Professional Documents
Culture Documents
gpu1@leicester.ac.uk
This is course about the development of modern day psychology
2. Knowledge of the past will help provide context for the present
day
There is an online reading available for the module. See Blackboard also
see this link:
http://readinglists.le.ac.uk/lists/F836A7FD-5FE9-3D00-C991-
C9564B2104E4.html
This part of the module consists of 2 lectures
Mondays, Rattray Lecture Theatre 1 (RAT LT1) at 9 11 a.m.
Each question has 4 possible answers, with only ONE being the
correct one.
Psychology with Sociology students take only PS1012 exam
Matthew Effect
Biblical Gospel Matthew
Attribute more success and credit to people than needed which in turn inflate
their perceived impact
Presentism
Looking at the past and interpreting them in the values and context of the
present.
Something that in this course we all do but should avoid
People of the past were ignorant of what we know now as we are ignorant
of what is yet to come.
The best knowledge that current for their time.
Early civilisations relied on everyday practical knowledge to
survive
Rote-learning
Based on authority
Core texts
Based on the dialogues of Socrates ()
circa 470 BCE 399 BCE
"Portrait of Socrates, Colosseum" by Unknown - Photo by Szilas, 2013-03-04. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Socrates,_Colosseum.jpg#/media/File:Portrait_of_Socrates,_Colosseum.jpg
427 BCE- 347 BCE
A student of Socrates
"D369-platon.-L2-Ch8" by lise Reclus - Extrait de "LHomme et la Terre". Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:D369-platon.-L2-Ch8.png#/media/File:D369-platon.-L2-Ch8.png
Classical Greece was obsessed with perfection
Influence of geometry and mathematics to strive for
mathematical perfection
Student of Plato
"Aristotle Altemps Inv8575" by Copy of Lysippus - Jastrow (2006). Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aristotle_Altemps_Inv8575.jpg#/media/File:Aristotle_Altemps_Inv8575.jpg
Platos view was that knowledge can be obtained by deductive
reasons based on known truths
Accumulative in nature
However that does not mean that it ALWAYS will do so. (Limitation of
this reasoning).
Aristotle believed that all things are comprised of 4 elements
Earth
Wind
Fire
Water
According to Aristotles geocentric
model:
Earth has soil and water
Air and fire came from somewhere
from the moons orbit
"Ptolemaic system 2 (PSF)" by Pearson Scott Foresman - Archives of Pearson Scott Foresman, donated to the Wikimedia FoundationThis file has
been extracted from another file: PSF P730001.png.. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ptolemaic_system_2_(PSF).png#/media/File:Ptolemaic_system_2_(PSF).png
Canopic jars
Aristotle (right)
Points to the ground where
there is the physical world
"Sanzio 01 Plato Aristotle" by Raphael - Web Gallery of Art: Image Info about artwork. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sanzio_01_Plato_Aristotle.jpg#/media/File:Sanzio_01_Plato_Aristotle.jpg
Soul was described as an inner essence, spiritual and was the basis
of our being/consciousness
Heart was animalistic and was hot (soul could be seated here)
The heart was essential for life (the first to be created and last to stop).
Brain was secondary in creation
The heart connects to all parts of the body, whereas the brain does not
Brain not affected by emotion unlike the heart (similar to Platonic view)
Brain is rational and insensitive
Greek physician Galen (Claudius
Galenus c 130 CE
200 CE) argued that ventricles (holes in
the middle of the brain) were responsible
for life
Empiricist gathered information from
brain dissection
This view was adopted by the Catholic church in the middle ages and
was held even with little question (barring in universities in late 12th/13th
centuries with little impact) until the 17th century.
Animism was still prevalent
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_of_Ockham.png
Ockhams razor attempts to trim down explanation to its
most succinct form.
Church of Rome still had a big financial and political influence on the
culture and thought of the time.