Transcript Chap04

Chapter 4 - The Roman
Period and the Middle Ages
A History of Psychology:
Ideas and Context (4th edition)
D. Brett King, Wayne Viney, and
William Douglas Woody
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Roman Medicine
• The Roman period was approximately the 7th
century B.C. to 476 C.E.
• Galen was the most prominent Roman
physician.
– Galen accepted the Greek theory of four bodily humors
• He argued that four qualities (cold, warm, dry, and moist) were
involved in the balance required for health.
– Mental disorders were also caused by imbalance in the four
humors.
– He advocated an early form of psychotherapy to induce balance.
– Galen was a vitalist.
• He accepted three types of pneuma (natural spirit, vital spirit, and
animal spirit).
– The Christian church assimilated Galen’s ideasas part of church
dogma.
– The church did not assimilate his emphasis on research.
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Roman Philosophy
• Roman Philosophy focused on the good
life.
– Stoicism advocated the calm acceptance of
one’s fate and the removal of oneself from
appetitive pursuits.
• Stoicism was founded by Zeno of Cyprus.
• Stoicism was influenced by Epictetus.
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Roman Philosophy
– Epicureanism emphasized the powers of
pleasure and pain over human decisions and
advocated a simple life in the middle ground.
• Lucretius approached a number of psychological
topics.
• He argued for the unity of mind and body.
• He advocated an atomistic materialism, but he
allowed room for human free will.
• Lucretius wrote extensively on sensation, morals,
and the evolution of social groups, religion, and
language.
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Roman Philosophy
• Neoplatonism reflected Greek, Jewish, and Christian
traditions.
– It was explicitly theological version of Platonic ideas.
• Plotinus accepted a hierarchy of being.
– God existing as pure being and the highest level of reality and
then descending in being from God to intellectual principle
followed by the soul.
• Plotinus also addressed questions of sensation and
happiness through self-knowledge.
• Hypatia of Alexandria was the leader of the neo-Platonic
school and an expert in geometry and astronomy.
– She advocated music therapy for mental disorders.
– Music therapy may have led to her murder by Christian monks.
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Roman Philosophy
• Roman skepticism was founded by Pyrrho.
• Skepticism denied the possibility of
knowledge.
– It advocated an untroubled existence and
avoiding the possibility of disappointment by
suspending belief in all theories.
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The Fall of Rome and the
Emergence of Christianity
• The fall of Rome was a complex and gradual
decline influenced by several factors.
• The early Christian Faith was a diverse and
complicated system including many factions.
– Theological leaders did not always agree.
– The early Christian faith was shaped by the conflict
with the Roman government and the final victory
when the Roman emperor converted to Christianity
and the church ascended to power.
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The Medieval Period
• The medieval period extends from
approximately 400 C.E. through about 1400 C.E.
• Many practical inventions and new forms of
architecture reached new heights.
• Medical and psychological inquiry largely
stagnated.
– Knowledge was based almost exclusively in
theological authority.
– Tertullian helped to set the stage for the medieval
period by elevating revelation over reason.
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Aurelius Augustine
• Augustine combined Greek and Christian thought
with other theological and philosophical systems of
his day.
• He described grief, habit breaking, and his
perceptions of infant motivation.
• Some of his notions regarding memory are
surprisingly current.
• Augustine’s explorations of psychological topics
reflect his Christian theology.
• He acted against the values of curiosity, doubt, and
openness that would eventually lead to development
of scientific inquiry.
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Boethius
• Boethius struggled to combine reason,
authority, and revelation in his search
for truth.
• Boethius described true happiness in
terms of oneness with God.
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Islam in the Middle Ages
• Islam swept through Arab lands and into Europe
in the 7th century.
– Rhazes challenged demonology, raised doubts about
traditional authorities, and advocated diversions for
melancholia.
– Avicenna wrote extensively on medical topics.
• He struggled to reconcile faith and reason.
• He accepted Galen’s description of four humors and believed
that balance was essential.
• He argued for a tripartite soul including the vegetative soul,
the animal soul, and the human soul.
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Islam in the Middle Ages
• Alhazen studied on optical phenomena.
• Al-Ghazali believed that God, not nature or
cause, explains everything in experience.
– Al-Ghazali argued against empiricism and
rationalism as epistemological methods.
• Averroës wrote extensive commentaries
on the works of Aristotle.
– His commentaries became available
throughout Europe.
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Judaism in the middle ages
• The history of Judaism in the middle ages
is largely a history of persecution.
– Maimonides struggled to reconcile faith and
reason.
• His Guide for the Perplexed argued for the use of
reason in inquiry.
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The rise of European universities
• Peter Abelard argued that faith, reason,
and doubt were all acceptable ways to
truth.
• Héloise wrote extensively on the nature of
love.
• Roger Bacon addressed a number of
psychological topics in his classic, Opum
Majus.
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The rise of European universities
• Thomas Aquinas was deeply committed to
reconciling faith and reason
– He extensively studied the known works of Aristotle.
– His views reflect Aristotle’s conceptions of the mindbody problem, sensation, and emotion.
– Aquinas was instrumental in bringing Aristotle’s work
into the church, where it became unchallengeable
church doctrine.
– Aquinas started with sensory perceptions and used
reason to interpret these perceptions.
– He maintained that the church had nothing to fear
from empiricism or rationalism.
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The rise of European universities
• William of Ockham continued the empirical
tradition.
– He argued for the principle of parsimony,
sometimes called “Ockham’s Razor.”
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