WHERE DOES OUR KNOWLEDGE COME FROM?
EPISTEMOLOGY- from the Greek term “episteme” (knowledge) and logos (reason).
- is the study of the nature and scope of knowledge and justified belief.
Example:
How is knowledge acquired?
What do people know?
2+2= 4
Do we have knowledge?
EMPIRICISM AND POSITIVISM
DEFINITION
Is the theory that states
the origin of all
knowledge is sense
experience
Is a Philosophical theory
that states the only
authentic knowledge is
scientific knowledge
Knowledge
Experience is the origin
of knowledge
Knowledge can be verified
through scientific methods
& mathematical/ logical
proof
Prominent
figures/
Philosophers
John Locke, George
Berkeley, John Stuart
Mill and David Hume
Auguste Comte &
Emile Durkheim
□what is the relationship between empiricism and positivism?
= Humans first gain information from sensory experience (5 senses/ Empiricism). Then, this is
interpreted through reason and logic (Positivism).
SOME EMPIRICIST PHILOSOPHERS:
▪JOHN LOCKE – that individual human mind starts out as a “blank slate/ tabula rasa “, which the human
mind is blank at birth and develops its thought only through experience.
--were born knowing nothing and instead, all of our knowledge comes to us through sense data.
example:
Environment
/
Experienced
= KNOWLEDGE
▪GEORGE BERKELEY- ESSE EST PERCEPI ( TO BE IS TO PERCEIVED)
- that the physical objects what he calls the “sensible objects” we perceive can be only in
perception.
In short, taman lang jud sa atong huna huna ang perfect ideas for example, The perfect
being which is ‘GOD’ provided with the qualities of being itself.
▪DAVID HUME -
POSITIVISM PHILOSOPHER
▪AUGUSTE COMTE- he use scientific method for social world
- he identified genuine knowledge of the product of empirical observation and
experimentation and social- intellectual.
- he believed in the natural rather than the supernatural.
Law of the three stages
1.
Theological stage- which the world and human destiny within it were explained in terms of
gods and spirits.
2.
Metaphysical stage- which explanations were in terms of essences, final causes, and other
abstractions.
3.
Modern Positive stage- distinguish by an awareness of the limitations of human knowledge.
▪EMILE DURKHEIM – one of the positivist that established a social science that valued data in
to understand human behavior.
PROBLEM OF EMPIRICISM AND POSITIVISM
EMPIRICISM
POSITIVISM
• Perception is not universal
• Inflexibility
• Inaccuracy in scientific data
order