MODERN PHILOSOPHY

MODERNITY

• Epistemology
• Skepticism
• Metaphysics
• Subjective vs. Objective

FOCUSES

• Mathematics
• Science
• Humanity
• Reason
• Meditations (Descartes)

CHRISTIAN WOLFF

• 1679-1754
• German philosopher
• Studied theology
• Worked w/ math and science

CHRISTIAN WOLFF (PART 2)

• Works Published:
• "German Logic"
• "German Metaphysics"
• "German Ethics"
• "German Politics
• "German Cosmology"
• "German Theology"

OTHER MAJOR PHILOSOPHERS

• Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
• Isaac Newton (1643-1727)
• Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
• Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
• Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
• Karl Marx (1818-1883)

DESCARTES

• 1596-1650
• Mathematician
• Argued for existence of God
• Published meditations

DESCARTES

• Had theory of nature
• Proposed new metaphysics
• Studied the mind intensively
• Did work in physics also

DESCARTES

• Senses produce errors
• Lives of humans are restricted
• Senses confirm theories
• Humans are finite, God is infinite

HUME

• 1711-1776
• Post-modern philosopher
• Critical vs. Constructive
• Theory of the Mind/Ideas
• Perceptions and impressions

HUME

• Goals
• To understand understanding
• Improvements to sciences
• To find laws to govern the mind
• To experiment into moral philosophy

CRITICAL VS. CONSTRUCTIVE

• Critique
• What was wrong
• Errors
• Negatives
• Constructive
• Building something
• Progression
• Working towards a goal

THEORY OF THE MIND/IDEAS

• Everything we know is traceable to experience
• Ideas are what we perceive about objects. This is how we primarily access things

KANT

• 1724-1804
• 3 Major Texts
• Critique of Pure Reason
• Critique of Practical Reason
• Critique of Judment

Kant's objective in philosophy is to 1.) Synthesize rationalism and empiricism and 2.) Rescue metaphysics from a Humean approach

KANT'S METAPHYSICS

• Thoughts from reason may not all be from experience
• Possibility or impossibility of metaphysics
• Extent and boundaries of metaphysics
• Concerns a priori knowledge

KANT ON HUMAN KNOWLEDGE

• A Posteriori
• Relies on the sense and experiences.
• A Priori
• Independent of sense experiences
• Necessary and strict universality

HEGEL

• 1770-1831
• German idealist
• Worked as professor in German universities
• Influenced by Kant; systematic philosophy

HEGEL'S POLITICS

• Fall in the area of the Objective Spirit
• Wrote many political tracts
• Rejects violent action

POST-HEGELIAN PHILOSOPHERS

• Adolf Trendelenburg
• Hermann Lotze
• Wilhelm Dilthey
• Eduard von Hartmann

Hegel created what is called the Dialectic Process. This process includes a thesis, antithesis, and a synthesis. The thesis is the claim, the antithesis is what is against the claim and the synthesis is a mix of both thesis and antithesis.