Classical theories on human nature

1. Classical theories on human nature Aristotle & Plato

2. PLATO (427-347 BCE) • Basic interest: The world of truth (Absolutes) beyond the unreliable senses. • -> Ideas or Forms are beyond phenomena • -> Everything in the empirical world is a manifestation of a pure Form (Idea) (Chairs, rocks, cats, and people are inferior manifestations of pure forms). • -> Sensory experience --> Ignorance or opinion. • -> True knowledge: Grasping forms by rational thought.

4. 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).

5. Story of the Cave: • “Story of the Cave” is part of “The Republic”Prisoners 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.

6. 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 -> workers and slaves; in others the courageous aspect of the soul dominates -> soldiers; and in still others the rational aspect dominates -> philosopher kings.

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

8. 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 -> every occupation should be accessible to them. • The difference: Women were not quite as strong as men.

9. 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)

10. 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

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. “Cause”and 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

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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

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

20. 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?

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

22. 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”.