The Middle Ages

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The Middle Ages

• Early Christian Psychology Science
• St Augustine
• Islamic Psychology Science
• Ibn Sina
• Christian Psychology Science
• St Thomas Aquinas
• Roger Bacon
• William of Occam

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St Augustine (354-430 AD)

• Augustine was born in Thagaste (Souk Ahras,
  Algeria) to a christian mother (St Monica) and
  pagan father (Patricius)
• He followed Manichaeism a religion based on the
  writings of Mani, primarily known for its
  striking dualism between light (good) and dark
  (evil)
• Led a somewhat debauched early adulthood (a son
  by a concubine)
• Converted to Christianity in 386 AD under the
  influence of St Ambrose the bishop of Milan.

St Monicas Patronage abuse victims alcoholics
alcoholism difficult marriages
disappointing children homemakers housewives
married women mothers victims of adultery
victims of unfaithfulness victims of verbal abuse
widows wives
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Original Sin

• Original Sin
• Saint Augustine taught that Adam, before the
  Fall, had had free will, and could have abstained
  from sin. But as he and Eve ate the apple,
  corruption entered into them, and descended to
  all their posterity, none of whom can, of their
  own power, abstain from sin. Only God's grace
  enables men to be virtuous.
• by God's free grace certain people, among those
  who have been baptized, are chosen to go to
  heaven these are the elect. They do not go to
  heaven because they are good we are all totally
  depraved, except in so far as God's grace, which
  is only bestowed on the elect, enables us to be
  otherwise. No reason can be given why some are
  saved and the rest damned this is due to God's
  unmotivated choice. Damnation proves God's
  justice salvation His mercy. Both equally
  display His goodness Bertrand Russell (1946)
  A History of Western Philosophy

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On Lust (Desire)

• Sexual intercourse in marriage is not sinful as
  long as the intention is to have children
• This lawful act of nature is accompanied with
  penal shame Augustine, The City of God, XIV.
• The cynics believed that one should be without
  shame
• Lust is shameful because of its independence from
  our will
• If not for original sin, then sex might have been
  divorced from pleasure, which Augustine believed
  to be a virtuous state.
• The reformation protestants, such as the
  Lutherans and Calvinists followed this line of
  reasoning.

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On Plato

• Let Thales depart with his water, Anaximenes
  with the air, the Stoics with their fire,
  Epicurus with his atoms. St Augustine, The City
  of God VIII.
• For Augustine, Plato was correct in the following
  ways
• God is not anything material
• All things have their being through God
• God is immutable
• Perception is not the source of truth
• The sensible world is inferior to the eternal
• There are things than can be discovered by reason
  alone
• On the other hand, all other knowledge if it is
  to be true, should be based on religious
  scriptures, though not necessarily literally,
  subject to science and God given reason.

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Ibn Sina (Avicenna, 980-1037 AD)

• Born Afshana near Bukhara, now in Uzbekistan
  (then Persia), and died in Hamadan, Persia
  (Iran).
• A child prodigy
• Knew the Koran by heart at age 7
• Also vast tracts of Persian Poetry
• Ibn Sina's two most important works (out of 450)
  are The Book of Healing and The Canon of
  Medicine.
• The first is a scientific encyclopaedia covering
  logic, natural sciences, psychology, geometry,
  astronomy, arithmetic and music.
• The second is the most famous single book in the
  history of medicine

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Ibn Sinas Psychology and Theory of Knowledge

• He discussed reason and reality, claiming that
  God is pure intellect and that knowledge consists
  of the mind grasping the intelligible.
• To grasp the intelligible both reason and logic
  are required
• ... it is important to gain knowledge. Grasp of
  the intelligibles determines the fate of the
  rational soul in the hereafter, and therefore is
  crucial to human activity. Craig, E. (1998)
  Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy
• The psychology was essentially a synopsis and
  extension of Aristotles facultative psychology.

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St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD)

• The son of Count Landulf of Aquino, in the
  kingdom of Naples
• He was educated at the Benedictine Abbey at
  Cassino (the Abbot was his uncle) and at the
  University of Naples.
• He became a Dominican monk in his 17th year.
• He had a thorough knowledge and understanding of
  Aristotle and dislike for Plato.
• He used the Aristotlean argument for the
  existence of God.
• There are things that are moved
• There are things that move
• Whatever is moved is moved by something.
• Since an infinite regress is impossible we must
  arrive somewhere where the first move is made and
  something must have made that move.
• The unmoved mover is God.
• Aristotle used this rationale for the existence
  of at least 47 gods.

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Body and Soul

• In men, the soul is united to the body
• Unlike Aristotle and Ibn Sina there is only one
  soul
• The whole soul is present in the whole body
• The soul is immortal whereas the body is not.
• The soul is created new by God with each man
• Birth out of wedlock presents a problem. Why
  would God involve Himself is such a sin?
• Original Sin is also a problem. If the soul is
  created afresh how is original sin passed on?

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Acquinas and Aristotle

• Aquinas adopted Aristotles philosophy and
  demonstrated that much of it was not in conflict
  with Catholicism
• A person ability to reason about the world of
  nature and God is limited by Aristotlean
  empiricism to the world of Nature.
• God can only be known through attempts to
  understand his creation.
• There are no innate ideas
• All thinking requires the imagination.
• Knowledge of God cannot be gained through
  introspection or by reason alone.

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Roger Bacon (1219-1294)

• The scientific method in its modern form arguably
  developed in early Islamic philosophy, e.g. the
  work of Ibn al-Haitham on optics
• using experiments to distinguish between
  competing scientific theories,
• citation, peer review and open inquiry,
• a general belief that knowledge reveals nature
  honestly.
• The Franciscan monk Bacon, also an aristotlean,
  described a repeating cycle of observation,
  hypothesis, experimentation, and the need for
  independent verification.
• Essentially a scientific empiricism was
  introduced into western thought.
• The purpose of this was to further our
  understanding of God and his creation.

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William of Ockham (Occam, 1290-1350)

• A Franciscan monk, not a great deal is known
  about his life and what there is is not agreed
  upon.
• He may have been brought before the Pope John
  XXII in Avignon to face charges of heresy
• He may have been brought to Avignon as a teacher
  and only later accused of heresy
• He eventually fled Avignon to Bavaria after a
  dispute with Dominicans about Franciscan poverty
• He is often considered one of the great medieval
  philosophers in so far as his impact lasts until
  today.
• First, Occams Razor
• Second, Nominalism and/or Conceptualism

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Occams Razor

• Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate
• or
• Plurality should not be posited without
  necessity
• Consider the two following explanations given to
  a child about Christmas presents
• (1) Your parents bought them
• (2) Father Christmas brought them
• If the child applied the logic of Occams Razor
  then they would have to believe statement (1) and
  reject (2)
• Similarly this argument applies to Intelligent
  Design or the existence of God
• However, the sound logic does not guarantee the
  truth of the outcome.

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Nominalism

• Science considers only propositions, not things,
  since the object of science is what is known and
  not what is.
• No universal (e.g. a platonic ideal form) exists
  outside the mind.
• A universal is an intention of the mind, a
  symbol representing several objects of a kind
• Objects call forth sense-impressions which become
  mental images through the work of the active
  intellect.
• The human mind has a tendency to create universal
  concepts from even single instances of an entity
  or its properties
• Whilst these mental symbols represent objective
  reality they are in fact subjective