Descartes and the Birth of Modern Philosophy

Historical Context of the 17th Century

The era was marked by a significant religious crisis: Luther, Calvin, and Henry VIII challenged the authority of the Pope, leading to the Thirty Years' War.

Absolutism emerged as the dominant political system, where the State held all powers, justified by their perceived divine origin.

Social unrest emerged from the peasantry due to the introduction of heavy taxes and poor harvests. Simultaneously, the rise of manufacturing and wage labor spurred the spread of commercialism and the consolidation of the bourgeoisie.

Cultural and Scientific Context

The Baroque period appeared, characterized by an emphasis on appearance and sensory experience. In contrast, Descartes moved away from relying solely on the sensible world.

The invention of the printing press made culture and knowledge accessible to a much wider audience.

Religious thought shifted as Luther emphasized man's inherent flaws, arguing that only God's grace can provide salvation. He advocated for reading the Holy Scriptures without intermediaries, prompting the Holy See to respond with the Index of Forbidden Books.

The Scientific Revolution

Significant changes occurred in the conception of science, notably the paradigm shift from the geocentric to the heliocentric model, supported by Copernicus and Kepler. This era also saw the birth of the hypothetical-deductive method, which unified the supralunar and infralunar worlds through experimentation and mathematics.

Philosophical Context and Descartes

The Discourse on Method, published in 1637, was written in French to reach a broader audience. It included three essays intended to prove its validity: Dioptrics, Geometry, and Meteors.

Descartes' philosophy was shaped by several key influences:

• Skepticism: Religious disputes, new geographical discoveries, and anthropological findings challenged established truths, providing arguments against dogmatism.
• St. Augustine: Descartes adopted the importance of the subject from Augustine of Hippo but applied a rigorous metaphysical analysis.
• Scholasticism: Descartes largely dismissed the official philosophy supported by the Holy See.
• Ockham’s Separation of Reason and Faith: William of Ockham turned the distinction between faith and reason into a total separation, paving the way for the autonomy of reason.
• Humanism: The focus of reflection shifted from God to man. Even the demonstration of God's existence was derived from the subject's own ideas.