Plato and Locke

1) Plato
a) Pros Types of Government
i) Aristocracy
(1) Best! – “Philosopher” rules kingdom in the way that is best for all of
civilization see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher_king
ii) Oligarchy
(1) Organized
(2) Motivated (Money)
iii) Timocracy
(1) Spirited
iv) Democracy
(1) Equal rights
v) Tyranny
b) Cons Types of Government
i) Oligarchy
(1) Too Material
ii) Timocracy
(1) Too rash
iii) Democracy
(1) Freedom is misconceived
(2) “freedom” really anarchy, “shamelessness” really courage, “good
breeding” really arrogance
iv) Tyranny
(1) Degenerate of Society
c) Soul and Individual
i) A person can also be one or the other of these things
ii) Oligarchy
(1) Out of tyrant
(2) To awful
iii) Timocracy
(1) Will grow out of an Oligarch
(2) Realize his father is too material
iv) Democracy
(1) Out of Timocrat
(2) Too rigid, no freedom
v) Tyranny
(1) Out of Democrat
(2) Too free no rigidity
d) Best would be philosopher.
2) Locke
a) Very different historical context – Locke’s big political agenda is against the
Divine Rights of Kings
b) Still very much juxtaposed to Plato, who severely hated Democracy… see essay
on democracy
c) State of Nature all being are equal, men are generally good
 d) Private Property is a problem… sort of socialistic
e) People exchange some of their natural rights to enter into society with other
people, and be protected by common laws and a common executive power to
enforce the laws.
f) Government exists for the people and should be overthrown if it doesn’t work
g) Abiding by the majorities opinion
h) Lacks of Nature
i) Established law
ii) Indifferent Judge
iii) Power to back law and judgment

Aristotle and Bacon (see Empiricism Essay)

1) Aristotle
a) Syllogism based in experience.
b) That which we sense is fact
c) Ultimate source of pleasure, and therefore the goal of knowledge is learning or
understanding for the sake of understanding.
d) Soul is the container for reason
2) Bacon
a) Angry with stagnation of knowledge
b) Idols
c) Induction, syllogism is good for argument, not good for understanding
d) “For the end which this science of mine proposes is the invention not of
arguments but of arts; not of things in accordance with principles, but of
principles themselves; not of probable reasons, but of designations and directions
for works. And as the intention is different, so, accordingly, is the effect; the effect
of the one being to overcome an opponent in argument, of the other to command
nature in action.”
i) Purpose of knowledge is to control nature
e) Cautions use of senses…“senses deceive; but then at the same time they supply
the means of discovering their own errors; only the errors are here, the means of
discovery are to seek”
f) “We have no reason to be ashamed of the discoveries which have been made, and
no doubt the ancients proved themselves in everything that turns on wit and
abstract meditation, wonderful men. But, as in former ages, when men sailed only
by observation of the stars, they could indeed coast along the shores of the old
continent or cross a few small and Mediterranean seas; but before the ocean could
be traversed and the new world discovered, the use of the mariner's needle, as a
more faithful and certain guide, had to be found out; in like manner the
discoveries which have been hitherto made in the arts and sciences are such as
might be made by practice, meditation, observation, argumentation — for they lay
near to the senses and immediately beneath common notions; but before we can
reach the remoter and more hidden parts of nature, it is necessary that a more
perfect use and application of the human mind and intellect be introduced.”