Modern Philosophy and the Enlightenment: A Historical Overview

Posted on Nov 2, 2024 in Philosophy and ethics

Development and Major Issues of Modern Philosophy

Origin and Context of the Modern Era

Absolute Monarchies and the Ancien Régime

1 Processes Leading to Absolute Monarchies

Several processes contributed to the establishment of absolute monarchies:

  1. Authoritarian monarchy inherited structures and political institutions.
  2. Absolute monarchy gradually abolished earlier political institutions, removing any limitations on the monarch’s power.
2 The Ancien Régime

The term “Ancien Régime” describes the socio-political organization during the period of absolute monarchies. Society was divided into three estates: nobility, clergy, and commoners. The economic power of the bourgeoisie grew with the development of capitalism, eventually leading them to demand a political role, which they lacked under the Ancien Régime. This fueled the revolutionary process.

Demands of the Bourgeois Revolutions and Political Absolutism

1 Political Thought and Divine Right

Absolute monarchy generated its own political thought, centered on the divine right of kings. This asserted that the monarch’s power came directly from God, making it absolute and unlimited.

  1. The Enlightenment defended a set of fundamental rights and values: economic freedom, property rights, freedom of speech, political equality, and the right to a fair and equitable education.
  2. These values corresponded to the social demands and aspirations of the rising bourgeoisie.
2 Enlightenment Ideas and Political Propaganda

The ideas and political propaganda of the Enlightenment influenced some absolute monarchs, who began governing in accordance with Enlightenment principles, a practice known as enlightened despotism. In England, the political transformations brought about by the revolutions of 1642 and 1688 resulted in a parliamentary system with checks and balances on the monarch’s power and a separation of powers. This system became a model for other nations. The American Revolution, with its Declaration of Independence, enshrined the principles of political liberalism. Finally, the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century effectively destroyed the Ancien Régime, programmatically embracing the political principles of liberalism.

Enlightenment Highlights

Modern Philosophy: Rationalism (17th Century)

1 Rationalism and Mathematics

Rationalism, a philosophical movement of the 17th century, rejected traditional sources of knowledge and took mathematics as its model for rigorous knowledge.

  1. Rationalists believed in the possibility of deducing a system of knowledge about the world from certain self-evident and primitive ideas and principles.
  2. They asserted a correspondence between the realm of thought and the realm of reality. Spinoza famously stated, “The order and connection of ideas is the same as the order and connection of things.”
  3. Rationalists believed that knowledge and reality were necessarily connected. They developed mathematical reasoning as a framework, arguing that everything is as it is and cannot be otherwise. The order of thought expresses the order of reality.
2 Origin of Ideas and Nativism

While rationalists believed in the possibility of building a system of knowledge deductively from primitive ideas and principles, the question of the origin of these ideas remained a central problem.

  1. Empiricists argued that ideas come from sensory experience, meaning that information is acquired through the senses.
  2. Rationalists, on the other hand, argued that ideas do not come from sensory experience but from the understanding itself. They believed that the ultimate elements of scientific knowledge, the clear and precise ideas that form the starting point of knowledge, come from the understanding. This explanation of the origin of ideas is called “nativism” and argues that there are innate ideas in the understanding that are not generalizations from sensory experience.

Empiricism (17th-18th Centuries)

1 Empiricism and the Rejection of Nativism

Empiricism, a characteristically British philosophical movement, emerged as a reaction against rationalism.

Empiricists like Locke and Hume rejected nativism. They argued that there are no innate ideas or principles in the understanding. Before experience, our understanding is like a blank slate with nothing written on it. Empiricism denies the existence of innate knowledge and states that all our knowledge comes from experience. This implies a limitation on our knowledge: our knowledge cannot go beyond the limits of our experience.

2 Origin of Ideas and Psychologism

Since all our ideas come from experience, a central issue for empiricists was the study of the genesis of ideas, or how our ideas arise from experience. They believed that complex ideas could be dissected into simpler ones, and by exploring how these simple ideas combine and associate, we can understand the formation of complex ideas. This involved studying the psychological mechanisms of association and combination of ideas. The analysis that empiricists undertook was therefore psychological in nature. This approach is known as psychologism, which holds that the value of events depends on their genesis.

The Enlightenment

1 Ideals of the Enlightenment

The philosophers of the 18th century Enlightenment championed the ideals of reason and its application in all areas of life. The Enlightenment can be defined as the conviction that we must rely on reason and use it independently of any external authority. The Enlightenment flourished in several European countries, most notably Britain, France, and Germany.

  1. In England, empiricism dominated epistemology, and there was a growing emphasis on natural sciences and a questioning of religion in a spirit of freedom and tolerance.
  2. France had an authoritarian political organization and a rising bourgeoisie, leading to social tensions. The most relevant issues were those related to moral order, historical progress, and rights.
  3. The German Enlightenment focused on rational analysis with the aim of finding and establishing a system of principles that could govern and justify both the knowledge of nature and moral action and political life.

The Enlightenment aimed to:

  1. Disseminate knowledge and culture by providing information and instruction.
  2. Create a critical and anti-dogmatic public opinion.
  3. Criticize prejudices and traditional beliefs.

2 Nature and Reason

The Enlightenment was heavily influenced by Newtonian physics, with its emphasis on a rationally ordered and intelligible natural world. Nature was seen as governed by laws, not as a random collection of phenomena.

  1. Nature is not just a set of phenomena but a system of laws.
  2. Its structure is fixed, so knowledge of its laws allows us to predict the future and act accordingly.
  3. Nature is independent; its explanation does not require reference to God.
  4. Nature sets the realm of necessity.
Characteristics of Enlightened Reason
  1. Critical nature of reason: Reason is essentially critical. It challenges prejudice, tradition, and external authority. This is not a purely negative attitude but one that seeks rational clarity and understanding. Despite its critical stance, enlightened reason is tolerant and in harmony with nature.
  2. Analytic nature of reason: Enlightenment reason is understood as the capacity to acquire knowledge in connection with empirical experience. It emphasizes the ability to understand general laws through the analysis of particular elements.
  3. Secular character of reason: The Enlightenment rejected the theocentric worldview of the past and embraced a secular perspective. It focused on worldly issues and emphasized human progress through reason and experience, rather than divine intervention or supernatural explanations.

Natural Religion and Theism

The Enlightenment critique of religion should not be understood as a critique of all religion but rather as a critique of superstition and idolatry that often accompany various historical manifestations of religion. A central concept in the Enlightenment critique of religion is the idea of natural religion.

  1. Natural religion is limited to the principles of reason, in contrast to positive religions based on revelation or tradition.
  2. This limitation to the minimum principles of reason means that natural religion comes to be identified with natural morality.

Linked to the idea of natural religion is the deist position. To understand this position, it is necessary to distinguish between theism and deism. Theism is the belief in a personal God. Deism, on the other hand, conceives of God as devoid of personal attributes and “familiarity” with humans. It simply asserts the existence of a God whose attributes are unknown, who created the world but does not intervene in it. God is not provident and is not responsible for evil.

Enlightenment Optimism

The Enlightenment notion of progress entailed a belief in the perfectibility of human beings and in the liberating power of reason. It emphasized the ability to improve the human condition from both a material and spiritual standpoint. Enlightenment thinking was profoundly optimistic, believing in the power of reason and human effort to create a better world.