Browse Items (23 total)

17th century perception of slavery

George Berkeley was an Irish philosopher who put forth the notion that physical objects, such as a spoon and fork, were not material in nature, but instead were figments of our imagination. Furthermore, he believed that these objects could only exist…

In this passage, John Locke puts forth his ideas on the concept of infinity. He argues that, because we have never seen something truly infinite, we cannot entirely grasp the nature of infinity. This follows from his argument earlier in An Esssay…

A paper going through the accounts of morality in the 18th century.

David Hume makes an argument about the change of passions and emotions that a human mind conveys when it meets different situations.

At the same time that European philosophers were struggling with the idea of the mind, East Asian cultures were developing their own interpretation of the human brain. This image, found in a Tibetan Monastery, provides insight into how many…

This painting of a scowling man wearing a scholar’s cap and brown gown has a powerful impression and a slightly threatening mood. It is said that this painting was originally painted as a personification of philosophy.

The Wealth of Nations, is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. First published in 1776, the book offers one of the world's first collected descriptions of what builds nations' wealth, and is today a fundamental…

This famous image was the cover of Thomas Hobbes' "Leviathan"; it depicts a figurative representation of Hobbes' 'social contract', in which each individual person assents to the rule of a greater monarchy.