The main topic on which the philosophers of the modern period concentrated was the problem of cognition. The greatest minds gave the world new methods of building scientific knowledge, new theories and philosophical directions.
Modern times cover the period from the late 17th to the 19th century. The philosophers of this era tried to bring their works as close as possible to the natural sciences, to subordinate philosophical concepts to the laws of mechanics, rapidly moving away from the scholasticism of the Middle Ages and the culture of the Renaissance. Two competing philosophies were created: empiricism and rationalism. The leap in philosophical knowledge of the 17th century is associated with the names of Francis Bacon, René Descartes, Benedict Spinoza and John Locke.
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) - English philosopher who gave rise to empiricism as a fundamentally new philosophical direction. The name of the direction comes from the ancient Greek word "experience". Bacon believed that the only sure way to know the truth is through experience, or experiment.
Studying the problem of knowledge, Bacon came to the conclusion that there are certain obstacles, or "idols" that stand in front of a person on the path to truth. He identified 4 categories of such "idols":
- The "idol of the human race" is an obstacle associated with the limitation and imperfection of our senses. We cannot see the molecule with our own eyes, we cannot hear certain frequencies, etc. But Bacon argued that these obstacles could be overcome by creating various devices and tools - for example, a microscope. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the creation of new technology.
- "Idol of the Cave". Bacon gave the following example: if a person sits in a cave with his back to the entrance, then he will judge the world around him only by the shadows dancing on the wall in front of him. So it is with all people: they judge the world subjectively, only within the framework of their own worldview and attitude. And this can be overcome by using objectification tools. For example, the subjective sensation of cold and warmth can be replaced by an objective measurement of temperature using thermometers.
- "Idol of the market", or "idol of common speech." It is connected with the fact that many people use words not for their intended purpose, but as they themselves understand them. Many scientific terms, used in everyday life, acquire a certain mystical color and lose their scientific character. Many concepts from psychology and psychotherapy have undergone this fate. This can be avoided by creating glossaries - collections of highly specialized terms for each scientific area, containing terms and their precise definitions.
- The Idol of the Theater. This obstacle lies in the problem of blind and unconditional belief in authority. Nevertheless, as Bacon believed, even the most widespread and recognized theoretical positions should be tested on their own experience, conducting experiments. This is the only way to avoid false knowledge.
Francis Bacon is the author of the world famous aphorism:.
Rene Descartes
René Descartes (1596-1650) laid the foundations of rationalism - a doctrine that opposes itself to empiricism. He considered the power of the human mind to be the only correct way of knowing. The main place in his concept is occupied by the concept of "Passion of the soul" - the products of the joint activity of the human soul and body. In other words, this is what we feel with the help of our senses, receiving some kind of response from the psyche: sounds, smells, feelings of hunger and thirst, etc.
Passions are primary (innate, such as love and desire) and secondary (acquired, arising from life experience; for example, simultaneously experiencing love and hate can give rise to a feeling of jealousy). Acquired passions can cause considerable harm to a person's life if they are not brought up with the help of willpower and relying on existing norms and rules of behavior.
Thus, Rene Descartes adhered to dualism - a worldview according to which the psyche (soul) and the material body are different substances that only interact with each other during a person's life. He even believed that there is a special organ in which the soul is located - the pineal gland.
According to Descartes, consciousness (and self-awareness) is the beginning of all principles in all areas of science. Consciousness consists of three types of ideas:
- Ideas generated by a person himself are subjective knowledge obtained by a person through the work of the senses. They cannot provide accurate and true information about the objects and phenomena of the world.
- The acquired ideas are the result of the generalization of the experience of many people. They are also useless in understanding the objective essence of things, but they paint a more holistic picture of the structure of the consciousness of other people.
- Inborn ideas are a product of the activity of the human mind, which does not need confirmation with the help of the senses. This is the only true, according to Descartes, way of knowing the truth. It is this approach to cognition that is called rationalism. “I think, therefore, I exist” - this is how Descartes described his understanding of this philosophical trend.
Benedict Spinoza
Benedict Spinoza (1677-1632) criticized Rene Descartes for his idea of the dualism of body and soul. He adhered to a different direction - monism, according to which mental and material substances are one and obey common laws. In addition, he was also a supporter of pantheism - a philosophical trend that considers nature and God as one. According to Spinoza, the whole world consists of one single substance with an infinite number of properties. A person, for example, has only two properties - extension (his material body) and thinking (the activity of the soul, or psyche).
In addition to questions about the relationship between the material and the spiritual, Spinoza studied the problem of affects. In total, there are three types of affects: desire, pleasure and displeasure. They are able to mislead a person, generating reactions inadequate to external stimuli. Therefore, you need to fight them, and the main tool of the fight is the knowledge of the true essence of things.
He identified three types (methods) of cognition:
- cognition of the first kind is a person's own opinion about the phenomena of the surrounding world and the products of his imagination in the form of images;
- knowledge of the second kind is the basis for sciences, existing in the form of general ideas about the properties of objects and phenomena.
- cognition of the third kind is the highest, according to Spinoza, intuitive cognition; it is in this way that one can comprehend the essence of things and overcome affects.
John Locke
John Locke (1632-1704) was a representative of empiricism. He believed that a person is born with a clear, like a white sheet of paper, consciousness, and in the course of life, the experience gained fills the consciousness with some kind of content.
According to Locke, a person is a passive being that forms everything that occurs in nature and society. All people differ from each other precisely because they have had different life experiences, and innate abilities do not exist. He identified two sources of experience: sensory knowledge, which generates sensation, and the human mind, which generates ideas through internal perception. The only correct way of knowing the inner world of a person, his soul (psyche), Locke considered introspection, that is, the method of organized self-observation.
Other scientists also influenced the philosophy of modern times. In particular, France developed its own empirical school. criticized Locke for identifying two sources of experience, recognizing only one of them - sensations. He considered the leading sensation to be touch, since only with the help of it does a person come to self-realization. The French sensationalist corrected Descartes' ideas, arguing that the body has not only the attribute of extension, but also movement, thinking and sensation. La Mettrie believed that the world is hierarchically organized, and at the top of this hierarchy is a person.
