Locke, Berkeley, & Empiricism: Crash Course Philosophy #6

This week we answer skeptics like Descartes with empiricism. Hank explains John Locke’s primary and secondary qualities and why George Berkeley doesn’t think that distinction works -- leaving us with literally nothing but our minds, ideas, and perceptions.

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[Mrforever]

I love how somebody makes a great conclusion than somebody comes along and just breaks their whole theory down with two questions

[turtle]

Is binge-watching crash course considered as procrastination or studying?

[memesarehealthy]

I just watched 6 of these episodes in a row and I feel like I know everything in the universe

[JeremyWS]

I love how you're teaching us how to think and not what to think.

[blackkittyfreak]

Hank Green can make anything interesting. If he made a video where he explained paint drying, I would watch it.

[Theodoxx]

Eating a Apple during this episode, was a deeper experience than I thought it would be.

[abbybasile]

As a philosophy major, I am SO GLAD you guys have decided to do a crash course with philosophy. I am studying this stuff but it helps a lot with these videos. So glad we have Hank doing it too! Thank you!

[hannahcarlson]

Thanks for the addiction to philosophy

[joshua_sykes]

"If you stop perceiving me, I stop existing" -Hank Green
Sounds like a good break-up song! 🎵🎶

[shimblywimbles]

Berkeley's argument actually reminds me of when I first started writing Java. I was following tutorials, and created a bicycle. It contained variables like cadence, weight, arguably innate qualities, but all I could do was output these qualities onto a screen. I couldn't *see* the bike, so how on Earth could it exist?

[Ravia]

And here I was, thinking no one could give me a bigger existential crisis than Descartes. Good job Mr. Berkeley

[Nihilnovus]

what I love about this crash course is that it's helping us to explain stuff that is mostly common knowledge and at the same time making you ruminate more on the topics at hand

[Metasepia_]

I'm now going to call the sound made by eating an apple "apple sound."

[shanetennyson]

No apples were harmed during the making of the show

[impersonalbrand]

I really, really want a René what's good? shirt.

[MFMegaZeroX]

We aren't born as a blank slate. One of the core ideas of an evolutionary psychology class I had taken was to reject Locke's Tabula Rosa. We have biological underpinnings that determine how we act.

[ObjectiveZoomer]

The fact that there are primary and secondary characteristics and that we disagree about the secondary characteristics doesn't mean that there are no objects in reality, what it means is that there is something real and physical and objective that is responsible for the secondary characteristics that we disagree about how to interpret. There is a pigment that is making the apple red. Some people are more sensitive to certain colors than others because they have more of a certain cone or less, but there is a real pigment that is causing us to perceive the apple as being red. There is real sugar in the Apple our tongues perceived as being sweet or rather our minds perceive as being sweet based on incoming data from the tongue. Some people are more sensitive to sugar some people are less sensitive to sugar, and I imagine some people might not be able to taste sugar at all hypothetically, but sugar is a real thing sugar is what makes something sweet. There are real causes for these secondary phenomenon.

[burbchick]

reading is just looking at a dead tree and hallucinating

[mattt]

These are so well done. I really love the little animated pieces, and of course Hank too. Thank you all!

[philliparnesen]

I am an atheist. And that is one of the MOST convincing arguments for god I have ever heard. I am not being sarcastic. From a rationalists perspective that is airtight or damn near at least. I am shocked and impressed. It's logical, and solid, but it's just too small an argument for the existence of god. But I am going to have to think about this a lot.