Locke, Berkeley and Hume: A Brief Survey of Empiricism
Author: Rev. Fr. Dr. Hyginus Chibuike Ezebuilo Nigeria
Abstract: During the seventh and eighteenth centuries, philosophy certainly had its fair share of rationalist thinkers, particularly of the Platonist variety. However, philosophy was soon dominated by an alternative and more scientific view that knowledge is gained primarily through the five senses. We see this presumption in Francis Bacon’s statement that in our efforts to understand nature “we can act and understand no further than we have…observed in either the operation or the contemplation of the method and order of nature.” Direct experience, therefore, is foundational for obtaining knowledge, and this position is known as empiricism. During the first half of the 18th century, three great philosophers namely, Locke, Berkeley and Hume, argued for this approach, thus forming a philosophical movement known as British empiricism. Contrary to the rationalist philosophers, these empiricists largely denied the role of innate ideas and deduction in the quest for knowledge. Instead, they argued that knowledge comes from sensory experience and inductive reasoning.