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300 BCE
Aristotle and Plato
Philosophers in ancient Greece who critically studied matters of ethics, science, politics and more. Plato was Aristotle's teacher. most of Platos work has survived the centuries but roughly only 80% of Aristotle wrote has been lost. -
Descartes
Descartes was dubbed 'The Father of Modern Western Philosophy'
Descartes said “cogito ergo sum,”which in English means i reflect therefore i am. Saying this he meant the mind and the body are two completely different types of substances and that they interact with each other.He said the body could be divided up by removing body parts, but the mind or soul were indivisible. -
John Locke
John Locke was regarded as the founder of the thought of British Empiricism. The empiricist theory is where we would acquire ideas through our experience of the world. Our mind is then able to examine what it sees and then to be able to compare these ideas in numerous ways. -
Charles Darwin
Darwin's Theory was the theory of Evolution. He published this is 1859. His theory was that our genes as living organisms change over time as a result of changes our stronger genes will survive and the weaker will not survive. This making us adapt to our surroundings over time. Darwin did this by observing a varied range of animals and plants on a 5 year voyage of the world. -
Wilhelm Wundt
Wilhelm Wundt was the first Philosopher to dedicate a lab to study psychology. He first had a room at Leipzig University for undertaking psychological experiments. A time that this is acknowledged as the point at which psychology became a discipline in its own right. Wundt and Fechner founded the Institute of Experimental Psychology) privately at Leipzig in 1878. -
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud was first to use the term psychoanalysis. In his paper Freud remarks on Neuro-Psychoses of Defense. Much of Freud's work is controversial and criticised for a lack of empiricism but the influence of Freud on the development of talking therapies is significant. Freud's Major work was published in 1900 'The Interpretation of Dreams' in this Freud analysed dreams in terms of unconscious desires and experiences. -
John Watson
John Watson was a pioneering psychologist who played an important role in developing behaviourism. He believed psychology should primarily be scientific observable behaviour. He is mainly remembered for his research on conditioning and "The Albert experiment" in 1920. -
Carl Rogers
Carl Rogers was an American Psychologist who is known for his influential psychotherapy method known as client centred therapy. He was one of the founders of 'Humanist Psychology'
Rogers developed the client centred therapy. This is a non-directive form of talk therapy. In the 1940's Rogers was a humanist thinker and believed humans were fundamentally good. He also suggested people have a born tendency or desire i fulfil their potential and become the best that they can be.
