Descartes, Hume and Locke all seemed
to have a different yet similar style of writing. Descartes almost appeared poetic in his
descriptions of dreams and the reality within and outside them. Hume seemed just as poetic and yet
descriptive in his discussions on animals and the origin of ideas. Then there was Locke, he had a very old
English styled writing when explaining transferring thoughts. When comparing all three of these discussions
you can see many similarities in their writings and man differences as well.
Let’s start off with Descartes. He seemed to have multiple thoughts playing
out throughout the chapter and then tied them all together in the last paragraph. Sometimes I found myself lost within the
reading, but quickly found myself again as I continued reading. He starts off by talking about doubting
himself and his dream and moves to talking about God and why people should
believe in him and the psychology behind it.
He finalizes his chapter by explaining that if one only believes in God
then he will understand better that his dreams are only falsities of the world
around him. “But if we do not know that
all which we possess of real and true proceeds from a Perfect and Infinite
Being, however clear and distinct our ideas might be, we should have no ground
on that account for the assurance that they possessed the perfection of being
true.”
When looking at both of Hume’s
discussions, you find them to be interesting on their own, but even more
intriguing when you can tie them together.
His first discussion was on the origin of ideas and his second article
was on the reason behind animals. In his
first article he talks about the human thought process and how it is complex
and yet simple. “Nothing, at first view,
may seem more unbounded than the thought of man, which not only escapes all
human power and authority, but is not even restrained within limits of nature
and reality.” He goes into saying that
some of us live constrained by our own thoughts while others of us live
severely free of our thoughts; almost to the point of us not having them at
all. He then goes into explaining the
concept of impressions that its importance to our thoughts and development of
thoughts. “On the Contrary, all
impressions, that is, all sensations, either outward or inward, are strong and
vivid: the limits between them are more exactly determined nor is it easy to
fall into any error or mistake with regard to them.” Hume closes his discussion with explaining
innate and non-innate thoughts created and lived by us and nature. In Hume’s second article it is basically
explaining that humans learn more from experience than from instinct and that
nature learns more from instinct than from experience, but that we all learn
from both.
Finally, we come to Locke. When talking about transferring thoughts he
tells the story of how he had talked to a friend and a woman about people who
are around each other will share the same thought eventually if not at that
exact moment then later in the day/night.
They woman did not believe them and went home in doubt. Later that night while she was asleep she
experienced what Locke had told her and when she saw him later on she told him
of her experience and she started to believe him. He also explains the process of day
dreaming. He claims that it is just our
mind taking over the rest of our thoughts, which is very plausible. “Those as ho find themselves apt to be
carried away with the spontaneous current of their own thoughts, not excited by
any passion or interest must be very wary and careful in all the instances of
it to stop it and never humour their minds in being thus triflingly busy.” Locke appears to think that our mind can very
easily take over the rest of us if we do not attempt to control our own
thoughts and to a certain degree he is correct.
If we do not take care to exercise our brain muscles and thought
processes then we will find that there is no point in having a brain and the
ability to think.
As you can see Descartes, Hume and
Locke all have their own views of the mind and the way it works and processes
life around it. The fact that you can
look at these men’s works and see the philosophers who had influence their
thought process, whether they were aware of it or not, is quite
intriguing. Descartes talking about
dreams, Hume about human and animal learning/thinking and them of course Locke
on transferring thoughts to another person or a group of people. Each of these topics were interesting on
their own, but now that you kind of grasp their influence it makes them just
that much more interesting.
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