History of Modern Western Philosophy

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History of Modern Western Philosophy

• From Descartes to Nietzsche
• Lecturer Dr. F. Budi Hardiman

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Introduction

• Conceptual Clarifications
• Lecture Program
• Lecture Method and Evaluation

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Periods of Western Philosophy

• Ancient Philosophy Greek, Hellenistic and Roman
  Philosophy
• Medieval Philosophy Patristic and Scholastic
  Philosophy
• Modern Philosophy
• Contemporary Philosophy 20th Century
  Postmodernism

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Cosmocentrism
Anthropocentrism
Logocentrism?
Theocentrism
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The Mainstreams of Modern Philosophy

• Rationalism (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz,
  Malebranche, Pascal)
• Empiricism (Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume)
• Criticism (Kant)
• Idealism (Fichte, Schelling, Hegel,
  Schoppenhauer)
• Materialism (Feuerbach, Marx)
• Positivism (Comte, Mach)
• Existentialism (Kierkegaard and Nietzsche)

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The Meaning of Modernity

• Moderna means new and now. Modern is a
  temporal orientation to here and now not
  there and past of the medieval mentality
• The term relates to the concept of time linear
  progress contrary to cyclical concept of time
• Key concepts of the modernity technological
  progress, revolution, economic growth

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Three Characteristics of modern Philosophy

• 1. Centers on the problem of consciousness or
  subjectivity contrary to theocentrism
• 2. Radicalization of the epistemological concept
  of critique contrary to dogmatism
• 3. Teleological Concept of historical progress of
  mankind contrary to status quo

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Subject as Center of Thought
Modern Philosophy

• Descartes

Critique as Epistemological Foundation
Progress as Concept of time
G.W.F. Hegel
-I. Kant
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Modern Philosophy is a philosophy of the subject

• As a whole we can view the modern western
  philosophy as a research program on the
  epistemological and metaphysical problems of
  consciousness as such the subject or subjectum.
  So Habermas mentions it The philosophy of Subject
  die Subjektphilosophie
• 1. The origin of consciousness (e.g. Descartes
  and Locke)
• 2. The Development of consciousness (e.g. Hegel,
  Kierkegaard, Comte)
• 3. The Collapse of consciousness (e.g.
  Schopenhauer, Nietzsche)

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Critique as a central concept

• Critique is a mean of the processes of
  emancipation it functions as
• 1. Self-reflection of knowledge (critique of
  knowledge or epistemology)
• 2. Barrier breaker of ideological manipulations
  (critique of ideology or enlightenment)
• 3. Struggle against political injustice (critique
  of regime or revolution)
• Note Critique isnt a mere refusal against
  something, but a reasonable negation with a
  complex epistemological conditions. It originates
  during the rise of modern natural sciences those
  are very skeptical against the medieval
  metaphysical thought. Critique is an advocate of
  the factual.

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History has a teleological structure

• History isnt arbitrary, but has an end that can
  be anticipated. The German idealists tried to
  discover the rational scheme behind the empirical
  historical events. They believed that the telos
  of history was freedom of man and his society.
  The civilization process was a way to the human
  freedom.

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Examples

• Marx believed that the human being (esp. the
  proletariat) was the actor of history that
  drives it to its end through the social
  transformation (revolutions). To him the end of
  history was the classless society
• Comte proclaimed that its end was the positivist
  society, the scientific civilization of mankind
• Hegel delineated the end of history as the final
  reconciliation of the idea with its self, i.e.
  the history that knows its self.
• Note Teleological thought is the source of the
  utopianism in the modern social theories

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Renaissance and Philosophy
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The Humanists

• The spirit of modern philosophy was built in the
  age of Renaissance. The rebirth of the Greek and
  Roman civilization in Italy during 16th Century
  reflected in many cultural aspects such as
  literature, architecture, philosophy, art etc.
  The main agents of renaissances movement were
  the humanist such as Dante, Petrarkha, Rabelais,
  Thomas Morus, etc.
• The humanists taught eloquence, history, poetry,
  moral (comparable to the sophists in ancient
  Greece)

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Man as Natural Being

• Renaissance culture viewed man as natural being.
  He doesnt come from heaven, but grows from earth
  and is provided with natural talents and
  vitality. So, the naked figures in the
  renaissances gallery glorified the natural
  beauty of man.

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Man as Individual

• The individual (not the collective) was a central
  theme of art and literature in the culture of
  renaissance. In the western philosophy the
  paradigm-shift occurred during the renaissance,
  i.e. from theocentrism of medieval thought to
  anthropocentrism of modern thought.

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Machiavelli and the Virtu

• Machiavellis theory of power was an example of
  this paradigm shift According to him the
  political power is not Gods grace that is
  received through fortune (Italian fortuna), but
  something that can be seized through human effort
  and virtuosity (Italian virtu). Man (in this
  case the prince) not God - is a center of
  power, and from his hand the power grows, and by
  his hand it is stabilized, e.i. through rational
  strategies.

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Protestant Reformation

• Renaissance understood the human subjectivity as
  rational capacity. But the reformation stressed
  it as subjective faith. Both of them are the same
  in their revolt against medieval mentality that
  centered on objective reason or objective
  faith.

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Lecture Program

• Introduction Renaissance, Reformation and the
  Rise of modern Thought
• Rene Descartes and Rationalism
• John Locke and Empiricism
• Immanuel Kant and Criticism (1)
• Immanuel Kant and Criticism (2)
• G.W.F. Hegel and German Idealism (1)
• G.W.F. Hegel and German Idealism (2)
• Karl Marx and Materialism
• Auguste Comte and French Positivism
• Arthur Schopenhauer and the Metaphysics of the
  Will
• Soren Kierkegaard and Existentialism
• Friedrich Nietzsche and the Limit of Modernity
• Final Test

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Method

• Seminar with presentations and the possibility of
  discussions
• 12 Meetings and 12 presentation on central
  teaching of a modern western philosopher
• Condition Seminar presences (75)
• Evaluation Presentation (30) 5 pages Final
  Paper (40) Final test (30)

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The Structure of Presentation Material

• 1. Introduction into the biographical Background
  and the masterpieces of the philosopher
• 2. Only the central concepts of his teaching
• 3. A Comparison between his teaching and the
  teaching of the other philosophers (E.g. Islamic
  Philosopher)
• 4. Your critical notes on his thought

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Final Paper

• 5 pages
• Choose one of the following themes
• 1. Cartesian Doctrine of Ideas
• 2. Lockes Critique of Cartesian Doctrine of Idea
• 3. Kants Critique of Metaphysics
• 4. Existential Dialectics according to
  Kierkegaard
• 5. Nietzsches Critique of Morality
• 6. Hegels Concept of Dialectics

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References

• 1. F. Budi Hardiman, Sejarah Filsafat Barat
  Modern dari Machiavelli sampai Nietzsche,
  Gramedia, Jakarta, 2004
• 2. Reading (Please see the Syllabus)