Today's lecture was led by Chris today and was based upon Western Philosophy in the 17th and 18th Centuries. This time was divided between British empiricsm and continental rationalism. These theories are concered with epistemology; one of those words you have to read slowly to say properly. People who are empiricists believe your only source of knowledge is your senses and therefore agree with two main philosophers. The first philosopher this idea agrees with is Locke, who believed we as humans have no innate ideas and our knowledge is gained through our experiences. Ultimately meaning we are born as a blank slate and learn things through our personal experiences. The other philosopher is Bacon who believes in the scientific method and avoids the 'idols of the mind'.
Rationalism
Rationalists philopshers are as followed; Descartes, Leibniz and Spinoza. (Also Plato in some ways, as his idea of the forms can be easily related to rationalism). These philosophers believed in pure reason and the mind on its own, or at least the pre-eminence of the mind.
Idealism
Idealists deny existance of matter and everything that is involved in ideas. A quote by Berkeley can describe this and it can in some ways be related to Plato.
"What I am aware of when I look at a chair is not the chair but how the chair looks to me - it is the effect it produces in my mind when I look at it - this is the same for other senses (e.g. touching, tasing etc)."
Descartes
Rene Descartes is most influential in the first half of the 17th Century. He is a contemporary of Galileo and therefore it can be said that he held views in common with Galileo himself aswell as people such as Bacon. Descartes opposed Aristotelianism and the tradional education available in many universities. Once he was old enough, he travelled around Europe, fighting in many of the wars happening at the time. By doing this he hoped that this life of action would give him insight, but unfortuntely this did not happen and thought of a plan which might help. This plan was to search for true knowledge. Geometry was one of the only things that Descartes knew to be true, as everything involving geometry is easily justifiable. This knowledge had always been tested and was ultimately inquestionable. He dismissed any knowledge on which there are any grounds for doubt, but made things very difficult for anymore who was trying to prove something to be true.
Descartes stated that senses often decieve you and even I can state this to be true. How often have you thought you saw or heard something for any number of reasons, sometimes it can just be because you are tired that your eyes have decieved you, or your ears have decieved you by thinking you heard something that you didn't. It then becomes clear how Descartes has a very valid point in only wanting to find TRUE knowledge. Adding to this point, he is able to raise doubts about pretty much everything, except his mind - even his body, so everything else is some other kind of substance.
The mind can be said to be one thing - the body another. This is 'Cartesian Dualism and was introduced by Descartes.
Spinoza
From what I understood from this lecture, Spinoza was a generally nice guy who was trying to do good things. He disagreed with dualism and therefore believes that everything is part of the same substances. Like all of these philosophers, they like things that are true and Spinoza believed that God and Nature are the only true substances. Spinoza did not agree with free will and thought that humans are simply just aspects of God. Adding to this, apparently, God did not create nature, God IS nature and people are part/aspects of God. Ultimately, this means that everything that happens is simply a manifestation of Good, therefore eliminating sin and evil.
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