Chapter 5: Empiricism, Sensationalism, and Positivism

empiricism

the belief that all knowledge is derived from experience, especially sensory experience

• importance of experience in gaining knowledge

• exclude inner experiences, only refers to sensory experience

• knowledge can’t exist without sensory evidence

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

• founder of British empiricism

• government’s function is to satisfy human needs and prevent conflict

• materialist → all that existed was physical

• mechanist → universe and everything in it were machines

• determinist → all activity is caused by forces acting on physical objects

• empiricist → knowledge comes from sensory experience

• hedonist → behaviour was motivated by seeking pleasure and avoidance of pain

Hobbes’s empiricism

• all ideas come from experience, specifically sensory experience

• materialist, all that exists is matter and motion

• sense experiences that result when sense receptors are stimulated causing internal motion

• sum total of a person’s thinking activities

Hobbes’s explanation of psychological phenomena

• imagination was explained by the fact that sense impressions decay over time → ex. memories

• attention was explained as long as sense organs retain motion caused by external objects, they cannot respond to others

• dreams → Imaginations

• human behaviour is motivated by appetite (seeking or maintaining pleasurable experiences) and aversion (avoidance or termination of painful experience)

• appetite → love and good

• aversion → hate and evil

• free will doesn’t exist, verbal labels are applied to describe the attractions and aversions while interacting with the environment

Hobbes’ position on complex thought processes

• one thought follows another

• events experienced together are remembered together and subsequently thought of together

John Locke (1632-1704)

• English philosopher and physician

• one of the first British empiricists

• wrote about government, education, economics, and Christianity

Locke’s position on empiricism

all knowledge comes from experience

Locke’s position on the mind-body distinction

• believed in dualism

• somehow sensory stimulation caused ideas

• something physical causes something mental, it just does it

Locke’s position on innate ideas

• humans are not born with innate ideas, whether moral, logical, or mathematical

• knowledge and ideas come from experience

• operations of the mind are innate

Locke’s position on sensation and reflection

idea → mental image that remains after impressions or sensations have ceased, occurs while thinking

sensation → result of direct sensory stimulation→ source of all ideas

reflection → remnants of prior sensory stimulation→ transform ideas

reflection

remnants of prior sensory stimulation

• transform ideas

simple ideas (Locke)

mental remnants of sensations, cannot be divided or analyzed further into other ideas

• materials of our knowledge

complex ideas (Locke)

groups of simple ideas, and can be analyzed by their components

primary qualities (Locke)

attributes of physical reality

secondary qualities (Locke)

psychological experiences that have no counterparts in physical world

quality (Locke)

the aspects of a physical object that has the power to produce an idea

ex. primary quality: shape, motion or rest, quantity

ex. secondary quality: colour, sound, temperature, tastep

paradox of the basins (Locke)

• demonstrated the nature of ideas caused by secondary qualities

• 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 primary quality

associationism (Locke)

the laws association provide the fundamental principles by which all mental phenomena can be explained

• used to explain errors in reasoning

• explain the faulty beliefs that can result from accidents of time or circumstances

• unreasonable beliefs

Locke’s position on education

• believed that nurture (experience) was more important that nature (innate ability)

• occurred both at home and school

Locke’s position on government

• challenged the divine right of kings and proposed a government by and for the people

• people should seek the truth for themselves