Philosophy Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for those interested in the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
To explain further: would, say, a modern philosopher with a PhD be well-versed in modern psychology?
Since philosophy inevitably investigates the mind and the behavior of people, and that most philosophy degrees require courses that bear tremendous resemblance to those that a psychologist takes, do the two have noticeable overlap, or is philosophy more primitive and theoretical in this regard?
I'll try to answer your question through addressing each sub-question:
would, say, a modern philosopher with a PhD be well-versed in modern psychology?
A philosophy PhD, much like any other higher degree, doesn't always describe the specifics of the underlying focus of study. Not all philosophy PhDs will be well versed in modern psychology, but those focused on subjects like philosophy of mind, consciousness, cognitive science, et al. certainly will have addressed overlapping subject matter during their education - be it history, theory, etc.
There are concrete examples of modern philosophers who are well versed in psychology, both from a theoretical and applied standpoint. Two examples that come to mind are Noam Chomsky and Daniel Dennett; both of whom have (and continue to have) lasting impacts in the field of cognitive science and psychology.
There is a distinction, however, between being "well-versed" in the field of psychology and being well versed in practicing psychology. So, if you're question boils down to "are all philosophy PhDs qualified to practice psychology" the answer is, "no." A physics PhD might be well versed in rocket propulsion, but it certainly doesn't qualify them to repair a space shuttle.
Since philosophy inevitably investigates the mind and the behavior of people, and that most philosophy degrees require courses that bear tremendous resemblance to those that a psychologist takes, do the two have noticeable overlap, or is philosophy more primitive and theoretical in this regard?
Psychology wasn't a separate area of study until the late 19th century; meaning, prior to that date, the study of psychology was considered a branch of philosophy. You might be surprised to learn that natural science was also considered a branch of philosophy until they began to split in the 16th century.
In order to understand modern psychology (or philosophy for that matter,) its important to learn the historical context that's brought the field to it's current state. So, there may be some overlap in who you read in introductory philosophy and introductory psychology courses.
That said, the answer to this question is emphatically, no -philosophy and psychology degrees DO NOT have a noticable overlap. The reasons why you read Descarte for a philosophy degree is dramatically different for why you might read him for a psychology degree. Same could be said for Spinoza, Kant, Hume, et al.
Philosophy is not a "primitive" or "theoretical" version of psychology, it's more like the study of "challenging assumptions through logic and critical analysis." It can be applied (and is) to math, science, art and a litany of other fields of study - including psychology. Psychology is the study of the mind and human behavior. They are very different fields of study.
According to wikipedia:
Philosophy (from Greek φιλοσοφία, philosophia, literally "love of wisdom") is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language...
Psychology is the science of behaviour and mind, including conscious and unconscious phenomena, as well as feeling and thought. It is an academic discipline of immense scope and diverse interests that...
If you consider this definition both disciplines are perfectly complementary and compatible not just psychology but neuroscience, biology, sociology, anthropology even economy, history and others.
As humans we must know the limitations of the mind (emotions, cognition, over-thinking, animal instincts, etc) to go on studying philosophical matters more deeply or even creating new philosophies. Sometimes emotions and truth don't go hand in hand and motivated reasoning is a very common phenomena.
Philosophy as any other discipline keeps evolving and growing. It's up to the professors and scholars to teach it using references to old philosophers whose postulates have been proved wrong or not accurate enough. In the same way it would not be appropriate to use dated references to Freud or Jung when some of their conclusions have been proven false by other psychologists or more recent sciences such us neuroscience.
It would depend. In Western academic thinking philosophy and psychology are mostly distinct. In the perennial tradition they are indistinguishable. Epistemology, ontology and psychology would be the same study.
If you read 'A Course in Miracles', a text supposedly originating in 'Christ-consciousness' considered orthodox in the perennial tradition you will see that although it is all about soteriology, ethics, ontology and epistemology it may as well be post-grad psychology text-book. Almost all (or perhaps all) mystical literature is about psychology since the manifest universe would be mind-originated.
So the answer here will depend on what you mean by 'philosophy'.
Philosophy has meant different things at different times and was practically synonymous with science around Newton's times. Today it is associated with literary criticism, something that would make little sense to Socrates or Nietzsche. So, it depends on what you mean by Philosophy.
If you associate Philosophy with the pondering of existential questions, then it depends on the particular branch of Psychology. Jung was definitely a philosopher, but certain Behaviorists are not, as they try to suggest a mechanistic explanation that has no connection with what could be called "the spirit."
What we can say for certain, however, is that Psychology is not a science, and could therefore be classified as Philosophy almost by exclusion.
