History of Philosophy II

We discussed Hobbes and Descartes. With Hobbes the main concern was the Social Contract theory as the legitimating narrative of modern democratic forms of government. I emphasized that the Original State of Nature was a hypothesis within which everyone has all rights but no protections of those rights. We form a contact that defines the rights that the state will protect provided we live according to the contract. With Descartes I contrasted his Meditations with Saint Augustine's Reply to the Skeptics from the City of God. Briefly we considered Descartes' version of the Ontological Argument and found it required that a cause must always be greater than the effect. (This turned out to be the quiz question in that I asked everyone to think about it and see if they could come up with a counter example.) I also hinted that with David Hume the necessary connection between cause and effect was going to be put under question and that ever since scientists that are worth their salt never say they have proved anything.