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12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 2. Associationism

[knowledge built by ideas forming links in the mind]

18 ideas
Once we have experienced two feelings together, one will always give rise to the other [Spinoza]
Some ideas connect together naturally, while others connect by chance or custom [Locke]
Knowledge is just the connection or disagreement of our ideas [Locke]
The constant link between whiteness and things that produce it is the basis of our knowledge [Locke]
All ideas are connected by Resemblance, Contiguity in time or place, and Cause and Effect [Hume]
Associationism results from having to explain intentionality just with sense-data [Robinson,H on Hume]
Associations and causes cannot explain content, which needs norms of judgement [Kant, by Pinkard]
I exist just as an intelligence aware of its faculty for combination [Kant]
Association of ideas is the best philosophical idea of the prescientific age [Peirce]
We talk of 'association by resemblance' but that is wrong: the association constitutes the resemblance [Peirce]
Humean impressions are too instantaneous and simple to have structure or relations [Harré/Madden]
Gestalt psychology proposes inbuilt proximity, similarity, smoothness and closure principles [Goldman]
Associationism can't explain how truth is preserved [Fodor]
According to empiricists abstraction is the fundamental mental process [Fodor]
Associations are held to connect Ideas together in the way the world is connected together [Fodor]
Connectionists say the mind is a general purpose learning device [Pinker]
Rats find some obvious associations easier to learn than less obvious ones [Ladyman/Ross]
Modern empiricism tends to emphasise psychological connections, not semantic relations [Margolis/Laurence]