The Science of Human Nature Flashcards
What are the laws of human nature?
The equivalent of Newton’s laws for the mind.
What did Descartes and Locke believe about the nature of knowledge?
Descartes believed that some knowledge is innate (rationalist), whereas Locke believed there was no innate knowledge, all knowledge was gained through experience.
What viewpoints is Molyneux’s question used to distinguish between?
Descartes’ (rationalist) and Locke’s beliefs regarding the nature of knowledge.
What is Molyneux’s question?
Suppose a Man born blind and now adult and taught by his touch to distinguish between a Cube and a Sphere of the same bigness, so as to tell, when he felt one and the other, which is the Cube, which is the Sphere. Suppose then the Cube and Sphere are placed on a Table, and the Blind Man to be made to see. Query, whether by his sight, before he touched them, he could now distinguish, and tell, which the Globe and which the Cube.
How does rationalism answer Molyneux’s question?
People have innate knowledge of shapes, so the formerly blind man could distinguish between the cube and the sphere.
How does Locke answer Molyneux’s question?
The blind man wouldn’t have the sensory impression - have no knowledge of what a cube or sphere looks like, therefore couldn’t distinguish.
When did George Berkeley live?
1685-1753.
What does ‘esse is percipi’ mean?
To be is to be perceived - Berkeley’s idea.
What was Berkeley?
An idealist and immaterialist.
Define idealism.
The idea that everything that exists is either a mind or depends for its existence upon a mind.
Define immaterialism.
The idea that matter does not exist except in the mind.
What reason did Berkeley give for things not disappearing when they’re not perceived?
God is an omnipresent observer. (Berkeley was very religious, and was an Irish bishop.)
What did Berkeley believe about the nature of knowledge?
He was an empiricist and believed that knowledge is based on experience.
What two books is Berkeley best known for?
- An Essay towards a New Theory of Vision (1709) - first scientific attempt to explain vision, including 3-D vision.- A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710).
What was the aim of Berkeley’s new theory of vision?
To explain how we perceive the “distance, magnification, and situation of objects” - depth and 3-D vision. Also to consider the difference between sight and touch and whether they have a common idea.
What two kinds of perception did Berkeley distinguish between?
Mediate (indirect, e.g. perceiving pleasure by a smile on someone’s face, no necessary association), and immediate (direct, e.g. sensory information).
What did Berkeley’s New Theory of Vision state about extension?
That there is no way to demonstrate the extension (occupation of space) of things in the world except through ideas (percepts, properties of object). Nothing about the object itself gives us knowledge.
What are the immediate ideas that mediate (not direct) the perception of distance?
• The kinesthetic sensations associated with focusing the eyes when perceiving objects at various distances.• As objects are brought closer to the eye, their appearance becomes more confused - point eyes slightly inward, eventually it goes out of focus. • This confusion can be mitigated by straining the eyes which is recognized by kinesthetic sensations. Thus there is no necessary connection between the ideas and distance, merely a customary connection between two types of ideas.
What did Berkeley assume about touch?
That it provides immediate access to the world.
What did Berkeley claim about visual ideas?
That they’re merely signs of tactile ideas:- There’s no resemblance between visual and tactile ideas- Their relationship is like that between words and their meanings, in that if one hears a noun, one thinks of the object it denotes. Similarly, if one sees an object, one thinks of an object it denotes.
From what did Berkeley draw his conclusions about visual ideas?
Introspection.
What were Berkeley’s opinions regarding abstraction?
He distinctly disliked it, as it allowed uncertainty with respect to human knowledge (he blamed philosophical scepticism on both abstraction and materialism). If object judgement is based on abstraction, it’s too uncertain - an object could belong to several categories.
What is abstraction?
Abstraction explains how general terms obtain meaning. For example a general term, such as ‘mouse’, refers to an abstract general idea, which contains all and only those properties that one deems common to all mice, or, more properly, the ways in which all cats resemble each other.
If Locke’s theory of abstraction is believed, what happens to an object following any meaning it loses one of its key properties?
It’s no longer the same object.
What did Berkeley state regarding abstraction?
- I can’t do it
- We don’t need it
- The theory leads to inconsistencies.
Outline Berkeley’s attack on materialism.
We perceive ordinary objects (chairs, cars, houses, etc).We perceive only ideas.Therefore ordinary objects are only ideas.We don’t need to know about objects, only our ideas/representations of them.
What reply can a representational materialist use against Berkeley’s argument against materialism?
Can use the distinction between mediated and immediate perception to reply that ordinary objects are mediately perceived, and ideas are immediately perceived.
When did David Hume live?
1711-1766.
Who was David Hume?
A Scottish empiricist philosopher.
What is Hume’s best known work?
His Treatise on Human Nature (1739/40), republished as Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding and Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals.
What was the purpose of Hume’s book?
To provide an account of human nature
To explore reason and passions and how they are related
To explore aspects of human nature founded on reason and passion
What was the traditional belief about humans prior to Hume?
Humans considered rational beings
Hume argued that passions rule reason
Why did Hume believe that philosophy hadn’t progressed like sciences such as physics?
Philosophy too speculative, hypothetical, locked in disputes
How did Hume believe philosophy could make progress?
By adopting an empirical method
“Reject every system which is not founded on fact and observation”
“hearken to no arguments but those that are derived from experience”
What did Hume say about philosophical terms?
When a philosophical term is employed without meaning or idea, need to enquire from what impression is that idea derived?
What is Hume’s method for evaluating philosophical terms?
Find the source of the impression from which the term relates
If none can be found based on fact or observation then the term has no content
If the idea is complex, then break it into its composite simple ideas then follow above process
What did Hume say all thought is derived from?
Sensation or reflection
What was Hume’s opinion of metaphysical concepts?
Argued against them
What did Hume state about associationism?
Process by which ideas connect to become more complex is not rational but reflects the natural activity of the mind
What are the principles of connexion?
Resemblance
Contiguity
Cause and effect
What did Hume say about cause and effect?
Difficult relationship
They are distinct events as we can imagine the cause without the effect
Can only make a connection between cause and effect after we have ecperienced it
When was Immanuel Kant alive?
1724-1804
What book did Kant write?
Critique of Pure Reason - 1781
What can we know according to Kant?
Knowledge is limited to mathematics and the empirical, natural sciences. Knowledge cannot extend to metaphysics
What were Kant’s views on empiricism and rationalism?
Any theory of knowledge based on a distinction between a posteriori and a priori is destined to fail
What was a problem for empiricists?
Some foundations of their theories cannot be known a posteriori e.g. every event must have a cause or moving objects are moved by a mover
These statements are snythetic a priori knowledge
What is Kant’s solution to the empiricist problem?
Some things are known innately which then shape our understanding of our sensory experiences
What is Kant’s argument?
Transcendental
What is Kant’s view of the mind?
Mind is constituted by a set of complex abilities
Thinking requires a synthesis of percepts and concepts
To understand the mind is to understand those hidden, unobservable mentl functions
Kant’s vie wserves as foundation for modern theories of cognition
