Political philosophy Essay Example for Free

Political philosophical system testdoubting Thomas Hobbes was born in Wiltshire, Eng lend on 5 April 1588 birth_place = some sources say Malmesbury2). Born prematurely on April 5, 1588, when his fix heard of the coming invasion of the Spanish Armada, Thomas Hobbes by and by reported that my mother gave birth to jibe myself and fear. 3 His childhood is almost a complete blank, and his mothers name is unknown. 4 His father, also named Thomas, was the vicar of Charlton and Westport.Thomas Sr. abandoned his collar children to the cargon of an older brother, Thomas juniors uncle Francis, when he was forced to flee to London after existence conglomerate in a fight with a clergy earthly concern out side of meat his own perform. Hobbes was educated at Westport church from the age of four, passed to the Malmesbury school and then to a private school kept by a two-year-old man named Robert La seasonr, a graduate of the University of Oxford. Hobbes was a good pupil, and around 1603 he went up to Magdalen H alone, which is most well related to Hertford College, Oxford.5678 The principal sewer Wilkinson was a Puritan, and he had some influence on Hobbes. At university, Hobbes appears to gain followed his own curriculum he was lesser attracted by the scholastic learning. He did not complete his B. A. breaker point until 1608, only when he was recomwork forceded by Sir James Hussey, his master at Magdalen, as tutor to William, the son of William Cavendish, top executive of Hardwick (and later Earl of Devonshire), and began a bread and butter-long connection with that family.9 Hobbes became a companion to the junior William and they both took part in a grand tour in 1610. Hobbes was exposed to European scientific and critical methods during the tour in job to the scholastic philosophy which he had learned in Oxford. His scholarly efforts at the time were aimed at a careful study of classic Greek and Latin authors, the out count of which was, in 1628, his bully variation of Thucydides news report of the Peloponnesian War, the offset translation of that crop into English from a Greek ms.Although he associated with literary figures handle Ben Jonson and thinkers much(prenominal)(prenominal) as Francis Bacon, he did not extend his efforts into philosophy until after 1629. His employer Cavendish, then the Earl of Devonshire, died of the plague in June 1628. The widowed countess dismissed Hobbes but he soon found work, again as a tutor, this time to the son of Sir Gervase Clifton. This task, chiefly spent in Paris, ended in 1631 when he again found work with the Cavendish family, tutoring the son of his previous pupil.Over the next s correct years as well as tutoring he expanded his own knowledge of philosophy, awakening in him curiosity oer key philosophic debates. He visited Florence in 1636 and later was a regular debater in philosophic groups in Paris, held together by Marin Mersenne. From 1637 he considered himself a ph ilosopher and scholar. In Paris Hobbess first area of study was an interest in the physiologic doctrine of motion and physical mo mentum. Despite his interest in this phenomenon, he disdained observational work as in physics.He went on to conceive the system of thought to the elaboration of which he would devote his life. His design was first to work out, in a separate treatise, a systematic doctrine of body, showing how physical phenomena were univers all toldy explicable in terms of motion, at least as motion or mechanical action was then understood. He then singled out Man from the realm of Nature and plants. Then, in other treatise, he showed what specific bodily motions were involved in the production of the peculiar phenomena of sensation, knowledge, affections and passions whereby Man came into relation with Man. in conclusion he considered, in his crowning treatise, how men were move to enter into family, and argued how this essential be regulated if Men were not t o fall plunk for into brutishness and misery. Thus he proposed to unite the separate phenomena of Body, Man, and the State. Hobbes came home, in 1637, to a rude riven with discontent which disrupted him from the orderly execution of his philosophic plan. How incessantly, by the end of the Short Parliament in 1640, he had written a short treatise called The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic.It was not published and lone(prenominal) circulated among his acquaintances in manuscript form. A pirated version, however, was published about ten years later. Although it seems that much of The Elements of Law was composed before the school term of the Short Parliament, in that location are polemical pieces of the work that clearly mark the influences of the rising policy- qualification crisis. Nevertheless, some(prenominal) (though not all) elements of Hobbess political thought were unchanged between The Elements of Law and Leviathan, which demonstrates that the events of the Englis h obliging War had little effect on his subscribe toarian methodology.It should be noted, however, that the arguments in Leviathan were modified from The Elements of Law when it came to the necessity of consent in creating political obligation. Namely, Hobbes wrote in The Elements of Law that Patrimonial kingdoms were not necessarily formed by the consent of the governed, while in Leviathan he argued that they were. This was perhaps a reflection either of Hobbess thoughts concerning the engagement controversy or of his reaction to treatises published by Patriarchalists, such as Sir Robert Filmer, between 1640 and 1651.When in November 1640 the Long Parliament succeeded the Short, Hobbes felt he was a marked man by the circulation of his treatise and fled to Paris. He did not return for eleven years. In Paris he rejoined the coterie about Mersenne, and wrote a critique of the Meditations on First Philosophy of Descartes, which was printed as third among the sets of Objections appe nded, with Replies from Descartes in 1641. A different set of retag on other works by Descartes succeeded only in refinement all correspondence between the two.Hobbes also extended his own works somewhat, working on the third section, De Cive, which was finished in November 1641. Although it was initially only circulated privately, it was well received, and included lines of argumentation to be repeated a decade later in the Leviathan. He then returned to hard work on the first two sections of his work and published little except for a short treatise on optics (Tractatus opticus) included in the battle array of scientific tracts published by Mersenne as Cogitata physico-mathematica in 1644.He built a good ad hominemity in philosophic circles and in 1645 was chosen with Descartes, Gilles de Roberval and others, to referee the controversy between John Pell and Longomontanus over the riddle of squaring the circle. The Civil War in England The English Civil War broke out in 1642, a nd when the royalist cause began to decline in the middle of 1644 there was an exodus of the kings supporters to Europe. Many came to Paris and were known to Hobbes. This revitalized Hobbess political interests and the De Cive was republished and more astray distributed.The printing began in 1646 by Samuel de Sorbiere done the Elsevier press at Amsterdam with a new preface and some new notes in reply to objections. In 1647, Hobbes was move as mathematical instructor to the young Charles, Prince of Wales,10 who had come over from Jersey around July. This engagement lasted until 1648 when Charles went to Holland. The friendship of the exiled royalists led Hobbes to produce an English hold back to set forth his guess of urbane regime in relation to the political crisis resulting from the war.The State, it now seemed to Hobbes, might be regarded as a great artificial man or monster (Leviathan), composed of men, with a life that might be traced from its generation under press of human needs to its dissolution through urbane strife proceeding from human passions. The work was unlikeable with a general Review and Conclusion, in direct response to the war which raised the question of the subjects mighty field to change allegiance when a former sovereigns power to protect was irrecoverably gone. Also he criticized ghostly doctrines on rationalistic grounds in the Commonwealth.Frontispiece from De Cive (1642) During the years of the composition of Leviathan he remained in or in force(p) Paris. In 1647 Hobbes was overtaken by a serious illness which disabled him for six months. On recovering from this serious fatal disorder, he resumed his literary task, and carried it steadily forward to completion by the year 1650. Meanwhile, a translation of De Cive was being produced there has been much scholarly disagreement over whether Hobbes translated the work himself or not. In 1650, a pirated edition of The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic was published.It was divided into two separate small volumes (Human Nature, or the ingrained Elements of Policie and De corpore politico, or the Elements of Law, Moral and Politick). In 1651 the translation of De Cive was published under the title of Philosophicall Rudiments concerning governance and Society. Meanwhile, the printing of the greater work was proceeding, and finally it appeared about the middle of 1651, under the title of Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme, and might of a Common Wealth, Ecclesiasticall and Civil, with a famous title-page engraving in which, from cigaret hills overlooking a landscape, there towered the body ( above the waist) of a crowned giant, made up of tiny figures of human beings and requireing sword and crozier in the two hands.The work had immediate impact. Soon Hobbes was more lauded and decried than any other thinker of his time. However, the first effect of its publication was to sever his link with the exiled royalists, forcing him to appeal to the extremi st English presidency for protection. The exiles might real well have killed him the secularist spirit of his book greatly angered both Anglicans and French Catholics.Hobbes fled back home, arriving in London in the winter of 1651. avocation his submission to the council of state he was allowed to subside into private life in Fetter Lane. Leviathan Main article Leviathan (book) Frontispiece of Leviathan In Leviathan, Hobbes set out his doctrine of the foundation of states and lawful governments based on loving contract theories. Leviathan was written during the English Civil War much of the book is occupied with demonstrating the necessity of a strong central authority to avoid the evil of discord and accomplished war.Beginning from a mechanistic understanding of human beings and the passions, Hobbes postulates what life would be like without government, a originator which he calls the state of nature. In that state, individually person would have a right, or license, to e verything in the world. This unavoidably leads to conflict, a war of all against all (bellum omnium contra omnes), and thus lives that are solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short (xiii). To escape this state of war, men in the state of nature accede to a social contract and establish a civil society.According to Hobbes, society is a population beneath a sovereign authority, to whom all individuals in that society cede their natural rights for the sake of protection. Any abuses of power by this authority are to be sure as the price of peace. However, he also states that in severe cases of abuse, rebellion is expected. In particular, the doctrine of withdrawal of powers is rejected11 the sovereign must control civil, military, judicial and ecclesiastical powers. Leviathan was also well-known for its radical religious views, which were often Hobbess attempt to reinterpret scripture from his materialist assumptions.His denial of incorporeal entities led him write, for example, that Heaven and Hell were places on Earth, and to take other positions out of sync with church teachings of his time. Much has been made of his religious views by scholars such as Richard Tuck and J. G. A. Pocock, but there is still widespread disagreement about the significance of Leviathans content concerning religion. Many have taken the work to mean that Hobbes was an atheist, while others find the evidence for this position insufficient. Locke John Locke (pronounced /l?k/ 29 August 1632 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher. Locke is considered the first of the British empiricists, but is every bit burning(prenominal) to social contract theory. His ideas had enormous influence on the development of epistemology and political philosophy, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers, classical republicans, and contributors to liberal theory. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many economical Enlightenment thinkers, as well as t he American revolutionaries. This influence is reflected in the American Declaration of Independence.1 Lockes theory of mind is often cited as the origin for modern conceptions of identity and the self, figuring prominently in the later works of philosophers such as David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant. Locke was the first philosopher to define the self through a continuity of consciousness. He also postulated that the mind was a blank slate or tabula rasa that is, contrary to Cartesian or Christian philosophy, Locke maintained that people are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived by sense perception.2 Contentshide * 1 Life * 1. 1 Epitaph * 2 Influence * 2. 1 composition of Carolina * 2. 2 Theory of appreciate and property * 2. 3 Political theory * 2. 3. 1 Limits to accumulation * 2. 4 On price theory * 2. 4. 1 Monetary thoughts * 2. 5 The self * 3 List of major works * 3. 1 Major unpublished or posthumous ma nuscripts * 4 Secondary literature * 5 See also * 6 Notes * 7 Further reading * 8 External links * 8. 1 Works * 8. 2 Resources Life Lockes father, who was also named John Locke, was a clownish lawyer and clerkto the Justices of the quiescence in Chew Magna,3 who had served as a captain of cavalry for the Parliamentarian forces during the early part of the English Civil War. His mother, Agnes Keene, was a tanners daughter and reputed to be very beautiful. Both parents were Puritans. Locke was born on 29 August 1632, in a small thatched cottage by the church in Wrington, aroundrset, about twelve miles from Bristol. He was baptized the same day. Soon after Lockes birth, the family moved to the market town of Pensford, about seven miles south of Bristol, where Locke grew up in a rural Tudor house in Belluton.In 1647, Locke was sent to the prestigious Westminster coach in London under the sponsorship of Alexander Popham, a member of Parliament and former commander of the younger Lock es father. After completing his studies there, he was admitted to Christ church service, Oxford. The dean of the college at the time was John Owen, vice-chancellor of the university. Although a heart-to-heart student, Locke was irritated by the undergraduate curriculum of the time. He found the works of modern philosophers, such as Rene Descartes, more interesting than the classical material taught at the university.Through his friend Richard Lower, whom he knew from the Westminster School, Locke was introduced to medicine and the experimental philosophy being pursued at other universities and in the English Royal Society, of which he eventually became a member. Locke was awarded a bachelors degree in 1656 and a masters degree in 1658. He obtained a bachelor of medicine in 1674, having studied medicine extensively during his time at Oxford and worked with such noted scientists and thinkers as Robert Boyle, Thomas Willis, Robert Hooke and Richard Lower.In 1666, he met sea captain Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, who had come to Oxford seeking treatment for a liver infection. Cooper was impressed with Locke and persuaded him to go part of his retinue. Locke had been looking for a career and in 1667 moved into Shaftesburys home at Exeter House in London, to serve as Lord Ashleys personal physician. In London, Locke resumed his checkup studies under the tutelage of Thomas Sydenham. Sydenham had a major effect on Lockes natural philosophical view an effect that would become evident in the An see Concerning Human Understanding.Lockes medical knowledge was put to the essay when Shaftesburys liver infection became critical. Locke coordinated the advice of several physicians and was probably instrumental in persuading Shaftesbury to undergo an operation (then life-threatening itself) to remove the cyst. Shaftesbury survived and prospered, crediting Locke with saving his life. It was in Shaftesburys household, during 1671, that the meeting took place, described in the Epistle to the reader of the Essay, which was the genesis of what would later become the Essay. twain extant Drafts still survive from this period. It was also during this time that Locke served as Secretary of the Board of merchandise and Plantations and Secretary to the Lords and Proprietors of the Carolinas, helping to shape his ideas on international trade and economics. Shaftesbury, as a founder of the Whig movement, exerted great influence on Lockes political ideas. Locke became involved in politics when Shaftesbury became Lord Chancellor in 1672. Following Shaftesburys fall from favour in 1675, Locke spent some time travelling across France.He returned to England in 1679 when Shaftesburys political fortunes took a brief positive turn. Around this time, most likely at Shaftesburys prompting, Locke composed the bag of the Two Treatises of Government. Locke wrote the Treatises to take hold the Glorious Revolution of 1688, but also to counter the absol utist political philosophy of Sir Robert Filmer and Thomas Hobbes. Though Locke was associated with the influential Whigs, his ideas about natural rights and government are today considered quite revolutionary for that period in English history.However, Locke fled to the Netherlands, Holland, in 1683, under strong suspicion of involvement in the rye whiskey House Plot (though there is little evidence to suggest that he was directly involved in the scheme). In the Netherlands Locke had time to return to his writing, spending a great deal of time re-working the Essay and typography the Letter on Toleration. Locke did not return home until after the Glorious Revolution. Locke accompanied William of Oranges wife back to England in 1688.The bulk of Lockes publishing took place after his arrival back in England his aforementioned Essay Concerning Human Understanding, the Two Treatises of Civil Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration all appearing in quick succession upon his retur n from exile. John Locke Lockes close friend Lady Masham invited him to join her at the Mashams kingdom house in Essex. Although his time there was marked by variable health from asthma attacks, he nevertheless became an intellectual hero of the Whigs. During this period he discussed matters with such figures as John Dryden and Isaac Newton.He died in 28 October 1704, and is buried in the churchyard of the village of High Laver,4 east of Harlow in Essex, where he had lived in the household of Sir Francis Masham since 1691. Locke never married nor had children. Events that happened during Lockes lifetime include the English Restoration, the massive Plague of London and the Great Fire of London. He did not quite see the Act of Union of 1707, though the thrones of England and Scotland were held in personal union throughout his lifetime. administrational monarchy and parliamentary democracy were in their infancy during Lockes time.Epitaph Original Latin SISTE VIATOR Hic juxta situs est JOHANNES LOCKE. Si qualis fuerit rogas, mediocritate sua contentum se vixesse respondet. Literis innutritus eo usque tantum profecit, ut veritati unice litaret. Hoc ex scriptis illius disce, quae quod de eo reliquum est majori fide tibe exhibebunt, quam epitaphii suspecta elogia. Virtutes si quas habuit, minores sane quam sibi laudi duceret tibi in exemplum proponeret vita una sepeliantur. Morum exemplum si squaeras in Evangelio habes vitiorum utinam nusquam mortalitatis certe (quod prosit) hic et ubique. 1632 Aug.29Mortuum Anno Dom. 1704 Oct. 28Memorat haec tabula brevi et ipse interitura. English interlingual rendition STOP TRAVELLER Near this place lies JOHN LOCKE. If you are wondering what kind of man he was, he answers that he was contented with his modest lot. Bred a scholar, he made his learning subservient only to the cause of truth. You will learn this from his writings, which will show you everything about him more truthfully than the suspect praises of an epitaph. His virtues, if therefore he had any, were too slight to be lauded by him or to be an example to you. Let his vices be buried with him.Of virtue you have an example in the gospels, should you desire it of vice would there were none for you of mortality rate surely you have one here and everywhere, and may you learn from it. That he was born on the twenty-ninth of August in the year of our Lord 1632and that he died on the 28th of October in the year of our Lord 1704this tablet, which itself will soon perish, is a record. Influence Locke exercised a profound influence on political philosophy, in particular on modern liberalism. Michael Zuckert has in fact argued that Locke launched liberalism by tempering Hobbesian absolutism and clearly separating the realms of Church and State.He had a strong influence on Voltaire who called him le sage Locke. His arguments concerning liberty and the social contract later influenced the written works of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and other Founding Fathers of the United States. In fact, several passages from the Second Treatise are reproduced verbatim in the Declaration of Independence, most notably the reference to a long train of abuses. Such was Lockes influence, Thomas Jefferson wrote Bacon, Locke and Newton..I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of those superstructures which have been raised in the visible and Moral sciences. 56 Today, most contemporary libertarians claim Locke as an influence. But Lockes influence may have been even more profound in the realm of epistemology. Locke redefined subjectivity, or self, and intellectual historians such as Charles Taylor and Jerrold Seigel argue that Lockes Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) marks the beginning of the modern conception of the self.7 Constitution of Carolina Appraisals of Locke have often been tied to appraisals of liberalism in general, and also to appraisals of the United States. Detractors note that (in 1671) he was a major investor in the English slave-trade through the Royal Africa Company, as well as through his participation in drafting the Fundamental Constitution of the Carolinas while Shaftesburys secretary, which established a feudal grandeur and gave a master absolute power over his slaves.They note that as a secretary to the Council of Trade and Plantations (1673-4) and a member of the Board of Trade (1696-1700) Locke was, in fact, one of just half a dozen men who created and supervised both the colonies and their iniquitous systems of servitude8 around see his statements on unenclosed property as having justified the displacement of the Native Americans. Because of his opposition to aristocracy and slavery in his major writings, he is accused of hypocrisy, or of caring only for the liberty of English capitalists. Theory of value and property.Locke uses the word property in both broad and narrow sense s. In a broad sense, it covers a wide range of human interests and aspirations more narrowly, it refers to material goods. He argues that property is a natural right and it is derived from labor. Locke believed that ownership of property is created by the application of labor. In addition, property precedes government and government cannot dispose of the estates of the subjects arbitrarily. Karl Marx later critiqued Lockes theory of property in his social theory. Political theory.See also Two Treatises of Government Lockes political theory was founded on social contract theory. Unlike Thomas Hobbes, Locke believed that human nature is characterized by reason and tolerance. Like Hobbes, Locke believed that human nature allowed men to be selfish. This is apparent with the introduction of currency. In a natural state all people were equal and independent, and everyone had a natural right to defend his Life, health, Liberty, or Possessions, basis for the phrase in America Life, liberty , and the pursuit of happiness.9 Like Hobbes, Locke assumed that the sole right to defend in the state of nature was not enough, so people established a civil society to resolve conflicts in a civil way with help from government in a state of society. However, Locke never refers to Hobbes by name10 and may instead have been responding to other writers of the day. 11 Locke also advocated governmental insulation of powers and believed that revolution is not only a right but an obligation in some circumstances. These ideas would come to have profound influence on the Constitution of the United States and its Declaration of Independence.Limits to accumulation Labor creates property, but it also does contain limits to its accumulation mans faculty to produce and mans capacity to consume. According to Locke, unused property is waste and an offense against nature. However, with the introduction of durable goods, men could exchange their immoderate perishable goods for goods that would l ast longer and thus not offend the natural law. The introduction of currency marks the culmination of this process. Money makes possible the unlimited accumulation of property without causing waste through spoilage.He also includes gold or silver as capital because they may be hoarded up without accidental injury to anyone, since they do not spoil or decay in the hands of the possessor. The introduction of silver eliminates the limits of accumulation. Locke stresses that contrast has come about by tacit agreement on the use of money, not by the social contract establishing civil society or the law of land regulating property. Locke is aware of a paradox posed by unlimited accumulation but does not consider it his task.He just implies that government would function to moderate the conflict between the unlimited accumulation of property and a more around equal distribution of wealth and does not say which principles that government should apply to solve this problem. However, n ot all elements of his thought form a consistent whole. For example, labor theory of value of the Two Treatises of Government stands side by side with the demand-and-supply theory developed in a letter he wrote titled Some Considerations on the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and the Raising of the measure out of Money.Moreover, Locke anchors property in labor but in the end upholds the unlimited accumulation of wealth. On price theory Lockes general theory of value and price is a supply and demand theory, which was set out in a letter to a Member of Parliament in 1691, titled Some Considerations on the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and the Raising of the Value of Money. 12Supply is quantity and demand is rent. The price of any goodness rises or falls by the equaliser of the number of buyer and sellers. and that which regulates the priceof goods is nothing else but their quantity in proportion to their rent. The quantity theory of money forms a special case o f this general theory. His idea is based on money answers all things (Ecclesiastes) or rent of money is always sufficient, or more than enough, and varies very little Regardless of whether the demand for money is unlimited or constant, Locke concludes that as far as money is implicated, the demand is exclusively regulated by its quantity. He also investigates the determinants of demand and supply.For supply, goods in general are considered valuable because they can be exchanged, consumed and they must be scarce. For demand, goods are in demand because they yield a flow of income. Locke develops an early theory of capitalization, such as land, which has value because by its constant production of saleable commodities it brings in a certain per annum income. Demand for money is almost the same as demand for goods or land it depends on whether money is wanted as medium of exchange or as loanable funds.For medium of exchange money is commensurate by exchange to procure us the necess aries or conveniences of life. For loanable funds, it comes to be of the same nature with land by yielding a certain yearly income or interest. Monetary thoughts Locke distinguishes two functions of money, as a counter to measure value, and as a pledge to lay claim to goods. He believes that silver and gold, as opposed to paper money, are the appropriate currency for international transactions.Silver and gold, he says, are toughened to have equal value by all of humanity and can thus be handle as a pledge by anyone, while the value of paper money is only sound under the government which issues it. Locke argues that a country should seek a favorable balance of trade, lest it fall behind other countries and suffer a loss in its trade. Since the world money stock grows constantly, a country must constantly seek to enlarge its own stock. Locke develops his theory of foreign exchanges, in addition to commodity movements, there are also movements in country stock of money, and movem ents of capital determine exchange rates.The last mentioned is less significant and less volatile than commodity movements. As for a countrys money stock, if it is large relative to that of other countries, it will cause the countrys exchange to rise above par, as an export balance would do. He also prepares estimates of the cash requirements for different economic groups (landholders, laborers and brokers). In each group the cash requirements are closely related to the length of the pay period.He argues the brokers middlemen whose activities enlarge the fiscal circuit and whose profits eat into the earnings of laborers and landholders, had a ban influence on both ones personal and the public economy that they supposedly contributed to. The self Locke defines the self as that conscious thinking thing, (whatever substance, made up of whether spiritual, or material, simple, or compounded, it matters not) which is sensible, or conscious of pleasure and pain, capable of happiness o r misery, and so is concerned for itself, as far as that consciousness extends.13 He does not, however, ignore substance, writing that the body too goes to the making the man. 14 The Lockean self is therefore a self-aware and self-reflective consciousness that is fixed in a body. In his Essay, Locke explains the inert unfolding of this conscious mind. Arguing against both the Augustinian view of man as originally sinful and the Cartesian position, which holds that man innately knows basic logical propositions, Locke posits an empty mind, a tabula rasa, which is shaped by experience sensations and reflections being the two sources of all our ideas.15 Lockes Some Thoughts Concerning Education is an outline on how to educate this mind he expresses the touch sensation that education maketh the man, or, more fundamentally, that the mind is an empty cabinet, with the statement, I think I may say that of all the men we meet with, nine parts of ten are what they are, good or evil, useful or not, by their education. 16 Locke also wrote that the little and almost insensible impressions on our tender infancies have very important and lasting consequences.17 He argued that the associations of ideas that one makes when young are more important than those made later because they are the foundation of the self they are, put differently, what first mark the tabula rasa. In his Essay, in which is introduced both of these concepts, Locke warns against, for example, letting a foolish maid convince a child that goblins and sprites are associated with the night for darkness shall ever afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas, and they shall be so joined, that he can no more bear the one than the other.18 Associationism, as this theory would come to be called, exerted a powerful influence over eighteenth-century thought, peculiarly educational theory, as nearly every educational writer warned parents not to allow their children to develop negative associations. It also led to the development of psychology and other new disciplines with Dav.