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Here
are some quotes that highlight the rationalist and empiricist
views of the human mind. Leibniz and Boole illustrate the rationalist
position where the mind is regarded as an entity that, like a
mathematical system, follows rules that are unique to itself
and in a sense independent of the external world. Locke and Hume,
speaking from the empiricist position, do not see the mind as
independent, but as derivative from the world of experience.
During
the first half of the 20th century, the empiricist position dominated
the thinking and research on human reasoning in the United States.
During the second half of the century, the argument against this
position intensified and the rationalist position has achieved
increasing dominance. Much of the impetus for the rationalist
position has arisen from the mathematics associated with defining
and studying computation as well as from the experience of using
computation in everyday life.
(*The quotes below provide only
glimpse of these individuals thoughts and works. Where possible
I have provided a link to an online version of the original text
or to a related writing in case you wish to pursue their ideas
further. )
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| John Locke (1632-1704)
on Empiricism from Essay
concerning human understanding (1690): |
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"2.
All ideas come from sensation or reflection. 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? Whence comes
it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man
has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has
it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer,
in one word, from EXPERIENCE. In that all our knowledge is founded;
and from that it ultimately derives itself. Our observation employed
either, about external sensible objects, or about the internal
operations of our minds perceived and reflected on by ourselves,
is that which supplies our understandings with all the materials
of thinking. These two are the fountains of knowledge, from whence
all the ideas we have, or can naturally have, do spring." |
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"Nothing, at first view, may seem more
unbounded than the thought of man, which not only escapes all
human power and authority, but is not even restrained within
the limits of nature and reality. To form monsters, and join
incongruous shapes and appearances, costs the imagination no
more trouble than to conceive the most natural and familiar objects.
And while the body is confined to one planet, along which it
creeps with pain and difficulty; the thought can in an instant
transport us into the most distant regions of the universe; or
even beyond the universe, into the unbounded chaos, where nature
is supposed to lie in total confusion. What never was seen, or
heard of, may yet be conceived; nor is any thing beyond the power
of thought, except what implies an absolute contradiction. |
| But though our thought seems to possess
this unbounded liberty, we shall find, upon a nearer examination,
that it is really confined within very narrow limits, and that
all this creative power of the mind amounts to no more than the
faculty of compounding, transposing, augmenting, or diminishing
the materials afforded us by the senses and experience. When
we think of a golden mountain, we only join two consistent ideas,
gold, and mountain, with which we were formerly
acquainted. A virtuous horse we can conceive; because, from our
own feeling, we can conceive virtue; and this we may unite to
the figure and shape of a horse, which is an animal familiar
to us. In short, all the materials of thinking are derived either
from our outward or inward sentiment: The mixture and composition
of these belongs alone to the mind and will. Or, to express myself
in philosophical language, all our ideas or more feeble perceptions
are copies of our impressions or more lively ones.To prove this,
the two following arguments will, I hope, be sufficient. First,
when we analyse our thoughts or ideas, however compounded or
sublime, we always find, that they resolve themselves into such
simple ideas as were copied from a precedent feeling or sentiment.
Even those ideas, which, at first view, seem the most wide of
this origin, are found, upon a nearer scrutiny, to be derived
from it. The idea of God, as meaning an infinitely intelligent,
wise, and good Being, arises from reflecting on the operations
of our own mind, and augmenting, without limit, those qualities
of goodness and wisdom. We may prosecute this enquiry to what
length we please; where we shall always find, that every idea
which we examine is copied from a similar impression." |
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