Philosophical Schools of Thought: Empiricism, Kantianism, Utilitarianism

Empiricism

Experience is the origin of knowledge. We cannot definitively know metaphysical objects (God, self, external world) and consider them scientific, as we haven't perceived them as reality. Evidence is the sole criterion for distinguishing truth from falsehood.

Kantianism

Aesthetics and Transcendentalism

Knowledge requires a union of a priori and a posteriori elements. Matter is content, while form is how we perceive it. Cognition arises from the interaction of sensibility and understanding.

Analytics

Once phenomena are created by sensibility, understanding can know the object through categories. We can make judgments based on quantity, quality, relation, and modality.

Ethics

Ethics are a priori. There are two types of wills: natural (governed by necessity) and rational/pure (free and autonomous). Material ethics are based on the concept of good.

Utilitarianism (Mill)

Utilitarianism is a teleological political philosophy and ethical system. It considers the purpose of human action to be happiness, achieved through actions linked to utility.

Hume

Impressions and Ideas

There are two types of perceptions: impressions (stronger) and ideas (weaker images). Every idea is preceded by an impression. Perceptions can be simple (indivisible) or complex (divisible into parts).

Critique of Abstraction

For Hume, an idea is an internal representation of a sense perception.

Idea of Substance

Hume rejects the three Cartesian substances (thinking, extended, and finite).

Notion of Causality

The cause-effect relationship isn't a priori. An effect is distinct from its cause, so we cannot definitively know causal connections.

No Idea of the External World

Like substance and causality, we cannot know the external world beyond our perceptions.

Idea of Self

We perceive, so something must exist to have these perceptions.

Morality

If moral concepts are real, they must be relations of ideas or matters of fact.

Religion

Religious truths are inaccessible to reason. Hume rejects demonstrations of God's existence.

Utilitarianism

Anything contributing to societal happiness deserves approval.