Study Guide Locke Berkeley Kant Hume

JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704)
- empiricist and political philosopher

- theory of knowledge focuses on 1◦ and 2◦ qualities
- distinguished perception in different levels
- knowledge is acquired through (sensory) experience
- “nothing is in the intellect without passing through the senses”
Primary Qualities Secondary Qualities

- produce ideas - produce sensations
- independent of observer; directly observable - color, taste, smell, sound
- solidity, extension, motion, number, figure - subjective
- not controlled by the mind/perceiving senses - controlled by the mind; relative to perception
Rene Descartes John Locke

- knowledge = absolute certainty - knowledge = uncertain
- doesn’t come from the senses - blank slate at birth
- experience + deduction = knowledge - senses → knowledge
- innate - sensation + reflection
- doubt until it can’t be denied anymore - “what I know now will be the same tomorrow”
- “what I know now may be different tomorrow”
What was John Locke’s belief on knowledge?

- knowledge is acquired through (sensory) experience; nothing is in the intellect without passing through
the senses
Why was John Locke considered an Empiricist?

- because he believed that knowledge is based on experience derived through the senses
Differentiate 1◦ and 2◦ qualities according to John Locke

- primary qualities produce ideas and are objective; they are not controlled by the mind/perceiving
senses
- secondary qualities produce sensations and are subjective; they are controlled by the mind and relative
to perception
Give examples of 1◦ and 2◦ qualities

- primary: solidity, extension, motion, number, figure; an apple is firm and round
- secondary: color, taste, smell, sound; an apple is red, tastes sweet, and makes a crunch sound when bit
into
Name 2 ways that Locke’s beliefs of knowledge defer from Rene Descartes
- he believed that knowledge is uncertain, while Descartes believed knowledge is absolute certainty
- believed that knowledge is derived from sensation and reflection, while Descartes believed knowledge
is derived from experience and deduction
ARISTOTLE
1. simple apprehension: gather data → presented to the mind → ideas
- “sensory consciousness”; diversified
- ideas are useless because they cannot be communicated
- presented as words/terms to replicate idea
- able to gather concept of the essence of things
2. result of judgment is proposition

- affirmative and negative (subject denies predicate)
3. reasoning/inference
- propositions
- categorical: conclusion
- hypothetical: minor premise
- conditional: major premise
- disjunctive: either/or; one is denied/affirmed
GEORGE BERKELEY
- epistemological (knowledge) empiricism: emphasizes sense perception on knowledge
- led him to theorize there is nothing that exists without being perceived
- reality consists of ideas and the minds
- described nature of objects as not physical, but mental entities (ideas)
- reflection reveals meaning of existence on an object
2 types of minds:
- finite (man)
- infinite (God): perception of the essence of things
- whatever exists is always perceived by a mind
- theory of the nature of objects, este esse percipi: “to exist is to be perceived”
- component of reality is the mind
According to Berkeley, does physical matter exist?

- no, the only things that exist are perceptions and minds; what we perceive are sensations, not physical
matter
Is Berkeley considered an idealist or realist? Why?

- an idealist, because he believed that everything that exists are ideas and perceptions (and minds)
What are the 2 books written by Berkeley?

- The Principles of Human Knowledge (1710)
- Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous (1713)
In what way does universal language (sense perception) help us preserve out well being and avoid
harm to our bodies?
- an example would be pulling our hand away from a hot object
How does vision help us communicate information about tangible objects?
- visible figures represent tangible figures in much after the same manner that written words do sounds
IMMANUEL KANT
- epistemology of knowledge: critical philosophy, because it is focused on the critique of pure reason
(judgment, knowledge, truth)
- book related to emotion/feelings, “practical reason”
- categorical imperative: direct command (in contrast to) hypothetical imperative: condition
- Critique of Pure Reason: an individual’s mind organizes into understanding the way the world works
A Priori A Posteriori
- judgment before experience - judgment from physical/visible facts; relative
- knowledge about cause and effect; necessary - cannot determine if it must be so
- “what goes up must come down” - knowledge depends on experience of empirical
- knowledge that is justified independently of evidence as well as science and personal
experience knowledge
- “from former” or “from what is before” - “from the latter”
Synthetic judgment Analytic judgment

- predicate offers something new to the subject - predicate is contained in the subject
- “all bachelors are not married” - “a circle is round”
structure of the mind has 2 dimensions:

- sensibility: ability to possibly receive objects from the outside; space and time
- understanding: the way the mind actively thinks about an object in order to understand it
synthesis
- the many ways the mind absorbs representations from the outside
- gives coherence to the various objects being perceived
- associate object with something in order to remember it
categories in knowing things:

- unity: look at the object as one
- plurality
- totality
- negation: opposition, contrariety, subcontrariety, subalternation
- limitation: in reality there is always a substance (quality, quantity, color, size, motion)
- accident
- cause and effect: if you have a cause there is a relative effect; unpredictable
- community: non man is an island
- reciprocal relations: possibility/impossibility; existence/non-existence
Differentiate synthetic a priori and a posteriori

- a priori: judgment before experience
- a posteriori: judgment from physical/visible facts
Is “snow is white” synthetic or analytic? Why?
- synthetic, because the predicate offers something new to the subject; the predicate is not contained in
the subject
What is synthetic truth?

- a statement that cannot be determined by linguistic meaning alone
What is analytic truth?

- the predicate term is contained in the meaning of the subject term
Explain Kant’s moral law of categorical imperative

- morality is derived from rationality and all moral judgments are rationally supported

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JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704)

- empiricist and political philosopher

Primary Qualities Secondary Qualities

Rene Descartes John Locke

What was John Locke’s belief on knowledge?

Why was John Locke considered an Empiricist?

Differentiate 1◦ and 2◦ qualities according to John Locke

Give examples of 1◦ and 2◦ qualities

2. result of judgment is proposition

According to Berkeley, does physical matter exist?

Is Berkeley considered an idealist or realist? Why?

What are the 2 books written by Berkeley?

Synthetic judgment Analytic judgment

structure of the mind has 2 dimensions:

categories in knowing things:

Differentiate synthetic a priori and a posteriori

What is synthetic truth?

What is analytic truth?

Explain Kant’s moral law of categorical imperative

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