British Empiricism and Thomas Hobbs

British Empiricism

• Epistemology believes sensory evidence is the main source of knowledge
• Knowledge only exists once this evidence is obtained
• Intellectual processes use only this evidence to form credible ideas regarding the real world

Thomas Hobbs

• Hobbs founded British empiricism
• Humans are machines within a larger machine
• Matter and motion explain the universe, based on Galileo's view
• He used Galileo and Descartes' deductive approach
• The goal was to use Galileo's methods to understand humans
• Government control is vital to manage aggressive, selfish, and greedy tendencies
• Democracy can be dangerous due to excessive freedom
• Hobbs thought the "mind" as physical motions within a person, a concept known as physical monism
• Attention describes sense organs retaining motion caused by external objects
• Imagination describes fading sense impressions over time
• Motivation comes from seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, using hedonistic theory
• There is no free will, which constitutes a deterministic view
• Complex thoughts derive from the law of contiguity, originating with Aristotle
• Hobbs was a materialist, mechanist, determinist, empiricist, and hedonist

John Locke

• All ideas stem from sensory experiences
• No innate ideas exist, contrary to Descartes' proposition
• Ideas are mental images during thinking and originate from sensation or reflection
• Sensation is the source of all ideas
• These ideas transform through mental operations into new ideas
• Mind operations, like perception, thinking, doubting, believing, reasoning, knowing, and willing are innate
• Simple ideas described as indivisible, pure, and uncomplicated ideas entering the mind
• Complex ideas are simple ideas combined, and are able to be analyzed back into simple ideas
• Complex ideas form by applying operations to simple ideas via reflection
• Other emotions stem from the basic feelings of pleasure and pain
• Primary qualities create ideas corresponding to real physical attributes
• Qualities like solidarity, extension, shape, motion, and quantity
• Secondary qualities produce ideas not corresponding to objects in the real world
• Qualities like color, sound, temperature, and taste
• Association explains faulty beliefs learned by chance, custom, or mistake
• Many ideas are connected in the mind through logical associations
• Safe associations are naturally-related and represent true knowledge
• Children's education involves increasing stress tolerance and providing necessities
• Learning experiences should be enjoyable with praise for accomplishments
• Locke challenged the divine rights of kings and proposed a government by and for the people

George Berkeley

• Berkeley opposed materialism, citing there was no room for God
• "To be is to be perceived" suggests existence requires being perceived
• Only secondary qualities exist because they are perceived
• Sensations consistently together become associated through contiguity
• Distance perception needs multiple senses, such as viewing and walking toward an object

David Hume

• Hume sought to merge empirical philosophy and Newtonian science for a science of human nature
• He focused on Bacon's inductive method and careful generalization
• Mental contents come from experience, via external or internal events
• Hume distinguished between impressions -- strong, vivid perceptions -- and ideas
• Ideas characterized as weak perceptions and faint images
• Simple ideas are indivisible, aligning with Locke
• Complex ideas are made of other ideas
• Imagination rearranges existing ideas in infinite ways
• Hume identified the three laws of association
• Laws of resemblance, contiguity, and cause and effect
• Causation is a psychological experience, not an objective fact
• The mind is only the sum of current perceptions
• No independent self exists apart from perceptions
• All humans share the same emotions and passions
• Individuals differ in the intensity of their emotions
• Behavior determined by emotions, causing varied responses to situations
• Animals and humans learn through rewards and punishments

David Hartley

• Hartley aimed to combine Newton's nerve transmission concept and vibrations in nerves with empiricism
• He said ideas are weaker sensations and small vibrations (vibratiuncles)
• These can associate through contiguity, whether successive or simultaneous
• Simple ideas form complex ideas through contiguity
• Complex ideas further combine into "decomplex" ideas
• Association laws explain how voluntary behavior develops from involuntary behavior
• Excessive nerve vibration causes pain, while mild vibration causes pleasure
• Involuntary behavior occurs first, then becomes voluntary
• Objects, events, and people link to pleasure or pain, shaping behavior

James Mills

• The mind comprises sensations and ideas linked by contiguity
• Complex ideas are constructed from simple ideas
• Continuous co-experience strengthens associations, merging ideas into one
• Association strength depends on vividness and frequency

John Stuart Mill

• Mill proposed mental chemistry, where ideas fuse into new concepts
• The new concepts are different from original elements
• Science of human nature contains primary and secondary laws
• Mill advocated for "ethology", to study character formation
• Ethology studies how individual minds form under specific conditions
• Mill was a social reformer, supporting free speech, representative government, and women's rights

Alexander Bain

• Bain is often called the first full-fledged psychologist
• Goal was to find physiological connections between mental and behavioral events
• The mind includes feelings, volition (choosing), and intellect
• Intellect relies on association laws, especially contiguity for sensations, ideas, and actions
• Contiguity is strengthened by frequency
• The laws affect neural changes
• Two other laws of association exist
• Compound association means ideas link to others through contiguity or similarity
• Constructive association says the mind rearranges experiences into novel combinations, enabling creativity
• Voluntary behavior begins with random activity responding to a need
• Favorable movements satisfying the need are remembered
• Activities successful previously will be repeated in similar situations, essentially Skinner's behavior selection

French Sensationalism

• The French sensationalists followed British empiricists
• They aimed to be Newtonians of the mind
• Emphasizing the mind's mechanical nature
• The belief was the mind follows simple principles

Pierre Gassendi

• Gassendi sought to replace Descartes's dualistic philosophy
• The replacement would be observational inductive science rooted in physical monism
• “I move, therefore I am” statement
• There was no need to believe in an immaterial mind

Julien do La Mettrie

• Mettrie was a strict materialist
• The universe consists of matter and motion
• Thoughts and sensations are particle movements in the brain
• Humans are machines
• Humans and animals only vary in degree of intelligence
• Intelligence depends on brain size, complexity, and education
• Humans typically have more complex brains and improved education so they are more intelligent than animals

Etienne Bonnot de Condillac

• Condillac believed functions Locke attributed to the mind are from sensation, memory, and feeling
• He illustrated it with a sentinet statue

Claude Helvetius

• Helvetius looked at what empiricism and sensationalism mean
• He controlled the experience to control the person's mind
• Said social skills, moral behavior, and genius could be taught by controlling experience
• Empiricism shifted towards radical environmentalism

Positivism

• Positivism says science is the only valid form of knowledge
• Therefore, science takes on traits of religion

Auguste Comte

• Comte said we can only be sure of what can be publicly observed
• Positivism equates knowledge with empirical observation
• Comte suggested the law of three stages
• Societies explain natural events by stages
• First stage: theological, based on superstition and mysticism
• Second stage: metaphysical, based on unseen essences, principles, causes, and laws
• Third stage: scientific, description, prediction, and control of natural phenomena
• Sociology compares societies' three stages of development
• Proposed a utopian "religion of humanity" based on science, replacing God
• Proposed a science hierarchy: mathematics → astronomy → physics → chemistry → physiological biology → sociology

Ernst Mach

• Mach proposed a unique approach of positivism
• It differed from Comte's positivism
• Positivism differed primarily in what type of data science could be certain about
• Mach thought we never directly experience the physical world
• Insisted on defining concepts by measurement procedures, not "ultimate reality"
• He was anticipating operational definitions