History and Philosophy of Contemporary Education. Empiricism versus idealism. With Empiricism and Positivism's etymology, history and proponents and it's different types.

1. EMPERICISM VS.
IDEALISM
Ms. Sheila J. Echaluce
Discussant

2. EMPERICISMEMPERICISM
• Empiricism asks “How?”
• Answerable
• Empiricism begins with the
hypothesis that there is an objective
reality independent of humanity and
we may use inductive logic to learn
about this reality through our
senses.
• Empiricism beats Idealism by
default.
• Empiricism uses experiments and
tests to see if hypotheses are false.
• Empiricism takes considerably more
effort to understand reality, but the
ideas it produces are more
consistent even if knowledge
remains incomplete.
IDEALISMIDEALISM
• Idealism asks “Why?”
• Not Answerable
• Idealism refers to efforts to
account for all objects in nature
and experience as
representations of the mind and
sometimes to assign to such
representations a higher order of
existence.
• Idealism is a search for Absolute
Truth.
• Idealism creates teleology
• Idealism gives us god-like
powers to imagine and design an
artificial universe.

3. • Is the theory that the origin of all knowledge is sense
experience.
• It emphasizes the role of experience and evidence,
especially sensory perception, in the formation of ideas,
and argues that the only knowledge humans can have
is a posteriori (i.e. based on experience). Most empiricists
also discount the notion of innate ideas or innatism (the
idea that the mind is born with ideas or knowledge and is
not a "blank slate" at birth).

4. • The English term "empirical" derives from the Greek word μπειρία,ἐThe English term "empirical" derives from the Greek word μπειρία,ἐ
which is cognate with and translates to the Latinwhich is cognate with and translates to the Latin experientiaexperientia, from, from
which we derive the word "experience" and the related "experiment".which we derive the word "experience" and the related "experiment".
The term was used by the Empiric school of ancient Greek medicalThe term was used by the Empiric school of ancient Greek medical
practitioners, who rejected the three doctrines of the Dogmaticpractitioners, who rejected the three doctrines of the Dogmatic
school, preferring to rely on the observation ofschool, preferring to rely on the observation of "phenomena“"phenomena“..
• The term "empiricism" has a dual etymology, stemming both from theThe term "empiricism" has a dual etymology, stemming both from the
Greek word for "experience" and from the more specific classicalGreek word for "experience" and from the more specific classical
Greek and Roman usage of "empiric", referring to a physician whoseGreek and Roman usage of "empiric", referring to a physician whose
skill derives from practical experience as opposed to instruction inskill derives from practical experience as opposed to instruction in
theory (this was it's first usage).theory (this was it's first usage).
• The term "empirical" (rather than "empiricism") also refers to theThe term "empirical" (rather than "empiricism") also refers to the
method of observation and experiment used in the natural andmethod of observation and experiment used in the natural and
social sciences. It is a fundamental requirement of the scientificsocial sciences. It is a fundamental requirement of the scientific
method that all hypotheses and theories must be testedmethod that all hypotheses and theories must be tested
against observations of the natural world, rather than resting solelyagainst observations of the natural world, rather than resting solely
on a priori reasoning, intuition or revelation. Hence, science ison a priori reasoning, intuition or revelation. Hence, science is
considered to be methodologically empirical in nature.considered to be methodologically empirical in nature.

5. • A Latin phrase often translated as "blank
slate" “scraped tablet”—i.e., “clean
slate” in English and originates from the
Roman tabula or wax tablet used for
notes, which was blanked by heating the
wax and then smoothing it.
• Refers to the epistemological idea that
individuals are born without built-
in mental content and that therefore all
knowledge comes
from experience or perception.
Proponents of tabula rasa generally
disagree with the doctrine
of Innatism which holds that the mind is
born already in possession of certain
knowledge.

6. In 11th Century by the
Persian philosopher
Avicenna, who further
argued that knowledge is
attained through empirical
familiarity with objects in
this world, from which one
abstracts universal
concepts, which can then
be further developed
through a syllogistic
method of reasoning.
Avicenna

7. The 12th Century Arabic
philosopher Abubacer or Ibn
Tufail: 1105 - 1185)
demonstrated the theory of
tabula rasa as a thought
experiment in which the mind
of a feral child develops from
a clean slate to that of an
adult, in complete isolation
from society on a desert
island, through experience
alone. Abubacer or Ibn Tufail

8. • In the 17th and 18th Century, the
members of the British
Empiricism school John Locke, George
Berkeley and David Hume were the
primary exponents of Empiricism.
• They vigorously defended Empiricism
against
the Rationalism of Descartes, Leibniz
and Spinoza.

9. • The doctrine of Empiricism was
first explicitly formulated by the British
philosopher John Locke in the late 17th Century.
John Locke – is the proponent and originator
of British empiricism was John Locke (1632–
1704), who was born into a Puritan family near
Bristol, England, his father being an attorney and
government official. He studied at Oxford
University and later worked there in various
positions, where he took particular interest in the
writings of Descartes and other modern thinkers.
He is a well known empiricist, wrote of the mind
being a tabula rasa.
John Lozcke

10. • In the late 19th Century and early
20th Century, several forms
of Pragmatism arose, which
attempted to integrate the
apparently mutually-
exclusive insights of Empiricism
(experience-based thinking)
and Rationalism (concept-based
thinking). C. S. Peirce and William
James (who coined the
term "radical empiricism" to
describe an offshoot of his form
of Pragmatism) were particularly
important in this endeavor.
C. S. Peirce
William James

11. • In the mid-19th Century, John Stuart
Mill, took Hume and Berkeley's
reasoning a step further in maintaining
that inductive reasoning is necessary
for all meaningful knowledge (including
mathematics), and that matter is
merely the "permanent possibility of
sensation" as he put it. An extreme
form of Empiricism known as
Phenomenalism
• Phenomenalism - the view that
physical objects, properties and events
are completely reducible to mental
objects, properties and events. John Stuart Mill,

12. • Classical Empiricism
• Radical Empiricism
• Moderate Empiricism

13. • Is characterized by a rejection of innate,
in-born knowledge or concepts. John
Locke, well known as an empiricist, wrote
of the mind being a tabula rasa, a “blank
slate”, when we enter the world. At birth
we know nothing; it is only subsequently
that the mind is furnished with information
by experience.

14. • In its most radical forms, empiricism holds that all of our
knowledge is derived from the senses. This position leads
naturally to the verificationist principle that the meaning of
statements is inextrically tied to the experiences that would
confirm them.
• According to this principle, it is only if it is possible to empirically
test a claim that the claim has meaning.
• All of our information comes from our senses, it is impossible for
us to talk about that which we have not experienced.
Statements that are not tied to our experiences are therefore
meaningless.
• This principle, which was associated with a now unpopular
position called logical positivism, renders religious and ethical
claims literally nonsensical.
• No observations could confirm religious or ethical claims,
therefore those claims are meaningless.
• Radical empiricism thus requires the abandonment of religious
and ethical discourse and belief.

15. • Truths such as “there are no four-sided
triangles” and “7+5=12” need not be
investigated in order to be known, but all
significant, interesting knowledge, the
empiricist claims, comes to us from
experience.
• This strikes more many as more plausible
than its radical alternative.

16. POSITIVISM

17. • is the philosophy of science that positive
facts, information derived from sensory
experience, interpreted through rational
or logical and mathematical treatments, form
the exclusive source of all
authoritative knowledge; and that there is
valid knowledge (certitude or truth) only in
this derived knowledge. Verified data
(positive facts) received from the senses are
known as empirical evidence; thus
positivism is based on empiricism.

18. • All knowledge comes from 'positive' information of
observable experience.
• Scientific methods are the best way of achieving this.
• All else is metaphysics.
• The roots of Positivism lie particularly with Empiricism,
which works only with observable facts, seeing that beyond
this is the realm of logic and mathematics.
• The basic principle of Positivism is that all factual
knowledge is based on the "positive" information gained
from observable experience, and that any ideas beyond this
realm of demonstrable fact are metaphysical.
• Only analytic statements are allowed to be known as true
through reason alone. Thus 'Roses are flowers' is analytic,
whilst 'Roses are fragrant' is synthetic and requires
evidence.

19. • The English noun positivism was re-imported
in the 19th century from the French
word positivisme, derived from positif in its
philosophical sense of 'imposed on the mind
by experience'.
• The corresponding adjective
(lat. positīvus 'arbitrarily imposed',
from pono 'put in place') has been used in
similar sense to discuss law (positive
law compared to natural law) since the time
of Chaucer

20. • Isidore Auguste Marie François
Xavier Comte (19 January 1798
–
5 September 1857), better known
as Auguste Comte was a French
philosopher.
• He was a founder of the discipline
of sociology and of
the doctrine of positivism. He is
sometimes regarded as the
first philosopher of science in the
modern sense of the term.

21. • Positivism originated out
of the French
Enlightenment, with
French philosopher, who
sought to the replace the
'brainpower approach'
of Rationalism by
leveraging the principles
of the natural sciences
such as Physics,
Chemistry and Biology.

23. Tenet Meaning
Naturalism
The principles of the natural sciences should be used for social
science.
Phenomenalism Only observable phenomena provide valid information.
Nominalism
Words of scientific value have fixed and single meanings. The
existence of a word does not imply the existence of what it
describes.
Atomism
Things can be studied by reducing them to their smallest parts
(and the whole is the sum of the parts).
Scientific laws
The goal of science is to create generalised laws (which are useful
for such as prediction).
Facts and values Facts are to sought. Values have no meaning for science.

24. • Logical Positivism
• Social Positivism
• Legal Positivism
• Polish Positivism

25. or Logical Empiricism is a school of philosophy that
developed out of Positivism, and attempted to
combine Empiricism (the idea that observational
evidence is indispensable for knowledge of the world) with
a version of Rationalism (the idea that our knowledge
includes a component that is not derived from
observation).
Places particular emphasis on sense experience and
observation and attempted to eradiate metaphysics
and synthetic statements. Promoted by the 'Vienna
Circle'. For each object, a definitive 'mimetic'
statement can be made to accurately reflect the
object. They used inductive approaches, collecting
data and building theories on this.
Logical Positivists include early Wittgenstein,
Bertrand Russell and Alfred Whitehead (Principia
Mathematica) and Rudolph Carnap.

26. • Of Comte, which showed people as
evolving.
• Sociological Positivism is the view,
developed from Auguste Comte's
philosophical Positivism, that the social
sciences (as all other sciences) should
observe strict empirical methods.
Today, although many sociologists would
agree that a scientific method is
an important part of sociology, orthodox
positivism is rare.

27. • Is a school of thought in Philosophy of
Law which holds that laws are rules made
(whether deliberately or unintentionally)
by human beings, and that there is no
inherent or necessary connection between
the validity conditions of law
and Ethics or morality.
• It stands in opposition to the concept
of natural law (that there is an essential
connection between law and justice or
morality).

28. • A political movement in the late 19th
Century, drawing its name and much of
its ideology from Comte's philosophy as
well as from the works
of British scholars and scientists.
• It advocated the exercise of reason
before emotion, and argued that Polish
independence from Russia, Germany
and Austro-Hungary must be regained
gradually from the ground up.

29. • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empiricism
• https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/empiricism
• https://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_empiricism.html
• https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/idealism/
• https://www.the-philosophy.com/idealism-empiricism
• http://www.academia.edu/9532649/History_and_Philosophy_of
_Contemporary_Education_Idealism_vs._Empiricism_Positivis
m
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idealism
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positivism
• https://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_positivism.html
• http://www.popularsocialscience.com/2013/02/15/theory-of-
science-what-is-positivism/
• https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/help/mac
h1.htm