Of particular interest is the Arab naturalists and mathematicians, Ibn Sina, including exhibited to the organ of vision. Among the studies in this area stand out the opening of the Ibn al-Haytham (XI century) (Alhazen in Latin transcription). Each visual act he distinguished, on the one hand, the immediate effect of imprinting external influence, on the other - to join this effect work of mind, thanks to which is established the similarities and differences of visible objects.
Ibn al-Haytham studied such important phenomena as binocular vision, color mixing, contrast, etc. He pointed out that the full perception of the objects must be eye movement - moving behold-negative axis. Ibn al-Haytham analyzed the relationship of visual perception on its duration. Noticing that the short presentation can be correctly interpreted only familiar objects, he concluded: condition for the emergence of a vision are not only the direct effects of light stimuli, but also lingering in the nervous system, traces of former experiences.
Driving Ibn al-Haytham not only destroys the theory of inherited from the classical authors, but also introduces a new explanatory principle. The initial structure of the visual sensor has been viewed as a derivative of laws op tics having experienced and the mathematical basis and the properties of the nervous system.
The study of the eye functions involved and other scientists have found, in particular, that the sense of the body part of the lens is not as previously thought, and the retina. The author of this discovery is considered a philosopher and physician Ibn Roshdy (XII century) (Averroes in Latin transcription). His teachings about the person and his soul had the greatest impact on the Western philosophical and psychological thought. It brutally persecuted both Muslim and Christian religion. This is not surprising, since Ibn Roshdy denied the immortality of the individual soul. He commented on his own Aristotle, emphasizing the separation of soul and mind.
Under the function of the soul went without saying, are inseparable from the body (primarily - sensuality). They are necessary (such was the opinion of Aristotle) for the activity of the mind, are inseparably connected with the body and disappear with him. The very same reason is divine and is included in the individual soul from the outside, just as the sun sends rays of the body. "Footprints" With the disappearance of the body and the individual soul, left divine reason in the soul, separated from the missing of the individual mortal and continue to exist as a moment of universal reason, inherent in the entire human race.
Recognition of higher intellectual equality of people (with all the diversity of their individual differences) and likeness human was incompatible with the ideology of contemporary society, based on a strict social hierarchy of its members. Apology divine mind turned around at the Ibn Roshdy (received in the West honorable name Commentator) the protection of Earth's human dignity
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: the problem of the unconscious. Father G.-V. Leibniz (1646-1716) was a professor of philosophy at the University of Leipzig. Even at school, Leibniz decided that his life will be dedicated to science. Leibniz had an encyclopedic knowledge. Along with E mathematically studies (he discovered the differential and integral calculus), he participated in efforts to improve the mining industry, was interested in the theory of money and the monetary system as well as the history of the Brunswick dynasty. He organized the Academy of Sciences in Berlin. It turned to him Peter 1 to chair the Russian Academy of Sciences. Significant place in the interests of science Leibniz occupied and philosophical questions, especially the theory of knowledge.,
Like Spinoza, he advocated a holistic approach to the person. However, he had a different opinion about the unity of the bodily and mental.
The basis of this unity of Leibniz's view, is spirituality. World consists of innumerable monads (from the Greek "monos." - one). Each of these "is psychic," and has the ability to perceive everything that happens in the universe.
This assumption is crossed out the Cartesian idea of equality of mind and consciousness. According to Leibniz, "the belief that the soul has such a perception that it is aware of, is the source of the greatest delusions." The soul continuously is transparent activity "small perceptions," or unconscious perceptions. In those cases when they are realized, this is possible thanks to a special mental act - apperception, including attention and memory.
Thus, Leibniz distinguishes in the soul of a few areas, which differ in the degree of awareness of the knowledge that they are located. This is a distinct area of expertise, domain knowledge and troubled region of the unconscious. Rational intuition opens the substance of the ideas that are in apperception, so this knowledge are clear and generalized. Proving the existence of unconscious images, Leibniz nevertheless did not disclose their role in human activities, because I thought that it is associated primarily with conscious ideas. When, he drew attention to the subjectivity of human knowledge, linking it to the cognitive activity. Leibniz argued that there is no primary or secondary qualities of objects, as even at the initial stage of knowledge one can not passively accept the signals of reality.He definitely brings their own ideas, their experience in the images of the new items, and therefore can not be just bordering the properties that are in the object itself, from those who introduced the subject. However, this does not contradict the subjectivity of the knowability of the world, as all our ideas though different from each other, nevertheless essentially coincide with each other, reflecting the main features of the world.
On the question of the relation between spiritual and physical phenomena, Leibniz said formula, known psychophysical parallelism: the dependence of the mind on physical WHO Action - an illusion. The soul and the body make its operations independently and automatically. However, there are over predefined harmony therebetween; they are like a couple of hours, which always show the same time as running with the greatest accuracy.
The doctrine of psychophysical parallelism found many supporters in the formative years of psychology as an independent science. Leibniz's ideas have changed and expanded the idea of the mental. His ideas about the unconscious mind, "small perceptions" and apperception have become part of the contents of the subject of psychology.
§4. functionalism
At the root of this direction, which became the beginning of XX century, one of the mainstream in American psychology was the Austrian psychologist Franz Brentano .
F.Brentano (1838-1917) began his work as a Catholic priest, leaving it because they disagree with the dogma of the infallibility of the pope, and going to the University of Vienna, where he became a professor of philosophy. Brentano first work was dedicated to the psychology of Aristotle, as well as its interpretation of medieval Catholic theology, was working on the concept of intention as a special line of thought. The unfinished work "Psychology from an empirical point of view" (1874) Brentano proposed a new program for the development of psychology as an independent discipline, contrasting it prevailed at the time of Wundt's program.
The main thing for the new psychology he considered the problem of consciousness. What distinguishes consciousness from all the other phenomena of life? Only by answering this question, we can determine the field of psychology. While under the influence of Wundt's opinion prevailed that with the knowledge consists of sensations, perceptions, ideas like the special, successive processes. With the help of the experiment can be identified, to analyze, to find those elements or yarns from which interweaves this special "fabric" domestic entity. This view, Brentano claimed, quite falsely, because it ignores the activity of knowledge, its constant focus on the object. To refer to this indispensable attribute of knowledge Brentano proposed the term "intention".It is immanent in every psychic phenomenon, and because of that allows you to distinguish psychic phenomena from the physical.
Intention - not just activity. It, together with the act of consciousness always coexists any object. Psychology uses, in particular, the word "representation", meaning by restoring them in memory of prints he had seen or heard. According to the same Brentano should speak not about representation but about predstavlivanii, that is, the special spiritual activity, which is realized through the previous image. The same applies to other psychic phenomena. Talking about, say, perception, forget that in this case, not only is a "floating" sensory image, and an act of perceiving this content. It is necessary to clearly define the act and content, do not mix them, and then it becomes quite clear that psychology is the science of acts of consciousness. No other science, except for her,studying these special intentional acts are not engaged.
Classifying and describing these forms acts Brentano came to the conclusion that there are three major forms: acts predstavlivaniya anything judgment acts as a true or false and acts emotional evaluation anything as desired or discarded. Beyond the act of an object does not exist, but also to act, in turn, occurs only when the orientation of the object. When a person hears the word, then his mind rushes through the sound, the shell material to the subject in question. Understanding the meaning of the word is an act, and because it is a mental phenomenon. It is destroyed, if we take apart an acoustic stimulus (sound) and designated it a physical thing. Stimulus and the thing itself to the field of psychology are not relevant.
Brentano decisively rejected adopted in experimental psychology laboratory analysis procedure. He considered that it distorts the real mental processes and phenomena that should be studied carefully by the internal monitoring of their natural course.
Of specifically psychological works Brentano known "Studies on the psychology of the senses" and "On the classification of psychic phenomena." His other works are devoted to philosophy and axiology. Of course, he thought only apparent psychic phenomena, the data in the inner experience, while knowledge of the external world is probabilistic in nature.
Lessons Brentano, set the task to describe how the mind works, had an impact on various areas of Western psychological thought. By adopting the principle of activity, Brentano became a pioneer of European functionalism. It was a trend that opposed the so-called structuralism in psychology, the leader of which was made by Wundt, who considered the task of the new science of psychology to identify those elements that make up the mind, as well as determination of the laws, which are psychological structures are formed. Against this view of consciousness as a unit "of the bricks and mortar" and were functionalists and their followers. In Brentano studied and under the direct influence of his ideas were many psychologists.
Brentano's ideas influenced Külpe and the Würzburg school. The number of students of philosophy in Vienna in Brentano was Freud. In his teaching about the concept Brentano intentions transformed into a version of "chained" psychic energy to external objects (including proper body of the individual).
The ideas of activity and objectivity of consciousness, although in an idealistic interpretation, were established thanks to Brentano in Western European psychology.
An important role in the development of functionalism in his Western European version was played by the German psychologist Karl Stumpf .
K. Stumpf (1848-1936) was a professor at the Department of Philosophy in Prague, Halle and Munich. Since 1894, he worked at the University of Berlin, where he organized a psychological laboratory. Under the influence of Brentano, he considered the subject of psychology the study of psychological functions, or acts (perception, understanding, desire), distinguishing them from phenomena (sensory or represented in the form of forms, values, concepts and similar content of consciousness). Studying phenomena Stumpf referred to a special subject area - phenomenology, linking it with philosophy, and not with psychology.
Stumpf considered functions (or acts) as his own subject of psychology. Thus, the study is not the red color of the object (which is, according to Stumpf, a phenomenon, rather than a function of consciousness), but an act (or action) of the subject, through which a person realizes this color in its difference from others. Among the functions Stumpf distinguished two categories: intellectual and emotive (or affective). Emotional functions consist of opposite pairs: joy and sorrow, desire and rejection, aspiration and avoidance.
Emotional shade can acquire and some phenomena that were called "sensory sensations."
Since childhood, fascinated by music, Stumpf in most of his experimental work focused on studying the perception of musical themes. These works were summarized in his two-volume work "Psychology of Tones", which made the largest contribution to the study of psychological acoustics after Helmholtz. In a polemic with Wundt, Stumpf considered unnatural the dismemberment of introspection indications into individual elements. The results of those experiments that were conducted on psychologists of the Wundt school, trained in introspective analysis, were opposed by Stumpf as credible expert musicians as credible.
Stumpf regarded music as a phenomenon of culture. He created an archive of phonograms, where there were 10,000 phonographic records of primitive music of different peoples. Stumpf took part in research on child psychology, organizing the German Society of Child Psychology, and also on zoopsychology (proving in particular when discussing the sensational phenomenon of "clever Hans" - a horse who was tapping the "solution" of mathematical problems - that the animal reacted to the barely noticeable movements of the trainer). Stumpf facilitated the trip of his pupil W. Keler to Africa to study the behavior of anthropoid apes. He had many other students, who later became famous psychologists.
With all interest in the works of Brentano and Stumpf, the most widespread functionalism was found in the United States, where he became one of the leading psychological trends. His program, as opposed to structuralism with its sterile analysis of consciousness, set out to study how the individual, through mental functions, adapts to a volatile environment.
The development of functionalism in America is closely connected with the name of William James .
V. Jams (1842-1910) graduated from Harvard University, receiving medical and artistic education. In his psychological work, not so much an integral system of views is set forth, but rather a set of concepts that served as the basis for various approaches in modern psychology - from behaviorism to humanistic psychology. James made psychology one of the most popular sciences in America. He was the first professor of psychology at Harvard University, the creator of the first American psychological laboratory (1875), president of the American Psychological Association (1894-1895).
James dealt with many problems - from studying the brain and developing cognitive processes and emotions to personality problems and psychedelic research. One of the main questions for it was the study of consciousness. James has the idea of a "flow of consciousness", i.e. on the continuity of the work of human consciousness, despite the external discreteness caused by partially unconscious mental processes. The continuity of thought explains the possibility of self-identification despite constant breaks in consciousness. Therefore, for example, waking up, a person instantly realizes himself and he "does not need to run to the mirror in order to make sure it's him." James emphasizes not only continuity, but also dynamism, the constant variability of consciousness, saying that awareness of even the usual things is constantly changing and, paraphrasing Heraclitus, who said that you can not enter twice into the same river, he wrote, that we can not have exactly the same thought twice.
Consciousness is not only continuous and changeable, but also selectively, selectively, it always accepts and rejects, selects certain items or their parameters and rejects others. From the point of view of James, the study of the laws by which the consciousness operates, according to which the choice or rejection proceeds, is the main task of psychology. In this issue was the main reason for the disagreement between the school of functionalism of James and the American psychologist Titchener, who represented the school of structuralism. Unlike Titchener, for James, the primary was not a separate element of consciousness, but its flow as a dynamic integrity. At the same time, Jeme stressed the priority of studying precisely the work of consciousness, and not its structure. Studying the work of consciousness, he comes to the discovery of two of its main determinants - attention and habit.
Speaking about human activity, the scientist stressed that the psyche helps in its practical activities, optimizes the process of social adaptation, increases the chances of success in any activity.
James's psychological views are closely intertwined with his philosophical theory of functionalism, which is centered on pragmatism. Therefore, James paid much attention to applied psychology, proving that its importance is no less than theoretical psychology. Especially important, from his point of view, is the connection between psychology and pedagogy. He even published a special book for teachers "Conversations with teachers about psychology", in which he demonstrated the enormous opportunities for upbringing and self-education, the importance of forming correct habits for children.
Jeme paid considerable attention to the problem of personality, understanding it as an integrative whole, which was fundamentally new at that time. He singled out the cognizable and cognitive elements in the personality, believing that the cognizable element is our empirical self, which we are conscious of as our personality, while the cognizing element is our pure I. Of great importance was the allocation of several parts in the structure of the empirical personality - physical, social and spiritual personality. Describing them. James said that our empirical self is broader than purely physical, because a person identifies himself and with his social roles, and with his loved ones, expanding his physical self. At the same time, the empirical self may be already physical, when a person is identified only with certain needs or abilities, fencing off other aspects of one's personality.
Of great importance was the description by James of those feelings and emotions that the various structures and parts of the personality evoke, first of all the description of self-esteem (self-satisfaction and dissatisfaction with oneself), about whose role he first spoke. Jeme derived the formula for self-esteem, which is a fraction, in the numerator of which is success, and in the denominator - claims.
Self-esteem = success / claims
This formula underlies the hierarchy of individuals, their aspirations for self-improvement and success, their diseases and neuroses, their evaluation of themselves and the emotions they experience.
James developed one of the most famous theories of emotion (along with the Danish psychologist K. Lange). This theory points to the relationship between emotions and physiological changes. James said that "we are saddened because we cry, are furious, because we beat the other, we are afraid because we are trembling," that is, he argued that the physiological changes in the organism are primary in relation to emotions. Despite the external paradoxical nature of this view, the James-Lange theory has become widespread due to both the sequence and logicality of the exposition, and the connection with physiological correlates. The views of James on the nature of emotions are partially confirmed by modern research in the field of psychopharmacology and psychocorrection.
James's attempt to go beyond the limits of phenomena with knowledge and to include in the range of scientific and psychological objects irreducible to these phenomena a real objective, directed to the external environment, failed. It failed because of incompatible with the principles of scientific knowledge of philosophical attitudes - indeterminism and subjectivism. Nevertheless, in the psychological theory introduced to foreign structuralists the problem of adaptive motor act, in connection with which Jeme comes to a new approach to the problem of consciousness.
Remaining within the psychology of consciousness with its subjective method. James gave the interpretation of consciousness a new orientation, correlating it with bodily action as an instrument of adaptation to the environment and with the characteristics of the personality as a system irreducible to the totality of sensations, concepts, and so on.
James's desire to interpret the personality as a spiritual totality, creating itself "out of nothing", turned out to be in the future consonant with the mentality of the adherents of existentialism. "It was James who was what we today call an existentialist," says one American author.
James did a lot for the development of psychology as an independent science, independent of medicine and philosophy. Although he is not the founder of the psychological school or system, he has developed many trends in the productive development of psychological science, outlined a broad plan for the necessary transformations and directions in this development. He is still considered to be the most significant and outstanding American scientist who exerted enormous influence not only on psychological science, but also on philosophy and pedagogy.
Along with James, the forerunner of the functional direction is considered to be John Dewey (1859-1952). Having acquired great fame as a philosopher and teacher in the 19th century, Dewey began his career as a psychologist. His book "Psychology" (1886) was the first American textbook on this subject. But she did not define his influence on psychological circles, but a small article "The concept of a reflex act in psychology" (1896), where he sharply opposed the notion that the main units of behavior are reflex arcs.
Nobody in the psychology of this idea and did not defend. Nevertheless, Dewey demanded a transition to a new understanding of the subject of psychology, to recognize as such a whole organism in its restless, adaptive in relation to the medium of activity. Consciousness is one of the moments in this continuum. It occurs when coordination between the body and environment is disrupted, and the body, in order to survive, tends to adapt to new circumstances.
In 1894, Dewey was invited to the University of Chicago, where under his influence formed a group of psychologists who soon declared themselves in opposition to the followers of Wundt and Titchener functionalists. Their theoretical creed was expressed by James Angell (1869-1949) in the presidential address to the American Psychological Association - "Area of Functional Psychology" (1906). Here, functional psychology was defined as the doctrine of mental operations as opposed to the structuralist doctrine of mental elements. Operations perform the role of intermediaries between the needs of the organism and the environment. The main purpose of consciousness is "accommodation to the new." The organism acts as a psychophysical whole, and therefore psychology can not confine itself to the domain of consciousness. It should strive in various directions to the whole diversity of the individual's connections with the real world and possibly more closely approach other sciences - neurology, sociology, anthropology, pedagogy.
These general considerations did not represent a new theory (Angell did not pretend to create it), nor a new research program. Nevertheless, they attracted a large number of students in Chicago who wanted to specialize in psychology. There was a so-called Chicago school, from which dozens of American psychologists came out. At the head of it after Angell was Harvey Kerr (1873-1954). The position of the school is embodied in his book Psychology (1925), where this science was defined as the study of mental activity (mental activity). This term, according to Kerr, is "a common name for activities such as perception, memory, imagination, thinking, feeling, will." Psychical activity consists in acquiring, capturing, preserving, organizing and evaluating experience and its subsequent use to guide behavior. "
As for the methods, it was considered advisable in the Chicago school to apply both introspection and objective observation (the experiment was treated as a controlled observation), and analysis of the products of activity. The Chicago school of Angell-Carr was scientific and educational in the sense that a large number of researchers were trained in it. She did not put forward essentially new theoretical ideas and methods, did not become famous for her discoveries. Her ideas went back to James, who did not experiment with experiments and, according to his own admission, hated laboratory labors.
Functional psychology considered the problem of action from the point of view of its biologically-adaptive sense, its focus on solving vital problems for an individual. But in general, functionalism (both in the "Chicago" version, and in the "Colombian") was theoretically untenable. The concept of "function" in psychology (unlike physiology, where it had a strong real basis) was not productive. It was neither theoretically thought out nor experimentally justified and rightly rejected. After all, the function was understood as the act (perception, thinking, etc.) emanating from the subject, initially aimed at the goal or problem situation. Determination of the mental act, its relation to the nervous system, its ability to regulate external behavior - all this remained mysterious.
In the atmosphere of growing weakness of functionalism, a new psychological trend is emerging. Behavioralism is replaced by behaviorism.