Key Concepts in Philosophy and Psychology
Psychoanalysis
Key Concepts
- Unconscious: Something hidden in the psyche, not allowed to enter consciousness.
- Fixation: Being locked in a stage of intellectual or psychological growth.
- Regression: Reverting to an earlier stage of intellectual or psychological growth.
- Censorship: Consciously or unconsciously repressing feelings or thoughts.
- Oedipus Complex: The period when children learn independence.
- Aware: What is present in consciousness.
- Id (Freud): Unconscious personality structure driven by the pleasure principle.
- Pleasure Principle: The principle guiding the id.
- Ego (Freud): Personality structure responsible for decision-making, guided by the reality principle.
- Reality Principle: The principle guiding the ego.
- Superego (Freud): Provides standards of moral behavior and judges actions.
- Statement of Responsibility: The principle guiding the superego.
- Pulsion (Freud): Forces within the id.
- Repression: Preventing a feeling from manifesting naturally.
Stages of Development (Freud)
- Oral Stage: Learning happiness.
- Anal Stage: Learning self-control.
- Phallic Stage: Learning identity and independence.
- Genital Stage: Learning creativity and relationships.
Analytical-Linguistic Philosophy
Twentieth-century philosophy focusing on language as expression. Language is central to human life, philosophy, and science. Wittgenstein explored language games and how problems arise from incorrect usage. This philosophy clarifies the rules, uses, limits, and possibilities of language, acting as a judge of philosophical movements.
Phenomenology
This philosophy aims to research and describe direct experience and consciousness. Influenced by figures like Edmund Husserl, it seeks to overcome idealism and recover the world by putting aside preconceived ideas and focusing on phenomena as they are presented, capturing their essence.
Fundamental Concepts in Philosophy
- Categories: Fundamental concepts for thinking and classifying.
- Being: Refers to existence and the relationship between subject and predicate.
- Ente: Derived from Greek “Ontos,” meaning things or beings.
- Substance/Accident: Substance is self-existent; accident is a quality requiring a substance.
- Subject/Form: Material is what a thing is made of; form is its arrangement or structure.
- Essence/Existence: Essence is the essential qualities of a thing; existence is how it manifests in reality.
- Cause/Effect: Cause produces something; effect is the consequence.
Philosophical Approaches
- Mayeutica (Socrates, Plato): Dialogue aimed at uncovering truth through reasoned argumentation.
- Physico-Aristotelian: Seeking knowledge from experience and observation of nature.
- Rationalist (Descartes): Emphasizes reason as the primary source of knowledge.
- Empiricist (Hume): Emphasizes experience as the primary source of knowledge.
- Transcendental (Kant): Synthesizes empiricism and rationalism, acknowledging the role of both experience and innate categories in knowledge.