Rethinking Empiricism And Materialism: the Revisionist View - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Annales Philosophici Année : 2010

Rethinking Empiricism And Materialism: the Revisionist View

Résumé

There is an enduring story about empiricism, which runs as follows: from Locke onwards to Carnap, empiricism is the doctrine in which raw sense-data are received through the passive mechanism of perception; experience is the effect produced by external reality on the mind or 'receptors'. Empiricism on this view is the 'handmaiden' of experimental natural science, seeking to redefine philosophy and its methods in conformity with the results of modern science. Secondly, there is a story about materialism, popularized initially by Marx and Engels and later restated as standard, 'textbook' history of philosophy in the English-speaking world. It portrays materialism as explicitly mechanistic, seeking to reduce the world of qualities, sensations, and purposive behaviour to a quantitative, usually deterministic physical scheme. Building on some recent scholarship, I aim to articulate the contrarian view according to which neither of these stories is true. On the contrary, empiricism turns out to be less 'science-friendly' and more concerned with moral matters; materialism reveals itself to be, in at least a large number of cases, a 'vital', anti-mechanistic doctrine which focuses on the unique properties of organic beings. This revision of two key philosophical episodes should reveal that our history of early modern philosophy is dependent to a great extent on 'special interests', whether positivistic or Kantian, and by extension lead us to rethink the relation and distinction between 'science' and 'philosophy' in this period. Keywords: revision of empiricism, revision of materialism, science and philosophy, early modern thought There is an enduring and influential story about empiricism, popularized in the early twentieth century by philosophers like A.J. Ayer and Bertrand Russell, and targeted just as strongly by other philosophers such as Edmund Husserl. The story runs as follows: from Locke onwards to Carnap, empiricism is the doctrine in which raw sense-data are received through the passive mechanism of perception; experience is the effect produced by external reality on the mind or 'receptors'. 1 By extension, empiricism is the 'handmaiden' of experimental natural science, seeking to redefine philosophy and its methods in conformity with the results of modern science. Secondly, there is an equally enduring story about materialism, popularized initially by Marx and Engels and later restated as standard, 'textbook' history of philosophy in the English-speaking world to this day. It portrays 1 Taylor (1964), p. 92. See also Nagel (2006).

Mots clés

Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
Wolfe.pdf (86.3 Ko) Télécharger le fichier
Origine : Fichiers éditeurs autorisés sur une archive ouverte
Loading...

Dates et versions

hal-01238130 , version 1 (04-12-2015)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-01238130 , version 1

Citer

Charles T. Wolfe. Rethinking Empiricism And Materialism: the Revisionist View. Annales Philosophici, 2010, 1, pp.101-113. ⟨hal-01238130⟩
139 Consultations
1468 Téléchargements

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More