A Primer in Philosophy

We have to start somewhere.

The first question to ask in designing a course about sociological theory is, "Where to begin?" We could begin by discussing the social thought of philosophers who lived long ago in Greece, or Rome, or in other ancient societies of Europe or other continents. And in consideration of philosophies developed in these societies, we will learn about the key ideas advanced by Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Because of constraints of time and resources in Sociology 401, however, we will begin by learning the predominant viewpoints expressed in 18th century western Europe. Because the key ontological and epistemological issues of today have been debated in all advanced societies, that is as good a point as any to begin.

Novices to this literature, however, can feel the uncertainty of a late arrival at a party if they are not familiar with Western philosophy from Aristotle to the 18th century. One needs an introduction to the guests and their way of thinking before reading the materials presented in Sociology 401. This page presents an annotated glossary of terms and brief introductions to the works of key philosophers who influenced the development of sociology. The purpose is to inform your reading of the textbooks and help you understand the viewpoints held by the persons whose works are included in them.

The portfolio approach to learning social thought.

The glossary of terms and introductions to key philosophers provided below will help us organize our thoughts about the many classical and contemporary sociologists we will study during this semester. That is, each theorist can be classified according to key philosophical points of view. Of course, no classification system works perfectly and we do not anticipate that the one we develop will either. We might have some rousing debates in class about how best to classify a theorist! And some of the persons we study reasonably might be classified within seemingly contradictory categories. The perfect classification system is not our goal, nor should it be. In fact, each of us--hopefully--will develop different classifications of the theorists we study.

Our goal is for each of us to develop a classification of the theorists that will help us understand their works and, most importantly, help us understand ourselves.

As you prepare for each exam, you will use a classification schema to organize the key points made by each theorist. Then, in writing your term paper, you will develop your perspective on social thought. Does your sociology lean more toward realism or idealism, realism or nominalism, idealism or materialism, positivism or phenomenology or postmodernism or whatever! By developing a schema to classify the works of others we hope to gain a better understanding of them and discover who we are as sociologists.

Enjoy!

Glossary of Key Terms

I provide definitions of the terms as they are listed in The Philosophical Dictionary and Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Then, I provide examples of the terms as they apply to sociology.

Ontology--Epistemology

The Philosophical Dictionary

Ontology. Branch of metaphysics concerned with identifying, in the most general terms, the kinds of things that actually exist. Thus, the "ontological commitments" of a philosophical position include both its explicit assertions and its implicit presuppositions about the existence of entities, substances, or beings of particular kinds.

Epistemology. Branch of philosophy that investigates the possibility, origins, nature, and extent of human knowledge. Although the effort to develop an adequate theory of knowledge is at least as old as Plato's Theaetetus, epistemology has dominated Western philosophy only since the era of Descartes and Locke, as an extended dispute between rationalism and empiricism over the respective importance of a priori and a posteriori origins.

Wikipedia

Ontology. In philosophy, ontology is the study of being or existence. It seeks to describe or posit the basic categories and relationships of being or existence to define entities and types of entities within its framework. Ontology can be said to study conceptions of reality.

Epistemology. Epistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of Western philosophy that studies the nature and scope of knowledge and belief. Much of the debate in this field has focused on analyzing the nature of knowledge and how it relates to similar notions such as truth, belief, and justification. It also deals with the means of production of knowledge, as well as skepticism about different knowledge claims. In other words, epistemology primarily addresses the following questions: "What is knowledge?," "How is knowledge acquired?," and "What do people know?."

Notes

Ontology is concerned with the question, "What is reality?" Epistemology is concerned with the question, "How do we know reality?"

Realism-Idealism

The Philosophical Dictionary

Perceptual Realism. Belief that material objects exist independently of our perception of them. (Thus, opposed to idealism.) Realistic theories of perception include both representationalism, in which awareness of objects is mediated by our ideas of them, and direct realism, which presumes an immediate relation between observer and observed.

Idealism. Belief that only mental entities are real, so that physical things exist only in the sense that they are perceived.

Wikipedia

Philosophical Realism. Contemporary philosophical realism, also referred to as metaphysical realism, is the belief in and allegiance to a reality that exists independently of observers. Realists believe that theories are successful because they have a correspondence to reality. That is, because the theoretical explanations in question have some correspondence to what actually exists. Realists tend to believe that whatever we believe now is only an approximation of reality and that every new observation brings us closer to understanding reality. Realists tend to embrace what they believe is actually real, despite how unattractive reality itself may be. Most realists arrive at their understanding of reality through critical thinking.

Idealism. Idealism is a class of positions in ontology and epistemology. Idealism as an epistemological position asserts that everything we experience is of a mental nature. That is, we can only have direct, immediate knowledge of the contents of our mind. We can never directly know or experience an external object itself. As an ontological position Idealism asserts either that only minds and the objects of mind exist, or that everything is composed of mental realities (e.g., thoughts, feelings, perceptions, ideas, or will).

Notes

In contrast with idealism, realism refers to the point of view that reality exists and the job of the scientist is to discover this reality and how it works. Thus, one could say that Comte discovered the law of the three stages. Idealism refers to the opinion that no particular reality exists, but rather multiple realities can be perceived and the ones we embrace reflect a consensually held construction about what is real. Thus, one could say that the "law of the three stages" provides one way of viewing the differences observed in societies with different levels of complexity and technological advancement.

Realism-Nominalism

The Philosophical Dictionary

Realism. Belief that universals exist independently of the particulars that instantiate them. Realists hold that each general term signifies a real feature or quality, which is numerically the same in all the things to which that term applies. Thus, opposed to nominalism.

Nominalism. Belief that only particular things exist, as opposed to realism. Nominalists hold that a general term or name {Lat. nomine} is applied to individuals that resemble each other, without the need of any reference to an independently existing universal.

Wikipedia

Scientific Realism. Scientific realism is a view in the philosophy of science about the nature of scientific success, an answer to the question "what does the success of science involve?" The debate over what the success of science involves centers primarily on the status of unobservable entities (objects, processes and events) apparently talked about by scientific theories. Roughly put, scientific realism is the thesis that the unobservable things talked about by science are little different from ordinary observable things (such as tables and chairs).

Nominalism. The American Heritage® Dictionary, Fourth Edition, defines nominalism as 'the doctrine holding that abstract concepts, general terms, or universals have no independent existence but exist only as names.' Nominalism has also been defined as a philosophical position that various objects labeled by the same term have nothing in common but their name. In this view, it is only actual physical particulars that can be said to be real and universals exist only post res, that is, subsequent to particular things. (Feibleman 1962).

Nominalism is best understood in contrast to realism. Philosophical realism holds that when we use descriptive terms such as "green" or "tree," the Forms of those concepts really exist, independently of the world in an abstract realm. Such thought is associated with Plato, for instance. Nominalism, by contrast, holds that ideas represented by words have no real existence beyond our imaginations.

Notes

Here, realism refers to the idea that abstract concepts are real in their consequences. Thus, although one cannot see, touch, feel, taste, or hear "family," a realist would argue that family exists because members of families hold similar attitudes and behave in similar manners. Importantly, each member feels a connection to their family and responds accordingly. Even after their parents have passed away, for example, siblings often compete for the affections of their parents. Nominalists, on the other hand, raise concerns that abstract concepts might become reified, or taken too literally without recognizing that the name applied to a collection of individuals or events is, in fact, a social construction.

Idealism-Materialism

The Philosophical Dictionary

Idealism. Belief that only mental entities are real, so that physical things exist only in the sense that they are perceived.

Materialism. Belief that only physical things truly exist. Materialists claim (or promise) to explain every apparent instance of a mental phenomenon as a feature of some physical object. For many philosophers of the Western tradition, material objects are substances that have the attribute of extension (i.e., having spatial dimensions). Idealists deny the reality of any such stuff, while materialists deny that there is anything else.

Wikipedia

Idealism. Idealism is a class of positions in ontology and epistemology. Idealism as an epistemological position asserts that everything we experience is of a mental nature. That is, we can only have direct, immediate knowledge of the contents of our mind. We can never directly know or experience an external object itself. As an ontological position Idealism asserts either that only minds and the objects of mind exist, or that everything is composed of mental realities (e.g., thoughts, feelings, perceptions, ideas, or will).

Materialism. In philosophy, materialism is that form of physicalism which holds that the only thing that can truly be said to exist is matter; that fundamentally, all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. Science uses a working assumption, sometimes known as methodological naturalism, that observable events in nature are explained only by natural causes without assuming the existence or non-existence of the supernatural. As a theory, materialism belongs to the class of monist ontology. As such, it is different from ontological theories based on dualism or pluralism. In terms of singular explanations of the phenomenal reality, materialism stands in sharp contrast to idealism.

Notes

In your opinion, what is more important: ideas or material conditions? Has progress in alleviating racial inequalities, for example, resulted mainly from changed beliefs and attitudes about race or from forced integration in our schools and workplaces? What event has had the most effect in improving the quality of life of persons of color, Martin Luther King's "I have a dream speech" or the signing of the Civil Rights Act? Your answers to these questions will help you identify your philosophical perspective, a perspective that will influence your opinions about alternative social policies and programs.

Positivism

The Philosophical Dictionary

Positivism. Belief that natural science, based on observation, comprises the whole of human knowledge. Positivists like Auguste Comte, then, reject as meaningless the claims of theology and metaphysics. The most influential twentieth-century version is logical positivism.

Logical Positivism. Twentieth-century philosophical movement that used a strict principle of verifiability to reject as meaningless the non-empirical statements of metaphysics, theology, and ethics. Under the influence of Hume, Russell, and the early Wittgenstein, the logical positivists regarded as meaningful only statements reporting empirical observations, taken together with the tautologies of logic and mathematics. Prominent logical positivists included members of the Vienna Circle and Ayer.

Wikipedia

Positivism. Positivism is a philosophy developed by Auguste Comte (widely regarded as the first true sociologist) in the middle of the 19th century that stated that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only come from positive affirmation of theories through strict scientific method. This view is sometimes referred to as a scientist ideology, and is often shared by technocrats who believe in the necessary progress through scientific progress. As an approach to the philosophy of science deriving from Enlightenment thinkers like Pierre-Simon Laplace (and many others), positivism was first systematically theorized by Comte, who saw the scientific method as replacing metaphysics in the history of thought, and who observed the circular dependence of theory and observation in science. Comte was thus one of the leading thinkers of the social evolutionism thought. Brazil's national motto, Ordem e Progresso ("Order and Progress") was taken from Comte's positivism, also influential in Poland. Positivism is the most evolved stage of society in anthropological Evolutionism, the point where science and rational explanation for scientific phenomena develops. Marxism and predictive dialectics is a highly positivist system of theory. However Marxism rejects positivism and views it as subjective idealism, because it limits itself only to facts and does not examine the underlying causes of things.

Modern Positivism. The key features of positivism as of the 1950s, as defined in the "received view", are:


1. A focus on science as a product, a linguistic or numerical set of statements;
2. A concern with axiomatization, that is, with demonstrating the logical structure and coherence of these statements;
3. An insistence on at least some of these statements being testable, that is amenable to being verified, confirmed, or falsified by the empirical observation of reality; statements that would, by their nature, be regarded as untestable included the teleological; (Thus positivism rejects much of classical metaphysics.)
4. The belief that science is markedly cumulative;
5. The belief that science is predominantly transcultural;
6. The belief that science rests on specific results that are dissociated from the personality and social position of the investigator;
7. The belief that science contains theories or research traditions that are largely commensurable;
8. The belief that science sometimes incorporates new ideas that are discontinuous from old ones;
9. The belief that science involves the idea of the unity of science, that there is, underlying the various scientific disciplines, basically one science about one real world.

Positivism is also depicted as "the view that all true knowledge is scientific," and that all things are ultimately measurable. Because of its "close association with reductionism," positivism and reductionism involve the view that "entities of one kind... are reducible to entities of another," such as societies to numbers, or mental events to chemical events. It also involves the contention that "processes are reducible to physiological, physical or chemical events,"[10] and even that "social processes are reducible to relationships between and actions of individuals," or that "biological organisms are reducible to physical systems.

Reductionism. In philosophy, reductionism is a theory that asserts that the nature of complex things is reduced to the nature of sums of simpler or more fundamental things. This can be said of objects, phenomena, explanations, theories, and meanings.

Reductionism is often understood to imply the unity of science. For example, fundamental chemistry is based on physics, fundamental biology is based on chemistry, psychology is based on biology, sociology is based on psychology, and political science and anthropology are both based on sociology. The first two of these reductions are commonly accepted but the last three or four--psychology to biology and so on--are controversial. For example, aspects of evolutionary psychology and sociobiology are rejected by those who claim that complex systems are inherently irreducible or holistic. Some strong reductionists believe that the behavioral sciences should become "genuine" scientific disciplines by being based on genetic biology, and on the systematic study of culture (cf. Dawkins's concept of memes).

Notes

Perhaps no term evokes stronger opinions from sociologists than positivism. In its most basic form, positivism means reliance upon empirical observations to build and test theories rather than depending upon other epistemologies such as theology, metaphysics, cosmology, and so forth. Logical positivism and reductionism, as extreme extensions of positivism, are impossible to achieve in practice (see: Philosophy of Science).

Some adherents of phenomenology, ethnomethodology, "feminist" methodology, and qualitative methods strongly criticize survey research methodology, deductive theories, and the social facts paradigm (i.e., roughly meaning functionalism and conflict theory) as examples of logical positivism. In my opinion, they lay siege to an empty castle. I would be surprised, indeed horrified, to find any scientist (life, physical, or social) who believed it possible to verify a theory or conduct science in a totally unbiased, objective, and value-free manner. Yet it is quite common for advocates of constructivist epistemologies to argue that some persons do believe in logical positivism. I believe they waste their time to make a point already accepted.

On the other hand, too often one encounters persons who think that the results of survey research or quantitative data analysis somehow are more scientific than interpretive data collected using qualitative methods. Therefore, it is necessary to remind those who adhere too closely to numbers that numbers are constructions. But one need not throw out the baby with the bath water. All of science relies upon positivism in the sense of building and testing theories based upon analysis of empirical observations, whether these observations appear as numbers or as nonnumerical interpretations of events.

Empiricism--Rationalism--Intuition

The Philosophical Dictionary

Empiricism. Reliance on experience as the source of ideas and knowledge. More specifically, empiricism is the epistemological theory that genuine information about the world must be acquired by a posteriori means, so that nothing can be thought without first being sensed. Prominent modern empiricists include Bacon, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Mill. In the twentieth century, empiricism principles were extended and applied by the pragmatists and the logical positivists.

Rationalism. Reliance on reason {Lat. ratio} as the only reliable source of human knowledge. In the most general application, rationalism offers a naturalistic alternative to appeals to religious accounts of human nature and conduct.

More specifically, rationalism is the epistemological theory that significant knowledge of the world can best be achieved by a priori means; it therefore stands in contrast to empiricism. Prominent rationalists of the modern period include Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz.

Intuition. Direct, non-inferential awareness of abstract objects or concrete truths. Plato held that intuition is a superior faculty, and Spinoza supposed that intuition is the highest sort of human knowledge. Russell, on the other hand, designated as intuitive any unreflective instance of knowledge by acquaintance.

Wikipedia

Empiricism. In philosophy generally, empiricism is a theory of knowledge emphasizing the role of experience in the formation of ideas, while discounting the notion of innate ideas.

In the philosophy of science, empiricism is a theory of knowledge which emphasizes those aspects of scientific knowledge that are closely related to experience, especially as formed through deliberate experimental arrangements. It is a fundamental requirement of scientific method that all hypotheses and theories must be tested against observations of the natural world, rather than resting solely on a priori reasoning, intuition, or revelation. Hence, science is considered to be methodologically empirical in nature.

Rationalism. In epistemology and in its broadest sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" (Lacey, 286). In more technical terms it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive" (Bourke, 263). Different degrees of emphasis on this method or theory lead to a range of rationalist standpoints, from the moderate position "that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge" to the radical position that reason is "the unique path to knowledge" (Audi, 771).

Rationalism is often contrasted with this view known as empiricism. Taken very broadly these views are not mutually exclusive, since a philosopher can be both rationalist and empiricist (Lacey, 286–287). Taken to extremes the empiricist view holds that all ideas come to us through experience, either through the five external senses or through such inner sensations as pain and pleasure, and thus that knowledge is essentially based on or derived from experience. At issue is the fundamental source of human knowledge, and the proper techniques for verifying what we think we know (see Epistemology).

Intuition (knowledge). Intuition is an immediate form of knowledge in which the knower is directly acquainted with the object of knowledge. Intuition differs from all forms of mediated knowledge, which generally involve conceptualizing the object of knowledge by means of rational/analytical thought processes (and, hence, placing a mediating idea or concept between the knower and the known).

Some philosophers consider human experience of raw empirical data (sometimes called "qualia") to be intuitive. For example, when a person sees a patch of yellow, that person is directly acquainted with the yellowness of the object, even if he or she has no name or concept for yellowness.

Intuition differs from opinion since intuition is a way of experiencing objects, while opinion is based on that experience. Intuition also differs from instinct, which does not necessarily have the experiential element at all. A person who has an intuitive basis for an opinion probably cannot immediately fully explain why he or she holds that view. However, a person may later rationalize an intuition by developing a chain of logic to demonstrate more structurally why the intuition is valid.

In popular understanding, intuition is one source of common sense and it may also help in induction to gain empirical knowledge.

Notes

Certainly, science is based upon empiricism; all theories are built and tested in reference to observations. Yet, all of science also relies upon intuition in the processes of inductive reasoning, measurement, data analysis, and interpreting results. In the end, science is conducted by scientists who use their intuition as well as their observations to conduct their work.

Phenomenology

The Philosophical Dictionary

Phenomenology. Description of experience. Hence, a philosophical method restricted to careful analysis of the intellectual processes of which we are introspectively aware, without making any assumptions about their supposed causal connections to existent external objects. Philosophers who have made extensive use of diverse phenomenological methods include Brentano, Husserl, Hartmann, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty.

Wikipedia

Phenomenology. Phenomenology has three meanings in philosophical history, one derived from G.W.F. Hegel in 1807, one derived from Edmund Husserl in 1920, and one derived from Martin Heidegger in 1927:


1. For G.W.F. Hegel, phenomenology is an approach to philosophy that begins with an exploration of phenomena (what presents itself to us in conscious experience) as a means to finally grasp the absolute, logical, ontological and metaphysical Spirit that is behind phenomena. This has been called a 'dialectical phenomenology.'
2. For Edmund Husserl, phenomenology is an approach to philosophy that takes the intuitive experience of phenomena (what presents itself to us in phenomenological reflexion) as its starting point and tries to extract from it the essential features of experiences and the essence of what we experience. This has been called a "transcendental phenomenology."
3. For Martin Heidegger, the phenomenological vision of a world of beings must be bypassed toward the apprehension of the Being behind all beings, that is, as an introduction to ontology, albeit an ontology that remains critical of metaphysics. This has been called an "existential phenomenology."

Notes

One simple way to describe phenomenology is, "science in practice." That is, the goals of science might be objectivity, unbiased observation, value-free interpretation, and so forth. But, in practice, observations, analysis, and interpretations are influenced by inutition, political economy, past experiences, and other characteristics of the scientist, culture, and the community of scholars. Phenomenology recognizes that we can never see reality (if there is one) as it is, but must view our experiences as a give-and-take--a "dialectic"--of experience with and observation of reality.

The Enlightenment

The Philosophical Dictionary

The Enlightenment. An eighteenth-century movement that placed great emphasis on the use of reason in the development of philosophical, social, political, and scientific knowledge. Enlightenment philosophers include Bayle, Hume, Wollstonecraft, Kant, and many lesser figures.

Wikipedia

The Enlightenment. The Age of Enlightenment (from the German word Aufklärung, meaning "Enlightenment") refers to either the eighteenth century in European and American philosophy, or the longer period including the seventeenth century and the Age of Reason. It can more narrowly refer to the historical intellectual movement The Enlightenment, which advocated Reason as a means to establishing an authoritative system of aesthetics, ethics, government, and logic, which would allow human beings to obtain objective truth about the universe. Emboldened by the revolution in physics commenced by Newtonian kinematics, Enlightenment thinkers argued that same kind of systematic thinking could apply to all forms of human activity. The Enlightenment is often closely linked with the Scientific Revolution, as both movements emphasized empiricism, reason, science, and rationality.

The intellectual leaders regarded themselves as a courageous elite who would lead the world into progress from a long period of doubtful tradition, irrationality, superstition, and tyranny, which they imputed to the Dark Ages. The movement helped create the intellectual framework for the American and French Revolutions, the Latin American independence movement, and the Polish Constitution of May 3; and led to the rise of classical liberalism,democracy and capitalism. It is matched with the high baroque and classical eras in music, and the neo-classical period in the arts; it receives contemporary attention as being one of the central models for many movements in the modern period.

The Enlightenment influenced the Jewish Haskalah, which in Western Europe and particularly in Germany resulted in the elevation and eventual replacement of Yiddish by Hebrew, as well as the Jewish reform and Zionist Nationalist movements.

The Enlightenment was not a movement that solely occurred in Germany and France, but spread into other countries such as Spain and England as well. Many of the Founding Fathers of the United States were also heavily influenced by Enlightenment era ideas, particularly in the religious (Deism), economic ( the "free market"), and governmental (United States Bill of Rights) spheres.

Notes

As we begin our study of sociological theory, we will be entering the period known as the Enlightenment. We will learn about some of the key persons who influenced the social thought of the classical and contemporary theorists included in our textbooks. By learning the terms described here you will be prepared to study the social thought of the Enlightenment.

So, don your Enlightenment costume and join the party!

Some Key Philosophers of the Enlightenment

Our textbook, Classical Sociological Theory, begins by presenting the social thought of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In describing their work it is necessary to know some key points of science and social thought advanced by René Descartes, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Georg Hegel.

René Descartes (1596-1650)

References

The Philosophical Dictionary. Descartes: A New Approach.
Wikipedia. René Descartes.

Key Concepts

René Descartes is credited with providing the philosophical framework for the natural sciences. He developed a fundamental set of principles that one can know without any doubt. His "methodological skepticism" is used to doubt everything to the point at which it can no longer be doubted.

Descartes' principle: cognito ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am") epitomizes the logical culmination of methodological skepticism: The only thing we can know without any doubt is our own existence.

Notes

Decartes' methodological skepticism established the basic principle of all sciences that verification (except of self) is impossible. Thus, scientists gain confidence in a theory not by its verification, which is impossible, but through the failure of repeated attempts to falsify it. This methodological skepticism is reflected in all scientific methodology. Recall from your lessons in statistics that one does not accept the research hypothesis (e.g., Ha: The greater the formal education the greater the income) but instead fails to reject the null hypothesis (e.g., Ho: No relationship exists between formal education and income).

Based upon methodological skepticism, Decartes believed that the only method suitable to proof was deduction. One could not rely upon induction because one could not be certain that one truly was observing what they thought they observed or that what was being induced was true. As a point of reference, note that pure deduction is impossible also because one might begin with a law that is either flawed or incomplete.

David Hume (1711-1776)

References

The Philosophical Dictionary. Hume: Empiricist Naturalism.
Wikipedia. David Hume.

Key Concepts

David Hume believed that all human knowledge is gained through the senses. We develop two types of perceptions from what we experience through our senses: impressions and ideas. Impressions are our direct experiences: what we see, feel, love, hate, or desire. Ideas are our perceptions as we reflect upon our direct experiences. Hume's separation of impressions from ideas formed the basis of his "skepticism," meaning that we cannot believe that a certain thing exists (such as an idea) unless we can point to the impression (i.e., direct experience) from which that idea is derived.

See also: Empiricism, John Locke.

The problem of causation refers to the inability to conclusively state that one event causes another. If one observes, for example, that the greater the formal education the greater the income, one might infer that a causal relationship exists between these two variables. Not necessarily, argues the skeptic Hume, who states that we have observed no necessary connection between the two events. Thus, what justifies our belief in causation?

Notes

According to Hume, we know nothing except through experience. We cannot infer, for example, that the fire will burn our skin unless we have experienced such an event. Scientific theories, therefore, must be based upon direct experiences. It is the purpose of scientific theories, however, to raise the level of abstraction so as to predict similar events (e.g., that a hot iron also will burn our skin). The problem of induction is that we can never be certain that we have induced the correct abstract theory based upon our direct experiences. It might be that some other theory can be induced from our observations.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

References

The Philosophical Dictionary. Kant: Synthetic A Priori Judgments.
Wikipedia. Immanuel Kant.

Key Concepts

Kant asserted that human reasoning is devoted to asking the simple question, "How will I live my life in the future?" He noted one could never know for certain if there is a God and an afterlife. But, then again, one could not be certain that these entities did not exist! So, as a practical matter, one might as well behave as if they did exist. He noted that if one can neither prove nor disprove a thing, then one might reasonably ask if it is in one's interest to accept the thing as real as a matter of practicality. Hence, the question is not whether the thing exists, but whether it is practical to assume that it does. Metaphysics should focus upon what is experienced and how it is experienced rather than wondering what really exists.

Kant therefore distinguished between "phenomena, things as they appear to our senses, and noumena, things that are purely objects of thought independently of sense perception, which, by definition, we can never experience" (The Philosophy Dictionary). Thus, Kant offers a "critique of pure reason," or attempts to understand and know what can never be understood or known.

In his influential book, The Critique of Pure Reason, Kant attempts to reconcile rationalism (i.e., reliance upon reason as a method of knowing) and empiricism (i.e., reliance upon observations as a method of knowing). David Hume had argued effectively that cause and effect cannot be inferred from observations alone; one must use reason as well. At the same time, Kant thought that sound reasoning demanded grounding in empirical observations. Kant's transcendental idealism reconciles rationalism and empiricism by arguing that a reality exists that we might, by reason, know about. But we can never know the true nature of this reality because our knowledge of it is always filtered through our limited perceptions of it.

Notes

Kant bridged rationalism and empiricism by noting that the mind shapes the world as we observe it. In the same manner as Copernicus taught us to view the solar system from the point of view of the observer, Kant taught us to view reality through the lens of the observer. He did not reject rationalism, which was needed to order our observations. He did, however reject pure reason. He retained the central premise of the Enlightenment, which was a reliance upon empirical observation, but noted that all observations were colored by reason and necessarily organized by reason. Kant also taught scientists to act with a sense of pragmatism. We can never know "the truth." We can, however, act upon the world based upon our best guesses about causes and effects.

Georg Hegel (1770-1831)

References

The Philosophical Dictionary. Hegel and Absolute Idealism.
Wikipedia. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

Key Concepts

Perhaps the greatest of all the German idealists, Hegel, like Kant, thought that reality consisted of a fundamental unity that was rational in nature but unknowable in practice. But Hegel thought that if reality is rational then its ultimate structure can be revealed in the structure of our thought.

The fundamental structure of thought and logic, to Hegel, is dialectical in nature. That is, the human mind invariably moves from the thesis (i.e., current understanding of reality), to antithesis (i.e., an observed anomaly or aspect of reality that is not known), to synthesis (i.e., a different, and better, understanding of reality that is gained through reconciling the unknown with the known). From Hegel's viewpoint, each synthesis offers transcendence to a higher, improved level of knowledge about reality.

Consider, for example, the thesis Idea, whose natural antithesis is Nature (i.e., mind and body). The grand synthesis of the two is Spirit, the self-awareness of the "absolute" itself. The Spirit, then, which can be observed through consciousness of thought, and the Objective, which can be observed as empirical events, can be synthesized to gain an ever improved knowledge of reality.

Hegel viewed the world as determinedly historical. He believed that history itself was the movement to greater self-consciousness of the Absolute. Because history inevitably follows the pattern of the dialectic, the present age must be the highest stage of development, with room for improvement. The task of the philosopher, indeed of all persons, is to pursue even greater understanding of the Absolute through synthesis of current knowledge and observations that provide new knowledge of the Absolute.

Notes

Hegel's assertion that one could eventually know the Absolute and that human progress was determined by history was criticized during his time and since. His advocating of the dialectic as a means of reconciling reason and empiricism, however, has been highly influential in western philosophy. It is said, for example, that Karl Marx "turned Hegel on his head" in his use of the dialectic to better understand the material rather than spiritual conditions of human existence.