page_title: Personality
section_title: Empiricists and rationalists
hierarchical_section_title: Personality / Temperament and philosophy / Empiricists and rationalists
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Collectie / Archief&#160;: Fotocollectie Anefo / Londen Reportage / Serie&#160;: P [Portraits/Persons] / Anefo Londen serie Beschrijving&#160;: Benedictus (Baruch) Spinoza (anoniem schilderij, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag) Annotatie&#160;: Repronegatief Datum&#160;: 1940-1945 Trefwoorden&#160;: filosofen, portretten, schilderijen, wijsgeren Persoonsnaam&#160;: Spinoza, Baruch de Fotograaf&#160;: Onbekend / Publiek Domein Auteursrechthebbende&#160;: Nationaal Archief Materiaalsoort&#160;: Negatief (zwart/wit) Nummer archiefinventaris&#160;: bekijk toegang 2.24.01.04 Bestanddeelnummer&#160;: 935-0843
context_page_description: Personality is defined as the characteristic sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that evolve from biological and environmental factors. While there is no generally agreed upon definition of personality, most theories focus on motivation and psychological interactions with one's environment. Trait-based personality theories, such as those defined by Raymond Cattell, define personality as the traits that predict a person's behavior. On the other hand, more behaviorally-based approaches define personality through learning and habits. Nevertheless, most theories view personality as relatively stable.
  The study of the psychology of personality, called personality psychology, attempts to explain the tendencies that underlie differences in behavior. Many approaches have been taken on to study personality, including biological, cognitive, learning and trait-based theories, as well as psychodynamic, and humanistic approaches. Personality psychology is divided among the first theorists, with a few influential theories being posited by Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Gordon Allport, Hans Eysenck, Abraham Maslow, and Carl Rogers.
context_section_description: According to James, the temperament of rationalist philosophers differed fundamentally from the temperament of empiricist philosophers of his day. The tendency of rationalist philosophers toward refinement and superficiality never satisfied an empiricist temper of mind. Rationalism leads to the creation of closed systems, and such optimism is considered shallow by the fact-loving mind, for whom perfection is far off. Rationalism is regarded as pretension, and a temperament most inclined to abstraction. The temperament of rationalists, according to James, led to sticking with logic.
  Empiricists, on the other hand, stick with the external senses rather than logic. British empiricist John Locke's  (1632–1704) explanation of personal identity provides an example of what James referred to. Locke explains the identity of a person, i.e. personality, on the basis of a precise definition of identity, by which the meaning of identity differs according to what it is being applied to. The identity of a person, is quite distinct from the identity of a man, woman, or substance according to Locke. Locke concludes that consciousness is personality because it "always accompanies thinking, it is that which makes every one to be what he calls self," and remains constant in different places at different times. Thus his explanation of personal identity is in terms of experience as James indeed maintained is the case for most empiricists.
  Rationalists conceived of the identity of persons differently than empiricists such as Locke who distinguished identity of substance, person, and life. According to Locke, Rene Descartes  (1596–1650) agreed only insofar as he did not argue that one immaterial spirit is the basis of the person "for fear of making brutes thinking things too." According to James, Locke tolerated arguments that a soul was behind the consciousness of any person. However, Locke's successor David Hume  (1711–1776), and empirical psychologists after him denied the soul except for being a term to describe the cohesion of inner lives. However, some research suggests Hume excluded personal identity from his opus An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding because he thought his argument was sufficient but not compelling. Descartes himself distinguished active and passive faculties of mind, each contributing to thinking and consciousness in different ways. The passive faculty, Descartes argued, simply receives, whereas the active faculty produces and forms ideas, but does not presuppose thought, and thus cannot be within the thinking thing. The active faculty mustn't be within self because ideas are produced without any awareness of them, and are sometimes produced against one's will.
  Rationalist philosopher Benedictus Spinoza (1632–1677) argued that ideas are the first element constituting the human mind, but existed only for actually existing things. In other words, ideas of non-existent things are without meaning for Spinoza, because an idea of a non-existent thing cannot exist. Further, Spinoza's rationalism argued that the mind does not know itself, except insofar as it perceives the "ideas of the modifications of body," in describing its external perceptions, or perceptions from without. On the contrary, from within, Spinoza argued, perceptions connect various ideas clearly and distinctly. The mind is not the free cause of its actions for Spinoza. Spinoza equates the will with the understanding, and explains the common distinction of these things as being two different things as error which results from the individual's misunderstanding of the nature of thinking.
caption: Benedictus Spinoza (1632–1677)
exif: {}