THE PRELUDE TO MODERN
PHILOSOPHY

Modern
philosophy is an outgrowth of the spirit and work of Roger Bacon, John Duns
Scotus, and William of Ockham. These men claimed that philosophy should be a
free and independent inquiry concerning truth and life.

All modern
philosophy is in quest for the meaning of nature and experience. It rejects the
authority of tradition and works independently of ecclesiastical dogmas and
religious beliefs.

The Catholic Theory Of The State

The
Scholastics had presented a theory of the State which defined the temporal
power of the hierarchy and subordinated the State to the Church. They made
theology supreme and declared that the purpose of all government is human
welfare. The Church is the representative of God on earth and all matters of
State are subservient to the Church. Politics, like philosophy, is therefore
the handmaid of theology.

Opposition To The Catholic Theory Of The State

The
papacy declined in power and prestige and many Catholic writers gradually
forsook the Catholic idea. The Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation laid
the foundation for new thought and the new political theories of modern
history.

The
most radical attack on the Catholic theory came from Niccolo Machiavelli
(1469-1527), an Italian diplomat and Secretary of the Chancellery of the
Council of Ten at Florence. Machiavelli opposed the
political corruption of the Roman Curia and the Italian Government. He claimed
that the united, independent, and sovereign Italian nation must be free from
the domination of the Church in politics, science, and religion.

Christianity
was considered too passive; the old Roman religion was preferred. The best form
of government was republican. In times of corruption (as witnessed in his day),
Machiavelli thought that absolute despotism is needed to realize the ideal of a
strong and independent State, hence his argument in his famous work The
Prince (1515). Machiavelli abhorred existing anarchy and corruption seen in
the secular and ecclesiastical politics of his time. He saw no way out of the
disorder except by force.

New Political Theories Begin To Appear

During
the modern period, the popular sovereignty of the Ruler takes form and natural
law was commending natural rights. Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) and some others
accepted the theory of absolutism, which led to Thomas Hobbes' doctrine of absolutism
and to John Locke's and Rousseau's democracy.

The
doctrine of social contract appeared and was represented by Jean Bodin
(1530-1596); the social contract being committed to the ruler or sovereign. The
notion is growing that the State rests on reason and human nature and the State
is a natural institution. The idea of the sovereignty of the people was taking
root, but absolutism (theoretical unlimited power of the ruler) persisted until
the eighteenth century. Eventually the theories of Locke (England) and Rousseau (France) resulted in movements for
constitutional monarchies or democracies.

The Renaissance and Reformation

The
Renaissance and Reformation created new thinking. The Italian Renaissance
rebelled against authority and Scholasticism. The German Reformation turned
attention to the Bible and the protest of heart and faith against
ecclesiastical mechanization.

The
German Reformation opposed a barren Scholasticism and offered a revived and
rejuvenated evangelical Christianity. It fostered critical reflection and the
tolerance of the scientific spirit, and thus opposed absolutism and
ecclesiastical authority. A few fanatical religious sects grew during this
period. A new Scholastic Theology was in the making through Philip Melanchthon
(co-partner with Martin Luther in the German Reformation) and it recognized the
foundation of Aristotle.

Other
reformers (such as John Calvin) return to Augustine and mysticism, while others
(for instance, Zwingli) follow Neo-Platonism. In the seventeenth century
mysticism finds a strong voice in Jacob Boehme (1575-1642) in his work Aurora. A new philosophy of religion,
built on natural rather than supernatural metaphysics, appears through Herbert
of Cherbury (1583-1648).

The New Humanism

The
new Humanism turned to ancient philosophy, literature, and art. Skepticism
found an able advocate in Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). Despairing reason he
urges a return to uncorrupted nature and revelation. Skepticism kept alive the
spirit of inquiry and fostered the growth of modern science.

Reason
became the authority in science and philosophy. The idea of the individual was
born and paternalism was opposed. Human reason was made the highest authority
in the pursuit of knowledge based on the sciences of external nature. But the
basic doctrines of Christianity are still accepted by the great modern
philosophers: Bacon, Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, and Leibnitz.

The Beginning of Modern Philosophy

Modern
philosophy becomes empirical in tendency with Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley,
and Hume. Criticism awoke, old theological systems with their traditional
authority and ecclesiasticism were challenged. The individual asserted his
independence.

Philosophy
cut loose from theology and nursed the fires of science. Nominalism became
entwined in the natural study of man. Dante eulogized the medieval spirit and
Goethe (in Faust) typified the spirit of the Renaissance.

Nature
philosophies first appeared in Italy, the cradle of learning in this
period of culture, with Cardan and Telesio. Science burst forth in Leonardo da
Vinci (1452-1519), Copernicus (1473-1543), Galileo (1564-1641), Kepler
(1571-1630), and Newton (1642-1727). Pope Leo XIII made
the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas the official philosophy of the Catholic
Church, opposing naturalistic tendencies.

The New Science

Scientific
development appears in Telesio, who founded the Telesian Academy, a naturalistic science society
at Naples. Francis Patrizzi (1529-1597)
combined Telesian principles with Neo-Platonism and Aristotelian forms,
essences, purposes, and ends were replaced by mechanical explanations of nature
determined by fixed laws.

Kepler's
discoveries became the groundwork for modern astronomy. Robert Boyle
(1627-1691) introduced the atomic theory into chemistry. Galileo reasserted the
atomic theory of Democritus (there is neither origin nor decay, everything is
atomic movement). Quantitative relations brought forward mathematical laws and
Leonardo, Kepler, and Galileo took their science from these sources.

Copernicus
built his heliocentric theory of astronomy. Newton discovered the law of
gravitation (1682). Darwin, in the nineteenth century,
pushed these frontiers to apparent conquest. He explained organic forms
organically and mechanically, rejecting all teleological thought such as vital
force and purpose. The first really modern system of philosophy is that of
Giordano Bruno.