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History 486

History 486. Locke & the Empirical Tradition. A Story of Modernity: Political authority derives from the consent of the governed. Jefferson’s Trinity Locke and the Glorious Revolution, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution……. Louis XIV, the Sun King

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History 486

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  1. History 486 Locke & the Empirical Tradition

  2. A Story of Modernity: Political authority derives from the consent of the governed • Jefferson’s Trinity • Locke and the Glorious Revolution, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution……

  3. Louis XIV, the Sun King 1643-1715 Louis XIV in His Minority

  4. Intellectual Assumptions of Liberal Democracy • Individual Rights – Life, Liberty and Property • Equality before the Law • Toleration • Freedom of Speech • Freedom of Press • Freedom of Religion • Freedom of Assembly • Representative Government through Periodic Elections • Emphasis upon Reason • Cultural Relativism • Theory of Progress

  5. Natural Philosophy and Its Evolution in the 17th Century • The “Ancients vs Moderns” controversy • The Bible and the Classics • Arguments from Authority • Arguments from reason and experience • Deductive and Inductive Reasoning • The preoccupation with questions of epistemology. What is epistemology? • From teleological to mechanistic explanations.

  6. Rene´ Descartes 1596 - 1650 Discourse on Method, 1637 • The Cartesian Method • Systematic Doubt • Clear and Distinct Ideas

  7. Francis Bacon 1561 - 1626 Novum Organum, 1610 The Four Idols: The Tribe The Cave The Marketplace The Theater

  8. Bacon and the Four Idols Idols of the Tribe – Human Tendency to Fall in Love with a Dogma Idols of the Cave – Excessive Importance Given to Personal Experience; the idol of personal bias Idols of the Marketplace – The Fallacy of the catch word or unexamined vocabulary Idols of the Theater – The Fallacy of Theorists to spin seductive theories; plausible but fictitious systems

  9. Sir Isaac Newton, 1642-1727 Title Page of Principia, 1687

  10. Sir Isaac Newton, 1642-1727 • Newtonian Worldview • One universal, mathematical law • explains all motion in universe • World of nature open to human • investigation and knowledge • Mechanical view of nature • Orderly, regulated, uniform • Machine operates by natural laws • Natural Laws can be Known by Man Principia, 1687

  11. Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 1690 • Denies Innate Ideas • Tabula rasa • Sensation • Reflection • Lockean Epistemology • Does for Human Mind • What Newton Does for • Universe John Locke 1632-1704

  12. Locke on the Limits of Human Understanding It is of great use to the sailor to know the length of his line, though he cannot with it fathom all the depths of the ocean. It is well he knows that it is long enough to reach the bottom at such places as are necessary to direct his voyage, and caution him against shoals that may ruin him. Our business here is not to know all things, but those which concern our conduct. If we can find out those measures whereby a rational creature, put in that state which man is in this world, may and ought to govern his opinions and actions depending thereon, we need not be troubled that some other things escape our knowledge. (Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding)

  13. Locke on Human Understanding • Simple and Complex Ideas • Simple Ideas: • Ideas received by one sense: smell of a rose • Ideas received by more than one sense: motion, rest, extension, figure • Simple ideas of reflection: thinking, willing • Ideas conveyed by all the ways of reflection and sensation: pleasure, pain, power, existence, unity

  14. Locke on Human Understanding • Complex Ideas: • The mind actively frames complex ideas by using simple ideas as material • Two or more simple ideas are combined to form one complex idea: e.g., beauty, man, army the universe “Knowledge then seems to me to be nothing but the perception of the connexion and agreement, or disagreement and repugnancy, of any of our ideas.” Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding

  15. Political background in England John Locke 1632-1704 Two Treatises Concerning Government 1689 A Letter Concerning Toleration 1689

  16. John Locke and Stories of Modernity • The State of Nature • “Property” • Indian land-use practices • Locke’s theory of entitlement • The Social Contract 1632-1704

  17. Historical Context: 17th Century England • Parliament vs the Monarchy • The Glorious Revolution • Second Treatise of Government,: ”to establish the Throne of Our Great Restorer…to make good his Title, in the consent of the People.” John Locke 1632-1704

  18. Historical Context: 17th Century England Filmer on absolute monarchy: “God gave to Adam not only the dominion over the woman and the children, but also over the whole earth to subdue it, and over all the creatures on it, so that as long as Adam lived no man could claim or enjoy anything but by donation, assignation, or permission from him.” Locke on Political Authority: “The great Question which in all Ages has disturbed Mankind, and brought on them the greatest part of those Mischiefs which have ruin’d cities, depopulated Countries, and disordered the Peace of the World, has been, Not whether there be Power in the World, nor whence it came, but who should have it.” (First Treatise on Government)

  19. Thomas Hobbes 1588-1679 The Leviathan, 1651 Rational Arguments in Support of Absolute Power

  20. Locke’s Social Contract Theory: • Extends the reasoning of modern science to politics • Use reason and empirical investigation • Seek a foundation for knowledge • Seek laws of nature • Authority resides in the self

  21. Social Contract Theory: Two Stage Model • Pre-contract State of Nature • Description of human nature; life outside of civil society • Formulation of natural law • Social contract: consensus to establish civil society • Articulate extent of governmental authority

  22. The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions….

  23. Every one, as he is bound to preserve himself, and not to quit his station wilfully, so by the like reason, when his own preservation comes not in competition, ought he, as much as he can, to preserve the rest of mankind, and may not, unless it be to do justice on an offender, take away, or impair the life, or what tends to the preservation of the life, the liberty, health, limb, or goods of another.

  24. Locke’s State of Nature • Governed by a law of nature • Known by reason • All are independent and equal • Duty to preserve self, then others • Occasional state of war

  25. Imagining the New World/Interests in the New World “Thus in the beginning all the World was America” (John Locke, Second Treatise

  26. Historical Context: British Colonization • Interests in the Carolina colony • Tensions regarding land and resources

  27. Property in the State of Nature: Basis for Economic Liberalism • Property: a relationship of rights and duties between persons regarding things • Locke: Property based on natural law • Mixing one’s labor

  28. Property in the State of Nature: • Labor Theory of Value • Waste • Money

  29. Locke’s State of Nature: Summary • Basically an organized society • There are moral standards • Orderly arrangement of private property; commerce with contracts and money • Insecure

  30. The Social Contract: Foundation for Political Liberalism • Chief End: “the preservation of their property” • By Consent: “The only way whereby any • one divests himself of his natural liberty and • puts on the bonds of civil society is by agreeing • with other men to join and unite into a • community….” • Role of majority rule

  31. Forming Political Society:The Social Contract • What is gained: • “Established, settled, known law” • “a known and indifferent judge” • Power to enforce the law • What is given up: • Individual right to determine and punish violators of the law

  32. Who are “independent and equal?” • Women: • “But the husband and wife, though they have but one common concern, yet having different understandings, will unavoidably sometimes have different wills too; it therefore being necessary, that the last determination, i.e., the rule, should be placed somewhere, it naturally falls to the man’s share as the abler and the stronger.” • African slaves in the Carolina Colony: • “Every freeman of Carolina shall have absolute power and authority over his negro slaves, of what opinion or religion soever” (Fundamental Constitution of Carolina).

  33. Conclusions • Locke gives theoretical basis for modern political liberalism: • Political authority resides in the individual • Establishes the right to revolution • Locke gives theoretical basis for modern economic liberalism • Property rights reside in the individual • The use of money justifies economic inequality • Locke’s influence in America and the modern world--incalculable

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