Thursday, December 21, 2017

Method, Baconian Empiricism, Foundational Empiricism

Three features of Baconian Empiricism absent from the Foundational Empiricism of Locke, etc. are 1. the equation of Knowledge and Power; 2. the deliberate production of effects to be observed; and 3. the employment of instruments in observation, e. g. telescope and microscope.  In other words, his is an active Empiricism, while theirs is passive.  The distinction between the two accounts for that between the two editions of the Critique of Pure Reason, as the references to Bacon in the second signify.  In particular, Kant's update takes into account the experience that he calls Self-Affection, in which one observes what one is doing, e. g. drawing a line.  He thus seems to appreciate the innovations of Baconian Empiricism better than do the British 'Empiricists', as they are often characterized, though not to the extent that he would classify it as a Method, to be subjected to Transcendental analysis, i. e. his own Method.

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