CAS PS 211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Reductionism, Wilhelm Wundt, Tabula Rasa
15 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Socrates and plato concluded that the mind and body were separate. The mind continues after the body"s death. Aristotle believed knowledge was not preexisting, but grows from the experiences stored in memories. Rene descartes agreed with socrates and plato that innate ideas existed and that the mind was distinct from the body and able to survive death. He concluded that there was fluid in the brain"s cavities, containing spirits. These spirits flowed from the brain through what we call the nerves. Francis bacon was a founder of modern science. He anticipated mind"s perception of order in random events. He foresaw findings about the noticing and remembering of events that confirm one"s beliefs. John locke argued that the mind at birth is a tabula rasa, or blank slate, on which experience writes. Along with bacon"s ideas, he helped form empiricism, the view that knowledge originates in experience. Thus, science should rely on observation and experimentation.
