MODERN WESTERN PHILOSOPHY

Berkeley : Rejection of Distinction Between Primary and Secondary Qualities : According to Locke qualities are powers of substance,which produce ideas in our mind.Matter is the substratum of qualities.According to Locke there are two types of qualities – Primary and Secondary.Primary qualities are real and inseparable qualities of matter while secondary qualities are powers produced by our minds by primary qualities.These secondary qualities are merely sensations of our mind while qualities like figure , extension ,solidity e.t.c. exist in matter itself.Qualities like taste,touch,beauty and sound e.t.c. are secondary qualities.So,our knowledge is limited to our ideas only.Soul acts on them.Arranges,separates,divides,unites and relates.On this basis of our knowledge of qualities we assume external existence of matter as substance.The real point of objection for Berkeley is this matter as substance. Berkeley says that the real cause of atheism,irreligion,skepticism is this conce...

Immanuel Kant : The Critical Philosophy : Expressing his views about both rationalism and empiricism Kant says that, ‘they are justified in what they affirm,but wrong in what they deny.’According to rationalism knowledge cannot become certain and definite without innate ideas while according to empiricism it cannot be real without percepts.About rationalists Kant says that ‘they are the architect of many a world of thought without any guaranteed correspondence with reality.’According to empiricists we cannot have certain and definite knowledge through percepts while according to rationalists   definite and certain knowledge is possible only by reason and innate ideas.Kant says that both are true in there assertions but wrong in there denial.Kant rightly says : ‘It was thus easy to see that each of the contending parties had been guilty of one sidedness and in order to escape this a certain means must be assumed between the extremes,but it was a much more difficult matter to ...

Husserl : The Husserlian Method : Husserl wanted to laydown the foundation of such type of philosophy which can become the basis of the scientific knowledge.So,he said,we should search for the absolute evidences before being involved in philosophical thinking.He says that, ‘…we must not make assertions about that which we ourselves do not see.’ It must not be based on any pre-assumption.He wanted the total reform of philosophy.He said that we should renounce all previous knowledge before searching for absolute foundation of knowledge.We should not even assume that it is possible to achieve the goal.By following scientific attitude we should accept any truth on the basis of absolute evidences.In search of this absolute evidence we devide from our objective world of science and enter in the realm of pre-scientific world of our own experiences and thinking. It may be argued that our knowledge of the objective world is also directly perceived and prior to all things.Our knowle...