Additional Notes for Chapter 2

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Intellectual Revolution, Golden Age, Age of Enlightenment or Age of Reason:
>  A period which advocated reason as a means to establishing an authoritative system
of aesthetics, ethics, government, and even religion; which allow human beings to obtain
objective truth about the whole of reality.
> Emboldened by the revolution in physics commenced by Newtonian kinematics,
Enlightenment thinkers argued that reason could free humankind from superstition and
religious  authoritarianism that had brought suffering and death in religious wars.
>  This was also the time when wide availability of knowledge was made possible
through the production of encyclopedias, serving the Enlightenment cause of educating
the human race.
 
Views of the Universe:  Copernicus vs.  Ptolemy:
> Copernicus- thought that the planets orbited the Sun, and that the Moon orbited the
Earth.  The Sun, in the center of the universe, did not move, nor did the stars.
(Heliocentric or "Sun-centered").
 > Ptolemy- thought that all celestial objects- including the planets, Sun, Moon and the
stars- orbited Earth.  Earth, in the center of the universe, did not move at all.
( Geocentric or Earth-centered).
* Also, both Copernicus and Ptolemy thought the orbits of the planets were circular, but
we know now they are elliptical.
 
Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution:
> Theory of Evolution states that evolution happens by natural selection.  Individuals in a
species show variation in physical characteristics.  Individuals with characteristics best
suited to their environment are more likely to survive, finding food, avoiding predators
and resisting disease.
           -  This led to the theory called "Survival of the Fittest"-  a theory which states that
the organism have the ability to adapt and survive  with the changing environment.
 
Sigmund Freud: The founder of Psychoanalysis
>Sigmund Freud - introduced Psychoanalysis- a school of thought in Psychology that
explains human behavior as influenced by the unconscious.
                                     -  He  introduced model of the human mind which he divides into
three layers or regions:   1.  conscious- This is where our current thoughts, feelings, and
focus live.
                      2.  preconscious (sometimes called subconscious) - This is the home of
everything we can recall or retrieve from our memory.
                      3.  Unconscious-  At the deepest level of our minds resides a repository of
the processes that drive our behavior, including primitive and instinctual desires (Mc
Leod, 20113).
> Later,  Freud posited a more structured model of the mind.  In this model, there are
three metaphorical parts to the mind:
                       1.  Id- The id operates at an unconscious level and focuses solely on
instinctual drives and desires.  Two biological instincts make up the id:  eros or the
instinct to survive and thanatos that drives destructive, aggressive and violent behaviors.
                       2.  Ego- Acts as both a conduit for and a check on the id, working to meet
the id's needs in a socially appropriate way.  It is the most tied to reality and begins to
develop in infancy.
                      3.  Superego-It is the portion of the mind in which morality and higher
principles reside, encouraging us to act in socially and morally acceptable ways.