PSYCHOLOGY Flashcards
(22 cards)
start
w/ physiology
19th c introduces the idea that human minds are natural objects
- the mind is related/ a product of the brain
different to theo tradition
mind= free entity to be judged by God
X kant “representative of reason alone”
William James x3
1- individual
2- it is what we say it is
3- emotions make religion= psychological
James def
“the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider divine”
religious experience x4
ineffability: defies expression/ must be directly experienced
noetic quality: state of insight into deep truths
transiency: cannot be sustained for long
passivity: grasped and held by superior power
TAVES on James
James’ goal was whether these experiences could be understood in relation to other truths
William James- father or
american pragmatism
- theoritical ideas= hypotheses as tools
- tools find valid via trial/error
religion is not invalidated by science
John DEWE on James’ biggest achievement
biggest achievement supplied the field of religious study with a firm basis of scientific method
- anti-reductionist: valued religion in and of itself
W. PROUDFOOT on James
” self-imposed constraints (…) to come up with a theory of religious experience that was faithful to the experience of believers (…) and the plausibility of the scientist”
James and Freud complimentary relationship
James: our needs, desires, hopes are the cornerstones of our belief systems
Freud: and they have a mind of their own= subconscious: influences everything we do
Freud x3
psych
id- unconscious that drives repressed memories
ego- conscious/ self-aware
superego- preconscious/ introjected social rules
Ernest JONES on Freud
“darwin of the mind”
psychoanalysis
science of the unconscious mental processes
Freud: “method of research/ impartial instrument”
Storr on psychoanalysis
unscientific and mentalist
future of illusion
science= “onyl road leads us to a knowledge/reality outside ourselves
freud sources
darwin’s descent of man
frazer’s golden bough
spence and wulff: how to evaluate psychoanalysis
adequacy of narrative
coherence, structure..
evolotionary paradigm
ontogeny= phylogeny
ontogeny
dev of individual org
phylogeny
evo of species
cultural evo of man
freud evolution
3 phases
animism
religion
science= “sophisticated”
Civilisation and its discontents
freud admits his inablity to deal ith the ‘religious feeling’
(James’ ineffability)
Colin MCGINN
mysterianism
the question of consciousnees is unsolvable by human minds
understanding mind= personal/subjective
understanding brains/ bodies= objective/verifiable
not compatible
no amount of personal reflection is going to provide an explanation for neurons firing
and no amount of studying neurons firing is going to explain what it feels like to see colour through someone else’s eyes
