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Psychology in the 17th century. Development of psychology in the 17th-18th centuries

Sharia is a unified system of laws and regulations in Islam that regulate the life of a Muslim from cradle to death, including customs. Sharia is based on the Koran and Sunnah, on collections of Islamic law, the codes of which were developed by the schools of orthodox Sunni Islam (Hanifism, Malikism, Shafiism, Hanbalism). The development of Sharia laws was completed in the 11th and 12th centuries in the Near and Middle East. The Bashkirs' right to freedom of religion and observance of traditions and customs, acquired in the process of accepting Russian citizenship, contributed to the strengthening of Sharia courts in the second half of the 16th century and the first half of the 18th century. In the subsequent period, in connection with the establishment of control of local administrative bodies, the competence of Sharia courts was limited. Their rights were narrowed to the resolution of family and marital inheritance cases and religious offenses. Since 1788, the OMDS (Orenburg Mohammedan Spiritual Assembly) became the highest instance of the spiritual court, and, accordingly, the appellate body. In its law enforcement practice, it was guided by a unique synthesis of Sharia norms and all-Russian legislation. When carrying out legal proceedings, the Muslim clergy was prohibited from applying the provisions of Sharia, which contradicted the laws of the Russian state. They concerned mainly the system of corporal punishment for violating Muslim morality and morality, as well as the ban on early marriage.

The range of cases decided by the spiritual assembly and Sharia courts: about the abduction of daughters (kidnapping), bride price, failure to fulfill marital obligations, division of property, misconduct of mullahs and other clergy in general, about cruel treatment of a wife, about the departure of a wife, about adultery, beating of imams, exit marry a non-Christian, etc.

Central and local authorities were not consistent in their attitude towards compliance with the provisions of Sharia by the Muslim population. If in the first half of the 19th century, civil and military authorities repeatedly ordered Muslims to strictly implement the provisions of Sharia, then from the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, government policy directed against the growing influence of Islam was declarative in nature.
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The planned measures - the transfer of family, marriage and property matters to the jurisdiction of civil courts, the restriction of the construction of mosques, the abolition of the OMDS due to fear of extreme Muslim protests were not implemented. Decrees of the Soviet government adopted after the October Revolution of 1917 abolished Sharia courts.

Development of psychology in the 17th-18th centuries

Lecture outline:

1. Psychology of modern times (XVII century).

2. Psychology in the Age of Enlightenment (XVIII century).

3. The origin and development of associative psychology (late 18th century – early 19th century).

The 17th century is usually called the “New Time”, since it was during this historical period that particularly intensive industrial growth(machine production) and urban planning, and influx of new technologies and colonial goods, resulting in an expansion in the need for labor and raw materials. We walked colonial wars, active maritime trade developed, associated with the fact that the cult of movement, travel and migration has established itself in the mass consciousness, and printing was invented(I. Guttenberg), gunpowder and compass.

Also during this period of history there was rise of intellectual activity, (surge of scientific discoveries), incl. a new understanding of state and legal problems was developed, and the ideas of democracy, the possibility of realizing common human rights and national independence began to spread among the masses.

In the New Time it happened “emancipation” of culture, first of all, the affirmation of a new system of values ​​and faith, focused on people. In contrast to the official Catholic Church, it is celebrated growth of the Protestant movement and freethinking spreads - that is, people begin to consciously relate to religion. At the same time, science, which occupied the lowest place in the medieval hierarchy of academic knowledge, begins to move to the forefront, becoming source of faith in the future.

In the 17th century there was a change subject of psychology : if it was previously soul, then in the New Time it became consciousness(the unique ability of the human soul not only to think and feel, but also to reflect all its acts and states with irrefutable certainty).

New Time ideas about the world and soul:

Name: Dualism Materialism Idealism
Basic concepts: Two independent substances are separated - soul(has thinking) and body(has extension). Soul and consciousness - identical concepts. The presence of unconscious processes is denied. Nature is considered a single substance with basic properties: soul and body, possessing thinking and extension. Thinking is the main property of the soul, which is equivalent to consciousness. The presence of unconscious processes is denied. The fundamental principle of the world - monad, possessing the property of perception and aspiration. Stand out in the soul perceptions(unconscious) and apperception (conscious). The content of the soul is broader than the content of consciousness.
Representatives: René Descartes Thomas Hobbes Benedict Spinoza Wilhelm Leibniz

New Time ideas about knowledge:

ü Sensationalism (John Locke And Thomas Hobbes). This direction equalizes the mind and sensations. Cognition is considered unified the process of ascent from specific knowledge to general concepts, and the data from the senses are generalized by the mind. There are no innate ideas, and all concepts are related to learning, and the sensations are passive. Stand out primary And secondary qualities. Recognition occurs the impossibility of complete cognition of the world.

ü Rationalism. In cognition stand out two stages: the first gives knowledge about the world based on a logical generalization of these sensations(incomplete knowledge), and the second represents intuitive thinking(rational intuition) and true knowledge of the world. General concepts exist in the form of ideas (René Descartes) or in the form of their premises (Wilhelm Leibniz), and the generality of the laws of the world of ideas and things - knowledge base (Benedict Spinoza). The subjectivity of knowledge comes from the subjectivity of knowledge, but this does not contradict their truth (Wilhelm Leibniz).

New Time ideas about freedom and regulation of behavior:

ü Emotional regulation(Benedict Spinoza). Followers of this point of view believe that emotions regulate human activity and behavior. There are different types of emotions associated with influence of the surrounding world and a person is dependent on them. A reasonable understanding of this influence and awareness of the causes of emotions leads to freedom (recognized as extremely important).

ü Regulation based on reflex. Representatives of this direction believe that body regulation is carried out using a reflex according to the laws of mechanics. The reflex changes depending on habit and training, but the soul is only partially influences behavior through active passions.

History of psychology of the New Time in persons:

Francis Bacon(1561-1626). English philosopher and founder modern English empiricism, who began a new era in the history of psychology. He believed that it was extremely important refuse to study general issues concerning the nature of the soul, exclude the organic functions of its composition and go to experienced(empirical) description of soul processes. According to his concept, there are two types of soul:

ü Rational/divine soul(has memory, reason, imagination, desires and will).

ü Non-rational/feeling soul(has the ability to choose, sensations and desire for favorable circumstances, is able to make voluntary movements).

Bacon's theory of knowledge:

Function of the senses

(there are idol restrictions)

Rational processing of sensory data

Types of limitations-idols of empirical knowledge (if humanity can get rid of them, it will be able to reflect the world in its consciousness objectively, accurately and specifically) :

1. ʼʼIdols of the clanʼʼ(embedded in human nature itself).

2. ʼʼIdols of the Caveʼʼ(individual misconceptions of an individual).

3. ʼʼIdols of the Squareʼʼ(misconceptions that arise when people interact).

4. ʼʼTheater Idolsʼʼ(ideas of various tenets of philosophy that have taken root in people’s souls).

The significance of F. Bacon’s psychological ideas for the history of psychology:

1. Completed the stage of development of psychology, where the subject was the soul, and gave rise to the development of a new stage, where consciousness became the subject.

2. Offered specific ways to practically study the subject: experience and experiment.

3. Offered a unified science of man, part of which is psychology (philosophy considers man as such, civil philosophy studies him in interaction with other people, and anthropology is a science that combines knowledge about man) and laid principle of interdisciplinary approach to sciences.

4. Contributed division of human sciences into the doctrine of personality and the doctrine of the connection between soul and body, the division of their subjects and tasks, which entailed the division of the subject of psychology in accordance with specific tasks.

Rene / Cartesius Descartes.

The development of psychology in the 17th-18th centuries - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Development of psychology in the 17th-18th centuries" 2017, 2018.

Psychology in the 17th century.

The main issue in psychology of the 17th century was a different concept of the subject of psychology. The question of the soul has become the problem of consciousness as the exclusive ability of the human soul not only to think and feel, but also to reflect all acts and states with undeniable factuality. The solution to this issue became the main program for the development of the subject of psychology. Comparison of consciousness and psyche was important not only for designating the subject of psychology, but also for justifying methods, since introspection became not only the main, but also an equivalent method for studying mental life. In essence, if the unconscious does not exist, and all the processes that occur in the human soul are conscious, then reflection has a real basis. All attention to the inner life of a person makes it possible to understand what is happening in the human soul, and at the same time make the data obtained the subject of analysis. Many psychologists of that time agreed with the statement that the criteria for the correctness of our knowledge are in consciousness. In the 17th century, with the development of various technical devices, the principle of their operation increasingly attracted the attention of scientific thought in order to explain the functions of the human body in their likeness and image.

The first discovery was Harvey's theory of the circulatory system. He imagined the heart as a pump that pumps blood, and in this process the presence of the human soul was not required at all.

Descartes later put forward a theory about the human body as a working automaton. If the early human body was seen as a kind of system controlled by the soul, now, with Descartes' theory, the body was free from the soul. The body only moves (reflex), but the soul thinks (reflection).

Spinoza sought to refute Descartes' theories; he argued that there is a certain eternal substance (Nature, God), which has many inherent properties. From his theory it followed that man is a physical-spiritual being. He was convinced that intuitive knowledge is leading; only intuition allows one to penetrate into the essence of things, learn general concepts, and open up limitless possibilities of self-knowledge.

Leibniz also advocated an approach to man as a whole. The basis of this unity is the spiritual principle. In the soul, Leibniz distinguished several areas: clear knowledge, vague knowledge and the area of ​​​​the unconscious. He derived a formula for psychophysical parallelism. Both body and soul perform their operations automatically and independently.

Thomas Hobbes took only experience as the basis of knowledge. He rejected the soul as a special entity. According to him, there is nothing in the world except material bodies. All mental phenomena are subject to the laws of mechanics. By influencing the body, material things cause sensations, from which, according to the laws of inertia, ideas arise, forming chains of thoughts. This connection is called an association.

Locke denied the existence of innate ideas. The human psyche is formed throughout his entire life. He argued that it is education that is of great importance.

The 17th century raised the bar for scientific criteria quite radically. He reformed the explanatory principles of earlier centuries. The main fund of scientific knowledge includes mechanical ideas about sensations, reflex, affect, motive, and association.

Modern science owes its existence precisely to those long processes that began in the 17th century.

Like, it originates back thousands of years. The term "psychology" (from the Greek. psyche- soul, logos- doctrine, science) means “teaching about the soul.” Psychological knowledge has developed historically - some ideas were replaced by others.

Studying the history of psychology, of course, cannot be reduced to a simple listing of the problems, ideas and ideas of various psychological schools. In order to understand them, you need to understand their internal connection, the unified logic of the formation of psychology as a science.

Psychology as a doctrine about the human soul is always conditioned by anthropology, the doctrine of man in his integrity. Research, hypotheses, and conclusions of psychology, no matter how abstract and particular they may seem, imply a certain understanding of the essence of a person and are guided by one or another image of him. In turn, the doctrine of man fits into the general picture of the world, formed on the basis of a synthesis of knowledge and ideological attitudes of the historical era. Therefore, the history of the formation and development of psychological knowledge is seen as a completely logical process associated with a change in the understanding of the essence of man and with the formation on this basis of new approaches to explaining his psyche.

History of the formation and development of psychology

Mythological ideas about the soul

Humanity began with mythological picture of the world. Psychology owes its name and first definition to Greek mythology, according to which Eros, the immortal god of love, fell in love with a beautiful mortal woman, Psyche. The love of Eros and Psyche was so strong that Eros managed to convince Zeus to turn Psyche into a goddess, making her immortal. Thus, the lovers were united forever. For the Greeks, this myth was a classic image of true love as the highest realization of the human soul. Therefore, Psycho - a mortal who has gained immortality - has become a symbol of a soul searching for its ideal. At the same time, in this beautiful legend about the difficult path of Eros and Psyche towards each other, a deep thought is discerned about the difficulty of a person mastering his spiritual nature, his mind and feelings.

The ancient Greeks initially understood the close connection of the soul with its physical basis. The same understanding of this connection can be seen in the Russian words: “soul”, “spirit” and “breathe”, “air”. Already in ancient times, the concept of the soul united into a single complex those inherent in external nature (air), the body (breath) and an entity independent of the body that controls life processes (the spirit of life).

In early ideas, the soul was endowed with the ability to leave the body while a person sleeps and live its own life in his dreams. It was believed that at the moment of death a person leaves the body forever, flying out through the mouth. The doctrine of transmigration of souls is one of the most ancient. It was represented not only in Ancient India, but also in Ancient Greece, especially in the philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato.

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.

Psychological knowledge in the ancient period

Psychology how rational knowledge of the human soul originated in antiquity in the depths on the basis of the geocentric picture of the world, placing man at the center of the universe.

Ancient philosophy adopted the concept of the soul from previous mythology. Almost all ancient philosophers tried to express with the help of the concept of soul the most important essential principle of living nature, considering it as the cause of life and knowledge.

For the first time, man, his inner spiritual world, becomes the center of philosophical reflection in Socrates (469-399 BC). Unlike his predecessors, who dealt primarily with problems of nature, Socrates focused on the inner world of man, his beliefs and values, and the ability to act as a rational being. Socrates assigned the main role in the human psyche to mental activity, which was studied in the process of dialogic communication. After his research, the understanding of the soul was filled with ideas such as “good”, “justice”, “beautiful”, etc., which physical nature does not know.

The world of these ideas became the core of the doctrine of the soul of the brilliant student of Socrates - Plato (427-347 BC).

Plato developed the doctrine of immortal soul, inhabiting the mortal body, leaving it after death and returning to the eternal supersensible world of ideas. The main thing for Plato is not in the doctrine of immortality and transmigration of the soul, but in studying the content of its activities(in modern terminology in the study of mental activity). He showed that the internal activity of souls gives knowledge about reality of supersensible existence, the eternal world of ideas. How does a soul located in mortal flesh join the eternal world of ideas? All knowledge, according to Plato, is memory. With appropriate effort and preparation, the soul can remember what it happened to contemplate before its earthly birth. He taught that man is “not an earthly plant, but a heavenly plant.”

Plato was the first to identify such a form of mental activity as inner speech: the soul reflects, asks itself, answers, affirms and denies. He was the first to try to reveal the internal structure of the soul, isolating its threefold composition: the highest part - the rational principle, the middle - the volitional principle and the lower part of the soul - the sensual principle. The rational part of the soul is called upon to harmonize the lower and higher motives and impulses coming from different parts of the soul. Such problems as the conflict of motives were introduced into the field of study of the soul, and the role of reason in resolving it was considered.

Disciple - (384-322 BC), arguing with his teacher, returned the soul from the supersensible to the sensory world. He put forward the concept of the soul as functions of a living organism,, and not some independent entity. The soul, according to Aristotle, is a form, a way of organizing a living body: “The soul is the essence of being and the form not of a body like an ax, but of a natural body that in itself has the beginning of movement and rest.”

Aristotle identified different levels of activity abilities in the body. These levels of abilities constitute a hierarchy of levels of soul development.

Aristotle distinguishes three types of soul: vegetable, animal And reasonable. Two of them belong to physical psychology, since they cannot exist without matter, the third is metaphysical, i.e. the mind exists separately and independently of the physical body as the divine mind.

Aristotle was the first to introduce into psychology the idea of ​​development from the lower levels of the soul to its highest forms. Moreover, each person, in the process of transforming from a baby into an adult being, goes through the stages from plant to animal, and from there to the rational soul. According to Aristotle, the soul, or "psyche", is engine allowing the body to realize itself. The psyche center is located in the heart, where impressions transmitted from the senses are received.

When characterizing a person, Aristotle put first place knowledge, thinking and wisdom. This attitude towards man, inherent not only to Aristotle, but also to antiquity as a whole, was largely revised within the framework of medieval psychology.

Psychology in the Middle Ages

When studying the development of psychological knowledge in the Middle Ages, a number of circumstances must be taken into account.

Psychology did not exist as an independent field of research during the Middle Ages. Psychological knowledge was included in religious anthropology (the study of man).

Psychological knowledge of the Middle Ages was based on religious anthropology, which was especially deeply developed by Christianity, especially by such “church fathers” as John Chrysostom (347-407), Augustine Aurelius (354-430), Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), etc.

Christian anthropology comes from theocentric picture world and the basic principle of Christian dogma - the principle of creationism, i.e. creation of the world by the Divine mind.

It is very difficult for modern scientifically oriented thinking to understand the teachings of the Holy Fathers, which are predominantly symbolic character.

Man in the teachings of the Holy Fathers appears as central being in the universe, the highest level in the hierarchical ladder of technology, those. created by God peace.

Man is the center of the Universe. This idea was also known to ancient philosophy, which viewed man as a “microcosm,” a small world that embraces the entire universe.

Christian anthropology did not abandon the idea of ​​the “microcosm,” but the Holy Fathers significantly changed its meaning and content.

The “Church Fathers” believed that human nature is connected with all the main spheres of existence. With his body, man is connected to the earth: “And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul,” says the Bible. Through feelings, a person is connected with the material world, with his soul - with the spiritual world, the rational part of which is capable of ascending to the Creator himself.

Man, the holy fathers teach, is dual in nature: one of his components is external, bodily, and the other is internal, spiritual. The soul of a person, feeding the body with which it was created together, is located everywhere in the body, and is not concentrated in one place. The Holy Fathers introduce a distinction between “internal” and “external” man: “God created inner man and blinded external; The flesh was molded, but the soul was created.”* In modern language, the outer man is a natural phenomenon, and the inner man is a supernatural phenomenon, something mysterious, unknowable, divine.

In contrast to the intuitive-symbolic, spiritual-experiential way of understanding man in Eastern Christianity, Western Christianity followed the path rational comprehension of God, the world and man, having developed such a specific type of thinking as scholasticism(of course, along with scholasticism, irrationalistic mystical teachings also existed in Western Christianity, but they did not determine the spiritual climate of the era). The appeal to rationality ultimately led to the transition of Western civilization in modern times from a theocentric to an anthropocentric picture of the world.

Psychological thought of the Renaissance and Modern times

Humanistic movement that originated in Italy in the 15th century. and spread in Europe in the 16th century, it was called “Renaissance”. Reviving ancient humanistic culture, this era contributed to the liberation of all sciences and arts from dogmas and restrictions imposed on them by medieval religious ideas. As a result, the natural, biological and medical sciences began to develop quite actively and made a significant step forward. Movement began in the direction of forming psychological knowledge into an independent science.

Enormous influence on psychological thought of the 17th-18th centuries. provided by mechanics, who became the leader of the natural sciences. Mechanical picture of nature determined a new era in the development of European psychology.

The beginning of the mechanical approach to explaining mental phenomena and reducing them to physiology was laid by the French philosopher, mathematician and natural scientist R. Descartes (1596-1650), who was the first to develop a model of the body as an automaton or system that works like artificial mechanisms in accordance with the laws of mechanics. Thus, a living organism, which was previously considered as animate, i.e. gifted and controlled by the soul, he was freed from its determining influence and interference.

R. Descartes introduced the concept reflex, which later became fundamental for physiology and psychology. In accordance with the Cartesian reflex scheme, an external impulse was transmitted to the brain, from where a response occurred that set the muscles in motion. They were given an explanation of behavior as a purely reflexive phenomenon without reference to the soul as the force driving the body. Descartes hoped that over time, not only simple movements - such as the protective reaction of the pupil to light or the hand to fire - but also the most complex behavioral acts could be explained by the physiological mechanics he discovered.

Before Descartes, it was believed for centuries that all activity in the perception and processing of mental material is carried out by the soul. He also proved that the bodily structure is capable of successfully coping with this task even without it. What are the functions of the soul?

R. Descartes considered the soul as a substance, i.e. an entity that does not depend on anything else. The soul was defined by him according to a single sign - the direct awareness of its phenomena. Its purpose was the subject’s knowledge of his own acts and states, invisible to anyone else. Thus, there was a turn in the concept of “soul”, which became the basis for the next stage in the history of constructing the subject of psychology. From now on this subject becomes consciousness.

Descartes, based on a mechanistic approach, posed a theoretical question about the interaction of “soul and body,” which later became the subject of discussion for many scientists.

Another attempt to build a psychological doctrine of man as an integral being was made by one of the first opponents of R. Descartes - the Dutch thinker B. Spinoza (1632-1677), who considered the whole variety of human feelings (affects) as motivating forces of human behavior. He substantiated the general scientific principle of determinism, which is important for understanding mental phenomena—universal causality and natural scientific explainability of any phenomena. It entered science in the form of the following statement: “The order and connection of ideas are the same as the order and connection of things.”

Nevertheless, Spinoza’s contemporary, the German philosopher and mathematician G.V. Leibniz (1646-1716) considered the relationship between spiritual and physical phenomena based on psychophysiological parallelism, i.e. their independent and parallel coexistence. He considered the dependence of mental phenomena on physical phenomena to be an illusion. The soul and body act independently, but there is a pre-established harmony between them based on the Divine mind. The doctrine of psychophysiological parallelism found many supporters in the formative years of psychology as a science, but currently belongs to history.

Another idea by G.V. Leibniz that each of the countless number of monads (from the Greek. monos- unified), of which the world consists, is “psychic” and endowed with the ability to perceive everything that happens in the Universe, has found unexpected empirical confirmation in some modern concepts of consciousness.

It should also be noted that G.V. Leibniz introduced the concept "unconscious" into the psychological thought of modern times, designating unconscious perceptions as “small perceptions.” Awareness of perceptions becomes possible due to the fact that a special mental act is added to simple perception (perception) - apperception, which includes memory and attention. Leibniz's ideas significantly changed and expanded the idea of ​​the psyche. His concepts of the unconscious psyche, small perceptions and apperception have become firmly established in scientific psychological knowledge.

Another direction in the development of modern European psychology is associated with the English thinker T. Hobbes (1588-1679), who completely rejected the soul as a special entity and believed that there is nothing in the world except material bodies moving according to the laws of mechanics. He brought mental phenomena under the influence of mechanical laws. T. Hobbes believed that sensations are a direct result of the influence of material objects on the body. According to the law of inertia, discovered by G. Galileo, ideas appear from sensations in the form of their weakened trace. They form a sequence of thoughts in the same order in which sensations change. This connection was later called associations. T. Hobbes proclaimed reason to be a product of association, which has its source in the direct influence of the material world on the senses.

Before Hobbes, rationalism reigned in psychological teachings (from lat. pationalis- reasonable). Beginning with him, experience was taken as the basis of knowledge. T. Hobbes contrasted rationalism with empiricism (from the Greek. empeiria- experience) from which it arose empirical psychology.

In the development of this direction, a prominent role belonged to T. Hobbes’ compatriot, J. Locke (1632-1704), who identified two sources in the experience itself: feeling And reflection, by which I meant the internal perception of the activity of our mind. Concept reflections firmly established in psychology. The name of Locke is also associated with such a method of psychological knowledge as introspection, i.e. internal introspection of ideas, images, perceptions, feelings as they appear to the “inner gaze” of the subject observing him.

Beginning with J. Locke, phenomena become the subject of psychology consciousness, which give rise to two experiences - external emanating from the senses, and interior, accumulated by the individual's own mind. Under the sign of this picture of consciousness, the psychological concepts of subsequent decades took shape.

The origins of psychology as a science

At the beginning of the 19th century. new approaches to the psyche began to be developed, based not on mechanics, but on physiology, which turned the organism into an object experimental study. Physiology translated the speculative views of the previous era into the language of experience and studied the dependence of mental functions on the structure of the sense organs and the brain.

The discovery of differences between the sensory (sensory) and motor (motor) nerve pathways leading to the spinal cord made it possible to explain the mechanism of nerve communication as "reflex arc" the excitation of one shoulder of which naturally and irreversibly activates the other shoulder, generating a muscle reaction. This discovery proved the dependence of the body’s functions regarding its behavior in the external environment on the bodily substrate, which was perceived as refutation of the doctrine of the soul as a special incorporeal entity.

Studying the effect of stimuli on the nerve endings of the sensory organs, the German physiologist G.E. Müller (1850-1934) formulated the position that nervous tissue does not possess any other energy than that known to physics. This provision was elevated to the rank of law, as a result of which mental processes moved into the same row as the nervous tissue that gives rise to them, visible under a microscope and dissected with a scalpel. However, the main thing remained unclear - how the miracle of generating psychic phenomena was accomplished.

German physiologist E.G. Weber (1795-1878) determined the relationship between the continuum of sensations and the continuum of physical stimuli that cause them. During the experiments, it was discovered that there is a very definite (different for different sense organs) relationship between the initial stimulus and the subsequent one, at which the subject begins to notice that the sensation has become different.

The foundations of psychophysics as a scientific discipline were laid by the German scientist G. Fechner (1801 - 1887). Psychophysics, without touching on the issue of the causes of mental phenomena and their material substrate, identified empirical dependencies based on the introduction of experiment and quantitative research methods.

The work of physiologists on the study of sensory organs and movements prepared a new psychology, different from traditional psychology, which is closely related to philosophy. The ground was created for the separation of psychology from both physiology and philosophy as a separate scientific discipline.

At the end of the 19th century. Almost simultaneously, several programs for building psychology as an independent discipline emerged.

The greatest success fell to the lot of W. Wundt (1832-1920), a German scientist who came to psychology from physiology and was the first to begin collecting and combining into a new discipline what had been created by various researchers. Calling this discipline physiological psychology, Wundt began studying problems borrowed from physiologists - the study of sensations, reaction times, associations, psychophysics.

Having organized the first psychological institute in Leipzig in 1875, V. Wundt decided to study the content and structure of consciousness on a scientific basis by isolating the simplest structures in internal experience, laying the foundation structuralist approach to consciousness. Consciousness was divided into psychic elements(sensations, images), which became the subject of study.

“Direct experience” was recognized as a unique subject of psychology, not studied by any other discipline. The main method is introspection, the essence of which was the subject’s observation of the processes in his consciousness.

The method of experimental introspection has significant drawbacks, which very quickly led to the abandonment of the program for the study of consciousness proposed by W. Wundt. The disadvantage of the introspection method for building scientific psychology is its subjectivity: each subject describes his experiences and sensations that do not coincide with the feelings of another subject. The main thing is that consciousness is not composed of some frozen elements, but is in the process of development and constant change.

By the end of the 19th century. The enthusiasm that Wundt's program once aroused has dried up, and the understanding of the subject of psychology inherent in it has forever lost credibility. Many of Wundt's students broke with him and took a different path. Currently, W. Wundt’s contribution is seen in the fact that he showed which path psychology should not take, since scientific knowledge develops not only by confirming hypotheses and facts, but also by refuting them.

Realizing the failure of the first attempts to build a scientific psychology, the German philosopher V. Dilypey (1833-1911) put forward the idea of ​​“two hesychologies”: experimental, related in its method to the natural sciences, and another psychology, which, instead of the experimental study of the psyche, deals with the interpretation of the manifestation of the human spirit. He separated the study of connections between mental phenomena and the physical life of the organism from their connections with the history of cultural values. He called the first psychology explanatory, second - understanding.

Western psychology in the 20th century

In Western psychology of the 20th century. It is customary to distinguish three main schools, or, using the terminology of the American psychologist L. Maslow (1908-1970), three forces: behaviorism, psychoanalysis And humanistic psychology. In recent decades, the fourth direction of Western psychology has been very intensively developed - transpersonal psychology.

Historically the first was behaviorism, which got its name from his proclaimed understanding of the subject of psychology - behavior (from the English. behavior - behavior).

The founder of behaviorism in Western psychology is considered to be the American animal psychologist J. Watson (1878-1958), since it was he who, in the article “Psychology as the Behaviorist Sees It,” published in 1913, called for the creation of a new psychology, stating the fact that After half a century of its existence as an experimental discipline, psychology failed to take its rightful place among the natural sciences. Watson saw the reason for this in a false understanding of the subject and methods of psychological research. The subject of psychology, according to J. Watson, should not be consciousness, but behavior.

The subjective method of internal self-observation should accordingly be replaced objective methods external observation of behavior.

Ten years after Watson's seminal article, behaviorism began to dominate almost all of American psychology. The fact is that the pragmatic focus of research on mental activity in the United States was determined by demands from the economy, and later from the means of mass communications.

Behaviorism included the teachings of I.P. Pavlov (1849-1936) about the conditioned reflex and began to consider human behavior from the point of view of conditioned reflexes formed under the influence of the social environment.

J. Watson's original scheme, explaining behavioral acts as a reaction to presented stimuli, was further improved by E. Tolman (1886-1959) by introducing an intermediary link between a stimulus from the environment and the individual's reaction in the form of the individual's goals, his expectations, hypotheses, and cognitive map peace, etc. The introduction of an intermediate link somewhat complicated the scheme, but did not change its essence. The general approach of behaviorism to man as animal,distinguished by verbal behavior, remained unchanged.

In the work of the American behaviorist B. Skinner (1904-1990) “Beyond Freedom and Dignity,” the concepts of freedom, dignity, responsibility, and morality are considered from the perspective of behaviorism as derivatives of the “system of incentives,” “reinforcement programs” and are assessed as a “useless shadow in human life."

Psychoanalysis, developed by Z. Freud (1856-1939), had the strongest influence on Western culture. Psychoanalysis introduced into Western European and American culture the general concepts of “psychology of the unconscious”, ideas about the irrational aspects of human activity, conflict and fragmentation of the inner world of the individual, the “repressiveness” of culture and society, etc. and so on. Unlike behaviorists, psychoanalysts began to study consciousness, build hypotheses about the inner world of the individual, and introduce new terms that pretend to be scientific, but cannot be empirically verified.

In psychological literature, including educational literature, the merit of 3. Freud is seen in his appeal to the deep structures of the psyche, to the unconscious. Pre-Freudian psychology took a normal, physically and mentally healthy person as an object of study and paid main attention to the phenomenon of consciousness. Freud, having begun to explore as a psychiatrist the inner mental world of neurotic individuals, developed a very simplified a model of the psyche consisting of three parts - conscious, unconscious and superconscious. In this model 3. Freud did not discover the unconscious, since the phenomenon of the unconscious has been known since antiquity, but swapped consciousness and the unconscious: the unconscious is a central component of the psyche, upon which consciousness is built. He interpreted the unconscious itself as a sphere of instincts and drives, the main of which is the sexual instinct.

The theoretical model of the psyche, developed in relation to the psyche of sick individuals with neurotic reactions, was given the status of a general theoretical model that explains the functioning of the psyche in general.

Despite the obvious difference and, it would seem, even the opposition of approaches, behaviorism and psychoanalysis are similar to each other - both of these directions built psychological ideas without resorting to spiritual realities. It is not for nothing that representatives of humanistic psychology came to the conclusion that both main schools - behaviorism and psychoanalysis - did not see the specifically human in man, ignored the real problems of human life - problems of goodness, love, justice, as well as the role of morality, philosophy, religion and were nothing else, as “slander of a person.” All these real problems are seen as deriving from basic instincts or social relations and communications.

“Western psychology of the 20th century,” as S. Grof writes, “created a very negative image of man - some kind of biological machine with instinctive impulses of an animal nature.”

Humanistic psychology represented by L. Maslow (1908-1970), K. Rogers (1902-1987). V. Frankl (b. 1905) and others set themselves the task of introducing real problems into the field of psychological research. Representatives of humanistic psychology considered a healthy creative personality to be the subject of psychological research. The humanistic orientation was expressed in the fact that love, creative growth, higher values, and meaning were considered as basic human needs.

The humanistic approach moves further away from scientific psychology than any other, assigning the main role to a person’s personal experience. According to humanists, the individual is capable of self-esteem and can independently find the path to the flourishing of his personality.

Along with the humanistic trend in psychology, dissatisfaction with attempts to build psychology on the ideological basis of natural scientific materialism is expressed by transpersonal psychology, which proclaims the need for a transition to a new paradigm of thinking.

The first representative of transpersonal orientation in psychology is considered to be the Swiss psychologist K.G. Jung (1875-1961), although Jung himself called his psychology not transpersonal, but analytical. Attribution of K.G. Jung to the forerunners of transpersonal psychology is carried out on the basis that he considered it possible for a person to overcome the narrow boundaries of his “I” and personal unconscious, and connect with the higher “I”, the higher mind, commensurate with all of humanity and the cosmos.

Jung shared the views of Z. Freud until 1913, when he published a programmatic article in which he showed that Freud completely wrongfully reduced all human activity to the biologically inherited sexual instinct, while human instincts are not biological, but entirely symbolic in nature. K.G. Jung did not ignore the unconscious, but, paying great attention to its dynamics, gave a new interpretation, the essence of which is that the unconscious is not a psychobiological dump of rejected instinctive tendencies, repressed memories and subconscious prohibitions, but a creative, reasonable principle that connects a person with all of humanity, with nature and space. Along with the individual unconscious, there is also a collective unconscious, which, being superpersonal and transpersonal in nature, forms the universal basis of the mental life of every person. It was this idea of ​​Jung that was developed in transpersonal psychology.

American psychologist, founder of transpersonal psychology S. Grof states that a worldview based on natural scientific materialism, which has long been outdated and has become an anachronism for theoretical physics of the 20th century, still continues to be considered scientific in psychology, to the detriment of its future development. “Scientific” psychology cannot explain the spiritual practice of healing, clairvoyance, the presence of paranormal abilities in individuals and entire social groups, conscious control of internal states, etc.

An atheistic, mechanistic and materialistic approach to the world and existence, S. Grof believes, reflects a deep alienation from the core of existence, a lack of true understanding of oneself and psychological suppression of the transpersonal spheres of one’s own psyche. This means, according to the views of supporters of transpersonal psychology, that a person identifies himself with only one partial aspect of his nature - with the bodily “I” and hylotropic (i.e., associated with the material structure of the brain) consciousness.

Such a truncated attitude towards oneself and one’s own existence is ultimately fraught with a feeling of the futility of life, alienation from the cosmic process, as well as insatiable needs, competitiveness, vanity, which no achievement can satisfy. On a collective scale, such a human condition leads to alienation from nature, to an orientation towards “limitless growth” and a fixation on the objective and quantitative parameters of existence. As experience shows, this way of being in the world is extremely destructive both on a personal and collective level.

Transpersonal psychology views a person as a cosmic and spiritual being, inextricably linked with all of humanity and the Universe, with the ability to access the global information field.

In the last decade, many works on transpersonal psychology have been published, and in textbooks and teaching aids this direction is presented as the latest achievement in the development of psychological thought without any analysis of the consequences of the methods used in the study of the psyche. The methods of transpersonal psychology, which claims to understand the cosmic dimension of man, however, are not related to the concepts of morality. These methods are aimed at the formation and transformation of special, altered human states through the dosed use of drugs, various types of hypnosis, hyperventilation, etc.

There is no doubt that the research and practice of transpersonal psychology have discovered the connection between man and the cosmos, the emergence of human consciousness beyond ordinary barriers, overcoming the limitations of space and time during transpersonal experiences, proved the very existence of the spiritual sphere, and much more.

But in general, this way of studying the human psyche seems very disastrous and dangerous. The methods of transpersonal psychology are designed to break down the natural defenses and penetrate into the spiritual space of the individual. Transpersonal experiences occur when a person is intoxicated by a drug, hypnosis, or increased breathing and do not lead to spiritual purification and spiritual growth.

Formation and development of domestic psychology

The pioneer of psychology as a science, the subject of which is not the soul or even consciousness, but mentally regulated behavior, can rightfully be considered I.M. Sechenov (1829-1905), and not the American J. Watson, since the first, back in 1863, in his treatise “Reflexes of the Brain” came to the conclusion that self-regulation of behavior the body through signals is the subject of psychological research. Later I.M. Sechenov began to define psychology as the science of the origin of mental activity, which included perception, memory, and thinking. He believed that mental activity is built according to the type of reflex and includes, following the perception of the environment and its processing in the brain, the response of the motor apparatus. In the works of Sechenov, for the first time in the history of psychology, the subject of this science began to cover not only the phenomena and processes of consciousness and the unconscious psyche, but also the entire cycle of interaction of the organism with the world, including its external bodily actions. Therefore, for psychology, according to I.M. Sechenov, the only reliable method is the objective, and not the subjective (introspective) method.

Sechenov's ideas influenced world science, but they were mainly developed in Russia in the teachings I.P. Pavlova(1849-1936) and V.M. Bekhterev(1857-1927), whose works approved the priority of the reflexological approach.

During the Soviet period of Russian history, in the first 15-20 years of Soviet power, an inexplicable, at first glance, phenomenon emerged - an unprecedented rise in a number of scientific fields - physics, mathematics, biology, linguistics, including psychology. For example, in 1929 alone, about 600 book titles on psychology were published in the country. New directions are emerging: in the field of educational psychology - pedology, in the field of psychology of work activity - psychotechnics, brilliant work has been carried out in defectology, forensic psychology, and zoopsychology.

In the 30s Psychology was dealt a crushing blow by the resolutions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and almost all basic psychological concepts and psychological research outside the framework of Marxist principles were prohibited. Historically, psychology itself has fostered this attitude toward psychic research. Psychologists - first in theoretical studies and within the walls of laboratories - seemed to relegate to the background, and then completely denied a person’s right to an immortal soul and spiritual life. Then the theorists were replaced by practitioners and began to treat people as soulless objects. This arrival was not accidental, but prepared by previous development, in which psychology also played a role.

By the end of the 50s - early 60s. A situation arose when psychology was assigned the role of a section in the physiology of higher nervous activity and a complex of psychological knowledge in Marxist-Leninist philosophy. Psychology was understood as a science that studies the psyche, the patterns of its appearance and development. The understanding of the psyche was based on Lenin's theory of reflection. The psyche was defined as the property of highly organized matter - the brain - to reflect reality in the form of mental images. Mental reflection was considered as an ideal form of material existence. The only possible ideological basis for psychology was dialectical materialism. The reality of the spiritual as an independent entity was not recognized.

Even under these conditions, Soviet psychologists such as S.L. Rubinstein (1889-1960), L.S. Vygotsky (1896-1934), L.N. Leontyev (1903-1979), DN. Uznadze (1886-1950), A.R. Luria (1902-1977), made a significant contribution to world psychology.

In the post-Soviet era, new opportunities opened up for Russian psychology and new problems arose. The development of domestic psychology in modern conditions no longer corresponded to the rigid dogmas of dialectical-materialist philosophy, which, of course, provides freedom of creative search.

Currently, there are several orientations in Russian psychology.

Marxist-oriented psychology. Although this orientation has ceased to be dominant, unique and obligatory, for many years it has formed the paradigms of thinking that determine psychological research.

Western-oriented psychology represents assimilation, adaptation, imitation of Western trends in psychology, which were rejected by the previous regime. Usually, productive ideas do not arise along the paths of imitation. In addition, the main currents of Western psychology reflect the psyche of a Western European person, and not a Russian, Chinese, Indian, etc. Since there is no universal psyche, the theoretical schemes and models of Western psychology do not have universality.

Spiritually oriented psychology, aimed at restoring the “vertical of the human soul”, is represented by the names of psychologists B.S. Bratusya, B. Nichiporova, F.E. Vasilyuk, V.I. Slobodchikova, V.P. Zinchenko and V.D. Shadrikova. Spiritually oriented psychology is based on traditional spiritual values ​​and recognition of the reality of spiritual existence.

In the 17th century, a new era began in the development of psychological knowledge.

It is characterized by attempts to comprehend the human spiritual world primarily from general philosophical, speculative positions, without the necessary experimental basis. René Descartes (1596-1650) comes to the conclusion about the complete difference that exists between the soul of a person and his body: “the body by its nature is always divisible, while the spirit is indivisible.” However, the soul is capable of producing movements in the body. This contradictory dualistic teaching gave rise to a problem called psychophysical: how are bodily (physiological) and mental (spiritual) processes in a person related to each other? Descartes laid the foundations for the deterministic (causal) concept of behavior with its central idea of ​​reflex as a natural motor response of the body to external physical stimulation. He was the founder of introspective psychology, interpreting consciousness as the subject's direct knowledge of what is happening in him when he thinks.

An attempt to reunite the body and soul of man, separated by the teachings of Descartes, was made by the Dutch philosopher Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza (1632-1677). There is no special spiritual principle; it is always one of the manifestations of extended substance (matter). Soul and body are determined by the same material causes. Spinoza believed that this approach makes it possible to consider mental phenomena with the same accuracy and objectivity as lines and surfaces are considered in geometry.

German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), Having rejected the equality of the psyche and consciousness established by R. Descartes, he introduced the concept of the unconscious psyche. In the human soul there is a continuous hidden work of psychic forces - countless “small perceptions” (perceptions). From them arise conscious desires and passions. G. Leibniz tried to explain the connection between the mental and the physical (physiological) in man not as interaction, but as a correspondence in the form of a “pre-established harmony” created thanks to divine wisdom.

4. 18th century: the birth of empirical psychology

The term "empirical psychology" was introduced by the German philosopher 18th century Christian Wolff (1679-1754) to indicate the direction in psychological science, the main principle of which is to observe specific mental phenomena, classify them and establish an experimentally verifiable, natural connection between them.

This principle became the cornerstone of the teachings of the founder of empirical psychology, the English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704). D. Locke considers the human soul as a passive, but capable of perception, medium, comparing it to a blank slate on which nothing is written. Under the influence of sensory impressions, the human soul, awakening, is filled with simple ideas and begins to think, that is, to form complex ideas. The soul is a “blank slate” on which writing is written by experience. He distinguished two forms of experience: external experience, in which sensations of the external world are presented, and internal experience, where ideas are presented, i.e. results of knowledge of the activities of one’s own mind. In this case, the formation of complex, or composite, ideas can go in two ways: either with the help of mental operations, such as comparison, abstraction and generalization, as a result of which concepts are formed, or quite accidentally, by combining ideas through associations, which leads to the formation, for example , prejudices or fears. These constructions of Locke were continued in introspective And associative psychology. Locke introduced into the language of psychology the concept of association - a connection between mental phenomena, in which the actualization of one of them entails the appearance of another.



Founder David Hartley (1705-1757) is considered to be an associative psychologist. Under. Hartley, the human mental world develops gradually as a result of the complication of “primary elements” (feelings) through their association. Based on the physics of I. Newton, he interpreted the processes of perception as the action of vibrations of the external ether on the sense organs and the brain, which also begin to vibrate. In a weakened form, vibrations in the nervous system can continue even when external ones have already stopped. Actually, mental processes are a reflection of brain “vibrations”. Thus, D. Hartley gave a parallelistic interpretation of the psychophysical problem. He built a model of consciousness in which its simplest elements: sensations (sensations), ideas (ideations) and the sensual tone of sensations (affectations) in experience are connected with each other by connections of a mechanical type - simultaneous and sequential associations, forming more and more complex levels. At the same time, the formation of general concepts also occurs on the basis of associations, when all random associations disappear, and the essential ones are grouped around the whole through the word. He considered pleasure and suffering to be the active forces of mental development.

The subsequent development of associationism is associated with names John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) and Herbert Spencer (1820-1903).

5. XIX century: psychology becomes an independent science

Psychology became an independent science in the 60s of the 19th century. It was associated with the creation of special research institutions - psychological laboratories and institutes, departments in higher educational institutions, as well as with the introduction of experiments to study mental phenomena. The first version of experimental psychology as an independent scientific discipline was physiological psychology German scientist Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), creator of the world's first psychological laboratory. Based on the understanding of psychology as the science of direct experience, discovered through careful and rigorous controlled introspection, he tried to isolate the “simplest elements” of consciousness (sensations and elementary feelings) and experimentally establish the basic laws of mental life (for example, the law of “creative synthesis”). Physiology was considered as a methodological standard, which is why Wundt’s psychology was called “physiological.” But the study of higher mental processes (for example, speech, thinking, will), in his opinion, should be carried out using another, namely cultural-historical method, based primarily on the analysis of myths, rituals, religious ideas, language, which is reflected in his 10-volume work “Psychology of Peoples” (Volkerpsychologie. Eine Untersuchung der Entwicklungsgesetze von Sprache, Sitte. 1900 - 1920). In solving the psychophysical problem he proceeded from the hypothesis of parallelism. At the level of consciousness there is a special causality based on apperception.

Follower Wundt Edward Titchener (1867-1927), American psychologist, was the founder and leader structural psychology. It is based on the idea of ​​elements of consciousness (sensations, images, feelings) and structural relationships. The structure, according to Titchener, is revealed by introspection - the subject's observation of the acts of his own consciousness. Conducted experimental studies of sensations, attention, and memory. He interpreted the subject of psychology as a system of elementary conscious states (sensations, ideas, feelings) from which the entire diversity of mental life is formed. The main method of psychology is analytical introspection, in which the observer participating in the experiment is required to describe the elements of consciousness not in terms of external objects, but in terms of sensations.

Sharia is a unified system of laws and regulations in Islam that regulate the life of a Muslim from cradle to death, including customs. Sharia is based on the Koran and Sunnah, on collections of Islamic law, the codes of which were developed by the schools of orthodox Sunni Islam (Hanifism, Malikism, Shafiism, Hanbalism). The development of Sharia laws was completed in the 11th and 12th centuries in the Near and Middle East. The Bashkirs' right to freedom of religion and observance of traditions and customs, acquired in the process of accepting Russian citizenship, contributed to the strengthening of Sharia courts in the second half of the 16th century and the first half of the 18th century. In the subsequent period, in connection with the establishment of control of local administrative bodies, the competence of Sharia courts was limited. Their rights were narrowed to the resolution of family and marital inheritance cases and religious offenses. Since 1788, the OMDS (Orenburg Mohammedan Spiritual Assembly) became the highest instance of the spiritual court, and, accordingly, the appellate body. In its law enforcement practice, it was guided by a unique synthesis of Sharia norms and all-Russian legislation. When carrying out legal proceedings, the Muslim clergy was prohibited from applying the provisions of Sharia, which contradicted the laws of the Russian state. They concerned mainly the system of corporal punishment for violating Muslim morality and morality, as well as the ban on early marriage.

The range of cases decided by the spiritual assembly and Sharia courts: about the abduction of daughters (kidnapping), bride price, failure to fulfill marital obligations, division of property, misconduct of mullahs and other clergy in general, about cruel treatment of a wife, about the departure of a wife, about adultery, beating of imams, exit marry a non-Christian, etc.

The central and local authorities were inconsistent in their approach to compliance with the provisions of Sharia by the Muslim population. If in the first half of the 19th century, civil and military authorities repeatedly ordered Muslims to strictly implement the provisions of Sharia, then from the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, government policy directed against the growing influence of Islam was declarative in nature. The planned measures - the transfer of family, marriage and property matters to the jurisdiction of civil courts, the restriction of the construction of mosques, the abolition of the OMDS due to fear of extreme Muslim protests were not implemented. Decrees of the Soviet government adopted after the October Revolution of 1917 abolished Sharia courts.

Development of psychology in the 17th-18th centuries

Lecture outline:

1. Psychology of modern times (XVII century).

2. Psychology in the Age of Enlightenment (XVIII century).


3. The origin and development of associative psychology (late 18th century – early 19th century).

The 17th century is called the “New Time”, since it was during this historical period that the particularly intensive industrial growth(machine production) and urban planning, and influx of new technologies and colonial goods, resulting in an expansion in the need for labor and raw materials. We walked colonial wars, active maritime trade developed, associated with the fact that the cult of movement, travel and migration has established itself in the mass consciousness, and printing was invented(I. Guttenberg), gunpowder and compass.

Also during this period of history there was rise of intellectual activity, (a surge of scientific discoveries), including the development of a new understanding of state and legal problems, and the ideas of democracy, the possibility of realizing common human rights and national independence are beginning to spread among the masses.

In the New Time it happened "emancipation" of culture, first of all, the affirmation of a new system of values ​​and faith, focused on people. In contrast to the official Catholic Church, it is celebrated growth of the Protestant movement and freethinking spreads - that is, people begin to consciously relate to religion. During the same period, science, which occupied the lowest place in the medieval hierarchy of academic knowledge, began to come to the fore, becoming source of faith in the future.


In the 17th century there was a change subject of psychology : if it was previously soul, then in the New Time it became consciousness(the unique ability of the human soul not only to think and feel, but also to reflect all its acts and states with irrefutable certainty).

New Time ideas about the world and soul:

Name: Dualism Materialism Idealism
Basic concepts: Two independent substances are separated - soul(has thinking) and body(has extension). Soul and consciousness - identical concepts. The presence of unconscious processes is denied. Nature is considered a single substance with basic properties: soul and body, possessing thinking and extension. Thinking is the main property of the soul, which is equivalent to consciousness. The presence of unconscious processes is denied. The fundamental principle of the world - monad, possessing the property of perception and aspiration. Stand out in the soul perceptions(unconscious) and apperception (conscious). The content of the soul is broader than the content of consciousness.
Representatives: René Descartes Thomas Hobbes Benedict Spinoza Wilhelm Leibniz

New Time ideas about knowledge:

ü Sensationalism (John Locke And Thomas Hobbes). This direction equalizes the mind and sensations. Cognition is considered unified the process of ascent from specific knowledge to general concepts, and the data from the senses are generalized by the mind. There are no innate ideas, and all concepts are related to learning, and the sensations are passive. Stand out primary And secondary qualities. Recognition occurs the impossibility of complete cognition of the world.

ü Rationalism. In cognition stand out two stages: the first gives knowledge about the world based on a logical generalization of these sensations(incomplete knowledge), and the second represents intuitive thinking(rational intuition) and true knowledge of the world. General concepts exist in the form of ideas (René Descartes) or in the form of their premises (Wilhelm Leibniz), and the generality of the laws of the world of ideas and things - knowledge base (Benedict Spinoza). The subjectivity of knowledge comes from the subjectivity of knowledge, but this does not contradict their truth (Wilhelm Leibniz).


New Time ideas about freedom and regulation of behavior:

ü Emotional regulation(Benedict Spinoza). Followers of this point of view believe that emotions regulate human activity and behavior. There are different types of emotions associated with influence of the surrounding world and a person is dependent on them. A reasonable understanding of this influence and awareness of the causes of emotions leads to freedom (recognized necessity).

ü Reflex-based regulation. Representatives of this direction believe that body regulation is carried out using a reflex according to the laws of mechanics. The reflex changes depending on habit and training, but the soul is only partially influences behavior through active passions.

History of psychology of the New Time in persons:

Francis Bacon(1561-1626). English philosopher and founder modern English empiricism, who began a new era in the history of psychology. He believed that it was necessary refuse to study general issues concerning the nature of the soul, exclude the organic functions of its composition and go to experienced(empirical) description of soul processes. According to his concept, there are two types of soul:

ü Rational/divine soul(has memory, reason, imagination, desires and will).

ü Non-rational/feeling soul(has the ability to choose, sensations and desire for favorable circumstances, is able to make voluntary movements).

Bacon's theory of knowledge:


Function of the senses

(there are idol restrictions)

Rational processing of sensory data


Types of limitations-idols of empirical knowledge (if humanity can get rid of them, it will be able to reflect the world in its consciousness objectively, accurately and specifically) :

1. "Idols of the Family"(embedded in human nature itself).

2. "Idols of the Cave"(individual misconceptions of an individual).

3. "Idols of the Square"(misconceptions that arise when people interact).

4. "Theater Idols"(ideas of various tenets of philosophy that have taken root in people’s souls).

The significance of F. Bacon’s psychological ideas for the history of psychology:

1. Completed the stage of development of psychology, where the subject was the soul, and gave rise to the development of a new stage, where consciousness became the subject.

2. Offered specific ways to practically study the subject: experience and experiment.

3. Offered a unified science of man, part of which is psychology (philosophy considers man as such, civil philosophy studies him in interaction with other people, and anthropology is a science that combines knowledge about man) and laid principle of interdisciplinary approach to sciences.

4. Contributed division of human sciences into the doctrine of personality and the doctrine of the connection between soul and body, the division of their subjects and tasks, which entailed the division of the subject of psychology in accordance with specific tasks.

Rene / Cartesius Descartes.