empiricism Essay -- essays research papers

empiricismEmpiricism by nature is the belief that thither is no beledge without have a go at it. How open fire one know what something tastes like if they dupe never tasted it? For example, would someone know that an apple is red if they have never actu everyy have seen one. individual can assort you an apple is red, but, if you never have seen one, can you truly be sure?Empiricists use three anchor points in which they fall their opinions from. The first of these points is the only source of genuine familiarity is sense experience. An easier stylus to understand this is to comp are the mind to a clean wipe. As the sponge touches things, it takes with it, a piece of everything it touches. Without this, the sponge would remain clean and be vacuous of anything other than its own material. With this conclusion, empiricist believes we must be content with the association we have at hand, rather than things we have non yet been privy to. The endorse anchor point is Reason is an unreliable and inadequate route to association unless it is grounded in the solid bedrock of sense experience. Empiricists believe that all of our manner of speaking meanings are derived from our experiences. Everything can be traced back to a single event in our lives. Empiricists understand that reason is necessary in helping us make our experience intelligible, but reason alone cannot provide knowledge.The ternion anchor point is there is no evidence of innate Ideas indoors the mind that are known apart from experience. What this nitty-gritty is the mind does not possess ideas that are not backed by experience. In no case are there a priori truths that can both tell to the highest degree the world and are known apart from experience.When asked the three epistemic questions the three empiricists all have different answers. The first of these questions is is knowledge contingent? John Locke (1632-1704) states Knowledge, however, is not something lying out there in th e bum it is located in our minds. So to understand knowledge we have to psychoanalyze the contents of our minds and see what they tell us about the world (pg. 93). Locke believes that all of our known truths are made up of simple ideas. Simple ideas are what make up the rudimental elements of everything else we know to be true to us today. For example, they lie down of ideas such, hot and cold, soft and hard, bitter and sweet. They also give us experience through with(predicate) are own mental o... ...s not possible for our knowledge to truly represent what reality really is. He believes that the only conclusion that we can have concerns the relationships of our own ideas. Since these judgments only concern the realm of ideas, they do not tell us about the external world (p. 108). This means that any knowledge about reality must be found on a posteriori judgments. These judgments are made by Hume because he believes there is no way to have a true reality through knowledge bec ause you only gain knowledge through experience. In conclusion, Hume states that legion(predicate) empiricists discovered that reality is an impossible goal to understand.Overall, Empiricists believe that there is no knowledge without experience. While their individual views may differ, their fundamental ideas are use to make conclusions about theories in the world. Each of these men have ideas about how knowledge is used and what it creates for each person. Through each of these theories it is apparent that knowledge and reality are difficult to access in such a complicated world. ReferencesLawhead, William F., The Philosophical Journey An Interactive Approach, Second Edition. McGraw-Hill, 2003.