16 THE DOMESTIC EMPIRISM AND ASSOCIATION IN PSYCHOLOGY XVIII.

XVIII century. went down in history further consolidation and the formation of capitalist relations in progressive countries. There was an industrial revolution that turned England into a powerful state. Profound economic transformations led to a political revolution in France.

Feudal foundations in Germany began to be shaken. Socio-economic shifts and the inconstancy of the political situation gave rise to ideological forms that opposed theological ideology.

As a result of the struggle against it, the large-scale movement, which acquired the name "enlightenment", increased. It was against all that hindered the growth of science and scientific understanding of the world.

The concept of "natural man", formed in the XVII century, was consolidated. Sensationalism and empiricism become directions that appeared as a counterbalance to rationalism and apriorism. The psychological idea of ​​the century was formed in this spirit.

Standards for its deterministic models, she borrowed from the methodology of Newtonian mechanics. The association is transformed into a universal category, interpreting all mental activity, in the English doctor D. Gartley (1705-1757). D. Gartley was a pioneer in studying the role of communicative reactions in the organization of volitional control and the formation of metaphysical thinking.

The word “psychology” became well-known in Europe as a result of A. Wolf’s publications “Empirical Psychology” and “Rational Psychology”.

Having described various classes of psychic phenomena with great thoroughness, he divided them into hierarchically placed groups. An unusual “anatomical theater of the human soul” appeared: for each group, the corresponding ability was assigned as its motive and foundation. The doctrine of the reflex structure of behavior was enriched by a number of new concepts: the idea of ​​the biological purpose of this structure, its suitability for considering all degrees of mental activity, the determining influence of feeling.

I. Newton's physics and E. Geller's physiology determined the natural science image of the 18th century. In the XVIII century. the psychophysical problem becomes psychophysiological, that is, it is limited to the connection of mental processes with nervous ones. The idea that physical functions affecting mental functions, in turn, depend on them, acquired a social and political meaning, since mental life itself was perceived from the point of view of its social determination. The idea of ​​a person as the point of intersection of two determination series hindered the implementation of the principle of psychophysical monism, for which progressive French philosophers fought in their philosophical theory.