2.3 Empiricism

Fact

"All the objects of human reason or enquiry may naturally be divided into two kinds, to wit, Relations of Ideas, and Matters of ____"--David Hume

Backgammon

"Most fortunately it happens, that since reason is incapable of dispelling these clouds, nature herself suffices to that purpose, and cures me of the philosophical melancholy and delirium...I dine, I play a game of _____, I converse, and am merry with my friends; and when after three or four hours' amusement, I wou'd return to these speculations, they appear so cold, and strain'd, and ridiculous, that I cannot find in my heart to enter into them any farther.--David Hume

Candle

"The candle that is set up in us shines bright enough for all our purposes. The discoveries we can make with this ought to satisfy us."--John Locke

Theater

"The mind is a kind of _____, where several perceptions successively make their appearance, pass, re-pass, glide away, and mingle in an infinite variety of postures and situations..."--David Hume

Commit it then to the flames

"When we run over libraries, persuaded of these principles, what havoc must we make? If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. ____ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion."--David Hume

Arguments against innate ideas

1) Empiricists point out that not everyone possesses these so-called self-evident truths the rationalists defend 2) The rationalists disagree among themselves concerning what ideas are rational and "innate" 3) Even if we discover truths that seem to be universally known and that always hold true, these truths can be explained without positing innate ideas

Anchor Points of Empiricism

1) The Only Source of Genuine Knowledge Is Sense Experience 2) Reason Is an Unreliable and Inadequate Route to Knowledge Unless It Is Grounded in the Solid Bedrock of Sense Experience 3) There Is No Evidence of Innate Ideas within the Mind That Are Known Apart from Experience

Contradiction

According to Hume, we can deny any matter of fact (such as "the sun will always rise in the morning") without falling into a logical _____.

Foundations

Although Hume originally thought that philosophy could provide us with the ______ of all knowledge, his empiricism ended him up in skepticism concerning, among other things, the uniformity of nature, causality, the external world, the self, and God.

Nativism

Contemporary version of rationalism held by some linguists, cognitive scientists, and philosophers who believe that we could not acquire the knowledge we have unless the mind already contained a certain amount of innate content or structure:

Tabula rasa

Famous idea of John Locke and other empiricists in which, when we are born, our minds our like a "blank slate," which means all of our knowledge comes from experience:

Trustworthy

For Hume, our impressions are more vivid and _____ than the copies of them we find in our ideas

Theoretical

For Hume, skepticism is a _____ position that reminds us to be less dogmatic and more modest and reserved about our beliefs, realizing that they are never completely justified.

Perceptions

For Hume, the contents of consciousness, which include impressions and ideas:

Saint David

Nickname of David Hume:

Impressions

Perceptions include our original experiences, which Hume labels _____.

Principle of induction

The assumption that the future will be like the past:

Hume's Fork

The dichotomy between relations of ideas (which are logically necessary, but tell us nothing about the world) and matters of fact (which tell us about the world, but which are not certain)

Uniformity of Nature

The thesis that the laws of nature that have been true thus far will continue to be true tomorrow:

Bundle theory

View of the self espoused by David Hume, which is very similar to the "no-self" view of Buddhism: