#15: A Model of Christian Charity by John Winthrop pp. 65 - 66
We'll beging with a brief discussion of the film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, following which we'll take a few minutes at the beginning of class to clear up any lingering concerns about Areopagitica. Thank you for your diligent work on this essay. I appreciate your scholarship.
We've seen how important the idea of reason was to Milton. It was no less important to other thinkers of his generation- -important and useful. The belief that men and women could better their lives through systematic thought led to concerted efforts to apply this approach to many different concerns. One of the chief of these was the nature of society itself. We all know that at a certain age a child's favorite word is why? Nothing is left for granted, and everything must be explained. Thinkers at the beginning of the modern age behaved similarly. One of the basic social questions has to be "Why have society at all?" "Why do we live in social groups, rather than as isolated individuals?" Both Thomas Hobbes and John Winthrop seek to answer these questions.
Of the two, Hobbes is the longest and more difficult--not as difficult as Milton, however, once you get past the use of the "eth" form of words...ariseth instead of arises, for example. Hobbes is investigating the kinds of conditions which lead to human happiness (felicity) and human misery. He believes that the attempt to achieve the former and avoid the latter gives rise to society. He begins by the statement that people are equal in a state of nature. We'll want to explore this and its implications. Note how Hobbes structures his arguments (If you want to know why you are drilled to use theses, primary support and secondary support in expository writing consider that
this is largely how Hobbes writes and thinks.)
Consider how Hobbes argues that our natural equality tends to make us enemies of each other. Consider, too, how Hobbes defines war and peace. (Timely definitions, here). Finally, understand what Hobbes means by our natural rights. Nature here equates to rights apart from our social lives. Is perpetual war a product of our natural rights? Is life according to nature, as Hobbes claims, "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short?"
John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts, begins his discussion at the other pole of the argument. While Hobbes begins with the equality of men, Winthrop begins
with the inequality. He observes the inequality and asks why a just God creates social inequality. As God's ordering of things, it must be good in and of itself, and good for
us, as well. You'll want to think about his three explanations (reasons) why inequality among people is a "good thing" (left column, p. 65). You'll then want to understand
how this leads to a "model" of social behavior and what that model of appropriate social behavior (society) is (right column, p. 65)
For Friday, March 22
Read, in Democratic Idea
from #11, Second Treatise of Government (John Locke)
Sections [222-225] Of the Dissolution of Government pp. 54 - 55
We may not quite finish Winthrop's Model of Christian Charity on Tuesday. We'll clean up any loose ends and then proceed on to read only part of essay 11 in Democratic Idea. Hobbes and Winthrop give us a pretty good idea of what thinkers in the early modern period though society (and by extension, Government) was for.Locke raises the question, "what am I obliged to do when government fails to fulfill its contract?" To understand the revolutionary impact of his answer to this question we must remember that prior to this point Western political thought associated power with Divine Authority. Bishops officiated at coronations, and Kings and Queens ruled by Divine Right as God's representatives on earth.
Two portraits of John Locke. Portrait artists convey not only a subject's likeness, but their attitude towards their subjects as well. How would you describe the attitudes conveyed in these two representations? Many portraits of persons important in the history of ideas can be found at a website sponsored by Brooklyn College. Clicking on Locke's image below will take you there.
Or By Appointment
