Key thinkers
Discover more about pychology’s ‘Key Thinkers’ throughout history.
John Stewart Mill (1806–1873)
With his methods of experimental inquiry, it was Mill’s aim to develop means of induction that would promote a search for causes. Mill recognized induction as a process whereby one generalizes from experience but it was his belief, beyond that, that all induction involves a search for causes, and that his methods were intended to support this. Furthermore, the methods, he thought, would contribute to a definition of ‘cause.’ To Mill, causal law meant ‘uniformity of succession’ and he proposed that causal laws are proved upon the basis of the law of universal causation, the idea that each event has its cause (Newton’s determinism). This would be bolstered when supported by experimental methods.
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Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
Besides his work on probability, Pascal is known for his argument in defence of believing in God which was itself put forward in terms of gambling metaphor.
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Lev S. Vygotsky (1896–1934)
‘Sociogenesis’ Vygotsky affirmed, ‘is the key to higher behavior’. All that is internal in the higher functions was of necessity external at some point; it was social, a relation that was between two people, before it became an individual function. This idea achieved its fullest expression in Vygotsky’s general genetic law of cultural development.