Topic 5: Empiricism, Sensationalism, & Positivism Flashcards
Empiricism
the belief that all knowledge is derived from experience, especially sensory experience
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
believed that the primary motive in human behavior is the seeking of pleasure and the avoidance of pain
for Hobbes, the function of government is to satisfy as many human needs as possible to prevent humans from fighting each other
Hobbes believed that all human activity, including mental activity, could be reduced to atoms in motion
therefore, he was a materialist
John Locke (1632-1704)
an empiricist who denied the existence of innate ideas but who assumed many nativistically determined powers of the mind
Locke distinguished between primary qualities, which cause sensations that correspond to actual attributes of physical bodies, and secondary qualities, which cause sensations that have no counterparts in the physical world
the types of ideas postulated by Locke included those caused by sensory stimulation, those caused by reflection, simple ideas, and complex ideas, which were composites of simple ideas
Idea
a mental event that lingers after impressions or sensations have ceased
Sensation
the rudimentary mental experience that results from the stimulation of one or more sense receptor
Reflection
according to Locke, the ability to use the powers of the mind to creatively rearrange ideas derived from sensory experience
Simple Ideas
the mental remnant of sensations
Complex Ideas
configurations of simple ideas
Quality
according to Locke, that aspect of a physical object that has the power to produce an idea
Paradox of the Basins
Locke’s observation that warm water will feel either hot or cold depending on whether a hand is first placed in hot water or cold water
because water cannot be hot and cold at the same time, temperature must be a secondary, not a primary quality
Associationism
the belief that the laws of association provide the fundamental principles by which all mental phenomena can be explained
George Berkeley (1685-1753)
said that the only thing we experience directly is our own perceptions or secondary qualities
he offered an empirical explanation of the perception of distance, saying that we learn to associate the sensations caused by the convergence and divergence of the eyes with different distances
he denied materialism. saying instead that reality exists because God perceives it
we can trust our senses to reflect God’s perceptions because God would not create a sensory system that would deceive us
David Hume (1711-1776)
agreed with Berkeley that we could experience only our own subjective reality, but disagreed with Berkeley’s contention that we could assume that our perception accurately reflect the physical world because God would not deceive us
for Hume, we can be sure of nothing
even the notion of cause and effect, which is so important to Newtonian physics, is nothing more than a habit of thought
Hume distinguished between impressions, which are vivid, and faint copies of impressions
Impressions
according to Hume, the relatively strong mental experiences caused by sensory stimulation
for Hume, impression is essentially the same thing as what others called sensation
Imagination
according to Hume, the power of the mind to arrange and rearrange ideas in countless configurations
Law of Resemblance
according to Hume, the tendency for our thoughts to rune from one event to similar events, the same as what others call the law, or principle, of similarity
Law of Contiguity
the tendency for events that are experienced together to be remembered together
Law of Cause and Effect
according to Hume, if in our experience one event always preceded the occurrence of another event, we tend to believe that the former event is the cause of the latter
David Hartley (1705-1757)
combined empiricism and associationism with rudimentary physiological notions
Vibratiuncles
according to Hartley, the vibrations that linger in the brain after the initial vibrations caused by external stimulation cease
James Mill (1773-1836)
maintained that all mental events consisted of sensations and ideas (copies of sensations) held together by association
no matter how complex an ideas was, Mill felt that it could be reduced to simple ideas
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
said that the seeking of pleasure and the avoidance of pain governed most human behavior
Bentham also said that the best society was one that did the greatest good for the greatest number of people
Utilitarianism
the belief that the best society or government is one that provides the greatest good (happiness) for the greatest number of individuals
Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, and John Stuart Mill were all utilitarian
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
disagreed with his father James that all complex ideas could be reduced to simple ideas
J.S. Mill proposed a process of mental chemistry according to which complex ideas could be distinctly different from the simple ideas (elements) that constituted to which complex ideas could be distinctly different from the simple ideas (elements) that constituted them
J.S. Mill believed strongly that a science of human nature could be and should be developed
Mental Chemistry
the process by which individual sensations can combine to form a new sensation that is different from any of the individual sensations that constitute it
Primary Laws
according to J.S. Mill, the general laws that determine the overall behavior of events within a system
Secondary Laws
according to J.S. Mill, the laws that interact with primary laws and determine the nature of individual events under specific circumstances
Alexander Bain (1818-1903)
the first to attempt to relate known physiological facts to psychological phenomena
he also wrote the first psychology texts, and he founded psychology’s first journal
Bain explained voluntary behavior in much the same way that modern learning theorists later explained trial-and-error behavior
finally, Bain added the law of compound association and the law of constructive association to the older, traditional laws of association
Law of Compound Association
according to Bain, contiguous or similar events form compound ideas and are remembered together
if one or a few elements of the compound idea are experienced, they may elicit the memory of the entire compound
Law of Constructive Association
according to Bain, the mind can rearrange the memories of various experiences so that the creative associations formed are different from the experiences that gave rise to associations
Voluntary Behavior
according to Bain, under some circumstances, an organism’s spontaneous activity leads to pleasurable consequences
after several occurrences, the organism will come to voluntarily engage in the behavior that was originally spontaneous
Spontaneous Activity
according to Bain, behavior that is simply emitted by an organism rather than being elicited by external stimulation
Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655)
saw humans as nothing but complex, physical machines and he saw no need to assume a nonphysical mind
Gassendi had much in common with Hobbes
Julien de La Mettrie (1709-1751)
believed humans were machines that differed from other animals only in complexity
La Mettrie believed that so-called mental experiences are nothing but movements of particles in the brain
he also believed that accepting materialism would result in a better, more humane world
Etienne Bonnet de Condillac (1714-1780)
maintained that all human mental attributes could be explained using only the concept of sensation and that it was therefore unnecessary to postulate an autonomous mind
Claude-Adrien Helvetius (1715-1771)
elaborated the implications of empiricism and sensationalism for education
that is, a person’s intellectual development can be determined by controlling his or her experiences
Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
the founder of positivism and coiner of the term “sociology”, he felt that all cultures passed through three stages in the way they explained phenomena: the theological, the metaphysical, and the scientific
Positivism
the contention that science should study only that which can be directly experienced
for Comte, that was publicly observed events or overt behavior
for Mach, it was the sensations of the scientist
Ernst Mach (1838-1916)
proposed a brand of positivism based on the phenomenological experiences of scientists
because scientists, or anyone else, never experience the real world directly, the scientist’s job is to precisely describe the relationships among mental phenomena, and to do so without the aid of metaphysical speculation
What was the Enlightenment?
psychology remains caught up in the Enlightenment
Age of Reason: everyone has reason, so everyone can reach the same level
the Enlightenment was ushered in by Renaissance thinkers like Galileo, Newton, Bacon, and Descartes (shift away from superstition, towards knowledge being power)
could create a utopia if everything is in order
if I can understand how people work, I can prevent bad things from happening
emotions are downplayed in order to make the mechanist assumptions true
What was the British Empiricism and French Sensationalism perspective?
denied Descartes’ conception that some ideas are innate, instead maintaining that all ideas are derived from experience
sought principles or laws that could account for all mental experience
What was the German rationalist perspective?
made an active mind central to their conception of human nature
knowing the operations of this mind is central to determining how humans understand their world
What was the Romantic philosopher perspective?
rebelled against both empiricists and rationalists, seeking to understand the total person and prioritizing human emotions and individual uniqueness
What was British empiricism?
asserts that the evidence of senses constitutes the primary data of all knowledge
knowledge cannot exist unless this evidence has first been gathered
all subsequent intellectual processes must use this evidence in framing valid propositions about the real world
knowledge comes from sensory experience, emphasize external experiences
there is no knowledge without experience
have to root our knowledge in an understanding of the world, only way we can make valid statements about the world
Who was Thomas Hobbes?
founder of British empiricism
man is a machine functioning within a larger machine: matter and motion as Galileo’s explanation of the universe
used the deductive method of Galileo and Descartes: attempted to apply the ideas/techniques of Galileo to studying humans
What was Hobbes ideas on government and human instincts?
governments were necessary to control innate human tendencies of aggressiveness, selfishness, and greediness
best form of government is a total monarchy because we are innately destructive and evil, need a ruler to keep us in check
democracy was dangerous because it gives too much free to these tendencies, even the Church needed to be subservient to a ruler
human life without control would be brutish and short
we are motivated by a fear of death to combat we create order, best order is through a leader
What are the characteristics of Hobbes’ empiricism?
was a materialist in that the “mind” was a series of motion within the person (a physical monist)
sensory experience is the root
mental phenomena needs to be understood in terms of the activity of the physical being
mind is a sum of the motion with the person
How did Hobbes’ describe psychological phenomena?
attention: sense organs retain the motion caused by certain external objects, can’t move on if focusing on one thing
imagination: sense impression decay over time, residual sense impression
proposed a hedonistic theory of motivation: appetite, seeking or maintaining pleasure; aversion, avoidance or termination of pain drove human behavior, motivated to maximize pleasure, minimize pain at all costs
there is no free will: a strict deterministic view of behavior, hard determinist, we are machines responding to pleasure and pain
there is no absolute morality
What were Hobbes’ ideas of complex though processes?
complex though processes resulted from law of contiguity (originating with Aristotle), things we experience together are measured together
Hobbes was a materialist, mechanist, determinist, empiricist, and hedonist
