Empiricism (en- peiran; to try something for yourself): The doctrine that all knowledge must come through the senses; there are no innate ideas born within us that only require to be remembered (ie, Plato). All knowledge is reducible to sensation, that is, our concepts are only sense images. In short, there is no knowledge other than that obtained by sense observation.
Remember that according to Descartes, what I know first and foremost are my ideas. It is only later that he seeks to know if the extramental world exists, and so he begins with his ideas and then moves towards real being (rather than vice versa). Somewhere along the line the notion of idea undergoes a transformation. Soon an idea becomes a sense impression or an image. Remember that for the Greeks and Mediaeval thinkers, an idea is not reducible to an image. An idea cannot be imagined, but is an essence abstracted from the phantasm and understood. But this gets confused after Descartes. For example, John Locke says that ideas "...stand for whatsoever is the object of the understanding when a man thinks, I have used it to express whatever is meant by phantasm, notion, species, or whatever it is which the mind can be employed about in thinking..."
Note how he lumps together "phantasm, species, or whatever". This is very sloppy, but influential nonetheless. And notice how he maintains that the object of our knowledge is the idea, and not real being (as it was for the Greek and Mediaeval thinkers).
David Hume, following this line of thinking, begins by distinguishing the contents of human experience (which is ultimately reducible to perceptions) into: a) impressions and b) ideas.
Impressions are given sensations that arise from "unknown causes". Remember that what we know are our impressions, according to this trend. Whether there is something that corresponds to these impressions is unknown, for we don't know real being, we know impressions (a la Descartes).
Ideas are man's thoughts. They are fainter copies of impressions, and so they are images in the imagination that are remembered.
Every idea stems ultimately from a corresponding impression. Complex ideas are ultimately reducible to impressions; for they can be analyzed into simple ideas, which in turn can be reduced to impressions.
The consequences of these principles are important to note. That is why Hume is important, for he shows us where Empiricism ultimately leads.
Racism, a plague in our society that has infected our society, and still does today, has been rooted by the premise of Darwinian evolution. Racism existed long before Charles Darwin made his mark in history; however, in the book One Race One Blood, the authors explain how there is a very close relationship between the theory of evolution and what we know today as racism. The authors intent of this book is to realize the effects of a specific ideas that has shaped racism. Mr. Ken Ham describes ideas as being seeds, “…they might seem small; they might seem insignificant; they might even go unnoticed by all expect those who hold them in the moment…” (7). Charles Darwin’s idea (or seeds) of his evolutionary has taken root and made its way into public schools, the government, and even our churches. Although, racism did not originate with Darwin, Ken Ham claims that, “he did more than any other person to popularize it” (22). His evolutionary ideas have fueled racism and this is what racists use to justify their hatred toward those who are different from them (8).
Hume argues that perception can be divided into two types: impressions and ideas. He states that impressions are our first-hand perception, using all of our senses and emotions to experience them (Hume 2012, 8). For example, an impression of a sensation would be experiencing pain and an impression of reflection would be experiencing anger. Hume states that an idea is thinking about an impression. You cannot use your senses to experience the sensation or emotion, you are just simply reflecting on your experience (Hume 2007, 13). For example, thinking about the pain you felt when you stubbed your toe or thinking about how angry you felt when your football team lost. Hume argues that our thought is limited. He argues that when we imagine things such as an orange sea, we are simply joining two consistent ideas together. Hume argues that ‘all our ideas or more feeble perceptions are copies of our impressions or more lively ones’ (Hume 2007, 13). This is called the Copy Principle.
Steinberg, Eric [ed]. David Hume: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Second Edition. Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis; 1977
The next major theory on how one obtains knowledge comes from David Hume’s Empiricism. Empiricism itself is the idea that all knowledge obtained is done so through senses or experiences throughout life. This theory itself clearly contrasts with rationalism as rationalists believe at no point that they should gain knowledge through senses/experiences. Furthermore, as an empiricist, he does not value anything that is not attained through experience. One of Hume’s beliefs is the idea that everyone is born with a mental “blank slate”. Because all knowledge we gain is thought to be gained through experience (which a newborn would have none at that point) the “slate” starts as blank and will filled in as the person learns through experiences. This
Hume makes the claim that in order to make a moral judgment, one must keep in mind all the relevant aspects the situation, and recognize all the relevant ideas in relation to the situation. This means that we must take into consideration reason. Nevertheless, The moral judgment itself is not possible without passions or sentiment, which ultimately takes in all the deliverances of reason and creates the sentiment of disapproval or approval.
There are many leadership theories that play an important role in the every day workforce. Some of the theories are successful in producing a strong and productive leader, while others lack the qualities required for the job. Out of the multitude of available theories out there, I feel that the Transformational Leadership Theory is the one that stands out as being the most successful. This theory is far from coercive and instead focuses on making a satisfied team that collaborates to form a productive work environment. An environment like this, ran by a top-notch leader, is needed for success.
Hume distinguishes two categories into which “all the objects of human reason or enquiry” may be placed into: Relations of Ideas and Matters of Fact (15). In regards to matters of fact, cause and effect seems to be the main principle involved. It is clear that when we have a fact, it must have been inferred...
In An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume states, “there is not, in any single, particular instance of cause and effect, any thing which can suggest the idea of power or necessary connexion” (Hume, 1993: 41). Hume establishes in section II that all ideas originate from impressions that employ the senses (11). Therefore, in order for there to be an idea of power or “necessary connexion,” there must be impressions of this connection present in single instances of cause and effect; if there are no such impressions, then there cannot be an idea of “necessary connexion” (52). To illustrate his statement, Hume examines four situations: bodies interacting in the world, mind causing actions of the body, mind causing ideas of ideas, and God as the source of power. I will highlight Hume’s reasons and outline his arguments to establish that there is no “connexion” between cause and effect on the basis of single instances.
The transformational leadership theory was deemed an appealing based on individual beliefs regarding employee-leader relationships. With a focus on communication and motivation, transformational leaders promote positive change within
term exactly the same way. Descartes definition of idea is “whatever is immediately perceived by the mind”. Both these philosophers believe in the existence of God...
After reading Berkeley’s work on the Introduction of Principles of Human Knowledge, he explains that the mental ideas that we possess can only resemble other ideas and that the external world does not consist of physical form or reality but yet they are just ideas. Berkeley claimed abstract ideas as the source of philosophy perplexity and illusion. In the introduction of Principles of Human Knowledge,
Hume uses senses, like Descartes, to find the truth in life. By using the senses he states that all contents of the mind come from experience. This leads to the mind having an unbound potential since all the contents are lead by experiences. The mind is made up two parts impressions and ideas. Impressions are the immediate data of the experience. For example, when someone drops a book on the desk and you hear a loud sound. The sight of the book dropping and hitting the desk is registered by an individual’s senses- sight, sound, feeling. Hume believes there are two types of impressions, original and secondary impressions. Original impressions are based on the senses,
In conclusion, transactional and transformational leadership can be merged or used individually depending on various circumstances. However, they are partially correlated. In order to make the best use and get the desirable results out of these principles, leaders should attain a deep understanding of each theory as they are dissimilar in conducting. Moreover, an appropriate balance should be considered if leaders aim to integrate them together. In my point of view, either stand alone or combination usage would benefit to any organizations if the application of leaders was taken in proper situations.
idea on the surface, but in reality it is a very complex system of ideas that
E-commerce has grown significantly over the past years, it has helped small businesses to expand and create new businesses mush easier and faster than before, it also has changed the way they deal with customers and helped the growth of the economy, and more and more businesses are doing their business over the web, all of that shows how important EC is in many aspects and how it will continue emerging between businesses.