Philosophy of Mind for a Modern Psychologist - Essay Example

PHILOSOPHY OF MIND FOR A MODERN PSYCHOLOGIST by The of the The of the School The and State where it is located The Date Philosophy of Mind for a Modern Psychologist The fact that psychology as a discipline can be traced back to its origins in philosophy pretty much already proves the statement that knowing philosophy in general is crucial for any modern psychologist. However, as far as philosophy is probably the origin of all possible scientists, because most of first scientists and explorers were philosophers, it turns out that learning philosophy is useful for anyone, which devaluates the importance of philosophy for psychologists, and especially its brunch that concerns mind. Though if to explore psychology more specifically through the lens of philosophy of mind, it becomes obvious that each and every branch of psychology has its own set of views from philosophy of mind; and this is not strange, because psychology as a discipline investigates human mind and how it influences human behavior. Thus knowledge of philosophy of mind is of crucial importance for any modern psychologist if he is willing to become a specialist in his realm. Monism vs. Dualism The most notable fact concerning the philosophy of mind is that the term ‘mind’ doesn’t have any precise and doubtless definition, even though human mind has been explored by multiple scientists a very long time ago. The problems of investigation of mind were first set up in Ancient Greece by one of the most prominent Greek philosophers Plato. Ever since the main issue of the philosophy of mind has got a lot of explanations, was separated into two major schools depending on the point of view of relation between mind and body, which are monism and dualism, and acquired multiple interpretations. Thus the most important problem of the entire branch of philosophy is the mind-body one; within the scopes of exploration of the problem philosophers have tried and are still trying to figure out whether mind and body are the two parts of a human being or whether they are two separated substances temporarily and circumstantially related to each other. Dualists’ point of view of the problem was formulated by Rene Descartes, who thought that the world consists of two different substances: mind and matter (Hart, 1996). Thus it turns out that, according to dualists, mind has its specific nature that is not really related to the physical body, because matter, which a body is made of, also has its own nature. The important thing in the relation between philosophical dualists is that their separation of mind and body makes mind a separated object of exploration for psychologists. If a psychologist accepts that mind and body are separated, it becomes very difficult to consider mind-body causality, as dualism makes mind independent from bodily stimuli (Hart, 1996). Thus in such situation a person’s behavior is the consequence of the laws of one’s mind but not the laws of one’s physical form. The monists’ position can be separated into two kinds: materialist monists like Karl Marx and idealistic monists like Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (Rorti, 1982). However, as far as idealistic monism doesn’t really affect psychological matter, in the following consideration materialistic monists will be implicated as monists in general. Monists assert that mind and body have similar nature; moreover, some of them believe that mind is a product of human brain. This position is extremely important for psychology, as it turns the entire exploration of human behavior into totally scientifically-experimental trace. It turns out that in order to explain human actions a psychologist, who accepts the monistic point of view, should carefully explore human physical characteristics and look for the relation between physical stimuli and human behavior. It probably makes psychology as a discipline more scientific, as such approach allows a psychologist to trace the regularities of human behaviour and interpret them according to some precise physical changes, which is not possible using dualistic approach. Thus it is possible to say that there are two basic approaches of exploration in psychology as a discipline that correspond with the appropriate schools of the philosophy of mind in accordance with their positions concerning the relation between mind and body. Hence, those psychological schools that consider mind as the object of causality that determines human actions and has its own natural laws; simpler if psychologist explore mind as an independent structure, a substance, then they are probably base their theory on dualistic approach. Such schools consider the laws of thinking as something different from the laws of the body (especially brain) (Rorty 1982). Those psychological schools and theories that consider body as the object of behavioral causality and the producer of human behaviour are based on monistic approach; furthermore, the psychological schools observe regularities in human behaviour and link them with physical determinants, forming specific behavioural patters that can be explained through the specific features of human body. Psyche and Philosophy of Mind The discussion about the truthful roots of human behavior becomes even more complicated in closer consideration of human psyche itself. As far as human is the kind of creature that is considered to have certain kinds of freedom like freedom to act and learn, a human being definitely has some source of subjectivity that makes each and every human unique and free; moreover it explains why people perceive different things in various ways as well as why do they have different reactions on similar circumstances. On the other hand, the evolutionary roots of human development prove that the way that people think and behave, their development in general, is the consequence of some physical and mind evolution, which evolves human mind. Thus it turns out that there are some aspects of human psyche that a person can influence on and there are some aspects that are evolving independently from human subjectivity (Rosenthal 1980). Therefore the science that deals with human psyche and the relation between mind and body (psychology) also faces this issue. Hence Wilhelm Dilthey (1977) divides psychology into descriptive and analytic kinds. Each of them depends on different consideration and explanation of human conduct which comes from both human subjectivity and freedom of perception and physical stimuli that make people act this or that way. Thus, according to Dilthey, psychology is the science that works within the two main branches of the philosophy of mind (both monism and dualism), as considering human behavior through only one of the branches would ignore the aspects of human conduct related to another one. Thus it turns that a modern psychologist should know the main ideas of the philosophy of mind not in the order to pick a side in the mind-body discussion and follow it in one’s further exploration, but in order to broaden one’s consideration of human behavior and include both monistic and dualistic views of the matter of human mind. The point is that the nature of human psyche can be both monistic and dualistic and the causality of mind and body works in both ways: body affects mind and vice versa, even though they may be different substances of one object, which is human being. Thus all psychological schools are based on certain views of human mind and its origins. For instance, such physiological branch as psychoanalysis is a typical monistic doctrine. The point is that psyche (or mind), according to psychoanalysis, is a special kind of energy that supplements the energy of human body. As far as psychoanalysis divides human psyche into three parts, which are the id, the super-ego, and the ego, there is an energy that links all these levels of psyche into singular structure. According to Freud, libido and ability to construct a thought into words, transferring them to the consciousness, is this energy that connects human mind with its body. Hence, it becomes obvious that monism is the basic view of human mind for psychoanalysis. It turns out that human mind has complicated structure and its own nature; however, human body also has its own nature, but there is no possible way for them both to exist without each other (Csordas 2012). This means that indeed human mind and human body have the same nature that includes both mind and body and each of the substances can’t exist separately. This example shows that it is of crucial importance for a modern psychologist to know basic ideas of the philosophy of mind. First of all, a psychologist is supposed to be familiar with different views of the nature of human mind in order to understand which psychological theories are based on which positions concerning human mind. Also, knowing the origins of each psychological theory, a psychologist becomes able to compare different treatment approaches, based on their views, and pick that one which is the most appropriate for each and every patient. Moreover, it is very important for a modern psychologist not to stuck on application of a particular psychological approach but to broaden one’s methodology and apply all the possible measures in order to provide one’s patients with complex treatment. However, it would not be possible if a psychologist has no knowledge about the structure of human mind and its relation to the body; which is why philosophy of mind is a basic knowledge of any modern psychologist, who wants to be a professional in his realm. References Rorty, R., 1982, Contemporary Philosophy of Mind, Synthese, 53(2), 323-348. Rosenthal, D.M., 1980, Philosophy of Mind, Social Research, 47(4), 789-802. Csordas, T.J., 2012, Psychoanalysis and Phenomenology, Ethos, 40(1), 54-74. Hart, W.D., 1996, Dualism", in Samuel Guttenplan, A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind, 265-7, Blackwell, Oxford. Dilthey, W., 1977, Descriptive Psychology and Historical Understanding, R.M. Zaner and K.L. Heiges (trans.), with an introduction by R.A. Makkreel, The Hague: Martinus Nijhof. Read More