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Hobbes Descartes And The Science Of Man

Submitted by solo1283 on March 16, 2005

Category: Philosophy
Words: 1407 | Pages: 6
Views: 580
Popularity Rank: 18,177
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Hobbes, Descartes and the science of man

In this paper I intend to examine the political philosophy of

Thomas Hobbes and Rene Descartes, in particular their ideas

relating to the science of man, and attempt to explain why their ideas

prove that it is not possible to construct a science of man. I will also

briefly mention the philosophy of Donald Davidson in regards to a

science of man.

The theories of Hobbes and the contemporary socio-

biologists attempt to recognize how man works and on that basis

build a society. "Hobbes wished to be seen as the inventor of the

science of politics" (Sorell, p45) He went about this by looking at the

psychology of man and discovering that man is a mechanism.

Hobbes wanted to understand mechanics. He wanted to look at why

men live the way that they do in society and therefore, breaks it

down. By doing this he discovered that people are cogs in the social

machine. Therefore he wants to examine these cogs in order to

achieve an understanding of the social mechanism, and does this by

looking at the psychology of the mind. Hobbes is both an empirist

and a materialist. Empiricists believe that sense gives all knowledge.

Generally, they do not believe in astrology, god, electrons etc. Their

philosophy is summed up by saying that all things that give true

knowledge can be sensed. Materialists believe that all things in

existence are physical matter. In other words, the soul and the spirit

do not exist. Therefore Hobbes believes that thoughts are material,

that they are caused by sense and vice versa. Tom Sorell suggests

in his essay, entitled...

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