PSYC85H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Cogito Ergo Sum, Cartesian Doubt, Empiricism
Document Summary
Renaissance = renewal of interest in classical antiquity that originated in italy in the 14th century and spread throughout europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. Questioning attitude towards the received wisdom of the medieval period rise of skepticism. The body as a machine: while descartes made a sharp distinction between people and animals, he made none whatsoever between animals and machines, animals did not possess souls and so were indistinguishable from machines. The british empiricists: most influential in the development of western psychology, truth/knowledge can only be arrived at through the senses/experiences (contrast with rationalism of descartes) John locke (1632-1704: opposed descartes: there are no innate ideas/principles in the mind if they existed, all people would have the same ones. The world becomes nothing but matter in motion, and the motion of moving objects is explained by natural laws, which are expressible in mathematical terms.
