The Origin of Knowledge Know the key definitions Understand the difference between complex and simple object Explain the impact of Hume and Locke

Key words Task: Using textbook match up words to definitions.

The origin of concepts and the nature of knowledge: where do ideas/concepts and knowledge come from? Concept empiricism: all concepts are derived from experience The tabula rasa Impressions and ideas Simple and complex concepts Strengths of this view Issues with concept empiricism: Does the concept of ‘simple ideas’ make sense? Do all simple ideas come from sense experience? Do all complex ideas/concepts relate to sense experience? Do some concepts have to exist in the mind before sense impressions can be properly experienced?

Concept empiricist arguments against concept innatism: Concept innatism (rationalism): there are at least some innate concepts: Descartes’ Trademark argument Innate concept of physical substance Innate concepts of numbers Innate concepts of universals (i.e. Beauty and Justice). Innate structures Concept empiricist arguments against concept innatism: Alternative explanations (no such concept or concept re-defined as based on experiences). Locke’s arguments against innatism, and Leibniz’s responses.

Issues with knowledge empiricism: Knowledge empiricism: all synthetic knowledge is a posteriori and all a priori knowledge is merely analytic. Hume’s Fork Issues with knowledge empiricism: Arguments against knowledge empiricism: the limits of empirical knowledge (Descartes’ sceptical arguments. Knowledge innatism (rationalism): there is at least some innate a priori knowledge (Plato and Leibniz) Knowledge empiricist arguments against knowledge innatism: alternative explanations (no such knowledge, in fact based on experiences or merely analytic); Locke’s arguments against innatism; its reliance on the non-natural. Intuition and deduction thesis (rationalism): we can gain synthetic a priori knowledge through intuition and deduction (Descartes on the existence of the self, God and the external world). 4.3.1 Knowledge empiricist arguments against the intuition and deduction thesis.

Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, II, 1, par.2 ‘Let us then suppose the mind to have no ideas in it, to be like white paper with nothing written on it. How then does it come to be written on? From where does it get that vast store which the busy and boundless imagination of man has painted on it – all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from experience. Our understandings derive all the materials of thinking from observations that we make of external objects that can be perceived through the senses, and of the internal operations of our minds, which we perceive by looking in at ourselves.’

Concept empiricism: all concepts are derived from experience The tabula rasa: According to the empiricist John Locke, the mind is a ‘tabula rasa’ – a blank slate. Therefore all ideas/concepts are derived from experience – from impressions. There are two types of impressions: - Impressions of sensation: our experience of objects outside the mind, perceived through the senses. This gives us ideas of ‘sensible qualities’. - Impressions of reflection: our experience of ‘internal operations of our minds’, gained through introspection or an awareness of what the mind is doing. Locke uses the term ‘idea’ to cover sensations and concepts!

Impressions and ideas Hume develops John Locke’s empiricist philosophy. Hume argues that what we are immediately and directly aware of are ‘perceptions’. ‘Perceptions’ are divided into ‘impressions’ and ‘ideas’, the difference between the two being marked by a difference of ‘forcefulness’ and ‘vivacity’, so that impressions relate roughly to ‘feeling’ (or ‘sensing’) and ideas to ‘thinking’. Hume argues that ideas are faint copies of original sense impressions (Hume’s Copy Principle). For example, my ideas of whiteness and coldness are copies of my sensation of the whiteness and coldness of snow. Because this sensation was forceful and vivid, it stamped a copy of itself on my mind. This copy is considerably fainter than the original sensation. If I create other ideas from it, they will be fainter still.

All of our ideas are built up from copies of our impressions, by combining, separating, augmenting and diminishing them. Hume, following Locke, divides impressions into those of ‘sensation’ and those of ‘reflection’. Impressions of sensation derive from our senses, impressions of reflection derive from our experiences of our mind, including emotions for Hume. Impressions = the more lively sensations that we have when we see or hear or feel or love or hate. Ideas = the less lively sensations that we have when we think about seeing, hearing, feeling etc.

Simple and Complex ideas ‘But although our thought seems to be so free, when we look more carefully, we’ll find that it is really confined within very narrow limits, and that all this creative power of the mind amounts merely to the ability to combine, transpose, enlarge or shrink the materials that the senses and experiences provide us with.’ Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Enquiry 1, section 2.

S&C ideas Both Locke and Hume distinguish between simple and complex ideas. They argue that ideas which do not come directly from experience (e.g. the idea of a unicorn) are all built out of simpler ideas that do come from experience (the ideas of a horse and a horn). For example, I see a mountain and something golden, and combine the ideas generated by these impressions to form the idea of a golden mountain (Hume’s example).

Strengths of this view It fits with our experience of the acquisition of ideas – we acquire ideas of things as we experience them, and not before (Locke). It explains why people who lack certain kinds of sensation also lack the corresponding ideas – e.g. why blind people have no ideas of colours, and deaf people no idea of sounds (Hume). It gives us a way of resolving philosophical problems – clarify the ideas on which they are based and the problems will disappear. Hume applies this to philosophical problems about causation, God, morality and the self.

Hume’s Arguments for Concept Empiricism When we analyse our thoughts or ideas—however complex or elevated they are—we always find them to be made up of simple ideas that were copied from earlier feelings or sensations. Even ideas that at first glance seem to be the furthest removed from that origin are found on closer examination to be derived from it. The idea of God—meaning an infinitely intelligent, wise, and good Being—comes from extending beyond all limits the qualities of goodness and wisdom that we find in our own minds. However far we push this enquiry, we shall find that every idea that we examine is copied from a similar impression. If a man can’t have some kind of sensation because there is something wrong with his eyes, ears etc., he will never be found to have corresponding ideas. A blind man can’t form a notion of colours, or a deaf man a notion of sounds.   Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human understanding, Section 2, p.8

Key Words Scramble up the definitions and try to match them up again! HWK: Research 2 issues with Concept Empiricism and then write a short explanation of them.