POLS 2900 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Long-Term Memory, Omen
25 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Hobbes - Leviathan
Authoritarian politics
Prefers monarchy, pragmatic reason, monarch more likely to be successful, needed to ensure peace and avoid civil war
Interest of peace - submission of people, only power can ensure peace
How the mind processes sense data, materialistic, claims matter is all that exists, matter is emotion, sensations mental
events, perception
Physical pressure, set nerves vibrating, reach brain and heart, vibrating, the result is a thought, physical matter emotion
Have no direct knowledge of things in themselves
Believe we are born with certain ideas, like good vs bad, notion was that god implanted these ideas, Hobbes disagrees,
believes all ideas originate from experience, however ideas can come from combined experiences to create things that
do not exist in reality, two separate images or ideas derived from sensory experiences
Dreams are explained from internal sensory organs to create counterfeit sensory experienced, some can interpret
dreams as an ill omen, these people are viewed as ignorant and their ignorance can be cured with the help of
“schoolmen” - professors (education)
Ch 3 - mental discourse
Origin of instrumental reasoning, train of thought is usually guided by desire, knowledge of cause and effect is gained
through experience, experience yields prudential knowledge in most cases
Ch 4 - language
important
*We form ideas before we have words to describe these ideas
Limits to what we can learn about the world through sensory impression bc lack of long term memory, however we
can manipulate data and retain it with more effectiveness “artificially”
The language that we give to ideas serve as aids to memory
Downside - makes it possible to fall into error with the inconsistent use of words, enables us to deceive one another
or to lie, words can be used to grieve others
True/ false are attributes of speech, not things - not denying reality of material universe, however the ideas we form
are neither true or false, they are. Elements of experience, use words correctly/ incorrectly = true/ false
For ex: if someone said that cats bark we would say that he does not know what a cat is
Sense impressions; audible, visual etc.
False statements (intelligible) vs unintelligible statements
Intelligible, but false statement
November 28
Reason - adding and subtracting of general names, agreed upon by the marking and signifying, links words together to
create statements, statements together
Ideas based on perceptions is our reality and truth
Putting labels on to ideas allows us to expand our understanding
Proper use of language - called good and orderly method
Sense and memory - credential wisdom, knowledge of past
Science - knowledge of consequences
Scientific knowledge is more valuable than prudence
This shall be and that shall be - causal link between state a and state b - important
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Prefers monarchy, pragmatic reason, monarch more likely to be successful, needed to ensure peace and avoid civil war. Interest of peace - submission of people, only power can ensure peace. How the mind processes sense data, materialistic, claims matter is all that exists, matter is emotion, sensations mental events, perception. Physical pressure, set nerves vibrating, reach brain and heart, vibrating, the result is a thought, physical matter emotion. Have no direct knowledge of things in themselves. Dreams are explained from internal sensory organs to create counterfeit sensory experienced, some can interpret dreams as an ill omen, these people are viewed as ignorant and their ignorance can be cured with the help of. Origin of instrumental reasoning, train of thought is usually guided by desire, knowledge of cause and effect is gained through experience, experience yields prudential knowledge in most cases. * we form ideas before we have words to describe these ideas.
