Q&A for Western Philosophy

Why Rene Descartes is called the Father of Modern Philosophy?

Descartes's project was to validate the use of the human faculties in gaining knowledge of the world. In particular, he wished to examine the faculties of sense and reason. Sense presents the mind with images of sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. Throughout the history of philosophy, from the ancient Greeks onward, there has been suspicion about the ability of the senses to deliver true information about the world. The other faculty, reason, has been valued more highly, but it ran into the conflict with faith. Descartes was most concerned with showing how reason can be relied upon.

When skepticism had taken over the Western Europe, there was a crisis in authority. The whole question of “How can we know anything for sure?” became a serious problem. There was a scientific revolution at that time known as “Copernican revolution”. Then when Galileo was confirming the mathematical theories, there was a crisis in authority, not only in philosophy & theology but also in science. Before to this point, it is believed that the truest knowledge comes from the senses, when Copernicus model of heliocentric view is established, the source of knowledge through senses is shattered. Within this background, Descartes was trying, in his philosophical inquiry, to re-establish some foundation for certainty with respect to truth.

Rene Descartes was the first major figure in the philosophical movement known as rationalism, a method of understanding the world based on the use of pure reason as the means to attain knowledge. Descartes spurred society to re-examine its traditions and institutions, leading to massive social disruption. He has brought a paradigm shift in the method of knowing anything for sure based purely on reason and laid foundations for epistemology. This had led rise to the new era “enlightenment”, which is why he is considered as the father of modern philosophy.