WESTERN PHILOSOPHERS (FROM DESCARTES TO HEGEL)

It is said that during the17th and the 20th century is the period of modern philosophy. By the 17th and 18th centuries, modern philosophy mainly focuses on achieving knowledge, scientific issues through inquiry, rational logic and skepticism, and individualism. Modern philosophy was a transition from theological thought and earlier Aristotelian thinking. The major figures in philosophy of mind, epistemology, and metaphysics were generally divided into the rationalist and the empiricist groups. The rationalists like Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz and Malebranche gave emphasis on innate ideas and regarded that human knowledge comes from these ideas. In contrast, the empiricists like Locke, Berkeley and Hume hold that knowledge must begin with sensory experience. Ethical and political problems were also discussed by these philosophers in their own ways. In modern political philosophy Thomas Hobbes and Rousseau’s contribution are unforgettable.

Rene Descartes from 1596-1650 is regarded as the father of modern philosophy for his successful destruction of Scholastic philosophy. In medieval times, scholasticism was a popular way of teaching philosophy in the universities. It focused on both philosophical reasoning, resulting study of ancient Greek texts and Christian theology. Though scholasticism was a logical and valid method of study, it was also dogmatic, sticking to one specific set of rules and ideas. Descartes thought that the Scholastics’ method was doubtful since they rely on sensation as the source for all knowledge. He tried to replace the scholastic model of scientific explanation with his more modern, mechanistic science. Descartes also applied his mechanistic framework to the operation of plant, animal and human bodies, sensation and the passions on the basis of the notion of generosity.

In the late eighteen century Immanuel Kant established a groundbreaking philosophy and the fundamental problem of his philosophy was the problem of knowledge. He set his eyes on reconciling the pulls of reason and experience. And his Critique of Pure Reason is regarded as the landmark in the history of philosophy for that reason alone. In the early nineteenth century, Kant started German idealism, known as transcendental idealism, according to which the world and the mind must be equally understood by the same categories. It influenced the work of Hegel. At the end of the nineteenth century, the leading academic philosophers, both in America and in Great Britain, were largely Hegelians.

Those who approach philosophy for the first time, especially students, coming from different academic background it becomes difficult for them to understand the methodological ways depicted by the philosophers like Descartes, Kant, Hegel and so on. The styles of their writings are also not easily understandable. Descartes’ Discourse on Method, Spinoza’s Ethics, Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason are not easily understandable. It needs explanations. Without understanding the legacy among these modern philosophers, it is difficult to understand any particular philosopher.

This book tries to explain briefly about some philosophical theories of the modern Western philosophers from Descartes to Hegel with criticisms. It is a simplified version of the theories and concepts which are there in their original books written by the philosophers mentioned. This book tries to distinguish between the thinking of the rationalist philosophers Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz and the empiricists philosophers Locke, Berkeley and Hume. It contains the discussion of distinction between the subjective idealism of Berkeley and the objective idealism Hegel along with his master and slave dichotomy. Hope, students will accept this book.