Chapter 2 Descartes, Locke, Leibniz Flashcards
Simple nature
Most elementary and fundamental properties of physical phenomena
Primary qualities
Galileo’s simple natures (Descartes)
e.g. shape, motion, quantity
Animal spirit
Yellow fluid that fills the ventricles and cavities (cerebrospinal fluid)
St. Germain statue
Animal+animal spirit
Reflexes
A sequence in which a specific stimulus from the external world automatically elicits a specific response
Unconditional reflex
Occurs involuntarily e.g. eyeblink, salivation
The soul of a beast is nothing but their body
Nerves are tubes filled with “animal spirit”
Cogito ergo sum
I think, therefore I am
Innate ideas
Ideas that are independent of the specific sensory experience must derive from the nature of thinking soul itself
-> Avicenna’s floating man in space
Dualism
Mind is separate from the body
Interactive dualism
There is a connection between the mind and the body
Automaton
a moving mechanical device made in imitation of a human being.
Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia
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.
Tabula rasa
Blank slate
Inexperienced mind
Sensations
Kind of experince of external world
Reflections
Kind of experience of the mind’s own operations
Simple ideas
Notions such as redness, roundness, loudness, coldness etc from the basic sense (inexperienced infants)
Complex ideas
Combination of simple ideas resulted from experience
e.g. apple+desire=hunger
W. Molyneux
Blind man that suddenly gained sight
Knowledge - Locke
Intuitive
Demonstrative
Sesitive
Intuitive knowledge
Recognising the differences
Demonstrative knowledge
A series of deductions involving axioms result in a not obvious but true conclusion
Sensitive knowledge
Patterns of sensory experiences
- largest type of knowledge
Association of ideas
Linking together or combining ideas
Law of association by contiguity (Hume)
Contiguity= the experiencing of two or more ideas either simultaneously or in rapid succession
Social contract
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
Pantheism
Spinoza
God is not an independent being who controls the universe but rather that God in the ENTIRE universe
Monadology
“In the smallest particle of matter there is a world of creatures, living beings..”
Monads (types)
Bare
Sentient
Rational
Supreme
Monads (def)
The ultimate component of the Universe must be energetic and purpose-laden entities with some capacity for awareness
Bare monads
Faint capacity of awareness
When in large quantities, they form the basis of the physical bodies of material objects
=modern atoms
Sentient monads
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
Rational monads
Could become the soul or mind of human beings
Apperception
An impression is not simply “registered” by the mind but it is also interpreted, studied and rationally analysed
Supreme monad
The highest level of awareness
God
Necessary truths
Prime tools in the process of apperception as opposed to simple perceptions
