Rationalism
Also concerned with refuting skepticism
In contrast with empiricism, reason is the guide to knowledge
A priori knowledge (vs. experience)
Mind actively selects, organizes, and discriminates (vs. blank slate in which information received through the senses & knowledge built up through association)
Deductive reasoning (vs. inductive)
Rationalists
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
Preferred deduction from self-evident truths
Ordinary observation of natural events followed by critical reflection as foundation for science
"interactionism"--mind & body separate substances, interact somehow through brain (pineal gland)
Because mind is not bound by natural laws, humans have free will
Rationalists
Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)
Also emphasized self-evident truths & careful analysis of sensory information
Only one ultimate reality—God
No demons, mentally ill are not possessed
Mind & body are not separate, mental processes are part of the natural order & subject to natural laws
Therefore, no absolute free will
Rationalists
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Actually sought middle road between extremes of empiricism & rationalism
Knowledge is combination of sensory experience and ordering principles of the mind, mind actively transforms raw sensory material through innate organizing abilities
Johann Herbart (1776-1841)
one of goals of education to build "apperception mass"
Apperception—complex mental operations, including abstracting, novel application, problem-solving
Mechanization & Quantification
Growing interest in the mechanistic view of the world, & specifically, human behavior
Thomas Hobbes influential in this view
Biological & psychological processes assumed to operate like the movement of machines
Increasingly sophisticated understanding of CNS/PNS
Growth of measurement theory & statistics
Galton’s contributions to correlation & regression
Normal curve & application to social sciences