Monday, September 06, 2010
The modern philosophy and the modern project, by Tania Tokarski
Introduction
In the seventeenth century, there has been various changes in the world of thought. We then challenged the authorities of the past and the tradition. In this context, religious beliefs and superstitions take a new dimension. Now, they relate only to personal life. Accordingly, the dogmas of faith have more to intervene in the development of thought. This revolution is the result of a long and slow process that begins in the late Middle Ages, and specifying accelerating the Renaissance, and he led some modern thinkers to oppose those who want to remain faithful to ideals of the past.
Key Features
Chronologically, the modern successor to the Renaissance. The word "modern" comes from Latin and means modernus: that is recent. The intellectual approach that characterizes modern thinking still plays a dominant role in our society. But modernity is primarily a cultural phenomenon characterized by a major intellectual revolution, itself spurred by unprecedented technological development. Advances in transportation, the emergence of printing and urbanization will facilitate knowledge flows. Therefore, the reference to tradition is taking a new meaning. Thus, the modern thinkers are explicitly opposed to religious or traditional ideas that dominated the previous era.
Open to new ideas, we will attempt to construct a representation of the world from a new foundation, new paradigms (paradigm: model). For example, we leave the representation of the geocentric cosmos System (Ptolemy) for construction of the heliocentric universe (N. Copernicus). In short, the land is no longer the center of the world.
The technological advances that characterized the birth of modernity will also promote the transformation of the economic, social and political. Gradually, an industrial economy will grow. This form of production and distribution is based on a principal values of modern thought: efficiency. On the purely philosophical, the relatively new concept of rational, autonomous individual, claiming more and more freedom of conscience (Luther) and action against feudalism primarily religious, political, then, is a breeding ground for the Vision and capitalist world.
Modern thought will find new bases for those values of technical efficiency and instrumental and freedom. It will particularly enhance the powers of our particular reason. So in itself that modern thought will find the new metaphysical foundations it seeks. This means that assigns a fundamental role of subjectivity in the process of knowledge. In other words, the truth does not correspond either to a divine revelation or mystical, or a very ancient belief. Now, we accept as truth only what can be critically examined by reason, by following a strictly rational demonstration. The philosophical concept of modernity means that new way of thinking and the new hierarchy of value that follows. We can say this time it is the era of triumphant reason.
Think of Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), John Locke (1632-1704), Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), David Hume (1711 -1776) and many others, modern philosophers were concerned with a very high degree by the sense of their approach and the thoroughness and accuracy of their system. In this context, mathematics and the sciences of nature are often monopolize energy. The modern feel, sometimes blindly, in the liberating power of science. That is why this last one will be asked to produce a society of free individuals of all constraints.
Reason
Because they no longer take account of revelation, faith and religious belief as a criterion of truth, modern thinkers no longer consider the universe as a world of unfathomable mysteries. Specifically, modern thought only accept explanations that are rational. The autonomy of reason is the main characteristic of modern thought. The world is no longer a sacred structure, but an intelligible reality which we can discover the laws by careful observation and methodical. In short, we believe that the universe obeyed rational laws. That is to say that the laws that determine the nature conform to the laws that determine thought. Moreover, modern thinkers believe that every human being has the ability to reason. Everyone, in principle, can therefore understand the laws that govern nature. To do this, simply take the trouble to think rationally because his drive well to find some truth, "as Descartes.
Since every individual has the ability to reason properly, the modern thinkers will believe that all humans are equal. Consequently, they will invite each human to use their minds to free themselves of the power of any form of arbitrary authority. By reason, therefore, the individual has a dignity of its own and under which it no longer required to be sacrificed in favor of powers that are beyond him. For the modern thinker, the self (or the individual or subjectivity) and everything connected with it is therefore a paramount value, almost sacred.
However, do not believe that intellectuals have invented modern reason or rationality. Do not forget that since birth, philosophy and science promote rational thought. But whether the reason was a tool among others, the reason obeyed, at least in part, other than its own principles. What is distinctive of modern thought is the invention of a new intellectual attitude that reason exclusively obeys the rules it has imposed itself strictly in order to establish links indubitable between causes and effects observable in nature or between ideas and realities to which they correspond. We call this approach intellectual rationalism and it will generate great enthusiasm for a class of thinkers. Rationalism leads the thinker to look for certainties that can be explained rationally beyond a reasonable doubt, whereas in past centuries, thinkers often sought by both the use of reason as other tools, truths revealed type interpretation.
For Cartesian rationalism, nature is composed only of matter and it works like a machine, that is to say that the universe is strictly governed by mechanical forces which are also subject to the laws of reason. We can say that the reason seems to have taken possession of everything in the universe as conceived by the rationalists. They also discover that the laws of nature can be expressed in mathematical language. In other words, we realize that the material and mechanical forces at play in nature are measurable. Thus, thanks to mathematics, we will be able to read the great book of nature.
The modern project
Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543), Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Isaac Newton (1642-1723), Galileo (1564-1642) and all modern scientists seeking to understand the universe in a very specific purpose. It's about becoming, in the words of Descartes , master and owner of nature by the use of reason, that in order to improve the lives of human beings. We can speak of the modern project: the progress of science and art, modern thinkers wanted to liberate the human suffering and what alienates. It therefore influences the development of productive forces for domination of natural phenomena by science and technology. The philosophers and modern scientists believe that this development of knowledge and technology must necessarily produce an improvement in our social and political conditions. The modern project is at once philosophical, scientific and sociopolitical. This desire for liberation through the benefits of science and technology gives rise to an unprecedented scientific renewal. Three elements characterize this revival:
a) A work of methodical observation: to understand and control nature, we must work rigorously, which means the systematic observation of natural phenomena. Added to this is the validation of theories and assumptions by meticulous experimentation. The accuracy of theoretical concepts must allow to dominate any natural or social process that enslaves human beings.
b) The unity of science: by the common use of mathematics, modern scientists consider science as a tree. Thus, since the sciences share the same language, we come to imagine a hierarchy of knowledge and science, mathematics form the core which is connected with various branches of science.
c) Multiple advances and inventions: with the systematic observation and rigorous work, we see many important theoretical discoveries that often lead to various practical inventions designed to improve the lot of the human condition. Here is embodied the idea of the modern project, that of a "Progress Liberator". In this context, efficiency and productivity values are extremely positive. The modern thinkers did not conceive the dehumanizing side often attributed to these values today.
Do not forget that it is the rigorous use of reason which alone can make this progress possible liberator. It now uses the concept of instrumental rationality to describe this attitude of mind which is exclusively oriented towards the development techno.
Conclusion
Finally, modernity will transform the lives of Western policy. Since all are able to use their reason, everyone should have the right to speak and must share the reigns of power. The moderns are thus gradually try to replace the forms of power based on violence and arbitrariness by democracy.
In almost all scientific, artistic and intellectual of this period, we will witness a fierce battle between those who uphold the traditions and those who promote new ideas. This opposition culminated in literature in what historians have called the quarrel between ancients and moderns. On the side of Veterans include Nicolas Boileau (1636-1711), Jean de Lafontaine (1621-1695), Jean Racine (1639-1699), Jean de la Bruyere (1645-1696), while we can classify Charles Perrault ( 1628-1703), Thomas Cornelius (1625-1709) and Fontenelle (1657-1757) in the ranks of the Moderns.
Briefly, we can say that the modern era ends at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, early in the nineteenth century, philosophers will reject the modern project. During the twentieth century, critics will become increasingly radical. The so-called postmodern thinkers sometimes will try to show that if rational thought has produced the promised progress, however, this progress has not proved liberating that reason can not be totally reliable, trustworthy ; that modern thought has made our world a dull gray, it is responsible for the disenchantment of the world.
Labels: Tania Tokarski
# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 8:00 PM 
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