An Intellectual History of Psychology
Daniel N. Robinson
Language: English
Pages: 392
ISBN: 0299148440
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
An Intellectual History of Psychology, already a classic in its field, is now available in a concise new third edition. It presents psychological ideas as part of a greater web of thinking throughout history about the essentials of human nature, interwoven with ideas from philosophy, science, religion, art, literature, and politics.
Daniel N. Robinson demonstrates that from the dawn of rigorous and self-critical inquiry in ancient Greece, reflections about human nature have been inextricably linked to the cultures from which they arose, and each definable historical age has added its own character and tone to this long tradition. An Intellectual History of Psychology not only explores the most significant ideas about human nature from ancient to modern times, but also examines the broader social and scientific contexts in which these concepts were articulated and defended. Robinson treats each epoch, whether ancient Greece or Renaissance Florence or Enlightenment France, in its own terms, revealing the problems that dominated the age and engaged the energies of leading thinkers.
Robinson also explores the abiding tension between humanistic and scientific perspectives, assessing the most convincing positions on each side of the debate. Invaluable as a text for students and as a stimulating and insightful overview for scholars and practicing psychologists, this volume can be read either as a history of psychology in both its philosophical and aspiring scientific periods or as a concise history of Western philosophy’s concepts of human nature.
the result of historical developments. Inevitably, it is a subject's history that defines it, and this is perhaps especially the case with psychology, which William James playfully referred to as "that nasty little subject." It has been at the center of speculation and inquiry since ancient times. Contrary to an all too common claim, it is not in any sense a "young subject," even if its extensive experimental programs are relatively recent. On the latter point, too, one must remain mindful that
enjoy life in the cave. We can now sketch the essential features ofthe Socratic theory of knowledge by combining the cave allegory with both the attack on Protagoras in the Theaetetus and the servant's lessons in Meno. First, true knowledge is a knowledge of the permanent principles of reality and not of changing appearances; it 30 Philosophical Psychology is a knowledge conveyed not by the senses but by reason analyzing experience. For convenience, we refer to this doctrine as "rationalism,"
authority of Aristotle, whom he calls "our prince" and who, for the next two centuries will be reverentially and simply dubbed "the Philosopher." The revival of rationalism cannot be reduced to a single or even small set of causative agents. Nor is this the place to identify the many factors involved. Charlemagne's contribution has been noted, a contribution sustained and reinforced by King Otto, whose German kingdom enjoyed a mini-renaissance in the tenth century. St. Peter's, which had been
and aristocratic classes refused to acknowledge the growth of their power. Riveted in the mind was the notion of eternal order, social level, and God's will animating both. We need not pause to criticize here. We can have sympathy or scorn, for example, for the hopeless attempts to reclaim Jerusalem, the "Holy Sepulchre," at a time when the Balkans were on the verge of falling to the Turks, or for the oddly macabre tournaments in which life and limb were sacrificed in the name of honor. These are
experience and nurtured by the reflective faculty. To say that we know is no more than to say that we have ideas. Knowledge itself is "nothing but the perception of the connection of and agreement, or disagreement and repugnancy of any of our ideas." 24 This agreement (and its converse) may be treated as a four-fold affair. First, there is the recognition that what is, is; that a thing cannot be and, at the same time, not be. After this "first act of the mind" comes our knowledge of relations,