EMPIRICISM

EMPIRICISM


Haven’t already studied economics in Politics for A-Level I believed that I would have had some idea beforehand of what the term implies. The idea is that people do not believe things unless they see it. It is this that makes people believe in newspapers and everything that is printed. It is the sense that if in a pub a man tells you there was a shoot out across the street you tend to think ‘Yeah sure there is’ it is this sort of scepticism, that makes you think to yourself well they are probably making it up. Although despite this you will still go to check anyway.


It is believed that the theory of Empiricism is not involved for religious reasons or moral rights but on the natural order. You do not reject something because you are being ignorant you reject something because you want to be able to know yourself personally. It is Empiricism that leads the human instinct to go and explore. It is no wonder why we have men going off to space to find new planets or archaeologists who go off digging to find buried ancient treasures or fossils. People feel the need to make sure that they can see these things first hands. It is all right to simply say someone has found dinosaur remains in a digging expedition in France for example. Most people would want to be able to see how it was found in the first place.


There are many comedians who reject the ideas that have been told to us throughout early life like the use of religion and the meaning of life. Ricky Gervais used the bible to describe how he thought much of the opening chapter was rather unbelievable. It is simply the fact that in this day and time we are starting to doubt what we have been told or have learnt and are starting to find different theories to prove against it. Which shows we simply want to be the ones who can prove theories rather than accept those that has been given to us.


The father of Empiricism John Locke (Not to get confused with the ‘Lost’ character) believed that if we had innate ideas, we would be conscious of having them. But it is an undeniable fact that children, savages, the unlearned, are not conscious of having innate ideas; they acquire knowledge during the course of a lifetime. It is impossible that anyone should have knowledge of something of which he is not conscious. (John Locke book of understanding Human Nature). He states that we need to have something to consider when looking at everything before us and so there is proof that there is a higher powerful being.


In conclusion, Locke's theory of knowledge, isolated from "being" and limited to whatever happens inside the mind itself, cannot break through the ring of phenomenalism in which it is enclosed and reach metaphysical data.