Lecture 6. Philosophy of Modern period and the age of Enlightenment

1. The problem of the method: rationalistic doctrine and inductive method

2. Empiricism and sensualism as principles of human understanding

3. The doctrine of Hobbes on state.

 

An early proponent of the scientific method (Empiricism) was Francis Bacon, an English philosopher, statesman, essayist and scientist of the late Renaissance period. His major contribution to philosophy was his application of inductive reasoning, the approach used by modern science, rather than the a priori method of medieval Scholasticism and Aristotelianism. However, before beginning this induction, the philosopher must free his mind from certain false notions or tendencies which distort the truth, which he characterized as the four Idols: "Idols of the Tribe"; "Idols of the Cave"; "Idols of the Marketplace"; and "Idols of the Theatre".

In Ethits, he distinguished between duty to the community and duty to God.

Among his earlier publication were the "Essays", the "Colours of Good and Evil", the "Meditationes Sacrae" (which includes his famous aphorism, "knowledge is power", and the "Proficience and Advancement of Learning". In 1620, his "Novum Organum" ("The New Instrument"), the most important part of his fragmentary and incomplete "Instauratio Magna" ("The Great Renewal"), was published, and a second part, "De Augmentis Scientiarum" ("The Advancement of Learning"), was published in 1623.

"The New Atlantis", written in 1623 and published after his death in 1627, expressed Bacon's aspirations and ideals in the form of an idealized utopia and a vision of the future of human discovery and knowledge.

Along with the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th Century, which the Age of Reason gave rise to, it is also known as the Early Modern period.

The Age of Reason of the 17th Century and the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th Century, along with the advances in science, the growth of religious tolerance and the rise of liberalism which went with them, mark the real beginnings of modern philosophy. In large part, the period can be seen as an ongoing battle between two opposing doctrines, Rationalism and Empiricism.

This revolution in philosophical thought was sparked by Rene Decartes, the first figure in the loose movement known as Rationalism. His method (known as methodological skepticism), was to shuck off everything about which there could be even a suspicion of doubt to arrive at the single indubitable principle that he possessed consciousness and was able to think ("I think, therefore I am").

Baruch Spinoza was a thoroughgoing Determinist who believed that absolutely everything (even human behaviour) occurs through the operation of necessity, leaving absolutely no room for free will and spontaneity. He also took the Moral Relativist position.

The third great Rationalist was Gottfried Leibniz. According to Leibniz's theory, the real world is actually composed of eternal, non-material and mutually-independent elements he called monads, and the material world that we see and touch is actually just phenomena. The apparent harmony prevailing among monads arises because of the will of God.

He is also considered perhaps the most important logician between Aristotle and the mid-19th Century developments in modern formal Logic.

Another important 17th Century French Rationalist (although perhaps of the second order) was Nicolas Malebranche, who was a follower of Decartes in that he believed that humans attain knowledge through ideas or immaterial representations in the mind. However, Malebranche argued (more or less following St. Augustine) that all ideas actually exist only in God, and that God was the only active power. He believed in idea that he called Occasionalism.

In opposition to the continental European Rationalism movement was the equally loose movement of British Empiricism, which was also represented by three main proponents.

The first of the British Empiricists was John Locke. He argued that all of our ideas, whether simple or complex, are ultimately derived from experience.

Locke, like Avicenna before him, believed that the mind was a tabula rasa (or blank slate) and that people are born without innate ideas. Along with Hobbes and Rousseau, he was one of the originators of Contractarianism (or Social Contract Theory), which formed the theoretical underpinning for democracy, republicanism, Liberalism and Libertarianism, and his political views influenced both the American and French Revolutions.

The next of the British Empiricists chronologically was Bishop George Berkeley, although his Empiricism was of a much more radical kind, mixed with a twist of Idealism. Using dense but cogent arguments, he developed the rather counter-intuitive system known as Immaterialism (or sometimes as Subjective Idealism). According to Berkeley's theory, an object only really exists if someone is there to see or sense it ("to be is to be perceived").

The third, and perhaps greatest, of the British Empiricists was David Hume. He believed that experience and observation must be the foundations of any logical argument. Hume argued that, although we may form beliefs and make inductive inferences about things outside our experience, they cannot be conclusively established by reason and we should not make any claims to certain knowledge about them.

Among the "non-aligned" philosophers of the period (many of whom were most active in the area of Political Philosophy) were the following:

Thomas Hobbes, who described in his famous book "Leviathan" how the natural state of mankind was brute-like and poor, and how the modern state was a kind of "social contract" (Contractarianism) whereby individuals deliberately give up their natural rights for the sake of protection by the state;

Blaise Pascal, a confirmed Fideist (the view that religious belief depends wholly on faith or revelation, rather than reason, intellect or natural theology) who opposed both Rationalism and Empiricism as being insufficient for determining major truths;

Adam Smith, widely cited as the father of modern economics, whose metaphor of the "invisible hand" of the free market (the apparent benefits to society of people behaving in their own interests) and whose book "The Wealth of Nations" had a huge influence on the development of modern Capitalism, Liberalism and Individualism; and

Edmund Burke, considered one of the founding fathers of modern Conservatism and Liberalism, although he also produced perhaps the first serious defense of Anarchism.

Required reading:

1. Bacon, F., 1620. The New Organon (Novum Organum), ed. by Lisa Jardine and Michael Silverthorne, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

2. Spinoza, B., 1677 (2007), Theological-Political Treatise, Jonathan Israel (ed), Michael Silverstone and Jonathan Israel (trs). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

3. Spinoza, B., 1677. Ethics, Volume 1 of The Collected Writings of Spinoza, tr. by E. Curley, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.

4. Descartes, R. 1644/1911. The Principles of Philosophy. Translated by E. Haldane and G. Ross. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

5. Descartes, R., 1641. Meditations on First Philosophy, ed. by John Cottingham, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

6. Locke, J., 1690, An Essay on Human Understanding, ed. Woolhouse, Roger, London: Peguin Books, 1997.

7. Berkeley, George. Philosophical Works, Including the Works on Vision. Edited by Michael R. Ayers. Everyman edition. London: J. M. Dent, 1975.

8. Hume, D., 1739-40. A Treatise of Human Nature, ed. by L. A. Selby-Bigge (1941), 2nd ed. revised by P. H. Nidditch, Oxford: Clarendon, 1975.

9. Hume, D., 1779. Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, second edition, ed. by R. Popkin, Indianapolis: Hackett, 1980.

10. Newton, I., 1687. Philosophiae naturalis Principia Mathematica, ed. by A. Koyré and I. B. Cohen, 2 vols., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972.

11. Leibniz, G. W. 1686 /1991. Discourse on Metaphysics. Translated by D. Garter and R. Aries. Indianapolis: Hackett.

12. Leibniz, G. W. 1720/1925. The Monadology. Translated by R. Lotte. London: Oxford University Press.

Optional reading:

1. Russell, B: "A History of Western Philosophy". Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1972.
2. Boyle, D., 2009, Descartes on Innate Ideas, London: Continum.
3. Oliver, Simon, “Roger Bacon on Light, Truth and Experimentum,” Vivarium 42, no. 2 (2004), 151-180.
4. Power, Amanda, “A Mirror for Every Age: The Reputation of Roger Bacon,” English Historical Review 121, no. 492 (2006), 657-692.
5. Henry, J., 2002, Knowledge is Power. Francis Bacon and the Method of Science, Cambridge: Icon Books.
6. Gaukroger, Stephen. Francis Bacon and the Transformation of Early-modern Philosophy. Cambridge, U.K.; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
7. Stoneham, Tom. Berkeley's World: An Examination of the Three Dialogues. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
8. Pappas, George S. Berkeley's Thought. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000.

 

 

1. Deistic orientation of the French Enlightenment and the formulation of the problem of man.

2. The ideal of "naturalness" J.-J. Russo in the context of his critique of culture and civilization.

 

The Age of Enlightenment period of the Modern era of philosophy corresponds roughly to the 18th Century. In general terms, the Enlightenment was an intellectual movement, developed mainly in France, Britain and Germany, which advocated freedom, democracy and reason as the primary values of society. It started from the standpoint that men's minds should be freed from ignorance, from superstition and from the arbitrary powers of the State, in order to allow mankind to achieve progress and perfection. The period was marked by a further decline in the influence of the church, governmental consolidation and greater rights for the common people. Politically, it was a time of revolutions and turmoil and of the overturning of established traditions.

It was essentially a continuation of the process of rationalization begun in the Age of Reason of the 17th Century, but also to some extent a reaction against it, and the two periods are often combined as the Early Modern period.

The Scientific Revolution of the 1500s and 1600s had transformed the way people in Europe looked at the world. In the 1700s, other scientists expanded European knowledge. For example, Edward Jenner developed a vaccine against smallpox, a disease whose path of death spanned the centuries. Scientific successes convinced educated Europeans of the power of human reason. Natural law, or rules discoverable by reason, govern scientific forces such as gravity and magnetism. In this way, the Scientific Revolution led to another revolution in thinking, known as the Enlightenment.

The Philosophes. In the 1700s, there was a flowering of Enlightenment thought. This was when a group of Enlightenment thinkers in France applied the methods of science to understand and improve society. They believed that the use of reason could lead to reforms of government, law, and society. These thinkers were called philosophes, which means “philosophers.” Their ideas soon spread beyond France and even beyond Europe.

An early and influential thinker was Baron de Montesquieu. Montesquieu advances the idea of separation of powers. He studied the governments of Europe, from Italy to England, he read about ancient and medieval Europe, and learned about Chinese and Native American cultures. His sharp criticism of absolute monarchy would open doors for later debate. In 1748, Montesquieu published The Spirit of the Laws, in which he discussed governments throughout history. Montesquieu felt that the best way to protect liberty was to divide the various functions and powers of government among three branches: the legislative, executive, and judicial.

Voltaire defends freedom of thought. Probably the most famous of the philosophes was François-Marie Arouet, who took the name Voltaire. “My trade,” said Voltaire, “is to say what I think,” and he did so throughout his long, controversial life. Voltaire used biting wit as a weapon to expose the abuses of his day. Voltaire’s outspoken attacks offended both the French government and the Catholic Church. He was imprisoned and forced into exile. Even as he saw his books outlawed and even burned, he continued to defend the principle of freedom of speech.

Diderot Edits the Encyclopedia. Denis Diderot worked for years to produce a 28-volume set of books called the Encyclopedia. As the editor, Diderot did more than just compile articles. His purpose was “to change the general way of thinking” by explaining ideas on topics such as government, philosophy, and religion. Diderot’s Encyclopedia included articles by leading thinkers of the day, including Montesquieu and Voltaire. In these articles, the philosophes denounced slavery, praised freedom of expression, and urged education for all. They attacked divine-right theory and traditional religions. Critics raised an outcry. The French government argued that the Encyclopedia was an attack on public morals, and the pope threatened to excommunicate Roman Catholics who bought or read the volumes. Despite these and other efforts to ban the Encyclopedia, more than 4,000 copies were printed between 1751 and 1789. When translated into other languages, the Encyclopedia helped spread Enlightenment ideas throughout Europe and across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.

Rousseau Promotes The Social Contract. J.-J. Rousseau believed that people in their natural state were basically good. This natural innocence, he felt, was corrupted by the evils of society, especially the unequal distribution of property. Many reformers and revolutionaries later adopted this view. Among them were Thomas Paine and Marquis de Lafayette, who were leading figures of the American and French Revolutions. In 1762, Rousseau set forth his ideas about government and society in The Social Contract. Rousseau felt that society placed too many limitations on people’s behavior. He believed that some controls were necessary, but that they should be minimal. Additionally, only governments that had been freely elected should impose these controls. Rousseau put his faith in the “general will,” or the best conscience of the people. Rousseau has influenced political and social thinkers for more than 200 years. Woven through his work is a hatred of all forms of political and economic oppression. His bold ideas would help fan the flames of revolt in years to come.

Women Challenge the Philosophes. The Enlightenment slogan “free and equal” did not apply to women. Though the philosophes said women had natural rights, their rights were limited to the areas of home and family. By the mid- to late-1700s, a small but growing number of women protested this view. Germaine de Staël in France and Catharine Macaulay and Mary Wollstonecraft in Britain argued that women were being excluded from the social contract itself. Their arguments, however, were ridiculed and often sharply condemned. Wollstonecraft was a well-known British social critic. She accepted that a woman’s first duty was to be a good mother but felt that a woman should be able to decide what was in her own interest without depending on her husband. In 1792, Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. In it, she called for equal education for girls and boys. Only education, she argued, could give women the tools they needed to participate equally with men in public life.

 

Required reading:

1. Diderot, Denis. Rameau's Nephew and other Works" (2008)

2. Diderot, Denis. "Letter on the Blind" in Tunstall, Kate E. Blindness and Enlightenment. An Essay. With a new translation of Diderot's Letter on the Blind (Continuum, 2011)

3. Diderot, Denis. The Encyclopédie of Diderot and D'Alembert: Selected Articles (1969)

4. Helvétius, C. A., 1758. De l'ésprit, or, Essays on the Mind and its several faculties, New York: B. Franklin, 1970.

5. Hobbes, T., 1651. Leviathan, ed. by R. Tuck, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

6. d'Holbach, Baron (Paul-Henri Thiry), 1770. System of Nature, three volumes, tr. by Richardson, New York: Garland Press, 1984.

7. Montesquieu, Baron de (Charles-Louis de Secondat), 1748. The Spirit of the Laws, tr. by T. Nugent, New York: Dover, 1949.

8. Mandeville, B., 1714. Fable of the Bees: or Private Vices, Public Benefits, ed. by P. Harth, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.

9. Kant, I., 1784. “What is Enlightenment?” in Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals and What is Enlightenment, tr. by L. W. Beck, New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1959.

10. Rousseau, J.-J., 1762. On the Social Contract, tr. by M. Cranston, New York: Viking Penguin, 1988.

11. Voltaire (Francois-Marie d'Arouet), 1734. Philosophical Letters (Letters on the English Nation, Letters on England), ed. by L. Trancock, New York: Penguin, 2002.

12. Voltaire (Francois-Marie d'Arouet), 1752. Philosophical Dictionary, ed. by T. Besterman, London: Penguin, 2002.

13. Adorno, Theodor W, and Max Horkheimer, 1947. Dialectic of Enlightenment, tr. by Edmund Jephcott and edited by Gunzelin Schmid Noerr. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002.

Optional reading: