Read the summary and the most important questions on Pioneers of Psychology

• 1 Foundational Ideas from Antiquity

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• Which two things did the sophists specialize teaching in?

  Skills of rhetoric and public speaking that would enable their students to express and promote their political and social views most effectively

• What did the famous sophist Gorgias boasted about?

  That he could persuade people to adopt any opinion on any subject, even if he himself knew little or nothing about it.

• How did Socrates led his students to appreciate what is true and permanent as opposed to temporarily convenient and popular?

  He did this by engaging his students in conversations or dialogues which encouraged them to discover their own innate capacities for finding truth, rather than passing on to them predetermined ideas or lessons.

• Why did Socrates oppose the entire notion of writing things down?

  Because he believed that written ideas can represent true ones only partially and imperfectly, and that relying on writing weakens the faculties of memory and serious thinking.

• What did the Socrates dialogues by Plato became foundational for?

  These works—in which Plato added his own insights and interpretations to those of Socrates—emphasized the great importance of those “higher” capacities for rational thinking and mathematical reasoning that presumably reside innately within the human mind.
  The dialogues became foundational statements of the approaches to mental philosophy known as nativism, emphasizing inborn as opposed to acquired properties, and rationalism, emphasizing reason.

• What was the purpose of the Academy, founded by Plato?

  It was a gathering place for scholars of varying ages and interests to congregate and pursue their intellectual goals. As a center for teaching and learning as well as what we today call scholarly research, the Academy has ever since lent its name to centers for higher learning. Although Plato’s own Socratically inspired approach was naturally emphasized, the topics pursued by scholars at the Academy also included mathematics and astronomy, and many diverse opinions were tolerated.
  Another topic in the Academy: more general philosophical problems

• What might have been the reason for the break between Aristotle and Plato?

  Aristotle was predisposed—perhaps from seeing his father’s careful observations while diagnosing his patients—to place far more emphasis than his teacher did on the systematic observation of the natural, empirical world of the senses.

• What does empiricism (first great proponent is Aristotle) entail?

  It is the notion that true knowledge comes first and primarily through the processing of sensory experiences of the external world.

• 1.1 The Greek Miracle and the Presocratic Philosphers

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• What were the earliest preoccupations of the first recognized philosophers?

  Their earliest preoccupations were observing the natural world and attempting to understand it in terms of underlying fundamental principles: essentially the same goal as that of modern physical scientists.

• What did Thales become famous for?

  He became famous for his accurate astronomical and meteorological observations, and promoted the idea that water was the most important element in the physical makeup of the cosmos.