Taking care of things : substance, machine, and organism in early modern thought
Part of : Philosophical inquiry ; Vol.XXVII, No.3-4, 2005, pages 15-26
Issue:
Pages:
15-26
Author:
Abstract:
In her discussions of business and environment-specifically her discussions of ownership, Lisa Newton argues that traditional notions of private property based on the political theory of John Locke have undergone radical transformation in recent decades. Newton contends that this change, which is wreaking havoc on not only the jobs of American workers, but also environmental resources, comes out of changes in market forces, changes in investment trends and SEC regulations. While I find such an analysis useful and even profound, I believe that forces behind such shifts in ownership are part of a legacy of adopting a mechanistic conception of the universe, one that Locke himself helped produce in his adherence to a material substratum. The purpose of this paper is to trace the development of the mechanistic theory of nature advanced by René Descartes and John Locke, compare to the organicist views of Leibniz and Berkeley, and then show the relation between these opposing views on the nature of substance and shifting conceptions of ownership and land use.
Subject:
Subject (LC):
Notes:
Περιέχει σημειώσεις
