A contextual look into modern philosophy and its antecedents

By NZAU MUSAU

Introduction

The sprouting of modern philosophy from 17th century up to 19th century came against the background of certain overriding features of the period preceding it and largely known as medieval period. Among these were scholasticism, religious crisis, nationalism and renaissance among others.

These features to a large extent influenced the rise, scope and methods of the modern philosophy a great deal. This paper discusses these background features and how they are linked to the rise, development and general feature of the modern philosophy.

The background and the link

An important feature in the background to modern philosophy is scholasticism which dominated the medieval philosophy era. This philosophy concerned itself largely with doing expositions of gigantic philosophical figures of the past. Scholasticism tended to be dominated by theologians of Catholic Church.

As Silvano Borruso observes in his book “A history of philosophy for (almost) everyone," scholasticism had like the Egyptian pyramids resisted all odds and prevailed ever since the days of St. Augustine up to St. Aquinas who is considered one of its greatest luminaries.
The impression created over those decades scholasticism prevailed was one of professing a stereotypical way of thinking shackled by authority of an all powerful Catholic Church.
Talking of the church, a crisis in its midst also formed another background feature to modern philosophy. The crisis entailed the parallels between the Catholics and the Protestants who contested each other on a number of issues.

The reformation and counter-reformation led by Luther, Calvin and Loyola reduced the power of the church. The thirty year old war that ensued persuaded everybody that neither the Protestants nor Catholics could be completely victorious.
It became necessary therefore, as Bertrand Russel observes in “History of Western Philosophy” to abandon the medieval hope of doctrinal unity and this inevitably increased men’s freedom to think for themselves even about fundamental.

The dominant Catholic Church had itself gone through “astonishing vicissitudes” as Russel calls them with the papacy consolidating power, debasing the church with their schisms, debauchery and all manner of ills. Its authority was obviously waning or in doubt.
The philosophers of the times were therefore keen to identify the nature of the true religion, means of arriving at religious truths and establishing the true role of the church as well as individuals relationship with God.

This period preceding the rise of modern philosophy was characterized also by the rise in national consciousness as marked by clear distinctions between nationalities. This entailed shift from fiefdoms to nations and from Latin which was the dominant language in Europe to the vernaculars. Gunpowder had also begun to strengthen central governments at the expense of feudal nobility and this changed the power arrangements in Europe.

But it was the feature of the renaissance in 15th Century which had a lot of impact on the modern philosophy. It involved the wave of renewal of intellectual interests and activities, technological breakthroughs and impressive high output in the realm of the arts.

Besides the overall impact of the renaissance, a number of key scientific discoveries and inventions provoked by the renaissance upset the status quo and demanded a new look into the future. Key among them was the invention of steam engine technology which inspired industrialization of the continent and conquest of far lands. Also, Galileo Galilei’s heliocentric theory and Darwin’s theory of evolution set philosophers thinking hard.
The impact of these important background features were monumental in the direction modern philosophy took. They tended to drive modern philosophy to a certain ends and this carved out certain concerns.

Among the first concerns of modern philosophy which largely had been influenced by the religious crisis was the relationship between God and human freedom. The ontological proof of Gods existence had been subject to philosophical inquiry ever since the ancient times. Modern philosopher’s rejoinder was if God existed, what then was his relationship with human beings?
For instance Spinoza took on this subject to argue that God and nature were one thing and within this reality there is no freedom to either God or man as laws of necessity are in operation.
Also inspired by the religious concerns of the medieval times was the modern philosophers concern about the mind-body relationship which Rene Descartes passionately focused on. Other philosophers like Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Diderot Dennis just to mention but a few concerned themselves of this matter.

The impact of renaissance particularly attributed to Italy was massive not only in destruction of the rigid scholasticism which “had become an intellectual straitjacket.” It restored the place of Plato in philosophy, promoted a genuine and firsthand knowledge free from glosses of the Neo-Platonist and Arab commentators.

It also encouraged the habit of regarding intellectual activity as a delightful social adventure, not a cloistered meditation. Besides, it liberated men from the narrowness of medieval culture.
The myth-shattering theories of Galileo provoked in philosophers a fresh concern about the nature of the universe and re-evaluation of long held positions. In the course of this critical re-evaluation, modern philosophers delved into speculative metaphysics on the nature of the universe. The questions of what is finite and infinite, actual and possible universes and the place of God in all these began to dominate modern philosophy.

The rise of nationalism and destruction of fiefdoms influenced to a large extend the philosophical interest in concerns God’s relationship with the civil authority and individual liberty. This could also trace its roots from the crisis the Catholic Church was going through. Previously, it had been taken for granted that political leaders were sort of demigods representing God’s interests, so were the Popes. They could not therefore be questioned. Featuring prominently in this debate was John Locke with his edict that human beings in their state of nature enjoy natural rights.

The aftermath of Isaac Newton’s deterministic laws and scientific grounding of causality principle incited a wave of questioning about human beings capacity for freedom or the place of determinism in man’s activities under the sun. How this question was answered would also have overbearing influence on the religious questions of the day. Modern philosophers descended on the subject and offered striking and diverse views on the matter.

Besides influencing the scope of modern philosophy, the background features were instrumental in influencing the methods of modern philosophy and hence its outcomes. For instance, Galileo’s breakthrough had inspired the individual approach as opposed to institutionally determined methods. Most modern philosophers therefore tended to operate outside the established realms and confines. Spinoza is one such example who operated outside his Jewish society and got banished for it.

The empirical approach also weighed heavily on modern philosophers because it had in the preceding period proved to be productive in the sciences. Philosophy also took an analytical approach with focus being on determining meaning and not offering meaning.

Conclusion

The preceding conditions before the rise of modern philosophy cultivated the ground upon which it thrived. The events of the times can be said to have directly, sometimes indirectly given rise to modern philosophy and also shape its concerns and approaches. Modern philosophy is therefore inextricably linked to medieval philosophy.