Philosophy 1300E Lecture 8: British Empiricists
1 Oct 2018
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7:29 pm: empiricism: the theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience. Stimulated by the rise of experimental science, it developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, expounded in particular by john locke, george berkeley, and david hume. 17-18th century: they were not the first empiricists. Problem with them - these three guys had very different views about many important topics. Such as existence of god (locke and berkely believed in god) Locke thought matter existed an was a materialist. If they have such complex differences, how can we call them all british empiricists as if it were one unified philosophy. Locke and berkely took themselves as opponents of skepticism (arguing against skepticism) Hume became a skeptic, didn"t use skepticism only as a method. As a stage to overcome stages of philosophy. Empiricism: comes from greek, empeirior = experience (everything comes from experience, peira = put things to test (ancient greek, no concepts we are born with.
