Plato – teacher of Aristotle
achieving immortality and fulfilling the
Provided good insight into the mind with his
proposal of the human psyche was the seat of
all knowledge and that the human mind was
imprinted with all of the knowledge it needed.
As a result, learning was a matter of unlocking
and utilizing this inbuilt knowledge, a process
he called anamnesis.
Tripartite Mind – Plato’s theory into the parts
of the mind.
The Logistikon: This was the intellect, the
seat of reasoning and logic.
The Thumos: This was the spiritual centre of
the mind, and dictated emotions and feelings.
The Epithumetikon: This part governed
desires and appetites.
Aristotle – Para Psyche (About the Mind)
In Para Psyche, he laid out the first tenets of
the study of reasoning that would determine
the direction of the history of psychology;
many of his proposals continue to influence
modern psychologists.
In the book, the definition of psyche, as was
common at the time, used 'mind' and 'soul'
interchangeably, with the Ancient Greek
philosophers feeling no need to make no
distinction between the two.
In Para Psyche, Aristotle's psychology
proposed that the mind was the 'first
entelechy,' or primary reason for the
existence and functioning of the body. This
line of thought was heavily influenced by
Aristotle's zoology, where he proposed that
there were three types of souls defining life;
the plant soul, the animal soul and the
human soul, which gave humanity the unique
ability to reason and create.
He was one of the first minds to examine the
urges and impulse that drove and defined life,
believing that the libido and urge to
reproduce was the overriding impulse of all
living things, influenced by the 'plant soul.'
Whilst he partially linked this to the process of
purposes of a divine mind, he proposed this
reproductive urge many centuries before
Darwin. This idea is a fine example of one of
the great intuitive mental leaps that define
Aristotle's legacy.
Galen – 4 Humours
He proposed the idea of four 'humours' within the
human body, each responsible for a different
aspect of the human condition, and believed that
an imbalance between the four would affect
physical and mental wellbeing.
This holistic approach to medicine inextricably
linked mind and body, a factor only recently
readopted by modern medicine, which tends to
treat physical conditions and symptoms without
paying much regard to mental health, and vice-
versa.
Sanguine: The blood, related to the element of air
and the liver, dictated courage, hope and love.
Choleric: Yellow bile, related to the element of fire
and the Gall Bladder, could lead to bad temper and
anger, in excess.
Melancholic: Black bile, associated with the
element of earth and the spleen, would lead to
sleeplessness and irritation, if it dominated the
body.
Phlegmatic: Phlegm, associated with the element
of water and the brain, was responsible for
rationality, but would dull the emotions if allowed to
become dominant.
This idea of looking at the entire body and mind,
rather than blaming witchcraft and spirits, certainly
influenced medicine and the history of psychology
for the better although some of the cures used to
alleviate the build-up of a humour, such as blood-
letting, were harmful.
Martyn Shuttleworth (Jun 19, 2010). Aristotle's
Psychology. Retrieved Aug 06, 2019 from
Explorable.com: https://explorable.com/aristotles-
psychology
Descartes – Dualism, “I think, therefore I am”
Considered the "father of modern philosophy".
He was the first to write of the concept of emotions
and his famous quotation "I think therefore I am"
elucidated his focus on the importance of cognition
on the human experience.
In psychology, Descartes is most known for his
concept of dualism. Descartes' theory of dualism
suggests that there are two realms to existence.
The first is the physical realm which is the
environment and the things around us. This is the
"realm of matter and energy". This realm can be
researched and is scientific because it operates in
a prescribed "mechanical" way. The other realm
is mental and is "transcendent" to the physical
environment and cannot be measured.
Dualism is the presumption proposed by Rene
Descartes that the human mind and body are
two distinct entities that interact with each
other to make a person. Descartes reasoned that
the mind and the body communicate with each
other through a small structure at the base of the
brain called the pineal gland.
To Descartes, animals were mechanical devices;
their behavior was controlled by environmental
stimuli. His view of the human body was much the
same: it was a machine. Reactions like this did not
require participation of the mind; they occurred
automatically. He called them reflexes.
Locke – Tabula Rasa (Blank Slate)
The concept of tabula rasa which is the belief that
the mind is a 'blank slate' at birth and we are
formed and develop from our own experiences
with the environment.
He was a devout believer in the 'nurture' side of the
"nature versus nurture" debate because of his
belief that all behavior, inclinations, and
thought patterns were learned, rather than
inherent.
This was one of the earliest ideas that is used for
the basis of behaviorism. Locke believed that
the experience that occurred in the early
childhood years was the most important and
influential on a person. He stressed the
importance of rewards and punishments in social
learning
*Empiricism – In philosophy, empiricism is a
theory that states that knowledge comes only or
primarily from sensory experience. It is one of
several views of epistemology, the study of
human knowledge, along with rationalism and
skepticism.
Empiricism emphasizes the role of empirical
evidence in the formation of ideas, rather than
innate ideas or traditions. However, empiricists
may argue that traditions (or customs) arise due
to relations of previous sense experiences.
Empiricism in the philosophy of science
emphasizes evidence, especially as
discovered in experiments. It is a fundamental
part of the scientific method that all hypotheses
and theories must be tested against observations
of the natural world rather than resting solely on a
priori reasoning, intuition, or revelation.
Empiricism, often used by natural scientists, says
that "knowledge is based on experience" and that
"knowledge is tentative and probabilistic, subject to
continued revision and falsification". Empirical
research, including experiments and validated
measurement tools, guides the scientific
method.
*Logical Positivism - is a philosophy that
combines empiricism—the idea that observational
evidence is indispensable for knowledge—with a
version of rationalism incorporating mathematical
and logico-linguistic constructs and deductions of
epistemology. It may be considered as a type of
analytic philosophy.
It is a philosophical perspective that is committed
to the principle of verification, which holds that
the meaning and truth of all nontautological
statements are dependent on empirical
observation.
In the early 20th century, the positivists of the
Vienna Circle sought to establish the essential
unity of logic, philosophy, and science and to
distinguish these disciplines from others such as
metaphysics, ethics, and religion, which were
dismissed for their speculative character.
The positivist view of science was influential
during the period in which psychology emerged
as a science and has had a recognizable
influence on the discipline. This is most
pronounced in behaviorism and in
psychology’s commitment to empirical
scientific methods.
*Physiology
Galvani – showed that electrical current would
twitch muscles, and the brain generated electricity.
He found that electrical stimulation of a frog’s
nerve caused contraction of the muscle to which it
was attached. Contraction occurred even when the
nerve and muscle were detached from the rest of
the body, so the ability of the muscle to contract
and the ability of the nerve to send a message to
the muscle were characteristics of these tissues
themselves.
Johannes Muller – Recommended removal or
isolation of organs to see how they worked.
Doctrine of specific nerve energies—nerve
impulses are the same, regardless of the source
Led to belief that brain must be specialized or
organized into areas of different functions.
A forceful advocate of the application of
experimental techniques of physiology. In his
doctrine of specific nerve energies, Muller
observed that although all nerves carry the same
basic message – an electrical impulse – we
perceive the messages of different nerves in
different ways.
Hermann von Helmholtz – Measured speed of
nerve impulses. Supported idea that mental events
could be the subject of scientific investigation
The first scientist to attempt to measure the
speed of conduction through nerves. But
Helmholtz found that neural conduction was much
slower – only about 90 feet per second.
Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig – used
electrical stimulation as a tool for understanding
the physiology of the brain.
They applied weak electrical current to the
exposed surface of a dog’s brain and observed the
effects of the stimulation. They found that
stimulation of different portions of a specific region
of the brain caused contraction of specific muscles
on the opposite side of the body.
We now refer to this region as the primary motor
cortex, and we know that nerve cells there
communicate directly with those that cause
muscular contractions.
Broca – applied the principle of experimental
ablation to the human brain. He observed the
behavior of people whose brains had been
damaged by strokes. In 1861 he performed an
autopsy on the brain of a man who had had a
stroke that resulted in the loss of the ability to
speak.
Flourens – conducted many brain ablation
experiments and found that cerebellum played
an important role in coordinated movements.
He removed various parts of animals’ brains and
observed their behavior. This method is called
experimental abolition.
The Four Canons of Science
To better understand the approach to experimental Idealism suggest mental monism or the
psychology, there are four fundamental principles absence of the physical world. If one believes
that researchers generally agree on, for
psychological studies to be deemed reliable: this he/she is more likely to behave introvertly.

Materialism is the idea that there is no

Determinism
Studies look into events and focus on how they are mental. Those who believe this view behave
affected by other events. It looks at the causality extrovertly.
between two (or more ideas).
Epiphenominalism suggest that the mind is a
Empiricism side effect of the brain and the mind holds no
This idea believes that knowledge is only derived power.
primarily from experiences that are related to the
senses – only things that are observable can be
studied.

Parsimony
This idea says that researches are to be done on
the most simple of theories. If we are faced with
two different, contrasting theories – the more
parsimonious or basic theory is to be preferred.

Testability
This idea believes that hypotheses and theories
should be testable over time.

*Occam's razor is the problem-solving principle

that states "Entities should not be multiplied
without necessity." It is sometimes misquoted in
pop culture and other media by some form of the
statement "The simplest solution is most likely
the right one."

Occam's razor instead says that when presented

with competing hypotheses that make the same
predictions, one should select the solution with the
fewest assumptions, and it is not meant to be a
way of choosing between hypotheses that make
different predictions.

Mind and Body Conundrum

The mind and body problem deals with three
important philosophical views.