History and Philosophy of Psychology

 

Hist. 25302/35302; Phil. 22810/32810; CHSS 36901; HiPSS 26901

 

 

Instructor: Robert J. Richards                                     Tues. 3:00-5:15        

Assistant: Jonathan Tsou                                             Cobb 116                                                                                        

 

Description:

 

This lecture-discussion course will focus on the historical development of main currents in psychology from the 19th through the early 20th centuries, as well as considering  the legacy that the science of psychology has bequeathed recent philosophy of mind.  Specifically the course will concentrate on evolutionary psychology, Wundt’s and Helmholtz=s perceptual psychology, James=s and Freud=s psychology of mind, and Watson=s elimination of mind from psychology.  Concomitant with the treatment of these historical topics, the discussion will also take up recent philosophical analyses of evolutionary psychology, mind-body problems, and the validity of psychoanalysis.

 

Books for the course:

 

The following books for the course are in the Seminary Co-operative Bookstore (5757 University Ave.):

 

1.  William James, The Principles of Psychology, 2 vols. (Dover)

2.  Sigmund Freud, Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis (Norton)

3.  John B. Watson, Behaviorism (Transaction)

 

A packet of photo-copies will be sold in the Fishbein Center (Social Sciences Research Building, room 205).  All the readings for the course will be taken from the three mentioned books and from the packet of photo-copies.

 

Course Requirements:

 

          A.  The “texts for discussion” must be thoroughly read, and everyone should be prepared to deal with the primary material.  The recommended readings should also be examined, especially as aids for papers and discussion.

 

          B.  In the second half of each class, two or three students will present position papers on the reading material.  These papers should develop some problem or central aspect of the reading and take a pro or con position in respect to the material developed.  These should not be summaries of the reading, but the articulation of an important thesis contained therein and a critical stance in respect of that thesis.   These papers must not be any longer than two pages.  They should be sent to the instructor via the Chalk program on the Monday before class, by 12:00 p.m.  The instructor will then send it out to the entire class.  During the second half of the class the students will have about 2 to 5 minutes to summarize their papers, after which we will talk about the issues.

         

          C.  Four five-to-eight-page papers that deal with some problem in the reading.  The papers should be turned into the secretary in the Fishbein Center on Mondays, according to the following schedule:

 

      1.       On the readings in sections II-III, due January 19th.

 

          2.       On the readings in sections IV-V, due February 2nd.

 

          3.       On the readings in sections VI-VII, due February 16th.

 

          4.       On the readings in sections VIII-X, due March 8th.

 

 

Contacts:: 

 

Office hours:  TT, 1:15-3:00 p.m. (and by appointment), Social Science Research 205. 

 

Phone:  702-8348.  Email:  r-richards@uchicago.edu.  Webpage: http://home.uchicago.edu/~rjr6/.


 

 

I.                Introduction 

A.              Recommended Reading: Mitchell Ash, APsychology,@ in The Cambridge History of Science, vol. 7: The Modern Social Sciences, ed. T. Porter and D. Ross (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 252-74.

 

II.              Nineteenth Century Evolutionary Approaches to Mind and Morality   

A.              Texts for Discussion:  Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (1871), chaps. 2-3, and 5.

B.              Recommend Reading:


1.               Robert J. Richards, ADarwin on Mind, Morals, and Emotions,@ in The Cambridge Companion to Darwin, ed. J. Hodge and G. Radick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 92-115.

2.               Kim Sterelny, ADarwinian Concepts in the Philosophy of Mind,@ in The Cambridge Companion to Darwin, pp. 288-309.

 

III.            Contemporary Approaches to Mind and Morality

A.              Texts for Discussion: 

1.               Sexual Choice and Human Nature:

a.               Geoffrey Miller, The Mating Mind (New York: Anchor Books, 2000), pp. 99-137, 392-425.

b.               David Buss, AMate Preference Mechanisms: Consequences for Partner Choice and Intrasexual Competition,@ The Adapted Mind, ed. J. Barkow, L. Cosmides, J. Tooby (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), pp. 249-66.

 

2.               Evolutionary Ethics:

a.               Robert J. Richards, AA Defense of Evolutionary Ethics,@ in Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), pp. 595-627.

b.               Peter Woodcock, AThe Case against Evolutionary Ethics Today,@ in J. Maienschein and M. Ruse, Biology and the Foundation of Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 276-306.

 

IV.            Experimental and Perceptual Psychology

A.              Texts for Discussion:

1.               Wilhelm Wundt, Outlines of Psychology (Grundriss der Psychologie), trans. Charles Judd (Leipzig, 1897), pp. 1-45, 203-23, 310-20.


2.               Wilhelm von Helmholtz, AThe Facts of Perception@ (1878), in Helmholtz on Perception, R. Warren and R. Warren (New York: Wiley, 1968), pp. 207-38.

3.               Daniel Dennett, AThe Nature of Images and the Introspective Trap,@ in Readings in the Philosophy of Psychology, ed. N. Block, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980), 2: 128-34.

4.               Jerry Fodor, AImagistic Representation,@ in Readings in the Philosophy of Psychology, 2: 135-49.

B.              Recommended Reading:

1.               Robert J. Richards, AWundt=s Early Theories of Unconscious Inference and Cognitive Evolution in their Relatin to Darwinian Biopsychology,@ in Wundt Studies, ed. W. Bringmann and R. Tweney (Toronto: Hogrefe, 1980), pp. 42-70.

2.               William James, AReview of Wundt=s Principles of Physiological Psychology@ (1875), in Wundt Studies, pp. 114-20.

 

V.              William James: The Stream of Thought

A.              Texts for Discussion:

1.               William James, The Principles of Psychology, 2 vols. (New York: Dover, [1890] 1980), 1: 224-90.

2.               William James, ADoes Consciousness Exist?@ (1905), in The Works of William James: Essays in Radical Empiricism, ed. F. Burkhardt (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976), pp. 3-20.

3.               Daniel Dennett, AThe Cartesian Theater and >Filling in the Stream of Consciousness,@ in The Nature of Consciousness, ed. N. Block et al. (Cambridge: MIT, 1998), pp. 83-88.

B.              Recommended Readings:

1.               Owen Flanagan, AConsciousness as a Pragmatist Views It,@ in The Cambridge Companion to William James, ed. R. Putnam (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 25-48.

 

VI.            William James: The Self and Reality

A.              Texts for Discussion:

1.               William James, The Principles of Psychology, 1: 291-350.


2.               William James, The Principles of Psychology, 2: 283-324.

3.               Daniel Dennett, AThe Origin of Selves,@ in Cogito 3, 163-73.

B.              Recommended Readings:

1.               Hilary Putnam, AJames=s Theory of Truth,@ in The Cambridge Companion to William James, pp. 166-85.

 

VII.          Contemporary Debates about Consciousness

A.              Texts for Discussion:

1.               Jerry Fodor, AThe Mind-Body Problem,@ in Philosophy for the 21st Century, ed. S. Cahn et al. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 451-459.

2.               Thomas Nagel, AWhat Is It Like to be a Bat?@ in The Nature of Consciousness, pp. 519-28.

3.               Daniel Dennett, AQuinning Qalia,@ in The Nature of Consciousness, 619-642.

4.               Thomas Nagel, ADennett: Consciousness Dissolved,@ in Other Minds (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 86-89.

5.               David Chalmers, AFacing Up to the Problem of Consciousness,@ in Journal of Consciousness Studies (1995).

 

VIII.        Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis

A.              Texts for Discussion:

1.               Sigmund Freud, ACase of Anna O,@ in The Freud Reader, ed. P. Gay (New York: Norton, 1989), pp. 61-78.

2.               Sigmund Freud, AThe Aetiology of Hysteria@ (1896), in The Freud Reader, pp. 96-111.

3.               Sigmund Freud, ALetters to Fliess,@ in The Freud Reader, pp. 111-16.

4.               Sigmund Freud, Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, trans. and ed. James Strachey (New York: Norton, [1910]).

B.              Recommended Reading:


1.               Roger Smith, AThe Unconscious: Reason and Unreason,@ in his The Norton History of the Human Sciences (New York: Norton, 1997), pp. 701-45.

 

IX.            Anti-Freud

A.              Texts for Discussion:

1.               Jeffrey Masson, AFreud and the Seduction Theory,@ The Atlantic Monthly (February, 1984), pp. 33-60.

2.               Adolf Grünbaum, AThe Psychoanalytic Enterprise and its >Hermeneutical= Construal: A Disputation,@ in his Validation in the Clinical Theory of Psychoanalysis (Madison, Connecticut: International University Presses, 1993), pp. 1-48. 

3.               Frederick Crews, Freud=s Legacy in Dispute (New York: New York Review Book, 1995), pp. 33-73.

4.               Thomas Nagel, AFreud=s Permanent Revolution,@ in Other Minds, p. 26-44.

 

X.              Behaviorism

A.              Texts for Discussion:

1.               John B. Watson, Behaviorism (Somerset, N.J.: Transaction, [1930] 1997), chaps. 1-2, 5, 7, 10.

2.               Jerry Buckley, AThe Selling of a Psychologist: John Broadus Watson and the Application of Behavioral techniques to Advertising,@ in A History of Psychology, ed. Ludy Benjamin, 2nd ed. (New York:  McGraw-Hill, 1997), pp. 420-34.

3.               John Searle, AConsciousness and Its Place in Nature,@ in his The Rediscovery of Mind (Cambridge: MIT, 1992), pp. 83-110.

B.              Recommended Reading:

1.               Roger Smith, ANatural Science and Objectivity,@ in his Norton History of the Human Sciences, pp. 636-72.