Aristotle 's Influence On The History Of Psychology

The literal meaning of Psychology from its Greek Etymology is “study of the soul”. A more

By Richard Thripp for Prof. John Beltran, PSY 4604 sec. 0W58, Univ. of Central Fla., Sp. 2013

He began to study and collect sea creatures, and eventually extend his ideas to study sea animal to all living things. He created the first library in Greece, which attracted an impressive amount of scholars to the school he taught at called the Lyceum. Students were able to learn every subject imaginable at the time. Aristotle was credited with being the first thinker to recognize that knowledge is compartmentalized. The school was the center for teaching scientific reasoning and scientific research. Aristotle’s theories, at the time were revolutionary, but were later corrected. In his time he was known as “the man who knew everything.” Aristotle’s influence from his time and even after his death, are considered unparalleled, with the exception of his teacher, Plato his works continue to endure. His writings about how people perceived the world continues to underline many principles, and the knowledge people possessed, because of him people around the world share to solve problems.

Aristotle is a Greek teacher and is credited for establishing the cornerstone of modern philosophy via his book Para Psyche (Biography.com Editors). His work assumes the existence of divine power and tells that the reason the human body exists is to house our

History and Systems of Psychology is a course requirement offered to Psychology majors and minors. This course is used to provide majors and minors with the foundation and the evolution of the field of psychology. Within this class, many scholars of discussed. Two scholars that stood out to me in this course would be John Watson and Max Wertheimer. These two particular scholars are responsible for two of the most influential and famous schools of thought, behaviorism and Gestalt psychology. These two schools of thought are responsible for changing the field of psychology and introducing the field to new theories and ways of thinking. Although the two schools of thought are similar in being influential but they are different in many ways. The two schools of thought are even said to be contradictory of one another and one is even said to be the cause of the fading out of the other.

Unlike his teacher, Plato, Aristotle believed that the world could be explained by physical observation. This approach of using the five senses, cataloguing and categorising, is the foundation of scientific study. The approach is known as empiricism. Plato believed that we needed to look beyond the physical for an explanation of the universe in the guise of the World of Forms. Aristotle disagreed with this.

Aristotle distinguished between things that are “better known to us” and things that are “better known in themselves,” and maintained that we should begin our study of a given topic with things better known to us. The principles studied by ‘first philosophy’ may seem very general and abstract, but they are, according to Aristotle, better known in themselves, however

Aristotle was fond of observing from the point of view from here on earth. As others were concerned with “viewing the whole from the outside.” (Dear 10). Aristotle focused on what made sense to real people like layman’s terms; why things happened on earth. It was not complicated, or hard to understand an object that was not violently acted upon was naturally going to stay in place. Heavy objects like a rock naturally are attracted to the center of the earth and will fall faster than a feather. Focused on natural science what went on around him.

"Nothing is more remarkable than Aristotle 's efforts to exhibit the relationships of living things as a scala naturae.” Charles Singer, a modern British historian, and zoologist quotes referring to Aristotle’s “History of Animals” which classified organisms in relation to a hierarchical "ladder of life" (scala naturae).

Aristotle had a humungous importance in the field of science. Biology was one area that Aristotle supplied his knowledge greatly . On Famousscientist.org “Aristotle was very fascinated about dissecting animals and started to realize many similarities in animals.” Aristotle was known to be one who would not be afraid to get his hands dirty in the name of science. Because of these dissections Aristotle would keep track of the similarities and started to realize some animals were similar than others.

The central purpose of this essay is to critically discuss the importance of understanding human evolution and the history of psychology for the modern psychologist. For the human evolution, the essay will be addressing on how we and other species descended from our ancestors and how the different environment has helped to us to become more adaptable. Regarding the history of psychology, the essay will be discussing on how psychology branched off from the philosophy approach to become its own science. The essay will then go on discussing how the understanding of both human evolution and history of psychology would be used by modern psychologist.

It is without question that Aristotle's theories and principles influenced the western civilization for decades. According to Hergenhahn (2009) the philosopher's De Anima plays a major part of psychology because it is considered to be the first text on the history of psychology. It is within that book, Aristotle seek to define the mind and the soul: psychê. He later based his theories involving psychology based on his definition of psychê. In order to develop his own definition of the mind and the soul, Aristotle brought forth the idea of empirical studies of behavior as evidence upon his theories. Not only that, he instilled the idea that empirical observation is not to enough alone. It is only with both empiricist and rationalist methods

The History of Psychology In order to discuss Psychology's history, it is important to understand that psychology still does not have one unifying approach unlike the natural sciences; even the definition of Psychology and what it truly means is still undecided. However I shall attempt to review chronologically its philosophical origins, include how the science of Physics and Biology were placed in history and how they influenced research and determined the development of Psychology as its recognised today. Beginning with the philosophers Plato and Aristotle (between 428- 347) in ancient Greece, they began to ask

The relationship between Aristotle's conception of metaphysics, epistemology, and man's desire to know is extremely intricate. These notions have an inherent interrelation with one another, which is tied to his concept of being as being. Aristotle's idea of the first science (Aristotle 79), which was eventually called metaphysics, revolves about the concept that prior to other forms of science that pertain to empirical evidence and certain facets that can be examined in terms of their physical qualities, such as astronomy or certain forms of mathematics, there is a fundamental form of science that can explain the root cause of these other events and proclivities.

In 384 BC, Nicomachas and Phaestas experienced the birth of their son, Aristotle, in a small town on the north east coast of the peninsula of Chaldice called Stagira. Descendent of a medical family, Aristotle would pursue studies in physical science, biology, psychology, chemistry, zoology, botany, mechanics, mathematics, and many more. You name it, and Aristotle studied it. He was also interested in the search for knowledge. (Aristotle, Barnes PG. 2). A quote of his states- “ the acquisition of wisdom is pleasant; all men feel at home in philosophy and wish to spend time on it, leaving all other things aside.” In this quote Aristotle uses the word Philosophy, not as a means of gathering academic knowledge but as a means to