Short Summary: Romanticism - History of Philosophy

Romanticism is similar to the philosophy of the Renesance in being a reaction to the emphasis on reason inherited from the enlightenment and Kant. Art is important to human cognition. Only art can bring us closer to the inexpressible. University students were anti-middle class at the time. The duty of the romantic was to dream himself away from life. Theme – unrequited love, yearning for nature and natures mysteries. Viewing nature as a whole(Spinoza & before).

Shelling(1775-1854) – The human soul and physical reality are expressions of one absolute world spirit, (like Spinoza). Man bears the whole universe within himself and comes closest to the mysteries of the universe by stepping inside of himself. Nature is an organism, like a flower unfolding or a poet unfolding verses.

von Herder – History is characterized by continuity, evolution and design. We have to identify with other cultures to understand them better. (national identity) 

Universal Romanticism and National Romanticism; National – interested in history, language and culture of the people. Considered plants and the nation to be an organism. Fairly tales & Beethoven, the artist has free reign. (hypnotic trance.)

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Short Summary: Immanuel Kant - History of Philosophy

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) felt it was essential to preserve religion (Was Christian.) He was also a professor of philosophy, so he knew something about the past. Everybody was concerned with “What can we know about the world?” There are two possibilities: how we sense it, and how we reason it. Certain conditions govern the mind’s operation which influence the way we experience the world, certain conditions in the human mind contribute to our conception of the world. We can not “take off” the glasses of time&space. These are our modes of perception, not actual physical attributes, necessarily.

The mind according to Kant conforms to things, but things also conform to the mind. Human reason sees everything as cause&effect. “And things as they appear to us” – ‘the thing in itself’ vs. ‘the thing for me.’  We can say how things will be perceived by the human mind. material knowledge – external conditions perceived through senses.

form of knowledge – through time, space and causality.

The mind’s glasses set limits on what we can know. So, we can’t answer the big question! Attribute of human reason to ask, “Where do we come from?” But it is impossible for us to know since we are one tiny part of the universe. On these questions, Kant says there will always be two opposing views. We can’t prove God. But humans should have faith. It’s essential to believe in the immortal soul, God and free will. (These are practical postulates to accept w/o proof.) We can never understand ourselves or the universe completely. Ethics – believed the difference between right and wrong was inherent in human reason. Moral law – since we have reason to distinguish between right and wrong before we are born, acting morally is a categorical imperative. Universal Law of Nature – Do as you’d want everyone else to do in your situation. Treat people not just as means, but as an end also. We can’t prove what our conscience tells us, but we do indeed know it. Only when you do something out of duty can it be a moral action. The consequence of an action does not determine whether it was right or not. Animals don’t have freedom to follow moral law. We have no freedom if we only listen to our senses. Obey universal reason also – free Kant’s law of morals is conscience.

See also: Kant's categorical imperative

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Short Summary: Philosophy of the Enlightenment - History of Philosophy

The characteristics of the French Enlightenment philosophers are opposition to authority, rationalism, cultural optimism, return to nature, natural religion and human rights were all themes of the Enlightenment. Here are some basic tenets of the era:

1) Enlightenment philosophers felt that the individual must find their own answer to each question.(Clergy, kind, nobility)

2) Locke – God and moral norms are within human reason. This was the core idea of the movement.

3) The movement was characterized by an unshakable faith in human reason. (Due to much of the new science around.) There was a need to enlighten the masses – a great focus on education(pedagogy). First encyclopedia is compiled.

4) cultural optimism – once reason and knowledge are widespread, humanity will progress greatly.

5) Noticed that savages were healthier and happier than Europeans. This prompted a “return to nature” sentiment. A child should be allowed to be naturally innocent. People wanted a natural harmony between religion and reason.

6) It was believed to be rational to believe in God and an immortal soul. They wanted to strip religion of irrational dogmas. Deism -–God never reveals himself in supernatural ways.

7) Fought for the natural rights of citizens, freedom of the press, freedom of thought, abolition of slavery, and more humane treatment of criminals. Declaration of the Rights of Man. Condorcet – focused on the rights of women as well. Olympe de Gauges also fought for women’s rights. She was beheaded and women for forbidden from politics.

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Short Summary: David Hume and George Berkeley - History of Philosophy

David Hume (1711-1776) was an empiricist who influenced Kant. According to Hume experience is the key to life. You have two perceptions: impressions – which are immediate sensations, and ideas – memories of impressions, they are more faint. Both can be simple or complex. Hume holds that we need to purge false complex ideas. First, figure out which simple ideas go into a complex one. Question of I – a complex idea. Hume said that I(ego) is a series of impressions in perpetual flux and movement. He was an agnostic. Only experience counts, so you can’t say that a stone will always fall to the ground. For Hume, laws of nature are not really laws, until you experience the cause&effect. (He did NOT deny natural law, but said that we can’t come up with them.) Just because B follows A doesn’t mean that A caused B. According to Hume, reason does not determine what we do, our sentiments(feelings) do. It isn’t reasonable or unreasonable not to help someone in need, just unkind. You can NOT draw a conclusion from an is sentence to an ought sentence. Thus, right/wrong can not come from reason.

George Berkeley (1685-1753) was an Irish bishop who felt philosophy and science did threaten religion. He was an empiricist. According to Berkeley worldly things ARE as we perceive them. But, we do not perceive material or matter. (We can be tricked into thinking that something is hot or cold.) All ideas have a cause – a spiritual one. Only other spirits can cause ideas that make up the ‘corporeal’ world. We exist only in the mind of God. Questioned our material reality and time and space. A week or two for us isn’t the same for God.

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Short Summary: John Locke - History of Philosophy

John Locke (1632-1704) was an empiricist, which is opposite of a rationalist (like Descartes and Spinoza). According to Locke's empiricist view, There is nothing in the mind that hasn’t been sensed (Berkeley and Hume were other empiricists.) Locke had two main questions: Where do we get ideas? and Can we rely on our senses? We are born innocent and then take in information with our senses. A sense is a reflection. (We must classify and process an experience.) We can only perceive simple sensations. But, after eating an apple, we put these simple sensations together and come up with a complex thought ‘apple.” Primary categories – are all quantitative while secondary categories are relative, like color, etc. Locke believed in intuitive knowledge and natural right.

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Short Summary: Spinoza - History of Philosophy

Spinoza (1632-1677) was an excommunicated Jew who  had a historico-critical interpretation of the Bible. Spinoza wanted to see things from the “perspective of eternity.” Said God is all, all is God. So he’s a pantheist. In ethical matters, we must free ourselves from all feelings and passions. Unlike Descartes, Spinoza was a monist. He only believe in substance. God is all of these substances. We humans recognize two of God’s qualities. God manifests itself as either, or even more, but we only know two. “You are but a finger of God’s body.” You are governed according to the laws of nature. He had a deterministic view of the natural world. Everything happens through necessity. Outer circumstances can constrain humans. Humans according to Spinoza will never achieve free will because they are constrained by desire.

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Short Summary: Rene Descartes - History of Philosophy

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was both a philosopher and a mathematician; a rationalist who only believed in reason. Descartes wanted to build a philosophical system from the ground up, rather than relying on the work of others. “The father of modern philosophy” Interested in “certain” knowledge and the relationship between the body and the mind. Descartes was not a total skeptic. There must be a connection between the body and consciousness, but they are not exactly the same. (Sort of like Plato’s belief in separation between body & soul.) Believed in a philosophical system that goes from simple to complex. Descartes realized that you can’t trust your senses. But, he realized that he did doubt his own senses. In order for him to be able to do that, he must exist. Thus, we have “I think, therefore I am.” What else could he perceive? a perfect entity, God. Descartes felt that the idea of God was innate and therefore also exists. The more self-evident something is to one’s reason, the more certain he was that it must exist. After that quantitative properties (weight, etc.) were deemed okay, but qualitative ones were not. However, there is an outer reality because a perfect God would not deceive us. God’s guarantee – what we perceive with reason corresponds to reality. Descartes thought of two realities: thought & matter. These two have no contact with each other. Thus, Descartes was a dualist. Animals belong completely to extended reality, but man is a dual creature. Bodily processes obey laws of matter. But, the mind is independent of extended reality. According to Descartes the mind can be affected by the physical, but it can also detach itself.

To know more about the philosophy of Rene Descartes you can go to our overview and summary of Descartes' philosophy. If you want to get to know specific works by Descartes you can go to our summaries of his Discourse on the method or Meditations on the First Philosophy (or the extended summary by chapter of Meditations on the First Philosophy). 

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Short Summary: Renaissance, Reformation and Baroque - History of Philosophy

Renaissance + Reformation

Birth of humanism – importance of individual. “Go to the source.” Many technical advancements made: compass, guns and the printing press. Now, a monetary economy existed.

Man is considered valuable. Not only are we human, but each human is unique.(Individualism) Man did NOT purely exist for God’s sake. Pantheism is the belief that God is present in everything.

A new approach to science emerged: investigate with your senses(empirical) and run experiments.

New World View from Copernicus(1543) & the telescope, followed by Galileo: inertia, gravity. Kepler – path of planets; Newton – Universal Law of Gravitation; Now a personal relationship with god was more important.

Reformation – Luther wanted to do away with Church dogmas like indulgences for God’s forgiveness. Thought everyone should read the Bible and be their own priest.

Baroque

Pearl of irregular shape, carpedium & vanity. Gave birth to modern theatre. Reminiscent of Plato – both here&now and celestial. Two viewpoints – idealism & materialism. Hobbes was a materialist. Newton had a mechanistic world view. Laplace believed in determinism through science. Leibnitz – believed that material can always be broken up while the soul can not be.

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