Lecture 2 Flashcards
(56 cards)
who challenged locke
david Hume
is david hume an empiricist
yes, same with locke
he just pushed Locke’s ideas further
what does Hume agree with locke about
Three associative principles that govern the formation of ideas:
basiclaly;
sure and blue are 2 different simple ideas, you combine them and have blue square which is a complex idea and you do this because they happen to be specially combined
what is Three associative principles that govern the formation of ideas:
Ressemblance
Contiguity (in space and time)
Cause and effect
what does Hume have an issue with locke about
cause and effect
why does Hume have an issue with cause and effect
Cause and effect: Empirically, the only thing we can observe is constant conjonctions - uniform associations - but we don’t observe the causal connection
aka you see a man hit the microphone and hear a sound so you associate the 2 together but it is just coincidental there is no proof of the cause (Inference of necessary cause and effect (B has to follow A) relationship is invalid, but psychologically we believe there is cause and effect)
he doesn’t reject it, just says that we cannot find it in our sensory perception
what is Hume’s solution to the cause and effect issue
says that sensations are just belief of things happening
what are beliefs caused by (according to hume)
psychological «habits» (e.g. the sun has risen every morning so far, we should expect it to rise tomorrow again).
what does Immanuel Kant do
critique of pure reason
explain what kant attempts to achieve with the critique of pure reason
Attempt to reconcile rationalism with empiricism
what is the numenon
the thing itself (reality)– we will never know this perfectly according to Kant
what can we know according to kant
All we can know is the impression that the noumenon exerts on our senses (Phenoumenon).
can our sense tell us much about reality according to kant
no, we cannot infer causation from our sensations
kant says that in order to perceive external reality
Our minds have to contribute innate knowledge in order to make sense of our sensations (space, time, cause and effect).
basically; if we look at a pool table, our raw sensations tell us that there are balls on a table– we need prior knowledge that we can apply to the senerio and give them meaning
time is also something that we need to make sense of
causation is already in our brain
what does perception allow us to do according to kant
Perception is extremely rich and reliable and allows us to interact optimally with our environment
Such perception could not have arisen in an environment completely at odds with our sensations (i.e. there has to be an external reality with objects located in space and time and interacting with each other in a cause-and-effects manner).
essentially what does kant say
he brings empiricism and rationalisation together; says either one their own is not enough
raw sensations are like water, cannot hold it
reason is an ice cube tray; does nothing on its own
put water in tray and you can make something of it
does kant thing psych can be a science
no
why didnt kant think that psych could be a science
Empirical approach leads to a collection of facts (historical doctrine of nature), which is below the level of science
Natural science requires rational analysis, axioms and demonstrations.
A proper natural science requires the axioms and demonstrations to be written as mathematical laws
Chemistry isn’t a proper science
so Forget about psychology:
what parts of psych made is not considered a science
there is no substance or space in inner observations, only time, i.e. there is nothing to measure (nothing that we can measure, or quantify)
Inner observations cannot be separated and recombined at will (cannot redo the same experiement)
The act of introspection itself changes the content of the mind. (when we introspect we observe thoughts but then that changes our thoughts)
At most psychology can be a historical doctrine of nature. (collect facts and observation; something that resembles the a history doctrine)
who Is Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795 – 1878)
sets up foundations for Fechner
what did Weber study
recepters
he became fascinated with the Just Noticeable Difference (JND)
aka difference threshold
what is JND
What is the smallest weight difference that someone can perceive ?
what did weber find about JND
Weber fractions: the JND between the standard and comparison weights is always close to 1/40 (or 0.025) of the standard weight.
what else did weber study
he did the same JND but with other stimuli
what is the fraction for other sensors
For other types of stimuli, the fraction is different, but there is always a fraction
