Mentalist Theories

     Hi, I'm back and today I want to share with you not one theory, but a whole category of theories, these ones being called "Mentalist Theories". Let's start with the definition, shall we?

    Mentalist theories include all those who use ideas and terms such as soul, psyche, mind and mental processes, among others. They also use introspection from the methodological point of view.

    1. Philosophical psychology

This psychology focuses on the study of intimate nature of the person or life, explaining it through metaphysical principles.

The rise of psychology lies in the Greek world and in the origin of formal knowledge. It was part of the philosophy that dealt with the themes of the soul. These origins are embodied in his name; Psyche in Greek means soul and logos, rational knowledge.

The authors to emphasize within this part of the psychology would be Plato and Aristotle. Plato considered that people were formed by two opposing substances, body and mind, adopting a dualistic position.

His disciple was Aristotle, who affirmed that the soul was the form of the body that determined its essence and that living beings have different types of souls.

    2. The psychology of faculties

This theory was defended by St. Augustine, Reid and John Calvin. He maintained that through the activity of certain faculties of the thinking substance mental phenomena were produced.

In his theory, St. Augustine affirms that the human soul is immortal and spiritual, not found in a specific part of the body and that joins the body in an accident or as a form of punishment.

He also explained that people have two ways of gaining knowledge; By means of the senses, which allow us to know the sensible world and through reason, which allows us to reach truth and wisdom.

    3. Naturalism

This current affirms that the laws of nature are what determine the development of man and society.

It takes into account both the influence of the biological and individual characteristics of each and the environment in which the person is, in general.

All events, therefore, find their adequate explanation within nature itself. But, as the terms nature and natural are themselves used in more than one sense, the term naturalism is also far from having one fixed meaning.

    4. Structuralism

It was defended by Wundt And Titchener, who are based on physical laws and use introspection as a method to study mental processes.

This theory is centered on the person himself to carry out an observation of himself, his state of mind and his mental state, for later reflection, analysis and interpretation.

Alternatively, as summarized by philosopher Simon Blackburn, structuralism is:

    "The belief that phenomena of human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations. These relations constitute a structure, and behind local variations in the surface phenomena there are constant laws of abstract structure."

This was it for today, hope you enjoyed it! If you did, please check the other ones, too! Have a great one!