People In The Late 20th Century example essay topic

Arti gas, Jorge Nelson. History 2. MW 11: 15-12: 50 PM. 04/20/00. Great Philosophers During the 17th and 18th century, religion, religious beliefs and most of all the religious leaders played a very influential role in the direction of politics. This was also a time when religion and politics played a large role in the direction of what was accepted as a result of the new discoveries in the natural sciences and in a time when there were some very influential writers, philosophers, scientists and mathematicians.

At the time, these people were considered to be very radical and revolutionary because of some of their beliefs and this often times led them to be highly scrutinized, criticized and sometimes even punished by the legal system. Now in the 21st century, these views that were considered to be radical and even ridiculous at that time are now considered to be brilliant revelations written by ingenious individuals. It would be very interesting to see how some of these individuals would feel about the progress of the planet in which they helped to inspire and how they might feel about some more recent issues concerning the direction of humanity in the late 20th century, as I shall further discuss in this paper. In this class we have discussed about many philosophical writers of the 17th and 18th century and in this paper I shall discuss some of the opinions written about the following document; Renee Descartes Discourse on Method (1637), Thomas Hobbes Leviathan (1651), Blaise Pascals Thoughts (1670) and Jacques Bossuet Politics + Scriptures (1679). First I am going to talk about Renee Descartes and the subjects that he would discuss at a dinner party hosted by me. Renee Descartes was the father of modern philosophy, a great scientist an also a well known mathematician.

He used the Cartesian philosophy for his reasoning and in 1622, he wrote a great piece of literature named Discourse on Method. In it, Descartes talks about the existence of the human beings and the existence of God. He gets himself to doubt everything and then assumes that doubt does exist. That is how he reaches to the conclusion of Cogito Ergo Sum, which means, I think, therefore I am. He realizes that if he can think, then he also exists, and he uses this also to prove the existence of God. He says that the body and the mind are two separate entities and the only thing that unites them is God.

Descartes was very flattered to know how much people appreciate his writings and he assured that he probably would have had a better time with the church nowadays because they are more open minded. In the past, although Descartes believed in God, the Church did not like him a lot and that really depressed him. He realized that nowadays, the Church is not as strict as before because science has taken total control over the people and now is much more respected than before. As we can see, as time has gone by, he continues, science has divorced from the church and it seems that soon it will become like a separate religion because he was amazed how much people believe in all of the sciences claims. The next author that will talk about is Thomas Hobbes. As we all know, he was the writer of the famous Leviathan, which was written in England on 1651.

In his writing, he presents us a bleak picture of human beings in the state of nature, where life is nasty, brutish and short. This shows us how vulnerable people really are if they live in the state of nature rather than under the law of nature. Therefore, the fear of a violent death is the principal motive that causes people to create a state. But before anything is possible, the people contract to surrender their natural rights and to submit to the absolute authority of a sovereign if they want protection. The contract between the people and the sovereign says that in order for the sovereign to remain in power, he has to provide peace and protection for the people. The sovereigns power is absolute and he is not subject to any reviews unless he brakes the contract with his people.

During the dinner party, Thomas Hobbes was very happy to see that nowadays people can still walk in the streets safely in most cities. The states that are created now, according to him, are very sophisticated and there is definitely a better quality of life than that that there used to be during my time. I wish that people could have the sense of security that you feel today although in this period of the late 20th century, I have seen a lot of corruption among the leaders that remain in power. The next person of whom we will talk about is Blaise Pascal. He was the author of Thoughts, which was written in 1662 near his death.

Blaise Pascal was a very well known mathematician, scientist and Christian thinker, and his main problem was that he was torn between his passion and his beliefs. Although he was highly educated in math and science, he could not overcome his beliefs about God which sometimes conflicted with his scholastic knowledge. His book was written in an attempt to reconcile the method of science with the content of religion because Blaise Pascal couldnt deny Gods existence. During the dinner party, Pascal was really disappointed to see how people in the late 20th century had forgotten about God.

He said that people were more interested in the new technology that was arising rather than in living a life trying to fulfill Gods will. Blaise Pascal believed that religion was essential for the human existence and that this kind of attitude from the people would surely cause some conflict with God. Another thing that shocked Pascal was the diversity of religions that existed nowadays. He never thought that there could possibly exist so many religions and he commented that as long as they believe in one God and they devote themselves to him, they will be saved and live happily ever after in heaven. And before Pascal started crying because of the peoples acts towards the church, he said that although science could try to prove the nonexistence of God in many ways, the only way to understand God is through faith. The last person of whom I will talk about is Jacques Bossuet.

But oh boy, before anything, let me tell you that this guy was really upset. Jacques Bossuet wrote Politics + Scriptures in 1679 and he was a firm believer that monarchical government was the best form of government. He said that monarchical government was the most natural and also the strongest form of government out of all others, including democracy. He said that the advantage was that the state was united under one ruler who had absolute power, unlike a president in democracy who is subject to review for his actions. In his writing, he also talks about how kings use their power in the right way although they are not subject to reviews. They are naturally good kings because they are doing Gods will.

They just work as messengers and they are appointed kings because of divine intervention. He also talks about the rights of a king to use force when its necessary. He argued that the way a king ruled was more efficient than a presidents way of ruling because the king made all the decisions and didnt need anyones approval. One thing that surprised Bossuet was the fact that most of the states enjoyed peace and prosperity.

Usually during his time, most of the states were in war trying to protect their boundaries or beliefs. He was also very disappointed to see that people dont believe in God as much as people used to in the past. He knew that this was the worst thing about the 20th century because there is no way for people to enjoy peace without Gods protection. As you have read, all of these thinkers were great philosophers who still believe what they were taught in their early years.

All of them defended their point of view and agreed that science was definitely changing the way people thought. This is a fact because as the church and science have separated, everything changed dramatically. The church lost a lot of power and science was the big gainer. It was really a pleasure to have such great philosophers to see their views about the 20th century and hopefully we can use their comments for us to live in a better future. 33 e.