PSYC 375 - Chapter 5 Test Questions and Correct Answers

British Empiricists British philosophers who believed that knowledge is derived from experience Empiricism - epistemology asserting that the evidence of the senses constitutes the primary data of knowledge. Knowledge cannot exist until this evidence is gathered and all subsequent intellectual processes use this evidence Characteristics of British Empiricism Agreement to exclude inner experiences, such as dreams and emotions, and focus exclusively on sensory experience sensory experience constitutes primary data but this data alone doesn't constitute knowledge Thomas Hobbes He was the founder of British empiricism He said that all conclusions could be drawn following a few undeniable premises he believed that the universe consisted of matter and motion and couldb e understood by mechanistic principles He used the deductive method of Galileo and Descartes Hobbes' political views he said that government should be a monarchy He said that people are naturally greedy and aggressive and this makes democracy dangerous. He said that fear of death motivates humans to create social order and unless they are controlled, people will selfishly seek power. Hobbes' view of Descartes' innate ideas Hobbes said that the origin of thought is that which we can sense. He strongly rejected Descartes' innate ideas he said that all that exists is matter and motion and this makes it absurd to postulate a non material mind Hobbes said that all mental phenomena can b explained by sensory experiences resulting from the motion of external bodies motion of external bodies stimulates sense receptors, causing internal motion