The impact of Descartes and the British empiricists on philosophical thought regarding rationality and empiricism - British empiricists

5 important questions on The impact of Descartes and the British empiricists on philosophical thought regarding rationality and empiricism - British empiricists

What is the main premise of John Locke's (1632-1704) empiricism?

  • Went back to the idea of tabula rasa; humans have no innate ideas.
  • All our ideas stem from sensation (what we pick up with our senses) and reflection (our mind as an internal sense forming ideas about said sensations).
  • objects have primary and secondary properties.
    • Primary (material) properties such as size, weight, shape, exist independently of our mind and perception.
    • Secondary properties such as color, smell, sound, taste etc. Are only there if the object is perceived; ergo they are mind-depended.
      • Due to their perceptual relativity, one can find something hot whereas  the other thinks it's cold.

With which aspect did George Berkeley (1685-1753) disagree with Locke's ideas?

He didn't believe in an distinction between primary and secondary properties. All properties are only known through the ideas that our senses produce in us (perceptual relativity).

What was the idealism of George Berkeley?

To be is to be perceived.
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What was David Hume's (1711-1776) opinion about science?

If we can only know the world through representations of the mind; and science is based on experience and observation that has to be interpreted by the mind; to move forward with science in general, one must understand the human mind.

How can we use the Copy Principle to judge the meaningfulness of ideas, according to David Hume?

You have to reverse the Copy Principle and find out which impressions resulted in the idea.

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