Revision Notes

Mary Wollstonecraft asserts that the social subjection of women was partly due to nature and partly due to education why?

Mary Wollstonecraft accepted herself that by nature women weaker and by this sense were dominated by males they need protection. However education was something that Mary thought should be a natural right for women, in line with the thinking of Rosseauea who during the romanticism asserted there should be rights for all, although Rosseau himself was against women eduction and in this way they differed. Mary thought that women were to blame for letting themselves be oppressed rather than blaming men for oppressing. Mary thought like Hobbes in the way that people are a blank slate and with education and experience create ideas and become a rounded person. Mary thought that this school of thought applied to women as well, and that they should be able to learn things. This was very much against the views of Aristotle who claimed that women were an inferior species and believed that women were a species that were ‘naturally slaves’. Aristotle’s views were what society accepted for years until this point. Mary is often criticized for her relationships with men even trying to kill herself when rejected by someone who she was having an affair with. In the Vindication of the rights of women she says women accepted the role of women in society, education would set them free. Mary thought in the public space people should be viewed as human being not as separate genders.


Compare the epistemological stance of Keats in ‘ ode on a Grecian Urn’ to that of Kant in ‘critique of pure reason’

Keats ‘ode on a Grecian urn’ is a romantic poetic view on the epistemology of life. Romantic poetry at the time in England focused on the beauty of the Noumenal world. Aesthetics is the study of beauty itself, many people in the early 1800’s viewed life and the way in which the world worked aesthetically. Many believed that and beauty is truth and truth is beauty as asserted in ‘ode on a Grecian Urn’, anything that is beautiful is real e.g. a beautiful plant must be truthful and real due to its beauty. There has been great debate about what that final line of the poem means, it could mean that things exsist if they are beautiful, however this would go against Kant’s stance on the epistemology of life. Kant thought that there were two different worlds; the nomenal and the phenomenal. The nominal being an object itself and the phenomenal being something that is perceived by the world, he would argue that an object not being perceived does therefore not exist. However Keats would say that the feeling received from the vision of something beautiful meant that it was real and did always exist. Kant also argues that there should be a universal law e.g. ‘make all the money and power come to me’ cannot be universal as other people are left out. Berkley was a phliophser who Kant agreed with who said that things only flash in and out of exsistance and agreed with Kant that the mind shapes what we see. He also thought that everyone had a moral law within and was able to distinguish right from wrong.


An essay on human understanding chapter: Mircacles. Why does Hume assert that every observable phenomena is a miracle?

Hume is very sceptical about everything, and believes that nothing can ever be known for certain. He believes that everything is a miracle, Hume would argue that there is no causality in nature. This means that nothing is always certain, there is no law of nature that says this. Hume believes that even though the sun has set there is nothing that means it will rise the next day, once in does rise and becomes a phenomena ( when it’s been viewed) it therefore becomes a miracle as there is no guarantee of it . Hume also doubts what he calls; ‘human testimony’ Hume thinks that humans cannot be believed to have seen something for many reasons including; not many people being a witness, the person being unreliable and humans tendency to wanting to be seen as truthful and not a liar. In other words Hume is saying that people cannot accept something as being true just because they have been told it, only once to you have viewed the phenomena for yourself can you be certain that it is true. Humes essay on human understanding encourages people to find the truth for themselves rather than accepting what they are told.

Hume asserts certain inductive knowledge that we know is for certain.


Axiom- Absolute truth, geometry term – the starting point – ‘all men are mortal’
Apriori – Knowledge without experience, something that cannot be proved. – ‘I think, therefore I am’
Aposteriori - Gaining knowledge through experience, opposite of Apriori
Induction - Adding knowledge to something that you know is true, gaining information to get to a conclusion. Using the method of science.
Deduction – Deriving conclusion from original idea. Deducing the truth from a statement.


Contrast philosophical materialism with idealism reference Hegel and Marx
Materialism epistemological stance is that the world consists of atoms and physical objects.

Idealism is the view that everything you see is a mental phenomena, physical things don’t exist we just see everything that is created by our minds.
Hegel- Idealist that thinks nothing at all is matter and everything is spirit, manifestation of ‘Geist’. His view is teleological - everything happens for a purpose because there are rules. If an adorn falls from a tree its purpose is to become an oak tree – logic.
Marx – Hegelian descendant, a materialist believes the world is made up of atoms and things. Marx himself claimed he was not a materialist in the sense of John Locke, Hume etc. He believed that ideas to have a material effect in the world. Locke (an empiricist would disagree). Marx dismisses empiricist thinkers he sees them as capitalists against communism.’ ‘I’ve stood Hegel on his feet’’

Discuss: Economic, demographic, political, technological and sociological factors influencing papers and Journalism. 1815-1915.

Economic – Free trade, printing things to make money which is new. A lot of taxes are lifted such as the Corn Laws, this allows for money to be made. A more liberal state, mercantilism is dissolving. Individuals can print and now make profit.

Demographic – Cobbett moving around farmers being moved and urbanisation begins with highly dense cities and towns. People migrating from Europe (New York).There is a market of the same people affected by the same thing that can be printed and sold to millions of people in London.

Political – Radical press. Repeal of stamp duty, no censorship and the high taxes are lowered allow for more production. The country is a lot more Liberal allowing freedom of expression etc.

Technology - Steam driven press allowed for thousands of copies to be printed a night, which lead to massive copies, very profitable.
Railway trains meant there could be massive distribution all over the country which leads to high circulation.
Telegraph, 1860’s meant up to date reports first done in Crimean war.

Sociological – Migration to America class language gender etc. Hearst and yellow journalism appealed to the masses.