Empiricism

Table of Philosophical And Psychological Doctrines or Schools of Thought

Name	Explanation
Empiricism Locke, Hume, Berkeley	All knowledge comes from experience Historically, empiricism was a reaction against the excesses of scholasticism and medieval rationalism. The classic empiricists were John Locke (1632-1704), George Berkeley (1685-1753), and David Hume (1711-1776), who, along with earlier thinkers like Francis Bacon (1561-1626), attempted to put science on a more solid footing by making knowledge inductive and reality-based instead of deductive and theoretical — the empiricists being inspired by the belief that experience is the only reliable source of knowledge. Unfortunately, Locke’s epistemological views tended towards representationalism, so that the empirical tradition went astray and ended up caught in the snares of Hume's skepticism and subjectivism. Popularly, empiricism is a positive term, connected as it is with science and with practical action (similar in this sense to pragmatism).
Instrumentalism John Dewy	Concepts to be verified though empiricism, looser as it allows conceptual analysis. Instrumentalism is the idea that concepts are merely useful instruments, and that the proper way to evaluate concepts and propositions is not through the categories of truth and falsity but through judging their effectiveness; the view developed out of and is somewhat similar to pragmatism.
Pragmatism Dewey, James	Values, meaning, and truths of propositions are equivalent to the practical, empirical consequences derivable from them. Pragmatism is generally considered to be the only truly philosophical school and tradition to have emerged in America (mainly because it is more technically rigorous than transcendentalism). While the term itself was originated by C.S. Pierce, pragmatism's most famous exponents were William James and John Dewey, although there were numerous lesser figures involved during its heyday in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (G.H. Mead, F.S.C. Schiller, etc.). The original formulation of pragmatism by Pierce applied to epistemology (the idea that knowledge must be tested by its usefulness), but the concept was quickly extended by James. Pragmatism in ethics is a form of consequentialism, but it differs from utilitarianism in that pragmatism emphasizes action while utilitarianism emphasizes usefulness (Greek pragma = "action" while Latin utilis = "use"). Pragmatism is often said to be a kind of humanism, since it stresses the importance of meeting human needs and the real interests of human beings. Unfortunately, pragmatism rejects any kind of ethical naturalism and tends to be a kind of relativism. In popular usage, to say that a person is pragmatic may indicate that he or she lacks principles, although it can simply be a positive statement that he or she has a “can-do attitude" or "knows how to get things done".
Monism Spinoza, Hegel	There is only one kind of reality or substance.
Dualism Plato, Descartes, Titchener	Two separate states of nature or two sets of fundamental principles in the universe: separate, parallel, and interacting. Dualism is a doctrine in metaphysics which posits that there are only two fundamental things or substances or constituents of things in the world at large or in the human soul. The first influential dualist theory in the West was Platonism, which claimed that there are actually two different worlds: the physical world of appearances and the higher world of intelligible Forms or Ideas or Essences (thus note the common connection of dualism to transcendentalism and idealism), with a similar separation in the human person between mind and body. These ideas were picked up by Stoicism and, later, by Christianity. Thus the idea of dualism was current throughout the Christian era — but it received a renewed impetus from Descartes, who held that reality is made up exclusively of Spirit and Matter, and that these two substances can never meet or interact — except in the human soul (which gives rise to the infamous mind-body dichotomy). Aristotelianism, by contrast, holds that mind and body are not two distinct substances but two aspects of the something, of the same complete human person (cf. also holism).
Pluralism Leibniz, Russell	Ultimate reality consists of more than one form of basic substance or principle.
Interactionism Descartes	Classic dualism: mind and body are interactive, parallel, and separate.
Panpsychism Leibniz, Schopenhauser, Whitehead	Every molecule in the universe is conscious, every object has a soul or mind.
Idealism Berkeley, Kant	Ultimate reality is mental and this forms the basis for experience and knowledge. In metaphysics, idealism is a term used to describe the sort of theory, which claims that, something "ideal" or non-physical is the primary reality. In this sense, Plato and Leibniz and Hegel are probably the most significant of the idealists (Leibniz is perhaps the most consistent, since he said that all physical things are actually made up of little bundles of consciousness he called "monads", an idea that is a kind of "panpsychism"). Obviously, spiritualism is similar to idealism, but spiritualism tends to be used to refer more to religious, supernatural conceptions of reality, rather than to philosophical theories like those of Plato or Hegel. Plato can be considered the "Founding Father" of idealism in Western philosophy, since he claimed that what is fundamentally real are ideas, of which physical objects are pale imitations. The opposite of idealism is materialism.
Fatalism	All events are predetermined, but human action can be causally effective in ensuring what happens. Fatalism in philosophy holds that defeat and despair are the ultimate and inescapable fate of man; it is thus similar to pessimism and nihilism, and is often allied with determinism. In popular usage, fatalism refers to a tendency to give in to the inevitability of suffering or to the tragic aspects of life — negative instead of positive thinking.
Determinism	All events, including human actions, are predetermined. Determinism is the belief that all physical events and human actions are determined or settled by external forces before they happen. In other words, determinists deny the existence of freely chosen human activity, and the more consistent determinists even deny any personal responsibility for human actions.
Occasionalism Malebranche	Matter is moved through divine intervention: expressing will is the occasion for such intervention.
Representalism Descartes	The mind does not directly perceive the world but does only through the concepts that represent the world. In epistemology, representationalism is the view that the only things we can know are our representations of the world (e.g., ideas, perceptions, beliefs, etc.), not the world itself. Epistemological representationalism is therefore opposed to realism, especially to direct realism.
Externalism	Internal thoughts are represented or manifested in external world.
Rationalism Plato, Chomsky	Truth to be obtained through use of reason and rational thought. The first philosophers who are usually called rationalists were Descartes (1596-1650), Leibniz (1646-1716), and Spinoza (1632-1677). While they claimed to be defending science against scholasticism, their arguments often showed little improvement over those of their opposition. For example, Descartes' defence of science consisted of a dualism from which philosophy is still recovering, and his arguments for dualism were models of rationalism: technical, deductive, and extremely abstract. Spinoza's Ethics (which often seems to have little to do with ethics) is the high point of rationalism in philosophy: it is totally deductive and modelled on the geometric system of Euclid's Elements. Rationalism, in its deductive and abstract way of reasoning, tends to prefer the "harder" branches of philosophy (such as epistemology) almost totally ignores ethical and political concerns. The word rationalism is often used to refer to such an overly deductive way of thinking and to the moulding of reality to fit one's theoretical understanding, but this isomer of a psychological characterization than a philosophical definition.
Objectivism	Moral truths exist independent of whether they are believed or practised. The term 'objectivism' refers to the idea that reality exists outside of the mind and that existents retain their identity no matter what human beings or other conscious creatures think or feel about it (colloquially captured in the phrase "wishing doesn't make it so").
Subjectivism	Morality is derived from personal judgement or preferences. The term subjectivism (compare to intrinsicism, contrast with objectivism) refers to any doctrine in a tradition, stretching all the way back to the Sophists of ancient Greece, which denies that knowledge and values are in any way based on reality, and which thus holds that knowledge and values are relative. Not all subjectivists are completely consistent, of course, because pure, unadulterated subjectivism is tantamount to solipsism.
Logical Positivism Hume, Russell, Wittgenstein	Any nontautological proposition that cannot in principle be empirically verified is devoid of meaning Logical positivism is a movement in 20th century philosophy that originated as a reaction against nineteenth-century idealism. The word logical in the name refers to the belief that logic is all-important for philosophy (thus this movement is a sort of logicism), while "positivism" here is really a certain form of empiricism which claims that empiricism is the whole of philosophy and that there is no validity to anything which could be called conceptual experience or conceptual insight.
Mentalism	Behaviour cannot be explained without using mental phenomena. Mentalism is the idea that only mind or spirit really exists, or that mind or spirit is the fundamental substance in the universe. Mentalism is sometimes called immaterialism, and is usually held to be similar to or equivalent to idealism.
Materialism Newton, La Mettrie	Reality is only known through understanding of physical matter. Materialism is the idea that the only thing that really exists in the world is matter in its various states and movements (commonly atoms or other physical particles). Thus materialism is the opposite of idealism. Materialism considers any talk of, say, the soul to be complete nonsense and a throwback to the bad old days of spiritualism and vitalism (i.e., idealism) in philosophy. Note that because matter can be completely known by means of physical laws and mathematical description (see reductionism), materialism tends to be used to lend heavy support to determinism.
Mechanism Descartes	All phenomena can be understood in a mechanical framework: living things are essentially just machines.
Realism Duns Scotus	Abstract concepts have a real existence and can be empirically studied. The word realism in philosophy has many senses, and this fact can lead to confusion. The idea that we can and do possess reliable knowledge, both perceptual and conceptual, about reality is known as epistemological realism (obviously a kind of optimism about the possibility of knowledge). In the psychology and philosophy of perception, realism comes in two flavors: direct and indirect (direct realism being the truly realistic position — namely that we perceive the actually existing physical world — whereas indirect realism is often a form of representationalism). Confusingly, realism with regard to the arts is often called representationalism. There is also the metaphysical realism (or objectivism) of most forms of Aristotelianism: the idea that reality is what it is and possesses an independent identity, regardless of the beliefs of the observer. However, sometimes when people talk about realism in philosophy or metaphysics they are really talking about what I define as intrinsicism, since historically realism was often contrasted with nominalism and was equated with idealism and intrinsicism. Popularly, realism refers to a healthy scepticism about what can be achieved through action or sometimes to alack of ideals or principles (see pragmatism).

Name	Explanation
Essentialism	There is a world of perfect essences of which the exemplars in the actual world are flawed examples 1) Platonic idealism; 2) the view that all things have essential properties which can be discerned by reason (sometimes attributed to Aristotelianism)
Functionalism Angell, Carr, Putnam	Mind and behaviour should be studied in terms of functions or utilities rather than contents; thus, mental states are functional states
Existentialism Sartre	Personal decision making to be made in world without reason or purpose. Existentialism is an influential movement in 20th century philosophy and especially ethics. Historically, existentialism was inspired by the supposed skepticism and nihilism of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). Existentialism takes its peculiar character from the fact that, even though it is a form of individualism, it is also very much akin of pessimism — another major influence on existentialism was Schopenhauer. According to Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), the leading philosopher of the movement, existentialism takes its name from its guiding phrase, "existence precedes essence". This means that there is no stable human essence or nature and thus that there are no intrinsic or natural human values (so that any attempt at ethical naturalism is misguided and debased). Existentialism teaches that each person must simply live his life and by so doing create his own values, almost as an afterthought. Although such a process of living cane haphazard and lacking in self-direction, this fact does not seem to be a problem for the existentialists. In fact, some existentialists even revel in the unplanned, irrational character of life and therefore could be characterized as proponents of irrationalism or even nihilism.
Phenomenalism	Knowledge and understanding of reality outside appearances is unknowable: In other words, that appearances, not realities, are the only objects of knowledge.Phenomenalism is thus a form of epistemological subjectivism or relativism.
Operationalism Bridgeman	Concepts of science are defined by, and limited to, the operations used in their measurement.
Selectionism Darwin	Species are not essences or types but the resultof selection from variation.
Reductionism Skinner, Watson	Break down of phenomena into fundamental aspects.
Behaviourism Watson, Skinner, Pavlov	Only subject matter for scientific measurement is observed measurable behaviour. Behaviorism was an influential movement among psychologists, founded by John D. Watson in 1913, made famous by B.F. Skinner, and continually popular (at least among academics) throughout the twentieth century. Behaviorism amounts to reductionism and materialism applied to action — a reduction of human and animal activity to simple stimulus and response, excluding any functional role for consciousness. Behaviorism has lost much of its lustre and has been replaced in the fancy of psychologists by the computer model of human cognition, which of course is simply another kind of reductive materialism. In his political manifesto or utopia Walden Two, B.F. Skinner holds that a kind of communalistic utilitarianism would result from the application of behaviorism to society, but his seeming advocacy of eugenics and other such techniques militates against his utopia being considered a kind of humanism.
Vitalism Aristotle	Life cannot be explained in purely material terms: something non-material in living organisms makes them different from inanimate things. Vitalism was a reaction against the currents of materialism and mechanistic determinism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The vitalists posited that human beings are not purely physical but contain some kind of spiritual component or "vital essence". In practice, since the vitalists could not deny the progress of materialist science, they advocated a kind of dualism of matter and life. Vitalism has definite negative connotations of quackery, especially among those who have respect for science.
Cognitivism Marr, Piaget, Baddeley, Chomsky	A reliance on internal, mental representations and processes to provide all psychological explanation: information processing approach.
Theism	Belief in God as an omnipotent and omniscient creator.
Solipsism	Only I exist: the outside world exists as a content of my consciousness. Solipsism is subjectivism and relativism taken to the extreme: the solipsist is so consistent about his doctrine that he claims that he cannot know if physical reality or other human beings even exist. The solipsist believes knowledge is so subjective that "all I can really know is myself"
Transcendentalism Kant	Any theory asserting the dependence of the world of experience on the activities of reason: knowledge is beyond experience, i.e., geometry. The term transcendentalism refers in general to any view which holds that there is an aspect of reality that is higher than (that "transcends") our everyday life and world; in this primary sense, the term is roughly equivalent to idealism (e.g., Kant is often called a transcendental idealist), or even to spiritualism (especially in popular understanding). In America, the word is most often used to refer to the school or movement of New England transcendentalists during the nineteenth century, including thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) who, according to some accounts, were influenced by the German transcendentalists and Kantians of their time. However, this influence was not very deep (Emerson and Thoreau are much greater believers in optimism and individualism than their German counterparts); these thinkers may have been inspired by the example of developments in Europe, but their doctrines were original to them. The central figure here was Emerson, who advocated a philosophy of self-reliance and self-fulfillment.
Taoism Lao-Tzu	Individual enlightenment and transcendental enjoyment of absolutely free existence. Taoism is an ancient strand of Chinese philosophical thought, similar in many ways to Platonism in the West (just as Confucianism holds a position similar to Aristotelianism). However, Taoism was a reaction against the conservative and action-oriented thought of Confucius: one of the central Taoist concepts was wu-wei or "non-activity". Taoists stress the necessity of living in accordance to nature (their policy of non-activity could be phrased as "do nothing that is contrary to nature or to your own native character"), and their doctrines can be compared to Stoicism in this regard. The Taoist emphasis on lack of emotion and "disturbance" — that is, on inner peace — can also be compared to the doctrines of Epicureanism. Taoist thinkers, foremost among them Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu (the two great authors of classical Taoism), stressed the inherent untrustworthiness of appearances, the unity of the real world behind the appearances, the necessity of understanding this real unity "spontaneously", and the cultivation of one's character so that one could become a "free spirit". Taoism was and is a strong tradition in China, which accounts for the fact that Chinese forms of Buddhism (e.g., Ch'an or Zen Buddhism) show such a heavy dependence on Taoist concepts.
Structuralism Levi-Strauss	Phenomena can be understood through the underlying structures and systems of social organisation.
Scepticism Xeno, Pyrrho	Sure knowledge may be sought but not found: our senses are unreliable. he word skepticism comes from the Greek word for "looking", and describes the kind of thinker who takes a wait-and-see attitude regarding just about everything. Skeptics are suspicious of any claims to knowledge, often to the extreme of total unbelief — so that skepticism can become, in practice, a kind of subjectivism or even solipsism. Nietzsche and Hume are the two of the major skeptics in philosophy, but there really is a whole tradition of skepticism stretching from ancient Greece to the present. Skepticism is not necessarily a bad thing, of course, and when people talk about a "healthy dose of skepticism" they are referring to an attitude of questioning and thinking and of not taking conventional wisdom on faith.
Perspectivism Nietzsche, Quine	The external world is to be interpreted through different alternative systems of concepts and beliefs: non is more valid than another.
Naturalism Strato, Moore	What is studied is all there is, there is no need for explanation going beyond or outside the universe. Naturalism usually refers to an ethical view which holds that at least some human values (though not necessarily all) are determined by the nature of the human organism and by our situation on earth — values like food, water, shelter, safety, psychological closeness, actualization of human talent and potential, the attainment of knowledge, and so on. By way of illustration, existentialism could be considered a humanistic form of individualism, but it differs from many other forms of humanism in denying ethical naturalism. In metaphysics, the word naturalism refers most often to the idea that nature operates according to natural laws, without spiritual intervention (opposed to theism and spiritualism, but compatible with deism).
Nativism Chomsky	The capacity to perceive time and space is inborn.
Sensationalism Ernst Mach	Sensations are the ultimate and real components of the world: anything can be known through sensory experience and analysis. Sensationalism is a radical form of representationalism which posits that all knowledge is constructed from or consists in pure sensations (such as blotches of color, pure tones, etc.). Some adherents go further and claim that we don't have any direct knowledge of reality, only of sensations. The popular meaning is obviously non-philosophical and quite unrelated.

Name

Empiricism

Locke, Hume, Berkeley

All knowledge comes from experience

Name