Foundation Psychohistory
Psychohistory is the framework upon which Isaac Asimov's Foundation rests. It provides for diverse episodes about a variety of characters over a period 400 years, and those episodes feature a number of strong-minded individuals seeking solutions to a series of problems as they arise (Gunn 42). In the novel, these problems have all been fore-ordained long ago by Hari Seldon's science of psychohistory.
Psychohistory is defined by Asimov as a "'profound statistical science' that deals with the reactions of human conglomerates to fixed social and economic stimuli" (Touponce 76). In short, this science predicts the future by treating humanity as one massive series of mathematical equations. However, the one drawback of psychohistory is that this science does not account for individual, random variables. Hari Seldon uses the science of psychohistory to predict the fall of the massive Galactic Empire. By using complex mathematical equations, Seldon is able to mathematically prove that the downfall of the Galactic Empire is eminent.
In addition, psychohistory also adds a sense of determination and predestination to Foundation. The main characters in each book of the novel are aware that when a Seldon crisis occurs, they will manage to make the correct decisions leading to the inevitable turnout of the crisis. Seldon's prophesies "are revealed only after the fact, and even the solutions that he or others say are obvious are obvious only in retrospect, as in all good histories" (Gunn 41). This is first shown in "The Psychohistorians" when Salvor Hardin makes the decision that he must take over the management of the Foundation. This decision is logical in retrospect, but it causes Hardin much agonizing over the probable results of his actions before he does them.
The dilemma experienced by Asimov's characters is how to achieve the predetermined outcome concocted by Seldon. The hero of the first Foundation, Salvor Hardin, decides to wait until the crisis limits his choices to only one course of action. He argues:
...the future isn't nebulous. It's been calculated out by Seldon and charted. Each successive crisis in our history is mapped out and each depends in a measure on the successful conclusion of the ones previous...At each crisis our freedom of actions would become circumscribed to the point where only one course of action was possible...As long as more than one course of action is possible, the crisis has not been reached.
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D. Brett King, Wayne Viney, & William Douglas Woody, (2013). A History of Psychology, Ideas & Context. 3rd ed. United States: Pearson.
The next group of historical thinkers is the psychohistorians. Sigmund Freud was the pioneer of psychoanalytic theory and psychohistory interprets history through psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic theory helps explain the players in history through their behavior and how they operate psychologically. Psychoanalytic theory was...
Psychology began as the study of the soul. Plato believed the soul was an individual’s belief they are separate from, but also connected to their physical and social environments. Aristotle believed the soul was a set of psychological attributes which he referred to as the ‘mind’ (Garcia-Valdecasas, 2005).
Investigating Factors Affecting the Heat of Combustion of Alcohols PLANNING SECTION Introduction ------------ Alcohols are organic substances, and consist of Hydrogen, Oxygen and Carbon. All alcohols are toxic but the amount that can be tolerated by the human body varies for different alcohols. For example drinking small amounts of Methanol can lead to blindness and even death.
Freud for Historians is an argument, presented by Peter Gay, which deals with psychoanalysis in historical writing. This topic of interest is a heated debate among historians. The argument is a final book in a trilogy Gay did not intend to write. Freud for Historians follows two historiographical books, Style in History and its sequel about causation, Art and Act (p. viii). In his book, Gay presents a strong defense against misunderstandings of psychoanalytic theory.
Hergenhahn, B. R. (2009). An introduction to the history of psychology (6th ed., p. 224,
The link between the number of carbon atoms in a fuel with the amount of energy it releases
The cognitive revolution in psychology was a period during the 1950’s and 1960’s which involved radical changes to two major concepts in psychology which are consciousness and causality. It was also a period that saw to the abolishment of traditional science values of dichotomy and the worship of atomisation in science, replacing reductive micro deterministic views of personhood with holistic top-down view (Overskeid, 2008)
...to include, for example, history, anthropology, economics, linguistics, and the fine arts, and connect them with biochemistry and biophysics?” (p. 270). This inquiry further illustrates the scope of Thorndike’s impact.
Rene Descartes, Herman von Helmholtz, and Wilhelm Wundt all played important roles in creating psychology how it is today, by going beyond what the thought processes were at their time and expanding on knowledge. They didn’t look at the world as other’s did, and they didn’t take “no” for an answer. These great thinkers were centuries to decades apart, but their theories combined and collided into the new psychology.
Hergenhahn, B. R., & Henley, T. B. (2014). An introduction to the history of psychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
As of there is some of our common sense ideas have been backed up with our research evidence, but some of them haven’t. (Schooler, 2015) There are few factors in one topic where we will touch and talk about in this paper. The first factor will be hindsight bias, errors in judging the future’s foreseeability and in remembering our past combine. (Myers, 2012) Second factor will focus on how can we reduce the hindsight based on our sense that our common sense is always right but they aren’t. The lastly but not least factor will explain about my experience and real life