Knowra Modern philosophy Modern philosophy Modern philosophy is the period of Western thought beginning in the seventeenth century, marked by new approaches to knowledge, science, mind, and political authority.
Rationalism : The view that reason is a primary source of knowledge, often independent of sensory experience. Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz made reason central to modern inquiry.
René Descartes : A French philosopher and mathematician whose method of doubt sought a secure foundation for knowledge. His dualism and rationalist method set the agenda for many seventeenth-century debates.
Methodic doubt : A procedure that suspends belief in any claim that can be called into doubt. Descartes used it to search for an indubitable starting point for philosophy.
Social contract : A theory that explains political authority through an agreement, actual or hypothetical, among people. Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau used contract arguments to rethink the basis of government.
Scholasticism : A medieval and early modern method of philosophical and theological inquiry based on systematic argument and authoritative texts. Modern philosophers challenged scholastic reliance on inherited frameworks and disputation.
Empiricism : The view that knowledge of the world arises chiefly from sensory experience. Locke, Berkeley, and Hume challenged claims that reason alone secures knowledge.
John Locke : An English philosopher whose works developed empiricism and argued for government by consent. His theories joined an account of experience to influential arguments about political legitimacy.
Cogito : Descartes’s conclusion that thinking establishes the thinker’s existence: “I think, therefore I am.” It is the first certainty his methodic doubt claims to secure.
Liberalism : A political tradition that emphasizes individual rights, legal limits on power, and consent of the governed. Locke’s arguments helped make individual rights and consent central political principles.
Pyrrhonism : An ancient skeptical tradition that recommends suspending judgment when arguments remain balanced. Modern philosophers used revived skepticism both as a challenge and as a method.
Show all 26