1/6/2023 0 Comments John locke the thinking rock![]() Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)īenjamin Franklin was a prolific American thinker, writer, inventor and founding father who constantly sailed back and forth between the American colonies and the Old World. He also attracted the attention of Frederick the Great who offered protection and a regular income – although they did fall out later in life. ![]() JOHN LOCKE THE THINKING ROCK FREEThis was enough to make him a marked man in France and he spent much of his time abroad, especially in England, where he found an environment which positively embraced free thinking. He was a brilliant writer and produced works in just about every genre, including a very early science fiction story called Micromegas, in which ambassadors arrived from another planet to witness the folly of mankind. He was famous for his wit as well as his attacks on the Church and advocacy of freedom of religion, expression and the separation of Church and State. Voltaire (1694–1778)ĭuring his life Voltaire was a superstar of the Enlightenment. Having said this, Frederick the Great was, simultaneously, an extremely aggressive military leader who transformed Prussia from a small backwater state into a major European power house. He supported artists and writers such as Voltaire, and believed that a monarch’s first duty was to promote the benefit of his people – even if this meant encouraging individualistic thinking further scrutiny of long-established institutions. While most monarchs feared the Enlightenment, as it challenged their authority and divine right to rule, Frederick the Great of Prussia truly embraced it. Image credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons Portrait by Johann Georg Ziesenis, c. 1763. Accepting one’s ignorance was the first step to self-improvement, and every man had a right to do so. In order to develop and become enlightened humans needed to view themselves as ignoramuses, void of any inherent knowledge, obligation or servitude. Locke’s most important contribution to the Enlightenment was his belief that the human mind was a blank slate (a “tabula rasa”), which developed based on experience. ![]() This was because his work was based fundamentally on the theory of rights – the belief that men are free and equal by nature, against claims that God had made all people naturally subject to a monarch. Locke’s writing influenced many philosphers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant and Thomas Paine who would later inspire the revolutions of the late-18th century. ![]() In his Two Treatises of Government he heralded the idea of a representative government that would best serve all the people. Locke was one of the most influential philosophers of the Enlightenment, who focused specifically on how systems of governments could be formed. In this respect he was heavily influenced by Francis Bacon and developed his own deductive approach, using maths and logic, to solving and understanding life’s many mysteries.ĭocumentary, using the academic expertise of Professor Christer Petley at the University of Southampton, exploring the rise of the Abolition movement in Britain in the late 18th century and its ultimate success in passing a bill (1807 Abolition Act) that outlawed the trade in Africans across the Atlantic to the brutal plantation systems established in the Americas. Known as the ‘Method of Cartesian Doubt’, Descartes claimed that one should never simply accept anything as true if there was even the slightest possibility that it wasn’t. Like many philosphers of the enlightened era, Descartes didn’t like to believe anything without examining why he believed it. Rene Descartes (1596–1650)īest known for the saying ‘ Cogito ergo sum’ (I think therefore I am), Descartes was a French philosopher and mathematician who revolutionised philosophy, algebra and geometry. Through this approach, science could be utilized as a tool to better humankind by expanding common knowledge of the world. While he did not personally make any major scientific discoveries, he became known for laying down the practical methods of scientific investigation based on observation and reason as a means of reaching a logical conclusion.Įntirely innovative at the time, Bacon championed a new scientific method that involved gathering data and analyzing it by performing experiments to observe nature’s truths in an organized way. Sir Francis Bacon was an eminent philosopher, statesman and scientist. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |