Teachings of modern philosophers. Philosophy of the New Age

This period in the life of society is characterized by the disintegration of feudalism, the emergence and development of capitalism, which is associated with progress in the economy, technology, and growth in labor productivity. The consciousness of people and the worldview in general are changing. Life gives birth to new geniuses. Science is rapidly developing, first of all, experimental and mathematical natural science. This period is called the era of scientific revolution. Science plays an increasingly significant role in the life of society. At the same time, mechanics occupies a dominant place in science. It was in mechanics that thinkers saw the key to the secrets of the entire universe.

The philosophy of modern times owes its development partly to the in-depth study of nature, partly to the ever-increasing combination of mathematics and natural science. Thanks to the development of these sciences, the principles of scientific thinking have spread far beyond the boundaries of individual branches and philosophy itself.

Rene Descartes- put reason in the first place, reducing the role of experience to a simple practical verification of intelligence data. He sought to develop a universal deductive method for all sciences, based on the theory of rationalism. The first question of philosophy for him was the question of the possibility of reliable knowledge and the problem of the method by which this knowledge can be obtained.

Francis Bacon- unlike Descartes, he developed a method of empirical, experimental knowledge of nature. He believed that this could be achieved only with the help of science, comprehending the true causes of phenomena. This science must be a rational processing of the facts of experience.

The philosophy of modern times, in short, developed in a difficult period of the rapid rise of technology and the formation of capitalist society. The time frame of the 17th and 18th centuries, but sometimes the 19th century is included in the philosophy of this period. Considering the philosophy of the New Age, briefly outlined, it should be noted that during this period the most authoritative philosophers lived, who largely determined the development of this science today.

Two philosophical directions of modern times

The great minds of philosophy in the 17th and 18th centuries divided into two groups: rationalists and empiricists.
Rationalism was represented by Rene Descartes, Gottfried Leibniz and Benedict Spinoza. They put the human mind at the head of everything and believed that it was impossible to gain knowledge only from experience. They held the view that the mind initially contains all the necessary knowledge and truth. Only logical rules are needed to extract them. They considered deduction as the main method of philosophy. However, the rationalists themselves could not answer the question of why there are errors in knowledge, if, according to them, all knowledge is already contained in the mind.

Empiricists were Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. For them, the main source of knowledge is the experience and sensations of a person, and the main method of philosophy is inductive. It should be noted that the supporters of these different trends in the philosophy of the New Age were not in a tough confrontation and agreed with the significant role of both experience and reason in cognition.
In addition to the main philosophical currents of that time, rationalism and empiricism, there was also agnosticism, which denied any possibility of human knowledge of the world. Its brightest representative is David Hume. He believed that a person is not able to penetrate deep into the secrets of nature and know its laws.

Starting from the 17th century. natural science, astronomy, mathematics, and mechanics are rapidly developing; the development of science could not but influence philosophy.

In philosophy, the doctrine of the omnipotence of reason and the limitless possibilities of scientific research arises.

Characteristic of the philosophy of modern times is a strong materialistic tendency, stemming primarily from experimental natural science.

Major philosophers in Europe in the 17th century. are:

R. Descartes;

B. Spinoza;

G. Leibniz.

In the philosophy of modern times, much attention is paid to the problems of being and substance - ontology, especially when it comes to movement, space and time.

The problems of substance and its properties are of interest to literally all philosophers of modern times, because the task of science and philosophy led to an understanding of the need to study the causes of phenomena, their essential forces.

In the philosophy of this period, two approaches to the concept of "substance" appear:

Ontological understanding of substance as the ultimate foundation of being, founder - Francis Bacon;

Gnoseological understanding of the concept of "substance", its necessity for scientific knowledge, the founder - John Locke.

According to Locke, ideas and concepts have their source in the external world, material things. Material bodies have only quantitative features, there is no qualitative variety of matter: material bodies differ from each other only in size, figure, movement and rest . Smells, sounds, colors, tastes are secondary qualities, they, Locke believed, arise in the subject under the influence of primary qualities.

English philosopher David Hume searched for the answers of being, opposing the materialistic understanding of substance. He, rejecting the real existence of material and spiritual substance, believed that there is an “idea” of substance, under which the association of human perception is summed up, which is inherent in ordinary, and not scientific knowledge.

The philosophy of modern times has made a huge step in the development of the theory of knowledge, the main ones are:

Problems of philosophical scientific method;

Methodologies of human cognition of the external world;

Connections of external and internal experience;

The task of obtaining reliable knowledge. Two main epistemological directions have emerged:

- empiricism ;

- rationalism. The main ideas of the philosophy of the New Age:

The principle of an autonomously thinking subject;

Principle of methodical doubt;

Intellectual intuition or rational-deductive method;

Hypothetical-deductive construction of scientific theory;

Development of a new legal worldview, justification and protection of the rights of a citizen and a person. The main task of modern philosophy was an attempt to realize the idea autonomous philosophy, free from religious prerequisites; build an integral worldview on reasonable and experimental grounds, revealed by research on the cognitive ability of a person.

Rationalism- philosophical and epistemological direction, where the basis of knowledge is the mind.

Descartes- The main work of Reasoning about the method. The task of philosophy is to help people in their practical affairs.

Ways of human knowledge

1. man cognizes himself and his mind, therefore, cognizes nature.
2. man, knowing nature, knows himself in it.

New scientific method

Deduction- way of reasoning from the general to the particular.

Method Rule

1. accept as true what is perceived in a clear and distinct form, all doubtful is cut off.
2. every complex problem must be decomposed into analysis and reached to the most simple and obvious truths.
3. go from simple and accessible things to things more difficult to understand.
4. it is necessary to compile a complete list of facts and discoveries, to systematize everything known and to determine the boundary of the unknown.

Arguing about a person's ability to know, Descartes distinguishes 2 types of ideas inherent in a person: innate and ideas of sensory experience. A person has a certain predisposition to thinking. Some truths, the simplest ones, are initially laid in the human mind: the ideas of being, God, number. Descartes assumes the presence of God, who puts innate ideas into the human mind.

3 degrees of knowledge:

1. truth
2. reasoning mind
3. sensory knowledge

A special part of the reasoning is the place of man in society. Society and the state are created for the sake of mutual assistance and security of people. The state is an agreement between people. 3 forms of government:

1. monarchy
2. aristocracy
3. democracy is ideal

Sources: filosof.historic.ru, antiquehistory.ru, e-reading.club, 900igr.net, zubolom.ru

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new time(XVII - XIX centuries) - a period of major changes in the history of mankind.

The philosophy of modern times developed in close interaction with science, primarily mathematics, physics, and mechanics. The most important object of philosophical analysis is the nature of scientific knowledge, its sources, methods of scientific knowledge.

Philosophy of F. Bacon.

The main subject of philosophical reflection F. Bacon made scientific knowledge, in the center of his attention are questions about the goals and methods of scientific knowledge. The task of science, according to Bacon, is to reveal natural laws, which will lead to the expansion of human capabilities, the strengthening of his power over nature (“ Knowledge is power"). He argues that the root cause of the world is God, but in the future the world is subject to the action of natural laws (deism). Therefore, Bacon positively resolves the question of the cognizability of the world. However, he argues that on the path of knowledge there are many delusions ("idols") that prevent the receipt of reliable knowledge. Bacon distinguishes 4 types of "idols" of knowledge:

one) " idols of the family»are a consequence of the limitations of the human mind, the imperfection of the senses;

2) " cave idols are due to the individual characteristics of a person: each person has his own inner subjective world (his own “cave”), which affects his assessment of reality;

3) " market idols» arise in the process of communication and are caused by misunderstanding due to the incorrect use of words, language expressions;

four) " theater idols» appear as a result of the influence of scientific and philosophical authorities, their uncritical assimilation.

The main means of overcoming "idols" Bacon considers the choice of the correct method ("path") of knowledge. Bacon reveals the problem of choosing a scientific method allegorically and describes 3 ways of knowing:

1. « spider path"is an attempt to deduce the truth by purely rational means, through theoretical reflection;
2. « ant path» involves only the use of empirical, experimental data without their theoretical generalization;
3. « bee path"is based on the unity of sensory and rational knowledge, on the movement from obtaining experimental data to their theoretical understanding.

According to Bacon, knowledge is based on sensory data that need experimental verification and then theoretical generalization.

The main significance of Bacon's philosophy is an attempt to develop an effective method of scientific knowledge.

Rene Descartes.

Descartes is the founder rationalism in modern philosophy. The main thing in this trend is the cult of man as a rational and active being. Rationalists consider the main source of knowledge about the world not the data of the senses, but the active activity of thinking. Descartes was convinced of the limitless possibilities of the human mind.

Descartes also substantiated the dualistic view of the world. Dualism Descartes is manifested in the fact that he recognized, firstly, the existence of a material world independent of human consciousness and, secondly, the independence of thinking. These two substances intersect and actively interact, but their relationship is only mechanical. In man, material and spiritual substances appear as body and soul.

He developed a theory about innate ideas ". According to his ideas, a person acquires all ideas in three ways. Some he receives from the outside world through the senses; others are formed in consciousness by processing ideas of the first kind; the most important role is played by the "innate ideas" that the soul has in itself initially - such as, for example, the idea of ​​God, extension, movement, unity, etc. The truth of knowledge, Descartes believed, is based on the existence of innate ideas, independent of sensory experience.

In the first place in the philosophy of Descartes, as in F. Bacon, is the problem of the method of scientific knowledge. He designs deductive method scientific knowledge. ( Deduction- this is a method of cognition based on the movement of thought from the general to the particular; from the abstract to the concrete, deducing a statement (consequence) from one or more other statements). According to Descartes, the method of deduction must be based on the following basic rules:

1. not accept as true what is unclear and unobvious;
2. divide the research question into simple elements for better understanding;
3. go in reasoning from simple to complex;
4. organize information in order to get the most complete picture of the subject.

Outlining the principles of his method, Descartes formulated the concept of " intellectual intuition ”, by which he understood a clear and attentive mind, the light of reason, which allows one to comprehend the truth.

Descartes argued that the process of thinking should lead to overcoming doubts in the issue under study, but at the same time give rise to new doubts. Doubt must be the stimulus of any scientific inquiry.

Russian language and culture of speech

1. ELEMENTS AND LEVELS OF LANGUAGE

In characterizing a language as a system, it is necessary to determine which elements it consists. In most languages ​​of the world, the following units are distinguished: phoneme (sound), morpheme, word, phrase and sentence. Language units are heterogeneous in their structure: simple (phonemes) and complex (phrases, sentences). Moreover, more complex units always consist of simpler ones.

The simplest unit of language is phoneme, indivisible in and of itself...

Ideology

1. Ideology as a social phenomenon, its essence. The content of the ideology. The socio-historical system of ideas about the world has become ideology as a system of rational and logical substantiation of people's behavior, their values, norms of relationships, goals, etc. Ideology as a phenomenon is in many ways similar to religion and science. From science, she took the evidence and logic of her postulates, but, unlike science, ideology is called upon to evaluate the phenomena of reality (which is good, what ...

Features of the philosophy of modern times. It is believed that the development of manufacturing and the division of labor led to the development of rational thinking. Knowledge contributed to the development of technology, technology stimulated the development of sciences and determined the growth of the prestige of scientific knowledge.

Scientific knowledge, and first of all, natural science knowledge developed, in comparison with religious and mythological ideas, carried a new logic of thinking and a new step in the development of man, new aspects of understanding himself.

In modern times, philosophy brought to the fore the problems of man in the processes of cognition, it is aimed at studying nature and revealing the laws of cognition. The individual now, as an enterprising merchant and laboratory scientist, forms his own circle of interests and intentions. This process requires, in accordance with the established values ​​of the time, a sober, realistic, down-to-earth view of the world.

The problem of method in philosophy: rationalism and empiricism. The development of market relations led to the emergence of a philosophical orientation towards science and the actualization of epistemology. At the initial stage of its development, the formation of sciences takes place on the basis of experimental knowledge. Belief in one's own mind stimulated the cognitive activity of man, aimed at transforming the world around him; for successful transformative activity, not just knowledge was needed, but true knowledge that adequately reflects reality. Therefore, very soon, as the main philosophical problem, the problem of the method is posed as a way to achieve true knowledge. In modern times, philosophers scientifically formulated two basic scientific methods (empirical and rationalistic, or inductive and deductive), the elements of which were described in previous philosophy as ways or types of thinking (consciousness). Row of thinkers 26

rightly believes that disputes between nominalists and realists, who believed that reliable knowledge is possible based on reason, were transformed into empiricism and rationalism. At this time, the concepts of "ontology" (introduced by R. Goklenius in 1613) and "epistemology" appeared.

On the other hand, in modern times, the motive for understanding “leaves” the sphere of things themselves and at the same time, “understanding the essence” or “an ensemble of qualities of a thing” becomes problematic. If earlier the question was formulated relatively simply and concerned whether the essence of the thing was seen or not, now the formulation of the question is changing. Now it is important, "how correctly" the essence is seen. Therefore, the main task is to eliminate distortions in and peace. So, already Bacon (a prominent representative of empiricism) formulates the “doctrine of idols”, Descartes (a representative of rationalism) formulates “rules for the guidance of the mind”; "understanding" is replaced by "explanation" - "explanation", decomposed into constituent features, i.e. there is a replacement of a thing with a representation of a person, the “showing the interaction of components” is updated, it becomes important to determine the place of this representation in the structure of representations.

The great French mathematician is considered the founder of modern philosophy Rene Descartes(1596-1650, "Rules for the guidance of the mind", "Discourse on the method", "Metaphysical reflections" and other works). In his philosophy, one can observe a revision of the existing principles of worldview and an appeal to reason and self-consciousness. In his Discourse on Method, written in 1637, he sets the task of making the path to knowledge demonstrative. At the same time, he is looking for signs of reliability in knowledge itself. According to Descartes, primary knowledge is achieved through thinking; the starting point of his method is the recognition of the principle of evidence at the basis of thinking; as the initial stage of scientific research, the method of doubt is proposed, which is necessary in order to find the position that is undoubted.

Descartes' doctrine of method is summarized in four rules: do not take on faith what is not obvious; divide the problem into parts; consider thoughts in a certain order from simple to complex; make the most complete lists of information related to the issue under consideration. Descartes called his method rationalistic, i.e. based on reason. The thinker understood knowledge as a system of truths, setting himself the task of justifying reason and building arguments in favor of trusting him. God, according to Descartes, gave nature the laws of motion; the creation of a doctrine of God and the soul is the task metaphysics.

An analysis of Descartes' philosophy shows that he preferred deductive method: the reduction of private knowledge to the general.

The central concept of Descartes' philosophy is " substance”, which is understood as a thing or being that underlies everything and does not need anything but itself. He understood movement as a mechanical change (according to the ideas of the then physics); believed that the world created by God consists of material and spiritual substances. Material substances include nature, in which everything obeys mechanical laws (mathematics can discover them). Matter, according to Descartes, is divisible to infinity - we can say that the French philosopher intuitively foresaw that the atom is no longer an indivisible particle of matter. Spiritual substances, unlike material ones, are indivisible. Practically, under spiritual substances Descartes understood thinking, or mind. Thinking stores innate ideas (God, number, figure); things have a cause, nothing comes from nothing. Further, in the thinker's reasoning about man (as a machine connected with the mind according to the principles of mechanics) and the world (represented as a machine in which the divine spirit is located), a third substance is found - God, who creates the world according to the principle called Descartes deism, contrary to the principle theism by which God can intervene in any process. Art, according to Descartes, must contribute to the human mind, so the form must be strictly regulated; as the principles of such regulation are proposed: clarity, logic, clarity, persuasiveness.

The philosopher in his rationalistic theory of knowledge, in addition to the already mentioned substances introduces concepts subject(“consciousness that has become aware of itself as a thinking thing”) and object(“everything that is opposed to the subject in the process of cognition”). According to Descartes, for a person there are three types of objects - material bodies, other consciousnesses and one's own consciousness. The ideas of Descartes found their confirmation in the data of the natural sciences; the philosopher himself, on the basis of anatomical experiments, managed to prove that, contrary to popular belief, the human mind is not located in a certain place in the brain. 27

According to Descartes, in order to correctly carry out the process of cognition, it is not enough to be reasonable, one must be able to correctly apply reason. It is precisely the set of rules for the correct use of reason in order to comprehend the truth that he calls method. According to the thinker, there are four universal methods: analysis, synthesis, induction and deduction.

Benedict(Baruch) Spinoza(1632-1677) in the work "Ethics" opposed the rationalistic dualism of Descartes monistic system of being. In his opinion, nature cannot be outside of God; all the diversity that we observe in the world is provided by a single substance matter or spirit. God is an infinite being, and God is nature; a single substance, it is beyond knowledge, is the cause of itself. God as a perfect substance has many attributes, two of which are available to a finite person - thinking and extension. Attributes have an unlimited number of manifestations − modes. Spinoza considered his task to be the understanding of nature and God and the development, on the basis of rational knowledge, of love for God (as a philosophical concept).

The merit of Spinoza is the overcoming of mechanistic materialism: the philosopher, along with extension, names thinking as an attribute of matter, the universality of which forms the basis of the cognizability and self-development of matter. Hence, the researchers also conclude that Spinoza's ideas about matter and thinking (about being and consciousness) are dialectical. It is generally accepted that the philosopher created the most consistent and consistent theory pantheism.

Thus, comparing Spinoza's system with the philosophy of Descartes, we can say that Spinoza starts from the objective, Descartes - from himself. The world, according to Spinoza, who substantiated the thesis of the substantial unity of the world, is cognizable. The thinker also developed dialectics, considering social issues, and defended the principles of reason and freedom. He owns the formulation of freedom as a conscious or free necessity. The philosopher said about truth that it reveals both itself and falsehood.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz(1646-1716, "Monadology", "Theodicy", "New experiments on human understanding") was a scientist, philosopher, lawyer, historian, mathematician, physicist, inventor, explored issues related to optics, mining. He expressed important ideas: the technical idea of ​​a submarine was substantiated, the need to create an institution of morals and the protection of human dignity, the idea was expressed of the need to insure people against fire, create a financial assistance fund for relatives of the deceased; Leibniz, who is considered the last systemic philosopher of the eighteenth century, advocated the abolition of the witch-burning procedure.

Leibniz reveals the essence of being in the hypothesis of plurality substances. Developing the rationalist direction in the philosophy of modern times, he argues that the modes that Spinoza writes about are individual, understanding individuality as a property of the character of man and of all things. All things are individual, therefore, each of them can be a substance. A special kind of substance is a self-existing - monad(“unit”), which the philosopher understands as an atom of the universe, the primary element of being, a simple and indivisible substance of a spiritual nature. It exists forever and cannot fall apart, showing constant activity. The essence of the monad is activity (perception, representation, or aspiration). Monads form a hierarchy according to the amount of spiritual content in them. Also, monads are characterized by Leibniz as images of the Universe, having some analogy with a person. One substance has its own attributes- extension and thinking. Human thinking, according to Leibniz, is a part of thinking in general (that is, not only people think), thinking, according to Leibniz, is the self-consciousness of nature.

Leibniz's classification of monads is reminiscent of Aristotle's teaching about the three levels of the soul: the lower monads represent the inorganic world; monads of the next level have sensations; monads of the highest class represent the souls of people: a monad is called a soul when there is a feeling in it, a spirit when there is a mind. God arranges and ensures the integrity of the levels of monads, carries out the completeness of all connections of activity, being an absolutely conscious monad. In the world, according to Leibniz, pre-established harmony reigns. It must be said that theodicy is part of the thinker's philosophy: God is the creator of the world, he created the best of the worlds; evil (as well as ignorance, suffering, sin), according to Leibniz, is darkness, lack of divine light; evil has a different source, it exists to prevent a greater evil. According to Leibniz, the only principle of the world order is the necessity of causes and effects.

The teachings of Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz combined Christian Wolf(1679-1754), who is called "the father of the German philosophical spirit"; the teachings of the rationalists became the property of the educated people of Europe, the basis for the teaching of metaphysics in universities. 28

Opponents of rationalism were English philosophers who developed the principles empiricism.

Francis Bacon(1561-1626, “New Organon”, 1620, “On the Dignity and Multiplication of Sciences”, 1623, “New Atlantis”), in an attempt to formulate the ideas of a new organization of sciences and find the right path to truth, formulated the principles of empiricism. The search for reliable knowledge can occur along the path of movement from the particular to the general (this is the empirical path) and from the general to the particular (this is the rationalistic path), Bacon argued. The philosopher understood induction as induction; his merit is considered to be the distinction of "incomplete induction". Being an empiricist, the scientist believed that the mind must process the data of experience and find the causal relationships of phenomena. He illustrated the use of different ways of cognition by the researcher on the example of an ant, a spider and a bee. In the work "New Organon", the philosopher argued that the only subject of sciences can be nature; combining science with practice (it is by acquiring knowledge about nature that, according to Bacon, a person becomes powerful), he believed that science should realize itself in technology; his understanding of the social significance of science was expressed in his famous phrase “knowledge is power”.

Since the method, according to Bacon, requires the liberation of the mind from preconceived ideas (taking the form of "ghosts" or "idols"), as a specially and consciously performed procedure, he devotes part of his teaching to explaining the need for this procedure and analyzing the very false attitudes of the mind, which are four : ineradicable and inherent in every person ghosts of the genus (associated with the characteristics of man as the final part of nature, a living being with its own worldview and consciousness, not knowing how the world could be perceived by other creatures); cave ghosts (individual prejudices and delusions associated with individual perception of phenomena in accordance with one's own abilities and capabilities); ghosts of the market/square (stereotypes conditioned by the social community of people; they are automatically used by a person according to the situation, without thinking about their truth or falsity); ghosts of the theater (false ideas and teachings accepted in a given environment of educated people as reliable). The only way to get rid of ghosts is experience, understood as an experiment, which is based not only on sensory representation. The experiment involves purposeful mind control at each stage of its implementation, including the analysis of the conditions for the experiment. Bacon was sure that the road to true knowledge and to the kingdom of man over the environment lies through scientific knowledge.

The character of empiricism in the second half of the seventeenth century is determined by the struggle between realism and subjective idealism.

Bacon's ideas systematized John Locke(1632-1704) in the work "Experiments on human understanding". He criticized the rationalists for the theory of innate ideas, arguing that ideas are acquired on the basis of experience, that a person at birth is a blank slate, tabula rasa, and cognizes the world through the active activity of the senses. According to the thinker, feelings and experience are the source of knowledge, and the mind only systematizes sensory data; all ideas that a person can formulate are derived from simple ideas that arise in sensations: abstract ideas from less abstract ideas of usefulness, certainty, cooperation, these, in turn, from even more concrete ones, etc. According to Locke, ideas arise on the basis of two types of experience: ideas of external experience, which a person receives with the help of the senses; and ideas about their activity - as ideas of internal experience, or reflection, inseparable from emotional and volitional processes. The doctrine of two types of experience led further to the development of the problem of primary (the inherent properties of all bodies: extension, movement, rest, number, density, impenetrability) and secondary qualities (which are changeable and are brought to consciousness with the help of the senses: color, sound, taste, smell). Further, Locke analyzed the nature of knowledge and came to the conclusion about the existence intuitive(based on inner feeling) and demonstrative(inference, evidence), types of knowledge, together named by him speculative knowledge, and sensitive kind of knowledge concerning external objects, and received through sensations.

J. Locke in such religious and political writings as “Letters on religious tolerance”, “Two treatises on state government”, “Some letters on education” developed the ideas of Hobbes. It is believed that these works prepared important reforms, both in the economy and in politics; Locke, together with the doctrine of the natural rights of man, analyzes the state of the state and society. The philosopher condemns slavery, separates the natural (within the boundaries of nature) and the civil, or social, state of mankind. Locke is talking about the following natural rights: natural 29

equality; freedom; ownership and appropriation; the right of the individual to own himself and the results of his activity; power. To ensure a contractual start and entry into civil society, the "consent of the majority" is necessary; the subjection of the individual must be enshrined in law. Locke substantiated in the form of three laws the need for separation of powers, as a fundamental principle for the liberal-democratic structure of society: the legislative power is aimed at preserving humanity, serving the public good and eliminating despotism (this is the first law); judicial power - acts as the second law in the system of Locke; the third law is the power of property.

Locke's opponent in the theory of knowledge was George Berkeley. J. Berkeley (1685-1753) and D. Hume are noted in the history of philosophy as philosophers who do not recognize the materialistic theory of knowledge and doubt the possibility of human knowledge of the surrounding world. Their work once again shows that the philosophical ideas of the English Enlightenment differed from those of the French. The ideals of the Enlightenment are science and progress, for the achievement of which the mind must be freed from religious and metaphysical prejudices and be based on experience. The philosophy of Berkeley and Hume, which focused on questions sensationalism and nominalism, is seen as a response to the one-sidedness of prior materialism. Skepticism and agnosticism were substantiated in the criticism of the primary and secondary qualities of J. Locke and the concept of substance.

J. Berkeley was a priest, psychologist and philosopher who formulated the doctrine subjective idealism; in the Treatise on the Principles of Human Knowledge, the thinker posed the problem of the status of the external world, which a person perceives on the basis of his subjective sensations. Berkeley is known for his criticism of the materialistic basis of bodies and Newton's theory of space as the container of physical bodies. According to Berkeley, sensations are a reflection of things that exist outside of human consciousness, to be means to be in perception (God always perceives). In contrast to realism, which believed that the world exists independently of the consciousness of the subject and its content cannot be determined by the consciousness of man or God, Berkeley argues that it is not given to a person to know more than what is in his sensations. Arguing that a knowing person grasps only the properties of things, and cannot grasp the essence of things, the philosopher manifests himself in the theory of knowledge as agnostic; but by saying that the only reality is "I" - as solipsist; his philosophy is characterized by researchers of his philosophical heritage as an extreme form of idealism.

An important representative of Scottish empiricism was Thomas Reed(1710-1796), developing naive-realistic assumptions about the identity of the content of a sensation and a thing, he believed that a person perceives things in sensation literally, since a sense of common sense does not allow the mind and feelings "to deviate from the right path."

The ideas of J. Locke and T. Reed were developed by D. Hume(1711-177_, historian, economist, lawyer, philosopher), who proposed calling sensations not “ideas”, but a broader concept “ impression”, including affects and emotions. Hume also drew attention to the individual aspects and dynamics of human cognitive activity and believed that one can only talk about the impressions or ideas of an individual in a particular situation. An analysis of the correlation of epistemological and psychological aspects relating to the experience of the cognizing subject led Hume to skepticism: a person, according to the thinker, cannot prove his statements, since there is always a moment of insufficient knowledge of the object. Repeated practice is just a habit; science, exposing some habits, gives rise to others. The thinker also argued that a person cannot go beyond his feelings, that his knowledge is limited by their boundaries. Reliable knowledge, according to Hume, can only be logical. Experience is a stream of impressions, the cause of which is incomprehensible. Thus, while denying objective causality, Hume recognized subjective causation. The source of human confidence is, according to the philosopher, faith, not knowledge.

The ideas of rationalists and empiricists were of great importance for the development of the process of cognition, the reflection of these ideas is observed throughout the subsequent philosophical thought.

Thomas Hobbes on human nature. The theory of "social contract" and the origin of the state. Main area of ​​interest Thomas Hobbes(1588-1679) were mechanics and logic; He considered astronomy to be the standard for constructing scientific thought. Major works: "About Man", "About the Body", "About a Citizen", "Leviathan". According to Hobbes, to explain the structure of the world means to show the nature of the connection of its elements. He is considered the father of semiotics, the founder of the logic and philosophy of modern times; he owns a new reading of the New Testament, in the part that concerns man and his corporeality. thirty

In the work "Leviathan" the philosopher outlined his understanding of man. According to Hobbes, a person is an egoist and an enemy to another person, from this circumstance follows his desire for personal gain, coupled with the right to encroach on someone else's, including the life of another person. The feeling of fear of power is the cause of the emergence of rational thinking; as a result of its development, the decision arises to pass from the state of nature described above to the civil or social state. This striving results in the conclusion of a "social contract"; in order for each person to exist in society, rules are needed that guarantee his life and the opportunity to engage in certain activities. Based on reason, people put forward representatives from their midst, to whom they delegate part of their natural rights, tearing them away from themselves. These people, singled out from the general environment, are endowed with the right to exercise leadership over the whole society; they think through and form the rules by which everyone is obliged to live; provide for the possibility of resolving disputable and conflict situations, etc. All members of society initially voluntarily "place their representatives over themselves." In order to agree, we need a language - the material of the language - the signs with which people designate their perception and sensory information. To know means to operate with signs. Signs created man and society. Hobbes was sharply negative about religion, calling the churchmen crazy, and the Bible - a collection of allegories.

Characteristic features of the development of philosophy in the era of the French Enlightenment (1730-1780: Jean Jacques Rousseau, Francois Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Claude Adrian Helvetius, Julien Offret La Mettrie and Paul Holbach, etc.) Speaking about the materialistic ideas of the thinkers of the New Age (we are talking, first of all, about the French materialists), it should be remembered that this is mechanistic materialism, in many respects more primitive and straightforward in comparison with later ideas based on new discoveries in the exact sciences, and more early, intuitive and indefinite, but thanks to these qualities, ambiguous. Attention should also be paid to the social situation at the time in question: when philosophy became fashionable and philosophical questions were discussed in high society salons, philosophical texts (instructions, pedagogical texts, stories) were printed on the pages of publications, they were read and discussed by educated people. Thanks to this situation, the problems of metaphysics and ontology, politics, education and ethics became the subject of discussion. French materialists defended scientific ideas from any other (mystical and religious) not scientifically substantiated. Holbach (1723-1789; "The System of Nature", "Christianity Unveiled"), Helvetius (1715-1771; "On the Mind", "On Man") and La Mettrie (1709-1751, "Man-Machine", "Epicurus System" ), who built a system of materialistic understanding of the world, solved such problems as understanding matter as a substance, movement as a “mode of existence of matter”, determinism and sensationalism. Voltaire (1694-1778; "Philosophical Letters", "Treatise on Metaphysics", "Experience in General History and on the Morals and Spirit of Nations"), being a deist, actively developed materialistic views and opposed the institution of the Church. Diderot (1713-1784; "Thoughts for the explanation of nature", "Philosophical foundations of matter and motion", "Letters from the blind for the edification of the sighted", "The Nun", "Ramo's nephew", "Jacques the fatalist"), was a multi-talented person, considered the materialistic picture of the life of nature and the process of personality formation in society; the work of his life was the dissemination of educational ideas, which was to be facilitated by the publication of an encyclopedia, the articles of which were supposed to express the educational worldview. Jean Jacques Rousseau(1712-1778; "Discourse on the origin and foundations of inequality among people", "Julia, or the new Eloise", "On the social contract", "Emil, or on education", "Walks of a lonely dreamer") looked pessimistically at progress and considered evil civilization.

Rousseau's works "Emile, or on Education" and "On the Social Contract" were burned by the court's verdict; the thinker unsuccessfully tried to find refuge in Switzerland and England, returned to Paris, where he broke with the encyclopedists, with whom he became close in 1741. In the remaining unfinished autobiographical Confession, which Rousseau began writing in England, his dislike for people is reflected. The thinker, who distinguished three types of injustice (physical, political and property), angrily criticized the vices of civilization, declared man himself the culprit of evil, tried to find an answer to the question of how to protect a person from social injustice. According to Rousseau's understanding, the activity of people in society leads to the alienation of a person: political activity alienates people from each other, and rulers from subjects, cultural activity brings falsehood and hypocrisy. Therefore, Rousseau tried to counter the modern form of existence with the natural state of man, his naivety and "uncorruption by civilization" 31

(which "teaches only hypocrisy"). Contemporaries criticized Rousseau's "natural man" theory and his slogan "Back to nature!"; the thinker, who acutely felt the rift of culture, did not find a solution to the problems that tormented him and did not see a way out of spiritual loneliness. His ideas concerning the issue of a just social contract later formed the basis of the world's first democratic constitution, the "Bill of Rights" (J.Washington, T.Jefferson, 1775).

In general, the philosophers of the French Enlightenment used rationalistic methods, were familiar with the theories of the empiricists and were guided by the achievements of the natural sciences. Most of the French enlighteners were deists: God created the world and the laws of nature, which are immutable, but man does not know how the world was created, therefore one should not believe the religious concepts of the creation of the world. Matter is understood by them as an eternal indestructible substance that can give rise to many worlds. Extrapolating the ideas of rationalists about the body to the mind (equating it to matter), the enlighteners believed that everything spiritual depends on the material structures of the body, which set in motion blood, lymph and "animal spirits".

As a rule, readiness for transformations, including violent ones, is associated with materialistic ideas. This is evidenced by the history of revolutionary movements, and above all the history of the French Revolution. Apparently, the idealistic worldview contains some kind of b about Greater caution in socially active actions. Based on their own assertions that a person is born natural, honest and kind, and learns everything bad (lies, vices, immorality, etc.) in life, observing the manifestations of vices in the behavior of people around him, the French materialists reasoned: if a person depends on the environment, his shortcomings are the result of the influence of the social environment (society) itself. Therefore, in order for people to become better, it is necessary to change the social structure. To change social life, people who have knowledge of everything are needed. Accordingly, such people should be educated. At the same time, the faith of the Enlighteners in reason was unlimited; so Helvetius argued that "the inequality of minds is the result of a known cause - and this cause is the difference in education."

The positivism of the modern materialists was social: it was associated with the belief in the possibility of science to make all of humanity happy. Thinkers believed that all social problems and troubles of an individual are due to the non-proliferation of knowledge: if people have the whole complex of knowledge achieved as a result of the development of sciences, they will get out of a state of ignorance and overcome their bad inclinations, they will not allow other people to deceive themselves and equip their life in the best way. Philosophers considered it especially important that rulers possess knowledge. Belief in the power of knowledge is the main thesis of the educational ideology based on the principle of human rationality. To solve the practical problems facing human society, several thinkers, united, decided to collect all the knowledge accumulated by mankind in one source - to publish an encyclopedia. These were D. Alamber (who is considered one of the forerunners of positivism) and D. Diderot. Thinkers, proceeding from the thesis that knowledge should be practically useful, saw their task in compiling in their publication a general picture of the efforts of the human mind of all peoples and at all times and making their work accessible to people. To this end, they entered into correspondence with famous people of their time and collected a lot of material, and although the tasks set turned out to be unbearable not only for those who started the business, but also for their followers, the significance and practical effectiveness of this noble idea cannot be reduced.

The text of the "Encyclopedia" itself with the subtitle "Explanatory Dictionary of Sciences, Arts and Crafts" was collected in 1751-1756; recruitment took place in 1772; it is a monumental work created with the participation of many eminent scientists. From the very beginning, the "Encyclopedia" became an instrument of ideological, philosophical struggle, as the authors set the goal of changing people's thinking, freeing them from prejudices, fanaticism and dogmatism. In 1759, the Encyclopedia was banned, but Diderot continued his work. He lived for some time at the court of Catherine II, trying to convince her to publish his Encyclopedia, on which he spent twenty years of his life, and inspiring her with the principles of the ideology of the Enlightenment.

Enlightenment and liberal ideology has not exhausted itself even today, although it is now subjected to constant and versatile criticism. On the whole, it seems to me that many ideas of thinkers of the past should arouse admiration among modern people: the idea of ​​the “common good”, trust in another person and based on this trust, faith in the progressive development of mankind and its 32

striving for a better future, for a correctly, reasonably organized society in which a person will have the opportunity to develop himself (the ideas of civil society and the rule of law; Kant's idea of ​​"universal peace"). As for the ideas of the enlighteners themselves and the central concept of the enlightenment ideology - “progress”, soon its broad content is reduced and simplified in the public mind to economic progress, and the versatile spiritual development of a person narrows down to the task of forming an economic person. Ignoring (underdevelopment) of non-economic spheres of life hits the economic sphere itself like a boomerang, causing not only an economic, but a universal crisis, a crisis of humanity.

Questions:

1. What are the features of the philosophy of modern times?

2. What are the philosophical foundations of the method problem, what are the features of rationalism and empiricism?

3. What are the achievements of the philosophy of modern times in the search for solutions to social issues? What is the doctrine of the origin of the state at this time? What are the consequences of the social-liberal ideas of this time?

4. What are the ideas of philosophy in the Age of Enlightenment (Jean Jacques Rousseau, Francois Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Claude Adrian Helvetius, and Paul Holbach, etc.)?

During the 16th and 17th centuries, in the most advanced countries of Western Europe, a new, capitalist mode of production developed in the depths of the feudal system. The bourgeoisie is turning into an independent class. Feudal proprietors begin to adapt to the developing capitalist relations. An example of this is the fencing of pastures in England, as wool is essential for the textile industry.

At this time, a number of bourgeois revolutions take place: the Dutch (late 16th century), English (mid-17th century), French (1789-1794).

Natural science is developing. This is due to the needs of developing production.

At this time, the process of secularization of the spiritual life of society takes place.

Education ceases to be ecclesiastical and becomes secular.

General characteristics of the philosophy of modern times

This time is characterized by a transition from religious, idealistic philosophy to philosophical materialism and the materialism of natural scientists, since materialism corresponds to the interests of the sciences. Both begin their criticism of scholasticism by raising the question of the cognizability of the world. There are two currents in epistemology: sensationalism and rationalism. Sensationalism - this is a doctrine in epistemology, recognizing sensations as the only source of knowledge. Sensationalism is inextricably linked with empiricism- all knowledge is substantiated in experience and through experience. Rationalism- a doctrine that recognizes reason as the only source of knowledge.

However, the materialism of modern times could not move away from metaphysics. This is due to the fact that the laws of development and movement of the world are understood only as mechanical ones. Therefore, the materialism of this era is metaphysical and mechanistic.

The rationalism of modern times is characterized by dualism. Two principles of the world are recognized: matter and thinking.

Methods of knowledge of the world are being developed. Sensationalism uses induction- the movement of thought from the particular to the general. Rationalism is based on deduction- the movement of thought from the general to the particular.

The main representatives of the philosophy of modern times

Francis Bacon (1561-1626). He is the founder of empiricism. Cognition is nothing but the image of the external world in the mind of man. It begins with sensory knowledge that needs experimental verification. But Bacon was not a supporter of extreme empiricism. This is evidenced by his differentiation of experience on fruitful experience(provides direct benefit to the person) and luminous experience(the purpose of which is the knowledge of the laws of phenomena and the properties of things). Experiments should be set according to a certain method - induction(the movement of thought from the particular to the general). This method provides for five stages of the study, each of which is recorded in the corresponding table:

1) Table of presence (listing of all occurrences of the phenomenon)

2) Table of deviation or absence (here all cases of absence of this or that sign, indicator in the presented subjects are entered)

3) Table of comparison or degrees (comparison of an increase or decrease in a given feature in the same subject)

4) Rejection table (exception of individual cases that do not occur in this phenomenon, are not typical for it)

5) Table of "discarding fruits" (forming a conclusion based on what is common in all tables)

He considered the clogging of people's consciousness to be the main obstacle to the knowledge of nature. idols- false ideas about the world.

Idols of the genus - attributing properties to natural phenomena that are not inherent in them.

The idols of the cave are caused by the subjectivity of human perception of the surrounding world.

Idols of the market or the square - are generated by the wrong use of words.

Theater idols - arise as a result of subordinating the mind to erroneous views.

René Descartes (1596-1650). The basis of the philosophical worldview of Descartes is the dualism of soul and body. There are two substances independent of each other: non-material (property - thinking) and material (property - extension). Above these two substances, God rises as the true substance.

In his views on the world, Descartes acts as a materialist. He put forward the idea of ​​the natural development of the planetary system and the development of life on earth according to the laws of nature. He views the bodies of animals and humans as complex mechanical machines. God created the world and by his action preserves in matter the amount of movement and rest that he put into it during creation.

At the same time, in psychology and epistemology, Descartes acts as an idealist. In the theory of knowledge, he stands on the position of rationalism. Illusions of the senses make the readings of the senses unreliable. Errors in reasoning make the conclusions of reason doubtful. Therefore, it is necessary to start with a universal radical doubt. What is certain is that doubt exists. But doubt is an act of thinking. Maybe my body doesn't really exist. But I know directly that as a doubter, a thinker, I exist. I think, therefore I am. All reliable knowledge is in the mind of a person and is innate.

Knowledge is based on intellectual intuition, which gives rise to such a simple clear idea in the mind that it is not in doubt. Reason, on the basis of these intuitive views on the basis of deduction, must deduce all the necessary consequences.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). The substance of the world is matter. The movement of bodies occurs according to mechanical laws: all movements from body to body are transmitted only by means of a push. People and animals are complex mechanical machines, whose actions are entirely determined by external influences. Animated automata can store the impressions received and compare them with the previous ones.

The only source of knowledge can be sensations - ideas. In the future, the initial ideas are processed by the mind.

He distinguishes two states of human society: natural and civil. The state of nature is based on the instinct of self-preservation and is characterized by a "war of all against all". Therefore, it is necessary to seek peace, for which everyone must give up the right to everything and thereby transfer part of his right to others. This transfer is accomplished by means of a natural contract, the conclusion of which leads to the emergence of civil society, that is, the state. Hobbes recognized absolute monarchy as the most perfect form of the state.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716). Since every thing is active and not passive, that is, every thing has an action, then each of them is a substance. Every substance is a "unit" of being, or monad. A monad is not a material, but a spiritual unit of being, a kind of spiritual atom. Thanks to monads, matter has the ability of eternal self-movement.

Each monad is both form and matter, for any material body has a definite form. The form is not material and represents a purposively acting force, and the body is a mechanical force. Each monad is both the basis of its actions and their goal.

As substances, monads are independent of each other. There is no physical interaction between them. However, monads are not absolutely isolated: each monad reflects the entire world order, the entire aggregate of monads.

Development is only a change of initial forms through infinitesimal changes. Everywhere in nature there is a continuous process of changing things. In the monad there is a continuous change arising from its inner principle. An infinite variety of moments, revealed in the development of the monad, is hidden in it. It is perfect and there is a performance.

Leibniz calls the power of representation inherent in monads perception. This is the unconscious state of the monads. Apperception - it is consciousness of one's own inner state. This ability is peculiar only to the highest monads - souls.

In epistemology, it relies on the idea of ​​innate ideas. Innate ideas are not ready-made concepts, but only the possibilities of the mind, which have yet to be realized. Therefore, the human mind is like a block of marble with veins that outline the outlines of a future figure that a sculptor can sculpt from it.

He distinguishes two types of truths: factual truths and metaphysical (eternal) truths. Eternal truths are sought with the help of reason. They do not need justification by experience. Truths of fact are revealed only through experience.

Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza(1632-1677) taught that essence is only one substance - nature, which is the cause of itself. Nature is, on the one hand, creative nature, and on the other, created nature. As a creative nature, it is a substance, or, which is the same thing, a god. By identifying nature and God, Spinoza denies the existence of a supernatural being, dissolves God in nature, and thereby substantiates the materialistic understanding of nature. Substantiates an important distinction between essence and existence. The being of a substance is both necessary and free, since there is no cause that would impel a substance to action, except its own essence. The individual thing does not follow from substance as from its proximate cause. It can only follow from another finite thing. Therefore, every single thing does not have freedom. The world of concrete things must be distinguished from substance. Nature exists by itself, independent of the mind and outside the mind. An infinite mind could comprehend the infinity of substances in all its forms and aspects. But our mind is not infinite. Therefore, he perceives the existence of substance as infinite only in two aspects: as extension and as thinking (attributes of substance). Man as an object of knowledge is no exception. Man is nature.

John Locke (1632-1704). The human mind has no innate ideas. It is like a blank slate on which knowledge is written. The only source of ideas is experience. Experience is divided into internal and external. The first corresponds to sensation, the second to reflection. Ideas of sensation arise from the action on the sense organs of things. Ideas of reflection arise when considering the inner activity of the soul. By means of sensations man perceives the qualities of things. Qualities are primary (copies of these qualities themselves - density, length, figure, movement, etc.) and secondary (color, taste, smell, etc.)

Ideas acquired from sensation and reflection constitute only the material for knowledge. To gain knowledge, it is necessary to process this material. Through comparison, combination and abstraction (abstraction), the soul transforms simple ideas of sensation and reflection into complex ones.

Locke distinguishes between two kinds of certain knowledge: indisputable, exact knowledge and probable knowledge, or opinion.

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 such periods of philosophy:

So, let's turn to the philosophy of the New Time.

The 17th-18th centuries is the period to which the philosophy of the new time 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 impact 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 characteristic of this period in the development of philosophy is the tendency 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 a strong influence on all spheres of social life.

The main directions of the philosophy of the New Time - empiricism and rationalism

Philosophical thought of that time is characterized by several clear 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 the 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 the mind 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 led by Descartes (1596-1650), Leibniz, Spinoza.

Enlightenment philosophy of the 18th century

The philosophy of enlightenment of the 18th century was formed in the Age of Enlightenment. It was one of the important periods of European history, was associated with the development of philosophical, scientific and social thought. It was based on free-thinking 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 Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot, Rousseau.

18th century French materialism

French materialism of the 18th century is a trend in philosophy that revived epicureanism, interest in the philosophy of antiquity.

Formed in France 17-18 centuries. Its representatives are Lameter, Holbach, Helvetius.

Problems of Philosophy of the New Time

A special place in the philosophy of modern times was occupied by the problem of being and substance, it was in it, according to philosophers, 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 the master of natural forces. Therefore, the basic task was the study of substance, as the basic category of everything that exists.

As a result, several currents have formed in philosophy regarding the study of substance. The first of these 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 the 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 features, and differ from each other only in primary qualities. In his opinion, matter does not have any variety. Objects differ only in figures, rest and movement.

Hume sharply criticized the idea that substance has any material basis. In his opinion, there is only an “idea” of substance, and it was under this that he summed up the association of perception.

Representatives of this trend made a significant breakthrough in the study and further development of the theory of knowledge, where the main subjects of study were the problems of the scientific approach in philosophy and the methods of studying the reality around him, as well as the relationship between external and internal experience, combined with the problem of obtaining true knowledge.

As a result of the study of all the above problems, the main trends in the philosophy of modern times arose - empiricism and rationalism. The founder of empiricism was F. Bacon. Rationalism was represented by Descartes and Spinoza.

The main ideas of the philosophy of modern times

The main ideas were the principles of an independently thinking subject and methodical doubt. And also in it the method of intellectual intuition and the inductive-empirical method of cognition of the world were developed.

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 the philosophy of modern times

• W.Hösle. The geniuses of modern philosophy
• P.D. Shashkevich. Empiricism and Rationalism in Modern Philosophy

Philosophy of the New Age. VIDEO LECTURE

Summary

I hope the article The Philosophy of the New Time - briefly the most important" turned out to be useful for you. It can be said that the philosophy of the New Time has become a significant driving force in the development of the entire human civilization, prepared the basis for improving the philosophical scientific paradigm and substantiated the methods of rational cognition.

The next article is devoted to the topic "German classical philosophy".

I wish everyoneunquenchable thirst for knowledge of yourself and the world around you, inspiration in all your affairs!