John Locke
- Locke, Two Treatises of Government
-
[[MOC - Modern Philosophers#Hobbes vs Locke Comparison w/ Hobbes]]
Locke, Two Treatises of Government
Background Info
- 1632-1704
- Parents were Puritans
- father was in Parliamentary cavalry, which fought king during English Civil WarEnglish Civil War
English Civil War
Foundation
Reformation on the Continent
Luther & his 95 theses
assumptions/positions (that were subversive to English monarchy, per Hobbes)
Private men are judges of good & evil
It is a sin to do something against one's private conscience
Man's private conscience may be supernaturally inspired
The sovereign may be limited or divided
Reformation in England (Anglicanism)
... - educated @ Oxford
- Taught Greek & Hebrew
- Went to medical school, was a doctor
- Empirics
- Read DescartesDescartes
Rene Descartes
Background Info
1596-1650
educated at Univ of Paris
Catholic Christian
not an academic
wrote Descartes, Meditations of First Philosophy from a [[Rationalism
rationalistic]] perspective
claims he is making a whole new start in philosophy
D. arrived at a certain and evident knowledge of the truth. He wants to see if he can persuade others by the same method that he himself used.
... - Had a gov position
- Philosopher: epistemology, moral philosophy, and political philosophy
Epistemology
- Start w/ the mind. Blank slate (no existing model)
- Ideas are populated from the senses
- An idea is a copy of a temporary Sense PerceptionSense Perception
Sense Perception
You can be good at sensing w/o being able to explain how.
You can be skilled in using your senses & have them still make mistakes sometimes
- An idea is a copy of a temporary Sense PerceptionSense Perception
- Ideas resemble real existences
- Essence of the mind not thinking - sometimes we don't think
- All ideas from sensation or reflection
- Body & mind united, and there is a real external world that we sense (Corpuscular)
- Simple & complex ideas
- simple ideas are individual qualities (red, sweet, shape)
- complex ideas are combined simple ideas (apple)
- Memory & personal identity
- Identity (& personality?) is defined by remembrance of ideas
- without memory, no identity
- Locke (and Descartes) - Sound, taste, smell, color, heat, cold, which common man thinks are in objects, are in the mind as sensations
- everything is relative
- Reason is manipulating existing ideas
- Thinking = recalling & manipulating existing ideas
- SIDE NOTE: In crafting his idea of the State of Nature, Locke did not think it necessary to rely on the senses