Philosophical Roots of Psychology

Michael Sharp2024-01-11

378 views|6 months ago

💫 Short Summary

The video discusses the philosophical roots of psychology, covering debates such as dualism vs. materialism, realism vs. idealism, empiricism vs. nativism, and free will vs. determinism. It explains where psychology tends to lie on these debates, with a focus on materialism, idealism, and a balance between empiricism and nativism. Psychology is largely deterministic and focused on understanding the fundamental causal pathways of human behavior, thoughts, and feelings, leaving no room for free will. While some branches like humanistic psychology embrace the idea of free will, psychology as a science emphasizes causation and the determinants of choices.

✨ Highlights

📊 Transcript

✦

The first debate in the philosophical roots of psychology is between dualism and materialism, where psychology tends to lean towards materialism.

00:00

Dualism argues that the mind and body are fundamentally different, while materialism states that all mental phenomena are reducible to physical phenomena.

Psychology is rooted in materialism, viewing the mind as a product of the brain, which can be treated through changing the brain's functions.

✦

The second debate is between philosophical realism and philosophical idealism, with psychology aligning more with the idea that our perceptions of the world are interpretations by the brain, rather than faithful copies of the external world.

02:41

Realism suggests our perceptions are faithful copies of the external world, while idealism proposes that our perceptions are brain's interpretations of sensory information.

Psychology tends to support the idea that our perception of the world is more of an inference or interpretation based on sensation, as shown by studies on optical illusions.

✦

The third debate is between empiricism and nativism, where psychology acknowledges the presence of both acquired knowledge through experience and innate knowledge.

04:32

Empiricism states that all knowledge is acquired through experience, while nativism argues that some knowledge is innate.

Psychology recognizes the role of both acquired and innate knowledge, with research in developmental and evolutionary psychology supporting the idea of innate knowledge to some extent.

✦

The final debate discussed is between free will and determinism, with psychology leaning towards a middle ground that acknowledges the influence of both factors.

06:47

Free will suggests individuals have the freedom to make choices independent of external influences.

Determinism posits that all events, including human actions, are determined by previous events and natural laws.

Psychology acknowledges a balance between free will and determinism, recognizing that behavior, thoughts, and feelings can be influenced by both internal and external factors.

✦

Psychology is largely deterministic and focuses on understanding the fundamental causal pathways of human behavior, thoughts, and feelings.

06:00

Psychology, as a science, aims to understand why people do what they do and what determines their behavior, thoughts, and feelings.

This approach leaves no room for free will, choice, and decision-making, as it prioritizes understanding the determinants of behavior.

Different branches of psychology attribute behavior to genetics, neural activity, social situations, or personalities.

✦

Psychology views thoughts, behaviors, and feelings as caused rather than chosen, leaning towards a deterministic perspective.

07:00

Psychology emphasizes causation, seeking to understand whether X causes Y in terms of thoughts, behaviors, and feelings.

Most psychological studies using experiments or correlational research tend to align with the deterministic view.

The concept of free will, if accepted by some psychologists, is not a focus in psychological studies and is seen as determined by other factors.

00:00 hello everybody in this video what I'm

00:01 going to do is I'm going to be talking

00:02 about the philosophical roots of

00:03 psychology and essentially what this is

00:05 going to do is this is going to kind of

00:06 cover a lot of different types of

00:08 philosophical debates and I'll talk

00:10 about where psychology tends to lie on

00:12 these different debates and kind of a

00:13 mainstream overall consensus type of way

00:16 there will be some individuals that do

00:18 take different perspectives but

00:20 generally speaking mainstream psychology

00:22 is going to kind of fall on one side or

00:23 the

00:25 other now the first debate I want to

00:27 talk about is this idea of philosophical

00:29 D dualism versus is philosophical

00:31 materialism now Dart was largely on the

00:33 side of philosophical dualism and this

00:35 basically just argues The View that mind

00:38 and the body are fundamentally different

00:40 things but to better understand this

00:42 think of this in the sense that the mind

00:43 and the brain are fundamentally distinct

00:46 independent uh entities so basically if

00:49 we want to know what's going in on the

00:51 mind we don't have to look at the brain

00:54 because the brain is something that is

00:55 different and distinct from the mind so

00:58 this could be a number of different

00:59 things but for those that have a

01:00 religious or spiritual kind of worldview

01:03 this might be the idea of a soul and

01:04 that the soul is something that is

01:06 distinct and something that's

01:07 fundamentally different than the brain

01:09 or the body itself now it contrasts this

01:12 with the idea of philosophical

01:13 materialism and this is the view that

01:16 all mental phenomenon are reducible to

01:18 physical phenomenon this is essentially

01:19 the idea that the mind is not different

01:22 from the brain the mind is the output or

01:25 the function of the brain the mind is

01:27 what the brain does so just as when you

01:29 open up your iPhone or your smartphone

01:31 and you see a screen basically what

01:33 you're seeing is the output of a

01:36 physical device the phone whereas for

01:39 the mind that's basically kind of the

01:41 expression or the output of the brain

01:43 now there are some psychologists that

01:45 are philosophical dualist but many and I

01:47 would argue kind of fundamental

01:49 assumptions of psychology is really

01:51 rooted in philosophical materialism and

01:53 we can look at this through a lot of

01:55 different types of studies that let's

01:56 say look at Neuroscience kind of brain

01:58 activity in relation to beh Behavior or

02:00 thoughts or feelings or we can look at

02:03 different types of treatments that we

02:04 might have that are based on let's say

02:06 chemically changing the brain through

02:08 drugs or some sort of electric or

02:10 magnetic stimulation so what I would

02:12 argue is that psychology is largely a

02:14 philosophical materialistic worldview it

02:17 looks at the mind as something that is a

02:19 product of the brain in ways that we can

02:21 try to treat let's say troubling

02:23 Behavior thoughts or feelings might be

02:25 through trying to treat the brain in one

02:27 way or another now this is not to say

02:29 that the brain is everything and is

02:31 basically closed off from being

02:33 influenced by external stimuli it does

02:35 get filtered through the

02:38 brain now another debate is this idea

02:41 between philosophical realism and Phil

02:43 philosophical idealism and this is

02:45 basically how do we perceive the world

02:47 now philosophical realism is formally

02:49 defined as the view that our perceptions

02:51 of the physical world are a faithful

02:53 copy of information from the world and

02:55 that this information enters our brain

02:57 through our sensor apparatus so

02:58 basically our ability to see the world

03:01 and through vision is basically a kind

03:03 of faithful replication of what the

03:05 world actually is now in contrast

03:08 there's philosophical idealism and this

03:10 is the view that our perceptions of the

03:11 physical world are our brain's best

03:13 interpretation of the information that

03:15 enters through our sensory apparatus so

03:17 it's not that we have a faithful copy of

03:20 the world in our brain through our

03:22 Sensations but actually our brain is

03:24 interpreting what our senses are

03:26 bringing in and modern psychology has

03:28 largely kind of stood on this side of

03:30 philosophical idealism that a lot of our

03:32 perception of the world is rather an

03:34 inference of our perceptions rather than

03:37 a faithful copy and we can actually see

03:40 that there's a lot of studies that show

03:41 things with like um optical illusions

03:43 for example that demonstrate that our

03:45 brain is basically kind of guessing

03:47 what's going on and not being completely

03:49 accurate at perceiving things it's

03:50 basically inferring Things based on past

03:52 experiences or kind of an idea of an

03:54 intuitive physics or what should happen

03:56 given an idea of like what physics is

03:58 usually like in our experence experience

04:00 so you can look at a lot of different

04:02 types of you know optical illusions to

04:04 see things that kind of shatter our

04:06 expectations and we don't necessarily

04:07 see things as they are but rather as how

04:10 we kind of interpret

04:12 them so the first debate is about you

04:15 know what is the mind is it something

04:17 that's separate from the body or is it a

04:19 kind of an output of the body the second

04:21 debate is more about how do we kind of

04:23 perceive the world around us do we

04:25 perceive it as it actually is or do we

04:27 have some sort of inference or

04:28 interpretation based on sensation the

04:31 next question though is much more about

04:32 how do we know stuff and at one end is

04:34 this idea of philosophical empiricism

04:36 and this is the view that all knowledge

04:38 is acquired through experience now this

04:41 is going to be different than kind of an

04:42 empirical epistemology that I'm going to

04:43 be talking about in the research method

04:45 section but basically what this is

04:47 saying is that we come into the world

04:50 with a blank slate or a tabasa that we

04:52 know nothing coming into the world and

04:54 we had to learn every single thing

04:57 through some sort of experience and if

04:59 we take kind of a shallow look at let's

05:01 say babies for example we might actually

05:03 have a lot of sympathy Tes because well

05:05 we don't think babies really know that

05:06 much especially compared to us 18 20 or

05:09 so many years later however compare this

05:12 with the philosophical nativism approach

05:14 this is the view that some knowledge is

05:16 innate rather than acquired so neither

05:19 of these positions are saying that all

05:21 knowledge that we've developed are

05:23 innate what nativism is saying though is

05:25 that there's some sort of knowledge that

05:27 is innate that we're bornn with

05:30 that we actually have that we don't have

05:31 to learn through experience and there's

05:33 some arguments that we actually do have

05:35 a basic understanding of things of like

05:37 space time causality and numbers that

05:39 are more nativistic in terms of that

05:41 we're born with this understanding

05:43 rather than something that we have to

05:44 have by experience some even ex show the

05:46 example of certain types of moral

05:48 judgments or moral you know evaluations

05:50 or also kind of nativist in the sense

05:52 that even young babies tend to have a

05:54 preference for people that are more

05:55 pro-social than antisocial so although

05:58 the nativist will even agree that

05:59 there's some knowledge that we've

06:01 developed through experience the

06:02 question is how much of it is innate or

06:05 nativistic and a lot of this information

06:07 might come from areas such as

06:08 developmental psychology that studies

06:10 kind of the development of psychology

06:11 through the cross the lifespan including

06:13 prenatal existence so before one was

06:16 actually born but in the womb and

06:18 evolutionary psychology as well looking

06:20 at kind of our evolutionary presses from

06:22 the past and how that influences modern

06:24 day Behavior thoughts and feelings so

06:26 basically at an extreme this idea of the

06:28 philosophical pism versus nativism

06:30 position is essentially kind of this

06:32 nature versus nurture argument so

06:34 psychology generally kind of argues that

06:36 there is some sort of nativist component

06:39 but there is a bit of room for

06:40 empiricism as well it's just where is

06:42 the balance exactly

06:44 at now the last debate I want to touch

06:47 on is this idea of Free Will versus

06:49 determinism and what I want to argue is

06:51 that essentially psychology as long as

06:53 it's at a science is largely

06:56 deterministic psychology that relies on

06:58 experiment ments and correlations and

07:00 tries to understand fundamental causal

07:02 Pathways of human behavior thoughts and

07:05 feelings really has no room for free

07:07 will because essentially what we're

07:09 doing is we're undering why do people do

07:11 what they do what are the determinants

07:12 of our Behavior our thoughts or our

07:14 feelings and this doesn't actually allow

07:16 for any room for free will the idea of

07:18 choice and decision now there are some

07:20 exceptions there's a branch of

07:22 psychology called humanistic psychology

07:23 that really Embraces the idea of Free

07:25 Will and looks at the idea of choice and

07:27 responsibility but if we're looking at

07:29 different types of areas of psychology

07:30 well a biological psychologist might say

07:32 well are you know behaviors determined

07:35 by genetics or some sort of neural

07:38 activity a social psychologist would say

07:40 that our behavior is largely informed by

07:42 our social situation A personality

07:44 psychologist would say our behavior is

07:45 determined by our personalities so

07:48 because we're treating psychology as a

07:49 science we're trying to understand why

07:50 do people do what they do or why does X

07:53 cause y or does X cause y we are looking

07:56 at the idea of causation meaning that

07:58 thoughts beh behaviors and feelings are

08:00 understood to be caused rather than

08:03 quotequote chosen so here psychology is

08:05 going to be more on the deterministic

08:07 side now there are some psychologists

08:09 that do you know believe in the idea of

08:11 free will or accept free will however it

08:14 tends not to be in the context of

08:15 psychological studies that are using

08:17 things like experiments or correlational

08:19 research and to the extent that choice

08:21 might be used the idea for psychology is

08:23 to understand why or what is the

08:24 determinance for a choice and that

08:27 choice is largely going to be understood

08:29 as something that is determined by other

08:31 factors than just quotequote some sort

08:33 of self now I'm going to leave it in

08:35 this video and I will see you in the

08:37 next

💫 FAQs about This YouTube Video

1. What are the philosophical roots of psychology?

The philosophical roots of psychology are discussed in the video, covering debates such as philosophical dualism versus philosophical materialism, philosophical realism versus philosophical idealism, philosophical empiricism versus nativism, and Free Will versus determinism.

2. How does psychology view the mind-body relationship?

Psychology's view of the mind-body relationship is discussed, highlighting the debate between philosophical dualism and philosophical materialism. It is noted that mainstream psychology leans towards philosophical materialism, seeing the mind as a product of the brain.

3. What is the debate about perception in psychology?

The video explores the debate about perception in psychology, discussing philosophical realism versus philosophical idealism. It is explained that modern psychology tends to align with philosophical idealism, where perception of the physical world is seen as an interpretation by the brain.

4. What is the philosophical debate regarding knowledge in psychology?

The philosophical debate regarding knowledge in psychology is outlined, covering philosophical empiricism versus nativism. The video emphasizes that psychology acknowledges both the role of experience and innate knowledge in human development.

5. How is the Free Will versus determinism debate viewed in psychology?

The video addresses the Free Will versus determinism debate in psychology, highlighting that this is a significant area of discussion within the field. It is suggested that psychology explores the concept of Free Will while also considering the influences of determinism on human behavior.

6. What is the main focus of deterministic psychology?

The main focus of deterministic psychology is to understand the fundamental causal pathways of human behavior, thoughts, and feelings, with no room for free will.

7. How does psychology as a science view the concept of free will?

Psychology as a science views the concept of free will as not having room within deterministic psychology, as it seeks to understand behavior as caused rather than chosen.

8. Are there any exceptions to the deterministic view in psychology?

Humanistic psychology is an exception, embracing the idea of free will and exploring the concepts of choice and responsibility.

9. What are the main determinants of behavior in different areas of psychology?

In different areas of psychology, behavior is attributed to various determinants such as genetics, neural activity, social situations, and personalities.

10. How is the concept of choice perceived in psychology?

In psychology, the concept of choice is studied to understand its determinants and is largely seen as caused by factors other than personal agency.

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