Nietzsche, Descartes, and Plato: Historical and Philosophical Contexts
Context of Nietzsche
Nietzsche lived in the century of the Industrial Revolution, which meant a shift from the agricultural to the industrial sector. A considerable increase occurred in the number of employees and their combined wealth. This created a new class, the bourgeoisie. Following these changes, worker movements appeared, and liberal capitalism developed. The aspirations and political demands of the bourgeoisie grew. These demands were crystallized during the century in systems endowed with democratic constitutions, in which Nietzsche found a symptom of decline since the idea of equality sustained uniformed individuals and prevented the emergence of critical, personal, and autonomous artistic individuals, closer to the Nietzschean ideal of the superman.
Moreover, this period also saw German unification. Nationalist interests were spreading across Europe, calling for the establishment of national states. Opposite them, Nietzsche preferred the idea of overcoming the state, continuing the line of characters such as Napoleon.
The dominant philosophical currents at this time were:
- Comte’s Positivism, according to which progress is driven by the Law of Three States: the theological, philosophical, and positive.
- Marx’s Socialism. It provides a critique of the capitalist system, denouncing its abuses and defects, while proposing a new economic and social organization that is more fair and equitable.
- Vitalism, whose axis is the exaltation of the vital and affective against the rationalism in force at the time. It defends irrationalism and the affirmation of life as the fundamental reality of human beings. Its representatives are Nietzsche and Ortega y Gasset.
Descartes’ Context
Descartes was the initiator of modern philosophy. He was educated in scholasticism, although he rejected it because he considered it outdated and full of prejudice. He is considered the father of rationalism. He defended the reconstruction of the system from the foundations of knowledge, from reason itself.
Scholasticism entered a crisis with Ockham and nominalism in the 14th century. In the 15th century came anthropocentrism (with humanism) versus theocentrism. In the 16th century, the Renaissance, or rebirth of classical cultures, began, and the Scientific Revolution took place with the heliocentric model proposed by Copernicus. It ended with Newton in the 17th century. This century was marked by crisis: an economic and demographic crisis due to the Thirty Years’ War between Catholics and Protestants in which Descartes participated, and a religious crisis. The Lutheran Reformation strengthened the role of individual reason, and the war led to the loss of authority of the Catholic faith, in addition to the aforementioned nominalism of Ockham.
Descartes stood against the skepticism of his time, turning it into methodical skeptical doubt.
Plato’s Context
The historical context of Platonic philosophy is the Greek city-state during the last third of the 5th century BC and the first half of the 4th century BC, especially the city of Athens, which was defeated in the Peloponnesian War and subjected to the hegemony of Sparta. As a result, the historical period in which Plato lived was very hectic, both politically and socially. There was an ongoing government crisis, internal struggles for power, and forced or voluntary exiles punctuating Athenian coexistence.
The historical problem that Plato faced was derived from the Spartan victory in the Peloponnesian War. After an oligarchic government was installed in Athens, democracy led to a real crisis of fundamentals. The first half of the 4th century saw the economic ruin of the Athenian empire, wars for political power, and widespread questioning about the type of citizen and political system that ensures good governance.
The cultural context is represented by the splendor of Greek classicism, with three phenomena of decisive importance:
- The height of literature.
- The spectacular flowering of Greek plastic arts and religious architecture, as an expression of the collective sentiment of belonging to the community.
- The culmination of other literary genres, especially rhetoric, and finally the historical genre with Herodotus and Thucydides, who established historical knowledge as a sign of the collective identity of the people.
There are three core features of the philosophical context of Plato’s work:
- The criticism of Heraclitus’ thought and the commitment to the path of the identity of thinking and being, characteristic of Parmenides.
- The critical approaches to the relativism and skepticism of sophistication that Plato saw as an affront to the dignity and power of philosophical thought.
- The influence of his teacher, Socrates. The theme of Socratic intellectualism and moral virtue is the main way to raise awareness of the idea that it is the precondition for a happy life for individuals and for a just and righteous government of the city.