文档介绍：—CHAPTER 5
Empiricism,Sensationalism,
and Positivism
Descartes was so influential that most of the philoso- and with some of the Renaissance humanists, such as
phies that developed after him were reactions to Erasmus (see chapter 4).
some aspect of his philosophy. The major reactions After Descartes, and to a large extent because of
were concentrated in several regions of Europe. The him, the ancient philosophies of empiricism, ratio-
British and the French philosophers denied Des- nalism, and romanticism were presented more
cartes’s contention that some ideas are innate, saying clearly and in greater detail than they had ever been
instead that all ideas are derived from experience. before. It was from the modern manifestations of
These philosophers attempted to explain the func- these philosophies that psychology as we know it to-
tioning of the mind as Newton had explained the day emerged. In this chapter we focus on British em-
functioning of the universe. That is, they sought a piricism and French sensationalism. We will review
few principles, or laws, that could account for all hu- German rationalism in chapter 6 and romanticism in
man cognitive experience. chapter 7.
The German philosophers made an active mind
central to their conception of human nature. In gen-
eral, they postulated a mind that could discover and British Empiricism
understand the abstract principles that constitute ul- An empiricist is anyone who believes that knowl-
timate reality. Instead of envisioning a mind that edge is derived from experience. The importance of
simply recorded and stored sensory experiences, they experience is usually stressed instead of innate ideas,
saw the mind as actively transforming sensory infor- which are supposed to emerge independently of ex-
mation, thereby giving that information meaning it perience. Empiricism, then, is a philosophy that
otherwise would not have. For these German ratio- stresses the importance of