V MODERN PHILOSOPHY

V

MODERN PHILOSOPHY

The word modern in philosophy originally meant “new,” distinguishing a new historic era both from antiquity and from the intervening Middle Ages. Many things had occurred in the intellectual, religious, political, and social life of Europe to justify the belief of 16th- and 17th-century thinkers in the genuinely new character of their times. The explorations of the world; the Protestant Reformation, with its emphasis on individual faith; the rise of commercial urban society; and the dramatic appearance during the Renaissance of new ideas in all areas of culture stimulated the development of a new philosophical worldview.

The medieval view of the world as a hierarchical order of beings created and governed by God was supplanted by the mechanistic picture of the world as a vast machine, the parts of which move in accordance with strict physical laws, without purpose or will. In this view of the universe, known as Mechanism, science took precedence over spirituality, and the surrounding physical world that we experience and observe received as much, if not more, attention than the world to come. The aim of human life was no longer conceived as preparation for salvation in the next world, but rather as the satisfaction of people’s natural desires. Political institutions and ethical principles ceased to be regarded as reflections of divine command and came to be seen as practical devices created by humans.

The human mind itself seemed an inexhaustible reality, on a par with the physical reality of matter. Modern philosophers had the task of defining more clearly the essence of mind and of matter, and of reasoning about the relation between the two. Individuals ought to see for themselves, they believed, and study the “book of Nature,” and in every case search for the truth with their own reason.

Since the 15th century modern philosophy has been marked by a continuing interaction between systems of thought based on a mechanistic, materialistic interpretation of the universe and those founded on a belief in human thought as the only ultimate reality. This interaction has reflected the increasing effect of scientific discovery and political change on philosophical speculation.

A		Mechanism and Materialism
A1		Descartes
A2		Hobbes
A3		Spinoza
A4		Locke

B		Idealism and Skepticism
B1		Leibniz
B2		Berkeley
B3		Hume
B4		Kant

C		19th-Century Philosophy
C1		Hegel
C2		Schopenhauer
C3		Nietzsche
C4		Kierkegaard
C5		Bentham and Mill
C6		Karl Marx and Marxism
C7		Pragmatism

D		20th-Century Philosophy
D1		Phenomenology
D2		Existentialism
D3		Analytic Philosophy
D4		Postmodern Philosophy
D5		Feminist Philosophy
D6		Environmental Philosophy
D7		Contemporary Political Philosophy
D8		Applied Ethics