12.

Empiricism
Empiricism is that epistemological. position according to which the
ultimate source of our ideas is experience. The word 'experience' is of
Greek origin and excludes here mystical experience or intuition.
Beginning with the Carvakas of ancient India and the Sophists of early
Greece. empiricism has a long history extending upto the pragmatists and
logical positivists of the CLIITenttimes. It has assumed more or less
different forms as the basis of different metaphysical systems. But its
general position is that all our elements of knowledge are derived from and
reducible to sensations. internal or extemaI. The internal sensations are
those of thinking. feeling and willing. and the external sensations are those
of external objects. i.e., material bodies. or their qualities such as size.
shape. colour. taste and smell.
The empiricist argues that the rationalist's belief in innate ideas is
mistaken. Reasoning may tell us what follows from 'X exists' and thus
extend our knowledge. But by itself it cannot say whether X in fact exists.
The role of reason is one of systematising sensory elements and extending
knowledge by logical inferences from them. but it is never a source of
ideas. Even the so-called self-evident principles. such as the principles of
identity and contradiction, and the definitions and axioms of mathematics
and logic are ultimately of an empirical origin.
While rationalism allies philosophy to mathematics and accepts its
deductive method. empiricism allies philosophy to natural sciences like
physics and biology and considers that the proper method of philosophy is
some form of induction. Knowledge is to be attained by observation of
facts. and by an analysis of and reflection on the truths of experience.
 AN OL'TLlNE Of PHILOSOPHY

- 13. Some great empiricists: Locke

(Empiricism in modern philosophy finds an exponent in its very forerunner. Francis
Bacon (1561·1662). who made the first vigorous advocacy for adoption of the .inductive
method in science and philosophy. Hobbes ( 1588· I (71)) applies the empirical method with
certain leanings towards rationalism. but in Locke (1632-1704) empiricism attains the status
of a systematically pursued and full- fledged empistemology. Locke is followed by Berkeley
( 1685- I 753) and Hume (17 I I· I 776). and then the empirical lineage passes onto recent times
through such great philosophers as J.S.MiIl (1806·1873).(

The empiricism of John Locke (expounded in his work, All Eassv

Concerning Human Understanding) has two aspects: negative and positive.
Negatively. Locke tries to refute the Cartesian doctrine of innate ideas: and,
positively, he propounds his own theory that all ideas are empirical.

His arguments against the doctrine of innate ideas:

(1) If there were innate ideas they must have been universal and
present in all minds in the same form. But that is .not the case. First.
numberless people-e.g., children. savages. idiots and illiterate
persons=are quite unaware of the so-called innate ideas. such as the ideas
of causality. infinity. eternity and God. Secondly. the ideas of God.
morality, laws of thought. etc., assume different forms in different
societies. countries and ages. For some. God is much like a man; for
others. God is identical with nature, and so on.
(2) On the other hand, universality and sameness are themselves no
sufficient proof of innateness. The ideas of the quadrupedness of dogs and
the whiteness of milk. for example, are universal and identical for all. but
they are not innate. Again, universally accepted ideas may be wrong. Once
it was universally believed that the earth is flat and the sun moves round
the earth.
(3) The so-called innate ideas are in fact derived from experience. The
universality of principles can be explained as a result of inductive
generalisation. Particular facts are known long before the general principles;
whereas. if they were innate, the reverse would have been the case.
(The chi Id . for example. knows of the sweetness of sugar and the redness of roses long
before he knows the law of contradiction. Rather. these laws result from his generalisation
from experience. He knows first that sweet is sweet and is not bitter. and then inductively
arrives at the laws of identity and contradiction.]
Locke's positive theory:
According to Locke, the mind at birth is like a tabula rasa (blank
tablet) on which experience gradually writes its impressions. Experience is
of two types: 'sensation' and 'reflection'. By sensation we perceive the

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 SOl'RCES OF KNOWLEDGE

external objects through our senses-organs: by reflection we perceive our

internal states. Sensation is prior to reflection. We reflect only when our
mind is stocked with sensations. 'There is nothing in the intellect", says
Locke. "which was not previously in the senses."
The mind is passive in receiving sensations. but active in dealing with
them. The ideas furnished by experience are all about the qualities of things
and are simple. The mind forms 'complex' ideas such as those of
'substance' and 'cause and effect' out of simple ideas by relating,
comparing and abstracting from them. Obviously, Locke recognizes a
central role. of mind in our development of knowledge. He limits his
empiricism by leaving room for 'intuition' and 'demonstration' (or
inference). He says that our certainty about the existance of external objects
is an inference from the facts of sensation: we have intuitive certainty of
our own minds, and demonstrative certainty of the existence of God.