French Philosophers Essay

MONTAIGNEMontaigne is both a literary writer and a philosopher a humanist. Montaignes essays cover a loto f topics without claiming to provide a definitive or an absolute truth about these topics We have no communication with being, Essays, II, 12 The Problem of TruthBeing is non accessible for a finite being as we (work force) ar. Senses or effort argon non criteria of truth. Sense is no criteria since its always changing and primer is no criteria also because we tot anyy have access to appe atomic number 18ances, which also change. Things are always changing. They are in a perpetual movement The unaccompanied thing we are directly in relation with is ourselves. The I is unendingly changing, is in a perpetual movement and it is not self-centred or an egocentric character it is the first step to explore the whole world. He is emblematic of the rebirth of SCEPTICISM.Scepticism is the position that says that it is impossible to know anything because all the propositions are equal. For skeptics theres no criteria for thruth.3 Main PrinciplesA) Epoche = suspending ruling when you are not sure of what you are saying. The Greek word epoche mover to check, cease, suspend, stop, or pause in some activity that otherwise or normally occurs. The sceptic suspends his judgment for default of a good agent for exercising it. The article of belieftist asserts that something is true. B) Relativism = all points of view are equally valid.C) Isosthenia = the equation of strength of two opposing arguments. Sceptism is more a process than a result, is more a methodology.DescartesDogmatism, rationalism and Dualism1. Dogmatism comes from the greek word dogma(opinion or belief) Common and pejorative sense the tendency to lay mint principles as undeniably true, without consideration of picture or the opinion of others. philosophic meaning doctrine that asserts that man is able to get to thetruth or, in other words, that man is able to attain absolute truths and c ertainty of subtle (Opposite of Skepticism). Descartes is dogmatic since he believes that we yett get to absolute certainty, what he calls evidence or clear perceptions(intelectual perception, the angiotensin-converting enzyme you can get through the eyeball of mind, not the eyes of body). We can reach the truth. Reason is unique and last source of truth.2.Rationalism REASON versus senses. Reason is the chief source and test of familiarity. Rationalism is based on deduction (versus induction). ln that sense, it is opposed to empiricism the theory of knowledge which sound outs that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience companionship is an activity of our mind that applies itself to identify the figures and the properties that essentially constitutes one thing (Text 3 Wax argument)Dream argument ln our dreams our sensations are sometimes so affectionate that everything is going as if we were awake (whereas in fact we are not) Our senses are deceitful we c ant trust them only reason can be trusted Wax argument Knowledge observing its data-based qualities. Knowledge is an activity of our mind that applies itself to identify the figures and the properties that essentially constitute one thing.Cogito, ergo sum essential link amid thought and humanity.Thinking is the only proof of my existence and it is also my essence both are simultaneous. I prove my existence by my essence (versus accidental qualities). Moreover, think backing is a property that only men possess. animals are not able to think and thats also why they are not able to chat (text 5).3. Dualism In philosophy of mind, dualism is a view about the relationship between mind and matter which claims that mind and matter are two ontologically cave in categories. It is opposed to monism philosophical view according to which everything can be explained in terms of a single reality or substance. I am not only lodged in my body as a fly in a vesselThis sentence shows that Desc artes also tries to think the confederation and the connection of mind and body in the human being that we areRousseau (Enlightment)Rousseau has a contractualist or contractarian approach of society he conceives it as an initiation or as an artifice. Legitimate dictum of government must infer from the consent of the governed Society doesnt exist by personality. contractualism is opposed to naturalism,The verbalise of nature the one that exists before the invention of society. Rousseau does not think that this earth really existed. It is methodological the advance of nature aims to understand and to evaluate the accomplished tell apart we are actually living in.Why is the state of nature so good?State of nature is defined by leniency and self-loved. Considers that man in the state of nature are not loss together and are independent. According to Rousseau, the state of nature is a state of self-sufficiency in which every man is equal.On the contrary, civil state introduces property, inequality, love of selfThats why it is a perversion and a degradation of our natural conditionDifferent from Hobbes Hobbes argues that all humans are by nature equal in faculties of body and mind. From this equality, everyone is naturally in competition with one another (copiar resto)Love of self always analyze yourself to the other and trying to see what you can do to be split up Self Love you always give your 100%He is not saying we should return to the state of nature. He considers thestate of nature as a moral value in order to evaluate society. gracious Nature2 essential properties1) PERFECTIBILITY or faculty of improvement (Text 2) Perfectibility draws men out of this original condition and gives him adaptability. At the same time, perfectibility is responsible for the evill. 2) emancipation (Text 1). Nature and inherent aptitude (beast) are here opposed to freedom. Nature and instinct are here opposed to freedom. Dog cant go against his instinct, if he is hungr y for example. freedom is the analogous of what we call autonomyIf society perverts humankind, but if, at the same time, man doesnt have to return to a state of nature, this is because his essential properties (freedom and perfectibility) imply to divorce from natureDifference of peak between men and beast. Men, like animals, are also able to skeleton ideas but they are more complex than the ones animals could form. There is a residual in terms of nature since men are free and animals follow up on their instinct.Freedom is the ability of choice. We are able to determine ourselves to act and not to be passive in front of each situation. Freedom is the equivalent to what we call autonomy4. The Social ContractThis legitimate political authority comes from a social contract agreed upon by all citizens for their unwashed preservation.(1) The collective grouping of all citizens = the sovereign (it is like an individual person). As the sovereign entirely proceeds from our will each m an, in adult himself to all, gives himself to nobody (text 4). Obeying the contract coincides with obeying ourselves and thats precisely what Rousseau calls autonomy The concept of world-wide willEnd of Text 4The general will is the commonalty interest.Even if it proceeds from the particular proposition wills of every citizens, it is more than the collection of particular willsThe general will finds its clearest expression in the general and abstract laws of the state