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Introduction of Modern Thought
T he philosophical pilgrimage in which we have engaged through the medium of this column reaches its culmination with the introduction of modern thought. There is a sense in which the temper of philosophy since Descartes, and especially after Kant, loses its concern for the semi-religious ideas by which its earlier history is marked. The three fundamental ques tions which have been discovered herein are basically religious in their mood: (1) Where do we come from? (2) Where are we going? and (3) What are we supposed to do while we are here? To the matters of origin and conduct philosophy in early Greece and through the Middle Ages addressed itself with phenomenal suc cess productive of masterful systems of thought. However, the question relative to human destiny did not fare so well. There is a vagueness and uncertainty characteristic of the writings on this subject; or else there is recourse to what, obviously, is myth and not truly philosophy at all. Perhaps the greatest array of forces which worked a change in the temper and ultimately in the structure of philosophy was that furnished by the complex of the Rencàssance-and-Ref- ormation. From both the religious and secular side of the world’s life tremendous influences were under mining the prestige of the Roman Church and the philosophy of the schoolmen which she developed. Men struggling to be free in spirit did not take kindly to the dogmatic im position of philosophical and religious tradition however sacrosanct its prem ises. These thoughtful minds of the early modem period were impressed by the apparent irrelevance of the schoolastic formulations and by the barrenness of its disputations. In re making the mind to the modern mood the philosopher of this transition pe riod accepted the scientific insights of the day as the relevant empirical
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substitute for the now discredited schoolastic formulations of Aristotle. Humanism, with its emphasis upon the centrality of the person and the importance of experience over au thoritative traditions, severely modi fied the older theological orientation of the mind. As science developed, the impact of her contributions grad ually reshaped thought structures along the lines employed by the physicist. In this kind of system there was little or no place for questions basically religious, and certainly the issue of destiny was not within its scope. For some time it appeared that the physical scientist would dominate the intellectual scene, and to a tremen dous extent this has been true. Never theless, in the person of Immanuel Kant there was reintroduced into the heart of the philosophic enterprise a deep concern for human values. After Kant it has been impossible to ignore the significance of the human factor in attempting to establish the truth about the universe. He actually in stituted a philosophical revolution when he said that the physical world must be interpreted in terms of man rather than man in terms of the physical world. This turn of events did not do for religion all that even the philosopher himself may have desired; nevertheless, it did make it respectable to discuss human values and destiny. Relative to this latter element, Kant held to an immortality made necessary by the demands of the moral consciousness with its free dom. He postulated the existence of God “ as the highest guaranty of the moral order and of the ultimate tri umph of the good.” After this in novation, philosophy moved rapidly to the serious consideration of meth odology and the problems of knowl edge. In succeeding articles some of the practical implications of this em phasis will be explored. END.
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