Classical theories on human nature
Aristotle & Plato
PLATO (427-347 BCE)
 Basic interest: The world of truth (Absolutes) beyond the unreliable
senses.
 -> Ideas or Forms are beyond phenomena
 -> Everything in the empirical world is a manifestation of a pure
Form (Idea) (Chairs, rocks, cats, and people are inferior
manifestations of pure forms).
 -> Sensory experience --> Ignorance or opinion.
 -> True knowledge: Grasping forms by rational thought.
WORLD
OF
Truth
OBJECTS
STATES
Forms
Knowledge
Mathematics
Thinking
Visible things Belief
WORLD
OF
Imagining
Phenomena Images
Platonism in psychology?
 Are personality factors more real than manifestations?
 How real are the five factors?
 “We believe it is an empirical fact, like the fact that there are seven
continents on earth and eight American presidents from Virginia” (McCrae,
& John, 1992, p. 194).
Story of the Cave:
 “Story of the Cave” is part of “The Republic”
Prisoners represent humans who confuse the shadowy world of
sense experience with reality.
 Interpretations:
 Human condition / human nature: Are we condemned to remain
prisoners of sense experience / appearance?
 Historical interpretation: Socrates' life.
 Christian interpretation: Jesus Christ.
The Nature of the Soul
 How many parts does the soul have?
 Soul has three parts:
(a) rational component (the soul reflects) (immortal)
(b) spirited, courageous component (mortal)
(c) appetitive component (desires) (mortal)
 True knowledge: Person must suppress the needs of the body and
concentrate on rational pursuits.
 Differential theory of human nature: In some individuals: appetitive
aspect of the soul dominates -> workers and slaves; in others the
courageous aspect of the soul dominates -> soldiers; and in still
others the rational aspect dominates -> philosopher kings.
Plato’s Reminiscence Theory of Knowledge
 How does one come to know the forms if they cannot be known
through sensory experience?
 -> The soul is implanted in the body. It dwells in pure and complete
knowledge; that is, it dwells among the forms.
 -> After the soul enters the body, this knowledge begins to be
contaminated by sensory information.
 -> True knowledge -> ignore sensory experience. All knowledge
comes from remembering the experiences the soul had before
entering the body.
Plato on Gender
 Was Plato a feminist?
 Equal opportunity but difference in ability.
 One education for both sexes, for example, in training to become a
guardian.
 Both sexes should be taught the art of war, carry arms, ride on
horseback, and receive the same treatment.
 Women have the same nature as men -> every occupation should
be accessible to them.
 The difference: Women were not quite as strong as men.
ARISTOTLE (384-322 BCE)
 Aristotle was the first philosopher to treat extensively topics that were later
to become part of psychology.
 Tutor to Philip's son, Alexander, who was to become Alexander the Great.
 Athens. Founded a school: Lyceum (empirical and philosophical)
The works of Aristotle
 Collected works: Arranged many centuries after his death (e.g.,
physics, metaphysics)
 Topics:
 Logic, dialectic, metaphysics (founded the field of logic; e.g.
syllogism).
 Science and philosophy of science
 Psychology and philosophy of mind
Soul, senses, memory, sleep, dreams, developmental stages,
death, etc.
The psychological master work: De Anima (On the Soul).
 Ethics and politics
 Aesthetics
Divergence from Plato
 Aristotle: Forms do not have a separate existence from particulars.
 Interested in studying the things in the empirical world and their
functions.
 Nothing can exist without matter, and matter cannot exist without
form.
On knowledge
 Every kind of knowledge is to be prized.
 Psyche is a substance capable of receiving knowledge.
 Three kinds of knowledge:
 Theoretical knowledge.
 Practical knowledge.
 Productive knowledge.
 Without sensation thought is not possible. Compared the mind to a blank
writing tablet (tabula rasa).
 Not the senses fool us but our incorrect interpretations of the sensory
information.
 However, knowledge is not possible through sense perception alone, since
the senses give us only particulars.
 Deduction and induction.
“Cause”and Teleology
Everything has four causes:
 Material cause. What an object or thing is made of.
 Formal cause. The particular form or pattern of an object.
 Efficient cause. The force that transforms the matter into a certain
form.
 Final cause. The purpose for which an object exists.
Aristotle was a teleologist: He believed there was a plan or
design to the universe. Developing and moving to an end, the
final cause of motion
Aristotle's Psychology: De Anima
 Psyche: Of primary interest to Aristotle
 All knowledge is valuable but that knowledge of the psyche is to be
prized above all.
 Psyche is not confined to humans alone. Psyche marks the
distinction, not between thinking and unthinking beings, but
between the organic and the inorganic.
 Body and psyche are an inseparable unit.
 Aristotle: Psyche is in the heart. Rejects the Platonic doctrine of the
brain as the organ of the psyche.
 He divides functions into growing, sensing, remembering, desiring,
reacting, and thinking.
The Hierarchy of Souls
 Three kinds of souls:
 Vegetative souls: Possessed by plants. It allows only growth, the
assimilation of food, and reproduction.
 Sensitive souls: Possessed by animals and people, but not by
plants. The ability to sense is a means for distinguishing an animal
from a plant. Locomotion, sensation and memory.
 Rational souls: Possessed only by humans. It provides all of the
functions of the other two souls, and in addition allows thinking or
rational thought.
Psychological Topics
 1. Growing
 2. Sensing
 Possessed by animals and people, but not by plants. Five senses: sight,
hearing, taste, touch, and smell.
 Common sense: synthesizing the sensory elements into perceptual units
(perception and consciousness).
 Sensory information: Isolated experiences
 Common sense: Synthesized experience
 Passive reason: Utilization of synthesized experience
 Active reason: Abstraction of principles from synthesized experience
 Sleep: Caused by fatigue of the common sense.
 Dreaming: Sensory stimulation that occurred during the waking state is
carried over into sleeping.
Psychological Topics
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3. Remembering
Effect of sensing that persists after the object is removed.
Remembering: Spontaneous reproduction of past perceptions.
Recall: Active search to recover these past perceptions.
Laws of association: Similarity, contrast, frequency, and contiguity.
Psychological Topics
 4. Desiring and Reacting
 Pleasure and pain follow upon sensing. Some objects are perceived as
pleasurable, and others as unpleasurable.
 Once these feelings are experienced, desire is introduced. When an activity
is pleasurable, it tends to be exercised
Psychological Topics
 5. Thinking
 The human being is the only animal that thinks.
Middle ground
 Golden mean: The desirable middle ground between any two
extremes.
 Examples: Appetite, humor, spending money, etc.
 Education: The right sort of habituation for establishing the virtue of
character must avoid excess and deficiency.
 Age: Middle age is more desirable than youth or old age.
 Q: Is the middle ground always the best choice?
Happiness
 An end in itself.
 It is not amusement but virtuous action.
 Theoretical study is the supreme element.
Politics
 Humans have a natural desire to leave behind them an image of
themselves.
 Man is by nature a political animal.
 Man is the only animal endowed with speech.
 Some men are by nature free, some men are by nature slaves.
 Comment: Rhetoric of “by nature”.