The empiricists : a guide for the perplexed / Laurence Carlin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carlin, Laurence.

Series:

Guides for the perplexed.

Guides for the perplexed

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Empiricism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (203 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Continuum, c2009.

Summary:

Empiricism is one of the most widely discussed topics in philosophy. Students regularly encounter the well known opposition between rationalism and empiricism - the clash between reason and experience as sources of knowledge and ideas - at an early stage in their studies. The Empiricists: A Guide for the Perplexed offers a clear and thorough guide to the key thinkers responsible for developing this central concept in the history of philosophy. The book focuses on the canonical figures of the empiricist movement, Locke, Berkeley and Hume, but also explores the contributions made by other key fi

Contents:

Introduction : The empiricists and their context

Empiricism and the empiricists

The intellectual background to the early modern empiricists

Martin Luther and the Reformation

Aristotelian cosmology and the scientific revolution

Aristotelian/scholastic hylomorphism and the rise of mechanism

The Royal Society of London

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

The natural realm : the idols of the mind

Idols of the tribe

Idols of the cave

Idols of the marketplace

Idols of the theatre

Knowledge and experience : induction introduced

Aristotelian/scholastic syllogisms : deductions dismissed

Baconian empiricism : induction introduced

Conclusion : Bacon the empiricist

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

The natural realm : Hobbes's materialistic mechanism

The importance of motion

Sensation and the mind

Knowledge and experience : definitions and the Euclidean method

Two kinds of knowledge and proper ratiocination

The method of analysis and the method of synthesis

Conclusion : Hobbes the empiricist

Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655)

The natural realm : Gassendi's atomism

The basic principles of Gassendi's atomism

Atomistic sensation

Knowledge and experience : the 'middle way' to knowledge

The sceptics are partly correct

Knowledge regained?

Conclusion : Gassendi the empiricist

Robert Boyle (1627-1691)

The natural realm : Boyle's mechanism ('corpuscularianism')

The basic principles of Boyle's mechanism (or 'corpscularianism')

Knowledge and experience : mechanism and the cautious experimenter

The excellency of mechanism

Experimentation and the status of mechanism

Conclusion : Boyle the empiricist

John Locke (1632-1704)

The natural realm : Locke's mechanism

Against innatism

Ideas and the tabula rasa

Primary and secondary qualities, and our confused idea of substance

Locke on power

Knowledge and experience : Locke's epistemology

Indirect realism, or the representational theory of perception

The certainty of knowledge

The origin of knowledge

The extent of knowledge

Conclusion : Locke the empiricist

Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

The natural realm : Newton's Principia

A world of forces : universal gravitation

What kind of quality is gravity?

Mechanism and action at a distance

Knowledge and experience : rules for the study of natural philosophy

The four rules

Whither natural philosophy?

Conclusion : Newton the empiricist

George Berkeley (1685-1753)

The natural realm : Berkeley's idealism

The world contains only souls and ideas

Esse est percipi : two arguments for idealism/immaterialism

Against the primary/secondary quality distinction

Knowledge and experience : Berkeley's common sense epistemology

Against the representational theory of perception

Defeating the sceptic, and returning to common sense

Mechanism, Newtonianism, and instrumentalism : Berkeley on the new science

Responses to popular objections

Conclusion : Berkeley the empiricist

David Hume (1711-1776)

The natural realm : Hume's psychological approach

Impressions and ideas

The principles of association

Knowledge and experience : Hume's semi-scepticism

Relations of ideas vs. matters of fact

From matters of fact to cause and effect : Hume's first question

Knowledge of cause and effect : Hume's second question

The problem of induction : Hume's third question

Hume's positive account of causation : induction regained?

Conclusion : Hume the empiricist

Empiricism and the empiricists : summary and conclusion.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 181-183) and index.

ISBN:

9786612870736

9781282870734

1282870734

9780826490308

0826490301

OCLC:

676698621