British Empiricism - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 7
About This Presentation
Title:

British Empiricism

Description:

John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume are considered to be ... Objections: how do you explain mistakes, optical illusions, perspective, gestalt switches? ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:958
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 8
Provided by: ast4
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: British Empiricism


1
British Empiricism
  • Empiricism is the view in epistemology that our
    knowledge is ultimately justified by appeal to
    our sense experience.
  • John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume are
    considered to be the most important British
    Empricists of the Modern period.

2
  • They each held that there are at least some sense
    impressions of which we can say with certainty
    that they reveal the real nature of things.
  • Bertrand Russell is a 20th C. British empiricist
    while sense impressions give us evidence of what
    there is, reality must be inferred from many
    different sources of data.

3
Russell, Appearance and Reality
  • Examines how reality is an inference from the
    appearances.
  • Table example
  • our sense experiences of the table change with
    changes in perspective, magnification, etc.
  • is there a real table at all?

4
Corpuscular Philosophy
  • Modern (I.e. 17th C.) scientific theory of
    perception developed by Robert Boyle.
  • Claims that all physical phenomena can be
    explained as the motions of different shapes,
    sizes, and extent of matter.
  • Employs primary/secondary quality distinction.

5
Primary and Secondary Qualities
  • Primary qualities are in bodies one cannot
    separate them from a body no matter what one does
    to it. E.g., solidity, extension, figure,
    number, and motion.
  • Secondary qualities are nothing in the objects
    themselves, but powers to produce various
    sensations in us by their primary qualities
    (262) E.g., colors, sounds, tastes

6
Naïve Theory of Perception
  • Perceptions are exact copies of the material
    things we see.
  • Objections how do you explain mistakes, optical
    illusions, perspective, gestalt switches? How can
    one thing appear in two different ways?

7
Lockes Representation Theory of Perception
  • There exist things outside us that our ideas
    represent some ideas represent like a mirror,
    some do not.
  • Ideas of primary qualities are resemblances of
    the bodies, and their patterns really do exist in
    them.
  • Ideas of secondary qualities are not
    resemblances, but merely indicate the presence of
    some primary qualities.
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com