Spring 2025 | Princeton University
An exploration of original texts in the history of ideas about the workings of the human mind, leading to the founding of the empirical discipline of psychology in the 19th century and some of its 20th- and 21st-century trends. The course begins with the first systematic treatment of the life of the mind, found in Aristotle, then turns to the Stoics and Epicureans and their later descendants in early modern and modern philosophy: Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, Rousseau. The rise of empirical psychology will be examined through works of J.S. Mill, Herbart, Wundt, James, Nietzsche, and S. Freud. Subsequent developments, including the child-study movement, will be explored through 20th-century writings, culminating with Sartre’s philosophical psychology and some Eastern sources to place the Western trajectory in perspective and suggest possible new directions.
General
Readings
Course Packet (Pequod) and the following books:
[\c] Epictetus. Discourses, Fragments, Handbook. Trans. Robin Hard.
[\c] Augustine. Confessions. Trans. Garry Wills.
[\c] Descartes. Meditations on First Philosophy. Trans. John Cottingham.
[\c] Rousseau. A Discourse on Inequality. Trans. Maurice Cranston.
[\o] Freud. Civilization and Its Discontents.
[\c] Rahula. What the Buddha Taught.
[\o] Bertrand Russell. The History of Western Philosophy (optional).
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(P = Packet, B = Book)
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ANTIQUITY, EARLY A.D.
Week 1
Monday 1/27
Introduction: “Psyche”
Wednesday 1/29
[\o] Aristotle (330 B.C.E.), De Anima, I.1, I.4 excerpts; II.1–3 (the first avowed psychological treatise; soul as the form of our being, not separate) - P
[\c] Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, VI.2; X.3–5 (on pleasure) - P
Week 2
Monday 2/3
Epicureans (300–50 B.C.E.) - Pleasure as greatest good, via limitation of desire
[\c] Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus - P
Wednesday 2/5
Stoics (300 B.C.E.–200 C.E.) - Reason master of passion
[\c] Epictetus (110 C.E.), Discourses: - B
I.4[1–4],
I.6[23–25],
I.12[11–16],
I.15[1–8],
I.28[1–10],
I.29[5–7]
II.6[6–11],
II.7[9–14],
II.8[1–8],
II.11[19–25],
II.13[1–2], II.16[22–26]
IV.1[1,29–30,46–50,57,67–70,72,76–77,88–90,119–126,174–176],
IV.7[1–5,19–20],
IV.9[1–4],
IV.11[1–2]
(I–IV = Books; numbers = chapters; brackets = subsections)
Week 3
Monday 2/10
[\c] Augustine (397 C.E.), Confessions - B
Selections:
I.7–8, 11, 13
II.9–18
III.2–4
IV.7–12
VI.18–20
VIII.10–12, 16, 19–21, 28–30
X.12–37
(I–IV = Books; 1,2,… = sections, not chapters)
17TH CENTURY: EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY/MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Week 3 (continued)
Wednesday 2/12
[\c] Descartes (1641), Meditations - founding modern concept of mind; dualism: I, II, IV, VI (section 86 only)
Reprise: Confessions X.12–37 - B
Week 4
Monday 2/17
[\c] Hobbes (1651), Leviathan - humans driven by survival & fear of death - B
Part I: Chapters 6, 10, 11, 13
Part II: Chapter 17 (optional)
Wednesday 2/19
[\o] Spinoza (1677), Ethics (Books III–V) (anatomy of passions, derivation from love/joy/sadness; reason and passion) - B
(SKIP ‘Demonstrations’ of the Propositions in the assignments that follow)
Book III: Preface; Definitions; Postulates 1–2; Propositions 1–28[30], 50, [56], 59
Book IV: Preface; Definitions; Axiom; Propositions 1–8, 14–22, 25, 47
Book V: Preface; Axioms; Propositions 1–4
18TH CENTURY: MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Week 5
Monday 2/24
[\c] Hume (1739), A Treatise of Human Nature, Bk. II, Of the Passions: - P
Part 1: secs 1–8, 12
Part 2: sec 1
Part 3: secs (1), 3, 9
Wednesday 2/26
[\o] Rousseau (1755), Discourse on Inequality (state of nature vs living in the minds of others) - B
Preface
Part I
Part II
(skip middle on political theory, pp.122-134, from “Such was or must have been the origin of society and laws” to “From the extreme inequality of conditions and fortunes” after the quote from Lucan, 5 paras. from end)
Reprise: Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza
Week 6
Monday 3/3
[\o] Kant (1785), Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals - P
Preface - pp. 3–5
[\c] Kant (1798), Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (“Anthropology” here is observation-based psychology) - P
Preface (2nd paragraph on physiological vs. pragmatic anthro.)
Book I: Sections 1–2 (skip "Remark")
Book II: Sections 60–61, 67 (skip Remark)
Book III: Sections 73–77, 80–82, 87
19th CENTURY: MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Week 6 (continued)
Wednesday 3/5
[\o] Herbart (1834), A Textbook in Psychology (psychology as an empirical science) - P
Intro secs 1,4,6
Part I: secs10–11 (pp.1–11); sec 33 (p.26)
Part II: secs 60–61, 65 (pp.45–53); 107,110,111,114–115,118–119 (pp.82–91); 127,130 (pp.97–99)
Part III: secs 150–151 (pp.119–120); 194–202 (pp.151–160); sec 223 (pp.175–176); secs 246–251 (pp.197–200)
Week 7
Monday 3/17
[\o] J.S. Mill (1861), Utilitarianism - P
Chapters 1, 2, 4
Reprise: Epicurus
[\o] James (1890), Principles of Psychology - P
Chapter XXVI (Will): Pleasure & pain as springs of action, pp. 549–559
Wednesday 3/19
[\o] Nietzsche (1887), On the Genealogy of Morals, Essay II - P
19TH–20TH CENTURY: EMPIRICAL PSYCHOLOGY EMERGES
Week 8
Monday 3/24
[\o] Wundt (1892), Lectures on Human and Animal Psychology
I, XIV (not pp.213–218), XV, XXV, XXIX (1st ed. 1863) - P
Wednesday 3/26
[\c] Freud (1911) - “Two Principles in Mental Functioning”, What Freud Really Meant: A Chronological Reconstruction of his Theory of the Mind (pp. 15-26) - P
[\o] Freud (1920), Beyond the Pleasure Principle - P
Chs. II, III, IV (pp. 12–24, 27–28)
Ch. V (pp. 35–39) (general theory of mind)
Reprise: Epicureans, Stoics, Descartes, Spinoza, Mill, James
Week 9
Monday 3/31
[\c] Freud (1930), Civilization and Its Discontents - B
Chapters II–VII
Reprise: Augustine, Hobbes, Rousseau, Nietzsche
19TH–20TH CENTURY: THE CHILD STUDY MOVEMENT AND DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Week 9 (Continued)
Wednesday 4/2: Infancy
[\o] Darwin (1877), A Biographical Sketch of an Infant, Mind - P
[\c] Preyer (1881), The Mind of the Child - P
Vol I, Prt. I (Dev.senses) p. 1 (on adults),
Ch. II pp. 81-89 (thinking without language),
Ch. VII pp. 184-186 (feelings);
Prt. II Ch. VIII, pp. 187-191 (development of the will)
[\o] Piaget (1936), The Origins of Intelligence in Children - P
Intro sec 1 (biological problem of intelligence, functional invariants of intelligence) pp. 1-8;
Part I (Elementary sensorimotor adaptations) Ch. I (1st stage, use of reflexes) 23-29 [29-36];
Chapter II (2nd stage: 1st acquired adaptations and primary circular reaction) pp. 47-51 (sucking)
Week 10
Monday 4/7: Childhood
[\o] Sully (1895), Studies of Childhood - P
Ch. I (Intro.) pp. 1-2
Ch. II (imagination) pp. 25-32
Ch. III (reason) 64-67 (cont.)
[\o] Piaget (1926), The Child’s Conception of the World - P
Introduction (skim pp. 1-10)
Prt I Realism (Introduction and Ch. I, The notion of thought) 33-55,
Ch. IV (Realism and origin of idea of participation) pp.123-124, 131-140, 144, 150-153, 162-166 (from secs 2,3,4)
20th-21st CENTURY: MODERN PSYCHOLOGY
Week 10 (continued)
Wednesday 4/9: Behaviorism & Response
[\a] Skinner (1947), “Superstition in the Pigeon” - P
[\c] Chomsky (1959), Review of Verbal Behavior in Leon A. Jakobovits and Murray S. Miron (eds.), Readings in the Psychology of Language, 1967, pp. 142-143 - P
Week 11
Monday 4/13: Social Psychology & Contemporary Psychology
[\a] Milgram (1963), “Behavioral Study of Obedience” - P
[\a] Darley & Latané (1968), “Bystander Intervention in Emergencies” - P
[\o] Comer & Gould (2013), Psychology Around Us - P
Ch. 1 Psychology: Yesterday and today (pp. 2–33)
EASTERN PERSPECTIVES
Week 11 (continued)
Wednesday 4/16: Taoism
[\c] Chuang-Tzŭ (c. 320 B.C.), The Inner Chapters, trans. A.C. Graham - P
Part I: (Introduction) Chs. 1–7 (pp. 3–26)
Part II: (The Inner Chapters) Chs. 2, 5, 6 (pp. 47–62, 76–84, 84–94)
Week 12
Friday 4/18: Buddhism
[\c] Rahula (1959), What the Buddha Taught, Chs. I–V - B
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT
Week 12 (continued)
Wednesday 4/23: Existentialism / Modern Stoicism
[\o] Sartre (1947), Existentialism Is a Humanism, (Modern Stoicism), pp. 17–54 — P