17th Century Crisis and Descartes' Rationalism

The Seventeenth Century: A Period of Crisis and Insecurity

The seventeenth century was a period of crisis and insecurity across critical areas: political-social, religious, scientific, cultural, and, of course, philosophical. In Europe, famine and crop disease made life precarious. In a society marked by stark differences, frequent social tensions arose between nobles and the bourgeoisie, as seen in England with its two revolutions (1648 and 1688), or between different states, exemplified by the Thirty Years' War between France and Germany (1618–1648).

Dominant Systems and Conflicts

• The dominant political system was absolute monarchy.
• In the religious sphere, the Protestant Reformation had divided believers into various groups fighting to impose their beliefs.

Scientific Upheaval

This century also saw the definitive fall of Aristotelian science, which had long been taught in universities. Copernican, Kepler, and Galileo demolished ancient astronomy and physics.

Descartes' Intellectual Response

René Descartes was born into this environment. He realized that while one could doubt everything, it was necessary to find a foundation for truth. He sought a method for using reason well to provide security in our knowledge.

The Discourse on Method

The Discourse on Method served as a prologue to a selection of works on Dioptric, Meteors, and Geometry. These pieces were originally part of a larger work entitled "Treaty of the World," which Descartes chose not to publish for fear of condemnation, similar to Galileo.

CC: The Baroque Cultural Context

This period is known as the Baroque and permeated all areas of culture. It represented a break with the balance of the Renaissance, as the sensitivity to the events of this era generated a need for movement and change. It was a pessimistic world where the clockwork machine was the ideal, and time seemed to be an obsession.

CF: Descartes and the Rise of Rationalism

Founding Modern Philosophy

Descartes belongs to modern philosophy and is considered the founder of Rationalism. Its main features include:

1. The autonomy of reason against any external body attempting to impose its truths.
2. The necessity of seeking an appropriate method to use reason correctly.

Seeking Certainty

Disappointed with Scholasticism's received knowledge, Descartes searched for a firm foundation of knowledge based on reason. He posited the existence of certain innate principles underlying all knowledge. The model for this knowledge was mathematics (Descartes invented analytic geometry).

The Power of Reason

Through mathematics, reason would have no limits in advancing knowledge, uncovering truths that would cover all fields of human understanding. This knowledge would be secure, much like mathematical theorems. The senses, conversely, could deceive us.

Rationalism vs. Empiricism

Rationalism is the first idealism because Descartes transformed what the ancients assumed about things into the ideas or content of the mind. Other key rationalists included Spinoza and Leibniz.

The philosophical movement that opposed Rationalism was Empiricism. Beginning as a reaction, Empiricists like Berkeley, Locke, and Hume denied innate ideas, intending instead to build the edifice of knowledge using only elements obtained through experiment.