The Empiricists want to argue that all our ideas come from experience. So, how do we understand the world? Locke thought that our experiences provided us with what he termed simple and complex ideas. Simple ideas might include the redness of a rose, the smell of coffee, the taste of sugar or the sensation of heat. We thereafter use these ideas as the basis for reflection, combining and comparing them to form complex ideas in order to understand the world.

An example of this can be seen in the way we might get a better understanding of heat. I might burn my hand on a flame, but also on an extremely cold piece of ice. Reflecting on this and other examples I may come to the conclusion that it is not heat which is solely responsible for burns, but difference in temperature (in this case, the difference between my hand and the hot and cold things). Thus, the simple sensations and experiences form the basis for more abstract ideas such as this.

Exercise

Pick 3 objects in the room you are in and list five simple ideas about them. Once you have done this, see what complex ideas each of the simple ones might help you form.