Lecture 5: Empiricism, Sensationalism and Positivism Flashcards
Who are empiricists?
Those who claimed that experience was the basis of all knowledge
All human activity was ultimately reducible to physical and mechanistic principles; thus, he was a materialist and a mechanist as well as an empiricist. He believed that the function of a society was to satisfy the needs of individuals and to prevent individuals from fighting among themselves. He also believed that all human behavior was ultimately motivated by the seeking of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Who is he?
Hobbes
How did Locke distinguish between primary and secondary qualities of objects?
Primary qualities cause ideas that resemble attributes of objects; secondary qualities cause psychological experiences.
What did Berkeley deny the existence of?
Material world, saying instead that all that exists are perceptions
According to Hume, what are the three laws of association?
The laws of contiguity, resemblance, and cause and effect
What term did John Stuart Mill use to describe the process of combining simple ideas into complex ones?
Mental chemistry
What did Alexander Bain contribute to psychology?
Laws of compound association, Laws of constructive association, Relationship between mind and body
What did La Mettrie propose about humans and nonhuman animals?
Both humans and animals can be understood as machines
What belief is referred to as “scientism”?
The belief that science can solve all problems and answer all questions.
According to Comte, what are the three stages through which cultures progress in explaining phenomena?
The theological, the metaphysical, and the scientific.
What did Helvétius apply empiricism and sensationalism to in the realm of education?
The control of experience to shape the mind
What is the term used for the position created by Comte, according to which only scientific information should be considered valid?
Positivism
What did Mach propose as another type of positivism?
Phenomenological positivism
