Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Chapter 6 - Empiricism, Associationism, and Utilitarianism A History of Psychology: Ideas and Context (4 th edition) D. Brett King, Wayne Viney, and William Douglas Woody This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network; preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images; any rental, lease, or lending of the program

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Empiricism Montaigne’s skepticism challenged Francis Bacon and René Descartes. Bacon and others responded to Montaigne’s challenge with empiricism. Empiricism is closest to the term “experience.” Empiricists share some common ideas: –a posteriori knowledge, –a passive mind that responds to sensory input, and –induction as a method of knowledge.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Francis Bacon Francis Bacon focused on problems of knowledge and pioneered the scientific method. Bacon described four Idols that are impediments to human knowledge. –Idols of the Tribe are the limits of the human intellectual apparatus. –Idols of the Cave are the prejudices or preferred theories that blind us to alternative explanations. –Idols of the Marketplace are aspects of the nominal fallacy. We often believe that we have explained a phenomenon by giving it a name. –Idols of the theatre are the tendencies of humans to accept the claims of authorities.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Francis Bacon Bacon emphasized sense experience in the search for knowledge. He advocated the gathering of observations from a wide variety of sources. He recommended presentation of these observations to a community of researchers. –The community could draw tentative conclusions from a wide variety of sources. Bacon advocated naturalistic approaches to a number of psychological topics including dreams, sleep, human development, thought, and emotion.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 John Locke Locke argued that the mind is a “white paper” (tabula rasa) at birth. –He concluded that all knowledge is learned through experience. –He criticized the concept of innate ideas. –His emphasis on experience led him to recommendations for education. Locke attempted to describe the validity of human knowledge, the correspondence between ideas and the objects they represent. –Locke defined primary qualities as those that reside in an object independently of perception. –He defined secondary qualities as those that are a function of the interaction between the object and the observer’s sensory system. Locke had a profound effect on two centuries of childhood education, particularly by encouraging hardening.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 George Berkeley Bacon and Locke applied empiricism to questions of epistemology. George Berkeley took an empirical approach to ontology. –He challenged the materialism of Locke. –He advocated a return to spiritual interpretations of the world. Berkeley noted that we experience secondary qualities with the senses. He also pointed out that we can only know primary qualities through the senses. –If all we know about the world comes through experience, how can we speak of primary qualities outside of experience?

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 George Berkeley If all knowledge of the world comes through experience, humans cannot validate the existence of anything outside of experience. –Therefore, for Berkeley, the only real world is the world of experience. –Existence is defined as being perceived. Berkeley’s critics asked how the world could be so consistent without a perceiver. –For Berkeley, consistency implies a continual perceiver, God. –Therefore, the consistency of the world demonstrates that God must exist. If all I can know with certainty is my own experience, I may fall into solipsism. Berkeley addressed other psychological topics including vision and the relationship between vision and touch.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 David Hume For David Hume, experience is the primary subject matter of philosophy Hume, however, maintained that our experience is simply a chain of events. –Causality and other relationships are only functions of our mental habits. Hume distinguished between impressions, mental phenomena that present themselves with force, and ideas, fainter images of impressions.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 David Hume Hume argued that our selves and our experiences are not as continuous as we would like to believe. –He said that our experiences may be more like a disjointed parade than a single, self-coherent system. Hume studied the emotions extensively. He advocated comparative studies in physical anatomy and “anatomy of the mind.”

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Empiricism on the European continent Empiricism on the European continent thrived at the same time that the British empiricists were writing. Etienne Bonnot de Condillac focused on how the mind works instead of what the mind is. –Condillac addressed the interaction of nature and learning in the formation of knowledge. –Condillac emphasized the importance of language in science. Claude-Adrien Helvétius emphasized the motivational effects of pleasure and pain.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Associationism and Utilitarianism Associationism and Utilitarianism were motivated by practical problems in education and society. –David Hartley is often regarded as the founder of modern associationism. –Hartley classified the varieties of pleasure and pain and their effects on human motivation. –Hartley also proposed a neurophysiological system of association. He argued that miniature vibrations (vibrantiuncles) remain after the initial stimulus has passed. Vibrantiuncles become the basis of memory.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Associationism and Utilitarianism At the intersection of law and psychology, Jeremy Bentham argued for a utilitarian approach to jurisprudence. –He emphasized the greatest good for the greatest number. –Bentham accepted psychological hedonism, the idea that humans seek pleasure and avoid pain.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Associationism and Utilitarianism Mary Wollstonecraft was an early pioneer in the battle for the emancipation of women. –She suggested that the differences between the genders resulted from the lack of opportunities for women. –Wollstonecraft argued against essentialism. Essentialisms is the belief that the essential nature of men is qualitatively different from the essential nature of women. –Her book, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, encouraged women to acquire strength. It also encouraged men to seek fellowship with women as equals.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Associationism and Utilitarianism James Mill argued for a mechanistic approach to the mind based in association and conditioning. –He was an advocate for education for the masses. John Stuart Mill, the son of James Mill, was a product of his father’s mechanical approach to education. –John Stuart Mill viewed the mind in probabilistic terms rather than mechanical terms. –He maintained that a science of psychology was possible. –He also suggested a science of the development of character, which he called etholog. –He also, perhaps due in part to his relationship with Harriet Taylor, advocated feminist views. –He grounded these views in his empiricism and his utilitarianism. –He suggested that there would be societal benefits from providing women with opportunity.