Psychology as the science of consciousness. What does psychology study? Russian philosophy of consciousness

Department of Psychology

Test on “History of Psychology”

Topic No. 3: Psychology as a science of consciousness.

Date of receipt of work by the secretariat Date of receipt of work by the department

Date of submission of the work by the secretariat Date of completion of the review of the work by the teacher

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PLAN:

Introduction …………………………………………………………….....……….3

Chapter 1. Isolation of consciousness as a criterion of the psyche ……………..……..4

1.1. Psychological teaching of Rene Descartes………………………….…….4

1.2. Psychology of B. Spinoza……………………………………….….…….7

Chapter 2. Formulation of empirical psychology about philosophical teachings XVII V ………………………………………………………………...8

2.1. Epiphenomenalism of T. Hobbes…………………………..………………...8

2.2. The foundation of empirical psychology in the works of J. Locke........................9

Chapter 3. The formation of associative psychology ……………………....9

Chapter 4. Psychological ideas in German classical philosophy late XVIII - first half of the XIX century …………………………………..13

Conclusion …………………………………………………….………….....13

List of used literature ………………………………………..14

INTRODUCTION

Psychology (from Greek psyche- soul, logos– teaching, science) – the science of the laws of development and functioning of the psyche as a special form of life. The interaction of living beings with the surrounding world occurs through mental processes, acts, and states. They are qualitatively different from physiological processes (the set of life processes occurring in the body and its organs) but are also inseparable from them. The word psychology first appeared in Western European texts in the 16th century.

The development of psychology is closely connected with the development of philosophy, the science of the most general laws of development of nature, society and thinking. The methodological basis for the development of psychology is the materialistic and idealistic trends in philosophy. The concepts of “soul” and “psyche” are identical in essence.

The concept of “soul” belongs to the idealistic direction. “Soul” is considered as a phenomenon generated by a special higher essence (God).

The concept of “psyche” belongs to the materialist direction. It is considered as a product of brain activity.

Aristotle is considered the founder of psychology as a science. He wrote the first psychology course, which was called “On the Soul.” Aristotle opened a new era in the understanding of the soul as a subject of psychological knowledge. The soul, according to Aristotle, is not an independent entity, but a form, a way of organizing a living body. Aristotle created his own school on the outskirts of Athens and called it Lyceum. “Those who think correctly,” Aristotle told his students, “think that the soul cannot exist without a body and is not a body.” Aristotle's psychological teaching was based on a generalization of biological factors. At the same time, this generalization led to the transformation of the main explanatory principles of psychology: the organization of development and causality. It was Aristotle who ruled over inquisitive minds for one and a half millennia.

Psychology, as a science, has been formed over many centuries and has not yet settled down. There are no dogmas or constants in it. Over time, views on the science of the soul have changed. Let's try to trace the formation of psychology over almost three centuries, starting with the Renaissance.

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE

Since the 17th century a new era begins in the development of psychological knowledge. It is characterized by attempts to comprehend the spiritual world of a person mainly from general philosophical, speculative positions, without the necessary experimental basis.

With a name Rene Descartes(1596 - 1650) is associated with the most important stage in the development of psychological knowledge. With his doctrine of consciousness, developed in the context of the psychophysical problem he posed, he introduced a criterion for distinguishing the psyche from the Aristotelian doctrine of the soul that existed before him. The psyche began to be understood as the inner world of a person, open to introspection, having a special - spiritual - existence, in contrast to the body and the entire external material world. Their absolute heterogeneity is the main point of Descartes' teaching. Subsequent systems were aimed at the empirical study of consciousness as an object of study (in the understanding of Descartes), first within the framework of philosophy, and from the mid-19th century - in psychology as an independent science. Descartes introduced the concept of reflex and thereby laid the foundation for the natural scientific analysis of animal behavior and some human actions. In Descartes' system, its philosophical and psychological aspects are presented in inextricable unity. “The Passions of the Soul,” the last work Descartes completed shortly before his death, is considered to be strictly psychological.

Discussions about the soul and the body were not the starting point in Descartes’ philosophy and scientific research aimed at nature. In them he strove to build a true system of knowledge. The problem of method is central to Descartes' philosophy. In his treatise “Discourse on Method” (1637), Descartes notes: it is better not to seek truth at all than to seek it without a method. The method contains rules, the observance of which does not allow one to accept as truth what is false and to achieve true knowledge. Descartes formulated four rules of method in the natural sciences. As for consciousness, he considered introspection to be an adequate method, and with regard to passions, a combination of introspection with the natural scientific method.

Having made sure that there are no solid foundations in philosophy and other sciences, Descartes chooses as the first step on the path to truth doubt in everything about which one can detect the slightest suspicion of unreliability, noting that it should not always be applied, but only “when we set ourselves the goal of contemplating the truth”1, i.e. in the field of scientific research. In life, we often use only plausible - probable - knowledge, which is quite sufficient for solving practical problems. Descartes emphasizes the novelty of his approach: for the first time, systematic doubt is used as a methodological technique for the purposes of philosophical and scientific research.

First of all, Descartes doubts the reliability of the sensory world, that is, “whether among those things that fall under our senses, or that we have ever imagined, there are things that really existed in the world”2. We judge them by the testimony of our senses, which often deceive us, therefore, “it would be imprudent to rely on something that deceived us at least once”3. Therefore, “I admitted that there is not a single thing that would be such as it appears to us”4. Since in dreams we imagine many things that we feel vividly and clearly in our sleep, but which in reality do not exist; Since there are deceptive feelings, for example, the sensation of pain in amputated limbs, “I decided to imagine that everything that came to my mind was no more true than the visions of my dreams.”5 One can doubt “everything else that was previously considered the most reliable, even in mathematical proofs and their justifications, although in themselves they are quite clear - after all, some people make mistakes when they talk about such things”6. But at the same time, “it is so absurd to believe that something that thinks does not exist, while it thinks, that, despite the most extreme assumptions, we cannot help but believe that the conclusion: I think, therefore I exist truly and that therefore there is the first and the surest of all conclusions, which appears to one who methodically arranges his thoughts.”7 Following the conclusion about the existence of a cognizing subject, Descartes proceeds to define the essence of the “I”. The usual answer to the question posed - I am a person - is rejected by him, because it leads to the posing of new questions. The previous ideas, going back to Aristotle, about the “I” as consisting of body and soul are also rejected, because there is no certainty - there is no theoretical proof - in the possession of them. Therefore, they are not necessary for the Self. If you separate everything that is doubtful, nothing remains but doubt itself.

2 Ibid. P. 431.

3 Ibid. P. 427.

But doubt is an act of thinking. Consequently, only thinking is inseparable from the essence of “I”. The obviousness of this position does not require proof: it stems from the immediacy of our experience. For even if we agree that all our ideas about things are false and do not contain evidence of their existence, it follows from them much more clearly that I myself exist.

Thus, Descartes chooses a new method of research: he abandons the objective description of the “I” and turns to considering only his thoughts (doubts), i.e., subjective states. Moreover, in contrast to the task facing the previous presentation, when the goal was to evaluate their content from the point of view of the truth of the knowledge about objects contained in them, here it is required to determine the essence of “I”.

“By the word “thinking” (cogitatio) I mean everything that happens in us in such a way that we perceive it directly by ourselves; and therefore not only to understand, to desire, to imagine, but also to feel here means the same thing as to think”8.

Thinking is a purely spiritual, absolutely incorporeal act, which Descartes attributes to a special immaterial thinking substance. This conclusion of Descartes met with misunderstanding among his contemporaries. Thus, Hobbes pointed out that from the proposition “I think” one can rather conclude that a thinking thing is something corporeal than to conclude the existence of an immaterial substance. Descartes objected to this; “... it is impossible to imagine that one substance was the subject of a figure, another - the subject of movement, etc., since all these acts agree with each other in that they presuppose extension. But there are other acts - to understand, to want, to imagine, to feel, etc., which agree with each other in that they cannot exist without thought or idea, consciousness or knowledge. Let us call the substance in which they reside a thinking thing, or spirit, or some other name, so as not to confuse it with bodily substance, since mental acts have no resemblance to bodily ones and thought is entirely different from extension.”9

Descartes' teaching about soul and body and their substantial difference gave rise to a philosophical psychophysical problem: although the difference between the spiritual and the physical was recognized before Descartes, no clear criterion was identified. The only means of knowing the soul, according to Descartes, is internal consciousness. This knowledge is clearer and more certain than knowledge of the body. Descartes outlines the direct path to knowledge of consciousness: consciousness is how it appears in introspection. Descartes' psychology is idealistic.

Descartes' dualism became a source of cardinal difficulties that marked the entire development of the psychological science based on it.

1.2. Psychology of B. Spinoza

A new solution to the problems put forward by Descartes was given by the Dutch materialist philosopher B. Spinoza (1632-1677). According to Hegel, he removed the dualism present in the philosophy of Descartes. The main work of B. Spinoza is “Ethics”. The title reflects the ethical orientation of the book. The main purpose of the essay is to help a person develop a line of individual behavior and open the way to a free life. Spinoza sought to solve this problem in a philosophically sound way. The book is presented in a geometric way, in the form of lemmas, theorems, etc. It all starts with the concept of “substance”. This is where the divergence between the views of Spinoza and Descartes begins. Unlike Descartes, Spinoza developed a monistic doctrine. There is one substance. He defines it as that which exists in itself and is represented through itself. It contains within itself the necessity of existence. “The existence of a substance and its essence are one and the same.”

Spinoza distinguishes between essence and existence. Essence is a characteristic of a thing, something without which the thing ceases to be the same. Existence is whether she exists or not. All individual finite things are characterized by a discrepancy between essence and existence. It can be said of each individual thing that its existence is accidental; in its existence it is entirely determined from the outside. Substance, unlike finite things, contains existence within itself, that is, it is characteristic of it to exist. From the fact that the essence of substance is existence, Spinoza concludes many of its properties. Unlike individual things, it is not produced by anything, it is not created, it exists by virtue of itself, and not by virtue of some other being, it is eternal, infinite, one, in contrast to the multiplicity of concrete things. It has no goals, it acts only out of necessity, that is, in accordance with objective laws. Each of these provisions is proven in theorems. Spinoza called substance God or nature; nature is identified with God in the sense that it is absolutely independent and unconditioned, uncreated and eternal. Nature must be explained from itself. The concept of “substance” in Spinoza appears as expressing the existence of an existing nature outside of us. There is no place left for God in the usual sense of the word in Spinoza's system. While Descartes explains the existence of matter as an act of divine creation, Spinoza argues that nature does not require an original cause. This is materialism.

This is how Spinoza resolved Descartes' dualism. Unlike Descartes, he considered human thinking to be a natural property, a manifestation of thinking as an attribute of all substance. Extension and thinking do not influence each other (as in Descartes), but correspond to each other and in this correspondence are inseparable from each other and from substance.

Both attributes act together in every phenomenon according to eternal necessity, which is the causal connection in nature. Therefore, the order and connection of ideas are the same as the order and connection of things.

Spinoza's psychology is a new, important after Descartes, step in the formation of the problem of consciousness as an object of psychological study. Together they form a rational line in the interpretation of consciousness.

The real “father” of empirical psychology is John Locke(1632-1704), an outstanding English philosopher, teacher, doctor by training, major political figure, ideologist of the revolution of 1688. In 1690, J. Locke’s main philosophical work “An Essay on Human Reason” (4th ed., 1700) was published G.). During Locke's lifetime, the book was translated into French and had a strong influence on the development of French philosophy and psychology. In 1693, his pedagogical work “Thoughts on Education” was published.

Locke's goal was to investigate the origins of certainty and the extent of human knowledge. It all starts with a critique of the theory of innate ideas. It is directed mainly against medieval scholastic teaching, which recognized the innateness of the most general principles and concepts, but also against Descartes. “I do not assert,” Descartes wrote, “that the spirit of the baby in the womb reflects on metaphysical questions, but it has ideas about God, about itself, and about all those truths that are known in themselves, as they are in adults.” when they don't think about these truths at all."

Locke opposes all arguments in defense of the innateness of knowledge with the proposition that it is possible to prove its origin. Locke considers the human soul as a certain passive, but capable of perception, medium; he compares it to a blank board on which nothing is written, or to an empty room in which there is nothing. These comparisons relate only to knowledge.

English doctor and priest David Hartley(1705-1757) also adopted Locke’s ideas about the experiential origin of mental life, developed his idea of associations and gave the first complete system of associative psychology. When constructing it, he also relied on I. Newton, some of whose physical ideas were used by him to substantiate the hypothesis about the physiological mechanisms of mental processes.

In his main work - “On Man, His Structure, His Duties and His Hopes” (1749) - Hartley develops the doctrine of the psyche as a natural principle. All spiritual abilities (perception, etc.) are explained through reference to the organic structure of the brain. There are three main simple elements of mental life: sensations (sensations), ideas (ideas of sensations, i.e. repetition of sensations without objects), affect (the simplest affective tone - pleasure, displeasure). From these three basic elements, mental life is built through the mechanism of association. The elements and the psychological mechanism of associations are based on vibrations, i.e., material physiological processes that arise in the substance of the nerves and brain under the influence of external influences. Vibrations are different and differ in degree, kind, place and direction. The differences in vibrations correspond to the entire variety of our initial simple ideas and sensations, concepts and feelings. From them, with the help of the mechanism of association, all mental phenomena are formed. “If two different vibrations occur in the brain at the same time, then due to the fact that the excitation from the areas spreads in all directions, they influence each other, a stronger connection is established between the two centers. Then subsequently, if for any reason one of the vibrations is caused, the other vibration is caused. This corresponds to the process of evoking one idea by means of another.”

Thus, associations are a passive reflection of neural connections in the brain. What is actually combined is not sensations or ideas, but the states of the brain that are accompanied by them - vibrations. “Vibrations must contain an association as their effect, and the association must point to vibrations as its cause.”4 Since nerve connections can be either simultaneous or sequential, according to Hartley, associations can only be simultaneous and sequential: they are purely mechanical formations. On the basis of associations, all complex ideas, memory phenomena, concepts, judgments, voluntary movements, affects (passions), and imagination are formed. During perception, we receive a series of sensations that are combined due to the fact that they are combined in the object itself. Memory is the reproduction of sensations by association in the order and relation in which they were received. “We do not have the ability to call up any idea at will, but we can remember it because there is a connection through previous associations with those ideas that are now in the spirit. The appearance of a person suggests the idea of his name.”5 If the reproduction of ideas occurs without respecting the order of previous real impressions, then we are dealing with imagination. The entire order of reproduction of ideas occurs objectively without the participation of the subject.

Particular issues related to memory (memory deterioration in old people, mental patients forgetting after recovery of events that occurred during the period of illness, difficulty remembering anything in a state of fatigue, etc.) were explained by Hartley in a crudely materialistic way from the states of the brain. Hartley does not have a chapter on thinking: the understanding of words and sentences is considered. A word is reduced to a set of sounds; meaning is some kind of permanent part of sensory images. For example, the meaning of the word “whiteness” is formed as a result of the identification of a constant sensory complex of many things (milk, paper, linen, etc.). Understanding a word is the formation of an association between a word and its meaning; it is established in childhood, as well as in the process of learning science. A judgment is made up of concepts.

In Hartley's system there is no thinking as a process. Truths in the sciences that are passively reflected by consciousness based on the mechanism of association are considered. New thoughts are only new combinations of old simple ideas or decomposition of complex ones. “When we reach the consciousness of general truths, it means that this truth is carried by association to all the particular ideas that are embraced by this idea. Experience shows us that when we form such conclusions, we are not deceived.”6

Contemporaries compared Hartley to Newton: just as Newton established the laws of explanation of the material world, so Hartley established the laws for the mind. Hartley presented the spiritual world mechanistically, by analogy with the physical. In Hartley's system, the psyche acts as a process parallel to the processes of the brain, which does not allow its own properties to be revealed. There is no subject in it, no personality.

Associative psychology- psychological directions in which association is recognized as the unit of analysis of the psyche. Associationism went through a number of stages in its development.

1. Identification of association as an explanatory principle for individual mental phenomena, primarily the processes of recall.

2. 2nd Stage of classical associationism, when holistic concepts of the psyche were created, which was understood as a system of mechanical connections (associations) between mental elements, which were considered sensations and ideas.

3. 3rd Stage of experimental and practical associationism, which is characterized by an attempt to introduce the factor of the subject’s activity into the basic concept.

Hartley's theory was of great social importance. He showed that in order to make a person what he is, nothing is required except the sensory principle and the influence of the circumstances in which a person actually finds himself. Hartley's democracy was not his political position, it was the result of his scientific views.

An important role in the history of associationism belongs to the philosopher, historian and natural scientist Joseph Priestley (1733- 1804).

Priestley popularized Hartley's theory and also fought against his opponents and vulgarizers, mainly the Scottish idealistic school of common sense.

Chapter 4. PSYCHOLOGICAL IDEAS IN GERMAN CLASSICAL PHILOSOPHY OF THE END OF THE 18TH - FIRST HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURIES.

Empirical philosophy and psychology, which arose in England, did not immediately penetrate into Germany. Only in the second half of the 18th century. translations of Locke's Essays, Hume's works appeared, in the 1770s - Hartley and then the French - Bonnet, Helvetius, Condillac. Before that, Descartes, Leibniz and his follower dominated here Christian Wolf(1679-1754). Wolf “systematized and popularized Leibniz and established in Germany psychology, under the influence of which Kant developed and which he, that is, Kant, later rejected”1. H. Wolf's system was a compromise between empirical and rationalistic ideas in psychology. This compromise was already expressed in X. Wolf’s division of psychology into two sciences: empirical("Empirical Psychology", 1732) and rational("Rational Psychology", 1734). In Wolff's empirical psychology there was a tendency in the 18th century to study facts about the life of the soul instead of tedious scholastic debates about the essence of the soul. However, Wolf's empiricism was very meager. Wolf vaguely indicated the possibility of measurement in psychology. The magnitude of pleasure can be measured by the perfection we perceive, and the magnitude of attention by the duration of the argument that we are able to follow.

CONCLUSION

This is how psychology developed over more than two centuries, hand in hand with other scientific knowledge. And now, it cannot be said that psychology has finally been formed: over time, psychological knowledge is revised and it cannot be objectively said that there are constants in this science.

It is impossible in the limited volume of the abstract to describe in any detail the development of psychology over almost three centuries; the only conclusion that can be drawn would look like a statement approximately like this: “In psychology, all the i’s have not been dotted and are unlikely to ever be.” ...

LIST OF REFERENCES USED:

1. Sorokin B.F. Philosophy and psychology of creativity. M., 1999;

2. Spencer G., Tsiegen T. Associative psychology. M., 1998;

3. Wund V. Introduction to psychology. M., 2000;

4. Great Soviet Encyclopedia. M., 1990;

5. Radugin A.A. Psychology and pedagogy: Textbook for Universities. M: Biblionica, 2006;

8. Kant I. Anthropology from a pragmatic point of view. St. Petersburg, 1999.

9. Leibniz G.T. New experiments on human understanding. Works: In 4 volumes. Vol.2. M., 1983.

10. Locke J. Essay on human understanding. Works: In 3 volumes. T.1. M., 1985. Book two. Book three.

11. Psychological thought in Russia: the age of Enlightenment / Ed. V.A. Koltsova. St. Petersburg, 2001.

12. Spinoza B. Ethics. M., 1932.

Section I. INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
Topic 1. Development of views on the subject in the history of psychology

1.1. Pre-scientific psychology as a doctrine of the soul.
1.2. Psychology is the science of consciousness.
1.3. Behavior as a subject of psychology.
1.4. Psyche as a reflection.

Literature for this section:

1.1. Pre-scientific psychology as a doctrine of the soul

Psyche - soul, logos - teaching (gr), i.e. psychology is the science of the soul.

* With the advent of a person, vital psychological knowledge begins to accumulate.
* Until the last quarter of the 19th century. pre-scientific psychology as a doctrine of the soul develops within the framework of philosophy.
* In 1879 in Leipzig, Wilhelm Wundt creates the first experimental psychological laboratory - scientific psychology emerges as a doctrine of consciousness.
* In 1913, J. Watson’s book “Psychology from the Behaviorist’s Point of View” was published in the USA - behaviorism emerged as a psychological science of behavior.
* Approval of materialistic views in science in the 20th century. leads to an understanding of the psyche as a reflection, and psychology becomes the science of facts, patterns and mechanisms of mental reflection.

Stages of development of views on the subject in the history of psychology :
Pre-scientific/philosophical psychology: soul
Introspective Psychology: Consciousness
Gestalt psychology: holistic structures of consciousness and psyche
Descriptive psychology: human spiritual activity
Behaviorism: behavior
Psychoanalysis: the unconscious
Humanistic psychology: personality
Cognitive Psychology: Cognitive Structures and Processes

The term “psychology” first appeared in 1732-1734. in the works of the German philosopher Christian Wolf, who borrowed the term “psyche” from ancient myths. In Greek mythology, "psyche" is the personification of the soul, the breath. The psyche was identified with one or another living being, with individual functions of the body and its parts. Human breathing was equated to a gust, wind, whirlwind. The goddess Psyche was depicted as a butterfly or a girl with wings. Apuleius created a poetic tale about the journeys of the human soul, which desires to merge with love. Cupid (Eros), the son of Zeus and Aphrodite, fell in love with an earthly woman - Psyche. But Psyche broke the ban on never seeing the face of her mysterious lover. At night she lit a candle and saw the young god, but a drop of hot oil fell on his skin and he disappeared. In order to bring her beloved back to her, Psyche was forced to go through many tests that Aphrodite created for her, even going down to hell for living water. Cupid turned to his father for help. Zeus gave Psyche immortality, and the lovers were united together forever. This myth has become a classic example of high love, the realization of the human soul. Therefore, Psyche, a mortal who received immortality, became a symbol of the soul that is looking for its ideal.

Ancient Greek philosophers resolved the question of the soul depending on what was preferred: materialism or idealism. The essence of the disagreements can be expressed by the formulas:
a) 1+1=1 (soul and body are one, monism)
b) 1+1-2 (soul and body are two different entities, dualism)

Democritus (5th century BC) developed a materialist doctrine of the soul. He believed that the soul is material , and consists of the smallest, round, smooth, unusually mobile atoms, scattered throughout the body and similar to the atoms of fire. When small parts penetrate into large ones, they, due to the fact that by their nature they are never at rest, move the body, becoming its soul.

Plato (427-347 BC) believed that the soul is an independent substance , which exists next to the body and is independent of it. The soul and body are in a complex relationship. By its divine origin, the soul is called upon to lead the body and direct human life. But sometimes the body takes the soul into its bonds. The body is guided by different desires and passions. It worries about food, gives in to temptations, fears, and illnesses. Wars and quarrels occur because of the needs of the body. It also interferes with pure knowledge.

Aristotle (348-322 BC) created a treatise "About the Soul" - the first special psychological work, which for many centuries remains the main textbook on psychology. Aristotle rejected the view of the soul as a thing. At the same time, he did not consider it possible to consider the soul in isolation from matter. To define the soul, I used a complex philosophical category entelechy , which means “the realization of something.” “If the eye were a living being, then its soul would be vision,” wrote Aristotle. Soul is a function of the body , which allows a living being to realize itself.

René Descartes (1596-1650) comes to the conclusion that there is a significant difference between the soul and the body, which is that the body is by its nature always divisible, while the spirit is completely indivisible. Soul and body are two completely opposite substances , each of which does not require anything other than itself for its existence. There are purely material things - all of nature, including man, and a thing or substance, the whole essence of which consists in one thought - this is the soul. The soul's own manifestations are desire and will; they have nothing to do with anything material. Metaphysical hypotheses and observational experience came into conflict in Descartes' teachings. He introduces concepts "animal spirits" who lead the movement, concept reflex.

1.2. Psychology - the science of consciousness

IN 1879 Wilhelm Wundt opens the first experimental psychological laboratory in Leipzig - this is considered the birth of psychology as an independent science.

The main tasks of the psychology of consciousness:
1. Describe the properties of consciousness.
2. Identify the simplest elements of consciousness.
3. Find the laws for combining these elements into more complex phenomena.

Features of consciousness identified within the framework of the first scientific psychology:
(Properties of Wundt's consciousness):

1)Consciousness is diverse. The extraordinary diversity of the contents of the field of consciousness: visual images, auditory impressions, emotional states, thoughts, memories, desires - all this could be there at the same time.

2) Heterogeneity of the field - the central one stands out clearly region, especially clear and expressive, this is the “field of attention”, or “ focus of consciousness "Beyond its borders there is a region whose contents are inexpressive -" periphery of consciousness ".

3) The contents of consciousness that fill both areas are in constant motion. The movement of consciousness, the continuous change of its content and states, W. James reflected in the concept " stream of consciousness ". The stream of consciousness cannot be stopped; each past state of consciousness is not repeated. The stream of consciousness is the movement of content from the periphery to focus.

4) All processes of consciousness are divided into 2 groups:
1) Voluntary processes (organized and directed by the subject, we can control them)
2) Involuntary processes (occur on their own)

5)Consciousness is rhythmic by nature.

6) Human consciousness is capable of being almost limitlessly saturated with a certain meaning if it is actively combined into larger units. The processes of such an organization W. Wundt called “acts of apperception”

The next task, which was set by psychologists (by analogy with the natural sciences), is find the simplest elements , i.e. decompose the complex dynamic picture of consciousness into the simplest, further indivisible elements and find the laws of their connection.

The simplest elements consciousness Wundt declared individual impressions or sensations.

The basic unit of consciousness is sensations (individual properties of objects)

Each sensation has:
quality,
intensity,
duration (length),
spatial extent (visual sensation has it, but auditory sensation does not)

Sensations with the described features are objective elements of consciousness. But there are also subjective elements, or feelings.

Structure of consciousness:

Wundt suggested 3 pairs of subjective elements - elementary feelings:
-pleasure-displeasure
-excitement-calming
-voltage-discharge

These pairs are independent axes of three-dimensional space of the entire emotional sphere. All internal experiences consist of a combination of these elements:
-joy=pleasure+excitement;
-hope=pleasure+tension
-fear=displeasure+tension

Elementary feelings:

The connection of simple elements of consciousness occurs through association law: if two impressions appear in consciousness simultaneously or immediately after each other, an associative connection is established between them and subsequently the appearance of one element in consciousness by association causes the appearance of another.

The main research method was introspection - “looking inside.”
(Consciousness is studied by the method of introspection. It is closed to an external observer)

This method was recognized as the only one in the psychology of consciousness because:
- the properties of the processes of consciousness in introspection are directly revealed to the subject;
- for an external observer they are “hidden”.

The ideological father of the method J. Locke (1632-1704), who believed that there are 2 sources of all our knowledge: objects of the external world and the activity of our own mind, which is carried out with the help of a special internal feeling - reflection. The introspective method consisted of describing one's own feelings that appeared when receiving certain stimuli.

1.3. Behavior as a subject of psychology

WATSON John Broades (1878 - 1958)
American psychologist, founder of behaviorism

In the second decade of the twentieth century. a “revolution in psychology” took place, which can be compared with the beginning of Wundt’s new psychology:
In 1913, J. Watson published the book “Psychology from the Behaviorist’s Point of View” , in which he states that it is not consciousness, but behavior is the subject of psychology. Watson believed that psychology should become a natural science discipline and introduce a scientific, objective method into research. It was possible to study objectively only what was observed externally.
Stimulus-response relationship S-R is proclaimed as a unit of behavior, and psychology is given the following immediate tasks:

The main objectives of behaviorism:
- identify and describe types of reactions;
- explore the process of their formation;
- study the laws of their combination, i.e. development of complex behavior
It is necessary to learn how to select stimuli to evoke a reaction.

Watson began by describing the types of reactions. He highlighted, first of all,
reactions are congenital and acquired, as well as external and internal. Due to their combination in behavior, there are the following types of reactions:
external acquired (motor skills)
internal acquired (thinking, which meant inner speaking)
external congenital (sneezing, blinking, as well as reactions to fear, love, anger, i.e. instincts and emotions, but described objectively in terms of stimulus and response)
internal congenital - reactions of the endocrine glands, changes in blood circulation, i.e. reactions studied in physiology.

Observations and experiments prove that behavioral reactions are formed as a result of learning, therefore skill and learning are the main problem of behaviorism. Language, thinking - types of skills. A skill is an individually acquired or learned action. It is based on elementary movements that are innate. Retention skills - memory.

How does the flow of activity expand?
According to what laws are new reactions formed?
Watson turns to the works of Russian scientists I.P. Pavlov and V.N. Bekhterev who described the mechanisms of formation of conditioned or “combined” reflexes

Watson accepts the concept of the conditioned reflex as the natural science basis of psychological theory. All reactions are formed through conditioning

The limitations of the S-R scheme became apparent quite quickly: as a rule, stimulus and response are in such complex and different relationships that a direct connection between them cannot be traced. In view of this, E. Tolman introduces the concept “intermediate variables” (V), by which he meant internal processes that mediate the actions of the subject, that is, influence external behavior: goals, intentions, hypotheses, “cognitive maps” (images of situations), etc.

S- V -R (stimulus - intermediate variables - response)

TOLMAN Edward Chace (1886 - 1959)
American psychologist, neobehavioral theorist

A new step in the development of behaviorism was the study of a special type of conditioned reactions:
instrumental (E. Thorndike, 1898), or operant (B. Skinner, 1938).
The main merits of behaviorism

giving psychology materialistic orientation, thanks to which psychology took the natural scientific path of development
implementation objective method based on registration and analysis of externally observed facts, processes, events
extension of the class of objects under study: the behavior of animals and nonverbal infants began to be intensively studied

1.4. Psyche as a subjective image of the objective world

Within the framework of psychology, which is based on materialist Marxist philosophy, the psyche is understood as a special property of highly organized matter - the brain. From this situation emerges:
Psyche is a special property of highly organized matter
1) this is precisely a property, and not a substance, substance, etc.;
2) this is a special property that cannot be reduced to physiological processes;
3) this is a property of highly organized matter, i.e. It is not possessed by all matter, but by matter at a certain level of development.

This feature of the brain consists in the ability to reflect the external objective (existing independently of us) world. Objects and phenomena of the external world, influencing a person, her senses, are reflected in the cerebral cortex in the form of images of these phenomena and objects. The mental processes that arise in the brain - sensations, perceptions, ideas, thinking - are different forms of reflection.

All mental processes, i.e. All forms of reflection arise during the active interaction of a person with the outside world. Reflection occurs in the process of active human activity in society and is itself a unique activity.

Psyche is the ability to reflect the world, it is the creation of an image of the reflection of the world.

This property of the brain is ability to reflect the external objective (existing independently of us) world

Functions of the psyche

Psyche is a subjective image of the objective world that takes shape in the brain, on the basis and with the help of which things happen. regulation of behavior and activity

Reflection of a person is the unity of the subjective (dependent on the person inherent in it) and objective (independent of the person). Reflection is objective because it is the result of the influence of the objective world and gives a person reliable ideas and knowledge about this world. But at the same time the reflection has subjective nature because:

reflects a specific person, subject, personality with all its characteristics and originality
a person, cognizing the surrounding reality, does not remain an impartial observer of what is reflected in consciousness, he has a certain attitude towards the objects and phenomena of reality

That's why reflection of objects and phenomena by our brain the surrounding world is always subjective image of this world

Psyche - a subjective image of the objective world , which develops in the brain and on the basis and with the help of which the regulation of behavior and activity occurs.

A psychology is the science of facts, mechanisms and patterns of mental reflection.

Literature
Gippenreiter Yu. B. Introduction to general psychology. - M.: CheRo, 1997. - 320 p.
Myasoid P. A. Zagalna psychology. - K.: Vishcha school, 2000. - 480 p.
Nemov R.S. Psychology: In 3 books. - M.: Vlados, 1999. - Book 1. - 688 p.

The systematic suppression of powerful biological impulses entails an even stronger development of the imagination as an ideal compensation for unsatisfied physiological desires. This development of the world of imagination is carried out mainly through the sublimation (displacement) of erotic energy into the forms of rituals and cults of archaic society, gradually crystallizing into a variety of abstract cultural values. It is these systems of cultural values that act as a means for humans to transform their nature and the world around them. The presented concept of the emergence and development of voluntary imagination made it possible for Yu. M. Boroday to explain anthropogenesis quite satisfactorily, to reveal the biological origins of labor, social connection and consciousness as interconnected supra-biological phenomena.

Indeed, the emergence of imagination, consciousness and conscience from within the nervous system of our anthropoid ancestors is associated with the nonlinear nature of biological systems (such as organisms, populations and the biosphere as a whole), with their self-organization and self-development. Suffice it to remember that almost all religions of the world pay attention to conscience as a phenomenon that grows from within the spiritual world of man. In general, it should be noted that in anthropogenesis there has been a fundamental change in the degree of significance of various functions of the central activity of erotic pleasure and behavioral expression. It is quite natural for the greatest Western philosopher of the 20th century, A. Whitehead, to remark that the main factor in human spirituality is the conceptual comprehension of unrealized possibilities. During anthropogenesis, the displacement of the biological potential of erotic energy into the sphere of imagination leads to the novelty of experiencing unexpressed possibilities. It was here that the foundation was laid for the increment of the conceptual experience of humanity, for the conceptual (imaginary, ideal, mental) experience of what can be and what could be leads to the comprehension of an alternative, which in its highest development becomes the comprehension of the ideal. This means that in the act of experiencing, a perspective is imposed on the world of sensory things: before us is a feeling of significance or interest, integral to the very essence of animal experience. The sense of significance has such varieties as a moral sense, a mystical sense of religion, a sense of refined harmony (a sense of beauty), a sense of the need for interconnection (a sense of understanding) and a sense of discrimination between individual factors of the world, which is consciousness. The transition of feelings of such a wide range into expression characterizes the history of mankind, thereby distinguishing it from animal behavior. Therefore, a person is defined as a historical being aimed at the future, as a being making a choice among existing alternatives. After all, work activity itself presupposes the presence of alternatives, which requires decision-making and choice. As a result, new alternatives and new solutions emerge, their layering and interweaving determine an alternative organization of society. In practical, labor, political and other activities, all acts are essentially based on alternative solutions. Thus, a person not only lives the century allotted to him, but in connection with other people he creates, shapes the conditions of his existence, creates his consciousness.

Human consciousness has such fundamental parameters as goal-setting and will, memory and attention, rational speech and abstract thinking. They represent nervous activity, but not reflexive, but spontaneous, which is associated with the formation of a person in the process of hominization (the transition from animal to human). Research shows that the amount of information contained in genetic material and the amount of information contained in the brain increased with the course of evolution, and that these trajectories intersected at a point corresponding to a time span of several hundred million years and an information capacity of several billion years. Somewhere in the humid jungles of the Carboniferous period, an animal appeared - a primitive reptile, which for the first time in the entire existence of the earth's biosphere had more information in its brain than in its genes. This reptile is not very intelligent, but its brain represents a significant turning point in the history of earthly life. Two subsequent leaps in brain evolution are associated with the emergence of mammals and the emergence of anthropoid primates. In this regard, K. Sagan emphasizes that “the main part of the history of life since the Carboniferous period can be called the gradual (and, of course, incomplete) triumph of the brain over genes.”

In the course of the latter, a qualitatively new principle of the morphofunctional organization of the human brain, or a “specific morphofunctional system” (SSMFS), emerged. An essential function of the SCMFS is that it provides the opportunity to perceive, store, process and retrieve socially significant information at the right time. In this sense, it is a morpho-local substrate for the unfolding of social inheritance, for the formation of socio-codes that correspond to the needs of a particular social system. Human evolution began to follow other channels - the channels of society, a social organism that can no longer be understood solely from the point of view of natural science. One of these channels is the system of moral taboos, which laid the foundation for universal human values. Thus, the SCMFS played its role in the emergence of an integral human reality (consciousness, society and work), in the transformation of biological structures into a social structure. As society developed, man became part of a certain common unified system with which he is in inextricably linked - with the noosphere, which was finally formed in the twentieth century. Nevertheless, the problem of the origin of human consciousness has not yet been fully resolved, because in scientific disciplines there is no consistency in the understanding of human nature and a whole range of issues related to the problem of human consciousness have not been resolved.

In connection with the rapid development of information, computer, virtual, and genetic technologies, there has now been an unusually increased interest in elucidating the nature of consciousness in its entirety. In the modern field of research, consciousness is defined as “a person’s ability to operate with images of the surrounding world, which orients his behavior; subjective, inner life of the individual” (Yu.G. Volkov). Consciousness itself is the most mysterious “thing” in the world at the moment because there are still no answers to the following questions: Why does it exist? What does it do? How could it arise based on the biochemical processes of the brain? It is these questions that arouse the greatest interest among scientists, and therefore, for many years, the problem of consciousness was covered only in scientific works studying the brain and mind. And despite the efforts of researchers, the problem of consciousness remains a “thing in itself” due to its extraordinary complexity. There are countless points of view regarding the nature of consciousness - from the positions of those who argue that the source of a person's consciousness is external to him (this is the higher "I"), according to which consciousness can be explained by standard methods of neurophysiology and psychology.

Natural scientists are in the position that a person’s consciousness is an integral part of his bodily existence (I.P. Pavlov). Back in 1913, I.P. Pavlov expressed the idea that consciousness is an area of optimal excitability that moves along the cerebral cortex, and the movement of the “bright spot of consciousness” depends on the nature of the mental activity being performed. In 1998, the “spotlight” theory of one of F. Crick’s DNA code decipherers was published (its name is similar to the “bright spot”), where the basis of consciousness is considered to be the synchronization of the activity of neurons in the visual and sensorimotor cortex with a frequency of 35-70 Hz, and the very message about the perception of a stimulus impossible without involving the frontal areas.

Modern research methods have turned the metaphor of a “bright spot of consciousness” into an experimentally observable phenomenon. Nowadays, physiologists have established the decisive role of the speech structures of the brain in the phenomenon of consciousness. “What at the beginning of the last century was accessible only to the mind’s eye of a brilliant natural scientist, today a researcher, armed with methods of computer analysis of electrical activity of the brain, positron emission tomography, functional radiomagnetic resonance, etc., can see with his own eyes,” - notes P.V. Simonov. for example, when a subject solves an anagram, the foci of interaction (coincidence of frequency peaks in electroencephalogram leads) in the alpha range are localized in the frontal and left central-temporal areas of the cortex. If unsuccessful, they are recorded in the right temporal, left parietal and occipital regions. When the emotions of the faces shown in photographs are recognized, the foci of interaction are found in the temporo-occipital regions of the left hemisphere. If the subject fails to identify the emotion, they are registered in the frontal regions and the right parietal cortex.

At the end of the century, among the various theories of consciousness, the theory of “re-entry” by A.M. Ivanichsky and J. Edelman - the connection of consciousness with access to long-term memory - comes to the fore more and more clearly. The synthesis of two types of information - present and retrieved from memory - is determined by the occurrence of a sensation (duration 100-150 ms), which is recognized and categorized after approximately 200 ms. Experiments to create a silicon retina testify in favor of a neurophysiological approach to human consciousness. American researchers have designed an electronic chip that mimics the neural structure of the eye, opening up prospects for a digital, more efficient way of computing. In this regard, a question has been raised that interests many researchers: does consciousness arise in a complex synthetic system?

It is obvious that with a detailed analysis of these two views (one in the domestic literature is presented by D.I. Dubrovsky, who considers consciousness as a function of the neural structures of the human brain, the other by E. AIlenkov, who believes that consciousness as ideal exists in the interaction of a person with the world of culture) all errors and mistakes will be revealed, and that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. In the future, a holistic theory will have to be created, consisting of two components: physical laws that explain the behavior of physical systems from infinitesimal to infinitely large, and psychological laws that show how some of these systems are associated with the experience of consciousness. It is clear that one should keep in mind the diverse philosophical, sociological, socio-psychological, communicative and other aspects of the functioning of consciousness.

Department of Psychology

Test on “History of Psychology”

Topic No. 3: Psychology as a science of consciousness.

Date of receipt of work by the secretariat Date of receipt of work by the department

Date of submission of the work by the secretariat Date of completion of the review of the work by the teacher

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PLAN:

Introduction …………………………………………………………….....……….3

Chapter 1. Isolation of consciousness as a criterion of the psyche ……………..……..4

1.1. Psychological teaching of Rene Descartes………………………….…….4

1.2. Psychology of B. Spinoza……………………………………….….…….7

Chapter 2. Formulation of empirical psychology about philosophical teachings XVII V ………………………………………………………………...8

2.1. Epiphenomenalism of T. Hobbes…………………………..………………...8

2.2. The foundation of empirical psychology in the works of J. Locke........................9

Chapter 3. The formation of associative psychology ……………………....9

Chapter 4. Psychological ideas in German classical philosophy late XVIII - first half of the XIX century …………………………………..13

Conclusion …………………………………………………….………….....13

List of used literature ………………………………………..14

INTRODUCTION

The concept of “soul” belongs to the idealistic direction. “Soul” is considered as a phenomenon generated by a special higher essence (God).

The concept of “psyche” belongs to the materialist direction. It is considered as a product of brain activity.

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE

Having made sure that there are no solid foundations in philosophy and other sciences, Descartes chooses as the first step on the path to truth doubt in everything about which one can detect the slightest suspicion of unreliability, noting that it should not always be applied, but only “when we set ourselves the goal of contemplating the truth” 1, i.e. in the field of scientific research. In life, we often use only plausible - probable - knowledge, which is quite sufficient for solving practical problems. Descartes emphasizes the novelty of his approach: for the first time, systematic doubt is used as a methodological technique for the purposes of philosophical and scientific research.

First of all, Descartes doubts the reliability of the sensory world, that is, “whether among those things that fall under our senses, or that we have ever imagined, there are things that really existed in the world” 2. We judge them by the testimony of our senses, which often deceive us, therefore, “it would be imprudent to rely on something that deceived us at least once” 3. Therefore, “I admitted that there is not a single thing that would be such as it appears to us” 4. Since in dreams we imagine many things that we feel vividly and clearly in our sleep, but which in reality do not exist; Since there are deceptive feelings, for example, the sensation of pain in amputated limbs, “I decided to imagine that everything that came to my mind was no more true than the visions of my dreams” 5. One can doubt “everything else that was previously considered to be the most reliable, even in mathematical proofs and their justifications, although in themselves they are quite clear - after all, some people make mistakes when they talk about such things” 6. But at the same time, “it is so absurd to believe that something that thinks does not exist, while it thinks, that, despite the most extreme assumptions, we cannot help but believe that the conclusion: I think, therefore I exist truly and that therefore there is the first and the surest of all conclusions, which appears to one who methodically arranges his thoughts" 7 . Following the conclusion about the existence of a cognizing subject, Descartes proceeds to define the essence of the “I”. The usual answer to the question posed - I am a person - is rejected by him, because it leads to the posing of new questions. The previous ideas, going back to Aristotle, about the “I” as consisting of body and soul are also rejected, because there is no certainty - there is no theoretical proof - in the possession of them. Therefore, they are not necessary for the Self. If you separate everything that is doubtful, nothing remains but doubt itself.

2 Ibid. P. 431.

3 Ibid. P. 427.