Psychology also draws on the contributions of numerous thinkers, writers and philosophers.
In this article we will explain Plato’s contributions to Psychology: his vision on knowledge, the rational soul, psychic structure and its influence on the science of human behavior. A historical figure whose ideas are still valid.
Plato (428-348) and his contributions to Psychology
Plato was born in the period of peace and splendor of democracy Pericles Belonging to the Athenian aristocracy, he received the education of an upper-class young man (gymnastics and poetry, mainly). He was also one of Socrates’ most fervent disciples until his death (“The wisest, good and just of men,” in his opinion). He traveled through Greece and Egypt, receiving the capital influences of the mathematician Theodore, as well as the Orphics, Pythagoreans, and Eléatians: Heraclitus and Parmenides.
Plato founded the Akademia dedicating his life to teaching Philosophy He accepted Parmenides’ relativism concerning perception. (Three buckets of water in a line: hot, warm and cold: by inserting one hand in each of the extreme buckets and then both in the middle, the one who was in the cold will feel hot, and the one who was in the hot cold. ). He would also accept Plato’s Heraclitean doctrine of flux, arguing that all objects are in constant change, making it impossible to know them. Knowledge for Plato is of the eternal and immutable (Being of Parmenides) and, therefore, there is no knowledge of perishable things.
The world of ideas
Plato called Forms or Ideas to the objects of immutable knowledge. There is a Shape for every kind of object for which there is a term in the language (e.g., “cat,” “round,” etc.). Plato believed that the objects perceived were imperfect copies of these Forms, since they are in permanent change and are relative to the one who perceives them (importance of language shaping reality: concepts are the only thing immutable, they are related to the Forms and are not are conventional).
An example of this idea appears in the metaphor of the line, belonging to The Republic (Fig.1). Let’s imagine a line divided into four unequal segments. The line is divided into two large segments that represent the world of perceived Appearances and opinion, and the world of abstract Knowledge, or intelligible world. The first segment is shorter, to denote its imperfection. The world of Appearances is divided, in turn, in equal proportions, into the world of Imagination and that of Belief.
Imagination is the lowest level of cognition, since it deals with simple images of concrete objects, analogous to the reflections that fluctuate in water. Plato banished the Art of the Republic from him, relegating it to this imaginary plane.
The eternal epistemological debate
For Plato, the apprehension of images or imagination is the most imperfect form of knowledge. He is followed by the contemplation of the objects themselves; He called the result of this observation Belief. With the next segment, Thinking, mathematical knowledge begins. The mathematician has a general knowledge of things. The ideal world of Geometry is very similar to the world of Forms (or Ideas): the Pythagorean theorem (the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the legs) refers to the Right Triangle , and any particular example will be an inferior copy of the perfect Right Triangle. Plato believed that the relationship between copy and form was true, however, in all cases.
For Plato the last segment, The higher form of knowledge (Intelligence or Knowledge) is of a higher level than mathematical knowledge Indeed, mathematical thinking produces knowledge within its system of premises, but since it cannot be known whether its premises are correct (the starting axioms such as A = A), it cannot constitute true knowledge.
To achieve knowledge we must go back higher, to the realm of Forms, to the fundamental principles. His position on this scheme of knowledge evolved throughout his life. In the first dialogues, Plato believed that the experience of concrete objects stimulated the recollection of the innate knowledge of forms, although imperfectly, being therefore real stimuli to awaken our knowledge.
In the Intermediate dialogues , denied any valid role to sensory perception and confined knowledge to abstract and philosophical dialectics. He ultimately returned to his early belief in the potential value of sensory perception. He also elaborated his notion of dialectic, turning it into an instrument to accurately classify all things. At the same time his conception of the Forms became increasingly mathematical and Pythagorean.
The problem posed by Plato in the theory of Forms has worried some researchers in modern cognitive psychology on concept formation. Trait theory states that each concept is made up of a series of traits, some of which are essential and some of which are not. Prototype theory states that the concept is formed around a prototype or formula. The Form could be considered the prototype of which specific cases are imperfect replicas (myth of The Cave).
psychic structure
Plato divided the soul, or mind, into three parts. First there was the immortal or rational soul , located in the head. The other two parts of the soul are mortal: The Impulsive or spirited soul aimed at conquering honor and glory, is located in the thorax, and the Passionate and appetitive soul interested in bodily pleasure, in the womb (Fig. 2).
He Rational soul It is related to Forms and knowledge. It is his duty to control the desires of the other two, in the same way that the charioteer controls two horses. The Passionate soul was, for Plato, particularly in need of subjection by reason. (analogy with the Freudian psychic apparatus: id-ego-super-ego).
Plato is greatly influenced by the Eastern tradition that also appears in the myth of the Three Wise Men. They offer the boy three chests to find out if her nature is human, real or divine. The content of the chests is the material substance corresponding to each of these natures: myrrh – red gum resin –, gold and incense.
Motivation
Plato has a poor conception of pleasure – a Pythagorean heritage –: the body seeks pleasure and avoids pain, this only hinders the contemplation of the Good. In his later writings, some pleasures, such as the aesthetic enjoyment obtained from Beauty, are considered healthy, and the purely intellectual life is rejected as too limited.
His conception of motivation is almost Freudian: we have a current of passionate desires that can be channeled towards any part of the soul, towards pleasure, personal achievements or philosophical knowledge and virtue. Impulses can motivate the search for temporary pleasure or the philosophical ascent to the world of forms .
Physiology and perception
Given his distrust of perception, he hardly spoke of the Physiology, empirical science. His ideas on the matter were conventional among the Greeks. Vision, for example, is due to the emission of visual rays by our eyes that impact objects located in the visual path.
Plato was the first great nativist Since according to him all knowledge is innate, it must exist in every human being from birth. The objects perceived resemble the Forms of which they participate, and this similarity, together with the instruction, stimulates the Rational soul to remember what the Forms are like (Anamnesis). (Analogy with Chomskyan language theory, according to which linguistic competence is innate).
Plato also laid the foundations of the associationist doctrine, later a fundamental part of atomism and empiricist philosophy. The relationship between objects and Forms obeys two aspects: formal similarity and the presentation associated in our experience, that is, contiguity. They correspond to the syntagmatic and paradigmatic dimensions described by Jakobson as constitutive of the structure of language.
They are also the laws of the Unconscious, or its basic operations: metaphor as condensation and metonymy as displacement. (Production Aphasia –Broca– versus Comprehension Aphasia –Wernicke–). (Analogy with the two types of magic that Frazer describes: Contaminating Magic – by contiguity – and Contagious Magic – by similarity -)
Development and education
Plato believed in reincarnation -metempsychosis-. At death, the rational soul separates from the body and attains the vision of the Forms. Depending on the degree of virtue achieved, it is then reincarnated somewhere on the phylogenetic scale. When the soul is reincarnated into a body full of needs and sensations, it falls into a state of confusion. Education consists of helping the Rational soul to gain control of the body and the other parts of the soul.
Plato’s main disciple, Aristotle would develop the first systematic psychology to .
