Hamlet

Complexion one of 4 fluids overpowering other humor

4 fluids:
-phlegm phlegmatic
-blood sanguine
-black bile melancholic
-yellow bile choleric

Complexion, developing a bad habit, one of these happens to a man and
colors his character. 1 flaw that destroys their being

Hamlets strength is his indecisiveness. Without it there is no play.

Act 1 Scene 1-
Horatio, skeptic and scholar, witnesses ghost.
Scene 2-
King gives recount of what has happened: brother died, married
his wife. King want what he has done to seem normal/virtuous than it
would otherwise. King uses rhetoric as his tool metaphors, alliteration,
poetry, making sense out of what is normally not sensible.

*throughout play Shakespeare reminds us that we are watching a play.
A play about the necessity of acting

King welcomes Hamlet as a son Hamlet says more than kin, less than
kind. Hamlet speaks of real sorrow.* Hamlet grieves over the loss of his
father and the behavior of his mother.

Scene 3
Hamlet sees ghost, goes with it and speaks to him. Ghost is in purgatory
and seeking revenge/justice

To be, or not to be speech, and Act 5
what has changed Hamlet to the point of action?

Epistemology
-Bacon, Locke, Pascal, Descartes

Reason DescartesScience and Math Bacon

Locke experiences, how do we know physical world exists

Descartes- much of what we do is based on tradition
Whats the right way to think about things
He admired how everything in geometry gets proven.
A kindergartner knows as much about 2+2 as anyone else
Before he can do science he needs a certain philosophy. He begins
to doubt
1
st
Principle Universal Skepticism
from this he concludes there is one thing he cannot
doubt: that he doubts
I think, therefore I am.
Nothing in our surroundings makes us more real
What is the nature of this I?
A Thinking Thing what about world?
-what about God?
Because thinking is more real than the body, the soul will
live beyond the body.
*Something he ignores Rationality

God exists recognition that he is imperfect leads him to believe that
there is something perfect outside himself to give him a notion of
imperfection.
Perceives the world as geometry geometry + time.

Cartesian Dualism Rational/Scientific and mathematic
-destroyed Medieval synthesis
2 competing worldviews

Bacon natural world / new tool to explore natural world. Aristotelian
science.
Observation is the basis of science.
Observe discover causes obey causes and use them as rules
to create effects

Philosophical method used in science Induction (see notes)

Really cant prove with induction, so come up with hypothesis and
attempt to disprove it (science).

Idols before we can do science we must destroy idols.
1) Idols of the tribe man is measure of all things. Human
perception.
2) Idols of the Cave Each mans personal worldview is the measure
of all things. Personal ways of seeing things
3) Idols of the Market Place as a culture we have a certain way of
seeing things. Language
4) Idols of Theatre Worldview

Goal of science Human life be endowed with new discoveries and
powers
Human exploitation of nature
-Most powerful opponent of science in the past Religion, blind and
immoderate zeal

Bacon is opposed to hypothesis

Locke reinforces scientific view of world Nave Empiricism

Blank Slate all that we know comes from sensual experience.
Reflection Observing the mind in operation.

Pascal
Skeptic we cannot know anything
Dogmatist we can know everything
We are somewhere in the middle.
Too much evidence to deny God, too little to prove
God.
Pascal discusses the infinity of the universe.
Everything is infinitely larger and infinitely smaller than us. We
are a tiny part of everything.
Humans cannot understand extremes.

-Science is an increasing prospect of how much we do not know.

The Human moral condition we are so concerned with others
view of us, we try to distract ourselves from our awful condition.
We are constantly acting irrationally love

Descartes is confident in reason and its ability to comprehend
everything.
Pascal disagrees. We must seek God.
We know God through the heart, not reason

Civil Government

Locke and Hobbes Both begin with state of nature.
= people without any government living in the natural
world.
Hobbes says in state of nature people = selfish
Locke says in state of nature people have liberty.

Both say we have the right to defend ones self.

Hobbes The Right of Nature the right to do whatever necessary to
improve/maintain themselves in the state of nature.
Law of Nature Do as you would be done by
(Golden Rule)
Different emphasis
Hobbes there is no law, Right of Nature
Locke obligation to others.
State of nature for Hobbes is War, people are =
State of nature for Locke is, unless God appoints someone, all have equal
rights.
Lockes -3 powers:
Legislative )
Judicial >everyone in the state of nature has powers.
Executive )

-In the state of nature there is nothing fixed/certain/objective
SO
We have the right to relinquish our rights to something higher:
The Leviathan.
Needs to be terrifying to overcome the state of nature. (Hobbes)
Commonwealth (Locke)

The Social Contract (compact)
Contract Theory
-Each of us has given our 3 powers to the commonwealth. (Locke)
Hobbes what is the role of the Leviathan in this situation? To
stay in power a good law is one that protects the Leviathan.
Locke role of the commonwealth is to protect our rights, to carry
out the laws we have deemed good. Laws have to be equal for all.
Locke is an example of Liberalism

Adam Smith Liberal in regards to the economy
Division of labor is more efficient
If your job is specialized dexterity is increased

Also division of labor eliminates wasting time going from one job
to another
Also, when people do a specialized job, then they are more likely
to improve that job in some way
Division of labor works because we all have an innate desire to
barter and exchange

- Classical Laissez Faire economics
Natural price the price of labor + materials needed
The market tends to regulate itself. Its the same thing with labor.
Natural price for labor the amount people need to sustain
themselves.
Market forces regulated by the Invisible Hand

A problem: wage-payers(low wages/profit) worker (higher
wages

Poetry
Conseit metaphor
Ex. A Valediction Forbidding Mourning

Baroque/Rococo complex, intricate, emotional, extreme.
Virtuoso elaborating on the word of art.
Baroque poets were virtuosic performers.

John Milton Paradise Lost
Modeled after classical epic
Milton want to surpass Greeks and Romans.
Milton has a better explanation for the way the world is
Milton makes Satan the hero in order to show that human
heroism is flawed/sinful

True Wit is Nature to advantage dress'd,
what oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd
-Pope
Neo-Classical Age (18
th
Cent.)
Everything must be in balance.
Pope rhymed couplets

Pope Essay on Man
-Vindicate the ways of God to man
Answers differ from Milton:
-source of content-
-Not everything revolves around us.
Our race has a place amongst the chain of being. God
Angels Humans Animals plants rocks.
If we try to be something else we break a link in the chain
and all falls apart. Be happy with the lot we have. World
create by God, therefore it is the best (Candide).
-where, according to Pope, must we get our ideas?
Creation and observation of self. Only way to know about
God is thru study of self and world.
-God gives us hope of life after death trust Him
-Most important part p.g. 88 V

Enlightenment
Empiricism Rationalism
Bacon Descartes
Locke Pope
Kant intuitions/emotions


M. Wollstonecraft
Democracy
Rationalsim Romanticism
Monarchy
Burke
Mary Wollstonecraft
-The importance of education is to cultivate virtue, since virtue is
same for both genders, women ought to be educated to increase
their ability to be virtuous.
-God made men and women equally able to reason their way to
virtue.
-Men and women should be connected by more than sexual
passion

Edmund Burke
-Rights and privileges are inherited. We get our rights from our
ancestors.
This means some people have more rights than others (nobility).
-Burke believes government should be derived from nature
organic.
-Ancestors won freedom and passed it down to later generations.

Government = castle (various trades, church, nobility, $, common
people)
French castle suffered abuse and dilapidation, but still had
foundation, but French Rev. tore it down and put up a
double-wide.
Government has to be complicated because society is.

-French didnt have reverence for the past, this is what
fueled the French Revolution.
-All men are not created equal. All position positions/jobs
have a certain dignity attached to them, but all are not
equal.
-Need a way for people to advance, but need structures to
protect peoples inherited rights.

The English respect and cherish their Prejudices-
Ideas received from pas generations that are simply accepted.

The trick is to balance liberty and obedience
The way to do this is develop it slowly over time.
Conservatism/Romanticism

Groundwork for Romanticism

Kant
-Exterior world exist, but what we perceive is not the external
world.
Understanding is a combination of perceptions and what is
already in my mind (innate ideas).

Rousseau
-mans original state is solitary, we begin to gain insights that help
us survive.
-living in community makes the individual weaker.
-in community conflicts arise and you get a sense of inequality
-Possessions are the first evil. Possession becomes a necessity. We
become bound by our possessions.
State of Nature: no laws and no offenses

Primitive State Noble Savage Civilization
Happy Medium
Society has reached a point where its beneficial but there are no
problems yet. Liabilities outweigh benefits.
Fall of Man: Private property
-Being in the state of noble savagery you have more insight than
the civilized.
Rousseaus theory of education: Nature
Parents are childrens best teachers and
should imitate nature.
-Believer in educating with freedom.
Children should be free to move/play out in nature.
Falling is good it teaches them natural restraints.
-over-protecting a child makes it weak.
Children should be free in nature, but to some degree,
restricted

Key to happiness when our desires perfectly match our
capabilities. Nature gives us desires we can achieve.
Society gives us false desires.
-Parents should only give children what they need, not cater to
their whims.
Restrain children as nature restrains.

Romantic Poetry
Poetic diction common language (purified)
Setting rural/common life rural people are more in touch with
essential feeling and thoughts.
Depicted in unusual light/coloring of imagination.
Common emotions elemental feelings
What, then, is poetry?
The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings
-Poetry comes in a way the poet connate control.