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French Philosophers EssayMONTAIGNEMontaigne is both a literary generator and a philosopher a hu soldieryist. Montaignes essays cover a loto f topics without claiming to provide a definitive or an dictatorial truth about these topics We admit no communication with being, Essays, II, 12 The Problem of integrityBeing is not accessible for a finite being as we ( manpower) ar. Senses or reason are not criteria of truth. Sense is no criteria since its ever changing and reason is no criteria also because we only have access to appeareances, which also change. Things are always changing. They are in a ceaseless movement The only thing we are directly in relation with is ourselves. The I is constantly changing, is in a perpetual movement and it is not self-centred or an egocentric character it is the first step to explore the unharmed world. He is emblematic of the rebirth of SCEPTICISM.Scepticism is the position that says that it is impossible to know anything because all(a ) the propositions are couple. For skeptics theres no criteria for thruth.3 Main PrinciplesA) Epoche = suspending judgement when you are not sure of what you are saying. The Grecian word epoche means to check, cease, suspend, stop, or pause in some activity that otherwise or usually occurs. The sceptic suspends his judgment for default of a good reason for exercising it. The dogmatist asserts that something is true. B) Relativism = all points of billet are equally valid.C) Isosthenia = the equality of strength of two opposing arguments. Sceptism is to a greater extent a process than a result, is more a methodology.DescartesDogmatism, Rationalism and Dualism1. Dogmatism comes from the greek word dogma( whimsey or belief) Common and uncomplimentary sense the tendency to lay down principles as undeniably true, without consideration of evidence or the opinion of others. Philosophical meaning doctrine that asserts that macrocosm is able to get to thetruth or, in other words, t hat man is able to attain absolute truths and certainty of knowing (Opposite of Skepticism). Descartes is dogmatic since he believes that we lot get to absolute certainty, what he calls evidence or clear perceptions(intelectual perception, the one you can get through the eyes of mind, not the eyes of body). We can reach the truth. Reason is unique and ultimate source of truth.2.Rationalism REASON versus senses. Reason is the old geezer source and test of association. Rationalism is based on deduction (versus induction). ln that sense, it is opposed to empiricism the theory of knowledge which reconciles that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience knowledge is an activity of our mind that applies itself to set the figures and the properties that essentially constitutes one thing (Text 3 Wax argument)Dream argument ln our dreams our sensations are sometimes so strong that everything is going as if we were awake (whereas in fact we are not) Our senses are deceit ful we cant trust them only reason can be trusted Wax argument Knowledge observing its empirical qualities. Knowledge is an activity of our mind that applies itself to identify the figures and the properties that essentially constitute one thing.Cogito, ergo sum essential link between thought and humanity.Thinking is the only proof of my existence and it is also my shopping centre both are simultaneous. I prove my existence by my essence (versus accidental qualities). Moreover, implying is a property that only men possess. animals are not able to think and thats also wherefore they are not able to speak (text 5).3. Dualism In philosophy of mind, dualism is a view about the descent between mind and matter which claims that mind and matter are two ontologically separate categories. It is opposed to monism philosophic view according to which everything can be explained in terms of a single reality or substance. I am not only lodged in my body as a pilot in a vesselThis sentence shows that Descartes also tries to think the union and the connection of mind and body in the human being that we areRousseau (Enlightment)Rousseau has a contractualist or contractarian approach of society he conceives it as an craft or as an artifice. Legitimate empowerment of government must derive from the consent of the governed Society doesnt exist by nature. contractualism is opposed to naturalism,The state of nature the one that exists before the invention of society. Rousseau does not think that this state really existed. It is methodological the state of nature aims to understand and to evaluate the civil state we are actually living in.Why is the state of nature so good?State of nature is be by pity and self-loved. Considers that man in the state of nature are not leaving unneurotic and are independent. According to Rousseau, the state of nature is a state of self-sufficiency in which every man is equal.On the contrary, civil state introduces property, inequality, love of selfThats why it is a perversion and a degradation of our natural conditionDifferent from Hobbes Hobbes argues that all humans are by nature equal in faculties of body and mind. From this equality, everyone is naturally in competition with one another (copiar resto) heat of self always comparing yourself to the other and trying to see what you can do to be better Self Love you always give your 100%He is not saying we should fleet to the state of nature. He considers thestate of nature as a moral value in order to evaluate society.Human reputation2 essential properties1) PERFECTIBILITY or faculty of improvement (Text 2) Perfectibility draws men out of this original condition and gives him adaptability. At the same time, perfectibility is responsible for the evill. 2) FREEDOM (Text 1). Nature and spirit (beast) are here opposed to freedom. Nature and instinct are here opposed to freedom. Dog cant go against his instinct, if he is hungry for example. freedom is the homogeneous of what we call autonomyIf society perverts humankind, but if, at the same time, man doesnt have to return to a state of nature, this is because his essential properties (freedom and perfectibility) imply to divorce from natureDifference of DEGREE between men and beast. Men, like animals, are also able to form ideas but they are more complex than the ones animals could form. on that point is a difference in terms of nature since men are free and animals follow their instinct. granting immunity is the ability of choice. We are able to determine ourselves to act and not to be passive in forward of each situation. Freedom is the equivalent to what we call autonomy4. The Social ContractThis legitimate political authority comes from a social contract agreed upon by all citizens for their mutual preservation.(1) The collective grouping of all citizens = the sovereign (it is like an individual person). As the sovereign entirely proceeds from our will each man, in giving himself to all, g ives himself to nobody (text 4). Obeying the contract coincides with obeying ourselves and thats precisely what Rousseau calls autonomy The concept of general will halt of Text 4The general will is the common interest.Even if it proceeds from the particular wills of every citizens, it is more than the collection of particular willsThe general will finds its clearest expression in the general and abstract laws of the state