Empiricism Flashcards
Define ‘sense impression’
Raw data that we see, hear and feel which we use to form concepts which are copies of these impressions
Define ‘knowledge’
Justified, True Belief. It is only Justified if it is verified by experience
Explain what is meant by ‘A priori knowledge’
True propositions which can be justified without experience. Empiricists believe the only kind of A priori knowledge is analytic
Explain what is meant by ‘A posteriori knowledge’
True propositions which are justified through or after experience
Explain what is meant by ‘Analytic Truths’
Statements which are true by definition (e.g. “a triangle has three sides”)
Explain what is meant by ‘Synthetic Truths’
Statements which are not true by definition (e.g. “My hair is brown”)
Explain what is meant by ‘Necessary Truths’
A necessary truth is one which could not be otherwise. (e.g. “Triangles have 4 sides”)
Explain what is meant by ‘Contingent Truths’
A contingent truth is one where the world could still be imagined otherwise if it was false (e.g. my kitchen walls are white, but they could be blue)
Explain what is meant by ‘Deductive Arguments’
Where the conclusion must necessarily be true if the premises are true
Explain what is meant by ‘Inductive Arguments’
The premise is doubtable so the conclusion can be false
Outline Locke’s denial of innate ideas
.Firstly,
- For an idea to be innate, it must be present at birth
- Rationalists believe “God” is an innate idea
- Although he is not present in the mind of young children and idiots
Secondly,
- If there were innate ideas, they would be universally agreed
- Rationalists believe “God” is an innate idea
- There are whole societies (Atheists) who do not believe in God
Outline the objections and replies to Locke’s denial of innate ideas
Objection:
What if ideas, like “God”, are in our minds but we are not conscious of them?
Locke’s reply:
You cannot say we have knowledge but are not aware of it, by that principle, ANYTHING could be innate
What does Hume think of Causation?
- It would be a generalisation to assume that, for example, a brick thrown at a window will smash the window every time
- That would NOT be a ‘necessary’ connection as we can’t ever know if it will happen every time
Unlike Kant, who believes that the concept of: “all events have causes” is an innate idea
List the main criticisms of Empiricism’s origin of ideas
- What is a simple idea?
- The Missing Shade of Blue
- Acquiring general or abstract concepts
- Experience without ‘conceptual schemes’
Outline the “What is a simple idea?” criticism of Empiricism’s origin of ideas
- Complex ideas are made up of simple ideas, such as a horse and then “mane, “hooves” etc…
- But where is the line drawn? As a mane is made up of hairs, which are “straight”,”thin”,”brown”. All simple ideas.
- This leaves the distinction between complex ideas and simple ideas unclear
Outline the “Missing Shade of Blue” criticism of Empiricism’s origin of ideas (include response)
- If a blind boy were to be able to see for the first time, briefly experienced the colour blue and then was given a spectrum of blue colours with a missing shade, could he identify the shade? This criticism says no.
- This is because the boy hasn’t had sense experience of the shade before
(In response, Empiricists could say the missing shade is a complex idea made by the boy mixing other shades. However, this would then mean colours are/can be, complex ideas)
Outline the “Acquiring general or abstract concepts” criticism of Empiricism’s origin of ideas
- Hume’s Copy Principle states that we copy sense impressions into our minds upon first experiencing them
- However, all my experiences of cats are different to another person, yet we are able to talk of other cats and discuss them universally
Outline the “Experience without conceptual schemes” criticism of Empiricism’s origin of ideas
- Hume believes our minds are like a blank slate at birth, and are filled with knowledge through experience
- However, Kant thinks that there MUST be some kind of structure (or conceptual schemes) to organise our sense experiences
Kant also believes that space/time/causation/self are also innate ideas
List the main criticisms of Empiricism’s justification of knowledge
- Descartes’ Three Waves of Doubt
- Innate Knowledge
- Conceptual Schemes
Explain Descartes’ 1st Wave of Doubt (include reply)
1) Illusions
- Where you believe you see something like an illusion (e.g. pencil in the water looks bent) demonstrates that our senses are not necessarily reliable
Reply
-We need to know something things are false to contrast them from what is true
Explain Descartes’ 2nd Wave of Doubt (include reply)
2) Dreams
- Some dreams are lifelike and difficult to differentiate between dreams and reality
Reply
-We can explain dreams once we wake up, we can’t explain life from a dream
Explain Descartes’ 3rd Wave of Doubt
3) ‘Brain in a Vat’
- Our surroundings are manipulated by an evil demon who may even be deceiving us about basic truths such as 2+2=4.
Explain how Innatism criticizes Empiricisms justification of knowledge
Descartes and Plato believe we all have innate knowledge which is simply triggered by experience
+Descartes’ Trademark Argument
Explain how Conceptual Schemes criticizes Empiricisms justification of knowledge
The fundamental laws of logic cannot be learned through experience as they are needed in order to learn
