

• Psyche Of primary interest to Aristotle
• All knowledge is valuable but that knowledge of
  the psyche is to be prized above all.
• Psyche is not confined to humans alone. Psyche
  marks the distinction, not between thinking and
  unthinking beings, but between the organic and
  the inorganic.
• Body and psyche are an inseparable unit.
• Aristotle Psyche is in the heart. Rejects the
  Platonic doctrine of the brain as the organ of
  the psyche.
• He divides functions into growing, sensing,
  remembering, desiring, reacting, and thinking.

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The Hierarchy of Souls

• Three kinds of souls
• Vegetative souls Possessed by plants. It allows
  only growth, the assimilation of food, and
  reproduction.
• Sensitive souls Possessed by animals and people,
  but not by plants. The ability to sense is a
  means for distinguishing an animal from a plant.
  Locomotion, sensation and memory.
• Rational souls Possessed only by humans. It
  provides all of the functions of the other two
  souls, and in addition allows thinking or
  rational thought.

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Psychological Topics

• 1. Growing
• 2. Sensing
• Possessed by animals and people, but not by
  plants. Five senses sight, hearing, taste,
  touch, and smell.
• Common sense synthesizing the sensory elements
  into perceptual units (perception and
  consciousness).
• Sensory information Isolated experiences
• Common sense Synthesized experience
• Passive reason Utilization of synthesized
  experience
• Active reason Abstraction of principles from
  synthesized experience
• Sleep Caused by fatigue of the common sense.
• Dreaming Sensory stimulation that occurred
  during the waking state is carried over into
  sleeping.

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Psychological Topics

• 3. Remembering
• Effect of sensing that persists after the object
  is removed.
• Remembering Spontaneous reproduction of past
  perceptions.
• Recall Active search to recover these past
  perceptions.
• Laws of association Similarity, contrast,
  frequency, and contiguity.

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Psychological Topics

• 4. Desiring and Reacting
• Pleasure and pain follow upon sensing. Some
  objects are perceived as pleasurable, and others
  as unpleasurable.
• Once these feelings are experienced, desire is
  introduced. When an activity is pleasurable, it
  tends to be exercised

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Psychological Topics

• 5. Thinking
• The human being is the only animal that thinks.

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Middle ground

• Golden mean The desirable middle ground between
  any two extremes.
• Examples Appetite, humor, spending money, etc.
• Education The right sort of habituation for
  establishing the virtue of character must avoid
  excess and deficiency.
• Age Middle age is more desirable than youth or
  old age.
• Q Is the middle ground always the best choice?

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Happiness

• An end in itself.
• It is not amusement but virtuous action.
• Theoretical study is the supreme element.

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Politics

• Humans have a natural desire to leave behind them
  an image of themselves.
• Man is by nature a political animal.
• Man is the only animal endowed with speech.
• Some men are by nature free, some men are by
  nature slaves.
• Comment Rhetoric of by nature.