Transcript Chapter 13: Cultural Context: Renaissance, Reformation

Chapter 19
John Locke: The Rise of Modern Empiricism
British Empiricism: Locke, Berkeley, Hume
 British Empiricism – a belief system that all
knowledge is based on ideas developed from sense
data or sensory experience
 John Locke (1632 – 1704) (Essay Concerning
Human Understanding, 1690)
Locke in 3 Minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbuzVjYQvY
Locke’s Task: Discovering What We Can Know
(Essay Concerning Human Understanding)

Locke’s philosophy is “modern” in the sense that almost all
post-Baconian-Cartesian philosophy is modern: it takes as its
first and foremost task epistemology—the task of finding the
proper foundation of knowledge by studying the methods (and
content) of knowledge acquisition.

Empiricist epistemology is skeptical of the rationalist
assumption that the real is rational and the rational is real.
Their reformed onto-epistemological assumption is that the
real is empirical, and the empirical is real: All knowledge of
reality arises out of experience of reality, not out of rational
reflection about reality
Locke’s Method for Analyzing Ideas

The meaning of “idea”: What is an idea?

A brief history of “ideas”
 Plato:
• Platonic metaphysics: Reality is dualistic: ideas vs. things; mind vs.
idea
• Platonic epistemology:
 Knowledge is always of ideas.
 An idea exist objectively (objective reality) and separate from the
mind in an intelligible realm of ideas
 An idea is an immaterial, intelligible (accessible by the mind), and
non-sensible (not able to be perceived empirically) entity or
substance that transcends physical, temporal, spatial, empirical
reality
 Ideas make possible the appearance of empirical reality in its
meaning to us. Ideas exist as that which makes the empirical
world intelligible, understandable, meaningful
Locke’s Method for Analyzing Ideas

Aristotle
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
Reality is monistic: hylo-morphic: combination of matter and
form
An idea is the form/meaning of material reality that, although it is
not separate from reality, it is separable from reality through the
intellectual process of abstraction performed by the mind
Ideas do not have a separate and independent existence apart
from matter and the mind.
Descartes:

Ideas exist in our minds as that through and according to which
we understand reality. Ideas are the object of knowledge, and the
most basic ideas are innate ideas: A=A, perfection, self, God. But
ideas are also that through which reality appears in its
meaningfulness, intelligibility.
Locke’s Method for Analyzing Ideas
 Locke: As with Aristotle, ideas are concrete qualities that inhere in
reality and are found immediately in human sensation when empirical
reality imprints itself on our senses/mind
 Locke’s method: genealogy (“historical plain method”: a history of the
origin of ideas in experience): the method of tracing our ideas about the
world to their origin in the world about which we have knowledge.
 Genealogy is not logical-conceptual analysis
Locke’s Empirical Theory of Knowledge
 Critique of Innate Ideas
 Locke first seeks to “clear the ground” of what he believes is the
most obfuscatory epistemological debris of past philosophies—the
doctrine of innate ideas.
 The theory of innate ideas holds that certain ideas and
principles are “hard wired” congenitally into the mind itself
instead of being acquired through experience: we are born preprogrammed with certain ideas without which the world could
not be intelligible
• Examples: the principles of logic, the logic of parts/whole, the idea
of perfection, God, oneness, equality, goodness
Locke’s Empirical Theory of Knowledge

Arguments for innate ideas


Since certain ideas and/or principles are universal, they must be
innate (not exactly the strongest argument for innate ideas!)
Locke’s argument against innate ideas

The cause of the universality of ideas is not their innateness;
rather, it is that human experience is largely and consistently
uniform

However, certain ideas are not universal, for they are
demonstrably relative to biological and cultural determinations
Locke’s Empirical Theory of Knowledge
Representational Realism
 Simple Ideas
 How, then, do we acquire ideas, if we are not born with them? We
acquire them through experience: Empiricism, Aristotelianism

At birth, the mind is naked; the mind is a blank slate (tabula
rosa)

The world writes itself on us; it marks us; it impresses itself
upon us.
• Analogy: the mind is like a camera: the mind is film; the senses are
the lenses that passively receive sense impressions (sensations); the
external world actively imprints itself upon the film of your mind
 ▲→☺
Representational Realism
 Epistemological position that all knowledge is based
on ideas developed from sense data from sensory
experience of the world

1st
2nd
3rd
4th
 The world
Sensation
Ideas knowledge
Locke’s Empirical Theory of Knowledge

The simplest impressions are “simple ideas”: atoms of thought
that can’t be analyzed into anything more simple:
• Two varieties of simple ideas:

Simple primary qualities (extension, location, motion/rest, size,
etc) & secondary qualities (color, smell, touch, taste, sounds:
yellow, white, hot, cold, soft, hard, bitter, sweet, loud, quiet, etc)
• These are the most basic elements out of which a conglomeration of
simple ideas can be taken to form an complex object, such as a house

Reflective ideas: ideas that are acquired through sense experience
of our own mental operations, such as thinking, wanting, needing,
remembering, knowing, willing, feeling, etc
Locke’s Empirical Theory of Knowledge
 Complex ideas

Complex ideas are a constellation of ideas that are assembled out
of simple ideas to form complex objects that mirror the world.

Example: the idea of a flower is a complex idea that is
assembled out of the experience of simple impressions (ideas) of
differing unassembled colors, textures, size, shape, and so on.
Only after much exposure to many flowers do children actual
see the complex idea of a flower as what all of these simple
impressions/ideas form: bright yellow + the petals + the green
stems + odor = daffodil (a complex idea).
Locke’s Empirical Theory of Knowledge

The formation of complex ideas is accomplished by three activities of
the mind
 Compounding: (building particular identities) this Apple = red +
round + sweet etc

Relating: (establishing difference through comparison) this Apple ≠
this Orange; but both are fruit, which ≠ vegetables

Abstracting: (establishing abstract & general ideas—universals vs.
particulars—by ignoring individual distinctions and drawing out
commonalities): not this apple, but apples in general; not this
orange, but oranges in general; not this fruit, but fruit in general; a
bunch of flowers in a plot = flower garden
• The idea of infinity (a reflective idea): we generalize our own cognitive
ability and experience of repeating something “without end”
Locke’s Empirical Theory of Knowledge
 Primary and Secondary Qualities

Primary qualities: the basic objective qualities of an external
object that belong properly to the object and that impress
themselves upon us and can be objectively known: extension,
shape, solidity, motion, rest, number etc

Our ideas about primary qualities can accurately “mirror” the
world and be adequate/faithful representations of how things
really are in the external world

Certain Knowledge of primary qualities is accessible through
mathematical/scientific thinking
Locke’s Empirical Theory of Knowledge

Secondary qualities: subjective qualities of an external object that
impress themselves upon us but that do not properly belong to the
object: colors, sound, tastes, odors, warmth, etc

Our ideas about secondary qualities cannot accurately mirror
reality, or be faithful to what a thing actually is

Why? Because knowledge of secondary qualities is
epistemologically relative to the knowing subject
Locke’s Empirical Theory of Knowledge
 Representative Realism

The mind is acquainted only with its own ideas, but these ideas are
caused by and represent (reflect) objects external to the mind

Ideas re-present the world for/to us
• First, the world exists; it expresses itself, presents itself. Second, the
world’s presentation impresses itself on my senses/mind as a simple
idea: this idea is a re-presentation. Third, I understand the world
according to ideas/representations, i.e., according to my experiences
of it
Representational Realism
 Epistemological position that all knowledge is based
on ideas developed from sense data from sensory
experience of the world

1st
2nd
3rd
4th
 The world
Sensation
Ideas knowledge
Locke’s Empirical Theory of Knowledge

The epistemological import of this is that the mind accesses and
understands reality through ideas that it has received from the
world and has about the world as a result of the sensations/ideas
the world impresses on the mind.
• Reality = ideas about reality, which = empirical data provided by reality.
Therefore, reality=empirical data: the real is empirical, and rationality is
secondary to and derivative of the empiricality of reality/sensation

As a result, the object of knowledge is not knowable in itself apart
from representational ideas that we have about it. It is only ever
known through our experience of it.

But, then, what is the “it” of which we have knowledge? Substance
(see below)
Locke’s Empirical Theory of Knowledge
 Degrees of Knowledge
 Intuitive knowledge (sense certainty of ideas): The connection
between ideas is understood immediately and is certain: white ≠
black; we exist; redness + roundness + sweetness + crunchiness =
and apple

Demonstrative knowledge (deductive knowledge): mediated and
derived knowledge (knowledge of complex ideas and the relations
between ideas, which is provided through logical reasoning)

Sensitive knowledge (inductive knowledge): all judgments
concerning the existence and nature of external objects above and
beyond our immediate and derived knowledge concerning them—
knowledge about what objects are actually like apart from our
ideas of them. Although such knowledge is never certain, it is
highly probable
Metaphysics: The Reality Behind the
Appearances

Reality appears to us in empirical sensations, or simple
ideas. But, what is reality itself above and beyond these
impressions/ideas? What is the “it” of which we have
ideas? Locke’s answer: Substance: that which underlies
empirical reality: Aristotelianism

Locke’s reasoning: there must be something that appears to us and
causes the ideas (qualities) of objects to impress themselves upon
us

We have direct and immediate knowledge of ideas, but not direct
and immediate knowledge of substance
Metaphysics: The Reality Behind the
Appearances

Problem: since we do not experience substance empirically as an
impression/idea, how do we know it is there? Answer: we don’t,
immediately. But, upon demonstrative reflection it seems to be
absurd to say that there is nothing “out there” that appears—that
appearance is happening without anything that is causing the
appearance. So, the claim that substance exists seems like a necessary
postulate, although it is demonstratively a metaphysical one.
However, the question of what it is is something about which we can
have no knowledge (we know that it is, but not what it is)

However, there are basically two localities of substance: the external
world (material objects) and the internal world (ourselves=spiritual
subjects). Although we never encounter these substances directly, it
seems absurd to say that the ideas that I have about myself do not
refer to a substance which causes these ideas to happen/appear.
Evaluation and Significance

Criticism of Representative Realism

According to Locke, all knowledge is re-presentational, meaning that
we can only have knowledge of how reality presents itself through the
re-presentations it leaves on our senses, since knowledge is limited to
the ideas that we have about reality. However, this does not apply to
the substance that causes those ideas to register in/on our senses: we
can reason that “it” must exist, but we can’t know it

This is the “inner-outer” epistemological problem: If all we know are
the ideas in our minds, then our knowledge is never knowledge of
reality, since we cannot get behind the veil of our ideas. How can we
know that our ideas about reality are true if our knowledge is limited
to those ideas and do not deliver reality itself? Enter Hume!
What is the Source of Moral Knowledge?
Locke’s ethics is founded on his epistemology
 There are no innate ethical ideas; therefore, all ethical
ideas originate in experience.


Good, bad, evil are not directly experienced, although
pain and pleasure are experienced as simple, immediate,
and intuitive

Pain/pleasure are generalized and labeled as “good” and
“bad/evil”, which are reflective abstract judgments
subsequent to the immediacy of pain/pleasure.
An Empirical Philosophy of Religion
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The Empirical Origins of the Idea of God

Locke’s theology is founded on his epistemology

The idea of God is not innate. Therefore, the idea of God must originate in
experience.

However, there is no empirical experience of God, so the idea “God” must be
constructed from simple, complex, and relational ideas to build a demonstrative
idea that is abstract. How is this done?
Our finite experience of existence, knowledge, power, duration, goodness and so
on are abstractly infinitized to construct a being (existence) that is omniscient,
omnipotent, eternal, and benevolent

God is an extrapolation of finite empirical experience
Demonstrating God’s Existence



All the same old arguments rehashed: Cosmological, teleological, eidological etc
Locke’s Influence on Deism
A Political Theory for the Enlightenment

The State of Nature

Locke’s political philosophy is grounded in his ontology &
epistemology: the world is a collection of atomic individuals
(simple entities & ideas) that form larger whole individuals
(complex entities & ideas)

Human beings are atomic, egotistic individuals (an individual
whole made of parts); society is a complex collection of atomic,
egotistic individuals (a social whole made of individuals/parts)

Unlike Hobbes, who viewed the state of nature as a state of war,
Locke’s description of the state of nature is one relative peaceful
co-operation.
A Political Theory for the Enlightenment

Natural Law and Human Rights

Natural law theory maintains that certain moral laws exist by nature, as do
the physical laws of nature, and that these laws can be known via reason
(demonstratively & sensitively/inductively, not intuitively-immediately).

Because these laws are written in the book of nature, they are not given by
governments, nor can they be taken away by governments.

By nature, human beings have certain rights that are inalienable: the right to
life, liberty, and property

Nature belongs equally to all humans as our common property

If and when any individual labors on nature, that part becomes his property
(Locke’s labor theory of property)
• Example: An apple on a tree is the common property of all, and as such is free for
the taking; it is potentially anyone’s property. But if I expend my labor to get it,
then it becomes mine: I own it
A Political Theory for the Enlightenment

The Social Contract

Society is preferable to the state of nature because of its efficacy for meeting
human needs, wants and interests

Human society, however, requires governments to adjudicate fairly
conflicting claims to life, liberty, and property—precisely because people tend
to adjudicate conflicts unfairly on account of our egotistical wants, needs, and
interests


Codified law sets the basis and standard for adjudicating conflicting claims

Judges (legal-governmental functionaries) adjudicate conflicting claims
fairly

The law is enforced by neutral governmental functionaries: police
Government is formed through an economy of exchange of power: we give up
individual power to a collective power in order to give it power to enforce
individual freedoms and powers that we do have.
A Political Theory for the Enlightenment

The Limitations of Government

Contra Hobbes, who believed that government could and should be a
Leviathan, Locke believed that government exists for the common
good—by the people and for the people. As a result, government is a
servant of the people

Comment: this is a very modern thesis: through the use of reason,
we can be masters and possessors of our own nature, which is both
individual and collective, and we can create institutions that serve
our needs: our creations serve/ought to serve us (the creators)
• The way we know and establish these laws and institutions is through
political experience and political science of our political experience:
laws and institutions are not god-given and divinely sanctioned; they
are products of reason and they are rationally sanctioned
A Political Theory for the Enlightenment
 The Limitations of Government continued:


Rule of law according to consent of the governed

Majority rule based on the common sense (rationality, which is by
nature equally distributed) of the consenting to rationally mediate
that which they have created—their own system of government

Government consist of branches—legislative and executive (both
conducting domestic affairs), and the federative (conducting foreign
affairs)

The right to rebellion: since government exists for the sake of the
people, if the government becomes tyrannical (and violates the social
contract), the governed have a natural right to revolt.
Locke’s 18th Century Assumptions
Evaluation and Significance

Criticism: In Defense of Innate Ideas

Contra Locke, it is obvious that we have tacit-implicit knowledge:
we use the principles of logic at an early age even though we do not
explicitly know what they are. This makes it possible that some of
our knowledge is innate.

Although we may not be born with any ideas, we are certainly born
with innate capacities and structures, as Leibniz maintained and
as Kant will argue
Evaluation and Significance

Criticism of Representative Realism

According to Locke, all knowledge is re-presentational, meaning that
we can only have knowledge of how reality presents itself through the
re-presentations it leaves on our senses, since knowledge is limited to
the ideas that we have about reality. However, this does not apply to
the substance that causes those ideas to register in/on our senses: we
can reason that “it” must exist, but we can’t know it

This is the “inner-outer” epistemological problem: If all we know are
the ideas in our minds, then our knowledge is never knowledge of
reality, since we cannot get behind the veil of our ideas. How can we
know that our ideas about reality are true if our knowledge is limited
to those ideas and do not deliver reality itself? Enter Hume!