Rationalism, Empiricism, and Enlightenment: A Philosophical Overview
Questions of Ethics
1. What Is Rationalism?
Rationalism (Latin, ratio, reason) is a philosophical trend that appeared in France in the seventeenth century. Championed by René Descartes, rationalism opposes empiricism. It emphasizes the role of reason in acquiring knowledge, contrasting with empiricism’s focus on experience and perception.
2. Who Was René Descartes?
Born on March 31, 1596, in La Haye (present-day Descartes, Indre-et-Loire), René Descartes came from lower nobility and a family with learned members. He attempted to apply rational, inductive procedures to the philosophy of science, specifically mathematics. Rejecting the Scholastic tradition of comparing authorities, Descartes sought truths with the certainty of arithmetic and geometry. He began with “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am), arguing that the consciousness of thought proves existence. He also maintained the existence of God, who created thinking substance (intelligence) and extended substance (physical).
3. What Is Discourse on Method?
Discourse on Method, published anonymously in Leiden, Holland, in 1637, is a major work by René Descartes. It’s a prologue to three essays: Dioptric, Meteors, and Geometry, collectively titled Philosophical Essays. Descartes titled it “Discourse” to indicate conversation, not teaching, thus avoiding potential conflicts with contemporaries and the Church.
4. Who Is the Evil Genius?
The “evil genius” hypothesis is the culmination of Descartes’ methodical doubt. It proposes a God who systematically deceives us, making us believe truths are errors. This questions even seemingly evident propositions like 2+3=5, challenging the veracity of mathematics itself.
5. Who Was Baruch Spinoza?
Born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1632, Baruch Spinoza came from a Sephardic Jewish family. He died from tuberculosis in 1677 at age 44. His friends published his works as Opera Posthuma. Influenced by Descartes, Spinoza created an original philosophy blending Jewish, Scholastic, and Stoic thought. He reduced Descartes’ three substances (thought, extension, God) to one: the infinite divine substance, identifiable as God or nature (Deus sive Natura).
6. Spinoza’s Ethics Demonstrated Geometrically
Spinoza’s Ethics, presented geometrically, emulates mathematics’ deductive approach. It assumes the order of ideas mirrors the order of things. The causal order of events is identical to the understanding’s order when constructing ideas a priori, like in mathematics and geometry.
7. Who Was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz?
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a prominent thinker of the 17th and 18th centuries, is considered the “last universal genius.” He contributed to metaphysics, epistemology, logic, philosophy of religion, mathematics, physics, geology, jurisprudence, and history. He independently discovered calculus and the binary system.
8. Leibniz’s Monads
Leibniz’s theory of monads describes them as the ultimate elements of the universe, or “substantial forms of being.” Eternal, indivisible, singular, and subject to their own laws, monads are non-interactive reflections of the universe in pre-established harmony. They are centers of force; substance is force, while space, matter, and motion are phenomenal.
9. What Is English Empiricism?
English empiricism, starting with John Locke, focuses on the psychology of knowledge, rejecting the logical and ontological reality of consciousness. It arose during the dominance of idealism and Descartes’ substantialism.
10. Francis Bacon’s Philosophical Approaches
Francis Bacon (1561-1626), a proponent of empiricism, replaced Aristotle’s deductive method with the inductive, experimental method in his Novum Organum. He criticized Greek philosophers for prioritizing theory over observation.
- Inductive Reasoning: Deriving general conclusions from specific data.
- Idola Theatri: False philosophies from earlier thinkers like Aristotle.
- Idola Fori: Superstitions and political ideas persisting despite rational criticism.
- Idola Specus: Prejudices from individual education and habits.
- Idola Tribus: Prejudices common to mankind.
- Novum Organum: Bacon’s work on the logic of scientific procedure, opposing Aristotelian logic.
11. John Locke and His Works
John Locke (1632-1704), educated at Oxford, was renowned as a philosopher. His epistemology rejects innate knowledge and determinism, emphasizing sensory experience. Knowledge, for Locke, concerns relationships between facts, not their underlying causes. His Essay Concerning Human Understanding argues against innate knowledge and proposes that sensation and reflection form the basis of experience and simple ideas.
12. David Hume and His Philosophy
David Hume (1711-1776), a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian, is a key figure of the Scottish Enlightenment. His philosophy is often seen as skeptical, though naturalism is also significant. Scholars debate the emphasis on skepticism versus naturalism in Hume’s thought.
13. The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment, an 18th-century intellectual movement, emphasized reason’s power to govern human affairs. The Encyclopedia was its source, and it preceded the French Revolution.
14. Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Emile
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), a Genevan philosopher, writer, and musician, is considered a forerunner of Romanticism. His Emile, or On Education (1762) explores the individual’s relationship with society and how to maintain natural goodness within a corrupt society. It’s considered the first Western treatise on the philosophy of education.
15. Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), a German philosopher, is a major figure of the Enlightenment. He didn’t deny God, morality, or the physical world but argued human reason can’t fully grasp these entities. He believed the world, sun, and planets are complementary.
16. Transcendental Knowledge and Idealism
Transcendental knowledge, according to Kant, explains how a priori knowledge is possible. It doesn’t describe the world but our way of knowing it. Transcendental idealism posits that knowledge requires an external object and the knowing subject. The subject’s way of knowing shapes understanding. Knowledge arises from the union of sensibility and understanding.
17. Critique of Pure Reason
Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason investigates the possibility of metaphysics as a science, focusing on synthetic a priori judgments. It attempts to address Hume’s critique of causality and scientific knowledge. Kant shifts focus from the object of knowledge to the knowing subject.
18. Structure of Critique of Pure Reason
The Critique comprises the ‘Transcendental Doctrine of Elements’ (divided into ‘Transcendental Aesthetic’ and ‘Transcendental Logic’) and the ‘Transcendental Doctrine of Method’. ‘Transcendental Logic’ further divides into ‘Transcendental Analytic’ and ‘Transcendental Dialectic’. Kant questions the possibility of knowledge before examining reality.
19. The Categorical Imperative and Kantian Morality
The categorical imperative, central to Kantian ethics, is an autonomous, self-sufficient principle governing human behavior. Kant introduced it in Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785). Kantian morality distinguishes between subjective maxims and universal laws. It contrasts hypothetical, empirical imperatives with categorical imperatives based on duty.