Paulina Fernandez
Mr. Teller
ENGL 1
February 15, 2017
Hobbes Thomas. "From Leviathan." Reading The World: Ideas That Matter, edited by Michael Austin, Third edition, Norton, 2015, pp 94-98.
In From Leviathan, Hobbes argues that man’s nature is to want power and will always want more. He felt that with if there was no government then humans would indulge in their worst impulses. Hobbes believed that there are three concepts to a man’s nature in anger, rivalry, modesty, and glory. Each concept leads to something else, rivalry for gain, modesty for safety, and glory for esteem.
In Leviathan, something that I found memorable was the way Hobbes felt other men viewed each other. For example, “For such is the nature of men that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty or more eloquent, or more learned, yet they hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves” (Hobbes 95). What I got from this quote was that men feel superior to other men and if they see that another man is more brilliant they will choose to ignore it.
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"Of Ideas." Reading The World: Ideas That Matter, edited by Michael Austin, Third edition, Norton, 2015, pp 100-102.
In Of Ideas, John Locke argues that humans mind starts as a “blank slate” and begin to understand through events they experience. Locke believed that ideas are created while thinking but humans must become aware first. He also believed that when experiencing something it can be through sensation or reflection. Sensation is what a human interprets through their senses and reflection is the mind acquiring information on its own.
In Of Ideas, a quote I found interesting was, “Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas” (Locke 101). I liked that they compared the mind during blank slate to white paper. It was a great comparison to understand the meaning of blank slate