History of Psychology

11/23/04
History of Psychology
Paper Assignment (Topic 1)

“Humans differ from other animals only in degree.” Being an evolutionist, Charles Darwin in this quote, meant that there is no huge difference between a human being and an animal. If humans differ from other animals only in degree, that means that humans and animals are two separate things, but the difference between them is not much from each other, only in degree, however much that would be. Plato believed in the theory of mind-body dualism. This means that human activity is made up of two things, which are mind and body. Plato believed that only the soul, or the mind, can deal with true knowledge and the rest of the human body was meant for just senses. I think Plato would have disagreed with Charles Darwin and his quote because Plato believed in the mind-body dualism, not just the body. Plato believed in the dualism of the two parts. He also believed that only the soul, which is not the body, can know true knowledge. Animals do not have souls or minds they just have bodies, which is only used for senses, according to Plato. He considered the rest of the body only as a way to sense things in the world. This means that Plato would not agree with Darwin’s statement that humans differ from animals only in degree. Evidences show that Plato would disagree with Darwin because Plato specifically describes what he thinks about a soul. Plato believed in the theory of Ideas, and the thing that stores it is the soul. He described the soul as a spiritual matter that had reason and desire. According to Plato, the soul was made up of rational and irrational parts, and the motivational principle of the soul was desire, which he described as the first condition of the soul. Plato also believed in pure intellect, which is the higher activity that provides intuitive knowledge and understanding. He even thought about opinions, which he thought was created by interactions with the environment, which causes belief. Animals surely do not have pure intellect because they do not provide intuitive knowledge and understanding like humans do. Animals have no opinions about things in the world because they do not have the pure intellect in the first place. As a student of Socrates, “Plato continued his view of the soul as containing all activities that separate humans from the rest of nature” (Brennan). This statement clearly shows that Plato separated humans from animals, which are part of the “rest of nature.” Plato even distinguished the hierarchy of souls, which are nutritive, sensitive, and rational. Aristotle, who was a student of Plato also believed and acknowledged Plato’s mind-body dualism and his emphasis on the pure knowledge of the soul. But Aristotle’s main belief was that the world was made for some purpose or grand design and that all parts of life were supposed to develop according to some purpose. To find out about the grand design Aristotle went on many travels and gained a wide-ranging appreciation of the natural world. He wrote a book called “Physics” which he provided a system for cataloguing and categorizing the natural world. He examined the behavioral functions of animal biology in terms of movement, sensation, reproduction, and defense. He wanted to determine how these behaviors help the species survive. Looking at this, Aristotle would possibly have agreed to Darwin’s studies and belief that humans differ from animals only in degree. Darwin studied many species as Aristotle did and both of them most possibly would have come to a similar conclusion about the statement that humans differ from animals in only a degree. Aristotle and Darwin both had their own system of cataloguing and categorizing the natural world they saw. They most likely would agree on many things they studied if they were present at the same lifetime. In contrast to Aristotle, Rene Descartes used the concept of God to deal with the external world. Descartes would most likely disagree with Darwin and his theory that there is little difference between humans and animals. Descartes thought that God is perfect and that humans are aware of the idea of perfection. He asserted that since the perfect God would not create people with defective senses, the sense information is an accurate description of the environment. Important part of Descartes’ thinking is that humans rely on self-awareness of our ideas, which then permit us to know God and eventually our external surroundings. As one can see, Descartes focused many of his thoughts on God and the existence of God. He states that if there was no God and the human soul, the reality is physical and can be explained through mechanical relations. If there was no God, the body would be a physical thing that, in common with all animals, responds to the external world through the mechanics of physiology. He also talks about emotions, which animals do not have, being rooted in the body. The most definite statement that Descartes makes that would go against what Darwin stated is that human body is acted upon by the mind and that animals do not have that mind. I totally disagree with Darwin’s statement that there is only a little degree of difference between human and animals. I believe there is a big difference between humans and animals. Like Plato, I believe that humans have a soul, or spirit that animals do not have. That factor is what I think makes a big difference between humans and animals. As a Christian, I base my beliefs solely from the Bible and I consider myself a creationist and not an evolutionist. Like Descartes, I believe in God and existence of God, which is obvious because I am a Christian. I believe that when humans, or we die, we either go to heaven or hell, but when animals die, they do not go to either place and their death is the end of their existence on earth. That is due to the lack of soul, or spirit. So if I were to say something like Darwin did but with my own beliefs, “Humans differ from animals significantly because of the presence of the spirit within humans.”