Descartes and Spinoza

                Rationalism is the ability to use reason and deep thought to come to a conclusion. Descartes and Spinoza go back to Parmenides with their thoughts of reason being more important than the senses. Descartes and Spinoza had their differences but they both shared the idea of rationalizing to come to their conclusions. This somewhat new idea of reasoning and starting from the ground up influenced philosophy. These two philosophers influenced philosophy in a major way with this new way of thinking.

             

   Descartes is considered the father of modern philosophy; he was also the first significant system-builder. This idea of system-building, started with Descartes doubting everything, he started from the ground and built from there. He was considered a rationalist because he didn’t just find answers, he dug deep, doubted everything, and then with his reason he came to his conclusions. He was also considered a rationalist for his new method for solving a philosophical problem/question. As stated before, Descartes doubted everything, however, there was one thing he was certain of: he came to the conclusion that because he thinks he therefore exists. Along these same lines, he came up with a way to “prove” God existed, by saying that because we can think of the idea perfect and because we can create an idea of God, only a perfect being or God could have placed that thought there.

                Spinoza was the first to apply a historic-critical interpretation of the Bible. He took apart the Bible and examined each part, he started from the bottom and went from there, and this is one of the reasons why he is considered a rationalist.  He also geometrically demonstrated ethics; he took apart ethics and started again. He is also considered a rationalist because of his way of breaking apart a certain topic and examining each piece part. He would then use reason and deep thought to come to conclusion.

                Both philosophers started from the ground and built from there. They both used deep thought and cogitate to come up with their conclusions. Both differed from the other in terms of what they chose to break down and analyze and later on conclude, but they both shared this title of rationalist. These two had a great impact on modern philosophy, for now most philosophers start from the bottom and grow with their ideas and conclusions, from the ground up. They both used Parmenides to start their method of philosophizing and then in modern philosophy we have this idea being used again.

                Rationalism is the ability to use reason and deep thought to come to a conclusion. Descartes and Spinoza go back to Parmenides with their thoughts of reason being more important than the senses. Descartes and Spinoza had their differences but they both shared the idea of rationalizing to come to their conclusions. This somewhat new idea of reasoning and starting from the ground up influenced philosophy. These two philosophers influenced philosophy in a major way with this new way of thinking. I never knew that rationalizing could have been so important to philosophy; I knew it was an important part but I didn’t know that it is such a key part in it. I didn’t know that Descartes is considered a father of modern philosophy nor that he was the first to system-build from the ground up, for now so many people start from the ground up that it became a cliché. 

The Two Cultures, Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque

Throughout history we have many different time periods and the reason they are split into periods is because of the difference in beliefs and ideas. We have four different time periods that will be discussed; we have the Two Cultures, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Baroque time periods. All four periods have different ideas and concepts.

In the first chapter on the Two Cultures we see two different cultures which believed different things. We first have the Indo-Europeans who believed that sight was the most important sense. They practiced polytheism, the belief in many gods. They also had a cyclic view on history. The second culture was the Semites who believed that hearing was the most important sense. They practiced monotheism, the belief in one God. They had a linear view on history. Both cultures were close together in time and geographically but they believed two separate things. Ideas are constantly changing and evolving, we can see this here where two very close cultures believe almost opposite of each other. We have contrasting ideas in the same period of time.

In the chapter on the Middle Ages we learn a couple new philosophical ideas/concepts. During the Middle Ages we have St. Augustine who was a Platonist and he was also the person who christianized Plato. We then have St. Thomas Aquinas who christianized Aristotle. Both revolutionized the concept of Christianity. They both gave a logic to Christianity as well. A lot of medieval philosophers took for granted that Christianity was true, and both of these St./philosophers above answered the burning question of whether we must simply believe the Christian revelation or whether we can approach the Christian truths with the help of reason. As we can see, another set of contrasting ideas, but this time the ideas were used in the same way for the same purpose. So we see how two ideas are opposite each other but are occurring during the same time period.

In the chapter on the Renaissance we have some new ideas coming forth. The Renaissance was a time of rebirth, holes or cracks started to appear in the unifying culture of Christianity. During this time, a shift in thought occurred. People started reasoning and thinking for themselves. The ideas of individualism and humanism came into play. Science advanced, along with technology and knowledge. We have a new world view, a transition that is breaking away from the old ways of thinking. Man become valuable and unique. Pantheism, which is the idea that is God is infinite He must be present in everything, became popular. During this time knowledge equaled power. Scientists performed experiments and a heliocentric world picture is put into play. This period exploded with new ideas and new ways of doing things, it was a “rebirth” of ideas/thoughts/concepts. In this period of time we don't have contrasting ideas, but we have an explosion of multiple new ideas. We see how thinking changed from the Two Culture's time and this time. We have new ideas ranging from science to literature to art to philosophy, not contrasting but rather a variety of new ideas.

The last chapter which is about the Baroque, we see, again, new ideas unfold. Baroque means “a pearl of irregular shape” and during this period we have irregularity . We have a dualistic point of view: we now have a “mechanistic universe” and from this we have two separate reactions. One reaction is that of flamboyancy where we have wit and fun and we have total freedom, so what do you do? We have materialism and the idea that man is a machine, the mechanistic universe is a clock. The second reaction is one of piety where we have an obsession with death and the idea of idealism, we have absolute monarchy and everything is a product of mechanical processes. We have Shakespeare with “To be or not to be,” and the idea that life is an illusion, a dream, and it is short. In this period of time we have two ideas coming from the same source, but they both contrast each other, they are the complete opposite of the other. In the same period we have to extremes colliding with each other.

As can be seen we have four different periods and during each period we have different ideas and concepts. We have an evolving want to question and to find answers. Through each period we see this evolution of ideas and it propels us forward. We see how ideas in the same period can contrast each other, but with the contrasting force we also have a force that propels us forward and still in this day and age we have contrasting ideas that push us to go on.