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Early modern philosophy (alsoclassical modern philosophy)[1][2] was a period in thehistory of philosophy that overlaps with the beginning of the period known asmodern philosophy. It succeeded themedieval era of philosophy. Early modern philosophy is usually thought to have occurred between the 16th and 18th centuries, though some philosophers and historians may put this period slightly earlier. During this time, influential philosophers includedDescartes,Locke,Hume, andKant, all of whom contributed to the current understanding of philosophy.
Theearly modern period in history is aroundc. 1500–1789, but the label "early modern philosophy" is typically used to refer to a narrower period of time.[3]
In the narrowest sense, the term is used to refer principally to thephilosophy of the 17th century and18th century, typically beginning withRené Descartes. 17th-century philosophers typically included in such analyses areThomas Hobbes,Blaise Pascal,Baruch Spinoza,Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, andIsaac Newton. The 18th century, often known as theAge of Enlightenment, included such early modern figures asJohn Locke,George Berkeley, andDavid Hume.[2]
The term is sometimes used more broadly, including earlier thinkers from the 16th century such asNiccolò Machiavelli,Martin Luther,John Calvin,Michel de Montaigne, andFrancis Bacon.[4] Some definitions also broaden the range of thinkers included under the "early modern" moniker, such asVoltaire,Giambattista Vico,Thomas Paine. By the broadest definition, the early modern period is said to have ended in 1804 with the death ofImmanuel Kant. Considered in this way, the period extends from the lastRenaissance philosophers to the final days of theAge of Enlightenment.Most scholars consider the period to begin withRené Descartes'Meditationes de Prima Philosophiae (Meditations on First Philosophy) in Paris in 1641 and conclude with the work of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (Critique of Pure Reason) in the 1780s.[5]
At the time, various thinkers faced difficult philosophical challenges: reconciling the tenets of classicalAristotelian thought andChristian theology with the newtechnological advances that followed in the wake ofCopernicus,Galileo, andNewton.[6] A modernmechanical image of the cosmos in which mathematically definableuniversal laws directed the motion of lifeless objects without the interference of something non-physical, specifically challenged established ways of thought about themind,body and God. In response, philosophers, many of whom were involved in experimental advances, invented and perfected various perspectives on humans' relationship to thecosmos.[7]
Three critical historical events that shaped Western thought profoundly were theAge of Discovery, the progress of modern science, and theProtestant reformation and itsresulting civil wars.[8] The relationship between philosophy andscientific research was complicated, as many early modern scientists considered themselves philosophers, conflating the two disciplines.[9] These two fields would eventually separate. Contemporary philosophy'sepistemological andmethodological concerns about scientific certainty remained regardless of such a separation.[10]
The early modernintellectual era also contributed to the development ofWestern philosophy. New philosophical theories, such as themetaphysical, civic existence,epistemology, and rationalist thinking, were established.[11] There was a strong emphasis on the advancement and expansion ofrationalism, which placed a premium onrationality,reasoning, and discovery to pursue reality.[12]
TheEnlightenment, also referred to as the Age of Enlightenment, was aphilosophical movement that dominated the realm of ideas in 18th-century Europe. It was founded on the principle thatreason is the fundamental source of power and legitimacy, and it promoted principles such asliberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity,constitutional governance, andchurch-state separation. The Enlightenment was defined by a focus on science andreductionism, as well as a growing suspicion ofreligious rigidity. The Enlightenment's ideals challenged the monarchy and the church, laying the groundwork for the political upheavals of the 18th and 19th centuries. According toFrench historians, theAge of Enlightenment began in 1715, the yearLouis XIV died, and ended in 1789, the year of theFrench Revolution. According to some contemporary historians, the era begins in the 1620s, with the birth of theScientific Revolution. However, during the first decades of the 18th century and the first decades of the 19th century, several national variations of the movement developed.
The EnglishmenFrancis Bacon andThomas Hobbes, the FrenchmanRené Descartes, and the prominentnatural philosophers of theScientific Revolution, includingGalileo Galilei,Johannes Kepler, andGottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, were significant 17th-century antecedents of the Enlightenment. Its origins are often ascribed to1680s England, whenIsaac Newton published his "Principia Mathematica" (1686) andJohn Locke wrote his"Essay Concerning Human Understanding" (1689)—two works that laid the groundwork for the Enlightenment's great advancements in science, mathematics, and philosophy.[13]
The Age Of Enlightenment was swiftly sweeping across Europe. In the late seventeenth century, scientists such asIsaac Newton and authors such asJohn Locke challenged the established order. Newton's principles ofgravity andmotion defined the universe in terms of natural principles that were independent of any spiritual source. Locke advocated the freedom of a people to replace a government that did not defend inherent rights tolife, liberty, and property in the aftermath of England's political instability. People began to mistrust the possibility of a Godcapable of predestining human beings toeverlasting damnation andempowering a despotic ruler to rule. These ideals would permanently alter Europe.
Europe had a burst of philosophical and scientific activity in the mid-18th century, challenging established theories and dogmas.[14]Voltaire andJean-Jacques Rousseau headed the philosophic movement, arguing for a society founded onreason rather than religion andCatholic theology, for a new civic order based onnatural law, and for science founded on experimentation and observation.[15]Montesquieu, a political philosopher, proposed the notion of a government'sdivision of powers, which was enthusiastically accepted by the framers of theUnited States Constitution.[16]
Two separate schools of Enlightenment philosophy existed. Inspired bySpinoza's theory, the radical enlightenment argued for democracy,individual liberty,freedom of speech, and the abolition ofreligious authority.[17] A second, more moderate kind, championed byRené Descartes,John Locke,Christian Wolff, andIsaac Newton, aimed to strike a balance between reform and old power and religious institutions.[18]
Science eventually began to dominate Enlightenment speech and thinking.[19] Numerous Enlightenment authors and intellectuals came from scientific backgrounds and equated scientific progress with the downfall of religion and conventional authority in favour of the growth of free speech and ideas.[20] In general, Enlightenment science placed a high premium onempiricism and logical reasoning, and was inextricably linked to the Enlightenment ideal of progression and development.[21] However, as was the case with the majority of Enlightenment ideals, the advantages of science were not widely recognized.[22]
The Enlightenment has traditionally been credited with laying the groundwork for current Western political and intellectual culture.[23] It ushered in a period of political modernization in the West, focused on democratic principles and institutions and resulting in the establishment of modern, liberal democracies. The fundamentals of European liberal thought include the individual right, natural equality of all men,separation of powers, the artificial nature ofpolitical order (which resulted in the later distinction between civil society and the state), the view that all legitimate political power must be "representative" and based on popular consent, and liberal interpretationism.[24]
Enlightenment-era criticism on religion was a reaction to Europe's previous century of religious turmoil.[25] Enlightenment intellectuals intended to limit organized religion's political dominance, so averting another period of intolerable religious violence.[26] Numerous unique concepts emerged, includingdeism (belief in God the Creator without reference to the Bible or other authoritative source) andatheism.[27] The latter was hotly debated but garnered few supporters. Many, like Voltaire, believed that without believing in a God who punishes wrong, society's moral order would be jeopardised.[28]
The early modern period arose from dramatic shifts in many fields of human endeavour. Among the most significant characteristics are the formalisation of science, the acceleration of scientific advancement, and the creation of secularised civic politics, law courts, and the nation-state.[29] There was some skepticism against traditional interpretive concepts associated with the modern era, such as the distinction betweenempiricists andrationalists, which represented a philosophical and historical shift away from ethics,political philosophy, andmetaphysical epistemology.[30]
Individualism also emerged as a reaction tobelief andauthority, challenging the element of Christianity andChristianised philosophy united with whoever the desired political leader happened to be at the time.[31] The steady rise of thebourgeoisie would challenge the power of the Church and begin the journey towards the eventual separation of church and state. The political and economic situation of Modern Europe would have an influence on philosophical thought, mainly on ethics andpolitical philosophy.[32]
TheScientific Revolution also gained legitimacy during this period. Early modern attempts to grapple with thephilosophy of infinity focused on and discussed three fundamental disagreements about the infinite—differences that had their origins in the academic philosophical tradition.[33] Philosophers such asLeibniz andSpinoza used this distinction to distinguish God'squalitative infinity from the mathematically abstract concept ofinfinity.[34] Early modern thinkers differentiated between actual and potential infinity. Academic tradition has traditionally rejected the existence of actual infinities in the created world but has acknowledged potential infinities, following Aristotle's approach to Zeno's paradoxes.[35] Additionally, the advent of early modern thought was linked to changes in the period's intellectual and cultural context, such as the advancement ofnatural science, theological contradictions within and between theCatholic andProtestant churches, and the growth of the modern nation-state.[36]
Descartes,Spinoza,Leibniz,Berkeley,Hume,Hobbes, andKant, as well as philosophers such asHugo Grotius,Pierre Gassendi,Antoine Arnauld,Nicolas Malebranche,Pierre Bayle,Samuel von Pufendorf, andFrancis Hutcheson are all recognised as significant figures in early modern philosophy, for their discourses and theories developed throughout the various philosophical periods.
The political philosophy of natural law, developed by John Locke, was a common and significant concept in early modern thought. Natural law evolved into individual rights and subjective claims. Adding to Aristotle's already known philosophy, Locke suggested that the government give its citizens what they believe are fundamental andnatural rights.[37] Thomas Hobbes, alternatively, asserted that natural law has a finite scope. Unchecked liberty led to a state of war where everybody struggled for life.[38] Hobbes encapsulated this state of violence in one of philosophy's most famous passages: "And the life of man, solitary, bad, nasty, brutish, and brief".[39] Thomas Hobbes' worldview concentrated on social and political order and how humans could coexist without danger or risk of civil war.[40]
Hobbes' moral and political theory includes a consideration ofnatural rights. Hobbes' natural rights notion also included man in a "state of nature". As he saw it, the basic natural (human) right was to use his power, as he will, to preserve his nature, which is to protect his life.[41]
Natural liberty is distinct from universal laws, whichHobbes referred to as precepts, or rules discovered by reason, which ban a man from doing something that will destroy his life or deprives him of the means to retain it.[42]
In Hobbes' view, life comprised just of freedoms and nothing else "Because of that, everyone has the right to anything, even to one another's body. Because of this, though, as long as inherent human rights to every commodity remain in place, there can be no long-term security for anybody."[43]
This would result in the condition called the "war of all against all," in which humans murder, steal, and enslave each other to remain alive. Hobbes theorised that human existence would be lonely, poor, ugly, brutish, and short in a state of chaos generated by unrestricted rights. As such, people would agree to give up many of their basic rights to build a political and civil society.Social contract theory was first articulated using this early argumentation.[44]
Natural or institutional laws are useless without first being established by asovereign authority. Before you can talk about right and unjust, some coercive authority must compel folks to keep their promises. There is no such coercive force before the establishment of the state.[45] This coercive State would, in Hobbes' view, have the right to confiscate property in return for a guarantee of citizens' safety from one another and from foreign intervention.
According tosocial contract theory, "inalienable rights" are those rights that can't be relinquished by people to the sovereign.[46] These inherent rights were believed to be law-independent. Only the strongest could use their privileges in thestate of nature.[47] Thereby, individuals give up their natural rights to get protection, and thus have the legal rights conferred by the power to do so.[48]
Many historical justifications forslavery andilliberal governance include consensual arrangements to relinquish inherent rights to freedom andself-determination. De facto inalienability arguments supplied the foundation for the anti-slavery movement to argue against all involuntary enslavement, not only slavery explicitly defined as such. An agreement to unlawfully divide a right would be void of law. Similarly, the argument was used by the democratic movement to reject explicit or implicit social covenants of subjection (e.g., pactum subjectionis) that subjugate a people, for example, inLeviathan byThomas Hobbes. According toErnst Cassirer:
There is, at least, one right that cannot be ceded or abandoned: the right to personality...They charged the great logician [Hobbes] with a contradiction in terms. If a man could give up his personality he would cease being a moral being. … There is nopactum subjectionis, no act of submission by which man can give up the state of free agent and enslave himself. For by such an act of renunciation he would give up that very character which constitutes his nature and essence: he would lose his humanity.[49]
Until the twenty-first century, standard accounts of early modern philosophy and traditional survey courses in Anglo-Saxon universities—presented histories dominated byDescartes,Leibniz,Locke,Spinoza,Berkeley,Hume, andKant.[50]
Early modern theory has significantly impacted many modern developments, one of which is political philosophy. American political philosopherA. John Simmons examined two interrelated transitions in theearly modern period. The first is a metaphysical contrast betweenpolitical naturalism, which holds that human beings are political by birth, and political anti-naturalism, which holds that humankind's natural state is apolitical.[51] The second is the historical shift from "complex, bureaucratic systems with intertwined religious and contractual relationships" to political cultures that "take the form of independent, territorial states".[52] Observing how these transformations occur is important as the ideas advanced by early modern political theorists played an important role in the creation of political institutions that exist today.[53]
The evolution of early modern philosophy has been recognized as inextricably linked to developments in the period's intellectual and cultural environment through important developments in science, theCatholic andProtestant churches, and the rise of the new modern nation state.[54]
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