History of Philosophy: Modern and Contemporary

After Descartes: RATIONALISM AND EMPIRICISM

N.B. N.B.: distinguish clearly between Rationalism versus Empiricism on the one hand and Idealism versus Materialism on the other. They are not at all the same distinction. Berkeley, for example, is an Empiricist Idealist; Hobbes on the other hand is a Rationalist Materialist, as are also the Greek Atomists. The first distinction has to do with method of thinking, whether you emphasize reason or experience; the second distinction has to do with content of thinking, whether you believe that everything is ideas/the content, expression or projection of someone's mind, or everything is matter.

RATIONALISM:

From 'ratio', reason. For a rationalist, the clarity and order of thinking is what counts, frequently with Mathematics as model (= the case with 17th Century Rationalists such as Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz).

A Rationalist has two main characteristics:

1) Not to accept anything that they do not clearly and distinctly conceive to be so; on the other hand,

2) In respect of what to accept, to follow the argument wherever it leads, no matter how counter-intuitive the result; e.g. that this is the best of all possible worlds (Leibniz) or that this is but one (or two - mind and matter) of an infinite number of co-existent worlds (Spinoza)., or that this world is a unchanging, homogeneous sphere (the ancient Greek philosopher Parmenides).

Some features of 17th Century Rationalism:

· The doctrine of innate ideas: not all of our ideas are derived from experience. Some of the ones which are most important for our knowledge are in fact innate, born with us, e.g. extension or the idea of space, the idea of thinking, the idea of God.

· In consequence of this, a large amount of certain knowledge is thus available to us without consulting experience. The function of experience is to provide data to be interpreted in accordance with the theories proposed by reason, and sometimes to enable us to choose between different hypotheses or theories proposed by reason.

The culminating figures of 17th Century Rationalism:

MALEBRANCHE, Fr. Nicolas de, 1638-1715 A.D., French. Famous for the doctrine of 'Occasionalism' to explain the otherwise impossible connection between goings on in mind and goings on in matter: on the occasion of my willing to move my hand, God moves it.

LEIBNIZ, 1646-1715 A.D., German. Leibniz's solution to the same problem = 'Pre-established Harmony', like two clocks, both wound up to keep the same time.

From Leibniz, the Principle of Sufficient Reason: "nothing exists but that a reason can be given - at least by an omniscient mind - why it should be rather than not be, and why it should be thus rather than otherwise."

Implication: God had to have a reason for creating this world rather than some other world, so this has to be the best of all possible worlds.

SPINOZA, 1632-1677 A.D., Dutch of Jewish extraction. Spinoza's solution to the mind-body problem = 'Parallelism': they don't interact, they move in parallel streams, whatever happens in one is expressed in the other, mind and body being modifications of the one substance, God, in two different attributes.

More to follow on Leibniz and Spinoza...

EMPIRICISM:

From the Greek empeiria, experience: as contrasted with Rationalism,

· The theory that all knowledge, even the fundamental categories and first principles, is/are derived from experience:

· No innate ideas, nihil in intellectu quod non fuerit prius in sensu, nothing in the intellect that was not first in the senses, neither ideas nor knowledge.

In modern philosophy, it emerges as a reaction to Rationalism, Newton versus Descartes, drawing on the empirical or inductive method supposedly followed by Newton, laws as supposedly derived by a generalization from experience sharpened in some cases by experiment.

But it is already to be found in British philosophy from the beginning of modern times, esp. Francis Bacon 1561-1646, his Novum Organon 1620 to replace the Organon or logical works of Aristotle, proclaiming the value of the inductive method to give man control over nature.

In modern times sometimes called 'British Empiricism', sometimes even 'English Empiricism' though this latter is wrong in so far as Berkeley was born and spent much of his life in Ireland and Hume is a Scotsman - the term 'British' should therefore be preferred.

The most important Empiricists/British Empiricists in modern times as follows:

John Locke 1632-1704, the founding father; also a very important political philosopher of course;

George Berkeley 1685-1753, born Kilkenny, Ireland, of English extraction, studied in Dublin, an (Anglican) bishop in Ireland from 1724, first of Derry and from 1734 of Cloyne;

Joseph Butler 1692-1752, in England, also a bishop, important in moral philosophy and the founder of the British tradition of empirical theology;

David HUME 1711-1776, Scotsman, born and died in Edinburgh.