10. Thomas Hobbes (1588AD - 1679AD)

1. Hobbes is known for his emphasis on materialism. Hobbes was educated at Oxford and worked as a tutor to the son of William Cavendish. His connections to the royal family gave him opportunities to travel and pursue his studies, but they also put him in the middle of the English Civil War. In 1640 political turmoil forced him to leave England for France, where he continued to associate with scholars and scientists of Europe, including Galileo and René Descartes. Materialism means, greater interest in material possessions rather than spiritual values. Materialist thinkers were of the view that matter is dynamic, which means that matter changes from one form to another.
2. Hobbes put forward the view that all we see including humans are different forms of matter and the laws that govern matter are also applicable to animals and humans, therefore these laws can be discovered. He contented that animals and man are in fact different types of machines and their functions and operations can be studied, understood, explained and even predicted. This mechanical view of human beings was initially given by Rene Descartes. Hobbes went on to elaborate the idea given by Descartes by saying that all human feelings and emotions such as laughing, crying, feeling hungry could be understood and explained in terms of functions of the human machines. This means that there has to be an input into the human machine in order to get an output in the form of the above mentioned functions of the human machine.
3. For example, when a person is subject to heavy stress, he may start crying. A person who has not eaten for a long time starts feeling hungry. Therefore, the human machine has to have some sort of an input in order to give the above mentioned responses as its functions or outputs. Hobbes concentrated on finding similarities between humans and machines and this idea of finding similarities between man and machines is called “mechanical materialism”.
4. Hobbes was of the opinion that our thoughts and emotions are caused by the motion the external stimuli. As the variables of the external stimuli change, they impact the human body which results in emotions and thoughts. He further proclaimed that motion in the brain creates thoughts. Then these thoughts get accumulated and get connected. This results in creating chains of thoughts or ideas leading to complex ideas. This is what has been termed as the association of ideas. Aristotle has also given his explanation of association of ideas which according to him is caused due to similarity, contiguity and contrast.
5. Thomas Hobbes believed that knowledge can be acquired by observation through the sense organs. Therefore, he rejected the idea of introspection and agreed with Aristotle’s empiricism as a means of acquiring knowledge.
6. According to Hobbes three things create association:\
   • Habits
   • Wishes
   • Repetition
7. Habits result in association of ideas. Wishes create linkages in ideas. A person who wishes for something links many ideas with his wish which in turn results in association of ideas. Further, repetition of event also results in association of ideas. This is similar to Aristotle’s contiguity and similarity when two things happening close to each other or having similarity with each other result in association of ideas.

9. Rene Descartes (1596AD - 1650AD)

1. In science, Descartes discarded tradition and supported rationalization and logic rather than ideas based upon experiences. Mathematics was his greatest interest; building upon the work of others, he originated the Cartesian coordinates and Cartesian curves; he is often said to be the founder of analytical geometry. He contended that emotion was finally physiological at base and argued that the control of the physical expression of emotion would control the emotions themselves.
2. Descartes’ main method of acquisition of knowledge was to doubt everything. This meant that to him the existence of everything was doubtful and anything that he is feeling or he is seeing may be an illusion. By logically, following his skepticism and his doubt Descartes had come to the conclusion that he could doubt everything. For example, when a person sits on a chair, according to Descartes, the chair may not actually exist and it might just be a deception of his or her senses. If a person is eating something, the food might not be there and it might just be his or her senses which are making him believe that he is eating. Following his skepticism and his theory of doubting everything, Descartes reached the conclusion that he could doubt everything in this world except for one; that was the fact that he is doubting. In other words doubting according to Descartes was beyond doubt. This conclusion further led him to conclude that a person can doubt everything in this world except for his thinking. Based on these conclusions, Rene Descartes went on to say that because he thinks therefore he exists. This conclusion was beyond doubts, a correct conclusion. Descartes gave his conclusion as a French term: “Cogito ergo sum.” It means that “I think therefore I am.” In other words, once again thinking signifies the existence of a person.
3. Descartes went on to divide the human being into two parts based on his conclusions of superiority of thoughts. The two parts of the human beings are:
   • The part that thinks - The thinking part was obviously the mind or the soul. It thinks, contemplates, and makes decisions for the body. Then these decisions are conveyed to the part that has to act, which obeys the orders of the thinking part or the mind.
   • The part that acts - The part that acts is the body of the human being. This meant, based on the conclusion that thinking was above anything else, that the mind or the soul was superior to the body.
4. Another great contribution of Rene Descartes was, that based on his conclusion about mind and the body, he proclaimed that the body is like a machine that obeys the orders of the mind. We can discover the operative laws of the body as we can discover the operations of a machine. This meant that Descartes supported the separation of body from the soul. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle had put forward the view of the unity of the soul and the body, but Descartes refuted his claim. This separation of body from the soul is called “Dualism” in psychology.
5. Further, Descartes was of the opinion that the soul is metaphysical while the body is physical. The soul of the person and his mind interact and influence each other. This is also proven by the fact that the soul thinks and orders the body which obeys, while on the other hand the body feels and receives stimuli for the soul. In his view, the soul affects the body by a gland that he called “Pineal Gland,” which he thought was the seat of the mind.
6. Descartes also distinguished between two types of thoughts:
• Innate thoughts - Innate thoughts are thoughts that we are born with. In other words these thoughts are inherited.
• Acquired thoughts - On the other hand some thoughts are acquired thoughts that a person acquires through the course of his or her life, based on the experiences that he encounters.

8. Renaissance (13th - 16th AD)

1. Renaissance is a French word meaning “rebirth”. The term Renaissance is used to describe the development of western civilization that marked the transition from medieval to modern times. Earlier Europe had passed through what was called the dark ages the period between 5th and 11th centuries A.D., when all researches and fresh ideas were discouraged. Problems were not being solved in the light of research and observation but by invoking religious edicts. Intellectuals adopted Plato’s idealism while Aristotle’s empiricism and observation were rejected.
2. During Renaissance new ideas and fresh research was encouraged. There was a movement to search for ancient texts that would increase current scientific knowledge. Botany, zoology, magic, alchemy, astrology, and psychology were developed during the Renaissance as a result of the study of ancient texts. Scientific thinkers such as Leonardo Vinci and Galileo attempted to refine earlier findings. Many other great names also belong to this period, such as Francis Bacon, Newton and Kepler. As the Dark ages had an impact on the growth of philosophy/psychology so did the Renaissance.

7. Ibn-Rushd, Averroes (1126AD - 1198AD)

1. Unlike some of the previous philosopher/psychologists, he followed the Aristotelian tradition of observation and empiricism and based his ideas upon logic.
2. Averroes’s views were different from that of Al-Ghazali and he held the view that soul is not spiritual but material and mortal. He further stated that soul does not survive at death. Therefore he rejected and ancient view of the soul being eternal and the body being mortal. Averroes divided soul into five categories:
   • Nutritive: The nutritive part of the soul is responsible for the growth and development.
   • Sensitive: The sensitive part of the soul is responsible for emotions and feelings.
   • Imaginative: The imaginative part of the soul is responsible for the thinking process of the individual.
   • Cognitive: This part is responsible for association of ideas and for the process of solving problems.
   • Appetitive: This part of the soul is responsible for bodily needs such as hunger thirst etc.
3. Averroes taught that animals gain knowledge by sense organs, whereas man does it by intellect and knowledge gathered by intellect is the true and correct knowledge. Therefore his method of gaining knowledge was a combination of the Socratic and the Aristotelian tradition where Socrates thought that sensory organs were a hindrance to the acquisition of knowledge while Aristotle was of the view that knowledge needs to be gathered through empiricism rather than looking inwards. Averroes further asserted that when a change occurs in the world, knowledge also changes. Therefore, knowledge is in a constant flux. Hence, man needs to constantly update his knowledge.
4. Averroes was of the opinion that all events have causes and denial of causes is denial of knowledge. This is known as determinism. He concluded that knowledge could therefore be gained by looking at causes of objects and events. In light of this theory, even accidents which apparently do not have a cause actually have a cause. For example a car colliding into a tree has apparently no cause, but there has to be a cause for the accident in the view of Averroes. The cause therefore may be that the car was being driven at a high speed or the steering wheel was turned in the wrong direction.

6. Al-Ghazali (1058AD - 1111AD)

1. He studied Greek philosophy gaining mastery over it, and then studied religion and acquired a vast knowledge on that as well. Having a thorough knowledge of the subjects led Al-Ghazali to see a conflict between religion and philosophy. The conclusion he drew, created so much stress and affected him so badly that he became physically ill. He continued his study for more than ten years and after much reflection on the subject, he was able to resolve the conflict for himself. He then gradually started to recover from his bad health.
2. He taught that the soul was like God and said that “God has breathed His own spirit into man.” This entailed the soul being a higher expression of man’s existence. Therefore, Al-Ghazali also differed from Aristotle on the concept of unity of body and soul.
3. Another contribution of Al-Ghazali is that he distinguished between positive and negative virtues. In his views:
   • Positive virtue is doing a good deed. For example if someone helps the poor that would be a positive virtue.
   • Negative virtue is to avoid a bad deed. For example person avoids indulging into a criminal act.
4. Related to his idea of the soul being the higher expression of man’s existence, Al-Ghazali also distinguished between three stages of being which are:
   • Lowest, the material world of existence
   • The second is the physical world
   • The third is the world of divine.
5. Al-Ghazali also gave a long list of vices such as hunger, sex, vice of speech, self assertion, love of wealth and hypocrisy. The vices of hunger and sex are physical needs. The vice of speech is to use bad words or to say such words which would harm someone. Another vice was a unique idea of self assertion which means that being over assertive and trying to dominate others and not listening to what they have to say. The next is the vice of love of wealth. According to Al-Ghazali like all other vices it makes a person forget about all moralities and values and he pursue his desires blindly. The last vice is the vice of hypocrisy which means that a person appears differently from what he actually is.
6. Al-Ghazali also described four kinds of love:
   • Self love (love that an individual has for himself)
   • Love of a benefactor (love that an individual has for some one who takes care of his needs)
   • Love of beauty (the love for beauty is possessed by every individual)
   • Love of harmonious interaction (the love for association with people).
7. According to Al-Ghazali, man can change and improve himself from Nafsay-Ammarah to Nafsay-Mutiminah by doing the right things which according to him are six:
• Masharaqa: This means to put oneself straight. When the person decides that he would change himself and do those things only which are right or which are deemed right by the society.
• Maraqaba: This means to guard oneself from evil and bad things.
• Mahasaba: This means to criticize oneself for anything which is not good, which would ultimately lead to the improvement of that habit or doing.
• Maaqaba: This means to punish the self for the wrong doing and forcefully restraining the self from it.
• Mujahida: This means to express the self in fully and properly and not keep anything hidden.
• Maataba: This means to cleanse oneself of any bad deed or doing.

5. Avicenna (980AD - 1037AD)

1. Like the ancient thinkers, Avicenna was also of the view that human soul was non-material and immortal. It does not exist in any material form, but nevertheless exists in the body. Therefore he rejected the concept of unity between soul and body as given by Aristotle. To him soul was a separate entity and the body was a separate one. Avicenna was of the view that soul has its identity and its own operative laws just as there are the operative laws of the body.
2. Avicenna was of the view that the mind has a tremendous effect upon the body, such that it can make it sick or make it healthy. Here the mind and the soul are considered to be the same thing as the ancient thinkers or philosophers thought. Avicenna thought that the soul has an influence to the extent that if a person thinks that he is not well the body responds in a similar fashion and he actually becomes ill. Therefore, soul is stronger than the body and it can dictate the body to behave in a certain manner. He further added that strong soul or mind can not only affect a person’s own body but it can affect others as well. This is the case in hypnosis where a person tends to bring the other person under the influence of his mind and makes him do what he wants him to.
3. Following the Aristotelian tradition Avicenna recognized four stages of motion. Motion here refers to the process of performing a certain act. Based on these stages of motions, Avicenna tried to explain the human actions. The four stages of motion are:
   • Imagination: Imagination is the process of thinking about something in which in turn leads to a desire of possessing that thing.
   • Desires: represents a person’s willingness to achieve something or to act in a certain manner. The person desires to posses something or to do something.
   • Impulsion: The desires of person cause him or push him to do something. Person is motivated by desire to make a certain move which would satisfy the desire.
   • Movement: here a person actually makes the move to satisfy the desire that was cause by his imagination and which has forced him to perform a certain action or make a movement to satisfy it.
   • In other words, imagination creates desires, which in turn propels the person and then the person acts.
4. Another of Avicenna’s contributions is that he distinguished between primary and secondary perceptions.
   • Primary Perception: It is the subjective perception of a person that is based on his personal dispositions. For example if a person is taking a walk in a garden and he has in his mind that there are snakes in that garden, he is quite likely to confuse a twig with a snake. That is due to his personal disposition that there are snakes in that garden. In other words, an illusion is a primary perception. This kind of perception is called subjective perception.
   • Secondary Perception: Secondary perception is objective perception based on logical reasoning and rationality of observation. In this case personal biases and disposition do not influence the perceptions which are totally based on empirical evidence.
5. He also elaborated the concept “Wahm” which plays a significant part in Avicenna’s thought. “Wahm” is akin to what modern psychologists, particularly psychotherapists describe as “nervous response.” The modern psychotherapists have explained that nervous response is the forerunner of many psychological and physical ailments. This is what Avicenna had explained earlier. An example of nervous response or “Wahm” is the stress created in a person, which ultimately has negative impacts on a person’s health, behavior and psyche.

4. Saint Augustine (354AD - 430AD)

1. Saint Augustine proclaimed that evil or sin is a product of free will. This means that it is the free will of an individual that makes him indulge into sins, evils and crimes. A society imposes certain limits to the exercise of free will of a person which therefore results in regulation of the society. If every person is allowed to practice his will freely there would be no society and only chaos.
2. Saint Augustine further proclaims that pride is a cardinal sin which is also the cause of many other evil acts that a person indulges in. It makes him unaware of the consequences of his actions which may be harmful for others.
3. Saint Augustine agreed with the prevailing ideas that the universe contains two basic principles:
   • The principle of light and goodness
   • And the principle of darkness and evil
4. How to introspect or to look into the self was on the one of the biggest difficulties that were encountered by the philosophers and thinkers of that time. St. Augustine provided a simple solution to it by saying that we can look at external objects through our sense organs, but we can look in by reflection. Reflection here refers to looking at and understanding ideas and thoughts and finding solutions to problems through the association of ideas within the mind. Because of this stress by St. Augustine on looking inwards and his method of looking inwards, he is usually regarded as the first introspective psychologist. Introspective psychologists therefore are those psychologists who encourage looking into the mind to find solutions to the problems rather that observing outwardly things and trying to find solutions to problems by using the sensory organs.
5. Another great contribution of St. Augustine is his explanation of consciousness which in his view is constantly flowing. He said tat consciousness flows constantly in the form of a stream and it is up to us how we look into the stream to get ideas and generate solutions to our problems.

3. Aristotle (384BC - 322BC)

1. Aristotle was a student of Plato. Aristotle is considered to the first psychologists ever.
2. Aristotle rejected the idea of dualism of soul and the body and put forward the view that these two are not separate but one entity.
3. Aristotle was of the view that ideas in the human beings tend to become associated with each other and there are three reasons for the association of ideas which he gave:
   • Similarity - Similarity means that the mind tends to see certain similar patterns between two things and relates them together.
   • Contiguity - Contiguity refers to two things or events happening close to each other so that the person is able to relate them to each other.
   • Contrast - Contrast means that two events or ideas are completely opposing to each other, which results in the formation of a link between the two.
4. According to Aristotle, man is a biological being whose functions include:
   • Eating (It eats to fulfil the requirements for the nourishment of its body and its growth)
   • Perceiving (It perceives and responds to stimuli according to its perception)
   • Having children (It has the ability to procreate and expand its species)
   • Thinking (Higher form of living beings such as humans has the ability to use their mind to think and analyze objects and happenings around them)
   • And doing things (humans are involved in various activities which they perform throughout their lives).
5. Aristotle rejected his teacher’s views on introspection and said that true knowledge can only be gained through observation and empiricism. As human beings observe the phenomenon going on around them and the world around them, they tend to make judgments and decisions that are based on their objective perception rather than their subjective biases. Therefore, instead of looking to the mind, one needs to look at the world around in order to gain knowledge.
6. Aristotle also described two types of human motives which are:
   • Primary motives: Primary motives are basic motives which are the desires of all human beings and are mostly bodily desires such as such as hunger, sex, thirst, anger and need for rest. Such motives are not just possessed by human beings but may also be possessed by other living beings. An important aspect of such motives is that they are not learnt by the organisms; rather they are a part of the genetic make-up of all organisms.
   • Secondary Motives: Secondary motives are those motives which are learnt by organisms and these become habits of the individuals. For example, it is the habit of certain people to socialize with others.
7. Another great contribution was that he recognized that there are individual differences in various respects in people. These differences may be in the intelligence level, in certain abilities, sports, math etc. For example, one individual may be a very good sportsman but not a very good musician, while another may be a very good musician but not a sports man. Therefore, differences exist in all individuals as far as their personal characteristics are concerned. Aristotle further suggested that these individual differences are created during the life span of a person, but they are inherited by the person. He is born with these differences which may although be discovered in later in life.
8. Apart from these individual differences that are inherited and are a part of the genetic makeup of all individuals, Aristotle was of the view that the early childhood experiences and training of an individual have a profound impact on him or her. Childhood is the time when the mind is open to all influences from the environment.
9. Aristotle also gave the concept of Catharsis. Catharsis is the sudden release of emotions by a person when he sees, hears or feels something. For example a person may start crying when he hears about a tragedy that someone else has encountered.

2. Plato (427BC - 347BC)

1. Plato was pupil of Socrates. He was also of the view that knowledge is innate and inside the mind. In order to extract knowledge, one needs to look into the mind rather than looking at external objects. This method was later called the introspective method, in which outwardly observation is discouraged and looking into the mind or soul is encouraged.
2. He described the part of personality as:
   • Intellect (ability to understand)
   • Will (drive to do something)
   • Appetite (part of the personality that deals with bodily needs).
3. According to Plato, ideas are eternal, they are not born, and neither do they die while worldly objects change and die. Therefore knowledge can be gained from ideas rather than observation.
4. Plato suggested that the soul has three parts:
   • Reason, located in the head
   • Passion, located in the chest
   • Appetite, located in the stomach.
5. The function of the reason is to control and direct the passion and appetite. Passion is the desire to perform a certain action. Appetite part of the soul refers to the natural needs of the body, such as hunger, thirst etc. According to Plato, some passions and appetites are satisfied in dreams.

1. Socrates (469BC - 399BC)

1. In his opinion, knowledge and truth reside in the mind and one has to look for it there.
2. In order to gain knowledge and understand various phenomenon, one has to look inwards instead of looking at the outward things and trying to find an explanation in them. In other words, Socrates stressed on the study of soul i.e. looking inwards, and he rejected external observation.
3. He regarded the soul as superior to body and said that the psyche or the soul helps us to distinguish between good and bad.
4. Socrates asserted that all things have a definite purpose and nothing occurs without that purpose.
5. Another great contribution of Socrates is his method of teaching. It is called the Socratic method of teaching. The teacher and the student interact with each other and have an intelligent dialogue that helps them to understand and comprehend better.