Introduction to the History of Psychology 7th Edition Hergenhahn Solutions Manual

Introduction to the History of Psychology 7th Edition

Hergenhahn Solutions Manual

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 CHAPTER 6
Rationalism
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading and discussing chapter 6 the students should:

6.1 Understand the basic differences in viewpoints between the empiricists and rationalists.

6.2 Be familiar with Spinoza’s view on the nature of God, mind-body relationship, determinism
and free will, self-preservation, and emotion.

6.3 Be aware of the concept of occasionalism of Malebranche.

6.4 Be acquainted with the views of Leibniz, including monadology, mind-body relationship, and
conscious and unconscious perception.

6.5 Be familiar with the common sense, direct realism, and faculty psychology of Thomas Reid.

6.6 Be acquainted with Kant’s categories of thought, views on mental experience, perception of
time and space, and categorical imperative.

6.7 Be familiar with Herbart’s views on psychology as a science, psychic mechanics,

apperceptive mass, and educational psychology.

6.8 Be aware of Hegel’s views, including The Absolute, and the dialectic process.

CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Baruch Spinoza

A. Mind-body relationship
B. Denial of free will.
C. Motivation and emotion
D. Spinoza’s influence
E. Nicolas de Malebranche

II. Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz

A. Disagreement with Locke

B. Monadology
C. Mind-body relationship
D. Conscious and unconscious perception

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III. Thomas Reid

A. Common sense
B. Direct realism
C. Faculty psychology

IV. Immanuel Kant

A. Categories of though
B. Causes of mental experience
C. The categorical imperative
D. Kant’s influence

V. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

A. The absolute
B. Dialectic process
C. Hegel’s influence

VI. Johann Friedrich Herbart

A. Psychology as science
B. The appecptive mass
C. Educational psychology
D. Herbart’s legacy

LECTURE/DISCUSSION TOPICS
1. Once the basics of the rationalistic views have been presented a helpful exercise would be to
contrast empiricism and rationalism on various relevant contemporary topics in psychology.
For example, you may split the class into two “camps”, empiricists and rationalists, and
debate answers to questions.

2. A discussion topic for the class could be to evaluate Kant’s and Herbert’s contentions that
psychology could not be an experimental science. Do the students agree or disagree based on
the views of Kant and Herbart?

3. Discuss the number of emotions that Spinoza developed. Do students agree or disagree with
his list? How are his notions of emotion and passion different? What influence did Spinoza
have on Sigmund Freud’s ideas?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. In general, what are the basic differences between empiricism and rationalism? Include in
your answer a distinction between a passive and an active mind.

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2. Assume a person robs a bank. Give the general tenor of an explanation of that person’s
behavior based on reasons and then on causes. In which type of explanation would holding
the person responsible for his or her actions make the most sense? Explain.

3. What was Spinoza’s conception of nature? What was his position on the mind–body
relationship?

4. How did Spinoza distinguish between emotions and passions? Give an example of each.

5. In what way did Spinoza’s philosophy encourage the development of scientific psychology?

6. What was Malebranche’s position on the mind–body relationship?

7. Leibniz disagreed with Locke’s contention that all ideas are derived from experience. How
did Leibniz explain the origin of ideas?

8. Summarize Leibniz’s monadology.

9. Discuss Leibniz’s proposed solution to the mind–body problem.

10. Describe the relationship among petites perceptions, limen, and apperception.

11. Summarize Reid’s philosophy of common sense. Include in your answer a definition of direct
realism.

12. What is faculty psychology?

13. What did Kant mean by an a priori category of thought? According to Kant, how do such
categories influence what we experience consciously?

14. Briefly summarize Kant’s explanation of the experiences of causality, time, and space.

15. Discuss the importance of the categorical imperative in Kant’s philosophy.

16. Did Kant believe that psychology could become a science? Why or why not?

17. Discuss Hegel’s notion of the Absolute. Describe the dialectic process by which Hegel felt
the Absolute was approximated.

18. Discuss Herbart’s notion of the apperceptive mass. For example, how does the apperceptive
mass determine which ideas are experienced consciously and which are not? Include in your
answer the concept of the limen, or threshold.

19. How did Herbart apply his theory to educational practices?

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20. Discuss Herbart as a transitional figure between philosophy and psychology.

GLOSSARY
Absolute, The: According to Hegel, the totality of the universe. A knowledge of the Absolute
constitutes the only true knowledge, and separate aspects of the universe can be understood only
in terms of their relationship to the Absolute. Through the dialectic process, human history and
the human intellect progress toward the Absolute.

Active mind: A mind equipped with categories or operations that are used to analyze, organize,
or modify sensory information and to discover abstract concepts or principles not contained
within sensory experience. The rationalists postulated such a mind.

Anthropology: Kant’s proposed study of human behavior. Such a study could yield practical
information that could be used to predict and control behavior.

Apperception: Conscious experience.

Apperceptive mass: According to Herbart, the cluster of interrelated ideas of which we are
conscious at any given moment.

Categorical imperative: According to Kant, the moral directive that we should always act in
such a way that the maxims governing our moral decisions could be used as a guide for everyone
else’s moral behavior.

Categories of thought: Those innate attributes of the mind that Kant postulated to explain
subjective experiences we have that cannot be explained in terms of sensory experience alone—
for example, the experiences of time, causality, and space.

Commonsense philosophy: The position, first proposed by Reid, that we can assume the
existence of the physical world and of human reasoning powers because it makes common sense
to do so.

Dialectic process: According to Hegel, the process involving an original idea, the negation of
the original idea, and a synthesis of the original idea and its negation. The synthesis then
becomes the starting point (the idea) of the next cycle of the developmental process.

Direct realism: The belief that sensory experience represents physical reality exactly as it is.
Also called naive realism.

Double aspectism: Spinoza’s contention that material substance and consciousness are two
inseparable aspects of everything in the universe, including humans. Also called psychophysical
double aspectism and doubleaspect monism.

Faculty psychology: The belief that the mind consists of several powers or faculties.

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Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1770–1831): Like Spinoza, believed the universe to be an
interrelated unity. Hegel called this unity the Absolute, and he thought that human history and
the human intellect progress via the dialectic process toward the Absolute. (See also The
Absolute.)

Herbart, Johann Friedrich (1776–1841): Likened ideas to Leibniz’s monads by saying that
they had energy and a consciousness of their own. Also, according to Herbart, ideas strive for
consciousness. Those ideas compatible with a person’s apperceptive mass are given conscious
expression, whereas those that are not remain below the limen in the unconscious mind. Herbart
is considered to be one of the first mathematical and educational psychologists.

Kant, Immanuel (1724–1804): Believed that experiences such as those of unity, causation,
time, and space could not be derived from sensory experience and therefore must be attributable
to innate categories of thought. He also believed that morality is, or should be, governed by the
categorical imperative. He did not believe psychology could become a science because
subjective experience could not be quantified mathematically. Law of continuity Leibniz’s
contention that there are no major gaps or leaps in nature. Rather, all differences in nature are
characterized by small gradations.

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von (1646–1716): Believed that the universe consists of indivisible
units called monads. God had created the arrangement of the monads, and therefore this was the
best of all possible worlds. If only a few minute monads were experienced, petites perceptions
resulted, which were unconscious. If enough minute monads were experienced at the same time,
apperception occurred, which was a conscious experience. (See also Petites perceptions.)

Limen: For Leibniz and Herbart, the border between the conscious and the unconscious mind.
Also called threshold.

Malebranche, Nicolas de (1638–1715): Contended that the mind and body were separate but
that God coordinated their activities.

Monads: According to Leibniz, the indivisible units that compose everything in the universe. All
monads are characterized by consciousness, but some more so than others. Inert matter possesses
only dim consciousness, and then with increased ability to think clearly come plants, animals,
humans, and, finally, God. The goal of each monad is to think as clearly as it is capable of doing.
Because humans share monads with matter, plants, and animals, sometimes our thoughts are less
than clear.

Occasionalism: The belief that bodily events and mental events are coordinated by God’s
intervention.

Pantheism: The belief that God is present everywhere and in everything.

Passive mind: A mind whose contents are determined by sensory experience. It contains a few
mechanistic principles that organize, store, and generalize sensory experiences. The British
empiricists and the French sensationalists tended to postulate such a mind.

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Introduction to the History of Psychology 7th Edition Hergenhahn Solutions Manual

Petites perceptions: According to Leibniz, a perception that occurs below the level of awareness
because only a few monads are involved.

Preestablished harmony: Leibniz’s contention that God had created the monads composing the
universe in such a way that a continuous harmony existed among them. This explained why
mental and bodily events were coordinated.

Psychic mechanics: The term used by Herbart to describe how ideas struggle with each other to
gain conscious expression.

Psychophysical parallelism: The contention that bodily and mental events are correlated but
that there is no interaction between them.

Rationalism: The philosophical position postulating an active mind that transforms sensory
information and is capable of understanding abstract principles or concepts not attainable from
sensory information alone.

Reid, Thomas (1710–1796): Believed that we could trust our sensory impressions to accurately
reflect physical reality because it makes common sense to do so. Reid attributed several rational
faculties to the mind and was therefore a faculty psychologist.

Spinoza, Baruch (1632–1677): Equated God with nature and said that everything in nature,
including humans, consisted of both matter and consciousness. Spinoza’s proposed solution to
the mind–body problem is called double aspectism. The most pleasurable life, according to
Spinoza, is one lived in accordance with the laws of nature. Emotional experience is desirable
because it is controlled by reason; passionate experience is undesirable because it is not.
Spinoza’s deterministic view of human cognition, activity, and emotion did much to facilitate the
development of scientific psychology.

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
1. Students may want to research the lives and ideas of some of the rationalist philosophers in
more detail. Useful websites for many of these are given below.

This site provides brief descriptions and links for many of the rationalist philosophers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalism

This site provides a description of rationalism in contrast to empiricism:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rationalism-empiricism/

2. Explore the common sense ideas of Thomas Reid:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/reid/

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