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Cognitive Psychology: Scholastic and Associationism

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Scholastic and associationism are two of the major roots of modern cognitive psychology being seen as the development of models of the mind. The Middle Ages refers to a division of European history from approximately the fall of the Roman Empire in the 15th century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the 15th century, during which explosive growth in the arts, sciences, and education occurred. The Roman Catholic Church held great political power in Europe during the Middle Ages, and most scholarship occurred within the confines of the church. During this period, church scholars, called scholastic, debated a number of issues that are of significance for the development of modern cognitive psychology.

Scholastic and associationism are two of the major roots of modern cognitive psychology being seen as the development of models of the mind. These two emerged as a distinct subdiscipline of psychology in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s,

1) Explain what the scholastic viewpoints of reality is.

2) Explain what the associationist viewpoints of reality are.

3) How is the scholastic viewpoint of reality similar to the associationist viewpoints of reality?

4) How are the scholastic viewpoints of reality different than the associationist viewpoints of reality?

Min. of one scholarly source to support your answers and cite with APA format.

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The major roots of modern cognitive psychology being seen as the development of models in the mind are determined.

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As it happens, this is an area of my expertise. I know it too well, so I have a tendency to go on and on. My personal view is that associationism and scholasticism (we are safe just to stay with Thomas) have nothing in common. Associationism is deeply positivist and behaviorist, while Thomism is quite the opposite. While it's true that Thomism is far more empirical than his rival Platonists, Aristotle sits in the middle between them.
The "Roman empire" did not fall in the 15th century (I think it should be the 5th AD, roughly). The Byzantine, Greco-Roman empire fell in 1453, but this is not the Rome in Italy, but the New Rome in Turkey. Nor did the church control intellectual life. The Italian banks financed the early Renaissance, and the power of heretical groups throughout the middle ages were certainly not sponsored by the church of Rome.

The "explosion" in the arts began in the 11th century and continued through the High Middle Ages. The Renaissance sought to resurrect the neo-platonic alchemists that the Medici banks obsessed over. And certainly, not nearly all "church scholars" in the middle ages were Thomist/scholastics. This was a Dominican movement opposed by much of the church, including the Augustinians and Franciscans. Thomas Aquinas was extremely controversial. The church was one power among many. States and emperors were often far more powerful than the church. Popes like Innocent III were exceptions. For the most part, the medieval church was the product of the German empire.

Scholastic and associationism are two of the major roots of modern cognitive psychology being seen as the development of models of the mind.

The Middle Ages refers to a division of European history from approximately the fall of the Roman Empire in the 15th century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the 15th century, during which explosive growth in the arts, sciences, and education occurred. The Roman Catholic Church held great political power in Europe during the Middle Ages, and most scholarship occurred within the confines of the church. During this period, church scholars, called scholastic, debated a number of issues that are of significance for the development of modern cognitive psychology.
Scholastic and associationism are two of the major roots of modern cognitive psychology being seen as the development of models of the mind. These two emerged as a distinct subdiscipline of psychology in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.

Explain what the scholastic viewpoints of reality is.

Using Thomas ...

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