PSYC 210 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1.2: Empiricism, Homunculus Argument, Benjamin Libet
18 Sep 2016
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Empiricist: someone who believes language, thought, action, perception, and our sense of identity is based on perception rather than an innate sense: ie: locke, who was interested in the nature of human idea. Rationalistic: someone who believes we are born with an innate sense: ie: descartes, who was interested in the mechanical nature of human cognition. Locke had two categories for ideas: simple and complex: simple ideas: an idea that cannot be analyzed further ie: the colour red. They are learned by directly perceiving them: complex ideas: an idea that is made up of simple ideas ie: a horse. They can be learned without perceiving them because they can be described using simpler terms. Science would be able to analyze the wavelengths of colours obviously but minds cannot. Locke suggested that by saying humans are predisposition to a particular type of knowledge it doesn"t help us distinguish between our innate capacity and knowledge that we are equip with as infants.
