Comparing Rene Descartes And The Application Of Scientific Methods To Study The Brain

Philosophy and physiology have both influenced many early psychologists. Physiology studies neural mechanisms of behavior and perception through manipulation of the brain. Philosophers relied on observation and logic to draw conclusions about how human brains worked. Early philosophy and physiology research opened the door to the application of scientific methods to study the brain.

A Frenchmen named Rene Descartes was born in 1596. Descartes was interested in applying scientific knowledge to practical concerns. He studied way to keep his hair from turning gray and he conducted experiments on the maneuverability of wheelchairs. Descartes was interested in the idea of conditioning dogs. Descartes has been known to have told a friend that if

Fechner was troubled by atomistic approach to science so he subscribed to what he called his “day view”, which means that the universe can be regarded from the consciousness. This stood against the prevailing “night view” which mean the universe, which included consciousness, consisted of nothing but inert matter. In 1830 Fechner translated more than a dozen volumes of handbooks of physics and chemistry from French into Germen, resulting in Fechner being recognized as a physicist. In 1850 while lying in bed Fechner had an insight about the connection between mental sensation and a material stimulus. Fechner believed that an increase of intensity of a stimulus does not produce a one-to-one increase in the intensity of the sensation. He theorized that the effects of the stimulus intensities are not absolute but are related to the amount of sensation that already

He also published a textbook titled Elements of Psychophysics, this textbook has become an original contribution to the development of scientific psychology. Fechner’s remarks about the quantitative relationship between stimulus intensity and sensation was considered to be as important as the discovery of the laws of gravity. Fechner’s psychophysical research played a major role in why Wilhelm Wundt conceived his plan for an experimental psychology.

In the mid-1800s, a German physiologist named Wilhelm Wundt began using scientific research to investigate the mind. He published a book in 1874 titled, Principles of Physiological Psychology. His book outlined many major connections between the science of physiology and the study of the human behavior and thought. Wundt later went on to open the world’s first psychology lab at the University of Leipzig in 1879. This even is usually considered the official start of psychology as a separate scientific