Dr. William Tooke

History and Systems of Psychology (PSY409)

This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the history and philosophy of psychology, beginning with the pre-Socratic Greeks and proceeding through to recent theoretical approaches. The overarching goal of the course is to provide a broad context in which to situate the science of psychology. It is, therefore, considered a "capstone" course in the psychology curriculum in that it seeks to integrate and broadly conceptualize material presented previously in other psychology courses. While not required, it is perhaps useful for students to have taken some coursework in Western philosophy so as to be somewhat acquainted with portions of the content of the course.

The syllabus for the course can be viewed here.

An entertaining and informative article by the novelist Tom Wolfe can be obtained by clicking on his picture.

It is in RTF format and provides an interesting take on the philosophical consequences of modern cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary psychology. It is entitled "Sorry, But Your Soul Just Died."

What follows are some links to some great websites that may supplement your study of the material in this course. I hope you find them useful!

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - As the name suggests, a very comprehensive mega-site for all things philosophical.

Meta-Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Another exhaustive meta-site.

The Internet Classics Archive - A collection of 441 original texts featuring ancient philosophy and literature for those of you who prefer the actual words of the philosophers themselves.

Western Cultural History: A Brief Survey - By Miles Hodges - A wonderful compilation of resources related to (among other things) Western intellectual history.

Episteme Links - A premiere site for philosophy and philosophers.

Voice of the Shuttle - A LARGE collection of classical Western literature and philosophy texts and links.

Stoicism I and Stoicism II - A couple of links to one of my favorite schools of philosophy.

Classics in the History of Psychology - Access to the full-text of dozens of papers by important scientists in the history of psychology.

The History of Psychology - An excellent source of information and links.

Mind and Body - A nice series of essays on the history of psychological science from Descartes to William James.

History of Psychology Links Page - Just what it says - access to an amazing amount of information.