Philosophy
Thomas Hobbes believed that all matter was in motion and would remain in that state until and unless another force changed it (Hobbes 1651). He saw that thought reflected the motion of things in the material world and affected the senses and the brain until this new motions degraded a previous one. To Hobbes, 1) everything, including the mind and the soul, is material; 2) man is born with a blank or tabula rasa mind; and 3) all mental activity proceeded from the senses.
Hobbes established a hierarchy of abstract thought levels. At the base was the representation or appearance, the first motion transmitted by the senses to the brain. Upon entry into the brain, it followed a "trayne (Hobbes)," which was the course of its motion in interacting with other representations. The power or influence of each motion decreased as it interacted, and he called this interaction imagination, which he viewed as the "first internal beginning of all Voluntary Motion." All the different traynes in the mind at one time and not yet deteriorating constituted memory.
He established the distinct types of imagination as the simple and the compound: simple, referring to particular traynes; and compound, the interaction among separate traynes. Individual traynes were either regulated or unguided. Unguided traynes were free from passion or desire, while regulated traynes were influenced by passion or desire.
He perceived that imagination changed form from "mere mental discourse" to a verbal discourse through speech. From this, he established that understanding was conception caused by speech (Hobbes). It was not a separate function or level of cognition, but a particular group of traynes, initiated by one's exposure to the sense of speech.
Hobbes viewed reason as conceiving the sum total - of a series of parts, a remainder from subtraction,...
1) and a boy who woke up one day to realise the world was not the world anymore, but something paper-ish. Flowers looked like flowers but were not, Milly, his friend, resembled Milly but was not the Milly of yesterday. Through his example, Bouwsma thought to illustrate that illusions may create similar perceptions to reality but ultimately the former can be depicted, as Tom, the boy, balked the phantasy
Descartes' famous maxim "I; I "? Why statement fundamental method? (3-4 Paragraphs) Describe Newton's method. How arrive conclusions? (3-4Paragraphs) Describe views John Locke: state nature, social contract, revolution, govern, property rights. Q1.Descartes Descartes began his famous series of Meditations with a resolution to doubt everything: this kind of hyperbolic skepticism was used to advance his use of the deductive approach to philosophy. Descartes was fundamentally a rationalist, and believed that truth
Sensory experiences are nor reliable for making any statements, since people often mistake one thing for another. (Descartes talks about mirages). Knowledge based on reasoning is not always trustworthy, because people often make mistakes. (adding numbers is a classical example). Finally, knowledge is deemed by Descartes to be illusory, since it may come from dreams or insanity or from demons able to deceive men by making them believe that
Rationalist Philosophers Descartes: Explain one of Descartes' arguments in Meditation VI for substance dualism. Critically discuss one possible objection to the argument. Descartes was not a nihilist or solipsist who truly doubted the existence of anything outside his own mind, and only used skepticism to arrive at clear and distinct ideas. He has already proved his own existence as a thinking being, and that God exists, along with his physical body and objects
Mind-Body Problem- Descartes The discussion over the relationship between mind and body that has been intriguing philosophers for a long time is divided into two broad categories: dualism and monism. According to dualism mind and body are two separate substances. There are several types of dualist views including parallelism, epiphenomenalism, occassionalism and interactionism. John Locke and Rene Descartes are among those who laid the foundation of this idea. Whereas Locke and
Mind, Freedom and Knowledge Descartes argued that that all humans had both a body and mind, and that the mind was eternal while the body was subject to physical and material laws. The universe was divided between the mind and matter, and the physical world could be explained by mathematical and scientific laws. Hobbes, Locke and other political and philosophical theorists of the 17th Century were also influenced by the new
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