Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
An essay about pride
The importance of pride
The importance of pride
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: An essay about pride
Throughout the course of the first half of the Semester, a main theme in each piece of writing that we have worked with is human’s natural behaviors and motivations. Although Pascal choses a more positive and religious perspective of human nature and Hobbes displays a more negative approach to human nature, both Pascal and Hobbes share similar beliefs in the wretchedness of man, the importance of one single supreme being or ruler, and the effects of being prideful.
In his journal, Pensees, Pascal argues that religion is necessary for human existence because it influences human’s natural behaviors and motivations. He articulates that without Jesus, we would never really know ourselves (Pascal 7). He writes that “…man without God is totally ignorant and inevitably wretched” (22). In other words, we would never know what is good and evil without having God, because without God, we are unaware and ultimately evil. Pascal writes that we can only learn from God; therefore, we can never truly understand who we are unless we believe in God. Because Pascal says that man is wretched without God, he argues that, “Man’s greatness lies in knowing himself to be wretched” (32). In knowing we are born with both original sin and free will from God, we understand that we make mistakes and that we are not perfect, which shows that humans inevitably are great. Pascal writes for people to have faith and to “recognize that there is an infinity of things beyond” (55). There are so many things out there for us as humans and we need to realize that the world God created has so much to offer us, so we need faith to help us understand this. Ultimately, Pascal says, “the past and the present are our means…hope to live…we are always planning to be ...
... middle of paper ...
... in terms of our society in general, human nature is more similar to Pascal’s depiction. I say this because I have been through nineteen years of Catholic schooling; therefore, I have been around people who typically believe Pascal’s thoughts. I think as a whole, we believe we live in a positive society, where, yes, men are not perfect, but in knowing our flaws, make us good. Even if someone is not religious, we have a president who is a single ruler with power, and lastly, I think people understand that pride can get in the way. In the end, I think the best way to live life is in the moment. Not forgetting the past, but realizing that what has happened in the past cannot be changed; therefore, learn from that and move on. On the other hand, don’t be too hasty and look too far in to the future, rather live right in the moment, and don’t regret decisions made.
-Christianity (what Pascal uses as the basis of his argument) is one of, if not the biggest religions in the world
The foremost aspects to consider from the Leviathan are Hobbes’s views on human nature, what the state of nature consists of, and what role morality plays. Hobbes assumes, taking the position of a scientist, that humans are “bodies in motion.” In other words, simple mechanical existences motivated solely to gain sati...
Many people have different views on the moral subject of good and evil or human nature. It is the contention of this paper that humans are born neutral, and if we are raised to be good, we will mature into good human beings. Once the element of evil is introduced into our minds, through socialization and the media, we then have the potential to do bad things. As a person grows up, they are ideally taught to be good and to do good things, but it is possible that the concept of evil can be presented to us. When this happens, we subconsciously choose whether or not to accept this evil. This where the theories of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke become interesting as both men differed in the way they believed human nature to be. Hobbes and Locke both picture a different scene when they express human nature.
...nown reason Pascal seemed to think it was not necessary to acknowledge that there are more belief systems then Agnosticism, atheism, and Christianity. It is this lack of reasoning of why we should make a wager on the existence of the Christian god over the gods of Hinduism or the god of Islam that makes Pascal’s argument so weak. The only conclusion I think one could reach from Pascal’s argument is that it is more beneficial for one to believe in at least a higher power than it is to be an agnostic or atheist. Even if one did acknowledge the existence of some sort of higher being or beings it would still not benefit an individual because the chance of selecting the true belief system out of an infinite number of possible belief systems makes it very unlikely for someone to ever make the right choice. In conclusion I feel that Pascal’s Wager is a very weak argument.
We will give Hobbes’ view of human nature as he describes it in Chapter 13 of Leviathan. We will then give an argument for placing a clarifying layer above the Hobbesian view in order to account for acts of altruism.
Self-preservation is an important factor in shaping the ideologies of Hobbes and Locke as it ties in to scarcity of resources and how each of them view man’s sate of nature. Hobbes and Locke both believe in self-preservation but how each of them get there is very different. Hobbes believes that man’s state of nature is a constant state of war because of his need to self-preserve. He believes that because of scarcity of goods, man will be forced into competition, and eventually will take what is others because of competition, greed, and his belief of scarce goods. Hobbes also states that glory attributes to man’s state of nature being a constant state of war because that drives man to go after another human or his property, on the one reason of obtaining glory even if they have enough to self preserve. Equality ties in with Hobbes view of man being driven by competition and glory because he believes that because man is equal in terms of physical and mental strength, this give them an equal cha...
To highlight such differences between Aristotle and Hobbes we must first discuss the definition of virtue laid out by each. According to Aristotle virtue is a “mean between two vices, one of excess and one of deficiency”. From what we already know about Aristotle’s ...
Hobbes explains justice in relation to obligations and self-preservation. This essay will analyze justice specifically in relation to the statement? The fool hath said in his heart, There is no such thing as justice. Looking for Hobbes & Hobbies? reply to the fool will demonstrate that his main goal was to declare what people ought to do when interacting with others and what can be expected in return for that behaviour.
Hobbes’ theory on the condition of the state of nature, and government are not only more applicable today but his reasoning is far sounder than that of Rousseau. These concepts were significantly conditionally reliant. What Hobbes imagined was not a pre-societal period, rather he ...
...between faith and reason but I think Clifford has a way more logical way of considering faith and belief in God than Pascal. Clifford offers a very sound argument for why it is important not to call pragmatic considerations justification for God, and also and argument for why it is so important that we have really good evidence when making justifications. I believe that both reasoning, and faith are required to believe in anything and that the reasoning side of the equation needs to be diligently and mindfully considered. I also believe that to find empirical evidence of God may be impossible, so it’s important that faith and belief are based on strong reasoning even without empirical evidence. Believing in something because it’s comforting in the will only cause a great deal of people to blindly follow and never ask questions leading to a very misguided society.
Hobbes, T. (1839-45) The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury; Now First Collected and Edited by Sir William Molesworth, Bart. Vol. 3. Leviathan. London: Bohn. Accessed via: http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hobbes-the-english-works-vol-iii-leviathan
When looking at Pascal’s arguments that emerge in Pensees; the history, ideas, and people that influenced Pascal must be examined. Many of Pascal’s arguments involve the unity of both religion and science. This can be very controversial at a time where an absolute monarch challenges and tries to destroy other faith practices. Along with introducing scientific ideas others may misinterpret as trying to disprove God’s existence. Pascal was heavily influenced by the Christian church and was a firm believer in God. In fact, Pascal’s discoveries and experiments only solidify his faith even more. Pensees is Pascal’s thoughts on God and some other subjects that tie philosophy and the nature of man.
Hobbes on the hand tried to rationalize philosophy using dualism. He proposed that in order to understand societies one needed to understand wh...
Hobbes, on the other hand argues that justice is needed for people to live together in civil society. He outlines this idea down to human beings in the
The main critics of Thomas Hobbes’ work are most often those with a more optimistic view of human nature. However, if one is to really look at a man’s actions in depth, a self-serving motivation can always be found. The main problem with Hobbes’ claims is that he does not account for the more Darwinian perspective that helping one’s own species survive is at the same time a selfish and unwar-like act. Thus his conclusion that without a governing body, we are essentially at war with one another is not completely true as years of evolution can help disprove.