René Descartes (1596-1650)
Born
on March 31, 1596 in La Haye, France to a family of minor nobility, René
Descartes would later come to be considered one of the great 17th
century philosophers and be named the parent of modern philosophy. He helped
usher in the acceptance of science, technology and industry through his
literary works, which helped change skepticism about the debate between
scholastic authority versus the systematic search for truth into a positive
agenda. Some of his theories helped lay the groundwork for future scientific
feats, such as his detailed theory about rainbows eventually leading to Isaac
Newton’s explanation about the breakdown of sunlight. Even today, some of his
philosophical agendas remain relevant to today, such as the cogito (I think,
therefore I am), dualism, and radical skepticism, and have even given rise to
modern epistemology.
Descartes was a college graduate
at the age of eighteen, and the recipient of a law degree by 1616, supposedly
with the intention of following in the footsteps of his father, a man of
parliament. Instead, in 1618 he spent the next 10 years travelling all around
Europe as part of the military. During this time, Descartes met prominent
intellectuals, such as physicist Isaac Beeckman, who encouraged his pursuits. He
has a brief 1 year period at the University of Franeker, during the time he
wrote his first draft on his philosophical work Meditations. He enrolled and stayed the next year at the University
of Leiden before leaving for travels through Denmark and Germany the following
year in order to meet other scholars. By 1933, he finished another work called The World, which was published in 1664
after his death due to the fear of public reprisal.
As his publications continued,
revolving around controversial ideas for the time, Descartes garnered himself
some fame, both the good and the bad, during his lifetime. He eventually took
up a philosophy tutoring position for the Queen of Sweden in September 1649,
before succumbing shortly after to pneumonia on February 11, 1650.
Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)
Born on November 24, 1632 in
Amsterdam, Baruch was born to a Jewish family who had escaped persecution from
Portugal because of the wave of anti-Semitism going on during the time. Because
of the nature of anti-Semitism and Europe throughout history, especially during
his time in life, his Jewish background defined him and played a major role on
his life despite his loose association with the Jewish community throughout the
majority his life. Nonetheless, he achieved critical acclaim after some
posthumous publications; his radical views led him to be defined as one of the
great rationalists of the 17th century.
Spinoza received a traditional
orthodox Jewish education, but despite that he had an interest in the developments
of science and philosophy. He was influenced by a wide range of cultures,
ranging from contact with free-thinking Protestants to works from major Islamic
philosophers like Al Ghazali (who promoted the philosophy of skepticism). These
influences came from the unique culture that had manifested in Amsterdam
because of the religious freedom that the Dutch allowed. His interests, beliefs
and religious skepticism (he was anti-Maimodinean the majority of his life) went
against the prevailing Jewish beliefs during the time, making him infamous
among the Jewish community and eventually led to excommunication (called a
Cherum) later on in his life, around 1656. Despite the Cherum, he became
well-known in the 1660s and started meeting and conversing with other
intellectuals like Gottfried Leibniz and Henry Oldenburg.
In terms of philosophy, Spinoza
was also greatly influenced by some of the well-known thinkers of the time,
such as Descartes, Euclid, and Hobbes. He was a supporter of pantheism
panentheism*. Spinoza took Descartes’ rationalism and proposed that “God exists
only philosophically” while others such as Leibniz tried to find a compromise
between the transcendence of God and pantheism.
Spinoza eventually regretted his
choices and reconciled, which led to writing pieces in favor of Moses Maimonedes and a rereading of the Torah. This led to
him writing three of his famous treatises On the Improvement of the Understanding, Principles of
Cartesian Philosophy, and A Theologico-Political Treatise.
The public’s reaction to some of the anonymously published works were less than
desirable. In response, he cauti0ously worked and held onto some of his other works
until his death in February 1677 in order to be published posthumously.
Notes:
Panentheism, also known as Monistic Monotheism, is a
belief system which posits that the divine – whether as a single God, number of
gods, or other form of "cosmic animating force" – interpenetrates
every part of the universe and extends, timelessly (and, presumably, spacelessly)
beyond it.
Pantheism is a doctrine that
identifies God with the universe, or regards the universe as a manifestation of
God.
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