| Descartes, Hobbes And Pascal Essay, Research Paper
Artigas, Jorge Nelson.
History 2.
MW 11:15-12:50 PM.
04/20/00.
Great Philosophers
During the 17th and 18th century, religion, religious beliefs and most of all the
religious leaders played a very influential role in the direction of politics. This was also a
time when religion and politics played a large role in the direction of what was accepted
as a result of the new discoveries in the natural sciences and in a time when there were
some very influential writers, philosophers, scientists and mathematicians. At the time,
these people were considered to be very radical and revolutionary because of some of
their beliefs and this often times led them to be highly scrutinized, criticized and
sometimes even punished by the legal system. Now in the 21st century, these views that
were considered to be radical and even ridiculous at that time are now considered to be
brilliant revelations written by ingenious individuals. It would be very interesting to see
how some of these individuals would feel about the progress of the planet in which they
helped to inspire and how they might feel about some more recent issues concerning the
direction of humanity in the late 20th century, as I shall further discuss in this paper.
In this class we have discussed about many philosophical writers of the 17th and
18th century and in this paper I shall discuss some of the opinions written about the
following document; Renee Descartes? Discourse on Method (1637), Thomas Hobbes?
Leviathan (1651), Blaise Pascal?s Thoughts (1670) and Jacques Bossuet?s Politics +
Scriptures (1679).
First I am going to talk about Renee Descartes and the subjects that he would
discuss at a dinner party hosted by me. Renee Descartes was the father of modern
philosophy, a great scientist and also a well known mathematician. He used the
Cartesian philosophy for his reasoning and in 1622, he wrote a great piece of literature
named Discourse on Method. In it, Descartes talks about the existence of the human
beings and the existence of God. He gets himself to doubt everything and then assumes
that doubt does exist. That is how he reaches to the conclusion of ?Cogito Ergo Sum?,
which means, ?I think, therefore I am?. He realizes that if he can think, then he also
exists, and he uses this also to prove the existence of God. He says that the body and the
mind are two separate entities and the only thing that unites them is God. Descartes was
very flattered to know how much people appreciate his writings and he assured that he
probably would have had a better time with the church nowadays because they are more
open minded. In the past, although Descartes believed in God, the Church did not like
him a lot and that really depressed him. He realized that nowadays, the Church is not as
strict as before because science has taken total control over the people and now is much
more respected than before. As we can see, as time has gone by, he continues, science
has divorced from the church and it seems that soon it will become like a separate
religion because he was amazed how much people believe in all of the science?s claims.
The next author that will talk about is Thomas Hobbes. As we all know, he was
the writer of the famous Leviathan, which was written in England on 1651. In his
writing, he presents us a bleak picture of human beings in the state of nature, where life
is nasty, brutish and short. This shows us how vulnerable people really are if they live in
the state of nature rather than under the law of nature. Therefore, the fear of a violent
death is the principal motive that causes people to create a state. But before anything is
possible, the people contract to surrender their natural rights and to submit to the
absolute authority of a sovereign if they want protection. The contract between the
people and the sovereign says that in order for the sovereign to remain in power, he has
to provide peace and protection for the people. The sovereign?s power is absolute and he
is not subject to any reviews unless he brakes the contract with his people. During the
dinner party, Thomas Hobbes was very happy to see that nowadays people can still walk
in the streets safely in most cities. The states that are created now, according to him, are
very sophisticated and there is definitely a better quality of life than that that there used
to be during my time. I wish that people could have the sense of security that you feel
today although in this period of the late 20th century, I have seen a lot of corruption
among the leaders that remain in power.
The next person of whom we will talk about is Blaise Pascal. He was the author
of Thoughts, which was written in 1662 near his death. Blaise Pascal was a very well
known mathematician, scientist and Christian thinker, and his main problem was that he
was torn between his passion and his beliefs. Although he was highly educated in math
and science, he could not overcome his beliefs about God which sometimes conflicted
with his scholastic knowledge. His book was written in an attempt to reconcile the
method of science with the content of religion because Blaise Pascal couldn?t deny God?s
existence. During the dinner party, Pascal was really disappointed to see how people in
the late 20th century had forgotten about God. He said that people were more interested
in the new technology that was arising rather than in living a life trying to fulfill God?s
will. Blaise Pascal believed that religion was essential for the human existence and that
this kind of attitude from the people would surely cause some conflict with God.
Another thing that shocked Pascal was the diversity of religions that existed nowadays.
He never thought that there could possibly exist so many religions and he commented
that as long as they believe in one God and they devote themselves to him, they will be
saved and live happily ever after in heaven. And before Pascal started crying because of
the people?s acts towards the church, he said that although science could try to prove the
nonexistence of God in many ways, the only way to understand God is through faith.
The last person of whom I will talk about is Jacques Bossuet. But oh boy, before
anything, let me tell you that this guy was really upset. Jacques Bossuet wrote Politics +
Scriptures in 1679 and he was a firm believer that monarchical government was the best
form of government. He said that monarchical government was the most natural and also
the strongest form of government out of all others, including democracy. He said that the
advantage was that the state was united under one ruler who had absolute power, unlike a
president in democracy who is subject to review for his actions. In his writing, he also
talks about how kings use their power in the right way although they are not subject to
reviews. They are naturally good kings because they are doing God?s will. They just
work as messengers and they are appointed kings because of divine intervention. He also
talks about the rights of a king to use force when it?s necessary. He argued that the way a
king ruled was more efficient than a president?s way of ruling because the king made all
the decisions and didn?t need anyone?s approval. One thing that surprised Bossuet was
the fact that most of the states enjoyed peace and prosperity. Usually during his time,
most of the states were in war trying to protect their boundaries or beliefs. He was also
very disappointed to see that people don?t believe in God as much as people used to in
the past. He knew that this was the worst thing about the 20th century because there is
no way for people to enjoy peace without God?s protection.
As you have read, all of these thinkers were great philosophers who still believe
what they were taught in their early years. All of them defended their point of view and
agreed that science was definitely changing the way people thought. This is a fact
because as the church and science have separated, everything changed dramatically. The
church lost a lot of power and science was the big gainer. It was really a pleasure to have
such great philosophers to see their views about the 20th century and hopefully we can
use their comments for us to live in a better future.
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