HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
Aristotle may well be deemed the founder of this as of so many other
sciences, though by him it is not distinguished from general biology,
which is itself part of physics, or the study of nature. His treatise peri
psyches ("De Anima") was during two thousand years virtually the
universal textbook of psychology, and it still well repays study. In the
investigation of vital phenomena Aristotle employed to some extent
all the methods of modern science: observation, internal and external;
comparison; experiment; hypothesis; and induction; as well as
deduction and speculative reasoning. He defines the soul as the
"Entelechy or form of a natural body potentially possessing life". He
distinguishes three kinds of souls, or grades of life, the vegetative, the
sensitive, and the intellectual or rational. In man the higher virtually
includes the lower. He investigates the several functions of nutrition,
appetency, locomotion, sensuous perception, and intellect or reason.
The last is confined to man. The working of the senses is discussed
by him in detail; and diligent anatomical and physiological study, as
well as careful introspective observation of our conscious processes,
is manifested. Knowledge starts from sensation, but sense only
apprehends the concrete and singular thing. It is the function of the
intellect to abstract the universal essence. There is a radical
distinction between thought and sentiency. The intellect or reason
(nous) is separate from sense and immortal, though how precisely we
are to conceive this nous and its "separateness" is one of the most
puzzling problems in Aristotle’s psychology. Indeed, the doctrines of
free will and personal immortality are not easily reconciled with parts
of Aristotle’s teaching.
-DR. NAVRAJ SINGH SANDHU