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Chapter 12 Natural and Social Laws

• Philosopher John Locke, also in the seventeenth century, argued that humans, in order to effectively protect property and lead ethical lives, had to create a contract to exit a state of nature and come together into a political society. In the same period, philosopher René Descartes propounded notions of dualism, the idea that the human mind and body were distinct spheres and, by extension, that animals were incapable of reason. And in the eighteenth century, philosopher Immanuel Kant characterized humans, who wield agency and reason, as distinctively moral beings. In contrast, philosopher David Hume separated humans from the natural world based not on our capacity to reason about or observe nature but on our capacity to sympathize. #537 • Sep 6 2022 11:28PM