John Locke and modern empiricism

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John Locke and modern empiricism

• Third Lecture

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Biographical Note

• Biografi
• 1632 born on 29th August in Wrington/Somerset
• 1652 worked in Oxford
• 1662 lectured in philosophy in Oxford, polemics
  on tolerance
• 1667 moved to London and served Lord Earl of
  Shaftesbury
• 1668 Member of Royal Society with his
  contributions in economics and natural sciences
• 1675 lived in France.
• 1679 back to London
• 1683 imigrated to Netherland because of
  political conflict
• 1689 back to England, refused a governmental
  position
• 1689 published Epistola de tolerantia, and An
  Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
• 1690 published Two tratises of Government
• 1704 dead in Oates/Essex on 28th October.

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Critique on the Cartesian Doctrine of Innate Ideas

• Locke disagreed on cartesian doctrine that
  derives our knowledge from the a priori principle
  in human reason. According to him our reason must
  be considered as a blank white paper (tabula
  rasa) that is filled with sense-data or empirical
  experiences.
• The innate ideas that Descartes propagates have
  not their own content, because they originate
  from our perception and sensation.

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How do we know a table as it is?

• The rationalist answered that the table is
  already in our head as an idea. Without the idea
  of table (extension) the external reality seems
  to us as a chaotic landscape. The idea structures
  it as a form of table.
• The empiricist found the other answer We cannot
  have the idea of table in our head, if we dont
  touch or experience the table outside our head.
  The objective world is real and not only our
  rational construction. It exists, therefore it
  has an ontological status.

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The Process of Knowledge

• 1. The table is perceived by our senses then the
  externality of this material thing is the object
  of our SENSATION, whereas the operation of our
  mind knowing it is called REFLECTION.
• 2. From sense-data we get in our mind simple
  ideas such as brown, wood, big or table.
• 3. We observe also many kinds of table so that we
  get in our mind some simple ideas of table
• 4. From these simple ideas our mind connects
  them. This process is called abstraction.
• 5. The result of abstraction is complex ideas
  such as substance, relation or mode.

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Primary and secondary Qualities of an Object

• Locke made an important distinction between
  primary and secondary qualities.
• Primary qualities are the objective side of an
  observed object like its wideness, movement or
  mass. They are inherent in the object.
• But secondary qualities are the subjective side
  of an observed object. They are the conditions of
  the observing subject itself like sweetness,
  redness, warmness etc.

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The Ontological Status of External World

• With his view on primary qualities Locke assumed
  that the world outside of us exist objectively
  and external to us. It is not mere our rational
  construction or our imagination. It is real and
  has an ontological status as material beings.

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Empiricism and the Rise of modern Sciences

• Locke was a pioneer of modern empiricism, the
  view that teaches that our knowledge is gained
  through experience, especially sense experience.
• The modern sciences assume the existence of
  external world that is separated from our
  consciousness.
• In animism or fetishism man cannot differ
  external and internal world, so that the limits
  between fiction and reality are blurred.

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The Concept of Experience

• Empiricism didnt limit itself in sense
  experience. The concept of experience in
  empiricism didnt exclude the spiritual
  experience (George Berkeley).
• So, we cannot only experience the heat of fire,
  but also the idea of heat. According to
  Berkeley being is being perceived (esse est
  percipii), so that our world is nothing but
  perceived idea.
• The religious experience like the experience of
  the tremendum and fascinosum (Rudolf Otto) is
  also experience that is included in the category
  of the empirical.

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Esse est percipi

• George Berkeley (1685-1753) argued that we dont
  perceive the object outside our mind, but the
  idea in our mind. Esse est percipi this famous
  statement of Berkeley means that being (i.e. the
  external world) is but seeming. So, my world is
  my world.

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Critique on Substance

• David Hume (1711-1776), the radical empiricist,
  viewed that substance is but a bundle of
  perceptions. So, if I think that I am, this I
  is only a constant impression on certain traits
  that accompany our experience. If we sleep, for
  example, we lost our selves, because the
  perceptions are empty.

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Critique on Causality

• David Hume criticized the very concept of
  causality. According to him if the billiard ball
  A moves toward the billiard ball B and strikes
  it, we say that the B moves because of A (propter
  hoc). But in the reality that doesnt happen.
  What happen is that the B moves after the A (post
  hoc). The causality is but the constant and
  stable impression on the chronological relation
  between A dan B.

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The Influence of Empiricism

• The empiricism is the epistemological foundation
  of modern sciences and influences the objectivist
  researches in many aspects of modern society
  (inductive logic)
• In the modern materialism and positivism the
  principles of empiricism are very central, i.e.
  sense-data as the source of our knowledge.