ABSTRACT

First published in 1952, British Empirical Philosophers is a comprehensive picture of one of the most important movements in the history of philosophic thought.  In his introduction, Professor A. J. Ayer distinguishes the main problems of empiricism and gives a critical account of the ways in which the philosophers whose writings are included in this volume attempted to solve them. Editors Ayer and Raymond Winch bring together an authoritative abridgement of John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding; Bishop George Berkeley’s Principles of Human Knowledge; almost the entire first book of David Hume’s Treatise Concerning Human Nature; and extracts from Thomas Reid’s Essay on the Intellectual Powers of Man and John Stuart Mill’s Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy.

part |132 pages

John Locke

chapter |71 pages

Of Ideas

chapter |17 pages

Of Words

chapter |31 pages

Of Knowledge and Opinion

part |7 pages

David Hume

chapter |5 pages

A Treatise of Human Nature

part |26 pages

Thomas Reid

part |18 pages

John Stuart Mill