Socrates

Socrates (469-399 BC)  Primarily known through Plato’s writings, Socrates is sometimes called the first social scientist because of his interest in ethics, economics, and aesthetics. He believed that thought came from the psyche (the spirit or soul of the individual). Tall, dark and handsome would not have described Socrates well. Short, dark and unattractive would have been closer. But his sharp mind, witty sense of humor, and unequaled speaking ability made him very popular. He preferred talking to writing, and spent much of his life in the marketplace of Athens. Socrates was more concerned with the nature of man than with the composition of matter. In 399 BC, Socrates was charged with interfering with the gods (a crime punishable by death). His continued reference to an inner voice was interpreted as demonic possession, and his teaching was thought to undermine the morals of Athen’s youth. Found guilty by a small majority, Socrates countered with an alternative sentence (as was customary). Instead of suggesting a serious alternative, however, Socrates offered to pay a small fine. They jury was not amused, and with increased majority sentenced him to die by lethal dosage of hemlock.

Willard Small

Small, Willard S (1870=1943)   The fourth person to impact animal research was Willard .S. Small. In 1901, he invented the animal maze. It became the first practical way to systematically test animal responses, and has been widely used to study physiological and psychological issues (including motivation, learning, and memory).

George Romanes

Romanes, George John (1848-1894)   George John Romanes (1848-1894) collected anecdotal material on the importance of animals. A friend of Charles Darwin, Romanes collected animal stories and attributed human characteristics to animals (anthropomorphism).

Thomas Reid

Reid, Thomas (1710-1796)   Like Hartley, Thomas Reid was the son of a minister.  Although Reid’s uncle was a personal friend of Newton, Reid was not an empiricist. Reid’s rationalism was a reaction against Hume and a defense of commonsense thinking. Hume questioned reality because it is experienced only through our senses; Reid pointed out that real people know and deal with reality all the time. Clearly the mind knows more than its own processes, and actively organizes sensations. Reid’s “faculty psychology” included six intellectual powers: perception, judgment, memory, conception, moral taste and will. People have the ability (faculty) to actively interact with the world around them. This interaction is direct, and requiers no specialized philosophy; it’s simply naive realism.

Pyrrho of Ellis

Pyrrho of Elis (360-270)   He was the leader of the Skeptics. Traveling as part of Alexander’s entourage to Persia and India, Pyrrho discovered that all of the truths he firmly held were not accepted everywhere. Travel is such an eye-opening experience because you not only see places, you meet people with different backgrounds, cultures and values. It is not uncommon to re-evaluate your assumptions about life the first time you meet a person from a different culture who is nice, reasonable, thoughtful, and yet has an entirely different view of life. Having found truth in other cultures, Pyrrho maintained that we should withhold judgment of other people and their beliefs. Truth is not absolute, and, indeed, cannot be known. Consequently, we examine our lives and maintain a spiritual attitude of tranquillity, calm and freedom from passion. Because this process of examination (skeptesthai) involves the questioning of assumptions, skepticism has come to represent the questioning of reality.

Protagorus

Protagorus (490-420)   Like Gargias, Protagorus taught grammar and rhetoric. So skilled was he as persuasive speech that he called himself a Sophist (expert craftsman) and gave lessons for a fee (unlike the philosophers of the time). Although Sophists instituted the first educational system, they were criticized for being money oriented. If info-mercials had been available at the time, Protagorus would have had one on persuasive speech. He would have told the audience that truth is not absolute; it is a matter of opinion. And opinions can be changed with persuasive speech, if you know how; and for a fee Protagorus (like “spin doctors” of today) would teach you how. Not only was Protagorus criticized for distorting philosophy into a business, his ideas were considered dangerous. If “man is the measure of all things,” no rules could be uniformly applied. Such radical teaching was thought to be subversive, and Protagoras was forced into exile. He drowned enroute to Sicily.

Lloyd Morgan

Morgan, C Lloyd (1852-1936)   Morgan took sort of a semi-experimental approach but is best known for his “cannon.” Morgan’s cannon is that higher level inferences should not be made if a lower level inference can explain the behavior. That is, scientific explanations should use the difficult explanations only when needed.

John Stuart Mill

Mill, John Stuart (1806-1873)   Although psychology was more of a hobby than a vocation for James Mill, his son, JS Mill was a major proponent of the systematic study of human nature. Like his father, JS was an elementalist. Like his father, JS Mill accepted contiguity as a law of association, but also believed that similarity and intensity were important. Unlike his father, JS held that the mind is active, and that the process of thinking was more like “mental chemistry” than mental mechanics. According the JS, ideas can fuse together, creating something new out of simple sensory elements.

James Mill

Mill, James (1773-1836)   According to Mill, the vividness and frequency of associations between sensations glues simple sensations into complex ideas. Mill’s “mental mechanics” accentuated the composite nature of ideas. The concept of a window, for example, is made of smaller ideas (glass, wood, etc.). For Mill, the mind is predictable and passive. He was a enthusiastic follower of utilitarianism. As proposed by Mill’s friend Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), personal and governmental decisions should be based on the usefulness (utilitarianism) of the outcome. Essentially a hedonistic view of the world, utilitarianists sought to maximize personal and corporate pleasure. Right and wrong were replaced with pleasure and pain. Mill’s greatest contribution was not in generating new insights but in providing a thorough summary of associationism. In 1829, he published Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind (revised by his son, John Stuart Mill, in 1869).

Mani

Mani was the founder of Manichaeism, a major contender to Christianity until the Middle Ages. Based on two visions he had (at age 12 and 24), Mani declared himself a prophet, traveled to India, and then returned to Persia to preach. He viewed life as a dualistic struggle between two worlds. The spiritual world was light, good, and God; the material world was dark, evil, and Satan. Like the aristocrats and the peasants, there were two classes of people: the elect and auditors. The auditors went on weekly fasts, gave themselves to good works and hoped to be reborn as the elect. The elect sought a life devoid of the material and carnal desires. They ate no meat, drank no wine, and remained celibate. They were above doing work; they were spiritual leaders.

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