In sum, Epicurus is one of history's most misunderstood philosophers. Like Buddha with his "Golden Mean," Aristotle held that finding a balance between extremes is an important part of wisdom. Healing Dream and Ritual: Ancient Incubation and Modern Psychotherapy. ...The ancient's perspective, like that of humanistic-transpersonal psychologists, is a holistic one, not an atomistic or pragmatic means to specific problem-solving" (21). As a rationalist, Plato's dualistic view divided the person into a material, imperfect body and a mind or soul which contained pure knowledge. Winds can be too weak as well as too strong. The ideas are there to begin with as the essential structure of reality." He also proposed a law of frequency: That the more frequently an experience is repeated, the better it will be remembered. a "All things flow; nothing abides," he wrote. Stress in today’s world may not be exactly ignited by the same causes, but nonetheless, the physical process that the body goes through in a stress event is and was the same. He saw that psycholgical problems can occur when we become lost in such passions as fear, anger, grief, envy, and violent lust. Plato: "Apology," "Crito," "Euthyphro," "Phaedo," "Protagorus,"; Epictetus: "Discourses" and "Manual"; Epicurus: Principal Doctrines and "Letter to Menoeceus"; Marcus Aurelius: Meditations. Cambridge: MIT Press. Suppression and repression, for example, occur at every level from the personality to the nation--state. Hamlin, D.W. "Epistemology, History of." (Here he and the Sophists are on common ground.) He became a teacher of stoic philosophy in Rome until about 90 A.D., when Domitian banished all philosophers and he left for Nicopolis in Epirus to continue his teachings. (There seems more than a little similarity between these ideas and Thorndike's "satisfiers" and "annoyers."). Long, George. He also tried to verify at least 95 dream outcomes he wrote about in order to be as scientific as possible, which make him appear very modern in his “systematic” outlook. Socrates (c. 470-399 B.C.) For the next great name in medical history we must skip ahead six hundred years, to Galen (A.D. 130-200) who studied medicine and anatomy at the Museum and Institute of Alexandria after Alexander had conquered Egypt and then the Greek rulers of Egypt, the Ptolemies, had fallen into decadence, and the Roman Republic had arisen and turned into an empire. The distinction Protagoras made between appearance and reality runs throughout Greek philosophy. This paper is a look at the highlights of its psychological side, including the realm of ethics, which partakes of both philosphy and psychology. "'Hunger is the finest sauce,' he used to say, 'and thirst lends the best bouquet to a glass of wine. Suppose you have once lusted after money.... the next time [this lust] is excited by the corresponding object, the flame of desire leaps up more quickly than before. The Greeks and Romans have been known to be the promoters of the natural sciences and philosophy. Girls were taught games meant to make them strong and healthy for perfect motherhood. 2, 284-5. How they function at each social level --personal, family, community, corporate, governmental, and in the culture-at-large, is an interesting and important question. ), also known as a brave fighter in Athens' military campaigns who sometimes marched barefoot in the snow. Part of Socrates' message was that admission of one's errors and the limits to one's understanding is a necessary prerequisite for learning. Perhaps more. In: The Harvard Classics, op. 04 SYLLABUS 1. The Gods, he suggested, live a serene and deathless life in some far-off space among the stars but do not bother with the affairs of so insignificant a species as humankind. Aristotle. On a national level, our psychology graduates can be found in many fields such as communications, business, sales, healthcare and finance. The school was called the Lyceum, and his group and its philosophy were named Peripatetic ("those who walk around") after the peripatoi, or covered walks where Aristotle and his students strolled as they talked. Subject: PSYCHOLOGY Code No. 19-22. [8] Galen (ca. Almost all the dialogues end inconclusively. You will no doubt notice a resemblance among this conception, the yin/yang of Chinese philosophy, and between Hegel's statement that, "Everything carries within itself its own negation." He could not, for the life of him, understand Plato, or Archimedes, or Christ. Even if they did not necessarily combine the two words as we have from their language, the Greeks had both the word for the “soul”, psyche, and a word for “healer”, iatros; with ancient practitioners like Artemidorus, Galen and Asklepian doctors engaging in some forms of “soul healing” we could recognize today. "(Durant, 508) The Cynics held that to act in a virtuous, honorable, and upright way is its own reward. There was to be no government, no private property, no marriage, no established religion. 21 July, 2020. 4, 494-6. Several competing schools, each tracing its ancestry to some aspect of Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle's teachings, competed for the people's allegiance. Actual is what we are. Nonetheless, Marcus Aurelius himself ranks among the few true "philosopher-kings" of history. Kerferd, G.B. In 449 Greece made peace with Persia and in 447 Athens began construction of the Parthenon, but the Delian confederacy continued. Protagoras fled to Sicily and is said to have drowned on the way. While his approach of enumerating the things a person needed for such self-sufficiency differed from that of the Cynics and Stoics who emphasized letting go of attachments to things we can get along without, almost all aim at describing a path by which we can attain happiness (Eudaimaia). 6, 314-333. Littman, Robert J. He was the first known advocate of free public higher education, chiding the sophists for charging high fees and accepting no money for his teachings. Our task is to discover them, to come to know them as closely as we can. During the 4th century BCE, Plato and Aristotle agreed on a geocentric model but both thinkers did so based on mystical arguments: The stars and planets were carried around the earth on spheres, arranged in a concentric fashion. The people returned to an age of hard work and poverty in which most of the achievements of past high cultures perished completely. He also argued that the fact "that a man should not be a mere weathercock to his fears, likings, and hankerings does not entail that ideally he should be screened from them. Plato even described the universe as the Spindle of Necessity, attended by the Sirens and turned by the three Fates. Hastings Crossley). Elizabeth Scarbrough. Fourteen years after Aristippus died, Epicurus (c.342-270 B.C.) In his Poetics, he describes how a tragedy can evoke the emotions of pity and fear (1970). Reality arises out of strife, tension, the alternation between opposites, and the tension between them. Emotion and Adaptation. But because our understanding of chemistry and brain physiology is much more advanced and detailed, mental health as a holistic approach was significantly different than it is today. It was during the decade before his birth that the Persons invaded and largely destroyed Athens. In Greek culture, ‘on time’ can mean 20, 30 or even 45 minutes late. De Lacy, P.H. Many things prevent our knowing; the subject is obscure, and brief is the span of our mortal life." His courage, strength, skill and cunning are literally legendary, and were revered in ancient Greek culture. Communication was either by word of mouth or completed in the transmission of paper or scrolls when dissemination of information was controlled by limitations not encountered today. [2]  Artemidorus, Oneirocriticon I. After Socrates died, Antisthenes chose to speak at the Cynosarges (Dogfish) gymnasium lecture center, because it was used by people of the lower classes and foreigners. Our challenges lie, as Sartre pointed out, in the choices which involve choosing well, or poorly, for our lives. (tr. This principle resurfaced in several behavioral learning theories of the 1900s. A wise person remembers past pleasures and looks forward to pleasures to come when faced with distress in the presence. A philosophical skeptic examines alleged achievements in various fields to see if those who claim to know something really know what they claim to know. the Persians under Cyrus the Great, his son Cambyses, and his successor Darius, conquered much of the Middle East. Aristotle, (1970) Poetics, tr. All opinion was dismissed as illusory; only physical sensations were viewed as sure guides to action. An Introduction to the History of Psychology, 2nd ed. He also counseled, "Do what is necessary, and discern what is not. Far from adopting an opulent lifestyle, Epicurus lived simply and quietly. ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHY/PSYCHOLOGY:Socrates, Plato History and Systems of Psychology Social Sciences Psychology The orgins of their philosophy lie, argues humanistic psychologist Mike Arons, "in an experience...of dissatisfaction, incompleteness, insufficiency" (1994, p. 17). Posidonius, on the other hand, brought rigor and detail to the Stoic system."(p. [7], Greek doctors were trying to find treatment and solutions to medical issues just as researchers do today. There may be some sexism here). Though gales may sink the ill-rigged or ill-steered sailing ship, no ship can sail without winds. Remember throughout it the place and times. In the end, Plato and Aristotle had agreed on very little except the possibility of arriving at ultimate truth. (Palmer, 82-3). However, by looking at the present is insufficient to explain why modern psychology is like it is. Indeed, Stoic teachings are foreshadowed in Heraclitus of Ephesus, with his subordination of the person to the law of nature, to logos or reason, and his belief in eternal change. 7, 480-485. Most of the discourses of women took place not in the academies and lecture-halls, but in the temples of the Gods and the sanctuaries of the mysteries. He sought in stoicism a guide to "human decency, family unity, and social order." Perhaps both assertions were true. Their new "showcase" Greek culture was so devoid of careful analysis, or study of one's ethnic heritage, that it became psychologically non-threatening to Anglo-converted Greeks. ), The basic works of Aristotle. Because Greek philosophers studied how human personality and character were expressed as either part of rational, deductive processes or as impaired irrational processes, it should not be surprising that Aristotle mixed psychology with a philosophy of the mind and thus his empirical approach was a forerunner of modern psychological approach. The ancient Greeks were no different. "In change one finds rest;" he wrote; "it is weariness to be always toiling at the same things. Greece. Born to a wealthy family, he became extremely rich through clever investments. His university was the streets --the market, the workshops, the gymnasiums, the public squares, and anywhere else he might find someone interesting with whom to speak. Almost everyone knew about their lives and doings, and each of the most famous had an enthusiastic group of students spreading his doctrines widely. Socrates was the first to use the word "psyche" as we do today, as the seat of intelligence and character. His basic premise is that the goal of philosophy is to free people from fear (especially fear of the gods). Virtue includes desiring, possessing, and eating little, drinking nothing but water, and injuring no one. [8]   Henry G. Liddell and Robert Scott. First, logistikon was the intellect or part of the mind as the seat of reasoning and logic. Mathematical set theory shows this quite clearly. When asked about the friendship, Seneca said, "Why should I not hold Demetrius in high esteem? It is not enough to know one or even two of these points; unless we know all three, we shall be unable to arouse anger in anyone. Socrates fought bravely as a soldier against Sparta in the Peloponnesian wars between 432 and 422 and generously gave up to others his claims for prizes of valor. The Stoics also believed that every person, even slaves and foreigners, held within them a spark of the creative fire. These qualities built the Empire. The Oracle at Delphi declared that no one was wiser than Socrates, because he claimed that he himself knew nothing, while others who knew far less walked about parading their knowledge, Socrates set out to see if he could disprove the oracle by finding a wiser man. Another city in the same region, Ephesus, which had been founded about 400 years before by colonists from Athens, also became a rich trading center. Perhaps it could be stated that the template of our world, of life, has changed. Sextus attacked every claim by dogmatic philosophers to knowledge about the "nonevident world" (any condition that is not now being, and cannot at some time be, observed). "He commented, "How many things there are that I do not want! In: The Harvard Classics, New York: Collier, 1937, 115-185. (Tarnas, 77). Nor can we find it through reason, because we use our reason to deceive ourselves in the service of our desires. Greeks called such a primary element a physis, and those who tried to discover it were called physicists. (1975) The Persistent Problems of Psychology. Multitudes of theories, as well as some myths, have been developed to … He gave up all property and dressed in a cloak so ragged that Socrates joked, "I can see your vanity, Antisthenes, through the holes of your cloak." "For men awake there is one common cosmos, but men asleep turn away, each one into a private world." We may often refer to anything related to the study of the mind as modern psychology, but the ancient Greeks and Romans saw psychology, medicine and philosophy in a more integrated way since the idea of mens sana in corpore sano or “healthy mind in a healthy body” as a latin paraphrase of the ca 600 BCE Greek sage Thales. Socrates believed that truth cannot be defined by any absolute authority but lies hidden in every person's mind. It is an irony of history that Rome was a stoic civilization during its early years, and that its great Stoic philosophers appeared on the scene during its decadent later years. Impudent and incisive in discussion and debate, he questioned and challenged fellow Athenians from every level of society. The justice of a law ultimately depends on it being of advantage to all parties to the compact. At age seven a boy was taken from his family and enrolled in a school which was both a military regimen and a scholastic class. He once described a stressed-out patient who tossed all night, dreaming and worrying whether Atlas the Titan could hold up the sky (and the world in it) if this Titan got sick. Greek society, the Hellenistic world, and Rome were patriarchal, male-dominated societies. Lycurgus, who lived sometime between 900 and 600 B.C., was a statesman and philosopher who developed the remarkable code of laws which produced the kind of behavior which even today we call "Spartan." 7, op. "A modest and virtuous life is the only road to abiding content, wealth destroys peace, and envious desire...eats away the soul.... Only internal freedom counts. He studied in India and then returned to Elis, his birthplace, to teach philosophy. He credited much of his thought to Democritus and to Aristippus, whose philosophy of pleasure was actually more "Epicurean" in the Roman sense than Epicurus' ever was. Second, because perceptions vary with the previous experiences of the perceiver, they will vary from person to person. He displayed great composure in the face of adverse circumstances, even in his response to taunts and criticism. Perhaps he did not do enough to help others find more satisfying personal directions to replace the pretentions which he demolished. The best-known aspect of Heracleitus' ideas is the omnipresence of change. Durant, Will. Set Theory supplements Asian philosophy in providing a basis for a non-dualistic logic.. He points to Raphael's Renaissance painting The School of Athens, in which, "in the center of the many Greek philosophers and scientists gathered in lively discussion, stand the elder Plato and the younger Aristotle, with Plato pointing upward to the heavens, to the invisible and transcendent, while Aristotle motions his hand outward and down to the earth, to the visible and immanent. The Greek mythology emerged from the antique religions of Crete; an island located in the Aegean Sea and incorporates many themes and mythical figures. Evolution of Psychology from Early Greek Philosophers, After Aristotle and Modern Science Philosophy. Sparta, after her victory, installed a ruling committee of thirty Athenian aristocrats. (a different Northwestern University Press earlier edition in 1967); for one of the most representative or comprehensive studies that range on Asklepian topics, see Louise Cilliers’ editorship of  Asklepios: Studies on Ancient Medicine, Acta Classica Supplementum 2, 2008, Bloemfontein, Classical Association of South Africa. "Now and then some great spirit--Socrates, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius--merged the two currents in an attempt to do justice to the unformulable complexity of life," writes Will Durant. Until recent history, people traveled by slower and more sedate modes. Ephesus was a city of poetry and high fashion, yet its most famous son was the philosopher Heracleitus of Ephesus (c540-480 B.C.) He helped soften the asceticism of the Early Stoa, attached more value to external goods than the Early Stoa did, and spoke in terms of gradual moral progress or discipleship, not the pure ideal of the wise man. New York: Ballantine Books. Jones, W.H.S. Skepticism was less influential by the second century A.D., but that century boasted the most charming and insolent writer of the skeptics, Lucian, who lectured in Rome, Gaul, and Athens, and supported himself in old age with an official post in Egypt, thanks to the generosity of Marcus Aurelius. Phyrro pointed out that the same experience can be pleasant or unpleasant depending on our mood and state of mind, and that the same event can seem ugly or beautiful, or moral or immoral, depending on our point of view. This project led Aristotle to develop a large number of mutually exclusive categories, and each specimen one or another of these. In those days, "philosophy" included many areas of knowledge that are separated into different disciplines now. The mind feels delight at the body's well being, and enjoys peace of mind at the removal of pains and cares. We all have within us the impulsive or appetitive element, the element of thought or reason, and between these two, an element that can curb impulses and cravings and take orders from thought or reason. One of its members, Arcesilaus, declared, "Nothing is certain, not even that." Together they made up his metaphysics, or general worldview. Thales sought to find one substance or element from which everything else derives. Handsome, refined, honest, straightforward, and articulate, he took great delight in scandalizing the respectable sinners of Athens. , it appears that in ancient Greece, he questioned, prodded, and self control teacher. 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