Biography (1623-1662)

1. raised by his widower father from age 3 Clermont France, eventually moving to Paris

2. home schooled by his father, Etienne and by 12 had solved the 32nd Euclidean proposition; a child genius; at 16 wrote a seminal article on conical geometry; at 19 invented a calculating machine and laid grounds for calculus; elaborated a theory of numerical probabilities and number theory; did experiments on vacuums

3. became involved in the Jansenist controversy and was publicly and professionally hurt by aligning with the Jansenist (Augustinians) against the more powerful Jesuits; he grew tired of the quarrels and became a libertine in religious and moral matters;

4. was influence by the resurgent skepticism of Montaigne

5. on November 23, 1654 had a dramatic near death experience during a lighting storm while crossing a bridge in Paris; he wrote about it eventually called the Memorial which he sowed on the inside label of coat

6. bibliography--The Provincial Letters and Pensees (the Lafuma text was hid in the Bibliotheque National from 1940-1944 during the Nazi occupation).

His Main Ideas

1. truth propositions:

a. confirming a hypothesis does not prove it is true; only its probability

b. it is shown false if a contradiction is drawn from it

2. the experimental sciences of the 17th are the most fruitful way to know about nature, but we cannot penetrate the secrets of nature because of the limitations of reason

a. we can only know what we experience, and that is of the effects of nature

b. our basic propositions presuppose the truth of other propositions

c. hence science though the best cannot give us certainty

1. geometrical knowledge--demonstrable reasoning

2. intuitive knowledge--immediate reasoning

"The heart has its reasons that the reason knows not of" (Pensees, # 423)

1. humanity is not prone to accept skepticism too long and far; the desire for happiness reaches for what is certain; science cannot give this certainty; the search must be for something outside ourselves and nature (#143); the basic instincts are amenable for this search

2. the Wager, #418

a. by reason, we cannot penetrate into reality but we can reason practically

about reality; e.g., in math we can reason about the infinite number without

knowing the infinite number per se; can we practically reason about God?

b. the reality of God is hidden and human nature is "wretched"

c. the wager--if there is no God, then a believer and nonbeliever do not

lose anything; if there is a God, then the believer gain everything and the

nonbeliever is eternally punished; which is more reasonable

d. some call this reasoning the Expected Value; the probability times the

payoff minus the cost equals the expected value

e. it is a forced option, which does not prove God's existence but sets up belief

as fulfilling the basic instincts for happiness; it shows the reliance upon God is

consistent with the human nature to find happiness

f. this is a "prudential argument" for belief as a way to fulfill a particular

understanding of human nature and human flourishing

g. #424--"It is the heart which experiences God, and not the reason."

Biography (1588-1679)

1. Englishman; tutor of Cabanis family which exposed him to the elite

2. 1640--left England due to civil war; returned during Cromwell; supported Charles II

3. Leviathan--first major attempt to look at civil life without a transcendent God

4. influenced by Francis Bacon’s (1561-1626) principle of induction and teachings on the Idols (bad habits which lead to error; four of them: of the Tribe--human nature distorts perception; Cave--personal prejudices; Market Place--misled by words; Theatre--dogmatism)

1. Descartes: world is mechanical but not the mind

2. Hobbes rejects Cartesian dualism; we only conceive in physical, corporeal fashions

a. promotes materialistic monism

B. His Method of Philosophy

1. strict, logical, empirical method is the key to science

2. the method of "Resolution and Composition" (learned from Galileo) produces scientific understanding

a. resolution--analyze complex wholes into simplistic parts

b. composition--the simple elements are resembled

1. there is no non-material soul; there is only "bodies in motion"

2. thoughts are representational but not non-material

3. origin of ideas--senses of physical objects; the motion of the object creates an impression on the brain

4. this motion is met by a "endeavor of the heart to deliver itself"--inherent desires

5. the union creates images

a. a combination of materialism and epiphenomenalism (the image is not material)

b. an ambiguity

6. memory is decaying sense impressions (dreams--reactived memories; superstition--unreal images)

1. "signs" (language acts) are given to images

2. understanding occurs when signs are joined--called Phantoms

a. understand only what can be experienced; since God cannot be experienced, then the idea is superstition

3. two kinds of thoughts:

a. unregulated--random associations

b. regulated--order brought by causal connection

c. words--show this connection

d. reasoning--computation of names agreed upon for the marking and

signifying of thoughts

4. passions ("endeavors of the heart") motivates reasoning

a. good desires--pleasure

b. aversions--evil and pain

c. we reason according to our passions

5. passions aim for felicity--the happy life

a. but this puts us in conflict with others

b. the Natural Condition-- "a state of war; solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short"

c. left to our own--too selfish and short sighted

1. two passions force us to solve the problem of the natural condition

a. desire for happiness

b. fear of death

2. they motivate us to form rights

3. there is a Law of Nature--a rule of prudence that results from the shrewd calculation of a frightened human

4. the most basic right--Right of Nature: my liberty to fulfill my desires

5. there must be a Social Contract to balance conflict of rights

1. because we devour each other, a sovereign is needed to ensure peace and individual’s fulfillment

2. this is an "artificial person"--above nature; forces us to live by "enlightened self-interest"

3. the sovereign determines the moral codes (socially connived)

4. can be resisted on two conditions:

a. violates natural law

b. cannot secure peace