In the philosophy of mind , innatism is the view that the mind is born with already-formed ideas, knowledge, and beliefs. The opposing doctrine, that the mind is a tabula rasa (blank slate) at birth and all knowledge is gained from experience and the senses , is called empiricism .
160-489: Innatism and nativism are generally synonymous terms referring to the notion of preexisting ideas in the mind. However, more specifically, innatism refers to the philosophy of Descartes , who assumed that God or a similar being or process placed innate ideas and principles in the human mind. The innatist principles in this regard may overlap with similar concepts such as natural order and state of nature , in philosophy. Nativism represents an adaptation of this, grounded in
320-920: A Torricellian mercury barometer. Challenging Blaise Pascal , Descartes took the first set of barometric readings in Stockholm to see if atmospheric pressure could be used in forecasting the weather. Descartes arranged to give lessons to Queen Christina after her birthday, three times a week at 5 am, in her cold and draughty castle. However, by 15 January 1650 the Queen had actually met with Descartes only four or five times. It soon became clear they did not like each other; she did not care for his mechanical philosophy , nor did he share her interest in Ancient Greek language and literature . On 1 February 1650, he contracted pneumonia and died on 11 February at Chanut. "Yesterday morning about four o'clock a.m. has deceased here at
480-494: A democratic constitution with unlimited religious freedom. His tract, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience (1644), which was widely read in the mother country, was a passionate plea for absolute religious freedom and the total separation of church and state . Freedom of conscience had had high priority on the theological, philosophical, and political agenda, as Martin Luther refused to recant his beliefs before
640-545: A liver infection. Ashley was impressed with Locke and persuaded him to become part of his retinue. At Oxford, he was exposed to the writings of Islamic scholars, like Ibn Tufayl 's Hayy ibn Yaqdhan translated by Edward Pococke , who influenced his perspectives on philosophy and tabula rasa . Locke had been looking for a career and in 1667, moved into Ashley's home at Exeter House in London, to serve as his personal physician. In London, Locke resumed his medical studies under
800-408: A pledge to lay claim to goods . He believes that silver and gold, as opposed to paper money , are the appropriate currency for international transactions. Silver and gold, he says, are treated to have equal value by all of humanity and can thus be treated as a pledge by anyone, while the value of paper money is only valid under the government which issues it. Locke argues that a country should seek
960-584: A quasi-feudal aristocracy and gave Carolinian planters absolute power over their enslaved chattel property; the constitutions pledged that "every freeman of Carolina shall have absolute power and authority over his negro slaves". Philosopher Martin Cohen notes that Locke, as secretary to the Council of Trade and Plantations and a member of the Board of Trade , was "one of just half a dozen men who created and supervised both
1120-410: A universal innate grammar , which is determinate and has a highly organized directive component, and enables the language learner to ascertain and categorize language heard into a system. Chomsky states that the ability to learn how to properly construct sentences or know which sentences are grammatically incorrect is an ability gained from innate knowledge. Noam Chomsky cites as evidence for this theory,
1280-518: A Catholic missionary who opposed his religious views. As evidence, Ebert suggests that Catherine Descartes , the niece of René Descartes, made a veiled reference to the act of poisoning when her uncle was administered "communion" two days before his death, in her Report on the Death of M. Descartes, the Philosopher (1693). As a Catholic in a Protestant nation, he was interred in the churchyard of what
1440-503: A central intellectual of the Dutch Golden Age . Although he served a Protestant state and was later counted as a deist by critics, Descartes was Roman Catholic . Many elements of Descartes's philosophy have precedents in late Aristotelianism , the revived Stoicism of the 16th century, or in earlier philosophers like Augustine . In his natural philosophy , he differed from the schools on two major points. First, he rejected
1600-412: A certain disease might be 'innate' to signify that a person might be at risk of contracting such a disease. He suggests that something that is 'innate' is effectively present from birth and while it may not reveal itself then, is more than likely to present itself later in life. Descartes’ comparison of innate knowledge to an innate disease, whose symptoms may show up only later in life, unless prohibited by
1760-466: A civil way with help from government in a state of society. However, Locke never refers to Hobbes by name and may instead have been responding to other writers of the day. Locke also advocated governmental separation of powers and believed that revolution is not only a right but an obligation in some circumstances. These ideas would come to have profound influence on the Declaration of Independence and
SECTION 10
#17328557534581920-416: A classic reasoning for religious tolerance , in which three arguments are central: With regard to his position on religious tolerance, Locke was influenced by Baptist theologians like John Smyth and Thomas Helwys , who had published tracts demanding freedom of conscience in the early 17th century. Baptist theologian Roger Williams founded the colony of Rhode Island in 1636, where he combined
2080-414: A comfortable income for the rest of his life. Descartes was present at the siege of La Rochelle by Cardinal Richelieu in 1627 as an observer. There, he was interested in the physical properties of the great dike that Richelieu was building and studied mathematically everything he saw during the siege. He also met French mathematician Girard Desargues . In the autumn of that year, in the residence of
2240-479: A conception of foundationalism and the possibility that reason is the only reliable method of attaining knowledge. Descartes, however, was very much aware that experimentation was necessary to verify and validate theories. Descartes invokes his causal adequacy principle to support his trademark argument for the existence of God, quoting Lucretius in defence: "Ex nihilo nihil fit" , meaning " Nothing comes from nothing " ( Lucretius ). Oxford Reference summarises
2400-402: A factor like age or puberty, suggests that if an event occurs prohibiting someone from exhibiting an innate behaviour or knowledge, it doesn't mean the knowledge did not exist at all but rather it wasn't expressed – they were not able to acquire that knowledge. In other words, innate beliefs, ideas and knowledge require experiences to be triggered or they may never be expressed. Experiences are not
2560-523: A falling-out with Beeckman, whom he accused of plagiarizing some of his ideas. In Amsterdam, he had a relationship with a servant girl, Helena Jans van der Strom, with whom he had a daughter, Francine , who was born in 1635 in Deventer . She was baptized a Protestant and died of scarlet fever at the age of 5. Unlike many moralists of the time, Descartes did not deprecate the passions but rather defended them; he wept upon Francine's death in 1640. According to
2720-416: A favourable balance of trade , lest it fall behind other countries and suffer a loss in its trade. Since the world money stock grows constantly, a country must constantly seek to enlarge its own stock. Locke develops his theory of foreign exchanges, by which in addition to commodity movements, there are also movements in country stock of money, and movements of capital determine exchange rates . He considers
2880-733: A few days after giving birth to a still-born child. Descartes's father, Joachim, was a member of the Parlement of Rennes at Rennes . René lived with his grandmother and with his great-uncle. Although the Descartes family was Roman Catholic, the Poitou region was controlled by the Protestant Huguenots . In 1607, late because of his fragile health, he entered the Jesuit Collège Royal Henry-Le-Grand at La Flèche , where he
3040-614: A few years. Brewer likewise argues that Locke actively worked to undermine slavery in Virginia while heading a Board of Trade created by William of Orange following the Glorious Revolution . He specifically attacked colonial policy granting land to slave owners and encouraged the baptism and Christian education of the children of enslaved Africans to undercut a major justification of slavery—that they were heathens who possessed no rights. In his Two Treatises of Government , Locke provided
3200-508: A firm foundation for genuine knowledge. Descartes built his ideas from scratch which he does in The Meditations on First Philosophy . He relates this to architecture: the top soil is taken away to create a new building or structure. Descartes calls his doubt the soil and new knowledge the buildings. To Descartes, Aristotle's foundationalism is incomplete and his method of doubt enhances foundationalism. Initially, Descartes arrives at only
3360-510: A grandly metaphysical work such as Spinoza's Ethics , in other ways he was deeply receptive to Spinoza's ideas, most particularly to the rationalist's well thought out argument for political and religious tolerance and the necessity of the separation of church and state." Among the friends he made in the Netherlands are Van Leeuwenhoek and Van Limborch, the leader of the Remonstrants . In
SECTION 20
#17328557534583520-519: A justification for slavery that could never be met, thus rendering invalid all forms of slavery that existed. Moreover, because slavery is invalid, there is a moral injunction to try to throw off and escape from it. Locke also supported child labour , which was an intrinsic part of all pre-industrial societies. In his "Essay on the Poor Law", he discusses the education of the poor; he laments that "the children of labouring people are an ordinary burden to
3680-683: A kind of synthesis of the Discourse on the Method and Meditations on First Philosophy . In 1643, Cartesian philosophy was condemned at the University of Utrecht , and Descartes was obliged to flee to the Hague, settling in Egmond-Binnen . Between 1643 and 1649 Descartes lived with his girlfriend at Egmond-Binnen in an inn. Descartes became friendly with Anthony Studler van Zurck, lord of Bergen and participated in
3840-675: A lengthy period of poor health, Locke died on 28 October 1704, and is buried in the churchyard of All Saints' Church in High Laver , near Harlow in Essex, where he had lived in the household of Sir Francis Masham since 1691. Locke never married nor had children. Events that happened during Locke's lifetime include the English Restoration , the Great Plague of London , the Great Fire of London ,
4000-603: A letter he wrote titled Some Considerations on the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and the Raising of the Value of Money . Moreover, Locke anchors property in labour but, in the end, upholds unlimited accumulation of wealth. Locke's general theory of value and price is a supply-and-demand theory, set out in a letter to a member of parliament in 1691, titled Some Considerations on
4160-495: A logical syllogism or as an intuitive thought. Descartes has often been called the father of modern philosophy, and is largely seen as responsible for the increased attention given to epistemology in the 17th century. He laid the foundation for 17th-century continental rationalism , later advocated by Spinoza and Leibniz , and was later opposed by the empiricist school of thought consisting of Hobbes , Locke , Berkeley , and Hume . The rise of early modern rationalism—as
4320-495: A natural right to defend his "life, health, liberty, or possessions". Most scholars trace the phrase " Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness " in the American Declaration of Independence to Locke's theory of rights, although other origins have been suggested. Like Hobbes, Locke assumed that the sole right to defend in the state of nature was not enough, so people established a civil society to resolve conflicts in
4480-583: A new scientific academy and tutor her in his ideas about love. Descartes accepted, and moved to the Swedish Empire in the middle of winter. Christina was interested in and stimulated Descartes to publish The Passions of the Soul . He was a guest at the house of Pierre Chanut , living on Västerlånggatan , less than 500 meters from Castle Tre Kronor in Stockholm . There, Chanut and Descartes made observations with
4640-443: A person of which the person is immediately conscious . He gave reasons for thinking that waking thoughts are distinguishable from dreams , and that one's mind cannot have been "hijacked" by an evil demon placing an illusory external world before one's senses. And so something that I thought I was seeing with my eyes is grasped solely by the faculty of judgment which is in my mind. In this manner, Descartes proceeds to construct
4800-455: A person — metaphorically — mixes their labour with nature , resources can be removed from the common state of nature . Locke was born on 29 August 1632, in a small thatched cottage by the church in Wrington , Somerset, about 12 miles from Bristol . He was baptised the same day, as both of his parents were Puritans . Locke's father, also named John, was an attorney who served as clerk to
4960-411: A piece of wax and exposes the single most characteristic doctrine of Cartesian dualism: that the universe contained two radically different kinds of substances—the mind or soul defined as thinking , and the body defined as matter and unthinking. The Aristotelian philosophy of Descartes's day held that the universe was inherently purposeful or teleological. Everything that happened, be it the motion of
Innatism - Misplaced Pages Continue
5120-581: A professional military officer in 1618, Descartes joined, as a mercenary , the Protestant Dutch States Army in Breda under the command of Maurice of Nassau , and undertook a formal study of military engineering , as established by Simon Stevin . Descartes, therefore, received much encouragement in Breda to advance his knowledge of mathematics. In this way, he became acquainted with Isaac Beeckman ,
5280-445: A profound influence on political philosophy , in particular on modern liberalism. Michael Zuckert has argued that Locke launched liberalism by tempering Hobbesian absolutism and clearly separating the realms of Church and State . He had a strong influence on Voltaire , who called him " le sage Locke". His arguments concerning liberty and the social contract later influenced the written works of Thomas Jefferson . One passage from
5440-421: A profound influence on the theory and practice of limited representative government and the protection of basic rights and freedoms under the rule of law. Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self , figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume , and Immanuel Kant . He postulated that, at birth,
5600-418: A recent biography by Jason Porterfield, "Descartes said that he did not believe that one must refrain from tears to prove oneself a man." Russell Shorto speculates that the experience of fatherhood and losing a child formed a turning point in Descartes's work, changing its focus from medicine to a quest for universal answers. Despite frequent moves, he wrote all of his major work during his 20-plus years in
5760-461: A room with an "oven" (probably a cocklestove ) to escape the cold. While within, he had three dreams, and believed that a divine spirit revealed to him a new philosophy. However, it is speculated that what Descartes considered to be his second dream was actually an episode of exploding head syndrome . Upon exiting, he had formulated analytic geometry and the idea of applying the mathematical method to philosophy. He concluded from these visions that
5920-957: A single first principle: he thinks. This is expressed in the Latin phrase in the Discourse on Method " Cogito, ergo sum " (English: "I think, therefore I am"). Descartes concluded, if he doubted, then something or someone must be doing the doubting; therefore, the very fact that he doubted proved his existence. "The simple meaning of the phrase is that if one is skeptical of existence, that is in and of itself proof that he does exist." These two first principles—I think and I exist—were later confirmed by Descartes's clear and distinct perception (delineated in his Third Meditation from The Meditations ): as he clearly and distinctly perceives these two principles, Descartes reasoned, ensures their indubitability. Descartes concludes that he can be certain that he exists because he thinks. But in what form? He perceives his body through
6080-411: A situation where his mentor Socrates questioned a slave boy about geometry. Though the slave boy had no previous experience with geometry, he was able to answer correctly. Plato reasoned that this was possible because Socrates' questions sparked the innate knowledge of math the boy had from birth. Descartes conveys the idea that innate knowledge or ideas is something inborn such as one would say, that
6240-479: A soul could not feel pain or anxiety. If animals showed signs of distress then this was to protect the body from damage, but the innate state needed for them to suffer was absent. Although Descartes's views were not universally accepted, they became prominent in Europe and North America, allowing humans to treat animals with impunity. The view that animals were quite separate from humanity and merely machines allowed for
6400-449: A special case of this general theory. His idea is based on "money answers all things" ( Ecclesiastes ) or "rent of money is always sufficient, or more than enough" and "varies very little". Locke concludes that, as far as money is concerned, the demand for it is exclusively regulated by its quantity, regardless of whether the demand is unlimited or constant. He also investigates the determinants of demand and supply. For supply , he explains
6560-406: A substance apart from the mode which we say differs from it, whereas we cannot, conversely, understand the mode apart from the substance". To perceive a mode apart from its substance requires an intellectual abstraction, which Descartes explained as follows: The intellectual abstraction consists in my turning my thought away from one part of the contents of this richer idea the better to apply it to
Innatism - Misplaced Pages Continue
6720-457: A system of knowledge, discarding perception as unreliable and, instead, admitting only deduction as a method. Descartes, influenced by the automatons on display at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Paris, investigated the connection between mind and body, and how they interact. His main influences for dualism were theology and physics . The theory on the dualism of mind and body
6880-551: A systematic school of philosophy in its own right for the first time in history—exerted an influence on modern Western thought in general, with the birth of two rationalistic philosophical systems of Descartes ( Cartesianism ) and Spinoza ( Spinozism ). It was the 17th-century arch-rationalists like Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz who have given the " Age of Reason " its name and place in history. Leibniz, Spinoza, and Descartes were all well-versed in mathematics as well as philosophy, with Descartes and Leibniz additionally contributing to
7040-446: A theory on automatic bodily reactions to external events, which influenced 19th-century reflex theory. He argued that external motions, such as touch and sound, reach the endings of the nerves and affect the animal spirits. For example, heat from fire affects a spot on the skin and sets in motion a chain of reactions, with the animal spirits reaching the brain through the central nervous system, and in turn, animal spirits are sent back to
7200-479: A thinking substance stem from ideas. John Locke John Locke ( / l ɒ k / ; 29 August 1632 ( O.S. ) – 28 October 1704 ( O.S. )) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism ". Considered one of the first of the British empiricists , following the tradition of Francis Bacon , Locke
7360-510: A tutor and medical attendant to Caleb Banks . He returned to England in 1679 when Shaftesbury's political fortunes took a brief positive turn. Around this time, most likely at Shaftesbury's prompting, Locke composed the bulk of the Two Treatises of Government . While it was once thought that Locke wrote the Treatises to defend the Glorious Revolution of 1688, recent scholarship has shown that
7520-442: A union of mind and body; thus Descartes's dualism embraced the idea that mind and body are distinct but closely joined. While many contemporary readers of Descartes found the distinction between mind and body difficult to grasp, he thought it was entirely straightforward. Descartes employed the concept of modes , which are the ways in which substances exist. In Principles of Philosophy , Descartes explained, "we can clearly perceive
7680-409: A variety of scientific disciplines. Although only Leibniz is extensively recognized as a polymath , all three rationalists integrated disparate domains of knowledge into their respective works. Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments. Descartes's influence in mathematics is equally apparent, being the namesake of
7840-608: A wide range of human interests and aspirations; more particularly, it refers to material goods . He argues that property is a natural right that is derived from labour . In Chapter V of his Second Treatise , Locke argues that the individual ownership of goods and property is justified by the labour exerted to produce such goods—"at least where there is enough [land], and as good, left in common for others" (para. 27)—or to use property to produce goods beneficial to human society. Locke states in his Second Treatise that nature on its own provides little of value to society, implying that
8000-406: Is Descartes's signature doctrine and permeates other theories he advanced. Known as Cartesian dualism (or mind–body dualism), his theory on the separation between the mind and the body went on to influence subsequent Western philosophies. In Meditations on First Philosophy , Descartes attempted to demonstrate the existence of God and the distinction between the human soul and the body. Humans are
8160-445: Is broken. Descartes's discussion on embodiment raised one of the most perplexing problems of his dualism philosophy: What exactly is the relationship of union between the mind and the body of a person? Therefore, Cartesian dualism set the agenda for philosophical discussion of the mind–body problem for many years after Descartes's death. Descartes was also a rationalist and believed in the power of innate ideas . Descartes argued
SECTION 50
#17328557534588320-468: Is derived from experience). Many believe the German philosopher Immanuel Kant synthesized these two early modern traditions in his philosophical thought. Plato argues that if there are certain concepts that we know to be true but did not learn from experience, then it must be because we have an innate knowledge of it and that this knowledge must have been gained before birth. In Plato's Meno , he recalls
8480-625: Is equally important to social contract theory. His work greatly affected the development of epistemology and political philosophy . His writings influenced Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau , and many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American Revolutionaries . His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence . Internationally, Locke's political-legal principles continue to have
8640-404: Is in agreement; in short universal assent proves that there is universal assent and nothing else. Moreover, Locke goes on to suggest that in fact there is no universal assent. Even a phrase such as "What is, is" is not universally assented to; infants and severely mentally disabled adults do not generally acknowledge this truism . Locke also attacks the idea that an innate idea can be imprinted on
8800-487: Is our linguistic faculty. Our linguistic systems contain a systemic complexity which supposedly could not be empirically derived: the environment seems too poor, variable and indeterminate , according to Chomsky, to explain the extraordinary ability to learn complex concepts possessed by very young children. Essentially, their accurate grammatical knowledge cannot have originated from their experiences as their experiences are not adequate. It follows that humans must be born with
8960-462: Is under one's complete control. The moral writings of Descartes came at the last part of his life, but earlier, in his Discourse on the Method , he adopted three maxims to be able to act while he put all his ideas into doubt. Those maxims are known as his "Provisional Morals" . In the third and fifth Meditation , Descartes offers proofs of a benevolent God (the trademark argument and the ontological argument respectively). Descartes has faith in
9120-409: Is very like it, and might properly enough be called 'internal sense.' Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education is an outline on how to educate this mind. Drawing on thoughts expressed in letters written to Mary Clarke and her husband about their son, he expresses the belief that education makes the man—or, more fundamentally, that the mind is an "empty cabinet": I think I may say that of all
9280-703: The Passions of the Soul , an early modern treatise on emotions, Descartes goes so far as to assert that he will write on this topic "as if no one had written on these matters before." His best known philosophical statement is " cogito, ergo sum " ("I think, therefore I am"; French: Je pense, donc je suis ), found in Discourse on the Method (1637, in French and Latin, 1644) and Principles of Philosophy (1644, in Latin, 1647 in French). The statement has either been interpreted as
9440-553: The Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration all appearing in quick succession. Locke's close friend Lady Masham invited him to join her at Otes, the Mashams' country house in Essex. Although his time there was marked by variable health from asthma attacks, he nevertheless became an intellectual hero of the Whigs. During this period, he discussed matters with such figures as John Dryden and Isaac Newton . After
9600-573: The Cartesian coordinate system . He is credited as the father of analytic geometry—used in the discovery of infinitesimal calculus and analysis . Descartes was also one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution . René Descartes was born in La Haye en Touraine , Province of Touraine (now Descartes , Indre-et-Loire ), France, on 31 March 1596. In May 1597, his mother Jeanne Brochard, died
9760-715: The Constitution of the United States . According to Locke, unused property is wasteful and an offence against nature, but, with the introduction of "durable" goods , men could exchange their excessive perishable goods for those which would last longer and thus not offend the natural law . In his view, the introduction of money marked the culmination of this process, making possible the unlimited accumulation of property without causing waste through spoilage. He also includes gold or silver as money because they may be "hoarded up without injury to anyone", as they do not spoil or decay in
SECTION 60
#17328557534589920-694: The Diet of the Holy Roman Empire at Worms in 1521, unless he would be proved false by the Bible. Locke's views on slavery were multifaceted. Although he wrote against slavery in general, Locke was an investor and beneficiary of the slave-trading Royal Africa Company . Also, while secretary to the Earl of Shaftesbury , Locke participated in drafting the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina , which established
10080-546: The Glorious Revolution and war against France including the Battle of Blenheim just before his death. He did not live long enough to see the Act of Union of 1707 , but the thrones of England and Scotland were held in personal union throughout his lifetime. Constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy were in their infancy during Locke's time. Locke has an engraved floor memorial plaque at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford . In
10240-758: The Justices of the Peace in Chew Magna and as a captain of cavalry for the Parliamentarian forces during the early part of the English Civil War . His mother was Agnes Keene. Soon after Locke's birth, the family moved to the market town of Pensford , about seven miles south of Bristol, where Locke grew up in a rural Tudor house in Belluton . In 1647, Locke was sent to the prestigious Westminster School in London under
10400-732: The National Convention in 1792 had planned to transfer his remains to the Panthéon , he was reburied in the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 1819, missing a finger and the skull. His alleged skull is in the Musée de l'Homme in Paris, but some 2020 researches confirm that it may be a forgery. The original skull was probably divided into pieces in Sweden and given to private collectors; one of those pieces arrived at
10560-582: The Netherlands in 1683 in the company of Shaftesbury , under strong suspicion of involvement in the Rye House Plot , although there is little evidence to suggest that he was directly involved in the scheme. While in the Netherlands, he lived under the pen-name dr. Van Linden. The philosopher and novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein argues that during his five years in Holland, Locke chose his friends "from among
10720-629: The Second Treatise is reproduced verbatim in the Declaration of Independence, the reference to a "long train of abuses". Concerning Locke, Thomas Jefferson wrote: Bacon , Locke and Newton … I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of those superstructures which have been raised in the Physical and Moral sciences. However, Locke's influence may have been even more profound in
10880-535: The University of Franeker , studying under Adriaan Metius , either living with a Catholic family or renting the Sjaerdemaslot . The next year, under the name "Poitevin", he enrolled at Leiden University , which at the time was a Protestant University. He studied both mathematics with Jacobus Golius , who confronted him with Pappus's hexagon theorem , and astronomy with Martin Hortensius . In October 1630, he had
11040-446: The University of Lund in 1691, where it is still preserved. In his Discourse on the Method , he attempts to arrive at a fundamental set of principles that one can know as true without any doubt. To achieve this, he employs a method called hyperbolical/metaphysical doubt, also sometimes referred to as methodological skepticism or Cartesian doubt : he rejects any ideas that can be doubted and then re-establishes them in order to acquire
11200-734: The experimental philosophy being pursued at other universities and in the Royal Society , of which he eventually became a member. Locke was awarded a bachelor's degree in February 1656 and a master's degree in June 1658. He obtained a bachelor of medicine in February 1675, having studied the subject extensively during his time at Oxford and, in addition to Lower, worked with such noted scientists and thinkers as Robert Boyle , Thomas Willis and Robert Hooke . In 1666, he met Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Ashley , who had come to Oxford seeking treatment for
11360-460: The maltreatment of animals , and was sanctioned in law and societal norms until the middle of the 19th century. The publications of Charles Darwin would eventually erode the Cartesian view of animals. Darwin argued that the continuity between humans and other species suggested the possibility of animal suffering. For Descartes, ethics was a science, the highest and most perfect of them. Like
11520-408: The mind was a blank slate, or tabula rasa . Contrary to Cartesian philosophy based on pre-existing concepts, he maintained that we are born without innate ideas , and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived from sense perception , a concept now known as empiricism . Locke is often credited for describing private property as a natural right , arguing that when
11680-430: The psychosomatic processes and reactions in man, with an emphasis on emotions or passions. His works about human passion and emotion would be the basis for the philosophy of his followers (see Cartesianism ), and would have a lasting impact on ideas concerning what literature and art should be, specifically how it should invoke emotion. Descartes and Zeno both identified sovereign goods with virtue. For Epicurus ,
11840-509: The soul . Descartes's dualism of mind and matter implied a concept of human beings. A human was, according to Descartes, a composite entity of mind and body. Descartes gave priority to the mind and argued that the mind could exist without the body, but the body could not exist without the mind. In The Meditations , Descartes even argues that while the mind is a substance, the body is composed only of "accidents". But he did argue that mind and body are closely joined: Nature also teaches me, by
12000-416: The stars or the growth of a tree , was supposedly explainable by a certain purpose, goal or end that worked its way out within nature. Aristotle called this the "final cause", and these final causes were indispensable for explaining the ways nature operated. Descartes's theory of dualism supports the distinction between traditional Aristotelian science and the new science of Kepler and Galileo, which denied
12160-633: The tabula rasa . In his Essay , in which both these concepts are introduced, Locke warns, for example, against letting "a foolish maid" convince a child that "goblins and sprites" are associated with the night, for "darkness shall ever afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas, and they shall be so joined, that he can no more bear the one than the other". This theory came to be called associationism , going on to strongly influence 18th-century thought, particularly educational theory , as nearly every educational writer warned parents not to allow their children to develop negative associations. It also led to
12320-567: The 50 years after Queen Anne's death in 1714, the Two Treatises were reprinted only once (except in the collected works of Locke). However, with the rise of American resistance to British taxation, the Second Treatise of Government gained a new readership; it was frequently cited in the debates in both America and Britain. The first American printing occurred in 1773 in Boston. Locke exercised
12480-399: The Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and the Raising of the Value of Money . In it, he refers to supply as quantity and demand as rent : "The price of any commodity rises or falls by the proportion of the number of buyers and sellers" and "that which regulates the price…[of goods] is nothing else but their quantity in proportion to their rent." The quantity theory of money forms
12640-532: The Constitution of Carolina has been exaggerated and that he was merely paid to revise and make copies of a document that had already been partially written before he became involved; she compares Locke's role to a lawyer writing a will. She states that Locke was paid in Royal African Company stock in lieu of money for his work as a secretary for a governmental sub-committee, and that he sold the stock after
12800-456: The Method ). In it, Descartes lays out four rules of thought, meant to ensure that our knowledge rests upon a firm foundation: The first was never to accept anything for true which I did not know to be such; that is to say, carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more in my judgment than what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of doubt. In La Géométrie , Descartes exploited
12960-540: The Method , Descartes recalls: I entirely abandoned the study of letters. Resolving to seek no knowledge other than that of which could be found in myself or else in the great book of the world, I spent the rest of my youth traveling, visiting courts and armies, mixing with people of diverse temperaments and ranks, gathering various experiences, testing myself in the situations which fortune offered me, and at all times reflecting upon whatever came my way to derive some profit from it. In accordance with his ambition to become
13120-559: The Netherlands, Locke had time to return to his writing, spending a great deal of time working on the Essay Concerning Human Understanding and composing the Letter on Toleration. Locke did not return home until after the Glorious Revolution . Locke accompanied Mary II back to England in 1689. The bulk of Locke's publishing took place upon his return from exile—his aforementioned Essay Concerning Human Understanding ,
13280-596: The Netherlands, initiating a revolution in mathematics and philosophy. In 1633, Galileo was condemned by the Italian Inquisition , and Descartes abandoned plans to publish Treatise on the World , his work of the previous four years. Nevertheless, in 1637, he published parts of this work in three essays: "Les Météores" (The Meteors), " La Dioptrique " (Dioptrics) and La Géométrie ( Geometry ), preceded by an introduction, his famous Discours de la méthode ( Discourse on
13440-408: The account of reality his senses provide him, since he believed that God provided him with a working mind and sensory system and does not desire to deceive him. From this supposition, however, Descartes finally establishes the possibility of acquiring knowledge about the world based on deduction and perception. Regarding epistemology , therefore, Descartes can be said to have contributed such ideas as
13600-435: The apparent invariability, according to his views, of human languages at a fundamental level. In this way, linguistics may provide a window into the human mind, and establish scientific theories of innateness which otherwise would remain merely speculative. One implication of Noam Chomsky's innatism, if correct, is that at least a part of human knowledge consists in cognitive predispositions, which are triggered and developed by
13760-420: The argument, as follows, "that our idea of perfection is related to its perfect origin (God), just as a stamp or trademark is left in an article of workmanship by its maker." In the fifth Meditation, Descartes presents a version of the ontological argument which is founded on the possibility of thinking the "idea of a being that is supremely perfect and infinite," and suggests that "of all the ideas that are in me,
13920-553: The army. He visited Basilica della Santa Casa in Loreto, then visited various countries before returning to France, and during the next few years, he spent time in Paris. It was there that he composed his first essay on method: Regulae ad Directionem Ingenii ( Rules for the Direction of the Mind ). He arrived in La Haye in 1623, selling all of his property to invest in bonds , which provided
14080-408: The basis for theories on emotions and how cognitive evaluations were translated into affective processes. Descartes believed the brain resembled a working machine and that mathematics, and mechanics could explain complicated processes in it. In the 20th century, Alan Turing advanced computer science based on mathematical biology as inspired by Descartes. His theories on reflexes also served as
14240-424: The cash requirements are closely related to the length of the pay period. He argues the brokers—the middlemen —whose activities enlarge the monetary circuit and whose profits eat into the earnings of labourers and landholders, have a negative influence on both personal and the public economy to which they supposedly contribute. Locke uses the concept of property in both broad and narrow terms: broadly, it covers
14400-564: The colonies and their iniquitous systems of servitude". According to American historian James Farr, Locke never expressed any thoughts about his contradictory opinions of slavery, which Farr ascribes to his personal involvement in the slave trade. Locke's positions on slavery have been described as hypocritical, and laying the foundation for the Founding Fathers to hold similarly contradictory thoughts regarding freedom and slavery. But historian Holly Brewer has argued that Locke's role in
14560-420: The conflict between the unlimited accumulation of property and a more nearly equal distribution of wealth; he does not identify which principles that government should apply to solve this problem. However, not all elements of his thought form a consistent whole. For example, the labour theory of value in the Two Treatises of Government stands side by side with the demand-and-supply theory of value developed in
14720-409: The correct reasoning that should guide their actions. Nevertheless, the quality of this reasoning depends on knowledge and mental condition. For this reason, he said that a complete moral philosophy should include the study of the body. He discussed this subject in the correspondence with Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia , and as a result wrote his work The Passions of the Soul , that contains a study of
14880-732: The cyst. Ashley survived and prospered, crediting Locke with saving his life. During this time, Locke served as Secretary of the Board of Trade and Plantations and Secretary to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina , which helped to shape his ideas on international trade and economics. Ashley, as a founder of the Whig movement, exerted great influence on Locke's political ideas. Locke became involved in politics when Ashley became Lord Chancellor in 1672 (Ashley being created 1st Earl of Shaftesbury in 1673). Following Shaftesbury's fall from favour in 1675, Locke spent some time travelling across France as
15040-456: The design of his mansion and estate. He also met Dirck Rembrantsz van Nierop , a mathematician and surveyor . He was so impressed by Van Nierop's knowledge that he even brought him to the attention of Constantijn Huygens and Frans van Schooten. Christia Mercer suggested that Descartes may have been influenced by Spanish author and Roman Catholic nun Teresa of Ávila , who, fifty years earlier, published The Interior Castle , concerning
15200-593: The development of psychology and other new disciplines with David Hartley 's attempt to discover a biological mechanism for associationism in his Observations on Man (1749). Locke was critical of Descartes's version of the dream argument , with Locke making the counter-argument that people cannot have physical pain in dreams as they do in waking life. Some scholars have seen Locke's political convictions as being based from his religious beliefs. Locke's religious trajectory began in Calvinist trinitarianism , but by
15360-459: The discoveries he made with Pierre de Fermat . This later became known as Cartesian Geometry. Descartes continued to publish works concerning both mathematics and philosophy for the rest of his life. In 1641, he published a metaphysics treatise, Meditationes de Prima Philosophia ( Meditations on First Philosophy ), written in Latin and thus addressed to the learned. It was followed in 1644 by Principia Philosophiae ( Principles of Philosophy ),
15520-479: The ear and the eye to the pineal gland, through animal spirits. Thus different motions in the gland cause various animal spirits. He argued that these motions in the pineal gland are based on God's will and that humans are supposed to want and like things that are useful to them. But he also argued that the animal spirits that moved around the body could distort the commands from the pineal gland, thus humans had to learn how to control their passions. Descartes advanced
15680-421: The early stages of the [Glorious] Revolution, up to 1692, and even less thereafter, unless it was to heap abuse on them" and that "no one, including most Whigs, [was] ready for the idea of a notional or abstract contract of the kind adumbrated by Locke". In contrast, Kenyon adds that Algernon Sidney 's Discourses Concerning Government were "certainly much more influential than Locke's Two Treatises. " In
15840-756: The environment, but not determined by it. Chomsky suggests that we can look at how a belief is acquired as an input-output situation. He supports the doctrine of innatism as he states that human beliefs gathered from sensory experience are much richer and complex than the experience itself. He asserts that the extra information gathered is from the mind itself as it cannot solely be from experiences. Humans derive excess amount of information from their environment so some of that information must be pre-determined. Descartes René Descartes ( / d eɪ ˈ k ɑːr t / day- KART or UK : / ˈ d eɪ k ɑːr t / DAY -kart ; French: [ʁəne dekaʁt] ; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650)
16000-477: The fields of genetics , cognitive psychology , and psycholinguistics . Nativists hold that innate beliefs are in some way genetically programmed in our mind—they are the phenotypes of certain genotypes that all humans share in common. Nativism is a modern view rooted in innatism. The advocates of nativism are mainly philosophers who also work in the field of cognitive psychology or psycholinguistics : most notably Noam Chomsky and Jerry Fodor (although
16160-439: The foundation for advanced physiological theories , more than 200 years after his death. The physiologist Ivan Pavlov was a great admirer of Descartes. Descartes denied that animals had reason or intelligence. He argued that animals did not lack sensations or perceptions, but these could be explained mechanistically. Whereas humans had a soul, or mind, and were able to feel pain and anxiety , animals by virtue of not having
16320-536: The great differences between body (an extended thing) and mind (an un-extended, immaterial thing) make the two ontologically distinct. According to Descartes's indivisibility argument, the mind is utterly indivisible: because "when I consider the mind, or myself in so far as I am merely a thinking thing, I am unable to distinguish any part within myself; I understand myself to be something quite single and complete." Moreover, in The Meditations , Descartes discusses
16480-440: The hands of the possessor. In his view, the introduction of money eliminates limits to accumulation. Locke stresses that inequality has come about by tacit agreement on the use of money, not by the social contract establishing civil society or the law of land regulating property. Locke was aware of a problem posed by unlimited accumulation, but did not consider it his task. He just implies that government would function to moderate
16640-438: The house of His Excellency Mr. Chanut, French ambassador, Mr. Descartes. As I have been informed, he had been ill for a few days with pleurisy. But as he did not want to take or use medicines, a hot fever appears to have arisen as well. Thereupon, he had himself bled three times in one day, but without operation of losing much blood. Her Majesty much bemoaned his decease, because he was such a learned man. He has been cast in wax. It
16800-436: The human body contained animal spirits. These animal spirits were believed to be light and roaming fluids circulating rapidly around the nervous system between the brain and the muscles. These animal spirits were believed to affect the human soul, or passions of the soul. Descartes distinguished six basic passions: wonder, love, hatred, desire, joy and sadness. All of these passions, he argued, represented different combinations of
16960-657: The idea that I have of God is the most true, the most clear and distinct." Descartes considered himself to be a devout Catholic, and one of the purposes of the Meditations was to defend the Catholic faith. His attempt to ground theological beliefs on reason encountered intense opposition in his time. Pascal regarded Descartes's views as a rationalist and mechanist, and accused him of deism : "I cannot forgive Descartes; in all his philosophy, Descartes did his best to dispense with God. But Descartes could not avoid prodding God to set
17120-432: The ideas that are being transmitted, and that God has given him the "propensity" to believe that such ideas are caused by material things. Descartes also believes a substance is something that does not need any assistance to function or exist. Descartes further explains how only God can be a true "substance". But minds are substances, meaning they need only God for it to function. The mind is a thinking substance. The means for
17280-402: The innate idea, not because they do not possess it. Leibniz argues that empirical evidence can serve to bring to the surface certain principles that are already innately embedded in our minds. This is similar to needing to hear only the first few notes to recall the rest of the melody. The main antagonist to the concept of innate ideas is John Locke , a contemporary of Leibniz. Locke argued that
17440-703: The inquirer is not cognizant of this fact; thus, he experiences what he believes to be a priori knowledge. In his Meno , Plato raises an important epistemological quandary: How is it that we have certain ideas that are not conclusively derivable from our environments? Noam Chomsky has taken this problem as a philosophical framework for the scientific inquiry into innatism. His linguistic theory, which derives from 18th century classical-liberal thinkers such as Wilhelm von Humboldt , attempts to explain in cognitive terms how we can develop knowledge of systems which are said, by supporters of innatism, to be too rich and complex to be derived from our environment. One such example
17600-487: The labour expended in the creation of goods gives them their value. From this premise, understood as a labour theory of value , Locke developed a labour theory of property , whereby ownership of property is created by the application of labour. In addition, he believed that property precedes government and government cannot "dispose of the estates of the subjects arbitrarily". Karl Marx later critiqued Locke's theory of property in his own social theory. Locke defines
17760-537: The late 17th and early 18th centuries, Locke's Two Treatises were rarely cited. Historian Julian Hoppit said of the book "except among some Whigs, even as a contribution to the intense debate of the 1690s it made little impression and was generally ignored until 1703 (though in Oxford in 1695 it was reported to have made 'a great noise')." John Kenyon , in his study of British political debate from 1689 to 1720, has remarked that Locke's theories were "mentioned so rarely in
17920-416: The latter adopted a more critical attitude toward nativism in his later writings). The nativist's general objection against empiricism is still the same as was raised by the rationalists ; the human mind of a newborn child is not a tabula rasa but is equipped with an inborn structure. Although individual human beings vary in many ways (culturally, ethnically, linguistically, and so on), innate ideas are
18080-408: The latter less significant and less volatile than commodity movements. As for a country's money stock, if it is large relative to that of other countries, he says it will cause the country's exchange to rise above par, as an export balance would do. He also prepares estimates of the cash requirements for different economic groups ( landholders , labourers, and brokers). In each group he posits that
18240-748: The man". In his Essay , Locke explains the gradual unfolding of this conscious mind. Arguing against both the Augustinian view of man as originally sinful and the Cartesian position, which holds that man innately knows basic logical propositions, Locke posits an 'empty mind', a tabula rasa , which is shaped by experience; sensations and reflections being the two sources of all of our ideas . He states in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding : This source of ideas every man has wholly within himself; and though it be not sense, as having nothing to do with external objects, yet it
18400-450: The men we meet with, nine parts of ten are what they are, good or evil, useful or not, by their education. Locke also wrote that "the little and almost insensible impressions on our tender infancies have very important and lasting consequences". He argues that the " associations of ideas " that one makes when young are more important than those made later because they are the foundation of the self ; they are, put differently, what first mark
18560-498: The mind is in fact devoid of all knowledge or ideas at birth; it is a blank sheet or tabula rasa . He argued that all our ideas are constructed in the mind via a process of constant composition and decomposition of the input that we receive through our senses. Locke, in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding , suggests that the concept of universal assent in fact proves nothing, except perhaps that everyone
18720-491: The mind without the owner realizing it. For Locke, such reasoning would allow one to conclude the absurd: "All the Truths a Man ever comes to know, will, by this account, be, every one of them, innate." To return to the musical analogy, we may not be able to recall the entire melody until we hear the first few notes, but we were aware of the fact that we knew the melody and that upon hearing the first few notes we would be able to recall
18880-446: The muscles to move the hand away from the fire. Through this chain of reactions, the automatic reactions of the body do not require a thought process. Above all, he was among the first scientists who believed that the soul should be subject to scientific investigation. He challenged the views of his contemporaries that the soul was divine , thus religious authorities regarded his books as dangerous. Descartes's writings went on to form
19040-452: The original spirit, and influenced the soul to will or want certain actions. He argued, for example, that fear is a passion that moves the soul to generate a response in the body. In line with his dualist teachings on the separation between the soul and the body, he hypothesized that some part of the brain served as a connector between the soul and the body and singled out the pineal gland as connector. Descartes argued that signals passed from
19200-423: The other part with greater attention. Thus, when I consider a shape without thinking of the substance or the extension whose shape it is, I make a mental abstraction. According to Descartes, two substances are really distinct when each of them can exist apart from the other. Thus, Descartes reasoned that God is distinct from humans, and the body and mind of a human are also distinct from one another. He argued that
19360-545: The papal nuncio Guidi di Bagno , where he came with Mersenne and many other scholars to listen to a lecture given by the alchemist, Nicolas de Villiers, Sieur de Chandoux, on the principles of a supposed new philosophy, Cardinal Bérulle urged him to write an exposition of his new philosophy in some location beyond the reach of the Inquisition. Descartes returned to the Dutch Republic in 1628. In April 1629, he joined
19520-475: The parish, and are usually maintained in idleness, so that their labour also is generally lost to the public till they are 12 or 14 years old". Therefore, he suggests the setting up of "working schools" for poor children in each parish in England so that they will be "from infancy [three years old] inured to work". He goes on to outline the economics of these schools, arguing not only that they will be profitable for
19680-469: The parish, but also that they will instil a good work ethic in the children. Locke's political theory was founded upon that of social contract . Unlike Thomas Hobbes , Locke believed that human nature is characterised by reason and tolerance . Like Hobbes, however, Locke believed that human nature allows people to be selfish. This is apparent with the introduction of currency. In a natural state , all people were equal and independent, and everyone had
19840-439: The phrase, "What is, is" or "It is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be". Leibniz argues that such truisms are universally assented to (acknowledged by all to be true); this being the case, it must be due to their status as innate ideas. Often some ideas are acknowledged as necessarily true but are not universally assented to. Leibniz would suggest that this is simply because the person in question has not become aware of
20000-461: The physical world. Locke thought the state's borders and the functioning and enforcement of the existence of the state and its constitution were metaphysically tied to "the natural rights of the individual", and this inspired future liberal politicians and philosophers . Writing his Letters Concerning Toleration (1689–1692) in the aftermath of the European wars of religion , Locke formulated
20160-410: The present; the observation of one apple and then another in one instance, and in that instance only, leads to the conclusion that one and another equals two. However, the suggestion that one and another will always equal two requires an innate idea, as that would be a suggestion of things unwitnessed. Leibniz called such concepts as mathematical truisms "necessary truths". Another example of such may be
20320-727: The principal of a Dordrecht school, for whom he wrote the Compendium of Music (written 1618, published 1650). While in the service of the Catholic Duke Maximilian of Bavaria from 1619, Descartes was present at the Battle of the White Mountain near Prague , in November 1620. According to Adrien Baillet , on the night of 10–11 November 1619 ( St. Martin's Day ), while stationed in Neuburg an der Donau , Descartes shut himself in
20480-410: The pursuit of science would prove to be, for him, the pursuit of true wisdom and a central part of his life's work. Descartes also saw very clearly that all truths were linked with one another, so that finding a fundamental truth and proceeding with logic would open the way to all science. Descartes arrived at this basic truth quite soon: his famous " I think, therefore I am ." In 1620, Descartes left
20640-549: The reality of evil. Man was capable of waging unjust wars and committing crimes. Criminals had to be punished, even with the death penalty. With regard to the Bible, Locke was very conservative. He retained the doctrine of the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. The miracles were proof of the divine nature of the biblical message. Locke was convinced that the entire content of the Bible was in agreement with human reason ( The Reasonableness of Christianity , 1695). Although Locke
20800-692: The realm of epistemology . Locke redefined subjectivity , or self , leading intellectual historians such as Charles Taylor and Jerrold Seigel to argue that Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689/90) marks the beginning of the modern Western conception of the self . Locke's theory of association heavily influenced the subject matter of modern psychology . At the time, Locke's recognition of two types of ideas, simple and complex —and, more importantly, their interaction through association—inspired other philosophers, such as David Hume and George Berkeley , to revise and expand this theory and apply it to explain how humans gain knowledge in
20960-400: The rest of the sciences, ethics had its roots in metaphysics. In this way, he argues for the existence of God, investigates the place of man in nature, formulates the theory of mind–body dualism, and defends free will . However, as he was a convinced rationalist, Descartes clearly states that reason is sufficient in the search for the goods that individuals should seek, and virtue consists in
21120-418: The rest. Locke ends his attack upon innate ideas by suggesting that the mind is a tabula rasa or "blank slate", and that all ideas come from experience; all our knowledge is founded in sensory experience. Essentially, the same knowledge thought to be a priori by Leibniz is, according to Locke, the result of empirical knowledge, which has a lost origin [been forgotten] in respect to the inquirer. However,
21280-414: The role of a divine power and "final causes" in its attempts to explain nature. Descartes's dualism provided the philosophical rationale for the latter by expelling the final cause from the physical universe (or res extensa ) in favor of the mind (or res cogitans ). Therefore, while Cartesian dualism paved the way for modern physics , it also held the door open for religious beliefs about the immortality of
21440-590: The role of philosophical reflection in intellectual growth. Descartes began (through Alfonso Polloti, an Italian general in Dutch service) a six-year correspondence with Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia , devoted mainly to moral and psychological subjects. Connected with this correspondence, in 1649 he published Les Passions de l'âme ( The Passions of the Soul ), which he dedicated to the Princess. A French translation of Principia Philosophiae , prepared by Abbot Claude Picot,
21600-472: The sake of doubting but to achieve concrete and reliable information. In other words, certainty. He argues that sensory perceptions come to him involuntarily, and are not willed by him. They are external to his senses, and according to Descartes, this is evidence of the existence of something outside of his mind, and thus, an external world. Descartes goes on to argue that the things in the external world are material by arguing that God would not deceive him as to
21760-431: The same as demand for goods or land: it depends on whether money is wanted as medium of exchange . As a medium of exchange, he states, "money is capable by exchange to procure us the necessaries or conveniences of life" and, for loanable funds , "it comes to be of the same nature with land by yielding a certain yearly income…or interest". Locke distinguishes two functions of money: as a counter to measure value , and as
21920-489: The same for everyone everywhere. For example, the philosopher René Descartes theorized that knowledge of God is innate in everybody. Philosophers such as Descartes and Plato were rationalists . Other philosophers, most notably the empiricists , were critical of innate ideas and denied they existed. The debate over innate ideas is central to the conflict between rationalists (who believe certain ideas exist independently of experience) and empiricists (who believe knowledge
22080-457: The same freethinking members of dissenting Protestant groups as Spinoza's small group of loyal confidants. [Baruch Spinoza had died in 1677.] Locke almost certainly met men in Amsterdam who spoke of the ideas of that renegade Jew who... insisted on identifying himself through his religion of reason alone." While she says that "Locke's strong empiricist tendencies" would have "disinclined him to read
22240-400: The self as "that conscious thinking thing, (whatever substance, made up of whether spiritual, or material, simple, or compounded, it matters not) which is sensible, or conscious of pleasure and pain, capable of happiness or misery, and so is concerned for itself, as far as that consciousness extends". He does not, however, wholly ignore "substance", writing that "the body too goes to the making
22400-442: The sensations of pain, hunger, thirst and so on, that I am not merely present in my body as a pilot in his ship, but that I am very closely joined and, as it were, intermingled with it, so that I and the body form a unit. If this were not so, I, who am nothing but a thinking thing, would not feel pain when the body was hurt, but would perceive the damage purely by the intellect, just as a sailor perceives by sight if anything in his ship
22560-408: The source of knowledge as proposed by John Locke, but catalysts to the uncovering of knowledge. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz suggested that we are born with certain innate ideas, the most identifiable of these being mathematical truisms . The idea that 1 + 1 = 2 is evident to us without the necessity for empirical evidence . Leibniz argues that empiricism can show us show that concepts are true in
22720-516: The sovereign good was pleasure, and Descartes says that, in fact, this is not in contradiction with Zeno's teaching, because virtue produces a spiritual pleasure that is better than bodily pleasure. Regarding Aristotle 's opinion that happiness (eudaimonia) depends on both moral virtue and also on the goods of fortune such as a moderate degree of wealth, Descartes does not deny that fortunes contributes to happiness, but remarks that they are in great proportion outside one's own control, whereas one's mind
22880-409: The splitting of corporeal substance into matter and form; second, he rejected any appeal to final ends , divine or natural, in explaining natural phenomena. In his theology, he insists on the absolute freedom of God's act of creation . Refusing to accept the authority of previous philosophers, Descartes frequently set his views apart from the philosophers who preceded him. In the opening section of
23040-400: The sponsorship of Alexander Popham , a member of Parliament and John Sr.'s former commander. At the age of 16 he was at school just half a mile away from the execution of Charles I ; however, the boys were not allowed to go and watch. After completing studies at Westminster, he was admitted to Christ Church , Oxford , in the autumn of 1652 at the age of 20. The dean of the college at the time
23200-407: The theory of innate knowledge and that all humans were born with knowledge through the higher power of God. It was this theory of innate knowledge that was later combated by philosopher John Locke (1632–1704), an empiricist. Empiricism holds that all knowledge is acquired through experience. In The Passions of the Soul , published in 1649, Descartes discussed the common contemporary belief that
23360-528: The time of the Reflections (1695) Locke was advocating not just Socinian views on tolerance but also Socinian Christology . However Wainwright (1987) notes that in the posthumously published Paraphrase (1707) Locke's interpretation of one verse, Ephesians 1 :10, is markedly different from that of Socinians like Biddle , and may indicate that near the end of his life Locke returned nearer to an Arian position, thereby accepting Christ's pre-existence. Locke
23520-456: The tutelage of Thomas Sydenham . Sydenham had a major effect on Locke's natural philosophical thinking—an effect that would become evident in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding . Locke's medical knowledge was put to the test when Ashley's liver infection became life-threatening. Locke coordinated the advice of several physicians and was probably instrumental in persuading Ashley to undergo surgery (then life-threatening in itself) to remove
23680-412: The use of the senses; however, these have previously been unreliable. So Descartes determines that the only indubitable knowledge is that he is a thinking thing . Thinking is what he does, and his power must come from his essence. Descartes defines "thought" ( cogitatio ) as "what happens in me such that I am immediately conscious of it, insofar as I am conscious of it". Thinking is thus every activity of
23840-407: The value of goods as based on their scarcity and ability to be exchanged and consumed . He explains demand for goods as based on their ability to yield a flow of income. Locke develops an early theory of capitalisation , such as of land, which has value because "by its constant production of saleable commodities it brings in a certain yearly income". He considers the demand for money as almost
24000-505: The work was composed well before this date. The work is now viewed as a more general argument against absolute monarchy (particularly as espoused by Robert Filmer and Thomas Hobbes ) and for individual consent as the basis of political legitimacy . Although Locke was associated with the influential Whigs, his ideas about natural rights and government are today considered quite revolutionary for that period in English history. Locke fled to
24160-489: The world in motion with a snap of his lordly fingers; after that, he had no more use for God," while a powerful contemporary, Martin Schoock , accused him of atheist beliefs, though Descartes had provided an explicit critique of atheism in his Meditations . The Catholic Church prohibited his books in 1663. Descartes also wrote a response to external world skepticism . Through this method of skepticism, he does not doubt for
24320-462: Was John Owen , vice-chancellor of the university. Although a capable student, Locke was irritated by the undergraduate curriculum of the time. He found the works of modern philosophers, such as René Descartes , more interesting than the classical material taught at the university. Through his friend Richard Lower , whom he knew from the Westminster School, Locke was introduced to medicine and
24480-492: Was a French philosopher, scientist , and mathematician , widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science . Mathematics was paramount to his method of inquiry, and he connected the previously separate fields of geometry and algebra into analytic geometry . Descartes spent much of his working life in the Dutch Republic , initially serving the Dutch States Army , and later becoming
24640-423: Was an advocate of tolerance, he urged the authorities not to tolerate atheism , because he thought the denial of God's existence would undermine the social order and lead to chaos. That excluded all atheistic varieties of philosophy and all attempts to deduce ethics and natural law from purely secular premises. In Locke's opinion the cosmological argument was valid and proved God's existence. His political thought
24800-577: Was at times not sure about the subject of original sin , so he was accused of Socinianism, Arianism, or Deism . Locke argued that the idea that "all Adam ' s Posterity [are] doomed to Eternal Infinite Punishment, for the Transgression of Adam " was "little consistent with the Justice or Goodness of the Great and Infinite God", leading Eric Nelson to associate him with Pelagian ideas. However, he did not deny
24960-430: Was introduced to mathematics and physics, including Galileo 's work. While there, Descartes first encountered hermetic mysticism. After graduation in 1614, he studied for two years (1615–16) at the University of Poitiers , earning a Baccalauréat and Licence in canon and civil law in 1616, in accordance with his father's wishes that he should become a lawyer. From there, he moved to Paris. In Discourse on
25120-441: Was not his intention to die here, as he had resolved shortly before his death to return to Holland at the first occasion. Etc." The cause of death was pneumonia according to Chanut, but peripneumonia according to Christina's physician Johann van Wullen who was not allowed to bleed him. (The winter seems to have been mild, except for the second half of January which was harsh as described by Descartes himself; however, "this remark
25280-460: Was probably intended to be as much Descartes's take on the intellectual climate as it was about the weather.") E. Pies has questioned this account, based on a letter by the Doctor van Wullen; however, Descartes had refused his treatment, and more arguments against its veracity have been raised since. In a 2009 book, German philosopher Theodor Ebert argues that Descartes was poisoned by Jacques Viogué,
25440-506: Was published in 1647. This edition was also dedicated to Princess Elisabeth. In the preface to the French edition , Descartes praised true philosophy as a means to attain wisdom. He identifies four ordinary sources to reach wisdom and finally says that there is a fifth, better and more secure, consisting in the search for first causes. By 1649, Descartes had become one of Europe's most famous philosophers and scientists. That year, Queen Christina of Sweden invited him to her court to organize
25600-801: Was to become Adolf Fredrik Church in Stockholm, where mainly orphans had been buried. His manuscripts came into the possession of Claude Clerselier , Chanut's brother-in-law, and "a devout Catholic who has begun the process of turning Descartes into a saint by cutting, adding and publishing his letters selectively." In 1663, the Pope placed Descartes's works on the Index of Prohibited Books . In 1666, sixteen years after his death, his remains were taken to France and buried in Saint-Étienne-du-Mont . In 1671, Louis XIV prohibited all lectures in Cartesianism . Although
#457542