Empiricism

The Authority of Experience

Empiricism

It is often thought that British empiricism and French sensationalism developed specifically as a reaction to the deductive, nativist position of Descartes. I.e. Rationalism ‘came first’

However it doesn’t really work out this way Locke never mentions Descartes in Essay Bacon came before Descartes, and targeted

scholasticism if anything There are sometimes elements of both in some

thinkers

Some distinctions Empiricism vs. Rationalism

Specific distinction is somewhat variable depending upon the time period in question

Started with Hippocratic ‘empirici’ vs. Pythagorean mystics Empiricism

We have noted Aristotle as a mere observer of an empirical sort, however now (in the Renaissance) we have those wanting control and manipulate nature

This movement (starting with Bacon, well, perhaps Roger really but as far as Empiricism goes Francis) coincides with the scientific movement itself

However Bacon and other empiricists could even be seen as rejecting the largely magical (Hermetical) empiricism/’science’ of the Renaissance, and

His atheoretical approach is in contrast with current scientific methodology

Empiricism

The empiricists attempted to explain the functioning of the mind as Newton explained the universe - sought principles or laws that could account for human cognitive experience.

Importance of experience in the attainment of knowledge. Epistemology that asserts that the evidence of senses

constitutes the primary data of all knowledge That knowledge cannot exist unless this evidence has

first been gathered All subsequent intellectual processes must use this

evidence and only this evidence in framing valid propositions about the real world

Rationalism Rationalism

Stems primarily from the philosophical perspectives of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz

Certain truths exist, and when reason explores the universe a small set of truths can be deduced which form the basis of all other knowledge Primary data are the laws of thought

All knowledge is the result of a rational analysis of sense and that this very evidence can’t be gathered without an a priori guiding principle Something innate to make clear the confusion of sensory

information Note that both rationalism and empiricism share an assumption

of mentalism (contra later behaviorism), thoughneither position itself would suggest that there is only mind (though some supposed proponents of the position might, e.g. Berkeley’s idealism)

Francis Bacon 1561-1626 Novum Organum Demanded that science be based on

induction More strictly, science should include no

theories, no hypotheses, no mathematics, and no deductive methods

Science should include only facts of observation

What is deemed worthy of a scientific (or any) undertaking should be estimated in terms of its worth to humanity Renaissance humanism perspective and

in a sense against Luther’s Reformation which denounced ‘works’

Francis Bacon Generalizations could be made from many observations with

their similarities and differences noted and could be used to describe classes of events or experiences

For Bacon, science should improve the world for the betterment of mankind

Skinner and behavior analysis adopted the Baconian inductive method and the view that the main goal of science is to improve the human condition

However Bacon also distinguishes two forms of experiments: experimenta lucifera (those that shed light) and experimenta fructifera (those that bear fruit)

One can liken this to our current exploratory and confirmatory distinction in methodology (though this is quite muddied these days) The exploratory will inform the other, which will be of the

type by which humans will specifically benefit

Francis Bacon Although admired Aristotle and other Greeks, suggested that blind

adherence to them impedes progress Against astrology, alchemy, magic etc. some of which the blame could

be laid on Aristotle’s notion of final causes Clearly separates the physical and metaphysical (and puts

mathematics w/ the latter in anti-rationalist fashion) Also distinguishes psychology as its own discipline (perhaps for the first

time) “We come therefore now to that knowledge whereunto the ancient

oracle directeth us, which is the knowledge of ourselves; which deserveth the more accurate handling, by how much it toucheth us more nearly. This knowledge, as it is the end and term of natural philosophy in the intention of man, so, notwithstanding, it is but a portion of natural philosophy in the continent of nature”

Clearly suggests psychology involves questions of an experimental nature, and even gets into talk of ideas that would fall under the headings of social psychology, operant conditioning, and innate vs. environmental determinants of personality

Francis Bacon

In terms of his psychology, Bacon is actually a very modern blend of nativistic/rationalist and empirical views

Some characteristics are innate (think Galenic temperaments) or determined by outside forces beyond our control (e.g. born rich or poor)

However these can be affected, and even changed by experience (e.g. reward and punishment) Though inherited characteristics would limit the effects

of experience

John Locke

1632-1704 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding The ‘tabula rasa’

For Locke all ideas come from sensory experience

No innate ideas, strict anti-rationalism An idea is a mental image employed while

thinking and comes from either sensation (direct sensory stimulation) or reflection (reflection on remnants of prior sensory stimulation) Thinking = Perceiving

Thus, the source of all ideas is sensation, and these ideas can be acted upon by operations of the mind giving rise to new ideas Associationism (cognitive i.e. not just

Pavlovian) Nominalist

John Locke

Simple ideas cannot be divided further into other ideas while complex ideas are composites of simple ideas and can be analyzed into their parts (simple ideas)

Complex ideas are formed through operation being applied to simple ideas through reflection (comparing, abstracting, discriminating, combining and enlarging, remembering, and reasoning) Knowledge is the perception of associations Also noted that knowledge is a construction, and that

our concepts our ‘representations’ depend entirely on context

Early ‘situated action’ Feelings of pleasure and pain accompany simple and

complex ideas, other emotions are derived from these two basic feelings

John Locke We four means by which we can know things: Identity

What something is and is not Relation

Some things are related, others not Coexistence

Some properties are intimately associated with various objects, concepts

Real existence The realism of which we have spoken of before, that some things do

exist (factual knowledge) Locke also suggest that knowledge is of three types:

Intuitive Immediately knowable (Black is not white)

Demonstrative Provable (e.g. mathematically) Both intuition and demonstration produce certainty

Sensitive The knowledge of particulars by means of senses

John Locke

Primary vs. Secondary qualities Primary qualities

Correspond to actual physical attributes of objects: solidarity, extension, shape, motion, and quantity

Inherent in the object Secondary qualities

Do not correspond to the objects in the real world: color, sound, temperature, and taste

Inherent in the perceiver The connection between the secondary (liquidity) and

primary qualities (H2O) in an object is something we cannot know Introduction of the ‘hard’ problem of subjectivity in the

study of consciousness

John Locke

Association was used to explain faulty beliefs (which he called “a degree of madness”) which are learned by chance, custom, or mistake (associated by contiguity)

Memories can also fade over time (trace decays a la 60s cognitive psychology) or we may simply lose the ability to retrieve

Many ideas are clustered in the mind because of some logical connection among them and some are naturally associated, these are safe types of associations because they are naturally related and represent true knowledge

Knowledge exists which we can be certain

John Locke Morality

Consists of complex ideas which, being rooted in the physical world from which simple ideas arise, can be deemed true

Regarding government Social contract between state and citizens Rights available to all (life, liberty, property), Essentially nativistic view to balance what might lead to a

moral relativism from his empiricism Played an early role in child development

Regarding education of children, parents should increase tolerance in their children and provide necessities for good health

Teachers should always make the learning experience pleasant and recognize and praise student accomplishments

George Berkeley

1685-1753 Treatise Concerning the Principles of

Human Knowledge “To be is to be perceived” Berkeley opposed materialism because

it left no room for God, and his work can essentially be seen as a response to the mechanistic views implied by the likes of Locke, Hobbes, etc. (even Descartes)

George Berkeley

Berkeley’s theory of distance perception (New Theory of Vision) suggests that for distance to be judged, several sensations from different modalities must be associated For example, viewing an object and the tactile

sensation of walking toward it In contrast to Cartesian geometric theory of optics,

which suggested a calculation based on the angles of the triangle formed between eyes and object

Emphasis on the experience/sensation of the object rather than the perception of ‘distance’ which itself can’t even be seen

Depth as a result of (earlier) experience with the environment

George Berkeley

Like depth, objects of experience depend on the observer One thing to note, that in Berkeley, we do not have ‘only mind’

per se What we do have is the subjective experience placed at the

forefront, that we cannot talk about the object without the perception of it Therefore, only secondary qualities exist because they are,

by definition, what is perceived For example, objects in motion can only be understood as

such relative to one another In a sense predates Einstein’s relativity

In the way that objects exist to us (in our perceiving them, in our mind), so does everything to God

David Hume

1711-1776 Treatise on Human Nature Hume’s goal was to combine the

empirical philosophy of his predecessors with principles of Newtonian science to create a science of human nature Establish the limits of human

knowledge He focused on the use of the inductive

method of Bacon and the newly emerging science to make careful observations of human nature and then cautiously generalize

David Hume Contents of the mind come from experience and can be

stimulated by either external or internal events He distinguished between impressions (strong, vivid

perceptions) and ideas (weak perceptions, faint images in thinking and reasoning) Impressions are further divided into sensations, and

reflection (combination of sensations, i.e. once removed from initial sensation)

How the sensations (qualia) are produced, he is unsure (as we are today)

No innate ideas (at least that can be confirmed by experience)

Simple ideas cannot be broken down further (like Locke), complex ideas are made of other ideas

Once in the mind ideas can be rearranged in an infinite number of ways by the imagination

David Hume

For Hume there were three laws of association –resemblance, contiguity, and cause and effect

Not worrying with the problem of mental vs. physical*, but what causes us to perceive the situation as such, and assume, in the Berkeleyian sense, that objects of sense must be there? We assume the existence of the material world

due to constancy and coherence, and in doing so can come to some estimation regarding causality

Causation is not in reality, not a logical necessity, it is a psychological experience

For Hume, the mind is no more than the perceptions we are having at any given moment

“’tis vain to ask, Whether there be a body or not? That is a point which we must take for granted in all our reasonings.”

David Hume All humans possess the same passion (emotions) but differ in

degree of specific emotions The passions determine behavior, therefore, we respond

differently to situations In fact feelings are innate

Furthermore, these passions are independent of reason, produced by a history of associations Belief is a feeling about our knowledge i.e. knowledge is

conviction Both animals and humans learn to act in particular ways through

experience with reward and punishment Like others of the time, morals are a fundamentally human

notion and established based on experience We are moral in so far as such action produces a satisfying

state of affairs Right and wrong are not ‘in’ things/events themselves

Thomas Reid 1710-1796 ‘Common Sense’ movement

Required the findings of philosophy to adhere to what we fundamentally know to be true

The world is real, senses are affected by that reality, perception is a result of that process (world)

A tough fit as far as the Empiricist/Rationalist camps go, believed this ‘common sense’ to be innate, and feels that reason and sense came ‘both out of the same shop’ Not innate ideas, but that we come equipped to deal

with our surroundings ‘Natural faculties’

Admonished the empiricists for failing to distinguish sensation from perception and so their ‘ideas’ were a vague notion

The common sense of Reid continued in various forms and could be said to have culminated in the pragmatism of Dewey, Peirce, and James

Utilitarianism Utilitarianism’s key theme

Rightness and wrongness of actions are determined solely by their consequences

No right or wrong inherent in things or events (old idea) For this time period we can say it started with Bentham (1748-

1832), but roots can be traced to Epicureanism Emphasis on pleasure seeking, pain avoidance

The connection to empiricism is more historical Due to the political upheaval witnessed during these times,

e.g. French and American revolutions; British civil war in the time of Locke, the empiricists often provided their own political/social philosophies, ones that weren’t necessarily in keeping with their empiricist philosophy/psychology

Ideas would pervade moralistic, political and educational philosophies, its ‘consequentialism’ spawn behaviorism, and its general approach incorporated by the pragmatic psychologists

James Mill

1773-1836 Chief ally and proponent of Bentham’s ideas,

father of J.S. Mill For James Mill, the mind was sensations and

ideas held together by contiguity and complex ideas were made of simple ideas

When ideas are continuously experienced together, the association may become so strong that they appear as one idea

Strength of associations are determined by the vividness of the sensations or ideas and by the frequency of the associations

John Stuart Mill 1806-1873 J. S. Mill proposed a mental chemistry in which

complex ideas are not made up of aggregates of simple ideas but that ideas can fuse to produce an idea that is completely different from the elements of which it is made

Proposed a science of human nature (psychology) which has a set of primary laws that apply to all humans and can predict general tendencies in human thought, feeling, and action

However, the science does not have knowledge of how the primary laws interact with secondary laws (individual characteristics and circumstances) to predict specific thoughts, feelings, and actions

Staunch proponent of women’s rights, due in large part to his relationship with Harriet Taylor