The Field of Learning and
Behavior
The Beginnings
Aristotle’s Contributions
Aristotle’s three “souls” or psyches
Aristotle’s four causes
Aristotle’s principles of association
Aristotle’s Principles of
Association
Contiguity
Similarity
Contrast
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Aristotle’s Four “Souls” or
Psyches
The nutritive or vegetative soul
The sensitive soul
The rational soul
Aristotle’s Four Causes
Efficient causation
Final causation
Material causation
Formal causation
Rene Descartes
Contributions to
Learning & Behavior
2
Descartes, Shown Rewriting
Philosophy
Descartes’ Contributions
A new physics of the universe
The reflex arc
Interactive dualism
Position on “innate ideas”
The Reflex Arc
Explains involuntary,
automatic behaviors
Stimulus-response
Physical mechanism
(no magic!)
3
Reflex Arc and Animal
Behavior
Animals as mindless robots
Behavior consists only of reflexive
responses to stimuli
Instincts as chains of reflexes
Interactive Dualism
Human being as dual being
Physical body
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Involuntary actions due to reflexes
Provides sensory input to the soul
Carries out “orders” of the soul
Perception, memory, emotion
Soul
n
Reasoning and voluntary action
Innate Ideas
Empiricism versus Nativism
Descartes’ list of innate ideas
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Certain principles of geometry
Understanding of time
Knowledge of God
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