Modern Philosophy

Main Ideas of Modernity

• Often compared to premodern and postmodern societies
• Subjectivism, individualism and totalitarianism all contribute
• Related to the concept of time
• Linear progress

Types of Modern Philosophy

• Rationalism
• Empiricism
• Idealism
• Materialism
• Existenialism
• Enlightenment

Unique Characteristics

• In a sense, gave birth to sociology
• Has roots inn intellectual revolutions
• Growth of societies
• Understanding that the human self is a product of evolutionary desires

Major Thinkers of Modernity

• Kant - Critique as Epistemological Foundation
• Descartes - Subject as Center of Thought
• Hegel - Progress as Concept of Time

Questions

• How do all the philosophers relate?
• Did they share ideas?
• Did others philosophers rely on previous philosophies?

Descartes

• Mathematical genius
• Embraced rationalism
• Resolved to doubt anything that could be doubted

Descartes' First Meditation

• Four concepts of doubt
• - I can't trust my senses
• - I could be crazy
• - I could be dreaming
• - A malicious demon could be out to fool me

Descartes' Second Meditation

• Is there anything I cannot doubt?
• I cannot doubt that I doubt
• "I doubt" is absolutely certain

Hume - Major Texts

• Treatise on Human Nature
• An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
• An Enquiry Concerning the Principals of Morals

Hume - Goals

• "Moral" meant anything concerned with human nature, not just ethics
• Aims to bring the scientific method to bear on the study of human nature
• Only way to improve philosophy was to make the investigation of human nature central and empirical

Questions

• How did he influence other philosophers?
• What is the point of doubt?

Kant - Major Texts

• Critique of Pure Reason
• Critique of Practical Reason
• Critique of Judgement

Kant - A Priori Knowledge

• His metaphysics were concerned with knowledge that does not depend on experience
• Knowledge is verified true belief
• To know is to believe
• The belief must be true
• The belief must be verified

According to Kant

• The mind does not conform to its objects
• Objects of consciousness conform to the structure and operations of the mind itself

Questions

• Did he influence other philosophers?
• What is the point of a priori?

Hegel

• Embraced German Idealism
• Progress as Concept of Time
• Delineated the end of history as the final reconciliation of the idea with its self

Hegel - Politics

• "On the Recent Domestic Affairs of Wurttemberg"
• "Proceedings of the Estates Assembly in the Kingdom of Württemberg, 1815-1816"
• "The English Reform Bill"

Post-Hegelian Philosophers

• J.S. Mill
• Whitehead

Hegel - Views

• Known for his teleological account of history
• His political and social philosophy continued to find interest and support
• Hegel attempted, throughout his published writings as well as in his lectures, to elaborate a comprehensive and systematic ontology from a “logical” starting point