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| Gender: |
Female |
| Age: |
40 |
| Location: |
Cook Islands, Mauke, Mauke |
| Connection: |
| No connection |
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| Smoking Habits: |
Never |
| Drinking Habits: |
Never |
| Interests I'd like to share with others: |
, , Sailing/Boating, , Coffee, tea, and conversation, Alumni clubs, Religion/Spiritual, Nightclubs/Dancing, , Animals/Pets, Movies/Videos, , , , Picnics, , Cooking, Politics, , Television-I love TV, Computers/Internet, , Gardening, , , , , Speaking Different Languages, , , Drama-Plays/Musicals, , , Travel/Sightseeing, Family Outings |
| My Favorite Sports: |
Yoga, Hockey, Cricket, Volleyball, Walking/Hiking, Skiing, Billiards/Pool, Dancing, Horseback Riding, Windsurfing, Martial Arts, Bowling, Other forms of excercise, Skating, Weights/Machines, Football, Auto racing, Tennis/Racquet Sports, Biking, Swimming, Rock Climbing, Basketball, Scuba Diving |
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The sovereign (government) according to Hobbes is the glue that holds society together. The sovereign enacts and enforces laws. The sovereign is the power that all men fear if they break the law. The sovereign has the right to execute its citizens if they are found guilty, but the citizen has no obligation to assist in his own execution or death (Hobbes 199). It is against the Law of Nature not to resist death. Hobbes states: "For though a man may covenant thus, Unlesse I do so, or so, kill me; he cannot covenant thus, Unlesse I do so, or so, I will not resist you, when you come to kill me" (Hobbes 199).
Augustine seems to have practically plagiarized Plato. Substitute "god" for "the good" and "the divine" for "the forms" and there you have it: Augustine's philosophy. He even adopts the technique of argument by analogy from Plato. It is interesting to note the inconsistencies in Augustine's own comparison to Platonic theory. Plato considered the forms to be the greater knowledge attainable only by philosophers and those with a truly rational soul. Thus, understanding of forms is a rational process which Plato attributes to the power of human intelligence, counterpoising it to the "inspiration" of poets. In fact, this is the basis for Plato's entire assertion that philosophers not only should be rulers, but are the only people fit to be rulers if the aim of a society is justice.
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13/08/2008
No man has the obligation to put his life on the line unless to do so would cause the downfall of the sovereign. Hobbes states that "when the defence of the commonwealth, requireth at once the help of all that are able to bear arms, every one is obliged; because otherwise the institution of the commonwealth, which they have not the purpose, or courage to preserve, was in vain" (270). The only reason to set up a commonwealth is to exit of the State of Nature or State of War and enter the State of Man or State of Law. Since, however, there is no authority or power to enforce a covenant between commonwealths, all commonwealths are in a State of War with each other, and it is the obligation of every man in a commonwealth to defend against the enemy in time of need. If the citizens in a commonwealth refuse to defend the commonwealth, the covenant between the citizens is void and the commonwealth reverts back to the State of Nature in which every man is at war with every man. Logically, the rational man would choose to defend the commonwealth since not to do so would be to put their self preservation at risk. The first Law of Nature states "That every man, ought to endeavor Peace, as far as he has hope in obtaining it; and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek, and use, all helps, and advantages of Warre" (190). Man in seeking peace makes a covenant with his fellow man to set up a sovereign. There can be no covenants between sovereigns, because there is no power to enforce a covenant. Therefore all sovereigns are in a state of war with each other. If a citizen wishes peace he must defend the commonwealth "otherwise the institution of the commonwealth, which they have not the purpose to preserve was in vain" (270), and we are all in the State of War.
At the end of Section 9 Hume writes: "But our wonder will perhaps cease or diminish when we consider that the experimental (experiential) reasoning itself, which we possess in common with beasts, and on which the whole of conduct depends, is nothing but a species of instinct or mechanical power that acts in us unknown to ourselves, and in its chief operations is not directed by any such relations or comparison of ideas as are the proper objects of our intellectual faculties." Hume's argument that human instincts are similar to animal instincts, however humans differ from animals in regards to the facts makes sense, but it makes more sense to combine experience with thought.
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13/08/2008
The Social Contract also keeps people from being totally alienated and affords them better protection. If a large group of people enter a Social Contract, they can more easily defend themselves against their enemies, and criminals who live in societies with no Social Contract. Thus in spite of giving up some individual rights for the Social Contract, they have not lost any more freedom, because all within the society have surrendered their rights freely and equally, and suffer the same inequality. In other words, all things being equal, man is still free, and maintains autonomy. Everyone must surrender his or her rights for the social contract to work. If one person gives up their rights and another does not, the person who does not has power over the other person and there is no contract. However, it is to a person benefit to agree to the social contract, because by giving up the freedom of Natural Liberty an individual gains Civil Liberty. Natural Liberty is the freedom man maintains in the State of Nature. Civil Liberty is freedom you have in society, freedom gained from the social contract. Rousseau argues in chapter eight of the Social Contract, What man loses by the social contract is his natural liberty and an unlimited right to everything he tries to get and succeeds in getting; what he gains is civil liberty and the proprietorship of all he possesses. If we are to avoid mistake in weighing one against the other, we must clearly distinguish natural liberty, from civil liberty. . . (Rousseau, P.196)
These clauses, properly understood, may be reduced to one, the total alienation of each associate, together with all his rights, to the whole community; for, in the first place, as each gives himself absolutely, the conditions are the same for all; and, this being so, no one has any interest in making them burdensome to others. (Rousseau, John-Jacque. "The Social Contract." The Social Contract and Discourses, P. 191)
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Like other Western philosophers, Machiavelli was influenced by the early Greek philosophers, especially Plato. However, in many cases Machiavelli seems to be arguing against Platonic philosophy. Plato...
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1. If x is happy, then x is just, and
Dewey's work helps us put aside that spirit of seriousness which artists traditionally lack and philosophers are traditionally supposed to maintain. For the spir...
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So we cannot sin except of our own fault, yet we cannot be righteous without the intervention of god. This seems to be a far too convenient of a policy to be another "we can't understand god" ambiguit...
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Locke believes that at the beginning man lived in common ownership of the earth (Locke, 18). Man is blessed with the ownership of property in his own person (Locke, 19). Rousseau argues, the contrary,...
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Locke outlined the aims and purposes of the state in his "Two Treatises of Government", and by the time of the American Revolution, Locke's principles and philosophies were well known and deeply embed...
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Let's take the example of water. Someone who understands water only in terms of the wet stuff that comes out of the faucet obviously has an incomplete conceptualization of water's form. If water is re...
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In short, all the materials of thinking are derived either from our outward or inward sentiment: the mixture and composition of these belongs alone to the mind and will. Or. To express myself in philo...
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Perhaps the leap from philosophical metaphysics to philosophical pragmatics was too steep for Dewey. Nature changes slowly and so do our values and the way we experience nature. Dewey's pragmatism bui...
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But no man, having seen only one body move after being impelled by another, could infer that every other body will move after a like impulse. All inferences from experience, therefore, are effects of ...
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30/08/2008 02:40
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2. If x is just, then x is happy.
There are, however, two possible reasons for de Beauvoir's primacy of freedom for others. One is that she has created a value scheme which promotes such values. But ...
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02/09/2008 14:02
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Mill notes that it may be further objected that a person may set a bad example for others by his actions and in that way do harm to others (75). Therefore, we should be concerned with everyone's actio...
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The range of Plato's knowledge was vast. He developed a deep insight into all the arts and sciences, including mathematics, physics, astronomy, politics, ethics, esthetics, poetry, painting, sculptur...
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Plato had a great influence on Aristotle and other Greek philosophers. His works also influenced the Greek and Latin Fathers of the Christian church. The study of Plato's doctrines and the influence o...
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The discussion in part I on despair and the causes and results of this despair is a fairly scientific description of observable phenomenon in the human psyche. The dialectical method of examination of...
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Dewey's work helps us put aside that spirit of seriousness which artists traditionally lack and philosophers are traditionally supposed to maintain. For the spirit of seriousness can only exist in an ...
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Machiavelli's idea of virtu' is not of moral character then, but of what is best or the utilitarian needs of the country. For Machiavelli virtu' out weighs virtue in times of need while Plato believes...
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An easy rebuttal to this objection is simply that we don't yet know the truth about electrons and water, and thus the form. This objection has no scientific basis. Any more accurate description of ele...
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No person ought to be punished simply for being drunk; but a soldier or a policeman should be punished for being drunk on duty. Whenever, in short, there is a definite damage, either to an individual ...
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as much as any one can make use of to any advantage of life before it spoils, so much he may by his labour fix a property in: whatever is beyond this, is more than his share, and belongs to others. No...
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Mill answers these objections brilliantly. The part of the person's actions others should be concerned with is the damage the actions do to others. A person who is a drunk and fails to meet his family...
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