1. Prescientific Psychology 1

2. I.Monism vs. Dualism Dualism → holds that humans have a dual nature- one part mental and the other physical → mind and body are distinct Monism → holds that only one type of nature exists → mind and body are connected 2

3. Socrates and Plato viewed the mind as separate from the body (Dualism). Believed the mind existed after death. 3

4. Rene Descartes (1595- 1650) agreed with Socrates and Plato. However, he also believed the immaterial mind and the physical body could communicate (believed they communicated through the pineal gland, a small gland near the brain). Figure 6. The Pineal Gland According to Descartes. This image from the 1664 edition of the Treatise of man illustrates Descartes' view that the pineal gland (H) is suspended in the middle of the ventricles (Descartes 1664, p. 63). 4

5. Socrates (469-399 B.C.) → Plato → Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) (Socrates taught Plato who taught Aristotle) Aristotle→ derived principles from careful observation → believed that the mind was not separable from the body (Monism) 5

6. Locke (see below) → monism Thomas Hobbes → very radical view that the notion of a soul, mind or spirit was meaningless and distracting → said thoughts were purely by-products of physical phenomena 6

7. II.Some ideas are inborn vs. Mind is a blank slate Socrates and Plato believed some ideas and knowledge were preset at birth Aristotle (again “rebelled”) believed that knowledge was NOT preexisting. John Locke (1632-1704) also rejected idea of innate knowledge or inborn ideas Tabula rasa → refers to the mental content of a newborn, the empiricist notion that the mind is initially a “blank slate” to be written upon by experience Tabula rasa → refers to the mental content of a newborn, the empiricist notion that the mind is initially a “blank slate” to be written upon by experience Locke also believed the mind and body were one Locke also believed the mind and body were one 7

8. Empiricism → The view that knowledge originates in experience and that science and the acquisition of knowledge should rely on observation and scientific experimentation 8