There is almost no doubt that there is a relationship between psychology and philosophy. Indeed, many people actually considering that the philosophies related to and concerned with the mind and thought are the precursor to modern psychology. Of course, most of these philosophies were decidedly western, or popular in the west. However, the problem with our western views of consciousness in philosophy and psychology is that often times the way we view the conscious process leads to a so-called "infinite regression." That is to say, if we see consciousness as a set of rules guiding our experiences in life, there must also be another set of rules that defines how we know when to use those rules, and so on and so forth. (Kurak 2001, 18-19). In this paper, I will attempt to show how we can turn to Buddhist principles to help us gain a better understanding of human consciousness. As there are many different schools of Buddhism, each with different principles, there are also many different views on consciousness. First, we'll turn to the "Consciousness-Only School" also known as Yogacara Buddhism. According to the Consciousness-Only school there are eight parts of the consciousness. The five sense-consciousnesses, those related to the senses. There is the sixth consciousness, called the sense-center consciousness, that which forms our conceptions. The seventh is called the thought-center, the consciousness related to will and reasoning. And the eighth consciousness, called the storehouse consciousness. The storehouse consciousness basically "stores" our past experiences. The consciousness are in a constant state of change, the seed is constantly being influenced by the inward flow of perceptions, and the seed itself influences the perceptions (Chan 371). This train of thought is most similar to the existing model of cognition and memory encoding. To examine
Chapter 4 discusses the several states of consciousness: the nature of consciousness, sleep and dreams, psychoactive drugs, hypnosis, and meditation. Consciousness is a crucial part of human experience, it represents that private inner mind where we think, feel, plan, wish, pray, omagine, and quietly relive experiences. William James described the mind as a stream of consciousness, a continuous flow of changing sensations, images thoughts, and feelings. Consciousness has two major parts: awareness and arousal. Awareness includes the awareness of the self and thoughts about one's experiences. Arousal is the physiological state of being engaged with the environment. Theory of mind refers to individuals understanding that they and others think,
Sigmund Freud’s theories on the construction of the mind are simple, but fundamentally changed the field of psychology. He proposed, among other things, that the human mind is composed of three parts: the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The preconscious consists of information, such as a telephone number, that is “accessible to consciousness without emotional resistance” (Schellenberg 21). In Freud’s estimation, the unconscious is the most important area of the mind. The information stored within it has “very strong resistances” to becoming conscious (Freud 32). Residing in the unconscious is the id, which “contains everything…that is present at birth… – above all, therefore, the instincts which originate from somatic organization” (14). From birth, all action is instinctual, from the id. The id recognizes and entertains no desires but its own and is impatient to have its needs met. This phase lasts until a part of the id changes “under the influence of the real external world” (14). This changed portion b...
The study of psychology began as a theoretical subject a branch of ancient philosophy, and later as a part of biological sciences and physiology. However, over the years, it has grown into a rigorous science and a separate discipline, with its own sets of guidance and experimental techniques. This paper aims to study the various stages that the science of psychology passed through to reach its contemporary status, and their effects on its development. It begins with an overview of the historical and philosophical basis of psychology, discusses the development of the various schools of thought, and highlights their effects on contemporary personal and professional decision-making.
Yoga brings Buddhi, Ahamkara and manas of Samkhya in one umbrella termed as Citta or mind, which is the first product of Prakrti. It is unconscious though it becomes conscious by the reflection of consciousness which abides by it. The knowledge results when the consciousness is reflected in the mirror of the thinking substance (citta), and assumes its form. Citta is said to be in five stages, ksipta or restless, mudha or blinded, vksipta or distracted (rajas and tamas), ekagra or single-minded (satva) and niruddha or Sub Consciousness: All the waves emanated by the activities of mind are imprinted in life force (energy particles) of organism and emerges as memory; this functional state is called sub-consciousness.
Historically, psychology was derived from philosophy. From the works of Aristotle to Plato and the others that followed, has played a part in the inception of this behavioral science. The concepts that were developed during that time have been built on and explained in greater volume. Today many theories that were identified before have been improved into better understanding for readers, students and the wider public. Some are known under a new name, while others hold their authentic name and rooted meaning.
Throughout history there has been many different theory’s that have been presented, in numerous fashions. From psychology’s inception there has been attempts to answer many different questions, how much of our animal heritage exists, are humans basically good, is human nature neither good nor bad, do humans possess free will, is psychology really a science? There has been a persistent question throughout the ages, how are the mind and body related? This question of if there truly is a mind, and if there is, how is it linked to the body has been the center of many debates since the beginning of psychology. Every psychologist in history has at some point dealt with the question “How are the mind and body related”, and each had their own unique stance on the question. Through the decades, every imaginable position has been taken on the mind-body relationship, in an attempt to explain how the two are connected. There are different types of individuals that attempt to explain the mind-body relationship; materialists, monists, idealists, and dualist. Each type differs on the explanation of the relationship between mind and body.
Integrating the simple actions of everyday life seems to involve awareness, whether it is as simple as flicking a light switch (Morsella & Poehlman, 2013) or decision making. From a Darwinian standpoint, human conscious awareness holds pronounced evolutionary importance; however, its purpose in human behaviour remains a mystery. This unexplained phenomenon of conscious experience has led to the possible suggestion that complex cognitive processes can occur in the absence of consciousness (Peremen & Lamy, 2014; Yang, Zald & Blake, 2007). The latter speculation will be the topic of this thought paper, in which Mudrik, Breska, Lamy and Deouell article will be summarized and its strength, weaknesses and potential theme of follow-up studies will be discussed.
According to the Buddhist doctrine, there is no self. Buddhists believe that the body is impermanent and behaves as a covering for what is permanent— your soul. What is focused on in Buddhist beliefs the doctrine of the “non-self”. In this paper, I will support the idea of the “non-self”. The doctrine of having no self means that the parts of who you are as a person is not you. All things on earth are not static, including people. First, I will go over what a Buddhist’s view of the self is and state reasons why one may be convinced that there is no self. Then, I will explain some objections of why other non-Buddhists would believe otherwise. Lastly, I will draw to a close of how the principle of no self is plausible.
Cherry (2014), “In order to understand where we are going, it sometimes helps to take a look at where we have been. While psychology is a relatively young discipline, it has a rich and colorful history” (para 2). In this paper, I will identify the philosophers that historically relate to the beginnings of psychology as a formal discipline. Furthermore, I will present the major philosophers in the western tradition that are responsible for the formation of psychology as a discipline. Finally, I will give a detailed account about the progression and development of the science of psychology in the nineteenth century.
The development of psychology like all other sciences started with great minds debating unknown topics and searching for unknown answers. Early philosophers and psychologists such as Sir Francis Bacon and Charles Darwin took a scientific approach to psychology by introducing the ideas of measurement and biology into the way an indi...
Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, C.J. Jung and William James were all brilliant and diverse theorists who made vast contributions to the science of psychological studies. These brilliant minds fueled the psychological studies of future theorists with their contrasting theoretical approaches and discoveries. At times, they collaborated to formulate concepts and understandings but separated because of conceptual disputes. Freud’s psychoanalysis theory was at the epicenter of some studies but these men in their individuality contributed their own theoretical concepts and developed their own schools of thought from Jung’s analytical psychology, Adler’s independent school of psychotherapy, James’s theory of emotion and Freud’s psychoanalytical theory. The study of the mind is ongoing as society evolves and adapts, whereby creating new mental processes to analyze and understand. Their contributions to the psychological school of thought continue to be embraced by many modern day psychologists.
In his experimentation with the unconscious mind, Freud discovered three levels of consciousness. The first is consciousness. This i...
The conscience is not tangible and it is a complex idea to which different theorists have presented different ideas. I shall not delve into the details of what these different theorists say about conscience as that would be beyond the scope of this paper. However, since the concept of conscience has significant presence in literature, philosophy, and psychology it would be logical to conclude that the conscience does exist. Taki...
Enrolling in this class, I believed I had a solid basic knowledge of psychology that would assist me throughout the semester, however, just reading the first page proved how wrong I was. My initial perception of psychology was similar to that of psychology before the 1900s, as the textbook states. I focused on the psychoanalysis of mind and soul, theories on consciousness and exactly what that entails, unaware that the definition of psychology had been altered long before I had begun to study Freud and his Id, Ego, and Superego.
Psychology is crazy and complex. The study of the mind and behavior amongst humans could impact everything we can think of. Through the self-disciplines that different interpreters have offered, one that sticks out is Freud’s psychoanalysis. Freud mentions the conscious mind which is being aware and having control thoughts, and pre-conscious mind which is having the ability to recall thoughts and feeling without the sense of repression. He also mentions how the mind is like an iceberg. His theory of consciousness suggested an iceberg diagram– the tip of the iceberg that we see is the conscious mind, with the massive chunk of ice underwater that we couldn’t see from above, the unconscious mind. The tip of the iceberg consists of the Ego and