The origins of psychology begin with the Greek philosophers, around 500 BCE.
Two of the best known philosophers are Plato and Aristotle.
Plato established one of the first schools in Greece and was a follower of Socrates.
Plato was a nativist, believing that aspects of a person’s character and intelligence
including some initial knowledge about the world, are innate and present at birth.
Aristotle studied under Plato and was a tutor of Alexander the Great.
Aristotle was an empiricist, arguing that everything we know comes from our experiences and our environment.
For the next two thousand years
philosophy remained the primary method of examining questions about human nature.
Science as a distinct method of inquiry developed slowly
but the Renaissance in Europe during the 1500s and 1600s
led some philosophers and physicians to apply the scientific approach to study human behavior
Sir Francis Bacon, called the “father of empiricism,” was especially influential
in describing and popularizing the scientific method in the late 1500s.
Bacon also helped establish the British colonies that became Canada and the United States.
In the early 1600s the French philosopher Rene Descartes developed a theory to explain reflex movements.
Descartes proposed that internal “threads” run throughout our body to control behavior
sometimes without conscious thought.
This idea provided the initial framework for later research in psychology.
Descartes, who was sympathetic to Plato’s nativist views
argued that mind and body were distinct substances
a view called “dualism,” which is rejected by modern neuroscience.
Another important philosopher named John Locke lived In England during the late 1600s.
Locke was a leader among the British Empiricist philosophers during the time period called the Enlightenment
and helped promote the notion of rights for the common citizen. These ideas played an important role
in the development of the United States Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
As an empiricist, Locke argued that at birth the mind is a tabula rasa, which is Latin for “blank slate.”
Following Aristotle, he claimed that our character and all our knowledge come from our experiences after birth.