PART TWO

THE HISTORICAL PATH OF PSYCHOLOGY
Chapter 3

§ 1. Ancient psychology

Once upon a time, students joked, advising them to boldly answer: “Aristotle” during an exam in any subject when asked who studied it for the first time. This ancient Greek philosopher and natural scientist, who lived in the 4th century BC, laid the first stones in the foundation of many disciplines. He should rightfully be considered the father of psychology as a science. He wrote the first course of general psychology, “On the Soul.” By the way, regarding the subject of psychology, we follow Aristotle in our approach to it. First, he outlined the history of the issue, the opinions of his predecessors, explained his attitude towards them, and then, using their achievements and miscalculations, he proposed his solutions.

No matter how high Aristotle’s thought rose, immortalizing his name, generations of ancient Greek sages stood behind him. Moreover, not only theoretical philosophers, but also natural scientists, naturalists, and doctors. Their works are the foothills of a peak that has risen throughout the centuries: Aristotle’s teachings on the soul. This teaching was preceded by revolutionary events in the history of ideas about the world around us.

Animism

The revolution consisted in overcoming ancient animism (from the Latin “anima” - soul, spirit) - faith in the hidden behind visible things a host of spirits (souls) as special “agents” or “ghosts” that leave the human body with the last breath, and according to some teachings (for example, the famous philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras), being immortal, eternally wander through the bodies of animals and plants. The ancient Greeks called the soul the word "psyche". It later gave the name to our science.

The name preserves traces of the original understanding of the connection between life and its physical and organic basis (compare the Russian words: “soul, spirit”, and “breathe”, “air”). It is interesting that already in that ancient era, speaking about the soul (“psyche”), people seemed to combine into a single complex the inherent elements of external nature (air), the body (breath) and the psyche (in its subsequent understanding). Of course, in their everyday practice they distinguished all this perfectly. When you get acquainted with the knowledge of human psychology from their myths, you cannot help but admire the subtlety of their understanding of the style of behavior of their gods, endowed with cunning, wisdom, vindictiveness, envy and other qualities that the creator of myths gave to the celestials - a people who knew this psychology in the earthly practice of their communication with your neighbors.

The mythological picture of the world, where bodies are inhabited by souls (their “doubles” or ghosts), and life depends on the arbitrariness of the gods, has reigned in the public consciousness for centuries.

Hylozoism

A revolution in minds was the transition from animism to hylozoism (from Greek words meaning “matter” and “life”). The whole world - the universe, the cosmos - was now thought to be initially alive. No boundaries were drawn between living, non-living and mental. All of them were considered as a product of a single primary matter (primordial matter), and yet this philosophical teaching became a great step towards understanding the nature of the psyche. It put an end to animism (although even after that, over the centuries, right up to the present day, it has found many adherents who consider the soul to be an entity external to the body). Hylozoism was the first to place the soul (psyche) under the general laws of nature.

An immutable postulate for modern science was affirmed about the original involvement of mental phenomena in the cycle of nature.

Heraclitus and the idea of ​​development as a law (Logos)

To the hylozoist Heraclitus, the cosmos appeared in the form of “ever-living fire,” and the soul (“psyche”) in the form of its spark. Everything that exists is subject to eternal change: “Our bodies and souls flow like streams”. Another aphorism of Heraclitus read: "Know yourself". But in the words of the philosopher, this did not mean at all that to know oneself means to go deep into one’s own thoughts and experiences, abstracting from everything external. “No matter what roads you walk, you will not find the boundaries of the soul, so deep is its Logos”- Heraclitus taught.

This term "logos", introduced by Heraclitus, but used today, has acquired a great variety of meanings. But for him, it meant the law according to which “everything flows” and phenomena transform into each other. The small world (microcosm) of an individual soul is identical to the macrocosm of the entire world order. Therefore, to comprehend oneself (one’s psyche) means to delve deeper into the law (Logos), which gives the universal course of things a dynamic harmony woven from contradictions and cataclysms.

After Heraclitus (he was called “dark” because of the difficulty of understanding and “crying”, since he considered the future of humanity even more terrible than the present), the idea of ​​​​the natural development of all things, in including “flowing like streams” bodies and souls.

Democritus and the idea of ​​causality

The teaching of Heraclitus that the course of things depends on the Law (and not on the arbitrariness of the gods - the rulers of heaven and earth) passed on to Democritus. The gods themselves - in his image - are nothing more than spherical clusters of fiery atoms. Man is also created from different varieties atoms, the most mobile of them are fire atoms. They form the soul.

He recognized that it was not the law itself that was the same for both the soul and the cosmos, but the law according to which there are no causeless phenomena, but they are all the inevitable result of the collision of atoms. Events seem random, the cause of which we do not know.

The soul of an organism is its function, activity. Treating the organism as a system, Aristotle distinguished in it various levels of abilities for activity.

the will of the individual, depending on the divine, acts in two directions: it controls the actions of the soul and turns it towards itself. All changes occurring in the body become mental thanks to the volitional activity of the subject. Thus, from the imprints preserved by the senses, the will creates memories.

All knowledge lies in the soul, which lives and moves in God. It is not acquired, but is extracted from the soul, again thanks to the direction of the will.

The basis for the truth of this knowledge is internal experience: the soul turns to itself in order to comprehend with utmost certainty its own activity and its invisible products.

The idea of ​​an internal experience, different from the external, but possessing a higher truth, had a theological meaning for Augustine, since it was preached that this truth is bestowed by God.

Subsequently, the interpretation of internal experience, being freed from religious overtones, merged with the idea of ​​introspection as a special method of studying consciousness, which psychology has in contrast to other sciences.

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We find in the ancient Greeks many of the same problems that still guide the development of psychological ideas today.

Ancient Greek thinkers assumed that the soul could not be understood from itself. In their explanations of its genesis and structure, three directions are revealed in the search for those large spheres independent of the individual, in the image and likeness of which the microcosm of the individual was interpreted human soul.

The first direction proceeded from the explanation of the psyche by the laws of movement and development of the material world. Here the guiding idea was the determining dependence of mental manifestations on the general structure of things, their physical nature. (The question of the place of the psyche in the material world, first comprehended by ancient thinkers, will forever remain core to psychological theory.)

Only after the derivativeness of the life of the soul from the physical world was understood, their internal kinship, and thereby the need to study the psyche based on what experience and reflection say about the relationship of material phenomena, was psychological thought able to advance to new frontiers where originality was discovered its objects. This second direction of ancient psychology was created by Aristotle. It focused not on nature as a whole, but only on wildlife. For him, the initial properties were the properties of organic bodies in their difference from inorganic ones. Since the psyche is a form of life, bringing the psychobiological problem to the forefront was a major step forward. It made it possible to interpret the psyche not as a soul living in the body, having spatial parameters and capable (for both materialists and idealists) of leaving the organism with which it is externally connected, but as a way of organizing the behavior of living systems.

The third direction made the mental activity of the individual dependent on forms that are created not by nature, but by human culture, namely, on concepts, ideas, and ethical values. These forms, which indeed play a huge role in the structure and dynamics of mental processes, were, however, starting from the Pythagoreans and Plato, alienated from the material world, the projection of which they are, and presented in the form of special spiritual entities, alien to sensory-perceptible bodies.

This direction has given particular urgency to the problem, which should be designated as psychognostic (from the Greek “gnosis” - knowledge). It covers a wide range of issues faced by the study of psychological factors that initially connect the subject with reality external to him - natural and cultural. This reality is transformed according to the structure of the mental apparatus of the subject into the form of sensory or mental images, be they images of the world, environment, the behavior of the individual or herself.

All these problems, with all the “discrepancies”, were discovered by the ancient Greeks. And to this day they form the core of explanatory schemes through the prism of which a modern scientist explores the psychic world (no matter how highly complex electronics he is armed with).

The world of culture has created three “organs” of understanding man and his soul: religion, art and science. Religion is built on myth, art - on an artistic image, science - on experience organized and controlled by logical thought. People of the ancient era, enriched by centuries of experience in human knowledge, from which they drew both ideas about the character and behavior of the gods and the images of the heroes of their epics and tragedies, mastered this experience through the “magic crystal” of a rational explanation of the nature of things - earthly and heavenly. From these seeds grew a branching tree of psychology as a science.

The value of science is judged by its discoveries. At first glance, the chronicle of discoveries that ancient psychology can be proud of is laconic.

One of the first was the discovery by the ancient Greek physician (VI century BC) Alcmaeon that the organ of the soul is the brain. If we ignore the historical context, this seems like little wisdom. It is worth recalling, however, that two hundred years after this, the great Aristotle considered the brain to be a kind of “refrigerator” for blood, and placed the soul with all its abilities to perceive the world and think in the heart in order to appreciate the non-triviality of Alcmaeon’s conclusion. Moreover, considering that it was not a speculative guess, but stemmed from medical observations and experiments.

Of course, in those days the possibilities of experimenting on the human body in the sense that is accepted today were negligible. There is information that experiments were carried out on those sentenced to death, on gladiators, etc. However, we must not lose sight of the fact that ancient physicians, when treating people, had to change their mental states and pass on from generation to generation information about the effects of their actions, about individual human differences. It is no coincidence that the doctrine of temperaments came to scientific psychology from the medical schools of Hippocrates and Galen.

No less important than the experience of medicine were other forms of practice: political, legal, pedagogical. The study of methods of persuasion, suggestion, and victory in a verbal duel, which became the main concern of the sophists, turned the logical and grammatical structure of speech into an object of experimentation. In the practice of communication, Socrates discovered (ignored, which arose in the 20th century) experimental psychology thinking) his original dialogism, and Socrates’ student Plato - inner speech as an interiorized dialogue. He also owns the model of personality, so close to the heart of the modern psychotherapist, as a dynamic system of motives that tear it apart in an inescapable conflict.

The discovery of many psychological phenomena is associated with the name of Aristotle (the mechanism of associations by contiguity, similarity and contrast, the discovery of special images different from sensations - images of memory and imagination, differences between theoretical and practical intellect, etc.).

Therefore, no matter how meager the empirical fabric psychological thought antiquity, without it this thought could not “conceive” the tradition that led to modern science. But no wealth of real facts can acquire the dignity of scientific, regardless of intelligible logic, their analysis and explanation.

This logic, in contrast to its general forms, is objective. It is constructed in accordance with the problem situation set by the development of theoretical thought, mastering specific subject content. In relation to psychology, antiquity is glorified by great theoretical successes. These include not only the discovery of facts, the construction of innovative models and explanatory schemes. Problems were formulated that have guided the development of the human sciences for centuries.

How are the physical and spiritual, thinking and communication, personal and sociocultural, motivational and intellectual, rational and irrational, and much more inherent in his existence in the world integrated in him? The minds of ancient sages and explorers of nature struggled with these riddles, raising the culture of theoretical thought to unprecedented heights, which, transforming the data of experience, tore the veil of truth from appearances common sense and religious and mythological images.

The period under study will be divided into two:

Pre-Socratic period- Milesian school, Heraclitus, Alcmaeon, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Hippocrates, Leucippus and Democritus.

Socratic period(new approaches in explaining the mental) - Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoic school, Epicurus, Lucretius Carus, Alexandrian doctors, Galen.

GENERAL RESULTS(under the section on the development of psychology in ancient times):

1) The leading feature of ancient psychology is its elemental materialistic orientation. Various thinkers of antiquity tried to explain nature from itself, from the laws inherent in matter itself.

2) Most ancient thinkers were not only materialists, but also dialecticians. The world seemed to them to be one, endlessly moving and changing.

3) Although nature was interpreted by ancient scientists as a whole in an undifferentiated manner, as if syncretically, the first attempts to isolate some phenomena from the totality of others, the desire to understand their place in the overall picture of the universe, already took place then.

4) The phenomena of human mental life could not help but attract the attention of ancient scientists due to their originality and specific nature. That is why at dawn scientific knowledge psychic phenomena were quite clearly distinguished from purely material ones and, moreover, attempts were made to internally differentiate individual aspects of the soul.

5) Usually the field of mental phenomena was divided into two large groups - cognitive and motivating forces. Trying to understand their nature, ancient thinkers were able to make many guesses and put forward a large number of fundamental ideas that had an impact a huge impact on the subsequent development of psychology and which have not lost their significance to the present day.

ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHY IN THE PRESOCRATIC PERIOD

2. Ideas about the soul of philosophers Milesian school(Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes)

VII-VI centuries BC represent a period of decomposition of primitive society and the transition to a slave system. Fundamental changes in the social way of life (colonization, development of trade relations, formation of cities, etc.) created the conditions for the flourishing of ancient Greek culture and led to significant changes in the field of thinking. These changes consisted of transition from religious and mythological ideas about the world to the emergence of scientific knowledge.

The first leading centers of ancient Greek culture and science, along with others, were cities of Miletus and Ephesus. The first philosophical schools that emerged also bore the names of these cities.

Usually the beginning of the scientific worldview is associated with Milesian school, which existed in the VI-VI centuries. BC. Its representatives were Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes. They were the first to be credited with isolating the psyche or “soul” from material phenomena. Common to the philosophers of the Milesian school is the position that all things and phenomena of the surrounding world are characterized by the unity of their origin, and the diversity of the world is only different states of a single material principle, fundamental principle or prime matter. This position was extended by ancient thinkers to the area of ​​the psyche they identified, who believed that the material and the spiritual, the bodily and the mental are fundamentally one; the difference between them is only external. The difference between the views of the scientists of this school was what type of specific matter each of these philosophers accepted as the fundamental principle of the universe.

Thales(624-547 BC). He indicated water as the fundamental principle of the universe. Proving that water is the real beginning of the whole world, Thales referred to the fact that the Earth floats on water, is surrounded by it, and itself comes from water. Water is mobile and changeable and can change into different states. When water evaporates, it turns into a gaseous state, and when it freezes, it turns into a solid. Since both solid and gaseous things come from water, then, according to Thales, it is reasonable to assume that water is the fundamental principle of all things and that everything around us represents various transitional states of this fundamental principle. The soul is also a special state of water. An essential characteristic of the soul is the ability to give bodies movement; it is what makes them move. This ability to give things movement is inherent in everything. The soul was attributed, for example, to a magnet and amber, since they have an attractive force.

Spreading the psychic throughout nature, Thales was the first to express that point of view on the boundaries of the psyche, which is commonly called hylozoism . Looking ahead, we note that some other ancient philosophers, for example, the Stoics, would also adhere to hylozoism.

Anaximander(610-547 BC). Taken as the source of all things "apeiron"- a state of matter that lacks qualitative certainty, but which, thanks to its internal development and combination, gives rise to the diversity of the world. Denying the qualitative certainty of the first principle, he believed that it could not be the first principle if it coincided with its manifestations, i.e. things. Like Thales, the soul was interpreted by Anaximander as one of the states of apeiron.

Anaximander made an attempt to explain the emergence and origin of man and living beings. He probably belongs to him first the idea of ​​the origin of living things from non-living things. The emergence of the organic world seemed to Anaximander as follows. Under the influence of sunlight, moisture evaporates from the earth, from which plants emerge. Animals develop from plants, and humans develop from animals. Man himself descended from fish. The main feature that distinguishes humans from animals is a longer period of breastfeeding and a longer period of external care for him.

Anaximenes(588-522 BC). Unlike Thales and Anaximander, another philosopher of the Milesian school, Anaximenes, accepted as a fundamental principle air. The soul also has an airy nature. She connected it with her breath. Without air there is no life. The idea of ​​the closeness of the soul and breath was quite widespread among other ancient thinkers.

1. Reasons for the flourishing of ancient psychology

2. The first psychological theories of antiquity (VI – IV centuries BC)

3. Leading psychological theories of the classical period of antiquity (IV – II centuries BC)

4. Psychological ideas of the Hellenistic period

5. Results of the development of psychology during the period of antiquity

1. Reasons for the flourishing of ancient psychology

Among the main reasons for the emergence and systematization of the first scientific concepts exploring the essence of the psyche, the following are noted:

1) For the flourishing of Greek culture as a whole, successful geographical position(at the intersection of trade routes, which simultaneously served as information flows bringing information and knowledge from different countries of the world);

2) The Greeks were able to create an education system that was excellent for those times - they received knowledge in various fields of culture and art. The concept of man was based on the harmony of body and spirit; life itself was considered the best school. After receiving education, parents sent their children to travel, which was considered the best way to gain life experience, as well as consolidate knowledge in practice;

3) In Athens, respect for the individual reigned, and a person was assessed primarily by his intelligence and abilities, and not by wealth and origin. Every free Greek could make a political career, even if he was smart, educated and eloquent. Even a slave, if he had talents, could be granted freedom, and the state allocated him land and funds;

4) The democratic structure of government life flourished in Greece. There was private ownership of land, enshrined in law, and everyone who owned at least a piece of land had the right to vote: they could participate in resolving political issues and elections statesmen;

5) Although the consciousness of the Greeks was more religious, in the life of Greek society religion did not play the same role as in the East. Its influence on the development of ideas about the world and about man was almost not felt.

Conclusion: The first psychological teachings appeared at the turn of the 7th-6th centuries. BC. Their appearance is associated with the need to develop scientific ideas about man, about his soul, not on the basis of myths, legends and fairy tales, but on the basis of objective knowledge from the field of medicine, mathematics, and philosophy. Psychological knowledge became an important area of ​​science that studied the laws of society, nature and man, that is, natural philosophy.

Highlight three important periods in the development of ancient psychology:

1) VII (VI) – IV centuries. BC. – the time of the emergence of the first psychological theories within the framework of natural philosophy;

2) IV – II centuries. BC. – the classical period, associated with the creation of the classical theories of antiquity by Plato and Aristotle;

3) II century. BC. – IV century - the Hellenistic period, when Greek culture and science spread throughout the world with the campaigns of Alexander the Great. The period was distinguished by the predominance of practical interests, with the desire to understand and outline the ways of human moral self-improvement.

2. The first psychological theories of antiquity (VI – IV centuries BC)

The first psychological ideas about the soul were based on the functions of the soul identified in the mythological and religious-philosophical ideas of the Ancient East:

· energetic (encouraging a person to be active);

· regulatory;

· educational.

It is worth noting that the emergence of the first psychological ideas of antiquity, just like in the Ancient East, was associated with animism, that is, the belief in invisible essences hidden behind visible things - souls that leave the body with the last breath.

He was one of the first to speak about the various properties of the soul and its purpose. Pythagoras(VI century BC), which was not only famous mathematician, but also a philosopher and psychologist. According to his ideas, a person’s soul cannot die along with his body, it develops and lives according to its own laws in accordance with its own goal - purification, enlightenment, liberation from carnal desires. His views were influenced by the ideas of Buddhism about karma (posthumous retribution), samsara (reincarnation of the soul) - he also believed that after death the soul moves to another body depending on the moral assessment of its existence in this body - metempsychosis.

While exploring the functions of the soul, Pythagoras did not yet ask the question of how a person experiences the world, how behavior is regulated, i.e. he considered the soul mainly as a source vital energy person. He believed that initially some souls are more active and capable, while others are less capable and more inclined to obedience, and this determines the class inequality of people. However, the abilities of the soul during life can be changed using special training. Therefore Pythagoras believed necessary creation an education system that involves searching for people most inclined to learn in all strata of society. He spoke about the need to form a ruling class - aristocrats - from the most enlightened and intelligent people of his time.

A kind of revolution in views on the soul (“revolution in minds”) was the transition from animism to hylozoism (Gilo– substance, matter; zoa- life). According to hylozoism, the whole world, that is, the macrocosm, the universe, is thought to be initially alive, and the soul develops according to the general laws of the universe.

This view developed in natural philosophy (the first philosophical school, the Milesian school), in the 7th – 6th centuries. BC. Its representatives are Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes. They believed that all things and phenomena of the surrounding world are characterized by the unity of their origin, and the diversity of phenomena and objects of reality are just different states of a single material principle (first principle, primary matter). This position was extended by them to the area of ​​the psyche, i.e. The material and the spiritual, the physical and the mental, are fundamentally one. The difference between the views of philosophers was what type of specific matter each of them took as the basis of the universe.

Giloism for the first time placed the soul (i.e. the psyche) under the general laws of nature, asserting the original involvement of mental phenomena in the cycle of nature, i.e. believing that the psyche is a natural moment of the universe as a whole.

Thales(624 – 547 BC) indicated water as the fundamental principle of the world, referring to the fact that “the Earth floats in water.” He considered the soul as a special state of water, the main characteristic of which is the ability to give movement to bodies, i.e. the soul is what makes you move.

Thales put mental condition(soul) depending on the physical health of the body. He believed that “only the person who strives to live according to the law of justice can be happy, and it consists in not doing what a person blames other people for.”

Anaximander(610 - 547 BC) believed that the basis of the world is primordial matter - apeiron, which has no qualitative originality, but can take the form of fire, water, earth or air - any known to man substances.

Anaximander was the first to try to explain the origin of man and all living beings and expressed the idea of ​​the origin of living things from non-living things.

Anaximenes(588 - 522 BC) - ancient Greek philosopher, student of Anaximander, representative of the Milesian school. He considered air to be the basis of the universe, said that the world arises from “boundless” air, and all the variety of things is air in its various states. Cooling, the air thickens and, solidifying, forms clouds, earth, stones; rarefied air gives rise to celestial bodies with a fiery nature. The latter arise from earthly vapors. He argued that the soul also has an airy nature, and the existence of a soul in a person can be judged by his breathing.

In the first natural philosophical theories, which pointed to the material nature of the mental, a detailed picture of the mental life of man was not yet given; this merit belongs to the famous philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus(530 – 470 BC).

He took fire as the fundamental principle of the universe, which is in eternal motion, change caused by the struggle of opposites. It is fire that gives rise to all things material and spiritual world, and the whole world develops, changes, everything in it passes from one state to another according to some universal law - logos , the law of the universe as a whole, the macrocosm. But the microcosm of an individual soul is identical to the macrocosm of the entire world order, therefore, the human soul is Psyche is a particle of the fire element, which also develops according to the law of logos. Heraclitus first introduced the term to designate the human soul - psyche, which became the first psychological term.

He considered the goal of a person’s life to be knowledge of himself, but to know oneself, to “comprehend one’s psyche” means to understand the law, the logos, which underlies the universe, is the basis for the harmonious development of the whole world, where everything is woven from contradictions, but develops harmoniously.

Moral behavior excludes the abuse of bodily lusts and lower needs, this weakens the psyche, alienates it from logos, and moderation in satisfying needs contributes to the development and improvement of a person’s mental and intellectual abilities.

The best state of the soul is its “dryness” or “fiery”, and the development of the human psyche is associated with the acquisition of a soul of pure fiery substance. Those. the soul of a child is still “wet”, immature, together with a person it grows, improves and becomes more “fiery”, mature, capable of clear and precise thinking. And in old age, the soul gradually becomes saturated with moisture, “damp,” and the person begins to think poorly and slowly. Thus, Heraclitus first expressed the idea of ​​​​the development of the soul and connected this development with thinking.

Much attention was paid to the process of cognition; Heraclitus identified the stages of cognitive activity. He associated the first stage with the activity of the senses, but considered the mind to be leading, because Human senses make it possible to establish only the external laws of nature, and the mind, relying on feelings, discovers its internal laws and is able to comprehend the Logos. The purpose of knowledge is to discover the truths of the universe, listen to the voice of nature and act in accordance with its laws.

Thus, the most important provisions of the teachings of Heraclitus are as follows:

1) Heraclitus developed the idea of ​​the material (“fiery”) nature of the soul and the dependence of the psyche on the general laws of nature - logos;

2) Introduced the first term to designate mental phenomena - “psyche”;

3) Emphasized the variability of not only the world as a whole, but also the human psyche, the dependence of mental health on a person’s lifestyle and physical condition bodies;

4) Formulated the principle of the natural development of the world in general and the psyche in particular.

Key Ideas about the nature of the soul, its bodily foundations were spoken not only by philosophers, but also by representatives of medicine, among whom the prominent physician and philosopher of antiquity stands out Alcmaeon(VI – V centuries BC). He was the first to connect the psyche with the work of the brain and the nervous system as a whole, introduced nervism principle . Gave the first systematic description of the general structure of the body and the supposed functions of the body. Empirically, he revealed the presence of “conductors” going from the brain to all systems and sensory organs. He believed that the psyche is inherent in both humans and animals as creatures with a nervous system and a brain. This view is called neuropsychism.

He believed that, unlike animals, humans have a mind, while animals only have the ability to sense and perceive. Sensations were considered the initial form of cognitive activity. I noticed that there is a “similarity” of a sense organ and an external stimulus for the emergence of a qualitatively unique sensation (sounds - ear, color - eye, etc.). Alcmaeon associated human activity with the special dynamics of blood movement in the body: when the blood flows in - awakening, when the blood flows out - sleep, when the blood flows out - death. The general condition of the body, its health depends on the “harmony of the elements” in the body: air, water (liquid), earth, fire, and the “harmony of the elements”, in turn, depends on a person’s lifestyle, food, climatic and geographical conditions, and also on human living conditions in general.

Thus, the most important provisions of Alcmaeon's teachings are as follows:

1) The connection between the psyche and the brain and nervous system as a whole as the basis of the psyche ( brain-centric concept of the psyche );

2) Neuropsychism – the psyche is associated with the presence of a brain;

3) The vital activity of the body is determined by both the internal harmony of all elements and the external one.

Democritus(460 - 370 BC) - founder of the atomic theory of the world, according to which material things consist of tiny particles - atoms, which differ from each other in shape, sequence and rotation. Man, like all surrounding nature, consists of atoms and emptiness. The soul is material, consists of small, round, smooth, most mobile atoms, which must communicate activity to the body.

The infinite variety of things led to the infinite variety of atoms and their combinations. The next life is not a continuation of a divine act, it is generated by the cohesion of wet and warm atoms, in particular animals arose from water and silt, and man arose from animals. Both man and animal have a soul, something that makes them move. The atoms of the soul are related to the atoms of fire, they penetrate the body through breathing, with the help of which replenishment occurs in the body. Penetrating into the body, atoms are scattered throughout the body.

Penetrating into the body through breathing, the atoms of the soul are localized at three points:

· in my head– a reasonable point, the most mobile atoms that are associated with cognitive functions:

· in the chest– a courageous point, the atoms of the heart are less mobile, associated with emotional states, experiences, feelings;

· in the liver- the lustful point where drives, desires, aspirations, and material needs are concentrated.

Eidol- a copy of a material object. When they come into contact with the atoms of the soul, a sensation occurs, thus all sensations are contact. By summarizing the data of several senses, a person discovers the world, moving to the next stage of cognition, i.e. Based on sensations, perceptions arise, and then consciousness.

In the theory of knowledge, Democritus was a sensualist, distinguishing two stages of knowledge: sensory knowledge (sensation and perception) and consciousness (thinking) as the highest level of knowledge. He emphasized that thinking gives us more knowledge than sensations.

He was the first to introduce the concept of primary and secondary qualities of an object. Primary are those qualities that exist objectively in objects (weight, surface, density, shape, etc.). Secondary are those qualities that depend on the properties of not only the object, but also the sensory organs (color, taste, temperature, etc.). Thus, Democritus came to the conclusion that knowledge is subjective.

He argued that there are no accidents in the world, and everything happens for a predetermined reason. People invented accidents to cover up their ignorance and inability to control any phenomena. In fact, there are no accidents, everything is causally determined - principle of determinism . This principle also applies to human destiny; therefore, human free will does not exist. This statement led to fatalistic view on the fate of a person. In this case, a person cannot control his behavior and evaluate people’s actions, because they depend not on a person’s moral principles, but on fate. This is the most controversial place in the theory of Democritus. However, he believed that moral principles are not given by birth, but are a consequence of upbringing, which must give a person three gifts: to think well, speak well and do well.

The soul is a material substance that consists of fire atoms, spherical, light and very mobile. Democritus tried to explain all phenomena of mental life by physical and even mechanical reasons. The soul receives sensations from the external world due to the fact that its atoms are set in motion by atoms of air or atoms directly “flowing” from objects.

Democritus attributed the function of regulating behavior to emotions, i.e. atoms concentrated in the heart. He believed that both humans and animals have a soul, and the differences between them are not qualitative, but quantitative. Much of what man has learned comes from imitation of animals and nature in general.

What is common to the soul and to the cosmos as a whole is the presence of a law (logos), which determines the course of things, and, according to which, there are no causeless phenomena. All of them are inevitable results of the impact of atoms. This principle was later called universal determinism.

Hippocrates(460 - 370 BC) considered life as a changing process, among its explanatory principles he singled out air as a force that maintains the inextricable connection of the body with the world, brings intelligence from the outside, and performs mental functions in the brain. A single material principle as a basis mental life was rejected.

Hippocrates replaced the doctrine of a single element underlying the diversity of things with the doctrine of four liquids (humor): blood (sanguis), mucus (plegma), yellow bile (chole) and black bile (melaine chole). This theory is called the humoral theory of temperaments.

Thus, Hippocrates laid the foundation for a scientific typology of personality, placing all types of human behavior in four general patterns of behavior associated with four types of temperament. Thus, he is considered the “father” of differential psychology, which studies individual differences between people and their causes (the sources of these differences). Hippocrates looked for the reasons for differences within the body, making mental qualities dependent on physical qualities. An important concept in his theory was the concept of measure, proportionality, proportion, harmonious relationship, which he designated by the concept of “temperamentum”. This harmony in the body and soul of a person is influenced by both external conditions and the person’s lifestyle.

Anaxagoras(V century BC) - a scientist who was one of the first to connect human intelligence with his bodily organization. Man is the most intelligent of animals due to the fact that he has hands, and this organization of physicality determines his advantages, i.e. the level of mental development also depends on the level of bodily organization - principle of consistency (organization) .

Conclusion: Thus, in the 7th-5th centuries. BC. The first scientific concepts of the psyche appear, in which it is considered, first of all, as a source of activity of the body, but they also began to analyze the cognitive and regulatory functions of the soul. At the same time, it was believed that the soul of man and the soul of other living beings have only quantitative differences, since man and all animals, and everything in nature are subject to the same laws. During this period, the first theories of cognition appeared, which emphasized the role of sensory cognition as the first stage of cognitive activity (sensualism). Emotions were considered the regulator of behavior.

Also during this period, key problems of psychology were formulated, which became the subject of analysis in subsequent centuries:

· the relationship between material and spiritual, soul and body;

· functions of the soul;

· how the world is learned;

· what is the regulator of behavior, and does a person have freedom of this regulation?

Three most important principles, which throughout the development of psychology were the basis scientific knowledge mental phenomena. This is the principle of natural development formulated by Heraclitus; the principle of causality (universal determinism), formulated by Democritus; the principle of systematicity (organization), formulated by Anaxagoras.

3. Leading psychological theories of the classical period of antiquity (IV - II centuries BC)

During the period of classical ancient psychology, the first developed psychological concepts formulated by Plato and Aristotle appeared. Intermediate position between the first psychological theories and the ideas of antiquity are occupied by Socrates and the Sophists.

The sophists (“teachers of wisdom”) were not interested in nature, with its laws independent of man, but in man himself. The most prominent representatives of this school were Gorgias and Protagoras.

The study of speech and mental activity from the point of view of its use to manipulate people came to the fore among the sophists. Behavior was not made dependent on the inevitable laws of nature; they connected mental phenomena and the content of the soul with thoughts that were reflected in language. Language and thoughts are devoid of such inevitability; they are full of conventions and depend on human interests and preferences, thereby the actions of the soul acquire instability and uncertainty.

The activity of the sophists marked the beginning of paid education in the sciences. The goal of educational influence was not considered to be the improvement of a person, but the search for optimal ways to adapt to the social conditions in which a person lives. Thus, the sophists sought to form an adapted, socially active personality capable of achieving success in life. The means of this can be oratory and other techniques of influencing and manipulating others. The ability to eloquently made it possible to more actively participate in public life and achieve a higher position.

A kind of opponent of the Sophists was Socrates(469 – 399 BC). One of the most important provisions of his theory was the idea that there is absolute knowledge and absolute truth that a person can realize in his thinking and transfer to another. Truth is recorded in speech, general concepts, words, and in this form is passed on from generation to generation.

Thus, Socrates was the first to connect the thought process with words and speech. Subsequently, this idea was developed by Plato, who identified thinking and speech. Truths are present in a person as knowledge, but are not realized by the mind until they are actualized in the process of learning or the perception of some kind of speech.

Socrates was the first to raise the question of developing a method for updating knowledge in the human soul. This method is based on a dialogue between a teacher and a student, in which the teacher directs the student’s thoughts with leading questions and gradually leads him to the desired conclusions - suggestive method or Socratic method . This method began to be considered as the basis of problem-based learning. Socrates believed that universal absolute knowledge is in the mind and should only be deduced from it.

Socrates was the first to view the soul as the source of human reason and morality, and not as the source of the activity of the body. Consequently, the soul is a mental quality of an individual, characteristic of him as a rational being acting in accordance with moral ideals. Because such an approach to the soul could not proceed from the thought of its materiality, then, simultaneously with the emergence of a view on the connection of the soul with the moral, a new - idealistic understanding of the essence of the soul appears.

“Know yourself” - Socrates did not emphasize turning “inward” to one’s own experiences and states of consciousness, but analyzing actions and attitudes towards them, moral assessments and norms of human behavior in various life situations.

Plato(428 – 348 BC) founded the Academy in 388 BC. near Athens, in the gardens dedicated to the mythical hero Academ. The Academy developed a wide range of disciplines: philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, natural science. There was a division into seniors and juniors, the main method of teaching was dialectics (dialogue).

The main part of Plato's philosophy, which gave the name to a whole direction in philosophy, is the doctrine of ideas (eidos). Ideas – truly existing being, unchangeable, eternal; objectively existing world ideal entities (things) that exist independently of sensory things.

Matter- the potential existence of actually existing things, becomes a thing when combined with an idea, which at the same time changes or hides its essence.

Soul acts as a beginning that mediates between the world of ideas and sensory things. Exists before it enters into connection with any body. By its nature it is infinitely higher than the corruptible body, therefore, it can rule over it; it is eternal and immortal.

Plato identified three principles of the human soul:

1) the first and lowest, common to humans, animals and plants, the lustful, unreasonable principle, occupies the majority of the human soul;

2) reasonable, counteracts or opposes the aspirations of the lustful principle;

3) a fierce spirit, an affective beginning, emotions, feelings, ideas about justice, honor, dignity, courage, for the sake of these higher ideas one can even die. The fierce spirit is concentrated in the human heart.

Plato's teaching about the fate of the soul after the death of the body is presented in the form of a myth that pursues ethical and state-pedagogical goals. While living, people must believe that after death the soul is responsible for all the actions of the body, and this belief will make everyone fear retribution in the future life, so as not to fall into denial of all morality and duty.

Plato's theory of knowledge is rationalistic, the dominant role in knowledge is given to reason, but in man there is a power that is higher and more beautiful than the human property, it is a divine gift (inspiration, the ability to create).

He identified two ways of knowledge:

· based on sensations (perception), memory and thinking. He especially emphasized the role of memory, which allows one to correlate sensory images with those ideas that exist in the soul initially. In this sense, knowledge is “remembering” what the soul already knew in its past, ideal life, but forgot when entering the body.

· the second way is associated with the comprehension of the ideal essence of things on the basis of intuitive thinking, like an act of insight.

Plato was the first to characterize memory as an independent cognitive process and identified different types of thinking: the inductive method of cognition and intuitive thinking.

An integral part of Plato's doctrine of the soul is the doctrine of the senses. Refutes the idea that the highest good lies in pleasure. Plato gives a list of feelings: anger, fear, desire, sadness, love, jealousy, envy.

Plato wrote the following about the state: in the state, people should take a place in accordance with their natural inclinations. But, at the same time, he attached great importance to upbringing: “proper upbringing and training awakens good natural inclinations in a person, and those who already had them become even better thanks to such upbringing.”

He wrote about the need for professional selection and “testing” of children in order to determine both the intellectual level and inclinations of the child already in childhood, and to raise him according to these inclinations and his purpose.

Thus Plato:

· Identified the stages of cognition;

· Justified the role in the formation personal experience man of memory;

· Emphasized the activity of human thinking;

· Presented the thinking process in the form of inner speech;

· Formulated a position on the internal conflict of the soul (later – psychoanalysis by S. Freud).

Plato's most famous student was Aristotle(384 – 322 BC) (Fig. 10). He revised Plato's approach to the soul as an entity opposed to the body, and came to the conclusion that soul and body are inseparable. The soul is a form of existence and realization of a body capable of life; it cannot exist without a body, but is not a body. Also, the soul is a way of organizing a living body, the actions of which are expedient.

Aristotle believed that the soul is inherent in all living organisms, including plants. In the process of life, “not the soul itself, but the body, thanks to it, learns, reflects, experiences, feels.”

He believed that there were three levels of the soul: plant, animal and rational. The plant soul is capable of reproduction and nutrition, the animal, in addition to these functions, also has the ability to move, sensation, feelings and memory, and the rational soul, in addition to everything, has the ability to think.

Thus Aristotle comes up with the idea genesis – that is, the origin and development of mental (soul) forms from lower to higher. Moreover, in an individual person, from the moment of his conception to development into a mature being, the same steps are manifested that the entire organic world has passed through from the plant soul to the rational soul. This idea was called biogenetic law .

Since the functions of the plant and animal soul cannot be carried out without the body, plant and animal souls are mortal, that is, they appear and disappear along with the body, and the rational soul is immortal. It is the concentration of innate knowledge accumulated by previous generations of people. After death, the rational soul is stored in a certain universal mind ( nous ), and at the birth of a child, a part of the mind, forming a new rational part of the soul, moves into the body of the newborn, connecting with plant and animal parts.

Speaking about Aristotle’s theory of cognition, it should be noted that he considered the first stage of cognition to be sensations that accumulate in a certain common sense (memory), where comparison and correlation take place on the basis association mechanism . There are three types of associations: by similarity, by contrast, by contiguity in space and time.

Connecting on the basis of the mechanism of associations, sensations form integral images of perception, and then, on the basis of mental logical operations, a person forms general concepts in which the essence of things is recorded.

Aristotle identified two types of thinking: logical and intuitive. Logical thinking completes the sensationalistic path of knowledge from sensations to general concepts, and intuitive thinking helps to actualize knowledge from the innate rational part of the soul. Obtaining fundamentally new knowledge and experience is a task of logical thinking.

In addition, Aristotle distinguished between theoretical and practical reason, which is aimed at guiding behavior. I came to the conclusion that double regulation of behavior is possible: based on both emotions and reason. But when behavior is regulated by emotions and affects, it becomes spontaneous, impulsive, and unfree. Freedom is possible only with reasonable regulation of behavior. You can reduce the negative impact of emotions and affects that deprive behavior of rationality by using catharsis mechanism (cleansing the soul from affects through their experience, living while perceiving art); thereby highlighting the therapeutic role of art, which can lead to relaxation.

Aristotle emphasized that a person’s character is formed on the basis of real moral actions, in which a person’s moral attitude towards other people is realized (work “Character”).

Conclusion: During the period of classical ancient psychology, the first detailed concepts formulated by Plato and Aristotle appeared. An intermediate position between the first psychological theories and the ideas of antiquity is occupied by Socrates and the Sophists.

During this period, the study begins of qualitative differences that are inherent only to the human soul, and which other living beings do not have. The ideas are affirmed that the psyche (human soul) is the bearer of not only activity, but also reason and morality, and culture has the most direct influence on its development.

The idea is affirmed that behavior is regulated not only by emotions, but also by reason, which is also considered as a source of objective, true knowledge that cannot be obtained through sensations.

4. Psychological ideas of the Hellenistic period

The psychological thought of the Hellenistic era was determined by the crisis of the Greek Polis, with the emergence and then collapse of the largest world monarchy of the Macedonian king Alexander. The period lasted from the 2nd century. BC. to III-VI centuries. AD

The campaigns of A. Macedonian stimulated the synthesis of elements of the cultures of Greece and the countries of the Ancient East. The most important thing that changed the worldview during this period was that a person lost strong ties to his hometown, its stable social environment, and political structure. As a result, man found himself faced with unpredictable changes, internal contradictions granted by freedom of choice, and with increasing acuteness man felt the precariousness of his existence in a changed and “free” world.

Thus, it is no coincidence that the psychology of the Hellenistic era was focused on the study of practical problems. Belief in the power of the mind is questioned. That is why philosophers considered the main task not to study the essence of things, not to comprehend objective truths and laws, but to develop rules of life for moral self-improvement and the achievement of happiness. The most important problem This period is the development of morality, moral self-improvement.

The period ends when Christianity becomes a world religion (325) and begins to dominate scientific concepts and becomes the basis of the worldview as a whole.

Arises skepticism(from the Greek skepticos - considering, exploring) - a philosophical direction that puts forward doubt as a principle of thinking, especially doubt about the reliability of truth.

In the ordinary sense, skepticism is seen as psychological condition uncertainty, doubt about something, forcing one to refrain from expressing categorical judgments regarding the surrounding world due to their understatement, relativity, changeability, etc.

The founder of skepticism is considered Pyrrho(IV century BC). he was influenced to a certain extent by the ideas of Indian philosophy, primarily by his idea of ​​happiness, which was considered as ataraxia – lack of excitement, complete detachment from the outside world, indifference, indifference towards events.

The most famous representative of skepticism in the Hellenistic era is Sextus Empiricus(II century BC).

Skepticism denied the truth of any knowledge; refraining from judgments was its main thesis.

The ideal of a person - a philosopher who strives for happiness, may consist of imperturbable calm and the absence of suffering. Anyone who wants to achieve happiness must answer three questions: what are things made of? How should we treat them? What benefit will we get from our attitude towards them?

A skeptic, refraining from judgment, will follow the laws of the state in which he lives and observe all rituals, taking nothing for granted. He will save peace of mind, without adhering to any of the possible dogmatic judgments.

School of Cynics (cynics) proceeded from the fact that every person is self-sufficient, i.e. has everything necessary for spiritual life within himself.

Founder – Antisthenes of Athens. He argued that the best life lies not simply in naturalness, but in getting rid of conventions and artificialities, freedom from possessing unnecessary and useless things. To achieve good, one should live “like a dog,” i.e. live by combining:

· Simplicity of life, following one’s own nature, contempt for conventions;

· The ability to firmly defend your way of life, stand up for yourself;

· Loyalty, courage, gratitude.

Diogenes of Sinope (400 - 325 BC) believed that the only way for moral self-improvement is the path to oneself, limiting contacts and dependence on the outside world.

The path to moral improvement includes three steps:

1. One of the key ideas is askesis (ascesis) – the ability to self-denial and endure difficulties. The askesis of the Cynics is extreme simplification, limitation of one’s needs, “strength of spirit, character.” Thus, from the point of view of the Cynics, dependence on society was overcome, which, in exchange for comfort, required a person to leave “himself.”

2. Apedeusia (apadeikia) – the ability to free yourself from the dogmas of religion and culture. The person was instilled with the idea of ​​​​the need to ignore the knowledge accumulated by society. The Cynics believed that lack of education and bad manners, illiteracy, was a virtue.

3. Autarky – the ability for independent existence and self-restraint. Independence equaled abandonment of family, state, and a person was taught to ignore public opinion, praise and blame.

Thus, the ethical ideal of cynicism was formed as:

1) extreme simplicity, bordering on a pre-cultural state;

2) contempt for all needs except the basic ones, without which life itself would be impossible;

3) mockery of all conventions;

4) demonstrative naturalness and unconditionality of personal freedom.

But in fact, striving for independence, the Cynics demonstrated not so much self-sufficiency as disdain and negativism towards society and the people around them, shocking public opinion. Thus, the main moral goal that they set for themselves was not achieved - gaining freedom and peace.

One of the most influential philosophical movements of the Hellenistic era was epicureanism- a type of atomistic philosophy. As a philosophical doctrine, it is characterized by a mechanical view of the world, materialistic atomism, denial of theology and the immortality of the soul, and ethical individualism. The mission of philosophy is to heal the soul from fears and suffering caused by false opinions and absurd desires, to teach a person a blissful life, the beginning and end of which is pleasure. The founder of this scientific school is Epicurus, who improved the doctrine of Democritus about atoms.

True Epicureanism is when a person has conquered passions within himself, has become independent from them, and has acquired a state of ataraxia - freedom from affects and passions. Spiritual pleasures are eternal and never come, while bodily pleasures are temporary and can turn into their opposite. The greatest pleasure for a person comes from friendship and spiritual communication, which Epicurus considered the highest good.

The only source of good and evil is man himself, he is also the source of activity, morality and the main judge of his actions. Unlike Democritus, Epicurus asserted human freedom of will - through willpower and moral self-improvement, a person can change his destiny.

Morality distinguishes a person from other living beings; not only behavior based on reason is moral, but everything that causes pleasant feelings in a person, and it is feelings that control human behavior, causing the desire to do what causes a feeling of pleasure and avoid what causes feeling of displeasure.

The main problem of human life is overcoming fear, suffering, mainly the fear of death and the afterlife. Analyzing the cause of the fear of death, Epicurus argued that it is not the fear of punishment, but the fear of uncertainty and the unknown. Fear cannot lead to morality, because... at its core is suffering.

Happiness lies in ataraxia - a state of mental equanimity, which is achieved through education and reflection. A person should not participate in politics, fruitless disputes with unlearned people, and should avoid participating in public life. Only solitude and reflection with close friends give real pleasure and lead to the discovery of truth.

Epicurus proved the ethical validity of alienation from society by the fact that social life is a source of anxiety, envy, cruelty, and conformism. In contrast, moral life is a personal life, in the circle of books and close friends, with the goal of self-improvement and knowledge.

The approach preached by Epicurus was acceptable mainly for a determined and self-confident person - an individualist. The weak point is the lack of clear criteria for good and evil, moral and immoral behavior.

Epicurus' ideas were developed Lucretius Carus(1st century BC), but they did not become widespread.

Stoicism- a philosophical school that arose during early Hellenism and retained influence until the end of the ancient world. Founders – Zeno and Chrysippus(IV - II centuries BC), who had conversations while walking along the portico called “standing”, hence their ideas were called stoicism.

The history of Stoicism includes three stages:

· Ancient (senior standing) – late 4th – mid 2nd centuries. BC.

· Middle – II – I centuries. BC.

· Late (new) – I – III centuries.

The periods are united by the idea of ​​the universal inevitability of events, fatal inevitability, predetermination both in relation to natural phenomena and in relation to the fate and life of each person.

The key issue was the question of freedom, which was divided into internal and external (Seneca, Brutus, Cicero, Marcus Aurelius). At the center of the concept are the ideas that a person cannot be absolutely free, because... lives according to the laws of the world into which he finds himself, i.e. external freedom, freedom of human action is impossible.

The Stoics were the first to raise the question of inner freedom, freedom of spirit. External freedom was considered by them as a “choice of a play and a role,” which is inaccessible to a person, and internal freedom – a “way of playing” this role, which is entirely in the will of a person. The only limitation for a person’s inner freedom and moral self-improvement is affects.

The Stoics were the first to focus on ways to combat emotions:

· External expression reinforces the effect;

· It is necessary to teach people exercises that help relieve bodily tension;

· Delay the last stage of increasing affect;

· Be distracted by memories of a different kind;

· Expose the actions to which passion pushes.

The affective state and its consequences are aggravated by the mind if it is weak and burdened with ordinary prejudices. Affect is based on an incorrect judgment, on an error of reason, therefore, whether affect exists or not depends on the mind.

In addition to affects, there are also good passions: joy, caution, will, which allow a person to achieve moral self-improvement.

The most prominent representatives Alexandria School of Physicians are Herophilus and Arasistratus(IV century BC).

They identified differences between sensory nerves, which run from the senses to the brain, and motor fibers, which run from the brain to the muscles. The nervous system and the brain are the actual organs of the soul. They established a certain localization of the mental functions of certain areas of the brain. They first expressed the idea that the physiological basis mental activity It is not the brain activity that appears.

This idea was developed several centuries later Claudius Galen(130 - 200): the psyche is a product of organic life, while he took blood as the initial basis for the activity of all manifestations of the soul, which he considered as vitality the whole body. “Blood on its way to the brain, through the liver and heart, evaporating and purifying itself, turns into psychic pneuma.” The state of blood dynamics determines a person’s emotions, general activity and temperament. Temperament depends on arterial blood. The mental does not disappear with the death of the body; the mind and soul are immortal.

5. Results of the development of psychology during antiquity

Antiquity marked new stage in the history of mankind, cultural flourishing, the emergence of numerous philosophical schools, the emergence of outstanding researchers and the first attempts to bring a philosophical, and often scientific, basis to the phenomena of the surrounding world. It was during the heyday of ancient culture that the first attempts were made to understand and describe the human psyche.

The development of ancient psychology is divided into 3 important periods:

1) VI-IV centuries BC – the time of the emergence of the first psychological theories within the framework of natural philosophy.

Persons: Pythagoras, Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Alcmaeon, Democritus, Hippocrates, Anaxagoras.

During this period, the first scientific concepts of the psyche appeared, in which it is considered, first of all, as a source of activity of the body, but also began to analyze the cognitive and regulatory functions of the soul. At the same time, it was believed that the soul of man and the soul of other living beings have only a quantitative difference, since man, and all animals, and everything in nature, and the psyche, are subject to the same laws. The first theories of cognition appeared, which emphasized the role of sensory cognition as the first stage of cognitive activity (sensualism). Regulatory function has been associated with emotions.

During this period, many key problems of psychology were formulated, which became the subject of analysis in subsequent centuries, such as:

· Relationship between material and spiritual, soul and body

Functions of the soul

· The process of learning about the world

· Behavior regulation

Three most important principles were formed, which throughout the development of psychology were the basis of scientific knowledge of mental phenomena:

· Natural development (Heraclitus)

· Causality / universal determinism (Democritus)

· Systematicity/organization (Anaxagoras)

2) IV - II centuries BC - the classical period, associated with the creation of classical theories of antiquity

Personalities: Socrates, Gorgias, Protagoras (sophists), Plato, Aristotle.

During the period of classical ancient psychology, the first detailed psychological concepts appeared, formulated by Plato and Aristotle. An intermediate position between the first psychological theories and the ideas of antiquity is occupied by Socrates and the Sophists.

During this period, the study begins of qualitative differences that are inherent only to the human soul, and which other living beings do not have. The ideas are affirmed that the psyche (human soul) is the bearer of not only activity, but also reason and morality, and culture has the most direct influence on its development. Ideas emerge that behavior is regulated not only by emotions, but also by reason, which was also seen as a source of objective true knowledge that cannot be obtained through sensations.

3) II century BC - IV century AD - the period of Hellenism, the predominance of practical interests, the desire to understand and outline the paths of human moral self-improvement.

Directions: skepticism, cynicism, epicureanism, stoicism.

The psychology of the Hellenistic era is focused on the study of practical problems. The main problem This period is the development of morality and moral self-improvement. Belief in the power of reason is increasingly being questioned, and the main task of philosophy was considered not to study the essence of things, not to comprehend objective truths and laws, but to develop rules of life to achieve happiness and moral self-improvement.

Ancient scientists posed problems that guided the development of human sciences for centuries. It was they who first tried to answer the questions of how the physical and spiritual, thinking and communication, personal and sociocultural, motivational and intellectual, rational and irrational, and much more inherent in human existence are correlated in a person. The ancient sages and explorers of nature raised the culture of theoretical thought to unprecedented heights, which, transforming the data of experience, tore the veils from the appearances of common sense and religious-mythological images.

Behind the evolution of ideas about the essence of the soul is hidden the work of research thought, full of dramatic collisions, and only the history of science can reveal the various levels of comprehension of this mental reality, indistinguishable behind the very term “soul”, which gave its name to the new science.

Additional

Main

1. Zhdan, A.N. History of psychology. From Antiquity to the present day: Textbook for universities. - 5th ed., revised. and additional / A.N.Zhdan - M.: Academic Project, 2007. - 576 pp. - (“Gaudeamus”, “Classical University Textbook”). Recommended by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

2. Luchinin, A.S. History of psychology: textbook / A.S.Luchinin. – M.: Publishing house “Examination”, 2006. – 286 S. (Series “ Tutorial for universities").

3. Martsinkovskaya, T.D. History of psychology: Textbook for students. higher educational institutions - 5th ed., erased. / T.D.Martsinkovskaya - M.: Publishing center "Academy", 2006. - 544 S. Grif UMO.

4. Saugstad, Trans. History of psychology. From origins to the present day. Translation from Norwegian by E. Pankratova / P. Saugstad – Samara: Publishing House“Bakhrakh-M”, 2008. – 544 pp.

5. Smith, R. History of psychology: textbook. aid for students higher textbook institutions / R. Smith. - M.: Academy, 2008. - 416 p.

6. Shabelnikov, V.K. History of psychology. Psychology of the soul: Textbook for universities / V.K. Shabelnikov - M.: Academic project; Mir, 2011. – 391 p. – (Gaudeamus). Vulture UMO.

7. Yaroshevsky, M.G. History of psychology from antiquity to the middle of the 20th century / M.G. Yaroshevsky - Publisher: Directmedia Publishing, 2008 - 772 pp. Recommended by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

1. Lafargue P. Origin and development of the concept of soul. M., 1923.

2. Yakunin V.A. History of psychology. - St. Petersburg, 1998.

3. Shultz D.P., Shultz S.E. History of modern psychology. St. Petersburg,. 1998.

Antiquity(from Latin antiquus - ancient) is a term traditionally used in the meaning of “Greco-Roman antiquity”. Chronologically, the framework of ancient psychology is from the 7th century. BC. and conditionally until the 2nd - 4th centuries. AD - This is the time of formation, flourishing and decline of Greco-Roman civilization. All later types of European worldview originate precisely in antiquity, when the categorical structure of psychological science (image, motive, behavior, personality, social relations) and formulated its main problems (the relationship between the physical and mental, feelings and mind, thinking and speech, personality and society, emotions and thinking, innate and acquired, etc.).

In primitive society, the soul was understood as a supernatural entity and explained by the principle animism (from Latin anima - soul, spirit - a form of primitive thinking that attributes a soul to all objects). During the period of replacement of the primitive communal system by a class slave-owning society (urbanization, colonization, development of commodity-money relations, the flourishing of culture, the emergence of mathematics, astronomy, medicine, etc.), the soul is introduced into a number of natural phenomena, a transition occurs from sacredness (when knowledge is based on faith and does not require proof) to the explanation of the soul by the principle hylozoism (from the Greek hyle - matter and zoo - life - a philosophical doctrine about the animation of all nature).

Antiquity is a heterogeneous period, which can be conditionally (according to priority tasks and results) divided into 3 stages:

1. Pre-Socratic period - from the 6th to the 4th centuries. BC.

2. Classical period – from the 4th to the 2nd centuries. BC e.

3. Hellenistic period – II century BC. – II century AD Hellenism literally means the spread of ancient Greek science and culture throughout the world (with the conquests of Alexander the Great), which continued until the rise of Rome and the beginning of religious dominance over science during the Middle Ages.

First stage the development of ancient psychology is associated with the separation of philosophical rational thinking from mythology and the formation of the first historical form Sciences - natural philosophy, studying the general laws of society, nature and man. One or another type of matter is taken as the natural basis of the soul ( arche): water ( Thales), indefinite infinite matter "apeiron" (Anaximander), air ( Anaximenes), fire ( Heraclitus) etc. Note that Heraclitus entered the history of science as one of the first researchers of mental activity itself. It was then that the foundations were laid materialistic views and methodological principles development(Heraclitus), determinism (Heraclitus, Democritus). Materialism received its most consistent expression in the teaching Democritus, in which the fundamental principle of the world and soul is the atom (from the Greek “atom” - that which is not divided). is the basis of everything in the world. Since the soul, like everything in nature, consists of atoms, it is mortal, like the body. Based on atomistic concepts, any human activity was explained by mechanical movement and collision of atoms, regardless of the will and motivation of man (hard causal determinism).

On second stage development of scientific ancient thought, materialism begins to resist idealism , affirming the priority of the spiritual over the material: the soul is immortal and independent of the corruptible body, which is only a temporary refuge for the soul. By this, idealists affirm the activity of the subject instead of the mechanistic causality of Democritus. Idealists saw the reasons for human behavior not in the collision of atomic flows, but in knowledge of moral truth, located inside the person himself, in his mind. The social prerequisite for the emergence of idealism was the growing opposition between slave-owning democracy (which elevates the role and value of each individual) and the monarchical form of government (which involves the elevation of one individual and the suppression of all others). Transfer of scientific interest from problems of the universe to problems ethical and psychological orientation clearly reflected in philosophy Socrates - Plato . Aristotle, eliminating the contradiction between extreme versions of idealism and materialism, explains the world from the perspective integrity, unity of the material and spiritual. Having systematized the ideas of his predecessors about the soul, Aristotle formulated his own, general biological approach to explaining mental phenomena that are the result of the interpenetration of the material and the ideal. The soul, according to Aristotle, is the form and essence of the body. Just as matter cannot exist without form, so form (soul) cannot exist without a material basis ( the idea of ​​unity, consistency, integrity). With the death of Aristotle, the classical period of antiquity ends.

Third stage The development of ancient psychological thought is characterized by a reorientation of research interest from general theoretical reasoning to solving practical problems of people experiencing an acute sense of instability and insecurity of existence in a cruel world. In the historical chronicle, the period from the 4th century. BC. to the 2nd century AD characterized as the era of civil wars and loss of independence of Ancient Greece, Macedonian conquests in Asia, bloody battles of Rome for supremacy in the Mediterranean, persecution of nascent Christianity, etc. The specificity of political and social life has led to the loss of value not only of the individual, but also life itself person. Leading psychological schools have solved the problem of preserving life and dignity of a person in a cruel society in different ways. Yes, at school cynics(cynics) personal freedom was considered through freedom from public opinion, knowledge and the benefits of civilization ( Antisthenes), as well as, in universal detachment from attachments ( Diogenes of Sinope). Epicurus and his school ( "Garden of Epicurus") called on people to free themselves from the fear of death and to be guided in their actions by reason and moral principles, taking the atomism of Democritus as a basis: “When we exist, death is not yet there; when death comes, we are no longer there.” Like the cynics, the Epicureans called for withdrawal from public life, which is a source of anxiety, cruelty and conformity. School representatives Stoics, on the contrary, they did not share the idea of ​​self-withdrawal from society and insisted on socialization, the adaptation of a person to life in society. The general idea of ​​the Stoics is the idea fate, fatal inevitability both in nature and in the fate of every person. A person can maintain freedom of spirit in any circumstances if he accepts social duties without suffering, as an internal necessity.

The latest milestone in the development of ancient psychology was the author's new interpretation of Plato's teachings - theory Dam (205 – 270) (Neoplatonism). Plotinus defines the human soul as a derivative of world soul in the process of radiation outflow creative activity of God. Plotinus explains the basis of the integrity of the soul self-awareness, which any mental act transforms into spiritual, since everything, even the sensory sensations of the body, are associated with the activity of the soul, which is entirely the creativity of God. Plotinus’s idea of ​​​​inner mental life anticipated principle of introspection , which became fundamental in psychology until the end of the 19th century. The practical meaning of introducing the categories of self-awareness and reflection was justified by the need to switch people’s attention from external difficult reality to internal, i.e. soulful, created and filled by God. Ancient psychology ends with the Platonic theory of Plotinus.

In parallel with the philosophical aspect of the study of the soul, active anatomical and physiological studies of the psyche ( Alexandria School of Physicians). The most famous and significant works were Herophila And Erasistrata who described the structural and functional features of the nervous system and brain as the substrate of the soul. In the 2nd century AD. these anatomical and physiological discoveries were combined and supplemented by a Roman doctor Claudius Galen(130 – 200). He experimentally proves the dependence of the vital activity of an entire organism on the nervous system, following Hippocrates he continued the development of the humoral doctrine of temperaments, studied the nature of affects and their connection with the body. His teaching is considered the pinnacle of psychophysiological ancient thought.

Practical tasks

1. Create a matrix of ideas based on the given criteria:

"Comparative analysis of classical theories of antiquity"

“It is death for psyches to become water, but death for water is to become earth; from the earth water is born, and from water the psyche... The dry, shining fiery soul is the wisest and best.”

3. Determine which ancient philosopher is being discussed in this fragment of a scientific text:

“This philosopher created the first philosophical and psychological school in antiquity... He is one of the semi-legendary “7 Sages of Greece”, who was the first to name the number of days in a year, who inscribed a triangle in a circle, who predicted the solar eclipse of 585 BC. e. (according to Herodotus). His name became a common noun, meaning a sage in general. He was the first to formulate a scientific problem: “What is everything?”, aimed at searching for the universal substrate of the universe. And he answers that the basis of everything is water. The earth floats on water, comes from it, is surrounded by it. Water is mobile, changeable, passes from one state to another and thereby forms everything that exists. From it arise all things and all cosmic phenomena, including man and his soul. In this way, man is seen as part of the natural world.”

4. Make a matrix of ideas according to the form

“Comparative analysis of the views of Hellenistic schools”

5. Explain (briefly) the essence of the following concepts:

1) Animism.

2) Hylozoism.

6) Nervousness.

7) Materialism.

8) Temperament.

9) Idealism.

10) Dialectics.

11) Damage to the mind.

12) Catharsis.

13) Ataraxia.

Control questions

1. Describe the social prerequisites for the emergence of the first scientific knowledge in antiquity, its principles of explanation and differences from mythological knowledge.

2. Characterize the ideas about the soul of the philosophers of the Milesian school.

3. How did Heraclitus of Ephesus understand the nature of the psyche?

4. What is the essence of the idea of ​​nervism in the teachings of Alcmaeon?

5. Characterize the psychological views of Empedocles and Anaxagoras.

6. Characterize the atomistic teaching of Democritus.

7. Explain the essence of the teachings of Hippocrates and its role in the development of psychology.

8. Reveal the essence of objective idealism in the philosophical and psychological views of Socrates - Plato.

9. Describe Aristotle’s Teaching about the soul.

10. Describe the basic philosophical and psychological concepts of the Hellenistic period.

11. Characterize Neoplatonism in the teachings of Plotinus.

12. What achievements and discoveries of Alexandrian doctors in the field of anatomy and physiology of the nervous system and brain influenced further development Sciences?

13. Describe the scientific contribution of K. Galen to psychophysiology.

14. What are the general results of the development of psychological views in the ancient period?