Trends in the development of philosophy of modern times. The most famous philosophers of modern times
The philosophy of the New Time adopted the basic ideas Renaissance and developed them. It had an anti-scholastic orientation and was largely non-religious in nature. The center of her attention was the world, man and his relationship to the world.
The 17th century is the arena of debate between rationalism and empiricism. On the one hand: the great empiricist philosophers - F. Bacon, T. Hobbes, D. Locke. On the other hand, there are the great rationalist philosophers - R. Descartes, B. Spinoza, G. Leibniz.
Francis Bacon(1561 - 1626) - English philosopher, the founder of English empiricism, known primarily as a philosopher obsessed with the idea of practical use and application of knowledge. “Scientia est potentia” (“Knowledge is power”), he proclaimed. This emphasized the practical orientation scientific knowledge, that it increases the power of a person. Scholastic knowledge, from Bacon's point of view, is not really knowledge. He contrasted his philosophy with medieval scholasticism. (Indeed, his motto “Knowledge is power” is in clear contradiction with famous saying biblical preacher “in much wisdom there is much sorrow; and whoever increases knowledge increases sorrow” - Ecclesiastes 2:18).
Bacon's main work is the New Organon. In it he tried to create a new scientific method, deductive logic Aristotle contrasted with inductive logic. Deduction- movement from the general to the specific. Bacon proposed the opposite move - we go to general knowledge through the particular, through observation and experiment.
Bacon believed that people have many prejudices and misconceptions. He classified these prejudices by putting forward the theory of the four idols (ghosts) of the mind.
He made a real revolution in the field of political thinking. In his opinion, human rights are natural and inalienable. Man by nature is a free being. The freedom of one person, if limited, is only by the freedom of another person. Locke put forward the idea of separation of powers (legislative, executive, judicial). He believed that state power should not be unlimited. It can only be limited by the division into three branches of government. In history political ideas this is the most powerful idea. Like Hobbes, Locke considered the “golden rule of morality” to be the basis of morality.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz(1646 - 1716) - German rationalist philosopher. Simultaneously with Newton developed the foundations of differential and integral calculus, anticipated some ideas of mathematical logic, and put forward the idea of mechanization of the thought process.
He put forward the doctrine of monads (substantial units). The latter are spiritual entities that have no parts and exist independently of each other. On Earth huge number people and the soul of each is a unique monad. Leibniz's monadology is a unique theory of idealistic pluralism. His main work is “New Experience on the Human Mind.”
In this work, he argues with John Locke, in particular, he opposed Locke’s doctrine of the soul as a “blank slate”, and added the formula of sensationalism - “There is nothing in the mind that was not previously in the senses” - “except the mind itself.” Leibniz believed that initially a person has a predisposition to one way or another of thinking - natural logic, which operates even on an unconscious level. This natural logic of thinking allows us to organize experience.
Leibniz emphasized the uniqueness of every natural phenomenon, every monad. He put forward a theory about the original difference of things, that there are no absolute copies, no absolute identities and repetitions.
George Berkeley
(1685-1753) - an extreme empiricist, put forward the thesis: “to exist is to be perceived” (esse est percipi). He went further than Locke, arguing that there is nothing in the world except experience. And experience is perception. The imperceptible does not exist - his main idea. People cannot know what is behind their feelings and sensations.
Berkeley was inconsistent in his views.
Not recognizing the existence of the objective world, matter, he at the same time recognized the existence God, was actually an idealist. His teaching can be characterized as subjective idealism. He was an ardent opponent of materialism, wrote a book in which he presented arguments against materialist philosophy, against the existence of matter. He accepted the existence of God because he believed that his soul ascended to that soul that exists outside of his consciousness, individuality, in God.
If Berkeley had consistently pursued his empiricism, then such a subjectivist position could be called solipsism(literally “alone with oneself”) - the point of view of a philosopher who believes that there is no one else besides him. Berkeley, however, was not a solipsist.
David Hume (1711-1776) - philosopher of the English Enlightenment, criticized religious and philosophical dogmatism, all sorts of doctrines and beliefs that took root in the minds of people. He was a skeptical philosopher, an anti-rationalist. Hume is famous for his idea that there is no objective causation things that causality is established only as a fact of mental experience.
When we observe: one thing follows another and this is repeated in different situations, then the conclusion is drawn that one is the cause of the other. Hume believed that the connection between things is the result of mental experience. Hume questioned many Christian dogma. All of Hume's activities were aimed at emancipating the human mind.
The philosophy of the New Time – briefly the most important thing. We continue our acquaintance with philosophy in a short, simple presentation. In previous articles you learned about the following periods of philosophy:
So, let's turn to the philosophy of the New Time.
The 17th-18th centuries is the period to which modern philosophy belongs. It was a time when human civilization made a qualitative leap in the development of many scientific disciplines, which in turn had a huge influence on philosophy.
In the philosophy of modern times, the idea that the human mind has no limits to its power, and science has unlimited possibilities in its knowledge of the surrounding world and man, has become increasingly dominant.
Especially typical for of this period The development of philosophy tends to explain everything from the point of view of materialism. This was due to the fact that natural science was a priority at that time and had strong influence to all spheres of social life.
The main directions of philosophy of the New Time are empiricism and rationalism
The philosophical thought of that time was characterized by several distinct directions:
- empiricism,
- rationalism,
- philosophy of education,
- French materialism..
Is empiricism in philosophy?
Empiricism is a direction in philosophy that recognizes only experience and sensory perception in cognition and downplays the role of theoretical generalizations.
Empiricism opposed rationalism and mysticism. Formed in English philosophy of the 17th century, led by Fr. Bacon (1561-1626), Hobbes, Locke.
Is rationalism in philosophy?
Rationalism is a direction in philosophy that recognizes only reason as the only source of knowledge, denying knowledge through experience and sensory perception.
The word "rationalism" comes from the Latin word for reason - ratio. Rationalism was formed under the leadership of Descartes (1596-1650), Leibniz, and Spinoza.
Philosophy of enlightenment of the 18th century
The philosophy of enlightenment of the 18th century was formed during the Age of Enlightenment. This was one of the important periods European history, was associated with the development of philosophical, scientific and social thought. It was based on freethinking and rationalism.
The Age of Enlightenment began in England under the influence of the scientific revolution of the 17th century and spread to France, Germany and Russia. Its representatives are Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot, Rousseau.
18th century French materialism
French materialism of the 18th century is a trend in philosophy that revived Epicureanism and interest in the philosophy of antiquity.
Formed in France in the 17th and 18th centuries. Its representatives are Lametra, Holbach, Helvetius.
Problems of New Time Philosophy
The problem of being and substance occupied a special place in the philosophy of modern times; in the opinion of philosophers, it was here that the whole essence of the world and the ability to control it lay.
Substance and its properties were the focus of attention of philosophers, since, in their opinion, the task of philosophy was to make man a ruler natural forces. Therefore, the basic task was to study substance as the basic category of all things.
As a result, several trends in the study of substance have emerged in philosophy. The first of them was founded by Bacon, who believed that substance is the basis of all things. The second was founded by Locke. He, in turn, tried to comprehend substance from the point of view of epistemology.
Locke believed that concepts are based on the external world, and the objects that we see have only quantitative characteristics, and differ from each other only in primary qualities. In his opinion, matter does not have any variety. Objects differ only in their figures, rest and movement.
Hume sharply criticized the idea that substance has any material basis. In his opinion, there is only the “idea” of substance, and it was under this that he subsumed the association of perception.
Representatives of this direction made a significant breakthrough in the study and further development of the theory of knowledge, where the main subjects of study were the problems scientific approach in philosophy and methods for a person to study the reality around him, as well as the connection between external and internal experience in combination with the problems of obtaining true knowledge.
As a result of the study of all the above problems, the main directions in the philosophy of the New Age arose - empiricism and rationalism. The founder of empiricism was F. Bacon. Rationalism was represented by Descartes and Spinoza.
The main ideas of modern philosophy
The main ideas were the principles of the independently reflective subject and methodical doubt. It also developed the method of intellectual intuition and the inductive-empirical method of understanding the world.
In addition, methods of jurisprudence and ways to protect the freedom of people were developed. The main goal was the intention to embody the ideas of freedom from religion, to build a vision of the world based on scientific knowledge.
The main ideas of the philosophy of the New Time:
Books on New Age philosophy
- V. Hösle. Geniuses of modern philosophy
- P.D.Shashkevich. Empiricism and rationalism in modern philosophy
Philosophy of the New Time. VIDEO LECTURE
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I hope the article " The philosophy of the New Time - briefly the most important thing" turned out to be useful for you. We can say that the philosophy of the New Time has become significant driving force in the development of all human civilization, prepared the basis for improving the philosophical scientific paradigm and substantiated the methods of rational knowledge.
The following article is devoted to the topic “German classical philosophy”.
I wish everyonean unquenchable thirst for knowledge of yourself and the world around you, inspiration in all your affairs!
The philosophy of modern times, in short, developed during a difficult period of the rapid rise of technology and the formation of capitalist society. Time frame – XVII and 18th century, but sometimes the 19th century is also included in the philosophy of this period.
Considering the philosophy of the New Age, briefly outlined, it should be noted that the most authoritative philosophers lived during this period, who largely determined the development of this science today.
Great philosophers of modern times
One of them is Immanuel Kant, who is called the founder German philosophy. In his opinion, the main task of philosophy is to give humanity answers to four basic questions: what is a person, what should he do, know, and what to hope for.
Francis Bacon - created the methodology of experimental natural science. He was one of the first to point out the importance of experience in the matter of comprehending the truth. Philosophy, as Bacon understands it, must be practical.
Rene Descartes considered reason to be the starting point of research, and experience for him was only a tool that should either confirm or refute the conclusions of reason. He was the first to come up with the idea of the evolution of the living world.
Two philosophical directions of the New Age
The great minds of philosophy of the 17th and 18th centuries were divided into two groups: rationalists and empiricists.
Rationalism was represented by Rene Descartes, Gottfried Leibniz and Benedict Spinoza. At the forefront of everything they put human mind and they believed that it was impossible to obtain knowledge only from experience. They held the view that the mind originally contained all necessary knowledge and truths. Only needed logical rules to extract them. They considered deduction to be the main method of philosophy. However, the rationalists themselves could not answer the question - why errors in knowledge arise if, according to them, all knowledge is already contained in the mind.
Representatives of empiricism were Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. For them, the main source of knowledge is human experience and sensations, and the main method of philosophy is inductive. It should be noted that supporters of these different directions of modern philosophy were not in harsh confrontation and agreed with the significant role of both experience and reason in knowledge.
In addition to the main philosophical movements At that time, rationalism and empiricism, there was also agnosticism, which denied any possibility of human knowledge of the world. Its most prominent representative is David Hume. He believed that man is not able to penetrate into the depths of the secrets of nature and understand its laws.
7.German classical philosophy: Kant, Hegel, Feuerbach
German classical philosophy developed mainly in the first half of the 19th century. The sources of this philosophy were the teachings of Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, and its immediate predecessors were I. Goethe, F. Schiller, I. Herder. In the German classics, dialectics was greatly developed as a theory of the development of all things and a method of philosophical thinking. Its essence lies in a comprehensive consideration of the world as a single, contradictory and dynamic whole. German classical philosophy became the pinnacle of dialectical thought. She also made a significant contribution to the understanding of man as a spiritual and active being, an active creator new reality– the world of culture.
German classical philosophy represents a large and influential movement in the philosophical thought of modern times, summing up its development in this period of Western European history. Traditionally, this movement includes the philosophical teachings of I. Kant, I. Fichte, F. Schelling, G. Hegel and L. Feuerbach. All these thinkers are brought together by common ideological and theoretical roots, continuity in the formulation and resolution of problems, and direct personal dependence: the younger ones learned from the elders, contemporaries communicated with each other, argued and exchanged ideas.
German classical philosophy made a significant contribution to the formulation and development philosophical problems. Within the framework of this movement, the problem of the relationship between subject and object was rethought and re-formulated, and dialectical method knowledge and transformation of reality.
Immanuel Kant born in 1724 in Kenicksburg. He was not only a philosopher, but also a major scientist in the field of natural science.
Phil K.'s development is divided into 2 periods. In the first period (until the beginning of the 70s) tried to solve f problems - about being, the philosophies of nature, religion, ethics, logic based on the conviction that f. M.B. developed and justified as speculative science. (without reference to experimental data)
In the 2nd lane (critical) tries to strictly separate phenomena from things in themselves. The latter cannot be given in experience. Things are unknowable. We know only phenomena or that method, cat. these things in themselves affect us. This doctrine is agnosticism
Knowledge begins with the fact that “things in themselves” are airy. on our senses and evoking sensations, but neither the sensation of our sensuality, nor concepts and judgments. our reason, nor the concept of reason can give us a theory. knowledge about “things in themselves” (vs). Reliable knowledge of entities is mathematics and natural science.
The doctrine of knowledge. Knowledge is always expressed in the form of judgment. There are 2 types of judgments: 1) analytical beliefs. Example: all bodies have extensions
2) synthetic judgments. Ex: some bodies are heavy.
There are 2 classes of synth judgments. 1. discovered in experience (some swans are black) - a posteriori 2.this connection cannot be based on experience - a priori judgments (everything that happens has a reason). Apr. K. gives judgments b. Meaning
Sensory cognition. In K, space and time cease to be forms of the essences of things. They become a priori forms of our sensuality.
A priori forms of reason. Condition is possible Apr. synth of judgment in the theory of natural science categories. These are independent of the experience-delivered content. concepts of reason, under the cat the mind brings every content obtained from experience. Those. categories are not forms of being, but concepts of reason. Categories are a priori. According to K, neither sensations nor concepts themselves provide knowledge. Feelings without concepts are blind, and concepts without sensations are empty.
Ethics. The contradiction between necessity and freedom is not real: a person acts necessarily in one respect and freely in another. It is necessary, since man is a phenomenon among other phenomena of nature and in this respect is subject to necessity. But man is also a moral being, a subject moral consciousness, which means free.
The highest achievement of the German classical philosophy was the dialectic of Hegel (1770-1831). whose great merit is that he was the first to present the entire natural, historical and spiritual world in the form of a process, i.e. in continuous movement, change, transformation and development, and made an attempt to reveal the internal connection of this movement and development...
Hegel formulated the laws and categories of dialectics. Categories of quality and quantity. Quality is something without which an object cannot exist. Quantity is indifferent to the object, but up to a certain limit. Quantity plus quality is the measure.
Three laws of dialectics (the essence of the history of development). 1. The law of the transition of quantitative relations into qualitative ones (when quantitative relations change after a certain stage, a change in quality occurs due to the non-destruction of the measure). 2. The law of direction of development (negation of negation). Naked negation is something that comes after a given object, completely destroying it. Dialectical negation: something from the first object is preserved - a reproduction of this object, but in a different quality. Water is ice. Grind the grain - naked denial, plant the grain - dialectical negation. Development occurs in a spiral. 3. The law of unity and struggle of opposites. The contradiction between form and content, possibility and reality. The struggle leads to three outcomes: mutual destruction, illumination of one of the parties, or compromise.
The German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach (1804 - 1872) was initially interested in Hegel's philosophy, but already in 1893 he sharply criticized it. From Feuerbach's point of view, idealism is nothing more than a rationalized religion, and philosophy and religion by their very essence, Feuerbach believes, are opposite to each other. Religion is based on belief in dogma, while philosophy is based on knowledge, the desire to reveal the real nature of things. Therefore, Feuerbach sees the primary task of philosophy in the criticism of religion, in exposing those illusions that constitute the essence religious consciousness. Religion and idealistic philosophy, which is close in spirit to it, arise, according to Feuerbach, from the alienation of human essence, through the attribution to God of those attributes that actually belong to man himself. “The infinite or divine essence,” writes Feuerbach in his essay “The Essence of Christianity,” “is the spiritual essence of man, which, however, is isolated from man and is presented as an independent being.” This is how an illusion that is difficult to eradicate arises: the true creator of God - man - is considered as the creation of God, is made dependent on the latter and is thus deprived of freedom and independence.
According to Feuerbach, in order to free oneself from religious errors, it is necessary to understand that man is not a creation of God, but a part - and, moreover, the most perfect one - of eternal nature.
This statement is the essence of Feuerbach's anthropology. The focus of his attention is not the abstract concept of matter, as, for example, with most French materialists, but man as a psychophysical unity, the unity of soul and body. Based on this understanding of man, Feuerbach rejects his idealistic interpretation, in which man is viewed primarily as a spiritual being, through the prism of the famous Cartesian and Fichtean “I think.” According to Feuerbach, the body in its entirety constitutes the essence of the human self; the spiritual principle in a person cannot be separate from the physical; spirit and body are two sides of that reality, which is called the organism. Human nature, thus, is interpreted by Feuerbach primarily biologically, and for him the individual is not a historical-spiritual formation, as in Hegel, but a link in the development of the human race.
Criticizing the interpretation of knowledge by previous German philosophers and being dissatisfied with abstract thinking, Feuerbach appeals to sensory contemplation. Thus, in the theory of knowledge, Feuerbach acts as a sensualist, believing that sensation is the only source of our knowledge. Only what is given to us through the senses - sight, hearing, touch, smell - has, according to Feuerbach, true reality. With the help of our senses we perceive both physical objects and the mental states of other people; not recognizing any supersensible reality, Feuerbach also rejects the possibility of purely abstract knowledge with the help of reason, considering the latter an invention of idealistic speculation.
Feuerbach's anthropological principle in the theory of knowledge is expressed in the fact that he reinterprets the very concept of “object” in a new way. According to Feuerbach, the concept of an object is initially formed in the experience of human communication, and therefore the first object for every person is another person, You. It is love for another person that is the path to recognition of his objective existence, and thereby to recognition of the existence of external things in general.
From the internal connection of people, based on the feeling of love, altruistic morality arises, which, according to Feuerbach, should take the place of an illusory connection with God. Love for God, according to German philosopher, is only an alienated, false form of true love - love for other people.
Feuerbach's anthropologism arose primarily as a reaction to the teachings of Hegel, in which the dominance of the universal over the individual was taken to the extreme. To such an extent that the individual human personality turned out to be a vanishingly insignificant moment that had to be completely overcome in order to take the world-historical point of view of the “absolute spirit.” Feuerbach came out in defense of the natural-biological principle in man, from which German idealism after Kant largely abstracted, but which is inseparable from man.
Francis Bacon(1561-1626) - English materialist philosopher, founder of the methodology of experimental science, developed the doctrine of “natural” philosophy, substantiated empirical methods of knowledge (induction, experiment), proposed a detailed classification of sciences (later this classification was adopted by French encyclopedists). Main works: “On the Beginnings and Origins”, “On the Wisdom of the Ancients”, “On the Dignity and Increase of the Sciences”, “New Organon, or True Guidelines for the Interpretation of Nature”, “History of the Winds”, “History of Life and Death”, “Experiences” or Moral and Political Instructions”, “New Atlantis”.
Rene Descartes(1596-1650, Latinized name Cartesius) - French philosopher and mathematician, representative of classical realism. Descartes is a dualist; he recognizes two primary substances - the corporeal and the thinking; author of the theory of “innate ideas” (believed that some knowledge exists in the human mind initially, before experience); dealt with the problems of systematizing science and developing a universal scientific method. Works: “Discourse on Method”, “Metaphysical Reflections”, “Principles of Philosophy”.
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) - English materialist, created a complete system of mechanistic materialism, put forward the task of scientific understanding of society and its management, in connection with this he put forward the theory of the social contract and natural law. Main works: “Elements of laws, natural and political”; philosophical trilogy “Fundamentals of Philosophy”, “About the Body”, “About Man”, “About the Citizen”; "Leviathan".
John Locke(1632-1704) - English materialist, educator and political thinker, developed an empirical theory of knowledge and the ideological and political doctrine of liberalism; criticized Descartes' theory of innate ideas. Works: “An Essay on Human Reason,” “The Reasonability of Christianity,” “Two Treatises on Government.”
Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza(1632-1677) - Dutch materialist, pantheist, justifying the principle of the unity of the world, puts forward the idea of a single, eternal and infinite substance (extension and thinking, unlike Descartes, does not consider independent substances, but two main attributes of a single one); as a follower of mechanistic determinism, he considered mathematics to be a single method of cognition; the philosopher even expounds ethics using the “geometric, axiomatic method. Works: “Theological-Political Treatise”, “Ethics”.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz(1646-1716) - German idealist philosopher, mathematician, physicist and inventor, lawyer, historian, linguist. In explaining the essence of the world, Leibniz proceeds from pluralism - the real world, according to Leibniz, consists of countless active substances, indivisible primary elements of being - monads, which are in a relationship with each other in a pre-established harmony. In the theory of knowledge, he substantiated the dialectic of sensory experience and rational knowledge. In logic, he developed the doctrine of analysis and synthesis, formulated laws sufficient reason and identities, created the most complete classification of definitions in the work “On the Art of Combinatorics” and anticipated some ideas of modern mathematical logic. Essays: “Discourses on Metaphysics”, “ New system nature”, “New experiments on the human mind”, “Theodicy”, “Monadology”.
George Berkeley(1685-1753) - English philosopher, representative subjective idealism, bishop, sought to refute materialism and provide a rationale for religion. Having rejected the existence of matter, Berkeley recognized the existence of only spiritual existence, which he divided into “ideas” and “souls”. Works: “An Experience of a New Theory of Vision”, “Treatise on the Principles of Human Vision”, “Three Conversations between Hylas and Philonus”, “Alsiphron, or “The Petty Philosopher””, “Seiris, or the Chain” philosophical reflections and research...”
David Hume(1711-1776) - English philosopher, historian, economist and publicist, formulated the basic principles of new European agnosticism, the predecessor of positivism. Insisting on the experiential origin of judgments about existence, Hume understands experience itself idealistically. According to Hume, reality is a stream of “impressions”. The reasons that give rise to these impressions in us are fundamentally unknowable. We also cannot know whether the outside world exists. Works: “Treatise on human nature", "Moral and political experiments".
French materialism of the 18th century, in contrast to English materialism of the 17th century, it is based on more developed natural sciences (not only mechanics and astronomy, but also medicine, physiology, biology), and is also focused on penetration into public consciousness wide circles of urban society. French materialists present their philosophical views in a literary form accessible to many in the form of dictionaries, encyclopedias, pamphlets, and political articles.
Julien-Aufray La Mettrie(1709-1751) - recognized the existence of a single material substance; spirit, consciousness are nothing more than a manifestation of this substance, man is a natural being, no different from the rest of nature. Works: “Treatise on the Soul”, “Man is a Machine”, “Man is a Plant”, “The System of Epicurus”.
Claude Adrian Helvetius(1715-1771) - materialist, ideologist of the French bourgeoisie. His main work, “On the Mind,” was banned and burned. Helvetius sharply criticized the ideas of the existence of God, the creation of the world, and the immortality of the soul.
Paul Henri Holbach(1723-1789) in his main work “System of Nature” substantiated the basic provisions and principles of mechanistic scientific picture world, using diverse natural scientific knowledge.
Denis Diderot(1713-1784) - materialist philosopher, writer, art theorist, organizer and editor of the French Encyclopedia. Diderot came closer than other materialists to the dialectical idea of the self-motion of matter, expressed some ideas of the self-motion of matter, expressed some ideas evolutionary theory(man, like everything else, has a history of his formation), formulated the initial idea of the theory of reflection, suggesting that reflection is a universal property of matter, developing along with it leads to the appearance human consciousness. Essays: “ Philosophical thoughts”, “Alleys, or the Walk of a Skeptic”, “Letter about the Blind for the Edification of the Sighted”, “Thoughts on the Explanation of Nature”, “D’Alemberteau’s Conversation with Diderot”, “The Nun”, “Monument to Rameau”, “Jacques the Fatalist and His Master "
Overall, in European philosophy The 17th-18th centuries were dominated by materialistic concepts. By studying the problems of epistemology and methodology, philosophers made a significant contribution to the development of science of their time.
The dilemma of empiricism and rationalism
In the philosophy of modern times
Scientific revolution identified two directions, two poles of the philosophy of the New Age. The development of experimental natural science brought to life the methodology of empiricism, the mathematization of scientific knowledge - rationalism.
Empiricism(from the Greek emperia - experience) - a direction in the theory of knowledge that recognizes sensory experience the only source of knowledge, which believes that the content of knowledge can be presented either as a description of this experience, or reduced to it. Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, Condillac spoke from the position of materialist empiricism, arguing that feelings reflect objectively existing things in knowledge. In contrast to this position, subjective idealistic empiricism (Berkeley, Hume) recognized subjective experience as the only reality.
Close to empiricism sensationalism (from Latin sensus - feeling, sensation) - a direction in the theory of knowledge, according to which feelings are the main form of reliable knowledge.
Modern empiricism grew out of criticism medieval scholasticism, the futility of her method, based on uncritical adherence to authority, dogmatism, speculativeness, lack of systematic observation and experiment. The credo of the materialist philosophers and natural scientists of the New Age is not “science for science’s sake,” but an increase in man’s power over nature, improvement, growth in the strength, health, and beauty of man. Francis Bacon's motto is well known: “scientia est potentia” - Knowledge is power! Bacon argued that only that science is capable of defeating nature and dominating it, which itself “obeys” nature, i.e. guided by knowledge of its laws. He compares the dogmatist with a spider, which weaves a web from itself, and the empiricist with an ant or a bee, which collects sweet juices from flowers, but does not leave them like that, but processes them into honey with its own activity. Human knowledge is expanded not by passive contemplation, but by experiment, i.e. intentional, active testing of nature. Bacon divides all knowledge into: 1) fruitful experiences, bringing direct benefit to humans and 2) luminous experiences , the purpose of which is not immediate benefit, but knowledge of the laws of nature.
Bacon considers the purification of the mind from errors to be a condition for the reform of science and gives an extremely interesting classification of them: calling errors idols that “besiege” the minds of people, the philosopher identifies 4 types of idols: idols of the clan, cave, square and theater.
“Idols of the family” find their basis in the very nature of man, in the tribe or in the very race of people, for it is false to assert that a person’s feelings are the measure of things. On the contrary, all perceptions, both of the senses and of the mind, rest on the analogy of man, and not on the analogy of the world. The human mind is like a nervous mirror, which, mixing its nature with the nature of things, reflects things in a distorted and disfigured form.
Idols of the Cave the essence of the delusion of an individual. After all, in addition to the mistakes inherent in the human race, everyone has their own special cave, which weakens and distorts the light of nature. This happens either from the special - innate properties of each, or from upbringing and conversations with others, or from reading books and from their authorities... So the human spirit, depending on how it is located in individual people, is a changeable, unstable thing and seemingly random. This is why Heraclitus correctly said that people seek knowledge in small worlds, and not in the large or general world.
There are also idols that occur as if due to the mutual connectedness and community of people. We call these idols, meaning the communication and fellowship of people that gives rise to them, idols of the square . People unite through speech. Words are set according to the understanding of the crowd. Therefore, the bad and absurd establishment of words surprisingly besieges the mind... Words directly rape the mind, confuse everything and lead people to empty and countless disputes and interpretations.
Finally, there are idols that have entered the souls of people from various tenets of philosophy, as well as from the gateway laws of evidence. We call them theater idols , for we believe that, no matter how many accepted or invented philosophical systems, so many comedies have been staged and acted, representing fictional and artificial worlds. ...At the same time, we mean here not only general philosophical teachings, but numerous principles and axioms of the sciences, which received force as a result of tradition, faith and carelessness.
Analyze your experience of cognition of existence from these positions. Which idols are typical for you? How to get rid of them?
Within the framework of empiricism, they developed inductive and experimental methods knowledge. Induction - this is the movement of thought from individual facts to general principles, from concrete to abstract. There are complete and incomplete induction. Complete (or perfect) induction is based on enumerating all elements of the set under consideration. More often in science they use incomplete induction, when, based on the observation of a finite number of facts, a general conclusion is made regarding the entire class of given phenomena. In the application of this method, there is a need to justify the correct choice of the objects under study, to prove the non-randomness of the observed regulation. Trying to make the method of incomplete induction as rigorous as possible, Bacon considers it necessary to look not only for facts that confirm a certain conclusion, but also for facts that refute it - “negative instances”. For example, the inductive conclusion: “all swans are white” seems true to us until we find at least one black swan.
Empirical philosophers also posed an interesting epistemological problem of the relationship between the “primary” and “secondary” qualities of things. Locke, following Galileo and Hobbes, calls the mechanical-geometric properties of bodies - extension, figure, density, motion - primary qualities. The ideas of primary qualities “really exist in the bodies themselves,” they are inherent in all of them and always, no matter how the bodies change, these qualities cannot be separated from them by any physical effort. Ideas of secondary qualities - color, taste, smell, heat, cold, pain, etc. – arise in the consciousness of the subject only under appropriate conditions of perception. In the problem of the relationship between primary and secondary qualities, the main contradiction in the process of cognition was seen - the contradiction between the subjective and objective. Subsequently (in German classical philosophy, in particular), the analysis of this contradiction led to important discoveries in the theory of knowledge.
What is your opinion about the problem of primary and secondary qualities of things? Do you think things have color, smell, taste if the cognizing subject does not interact with them?
Rationalism(from lat. ratio - mind) - philosophical direction, which recognizes reason as the basis of human cognition and behavior.
In contrast to religious dogmatism, the rationalists of the New Age (Descartes, Spinoza, Malebranche, Leibniz) proceeded from the idea of natural order - an endless causal purpose that permeates the whole world. In the 17th-18th centuries, the cult of reason became one of the philosophical sources of the ideology of the Enlightenment.
In rationalism, reason is both the source and criterion of the truth of knowledge. For example, to the main thesis of sensationalism: “There is nothing in the mind that was not previously in the feelings,” the rationalist Leibniz added: “Except the mind itself.” The mind is able to overcome the limitations of the senses, which are capable of comprehending only the partial, the accidental, the visible, and to cognize the universal and necessary. Justifying the unconditional reliability of scientific principles and provisions of mathematics and natural science, rationalists tried to solve the question: how knowledge acquires an objective, universal and necessary character. Solving this problem, Descartes came to the conclusion about the existence of innate ideas, which included the ideas of God as an all-perfect being, the ideas of numbers and figures, as well as some general concepts and axioms.
Rationalism is based on deductive and axiomatic methods of cognition world, declaring mathematics a model of strict and precise knowledge, which philosophy should emulate. Descartes, for example, put forward a grandiose project for the restructuring of “universal mathematics.” Descartes compared contemporary science to an ancient city, which was characterized by chaotic, diverse development. The philosopher sees the science of the future as a large beautiful city, built according to a single plan. The central organizing link in this regard is a method that can free cognition from accidents, subjective errors, and transform scientific knowledge from handicraft to industry, from the accidental discovery of truths to their systematic and planned production. Descartes formulates the basic principles of the rationalistic method as follows:
"... Instead of more rules that make up logic, I concluded that the following four would be sufficient...
First: not to accept as true anything before recognizing it as undoubtedly true, that is, to diligently avoid error and prejudice and include in my judgments only what appears to my mind so clearly and distinctly that it cannot in any way give reason to doubt.
Second: divide each of the difficulties under consideration into several parts, as many as necessary, in order to better resolve them.
Third: to guide the course of your thoughts, starting with the simplest and easily cognizable objects, and ascend little by little, as if by steps, to the knowledge of the most complex, allowing for the existence of order even among those that do not precede each other in the natural order of things.
And lastly: do everywhere like that complete lists and such extensive reviews to make sure nothing is missed.”
Spinoza also believed that the whole world is mathematical system and can be fully known in a geometric way. His “geometric method” consists: firstly, in the formulation of axioms - obvious provisions, the truth of which is seen intuitively and, secondly, in the proof of theorems obtained by strict deductive deduction from axioms (axiomatic method).
Both rationalists and empiricists, developing problems of the scientific method, influenced the development of science and education.
After reviewing the fragments philosophical texts, determine what methodological position the author takes - empiricism or rationalism. Give reasons for your answer. In what ways do you agree with the author and in what ways do you not?
Option 1.
“The human mind, by virtue of its inclination, easily assumes more order and uniformity in things than it finds. And at a time when much in nature is singular and completely without similarity, he comes up with parallels, correspondences and relationships that do not exist. Hence the rumor that everything in the heavens moves in perfect circles. Spirals and dragons are completely rejected, except for their names. From here the element of fire is introduced with its circle in order to form a quadrangle together with the other three elements that are accessible to the senses. A measure of proportion of one to ten is arbitrarily inserted into what are called elements to determine the degree of rarefaction and similar nonsense. These useless statements occur not only in philosophical teachings, but also in simple terms.”
Bacon F. New Organon // Anthology of World Philosophy. - Kyiv, 1991. - T.1. - Part 2. - P.11.
Option 2.
“Two paths exist and can exist for finding and discovering the truth. One soars from sensations and particulars to the most general axioms and, proceeding from these foundations and their unshakable truth, discusses them and discovers the middle axioms. This is the way they use today. The other way derives axioms from sensations and particulars, rising continuously and gradually until it finally arrives at the most general axioms. This is a true but untested path.
Both of these paths emerge from sensations and particulars and end in higher communities. But their difference is immeasurable. For the one only briefly touches on experience and particulars, the other properly lingers on them. One immediately establishes certain generalities, abstract and useless, the other gradually rises to what is truly more in accordance with nature.”
Bacon F. New Organon // Anthology of World Philosophy. – Kyiv, 1991. – T.1. – Part 2 – P.7-8.
Option 3.
“The reason why many are convinced that it is difficult to know God and understand what the soul is is that they never rise above what can be known by the senses, and are so accustomed to consider everything with the help of the imagination, which represents only a certain a kind of thinking about material things that everything that cannot be imagined seems incomprehensible to them. This is also clear from the fact that philosophers adhere to the rule in their teachings that nothing can exist in consciousness that was not previously in the senses, and the ideas of God and the soul have never existed. It seems to me that those who want to use the imagination to understand these ideas do the same as if they wanted to use sight to hear a sound or smell a smell, but with this difference, however, that the sense of sight convinces us of the reliability of the object no less than the senses of hearing and smell, while neither our imagination nor our senses can ever convince us of anything unless our reason intervenes.”
Descartes R. Discourses on the method // Anthology of world philosophy. - Kyiv. 1991. – T.1. – Part 2. – P.89.
Option 4
“From the fact that we compare things with each other, certain concepts arise, which, however, outside of things, do not represent anything other than modes of thinking. This is obvious from the fact that if we wanted to consider them as things outside of thinking, then the clear concept that we have about them would immediately turn into a vague one.
Such concepts are: opposition, order, agreement, difference, subject, predicate and some others. These concepts are clearly presented to us until we accept them as something different from the essence of things, opposite or arranged in order, but consider them only modes of thinking, through which we more easily retain or represent them.”
Spinoza B. Appendix containing metaphysical thoughts // Anthology of world philosophy. – Kyiv, 1991. – T.1. – Part 2. – P.63.
Option 5.
“Properties of truth or true idea gist:
that it is clear and distinct, 2) that it eliminates all doubt or, in a word, is reliable. Whoever seeks certainty in the most general things is mistaken, just as if he were seeking truth in them. And when we say that a thing is uncertain, we rhetorically take the object to be an idea, just as we call a thing doubtful; however, if by inaccuracy we do not mean an accident or a thing that causes uncertainty or doubt in us.”
Spinoza B. Appendix containing metaphysical thoughts // Anthology of world philosophy. – Kyiv, 1991. – T.1. – Part 2. – P.65.
Option 6.
“Let us suppose that the mind is, so to speak, white paper without any knowledge or ideas. But how does he get them? Where does he acquire this vast stock, which the active and boundless human imagination has drawn with almost infinite variety? Where does he get almost all the material of reasoning and knowledge? To this I will answer in one word: from experience. All our knowledge is based on experience, and it ultimately comes from it. Our observation, directed either at external tangible objects or at the internal actions of our mind, which we ourselves perceive and about which we ourselves think, supplies our mind with all the material of thinking. These are the two sources of knowledge, from which come all the ideas that we have or can naturally have.”
Locke D. Experience about human understanding. - Op. In 3 volumes - M., 1985. - T.1. – P.154.
Option 7.
“Dark cell. I do not want to teach, but to investigate, and therefore I cannot admit here again that external and internal sensations are the only ways knowledge to the mind that I can discover. As far as I can open, these are the only windows through which light enters this dark room, for, in my opinion, the mind is very much like a chamber, completely closed to light, with but one small opening left to admit the visible resemblances or ideas, of external things. And if only the images penetrating into such a dark room could remain there and lie in such order that, if necessary, they could be found, then it would be very similar to the human mind in its relation to all visible objects and their ideas.”
Locke D. Experience about human understanding. - Op. In 3 volumes - M., 1985. - T.1. – P.212.
Option 8.
Proof of Immortality human soul through continuous sorites:
“The human soul is a being, some of whose action consists of thinking. If some action of a being is thinking, then some action of this being is a thing directly created without the representation of parts.
If some action of some object is a thing without parts, then some action of this object is not motion.
For every movement has parts, according to the proof of Aristotle and universal recognition.
If some action of an object is not motion, then this object is not a body.
For every movement of a body is movement.
What is not a body does not exist in space.
For the definition of a body is to exist in space.
For movement is a change in space.
What is incapable of movement is incapable of disintegration.
For disintegration is movement in parts.
What is inaccessible to decay is indestructible.
For destruction is internal disintegration.
Everything indestructible is immortal.
For death is the destruction of a living being, or the disintegration of its mechanism by which it moves itself.
Consequently, the human soul is immortal, which was what needed to be proven.”
Leibniz G.V. Evidence of nature against atheists. // Op. In 4 volumes - M.: Thought. 1982. - T.1. - P.83-84.
Option 9.
“... That for this reason everything happens in accordance with established predestination is as certain as the fact that three times three is nine. For predestination lies in the fact that everything is connected to something else, like chains, and therefore everything will happen as inevitably as it was from time immemorial, and as it unmistakably happens now, if it happens.
The ancient poets Homer and others called it a golden chain suspended under the heavens by the command of Jupiter, which cannot be broken no matter how much one hangs on it. This chain consists of a sequential series of causes and effects...
From here, therefore, we can conclude that in our vast world everything happens mathematically, that is, without error, so that if anyone was able to sufficiently penetrate into the deeper components of things and also had sufficient memory and understanding to take into account all circumstances and not leave anything unattended, then he would be a prophet and would see the future in the present, as in a mirror.
After all, just as we can assert that flowers, and indeed animals, are already formed in the seed, although they, it is true, can endure some changes due to various circumstances, we can also say that the whole future world has already been given in the modern world and has been completely reshaped, so that no circumstance from the outside can interfere with anything, because nothing exists outside the world.”
Leibniz G.V. On predetermination // Works. In 4 volumes - M.: Mysl, 1982. - T.1. – P.237-238.
Option 10.
The power of image or representation
“...Some poor fellow - guilty or innocent - was imprisoned on charges of a crime. They began to look into his case. The judges came to the conclusion that it was necessary to further investigate him, and, since the votes were divided, they decided to mitijrem partem (to a less strict approach). But then one adviser came up, who had never been present during the analysis of the case and had not heard its discussion. The case is briefly explained to him. He speaks out for the use of torture. And so they begin to torture, torment, torment this unfortunate man, from whom, however, there is not a complaint, not a sigh, not a word. The executioner tells the judges that this man is a sorcerer. Meanwhile, he was a sorcerer or insensitive, no more than anyone else. How to explain this unparalleled strength of character and endurance? Guess if you can. It was a peasant. In preparation for the upcoming torture, he drew a gallows on one of his wooden shoes, and while he was being tortured, he did not take his eyes off the gallows.
But what difference does it make whether the image is inscribed on a wooden shoe or in the Brain?
Based on some historical examples, we know what the power of images, ideas, honor, shame, fanaticism, and prejudice can bring people to.
The mind controls our feelings. If I think I hear a sound, then I hear it; if it seems to me that I see an object, then I see it. Do the eye and ear experience the same irritation in these cases as if I actually saw and heard? I think yes. Or are these organs at rest, and everything happens in consciousness? It is difficult to resolve this issue.”
Diderot D. Elements of physiology // Op. In 2 volumes - M.: Mysl, 1986. - T.1. – P.533.
Option 11.
“People will always be mistaken if they neglect experience for the sake of systems generated by the imagination. Man is a product of nature, he exists in nature, is subject to its laws, cannot free himself from it, cannot - even in thought - leave nature. In vain his spirit wants to rush beyond the edge visible world, he is always forced to fit within its limits. For a being created by nature and limited by it, nothing exists other than the great whole of which it is a part and the influence of which it experiences. Supposed beings, supposedly different from nature and standing above it, always remain ghosts, and we will never be able to form correct ideas about them, as well as about their location and mode of action. No, and there cannot be anything outside of nature, which embraces everything that exists.”
Golbach P. A. System of nature // Anthology of world philosophy. – Kyiv, 1991. – T.1. – Part 2. – P.164.
