The Empiricists / Edition 1

by R. S. Woolhouse

Overview

"One of the great historic controversies in philosophy," according to Bertrand Russell, is that between empiricists—"best represented by the British philosophers, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume"—and rationalists. This book sets the empiricists in their contemporary and cultural context, examines their various approaches to philosophy, and highlights the significance of their ideas to 20th-century thinking. By focusing on what the "empiricists" actually have to say, rather than on their classification as such, Woolhouse incidentally shows how unreliable these conventional labels can be.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780192891884
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	02/28/1988
Series:	A History of Western Philosophy Series , #5
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	7.69(w) x 5.13(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	1320L (what's this?)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Francis Bacon
3. Thomas Hobbes
4. Pierre Gassendi
5. The Royal Society of London for the Improving of Natural Knowledge
6. John Locke
7. George Berkeley
8. David Hume
Conferences; Further Reading; Index

Editorial Reviews

"Among the strengths of the book is Woolhouse's treatment of empiricism as both a theory and a methodology. He accurately notes, for example, that Bacon was primarily motivated by empiricism as a method of inquiry while others, like Locke, provided more theoretical accounts of the view called "empiricism"....In addition, the book is easy to read, and athough of necessity it contains a great deal of philosophical jargon, that jargon is almost always explained in such a way as to make it comprehensible to an educated reader....Ideal for a graduate student who is preparing for general exams in the history of philosophy, or for an instructor who, after a long time of not teaching such material, is looking for a good source covering the major issues that might be treated in an undergraduate course whose focus is on empiricism." Teaching Philosophy

From the Publisher