History of Psychology
II. Early Origins
Where to Begin
One question that immediately arises in any history
of psychology course is where exactly to begin.
Psychology as a discipline is less than two hundred
years old, and thus most thinking about the mind and
behavior occurred for thousands of years before this
in other areas of inquiry. Additionally, it is likely that
before written records early humans did reflect on
their behavior in some fashion, particularly in order
to be effective at social cognition. That said, one
convenient place to start is with some of the earliest
writings in Western culture, those of the ancient
Greeks, specifically with the ancient Homeric epics. It
is here that some of the earlier terms for mental
functioning appear in Western culture, and these
early terms will be built upon over the centuries to
become some of the terms that we use today.
Homeric Greece
One thing to immediately
come to grips with about
Homer is that there is no
word for ‘mind’ as we
currently mean the term, as
something that encapsulates
unified psychological activity. Rather, in Homer we
see a variety of ‘mental organs’ that are much more
loosely organized. These mental organs had both
physical and non-physical attributes. The major terms
for, or mental organs of, mental functioning in Homer
were noos, thumos, phren or phrenes, and psuche. All
these things seem to have been thought to be located
in the chest area rather than in the head or brain.
Again, these mental organs were not unified into
anything like a ‘mind’ at this time: however, unified
psychological functioning was still a priority via arête
and the need to avoid akrasia. As well, psuche, which
would later become psyche and thus the root word
for psychology, did not have any real psychological
functions, and was more thought of as that which
kept one alive or departed after death. There was a lot
of functional overlap between the various Homeric
psychological terms, though each one does has a
distinct flavor.
The Presocratics
After Homer, the next place to stop and look around
is the beginning of Western philosophy with a diverse
group of thinkers called the Presocratics who
produced a wide diversity of early philosophical ideas,
many of which were based on their notion of the
arche. Many of the Presocratics tinkered with and
changed around some of the meanings of the original
Homeric terms for mental functioning, and these
changes and the evolution of these terms is important
for our study. Additionally, a number of Presocratics,
such as Alcmaeon and Hippocrates, had early theories
of medicine and behavior. In sum, the Presocratics
represent the beginnings of reasoned and systematic
thought about the nature of the universe, some of
which was naturalistic in nature. We also see the
beginnings of brain-centered psychological thought,
as well as an awareness that there may be something
behind the senses, something that only the mind or
soul was capable of grasping.
One last concept is important to mention. It is not
entirely clear where the idea of pneuma began,
though some of the earlier writings on pneuma come
from the Presocratics. Pneuma was something that
flowed through and ran the nervous system, a kind of
semi-material fluid-gaseous like substance. A later
thinker, Galen, believed that psychic pneuma ran
throughout the ventricular system and nerves, and
was thus what ‘ran’ the nervous system. This general
model, where something non-physical or spiritual
flows through and runs the nervous system, will later
be called Vitalism, and lasts well into the 1800s.
Plato
Plato comes next, and of course it is hard to
differentiate Plato’s thought from that of his mentor,
Socrates. Socrates considered himself to
be ‘the midwife of thought’ via
dialectic, and Plato makes great use of
this method in his numerous dialogues.
It is very difficult to find complete
agreement between all the ideas that
Plato presented. However, the eternal forms and
anemnesis continually play a large role, and in various
areas of the dialogues the ‘soul’ is described not as a
collection of Homeric mental organs, but as a unified
thing, the psyche, which held within it the sources of
behavior. One particular description of this psyche is
that, although only unified things were thought to be
eternal, it nevertheless had three parts, and was thus a
sort of unity from a multiplicity. These three parts
had to do with reason, spirit, and desire. In some of
Plato, but not all, the soul is centered in the brain. It
should be noted that this is one of the first times that
something like a ‘mind’, the psyche in this case,
represented encapsulated and unified psychological
functioning, something very different than in Homer.
Two further items from Plato were presented
concerning whether one feels through or with the
senses, and concerning the nature of memory.
Aristotle
Aristotle was a student of
Plato, but went a different
way than his teacher, being
more naturalistic in many of
his ideas than Plato. Aristotle
believed that knowledge came
not from remembering the
eternal forms but rather from
experience. He uses the term
form in a very different way
than Plato, for example when he says that the soul is
the form of a body capable of life. Aristotle proposed
an encapsulated and unified five-part psyche, but
only the nous was eternal. As well, Aristotle did not
believe that the brain was the center, but was rather a
cooling organ for the blood that only indirectly
influenced behavior. Finally, two more of Aristotle’s
notions were presented concerning how memory
worked via associationist principles and concerning
some early ideas about the binding problem.
Epilogue
In sum, the option of where to begin any history of
psychology is an important and difficult question.
However, the beginnings of Western literature and
first discussions of psychological functioning are with
the Homeric Epics, and this seems as good a place as
any. From here, we travel with the Presocratics,
Plato, and Aristotle.
What we generally see in this section, aside from an
immense blossoming of ideas and culture, are some of
the first terms for mental functioning in the Western
intellectual tradition. These terms will eventually
change over time and develop into something that,
though called the soul or ‘psyche’, encapsulated
unified psychological functioning somewhat like our
modern conception of ‘mind’.
Quotes of Note
Homer
Many were the men whose cities he saw and whose
minds {noos} he learned, and many the woes he
suffered in his heart {thumos} upon the sea, seeking to
win his own life {psyche} and the return of his
comrades. (Odyssey, 1:2-4)
“But as for us, let us take thought how these things
are to be, if planning {noos} will accomplish
anything.” (Nestor to Agamemnon, Iliad, 14.62-63)
“Automedon, what god has put in your breast
unprofitable counsel and taken from you your good
sense {phrenes} that in this way in the foremost
throng you fight with the Trojans, alone as you are?”
(Iliad 17: 468-470)
Two of them together he seized and dashed to the
earth like puppies, and their brains {encephalos}
flowed forth upon the ground and wetted the earth.
Then he cut them limb from limb and made ready his
supper, and ate them like a mountain-nurtured lion,
leaving nothing – the entrails, the flesh, and the
bones and marrow … I formed a plan in my great
heart {thumos} to steal near him, and draw my sharp
sword from beside my thigh and stab him in the
breast, where the midriff {phrenes} holds the liver,
feeling for the place with my hand. But a second
thought {thumos} checked me, for there in the cave
we too would have perished in utter ruin. For we
would not have been able to thrust back with our
hands from the high door the mighty stone which he
had set there. So then, with wailing, we waited for
the bright dawn. (Odyssey, 9:299-306)
The Presocratics
Thales, too, seems, from what they relate, to have
supposed that the psyche was something kinetic, if he
said that the {magnesium} stone possess psyche
because it moves iron.
Alcmaeon first defines the differences among animals.
For he says that humans differ from the other animals
because they alone understand, whereas the others
perceive but do not understand ...
Alcmaeon – All the senses are somehow connected to
the brain. This is why they are incapacitated if it is
moved or displaced; for it obstructs the passages
through which the senses work.
consistency… whenever we wish to remember
something … we hold this wax under the perceptions
or ideas and imprint them on it as we might stamp the
impression of a signet ring. Whatever is so imprinted
we remember and know so long as the image remains;
whatever is rubbed out or has not succeeded in
leaving an impression we have forgotten and do not
know.
Aristotle
Heraclitus – A man, when he gets drunk, is led
stumbling along by an immature boy, not knowing
where he is going, having his soul wet.
Empedocles – For from these are all things fitted and
fixed together, and by means of these do men think,
and feel pleasure and sorrow.
Anaxagoras – Through the weakness of the senseperceptions, we cannot judge truth.
The psyche is the Form of a body capable of life.
Soul is substance in the sense that it is the form of a
natural body having in it the capacity of life … The
soul, therefore, is the actuality of the body … Hence
there is no need inquire whether the soul and body
are one, any more than whether the wax and the
imprint are one.
An Axe – Its axeity would be its substance, would in
Democritus – Sweet exists by convention, bitter by
convention, color by convention; atoms and Void
[alone] exist in reality … We know nothing
accurately in reality, but [only] as it changes
according to the bodily condition, and the
constitution of those things that flow upon [the body]
and impinge upon it.
Plato
Sensation & Perception – Socrates: Is it more correct
to say we see and hear with our eyes and ears, or
through them?
Theaetetus: I should say that we always perceive
through them, rather than with them.
Socrates: Yes, it would surely be strange that there
should be a number of senses ensconced inside us, like
the warriors in the Trojan horse, and all these things
should not converge and meet in some single nature –
a {psyche}, or whatever it is to be called – with which
we perceive all the objects of perception through the
senses as instruments.
Memory – Imagine … that our {psyches} contain a
block of wax, which in this or that individual may be
larger or smaller, and composed of wax that is
comparatively pure or muddy, and harder in some,
and softer in others, and sometimes of just the right
fact be its soul
Binding – … the various senses incidentally perceive
each other’s proper objects, not as so many separate
senses, but as forming a single sense … there is a
common faculty associated with [all the senses],
whereby one is aware that one sees and hears for it is
not by sight that one is aware that one sees, and one
judges and is capable of judging that sweet is different
from white not by taste, nor by sight, nor by a
combination of the two, but by some part which is
common to all the senses.