An Analysis Of Empiricists' Concept Of "Idea"

The research on “idea” is one of important fields in the history of western philosophy.From Plato's theory of eidos to Descartes' reinterpretation on “idea”,and to Locke's inheritance and criticism to it,the concept of “idea” was constantly evolving.One direction of modern philosophy began from J.Locke's,G.Berkeley's and D.Hume's theories of idea that changed traditional ontology into epistemology.The purpose of the epistemological turn in philosophy is to gain universal knowledge on the world,which unfolded from the “idea” of people's best known empiricism.Therefore,this paper attempts to provide a more explicit understanding on “the epistemological turn” in modern times by analyzing empiricists' concept of “idea” on the following aspects: Firstly,the origin,meaning,classification and association of ideas.Although ideas are not classified strictly in the main works of Locke,Berkeley,and Hume,they discussed those subjects profoundly.This part is the basis of their theory of knowledge.Secondly,the relationship between ideas and objects is explored.The understanding of idea between empiricists and rationalists is different.Empiricists criticize rationalist “innate ideas”,and think that all ideas have their empiricist origins.This chapter mainly discusses the different cognitions of Locke,Berkeley and Hume on the relationship between idea and object: whether ideas have objects or not,and if they have whether ideas are consistent with the objects or not.Thirdly,the relationships between ideas and words are discussed.An idea cannot be separated from its linguistic expression,so the relationship between them is very close.This part mainly analyzes the opinions of three philosophers on the relationships between ideas and words,and Involves topics like the relationship between abstract ideas and words,whether words can express ideas accurately or not.The main point of this paper is the comparison on similarities and differences among the concepts of "ideas" of the three philosophers.By analyzing Locke's,Berkeley's and Hume's concepts of "ideas," the similarities among the three can be seen: firstly,they discuss the origin of "ideas" at the very beginning in their works,and it can be said that concepts of "ideas" are the premise and foundation of their philosophical research."Ideas" are not only the source of knowledge,but also the basic components of knowledge.The "simple ideas" even becomes the ultimate components of knowledge,that is,something cannot be re-analyzed,in which there are the basic thoughts in later analytical philosophy.Secondly,from the concept)of “idea” of Locke,Berkeley and Hume,we can see that “idea” is actually our psychological phenomenon,psychological action,perceptual impression and the object of thinking.The psychologically interpretation of "ideas" by Empiricists is a rebellion against Plato's theory which deems that ideas is the most real thing,but It certainly incurs the accusation by people who think that the interpretation of ideas by empiricists is psychological and subjective.