PHILOSOPHY IN MODERN PERIOD
1.1 BACKGROUND
The modern period has been
characterized by an awakening of reflection, a revolt against authority and
tradition, a dual concern with empiricism and rationalism – where, by rational
we mean the use of reason over revelation for in the other predominant use of
rationalism all modern systems are rational in their ideal. The other use of
rationalism is the view that genuine knowledge consists of universal and
necessary judgments – considered by most modern thinkers as ideal – whether
realized, realizable or not. A further concern in the modern era is the origin
of knowledge and this concern has received considerable impetus from the modern
biology starting around the intellectual trends characterized by the
publications c. 1855 by Alfred Russell Wallace and of Charles Darwin in On
the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, 1859
The approach here will be to
briefly consider selected seminal and typical modern philosophers
1.1.1
The Renaissance
The
Renaissance has been characterized as a period of revolt against authority, a
new humanism, a serious start to study of Plato and Aristotle, the pantheism of
Nicolas of Cusa [1401 – 1464], reform of science, philosophy and logic, social
and political philosophy of Campanella and Machiavelli 1469 – 1527… the Renaissance
is commonly used as a label for the multifaceted period between medieval
universalism, and sweeping transformations of 17th century Europe
This sets the
Spirit of modern philosophy “as an awakening of the reflective spirit, a
quickening of criticism, a revolt against authority and tradition, a protest
against absolutism and collectivism, and a demand for freedom in thought,
feeling and action”
1.2 THE BEGINNING OF MODERN
PHILOSOPHY 1550-1670
1.2.1
Francis Bacon
[1561-1626]
The Reform of Science: Bacon
is, in many ways, typical of the modern spirit: He is opposed to ancient
authorities…he understood and emphasized the importance of systematic and
methodical observation and experimentation in natural science; [the other and
most important phase, mathematics, he mentions and considers essential]
1.2.1.1
Inductive methods
…a “novum
organum”: the old syllogism [syllogistic logic is useless for scientific
discovery]…the only hope – in knowing nature – is genuine induction: we must
ascend gradually in an orderly and methodical way from experience to
propositions of higher and higher generality until we finally come to the most
general and best defines axioms
1.2.1.2
Programs of
philosophy
Primary philosophy busies
itself with the concepts and axioms common to several sciences, with what we
now call basic scientific categories and presuppositions of science
1.2.1.3
Philosophy of man
Man is a human and political
[or civil] philosophy. Human philosophy studies body and soul and their
relation…in envisioning a comprehensive science of man, Bacon founded
scientific humanism…the faculties of the soul [psychology] were understanding,
reason, imagination, memory, appetite, will, and all those with which logic and
ethics are concerned: logic treats of the understanding and reason; and ethics
of the will, appetite and affections: the one produces resolutions, the other
actions; ethics describes the nature of the good and prescribes rules for
conforming to it [right, perhaps]…Man is prompted by selfish and by social
impulses. The social good is called duty, and it is the business of the science
of government to discover the fountains of justice and public good and to
reinforce their claims even when they conflict with the interests of the
individual…philosophy in the broad sense is at the apex of knowledge
1.2.1.4
Bacon as an
empiricist
[Although his empiricism is
not fully worked out, he can be called an empiricist.] Teleology is banished
from physics and becomes a part of metaphysics
1.2.2
Thomas Hobbes
[1588-1679]
“One of the boldest and most
typical representations of the modern spirit.”
1.2.2.1
Theory of
knowledge
Philosophy, according to
Hobbes, is a knowledge of effects [sense perception] from their causes
[principles] and of causes from their effects…Hobbes is a nominalist, regards
logic as a kind of calculation…The problem, therefore, is to find a
first principle -–a starting point for our reasoning: this is motion:
everything can be explained by motion: the nature of man, the mental world, the
physical world
The origin of all our
thoughts are from the senses…but the picture of the world obtained through the
senses is not the real world…so how do we know the nature of the world [e.g.,
motion is the primary principle]? Hobbes is not troubled by the question
1.2.2.2
Metaphysics
A real world of bodies in
space exists…substance and body are identical
1.2.2.3
Psychology
Mind is motion in the
brain…Hobbes subscribes to what modern writers call epiphenomenalism:
consciousness is an after appearance…there is also a motive power: pleasure and
pain arouse appetite [or desire] and aversion: appetite is an endeavor toward
something, aversion is an endeavor away from something
That which pleases a man he
calls good, what displeases him he calls evil
The imagination is the first
beginning of all voluntary motion. Will in man is not different from will in other
animals. A man is free to act but not free to will as he wills, he cannot will
to will
1.2.2.4
Politics
Man is a ferocious anima [Homo
homini lupus]…competition for riches, honor and power inclines man to
contention, enmity, war because only in this way can one competitor fulfill his
desire to kill, subdue, supplant or repel his rivals
[But] reason dictates that
there should be a state of peace and that every man should seek after peace.
The first precept of reason, or law of nature, commands self-preservation: the
second, that man lay down his natural right and be content with as much liberty
for himself as he is prepared to allow others in the interests of peace and
security…no man can be expected to transfer certain rights such as the right to
self-dense [since he transfers his rights for the very purpose of securing
defense]…The third law of nature is that men keep the covenants they have made:
this is the fountain and origin of justice…these laws are immutable,
eternal…they are [called] natural because they are the dictates of reason; they
are moral because they concern men’s manners towards one another: they are
also, according to Hobbes, divine
The only way to erect a
commonwealth and insure peace is to confer the total power and strength of men
upon one man or assembly of men, whereby all their wills, by a majority vote,
coalesce into one will
1.2.3
Blaise Pascal
[1632-1662]
Mathematician, Jansenist,
anti-Jesuit
Man has certain immediate
insights – space, time, movement, number, and truth. Sense and reason deceive
each other; then feeling functions, bringing satisfaction. Religious feeling,
in which alone there is peace, is independent of understanding. Belief in God
is a wager on which one can lose nothing.
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