Intro to Philosophy Mar 4

Today we moved on to John Locke. Two main issues include the problem of Empiricism and the Social Contract Theory. The problem of empiricism results from Locke's recognition that the things in themselves do not have the characteristics we sense but instead those characteristics result from the interaction of our senses with what he called the primary characteristics of those things. This leaves us in a quandry regarding what we can know about the things in themselves since the primary qualities - the matter of those things - are essentially unobservable by us. This leads to a very skeptical point of view which George Berkeley will be concerned with later. This also begins the point of view regarded as Materialism. The second issue: since Jefferson honored John Locke along with Frances Bacon and Isaac Newton as his favorite philosophers, Locke's version of the Social Contract was fundamental in Jefferson's philosophy and use of political theory in his work in Virginia and the Federal Government. I emphasize that the state of nature as conceived by Locke is different than with Hobbes and this changes the purpose of the social contract. Instead of concluding that an absolute authority should govern Locke argues for a balance of powers. Under this members of the contract do not yield their rights to absolute monarch but instead maintain the right to overthrow the monarch if the executive does not ahere to the legislature's intent. Another important point inherited by Jefferson from Locke (that comes from Locke's reading of Spinoza) is the need for toleration of different religions. Since all great religious prophets were essentially doing science and religions based on their teachings are in the end all aiming at the same thing, there should be tolleration of those with different views. After all, with education and the improvments of science we will eventually all be in agreement anyway! So Jefferson fights for a seperation of Church and State. We ended this session puzzled with the famous question concerning the tree falling in the forest with no one there to hear it. Does it make a sound?