2. Until the 20th century the term Empiricism was applied to the view held
chiefly by the English philosophers of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
JOHN LOCKE
• English philosopher who was the first to give it systematic expression
FRANCIS BACON
• A philosopher, Locke’s compatriot, had anticipated some of its
characteristic conclusions
RATIONALISM
• The philosophy opposed to Empiricism
Represented By Such Thinkers As:
• Rene Descartes
• French philosopher René Descartes; the Dutch philosopher
• Baruch Spinoza
• Dutch philosopher
• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
• 17th- and 18th-century German philosophers
3. An English philosopher and founder of
empiricism, a school of philosophy
based on the belief that knowledge
comes from everyday experience,
scientific observation, and common
sense, rather than from the
application of reason alone
His “Essay Concerning Human
Understanding” on 1690 portrays each
individual as a blank slate
The person’s experiences become
notations on the slate and make each
individual distinct from other people
TABULA RASA
The mind at birth,
regarded as having no
innate conceptions or
blank mental cabinet
4. 1. The philosophical belief that all knowledge is
derived from the experience of the senses
2. In philosophy, empiricism is a theory
of knowledge that asserts that knowledge arises
from evidence gathered via sense experience.
3. It is one of several competing views that
predominate in the study of human knowledge,
known as EPESTIMOLOGY
4. In philosophy, it is a doctrine that affirms that all
knowledge is based on experience, and denies the
possibility of spontaneous ideas or a PRIORI thought
The branch of philosophy that
studies the nature of knowledge, in
particular its foundations, scope,
and validity
working from something that is
already known or self-evident
to arrive at a conclusion
5. WILLIAM JAMES JOHN DEWEY
Called his own philosophy as
RADICAL EMPIRICISM
Called his own philosophy as
IMMEDIATE EMPIRICISM
Radical empiricism is a
postulate, a statement of fact
and a conclusion
The postulate is that "the only
things that shall be debatable
among philosophers shall be
things definable in terms drawn
from experience"
These principles emphasized
learning through varied
activities rather than formal
curricula and opposed
authoritarian methods, which,
he believed, offered
contemporary people no
realistic preparation for life in a
democratic society
6. GEORGE BERKELEY
• Also known as Bishop Berkeley was an Anglo-Irish philosopher whose primary
achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism“
• Subjective Idealism
• Latter title of “immaterialism” by others, a theory contends that individuals
can only know sensations and ideas of objects, not abstractions such as
"matter", and that ideas depend on perceiving minds for their very existence
• This belief later became immortalized in the dictum, "esse est percipi" or "to
be is to be perceived"
• He stressed that things only exists either as a result of their being perceived
DAVID HUME
• Scottish philosopher considered as one of the greatest skeptics in the
history of philosophy
• He thought that one can know nothing outside of experience, and
experience—based on one’s subjective perceptions—never provides true
knowledge of reality
• He maintained that man’s beliefs are more a result of accumulated habits,
develop in response to accumulated sense experiences
7. An Italian priest of the Catholic Church in
the Dominican Order, and an immensely
influential philosopher and theologian in the
tradition of scholasticism
Known as Doctor Angelicus (the Angelic Doctor)
and Doctor Communis or Doctor Universalis (the
Common or Universal Doctor), one of the 33 doctors
of the church
He is frequently referred to as Thomas because
"Aquinas" refers to his residence rather than his
surname, and know for his work “ Summa
Theologiae”
He was the foremost classical proponent of natural
theology, and the father of the Thomastic School of
philosophy and theology
His influence on Western thought is considerable,
and much of modern philosophy was conceived as a
reaction against, or as an agreement with his ideas,
particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law and
political theory.
8. 1. Human beings have the natural capacity to know many things without special divine revelation even
though such revelation occurs from time to time
2. We are able to know God through his creation. Thus, we can speak of God’s goodness only by
understanding that goodness as applied to human is similar to, but not identical with the goodness of God
3. Man must observe four cardinal virtues as:
•Prudence, Temperance, Justice, and Fortitude.
•These virtues are revealed in nature, and are binding on everyone
4. There are three theological virtues that should also be observed by every man:
•Faith, Hope and Charity
5. There are four kinds of law:
•Eternal, Natural, Human, and Divine
6. Human beings have no duty of charity to animals because they are not persons but it would be unlawful
to se them for food, but this does not give men license to be cruel to them
7. Rational thinking and the study of nature, like revelation, are valid ways to understand God for God
reveals himself through nature, so far a man to study nature is to study God
8. Man uses his reason to grasp the truth about God and to experience salvation through the truth
9. The goal of human existence is union and eternal fellowship with God and this goal can be achieved
through Beatific Vision
NATURAL LAW
Governs man’s
participation in the
eternal law and
can be discovered
by human reason
BEAUTIFIC VISION
In Christian theology, the
beatific vision is the eternal
and direct visual perception
of God
9. A Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and
teacher of Alexander the Great
His writings cover many subjects,
including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater,
music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government,
ethics, biology, and zoology
Together with Plato and Socrates, He is one of the
most important founding figures in Western
philosophy
His writings were the first to create a
comprehensive system of Western philosophy,
encompassing morality and aesthetics, logic and
science, politics and metaphysics
10. 1. Ultimate reality in ideas is knowable only through reflection and reason. Ultimately reality in physical
objects is knowable through experience
2. In living creatures, form is identified with the soul; plants had the lowest kinds of souls, animals had higher
souls which could feel and humans alone had rational, reasoning soul
3. The universe had never had a beginning and would never end; it is eternal
4. Everything in nature has its end and function, and nothing is without its purpose. Man is created for a
purpose
5. If there were no change in the universe, there would be no time since the counting of motion depends for
its existence on a counting mind. If there were no human minds to count, there could be no time
6. Mind and body are unified but they are not the products of physiological conditions of the body, the soul
manifest its activity in certain faculties which correspond with the sages of biological development. In
human, the soul manifest its activity in human reason
7. Imagination is the process by which an impression of the senses is pictured and retained before the mind
and is accordingly the basis of memory
8. Reason deals with the abstract and ideals aspects
9. Human aspirations and desires have some final pursuit, and their chief end is happiness
10. The truly good person is a person with a perfect insight and a person of perfect insight is also perfectly
good
11. A slave is a piece of live property having no existence except in relation to his master
12. Wealth is everything whose value can measured in terms of money, but it is the use of the money than the
possession of the commodities which constitutes riches
11. There Are Five Special
Senses
Touch
• The rudimentary
Sight
• The enabling
Heart
• Is the central sense organ
because it recognizes the
common qualities which are
involved in all particular
objects of sensation
ELEMENT OF HUMAN SOUL
•Shared with animal such as desire
•VEGETATIVE FACULTY
•Nutrition and growth
•APPETATIVE FACULTY
•Emotions and desires such as joy, grief,
hope and fear
Irrational Element
•Distinctly human
•The ability to control these desires with
the help of reason
•Man’s desire is not instinctive but learned
and is the outcome of both teaching and
practice
Rational Element
DOCTRINE OF THE MEAN
States that the moral virtues are desire-
regulating character traits which are at a
mean between more extreme character traits
or vice
EXAMPLE:
If one wants to develop COURAGE
Excessive desire (vice) – RASH
Deficient desire (vice) - COWARDICE
12. Widely considered the most
influential and versatile
English writer of the 17th
century
He addressed a broad range
of topics in his works,
including ethics, philosophy,
science, law, and history
He also enjoyed a long
political career
13. 1. Knowledge is the power of
establishing the dominion of man
over earth for knowledge is
power
2. To arrive at knowledge, man
must study natures with the
intention of grasping their forces.
Natures are the natural
phenomena of heat, sound, light,
etc., forms are the immanent
forces of the natural phenomena
3. Human mind must be free of
all prejudices or idols an pre-
conceived attitudes because they
prevent successful study of
natural phenomena
THE FOUR PREJUDICES OF THE
HUMAN MIND:
• Prejudices arising from
human nature
Idols of
the Tribe
• Prejudice coming from
the psychic condition of
the human soul
Idols of
the Cave
• Prejudice resulting from
social relationships
Idols of
the Market
Place
• Prejudices deriving from
false philosophical
system
Idols of
the
Theater
14. An English political philosopher best known
for his treatise “Leviathan” Written during
the mid-17th century amidst the tumult of
the English Revolution
Leviathan outlines Hobbes’s theory of
sovereignty or political authority
1.In the natural condition of mankind, some men may be stronger or more intelligent than others
2.In a state of nature, all men have the right or license to everything in the world
3.Life in the state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short
4.Man has a self-interested and materialistic desire to end war
5.Men form peaceful societies by entering into a social contract
6.As long as one man does no harm to any other, the sovereign should keep its hands off him
15. 1. Define the following terms:
Empiricism
Tabula rasa
Doctrine of the mean
Beatific vision
Summa Theologiae
2. Do you agree that human mind, at birth, is like a tabula rasa? Explain well your answer
3. Explain the statement that “there is no certainty that the future will resemble the past”?
Cite a situational case to explain this statement
4. What is meant by the statement of Aquinas that human beings have no duty of charity to
animals?
5. What is the goal of human life? Cite examples to explain your point of view
6. Is life in the state of nature “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short? Defend your answer
7. Do you agree that the “body and soul are unified”, as conceived by Aristotle?
8. It was Hume who first advanced the idea that the explanation of moral principles is to be
sought in the utility they tend to promote. Explain well this statement of Hume
9. What is the goal of life according to :
St Thomas Aquinas
David Hume
Thomas Hobbes
Bertrand Russell
10. Do you agree that marriage should be discouraged because it disturbs the peace of mind
of the individual? Support your answer
