WEBVTT

1
00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:12.000
The origins of psychology begin with the Greek philosophers, around 500 BCE.

2
00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:18.000
Two of the best known philosophers are Plato and Aristotle.

3
00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:26.000
Plato established one of the first schools in Greece and was a follower of Socrates.

4
00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:33.500
Plato was a nativist, believing that aspects of a person’s character and intelligence

5
00:00:33.500 --> 00:00:40.000
including some initial knowledge about the world, are innate and present at birth.

6
00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:47.000
Aristotle studied under Plato and was a tutor of Alexander the Great.

7
00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:56.000
Aristotle was an empiricist, arguing that everything we know comes from our experiences and our environment.

8
00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:01.000
For the next two thousand years

9
00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:08.000
philosophy remained the primary method of examining questions about human nature.

10
00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:13.000
Science as a distinct method of inquiry developed slowly

11
00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:18.500
but the Renaissance in Europe during the 1500s and 1600s

12
00:01:18.500 --> 00:01:26.400
led some philosophers and physicians to apply the scientific approach to study human behavior

13
00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:33.200
Sir Francis Bacon, called the “father of empiricism,” was especially influential

14
00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:40.000
in describing and popularizing the scientific method in the late 1500s.

15
00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:49.000
Bacon also helped establish the British colonies that became Canada and the United States.

16
00:01:51.000 --> 00:02:01.000
In the early 1600s the French philosopher Rene Descartes developed a theory to explain reflex movements.

17
00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:08.200
Descartes proposed that internal “threads” run throughout our body to control behavior

18
00:02:08.200 --> 00:02:11.000
sometimes without conscious thought.

19
00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:17.000
This idea provided the initial framework for later research in psychology.

20
00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:21.750
Descartes, who was sympathetic to Plato’s nativist views

21
00:02:21.750 --> 00:02:26.000
argued that mind and body were distinct substances

22
00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:32.500
a view called “dualism,” which is rejected by modern neuroscience.

23
00:02:33.750 --> 00:02:41.500
Another important philosopher named John Locke lived In England during the late 1600s.

24
00:02:41.500 --> 00:02:49.000
Locke was a leader among the British Empiricist philosophers during the time period called the Enlightenment

25
00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:58.500
and helped promote the notion of rights for the common citizen. These ideas played an important role

26
00:02:58.500 --> 00:03:04.000
in the development of the United States Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

27
00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:13.500
As an empiricist, Locke argued that at birth the mind is a tabula rasa, which is Latin for “blank slate.”

28
00:03:13.500 --> 00:03:22.500
Following Aristotle, he claimed that our character and all our knowledge come from our experiences after birth.