Empiricism: Locke, Berkeley, and Hume’s Theories of Knowledge
Empiricism in Modern Philosophy
John Locke (1632-1704)
Born in Bristol in 1632, Locke studied at Oxford. His major work, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, posits that all our ideas come from experience.
- Simple Ideas: Immediate sensations (color, smell) from external experience (primary qualities like size and shape, secondary qualities like odor and color) or internal reflection (awareness of one’s actions).
- Complex Ideas: Formed by the mind combining simple ideas, including the concept of “substance” as a collection of simple ideas.
George Berkeley (1685-1753)
An Irish philosopher during the Enlightenment, deeply religious. His major work, Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, builds upon Locke but argues that “to be is to be perceived.” Reality exists only as ideas in the mind.
David Hume (1711-1776)
Born in Edinburgh, Hume aimed to create a science of human nature. Key works include A Treatise of Human Nature and An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.
Knowledge in Hume
Impressions and Ideas
- Impressions: Direct sensory experiences.
- Ideas: Faint copies of impressions in thought.
Relationship Between Impressions and Ideas
- Impressions and ideas have a strong resemblance.
- Ideas originate from impressions; simple impressions always precede their corresponding ideas.
- An idea is true if it derives from an impression.
Types of Knowledge
- Relations of Ideas: Knowledge based on logic and mathematics, independent of impressions.
- Matters of Fact: Knowledge based on impressions; an idea is true if it corresponds to an impression.
The Problem of Causation
We cannot have knowledge of future events because impressions only relate to past or present experiences. Our certainty about future events comes from habit, not reason. We cannot affirm the principle of causality.
Hume’s empiricism leads to phenomenalism and skepticism: we only know impressions, and our understanding is limited to them. We cannot know substance, the self, or God, as these concepts lack corresponding impressions.
Hume’s Ethics
Critique of Moral Rationalism
Hume critiques the idea that reason alone can determine morality. Moral judgments influence behavior, but reason alone cannot drive action. Facts are just facts; moral judgments arise from within.
Moral Emotivism
- Morality is based on both reason and feeling.
- Moral judgments are works of the heart; virtue is agreeable, and vice is abhorrent.
- Decisions belong to feeling.
- Morality depends on a sense of complacency, similar to aesthetic appreciation.
- Ultimate ends are determined by sentiment, not reason. Moral perception is a matter of feeling, not understanding.
- Passions (pleasure, pain, fear, hope, hatred) come from experience.
- Religious truths cannot be proven by reason. Hume rejects both spiritualism and materialism.
- Hume’s ethics are neither theistic, atheistic, nor agnostic.