Psy 310 - the History of Psychology

The History of Psychology

PSY/310

April 4, 2013

The History of Psychology

There were many philosophers that helped historically with the beginning of psychology as a formal discipline. This paper will be discussing some of them, Socrates, Rene Descartes, John Locke, and George Berkeley, are just a few of the major contributors that I will be discussing. In this paper I will also be discussing, philosophers in the western tradition that contributed in major ways to help put structure in psychology as a discipline, and the development of the science of psychology during the nineteenth century.

One philosopher historically related to the beginning of psychology as a formal discipline was Socrates born is 469 BC and died 399 BC. Socratic method was a contribution of his to the Western thought, in the method a group of questions are asked to an individual or a group of individuals to help come up with their basic beliefs and to see how far broad their knowledge is.

Rene Descartes is another philosopher related to the beginning of psychology, born on March 31st, 1596 Descartes biggest contribution was his writing. He believed that everything in nature could be described by science and mathematics. Descartes was the first to explain that the universe was made up of matter and motion, he saw the universe as a big mathematic equation.

John Locke was born in 1632 and died in 1704, at the end of the seventeenth century in Europe he was one of the greatest philosophers. Locke is best known for two of his essays, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Some Thoughts Concerning Education, these essays made him important to psychology because of the concepts he wrote about. The essay about human understanding describes his views on how someone gathers knowledge. Concerning education was written from letters to one of his friends and in the letters it shows how empiricist thinking could be put into anything for a child's education.

A philosopher and a clergyman, George Berkeley was born in 1685 and died in 1753; he was a metaphysician, a person who creates or develops metaphysical theories (dictionary, 2013). Berkeley was best known for defending idealism. The Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge and Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous are two of his most popular essays.

Major contributors in the western tradition were major philosophers some of the are already listed and David Hartley, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, John Stuart Mills, and Immanuel Kant. David Hartley is best known for his writings, Observation on Man, his Fame, his Duty, and his Expectations. The writings are a broad view of neurology, moral psychology, and spirituality. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was considered