Rationalism vs. Empiricism: Locke, Berkeley, and Hume
Similarities and Differences Between Rationalism and Empiricism
Similarities
Both rationalism and empiricism coincide in the conception of representational knowledge. We immediately know not external reality, but our ideas.
Differences
The differences are revealing. Empiricism searches for external knowledge in experience. There are no innate ideas. Consciousness is empty and positive, and it advocates that our representations are the only sensitive element of which we know something of external reality. Rationalism, however, has a hidden character that seeks to know why there are innate ideas and a full and active consciousness. To know what lies beyond our sensible representations, we must not rely on these representations.
Locke and Modern Thought
It is recognized that the solution to any philosophical problem presupposes prior knowledge of the classification problem, which involves primacy to the original theory of knowledge that spans the origin, certainty, the limits, and degrees.
Innatism
The argumentation of innatism can be broken down into two arguments: the disqualified argumentation, which states that if there are two patterns of knowledge, they would actually clash, with consequent distortion. The other, the psychological-genetic argument, states that if there were two, they would be consistent and universal and present in all men, so they could be easily discovered.
Locke on the Origin of Ideas
Ideas, according to Locke, are the object or content of the mind when a person thinks.
Where do they come from?
They come from experience: from the outside through simple sensations (colors, sounds, smells, tastes, etc.), and from the inside through simple ideas of reflection (thinking, doubting, and reflecting).
Locke on Ideas and Cognitive Function
Cognitive function is one part of our knowledge because the mind immediately knows just ideas. It also allows us to know the facts, as ideas have a representative character.
Qualities and Differences
Qualities can be primary or secondary. The former are perceived as they are (solidity, extent, form, number, etc.). The latter are perceived differently from how they are (colors, sounds, tastes, etc.).
Berkeley on Sensitive Real Things
- It must be understood that objects are real and sensitive.
- Real objects and those that are sensitive to the imaginary are perceived by different senses.
- The senses perceive nothing that is not immediately perceived (the senses do not infer).
- Nothing except qualities is sensitive to the perceived time of a person’s senses.
- Sensitive and real objects are nothing more than a stack of sensitive qualities.
- However, the existence of sensitive qualities depends on being perceived.
Conclusion 1: The existence of sensitive subjects depends on being perceived.
Conclusion 2: Since the existence of sensitive objects depends on the actual fact of being perceived, and there is not always a finite receiver that perceives, we must accept the existence of a finite receiver: God.
General Traits of Hume’s Thought
- He represents the last stage of empiricism and is one of the most important philosophers of the Enlightenment.
- He embraces a basic Cartesian skepticism, taking Cartesian doubt seriously. He is unable to pass the Cogito, the affirmation that “I am a thinking substance.” There is no possibility of inferring the existence of an outside world that would cause my perceptions.
- He has a level of distrust towards reason. When reason travels beyond experience, it remains unreported and offers no guarantees.
- His is a philosophy of suspicion: that behind the constructions of reason.
- He wants to give philosophical support to a kind of positive agnosticism (not atheism), which would end superstition and religious fanaticism.
Human Nature as the Center of Gravity
Human nature is the center of gravity, the foundation of all sciences. This is why Hume considers it of utmost importance to develop a science of man. Logic is interested in the principles and operations of man’s rational faculty. Morality and criticism deal respectively with our love and our feelings. Politics considers man in connection with society. Mathematics, natural philosophy, and natural religion are known to man, and men judge the truth or falsehood of their respective objects of knowledge.
Value of Descartes
Both Descartes and Hume seek the foundation of science and find it in the careful study of human nature. The important thing is to rely on empirical data and not on the intuition of an essence of the mind and human nature. Our method should be more inductive than deductive.
Hume on Knowledge of Human Nature
It must be based on empirical data, the experimental method, observation, and experience. It must stick to the data as presented through introspection and the observation of life and human behavior. It must research the psychological processes of human behavior and morality to discover their principles and causes.
Difference from Descartes
On this question of method, Hume clearly differs from the rationalist approach (Descartes), which relies on mathematics, and from the pristine approach, which relies on the natural sciences.
Hume on Knowledge of Human Nature
It must be based on empirical data, the experimental method, observation, and experience. It must stick to the data as presented through introspection and the observation of life and human behavior. It must research the psychological processes of human behavior and morality to discover their principles and causes.
Difference from Descartes
On this question of method, Hume clearly differs from the rationalist approach (Descartes), which relies on mathematics, and from the pristine approach, which relies on the natural sciences.