The Birth of Modern Philosophy and Rationalism
The Transition from Medieval to Modern Thought
The medieval stagnation, characterized by a geocentric view of the universe and the constant appeal to faith and scholastic philosophy, was interrupted in the 15th and 16th centuries by the emergence in the West of a new conception of the world and man.
The Rise of Renaissance Humanism
The growth of cities, the emergence of the bourgeoisie, geographical discoveries, the creation of the nation-state, the development of universities, and the invention of printing—which helped diffuse knowledge among the middle classes—formed a new landscape that served as the most immediate precedent for Renaissance humanism. These were times of confidence in reason and in the limitless possibilities of human beings.
The Scientific Revolution and Mechanistic Views
The rise of scientific and mathematical geniuses, led by figures like Copernicus and Galileo, led to a definitive break between faith and reason, which had been inevitably united until then. Meanwhile, continuous wars, the Reformation, and the Counter-Reformation showed that the Middle Ages had reached an end, necessitating a new way of understanding reality through mathematical language. Aristotelian physics was definitively abandoned, and a mechanistic view of the world took hold among the intelligentsia, evolving according to logical natural laws that man could grasp.
Rationalism vs. Empiricism in Modernity
In this context, two seemingly contradictory philosophical doctrines appeared: rationalism and empiricism, which shaped the thinking of modernity. Both shared the idea of man as the center of reality and as a subject who must decide on the truth or falsity of statements. However, while the rationalists—wary of sensory information—sought to build knowledge through deductive processes based on innate ideas (the prototype being the evidence of thinking, a conception marking the definitive arrival of modern thought), empiricists rejected the existence of such ideas, defending the limited capacity of human knowledge as unmistakably linked to empirical data perceived through the senses.
René Descartes: The Father of Modern Rationalism
René Descartes is considered the father of rationalist theory. Born in 1596 into a wealthy family, this circumstance allowed him to devote his life to study. He joined the French army under the orders of Maurice of Nassau during the Thirty Years' War, with the sole intention of seeing the world and making contact with other cultures and ways of knowing.
His love for mathematics significantly influenced his philosophy, focusing on finding a method—inspired by science—that would allow for a firm grasp on reality. His rationalist thinking is collected in works such as "Rules for the Direction of the Mind" and "The Discourse on Method", both written in French—a circumstance that accurately reflects the desire for the secularization of knowledge within modernity itself.