An Empiricist Theory of Knowledge Locke’s Theory of Knowledge Lecture 6

The Cartesian Theatre

No innate ideas – Theory simplification • Locke’s reflection on knowing starts with the problem of theories – Given two explanations the one that is most likely to be true is the simplest – Is it possible to construct an explanation of knowledge without using the notion of innate ideas • According to Locke, “yes”, is one starts with a simple concept (model) of the mind

The tabula rasa – The blank slate • Imagine the mind like a blank slate on which nothing is written (without any innate ideas) – “Let us suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas: How comes it to be furnished? To this I answer in one word, from EXPEREINCE.” (John Locke, EHU)

The mind is like a blank slate informed only by sense experience and acts of reflection

Evidence for Locke’s model (EHU 2:1:6) • Children show no evidence of innate ideas. They appear to learn their ideas – Copy from adults – Education – Personal experience • If a child were kept in a room with no color would have no idea of color • So by “degrees” their minds are furnished with ideas

Sensation & Reflection are the origin of all ideas (and knowledge) • Sensation – Sense experiencing – So sensation = the act of sensing – External (to consciousness) material things are the objects of sensation • Reflection – The mind’s experience of its own operations of thinking, believing, doubting, reasoning etc.

– The “internal” (to consciousness) correlate of sensing – The mind’s operations are the objects of reflection

So . . . concluding argument • All ideas originate with either – Sensation (ideas of the sensible reality); or knowledge of external objects • Notice external objects furnish ideas of sensible things – Reflection (ideas of the mind’s operation); or knowledge of the mind’s operation (activities) • Notice: the mind furnishes the understanding with ideas about the mind’s own operations.

• There is a potential problem here. What is it?

Key distinctions • Simple and complex ideas – Simple ideas originate in any one sense that cannot be broken down into simpler entities (e.g. yellow) – Complex ideas are combinations of simple ideas (apple = spherical-red-sweet) created by the mind • Primary and secondary qualities – Primary quality are characteristics of external objects (extension, size, shape, location) – Secondary qualities exist only in the mind yet caused by features of external objects (colors, sounds, tastes) • Notice qualities inhere in things; ideas in minds

Locke’s theory of idea formation EHU 2:7:7-21

All ideas from sensation or reflection

Passive impression

Sense data

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representation

Sensory experience (seeing, touching, tasting, smelling) Reflection (thinking, doubting, comparing, coming to an opinion) Active reflection

Ideas, concepts, explanations, etc.

sensation-reflection-operation-idea

sensation reflection simple idea operation complex idea Sense data

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blue

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Sense data

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stripe

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color: blue form: stripe Combination

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blue stripe

All ideas come from sensation or reflection

Experience sensation reflection Passive mind Simple ideas Complex ideas Active mind

Representationalism • On this account the mind REPRESENTS reality (the external world) – What we know are ideas NOT reality in itself – Best analogy is a photographic process in which what is external to the camera ‘imprints’ an image on the film.

What are we doing when we are knowing?

• Passively receiving sense impressions • Assembled as representations of simple ideas • Combined, compared, distinguished by active reflection into complex ideas • Ideas “correspond to” the external world (or reality)

What do we know when we do that?

• IDEAS that represent the external world

Idea of a cactus in the sun = Knowledge of cactus in the sun

Locke’s Epistemological Dualism Our ideas correspond to objects in the world

Corresponds to

Physical object Reality in itself External world Mental object representation or idea, the internal world

The Egocentric Predicament • If ideas correspond to the external world, how can we verify the correspondence?

• The is a version of the “bridge problem” • There is “no place” outside the mind where one can verify the correspondence of the idea to the object represented • So while Locke overcomes Cartesian solipsism, he has his own version of the ‘egocentric predicament’.

Locke’s Contribution • The senses play a role in knowing by providing data from an “external world” - the “to be known.” • The ‘external world’ (reality) imposes itself on consciousness. However, what is ‘imposed’ (impressed on the mind) are ideas.

– As we have noted there is no means to verify the correspondence of idea and reality the idea represents.

• The mind actively relates the data together.

– So the mind is ACTIVE in acts of knowing.