Philosophical Issues: More Background

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Philosophical Issues More Background

• A good starting point for our discussion of
  relevant, overriding philosophical issues is to
  define EPISTEMOLOGY.
• -- The branch of philosophy which deals with
  theories of knowledge or ways of explaining how
  we understand concepts about nature and human
  behavior.
• The work of Jean Piaget.

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A Priori vs. PosterioriKnowledge

• A Priori knowledge is derived from what is prior
  or comes before.
• This type of knowledge does not come from
  experience we are born with it.
• Like lower animal, humans also posses an array of
  instincts which help us survive and even thrive
  as we learn to interact with our world.
• Some argue that our understanding of good and
  evil constitutes a priori knowledge.

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Posteriori Knowledge

• By contrast, Posteriori Knowledge is derived from
  what comes later via experience with our world.
• In other words, this is knowledge acquired
  through experiential learning.
• To be sure, this is a contention which enjoys
  enormous support among psychologists.

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Other Opposing Concepts

• Nativism versus Empiricism
• Instinct versus Learning

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Is Truth Knowable?

• How can we be sure a given theory or explanation
  is true?
• Authority its true because an authoritative
  source or person says so.
• Empiricism the use of observable facts to
  confirm or deny truth. Seeing is believing!
• Rationalism we posses, a priori, the organizing
  mental capabilities to know truth. We are born
  with the capacity to reason and this is how we
  can come to know truth.

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How we Know truth

• Aestheticism beauty always accompanies truth.
  Truth is aesthetically pleasing.
• Pragmatism we can only know truths which can be
  subject to test.
• Skepticism we start by questioning any proposed
  truth and never let go of our doubts completely.

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Mixing Science and Epistemology

• Ostensibly science combines rational, empirical,
  pragmatic, and aesthetic dimension of
  Epistemology.
• Despite debates dating back to ancient Greek
  philosophers, we have entered the 21st century
  not having resolved many long-standing
  controversies regarding proper philosophy of
  science and research methodology.

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Attributing Cause

• Causality remains a central question
• for psychologists.
• Aristotle proposed four levels of causation
• 1. Material Cause
• 2. Efficient Cause
• 3. Formal Cause
• 4. Final Cause

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Four Levels of Causation

• The Material Cause of an event is the physical
  substrate through which the objects affect each
  other. The physical substrate must be appropriate
  for the action to take place.
• The Efficient Cause is that which immediately
  sets an object in motion.
• The Formal Cause is the shape of the objects in
  the action. The functional or causal properties
  of an object depend on its shape.
• The Final Cause is the end or purpose for which
  an event occurred.

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Final Cause and Teleology

• Teleology refers to purpose or design and is an
  integral component of Final Cause.
• Intrinsic teleology suggests that design, order,
  and purpose are imminent in nature, while
• Extrinsic teleology is the belief that any design
  in nature reflects an external designer.

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Cause and Psychology

• David Hume suggests that cause does not exist in
  the world and that the word cause is only
  descriptive of the behavior of two objects
  interacting with one another.
• Cause provides additional difficulties causation
  is complex, and it may not be possible to cleanly
  derive a single cause for an event.

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Free Will and Determinism

• The debate surrounding free will and determinism
  is one of the oldest in psychology, and there are
  several influential psychologists on each side.
• Free will is the doctrine that human beings make
  choices that are, to some degree, independent of
  the antecedent conditions. Even though there
  exist several physical, genetic, biological,
  psychological, and cultural limits to human
  behavior, we may be able to transcend these
  influences via free will.

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Free Will and Determinism

• Proponents of free will provide several arguments
  for their position.
• Free will is necessary to adequately explain
  human experience.
• Saying I believe in determinism implies a
  logical contradiction.
• Determinism makes a mess of morality by
  eliminating responsibility.
• True randomness or indeterminism may exist.

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Psychological Determinism

• Psychological determinism states that there are
  causes, both known and unknown, for every
  behavior or experience. Determinists argue their
  case in numerous ways.
• Historically, deterministic accounts are gaining
  ground and are explaining areas of psychology
  once believed to be driven by free will.

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Psychological Determinism

• Free will makes a mess of morality because a
  belief in free will can justify excessive
  punishment of someone who has misused his or her
  free will.
• Determinists argue that our world is predictable
  in part because causes provide us with reasonable
  expectancies as to possible outcomes.

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Mind vs. Body

• The mind-body problem is related to the branch of
  philosophy called ontology, the study of the
  nature and relations of being and existence. What
  is the relationship between the subjective mind
  and the physical brain?
• Possible relationships
• monisms,
• dualisms, or
• pluralisms

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Mind vs. Body

• Monistic positions maintain that everything is
  related to everything else in an intimate way as
  one fundamental substance or unit.
• Materialism is the belief that mind and brain are
  one thing, and that is matter.
• Idealism suggests that mind and the mental world
  are fundamental and that matter is not verifiable
  outside of experience.

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Mind vs. Body

• Double-aspect monism maintains that the different
  languages humans use for mental states and brain
  states are only different languages and not
  references to different sides of the same coin.
• Epiphenomenalism suggests that mental states
  exist but that mental states are only the
  overflow or byproduct of brain activity.
• Dualism asserts that the mental and the physical
  are two qualitatively different orders of
  reality.

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Mind vs. Body

• Interactionism is the common sense position that
  the mind and the body are fundamentally different
  but interact with each other. Interactionists
  have had difficulty specifying the mode of
  interaction.
• Psychophysical parallelism solves the problem
  faced by the interactionists by eliminating the
  interaction. Mind and body coexist in a beautiful
  preestablished harmony as two clocks, independent
  of each other yet perfectly synchronized.

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Psychogeny

• Psychogeny is the study of the origin of
  consciousness or experience (mind or psyche).
• There are two primary theories of psychogeny
• Identity theory maintains that psyche is
  instilled into the biology of the organism at
  one point in time and that the psyche instilled
  at that point remains identical throughout the
  lifespan.

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Psychogeny

• Problems with Identity Theory
• (1) Although most contemporary identity theorists
  accept conception as the time of infusion, the
  time of the arrival of the psyche is a matter of
  historical debate.
• (2) After fertilization, a blastocyst can divide
  into two bodies and presumably two psyches. When
  did the second psyche arrive? How many were
  present at conception?
• (3) How is a conscious adult identical to a
  fertilized egg?

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Psychogeny

• The other theory, psychogenic emergentism,
  suggests that the psyche develops as the body or
  the neurological substrate develops.
• Psyche can grow and decline with age.
• Emergentists do not agree on a time at which
  psyche emerges.
• Humans feel like we are the same people we were
  at age 5 have we changed as much as emergentists
  suggest that we change?
• How do we value individuals who are developing
  psyche at an atypical rate or who are declining
  with age?

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The Greek Philosophers

• The Greek philosophers, primarily Socrates,
  Plato, and Aristotle, are commonly considered the
  intellectual foundation of Western Civilization
  (450-300 b.c.)
• Originators of many ideas, including medicine,
  history, geometry, astronomy, democracy, the
  modern military, the scientific method, logic,
  and philosophy.

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Before Socrates

• According to Early Greeks, the ultimate cause of
  everything was to be found somewhere in nature.
• Thales proposed the idea that all things are
  made from basic elemental, physical substances,
  e.g., water.
• Heraclitus proposed idea that everything is
  changing, thus perception can be deceiving. (the
  basic problem with empirical knowledge)
• .

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Before Socrates

• Pythagoras the ultimate explanations were to be
  found in numbers
• Pythagoras was the first scientist to suggest
  that the world was a sphere, not flat.
• Democritus all explanations were to be found in
  nature.
• Contended nature was made up of tiny particles
  (atoms) constantly in motion.
• Provided the first recorded explanation of
  sensation --- immediate particles contact

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Before Socrates (2)

• Hippocrates father of medicine proposed
  natural causes of mental and physical disorders,
  such as heredity, organ damage, and imbalance of
  fluids. (namesake of Hippocratic Oath)
• Borrowed four basic elements from Empedocles
• earth, air, fire, and water
• Proposed a theory of humors within the body to
  account for four basic human temperaments

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Before Socrates (3)

• Blood sanguine (cheerful) temperament
• Yellow bile choleric (fiery) temperament
• Phlegm phlegmatic (slow) Temperament
• Black bile melancholic (sad) temperament
• According to Hippocrates, psychological problems
  are caused by humors that are out of balance

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FIVE FACTOR THEORY OF PERSONALITYThe Big Five

• Neuroticism (N3)
• Depression a tendency to experience dysphoric
  effect (sadness, helplessness guilt).
• Extraversion (E2)
• Gregariousness a preference for companionship
  and social stimulation.

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FIVE FACTOR THEORY OF PERSONALITYThe Big Five

• Openness to Experience (O4)
• Action a need for variety, novelty change.
• Agreeableness (A4)
• Compliance a willingness to defer to others
  during interpersonal conflict.

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FIVE FACTOR THEORY OF PERSONALITYThe Big Five

• Conscientiousness (C4)
• Achievement striving a strong sense of purpose
  and high aspiration levels.

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Western Civilization

• Socrates taught Plato. Plato taught Aristotle.
  Aristotle taught Alexander the Great. Alexander
  the Great builds Greek Empire by the age of
  thirty. This is the origins of modern philosophy,
  modern science, and the modern military, all in
  the years 400-300 b.c.

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Western Civilization

• Greek Empire (300-100 BC) is the foundation of
  Roman Empire (100 BC to 400 AD). The revival of
  Greek knowledge is also the root of the
  Renaissance (1450-1600 AD), which ends the Dark
  Ages and Middle Ages (400-1450 AD).