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.