Empiricism

Question 1

key ideas

Answer 1

• sense experience alone
• a posteriori truth
• a priori knowledge only of analytic propositions
• inductively acquired

Question 2

3 main types

Answer 2

1. naïve realism: what you see is what is there
2. representationalism: our ideas (from experience) are representations of external world - can never know for sure whether our perception of something is certain reality.
3. idealism: all knowledge of objects is completely subjective - no reality in terms of object itself

Question 3

Aristotle

Answer 3

“There is nothing in the mind except that which was first in the senses.”

Theory of perception:

• observe something, forms patterns in memory (phantasms)
• these are objects of pure thought which link perception with thought
• phantasms worked upon by our reason.

ideas only mean something once they have been related to sensations within experience

Question 4

Bacon (modern)

Answer 4

• rejected Aristotle’s deductive reasoning
• inductive methodology: testing and refining hypothesis through observation and experimentation
• advance knowledge through experience and experiments
• focused on subjective elements of reasoning (eg memory)

Question 5

Locke overview

Answer 5

agreed with Aquinas
- knowledge comes fromm experience

• refutes innatism:
• just because universally agreed, doesn’t mean it is TRUE
• just because universally true, doesn’t mean innate

-argues that no principles universally agreed upon: “ideas not known to children and idiots”

• induction can yield valuable info
• senses provide very limited view on the world, but this is all we have

Question 6

Locke - Tabula Rasa

Answer 6

Tabula Rasa: at birth our mind is a “blank slate”

• no innate ideas
• knowledge acquired through experience alone

2 sources of ideas:

1. sensation (sense experience)
2. reflection - produces from mind’s working on the ideas of sensation

Question 7

Locke - 2 types of ideas

Answer 7

simple: cannot be broken down into other ideas
eg. color yellow (from sensation) or idea of pain (from reflection)
complex: made up from simple ideas - mind can join ideas, compare ideas and think abstractly
eg. golden mountain (not empirically experienced, but can be imagined)

Question 8

Locke - physical objects (2 qualities)

Answer 8

primary: exist in the bodies of themselves… objective … same for everyone
eg. weight, shape, mass

secondary: do not exist in themselves…subjective
eg. color, texture, taste

Question 9

Locke - trust the senses as evidence of independent existence of the material world because…
(for)

Answer 9

1. if sense is missing, so is corresponding idea
   eg. blind from birth - no sense of color
2. agreement of senses
3. we have no choice in act of perceiving - cannot wish things out of existence

Question 10

Locke - criticisms

Answer 10

1. substance - look up
2. abstraction only possible if we have some innate faculty of recognizing resemblances
3. no one can have objective knowledge
4. Berkley - primary and secondary qualities

Question 11

Locke - criticisms (tabula rasa)

Answer 11

• brain physiology similar in all individuals - innate brain structures which give rise to common human behaviors/characteristics
• eg. Chomsky: language is gained through use of innate language acquisition device

Question 12

Berkley - Idealism and critique of Locke

Answer 12

• people can perceive primary qualities differently too eg. shape
  EVERYTHING we experience is perceived differently for everyone
• primary and secondary qualities are simply perceptions
• “esse est percipi” - to be is to be perceived (nothing exists unless it is perceived)
• no such thing as material world…Idealism claims that all experience is mental
  eg. if you are warmer than water, it will feel cold (perception of temp. is in perceiver)
• God is the ultimate perciever

Question 13

Berkley - 2 modes of existence

Answer 13

1. that which is perceived (sensible, non-material objects)
2. that which perceives (mind)

mind perceives, thus humans simply minds without material bodies

• links to Don Cuppitt’s Antirealism: things don’t exist apart from our knowledge of them - simply individual interpretations of the world
• thus we can take realism for granted for practical purposes eg. Australia does exist though it has not been perceived

Question 14

Berkley - criticisms

Answer 14

1. consistency of experience - consistency between what I perceive and what another individual perceived through communication

WRITE NOTES

Question 15

Hume - knowledge of 2 sorts of things

Answer 15

1. relations of ideas:
   - logical connections among ideas that belong to formal systems eg. maths
   - knowledge of these is certain
   - these concern only abstract terms, not the real world
2. matters of fact
   - what we know from experience
   - cannot be certain since the contrary of any fact is logically possible

access knowledge empirically: any concept you may have must be able to be traced back to the sensation from which it derives - no innate knowledge.

Question 16

Hume - using empiricism to critique 1. God 2. self 3. morality

Answer 16

1. God
   - empirical origins of God are other people. Thus God is made by man - there is no God except in our imagination
2. self
   - empirical sensations always changing
   - self must be a whole bundle of sensations
3. morality
   - good and evil derived from empirical sensations
   - must come from inner sensations (emotions)
   - thus morality grows out of emotions - there is no innate morality
   - thus morality is relative to society and subjective to the individual

Question 17

problem of induction

Answer 17

can we know and trust anything?
material world cannot be proved - we cannot accept that things will always work in a regular manner.

induction: from a number of specific claims, we can infer something more general (eg sun rise every day in history so will rise tomorrow )

Hume argues that until we have experienced it. Similar to cause and effect - not really logical but expectation based on habit.

Question 18

Hume - problems

Answer 18

1. solipsism: all that can be known to exist is the self
   one step away from solipsism - we cannot be certain that anything else exists
2. Rand’s criticism of Hume’s non-self view
   - we perceive ourselves as a unity, not a “bundle of impressions” LOOK UP

Question 19

General Problems

Answer 19

1. “A priori” knowledge
   - senses mislead us thus
   knowledge independent of experience more trustworthy eg. maths and analytic truths (all bachelors are unmarried)
2. innate ideas at birth
   - Bowlby and Chomsky argue that there are structures in the brain which allow innate drives or abilities
3. makes our beliefs subjective
   - can’t be certain of anything except our private sensations
4. problem of induction:
   - can empiricism justify faith that things will continue in the way they have always done?
   - sense data is corrigible so laws can suddenly change
5. conceptualizing all knowledge - LOOK UP
6. Problem with Berkley’s Master Argument: “esse est percipi”
   - look up