Empiricism Part I
John Locke (1632-1704 CE)
George Berkeley (1685-1783 CE)
Aristotle
Locke’s Method
Ockham’s (or Occam’s) Razor.
Principle of parsimony,
economy, succinctness: “What
can be done in fewer [terms]
is done in vain with more.”
Given competing hypotheses,
the hypothesis with the
fewest assumptions that
adequately explains should be
selected.
Oh my word, I’ve found a $20
bill on the ground:
God must be rewarding me
for good behavior OR I
must have good karma.
The TV show Jackass must be
secretly filming me, and
they placed the bill in my
path hoping I’ll reach
down to pick it up just as
they yank an invisible
string and pull the bill out
of my reach.
Someone must have dropped
it, and I found it.
Ockham’s Razor & Rationalism
What assumptions must one
accept for Plato’s Forms and
the rationalists’ “innate
ideas” to be valid?
• Descartes’ pineal gland.
• Spinoza’s immanent God.
• Leibniz’s coherence rooted
in an omni-everything,
always-perceiving God.
Starting Point
All knowledge is a
posteriori.
Born as “blank slate” or
“tabula rasa.”
Experience “writes” on the
blank slate, creating
knowledge.
Ideas: Conceptualized Experiences
Simple Ideas
Cannot be broken down into
component parts.
–
–
–
–
–
Solidity.
Yellow.
Mass.
Shape.
Motion.
Usually come in through one
sense (but some things, like
motion, may be seen and felt)
Complex Ideas
Compounds of simple ideas.
– A man, an army, beauty,
gratitude, the universe.
Ideas of Relations.
– Smaller, taller, anterior.
Abstractions/Generalizations.
– Blueness, fatness,
friendliness.
The Stuff of Thought
Secondary Qualities
Characteristics not inherent to
the object but power of objects
to produce sensations in
observer.
Primary Qualities
Characteristics that inhere in
material bodies.
Characteristics cause our
awareness.
Qualities that can be measured.
Naïve Realism vs. Cartesian Realism
vs. Representative Realism
Representative Realism
There is a world “out there.”
The mind experiences a
“representation” of this world
but not the world itself.
Some features of the world are
correctly represented (primary
qualities); some aspects of the
representation are features of
the mind (secondary qualities).
Locke’s Substance Problem
If what we experience are
qualities of the material
world, what is the “stuff”
of the world “out there”
that possesses the
qualities?
A real quality must be a
quality of a real thing.
“So that if anyone will
examine himself
concerning his notion of
pure substance in general,
he will find he has no
other idea of it at all, but
only a supposition of he
knows not what support
of such qualities which are
capable of producing
simple ideas in us.”
George Berkeley (1685-1753 Dublin)
Like’s Locke’s method
but not Locke’s errors
and inconsistencies.
Especially liked
Locke’s use of
Ockham’s Razor.
The “Thing” Problem
Locke: “Since the mind, in all its thoughts and reasonings,
hath no other immediate object but its own ideas, which
it alone does or can contemplate, it is evident that our
knowledge is only conversant about them.”
Correction #1: Primary & Secondary Qualities
Descriptions of primary
qualities are just
interpretations of
secondary qualities.
Therefore, primary
qualities exist only in the
mind.
Take away color,
texture, taste,
sound, odor….
What’s left?
Correction #2: Esse Est Percipi (to be is to be perceived)
Direct (or immediate)
perception: passive
reception of sense data.
Indirect (mediate)
perception: interpretation of
sense data.
Things, in so far as they are “things,” exist as sense data or as
interpretations of sense data (they exist as perceptions).
Which is to say….
Esse Est
Percipi
The physical world does not
exist independently of
consciousness.
The physical world is
experienced and understood as
sense data.
Representation is reality.
Two Implications
Sense data appear in
recognizable patterns.
Explains how people cut up and
discuss the world differently (so
much for innate knowledge).
Language helps unify ideas in
our minds.
Language builds community.
“Reality” Results from Consensus of Sense
Data Interpretation
In a world with more than
one person, collective
interpretation of sense
data constitutes reality.
In a world with one person,
individual interpretation of
sense data constitutes
“reality.”
What Causes Sense Data?
Where Does It Come From?
Descartes and Locke assume
an “out there,” a physical
world of mysterious “stuff.”
Berkeley eliminates “out
there” with Ockhams’ Razor.
If esse est percipi, then does
something cease to exist
when no one is perceiving
it?
God: The Eternal
Perceiver
Esse Est Percipi and God
Can God be perceived?
If so, how? And by whom?
If not, does he exist?
Berkeley’s Solution to Problem of Self and God:
Self and God are “Notions” not “Ideas”
“But besides all that
endless variety of ideas or
objects of knowledge,
there is likewise
something which knows
or perceives them; and
exercises diverse
operations, as willing,
imagining, remembering
about them. This
perceiving active being is
what I call mind, spirit,
soul, or myself….” [but
this “something” cannot
be perceived]