Lecture 1 - Materialism Flashcards
Which changes introduced the High Enlightenment? (6)
- French censorship fails, leading to cooperation with Diderot and leading to the Encyclopédie
- Voltaire starts using philosophical clandestine texts
- Publication of L’Homme Machine (1747)
- French monarchy is increasingly under stress due to poor financial and foreign policy
- Diminishing status of the Kings of France as the embodiment of the nation allows the philosophes to take over the public domain
- Loss of authority of the French Catholic Church due to internal quarrels
Which two distinct philosophical phenomena occur after 1750, and are key traits of the High Enlightenment?
- Philosophical materialism (La Mettrie, D’Holbach)
- A shift of Enlightenment thinking towards politics (Rousseau)
What is the biggest problem with materialism?
The fact that ‘all there is, is matter in motion’ would also imply that there is no soul, and no afterlife
Which work had a massive influence on the recovery of materialism in the 18th century?
The Epicurean poem De Rerum Natura by Lucretius
On which two claims is 18th century materialism made up?
- Metaphysical claim: all there is, is matter
- Epistemological claim: all we need to do to understand reality is to work with the assumption that there is only matter
How does materialism explain nature?
Changes in the state of nature are the result of changes in the configuration of atoms
In De Rerum Natura, Lucretius explains Epicurean moral philosophy. What does it entail?
Man’s road towards hapiness can be achieved by removing the causes of unhappiness
What are the causes of unhappiness among men according to Epicureus/Lucretius, and how can they be countered? (2)
- Fear of the gods
Counter: the gods aren’t occupied with us, so there is no reason to fear them - Fear of death
Counter: it was not bad for us not to exist before we existed. Not existing after we have existed is equal to not existing before existence. So: not existing is not bad for us. It is irrational to fear something which is not bad for us. So: the fear of death is irrational.
Which work would be (partly) inspired by the De Rerum Natura? What is remarkable about this work?
The Theophrastus redivivus
This text denies the existence of God on the basis of philosophical arguments, and is the first post-Roman philosophical atheist text written in Europe
Which Cartesian notion does La Mettrie fight in L’homme machine?
The notion that the worlds consists of two seperate substances: res extensa and res cogita
What was the main philosophical worry many critics had with Descartes’ dualism?
If the world consists of two essentially distinguished substances, how can these substances constantly interact in the way in which they do?
How does La Mettrie oppose Cartesian dualism?
By claiming that he could explain human behaviour in strictly material terms, without a need for a res cogitans
Which philosopher was influental on La Mettrie’s L’homme machine, and why?
How does this influence La Mettrie?
Spinoza, who had already come up with a monist metaphysics –> the world consists of a single substance of which extension and thought are just attributes
Much like Spinoza, La Mettrie sees mental phenomena as properties of matter, rather than a unique substance
What does La Mettrie see as the origin of the material property of thought?
La Mettrie sees thought as a spontaneous property of matter, without the need for God to join the res cogita and res extensa
How does La Mettrie defend his claim that mental phenomena are properties of matter, even though he is unable to come up with an explanation for how this works?
He point to other properties of matter (magnetism, electricity, weight) that were at the time not understood but proven to exist –> why are these so different from thought that one has to infer an entirely new substance to explain thought?
