The lecture commenced with a recap on what we have covered so far. We have looked at the Renaissance when people looked back to the Greek philosophers; this is when Aristotle dominated intellectual thought. People then moved not the influence of Machiavelli (also known as the Dark Prince) why believed that it all very well to want to do good, but that if you wanted to be a great ruler you had to be cruel and harsh to order your followers into obedience. Hobbes than spoke of the state of nature, what the world was like before Government. He spoke of a post apocalyptic world. He said that the world would be vile and dangerous without a King. And that people would elect a ruler (which is what happened in the bible 1 Kings?). The elected King would then do whatever he wanted anyway which was the beginning of the social contract. Hobbes said that once the people signed the social contract the King would still be dominant in his rule but that this was still better than the stage of nature, where there would be continuous war. Descartes was the first ‘modern’ philosopher. He asked if there were things that he believed to be true that were in fact not true. He wanted to change the intellectual society if his time, he wanted to base things on a rock beyond doubt. His ideas used the phrase ‘it is possible’ to support his argument in doubting things. Brain used the example of knowing one’s age; perhaps your mom lied about your age, would she do this no but is it possible yes? One could argue ‘but I know my age because I have seen my birth certificate’. False birth certificates exist, so is yours false? Probably not, but is possible that it could be false? Yes there is that possibility. We do not know for certain. Descartes came to the conclusion that if he stopped thinking he would stop existing, that if we strip everything away all that we have is what’s left in our minds. This is how he came up with the stamen ‘’I think therefore I am’. Descartes asked about reality and what we perceive to be real. With regards to the subject of God, if God is seen as superior and we are seen to be inferior, how is it possible for something inferior (for example an ant) to understand a superior being (for example a human). How can we grasp the idea of something that is 100% perfect? The only way that we could have this idea is if God implanted the idea originally. There are two important things to remember about Descartes: firstly he doubted everything which would have made him a difficult person to live with, but this approach to life is exactly what is required for good journalism. Secondly He believed in innate ideas that things were there before he was able to experience them, the idea before the entity or substance.
John Locke lived from 1682-1704. He was someone who valued experience over innate ideas. He was very influential in political events. He was a product of his time, he was in the right place at the right time to write about the events experienced by himself. He moved the social contract from Hobbes. He lived though a time when war was raging. Catholic kings believed in the divine right of kings, that they could no wrong because God had ordained them. There was a civil war in England from 1641-1651, and after that Cromwell rules as a dictator. In the year 1660 Charles the second, a protestant King, was restored to the thrown. He had no one but James the second as an heir to the thrown, the problem was that James was a devout Catholic and this concerned the people. In the years 1678-1681 John Locke was much involved with the Exclusion Bill Crisis, to try and prevent James the second fro taking the thrown. James did however rule from 1685 until 1688 when William of Orange ruled after the Glorious Revolution. Locke’s father fought in the parliamentary army against the royalists. Locke fled o Holland in 1683, he was seen as a dangerous man. Why was Locke so important? There were two big ideas at the time. The first being that he did not agree with the divine right of kings which stated that kings descended from Adam and had a direct contract with God and are therefore the most virtuous to rule the country. Others (like Hobbes) believed that the power should be decided by the people although they did need a ruler. Note that Hobbes write the book entitled ‘Leviathan’ where he questions how society can be organised in the best possible way. The second of Locke’s big ideas is to do with the social contract, this is the idea contrary to the catholic idea of divine rights of kings. It is based on Genesis: ‘’let them rule over the fish of the sea’’. Locke managed to oppose both James the second and Hobbes.
Locke was more optimistic about humanity than Hobbes, and his state of nature was also very different to that of Hobbes. Hobbes thought that everyone acted out of self interest whereas Locke believes that we were created by an all powerful all good God and that and that we were created with the capacity to understand things so that we could reason what is right or wrong. Locke was a great believer in property, a man’s right to property and natural laws regarding the protection of ones property even to the extent of killing someone in self defence. Moral laws are not in our brains but our brains are capable of discovering them. Brian shares how it is important to study Lock’es historical background because it is what shaped him. His idea was to have a government by consent, but every individual responding to their own internal moral rules and values. If two people argue against each other, both believing according to their moral laws that they are correct, the government is the thing that determines who wins the argument; this is when the government is needed. People however must keep their rights. Locke was interested in a society that was fair. Locke said that taxes shouldn't’t be levied without consent. He did not believe in the woman's vote and did have a theory of slavery so although an enlightened man he did have his faults. Locke felt that if the King had broken the natural law the people then had a right to revolution, this was in turn, their natural right. These ideas were a manual for the American Revolution and used in the American Constitution. We have the right to human understanding, Locke says we can be born blank but with the capability to understand things.
Innate Ideas
Plato’s forms, where the soul becomes aware of the Forms and so had knowledge before birth is an example of an innate idea. Similarly Descartes had a belief in the immortal soul with the innate ideas imprinted into it by God. Locke however, thought that experience through the sense combined with reason is what produces ideas. When matters of faith go beyond reason and experience individuals should be guided by individual reason and experience. Locke believed that individuals should ave individual revelations from God but that people are not to impose them on others. People should keep their revelations to themselves, and they should check them with reason. God created reason, if something goes against reason then it also goes against God. Locke said that religion should be separate from the government.
Newton
Newton was an unloved man, he never married, and his work was very solitary. When he was at University the plague broke out so he had to spend two years away. He spent these two years in a house alone, working. In these two single years he discovered what people have later said where the most influential things in history. He discovered the law of gravity, the three laws of motion,.m he created the infinitesimal calculus and began experimenting with light and modern optics. Newton hid these ideas for a long time. Eventually he showed his professor who actually gave up his chair for his student, the genius. Newton was eventually persuaded top wrote the book ‘Principia’. He explained how the earth is not the centre, but that it goes around the sun. That the earth is actually small and insignificant as compared to the whole universe. This fact originated as an idea by Copernicus, developed and explained by Kepler but only proved by Newton. Newton said that man can actually understand the Universe, it is no longer something that only God can understand. Newton believed that the universe demonstrated Gods;s freedom and Omnipotence . To the Cartesian people it sounded like Newton was speaking of ‘magic; and that he did not give enough fact, he never explained why. He would say that it was none of his business . Newton himself was actually religious and obsessed with the book of Revelations. Newton saw his discoveries as the rules God put down . Newton was able to explain and demonstrate how these amazing rules worked. Newton said that if science does not know something it should say so and be honest. Why should we tell God how the universe should be? If God is perfect then we can discover the world but it is not our place to question it.
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