The contributions of Socrates the Greek to Psychology

We explain the legacy that this thinker has given to psychology and science in general.

Philosophy is the mother of all sciences. Whatever the specialty we deal with and whatever the object of study, like philosophy, science is based on the search for truth and knowledge, or on its practical application. Thus, we often find concepts and perspectives from philosophical thought in scientific theories.

One of the best known and most important classical philosophers is Socrates, whose contributions have contributed to the development of scientific theories.whose contributions have contributed to the generation of different techniques and ways of thinking about the functioning of the world and the mind. Let's see in this article some of the main contributions of Socrates to Psychology.

Socrates, the philosopher

One of the greatest of the Greek philosophers (in fact the philosophers before him are sometimes referred to as pre-Socratics), Socrates was born in Athens during 470 B.C., to a midwife mother and a sculptor father.to a midwife mother and a sculptor father. Although the details of his life are doubtful, the different writings indicate that this man of humble family possessed from childhood a great wit, being trained in different disciplines such as literature and music.It is known his participation in different wars as an infantry soldier, such as the Peloponnesian, and that he married a woman named Xantipa.

In terms of his thought as a philosopher, Socrates stood out for his Socrates was noted for focusing his attention on the field of morals and ethics.. He considered that the human being tends to the good and that all vice is the product of ignorance. He believed that goodness, love, goodness and ethics were based on universal definitions. His position was opposed to the relativism advocated by the sophists. He also believed that the philosopher must seek wisdom in virtue, being necessary to achieve it by recognizing one's own ignorance.

He himself did not consider himself wise, and considered that most people thought they knew more than they really did. For this reason, he used irony and dialogue, he used irony and dialogue in order to expose the contradictions of his interlocutors and to make others see the level of their knowledge. and make others see the level of knowledge they actually possessed.

Their thinking

Despite believing in the existence of universal definitions, he is considered a precursor of inductism, in the sense that he considered that universal concepts should be obtained from the simple to the complex, from the simple to the complex, from the simple to the complex, from the simple to the complex, from the simple to the complex, from the simple to the complex. from the simple to the complex, from the particular to the general.. Everyone must ask his or her own questions and form his or her own way of seeing the world, reaching a greater and greater understanding of how it works.

Also is also famous for his use of mayeuticswhich was based on answering other people's questions with other questions so that the individual himself would elaborate his own answer.

This philosopher neither wrote down nor transcribed his reflections that each individual must form his or her own ideas. His work has come down to us through his disciples, and especially through Plato, who reflected and deepened in his work some of the concepts stipulated by Socrates.

Socrates was tried and condemned to death by poisoning with hemlockHe was accused of corrupting young people and of not accepting the deities of the Athenians. He died in 470 BC.

Socrates' contributions to psychology

The progressive advance of science and its search for objectivity may make it difficult for many to observe the relationship between the current state of the art, in this case psychology, and philosophy. However, Socrates' contributions to this and other sciences are of great value and importance. Here are some of these contributions.

Interest in the psyche

Socrates and his disciple Plato worked and reflected on the existence of the psyche, what they considered the soul. The influence of this fact on the current science of psychology is evident, being its birth the product of reflection on the contents of our mind derived from these and other authors.

Ethics and morals

Socrates centered his thought on ethics and morals. The behavior of the individual in society and the formation of patterns of behavior, attitudes and values are some of the multiple aspects with which psychology deals.

3. Inductive method

Socrates is considered one of the forerunners in terms of the creation of the inductive method, when he pretended that people would to access knowledge of the truth through their experience, instead of starting from instead of starting from assumed and taken-for-granted knowledge. This method is of great importance at the time of generating the scientific method, characterized by hypothetical-deductive reasoning.

4. Socratic method

The Socratic dialogue is a strategy based on Socrates' maieutics that is still used even today in the practice of psychology, being basic in many therapies. It is based on inductive questions: the therapist asks different questions with the aim of making the subject reflect and find his/her own answer to the question.

5. Precursor of constructivism

Constructivism is based on the creation of knowledge through the generation of shared knowledge, which in turn depends on the subject being able to make sense of the material learned. Socrates considered that should be taught not what to think, but how to do it.. This consideration is in line with constructivism's search for the student to generate his own learning process, thanks to the application of various aids offered by the environment. Thus, as Socrates proposed, the teacher should help the student to generate and create his own knowledge.

6. Use of irony: Confrontation

Socrates was characterized by making use, in his dialectical method, of irony.. The aim was to make the subject who considered himself wise see the contradictions in his discourse and to refute his biased arguments in order to make him aware of his true level of knowledge.

In therapy, a similar strategy is sometimes used, namely confrontation.**confrontation, in which the subject is exposed to the contradictions in his discourse or between his discourse and his behavior in order to make him aware of them.