Empiricism, Sensationalism, and Positivism

Thomas Hobbes

Believed all knowledge comes from sensory experience and advocated physical monism, rejecting free will.

Determinism

The view that behavior is determined by appetites and aversions, as proposed by Thomas Hobbes.

John Locke

Argued the mind is a blank slate (tabula rasa) at birth, with knowledge arising from experience.

Tabula Rasa

The concept that the mind starts as a blank slate and all knowledge comes from experience, associated with John Locke.

Primary Qualities

Objective qualities that exist independent of perception, as distinguished by John Locke.

Secondary Qualities

Subjective qualities that depend on perception, as distinguished by John Locke.

George Berkeley

Denied the existence of material reality, claiming reality consists solely of perceptions.

Perception and God

Belief by George Berkeley that perception exists because God perceives all things.

David Hume

Rejected innate knowledge, arguing that knowledge is derived from impressions and ideas.

Associationism

The theory proposing that ideas are connected through resemblance, contiguity, and cause/effect, introduced by David Hume.

Causality wh

Hume questioned this concept, suggesting it is merely a habit of mind.

David Hartley

Proposed vibrations in the nerves as the basis for sensory experience and developed an early theory of conditioned responses.

Conditioned Responses

An early concept proposed by David Hartley, precursor to classical conditioning.

James Mill

Argued that the mind consists of sensations and ideas connected through association.

John Stuart Mill

Expanded associationism with the idea of mental chemistry where complex ideas arise from simpler ones.

Mental Chemistry

John Stuart Mill's concept that complex ideas emerge from simpler ones.

Materialist Psychology

A psychological perspective contributed to by Julien Offray de La Mettrie, arguing humans are machines driven by physical processes.

Positivism

The philosophy founded by Auguste Comte that emphasizes knowledge based solely on observable facts.

Law of Three Stages

Auguste Comte's theory that societies progress from theological to metaphysical to scientific explanations.