Modern-Philosophy

There is a philosopher who, writing in Latin in a small house in The Hague in the seventeenth century, formulated one of the most radical worldviews Western philosophy has ever produced — and did so in the unlikely form of a treatise of geometry. That philosopher is Baruch (Bento) Spinoza (1632–1677), and the treatise is the Ethics demonstrated in geometrical order, published posthumously in the year of his death. In a little over two hundred pages, organized into definitions, axioms, propositions, and demonstrations, Spinoza proposes simultaneously a metaphysics of the absolute, a theory of human affects, a psychology of knowledge, and an ethics of freedom. His influence runs across three centuries — Lessing, Goethe, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Deleuze, Antonio Damasio — and his name still functions, in the history of philosophy, as a cipher for an intellectual decision: thinking God, nature, and the human being as expressions of a single reality. ...

There are few moments in the history of philosophy that can rival, in sheer radicality and consequence, the one in which René Descartes, secluded in his Dutch stove-heated room, discovered that the very act of doubting contains within itself an unshakeable certainty: whoever doubts, thinks — and whoever thinks, exists. The cogito — formulated in slightly different ways across three major works — became not merely the starting point of Cartesian philosophy but the founding act of all modern philosophy. Through it, human subjectivity installed itself at the centre of philosophical inquiry and has remained there, in various guises, for four centuries. ...

Few philosophical traditions traverse the history of Western thought as persistently as idealism. From Plato’s Theory of Forms to Hegel’s absolute system, passing through Berkeley’s immaterialism and Kant’s critical philosophy, the claim that reality is ultimately constituted or conditioned by thought, mind, or spirit resurfaces in radically diverse guises. This article examines the major strands of philosophical idealism — their premises, arguments, and internal differences — and the decisive critiques levelled against them by Marx, Russell, and Moore. ...

Few concepts have traversed the history of Western philosophy with such persistence — and so many metamorphoses — as substance. From the Greek ousia to the Latin substantia, from Aristotelian form to the Leibnizian monad, from Cartesian res cogitans to Locke’s unknown substratum, this term has served as the axis for the most decisive metaphysical questions: What truly exists? What persists through change? What is a thing apart from its properties? ...

There is an experience nearly all of us have had and very few can explain: listening to a piece of music — a Beethoven symphony, a Mozart adagio, an unexpected chord in some ordinary song — and feeling something that cannot be put into words. It is not joy, not sadness, not any nameable emotion. It is as if the music touched a layer of our existence that lies beneath language, beneath thought, beneath everything we call “self.” Why does this happen? Why does music move us in a way that painting, poetry, and sculpture — however beautiful — can never quite replicate? ...

Friedrich Nietzsche died in 1900, yet he seems to have written his books for the twenty-first century. The German philosopher who proclaimed “God is dead” was not celebrating — he was issuing a bleak diagnosis of what happens when an entire civilization loses the foundation that organized its values. In today’s world, that diagnosis resonates with unsettling precision: we live in an era of meaning crisis, of collapsing values, of diffuse nihilism concealed beneath layers of digital entertainment, social media, and consumerism. Nietzsche did not merely predict this scenario — he described in detail what was coming. ...

Adam Smith Scottish moral philosopher and economist, considered the father of modern political economy. A central figure of the Scottish Enlightenment and close friend of Hume. His work combines sentiment-based ethics with market theory. Key Concepts Invisible hand: individuals’ self-interest, channeled through the market, generates collective benefit without central planning — a metaphor for the spontaneous order of the price system Division of labor: specialization of tasks multiplies productivity; the classic example of the pin factory Labor theory of value: the value of commodities ultimately derives from the labor embodied in their production Moral sympathy: the foundation of ethics — the capacity to put oneself in another’s position and evaluate actions from the perspective of an “impartial spectator” Impartial spectator: an imaginary figure representing balanced moral judgment, detached from self-interest Critique of mercantilism: a nation’s wealth is not the accumulation of precious metals, but its productive capacity and free exchange Free market and laissez-faire: defense of competition and criticism of monopolies, corporate privileges, and arbitrary state interventions Influenced by Hume — moral sentimentalism and skepticism about state intervention Francis Hutcheson — ethics of moral sense (his professor at Glasgow) Locke and Montesquieu — liberal political theories Mandeville — paradox of private vices / public benefits Influenced Ricardo and Mill — classical economics Marx — inherited (and critiqued) the labor theory of value Bentham — utilitarianism and calculation of collective well-being Modern economic liberalism and neoliberalism (Hayek, Friedman) Works The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759); The Wealth of Nations (1776). ...

Baruch Spinoza (Benedict of Spinoza) Born in Amsterdam in 1632, into a family of Sephardic Jews of Portuguese origin who had fled the Inquisition, Baruch Spinoza received a rabbinic education, but his ideas soon put him on a collision course with the community: in 1656 he was subjected to a herem (excommunication) of rare severity. He declined chairs and honors to preserve his independence of thought and supported himself humbly by grinding optical lenses. He died young, in 1677, and his principal works — among them the Ethics — were published only after his death. He is regarded as the most radical of the seventeenth-century rationalists. ...

Blaise Pascal French mathematician, physicist and philosopher. A precocious genius (invented the mechanical calculator at age 19); converted to Jansenism after his “night of fire” (1654). His philosophy is an existential wager and a confrontation with the reason of the libertines. Key Concepts The wager (Pascal’s wager): pragmatic argument about belief in God. If God exists and you believe — infinite gain; if he does not exist and you believe — finite loss. If he exists and you do not believe — infinite loss. Prudent reason bets on God — even without rational proof “The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of”: there is an order of the heart — intuition, love, feeling — irreducible to the demonstrative logic of Descartes Misery and grandeur of man: man is a roseau pensant (thinking reed) — fragile as nature, but his greatness lies in thinking; more noble than the universe because he knows that he dies The two infinities: between the great infinity (cosmos) and the small infinity (atom), man stands in the middle — without firm foundation either in sciences or in metaphysics Diversion (divertissement): man flees from confrontation with himself through agitation — boredom reveals the human misery that diversion hides. Critique of social superficiality Critique of Cartesianism: Descartes’ method is useful in the sciences, but illusory as a foundation for faith or morality; “Descartes useless and uncertain” Jansenism: Catholic current that emphasized the irresistible grace of Augustine; Pascal defended Port-Royal in the Provincial Letters against the Jesuits Influenced by Saint Augustine — grace, sin, predestination Montaigne — skepticism, human misery (point of departure and adversary) Descartes — rationalism (critique) Ancient Pyrrhonism — skepticism as apologetic weapon Influenced Kierkegaard — wager, paradox, subjectivity of faith Existentialism — anguish and human condition Modern Christian apologetics Decision theory and game theory (wager as precursor) Works Provincial Letters (1656–1657); Pensées (posthumous, 1670 — fragments of an unfinished apologetic); Treatise on the Arithmetic of the Triangle (1654). ...

David Hume A central figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, David Hume was born in Edinburgh in 1711. While still very young he published his Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40), a work that, in his own words, “fell dead-born from the press” and would be recognized only much later. His reputation as a skeptic in matters of religion cost him the university chairs he sought; he made his living as a librarian, a diplomatic secretary, and above all as a highly successful essayist and historian. A man of serene and amiable temperament — “le bon David” — he died in 1776, facing death with the tranquility of a sage. ...

Francis Bacon “Father of Empiricism” and of modern experimental science. Lord Chancellor of England; fell into disgrace due to corruption. His project was to renew knowledge by replacing Aristotle’s Organon with a new inductive-experimental method. Key Concepts Idols (obstacles to knowledge): of the tribe (general human defects), of the cave (individual prejudices), of the marketplace (deceptions of language), of the theater (false philosophical doctrines) New inductive method: three tables (presence, absence, degrees) + elimination of false hypotheses → “first vintage” “Knowledge is power”: science and dominion over nature coincide Anticipations vs. interpretations of nature: only interpretations (via correct method) are legitimate knowledge Influenced by William of Ockham — nominalism, elimination of superfluous entities Aristotle — but he criticizes and surpasses him Influenced Locke — tabula rasa and empiricism Hume — induction as basis of knowledge Newton — rules of philosophizing Foundation of the Royal Society (1660) — Baconian program Works Novum Organum (1620); New Atlantis (1627, scientific utopia); The Advancement of Learning (1605). ...

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling The most versatile of the German idealists; his thought passed through multiple radically distinct phases. He directly influenced Romanticism and anticipated Existentialism. Phases of thought Phase Central theme Philosophy of Nature (~1797) Nature as visible Spirit, living organism Philosophy of Identity (~1801) Absolute = undifferentiated identity of subject and object Philosophy of Freedom (1809) Evil has positive reality; freedom as abyss Positive Philosophy (late) Concrete existence irreducible; critique of rationalism Key concepts Nature as objectified Spirit: the same activity of the subject, but in unconscious degree Absolute: undifferentiated identity of ideal and real, subject and object — point of indifference Evil and freedom: evil is perverse use of freedom — man can isolate himself from the whole Positive philosophy: concrete existence is prior to any system — anticipates Heidegger and Kierkegaard Influenced by Kant and Fichte — point of departure Spinoza — identity of subject/object Giordano Bruno — animated nature Böhme — evil and freedom Influenced Hegel — dialectic of identity/difference German Romanticism (Schlegel, Novalis) Nietzsche — creative will Heidegger — concrete existence and finitude Works System of Transcendental Idealism (1800); Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom (1809). ...

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born in Stuttgart in 1770 and studied at the Tübingen seminary alongside Hölderlin and Schelling. A young enthusiast of the French Revolution, he saw in Napoleon — whom he glimpsed on horseback at Jena in 1806 — the “world-soul” on the march. After years as a private tutor, journalist, and school headmaster, he reached the chairs of Heidelberg and, above all, Berlin, where he became the most influential philosopher in the Germany of his time, until his death in 1831. His work is the most ambitious system in the history of philosophy: logic, nature, spirit, history, art, and religion articulated as moments of a single process. ...

George Berkeley An Irish philosopher born in 1685 and later the Anglican Bishop of Cloyne, George Berkeley produced his most important philosophical works while still very young, before the age of thirty. A man of faith and action, he even crossed the Atlantic with a project to found a college in Bermuda for the American colonies. He is remembered as the second great name of British empiricism, between Locke and Hume — and the most surprising of the three, for pushing empiricism to a radical conclusion: that matter does not exist. ...

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Born in Leipzig in 1646, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was the last great universal sage: at once philosopher, mathematician, logician, physicist, jurist, historian, and diplomat. He invented — independently of Newton — the infinitesimal calculus, whose notation we still use, conceived the binary arithmetic that underlies computing, and designed calculating machines. He spent much of his life in the service of the House of Hanover and died in 1716, leaving a body of work scattered across thousands of letters and few published books. Philosophically, he sought the great reconciliation of modern science, the metaphysical tradition, and faith. ...

Immanuel Kant Born in Königsberg, in East Prussia, in 1724, and never having strayed from his native city, Immanuel Kant led the methodical life of a university professor — so regular, tradition holds, that his neighbors set their clocks by his daily walk. It was, in his own words, the reading of Hume that “awakened him from his dogmatic slumber” and led him into a long decade of silence, at the end of which, already 57 years old, he published the monumental Critique of Pure Reason (1781). His work both closes and refounds Modernity, mediating the dispute between the rationalism of Descartes and the empiricism of Hume. ...

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Born in Geneva in 1712 and motherless from birth, Jean-Jacques Rousseau was largely self-taught and led a wandering life before rising to prominence in Paris, where he kept company with the Encyclopedists — from whom he would later break dramatically. Recognition came in 1750, when he won the Dijon Academy’s competition with a discourse that already announced his most provocative thesis: that the arts and sciences, far from improving humanity, corrupt morals. Persecuted after the publication of Emile, condemned and forced into exile, he ended his life tormented, in 1778, leaving behind the Confessions. He is the great critic of the Enlightenment from within the Enlightenment itself. ...

Johann Gottlieb Fichte First post-Kantian to overcome the thing-in-itself. Founder of German Idealism; first rector of the University of Berlin (1810). The Addresses to the German Nation (1808) made him a symbol of German cultural nationalism. Key Concepts Pure Ego as absolute principle: the Ego is not a thing, it is act — free self-positing. Esse sequitur operari: being is the product of acting First thesis: the Ego posits itself (freedom, thesis) Second thesis: the Ego opposes to itself a Not-Ego (the world as necessary obstacle to freedom) Third thesis: Ego and Not-Ego mutually limit each other (synthesis → determined reality) Doctrine of Science: system of knowledge grounded in the Ego as unconditioned condition Late phase: the Ego is manifestation of God — mysticism of the Absolute Influenced by Kant — transcendental subject; overcomes the thing-in-itself Rousseau — freedom as foundation Influenced Schelling — departs from Fichte’s subjective idealism Hegel — overcomes Fichte with the Absolute as process Marx — praxis as human self-creation Works Foundations of the Doctrine of Science (1794); The Vocation of the Scholar (1794); Addresses to the German Nation (1808). ...

John Locke John Locke was born in Wrington, England, in 1632, was educated at Oxford, and practiced medicine before becoming secretary and physician to the Earl of Shaftesbury, which brought him into the orbit of high English politics. Caught up in the struggles between Parliament and the absolutist Stuart crown, he went into exile in Holland during the reign of James II and returned only in 1689, with the Glorious Revolution, which enshrined the parliamentary order he would help to justify philosophically. He is regarded as the father of classical liberalism and one of the greatest influences on empiricism and modern political thought. ...

Joseph Maréchal was a Belgian Jesuit philosopher and psychologist, founder of Transcendental Thomism — a movement that undertook a synthesis between Thomistic metaphysics and Kant’s critical philosophy. His work marks a decisive moment in the renewal of Scholasticism in the 20th century and exerted profound influence on figures such as Karl Rahner and Bernard Lonergan. Key Concepts The Starting Point of Metaphysics (Le Point de départ de la Métaphysique, 5 notebooks, 1922–1947): His principal work. Maréchal traces the history of epistemology — from Greek philosophy through Kantianism — to ground Thomistic metaphysics in the face of Kantian critique. Notebook V (“Thomism Confronting Critical Philosophy”) is the most discussed. ...