Psychology's earliest roots can be found in ancient Greek philosophers. Their thoughts were influenced by their free society, symbolized by the Parthenon in Athens. Philosophical Roots Summary Philosophers were the first to ask questions about psychology. The Greeks and later philosophers formed theories about how people can perceive the world, what is innate and what is learned through experience, and whether illnesses were physical or mental in nature. In the 1600s, philosophers pondered if the mind and body were separate and the mind unobservable or if the two were connected and both scientifically observable.

Important People in Psychology's Philosophical Roots Socrates, Plato, & Aristotle (600 BC to 300 BC): Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were some of the first to form questions about human nature, sensations, memory, thinking, and perception's subjectivity. They also believed that psychological things caused mental illnesses. Rene Descartes (AD 1600s): Descartes thought that the mind and the body were two distinct things linked only by the "pineal gland." According to his theory, called dualism, the body acted by laws and could be scientifically studied, but the mind went beyond the physical world of science and could not. John Locke (AD 1600s): Locke's theory of monism was directly opposed Descartes's dualism. Locke thought that the happenings of the mind were merely physical processes within the body, and as measurable physical processes, they could be studied scientifically.

Philosophical Roots Physiological Roots Pseudoscientific Schools of Thought Structuralism Functionalism Psychoanalysis Gestalt Behaviorism Humanism Cognitive Psychology's Roots Home

by Steven N. Jacowski, September 20, 2004
Mr. Ward's AP Psychology - 6th
Craig High School