Apologies:
Frank (FB),
John (J),
David (D),
Margie (M),
Howard (H),
Colin (C)
The homework set
We agreed that we would use our background reading/listening, and wide ranging discussion, on Thomas Hobbes as a springboard for diving into the views of John Locke and John Stuart Mill on moral philosophy and politics, and to spot the differences, and their implications.
Hobbes, Locke and John Stuart Mill are at opposite ends of the Enlightenment, which broadly extended from 1600 to 1800. In fact John Stuart Mill falls just outside this chronology. Looking at these three philosophers can be revealing in terms of how the Enlightenment unfolded and how knowledge and moral values were understood in the context of the unique human condition. What is our 'natural state'?
In summary
The Enlightenment was undoubtedly the most exciting era for philosophy since the the philosophical ferment of Athens around 400BC. It was a time of religious tolerance, when the constraints on discussion were reduced, when big issues were addressed, and when science emerged as a discipline. In particular there was a debate about what constituted knowledge, and from where it was derived: rationalism vs. empiricism.
... The philosophers involved:
Hobbes (1588-1679)
Best known for Leviathan, the necessary power of the State/Sovereign, anti-democracy. Scientist and therefore an empiricist, but in other ways a rationalist, with an emphasis on the power of logic.
Descartes (1596-1650)
Arch-rationalist, believing all knowledge came via pure thought/reason. Knowledge from the mind outwards. With mind and body separate, therefore a dualist. Very focused on elucidating the essences of things, e.g. wax. But how do you make sense of having knowledge of the outside world?
Locke (1632-1704)
The first and arch-empiricist, i.e. believing that all our knowledge must arise from experience, and that all knowledge arises in the senses. This was considered a way of overcoming the sceptical doubt of Descartes.
... An overlap with, but a major diversion, from:
Spinoza (1632-1753)
A rationalist, believing that all knowledge was geometry-based with human beings being machines. Believing the world was transparent to the intellect and that God is immanent in the world, that all beings are of one and the same substance and modes of God. Early Gaia? A monist, considering thinking to be the consciousness of the body.
Berkeley (1685-1753)
Back to empiricism, with Berkeley agreeing with Locke that all knowledge must ultimately derive from experience. But the Bishop also agreed with Descartes that experience alone could not secure knowledge of the outside world as ordinarily conceived. (Hint of Kant here?) According to Berkeley, a mental idealist, the world must be mental—as only if the world were mental could experiences secure knowledge of it, i.e. your ideas having no material reality.
Good cause to be sceptical.
Hume (1711-1804)
Back to the Lockean view that the world is material and that experience of it generates knowledge. However, Hume took on board some of Berkeley's sceptical doubts, specifically concerning the existence and nature of causality: to prove induction works, you need inductive observations! It just does. Circular.
Kant (1724-1804)
Kant believed that Hume's scepticism re causality led inevitably to more general scepticism about human agency and moral responsibility. But he didn't want to go along Berkeley's empirical idealism route either. So he had to find another way out of the problem. Hence his Critique of Pure Reason, with its clear implication that there has to be another world behind the manifest world...something 'transcendental'. Thus his transcendental idealism.
... Which leads us to John Stuart Mill, born two years after Kant died
What legacy did he inherit and develop from all the Enlightenment thought of the previous 200 years? In particular, in developing his political philosophy, his thoughts on liberal democracy, as described in 'On Liberty'. As a start point we suggest you listen to an In Our Time focusing on Mill. [Here's a link.]
There a number of IoT programmes on various aspects of the Enlightenment, including one focusing on John Locke's epistemology, and which also gives good insights his background and philosophical motivation. The Internet Encylopedia of Philosophy has a long and detailed paper on Locke; we suggest you focus on Section 4 covering his political beliefs. [Here's a link.]
As Hobbes and Mill essentially bookend the Enlightenment era comparing their philosophies potentially illustrates the nature of, and changes in, the Enlightenment. But maybe Locke and Mill are closer in outlook whilst chronologically far apart, than Hobbes and Locke.
Is Mill's philosophy, building on the hard-line utilitarianism of Bentham and James Mill, maybe more influenced by the forces of romanticism (Wordsworth etc) than the science-driven Enlightenment period?
Whilst a individuals achieving happiness is the overall aim of utilitarianism, what new dimensions does Mill bring to this, and what implications does this have for his political philosophy?
What if Mill had not encountered Harriet Taylor?
How does Mill counter the accusation of his extension of the franchise risks us being overrun by ignorant people? Is this what inevitably happens when you encourage people to speak for themselves in a political context?
How does Mill's position on this differ from Locke's idea of representative government, which he says can legitimately be overthrown if the elected politicians fail to deliver the people's will?
What would Hobbes, Locke and Mill have to say about the roles of social media and AI in the politics of today?
Plenary Session
Introduction(S)
The Enlightenment was a 200-year-year period re-examining what it is to be human in a changing world. It was characterised by a mistrust of religion and monarchy, as well as scholasticism and Greek philosophy, and led to greater democracy and the 1832 Great Reform Act.(S)
It was a period of flux in which science became a discipline separate from philosophy. The Enlightenment picked up where the early Greek's atomism left off.(S)
Scepticism, and going back to basics, became powerful investigative forces. Descartes asked: what can we really know? Are we born as a tabula rasa, or do we inherit, as some religions presume, original sin?(S)
Various philosophical tensions existed: rationalism vs. empiricism, and Continental (e.g. Leibniz, Spinoza, Descartes) vs. British philosophy (e.g. Bacon, Berkeley and Hume). Philosophers such as Kant and Voltaire tried to span the divisions.(S)
Empiricism came to be associated with the theory of induction. Many saw it as common sense, although Berkeley said not. Utilitarianism emerged, in which the importance of each person was given equal weight. This in turn drove the ideas of democracy and education for all.(S)
Locke was the first philosopher to talk about a social contract. Hobbes said one must submit to the sovereign. And Mill believed in happiness achieved through utilitarian calculation. Mill provided a bridge into the Romantic world of Coleridge and Wordsworth.(S)
The novel became established as an art form. Defoe's Robinson Crusoe(1719) confronts the protagonist with a tabula rasa in the form of an island.(S)
Rousseau focussed on nature, the power of the spirit, and the innocence of children. Emile(1762) proved a controversial book.(S)
Discussion
Locke didn't understand the subconscious. Freud decided that character was determined by early events children couldn't remember.(A)
Free Speech, Censorship and Tolerance
We are losing the ability to speak freely. Dissent in universities is being stifled. You should be able to do what you wish so long as you cause no harm to others.(V)
Should knowingly faked images be censored? A deep-faked video of President Biden on a Meta platform is a case in point.(L)
Following the Brianna Ghey murder, more people are calling for the banning of smartphones from schools.(A)
The continued existence of QAnon shows that many people will believe almost anything.(G)
Locke believed in tolerance of people with mystical beliefs: for instance, in the divine right of kings, and in transubstantiation.(S)
Education
Some apprentice teacher programmes take people who have no experience of life outside school and university.(A)
Jamie Oliver had a rotten time at school as a pupil, but is a good teacher of cooking.(L)
Rights
Bentham (1796) said that the concept of natural rights was nonsense and that to claim rights not prescribed in the laws of the state was nonsense on stilts.
Do we all have a right to have a baby? The right to free IVF assistance?
The NHS should be pared back, with a renewed emphasis on healing the sick.(V)
Knowledge and Inferences
The conflict between rational and empiricist theories of knowledge is artificial. Both can be true.(V)
In the USA, some claim they are proud to be ignorant.(A)
Does this mean "I'll believe whatever I like" or "I reject conventional learning and instead choose to learn from nature"?(S)
Scientific method can be manipulated to prove whatever hypothesis you want.(V)
Many people don't know the difference between causation and correlation.(A)
VR's father used correlation to show that wearing trousers caused baldness.(V)
More Or Less is a reliable programme for demonstrating the errors in statistics.
Fewer than 6% of Parisians voted on the SUV issue, so a 55:45% vote hardly reflects a majority view.(S)
Doing Good
Several years ago, the concept of virtue signalling emerged in the US as a behaviour to be criticised, even though the targets may just have been trying to do some good.(S)
When people get involved in local projects, it tends to generate further enthusiasm and involvement.(S)
Mill (1867) said: "Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing."
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) said: "The history of the world is but the biography of great men."
Celebrity
Were people in the past famous for being famous? Did they make money out of it?(S)
Beau Brummell (1778-1840)?(L)
Are people more likely to buy Rolex watches simply because Roger Federer straps one on immediately after winning Wimbledon?(G)
No captions were necessary in a recent Guardian pictorial[1] of famous political photos.(S)
Do the British tend to dislike the polymath?(G)
Other topics touched on
Bayes' Theorem, the Principle of Restricted Choice, and the Monty Hall Problem.
The Traitors TV show.
The Holdovers (2023 movie starring Paul Giamatti).
Openness about individual vulnerabilities within the England Cricket team and consequential success.
