And then he claims that there are no ideas that all human beings are born knowing. He uses these travel reports to mount an argument against innate ideas. And what he finds is that there don’t seem to be any ideas about morality or God that are universal, that are shared by all human beings on the Earth. Let’s look at the evidence.’ So Locke begins collecting travel books and exchanges from all over the world, from anywhere he can get his hands on them. John Locke does not want to rely on arguments made a priori through reason nearly as much as Descartes does. Suddenly, from the end of the 17th century to the mid 18th century, people begin talking about mountains as cathedrals or pillars to God” “Before the 17th century, we thought of mountains as ugly-warts or protuberances upon the Earth. So Descartes thought-this is his trademark argument-that each one of us is imprinted with a kind of stamp of God and that this idea we have of God is something that all human beings share. These are normally innate ideas about morality and God. People like Descartes and other medieval and early modern philosophers had argued that human minds are born with various innate ideas. So again, back in the 17th century, John Locke was wondering what the nature of the human mind is. Travel has also affected philosophy in various unexpected ways. Can you give another example of how travel and philosophy intersect? So you go up the mountain to get closer to God. They’re literally where God is in the world. As space now is God, these places aren’t empty wastelands anymore. Scholars have argued-rightly I think-that what’s going on there is that people have begun to associate empty, large infinite-seeming spaces with God. Suddenly, from the end of the 17th century to the mid 18th century, you get this change when people begin talking about mountains as cathedrals or pillars to God. Various literary scholars and historians have looked at the way that before the 17th century, in the Western world, we thought of mountains as ugly-warts or protuberances upon the Earth. How did that lead to a change in travel? I can see that the Newtonian view of space makes space a candidate for being God, but why go up a mountain? Spinoza identified God with the whole of creation, whereas these philosophers are saying, ‘creation is separate to God, but God is identical to space.’ Any views that eroded the divide between God and creation was to be avoided. They figured that if space is infinite and unchanging and eternal, given that God is the only being that’s supposed to be infinite and unchanging and eternal, that space must be God in some deep way.Įveryone at that time was very anxious not to be like Spinoza.īecause if you are, you’re likely to be some kind of heretic? Space is a thing in itself: a kind of giant container for the universe, and they associated that space with God. For various reasons, philosophers like Henry More and Isaac Newton began arguing that space is ‘absolute’: independent of human minds and material bodies. Up until then, it was generally thought that space was a product of the human mind or space was associated, even identified, with material things.
In the 17th century, philosophers were thinking about what space is. How could the philosophy of space affect people climbing mountains? Hang on, let’s stop at that one, because it’s not obvious. For example, we have the way that new theories about the philosophy of space affected mountain tourism… So philosophy has affected travel in various unexpected ways. What sort of themes come out in your book, The Meaning of Travel?
Yet to my delight I found they’ve interacted a lot and there’s plenty to look at. I thought it was possible I would begin research and find that philosophers are just not interested in travel and that philosophy and travel have never interacted. It’s not a topic that’s talked about anywhere. When I started, I wasn’t sure if I would find anything.
#Book of travels map professional#
Having spent my entire adult life as a professional philosopher, I was suddenly gripped with the obsessional idea of writing something about philosophy and travel. I’ve spent years of my life backpacking and I’ve always been a bit obsessed with travel. The simple answer is this topic brings two things I really love together. It’s a very unusual topic for a philosopher to be interested in. Foreign Policy & International Relationsīefore we discuss these books, I wanted to ask why you chose this topic, the philosophy of travel.
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