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J O H N   C H I A P P O N E

 

 

C H A P T E R  14

E M P I R I C I S M

The Scientific Method

   

What is Empiricism?

- All knowledge comes from experience.
- There are no innate ideas.
- We indirectly experience the external world.
- We directly experience the internal world.
- Perception, memory, and imagination are different by degree.
  Perceptions are more vivid.
 

ALHAZEN
(965–1039)

He was an Iraqi polymath: scientist, physicist, anatomist, physician, psychologist, astronomer, engineer, inventor, mathematician, ophthalmologist, philosopher, and theologian.

 

Alhazen was one of the first to formulate a scientific method that resembles the modern approach. His method combined mathematics, induction, observation, and experimentation.

You can observe this in his work on optics. The emission theory held that the eye emit rays of light. The intromission theory held that objects reflect or emit physical particles that enter the eye. Alhazen proved that both theories were incorrect. His theory, the intromission theory of vision, demonstrated that light travels in straight lines (even through transparent bodies), is reflected off objects, and enters the eye.

 

FRANCIS BACON
(1561–1626)

"Knowledge is power."

 

 

 

 


LIFE:

Francis Bacon was an English polymath: philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, and author.

- He contracted pneumonia while stuffing snow into a chicken.
- He was the Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England.
- His political career ended in disgrace.
- Bacon has been called the father of empiricism.

 

PHILOSOPHY:

Novum Organum 1620

 

1. The good-life requires education and the right scientific method.

2. There are four things that lead to improper thinking:

   a. The Idols of the Tribe:
       Imposing human perspective on nature (anthropomorphic).
       Examples: The Earth is in center of the universe. (geocentric)
                     The sun orbits the earth in perfect circles.
                     Perception, Emotions, Sympathy, Values

    b. Idols of the Cave:
       Imposing your individual perspective to nature.
       Examples: Ego, Male, Female, Old, Young, Pessimist,
       Optimist, Confident, Sociopath.
       Superstitions: To name the disease is to have the disease.

    c. Idols of the Marketplace:
       Mistakes that result from the misuse of language.
       Examples: Perfection, Nothingness, Ghost, Soul, Feminine,
       Masculine, Unsalted Saltines. 

   d. Idols of the Theatre:
      Dogmas of philosophers and authority. (authoritarianism)
     "This is the best of all possible worlds." ( Leibniz)
      Idealist, Rationalist, Scholastic, Platonist, Aristotelian.
      Theories and Mathematics?

4.   Science should use an inductive method, and work together.
      Collect facts, and generalize scientific laws.
      Once facts are categorized, their laws will be obvious.
      He was against: theories, mathematics, Aristotle's logic,
      Galileo, Copernicus, and Kepler.
 

 



 

 

FINCHES

 

 

 

 
  1. Geospiza Magnirostins

  3. Geospiza Parvula

 		  2. Geospiza Fortis

  4. Certhidea Olivacea
   

 

 

 

DARWIN'S FINCHES
From
The Galapagos Archipelago
 

 

THOMAS HOBBES
 (1588-1679)

Leviathan 1651

 

 

 


LIFE:

He was born in England.

Studied Scholastic philosophy at Oxford.

Worked as tutor to the Cavendish family and Prince of Wales.

 

PHILOSOPHY:

1.   All knowledge comes from experience. (empiricism)

2.   Everything is matter moving in a void. (Democritus and Galileo)

3.   Mental substance is a meaningless concept.
     Consciousness is matter moving in a void.

4.   Every event has a cause, so everything is determined.

      There is no freewill.

      If there is no freewill, are people responsible for their actions?

5.   God cannot be known through science or philosophy.

      If mental substance doesn't exist, can God exist?

6.   There are two kinds of bodies - physical and political.

      Political bodies are artificial.

7.   The origins of thoughts are sense perceptions.

8.   Memory and imagination are decaying perceptions.

      These images are not as vivid as perceptions.

9.   Repeated sequences of perception are associated.

      The association of reoccurring perceptions is true of people and animals.

10.  People differ from animals in their use of language.

      We use symbols to represent perceptions.

11.  Universals are names that represent similar things. (nominalism)

      There are no unchanging platonic forms.

12.  Acts & objects are neutral. (not good or bad)

13.  Endeavors are motions that explain human activities.

       Endeavors are desires and aversions:

            a). Desire is motion toward something - pleasure is good.

                 (love, lust, greed)

            b). Aversions move you to avoid objects - pain is bad.
                (hate, repulsion, fear)
    

       We always seek our own pleasure and avoid pain. (egoistic hedonism)

       Altruism is a socially conditioned, not a natural, emotion.

13.  In a state of nature, we are at war.

14.  To rise above nature we created governments and laws.

       It is made possible by the will of the people - not God.

       Justice is abiding to these artificial laws.
 
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