Seminar about A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

The final seminar of semester one was based around A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift. Personally, I found this essay rather entertaining as it was a ridiculous solution to the very serious problem of extreme poverty in Ireland in the 19^th century. Swift stated that the way in which this could be solved is for families to eat their own children for food or sell their children to be used as food as that way people will have money on which to survive. There were mixed reactions from my seminar group with some people saying that Swift’s idea was inhumane and immoral and how could a person even think of a solution to a problem as extreme as killing your own children as it is a parent’s role to protect their children at all costs not eat them for food. Whereas other members of the group believed that Swift was mocking Ireland and his essay was meant to be taken in a light hearted manner as the title of the essay A Modest Proposal suggests that the solution presented by Swift will be a subtle but effective idea such as developing the economy but as you read on it becomes clear that Swift’s idea is cannibalistic and shocking for readers both today and in the 19^th century when it was written.

Lecture about Adam Smith

Adam Smith can be considered as the founder of economics as we know it today and wrote the very first book based solely on economic theory called “The Wealth of Nations”. He wanted to research the reasons why one country was wealthier than other countries. He concluded that the amount of control a government has over its economy determines how much trade takes place both within a country and also internationally such as the slave trade. Smith used England as an example as the English Civil War from 1641-51 had changed the economic growth of the country dramatically. After the King was defeated in 1451, the state control of the economy collapsed and the mercantile traders, who until this time governed the trade industry in England, were forced to lose their power. This fall of power enabled free trade throughout England where everyone was allowed to trade and goods from the Caribbean such as sugar, cotton and tea were important as for the first time the country had a rich and health supply of goods to trade around the world boosting its economy and showing its power.

Smith also believed that if a government left its people to trade by themselves it would create a more stable economy and governments who prevent free trade do more harm than good as the economy becomes stagnant. If a person was a skilled metal worker and another person was skilled at woodwork then naturally they would trade their skills in order to make a high quality product such as an axe.  According to Smith this can help to explain human behaviour as people will not want to buy goods if they are poor quality but if they are good quality then people will want to buy them and they will recommend the product to others.

Seminar Paper on John Locke

Bertrand Russell -  History of Western Philosophy (Chapters 10-17)

During my reading of the chapters I was able to pick up on key areas of discussion which I will highlight during my reading of the seminar paper. These will be based around chapters 13 and 14 of the book which explain John Locke’s theories in the 17^th century. Hopefully discussing these chapters in depth will produce a debate about whether John Locke’s theory of knowledge and his political philosophies can still be relevant in today’s society or whether his theories are outdated and irrelevant.

Chapter 14 of Russell’s book focuses on Locke’s ‘Two Treatises of Government’ written in 1689 after the Revolution in England. Locke can be seen as a key figure during the revolution following the English Civil War as his theories changed the way in which governments were organised, finally giving power to the people. His ‘First Treatise’ outlined how divine right was no longer needed by Kings and rulers as they should be appointed by the people of a country. This came from an idea that God gave Adam the right to rule on behalf of the people, therefore God gave the people the right to choose their leader. In addition, Locke presented the idea that every human being in society had three fundamental rights, life, liberty and property and it was the role of the government to ensure that this was the case for people in England in the 17^th Century.

Locke’s ‘Second Treatise’ was based around the idea of a state of nature where everybody had the right to freedom and equality but subconsciously obeyed what he described as ‘natural laws’. These natural laws were centred on morality where everyone has knowledge of right and wrong. For example, murder is wrong and immoral but helping an elderly person across the road is viewed as being kind and moral. Locke also presented the idea that when a human is born they are like a blank canvas and as we progress through our lives we learn knowledge through our five senses. Chapter 13 explains this theory and the quotation “ Knowledge is the perception of agreement or disagreement of two ideas” is important as it shows how as human beings, we learn from the people around us such as our parents or teachers and we learn from our own mistakes in life which enables us to try and become better people.

Locke’s theories are relevant in today’s society for a number of reasons. One of these reasons is that governments in England are controlled by the people who vote for their chosen leader through democratic elections. Whichever candidate wins the highest number of seats is named as the Prime Minister of the country for four years until another election is held. A second reason is that children today are still raised by their parents teaching them what is right and wrong from a very early age so by the time they reach adulthood they are fully aware of how they should behave.

Seminar about Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

The seminar was full of debate and really good opinions about Hume's enquiry concerning human understanding. There were three seminar papers which summarised the main points of the enquiry very well. There was one major area of debate amongst the group about Hume's idea of humans cannot be sure of anything no matter how many times they witness an event. For example, if a person stands in a forest and they see 8 trees cut down and they hear the noise of each tree falling onto the ground then they walk away then another tree falls down then they cannot be certain that it is a tree falling as there is a possibility that the sound came from another object. This debate lasted for most of the seminar and it was good to listen to the range of views from people in my group

Lecture about David Hume

David Hume can be regarded as one of the most important figures in both social philosophy and journalism as he revolutionised modernist ideas such as logical positivism. Logical positivism was the modern philosophy of science which focused on physical science such as medicine and physics and social science such as human behaviour in society. Hume presented his theories of knowledge and believed that there is no absolute truth or knowledge as everything can only be possible and not absolutely true. For example, the sun rising in the mornings is only a mental illusion in your brain as the Earth orbits around the Sun but the Sun is a stationary planet so you can’t physically see the Sun rise.

Hume presented his theories of causation and logic in his book and in his book he stated that things are only caused by human beings and the causes are solely in your brain and not from the outside world. One situation in which this theory can be applied is in a game of billiards. When the white ball hits the red ball and the red ball moves we do not know for certain that the white ball caused the red ball to move we only know that the two balls moved as a result. Anything may have happened to make the balls move and Hume believed that everything that happened was like a miracle and we should not jump to conclusions about things we do not know for sure.

According to Hume there is a specific way of analysing whether events are true or false and to do this we must use two types of logic, analytical and synthetic logic. Analytical logic is where a conclusion is made from a subject for instance “all bicycles have two wheels”. Synthetic logic adds more information to the statement if it proven to be true using analytical logic. The statement “all bicycles have two wheels therefore they are referred to as bicycles” is an example of synthetic logic as more information has been added to the statement to prove it is true.  Our brain also synthesises ideas about objects and people but Hume argues that we should stick to the facts we know and not let our brains discover new ideas about them as people and objects are what they are and as humans we just have to deal with it.

This idea of logic can be linked closely to the verification principle whereby any statement of truth must be verified in order for it to be considered 100% true. Hume argued that most statements cannot be verified as they might be either true or false and it’s impossible to prove it. In addition, you can only use the verification principle on statements that can be verified for example “ the Sun is the Sun, therefore the Sun is not the Moon” can be proven to be truth as the Sun has a different appearance and location to the Moon so the Sun cannot be the Moon.

Seminar about Joseph Addison

The Seminar was based around Joseph Addison's essay The Spectator No. 46 and The Royal Exchange. In our group there were very mixed views about the spectator with some group members saying it was easy to understand while others were confused as to the point Addison was trying to make in his essay. Personally I found the essay quite challenging but Í was able top understand the main point of the essay. Addison was trying to highlight the fact that a human being is unable to write an essay from a philosophical viewpoint without there being some form of structure in the essay otherwise it would be impossible to read.

Addison uses two examples to back up his opinions Tom Puzzle and Will Dry.Will uses a clear structure in his essays but he has very few ideas to present in his essays whereas Tom has a great range of knowledge but he is unable to structure his thoughts into a logical order. As a group we thought that it was more important to use a clear structure in an essay or idea as it makes it a lot easier for people to read as without a structure it would be very unclear and confusing to read.

The Royal Exchange was based around Addison's general observations of the trade industry that was taking place in England in the 17th century. Merchants were importing and exporting goods all around the world to countries as far away as India. His essay explained the daily activities that took place in London.

Early journalism lecture



An example of Chinese pictographic
writing dating from 6000 BC



The lecture was focused on the history of writing and how over a period of 6,000 years writing transformed from ancient Chinese pictographic script which was made up of small basic pictures that denoted a word or phrase to the Roman alphabet we use today consisting of 26 letters.  

The first step to producing journalilstic writing was the construction of the Guttenberg printing press in the 1440's. This enabled important literature such as the Bible to be printed in large quantities so it was accessible to everyone in society and it could be read at the home not just at church on a Sunday. The Guttenberg printing press paved the way for mass production of literature and today in the UK alone 206,000 books are printed every year.

The first newspaper, The Daily Courant began printing in 1702 and it encouraged the masses to buy and sell goods and informed the general public about about changes in the government. This was the first time that large numbers of people throughgout England were able to read about what was happening on a daily basis.It started a revolution for many newspapers in future years such as The Guardian which began in Manchester in 1821 before being printed across the country.
                                                                                                                      



Painting of Daniel Defoe



1703 is an important date in Early Journalism as it marks the introduction of Daniel Defoe, writer of the novel Robinson Crusoe and regarded by many as "the father of English Journalism". He bagan his career producing and selling pamphlets on the streets of London. He got arrested for his pamphlet entitled Proposals for the Establishment of the Church due to the satirical mocking of high power Tories.                                                                         

Essay Concerning Human Understanding Seminar

The second seminar was based around John Locke's ' Essay Concerning Human Understanding' and as a group we focused on particular chapters in the essay. We discussed chapter 2 of the essay and debated whether Locke's theory that "All ideas come from sensation or reflection " was relevant in today's society and whether everything that we experience in life came from our five senses.The general opinion of the group was that we agreed with what Locke said as we can only learn from experiences we face in life or by our five senses of sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing. For example, if we smell the scent of roses we learn that that is what roses smell like and next time we smell the scent of roses we instantly associate it with roses. After analysing and discussing chapters 10 and 22 we came up with the conclusion that as a whole we agreed with the theories of Locke but there were some aspects that we did not agree with. One area in which we disagreed with Locke was that human beings are like a blank canvas and are born with no knowledge until they begin their journey through life. The group as a whole believed that everyone has knowledge from the minute they are born as babies have feelings and emotions such as laughter and crying and they do not learn these skills from their senses or parents.

Lecture about John Locke and Issac Newton



The lecture on the 12th October was based around the theories of John Locke and Issac Newton who can be seen as key figures in the development of Journalism. These theories were written around the time of the English Civil War when the country was in turmoil and chaos from corrupt and unlawful Kings. Locke argued that if we think back to a period in history where there was no government and no rulers then it mirrored the state of England during the Civil War. His theory named 'First Treatise' written in 1689 and published in the book 'Two Treatises of Government' stated that a King must be appointed to rule a country but not by divine right by God. Instead the power to appoint a leader was given to the people and this ruler ruled on behalf of the people but he had absolute power.



The book 'Two Treatises of
Government' published in
1689



Locke's second theory named 'Second Treatise' was based around a idea of a State of Nature where everyone has freedom and equality but they live by natural laws. Locke believed that every human being was born like a blank canvas whereby we have no knowledge and then as we progress through our lives our sense process what we see and believe into knowledge and eventually we learn 'moral laws'. 'Moral Laws' were described by Locke as knowledge of right and wrong which we learn by nature and everything a human being learns comes from experience and everyone has a right to 'life, liberty and property'. This treatise really fascinated me as I think it is still relevant today in the British government where a leader is elected by the people and that leader rules on behalf of the people. My favourite leader has to be David Cameron as he represents my home constituancy of Witney in Oxfordshire.

The idea of a right to 'life, land and property' is linked to Locke's concept of revolution commonly known as 'Manual for a Revolution' whereby people were extremely influencial in deciding who ruled their country and they had a right to rebel against their government if they were believed to be disobeying the law. Locke theorised that the government itself was limited by laws and one of the main purposes of a government was to protect people's property from theft or takeover. This was a new and groundbreaking theory as before the 17th century governments were seen as having absolute power and laws were passed without even telling the people about them.

Another groundbreaking event of the 17th century was Issac Newton's book 'Principia' published in 1687. It was a mathematical interpretation of how the universe worked first inspired by Copernicus and Kepler who believed that the Earth orbited around the Sun. This was seen as the beginning of 'Enlightened Science' whereby theories that had once been viewed as flawed could now be proven correct by science. With his mathematical proof , Newton convinced people that the world was in everyone's reach and we can all understand how the universe worked. He never used God to explain his theories he just simply observed and recorded data and he never questioned why things were like they are.

That is a summary of the lecture on 12th October and I hope you all enjoy reading my blog. Locke and Newton were extremely influential as they presented new ideas that did not rely on God but opened up a new wave of knowledge that everyone could access. I have really enjoyed studying these figures and in the future I hope to carry out even more research on their theories and study them in depth.



Seminar about History of Western Philosophy

The seminar on Tuesday 5th October was a good learning experience for me as I have never been in a small group seminar before. It was useful as the group were able to discuss the reading material and share our opinions about whether we agreed with Russell's perspective of the philosophers or not. We focused on chapter 1 of the book which explains the beginning of the Renaissance and we discussed whether we agreed with each other's opnions as to whether the change in the views about religion or the advances of science led to society beginning to become distant from the Church and the Pope. In addition, it was good to get advice from Shira about writing a seminar paper as it is my turn to read out a paper in the next session and I had no idea where to start!!. I hope the people in my group (E) will enjoy listening to my seminar paper even though I am rather nervous about it as this is my first ever seminar paper experience.

Lecture about the Renaissance

I have never studied philosophy at all so the lecture was quite daunting but also exciting as I will begin to study a new subject and broaden my knowledge. It was fascinating to learn about a range of philosophers who at the time had revolutionary theories but as time progressed these were challenged and doubted as scientific discoveries were made.

Tuesday's lecture about the Renaissance gave me an insight into the views of philosophers from all across the world and how over time the these views constantly changed as scientific discoveries were made. The Renaissance aimed to bring together the teachings of the Church and classical ideas first written about by the Ancient Greeks. Chapters 1 and 2 of 'History of Western Philosophy' by Bertrand Russell summarises the Italian Renaissance brilliantly as it discusses the divisions between the Church and science and how science became more influential than the Pope with many philosophers presenting theories and ideas far removed from the traditional Church dominated society.

During the Renaissance throughout Europe in the 14th and 15th Centuries the theories written by the Ancient Greeks were reborn. This was particularly popular in Italy as it was seen as release from the scrict teachings of the Church that had dominated people's lives for centuries. People were then able to challenge opinions which had previously been set in stone and art was a key feature of the movement as opinions could easily be expressed for everyone to see and admire. The philosopher Galileo (1564-1642) was influential during this period as he used science and mathematics in order to explain his theories rather than the teachings of God. He challenged the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle's theory of planets as he believed that the planets were made by science and not magical substances created by God as Aristotle believed. He also used his heliocentric theory to explain that the Earth actually orbited in a circular motion.

1527 is a very important date as it marked the end of the Italian Renaissance and the transition from the middle ages to the modern world. It was also the era of reason and modern philosophers such as Descartes (1596-1650) presented a whole new set of beliefs that differed from both the Ancient philosophers such as Plato and Middle Age philosophers such as Galileo. It was intriguing to find out that philosophy had been in existance throughout the history of mankind and throughout the ages people were building up and questioning previous philosophers thoughts and writings.


A portrait of Rene Descartes



The chapter about Descartes in Russell's book particularly interested me as his beliefs about reality really got me thinking about my existence as a human being. As he learnt about the variety of cultures in different countries he realised that you could not rely on anything as it was constantly changing from country to country. He presented his theory that mankind cannot be certain of anything in life and the only way to become certain of anything is to doubt everything and then prove it correct. If you can doubt what you are thinking ("I think therefore I am") then you do exist as your brain is the centre of your body.

A further chapter of the book which interested me was chapter 4 which focused upon Thomas More and his book 'Utopia' written in 1516. 'Utopia' was based upon an early idea of communism where society lived in a shared world with equal sized houses, streets and equal wealth. This chapter fascinated me as it shows that people were forming ideas about communism and a fair society centuries before the communist movements in countries such as Russia.

This is just a summary of the first lecture and my reading of chapters 1- 9 of Russell's book. I hope as the course progresses I will have more knowledge and understanding of philosophy as the book has really inspired me to continue learning about the great philosophers throughout the ages.

About me

Hey my name is Jessica Mills or Jess and I live in a town called Witney which is near Oxford. I am studying English and Journalism at the University of Winchester and one day in the future i would like to be a worldwide or sports journalist as i enjoy reading and learning about events happening all around the world in newspapers or on TV. So thats all about me and I hope you enjoy reading my blog throughout the next three years.