Locke and Hume: Foundations of Empiricist Philosophy

John Locke: The Method of Consciousness

John Locke proposed a method for understanding consciousness based on three steps:

1. The origin of ideas and how understanding accesses them.
2. Showing the type of knowledge the understanding reaches through these ideas (conocimiento).
3. Researching the nature and basis of what we consider true without having true knowledge (conocimiento).

Locke's Classes of Ideas

Locke categorized ideas into two main groups: Simple and Complex.

Simple Ideas

Simple ideas are real and positive. They are the foundation of feeling and are derived from experience:

• Ideas of Sensation: Ideas coming from external experience, generated by information received through our senses. Locke distinguishes between:
  • Primary Qualities: (e.g., extension, movement, or form).
  • Secondary Qualities: (e.g., taste, color, reflection).
• Ideas of Reflection: Derived from internal experience, generated when we memorize or remember.

Complex Ideas

Complex ideas are formed by combining simple ideas:

• Modes: These are the ways of being and behaving.
• Substances: (Referred to as 'chemical' in the original text) The common support of qualities.
• Relations: Connections between things, comparing or contrasting each other.

The Idea of Substance and Reality

Locke identifies three realities that we perceive:

1. The Ego: Rational personal identity, known through intuitive certainty.
2. God: The Principle of Causality, known through demonstrative certainty.
3. Bodies: Known through sensitive certainty, accessed via sensations.

David Hume: Perception and Skepticism

Hume categorized perceptions into two classes:

• Impressions: They have more strength than ideas; they are vivid and immediate, such as passions and emotions.
• Ideas: Weaker perceptions, produced when we recall an impression.

Simple and Complex Impressions

Every impression can be simple or complex. A complex impression is the result of a mental composite between simple ones. An original impression can return as an idea in two ways:

1. Memory: In a precise manner.
2. Imagination: Which reduces the impression to a more tenuous form.

Hume on Substance and God

The Nature of Substance

For Hume, substance is merely a collection of simple ideas which we name to group this collection. We unite these qualities through imagination. This 'human complex' (conjunto humano) is unified only in the mind.

The Existence of God

The existence of God cannot be justified rationally because we cannot base the idea of God on any impression. God is neither moral nor rational, but rather a distinctive human trait. Humans turn to religion because it addresses pain and accountability that they cannot naturally control.