Chapter 2 Descartes, Locke, Leibniz

Question 1

Simple nature

Answer 1

Most elementary and fundamental properties of physical phenomena

Question 2

Primary qualities

Answer 2

Galileo’s simple natures (Descartes)

e.g. shape, motion, quantity

Question 3

Animal spirit

Answer 3

Yellow fluid that fills the ventricles and cavities (cerebrospinal fluid)

Question 4

St. Germain statue

Answer 4

Animal+animal spirit

Question 5

Reflexes

Answer 5

A sequence in which a specific stimulus from the external world automatically elicits a specific response

Question 6

Unconditional reflex

Answer 6

Occurs involuntarily e.g. eyeblink, salivation

Question 7

The soul of a beast is nothing but their body

Answer 7

Nerves are tubes filled with “animal spirit”

Question 8

Cogito ergo sum

Answer 8

I think, therefore I am

Question 9

Innate ideas

Answer 9

Ideas that are independent of the specific sensory experience must derive from the nature of thinking soul itself

-> Avicenna’s floating man in space

Question 10

Dualism

Answer 10

Mind is separate from the body

Question 11

Interactive dualism

Answer 11

There is a connection between the mind and the body

Question 12

Automaton

Answer 12

a moving mechanical device made in imitation of a human being.

Question 13

Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia

Answer 13

How do the body and mind interact?

The pineal gland. The body is double (two eyes, two hemispheres etc), the soul is one. The pineal gland is unique, therefore it is the connection.

Question 14

Tabula rasa

Answer 14

Blank slate

Inexperienced mind

Question 15

Sensations

Answer 15

Kind of experince of external world

Question 16

Reflections

Answer 16

Kind of experience of the mind’s own operations

Question 17

Simple ideas

Answer 17

Notions such as redness, roundness, loudness, coldness etc from the basic sense (inexperienced infants)

Question 18

Complex ideas

Answer 18

Combination of simple ideas resulted from experience

e.g. apple+desire=hunger

Question 19

W. Molyneux

Answer 19

Blind man that suddenly gained sight

Question 20

Knowledge - Locke

Answer 20

Intuitive
Demonstrative
Sesitive

Question 21

Intuitive knowledge

Answer 21

Recognising the differences

Question 22

Demonstrative knowledge

Answer 22

A series of deductions involving axioms result in a not obvious but true conclusion

Question 23

Sensitive knowledge

Answer 23

Patterns of sensory experiences

- largest type of knowledge

Question 24

Association of ideas

Answer 24

Linking together or combining ideas

Question 25

Law of association by contiguity (Hume)

Answer 25

Contiguity= the experiencing of two or more ideas either simultaneously or in rapid succession

Question 26

Social contract

Answer 26

Thomas Hobbes
Joining together in groups with supreme authority invested in centralised powers to organise defense against other groups and to curtail aggression within themselves

Question 27

Pantheism

Answer 27

Spinoza

God is not an independent being who controls the universe but rather that God in the ENTIRE universe

Question 28

Monadology

Answer 28

“In the smallest particle of matter there is a world of creatures, living beings..”

Question 29

Monads (types)

Answer 29

Bare
Sentient
Rational
Supreme

Question 30

Monads (def)

Answer 30

The ultimate component of the Universe must be energetic and purpose-laden entities with some capacity for awareness

Question 31

Bare monads

Answer 31

Faint capacity of awareness
When in large quantities, they form the basis of the physical bodies of material objects

=modern atoms

Question 32

Sentient monads

Answer 32

Conscious sensations and perceptions of material objects, memory of experiences
When joined to a physical body, they become the dominant monad or soul of an animal

Question 33

Rational monads

Answer 33

Could become the soul or mind of human beings

Question 34

Apperception

Answer 34

An impression is not simply “registered” by the mind but it is also interpreted, studied and rationally analysed

Question 35

Supreme monad

Answer 35

The highest level of awareness

God

Question 36

Necessary truths

Answer 36

Prime tools in the process of apperception as opposed to simple perceptions