Roots of Early Philosophy in Psychology
Carlos Torres
PSY/310
6/1/15
The roots of early philosophy are the initial study of understanding; it is therefore the core of psychology, which is used to motivate an individual’s thoughts, feelings, and actions to understand behavior. Philosophy relates to how an individual’s experiences through understanding with no emotions. Therefore, one understands of how both philosophy and psychology can correlate with each other, even though they are both very different, the foundation was laid for further development of modern psychology today (Kowalski & Westen, 2005). It is well known that psychology is the scientific study of human behavior and mental processes. However, the psychology we know today is much different from what it was centuries ago. It can be said that psychology has its roots in philosophy, and the interest in the mind and soul of men, followed by conscious experience and observable behavior. Back in 1950, a German philosopher named Rudolf Goekel was credited for inventing the term “psychology”, which is a combination of the words “psyche”, from the Greek “soul”, and “logos”, which means, amongst other similar concepts, “knowledge”. Psychology, then, literally means the science, or the study of the souls. Other than that, psychology was also known as the “science of mind”, or even the “science of consciousness”. However, after some time, the “mind” was considered a very subjective aspect of the human being, and psychology changed its focus to more observable behaviors. The concept of consciousness, on the other hand, was also discarded and replaced by the idea of mental processes. Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.), known as the father of modern medicine argued that there was a close connection between the mind and the body. He proposed that mental illness was not caused by demons but caused by physical malfunctions. By dissecting human cadavers and operating on living organisms, he concluded that the mind controlled the human body. He was the first to suggest that the mind resides in the brain.
Plato (pronounced /ˈpleɪtoʊ/, Greek: Πλάτων, Plátōn]; 428/427 BC – 348/347 BC), was a classical greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the academy in athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of natural philosophy, science, and western philosophy. Plato was originally a student of Socrates, and was as much influenced by his thinking as by what he saw as his teacher's unjust death. Plato's sophistication as a writer is evident in his Socratic dialogues; thirty-five dialogues and thirteen letters have been ascribed to him. Plato's writings have been published in several fashions; this has led to several conventions regarding the naming and referencing of Plato’s texts.
Although there is little question that Plato lectured at the academy that he founded, the pedagogical function of his dialogues, if any, is not known with certainty. The dialogues since Plato's time have been used to teach a range of subjects, including philosophy, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, and other subjects about which he wrote.
Aristotle (Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης, Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato's teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy. Aristotle's writings constitute a first at creating a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing morality and aesthetics, logic and science, politics and metaphysics. Aristotle's views on the physical sciences profoundly shaped medieval scholarship, and their
