Psychology: the wider picture, where did it all start? - Chapter 1

How was writing invented?

Writing has been an important discovery for the development of science. ‘Preliterate civilizations’ are civilizations that have not invented scripture. These civilizations are hunter-gatherers for example. They build on practical knowledge without a theoretical understanding of the underlying principles. A second characteristic is that the knowledge of the history of the tribe is limited to two generations. The rest of the information is lost. A third characteristic is ‘animism’, the functioning of the world is explained by spirits that have human qualities. This is a term introduced by Edward Burnett Tylor. Values ​​and behaviors of the civilizations stemmed from myths and stories. In the case of illness, the person with the most knowledge of these myths and stories was called upon. Often the stories were contradictory. As soon as people started to use writing, patterns in myths and stories became visible.

The first writing systems

Protowriting is the use of symbols without linguistic information. It first appeared in China, America, Egypt and Sumer (one of the first civilizations in Mesopotamia). From an early stage, writing systems were primarily based on a combination of pictograms and phonograms. An pictogram is an information-containing sign that consists of a picture representing a person, an animal or an object. A phonogram is a sign that represents a sound and forms the basis of writing systems. This eventually created the alphabet system which started with the Phoenician alphabet that formed the basis for the Arabic, Hebrew and Greek alphabet. The physical signs and the meaning of the word became more and more separated from each other over time, creating the logo graphic alphabet. A logograph is a sign that represents a spoken word that no longer has a physical resemblance to the meaning of the word.

Written documents as external memory

Through writing, accumulation of knowledge arises throughout generations. There is no need to rediscover. Socrates commented on this. When a student relies on all information that is static, he may become lazy and discouraged from gaining new knowledge from his own curiosity and experience. The form of information retention also changed. In the past, poems with rhyme were often told because it was easier to remember and to transfer. With writing, the emphasis could be more on the content rather than the form.

The development and role of the reader

In the past only a small part of the population could read. The first writings contained no spaces between words, called scriptio continua (continuous scripts), making it difficult to read. The spaces made reading easier and readers no longer had to read out loud.

Reading is easiest for languages ​​in which the spelling and sound correspond as much as possible. This is the case with Spanish, Italian, German and Korean. English and Hebrew are more complex languages because orthography has had more influences. You can still see that children raised in one of these languages ​​take four times longer to reach a certain language level.

The scholistic method is a study method in which students study and remember texts that are thought to contain unchangeable facts. In the past, books were the wisdom of the world that had to be passed on in original form from generation to generation. Students were discouraged to questioning the texts.

How were numbers invented?

The discovery of figures has also made a major contribution to the growth of knowledge. The first archaeological proof of counting comes from 35,000 to 20,000 years before our era. Isolated tribes had counting systems that consisted of three terms: one, two and more.

Larger numbers and the need for grouping the tallies

The problem with tallies is that they quickly exceed the reach of perception. III is usable, but IIIIIIIIIII not. The solution for this has risen independently in different cultures. They began to group numbers as they do with the number five. Five is the first number that exceeds the limits of perception, but it is also the number that corresponds to the number of fingers on a hand.

Names, symbols and basic numbers

When comparing number systems from different cultures, it is striking that the names of the same numbers are similar. This indicates that a number system already existed before language emerged. The most frequently chosen base number is ten. But that was not fixed in the different number systems. The Sumerian system used 60 as the basic number, which can still be seen in the time units. In the French system, 20 is used as the base number (quatre -ving-dix-sept = four-twenty-ten-seven = 97). Some number names are also based on finger counting. Twelve comes from two left and two more on the left when both hands are full. The irregular naming of the teens is not present in the Chinese number system, which may be one of the reasons why Chinese children have less of a problem understanding the base 10 system of numbers.

From the moment numbers had names, it was a small step to represent them with symbols. Giving names to numbers happened for the first time among the Greeks and Romans. India developed a more transparent and better naming system than the Greeks and Romans, the ‘place coding system’. This is a system in which the meaning of a sign depends not only on its shape but also on its position in a series. The first number represented the units, the second number the tens, the third number the hundreds, etc. The invention for the number 0 was required for this.

What was invented in the Fertile Crescent?

Fertile Cresent is a region in the Middle East with advanced civilization around 3000 before our count. The Ancient Mesopotamia and the Ancient Egyptian Civilizations were part of this.

The old Egypt

A few major inventions from this area were the wheel, geometric knowledge (for example, being able to calculate the volume of a pyramid) and a calendar consisting of 12 months and 30 days.

The ancient Mesopotamia

Mathematical knowledge was more sophisticated in Mesopotamia. They applied this in astronomy to be able to calculate what the best time would be for planting and harvesting. The growth of knowledge was possible in these areas through political stability, urbanization, patronage and the availability of the writing system that was easy enough to learn by enough people to reach the most important group.

What was discovered by the ancient Greeks?

The Greeks built on the knowledge of the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, but added their own knowledge. Hippocrates played an important part in this. He is also called the father of medicine, because he had developed physics treatments for diseases called Corpus Hippocraticum. Philosophy is a critical reflection on the universe and the functioning of man and started with the Greeks around 600 before the count. One of the biggest questions was whether things remained constant or whether things changed.

A reflection of the ideal world, Plato

Plato is seen as the founder of philosophy (literally love of wisdom). Plato made a distinction between the eternal unchangeable and the material reality in which nothing is perfect (the world that we consider). According to Plato, we see no more than the shadow of the real world. The soul is immortal and strictly separated from our body. The soul travels between the stars and the human body where it resides temporarily. We can know the perfect world regarding goodness, beauty, equality and change by focusing on the knowledge that the soul can give us. Pure knowledge can be obtained through logic and intelligence, from the inside out, not through perception (a rationalist, not an empiricist).

Plato divided the soul into three. The first part, called reason, is immortal and is located within the brain. It provides access to the perfect world of ideas in which abstraction is important and language plays no role. The second part, sensation, is enclosed in the heart and is mortal. It provides the experience of emotions. The third and lowest part of the soul is in the liver, called hunger and lower passions. It causes hunger, lust and eagerness for example. 

The nature of knowledge, Aristotle

Aristotle was also a Greek philosopher and a student of Plato. He distinguished knowledge into three types. The first is productive knowledge: the knowledge with which things were accomplished such as food cultivation, engineering, art, etc. The second is practical knowledge: the knowledge about how people should behave in different circumstances. And theoretical knowledge, the truth subdivided into mathematics, natural sciences and theology.

According to Aristotle, theoretical consisted of a series of axioms from which the remaining knowledge was derived by means of logic. The axioms were self-evident truths about nature, which were acquired through observation and intuition, and of which the final cause could be discerned.

Aristotle also thought that the universe consisted of the earth as the center, surrounded by the moon and a number of planets. He distinguished the universe into two regions, the sub-lunar region (from the earth to the moon) and the super-lunar region (from the moon to the end of the universe). According to Aristotle, the first consisted of the elements air, earth, fire and water, the composition of which is constantly changing. He described the universe as a ‘horror or vacuum’, there was no part that did not consist of one of the four elements.

The role of logic

As said, according to Aristotle knowledge was gained through axioms, which consist of starting principles, perception and logic. He developed a system in which it could be tested whether something is true or false. He calls elementary assertions propositions and stated that they exist in two forms. The affirmative form, all A's are B's or in the negative form, no A's are B's. A ‘syllogism’ is an argument that consists of three propositions, a large assumption, a smaller assumption and a conclusion. For example, all men are mortal, Aristotle is a man, so Aristotle is mortal. The purpose of logic is to record whether a syllogism is correct or not.

Observation

Aristotle valued the importance to observation and good documentation of observations He was the founder of zoology and biology by publishing books with detailed drawings of animals and plants. In his book 'History of animals' he named more than 500 species of animals.

Aristotle was convinced that observation alone does not bring knowledge. Observation helps to establish the starting principles, then logic must still be used to gain knowledge. The starting principles are already there and are fixed in the universe before there is a conclusion. The basic principles are the cause of the conclusions. In the following chapters, the relationship between observation and theory will be a continuing point of discussion from a philosophical point of view.

Aristotle also introduced an existing force into the universe. He called this power psyche (anima in Latin) and distinguished living from non-living things. It consisted of three types. The first is the vegetative soul which is present in all living objects including plants. It ensures the organisms can feed and reproduce. Animals and plants possess animal souls (or sensitive souls) through which they can feel, move, have a memory and have an imagination. Thirdly, the rational soul, which only the person possesses through which they can consciously reason.

The beginning of schools

In Greek society, people rented themselves to transfer their knowledge. As a result, reading and writing skills were spread throughout ancient Greece. Four types of schools were created. The first was the Academy, founded by Plato 388 BC. The second was the Lyceum, founded by Aristotle 335 BC. Aristotle was a student at Plato's school but founded his own school after Plato's death. Later the Stoa and the garden of Epicurus were added.

The growth of Alexandria

Greek culture was expended under the leadership of Alexander the Great. This was partly due to his military success. As the borders expanded to other cultures, this brought a new dynamic. Hellenistic culture emerged, which continued after the death of Alexander the Great. The culture was mainly located in Alexandria, a city in Egypt created by Alexander the Great. The way of thinking was mainly influenced by mathematics and was therefore a much more specialized way of thinking than the great philosophical movements of Plato and Aristotle. Names like Euclid, Herophilos, Erasistratos, Archimedes and Ptolemy played a major role in this.

What were the developments in the Roman Empire?

Around 200 BC the Roman empire had also stretched out and began to get close to the Greek empire. The Romans admired the Greeks and wanted to learn from them. Many people in the Roman Empire already visited the Greek schools for their education. It is said that the Romans were politically and militarily stronger and the Greeks were more artistic and intellectual. The Romans were much more interested in practical knowledge than the Greeks who dealt with philosophical issues. Among the Romans, the emphasis was more on technological inventions and improvements. Usability and effectiveness were important features in a new project or idea according to the Romans. They set up the legal system and infrastructure. They also designed tools and built good agriculture.

The Byzantine empire

Around 300 civil wars started between the west and east side of the empire. Rome remained the capital of the West, but the heart of the empire lay with the East, the Hellenistic world. Here the Byzantine empire began to emerge. The capital of this became Constantinople. It was in the Roman Empire, but Greek culture prevailed here. In 1453 Constantinople was in the hands of the Ottoman (Turkish) empire. Byzantine science had never reached the level of the ancient Greeks, but it did ensure that the knowledge of the Greeks continued. The Christian religion became more and more dominant, which meant that less progress took place within science. For centuries, religious institutions and schools were the ones who promoted intellectual knowledge. They were not interested in the natural sciences and dismissed it as uninteresting knowledge. Internal differences led to the Catholics and Protestants.

The Arab empire

Mohammed was born in Mecca in the sixth century. This is where Islam came about. The Koran was one of the first books written in Arabic.

In 749 the Abbasid family came to power and political stability emerged. The Arabs started to translate Greek works into Arabic. A research institute was founded in Baghdad: The house of wisdom. The Indian number system was also used and converted this into a more efficient mathematical system than the Greeks and Romans. The Algebra by Al-Khwarizmi in particular was a highlight.

The remains of the Roman Empire

Scientific knowledge in the Roman empire already declined before its fall. This was partially due to poor knowledge of the Greek language. The motivation to learn a second language declined because people wanted to get started economically. Highly educated people continued to learn a second language in order to transfer their knowledge to a larger audience. A barrier was created between the Greeks and the Romans. Plato's works have been studied, because his point of view of a higher invisible world coincided with the vision of the church.

The contribution of the Catholic Church

After the fall of Rome in 476 and the takeover by Germanic tribes, the Catholic Church controlled the learning system by creating and supporting schools. In the Byzantine empire, science was not the most important thing in the empire. The Catholic Church did not support critical thinking. Scientific knowledge fell back to the level of the Romans. This is the reason that the Middle Ages were called the 'dark ages' .

What did the tide turn in the west?

The beginnings of schools and universities

The revival of learning in the West has become a long story. The first was the effort of Charle the Great around 800 to revive education in the Carolingan empire. Especially in the capital Aachen. Secondly, there was a population explosion due to improvement of agriculture between 1000 and 1200. This resulted in urbanization and schools with broad educational goals. The teachers organized themselves into guilds which they called universities. The first independent universities were established in Bologna, Paris and Oxford. Students who had completed their masters were teachers and were allowed to teach everywhere. This in turn led to increased mobility of these teachers and harmony of different cultures. The translation of Arabic and Greek works into Latin reached its peak.

The clash of Aristotle and the church

There was a problem with the integration of Aristotle's work. For many, his work was more inspiring than those of Plato (on which the church built). This mainly led to disagreement at the University of Paris. Most other universities included Aristotle in education, and Paris eventually followed. Aristotle contradicted the Bible by claiming that the universe was eternal without a beginning and an end. While the Bible promotes a beginning and an end. He also claimed that the soul cannot survive without the body, contrary to what the Bible said. The entire philosophy of origin and world vision were different, which led to much more disagreement than these two examples. The Catholic Bishop had in 1277 a list of 219 propositions of Aristotle's philosophy that should not be included in the education program of the University of Paris.

The revival of Greek and Roman culture

The Renaissance originated in the Middle Ages, a cultural movement from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century based on a rediscovery and imitation of the Greek and Roman societies. This started in Italy and was mainly seen in the architecture and paintings. Copernicus questioned Aristotle by asking whether the earth is the center of the universe. Gerardus Mercator developed a technique that made accurate maps of the world.

The protestant reformation

The reformation was a movement against the Roman Catholic Church, which was important for the development of science. The movement emphasized the importance of education, critical thinking and hard work. According to sociologist Max Weber, the Protestant countries played away the Catholics through their ethics. They were much more open to science.

Book printing

Printing was invented by Johannes Gutenberg. A technique whereby metal letters could be reused after printing, resulting in fast and inexpensive production. This had a huge impact on science. Firstly, the threshold for access to information was much lower in both Latin and the native language. Books were scarce, but full-time jobs were created to keep books well and not to lose them. Thirdly, people wanted to copy books and sometimes this went wrong, which could lead to huge errors of interpretation, especially in mathematics. Thirdly, different schools could now work with the same book, which allowed them to collaborate much better in transferring knowledge.

Colonization

The European powers started the exploration of the world. The coasts of Asia and Africa were occupied and America was discovered in 1492. It soon became a competition.

Aristotle claimed that the world consisted of five different climate zones. Two extremes, the poles, that were too cold for life. The zones near the equator were too warm for life. Only the two zones in between were livable. The Portuguese proved the opposite by occupying parts in Africa near the equator where there was life. As a result, Aristotle was also questioned in other areas.

What are the limitations of historiography?

Historiography is never quite correct and it is important that people are aware of this. A first example is that there is written around individuals. For example, Newton and Galilei are discussed in H2 and their findings. It almost seems as if the developments would not have come if these people had not lived, but this is often not true. Developments come about through a certain spirit of the times. Zeitgeist: A word used in the history of science to indicate that the circumstances in a certain era were good for a certain discovery. The discovery never comes solely from a brilliant person, but through a broader development that ultimately leads to a discovery.

Next is the Matthew effect: The tendency to give more credits to an important scientist than they have earned. This creates a distorted picture of the impact of this scientist. There is also a tendency to believe that the evidence that scientists came up with is much more convincing than it actually was. Because classical discoveries must be clear-cut discoveries, not a slow and messy unearthing of evidence.

There is also often self-centered writing. A writer belongs to a certain group or people and the history is described in this way from this people. The same idea is that China in China is at the center of the world map and Europe in Europe. In the end, historiography are summaries of summaries and a lot of information is omitted or incorrect information is provided.

Rewrite or streamline the past

Kuhn does not see science develop along a linear structure of knowledge. Science is also one of the possible interpretations of reality. Every historiography is an interpretation of what might have happened that are guided by a set of values ​​and beliefs that are shared in a particular research community.

It can also be seen that historiography is the result of many large chunks of information that are reduced and merged into a story so that it can only be contained, streamlined. The finite discussions about what Plato and Aristotle would have meant had no impact on the general history message that they had a major impact on scientific thinking and that at some point various schools were struggling to overcome their limitations. The message is that when a lot of factual things are wrong with a story, the bigger picture will be transferred. So it is worthwhile to further learn this summary about the history of conceptual thinking in psychology.

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