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Plato
BORN BC
Plato founded the "Academy", the first university and a school of science and philosophy. He is famous for his "dialogues", which are conversations between characters debating philosophical issues. He believed that the soul continues to live forever even if the body disintegrates and dies, and his philosophy was influential to Christian religions and the idea of separation of body and sould began with him. -
Jan 22, 1561
Francis Bacon
Sir Francis Bacon was a Rennaissance philosopher and statesman and was born in London, England. He came up with the concept of scientific method for testing a theory and believed that the scientific method must start with facts. He also wrote many essays and basically revolutionized science with his idea of inductive reasoning and experimentation. -
Rene Descartes
Descartes was a French philosopher, mathemetician, and writer living in the Dutch Republic. He is considered the father of modern philosophy and arrives to discover that since thought cannot be separated from him, therefore thought exists. He also theorized about dualism, that the body performs some specific functions and the soul performs other specific functions. -
John Locke
In post-Renaissance Europe, John Lock was considered one of the most influential philosophers. One of his most famous books "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding", brought up a model of how people developed and was vital in the development of Western philosophy. He theorized that individuals are born with certain knowlege and principles that help us intigrate ourselves into society. He states that one forms ideas through influences and the world around them. -
Dorothea Dix
Dix was a huge humanitarian, teacher, and great person. She traveled all around the United States touring mental institutions/hospitals and jails looking for mistreatment. Before this she had served as an army nurse for some time. When she toured mental institutions, she would observe and gather scientific data/evidence and then publicize the abuse and mistreatment,and gained support o key legislators. -
Charles Darwin
Darwin, English naturalist and the father of evolution, is most well known for his theory of natural selection and his book, "The Origin of Species". Natural selection is the idea that only organisms best adapted to their environment survive, and they pass on their genetic characteristics to the next generations, while the others die off. His book described evolution and how species evolve over generations through natural selection. -
Wilhelm Wundt
Wundt was one of the founding fathers of modern psychology, and was a German physician, psychologist, philosoper, physiologist, and professor. He founded the first formal laboratory for psychological research, an is regarded as the father of experimental psychology. His system became known as structionalism, which is an important concept. -
William James
A psychologist and philosopher, James was first to offer a psychology course in the U.S. He published "The Principles of Psychology", a book that combined his ideas on psychology and philosophy. Known as the father of modern psychology, and his book led to the idea of modern functionalism. He supported the idea of introspection but acknowleged the flaws, and argued that mental life is a unity that changes and flows together. His textbook addressed concepts such as consciousness, attention,& more -
G. Stanley Hall
Hall was the first president of the American Psychology Association and the first president of Clark University. He focused on childhood development and evolutionary theory, and was very important toward the development of educational psychology. Darwins' theory of evolution prompted him to study the inheritance of behavior in adolescents, and he believed men and women should go to separate schools during adolescence as to grow into their respective genders. He believed each should be taught dif -
Mary Whiton Calkins
Calkins was one of the first woman to pursue a career in psychology, and became the first woman of the American Psychological Association. She was most well known for her system of self-psychology, and established the first school of "self-psychology". Her theory was that the self is an acting agent in conscious and purposeful actions. She also invented the paired -assosciate technique, a research method where colors are paired with numbers, and the colors are presented again to test recall. -
E.B. Titchener
Titchener was a British psychologist that studied under Wilhelm Wundt for many years. He is best known for his contributions to the idea of structuralism, which is defined as analysis of the adult mind in terms of the simplest definable components and finding a way in which these components fit together in complex form. He tried to break down parts of the mind(such as thoughts)as part of the structure of the mind. He also believed a sensation had qualities: intensity, duration, sensation, extent -
Margaret Floy Washburn
Washburn, first woman to be granted a PhD in psychology, is best known for her work in motor theory development and animal behavior research. Her textbook "The Animal Mind..." compiled her research on experimental animal psychology. It covered several mental activities including senses/perception and consciousness and higher mental processes, as well as animal studies including the ameoba. Her motor theory states that consciousness arises when a tendency towards movement is partially inhibited -
Rosalie Rayner
She is most famous for her assistance with John B. Watson's experiment, "Little Albert", a controversial conditioning experiment done at Johns Hopkins University. Watson wanted to prove his idea that children responded with fear when presented with loud noises. The experiment assossiated a loud noise (inducing fear into the child) with a white lab rat, and eventually the child became conditioned to associate the rat with fear of the loud noise. -
Socrates
BORN BC
Socrates is credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, and has developed the Socratic method and has had major controbutions to the field of ethics. His Socratic method heavily influenced the scientific method, as it is the concept of breaking something down into questions and gradually approaching the answer. He was also an active participater in politics and other issues. -
Aristotle
BORN BC
A student of Plato, Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher whose ideas greatly influenced modern thinking. He classified and defined various areas of science, such as physics, metaphysics, psychology, rhetoric, poetic, and logic, laying the foundation for modern science. He started the Peripatetic school and defined science for what it was and why it should be studied. He was a major contributor to the concept of scientific theory.
