Medieval Europe

1. Medieval Europe/Introduction

 

Over the past few hundreds of years, Christian monasteries had served as the places of growth, knowledge, and city development. Technology was improving, and scholars were working to recover classical knowledge from previous eras. Universities were founded, independent due to their distance from Rome. Slowly, scholars separated theology and philosophy, beginning Humanism.

 

 

 

2. Christian Theologians

 

In 1054, the two branches of Christendom broke leaving the Western Church the Roman Catholic Church, and the Eastern the Greek Orthodox Church. When scholarly works arrived from Spain, controversy ensued about how to place the knowledge from the texts into the Christian doctrine. The culmination of medieval thought resulted in Scholasticism.

 

 

 

3. Anselm of Cantebury

 

He was a scholar throughout his adult life, writing many books on theology and reason. His motto was “faith seeking understanding,” in which he used reason to confirm the Christian faith. His proofs about the existence of God were criticized and revealed a need for more work to reconcile scripture.

 

 

 

4. Peter Abelard

 

He was a very successful teacher, founding his own school outside of Paris after disagreeing with his own in Paris. He taught the Trinity, achieving monk status in the church. He actually coined the word “theology,” after struggling with nominalism—the universality of words comes from the mind and they are expressed through language. His approach to theology was revolutionary, inspiring the works of later religious leaders.

 

 

 

5. Peter Lombard

 

He was an impressive intellect, achieving a faculty position at Notre Dame’s school. His book, Four Books of Sentences, was highly influential because it contained commentary on all of the religious issues of that time.

 

 

 

6. Border with Social Science

 

This border is psychology’s most recent. Arguably, psychology is a social science to many. Psychologists study people, the mind, and how the inner processes of cognition impact one’s life and ability to function. Sociologists, or social scientists, study groups of people and the implications of psychological concepts on society as a whole, and how those concepts affect the way people interact with one another.

 

 

 

7. Albert the Great

 

He completed a theology degree and was a teacher for many years. He wrote about many subjects and translated many classical works as well. He was one of the first Christian scholars to collect empirical data by traveling the world and documenting nature. He was the first to stress that theology had no place in philosophy, which later universities adopted.

 

8. Border with Biology

 

This is psychology’s oldest border. The brain itself is a biological matter, consisting of organic properties, which allow it to work. Because of this, much about psychology is of interest to biologists and psychologists. The psychological principles all stem from the brain, where the mind is located. With that being said, all psychological phenomena are due to biological happenings indirectly or directly.

 

9. Thomas Aquinas

 

He attempted to resolve the controversy between Aristotelianism and Christian doctrine. He accomplished a lot in his short life span, writing on several topics. He logically countered that the universe was not eternal, saying that indeed it was and that didn’t contradict the biblical revelation of its creation by God. He believed that revelation and philosophy should agree, confirming one another. He melded Christian beliefs with older natural philosophy and broadened the search for knowledge.

 

10. William of Ockham

 

He believed that only experience allowed people to develop cognitive concepts that were expressed through words. He was the fist to place the creation of words within the mind. His writing inspired Ockham’s Razor: explaining things simply should be the goal. He maintained that a belief in God came from faith alone, creating a purely secular approach.

 

11. The Rise of Humanism

 

Humanism criticized scholasticism, emphasized the role of language in knowledge, and adapted to the discovery of new people, lands, and technologies. It gave rise to many new academic disciplines. Humanists emphasized the study of well-written Latin works. Language being the focus of this movement, it took off after the printing press was invented. Humanists also revived the works of Plato. They kept their religious fervor, but didn’t separate it from the pursuit of knowledge. It led to the Protestant reformation, fueled by the desire to uncover the wonders of the world, which God created.

 

12. Petrach

 

In his free time he wrote, first poetry, then rhetoric about human conduct. He believed that God was most easily found by living life and simply being human. His impact was immense and far-reaching through time. He set the stage for the Renaissance, maybe even the father of such.

 

13. Humanism and Science

 

During this time period, humanity was no longer seen as a master of the world, but the forces of cosmic properties within the infinite universe ruled over all matter. Science and humanities both need accuracy and precision in their methods. In addition, sound science depends on contributions from the arts. Psychology has scientific and humanistic sides.

 

14. The Black Plague

 

The plague originated in China and spread by use of the Silk Road. Medical knowledge at the time did not permit scientists to explain or properly treat the disease. It affected Christians and Islamic people equally, many seeing it as a result of God’s anger with humankind. Socially, the affect was profound. Communities were decimated. Unfortunately, both Christians and Muslims turned their pain into blaming Jews.

 

15. Border with Computational Science

 

Psychology’s border with computational science is seen by the spread of numerals in Europe during this era. The Hindu-Arabic numerals greatly advanced the progress of mathematics, later impacting the empirical and research abilities within psychology.

 

16. Astronomy

 

For multiple faiths, this subject served to calculate religious dates and map pilgrimage. Lindberg called this the “handmaiden” role of science. Meaning, it was fine as long as it had a religious purpose. Astronomy led to the earliest large-scale conflicts between religion and science.

 

17. Empiricism

 

This is the view that all knowledge comes from experience, especially from that of the senses. It returned in the Middle Ages to Christianity and Islam after Aristotle’s writing became more known. Its progress became dangerous to philosophers who could not establish a separate, empirically based, philosophy. The furthest they got was an applied realm of knowledge.

 

18. Ideas Emerging from the era of faith to humanism

 

At the midpoint of the medieval period, Christendom was in full bloom, but secularism was sprouting. Logical explanations for the existence of God became a focus. Biology and medical knowledge re-emerged as important, at the same time that humanism created new academic subjects. All ideas led to the rise of secularism in Christian Europe later on. The Islamic world lost its intellectual lead because it could not separate philosophy and religion from one another.

 

Chapter 7: From the Renaissance to the Dawn of Science

 

19. 1350-1700/Introduction

 

This period signified the embarrassment the Roman Catholic Church had become. Instead of being a virtuous example, it was riddled with hedonism. A series of religious wars resulted in two Europes: Roman Catholic and the other protestant, gradually transforming the views about God. Psychology’s origins also became clear as questions were answered by physical and social scientists.

 

20. The Renaissance/Then and Now-The Invention of the Printing Press

 

The growth of cities, commerce, and wealth led to changes in education, art, and architecture. Paintings and sculptures famous from the Renaissance still fascinate today. The printing press invention set a new energy; ideas could now be spread quickly and vastly. All at one, authors and readers were created by the millions.

 

21. Eramus

 

He became a priest with an aptitude for Latin. He also believed that religious intake should be inward, for the mind. His most famous book is The Praise of Folly, satire on the Roman Catholic Church. A religious dispute evolved from his writing, however he refused to leave the church—causing a rift between him and Martin Luther. His work was representative of Humanism; he worked hard to reform the church from within. Unsuccessful, he watched the birth of Protestantism.

 

22. The Reformations

 

There were several revolts against the church, aside from Martin Luther’s. The use of the printing press allowed the reformation to spread quickly and powerfully. Lutheranism is only one of the denominations that formed, all opposed to the Catholic Church’s wrongdoings. Theological issues divided them, and still do today. The Counter Reformation from the Roman Catholic Church led to war and permanent divisions within Christianity.

 

23. Martin Luther

 

He became Augustinian after a near death incident, afterward becoming an exemplary monk. The sale of indulgences precipitated his revolt. The practice brought a lot of money to the church, but left most people very poor. In 1517 he posted his famous 95 Theses. The Pope declared him a heretic, and he soon after left the church altogether to found the new Lutheran Church. He preached that God’s grace alone leads to salvation. He and other Protestants strayed away from humanism, holding the Bible as the only source of truth.

 

24. The Counter Reformation

 

A set of modest reforms was intended to settle disputes: no more indulgences sold, priest celibacy was promoted, and better education for priests also encouraged. A list of prohibited books was published, including works of Copernicus. The Roman Inquisition was established in 1542: seeking and ridding the earth of heretics. After thirty years of war, Europe was divided into catholic and protestant countries, boundaries that still last today. In this environment, scientists began to publish facts about the universe.

 

25. The Rise of Science

 

With evidence that the Julian calendar was incorrect, a commission was elected to solve the problem. The Gregorian calendar was put into place, but Copernicus now recognized that there was more knowledge to address about the heavenly bodies. His heliocentric model of the universe sparked the beginning of modern science.

 

26. Copernicus

 

He spent most of his life working on a theory to explain the positions and motions of the sun, moon, and the 6 known planets. He placed the sun at the center of the universe, confirming his measurements with years of calculations. His system was unified and accounted for all observations up to that point. His scheme meant that the universe was much larger than originally thought, and Aristotle’s physics were proven wrong.

 

27. Brahe

 

He confirmed that objects could appear in the outermost sphere of the universe by using instruments he created. He also constructed a set of new tables to predict planetary conjunction. He observed a supernova one night and published the rare sighting, leading to his world fame. His model of the universe had the planets circling the sun, while the sun and moon circled a stationary earth.

 

28. Kepler

 

He prepared astrological horoscopes and predicted several events that eventually happened. He analyzed Brahe’s data mathematically, having a breakthrough when he realized the earth was also a planet and all orbits are elliptical. That was his first law, and his second was that planets sweep equal areas in equal times throughout their orbit. His third law stated that the square of the time of one orbit is proportional to the cube of any planet’s mean distance from the sun. He was internationally famous after publishing his mathematically proven explanations for physical phenomena.

 

29. Galileo

 

His work in mathematics was a step toward increasing the discipline’s status in the academic realm. He famously discovered that falling objects don’t fall faster because of their weight. He improved upon the telescope and made the momentous discovery of seeing Jupiter’s moons. His book and defense of Copernican models made him a target of the Inquisition; he was sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life. He eventually lost his eyesight from looking directly at sun spots, which we now know should be avoided thanks to his contributions to science. His life’s work includes technology, the physics of motion, and acceleration.

 

30. Border with Mathematics

 

Galileo improved the sector, an early military instrument. It evolved into an early math-computing device that could solve all practical problems of the day. It led to slide rules, mechanical calculators, and the electronic devices we have now. Math and science, psychology included, have been linked ever since.

 

31. Border with Biology

 

The invention of telescopes led to the creation of the microscope. It was by use of it that led to Leeuwenhoek’s discovery of bacteria. From there many other organisms not seen by the naked eye were discovered, analyzed, and learned about. Without knowledge of such basic components, psychological understanding would not be possible today. For instance, the blood-brain barrier taught in basic psychology: if blood cells were never isolated and understood under a microscope, we wouldn’t have knowledge of what occurs regarding the barrier in the brain.

 

32. Religious Intolerance

 

Giordano Bruno was burned as a heretic for advocating Egyptian religion. Michael Servetus was burned alive in 1553 for publishing books that attacked the Trinity. Intolerance was not characteristic of just one version of Christianity—both Catholics and Protestants were highly intolerant to deviations from their denomination.

 

33. Sir Isaac Newton

 

Newton began thinking about calculus, optical theory, and gravity early on. He also came up with a corpuscular theory of light. His greatest scientific work is the Principia Mathematica, explaining the reasoning behind orbital mechanics. His 3 laws of motion have persisted, nearly unchanged, throughout the centuries until present day, and are used daily by scientists and engineers. He also claimed the discovery of calculus, but that controversy was never settled. He wrote a lot about non-scientific topics as well, having a strong belief in God. By the 19^th century, psychologists inspired by Newton began to search for laws of behavior.

 

34. Border with Social Science

 

We can trace the origins of several social sciences back to the Renaissance. Archeology, anthropology, and political science are a few that bloomed within the era, however, they did not fully manifest until the 19^th century. During the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, philosophers argued over how to properly study social sciences.

 

35. Ideas emerging from the era of the Renaissance to the dawn of science

 

Many ideas that would later be of interest to psychologists emerged from this period in history. Laws of nature inspired defining laws of psychophysics and behavior. From mathematics came the notion of measurement, significant in the field of psychology. The doctrine of mechanism also came from this era, stating that everything has a natural cause. All of the listed innovations from the 17^th century carried over into psychology and became part of the discipline’s makeup.

 

Chapter 8: The Rise of the New Philosophy

 

36. Mersenne’s Cell/Introduction

 

Mersenne’s cell at his monastery served as a place for informal meetings and correspondence with other scientists—Galileo, Descartes, Hobbes, Huygens, Pascal, and Torricelli. He followed Bacon’s recommendation that scientists should work together, being a theologian and mathematician himself. He helped start the early days of the Enlightenment. He and other Enlightenment thinkers believed that the mind could understand nature in any of its forms.

 

37. The earliest of new philosophers

 

Descartes and Bacon were the first to break away from Scholasticism, and their new approaches were quite different. They were starkly different from one another in their attempts to resolve classical problems in philosophy, and modern psychology is still affected by them.

 

38. Descartes

 

He searched for a secure, universal, knowledge independent of sensory observations. In his search, he reformed natural philosophy and physics. He published his Discourse on the Method, which outlined the basics for dioptrics, meteorology, and geometry, all of which he believed were concrete sciences. In another book he described the idea of refraction, moved onto metaphysics, and founded the new philosophy. He is known for declaring, “I think, therefore I am.” He divided the world into two parts: the external composed only of matter, and the mind, which was not material, but an internal, independent, entity. He defined the mind-body problem, persisting in modern times.

 

39. Border with Computational Science

 

The inspiration for analytic geometry came from Descartes. The familiar “Cartesian” x, y, z coordinate system was developed from his notation. His contributions were major in the development of calculus later on, and the mathematization of physics would’ve been delayed without him.

 

40. The Mind-Body Problem

 

Descartes’s solution to the problem is interactionism, a type of dualism. He believed both the mind and body existed and affected one another. He struggled to explain the relationship, but never completely succeeded. He said that the pineal gland in the brain was the center where interactionism occurred. His mind-body distinction has persisted until the present, inspiring other solutions: idealism, materialism, epiphenomenalism, parallelism, and double aspectism.

 

41. Descartes and the Reflex

 

He attempted to explain reflex action using a hydraulic model. He thought nerves were hollow tubes full of liquid and spirits. When a stimulus, such as heat, became too intense, the spirits pushed on the pineal gland, sending the spirits to another nerve tube, and that moved the affected body part. He importantly distinguished between animals and humans; only humans have a mind. He thought animals behaved exclusively as a result of mechanistic principles.

 

42. Descartes Later Life and Legacy

 

His legacy in philosophy is quite expansive. He founded the new philosophy and inspired others to complete his rationalist approach. The Catholic Church placed all his books on the Index, claiming he reduced God to an entity whose only function was to have created the universe and only watched its progress after. He considered physics his greatest discovery, where his ideas lasted the least amount of time ironically.

 

43. Border with Social Sciences

 

Psychology and the other social sciences first emerged from moral philosophy. Descartes saw the subjects as being concerned with passions and the methods of directing one’s will toward good and away from bad. The social sciences have not had a smooth historical path: they must deal with both halves of the mind-body problem, proving more difficult.

 

44. Francis Bacon

 

He served in parliament and pursued government until his career ended due to a scandal in bribery, so he spent the last years of his life writing the works that made him famous. He wrote the first philosophy book in English. He divided the faculties on the mind into categories of history, imagination, and reason. He said that humans had the intellect to elucidate the wonders of God’s creations only if they adopted a new way of understanding the world, which could be done successfully with the senses. He rallied for the scientific method of replication with experiments, careful to avoid any bias. The four idols he described as sources of bias were the Tribe, the Cave, the Market Place, and the Theatre. He wanted observations guaranteed by accurate results.

 

45. The English Civil Wars and their consequences

 

The wars affected England, Ireland, and Scotland at the same time. Hobbes and Locke were both impacted, by way of their writing and thoughts. The rights of the king, religious intolerance, and civil rights were central to the causes of the wars.

 

46. The British Empiricists-Thomas Hobbes

 

Hobbes did not agree with Descartes on many things: he believed everything, including God, has to possess a physical existence. He thought motions were the cause of everything: sensations, vision, etc., and the movements of the brain constituted perception. His analysis of politics is his greatest contribution to psychology. He believed in absolute monarchy, the only way humans could escape the brutality of life. The concept is defined as a social contract: an agreement between the government and the people to provide a good, safe, environment with laws for both. He was a scientist, mathematician, and philosopher. He believed thinking is computation, and idea prominent in cognitive science now.

 

47. John Locke

 

His most famous work is An Essay on the Human Understanding, about government and human rights. He was one of England’s most famous thinkers, helped establish the governing of the American colonies, and inspired the language within the Declaration of Independence. He consciously tried to put together a science of psychology, arguing against Descartes’s notion of innate knowledge, saying it must be acquired through experience. His second book touched on the importance of the relationship between people and their government, later invoking the thinking behind the American Revolution. His writings were a major step toward the emergence of psychology. He linked the empirical ideas to the possibility of a psychological science.

 

48. George Berkeley

 

His idealist philosophy remains the principal source of his fame. He justified his thinking by using God’s mind; we all perceive a consistent reality created by His mind. He attacked dualism and also minimized the role of rationalism. He was a scientist as well, attempting to found several colleges quite unsuccessfully.

 

49. David Hume

 

He was committed to two major goals: ridding philosophy of metaphysics and improving upon the empiricism of Locke and Berkeley. Both goals served to create a science of human nature, psychology rather. Hume led us to the role of consciousness, pre-existing mental categories in the mind, yet to emerge as psychology in his time. He acknowledged the roles of memory, complex ideas, and cause and effect. He placed rational thought below the passions, which he said were innate impressions. To him, moral judgments depended on experience too, and had to be learned. His philosophy was the wedge that finally led to the complete separation of science and religion.

 

50. Ideas emerging from the era of the rise of the new philosophy

Theology and philosophy parted ways, giving rise to a new philosophy. The Enlightenment represented change in thinking about methods of inquiry. Rationalism, the mind-body problem, interactionism, empiricist methods, and induction were all born out of this era. The British philosophers went the direction of materialism first, then idealism, to deal with the issues surrounding the mind-body problem. Lastly, Hume altogether removed God from philosophy, forever changing the disciplines of religion, philosophy, and psychology.