Philosophy of the Modern Age

The Formation of a New Paradigm of Philosophizing in the Seventeenth Century

The seventeenth century heralds a new epoch in the evolution of philosophy. Although the waves of the Renaissance continued to ripple across Europe, one could not ignore the birth of something novel in the life of the continent. The first bourgeois revolutions transpired in the Netherlands (1609) and England (1688). It was to these nations that the center of economic life shifted. Craft production transformed into manufactories, trade flourished—particularly maritime commerce—and feudal relations began to dissolve. Alongside the traditional classes, new ones emerged: the working class and the bourgeoisie.

A revolution also unfolded in spiritual and cultural life. This transformation was notably manifested in the growing objective need for the advancement of natural sciences. Industrial production demanded further development of science, especially in its practical aspects. Science increasingly emerged as a direct productive force. The phrase "Knowledge itself is power," attributed to the first thinker of the Modern Age, Francis Bacon, vividly expresses this awareness of science's role. Consequently, the state began to pay greater attention to the status of science within society, making it a subject of public policy. Moreover, scientists themselves recognized their significance in society, leading to the formation of new organizational structures for research activities, such as academies of science and various scientific societies. The seventeenth century was a time of notable figures like Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Johannes Kepler, and Christiaan Huygens, as well as an era marked by significant geographical discoveries and the political and economic colonization of new lands.

Ultimately, it became apparent that, in contrast to the medieval period, which focused on resolving issues in their theological form, and the Renaissance, which centered on the moral and artistic depiction of humanity, the Modern Age predominantly oriented itself towards natural sciences. This orientation was not absolute; it reflected a general desire to adequately reproduce reality, with the hope that qualitatively new knowledge would be grounded in reason and practical experience.

This focus on natural sciences led to a reconfiguration of the relationship between philosophical knowledge and knowledge about nature. In antiquity and the medieval period, there were scarcely any clear boundaries between philosophy and the fields of study that examined particular aspects of reality. However, with the transition to the Modern Age, the status of knowledge began to shift fundamentally, as specific sciences concerning nature and society began to emerge and develop independently alongside philosophy. The separation of mechanics, astronomy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and physiology from what was once a unified natural philosophy, with their specific methods of inquiry, altered the status, subject matter, and role of philosophy itself. Philosophers began to pay greater attention to questions of methodology and theories of knowledge. Issues concerning the origins of knowledge, its sources, the relationship between sensory, experiential, and rational elements, and the nature of truth came to the forefront. In addressing these questions, philosophers gravitated towards either empiricism or rationalism. The proponents of the former included Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke; while the latter was represented by René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Of course, the names mentioned here do not exhaust the list.

In addition to epistemological concerns, philosophers were also interested in the organization and systematization of scientific achievements. The need to address these issues evidently fueled the rationalist motivations within philosophy, while the general empirical orientation of science further solidified the positions of empiricism.

Regarding other characteristics of Modern philosophy, one must note the proliferation of materialistic tendencies in its development. However, this was a mechanistic materialism, as it relied on the most advanced science of the time—mechanics. Mechanics stood as the leader of natural sciences, and it is clear that systematic philosophers extended "mechanistic" thinking to encompass all natural and social phenomena.

The relationship between philosophy and religion also evolved distinctly. In the seventeenth century, philosophy occupied an intermediary position between religion and science. The name and concept of God scarcely departed from the pages of philosophical works; however, the originality present in these works stemmed from an orientation towards science rather than religion. During this era, as in the previous one, the concept of "two truths" was widespread—suggesting that there are truths of reason, revealed through science, and truths of faith, accessible only to the religious individual. Philosophers of the Modern Age relied on this distinction to safeguard the independence of scientific creativity from the church.