User:HMaloigne/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge/2020-21/Seminar group 15/History

History of Psychology: Ancient Greece to Experimental Psychology

Wilhelm Wundt Statue at Southwest University Chongqing, China

Overview

Psychology is the study of the human mind and behaviour. As a discipline, aspects of Psychology overlap with neuroscience, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and others. Indeed, until the 1870s, Psychology was considered a branch of the study of philosophy, and it was only after Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory dedicated exclusively to psychological research that Psychology was considered a discipline in and of itself.

Ancient history

The discipline of psychology dates back to the Ancient Greeks. As early as the 4th century BC, Hippocrates proposed that the study of the human mind ought to begin with the study of the brain. Other Greek philosophers, including Plato and Aristotle, pointed to the workings of the mind.

Evidence suggests that the ancient civilisations of Egypt, India and China also engaged in the philosophical study of the mind-sciences. In ancient India, it was primarily Yoga and the Vedic scriptures, in particular the Upanishads (which discuss meditation, philosophy and spirituality), that lead the way for psychological exploration. In ancient China, psychological understanding stemmed from the works of philosophers Confucius and Laozi, and later from Buddhism, whose doctrines encourage it's followers to practise introspection, morality, and meditation.

Enlightenment psychological thought

Psychology, as a distinct field of work, gained momentum during the Enlightenment period. In 1783, philosopher and psychologist Ferdinand Ueberwasser declared himself Professor of Empirical Psychology and Logic at the University of Münster, Germany. This development was supported by educational reformer and minister Franz von Fürstenberg, who, at that time, advocated for psychology to be taught in every school and university. These notable developments signpost the beginning of Psychology's shift from the realm of philosophy into it's own, independent domain.

Experimental Psychology

In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory dedicated exclusively to psychological research, in Leipzig, Germany. His studies were focused primarily on breaking down mental processes into their most basic components, and thus marked the beginning of experimental study within the field of psychology. Wundt and his pioneering students were the first to develop the empirical methodologies within the field. Consequently this lead to Psychology's status as a discipline distinct from any other fields of work.

History of Disciplines: International Relations and its Position in an Interdisciplinary Context

Views on the Origins of International Relations as a discipline

One view is that International Relations may have originated after the founding of the Department of International Politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1919 after World War One with the aim of ensuring world peace. This indicates how disciplines may form out of necessity or out of the objective to enact positive change upon the world.

Alternatively, International Relations may have originated earlier on as a means to study imperialism. In this case, International Relations arose in response to the prevalence of racism- white supremacy on a global scale. This may also explain why so many African-American scholars were prevented from contributing to the formation of knowledge and practises in the discipline.

A third view is that if the origin of IR is the point at which nation states begin interacting with each other, the origin of IR as a discipline can be traced back to the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia. However, some scholars dispute this account, as it is thought that IR as an academic discpline did not emerge as a consequence of the treaty.

Interaction between International Relations and Other Discplines

It was thought that historians were the academics who contributed the most to International Relations as it first emerged as a discipline.However, after World War II, the discipline of Political Science in the US became the most significant in shaping the field of International Relations as its focus was on the Western World, aspects of the rest of the world were often ignored in International Relations.

History of biological disciplines

History of Genomics as an interdisciplinary field of biology

Genomics is a sub-discipline of biology, which studies all of an organism's genes, their related functions, and interactions with each other and the organism's environment. It can be considered a product of the cross-disciplinary evolution between molecular biology, computer sciences (techniques used in mapping the genome), and statistics. Genomic knowledge helps scientists understand the inheritance patterns of complex genetic diseases and the genetic causes behind individuals' varying reactions to the environment, which has led to the development of personalised medicine.

The history of genomics is driven by discoveries in molecular biology, starting with the discovery of DNA ('nuclein') by Frederich Miescher in 1871. Furthermore, the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA by Watson and Crick in 1953, was crucial in paving the way for further discoveries regarding the nature of DNA replication, translation, and gene expression. Although these developments improved the understanding of molecular biology and genetics, which are fundamental to the study of genomics, the establishment of genomics as a sub-discipline of biology did not begin until the late 1980s. This delay is most likely due to the technological advancements which were necessary for use in the field of genomics, most notably the development of high-throughput sequencing. Since their conception in the 1990s, high-throughput DNA sequencing methods have allowed laboratory researchers to measure increasingly larger quantities of genetic material (sequences). Researchers in computational sciences have simultaneously developed algorithms for analysing these data sets, such as BLAST, which have lead to significant advancements in our understanding of the structure and function of the genome.

Around 1990, scientists around the world initiated the Human Genome Project, which aimed to map and sequence every human gene (the genome), to identify and trace the genetic roots for traits such as diseases. This event marks one of the first instances in which researchers from experimental and computational molecular biology agreed to collaborate and share knowledge on a large scale, and thus, the establishment of genomics as a sub-discipline of biology. The Human Genome Project had a five year plan, between 1993 and 1998. The work done in this time was what then lead to massive breakthroughs in the five years following; during this, they attempted to progress their research massively using animals and flies. This finally lead to the completion of the project in 2004.

History of Social and Cultural Anthropology as a Discipline

Early Anthropologists

The study of other cultures, and the creation of the academic discipline of anthropology can be accredited to the first anthropologists to write about other cultures. Edward Burnett Tylor used the accounts of missionaries and travellers to inform his theories and work, and Lewis Henry Morgan was the first anthropologist to enter the ethnographic field in order to create his theories. Due to the history of anthropology and its association with power dynamics and its colonial histories, it has become a discipline heavily under deconstruction and conversations surrounding de-colonisation persist .

Participant Observation

The first use of participant observation by Bronislaw Malinowski in the Trobriand Islands demonstrated a new wave for the discipline of anthropology, although some anthropologists, like Murray L. Wax have suggested that he did not practice what is now considered participant observation but directed anthropologists towards this methodology. The change in power dynamics that occurred when this methodology was introduced, then allowed for observations of others that would provide a better basis for analyses by the new generation of anthropologists.

Franz Boas and Cultural Relativism

The separation and distinction between anthropology in the United Kingdom and the United States has often been necessary; one of the most notable differences between them are their separate histories and revolutions, which have guided the progressions of the discipline in the respective countries. The United States and the birth of the new American anthropology is often associated with Franz Boas. His earliest works provided a revolution in American systems and the production of anthropological knowledge. Anthropologists like Franz Boas have created a clear distinction between the formation of Biological Anthropology and Social Anthropology as a discipline stating differences in their formation and institutional framework . Franz Boas is accredited, along with W.E.B Du Bois for the birth of the new anti-racist aspect of American anthropology as a discipline . This is key in their discounting of the theories of social evolutionism by Tylor and Morgan, by introducing theories of relativism.. This, along with participant observation have become two key aspects of the academic discipline of anthropology.

History of economic disciplines: The development of Behavioural Economics

Behavioural economics is a strand of economics which uses the irrationality of human nature to investigate how various influences affect economic processes in society. Behavioural economics distinguished itself from mainstream economics due to its focus on how psychological and social factors can have an impact on the decision-making processes of individuals and institutions straying from the economic models that form the basis of economics. The two disciplines differ as economics is based upon assumptions primarily focusing on rational human behaviour; behavioural economics emerged to explain irrational human behaviour.

The origins of this discipline can be argued to stem from Kahneman and Tversky’s investigations aiming to understand the biases involved in humans' decision making processes, beginning in 1974. This led to the inextricable link between economics and psychology, requiring its own discipline as economic models were not sufficient in explaining economic behaviour on a realistic individual scale.

However, it can be argued that the true foundations of behavioural economics originated as a result of questioning the fundamental assumptions that exist in economic models. An instance of this is Herbert Simon’s questioning of rational choice..

Richard Thaler was also instrumental in establishment of this discipline as numerous academics criticised traditional economics' ability to understand explain the affect of the human psyche on all decisions concerning economic matters. His establishment of “nudge units’ were critical in understanding the impact businesses can have on the human psyche through subtle suggestion proving the ineptitude of traditional economic models in their application to the average human. Despite this, traditional economic models are invaluable in providing an overall picture of an economic situation.

History of French Literature: from Classicism to Romanticism

Classicism: Louis XIV and the French Academy

Louis XIV wanted to bring France at the top of Europe's intellectual sphere. To do so, he created an institution in charge of unifying and regulating French, the French Academy (Académie Française) in 1635. The Academy creates a Dictionnary, published in 1694, that clarifies the french orthograph and the correct use of words. Moreover, Louis XIV and his will of supremacy and harmony impose a new set of rules on artistic creations: art must be realistic, measured- not showing strong emotions and harmonious, and plays must respect the rule of the Three Unities (place, time and action) Censorship is also very common and influenced by strong catholic institutions (Tartuffe, a famous Moliere play that criticize venal religious authorities, has to be rewritten three times in order to be published).

The Enlightment and the French Revolution

After Louis XIV's death, in 1715, a kind of "counter-cultural revolution" happens in which intellectuals develop new ideas that aim to tackle prejudice with reason. Thinkers then question religious dogmas and preach open-mindness, search of happiness and tolerance, marking the rise of the term "philosopher"- one who has a critical thought. Litterature becomes more engaged and dares to criticize social order and question monarchy. The Encyclopédie, a huge work that classifies all schools of thought with remarcable tolerance and liberalism, is also published between 1750 and 1780 . The climax of this intellectual emancipation comes with the French Revolution in 1789.

An example of a typical romantic painting. The character is staring at the unknown- a metaphor for his journey through life.

The era of emotions: Romanticism

In opposition to the rationality and measure of Classicism, romantic authors let passionate emotions and intiutions rule over reason . Romanticism is dated approximately from 1800 to 1850, and is known for its enhanced sentimentalism, individualism and a strong focus on nature and metaphors, which all contrast with the rationality and order of the previous times and can also be seen as a reaction to the industrial revoultion.