{"id":126,"date":"2008-01-17T17:10:50","date_gmt":"2008-01-17T17:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brainybehavior.com\/blog\/?p=126"},"modified":"2009-01-11T22:44:27","modified_gmt":"2009-01-12T03:44:27","slug":"descartes-and-modern-psychology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brainybehavior.com\/blog\/2008\/01\/descartes-and-modern-psychology\/","title":{"rendered":"Descartes and Modern Psychology"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"hktee69e1f3c2752ee\" ><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Mobile in post -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:320px;height:100px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-0039142346952764\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1620587573\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><\/div><style type=\"text\/css\">\r\n.hktee69e1f3c2752ee {\r\nmargin: 5px; padding: 0px;\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 1201px) {\r\n.hktee69e1f3c2752ee {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 993px) and (max-width: 1200px) {\r\n.hktee69e1f3c2752ee {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 769px) and (max-width: 992px) {\r\n.hktee69e1f3c2752ee {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 768px) {\r\n.hktee69e1f3c2752ee {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (max-width: 767px) {\r\n.hktee69e1f3c2752ee {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n<\/style>\r\n<p>Psychology is a field that traces its roots back thousands of years. In its earliest forms it was a subset of philosophy; Aristotle, Plato, and other Greek philosophers all posited psychological principles. Decartes is sometimes considered the founding father of modern philosophical psychology. He is possibly the most famous dualist; he believed that there was a split between mind and body. The mind influenced the brain through the pineal gland, a small structure in the middle of the brain. It is situated near the ventricles in the brain. Descartes believed that the pineal gland moved the &#8220;animal spirits&#8221; in the ventricles and sent them throughout the body, through the nerves, to control behavior and movement. <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/brainybehavior.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/descartes.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Descartes\" hspace=\"10\" vspace=\"5\" align=\"right\" \/>This was not true but back in the day it seemed a very logical explanation, especially in light of the new discovery about how the heart worked like a pump for blood. The pineal gland was Descartes ideal structure where mind and body interacted because it was in the middle of the brain and was a singular brain structure (most structures in the brain are in both hemispheres. So for example, there are two hippocampi, two caudates, two frontal lobes, etc&#8230;). Even with Descartes advances, psychology remained a philosophy until the 1800s when Wundt and other empiricists created experimental psychological laboratories. From there, the field of psychology grew exponentially into the major field it is today.<\/p><div class=\"iblvc69e1f3c27533a\" ><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\n<!-- Mobile in post -->\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:320px;height:100px\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-0039142346952764\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1620587573\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/div><style type=\"text\/css\">\r\n.iblvc69e1f3c27533a {\r\nmargin: 5px; padding: 0px;\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 1201px) {\r\n.iblvc69e1f3c27533a {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 993px) and (max-width: 1200px) {\r\n.iblvc69e1f3c27533a {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 769px) and (max-width: 992px) {\r\n.iblvc69e1f3c27533a {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 768px) {\r\n.iblvc69e1f3c27533a {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (max-width: 767px) {\r\n.iblvc69e1f3c27533a {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n<\/style>\r\n\n<p>Many other people influenced psychology over the years, people such as William James, Charles Darwin, B. F. Skinner, Sigmund Freud, and Jean Piaget but Descartes is the earliest of &#8220;modern psychologists,&#8221; even though he was involved in so much more than psychology. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Descartes was someone who came before the horse and led the way (pun intended; &#8220;Don&#8217;t put the cart {Descartes} before the horse.&#8221;).<\/p>\n<div class=\"hblnm69e1f3c275364\" ><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Mobile in post -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:320px;height:100px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-0039142346952764\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1620587573\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><\/div><style type=\"text\/css\">\r\n.hblnm69e1f3c275364 {\r\nmargin: 5px; padding: 0px;\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 1201px) {\r\n.hblnm69e1f3c275364 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 993px) and (max-width: 1200px) {\r\n.hblnm69e1f3c275364 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 769px) and (max-width: 992px) {\r\n.hblnm69e1f3c275364 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 768px) {\r\n.hblnm69e1f3c275364 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (max-width: 767px) {\r\n.hblnm69e1f3c275364 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n<\/style>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Psychology is a field that traces its roots back thousands of years. In its earliest forms it was a subset of philosophy; Aristotle, Plato, and other Greek philosophers all posited psychological principles. Decartes is sometimes considered the founding father of modern philosophical psychology. He is possibly the most famous dualist; he believed that there was &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brainybehavior.com\/blog\/2008\/01\/descartes-and-modern-psychology\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Descartes and Modern Psychology&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,43,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-philosophy","category-psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brainybehavior.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brainybehavior.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brainybehavior.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brainybehavior.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brainybehavior.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brainybehavior.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":298,"href":"https:\/\/www.brainybehavior.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions\/298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brainybehavior.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brainybehavior.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brainybehavior.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}