Throughout
history, the science of psychology has evolved from the early philosophical
teachings of Plato and Socrates who believed that the mind was a separate
entity from the body, which continued to exist after death, to the empiricism
of John Locke, David Hume, and Francis Bacon. These early empiricists and founders of modern science viewed
the mind as a blank slate; that ideas and knowledge come from our senses and
experiences. Locke, Bacon, and
Hume helped to develop the study of the human mind, how it functions, and how
we experience events. Through the
development of empiricism, the science of psychology today is now a science
that studies human behavior through observation and experiment, a key principle
of empiricism.
Empiricism
is defined as the view that knowledge comes from experience via the senses, and
that science also flourishes through observation and experiment (Myers,
2004). Francis Bacon first
developed the idea that science can flourish through observations and through
experiments. Francis Bacon lived
from 1561 to 1626 in England during a time of tempestuous political and
cultural ideas, with conflicts always arising within society. This era of political and cultural
conflict not only laid the groundwork for the power England would soon gain in
industry and politics, but it also laid the groundwork for the beginnings of
modern empiricism. The
seventeenth century was a time in which intellectual probing for a deeper
understanding of the nature of things was practiced, a direct legacy of
Occamist empiricism that believed knowledge and experience were synonymous
(Rossi, xii). Science in England
at this time focused on experience, observations, and common sense
judgments. Influenced by these
beliefs and teachings, Francis Bacon began to question the human mind and its
failings, stating that “the human understanding, from its peculiar nature
easily supposes a greater degree of order and equality in things than it really
finds (Myers, 2004).”
Bacon also
conducted research on human beings’ eagerness to selectively notice and
remember events that confirm our beliefs, proposing that “all
superstition is much the same…in all of which the deluded believers
observe events which are fulfilled, but neglect and pass over their failure,
though it be much more common (Myers, 2004).” Interestingly, research on this phenomenon is still
conducted today in modern psychology, which perhaps is why Francis Bacon has
become known as the father of empiricism and first modern philosopher and
theorist.
Once the
foundation of modern science and the idea of empiricism were laid down by
Francis Bacon, other philosophers in the seventeenth century were then given
the chance to elaborate on and advance the study and understanding of the human
mind and behavior. One such philosopher who continued the study was the very
influential John Locke. John Locke
was born in Somerset, England in August of 1632, at a time in which poverty,
religious conflicts, and division within society was slowly giving way to an
inevitable civil war (Cranston, 1957).
Locke was raised in quite a political and intelligent household, with
his father being a lawyer and Justice of the Peace, which presumably helped
with his admission into Oxford University at the age of 20 (Cranston,
1957). While at Oxford, Locke
experienced the world of academia and politics on a constant, daily basis. He
also was inundated with new ideas about philosophy, particularly the ad hoc
empiricism of Newton and Boyle, and the systematic rationalism of
Descartes. These influences thus
brought about the early ideas of Locke, mostly those regarding human
understanding, the human mind, and the idea of rationalism (Cranston, 1957).
Locke proposed to
“enquire into the original certainty and extent of human
knowledge.” In order to
examine and investigate this more extensively, he began what is now known as
his Essay Concerning Human Understanding
(Cranston, 1957). Locke begins
this famous essay with a refutation of the doctrine that certain principles are
innate. Instead, he suggests that
certain principles have been thought to be innate only because men cannot
remember when they first learned them.
He believed that human beings are born in total ignorance, and that even
our theoretical ideas of identity, quantity, and substance are derived from
experience (Cranston, 1957). In
other words, Locke thinks of the minds as a blank slate, or tabula
rasa.
Instead of knowledge being innate, Locke writes “all knowledge is
founded on and ultimately derives itself from sense, or something analogous to
it, which may be called sensation (Cranston, 1957).”
Sensation is the
basis of Locke’s argument for knowledge not being innate, but another
main point in his essay is ideas and perception. Locke believes that we not only have ideas in our mind, as
is traditionally thought, but that we have ideas when we see, hear, smile,
taste, or feel. Basically, Locke
felt that ideas are interconnected with sensation. Locke defines an idea as “the object of the
understanding, whether it is a notion, an entity, or an illusion.“ There are two types of ideas in
Locke’s view: those ideas
which are simple, that the mind receives passively and which are perceived
immediately through either external or internal senses (thought), and complex
ideas, which the mind produces by exercising its own powers.
Perception is an
important part of the idea stemming from sensation model that Locke proposes.
According to Locke, there are three different and distinct elements of
perception: the observer, the idea, and the object the idea represents (Cranston,
1957). Locke says that knowledge
is “nothing but the perception of the connection of and agreement or
disagreement and repugnancy of any of our ideas.” He also believes that perception is a
“species of understanding,” so that ideas are based upon perceptions
and what we perceive is always an idea, distinct from a thing. Locke also
believes that there are different types of knowledge, such as intuitive
knowledge, demonstrative knowledge, and sensitive knowledge.
Locke proposes that one’s
knowledge is sometimes intuitive, such as when the mind perceives the agreement
or disagreement between ideas immediately without the influence or intervention
of any other ideas. An interesting
caveat of this is that Locke believed that people have intuitive knowledge of
their own existence, “we perceive it so plainly… that it neither
needs nor is capable of any proof (Cranston, 1957).” Knowledge can also be gained through
the medium of other ideas that are proposed, which is considered demonstrative
knowledge. The third type of
knowledge that Locke proposes is called sensitive knowledge. This type of knowledge is that which is
present before our senses at any given moment and at any given time (Cranston,
1957). Whatever falls short of
these types of knowledge is not knowledge according to Locke, but in fact just
faith or opinion, which seem to be inferior to knowledge and the understanding
of ideas. Overall, Locke
believes that our knowledge of the identity and diversity of ideas extends only
as far as our ideas themselves; for our knowledge of their co-existence extends
only a small amount due to the fact that knowledge of any necessary connection
between primary and secondary qualities is unattainable.
Just as John Locke
followed in the footsteps of Francis Bacon in helping to further develop
empiricism and the study of psychology, so did David Hume. David Hume was a contemporary of
Locke’s who adopted his theory of ideas, but disputed them on the grounds
that there was no perceptual experience that conveys the idea of self. According to Hume, the common sense
certainty of one’s existence that Locke proposes and calls intuitive
knowledge, does not exist, and can not be proven in terms of Lockean doctrine. It is for this reason that empiricism
is said to have found its “logical completion” in the writings and
studies of Hume (Herrnstein & Boring, 1966).
According to David
Hume, causality can never be perceived, it is nothing but an illusion
occasioned when events follow each other with regularity. This is quite different from Locke, who
believed that ideas were based upon perception. Hume felt as though there was no place for the idea of
causality within empiricism, if all ideas arise in experience, then the only
basis for causality is the invariable sequentially of events (Herrnstein &
Boring, 1966). The lasting idea
that Hume proposes is that human beings learn through association and that
“truth springs from an argument among friends (Myers, 2004).”
The science of
psychology has developed through the combination of the study of philosophy and
biology. The ideas of philosophy,
particularly empiricism have contributed to the modern theory of learning, and
understanding of ideas and the human mind. The studies of Francis Bacon and his use of the scientific
method have contributed to the importance of observation and experiment, while
the studies of John Locke have investigated and attempted to discover the
origins of knowledge. Following
John Locke in the true nature of science, David Hume investigated and
questioned the principles set forth by Locke. Thus Hume contributed in continuing the study of human
thought, perception and understanding of ideas, and the development and origins
of knowledge.
References
Baldwin, J.M. (1913). History of psychology: From John
Locke to present time. New York: G.P.
Putnam’s Sons.
Cranston,
M. (1957). John Locke: A biography.
London: Longman’s Green & Co.
Herrnstein,
R. & Boring, E. (1966). A source book in the history of psychology. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Myers,
D. (2004). Psychology (7th
ed.). Michigan: Hope College.
Murphy,
G. (1930). Historical introduction to modern psychology. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & Co.Inc.
Rossi,
P. (1968). From magic to science.
London: Routledge & Keegan Paul.