Hobbes vs. Locke: Political Philosophy and the Empiricist View of the Mind
Hobbes
His political thought is reflected in his work Leviathan. He defends the absolutism of the state and shows a preference for monarchy. He maintains the natural equality of all men. Absolutism is justified not on the differences between men, but on the selfish and aggressive nature of human beings.
State of Nature
Man is particularly dominated by the desire for power (Homo homini lupus). A situation of mistrust and conflict, a war of all against all, makes civilization and progress impossible. There is a constant fear of danger and death.
Difficulties and Problems
Moved by selfishness, man seeks to achieve survival. The fear of death leads to the need to seek peace and security, to make life happier, establishing a social pact or contract.
Social Pact
By agreement of every man to every man, there is a surrender of all their rights in favor of the sovereign. The crowd, united in one person, is called society. Thus arises the great Leviathan, to which we owe our peace and defense: the State.
State Type
Absolutist State (Leviathan). The ruler is out of the pact. Power is indivisible; its division would lead to confrontation. Sovereignty is inalienable; issued the contract, once granted, it cannot be changed, nor can there be a rebellion against the sovereign.
Locke
Founder of political liberalism; his thought was developed in his Two Treatises on Civil Government. He rejects absolutism; the monarch cannot impose his absolute authority over other men for no reason.
State of Nature
Men are free and equal, living in peace and harmony (as opposed to Hobbes), guided by a natural moral law through reason. They establish a set of rights and duties: life, liberty, private property…
Difficulties and Problems
There are men who do not live under the laws of nature, which encourages joining in society. This union aims to more effectively defend the right to own property. Men living in society can better satisfy their needs.
Social Pact
Civil society emerges from a social pact or contract. Men agree to partially waive their rights and freedoms to enjoy them more safely. The covenant is based on free consent. There is a waiver of legislative and executive powers in favor of society, submitting to the will of the majority.
Type of State
The liberal state with limited power. State power should not be concentrated in the representatives. Ensuring no abuses lies in the separation of powers: legislative (supreme power, to make laws), executive (part of the court, making legislative mandates, implementation, and enforcement of laws), and federal (public security and interests abroad). All powers depend on the will of citizens.
Content of the Mind in Hume and Locke
Locke: Definition and Types of Ideas
When he speaks of “Idea,” Locke understands “everything we know or perceive.”
Simple Ideas
Those that cannot be broken down into others, necessarily imposing on the mind, to which it remains passive.
- A) Ideas of Sensation: In external experience: Prints produced on our senses by external objects from the outside world. Through them, we capture the qualities of bodies, which may be of two types:
- Primary Qualities: These are objective: size, shape…
- Secondary Qualities: These are subjective: smell, taste, color…
- B) Ideas of Reflection: In inner experience: the knowledge that the human mind has of its own actions, thinking, doubting, perceiving…
- C) Mixed Ideas: Originate from combined data of sensation and reflection.
Complex Ideas
Are those produced by the human mind from simple ideas; the understanding is now active. Can be of three kinds:
- Modes: Are formed by combining and refer to non-remaining properties.
- Relationships: Are formed by comparing one thing with another.
- General or Universal Ideas: Are formed by abstraction. The idea of substance is one of them.
Hume: Impressions and Ideas
Hume proposes a different classification from Locke. He calls all acts and mental contents “perceptions” and distinguishes two kinds: impressions and ideas. An impression is the current perception, immediately captured by the senses, and ideas are representations or copies of the impressions left in my mind. The impressions have more vivacity and intensity than ideas. The impressions, in turn, may be of feeling (from the external senses) and reflection (from the interior of our consciousness). Both impressions and ideas can be simple and complex. In the first case, they do not accept any distinction or separation. As for the complex, they are formed by grouping simple perceptions and can be divided into parts. “It is necessary that the simple ideas are associated according to laws of association:” Similarity, contiguity in time and cause, and the apparatus of the bubble-value effect.
Idea of Substance in Empiricism
Locke
Locke makes a critique of the concept of substance: substance means a collection of simple ideas that are united in a single subject. I perceive a set of feelings that are always associated with the same experience. We assume that under those qualities there is something that supports them, but we do not know what it is. The substance, an essence of these qualities, is unknowable. We call the substance a psychological need, but we cannot know anything about it.
George Berkeley
The aim of his work is to challenge materialism, denying the existence of the material world. Through sensory experience, we capture a series of perceptions that show the qualities of things; we do not perceive that there is a material substance, i.e., a substrate that serves as support to these qualities. The essence of things is to be perceived: esse est percipi. “We cannot, therefore, assert that there is a basis of reality.” There is nothing outside of perception, and this is something mental. There is, therefore, a mind or spirit that perceives. Psychological idealism: there are no things outside of the mind; the only reality is the mind that perceives them. Where do these impressions come from? From God, who imposes perceptions. We can only be certain of the existence of our mind and its ideas.
David Hume
Using instruments of criticism of the principle of causality and the criterion of completeness of the copy principle, Hume shattered the three key elements of Cartesian metaphysics: I, GOD, WORLD, because we cannot have an impression of any of these realities. The word “substance” only means a particular set of perceptions, not merely a “collection” of simple ideas unified by the imagination into a term. This key concept of metaphysics is worthless.