Empiricism

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CHAPTER

5

Empiricism,Sensationalism, and Positivism

and with some of the Renaissance humanists, such as Erasmus (see chapter 4). After Descartes, and to a large extent because of him, the ancient philosophies of empiricism, rationalism, and romanticism were presented more clearly and in greater detail than they had ever been before. It was from the modern manifestations of these philosophies that psychology as we know it today emerged. In this chapter we focus on British empiricism and French sensationalism. We will review German rationalism in chapter 6 and romanticism in chapter 7.

Descartes was so influential that most of the philosophies that developed after him were reactions to some aspect of his philosophy. The major reactions were concentrated in several regions of Europe. The British and the French philosophers denied Descartes’s contention that some ideas are innate, saying instead that all ideas are derived from experience. These philosophers attempted to explain the functioning of the mind as Newton had explained the functioning of the universe. That is, they sought a few principles, or laws, that could account for all human cognitive experience. The German philosophers made an active mind central to their conception of human nature. In general, they postulated a mind that could discover and understand the abstract principles that constitute ultimate reality. Instead of envisioning a mind that simply recorded and stored sensory experiences, they saw the mind as actively transforming sensory information, thereby giving that information meaning it otherwise would not have. For these German rationalists, knowing the operations of this active mind was vital in determining how humans confronted and understood their world. Scattered throughout Europe, the romantic philosophers rebelled against the views of the empiricists and rationalists. According to the romantics, both of these philosophies concentrated on one aspect of humans and neglected...