Philosophical teachings of the new time. The most famous philosophers of modern times

(late 16th-late 18th centuries)

1. general characteristics era of modern times

2. General characteristics of the philosophy of modern times

3. The main representatives of the philosophy of modern times

General characteristics of the era of the New Age

During the 16th and 17th centuries in the most advanced countries Western Europe in the depths of the feudal system a new, capitalist mode of production develops. The bourgeoisie is turning into an independent class. Feudal proprietors begin to adapt to the developing capitalist relations. An example of this is the fencing of pastures in England, as wool is essential for the textile industry.

At this time, a number of bourgeois revolutions take place: the Dutch (late 16th century), English (mid-17th century), French (1789-1794).

Natural science is developing. This is due to the needs of developing production.

At this time, the process of secularization of the spiritual life of society takes place.

Education ceases to be ecclesiastical and becomes secular.

General characteristics of the philosophy of modern times

This time is characterized by a transition from religious, idealistic philosophy to philosophical materialism and the materialism of natural scientists, since materialism corresponds to the interests of the sciences. Both begin their criticism of scholasticism by raising the question of the cognizability of the world. There are two currents in epistemology: sensationalism and rationalism. Sensationalism - this is a doctrine in epistemology, recognizing sensations as the only source of knowledge. Sensationalism is inextricably linked with empiricism- all knowledge is grounded in experience and through experience. Rationalism- a doctrine that recognizes reason as the only source of knowledge.

However, the materialism of modern times could not move away from metaphysics. This is due to the fact that the laws of development and movement of the world are understood only as mechanical ones. Therefore, the materialism of this era is metaphysical and mechanistic.

The rationalism of modern times is characterized by dualism. Two principles of the world are recognized: matter and thinking.

Methods of knowledge of the world are being developed. Sensationalism uses induction- the movement of thought from the particular to the general. Rationalism is based on deduction- the movement of thought from the general to the particular.

The main representatives of the philosophy of modern times

Francis Bacon (1561-1626). He is the founder of empiricism. Cognition is nothing but the image of the external world in the mind of man. It begins with sensory knowledge that needs experimental verification. But Bacon was not a supporter of extreme empiricism. This is evidenced by his differentiation of experience on fruitful experience(provides direct benefit to the person) and luminous experience(the purpose of which is the knowledge of the laws of phenomena and the properties of things) . Experiments should be set according to a certain method - induction(the movement of thought from the particular to the general). This method provides for five stages of the study, each of which is recorded in the corresponding table:

1) Table of presence (listing of all occurrences of the phenomenon)

2) Table of deviation or absence (here all cases of absence of this or that sign, indicator in the presented subjects are entered)

3) Table of comparison or degrees (comparison of an increase or decrease in a given feature in the same subject)

4) Rejection table (exception of individual cases that do not occur in this phenomenon, are not typical for it)

5) Table of "discarding fruits" (forming a conclusion based on what is common in all tables)

He considered the clogging of people's consciousness to be the main obstacle to the knowledge of nature. idols- false ideas about the world.

Idols of the genus - attributing properties to natural phenomena that are not inherent in them.

The idols of the cave are caused by the subjectivity of human perception of the surrounding world.

The idols of the market or the square are generated by the misuse of words.

Theater idols - arise as a result of subordinating the mind to erroneous views.

René Descartes (1596-1650). The basis of the philosophical worldview of Descartes is the dualism of soul and body. There are two substances independent of each other: non-material (property - thinking) and material (property - extension). Above these two substances, God rises as the true substance.

In his views on the world, Descartes acts as a materialist. He put forward the idea of the natural development of the planetary system and the development of life on earth according to the laws of nature. He views the bodies of animals and humans as complex mechanical machines. God created the world and by his action preserves in matter the amount of movement and rest that he put into it during creation.

At the same time, in psychology and epistemology, Descartes acts as an idealist. In the theory of knowledge, he stands on the position of rationalism. Illusions of the senses make the readings of the senses unreliable. Errors in reasoning make the conclusions of reason doubtful. Therefore, it is necessary to start with a universal radical doubt. What is certain is that doubt exists. But doubt is an act of thinking. Maybe my body doesn't really exist. But I know directly that as a doubter, a thinker, I exist. I think, therefore I am. All reliable knowledge is in the mind of a person and is innate.

Knowledge is based on intellectual intuition, which gives rise to such a simple clear idea in the mind that it is not in doubt. Reason, on the basis of these intuitive views on the basis of deduction, must deduce all the necessary consequences.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). The substance of the world is matter. The movement of bodies occurs according to mechanical laws: all movements from body to body are transmitted only by means of a push. People and animals are complex mechanical machines, whose actions are entirely determined by external influences. Animated automata can store the impressions received and compare them with the previous ones.

The source of knowledge can only be sensations - ideas. In the future, the initial ideas are processed by the mind.

He distinguishes two states of human society: natural and civil. The state of nature is based on the instinct of self-preservation and is characterized by a "war of all against all". Therefore, it is necessary to seek peace, for which everyone must give up the right to everything and thereby transfer part of his right to others. This transfer is accomplished by means of a natural contract, the conclusion of which leads to the emergence of civil society, that is, the state. Hobbes recognized absolute monarchy as the most perfect form of the state.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716). Since every thing is active and not passive, that is, every thing has an action, then each of them is a substance. Every substance is a "unit" of being, or monad. A monad is not a material, but a spiritual unit of being, a kind of spiritual atom. Thanks to monads, matter has the ability of eternal self-movement.

Each monad is both form and matter, for any material body has certain form. The form is not material and represents a purposively acting force, and the body is a mechanical force. Each monad is both the basis of its actions and their goal.

As substances, monads are independent of each other. There is no physical interaction between them. However, monads are not absolutely isolated: each monad reflects the entire world order, the entire aggregate of monads.

Development is only a change of initial forms through infinitesimal changes. Everywhere in nature there is a continuous process of changing things. In the monad there is a continuous change arising from its inner principle. An infinite variety of moments, revealed in the development of the monad, is hidden in it. It is perfect and there is a performance.

Leibniz calls the power of representation inherent in monads perception. This is the unconscious state of the monads. Apperception - it is consciousness of one's own inner state. This ability is peculiar only to the highest monads - souls.

In epistemology, it relies on the idea of innate ideas. Innate ideas are not ready-made concepts, but only the possibilities of the mind, which have yet to be realized. Therefore, the human mind is like a block of marble with veins that outline the outlines of a future figure that a sculptor can sculpt from it.

He distinguishes two types of truths: factual truths and metaphysical (eternal) truths. Eternal truths are sought with the help of reason. They do not need justification by experience. Truths of fact are revealed only through experience.

Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza(1632-1677) taught that essence is only one substance - nature, which is the cause of itself. Nature is, on the one hand, creative nature, and on the other, created nature. As a creative nature, it is a substance, or, which is the same thing, a god. By identifying nature and God, Spinoza denies the existence of a supernatural being, dissolves God in nature, and thereby substantiates the materialistic understanding of nature. Substantiates an important distinction between essence and existence. The being of a substance is both necessary and free, since there is no cause that would impel a substance to action, except its own essence. The individual thing does not follow from substance as from its proximate cause. It can only follow from another finite thing. Therefore, every single thing does not have freedom. The world of concrete things must be distinguished from substance. Nature exists by itself, independent of the mind and outside the mind. An infinite mind could comprehend the infinity of substances in all its forms and aspects. But our mind is not infinite. Therefore, he perceives the existence of substance as infinite only in two aspects: as extension and as thinking (attributes of substance). Man as an object of knowledge is no exception. Man is nature.

2. Outstanding philosophers of modern times

2.1 Francis Bacon

The first and greatest explorer of nature in modern times was the English philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626). The philosophy of F. Bacon was a continuation of the naturalism of the Renaissance, which at the same time he freed from pantheism, mysticism and various superstitions. Continuation and at the same time its completion. The remnants of organic views were combined in it with the beginnings of the analytical method, poetry with sober rationalism, criticism with an impatient desire to embrace everything and speak out about everything. She embodied with surprising concentration that last powerful surge of Renaissance culture, which gave rise to the belated, short-term and intense English Renaissance, this bright sunset of the entire Western European Renaissance, which almost merged with the dawn of the coming Enlightenment. Both in his intentions and in reality, Bacon played the role of a reformer in philosophy.

The classification of sciences according to Bacon is an alternative to the Aristotelian, and has long been recognized as fundamental by many European scientists and philosophers. The division of all sciences into historical, poetic and philosophical is determined by Bacon by a psychological criterion.

Thus, history is knowledge based on memory; it is divided into natural history, which describes the phenomena of nature (including miracles and all kinds of deviations), and civil history. Poetry is based on imagination. Philosophy is based on reason. It is divided into natural philosophy, divine philosophy (natural theology) and human philosophy (studying morality and social phenomena). In natural philosophy, Bacon singles out the theoretical (the study of causes, with preference given to material and effective causes over formal and purposive), and practical ("natural magic") parts. As a natural philosopher, Bacon sympathized with the atomistic tradition of the ancient Greeks, but did not fully subscribe to it.

We are interested in Bacon, first of all, as a thinker who discovered new era in philosophy, whose writings are marked by criticism of traditional philosophy. Bacon does not criticize the views of the philosophers of the past, but the tradition as a whole. He proposes to replace the "philosophy of words" with the "philosophy of deeds". The function of knowledge is different than that which tradition ascribes to it - knowledge is social in nature and must be stated in a generally accessible language. The guilt of the philosophers of the past, according to Bacon, lies primarily in the fact that they made philosophy an empty instrument of superiority in disputes, depriving it of considerations of practical benefit and service to society as a worthy goal. Meanwhile, philosophy should produce, serve to increase the well-being of man.

In his research, he embarked on the path of experience and drew attention to the exceptional significance and necessity of observations and experiments to discover the truth. Bacon distinguishes between 2 types of experiments:

1. "fruitful" - the goal, bringing direct benefit to a person;

2. "light-bearing" - the goal, not immediate benefit, but the knowledge of the laws and properties of things.

The prerequisite for the transformation of science is a critique of all existing scholasticism and a doubt about the truth of everything that has hitherto seemed to be true. However, doubt is only a means of finding the way to the truth. The unreliability of hitherto known knowledge is due to the unreliability of the speculative method of inference and proof. He believed that philosophy should be primarily practical. He considered the supreme goal of science to be the dominance of man over nature, and “one can dominate nature only by obeying its laws. Bacon proclaimed the famous motto: "Knowledge is power."

In science " we are talking not only about contemplative good, but truly about human wealth and happiness and about all kinds of power in practice. For man, the servant and interpreter of nature, does and understands as much as he has grasped in the order of nature by deed or thought; and beyond that he does not know and cannot. No forces can break or break the chain of causes; and nature is conquered only by submission to it. Powerful is the one who can, and maybe the one who knows.

The path leading to knowledge is observation, analysis, comparison and experiment. The scientist, according to Bacon, should go in his research from the observation of single facts to broad generalizations, i.e. apply the inductive method of cognition.

In his treatise The New Organon, Bacon developed a new understanding of the tasks of science. It was he who kindled the torch of a new science - the methodology of experimental natural science, which he claimed as a guarantee of the future power of man. By following this methodology, a rich harvest of scientific discoveries can be reaped. But experience can give reliable knowledge only when the consciousness is free from false "ghosts" - idols:

“Ghosts of the race” are errors arising from the fact that a person judges nature but by analogy with the life of people;

"Ghosts of the cave" are errors of an individual nature, depending on the upbringing, tastes, habits of individuals;

"Ghosts of a jerk" are the habits of using current ideas and opinions in judging the world without a critical attitude towards them;

"Phantoms of the Theater" is associated with blind faith in authorities. Not to refer to any authorities - such was the principle of modern science, which chose Horace's saying as a motto: "I am not obliged to swear by anyone's words, whoever he may be." Bacon saw the true connection of things in the definition of natural causality.

In The Great Restoration of the Sciences, Bacon first formulated his idea of a universal reform of human knowledge on the basis of the establishment of an experimental method of research and discovery. Bacon wrote: “In order to penetrate deeper into the secrets of nature itself ... we must not hesitate to enter and penetrate into all such hiding places and caves, if only we have one goal - the study of truth.” If we remember how little actual scientific truth was known in Bacon's time, we will be even more surprised at the amazing insight of his mind.

The originality of the intellectual yoke of scholasticism was reflected not only in the regulation of the freedom of scientific thought by religious dogmas and the prescriptions of authorities, but also in the absence of any strict criteria for distinguishing truth from fiction. Scholasticism was a "book" science, that is, it used information obtained from books. What was lacking was not so much in ideas as in a method for obtaining new discoveries, in that solid foundation on which the only building of critically verified and at the same time positive scientific knowledge could be erected - in the organization of effective experimental research. This circumstance was fully recognized by Bacon and placed at the forefront of both his criticism and his method.

His merit, in particular, lies in the fact that he clearly emphasized that scientific knowledge stems from experience, not just from direct sensitive data, but precisely from purposeful organized experience, experiment. Moreover, science cannot be built simply on the immediate data of feeling.

In the treatise On the Dignity and Multiplication of the Sciences, we find an interesting analysis of scientific experience such as "Pan's hunt", where Bacon analyzes various ways setting up experiments and modifying experiments, in particular, changing, spreading, transferring, inverting, amplifying and connecting experiments. Bacon concludes his consideration of a scientific experiment with such wonderful words: “... there is no need to lose heart and despair if experiments to which so much effort has been devoted do not lead to the desired result. Of course, the success of the experience is much more pleasant, but the failure often enriches us with new knowledge. And one must always remember (we repeat this incessantly) that one should strive even more persistently for luminiferous experiments than for fruitful ones.

Bacon considered it necessary to create correct method, with the help of which it would be possible to gradually ascend from single facts to broad generalizations. In ancient times, all discoveries were made only spontaneously, while the correct method should be based on experiments (purposefully set experiments), which should be systematized in "natural history". In general, induction appears in Bacon not only as one of the types of logical inference, but also as logic. scientific discovery, methodology for developing concepts based on experience. Bacon sets himself the task of formulating the principle of scientific induction, "which would produce division and selection in experience, and by proper exceptions and rejections would draw the necessary conclusions."

In the case of induction, we, generally speaking, have an incomplete experience, and Bacon understands the need to develop such effective means that would allow, in modern terms, to carry out the most complete and deep analysis of the information contained in the premises of the inductive conclusion.

Let us list some features of Bacon's interpretation of induction, which connect the proper logical part of Bacon's teaching with his analytical methodology and philosophical metaphysics.

First, the means of induction are intended to reveal the forms of "simple properties," or "nature," as Bacon calls them, into which, generally speaking, all concrete physical bodies are decomposed.

Secondly, the task of Baconian induction is to reveal the “form”, in peripatetic terminology, the “formal” cause, and by no means the “acting” or “material”, which, in his opinion, are private and transient and therefore cannot be permanently and essentially connected. with certain simple properties.

He thought of induction not as a means of narrowly empirical research, but as a method for developing fundamental theoretical concepts and axioms of natural science, or, as he put it, natural philosophy.

So, Bacon's doctrine of induction is closely connected with his philosophical ontology, with analytical methodology, with the doctrine of simple natures and forms, with the concept different types causal dependence.

Thus, we can confidently call Francis Bacon one of the founders of modern experimental science. But even more important, perhaps, is the fact that the pioneer of natural science methodology did not treat his teaching as the ultimate truth. He directly and frankly put him face to face with the future. “We do not say, however, that nothing can be added to this,” wrote Bacon. “On the contrary, considering the mind not only in its own capacity, but also in its connection with things, we must establish that the art of discovery can grow along with discoveries.”

Bacon decisively rethinks the subject and tasks of science. Unlike antiquity, when nature was treated contemplatively, the task of turning scientific knowledge to the benefit of humanity becomes: “knowledge is power”, Bacon focuses on the search for discoveries not in books, like scholastics, but in the production process and for it. He substantiates the importance of the inductive method (from single facts to general propositions).

its source; about the correlation of sensual, experienced and rational in cognition; about the cognitive role of sensory and abstract experience, about logical thinking, about truth. In addressing these issues, the philosophers of the New Age divided into two main areas: empiricism (Bacon, Hobbes, Locke) and rationalism (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz). Rationalism, connected mainly with the development of mathematics, ...

The calm mind of an ancient thinker is not a frozen Mind of the Middle Ages, formed from God, it is a mind capable of changing, moving away from itself, it is a mind that meets both the historical, social and technical dynamism of modern times. Having come to the conclusion that "the method is necessary for finding the truth," Descartes comes to grips with its development. " The main secret method" consists, according to him, in ...

... (1561-1626) is considered the founder of the experimental science of modern times. He was the first philosopher to set himself the task of creating a scientific method. In his philosophy, for the first time, the main principles characterizing the philosophy of modern times were formulated. Bacon came from a noble family and throughout his life was engaged in social and political activities: he was a lawyer, a member of the House of Commons, Lord ...

The era of the Renaissance. It will touch upon a wide range of issues relating to various aspects of natural and social life. It had a great influence on the further development of culture and philosophy. The era of the Renaissance (Renaissance), covering the period from the XIV to the beginning of the XVII centuries, falls on the last centuries of medieval feudalism. It is hardly legitimate to deny the originality of this era, considering it, according to ...

federal state educational institution higher professional education

"Financial University under the Government Russian Federation»

Vladimir branch

Faculty: Correspondence Faculty of Economics

Department: philosophy, history and law

Specialty: Bachelor of Economics

Test

By discipline: "Philosophy"

On the topic: "Philosophy of the New Age"

Option number 10

Work completed:

Student: Kuznetsova Polina Sergeevna.

course, direction: "Economics 080100"

Group: evening "ZB2-EK102"

Lecturer: Manuilov Nikolay Vasilievich

Vladimir 2014

INTRODUCTION

1. empiricism of modern philosophy

2. RATIONALISM OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE NEW TIME

3. NAME THE MAIN SOCIO-POLITICAL CONCEPTS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE NEW TIME, LIST THE SIMILARITY AND DIFFERENCES OF THE CONCEPTS OF HOBBES AND LOCKE ON THE STATE AND ON THE RIGHTS AND FREEDOM OF THE PERSON

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

The period, which is commonly called the New Time, covers the 17th-19th centuries. In this era, man was able to embrace the world as a whole, to present it clearly and distinctly. The problem was what means he used for this, how he argued the truth. Knowledge at that time was the main achievement of mankind. The interaction between philosophy and science has intensified. It was at this time that the categories of substance and method were introduced into active circulation. The development of philosophical thought was greatly influenced by the experimental research methods established in the natural sciences, and the mathematical understanding of natural processes. The content of philosophy has become closer to general scientific methods research.

This great historical period is characterized by the struggle against the feudal and absolutist orders. The first bourgeois revolutions took place precisely at this time. In the process of struggle against the estate of the feudal lords of the state and the Church, philosophy was freed from religious pressure and control. In philosophy, more attention began to be paid to social problems, its practical orientation intensified.

The foundations of the reliability of knowledge, first of all, relied on the main questions of the philosophy of the Middle Ages, however, modern knowledge of philosophy was carried by such figures of the New Age as Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume. These figures gave various definitions method and presented their respective concepts. In philosophy, two main approaches to the analysis of natural and social processes began to be conditionally affirmed: empirical and rationalistic. Empiricism and rationalism became the two main currents of Western European philosophical thought in the 17th century.

The boundary between these two approaches is sharp, but it emphasizes, above all, the importance of the question of the source of knowledge. Empiricism is interpreted as a direction of philosophical thought, according to which there is nothing in the mind that would not be in the senses. And rationalism is such a direction, according to which the source of knowledge is the mind that we originally have, with its predispositions (the so-called innate ideas).

If we consider the development of philosophy as a whole during this period, then this is the stage when all traditional questions, as well as "applied" ethical, political and aesthetic questions, were resolved depending on the understanding of the foundation of science.

During the Modern Age, the first European scientific societies and academies are organized. Under the influence of these changes, the audience of philosophy began to expand. Social classes and groups began to use it as a spiritual weapon. And since science and active socio-political processes were more common in Europe, the shifts in philosophical thought during this period were most developed in Europe. Philosophy did not develop rapidly in India, China and the Muslim East, since these countries were oriented towards old traditions.

1. EMPIRISM OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE MODERN TIME

The historical prerequisites for the beginning of a new stage in the development of philosophical thought were profound changes in society and its culture. At the same time, there were also qualitative shifts in spiritual life, the essence of which was the transition from the religious worldview of the Middle Ages to the scientific and philosophical thinking of the Renaissance and the New Age. The philosophy of the Renaissance revised not only the views on nature, man, but also on society and the state. The ideas of civil society and the state, and not of divine will, began to emerge from the real needs of people.

The problem of social justice occupied one of the central places in philosophical views society during the Renaissance. The development of this problem is most associated with the names of Thomas More (1478-1535) and Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639). T. More expressed his understanding of social justice and the whole set of issues related to it in the famous work "Utopia" (1516), and T. Campanella in the no less famous work "City of the Sun" (1602). The authors tell about the life of happy people in many details and details, based on which the main thing that unites people is their equality among themselves: they have the same way of life, the same dwellings and clothes, they are united in their thoughts, etc. These works are divided among themselves in time for many years, but the views of their authors on a number of fundamental issues were quite close.

The problem of social justice is inextricably linked in the worldview of both More and Campanella with the problem of happiness. Both were humanists inspired by the idea of a happy life for all people. Happiness is possible, they believed, only in the case when there is no private property, and all people work, i.e. no social inequality. The absence of private property and universal labor are the basis of the equality of citizens.

These ideas were first substantiated by the outstanding thinker Niccolò Machiavelli (1469 - 1527). Machiavelli believed that state structure society arises not by the will of God, but from the needs of people, their interest in protecting, preserving their property, property, life. He was sure that, by their nature, vicious people need a strong state power, concentrated in the hands of the ruler.

The next, more decisive step on the paths of making decisions in understanding the methods of cognition and developing the methodology of scientific research was made in modern times. One of the main currents of Western European philosophical thought in the modern period was empiricism.

Empiricism (from the Greek empeiria - experience) is a direction of philosophical thought that focused on experimental natural science, which considered experience as a source of knowledge and a criterion for its truth, and, above all, a scientifically organized experience or experiment.

The founder of empiricism was the English philosopher and politician Francis Bacon (1561-1626). He considers science and knowledge as the highest value with practical significance. Bacon expressed his attitude to science in the aphorism "Knowledge is power". In developing his philosophy, he relied on the achievements of the former natural philosophy and the results of the experimental sciences. F. Bacon saw a contradiction between the scholasticism of the peripatetics and the methodological basis of the developing natural science. He set himself the goal of creating a scientific method. God, nature and man for Bacon were the subject of philosophy. In his opinion, philosophy should be guided by science, focusing on nature. And theology, from his point of view, had to remain outside of science. He believed that the task of natural philosophy is to know the unity of nature, to give a "copy of the Universe."

Without rejecting the significance of deduction in obtaining new knowledge, f. Bacon brought to the fore the inductive method of scientific knowledge, based on the results of the experiment.

According to Bacon, the development of philosophy is hindered by delusions and prejudices. He called them "idols". He identified four types of "idols". "Idols" were to be banished - such is the requirement of his method. He considered the dependence of the mind on the power of impressions as “idols of the family”. Man should not, in his opinion, strive to interpret nature by analogy with himself. "Idols of the cave" are generated by the passions of man. This individual delusion arises from the fact that each person looks at the world as if "from his own cave." He believed that along with the language, people unconsciously assimilate all the prejudices of past generations - these are the "idols of the market." Bacon said that one should not take words for things, because they are only names. And he considered blind faith in authorities to be the "Idols of the Theatre". Bacon believed that the mind should be cleansed of idols, and only practical experience should be considered the source of knowledge.

Empirical Philosophy f. Bacon and his appeal to experience had a strong influence on the development of natural science in the 17th century. T. Hobbes and D. Locke are among the most famous of his successors who developed his ideas.

John Locke (1632 - 1704) was an English philosopher, economist and psychologist. In his opinion, there were no innate ideas, including the idea of God. He believed that all ideas are formed from external (sensation) and internal (reflection) experience. Simple ideas are excited in the mind by the primary qualities of bodies - extension, figure, density, movement. Secondary qualities are not similar to the properties of bodies themselves. These qualities are color, sound, smell and taste. But both primary and secondary qualities are objective. Ideas, in his opinion, acquired from experience, are only material for knowledge.

Thomas Hobbes (1588 - 1679) was an English philosopher who developed the doctrine of mechanistic materialism. He was a theorist of society and the state. He called his doctrines of philosophy physics. But in his opinion, the world is a huge collection of individual bodies subject to the laws mechanical movement. Hobbes argued that experience gives only a vague, chaotic "probable" knowledge, while a person receives reliable knowledge on a rational level. Deriving all ideas from sensations, Hobbes developed the doctrine of the processing of ideas by comparison, combination and division.

George Berkeley (1685 - 1753) was a representative of subjective idealism. The goal of his philosophical work was the crushing of materialism and the justification of "immaterialism" (as he called idealism). He defended and promoted religious moral teachings. For him, there was only one spiritual substance - this is "spirit". He believed that man depends on the spirit, that the spirit creates everything in everything. From his point of view, non-religious people have limited knowledge. As a result, they are mistaken, believing that matter is a finite substance. J. Breckley relies on the teachings of J. Locke about "primary" and "secondary" qualities. Emphasizing the "secondary" qualities, he considers them primary. He argued: "To exist is to be perceived."

The English philosopher, psychologist and historian Hume David (1711 - 1776) developed the subjective-idealistic tradition in the spirit of agnosticism in the philosophy of modern times. At the center of his thinking was the problem of man. One of Hume's creative explorations was judgments about causality. He believed that regularity and conditioning are inherent only in our perception of the world, but not in the objective world itself. He called the three elements of causality the spatial adjacency of cause and effect, the precedence of cause to effect, and necessary generation. Mind, according to Hume, is a set of our impressions and ideas. Hume also argued that peace and justice will overcome evil and violence.

2. RATIONALISM OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE NEW TIME

Features of rationalism of the 17th century. associated with the widespread use among scientists of mathematics as a model of scientific knowledge. The rational-deductive method was transferred from mathematics to philosophy. In philosophy, as well as in mathematics, knowledge was deduced and substantiated. Mathematicians believed that experience is unreliable, unstable, changeable and always limited. And so it was believed that knowledge is achievable only by rational means. Philosophy Locke Rationalist Hobbes

Rationalism (from lat. Ratio - mind) - a direction of philosophical thought, focused on mathematics, considering the mind as main source knowledge and the highest criterion of its truth.

The French scientist and philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650) is considered the founder of the rationalist trend in philosophy. Being a mathematician, he focused on deductive-mathematical methods of cognition. Starting with total skepticism, he questions everything, arguing that one cannot doubt only the fact of doubt. Consequently, Descartes considered thinking to be the only indisputable thing. "Thinking", according to Descartes, is an independent substance. The second component of the basis of our world is "extension". He argued that these two substances freely penetrate each other without touching. In his opinion, only God can unite thinking and extension in man. Descartes considered the basic rational ideas of our soul not acquired, but innate. To these ideas, he attributed the ideas of God, space, time, judgments such as "the whole is greater than the part", etc.

In his rationalist methodology, Descartes goes from philosophical propositions to particular propositions of specific sciences, and from them to specific knowledge. His system of justification of knowledge was continued in the system of knowledge of the Dutch philosopher Benedict Spinoza (1632 - 1677). The only thing that can be common between two substances, Spinoza considered nature.

According to the ideas of Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716), the world consists of many substances - monads. A monad must be simple and indivisible; moreover, it cannot be extended because of the infinite divisibility of space.

Another rationalist philosopher Nicholas of Cusa (1401 - 1464) was a clergyman, and from his youth he was fond of many sciences. Interest in the sciences was reflected in his worldview, so his views did not completely fit into religious ideas. He clarified the question of the relationship between God and the world. He believed that God is something more perfect than nature. For Kuzansky, God is everything, the absolute maximum, which, at the same time, is not something outside the world, but is in unity with it. God, embracing all things, contains the world in himself. Such an interpretation of the relationship between God and the world characterizes the philosophical teachings of N. Kuzansky as pantheism. Kuzansky defended the position on the coincidence of the absolute maximum and the absolute minimum, recognized the infinity of the absolute maximum, thereby breaking with the statement about the spatial and temporal finiteness of the world. According to N. Kuzansky, a person has three types of mind: feeling (i.e. sensation and imagination), reason and reason. N. Kuzansky considered the mind limited, not connected with the mind. He criticized dogmatic scholasticism, which did not go beyond dogmatic reason. In this regard, he highly appreciated the cognitive significance of experience and experiment in the knowledge of natural phenomena.

The desire for an in-depth and reliable knowledge of nature was reflected in the work of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). His theoretical developments and experimental research contributed not only to changing the image of the world, but also ideas about science, about the relationship between theory and practice. Leonardo da Vinci, a brilliant artist, a great scientist, a sculptor, a talented architect, argued that any knowledge is generated by experience and completed in experience. But only theory can give true reliability to the results of experimentation. Combining the development of new means of artistic language with theoretical generalizations, he created an image of a person that meets the humanistic ideals of the High Renaissance. The high ethical content is expressed in the strict laws of his composition, a clear system of gestures and facial expressions of the characters in his works. The humanistic ideal is embodied in the portrait of Mona Lisa Gioconda.

The greatest achievement of the Renaissance was the creation by the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543) of the heliocentric system of the world. He believed that the Earth is not a fixed center of the world, but rotates around its axis and at the same time around the Sun, which is in the center of the world. With his discovery, Copernicus managed to refute the geocentric system recognized by the church and substantiate a new, heliocentric system of views on the structure of the world, in which man was already deprived of a privileged place in the universe. It followed from this idea that humanity with its planet turned out to be not the main and beloved creation of God, the distinguished center of the Universe, but just one of many natural phenomena.

Since the works of Copernicus were published after his death, he did not have time to feel the persecution of the Church. More tragic was the fate of one of his adherents - Giordano Bruno.

Giordano Bruno (1548 - 1600) expressed the most radically active and transformative attitude towards reality in the Renaissance. Bruno was a great danger to the church, because. in addition to his purely scientific views, he also spoke out against feudal privileges, declared traditional Christian dogmas to be superstitions. He paid great attention to the development of industry, scientific knowledge, and the use of the forces of nature in the industrial process. In his works, he sharply opposed the dominance catholic church.

Bruno's main idea is the thesis about the infinity of the Universe. He believed that the universe itself is motionless, but inside it there is a continuous movement. At the same time, Bruno abandons the idea of an external prime mover, and relies on the principle of self-movement of matter. The position of the infinity of the Universe prompted Bruno to put forward an even more daring idea - about the existence in the Universe of an innumerable number of worlds similar to ours. This worldview forced Bruno to rethink the idea of God. Thus, G. Bruno represented God not as a special person occupying a special, central place in the Universe, but in his own way, as something immersed in nature, dissolved in it. Bruno identifies God with nature and is unthinkable outside the material world. This is the difference between the naturalistic pantheism of D. Bruno and the mystical pantheism of N. Cusa.

Pantheism was opposed to the theocentrism that was widespread until that time, considering God as a special person located at the center of the universe. For your worldview eight recent years J. Bruno spent in prisons, where they tried to force him to renounce his views. In 1600 philosopher who stubbornly adheres to his ideas, by decision church court was burned in Rome.

NAME THE MAIN SOCIO-POLITICAL CONCEPTS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE NEW TIME, LIST THE SIMILARITY AND DIFFERENCES OF THE CONCEPTS OF HOBBES AND LOCKE ON THE STATE AND ON THE RIGHTS AND FREEDOM OF THE PERSON

In modern times, the theories of natural law and the social contract are freed from their previous theological justification. At the same time, they become the basis for a rational understanding of society and the state. The acceptance of the social contract theory by legal thought creates opportunities for various political concepts: either in favor of monarchical power, or against it, i.e. for the benefit of society.

Hobbes is considered a classic of political and legal thought, for the first time in modern times he developed a systematic doctrine of the state and law. His teachings have influenced the development of social thought to this day. Hobbes considered the state to be a "mechanical monster" created for natural reasons, not according to God's will. It arose on the basis of a social contract from a natural state existence, when people lived disunitedly and were in a state of "war against everyone." He believed that the state was established in order to ensure world peace and protect personal security. He considered the best form of government to be an absolute monarchy, embodying unlimited power. He believed that sovereignty was absolute.

Morality, Hobbes argued, is based on the selfish desire for self-preservation, therefore moral values are relative. Hobbes considered civil peace to be the greatest blessing for man.

J. Lockstal tend to interpret the state of nature as the equality and freedom of individuals. He used the theory of the social contract to justify the restriction of monarchical power by society, creating the theoretical prerequisites for liberal democracy and constitutionalism.

Locke's contribution lies in the fact that he gave a holistic and systematic concept of the social contract, understood as a transitional stage from the state of nature to civil society. He substantiated the thesis of consent as the main condition of such an agreement, pointed to property relations, political freedom and human rights as fundamental principles of civil society. Locke expressed these ideas in a clear and accessible form, which contributed to their widespread dissemination. He devoted the work "Two treatises on government" (1660) to socio-political problems, on which Locke worked for more than ten years. His works appeared theoretical basis struggle of parliament against the absolute power of the monarch. Locke is not embarrassed even by the reproach that this theory leads to civil war. The royal power becomes the object of his criticism. In his doctrine of forms of government, Locke distinguishes several basic types according to who holds the supreme or legislative power. This is a perfect democracy, an oligarchy, a monarchy (which is divided into hereditary and elective) and, finally, a mixed form of government. It is to her that the thinker gives preference. Locke himself leans towards the form of government that has traditionally existed in England: the king, the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

CONCLUSION

As a result, in considering the philosophy of the New Age, we can say that it had its own obvious features. Philosophers continue to find out what is more important, what is primary, whether the idea generates matter, or vice versa, etc. At the same time, philosophy began to reorient itself towards the problems of the theory of knowledge. Great was the need to develop the methodology of philosophy. The rapid development of science turned out to be the basis for a large number of concepts of knowledge, scientists each developed their own methodology of knowledge.

Scientists of this time interpreted the fundamental principles of the world in a new way. Some completely questioned the idea of God, others believed that only he connects all substances together. Many at that time adhered to the positions of pantheism, for which they were persecuted by the Church. God began to be more often interpreted not as a concrete person, but as a substance dissolved in all nature.

And at the same time, the philosophy of modern times stood firmly on the ideals of the era of humanism. Man, his reason, his morality remained at the center of philosophical systems. The theory of the social contract that appeared at that time to justify the restriction of monarchical power on the part of society created the basis for solving the problems of politics, the state and society. The ideal was a unified state guaranteeing law and peace to its citizens.

Attempts to create new visions of the world were fraught with great difficulties, because it was an era of great contradictions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Alekseev P.V. History of philosophy: textbook. - M.: Prospect, 2010 - 240s.

Balashov L.E. Philosophy: Textbook / L.E. Balashov. - 4th ed., corrected. and additional - M.: Publishing and Trade Corporation "Dashkov and Co", 2012. - 612p.

Ostrovsky E.V. Philosophy: Textbook / Ostrovsky E.V. - M.: Vuzovsky textbook: INFRA-M, 2012. - 313p.

Philosophy: textbook / A.V. Apollonov, V.V. Vasiliev, F.I. Girenok [and others]; ed. A.F. Zotova, V.V. Mironova, A.V. Razin. - 6th ed., revised. and additional - M.: Prospekt, 2013. - 672 p.

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Starting from the 17th century. natural science, astronomy, mathematics, and mechanics are rapidly developing; the development of science could not but influence philosophy.

In philosophy, the doctrine of the omnipotence of reason and limitless possibilities scientific research.

characteristic of modern philosophy is strong materialistic tendency arising primarily from experimental natural science.

Major representatives of the philosophy of modern times are:

(England);
Thomas Hobbes (England);
John Locke (England);
(France);
(Holland);
Gottfried Leibniz (Germany).

Problems of modern philosophy

In the philosophy of modern times, much attention is paid to the problems of being and substance - ontology, especially when it comes to movement, space and time.

The problems of substance and its properties are of interest to literally everyone, because the task of science and philosophy (to promote the health and beauty of man, as well as increase his power over nature) led to an understanding of the need to study the causes of phenomena, their essential forces.

In the philosophy of this period, two approaches to the concept of "substance" appear:

ontological understanding of substance as the ultimate foundation of being, the founder - Francis Bacon (1561-1626);
epistemological understanding of the concept of "substance", its necessity for scientific knowledge, the founder - John Locke (1632-1704).

According to Locke, ideas and concepts have their source in the external world, material things. Material bodies have only quantitative features, there is no qualitative variety of matter: material bodies differ from each other only in size, figure, movement and rest (primary qualities). Smells, sounds, colors, tastes are secondary qualities, they, Locke believed, arise in the subject under the influence of primary qualities.

English philosopher David Hume(1711-1776) was looking for answers to being, speaking out against the materialistic understanding of substance. He, rejecting the real existence of material and spiritual substance, believed that there is an “idea” of substance, under which the association of human perception is summed up, which is inherent in ordinary, and not scientific knowledge.

Features of the philosophy of modern times

The philosophy of modern times took a huge step in the development (epistemology), the main ones were:

problems of philosophical scientific method;
methodology of human cognition of the external world;
connections of external and internal experience;
the task of obtaining reliable knowledge. Two main epistemological directions have emerged:
(founder - F. Bacon);
(R. Descartes, B. Spinoza, G. Leibniz). The main ideas of the philosophy of the New Age:
the principle of an autonomously thinking subject;
principle of methodical doubt;
inductive-empirical method;
intellectual intuition or rational-deductive method;
hypothetical-deductive construction of scientific theory;
development of a new legal worldview, justification and protection of the rights of a citizen and a person.

The main task of modern philosophy was an attempt to realize the idea autonomous philosophy, free from religious prerequisites; build an integral worldview on reasonable and experimental grounds, revealed by research on the cognitive ability of a person.

In addition, the philosophy of the New Age was characterized by such features as:

mechanism. As a model for building a picture of the world, the ideas of mechanics were taken - a branch of knowledge that was very popular at that time and was the most developed. At the same time, philosophers proceeded from the assumption that all spheres of being are organized and function in accordance with the laws of this science;
special interest in the problems of knowledge. In modern times, philosophy approaches science as closely as possible, continuing to move away from theology and religion and starting to move away from art, with which it approached during the Renaissance. Naturally, this was due to the very rapid growth in the importance scientific methods for the culture and socio-economic life of that time. Therefore, philosophy sought to satisfy the needs of society associated with the development of methods of natural science knowledge;
preference for the metaphysical method. The world was considered as a collection of bodies that exist without changing. This had consequences for the ideas about thinking and the conceptual apparatus of science and philosophy. If objects do not change, and consciousness reflects reality, then all concepts are something static, unchanging. Therefore, it is necessary to study them separately from each other.

Ideas of modern philosophy

The philosophy of modern times has done a lot for the development of the theory of knowledge (epistemology). The main steel ideas.

Philosophy of the New Time: main ideas and representatives.

General characteristics of the Enlightenment. main representatives.

1. Philosophy of the New Time: main ideas and representatives. The philosophy of the New Age took the main ideas of the Renaissance and developed them. It had an anti-scholastic orientation and was largely non-religious in nature. Her focus was on the world, man and his relationship to the world. The 17th century is the scene of discussions between rationalism and empiricism. On the one hand: the great empiricist philosophers - F. Bacon, T. Hobbes, D. Locke. On the other - the great rationalist philosophers - R. Descartes, B. Spinoza, G. Leibniz.

Francis Bacon(1561 - 1626) - English philosopher, founder of English empiricism, known primarily as a philosopher obsessed with the idea of practical use-application of knowledge. “Scientia est potentia” (“Knowledge is power”), he proclaimed. This emphasized the practical orientation of scientific knowledge, that it increases the power of man. Scholastic knowledge, from the point of view of Bacon, is not really knowledge. He contrasted his philosophy with medieval scholasticism. (Indeed, his motto “Knowledge is power” is in clear contradiction with the famous saying of the biblical preacher “in much wisdom there is much sorrow; and whoever increases knowledge, increases sorrow” - Ecclesiastes, 2, 18). Bacon's main work is the New Organon. In it, he tried to create a new scientific method, contrasting Aristotle's deductive logic with inductive logic. Deduction is the movement from the general to the particular. Bacon suggested the opposite course - we go to general knowledge through particular, through observation and experiment. Bacon believed that people have many prejudices and delusions. He classified these prejudices by putting forward the theory of the four idols (ghosts) of the mind.

F. Bacon developed methods scientific induction . He believed that a person should not just generalize, that is, go from some facts to general conclusions, but analysis facts and only on this basis to draw a general conclusion. The inductive method does not give a 100% guarantee of the truth of a statement, but it allows you to determine the degree of truth of a particular statement. F. Bacon believed that only through observation and experiment can any scientific conclusions be drawn. He died as a research scientist, having caught a cold during an experiment on freezing a chicken (he stuffed its insides with snow). Bacon was a very respected man in England, Lord Chancellor. He wrote his main philosophical works after his retirement. The most popular of his work is called "Experiments". - This is a real storehouse of practical, worldly wisdom. In the "Experiments" Bacon actively used one of the main methods practical philosophy- method of antithesis. He laid out the arguments for and against the thesis, leaving the final conclusion to the reader.

Rene Descartes(1596 - 1660) - French philosopher. Many consider him the father of modern philosophy. In contrast to F. Bacon, Descartes emphasized the importance of mind-thinking and was a rationalist philosopher. His rationalism was expressed primarily in the thesis "I think, therefore I am" (cogito ergo sum). This thesis has two meanings:

the first, which Descartes invested: the fact that a person thinks is the most obvious and most reliable; hence the fact of existence follows from the fact of thinking;

the second meaning: “only a thinking person truly lives” or “as we think, so we live.” Man thinks, therefore he exists.

Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" is the basis not only of rationalism, but also of idealism. After all, the existence, the being of a person is derived from the fact of his thinking. Thinking is primary, being is secondary. In the field of thinking, Descartes considered the most important doubt. He put forward the principle of methodological doubt. A person should not immediately take on faith everything that is said to him or what he sees and feels. He must question whether it really exists? Without the procedure of doubt, one cannot understand the nature of things and arrive at a correct conclusion. Descartes was not a skeptic, he only believed that it was necessary to doubt, but not in general, but only at a certain stage of knowledge, reflection: approval and criticism of this statement; denial and criticism of this denial; as a result, we will avoid many mistakes. Descartes is a dualist philosopher. He believed that the basis of the world is not one principle, material or spiritual, but two - both material and spiritual: extension and thinking. The spiritual exists next to the physical, and the physical (material) exists next to the spiritual. They do not intersect, but interact with each other thanks to a higher power, which is called God. Cartesian dualism served as the basis for the theory of psychophysical parallelism, which played a constructive role in psychology and in general in the human sciences. Since Descartes was a rationalist, he believed that the human mind initially contains some ideas that do not depend on the actions and deeds of a person, the so-called "innate ideas". Descartes partly revives the Platonic theory.

Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza (1632-1677) - Dutch rationalist philosopher, considered himself a student of Descartes, took from the latter many concepts of his philosophy, first of all, the idea of two principles - thinking and extension. But, unlike R. Descartes, he thought not as a dualist, but as a monist philosopher. (A monist is a person who holds a view of the world as something unified, a whole, based on some one principle.) Spinoza believed that the basis of the world is a substance, which he usually called God or, more rarely, Nature. Substance, God, Nature are interchangeable concepts for him, meaning the same thing. God as a substance has two attributes: thinking and extension. Extension is a spatial category, meaning that something material has some dimensions and is separated from something else by some distance. Spinoza also said that a substance can have an infinite number of attributes, but he knows only two. Comprehending the world through the prism of substance, attributes (thinking, extension), modes (modifications of attributes), Spinoza builds a certain hierarchy of concepts-categories, which can be called a categorical picture of the world. He analyzed many philosophical concepts, thereby reviving the Aristotelian tradition of categorical analysis. The famous formula originates from Spinoza: “freedom is a recognized necessity” (it sounds like this: freedom is the knowledge “with some eternal necessity of oneself, God and things” [Ethics, Theorem 42]). Hegel comprehended this formula in his own way, then in Marxism it was the main one in defining the concept of freedom. The negative point of Spinoza's doctrine of freedom: it is largely fatalistic; according to him, a person's life is predetermined; a person must realize this and follow his destiny without resistance. In the Theological-Political Treatise, Spinoza subjected the Bible to a thorough analysis and criticism, showed that it contains many contradictions, and criticized the idea of God as a personal being. Through this criticism of the Bible, he was called the prince of the atheists. Of course, he was not a 100% atheist. His position is pantheism, he identified God and nature. Spinoza's philosophy carried the light of reason, was life-affirming. “A free man,” he wrote, “thinks of nothing less than death; and his wisdom consists in thinking not about death, but about life.” This statement of his contradicted what Plato and the Christian philosopher-theologians wrote on this issue.

Thomas Hobbes(1588-1679) - English thinker, consistent materialist. He even understood the human soul as some kind of material body, as a collection of light, invisible particles. Major works: “On the Body”, “On Man”, “On the Citizen”, “Leviathan” (this is the biblical monster with which Hobbes compared the state). Hobbes left behind a systematic teaching, in which he considered all sections of philosophy: about the world, nature, about man and society. Like Bacon, Hobbes was an empiricist, he believed that knowledge is based on experience, that is, direct sensory contact with the outside world. Hobbes was one of the first to consider the problem of the social contract. He believed that people are in conflict with each other in their natural state. It was he who said: "The war of all against all." In order for people to stop conflicting and killing each other, they had to come to an agreement, to conclude a social contract. As a result of the social contract, the state arose - an institution designed to harmonize human relations. As an empiricist philosopher, Hobbes understood morality in the spirit of individualism. He argued that the "golden rule of conduct" is the law of all people, the basis of morality. Hobbes is the author of the essentially legal formulation of the golden rule.

John Locke(1632 - 1704) - English philosopher-educator, the most prominent representative of empiricism, the founder of materialistic sensationalism. He adhered to the formula: "There is nothing in the mind that was not previously in the senses" (Nihil est in intellectu quod non fuerit prius in sensu). In his opinion, on the basis of sensations, a person forms his knowledge, and thanks to this, he thinks. Locke put forward the "blank slate" theory (tabula rasa) . According to this theory, a person is initially a blank slate, and when he encounters life, he receives a lot of impressions that paint over this blank slate. Locke contributed to the development of a trend that believes that a person is shaped by circumstances and that by changing the circumstances, you can change the person himself. Locke was father of liberalism. He made a real revolution in the field of political thinking. According to him, human rights are natural and inalienable. Man by nature is a free being. The freedom of one person, if limited, is limited only by the freedom of another person. Locke put forward the idea of separation of powers (legislative, executive, judicial). He believed that state power should not be unlimited. It can only be limited by division into three branches of power. In the history of political ideas, this is the most powerful idea. Like Hobbes, Locke considered the "golden rule of morality" to be the foundation of morality.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz(1646 - 1716) - German rationalist philosopher. Simultaneously with Newton, he developed the foundations of differential and integral calculus, anticipated some ideas of mathematical logic, and put forward the idea of mechanization of the thought process. He put forward the doctrine of monads (substantial units). The latter are spiritual entities that have no parts and exist independently of each other. There are a huge number of people on Earth and each soul is a unique monad. Leibniz's monadology is a peculiar theory of idealistic pluralism. His main work is "New experience about the human mind". In this essay, he argues with John Locke, in particular, he spoke out against Locke's teaching about the soul as a "blank slate", and added "except the mind itself" to the formula of sensationalism - "There is nothing in the mind that was not previously in the senses". Leibniz believed that initially a person has a predisposition to one way or another thinking - a natural logic that operates even at an unconscious level. This natural logic of thinking allows you to streamline experience. Leibniz emphasized the uniqueness of every natural phenomenon, every monad. He put forward a theory about the original difference of things, that there are no absolute copies, no absolute identities and repetitions. Leibniz is the author of the fourth law of logic (sufficient reason). This is an important law of thought against authority worship and blind faith. He also put forward the doctrine of pre-established harmony.

George Berkeley (1685-1753) - an extreme empiricist, put forward the thesis: "to exist means to be perceived" (esse est percipi). He went further than Locke, arguing that there is nothing in the world but experience. And experience is perception. The imperceptible does not exist - its main idea. People cannot know what is behind their feelings-sensations. Berkeley was inconsistent in his views. Not recognizing the existence of the objective world, matter, he at the same time recognized the existence of God, was in fact an idealist. His teaching can be characterized as subjective idealism. He was an ardent opponent of materialism, wrote a book in which he gave arguments against materialistic philosophy, against the existence of matter. He allowed the existence of God, because he believed that his soul ascends to the soul that exists outside of his consciousness, individuality, in God. If Berkeley had consistently pursued his empiricism, then such a subjectivist position could be called solipsism(literally "alone with oneself") - the point of view of a philosopher who believes that there is no one else besides him. Berkeley, however, was not a solipsist. David Hume (1711-1776) - philosopher of the English Enlightenment, criticized religious and philosophical dogmatism, all sorts of doctrines and beliefs that are rooted in the minds of people. He was a skeptical, anti-rationalist philosopher. Hume is famous for his idea that there is no objective causal connection of things, that causality is established only as a fact of mental experience. When we observe: one is followed by another and this is repeated in different situations, the conclusion is drawn that one is the cause of the other. Hume believed that the connection between things is the result of mental experience. Hume questioned many Christian dogmas. All of Hume's activities were aimed at emancipating the human mind.