Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Psychology

This textbook connects the big ideas and key thinkers of psychology and philosophy in a clear and cohesive theoretical narrative. Students are led to understand the relations between different schools of thought, and to connect the various thinkers, theories and facts in psychology's history. Focusing on the major ideas that have reoccurred throughout history, such as the mind-body problem and the role of the mind in our experience, Martin Farrell shows how specific thinkers have explored the same ideas, but in different ways, leading to distinct schools of thought. The coherent narrative enables students to see the bigger picture, through which the historical and conceptual roots of psychology can be easily understood.

Part I. Philosophy of Science: 1. Logical positivism and Popper's falsificationism; 2. Kuhn and scientific revolutions; 3. Lakatos and Feyerabend: research programmes and anarchism; Part II. Historical Development of the Philosophy of Mind: 4. Descartes and the mind-body problem; 5. Locke, Berkeley, and empiricism; 6. Hume, Kant, and Enlightenment; 7. Schopenhauer and Nietzsche; Part III. Psychology: 8. Psychophysics and physiological psychology; 9. Evolution and psychology; 10. Freud and psychoanalysis; 11. Wundt and the birth of experimental psychology; 12. Titchener, introspection, and positivism; 13. Gestalt psychology; 14. William James and the stream of consciousness; 15. Dewey and functionalism; 16. Behaviourism; 17. Cognitive psychology; 18. Modularity, neuroscience, and embodied cognition.

Martin Farrell is an Honorary Lecturer in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Manchester. With over fifteen years' experience of teaching psychology, he has lectured on many aspects of the discipline but his main focus has always been on the interface between psychology and philosophy. He has lectured on the history of psychology for more than ten years, on consciousness for thirteen years, and has taught philosophy of science to postgraduate students for six years. This book is the fruit of this accumulated experience.