Empiricism: Key Philosophers and Concepts
Empiricism: Concept and Characteristics
Empiricism maintains the thesis that experience is the source of all knowledge, in contrast to rationalism, which posits reason as the primary source. Key characteristics include:
- Rejection of Innate Ideas: All knowledge arises from experience. We can only know what is verifiable through experience. The question of God’s existence is thus meaningless within empiricism.
- Practical Knowledge: Empiricists seek knowledge that aids in practical application. Natural sciences, based on observation and induction, are paradigmatic examples.
- Focus on Specific Knowledge: Empiricism avoids claims of universality, leaning towards independent observations.
Empiricism is often associated with Anglo-Saxon mentality, particularly cultivated by British and North American thinkers.
Main Empiricist Philosophers
Francis Bacon
Bacon developed a scientific method based on induction, considered the originator of modern empiricism. His major work, Novum Organum, replaces Aristotle’s deductive methods with inductive ones. Another notable work is The New Atlantis, which explores utopian political ideas. Bacon’s inductive method consists of two phases:
- Negative Movement: Eliminating potential sources of error.
- Positive/Constructive Moment: Refining observations and experiments using tables: Table of Presence (circumstances surrounding the event), Table of Absence (circumstances where the event doesn’t occur), and Table of Grades (changes in the event under varying circumstances).
John Locke (1632-1704)
Locke, involved in theology, chemistry, and medicine, played a key role in the Liberal Party alongside Rousseau, contributing to political liberalism. His works include An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (a cornerstone of modern empiricism) and Two Treatises of Government, which defends democracy, freedom, and tolerance. Locke balanced empiricism and rationalism, believing that knowledge originates from experience but is processed through reason. He rejects innate ideas, proposing the mind as a “blank slate.” Locke identifies two sources of experience:
- External Experience (Sensation): Senses capture impressions conveyed to the mind.
- Internal Experience (Reflection): Awareness of our own mental activities.
Sensation and reflection provide simple ideas, which are combined to form complex ideas. Objects possess two types of qualities:
- Primary Qualities: Objective, inherent in bodies, and unchanging (e.g., size, shape).
- Secondary Qualities: Subjective, arising from the subject’s reaction (e.g., color, taste). While subjective, secondary qualities have a basis in reality.
This classification raises the question of substance. Locke defines substance as a complex idea derived from the habit of associating simple ideas, serving as the substrate for primary and secondary qualities.
George Berkeley
Berkeley, an Irish Anglican priest, is known for his work A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. A more radical empiricist than Locke, Berkeley asserts that only sensory knowledge exists. He rejects the objectivity of both primary and secondary qualities, viewing them as subjective impressions. For Berkeley, material reality doesn’t exist independently; its existence lies in the mind of the perceiver. This system is known as idealistic empiricism.
On the Notion of Substance
Substance is traditionally understood as the underlying reality that persists through changes in qualities or accidents. Empiricism struggles with the concept of substance. Locke admits substance as an unknowable substrate. Berkeley rejects this substrate, arguing for only perceptions and a thinking substance, not a material one. Hume expresses extreme skepticism, viewing substance as a collection of simple ideas linked by imagination and assigned a name.