Empiricism

It is a philosophical stance or tendency that seeks the origin of recognition and knowledge in experience. Therefore, it places more importance on concrete facts given through sensation and introspection than on transcendental beings such as Plato's Ideas, inherent ideas, or Kant's innate abilities of intuition and understanding, and believes that the former can be explained by the latter. Based on history and stance, the following types can be considered.

(1) Ancient and Middle Ages The ancient Greek sophists, atomists, and the Cynics, Cyrenaeans, and Epicureans among the Minor Socrats were pioneers of this movement, and were opposed to the rationalist and transcendentalist tendencies of Plato and Aristotle. However, Aristotle had a much stronger empirical character than Plato, and the empiricism mentioned above can be said to be close to metaphysical sensibility. The medieval orthodox school, which was strongly influenced by Plato and especially Aristotle, showed a strong tendency toward transcendentalism and rationalism, given its theological background, but it can also be said to have inherited one aspect of Aristotle's empiricism.

(2) Early modern times However, the tendency towards empiricism only became dominant in the modern era, when the development of science led to an emphasis on empirical facts and epistemology became a central issue in philosophy. In particular, Britain's empirical tradition shows a contrasting character to continental rationalism and later German idealism. This tendency was already evident in the Middle Ages with R. Bacon and W. Ockham, the latter of whom emphasized empirical particulars and strongly supported empiricism with his sharp nominalist argument that abstract universal concepts should not be unnecessarily multiplied. However, the true origin of British empiricism can be found in Francis Bacon, who emphasized observation and experimentation and advocated induction based on individual experience as opposed to deductive reasoning.

(3) British Classical Empiricism The above tendency was clarified by T. Hobbes and J. Locke in the form of criticism of innate ideas and explanation of all knowledge by experience. According to Locke, the mind is a blank sheet of paper or a dark room, and all knowledge is letters and light given externally through two windows, sensation and reflection, and any knowledge, no matter how complex or sublime, is explained as a compound of simple ideas, which are empirical givens. Locke's approach was inherited by Berkeley and Hume, giving birth to the British empiricist trio. In their criticism of abstract ideas that go beyond empirical individual things, they took the standpoint of conceptualism and even nominalism, and also showed a negative attitude toward the concept of substance assumed behind experience, regarding it as a collection of impressions and ideas. Moreover, Hume in particular sought the necessity of causal relations, which were considered to be absolutely certain from the transcendental and rationalist standpoint, in habits and mental determinations rooted in the experience of two objects that are successive, close, and constantly connected. It is well known that this awakened Kant from his "dogmatic slumber," but in another sense it led to a skeptical conclusion. After Hume, the lineage of empiricism was inherited by utilitarians such as J.S. Mill.

(4) Problems of Empiricism However, even in classical empiricism, problems inherent to empiricism were revealed. For example, the a priori cues recognized by the philosophy of rationalism were actually a stumbling block for empiricism in the sense that when empiricism tried to explain them as arising and constructed from experience, the problematic cues were implicitly anticipated in the explanation, forming a cycle. For example, when recognizing similarities between multiple individual things and forming an abstract concept empirically, one cannot help but think of "resemblance" as an abstract concept that is already a higher type of relationship than individual things. Similar circumstances can be pointed out for many of the traditional concepts of substance, causation, etc. that empiricism criticized.

(5) Modern Empiricism Even in England, where empiricism is traditional, the tendency towards empiricism was replaced by Hegelian idealism and went into a state of decline from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. However, with the collapse of German idealism, which had Hegelian philosophy at its apex, empiricism spread throughout Europe in conjunction with the reactionary movements of materialism and positivism, and in England it was revived from the early 20th century with new movements such as Russell. Representatives of this movement include the Cambridge School, logical positivism, ordinary language school, and pragmatism, and these modern empiricists have made great efforts to deal with the difficulties of empiricism mentioned above. For example, logical positivism, on the one hand, believes that empirical propositions are all reduced to reports on the immediate given and verified, and on the other hand, believes that the necessity of logic and mathematics, which have traditionally been considered to be innate knowledge, lies in the contractual binding force of the agreement on the use of language and symbols in theories that explain the empirical givens mentioned above. However, new pragmatism criticizes this dualism, believing that this kind of thinking inherits the defects of classical empiricism. In other words, new pragmatism seeks to deepen empiricism by considering that so-called a priori factors are valid conceptual organizations as long as they are effective in explaining experience, and that they are rooted in experience in the broad sense, since they can ultimately be modified, improved, or discarded.

[Takahide Toshita]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

認識や知識の根源を経験に求める哲学的立場、傾向をいう。したがって、プラトンのイデアのような超越的存在、本有観念やカントの直観・悟性の先天的な能力等よりも、感覚や内省を通じて与えられる具体的な事実を重視し、前者も後者によって説明されるとする考え方である。歴史と立場から次のような類型が考えられる。

(1)古代・中世　古代ギリシアのソフィスト、原子論者、小ソクラテス派のなかのキニコス派やキレネ派、エピクロス派などはその先駆で、プラトン、アリストテレスの理性主義、超越主義の傾向と対立した。ただし、アリストテレスには、プラトンよりもはるかに経験論の性格が強くみられ、また、前述の諸経験論も形而上(けいじじょう)学的な感覚論に近い立場といえる。プラトン、なかんずくアリストテレスの影響を強く受けた中世正統派は、その神学的背景からいっても超越主義、理性主義の傾向を強く示すが、アリストテレスの経験主義の一面を継承したともいえる。

(2)近世初期　しかし、経験論の傾向が有力になったのは、科学の発展に伴って経験的事実が重視され、また、認識論が哲学の中心課題となった近代以降である。とくにイギリスは経験論の伝統において、大陸の理性論や後のドイツ観念論などとは対照的な性格を示す。この傾向は中世ですでに、R・ベーコン、W・オッカムらに著しく、とくに後者は経験的個物を重視し、抽象的普遍概念を不必要に増やすべきでないとする鋭利な唯名論の主張によって経験論を強力に支援した。しかし、イギリス経験論の真の起源は、観察と実験を重視し、演繹(えんえき)的推理に対して個別的経験に根ざす帰納法を提唱したF・ベーコンに求められる。

(3)イギリス古典経験論　前記のような傾向はT・ホッブズを経てJ・ロックに至り、先天的な本有観念の批判、全認識の経験による説明となって明確化した。ロックによると、心は白紙または暗室であり、全知識は感覚と反省という二つの窓口を通じて外的に与えられる文字であり、光であって、いかほど複雑で崇高な知識も、経験的所与である単純観念からの複合として説明される。ロックの方向はバークリー、ヒュームへと継承されて、イギリス経験論のトリオを生んだ。彼らは、経験的個物を超えた抽象観念の批判において、概念論、さらに進んで唯名論の立場にたち、また、経験の背後に想定される実体概念に否定的態度を示し、それらを印象や観念の集合体とみなした。のみならず、とくにヒュームは、超越的で理性主義の立場からは絶対確実とみなされていた因果関係の必然性を、継起し接近して恒常的に結合される2対象の経験に根ざす習慣と心の決定に求めた。これがカントを「独断のまどろみ」から覚醒(かくせい)させたことは著名だが、一面では懐疑的結末を示すに至った。ヒューム以降、経験論の系譜は功利主義者のJ・S・ミルらに継承される。

(4)経験論の問題点　しかし、以上の古典経験論にも、経験論に固有の問題点は露呈されていた。たとえば、理性論の哲学が認める先天的な契機は、経験論がそれを経験からの発生・構成として説明しようとするとき、実はその説明のなかに問題の契機が暗黙のうちに先取りされ、循環を形成するという形で、経験論の「躓(つまず)きの石」であった。一例として、複数の個物の間に類似を認めて、抽象概念を経験的に形成するというとき、「類似」とはすでに個物よりタイプの高い関係としての抽象概念と考えざるをえない。同様の事情は、経験論が批判的にみた実体、因果等の伝統的な概念の多くに指摘できる。

(5)現代経験論　経験論の傾向は、それが伝統的であるはずのイギリスにおいてさえ、19世紀後半から20世紀初頭にかけて、ヘーゲル的観念論にとってかわられ、下火になるという倒錯した現象がみられた。だが、ヘーゲル哲学を頂点とするドイツ観念論の崩壊とともに、反動としての唯物論や実証主義の動きと結んで、経験論はヨーロッパに広がり、イギリスでも20世紀初頭以降、ラッセルその他の新しい動きとともに復活した。ケンブリッジ学派、論理実証主義、日常言語学派、プラグマティズムなどはその代表であり、これらの現代経験論は、前述の経験論の難点への対処に腐心したといえる。たとえば、論理実証主義は、一方で、経験命題は直接所与に関する報告にすべて還元され検証されると考え、他方、伝統的に先天的認識と考えられてきた論理や数学などの必然性は、前記の経験的所与を説明する理論での言語・記号の用法の取決めに関する約定的拘束力にあると考えた。しかし、この種の思考はかえって古典経験論の欠陥を継承するとみて、新しいプラグマティズムはこの二元論を批判している。すなわち、いわゆる先天的な契機も経験の説明に有効である限り妥当な概念組織で、究極的には修正・改良・廃棄の可能性が考えられる以上、広義の経験に根ざすとみなし、経験論の深化を図っている。

［杖下隆英］

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