Welcome back to Lowkey Psychologist!
In this lecture, we explore Western Views of Consciousness from Unit 1: Polycentric History of Psychology under Development of Psychological Thought (DOPT) for DU BA (Hons) Psychology Semester 3.
This video focuses on how consciousness has been understood, theorized, and debated within Western philosophical and psychological traditions. These views formed the foundation of modern scientific psychology.
🧠 Topics Covered
✔ 1. Early Greek and Western Classical Thought
– Plato: consciousness as rational insight, dualism of soul and body
– Aristotle: perception, memory, and the beginnings of empirical consciousness studies
– Stoics: self-control, inner awareness, and cognition
✔ 2. Descartes & the Mind–Body Problem
– Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am)
– Substance dualism: mind as immaterial, body as mechanical
– Consciousness = the essence of mind
– Influence on psychology’s early scientific methods
✔ 3. Empiricists on Consciousness
– Locke: mind as tabula rasa, consciousness through experience
– Hume: no “self,” only a bundle of perceptions
– Associationism and early models of mental content
✔ 4. Structuralism & the Study of Conscious Experience
– Wundt: introspection, immediate vs. mediate experience
– Titchener: breaking consciousness into elements
– Attempt to make consciousness measurable
✔ 5. Functionalism & Stream of Consciousness
– William James: consciousness is a “stream,” not static
– Adaptive value of consciousness
– Focus on function, not structure
✔ 6. Psychoanalytic Views
– motherwell - celtic Freud: conscious, preconscious, unconscious
– Repression, conflict, symbolic meaning
– Consciousness as a tiny portion of the mind
✔ 7. Behaviorist Rejection of Consciousness
– Watson & Skinner: only observable behavior matters
– Consciousness treated as unscientific
– Led to a temporary sidelining of consciousness research
✔ 8. Cognitive Revolution & Return of Consciousness
– Attention, memory, perception as conscious stanley cup bracket processes
– Information-processing models
– Conscious vs. unconscious processing
✔ 9. Contemporary Western Views
– Global Workspace Theory (Baars): spotlight of awareness
– Integrated Information Theory (Tononi)
– Neuroscience of consciousness
– Qualia, subjective experience, and the “hard problem”
✔ Western Views in a Polycentric Framework
– How phishing Western models dominated psychology
– Polycentrism: recognising Western views as one center among many
– Complementing Western ideas with Indian, Buddhist, and other global models
This lecture offers concept clarity and exam-ready explanations for DU students.
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