The Epistemology of Rene Descartes and John Locke

This video is a visual introduction of two philosophers that will be explored and analyzed within this presentation.

What is EPISTEMOLOGY?

The study of the nature and scope of knowledge and justified belief. It analyzes the nature of knowledge and how it relates to similar notions such as truth, belief, and justification. It also deals with the means of production of knowledge, as well as skepticism about different knowledge claims.

Who is Rene DESCARTES?

Descartes was born in March of 1596, in a village near Tours, France. Beginning in college, he was exposed to the works of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, where he found some inspiration in terms of his own philosophy. With his interest in mathematics, physics, and theology, Descartes soon became known as an influential philosopher and mathematician. This "father of modern philosophy" had a very skeptical approach to philosophy, which made him unique compared to his fellow philosophers.

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Who is John LOCKE?

Born in August of 1632, Locke was most known for his contributions to modern philosophy and political liberalism. Locke grew up in Wrington, Somerset, England, and attended Oxford University, where he studied medicine, which played a central role in his life. He became a highly influential philosopher, and he spoke about topics such as political philosophy, epistemology, and education. Although he is not considered one of "The Father's of Philosophy", his writings did help found modern Western philosophy.

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The Epistemology of Descartes

Descartes was known as a rationalist, which is someone who bases his opinions and actions on reason and knowledge rather than on religious beliefs or emotional response, and the emotional response aspect applies more to Descartes than the religious beliefs do, as he is a religious person. When he first began researching and discovering the origin of knowledge, Descartes decided to discard any previous beliefs he had about knowledge and he could not trust any knowledge that was collected by our senses, as he believed our senses were not a reliable source.

And in refusing to believe all previous claims of knowledge in regards to senses, Descartes knew that demolition and reconstruction were needed. But, instead of tearing down every idea presented, Descartes attacked what he thought was the foundation of this point of view; the idea that sense perception conveys accurate information.

He used many examples and arguments to prove his theory.

The Wax Example

When explaining that our senses cannot be trusted, Descartes uses a piece of wax as an example. Using senses, the characteristics (texture, shape, smell, size) of a piece of wax can be examined, but when this piece of wax is brought towards a flame, these characteristics completely change. And although our mind acknowledges that this object is the same, our senses would claim otherwise. This is why Descartes says that the senses cannot be trusted, and if we want to know the truth about something, we must use our mind.

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Descartes & Dreaming

Sometimes when sleeping, our dreams feel so vivid that we believe that they are actually real, but if they do feel so real, how are we sure they are not real? Can we actually distinguish between a dream and real life?

In the dream argument, Descartes says that we cannot trust our senses while awake because our mind is capable of creating images while sleeping. And if our mind can create images while we are sleeping, our mind could also create images while we are awake. So, if we cannot rely on the information formulated within our dreams (as they are a figment our of imagination), we cannot rely on the information obtained while we are awake.

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Example of Descartes's Dream

"In one dream, he sits by a fire in his room, and it seems he can feel the warmth of the fire, just as he feels it in his waking life, even though there is no fire. The fact that he feels the fire doe not really allow him to tell when he is awake and when he is dreaming. Moreover, if his senses can convey to him the heat of the fire when he does not really feel it, he can’t trust that the fire exists when he feels it in his waking life."

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Another argument presented by Descartes involves an "Evil Genius".

He imagined there to be an evil genius or a deceiving god. And this power may be capable of controlling him and deceiving him. So in that case, he does not have control over his body, only his mind. The evil genius presents a complete illusion of the outside world, including other people. This argument suggests the possibility that all sensory experiences were placed in our minds by someone or something more powerful than us.

The Evil Genius

Science; Less Senses, More Reason

Descartes believed that the only way to achieve accurate conclusions within science was to only use reason as a reference. Within Descartes's book Rules for the Direction of the Mind, he argues that all problems must be broken up into their smallest parts to minimize/remove the role of the "unreliable sense perception". He believed that if all problems were approached without using our senses, our reasoning skills can be put to work to solve the problem.

The Epistemology of John Locke

John Locke is an empiricist, meaning that he believes in the importance of experiences and the use of senses to acquire knowledge. Locke believed that knowledge of our surrounding world is not based on inference or reasoning, nor is it based on reflecting ideas that we already have, instead, knowledge is obtained through sensory experiences.

In 1693, Locke wrote an essay, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, where he analyzed knowledge and the limits to human understanding. In said essay, Locke rejected the concept of innate ideas, which is the idea that all human beings are born with intuition. He said that there is not one single idea that all human beings share and no principle that everyone accepts. Our ideas and what we know is only true if they relate to what we experience in the external world.

Tabula Rasa

Part of Locke's philosophy was his theory of Tabula Rasa, which means that at birth, the human mind is a blank slate, with no pre-programmed ideas or opinions. As we grow older and have more experiences, the blank slate becomes imprinted with data, but only sensory experiences can provide data. The ideas would begin as simple thoughts, but with more experiences, the ideas would combine and become more developed and complex. This concept was disproved by Rene Descartes, as he believed that there are certain ideas and concepts that all individuals share.

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Quotations of Locke's Essay to Demonstrate his opinion

"Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas; how comes it to be furnished?"' (Vol 1, Book 2, Chapter 1)

"'Nature never makes excellent things for mean or no uses. "' -(Vol 1, Book 2, Chapter 1)

“The acts of the mind, wherein it exerts its power over simple ideas, are chiefly these three: 1. Combining several simple ideas into one compound one, and thus all complex ideas are made. 2. The second is bringing two ideas, whether simple or complex, together, and setting them by one another so as to take a view of them at once, without uniting them into one, by which it gets all its ideas of relations. 3. The third is separating them from all other ideas that accompany them in their real existence: this is called abstraction, and thus all its general ideas are made.”

“For where is the man that has incontestable evidence of the truth of all that he holds, or of the falsehood of all he condemns; or can say that he has examined to the bottom all his own, or other men's opinions? The necessity of believing without knowledge, nay often upon very slight grounds, in this fleeting state of action and blindness we are in, should make us more busy and careful to inform ourselves than constrain others.”

The pictures drawn in our minds are laid in fading colors; and, if not sometimes refreshed, vanish and disappear.'' (Vol 1, Book 2, Chapter 10)

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Locke, Knowledge, and the Outside World

Since Locke believes in the importance of sensory experiences to collect knowledge, this puts an emphasize on external opportunities. According to Locke, the only things we perceive (immediately) are ideas, but there is a distinct difference between knowledge and opinion/belief. What we know must be what we experience, not what others have experienced and told us. We must have our own experiences in order to form our own opinions about the world.

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John Locke

Rene Descartes

- Believes that some ideas are innate, meaning that they are present in the mind before or at birth

- Does not believe in innate ideas. believes that it is impossible for something to be in the mind without one being aware of it

- Both believe that

humans possess

characteristics that set

them apart from animals

and machines.

- Stated that many of the truths about nature can be discovered without observation or event experience

- Believed that individuals are born as a "blank slate" and their experiences using their senses add to the paper

- Both are doubtful about knowledge. They are skeptic about the probability of definite knowledge

- A rationalist

- An empiricist

- Both philosophers leave behind older traditions and offering new ways of looking at knowledge and skepticism.

- Knowledge depends on absolute certainty. Since perception is unreliable

- He held that all ideas can be explained in terms of experience

- Deeply believes in God and believes that we can trust reason because God created us and God is good

- Shared some ideas in terms of ideas, importance of language and reason, God and the will, and universals and classification. As Descartes existed before Locke, Locke used a lot of Descartes's ideas within his essay.

- Explained that complex ideas and opinions are formed through the combination of multiple simple ideas (simple ideas are immediate object perception). And, there is a very clear distinction between simple and complex ideas

- Does not believe that senses can give us certain knowledge about the world as our senses tend to deceive us (the wax argument).

- Both discuss free will and how it is consistent with the existence of God.

- Descartes believes that there are two ways of discovering knowledge, through experience or deduction

- Believed that there are three degrees of knowledge, (1) intuitive, (2) demonstrative, and (3) sensitive.

Summary of Information Presented

John Locke and Rene Descartes are two philosophers who have created their own theories as to where knowledge comes from. Although their perspectives are on two different sides of the spectrum, this pair of philosophers stands out from the others in their times as they leave behind older traditional ways of thought and have developed their own approach to concepts such as epistemology, as well as, skepticism.

Locke is an empiricist, meaning that he believes in the importance of sensory experiences to build knowledge. He does not believe in innate ideas (an idea or concept that every person has before or at birth). Descartes on the other hand, believes that knowledge cannot be acquired through our senses as they can be deceiving, thus are not a reliable source, and Descartes did believe that innate ideas existed.

Which Philosophical Theory do I Support?

Between Locke and Descartes, I support Locke's viewpoint more than Descartes's. Based upon what I have read in articles, their own literature, short documentaries, I believe that Locke's theory makes the most sense. I believe that knowledge is obtained through experiences, and since you experience things with your eyes, ears, hands, etc., the fact that sensory experiences are the primary source of knowledge, makes a lot of sense. And in reference to innate ideas, I also do not believe they exist. There is not an idea that every single individual, through every country, culture, religion, etc. support. Every person is raised differently and has different experiences, thus not everyone can support one idea.

Works Cited

“A Critical Comparison: Locke and Descartes'.” Essay, Term Paper Writing Service, Genuine Writing, 6 Oct. 2009, www.genuinewriting.com/blog/sample-essays/simple-essay-philosophy-analytical-truth-or-etc/.

“John Locke.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 27 June 2019, https://www.biography.com/scholar/john-locke.

Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Ed. Kenneth Winkler. Hackett Publishing Company, 1996.

Martinich, A.P., and Avrum Stroll. “Epistemology .” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2 May 2019,

https://www.britannica.com/topic/epistemology.

Newman, Lex. “Descartes' Epistemology.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 15 Feb. 2019,

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-epistemology/.

Priselac, Matthew. “Locke: Knowledge of the External World.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, University of Oklahoma, https://www.iep.utm.edu/locke-kn/.

S, Sara. “Decartes and Locke; A Critical Comparison.” Yellowpigs.net, 28 Oct. 2002, https://www.yellowpigs.net/philosophy/locke.