1.

Rene Descartes
● Orientation and Philosophy
-Philosopher, Scientist, Mathematician, Academic
-Father of Modern Philosophy
-He was the first major figure in the philosophical movement known as rationalism, a
method of understanding the world based on the use of reason as the means to attain
knowledge. “That it is impossible to doubt that you are thinking (you must think to
doubt) thus we can be certain that a thinking mind exists.”
- RATIONALISM where “ Understanding the world based on the use of reason and
believing only in the sense of a general nature and absolute. Intellect / truth does not
require experience because it can reduce the sense of truth from its self. “
-SKEPTICISM where “ You must think to doubt “. He wanted to seek knowledge of what
can not be doubted which ultimately leads to the premise “Cogito Ergo Sum” (I think
therefore I am).
● View of the Self Description
-Cogito, ergo sum which is the keystone of Descartes’s concept of self.
- he is confident that no rational person will doubt his or her own existence as a
conscious, thinking entity—while we are aware of thinking about our self. Even if we are
dreaming or hallucinating, even if our consciousness is being manipulated by some
external entity, it is still our self-aware self that is dreaming, hallucinating, or being
manipulated.
2. John Locke
● Orientations and Philosophy
-Rationalist or Empiricist
- believed that we gain knowledge by experience, this is called empiricism
- agreed with Aristotle that we are not born with innate ideas, and that we learn through
experience
- believed that there were two types of ideas, Simple, which are easy sensations like
feeling a hot stove and Complex, which are a grouping of simple ideas
- stated that all things have primary, like height and weight (undeniable truths) and
secondary qualities,like rely on subjective or personal judgments (color, taste and
sound).
-Degrees of knowledge: a) Intuitive knowledge b) Demonstrative knowledge c) Sensitive
knowledge
-Gives the analogy of the man to a blank tablet or “Tabula rasa”
- The two fountains of knowledge are sensation and reflection
● View of Self Description
 -John Locke holds that personal identity is a matter of psychological continuity. He
considered personal identity (or the self) to be founded on consciousness ( memory),
and not on the substance of either the soul or the body.
3. David Hume
● Orientations and Philosophy
-
-Empiricist
-Hume argued that it is not reason that governs human behaviour but desire
instead.
-He said that “reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions”. But
despite the fact that had profoundly influenced the next generation of
philosophers, his theories were not received particularly well by his
contemporaries.
-argued that causality was rather a method of reasoning used to explain a variety of physical
effects.
● View of the Self Description
-abandoned the concept of the self and of the soul. His impression of what we
might call the self is our constant shifting impressions of the world we live in
which disappears when we sleep.
- doesn’t deny that there is something there that creates the illusion of identity
and self, but he refuses to give it any permanence like an organ or property that rattles
around in our body or brain.