From Rationalism to
Romanticism
• Enormous social changes take place
during the Age of Reason (1700-1800).
• American Revolution (1776-1787) – results
in the world’s first Democracy created by
democratic processes.
• Napoleonic Revolution (1799-1812) –
Napoleon provided the defining moments
of the French Revolution (1770s – 1830s).
• Many, many other revolutions follow, from
Russia to South America.
Socialism
• Socialism was not a philosophy nor a
political movement, but a growing
rejection of the ruling classes (“divine”
rulers, royal bloodlines, etc.).
• From 1770s to 1830s, Western Civilization
went from numerous monarchies to
numerous democracies.
• The essence of socialism is the belief that
people can govern themselves as equals –
no need for a ruling class.
Socialism and Romanticism
• After the revolutions, ideas of selfgovernance and free will were openly
discussed which gave rise to a major literary
movement.
• Various social doctrines emerge, e.g.,
American Utopians, German Communists,
and many other efforts proposing a blueprint
for harnessing the observed social changes.
• During the 1900s, the word “Socialism”
becomes closely linked with the German
Communists.
Romanticism (1800-1900)
• Romanticism was a reaction to rationalism as
much as it was a result of the social changes.
• As rationalism became more popular, more
people started questioning the assumption
that human nature was rooted in rationalism.
• The “romantics” are the philosophers and
literary writers who addressed irrational
motivations in human nature, particularly
emotions.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Commonly considered the first romanticist,
and romanticism grew with the increasing
popularity of his books: The Social Contract
and Emile in 1762 (books are rejected before
the revolutions).
• In The Social Contract, Rousseau questions
the whole idea that people need government.
• In Emile, Rousseau argues that education
should focus on individuality, not society.
The Social Contract
• Published in 1762, Rousseau’s treatise
begins with the line, “Man is born free and
yet we see him everywhere in chains.”
• The “social contract,” is his proposal that
people should only be governed by a
‘general will,’ or the community-driven
collection of individuals.
Rousseau and Feelings
• His views on both education and society
are based on the belief that people are
best guided by their feelings.
– Human free-will is the ability to pursue goals
and objectives based on our emotions.
– We have a private will (selfish), and a general
will (desire for community).
Romanticism and
Psychology
• The romantic literature embraces the role of
free will in social struggles. This notion lays
the foundation for the study of consciousness
and subsequently the field of clinical
psychology.
• We can consider the Age of Rationalism to be
the cultural foundation of cognitive
psychology, and the Age of Romanticism to
be the cultural prototype of affective
(emotion-driven) psychology.
Existentialism
• Existentialism was a movement that occurred
within the Romantic era, but was not focused
primarily on understanding the irrational
nature of people.
• In fact, existentialism goes beyond human
motivation; the existentialists look for the
very meaning of our existence.
• There are two forms of existentialism:
theistic and atheistic meaning of existence.
Kierkegaard (theistic)
• Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) first
rejected Christianity, and later embraced
it.
• He declared that all religious systems were
against the tenets of Christianity and
discouraged the religious experience.
• Existence is given meaning through a
personal relationship (“love affair”) with
God.
Kierkegaard – stages of
freedom
• Our existence achieved meaning in three
stages.
– Aesthetic stage – seeking pleasure
– Ethical stage – ability to recognize and accept
responsibilities, but follows external sources
of ethics, such as church dogma and secular
laws.
– Religious stage – recognizing and accepting
personal freedom in a relationship with God.
Self-awareness makes person rise above the
generally accepted morals and laws.
Nietzsche (atheistic)
• Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900) is generally
considered the most easily misunderstood
philosopher since Plato.
• Nietzsche proposed that man had killed God,
and that man must now strive to be “over
man.”
• Misunderstandings include the German Nazi
party’s attempt at a “super race,” and the
comic book hero Superman (it actually got
started as a satire).
The death of God
• Famous quote – “Is man just one of God’s
mistakes, or is God just one of man’s?”
• The quote represents his view that people
had relied on “God” to give life meaning,
but philosophy and science had taken the
meaning out of the universe, and thus we
“killed God.”
• Nietzsche thus asked: where do we now
turn to for meaning and morality?
Nietzsche and Existence
• Nietzsche stated that now we can only
look within ourselves for meaning in life.
• His first major proposal that meaning and
morality have a formless origin, and our
lives shape meaning and morality
stimulated enormous discussion and
debate.
• Nietzsche proposes that the basic motive
of human nature is the will to power, and
should not be inhibited.
The Superman
• The most easily misunderstood concept, the
“superman” (or “over-man”) appears in his
book Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
• In its purest form, the superman is
something we learn to become, and
superman is achieved when we become free
from social restraints and personal
inhibitions.
• Remove Nietzsche’s gift of dramatics, and the
superman is like an atheistic counterpart to
Kierkegaard’s stages of freedom.
Philosophy to Science and the
Making of Modern Psychology
• Science is based on observation to
understand the natural world; psychology
is about understanding the observer.
• During the 1800s, psychology was (still?)
generally treated as a type of philosophy.
• Some scientists “dabbled” in some areas
of psychology. Most were physiologists.
Physiological Beginnings
• Physiology is the study of how organs and
organ systems function within an organism.
Some of the early physiologists were
interested in nerves and senses as parts of
the observable organism.
• Bell-Magendie Law – Bell (1811), and then
Magendie (1822), discovered that nerves
were either sensory (going to brain) or motor
(coming from brain). (Magendie published
findings first)
Physiological Beginnings
(continued)
• Johannes Muller (1801-1858) –
demonstrated that nerves need “adequate
stimulation.” This scientific finding led to the
conclusion that we are conscious only of
sensations, not of the physical world.
• Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) –
studied nerve conduction and concluded that
nerves act in both a physical and chemical
manner.
– Impulses move at 50-100 meters per second.
– Theorized that past experiences are added to a
sensation when it is converted to perception.
Other Related Discoveries
• Paul Broca – discovered an area of the brain, “Broca’s
area,” responsible for speech and provided evidence for
distinctive functional “areas” of the brain.
• Other early researchers demonstrated that -
– The brain had many other functional areas.
– Areas within the areas (arm movement is
itself an area within the motor area).
– The brain-halves control the opposite sides of
the body (left brain-half controls right arm).
Psychophysics Roots
• Psychophysics is the study of the relationships
between the properties of stimuli as measured by
a physical scale and the psychological or
subjective impressions of those stimuli.
• Early researchers in psychophysics studied
thresholds.
• Upper and lower absolute thresholds were
operationally defined as the minimal or maximal
(for upper thresholds) stimulus intensity that is
detected 50 percent of the time.
Psychophysics Roots
(continued)
• Researchers also investigated difference
thresholds, the minimal stimulus difference
that is detectable 50 percent of the time.
• Psychophysicists pioneered the
quantification of certain mental
processes and demonstrated lawful
relationships between physical stimuli
and the psychological impressions of
stimuli.
Ernst Weber and Gustav
Fechner
• In line with the psychophysics paradigm, both Ernst
Weber (1795-1878) and Gustav Fechner (18011887) studied “thresholds,” or the potential for a
stimulus to become a sensation.
• Weber studied the sense of touch, and demonstrated
that different locations on the body have different twopoint thresholds.
• Weber’s Illusion refers to the experience of divergence
of two points when they are moved over insensitive
areas and the experience of convergence of two points
when they are moved over sensitive areas.
Weber and Fechner
(continued)
• Weber pioneered research into difference
thresholds, seeking the just noticeable
difference (JND) between stimuli in a
variety of modalities. He formulated Weber’s
law to describe the relationship between
physical and experienced differences.
• Fechner expanded Weber’s discovery.
– Presented absolute thresholds and differential
thresholds, measured in subjective “JND” units.
– Looked for other areas of subjective measures.
Weber and Fechner
(continued)
• In fact, Fechner reformulated Weber’s law as a log
relationship called Fechner’s law, which accounted
for response compression, the tendency of a
series of constant increases in physical stimulation
to produce smaller and smaller experiential
differences.
• Fechner developed new methodologies in
psychophysics including the method of limits, the
method of constant stimuli, and the method of
average error, sometimes called the method of
adjustment.
• Fechner’s methods are still taught in experimental
psychology programs.