Wednesday, January 21, 2009
From 1/21/09: The Birth of Modernity
In our first meeting, we considered what defines the modern period and what distinguishes modern philosophy from its ancient and Medieval predecessors. So what do you take to be most important in triggering modernity? The weakening hold of the Catholic Church? The rise of science? Political unrest? And what do you expect the focus of modern philosophers to be? Modernity, here we come!
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After having class on Wednesday I think the event or events that most triggered modernity is the kick off of the Renaissance. The Renaissance was a time of new thinking, "cultural rebirth", as was discussed in class. Science and arts were molded as one and we start to see science coming to the forefront of important topics. There were great thinkers such as da Vinci sketching inventions and creating theories regarding how things in life worked. This new hunger for intelligence lead to other such causes for modernity such as the Reformation where we see many wanting to know truth for themselves instead of being told what to believe. Further inventions and discovers also harvested intelligence and sparked curiousity. With the masses in Europe and in the New World no longer wanting to be told how to live or what to believe but to find things out for themelves caused desires for freedom and independence to live how one wanted and find one's own sense of truth. From these joint causes I think we are going to see modern philosophers break from the norm and have ideas influenced by their personal sense of independence, and interest in science and politics. I think the focus for most will be not on transcendental theories as we've seen with the ancients and medievals but on more tangible evidence for proof and reason.
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