The most important philosophers of modern philosophy

Rene Descartes 

Why is Rene Descartes called the father of modern philosophy? 

Rene Descartes (1596 AD - 1650 AD) was a French philosopher, called the father of modern philosophy ; His philosophy is a reaction in which European consciousness was divided into two main trends: the empirical current and the rational current. His philosophy is based on a "cogito" that he reached after a systematic process of doubt. 

Descartes asserts that systematic doubt has properties, which are: It is a voluntary doubt: meaning that a person is the one who imposes it on himself by his own will. It is temporary doubt: that is, it is not permanent or continuous doubt. As for the cogito, which Descartes reached, it is represented in the sentence “I think, therefore I am”; In the sense that a person can doubt the existence of everything, but he cannot doubt that there is a self that thinks and doubts.

As for the rules of the Cartesian method, they are four rules: Intuition and clarity: meaning that the self seeking truth must not accept anything as truth, unless it is clear and self-evident. Analysis and division: meaning that the problem to be solved is divided as much as possible. Arrangement and composition: meaning that the ideas are arranged so that they start from the simplest and then gradually reach the impact of complex issues. Complete statistics and general reviews: The researcher must re-review all ideas, making her confident that she did not lose sight of anything. 

It should be noted that Descartes was the owner of the idea of dualities in the history of philosophy, such as: the duality of thought and existence, and that Descartes relied only on intuition and reason in his methodology away from the senses. To read more about Descartes, we advise you to read this article: Descartes' philosophy and method.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Why is Jean-Jacques Rousseau considered the most famous French philosopher? 

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 AD - 1778 AD) was a French philosopher and one of the great philosophers of the social contract. He wrote a book with the same name “The Social Contract” in which he attempted to research the religious system and the basis for the formation of the state and civil society. Rousseau emphasized the freedom of individuals; Rousseau began his book with the phrase “Man was born free,” and everywhere he is in chains, one man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more servile than them.” Thus, freedom is the supreme goal of Rousseau’s thought, and at the same time Rousseau tries to preserve another value. No less important than the value of freedom, which is equality, given that both values were among the most important slogans of the French Revolution, which Rousseau played a major role in igniting among the general French society.

Francis Bacon 

What is the method introduced by Francis Bacon in philosophy? 

Francis Bacon (1561 AD - 1626 AD), an English philosopher, is widely credited with establishing the modern inductive method, and is a pioneer in trying to organize scientific procedure in a way that depends on logic, and put great effort into that, and the rest of the philosophers have tried to find a new type of induction that is better than induction by simple counting. 

Bacon's philosophy was at great odds with philosophies drawn from mathematics and syllogism ; This is because mathematics cannot be verified by experiment, and it was at odds with Aristotle’s philosophy, in contrast, he valued the philosopher Democritus, and Bacon dealt in his philosophy with the subject of human illusions, and what is meant by these illusions are bad habits of the mind that cause people to fall into error while thinking and searching for truth, and these Delusions are of five types: Illusions of the tribe: These are illusions inherent in human nature, and in particular they are the illusion that there is more order in natural phenomena than actually exists. Cave delusions: These are the previous personal opinions held by the individual researcher. Market delusions: These are delusions related to the tyranny of words, and the difficulty of surviving their impact on the minds of the researcher. Theater delusions: These are delusions related to the recognized doctrines of thought, and the reason for them, according to Francis Bacon, is due to scholastic philosophers. School delusions: These are delusions that make the researcher believe in a rule and trust it blindly, such as analogy. 

Spinoza 

Why is he considered one of the most famous philosophers of modern times? 

Baruch Spinoza (1634 AD - 1677 AD) was a Dutch philosopher, considered one of the greatest and most highly esteemed philosophers, and although other philosophers disagreed with him and tried to transcend his philosophy on the level of the rational side, they could not deny the extent of his lofty worth in the moral aspect. 

He was a Jew of religion, but he was deprived of belonging to the Jews was hated by the Christians. Among the books that Spinoza wrote: A Treatise on Theological Politics, a Treatise on Politics, and the Book of Ethics, which is his main and famous book, it deals with three matters: he begins with metaphysics, then goes on to the psychology of emotions and the will, and then concludes with an ethics based on the foregoing metaphysics and psychology. 

The book is also a set of principles that includes a scientific mental view of religion, nature, psychology and ethics, given that Spinoza is one of the philosophers representing the rational trend in modern Western philosophy, and Spinoza’s natural doctrine is based on the idea that there is only one essence, which is “God.” or nature.” For him, thought and extension are both attributes of God. 

John Locke 

Why was John Locke considered one of the most important founders of liberalism? 

John Locke (1632 -1704 AD) English philosopher serves as a messenger of the revolution by the year 1688 AD, which is one of the most successful revolutions, as presented in human understanding and a message of tolerance, as John Locke is the father of liberalism ; This is because of his founding of the social contract theory, and John Locke was concerned with the problem of the natural rights that man enjoyed in the state of nature, which is meant "before the contract" and stressed that the function of government is to protect and defend these rights, and what Locke directed his most attention to is the issue of Individual freedom, and Locke is one of the pioneering philosophers in secularism, and the basis for the practical practice of secular thought at Locke lies in three main points: Government based on the rule of the people. Attention to individual interests, through the consolidation of the theory of rights and natural law, and distance from divine laws and laws. The consent of the people is the one who establishes the government, and it is he who removes it. 

David Hume 

Why is David Hume called the father of empirical philosophers? 

David Hume (1711 AD - 1776 AD) one of the most important empirical philosophers ; This is because it was able to reach the philosophy of Locke and Barclay experimental to its logical conclusion, and make them more consistent with the same, he obtained a professorship at the University of Edinburgh, his book philosophical head is a message in human nature, as his study in the form of conversations in natural religion, and his achievements in history ; He wrote the history of England, and his book "A Treatise on Human Nature" deals with three main axes of understanding: emotions, impressions, and morals, through which Hume begins to distinguish between impressions and ideas. 

According to David Hume's epistemology, impressions are the strongest ; It means those direct data that we obtain from the senses and introspection, while ideas are images resulting from memory and imagination, and thus Hume avoided falling into the error that John Locke and Barclay made.

Kant

What is Kant's critical philosophy?

Immanuel Kant (1724 AD - 1804 AD) was a German philosopher whose philosophy was distinguished by critical idealism for several reasons ; Including his criticism of previous philosophies, whether pragmatically empirical or rational, and through several researches he carried out in various philosophical fields, such as: epistemology (the study of knowledge in philosophy) and axiology (the study of values in philosophy) through his theory of the ethics of duty and others, his philosophy is considered as Copernican revolution ; What he brought about in philosophy is similar to what Copernicus brought about in terms of revolution in the sciences, as his three critical books represented in his books: Criticism of Pure Reason, Criticism of Practical Reason, and Criticism of the Queen of Judgment, in addition to the rest of his books, such as: Religion within the Limits of Mere Reason and the Book of Foundation for the Metaphysics of Ethics. In epistemology, Kant asserts that the limits of the mind are the limits of experience - that is, the world of things in Kant's expression - as he differentiates between the world of things in which I live and deal with my mind and draw from my knowledge, and the world of things in themselves, that is: metaphysics that no one can or can prove on his existence with mental evidence, and Kant’s famous phrase was: “Categories without intuitions are empty just as intuitions without Categories are blind,” emphasizing that the term intuition when Kant means everything that comes to man from the outside world, and thus  Kant emphasizes his critical idealism or idealism Transcendentalism and tribalism. Kant's idealism says that there are categories in the mind that precede dealing with the world of things, and they regulate our sensory perceptions. 

Hegel 

Why is Hegel's philosophy the end of philosophy? 

Georg Friedrich Hegel (1773 AD - 1830 AD) is a German philosopher called Aristotle of the modern age, and this title came as a result of a common characteristic between his philosophy and the philosophy of Aristotle ; This is because both of them were able to absorb all the philosophies that were prior to their era, and to transcend them after absorbing them, and each of them is considered a chapter in the history of philosophy ; This is because all subsequent philosophical currents of each of them were an attempt to refute and criticize their philosophy as a reaction to it. 

Hegel’s idealism was revolutionary, in the sense that it believed in reason as the basis for every progress that humanity seeks, and reality must run according to the laws of reason, just as it believed in freedom, which for Hegel is the essence of reason, and true freedom for Hegel is not negative, that is, it is not summarized by one’s statement. “I am free.” Rather, freedom essentially means liberation, and freedom with action produces liberation. It referred to the controversy Hegelian beholden to enter the concept of looting on the philosophy, but in a different way ; The negation is not a negation, and the Hegelian dialectic is a tripartite dialectic, meaning that the idea does not exist in isolation from other things, but must have a relationship in it, and the most obvious relationship is the relationship of contradiction; The idea and its opposite lead to the production of a third compound.

 As for the Hegelian theory of modernity and the formation of modern consciousness, the first basis for considering Hegel's view of modernity is to consider his history of it, and Hegel used the term modern instead of modernity when talking about the absolute path of the soul in history. Hegel was not only a descriptor and illustrator of modern consciousness, but he also sought to explain the dilemmas that modernity had become afflicted with. As a result of some concepts deviating from their path and distorting them, such as: the concept of freedom, rationality and subjectivity, which are the basis of modernity. Because the development of civil society is based on the scramble of private selfishness, Hegel says that the general question of how to overcome poverty is one of the most troublesome problems of modern society. To read more about Hegel, we recommend reading this article: Hegel, the Philosopher of Love and Ethics . 

Karl Marx

Why was the name of the philosopher Karl Marx associated with communism? 

Karl Marx (1818 AD - 1883 AD) is a German philosopher with many books. He formulated the Communist Party manifesto in cooperation with the philosopher Engels. Marxism considers communism the alternative to capitalism, and Marx's philosophy is a revolution against Hegelian philosophy, and the mission of philosophy comes from the point of view of Marxist philosophy to change reality and make it better, that is, the realization of human will and action on the ground; Understanding reality must lead to changing it in the end, and this is the goal of philosophizing. Marx sees that Hegel's philosophy - despite its importance - has contributed to the increase of human alienation, that is, man has become with it a stranger to the world in which he lives, and distracted him from material reality, according to Marx's vision that Hegel made philosophy go on its head and Marx's mission to make it go on her feet, and all of this boils down to the heart of the Hegelian debate, making it a material debate instead of an intellectual one. 

Thomas Hobbs

Why was Thomas Hobbes considered one of the most influential political philosophers? 

Thomas Hobbes (1588 AD - 1679 AD) is an English philosopher, considered one of the most famous philosophers of the social contract along with John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He has a famous book called "Leviathan", devoted a large section to talking about the problematic relationship of politics and religion and the overlap of each, but Hobbes is one of the philosophers who contributed to the establishment of secular thought ; By presenting a political theory that made him one of the leading pioneers of secularism, his theory affirms that governance is for the people, and that the state must be based on a constitution that shows the nature of the social contract. 

The government must depend mainly on the consent of the people, and if a government is established that is not based on the consent of the people, it will inevitably be a failed government. the monarchy is the best types of governance, and this is the theory of Hobbes's political philosophy of the most important modern philosophies, and was a reaction to the ecclesiastical government and the intervention of the Church in worldly affairs during the period of the Middle Ages.

Gottfried Leibniz 

What is monadology from the point of view of Leibniz? 

Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716 CE) German philosopher, considered one of the greatest philosophical minds, learned Aristotelian and new school philosophy in Germany, and after moving to Paris he was able to learn about Cartesian philosophy, and abandon scholastic philosophies. As for Leibniz's common philosophy - which was the reason for his fame his fame is the monadology ; That is: the science of individual gemology, and on the other hand, Leibniz was known for the philosophy of the principles of nature and divine grace, and he based his philosophy on the idea of substance as a pioneer of the rational trend, like Descartes and Spinoza.

Nietzsche 

Why is Nietzsche considered the godfather of postmodern philosophers? 

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 AD - 1900 AD) is a German philosopher who is considered one of the most famous philosophers, or even the most famous of them after Plato and Aristotle, according to the viewpoint of contemporary philosophers. 

He is the first detonator of postmodern philosophy, of which the most prominent pioneers are: Lyotard, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida. He used to say that he is a philosophical dynamite, and his philosophy developed in the second half of the twentieth century at the hands of postmodern philosophers, so postmodern philosophy is based mainly on Nietzsche's writings and their interpretation. 

Nietzsche also introduced the figurative and allegorical method in philosophical writing, and this is something alien to the writings of philosophers. Among his most important works: Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Twilight of the Idols, Ecce Homo.