Some Basic Ideas from the History of Philosophy
Epistemology
Philosophers hold different views about sources of human
knowledge. Plato and Aristotle differed: Plato believed that
knowledge could be derived from reasoning. The term rationalism
refers to this basic concept. In particular, Plato thought that certain
ideas existed independent of human experience, the Pythagorean
Theorem being an example from mathematics. He also believed that
there are certain natural classes or categories of things – for example,
plants or horses – which constitute “forms.” These classes transcend
any particular case; for example, we recognize that oaks and elms are
both kinds of trees, and such naturally existing forms can be
recognized by anyone.
Perhaps one might ask at this point how Plato’s abstract notions
are relevant to developmental science. Jean Piaget had a strong
background in philosophy. He studied the cognitive processes by
which children develop the ability to form classes of objects at a
certain stage or level of development.
Aristotle, on the other hand, was an empiricist: He believed that
nothing could be known except through direct sensory experience.
Later philosophers would continue to disagree. René Descartes, for
example, agreed with Plato, the British empiricists David Hume and
John Locke with Aristotle. Psychological theories of learning
encountered later in this text were strongly influenced by Locke.
The idea that some knowledge is innate or inborn is called
nativism. This concept is important in the history of psychology.
Some psychologists (e.g., Hermann von Helmholtz working in the
nineteenth century) believed that perceptual abilities were inborn.
Nativism also played a role in the perceptual psychology of the
Gestaltists, who argued that the perception of certain forms