Browsing by Author "Averin, Ove"

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Denial of the immaterial substance in early 18th century post-Lockean thought: the cases of Dr. Coward and Mr. Collins
(Tartu Ülikool, 2021) Averin, Ove; Jakapi, Roomet, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Humanitaarteaduste ja kunstide valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Filosoofia osakond
In this thesis I aim to investigate what kinds of arguments were available in the first decades of 18th century Britain when following the footsteps of Overton, Milton, Hobbes, and Locke in doubting or denying the commonly accepted existence of immaterial substance. I look at two possible stands of thinking – Christian mortalism and philosophical materialism – in order to paint a more comprehensive picture that covers both arguments form Scripture and philosophy. As this thesis would otherwise become too convoluted, I focus mainly on two authors – free thinker Anthony Collins (1676 – 1729) who represents Philosophical materialist thought and physician William Coward (1657? – 1725) who represents Christian mortalist thought. I aim to show how those two authors argued against centuries of tradition while constructing their own understanding of human nature. In addition, I will also compare their ideas – see in what way they are similar and in what way they differ from one another.
Henry More ja hinge rännak läbi eri tüüpi kehade
(Tartu Ülikool, 2019) Averin, Ove; Jakapi, Roomet, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Humanitaarteaduste ja kunstide valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Filosoofia osakond
In this thesis, my aim is to reconstruct the metaphysics of 17th century Cambridge Platonist Henry More. Though an influential figure in his time, More has been mostly forgotten by now. First, to better understand where More is coming from, I give necessary background information about the changes that philosophy went through in the 17th century. Then I give detailed overview of More’s metaphysical system and all the different types on entities – spirits and bodies – that it consists of. After giving that overview, I focus on human souls and show how they interact with each other and the world around them. First human souls fall away from god’s grace in search of something more material. As they find themselves in earthly body though, they discover that it is not a good place to be and start their journey back to god. Although I think there are some internal problems in More’s philosophy – namely his argument from prejudices does not always work the way he intends to and his philosophy could open the door to possibility of reincarnation – I only discuss them briefly because my aim is to describe More’s philosophy as it is, and not to construct something that it could have been.