History of Philosophy II

Finishing up with Spinoza we talked a bit about Pantheism - aka Spinozaism - and I also argued in his Ethics his conclusion that God must be everything to satisfy the Scholastic definition of God as that than which nothing greater can be thought seems to be successful. But what exactly does that mean for us? How should that change our life? For Spinoza it would be to argue that the Enlightenment - science and reason - should be the religion - and is the true religion. Plus, all other religions and great religious leaders were essentially doing science. All religions are essentially trying to improve the quality of life of mankind, and so there should be mutual toleration for all religions. It seems clear his assumption was that as science progressed, within a generation or two science would know everything and religions would go away and be replaced by science. John Locke is influenced by both Hobbes and Spinoza and so we see elements of both in his thought. He continues the view that government is legitimized by a social contract among the members of the contract but disagrees with Hobbes on the state of nature that drives the impulse to form a government. Instead of fear, the problem is society becomes too complex and we have to form government to deal with that. Further, if the government does not abide by the laws people have the right to rebel. Ownership of property is discussed and especially regarding the nature of slavery. We left off talking about the tabula rasa and our senses. The quiz question was what is your favorite sense?