Different between knowledge and opinion according to plato –…According to Plato "Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance." ……It is amazing to me that some people can sense the scale of knowledge so easiliy and to them it is second nature. Yet there are others who may actually be a majority who insist on defending opinions with their last breath while remaining closed to this scale of knowledge………"Opinion is between the knowing of the true idea and the ignorance of the unreal"(Plato -Republic). ………Plato's perspective is beyond the senses, thus the question of 'can sense' is not applicable. Re Plato's Forms, the best one can do is to speculate them as pseudo-rational concepts via pure reason (not via the empirical senses)………In order to make sense and turn what is speculated to knowledge, i.e. as matter of facts, empirical sensual proofs are needed. One good example of this knowledge is a proven scientific hypothesis……….The idea of a soul that survives physical death is one that is speculated and has no empirical basis. According to Kant, they are transcendental illusions based on fallacious thinking, but nevertheless useful in some sense (psychological)…….2. Rousseau examine link between ‘force’ and ‘right’ –…….According to Rousseau, force cannot be the foundation for legitimate political authority. People obey those stronger than themselves out of necessity, not by choice. Thus, the right of the strongest cannot create the sense of a duty that is necessary to establishing a true right. In addition, because strength is a relative term, the effect of this right changes with the cause. As soon as one person makes himself the strongest, all previous claims established on the right of the strongest are nullified. Thus, the primary flaw with this right is that it can be broken legitimately. ………Because no man has a natural authority over other men and because force cannot establish right, all legitimate authority must depend upon convention. Rousseau goes on to refute Grotius, who argues that a state can be legitimate even if the people are slaves and the government is their master. Rousseau disputes his claim that the people can alienate their liberty and give themselves to a king. According to Rousseau, no one will give up his liberty without getting something in return. A popular argument made by political philosophers holds that people can renounce their freedom in exchange for the civil tranquility offered by a monarch. Referring to contemporary situations, Rousseau asserts that this promise of civil tranquility becomes insignificant when kings drag their countries into numerous wars and place unnecessary demands on their citizens. Even if a person willingly sacrifices his own liberty, he cannot offer the freedom of his children without their consent. Thus, for such a society to be legitimate, each generation must offer their expressed approval of it.
. What is Machiavellianism………….Machiavellianism is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct", deriving from the Italian Renaissance diplomat and writer Niccolò Machiavelli, who wrote Il Principe (The Prince), among other works. The word has a similar use in modern psychology where it describes one of the dark triad personalities, characterised by a duplicitous interpersonal style associated with cynical beliefs and pragmatic morality.[1] "Machiavellian" as a word became very popular in the late 16th century in English, though "Machiavellianism" itself is first cited by the Oxford English Dictionary from 1626. In the 16th century, immediately following the publication of The Prince, Machiavellianism was seen as a foreign plague infecting northern European politics, originating in Italy, and having first infected France. It was in this context that the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572 in Paris came to be seen as a product of Machiavellianism, a view greatly influenced by the Huguenot Innocent Gentillet…………….."Machiavellianism" is a widely used negative term to characterize unscrupulous politicians of the sort Machiavelli described in The Prince. The book itself gained enormous notoriety and wide readership because the author seemed to be endorsing behavior often deemed as evil and immoral. A study of The Prince reveals Machiavelli,s lack of concern for morality which is translated into pragmatism. In his writing there is no concern for morality and uprightness while emphasis is given on hypocrisy. Therefore Machiavellianism is seemed as a repressively manipulative strategy instead of a policy in statecraft
Short note on Rene Descartes ……..Early Life and Education:Born in Indre-et-Loire, France in 1596 to a parliamentarian, Descartes graduated from the Jesuit Collège Royal Henry-Le-Grand. He later acquired a degree in law from the University of Poitiers in 1616…………He was recruited in the army of Maurice of Nassau in the Dutch Republic, where he managed to make some time to study mathematics, physics and philosophy nonetheless………….Contributions and Achievements:…………..Descartes was one of the most influential persons in the Scientific Revolution. He virtually condensed the range and variety in the World by his well-known phrase; “matter in motion”. He wrote various books and papers about optics, and examined the rainbows. He declared there was no vacuum, but supported momentum conservation. Descartes also devised the principle of inertia. A supporter of the wave theory of light and vortex theory for planets, he thought of the universe and the human body as a giant machine. He is also described as the father of analytical geometry………………..His most significant philosophical position was connected with the mind-body dichotomy. Descartes explained that mind was external to the physical body into which it entered through the pineal gland. He thought that science is an activity of the observing mind (res cogitans) to perceive an observed objective reality (ref extensa). Using one concise phrase, “cogito ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am), he changed the whole direction of Western philosophy. Descartes is credited as the first thinker to offer a philosophical framework for the natural sciences. His theological beliefs became controversial at the time and faced direct opposition from the Pope………The theories and treatises of Descartes immensely influenced countless aspects of the physical and scientific world……….Later Life and Death:…………René Descartes died of pneumonia on 11 February 1650 in Stockholm, Sweden, where he was invited there to teach Queen Christina…………………...Leonardo Da Vinchi :…………….…. Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, in the town of Vinci. His father was Ser Piero, a notary; his mother, Caterina, came of a peasant family. They were not married. The boy's uncle Francesco may have had more of a hand in his upbringing than by either of his parents. When Leonardo was about 15, he moved to the nearby city of Florence and became an apprentice to the artist Andrea del Verrocchio. He was already a promising talent. While at the studio, he aided his master with his Baptism of Christ, and eventually painted his own Annunciation. Around the age of 30, Leonardo began his own practice, starting work on the Adoration of the Magi; however, he soon abandoned it and moved to Milan in 1482. ……………In Milan, Leonardo sought and gained the patronage of Ludovico Sforza, and soon began work on the painting Virgin of the Rocks. After some years, he began work on a giant bronze horse, a monument to Sforza's father. Leonardo's design is grand, but the statue was never completed. Meanwhile, he was keeping scrupulous notebooks on a number of studies, including artistic drawings but also depictions of scientific subjects ranging from anatomy to hydraulics. In 1490, he took a young boy, Salai, into his household, and in 1493 a woman named Caterina (most likely his mother) also came to live with him; she died a few years later. Around 1495, Leonardo began his painting The Last Supper, which achieved immense success but began to deteriorate physically almost immediately upon completion. Around this same time, Fra Luca Pacioli, the famous mathematician, moved to Milan, befriended Leonardo, and taught him higher math. In 1499, when the French conquered Lombard and Milan, the two left the city together, heading for Mantua………..In 1500, Leonardo arrived in Florence, where he painted the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne. He was very interested in mathematics at this time. In 1502, he went to work as chief military engineer to Cesare Borgia, and also became acquainted with Niccolo Machiavelli. After a year he returned to Florence, where he contributed to the huge engineering project of diverting the course of the River Arno, and also painted a giant war mural, the Battle of Anghiari, which was never completed, largely due to problems with the paints. In 1505 Leonardo probably made his first sketches for the Mona Lisa, but it is not known when he completed the painting. ……..He died in 1519.