Tag Archives: Quantum leaps

Arts, History, Human Rights, Philosophy, Society, United States

Quantum Leaps: Thomas Paine…

THOMAS PAINE 1737 – 1809

English born political philosopher, Paine not only invented the term ‘United States of America’, he inspired the revolutions both there and in France. He was forced to flee from England when he tried to do the same thing there. Awareness of his importance in the formulation of the American constitution and the American ‘way of life’ is pivotal to understanding the entity that is modern day America.

Having emigrated to the New World in the early 1770s, Paine became editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine and published one of the first essays calling for the abolition of slavery. With the beginning of the American Revolution, Paine made himself famous by publishing his book Common Sense. In it, he argues against the notion of a ruling class, insisting that government and society must be kept distinct. Independence for the American colonies, Paine argued, was both morally and practically justified. He continued to write and publish pamphlets throughout the War of Independence in support of the revolution.

Thomas Paine was a philosopher, political activist and revolutionary. As a political theorist he advocated that ‘the proceeds of land and property tax should be invested in a welfare system’.

Thomas Paine was a philosopher, political activist and revolutionary. As a political theorist he advocated that ‘the proceeds of land and property tax should be invested in a welfare system’.

After the success of the war for American independence, Paine went first to France and then to England. In response to Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, Paine wrote and published The Rights of Man, his seminal treatise on democracy and republicanism. According to Paine, all men are born with equal rights. The necessity of social living however, can bring about situations where we impinge on the rights of others. Moreover, we may not always have the means to protect our rights from others who do not respect them. Consequently, it is necessary to develop the state and a constitution in which individual rights are encoded as civil rights, enforced by the state on behalf of the individual. The only morally acceptable constitution is that of the democratic republic in which citizens are granted the further right to vote in order to choose their own leaders. It is just this right, to choose one’s leaders, that the hereditary monarchies of France and England deny to their people and provides justification enough to abandon them as immoral constitutions.

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The British Government, in response, charged Paine with treason, causing him to flee back to France. With Paine gone, the government quashed the British revolution before it had a chance to gain momentum. In France, Paine was at first welcomed and given a seat in the National Convention. However he was later imprisoned and only just escaped execution.

Paine developed his ideas on civil rights and justice in his Agrarian Justice. He argues that a state is predicated on the basis that it makes its citizens better off than they otherwise would be without the constitution. But, he finds, many of the poorest people in the civilised societies of Europe are in a worse state than so-called ‘uncivilised’ Native American Indians. The inequity has much to do with land and property ownership, a privilege Paine suggests should be taxed since the generation of wealth that makes it possible requires the support of society. The proceeds of land and property tax should be invested in a welfare system, access to which is a right of every citizen.

In 1802 Paine returned to America, but it was not to be a happy homecoming. In the Age of Reason Paine had argued against both atheism and Christianity in favour of a deism which rejects any appeal to divine revelation. Rather, the belief in God is claimed to be intrinsically reasonable, a logical conclusion to the question of why anything exists at all. Paine rejects both organised religion and the Bible’s portrayal of a vindictive, vengeful God. Unfortunately for Paine, America was resolutely Christian and frowned upon his religious writings, despite his previous service to her. Though he remained in the United States for the rest of his life, he died in obscurity.

Paine’s work is characterised by a rare integrity that rails against political oppression, organised religion and poverty. Despite the massive influence of his early writings he remains a philosopher who, curiously, is now rarely mentioned.

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Arts, Britain, Economic, History, Philosophy, Politics, Scotland, Society

Quantum Leaps: Adam Smith (1723-1790)…

‘UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF INTENDED ACTION’

Scottish philosopher of morals, politics and economics, Adam Smith was a contemporary of the Empiricist, David Hume (1711-1776), and is very close to him in outlook and philosophic temperament. His lectures on ethics and logic were published under the title Theory of the Moral Sentiments but he is most famous for his work of political economics, The Wealth of Nations.

Favoured philosopher of Margaret Thatcher and darling of Conservative economists, Smith is famous for his views on private property, the free market economy and the doctrine that ‘unintended consequences of intended action’ will be to the benefit of society at large. The idea behind this most fortunate if true of principles is that in intentionally serving one’s interests one unintentionally serves the interests of society as a whole.

'The Wealth of Nations' is one of the most important and deservedly read works of economic and political philosophy in the history of Western thought.

‘The Wealth of Nations’ is one of the most important and deservedly read works of economic and political philosophy in the history of Western thought.

A simple example will illustrate the essence of Smith’s idea. Suppose that Jones, in seeking his own fortune, decides to set up and run his own business, manufacturing some common item of everyday need. In seeking to provide for his own fortune, Jones’ entrepreneurial enterprise has a number of unintentional benefits to others. First, he provides a livelihood for the people in his employ, thus benefiting them directly. Second, he makes more readily available some common item which previously had been more difficult or more expensive to obtain for his customers, thus easing one, if only minor, aspect of their lives. The forces of market economy ensure that these unintentional benefits occur, for if Jones’ workers could find more profitable employ elsewhere they would either cease to work for him or he would have to raise their salaries in order to secure a workforce. Likewise, if Jones’ product was available more readily or less expensively from some other source, Jones would either go out of business or be forced to lower his prices to a competitive rate. The model assumes the absence of a monopoly, both in the labour and economic markets.

The belief that ‘unintended consequences of intended action’ will be of benefit to society held great imaginative power over the industrial philanthropists of the 18th and 19th Centuries and provided the philosophical groundwork for the later ethical theories of Bentham and Mill. However, criticism is not hard to come by. It is surely a blinkered view, if comforting for the entrepreneurial capitalist, to suppose that pursuing one’s own self-interest constitutes a magnanimous and philanthropic act towards society at large. One has only to review the social history of industrial Britain, to witness the treacherous and exploitative working practices of the industrial age, the extreme poverty and degrading social conditions of the suffering working classes, to realise Smith’s idealistic model has far more serious ‘unintended’ consequences. What has largely brought an end to such conditions in the industrialised West is not a triumphant adherence to Smith’s principles in Western economics, but a shifting of the poverty and exploitative working practices from one part of the world to another. In other words, the living conditions of those in the West has improved to the detriment of other countries just insofar as the labour required to support Smith’s economic philosophy has been removed from Western societies and transferred to those of the Third World.

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Regardless of one’s political views on Smith, The Wealth of Nations is one of the most important and deservedly read works of economic and political philosophy in the history of Western thought. It needs to be read and understood by its detractors as much as it does by its supporters.

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Arts, History, Philosophy, Science

Quantum Leaps: Robert Hooke…

1635 – 1703

Perhaps one of the most ‘underrated’ scientists of the seventeenth century, Robert Hooke, an Englishman, experimented and made advances in a wide range of scientific areas. Yet because of this breadth of coverage, he seldom developed any of his concepts to their fullest extent. This explains why he rarely gained credit for them. Indeed, it is arguable that his role as a provider and facilitator to others is his most important legacy.

Boyle’s Assistant – The most obvious example of his contribution to others was the work he undertook with Robert Boyle at Oxford, where they met in 1656. Boyle, as the aristocrat, was clearly the dominant partner in the relationship, in social terms at least. Hooke, as his assistant, acted on Boyle’s instructions, yet many of his creations were worthy inventions in their own right. The most obvious example is the air pump that he devised in 1659, the most efficient vacuum creator of its time. It enabled Boyle to go on to make many of his discoveries.

Provider of Ideas – Moreover, Boyle was responsible, albeit indirectly, for keeping Hooke in his position as jack of all sciences, master of none. The aristocrat had been influential in having Hooke elevated to the position of Curator of Experiments for the Royal Society in 1662. While the prestige of the role pleased Hooke, the job requirement of showing ‘three or four considerable experiments’ to the Society at each of its weekly meetings was almost certainly the factor that ensured Hooke would never have the time to develop any of his findings fully.

A Source of Ideas – Another scientist to whom Hooke felt he had provided source material was the Dutch physicist Christian Huygens. Huygens is credited with creating the influential wave theory of light, which he published in 1690. Yet as early as 1672, Hooke had explained his discovery of diffraction (the bending of light rays) by suggesting that light might behave in a wave-like fashion.

In 1662, Robert Hooke became the first Curator of Experiments to the Royal Society. In 1670 he discovered the ‘law of elasticity’.

In 1662, Robert Hooke became the first Curator of Experiments to the Royal Society. In 1670 he discovered the ‘law of elasticity’.

Isaac Newton vehemently argued against Hooke’s theory of light, beginning a bitter feud which would continue for the rest of Hooke’s life. Hooke also claimed to have discovered one of the most important theories credited to Newton, arguing that the latter had plagiarised his ideas from correspondence between the two during 1680. Certainly, Hooke’s letters suggested some notion of universal gravitation and hinted at an understanding of what later became Newton’s law of gravity. In spite of this, though, it is unquestionable that Newton’s mathematical calculations and endeavours in proving the law give him a much stronger claim.

Robert Hooke’s countless experiments did, however, result in some other discoveries solely credited to him. He was, for example, the first to describe the universal law that all matter will expand upon heating. He is credited with the law of elasticity, discovered in 1670. Also known as Hooke’s Law, it states that the strain, or change in size, placed upon a solid – when stretched – is directly proportional to the stress, or force, applied to it. Hooke was also the first person to use the word ‘cell’ in the scientific sense understood by us today, after observing the properties of cork under one of the powerful microscopes that he had developed. This word was used in his 1665 work Micrographia or Small Drawings, which also included many other advances such as Hooke’s theory of combustion, as well as other discoveries of the microscope. These included crystalline structure of snow, and studies of fossils which led to the proposition that they were the remains of once living creatures. He suggested that whole species had lived and died out long before man, centuries before Charles Darwin came to the same conclusion.

Hooke also made discoveries in astronomy, locating Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, and proposed that the huge planet rotated on its axis.

Further accreditations – Hooke’s inventions were greatly influential. He either invented or significantly improved the reflecting telescope, compound microscope, dial barometer, anemometer, hygrometer, balance spring (for use in watches), quadrant, universal joint and iris diaphragm (later used in cameras). He also showed impressive vision, foreseeing the development of the steam engine and the telegraph system.

Beyond this he was an accomplished architect who designed parts of London following the great fire of 1666.

Inset – In 1662, Robert Hooke became the first Curator of Experiments to the Royal Society. In 1670 he discovered the ‘law of elasticity’.

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