The new philosophy of Descartes Spinoza Leibniz. Rationalism: R. Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz. Descartes' merit to philosophy is that he

Leibniz is a unique scientist and mathematician, lawyer and philosopher. He was born and lived in Germany. He is now called one of the most prominent representatives of modern times in the field of philosophy. It is believed that Leibniz's philosophy is in the direction of rationalism. It is based on two main problems: cognition and substance.

Descartes and Spinoza

Leibniz's philosophy includes many concepts. Before creating his “brainchild,” Leibniz thoroughly studied the theories of Spinoza and Descartes. The German philosopher came to the conclusion that they are imperfect and completely rational. Thus was born the idea of ​​​​creating Leibniz’s own philosophy.

Leibniz refuted Descartes' theory of dualism, which was based on the division of substances into higher and lower. The first meant independent substances, that is, God and those whom he created. The lower division meant the material and spiritual creatures.

Spinoza at one time combined all substances into one, thereby also proving the incorrectness of dualism. However, Leibniz's philosophy showed that the modes of Spinoza's unified substance are nothing more than

This is how Leibniz’s philosophy appeared, which can be briefly called this: the theory of the multiplicity of substances.

Simplicity and complexity of monads

A monad is simple and complex at the same time. Leibniz's philosophy not only does not explain the nature of these contradictions, but also strengthens it: simplicity is absolute, but complexity is infinite. In general, a monad is an essence, something spiritual. It cannot be touched or felt. A striking example is the human soul, which is simple, that is, indivisible, and complex, that is, rich and diverse.

Essence of the Monad

The philosophy of G. W. Leibniz states that the monad is an independent substance, which is characterized by strength, movement and speed. However, each of these concepts cannot be characterized from the material side, which means that the monad itself is not a material entity.

Individuality of the Monad

Each monad is extremely individual and original. Leibniz's philosophy succinctly states that all objects have distinctions and differences. The basis of the theory of monads is the principle of identity of indistinguishability.

Leibniz himself explained this position of his theory quite simply. Most often, he gave an example of an ordinary tree with leaves and asked listeners to find two identical leaves. Of course, there were no such people. This led to a logical conclusion about a qualitative approach to the world, the individuality of each object, both material and psychological.

Leibniz was a prominent representative of it, speaking about the importance of the unconscious in our lives. Leibniz emphasized that we are controlled by infinitesimal phenomena that we experience on an unconscious level. This logically follows the principle of gradualism. It represents the law of continuity and states that transitions from one object or event to another occur monotonously and continuously.

Closedness of the monad

Leibniz's philosophy also included such a concept as isolation. The philosopher himself often emphasized that the monad is closed on itself, that is, there are no channels through which anything can enter or leave it. In other words, there is no possibility of contacting any monad. So is the human soul. She has no visible contacts other than God.

Mirror of the Universe

Leibniz's philosophy emphasized that the monad is both limited from everything and connected to everything. Duality can be traced throughout the theory of monads.

Leibniz said that the monad completely reflects what is happening. In other words, small changes in general entail the smallest changes in the monad itself. This is how the idea of ​​pre-established harmony was born. That is, the monad is alive, and its wealth is an infinitely simple unity.

conclusions

Leibniz's philosophy, like each of his principles, is unusually clear at first glance and multifaceted if you delve into it. It simultaneously explains our idea of ​​something and the content of our life from its mental side.

The idea is presented in a spiritual form, which is the nature of the monad. Any object can be called a monad, but the differences will appear in the clarity and distinctness of the representation. For example, a stone is a vague monad, and God is the monad of all monads.

Our world is a monad, which consists of monads. And besides them there is nothing else. Our world is the only possible one, and therefore the best. Each monad lives its life in accordance with the program that is put into it by God the Creator. These programs are completely different, but their consistency is amazing. Every event on our land is coordinated.

Leibniz's philosophy succinctly states that we live the best life possible in the best world. Monad theory allows us to believe that we are the chosen ones.

Rationalism, unlike empiricism, is more closely associated with the medieval tradition. But unlike scholasticism, rationalism is focused on methodological and epistemological problems.

Rene Descartes- founder of modern philosophy and rationalism. Descartes' philosophy was dualistic. He recognized the existence of two entities: extended and thinking, the problem of their interaction was solved by introducing a common source (God). For Descartes, God becomes the guarantor of the comprehensibility of the world and the objectivity of human knowledge. Descartes believes that all possible things are composed of 2 independent substances - soul and body. We recognize these substances in their basic attributes: for bodies - extension, for souls - thinking. The soul is one and indivisible. The body is extended, divisible and complex. In contrast to Bacon's induction, Descartes put forward deduction. Descartes' rules: first, what is obvious is true, second, divide complex problems into simple ones, thirdly, think, moving from simple to complex, fourthly, taking into account all the stages of knowledge passed through. For Descartes, thinking is primary, existence is secondary. “I think, therefore I am.” Cartesianism is the philosophy of Descartes, the main thing is reason.

Spinoza– introduces the concept of a single and infinite substance, calling it both God and Nature at the same time. This substance has many attributes, but only 2 attributes are open to man: extension and thinking. An attribute is what constitutes the essence of a substance. In his philosophical treatise “Ethics,” Spinoza distinguishes between 2 classes of ideas. Some arise in our imagination, others arise in our mind. He contrasts the dualism of Descartes' philosophy with the doctrine of a single substance (it is identical to nature, equal to God). God is a self-generating force of nature. God is not above nature, but in nature itself. Pantheism- identification of God and nature.

Leibniz- The central concept of Leibniz's philosophy is the concept of the monad. A monad is a simple indivisible entity, and the whole world is a collection of monads. Each of them is closed in on itself and is unable to influence the others. The entire world of monads is ultimately a reflection of God as the supreme monad. Since every soul is a monad, and its activity is directed only at itself, then cognition is only a process of gradual awareness of what is in the unconscious state. Thus, Leibniz makes some changes to the Cartesian theory of innate ideas.

Sensualism of D. Locke and skepticism of D. Hume

Sensualist believes that only sensory data has the quality of immediate truth; all knowledge must be isolated from sensory perception. Sensualism is an integral part of empiricism, in the understanding of which knowledge is only through experience, primarily sensory.

Rejecting the view of innate ideas, Locke believed that we draw all our knowledge from experience and sensations. The head of a newborn is a blank slate (tabularasa) on which life draws its patterns - knowledge. There is nothing in the mind that was not previously in sensation - Locke's main thesis.

Locke identified three types of knowledge according to the degree of its obviousness: initial (sensual), giving knowledge of individual things; demonstrative knowledge through inference, for example through comparison and relation of concepts; the highest type is intuitive knowledge, i.e. direct assessment by the mind of the correspondence and inconsistency of ideas to each other.

Hume: Often calling himself a skeptic and his philosophy skeptical, Hume literally imposed this idea of ​​himself on the readers of his works.

Hume identifies four types of skepticism:

1) Pyrrhonism, or extreme skepticism, professing total doubt.

Pyrrhonicus must inevitably awaken sooner or later from his skeptical sleep. Hume's negative attitude towards Pyrrhonism increases from the Treatise of Human Nature to the Inquiry Concerning Human Knowledge.

2) Descartes' methodical skepticism. This is doubt developed in order to find the undoubted. Hume approves of this approach and generally accepts Descartes' rationalistic method, which, by the way, does not allow him to be thoughtlessly classified as part of the empiricist tradition.

3) Academic philosophy, or “softened” skepticism. Academic skepticism boils down to the requirement of caution in reasoning.

4) Consequential - consistent skepticism, i.e. skepticism regarding the possibility of solving a number of philosophical questions, which comes as a result of a careful study of human cognitive abilities.

What's the end result? Hume rejects skepticism in the only sense that corresponds to the original meaning of the term, but accepts it in a guise that has no relation to real skepticism.

The question of skepticism is important for understanding Humean philosophy as a whole. Its correct interpretation allows you to change your usual attitudes when reading Hume’s texts and tune in to understanding the positive essence of his philosophical program.

Basic ideas of Enlightenment philosophy. French materialism of the 13th century.

Rousseau, Diderot, Holbach

They believed that a person should be moral and reasonable.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1718-1778) “Liberty, equality, fraternity”

He spoke out against social inequality, the cause of which was private property.

The ideal of the state is a republic.

He examined the causes of inequality and believed that to solve these problems it was necessary to create a social contract. “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in the trenches.” The causes of inequality are the state, private property, the presence of science and art (may depend on vices). Solving problems is bringing people together.

Ideas: 1) the idea of ​​natural human rights has all rights, especially the right to life, and allows natural inequality. 2) the idea of ​​a social contract. The philosophy of the Enlightenment is directed against the church, but not against God.

French materialism is a new historical stage in the development of materialist philosophy, significantly different from previous materialist teachings. English Mater had a largely aristocratic character, his teaching was intended for the elite, and the French materialists carried their ideas to wide circles of urban society. They present their philosophical views primarily in the form of widely available publications. They relied on the widespread development of free thought in England. Another important source for them was the physical mathematics of Descartes, as well as the mathematical teaching of Spinoza about nature, substances and its attributes, about man, about the soul and its relationship to the body. John Locke does not exclude the role of reason, but limits it to simple empirical judgments. He denies the existence of hostile ideas (principles). The soul of a child is tabula rassa (blank board, sheet of paper), on the cat. nature writes down its writings.

Epistemology of I. Kant.

Epistemology – philosophical doctrine of knowledge. Kant's main works are “Critique of Pure Reason”, “Critique of Practical Reason”, “Critique of Judgment”. In all these work we're talking about about the intellectual work of the subject. It divides things into two parts. “Things in themselves” is like nature itself, we don’t know it, but it influences us and a second world is formed - “things for us.” This world is not objective, but simply systematized knowledge about the world and nature. Kant asks how much what we see and hear corresponds to “things in themselves.” He was an agnostic and said that it is impossible to know the world objectively. Kant studies the limits of human reason. Kant calls his philosophy transcendental. Kant's method of work is critical.

Theory of knowledge.

"Critique of Pure Reason". The essence of science, the essence of human knowledge, according to Kant, lies in the fact that man is not led by nature. Kant sees a revolutionary change in revealing the creative, constructive nature of human cognition, thinking, and the activity of the human mind. Man is by nature creative creature capable of producing new knowledge. Kant carries out a kind of revolution in philosophy, considering knowledge as an activity proceeding according to its own laws. The subject of theoretical philosophy, according to Kant, should not be the study of things in themselves - nature, the world, man - but the study cognitive activity, establishing the laws of the human mind and its boundaries. Kant distinguishes two types of knowledge (and cognition): experimental, based on experience (a posteriori) and non-experiential (a priori). Sensuality and its universal forms - space and time. Kant calls the doctrine of sensibility transcendental aesthetics. Kant defines experience as the interaction of sensuality and reason. That which in phenomena corresponds to sensations Kant calls the matter of appearance; Kant calls something ordering, organizing the world of sensations forms of sensibility. In other words, there is something in us that immediately sets the form of objectivity - “gives” the object in space and time. Kant considers space and time primarily as forms of sensibility. Kant also calls them a priori forms of sensibility. Reason is the ability to the highest generalization, synthesis, unity of knowledge. The Doctrine of Reason- transcendental dialectic.

Panlogism of G. Hegel.

Panlogism is a metaphysical theory according to which everything that exists is an embodiment of the mind .

Hegel paid great attention to dialectics. His logic is dialectical. Laws of dialectics:

1. Law of contradiction. That is, there are contradictions everywhere, and this principle explains why changes occur.

2. The law of the transition of quantity to quality. Explains what changes are taking place.

3. Law of Negation of Negation. Explains how everything develops - development occurs in a spiral.

Hegel developed not only the logic of dialectics, he is generally the creator of a philosophical system. He tried to answer all the questions: how the world came into being, how it is developing and where it is going. Here it is necessary to note the difference between Hegel's system of philosophy and dialectics. The system claims to be infinite when dialectics speaks of endless development. Based on the dialectical position about the unity of essence and appearance, Hegel rejected Kant’s doctrine of the unknowability of the “thing in itself”; in the nature of things there are no insurmountable barriers to knowledge. According to G., the basis of the universe is the Absolute Idea, an unchanging spiritual essence that does not depend on anyone or anything. This is nothing other than God.

The opposite direction to empiricism was rationalism, the founder and outstanding representative of which was the French thinker, universal scientist and philosopher Rene Descartes. Descartes, like other rationalists, believed that knowledge comes from reason, not feelings; sensory experience plays an auxiliary role in obtaining new knowledge - with the help of experience, what is found with the help of the intellect is only verified. Descartes was a proponent of the deductive method of knowledge.

Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650) studied at the Jesuit college LA Flèche. He then received a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Poitiers. He served in the army for some time - a military career did not attract him, but military service provided the opportunity, as Descartes himself believed, “to travel, see courts and armies, meet people of different morals and positions and gather a variety of experience.” Descartes lived first in France, then moved to calmer provincial Holland, and at the end of his life, at the invitation of Queen Christina, he settled in Sweden.

He began to engage in scientific research while still serving in the army, and after leaving military service in 1620, he devoted his time entirely to philosophy and science. Reflections on various problems led Descartes to the conclusion that the sciences and arts, the study of which he devoted a lot of time, cannot provide firm guidance for comprehending the truth, since people presenting them are based more on assumptions than on strict evidence. The mathematician, based on certain basic principles, which are quite obvious, and following precisely defined rules of reasoning, builds a science, the truth of which is impossible to doubt. Descartes came to the conclusion that if equally strong starting points were found for other sciences, then by applying rules of reasoning similar to the rules of mathematics, one could obtain results no less accurate than mathematical ones.

It should be noted that Descartes’ rationalism developed as an attempt to explain the universality and necessity inherent in mathematical knowledge (explain).

It should be noted that Descartes' rationalism is based on the doctrine of innate ideas. By innate ideas, he does not mean ready-made truths, but only predispositions of the mind to axioms (truth that does not require proof) and propositions. According to Descartes, many principles of mathematics and logic are based on innate ideas. Based on the initial principles, the human mind generates new knowledge through deduction. However, directly obvious starting points, or intuitions, have an advantage over deductive reasoning.

It was previously said that Descartes was disappointed in his education and believed that the edifice of science should be rebuilt. The first thing, according to Descartes, was to criticize and restructure philosophy, because the principles of other sciences should be borrowed from it. Descartes valued philosophy very highly - he saw the highest good in the wisdom of knowing truth from its root causes. At the same time, Descartes emphasized the practical benefits obtained from studying philosophy - this science is necessary for our morals and way of life. Philosophy, in his opinion, guides life, serves the preservation of health and discoveries in all sciences. Considering philosophy as universal comprehensive knowledge, necessary for a person, Descartes makes the following comparison: “All philosophy is like a tree, the roots of which are metaphysics, the trunk is physics, and the branches emanating from this trunk are all other sciences, reduced to three main ones: medicine, mechanics and ethics... Just like the fruits is collected not from the roots or from the trunk of a tree, but only from the ends of its branches, so the special usefulness of philosophy depends on those parts of it that can be studied in the end.” Descartes defined the main priority task as the establishment of reliable principles of philosophy. He approached certainty through doubt, and noted that he did not imitate skeptics who doubt for the sake of doubting. He wrote: “My goal, on the contrary, was to achieve confidence and, discarding the shifting sediments and sand, to find solid ground.” The deep, first reason was found by him through the following reasoning: let’s say an evil and cunning demon is deceiving me. I'm starting to doubt everything. I can even doubt the existence of my body. But I can't doubt that I doubt. Doubt is one of the actions of thinking. I doubt it - therefore I think. I think, therefore I exist. However, to prove the existence of the world, according to Descartes, it is necessary to prove the existence of God. He proves it this way - we exist and we are the action of the first cause, there must be a first cause itself. Further, God is not a deceiver and therefore since we exist, God and we see the world– the surrounding world also exists. The possibility of knowledge is conditioned by the truthfulness of God: with the correct use of the cognitive ability, we could never be mistaken. In his Discourse on Method, Descartes wrote “the idea that falsity and imperfection come from God is no less disgusting than the idea that truth or perfection come from being.”

Descartes believes that a universal correct method should be created that will eliminate subjectivity and chance from scientific knowledge.

Modern science was presented to Descartes in the form ancient city, in which there are beautiful buildings, but there is no development plan. Descartes outlined the project of a universal science, his universal method, in his main work, “Discourse on a Method for Directing Your Mind Well and Finding Truth in the Sciences.” Three appendices, “Dioptrics,” “Meteora,” and “Geometry,” were added to it. The main rules of Descartes' universal method are:

1) “not to accept anything as true before recognizing it as undoubtedly true,” i.e. diligently avoid haste and prejudice, include in your reasoning only what appears to the mind clearly and distinctly and does not raise any doubts. Descartes sees the criterion of truth not in practice, but in the clarity and distinctness of ideas about the comprehended object.

2) Each of the difficulties under consideration must be divided into parts

3) Gradually move from simple to complex “Manage the course of your thoughts, starting with the simplest and easily knowable objects, and ascend little by little, as if by steps, to the knowledge of the most complex, allowing for the existence of order even among those that are not in the natural order of things.” precede each other"

4) “make such complete lists and such general overviews everywhere as to be sure that nothing is missed”

The discussions caused by the stated views of Descartes prompted him to undertake the creation of a work in which his philosophy would receive the most complete coverage - this was the work “Principles of Philosophy”. The Elements of Philosophy is Descartes's largest work. In it he will outline his views on the origin and structure of the world. According to Descartes, the beginning of being consists of two fundamentally different substances - bodily and spiritual. The sharp opposition of these substances to each other and the recognition of the fundamental necessity of two different methodological approaches to the study of material phenomena, on the one hand, and spiritual ones, on the other, form the basis of Descartes’ dualism. God is the creator of these substances..

In physics, Descartes builds a system based on a mechanical principle. The essence of matter, according to Descartes, is the presence of extension in length, width and depth. These qualities define the body. Matter is identified with space. For Descartes, the concept of absolute emptiness, which has long been opposed to matter, loses its meaning. Empty space is also filled with extended matter. In addition, Descartes concludes that “the matter of the sky does not differ from the matter of the Earth” and that the existence of many worlds is impossible, because “matter, the nature of which consists only of extension in general, occupies all imaginable spaces where certain worlds could be located” . The qualitative physics of old times, with its diversity of qualities or forms that were not reducible to each other, was collapsing. These conclusions of Descartes had a clearly anti-scholastic orientation. All modifications of matter, i.e. Descartes explains the presence of different bodies that are objectively different from each other by the fact that matter, in addition to infinite fragmentation, is characterized by the mobility of its parts (movement and change of shape).

Speaking about Descartes' physics, it is worth noting its mathematized nature - for example, the third Cartesian law of nature states that if “a moving body meets another, stronger body, it does not lose anything in its movement” - i.e. he solves the problem of collision purely mathematically, neglecting the elasticity of bodies and based on the concept of an absolutely rigid body. According to Descartes himself, his physics is only geometry.

The role of God for Descartes is actually limited to the creation of all things and the eternal establishment of the laws of nature, which he has no power to change. Having endowed its individual parts during the creation of matter various movements God preserves an equal amount of motion in matter.

The successor of Descartes' rationalism was Spinoza, for whom the knowability of the world was also an axiom, the essence of the human spirit was in knowledge, and knowledge itself was understood as based on the ideas present in the human soul.

Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza (1632 - 1677) - the son of a wealthy Jewish merchant. Born in Amsterdam. He studied at a Jewish religious school. He performed well in his studies. As Spinoza became more familiar with the views of various philosophers, he moved further and further away from Conservative Judaism. Eventually the Jewish community declared a “great excommunication” against Spinoza. However, having become an outcast from a very influential community, Spinoza did not disappear. He was supported financially and morally by new friends from the Mennonite and Collegian sects. Spinoza earned his livelihood through his own labor - his fellow colleagues taught him the art of grinding lenses. It should be noted that the teachings of these sects became a kind of starting point in the philosophy of Spinoza. Mennonites and Collegians were pantheists. Mennonites identified God with the surrounding nature, and at the same time with the soul of any person, and declared the church as a mediator between God and man unnecessary. The colleagues did not recognize the official church; believed that the interpretation of Scripture is accessible to any person, since the pantheistically interpreted God lives in any soul.

Spinoza's first literary work and the only one published during his lifetime and under his name was “The Principles of the Philosophy of Descartes.” Let us note that the philosophy of the latter had a decisive influence on the formation of the philosophical views of the Dutch thinker. Spinoza is also the author of such works as “Treatise on the Improvement of Reason”, “Theological-Political Treatise”, “Ethics”. The last work, “Political Treatise,” remained unfinished.

Spinoza, like Descartes, sought to build a philosophy based on unconditionally reliable starting points. Spinoza considered experimental knowledge to be in the realm of unreliable knowledge. According to Spinoza, rational-reasonable and, above all, mathematical-geometric knowledge has a completely different character. The truths of the latter are super-individual due to their of a necessary nature. Such truths are completely devoid of subjectivity. He saw an example of reliability and strict evidence in geometry, and he presented his main work, “Ethics,” in a “geometric” way: at the beginning of “Ethics,” definitions are stated, then axioms are formulated, and then, based on these definitions and axioms, theorems are proven. In this case, axioms are interpreted as provisions whose truth is seen intuitively. Spinoza still has to a greater extent than Descartes has absolutization mathematical method, so Spinoza extrapolates the method of Euclidean geometry to the field of ethics, forgetting that the rigor of geometry is based on the unambiguity of its concepts and terms. This absolutization of mathematics led to anti-historicism in the understanding of knowledge (historicism is an account of evolution).

The focus of Spinoza's philosophical interests was always ethics. However, in this era, as earlier in antiquity, it was believed that ethics should be based on metaphysics and physics. Therefore, in Spinoza, ontology precedes ethics and is, as it were, an introduction to it.

Spinoza's ontology is monistic. He believes that there is only one substance that is the cause of itself. For Descartes, God is an extranatural being rising above two substances. And for Spinoza, God completely coincides with the concept of substance, conceived as an all-encompassing being. Thus, for Spinoza, God is immanent (internally present), and not an externally acting cause of all things. Spinoza's pantheism and his denial of the free will of the deity formed a consistent anti-creationist position. The author of “Ethics” himself spoke of two natures in God: the generating nature and the progenerating nature (the world of concrete things).

The world of concrete things is a set of modes, i.e. individual manifestations of a single and only substance.

It should be noted here that Spinoza, along with the mechanical-mathematical approach, has an organic one. In line with the latter, Spinoza sought to comprehend individual things based on the integrity of the world, and not vice versa. According to Spinoza, the whole cannot be decomposed into parts without a remainder. The whole is not a mechanism, but an organism, for each individual part of a whole bodily substance necessarily belongs to the whole substance and cannot exist without the rest of the substance (i.e. without all the other parts). Absolute substance has countless attributes, but in our real world only two appear - extension and thinking. Following Descartes, Spinoza identified matter with space. The principle of individuation is movement and rest (i.e., the difference between bodies as modes of extension occurs only as a result of a constantly new proportion of movement and rest).

One of the most important manifestations of the organic interpretation of the world is hylozoism. It was inherent in many teachings of antiquity and the pantheism of the Renaissance. Bringing God closer to nature, the thinkers of the Renaissance, in contrast to Christian creationism, which considered the human soul as the highest result of divine creativity, returned to ancient ideas about the universal prevalence of the spiritual, mental principle. These are, for example, the views of Giordano Bruno, who undoubtedly influenced Spinoza in this regard. Spinoza's hylozoism is evidenced, in particular, by the following formulation of his “Ethics,” which states that individuals of nature “albeit to varying degrees, are still animated.” Spinoza calls the soul of every thing its idea. It should be emphasized that these ideas are objective. That. Panpsychism (as a type of hylozoism) turns into panlogism in Spinoza. The rationalization of the world, achieved through panlogism, finds expression in Spinoza in the identification of ideal, logical connections and material, material connections. Spinoza expressed it this way: “The order and connection of ideas are the same as the order and connection of things.”

Spinoza denied purposiveness in nature. Explaining this by the fact that everything in nature is due to mechanical reasons, i.e. external influences, and this completely excludes immanent goal setting. Even in human activity, everything is carried out due to reasons, and not to the goals that lie on its surface. Having completely expelled target causes from the explanation of all spheres of reality, Spinoza, following Descartes and Hobbes, brings to the fore the immediate causes of everything that happens and considers them as the only ones acting. The determinism developed by Spinoza was of a purely mechanistic nature (Determinism is a philosophical principle according to which, from the fact that everything in the world is interconnected and causally determined, the possibility of cognition, explanation and prediction of events follows. Classical or mechanistic, or Laplace (Pierre Laplace - French astronomer, mathematician, physicist) determinism is determinism, in which external causation and unambiguous causality of one event to another prevail)

One of the most important aspects of his determinism was the interpretation of the problem of chance and necessity. Spinoza wrote: “...If people clearly understood the whole order of nature, they would find everything as necessary as everything that mathematics teaches.” The connection of causes, comprehended not in fragments, but on a global scale, completely eliminates chance. On a universal scale, everything that exists exists only as necessary, for it is predetermined by the entire totality of world connections.

In this world of necessity, any miracles are absolutely excluded.

Man is part of nature. In conditions of global determinism, which excludes chance and determines human activity, human free will is nothing more than an illusion generated by the fact that people are aware of their desires, but do not know the reasons by which they are determined. Even infants, says the philosopher, are sure that they freely ask for milk. Human behavior is determined by affects - among the latter, Spinoza, for example, includes desire, pleasure, and displeasure. Instead of free will, Spinoza substantiates the concept of free necessity. (According to Spinoza, freedom is a conscious necessity). Generally speaking, the dependence of man as a particle of nature on nature itself, expressed in his affective state, is irremovable. But such activity of the human spirit is possible, as a result of which, without violating natural necessity, a person becomes free. It is entirely knitted with reliable, purely rational knowledge. Firstly, it seems to clarify our affects and subordinate the body to the spirit, and secondly, it makes it possible to understand the necessity inherent in the natural world and act in accordance with it. However, Spinoza’s ideal of a sage is not a doer, but a contemplator. Freedom, according to Spinoza, presupposes mastery over oneself, and not over the world.

Rationalization of affects is also the basis of moral behavior.

According to the philosopher, anyone who wants to develop a truly scientific moral doctrine must be guided by such an imperative “not to ridicule human actions, not to be upset by them and not to curse them, but to understand.” The decisive element of such understanding is the consideration of the entire spiritual world of man as a natural phenomenon, natural world. Spinoza is convinced that human behavior is determined by his desire for self-preservation. A person deprived of free will, proceeding from the law of self-preservation and always pursuing one or another benefit, always commits actions that entail natural consequences. At the same time, human behavior is determined not by otherworldly values, but by completely earthly, everyday considerations. But in general, the degree of moral perfection, according to the author of Ethics, is directly proportional to the extent to which a person is guided by reason in all his actions. Morality, according to Spinoza, should not be ascetic and condemning the joys of life. Pleasures should be enjoyed as much as is sufficient to maintain health. And one more important note - according to Spinoza, virtue is not needed for something, but it is good in itself.

To understand the essence of Spinoza’s social philosophy, it is necessary to note the change in the understanding of law and regularity that was the result of the development of natural scientific knowledge in the era under study. In the ancient and medieval worldview, the law of nature was usually understood as the projection of moral and legal laws onto physical nature. When its true laws, often expressed mathematically, were discovered, then the relationship between the actual natural and social laws began to change to the opposite. Moral and legal laws began to be interpreted as the implementation of purely natural, physical laws. At the same time, the first ones called natural law by the ancient phrase. The social doctrine of Spinoza and many other thinkers of the modern era was based on the concept of human nature. They saw its primary property in interest generated by the diverse needs of man - both physical and spiritual. Spinoza, like Hobbes and Locke and others, also believes that the natural state of society has been replaced by a civil one. However, he perhaps naturalizes this doctrine to a greater extent by emphasizing that the institutions of nature operate with essentially equal force in both the natural and civil states. People are selfish and treacherous by nature. In the state of nature, almost all human actions are determined by lower affects. In this state, the natural right of each individual is entirely determined by the measure of the power with which nature has endowed him. Natural law does not prohibit anything. Therefore, in the state of nature there can be no morality.

Spinoza, unlike Hobbes, associates the transition of people from a natural state to a civil state not so much with the conclusion of a social contract, but with the fact of the division of labor between people due to the diversity of their needs and the difference in their abilities. This idea was formulated by Plato back in antiquity. That. connecting people into societies is a vital necessity for them. Spinoza identified society with the state.

Finally, let us turn to the consideration of the main points of the philosophy of the outstanding German representative of rationalism - Leibniz

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646 – 1716) was the son of a professor of morality at the University of Leipzig. Graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Leipzig. Then he defended his doctorate in Altorf. He abandoned his university career. However, Leibniz did not have the funds to live as an independent research scientist; he had to go into the service of titled and crowned rulers, and his whole life passed depending on them. Leibniz was a very versatile scientist and activist: he was a mathematician and physicist, a lawyer and historiographer, an archaeologist, a linguist and an economist. For example, he discovered differential and integral calculus almost at the same time as Newton, studied the laws of coin circulation, improved a pump for pumping out groundwater in mines, wrote projects for the abolition of serfdom, was the first president of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and the initiator Russian Academy Sci.

He authored such works as “New Physical Hypothesis”, “On the Improvement of First Philosophy and the Concept of Substance”, “New Experiments on human mind”, “Theodicy”, “Monadology”, etc. The general methodological basis of the German scientist was rationalism. This led to the fact that the principles of the method of cognition became the philosopher’s principles for constructing an ontological system. The main principles of the Leibniz method include:

4. Universal differences - its essence is that absolutely nowhere there is perfect similarity.

5. Identities of indistinguishable things - if all the properties of things coincide, they are one and the same thing.

6. Universal continuity - according to this principle, gradually increasing differences take place everywhere and gradual (they could be called “infinitesimal”) changes occur. For example, “There is an infinite number of steps between any movement and complete rest, between solidity and a completely liquid state ... between God and nothing.” Or - equality in algebra is an extreme case of inequality, a straight line is an extreme case of curves. There is no emptiness in the physical world, for it is only a speculative limit of ever increasing degrees of subtlety of matter.

7. Monad discreteness. The principle of continuity indicates the continuity of reality, and the principle of monadity indicates its discreteness. The real methodological content of the principle of monadism lies primarily in the conclusion that all reality consists of leaps, albeit very small ones.

The principles of the method are important for understanding Leibniz's ontology.

Just like Descartes and Spinoza, Leibniz develops the doctrine of being in the form of the doctrine of substance. The historical and philosophical premises of his teaching are, first of all, those contradictions and difficulties that emerged in the systems of Descartes and Spinoza. Leibniz was not satisfied with either Descartes' dualism or Spinoza's monism - in his opinion, they did not convincingly substantiate the infinite variety of reality. In contrast to Descartes and Spinoza, Leibniz determines the place of forces not in the phenomena of the world, but in its very essence. In phenomena, forces reveal their actions, but here it is not the forces themselves that are visible, but the consequences of their activity; in the realm of essences this activity boils incessantly, but it is not visible, since it is covered by sensory phenomena. Since forces are not sensory, they, Leibniz believed, are immaterial. But at the same time, they are often unconscious, i.e. do not yet have consciousness. As a result, the following picture of the world emerges: entities are simple, i.e. indivisible, which means they are not extended; phenomena are complex, divisible, extended. Spirit is the source and highest development of energy. Phenomena are sensory detections of spiritual energy, i.e. that which appears in sensibility under the name of material, geometric and physical-dynamic characteristics. Every spirit is a force, and every force is a substance. All things are, in essence, forces. Any thing is a substance. The number of substances is infinite. Each substance or force is a unit of being, or “monad” (unit). A monad is a kind of philosophical point that is not characterized by extension, but is characterized by inexhaustibility of content. Like different human personalities, substances are individual and unique, each of them has its own identity, changes and develops in its own way, although the development of all of them ultimately occurs in a single direction. Monads do not arise and do not die. Passivity is alien to monads; they are extremely active; one can say that it is precisely active striving that constitutes their essence. Each of them is a constant and continuous flow of change, in which changes in reality and consciousness coincide.

All monads, according to the first principle (of universal differences), are not identical to each other. Monads differ in the originality of the structure of consciousness, in the degree of general development, activity and perfection. Each monad is a closed space, and hence Leibniz’s famous saying: “Monads do not have windows at all through which anything could enter or exit.” Monads do not interact with each other, and the coherence reigning in the world is determined by God's pre-established harmony.

Leibniz understood the internal development of monads by analogy with the mental life of people. The stages of development of monads are sensations, contemplation, ideas, self-awareness. monads, developing, move to higher and higher levels of consciousness. The highest class of monads known to us, according to Leibniz, is the souls of people. But this evolving series of monads has neither beginning nor end. This is ontology, it is also Leibniz’s monadology.

In conclusion, let's say a few words about the theory of knowledge of the German philosopher. According to Leibniz, perception is the unconscious state of the monad. Leibniz used the term "perception" to designate vague and unconscious perception, as opposed to clear and conscious perception - apperception. Apperception is associated with consciousness of one’s own internal state, i.e. with reflection. Reflection is characteristic only of human souls.

Leibniz does not deny experimental, sensory knowledge. However, sensations cannot explain the main thing in knowledge: the necessity and universality of certain truths. Universality and necessity are the property of the mind, not the senses. Therefore, with some irony, Leibniz contrasts Locke’s formula with his own: “there is nothing in the mind that was not previously in sensations, with the exception of the mind itself.”

Leibniz recognized the presence in the human mind of certain inclinations and predispositions. Therefore, according to Leibniz, the human mind is not like a blank slate, but like a block of marble with veins that outline the outlines of a future figure that a sculptor can sculpt from it.

In accordance with the doctrine of the sources of knowledge, Leibniz developed his doctrine of two types of truths: truths of fact and metaphysical (eternal) truths. The former are found with the help of experience, and the latter with the help of reason and do not need to be justified by experience.

Philosophy - Tutorial(Morgunov V.G.)

12. European rationalism of the 17th century: Rene Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz.

Rationalism (lat. rationalis - reasonable) is a doctrine in the theory of knowledge, according to which universality and necessity - the logical signs of reliable knowledge cannot be deduced from experience and its generalizations, but only drawn from the mind itself or from concepts inherent in the mind from birth (theory innate ideas of Descartes), or from concepts that exist in the form of inclinations, predispositions of the mind. Rationalism arose as an attempt to explain the logical features of the truths of mathematics and mathematical science. In the ultimate form of its expression, rationalism resulted in the identification of real and logical connections and relationships. The most famous representatives of rationalism are Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz.

Rene Descartes (1596 - 1650) - French philosopher, mathematician, physicist, physiologist. Main works: “Discourse on Method” (1637), “Principles of Philosophy” (1644).

Descartes' philosophy is related to his mathematics, cosmogony and physics. In mathematics, Descartes is one of the creators of analytical geometry. In mechanics, he pointed out the relativity of motion and rest, formulated the general law of action and reaction, as well as the law of conservation of total momentum when two inelastic bodies collide. In cosmogony, he developed a new idea for science about the natural development of the solar system.

Anti-traditionalism is the alpha and omega of Descartes' philosophy. Together with Bacon, Descartes saw the ultimate goal of knowledge in the dominance of man over the forces of nature, in the discovery and invention of technical means, in the knowledge of causes and actions, in the improvement of human nature. To achieve this task, Descartes considered it necessary to doubt all existing existence. Since Bacon and Descartes were people of the same era, their philosophical systems had much in common. The main thing that brought Bacon and Descartes together was the development of problems in the methodology of scientific research. Like Bacon, Descartes' methodology was anti-scholastic. This focus was manifested, first of all, in the desire to achieve knowledge that would strengthen man's power over nature, and would not be an end in itself or a means of proving religious truths. Another important feature of Descartes' methodology, which also brings it closer to Bacon, is the criticism of scholastic syllogistics. However, the path developed by Descartes was quite different from the path proposed by Bacon. Bacon's methodology was empirical, experimental and individual. Descartes' method can be called rationalistic. Descartes paid tribute to experimental research in the natural sciences; he repeatedly emphasized the importance of experience in scientific knowledge. But scientific discoveries, according to Descartes, are made not as a result of experiments, no matter how skillful they may be, but as a result of the activity of the mind, which directs the experiments themselves. The primary focus on the activity of the human mind in the process of cognition is what makes Descartes’ methodology rationalistic.

Descartes' rationalism is based on the attempt to apply the features of the mathematical method of cognition to all sciences. Bacon passed by such an effective and powerful way of understanding experimental data as mathematics was becoming in his era. Descartes, being one of the great mathematicians of his time, put forward the idea of ​​a universal mathematization of scientific knowledge. The French philosopher interpreted mathematics not just as the science of quantities, but also as the science of order and measure that reigns in all nature.

The essence of Descartes' rationalistic method comes down to two main principles. First: in knowledge one should start from some intuitively clear, fundamental truths. Or, in other words, the basis of knowledge should be intellectual intuition. Intellectual intuition, according to Descartes, is a solid and distinct idea, born in a healthy mind through the views of the mind itself, so simple and distinct that it does not give rise to any doubt. The second position: the mind must derive all the necessary consequences from these intuitive views on the basis of deduction. Deduction is an action of the mind through which we draw certain conclusions from certain premises and obtain certain consequences. Deduction, according to Descartes, is necessary because the conclusion cannot always be presented clearly and distinctly. It can be reached only through a gradual movement of thought with a clear and distinct awareness of each step. With the help of deduction we make the unknown known.

Descartes formulated the following three basic rules of the deductive method:

1. Every question must contain the unknown.

2. This unknown must have some characteristic features so that the research is aimed at understanding this particular unknown.

3. The question must also contain something known.

Thus, deduction is the determination of the unknown through the previously known and known.

After defining the main provisions of the method, Descartes was faced with the task of forming such an initial reliable principle from which, guided by the rules of deduction, all other concepts of the philosophical system could be logically deduced, that is, Descartes had to realize intellectual intuition. Intellectual intuition for Descartes begins with doubt. He questioned the truth of all the knowledge that humanity had. Having proclaimed doubt as the starting point of all research, Descartes sets the goal of helping humanity get rid of all prejudices (or idols, as Bacon called them), from all fantastic and misconceptions taken on faith, and thus clear the way for genuine scientific knowledge, and at the same time, find the sought-after, original principle, a distinct, clear idea that can no longer be questioned. Descartes wrote that the reliability of all human ideas about the world should be questioned, then one can easily assume that there is no God, no heaven, no earth, and that even people do not have a body. But still it is impossible to assume that people do not exist while doubting the truth of all these things. It is equally absurd, from the point of view of Descartes, to consider as non-existent that which thinks, while it thinks, that, despite the most extreme assumptions, it is impossible not to believe that the conclusion “I think, therefore I exist” is true and that it is therefore the first and truest of all conclusions. So, the position “I think, therefore I exist,” that is, the idea that thinking itself, regardless of its content and objects, demonstrates the reality of the thinking subject, and is that primary source intellectual intuition, from which, according to Descartes, all knowledge about the world is derived.

The originality of Descartes' philosophical system lies in the fact that he attributes an undoubted character to doubt itself, to thinking and to the being of the subject of thinking: by turning to oneself, doubt, according to Descartes, disappears. Doubt is opposed by the immediate clarity of the very fact of thinking, thinking that does not depend on its object, on the subject of doubt. Thus, “I think” for Descartes is, as it were, that absolutely reliable axiom from which the entire edifice of science should grow, just as all the provisions of Euclidean geometry are derived from a small number of axioms and postulates.

The rationalistic postulate “I think” is the basis of a unified scientific method. This method, according to Descartes, should transform cognition into organizational activity, freeing it from chance, from such subjective factors as observation and a keen mind, on the one hand, luck and a happy coincidence, on the other. The method allows science not to focus on individual discoveries, but to develop systematically and purposefully, including ever wider areas of the unknown into its orbit, in other words, it turns science into the most important sphere of human life.

Descartes was a son of his time, and his philosophical system, like Bacon's, was not without internal contradictions. By highlighting the problems of knowledge, Bacon and Descartes laid the foundations for the construction of philosophical systems of the New Age. If in medieval philosophy Since the central place was given to the doctrine of being - ontology, then since the time of Bacon and Descartes the doctrine of knowledge - epistemology has come to the fore in philosophical systems.

Bacon and Descartes laid the foundation for the split of all reality into subject and object. The subject is the bearer of cognitive action, the object is what this action is directed towards. The subject in Descartes’ system is a thinking substance – the thinking “I”. However, Descartes realized that the “I”, as a special thinking substance, must find a way out to the objective world. In other words, epistemology must be based on the doctrine of being - ontology. Descartes solves this problem by introducing the idea of ​​God into his metaphysics. God is the creator objective world. He is the creator of man. The truth of the original principle as clear and distinct knowledge is guaranteed by Descartes by the existence of God - perfect and omnipotent, who invested in man the natural light of reason. Thus, the self-consciousness of the subject in Descartes is not closed on itself, but open, open to God, who is the source of the objective significance of human thinking. Descartes’s doctrine of innate ideas is associated with the recognition of God as the source and guarantor of human self-consciousness and reason. Descartes included the idea of ​​God as an all-perfect being, the ideas of numbers and figures, as well as some of the most general concepts, such as “from nothing nothing comes”, as innate ideas. In the doctrine of innate ideas, Plato's position on true knowledge as the recollection of what was imprinted on the soul when it was in the world of ideas was developed in a new way.

Descartes is convinced that the creation of a new method of thinking requires a solid and unshakable foundation. Such a basis must be found in the mind itself, more precisely in its internal source - in self-consciousness. “I think, therefore I exist” - this is the most reliable of all judgments. In order for this judgment to acquire the significance of the initial position of philosophy, several assumptions are necessary, one of which is the conviction, dating back to antiquity (primarily to Platonism), of the ontological superiority of the intelligible world over the sensory, since in Descartes it is primarily the sensory world that is subject to doubt. Descartes laid down not just the principle of thinking as an objective process, as the ancient Logos was, but a subjectively experienced and conscious process of thinking, one from which it is impossible to separate the thinker.

The central concept of Descartes' rationalistic metaphysics is the concept of substance. He defines substance as a thing that does not need anything other than itself for its existence. Descartes divides the created world into two types of substances - spiritual and material. The main definition of a spiritual substance is its indivisibility, the most important feature of a material substance is divisibility to infinity. The main attributes of substances are thinking and extension. Their remaining attributes are derived from these first ones: imagination, feeling, desire - modes of thinking; figure, position, movement - modes of extension.

An immaterial (spiritual) substance, according to Descartes, contains in itself ideas that are inherent in it initially - innate ideas.

As for the material substance, the main attribute of which is extension, Descartes identifies it with nature, and therefore rightly declares that everything in nature is subject to purely mechanical laws that can be discovered with the help of mathematical science - mechanics. From nature, Descartes completely expels the concept of purpose, on which Aristotelian physics was based, and, accordingly, the concepts of soul and life - central to the natural philosophy of the Renaissance. The dualism of substances thus allows Descartes to create materialist physics as the doctrine of extended substance and idealistic psychology as the doctrine of thinking substance. Descartes turned out to be one of the creators of classical mechanics. By identifying nature with extension, he created a theoretical foundation explaining on what basis mathematics can be used to study natural phenomena.

The weak point of Descartes' teaching was the indefinite status of substances: only the infinite substance - God - possessed true existence, and the finite, that is, the created, were dependent on the infinite. Spinoza tried to overcome this difficulty, having been strongly influenced by Descartes, but not accepting his dualism and creating a monistic doctrine of a single substance, which he called God, or nature.

Baruch Spinoza (1632 – 1677) – Dutch philosopher and materialist. For religious freethinking he was excommunicated from the Jewish church community in Amsterdam. Spinoza is the creator of the geometric method in philosophy, the essence of which is the use of the axiomatic method borrowed from ancient geometry to substantiate and present philosophical concepts and teachings. The axiomatic method implies the deductive construction of scientific theories, in which: 1) a certain set of propositions accepted without proof - axioms - is selected; 2) the concepts included in the axioms are not explicitly defined within the framework of this theory; 3) rules are fixed that allow the introduction of new terms and the derivation of some sentences from others; 4) all other proposals of this theory - theorems are derived from (1) on the basis of (3).

Spinoza, like R. Descartes, is a supporter of rationalism. Rationalistic attitudes are manifested in his system both in the very form of presentation of the material and in the solution of the most important epistemological problems. From the substantive side, Spinoza’s rationalism is manifested in his interpretation of the process of cognition. He sharply contrasts sensory ideas, which he calls imagination, with understanding. Sensory representation, Spinoza believes, forms the first, lower kind of knowledge, which is composed of two methods of perception. The first of these Spinoza calls vague or disordered experience. This experience covers the widest area human life, because no person can do without it. However, the theoretical value of truths or ideas achieved in experimental knowledge is small. Spinoza explains the limitations of experimental knowledge by the fact that experience does not have universality and necessity. The Dutch philosopher argues that no matter how many experiments are carried out, scientists are not able to draw from them universal and necessary truths. From his point of view, this level of knowledge gives people only incomplete truth and inadequate ideas.

Reliable knowledge is possible only at the stage of reason or reason, which, according to Spinoza, constitutes the second type of knowledge. The activity of the mind is associated with the operation of general concepts.

Contrasting two forms of knowledge, sensory and rational, Spinoza makes a clear distinction between the tools with which they operate. The results of sensory cognition and sensory ideas have a complex composition, since they inevitably reflect the nature of external bodies through the prism of perception of the human body. As a result of this method of cognition, ideas about the state of external bodies turn out to be bizarrely confused with ideas about the state of a person’s own body. In these kinds of ideas, the objective cannot be separated from the subjective. This is where the purely individual character of sensory ideas comes from.

General concepts reflect the objective properties of the things themselves. General concepts, according to Spinoza, are, first of all, mathematical concepts. Experience has no influence on their formation. They are given to human consciousness initially, a priori, that is, before any experience. Here in Spinoza, as well as in Descartes, we again encounter the theory of innate ideas. Thus, if the empiricist F. Bacon always emphasized the sensory content of ideas, then the rationalist B. Spinoza emphasizes their logical nature. The rational type of knowledge, in his opinion, is a deductive method of deducing truths from initial premises. Only logical coherence and systematic reasoning can lead a person to adequate knowledge.

The pinnacle of reliable knowledge, from the point of view of the Dutch thinker, is intuition. In the doctrine of intuition developed by Spinoza, two approaches meet and overlap each other. The first is associated with the mystical tradition of medieval philosophy, coming from Neoplatonism. Intuition in this tradition is interpreted as the “inner light” of human consciousness, giving a direct, holistic understanding of reality. At the same time, Spinoza, following Descartes, gives intuition an intellectual connotation. By its origin and functioning, that is, in the process of its activity, intuition in Spinoza is associated with the deductive method of knowledge.

Thus, Spinoza, like Descartes, operates with the concept of intellectual intuition. However, there are certain differences in the interpretation of intuition among these modern philosophers. In Descartes, as can be seen from the previous presentation, an intuitive judgment was understood as such a simple and clear judgment that in itself left no doubt about the truth of what was thought. For Spinoza, an intuitive judgment is essentially an analytical judgment in which a predicate (logical predicate) reveals the characteristics of an object. According to Spinoza, such absolutely indisputable judgments are completely independent of empirical generalization, full of accidents and contradictions, and save from all subjectivism. They themselves contain the criterion of truth. The philosopher believes that just as light reveals both itself and the surrounding darkness, so “truth is the measure of both itself and lies.”

Together with Bacon and Descartes, Spinoza considered the goal of knowledge to be the conquest of nature and the improvement of man. He supplemented the teachings of his predecessors with the doctrine of freedom, showing how human freedom is possible - within the framework of necessity. In solving this problem, Spinoza relied on his doctrine of nature. In contrast to the dualism of Descartes, Spinoza believed that only nature exists, which is the cause of itself, and does not need anything else for its existence. As “creative nature,” it is substance, or, as he called it, God. By calling substance God, or nature, Spinoza thereby emphasizes that “this is not the God of theistic religions, he is not a person endowed with consciousness, power and will, and is not the creator of natural things.” Spinoza's God is an infinite impersonal entity, the main definition of which is existence, being as the beginning and cause of all things. The idea of ​​the fusion of God and nature, which underlies Spinoza's teachings, is called pantheism. Spinoza's pantheism is a step on the path to materialism.

From substance - being, Spinoza distinguishes the world of individual finite things (modes) - both corporeal and mental. The substance is one, the modes are countless. An infinite mind could comprehend infinite substance in all its species or aspects. But our finite human mind comprehends the essence of substance as infinite only in two aspects: as “extension” and as “thought.” These are the attributes of a substance among its other attributes, the number of which is infinite and which are unknown to us. Spinoza based his doctrine of man on these principles. According to him, a person is a creature in which the mode of extension—the body—corresponds to the mode of thinking—the soul. In both modes, man is part of nature. In his doctrine of the mode of the soul, Spinoza reduced the entire complexity of mental life to reason and passions, or affects: joy, sadness and lust. He identified will with reason. According to Spinoza, human behavior is driven by the desire for self-preservation and personal benefit. Spinoza rejected the idealistic doctrine of free will, recognized the will as always dependent on motives, but, at the same time, considered freedom possible as behavior based on the knowledge of necessity.

In the doctrine of knowledge, Spinoza continues the line of rationalism. He elevated intellectual knowledge, based on the mind, over sensory knowledge as a lower type of knowledge and downgraded the role of experience. He considered the highest type of intellectual knowledge to be direct insight into the truth, or intuition of the mind. At the same time, he declared - following Descartes - clarity and distinctness as the criterion of truth.

Spinoza's role in the development of free thought is great. The purpose of religion, according to his teaching, is not knowledge of the nature of things, but only instructing people in a moral way of life. Therefore, neither religion nor the state should infringe on freedom of thought.

Gottfried Leibniz (1646 – 1716) – German philosopher, scientist, public figure. He made a great contribution to the development of mathematics (one of the creators of differential calculus), physics (anticipated the law of conservation of energy); in addition, he studied geology, biology, history, linguistics, and was the author of a number of technical inventions. Main works: “New Experiments on the Human Mind” (1704), “Theodicy” (1710), “Monadology” (1714).

Leibniz deliberately contrasted the pluralism of substances with the pantheistic monism of Spinoza. Leibniz called independently existing substances monads (monad from Greek - “single”, “unit”). According to Leibniz, the monad is simple, that is, it does not consist of parts, and therefore is indivisible. This means that the monad cannot be something material and substantial, cannot be extended, because everything material, being extended, is divisible to infinity. Not extension, but activity (this activity represents that which cannot be explained by mechanical causes, namely, perception and aspiration) constitutes the essence of each monad. The activity of monads, according to Leibniz, is expressed in a continuous change of internal states, which can be observed by contemplating the life of one’s own soul. Endowing monads with attraction and perception, he thinks of them by analogy with the human soul. Leibniz writes that monads are called souls when they have feelings, and spirits when they have reason. In the inorganic world, they were more often called substantial forms. Thus, everything in the world turns out to be alive and animate, and where we see just a piece of matter, in reality there is a whole world of living beings - monads. The question arises, if Leibniz thinks of a monad, by analogy with human soul, then how does his concept differ from the teachings of Descartes, who also considers the rational soul as an indivisible principle, as opposed to an infinitely divisible extension? The difference is quite significant.

Descartes strictly opposed the mind as indivisible to the rest of nature, and Leibniz, on the contrary, believes that indivisible monads constitute the essence of all nature. So that the statement would not be absurd (since it allows for a rational soul endowed with consciousness not only in animals, but also in plants, and even in minerals), Leibniz introduces the concept of so-called unconscious ideas. There is no sharp transition between consciously experienced and unconscious states: transitions in the states of monads are gradual. He likens unconscious “small perceptions” to a differential: only an infinitely large number of them, when summed up, gives a “quantity” accessible to consciousness. Monads differ in their rank, according to Leibniz, depending on the extent to which their activity becomes clear and distinct, that is, it moves to the conscious level. In this sense, monads constitute, as it were, a single ladder of living beings, the lowest steps of which are formed by minerals, then by plants, animals and, finally, by humans. At the top of the ladder, Leibniz placed the highest monad - God. The most striking thing in Leibniz's teaching is the thesis about the closedness of each of the monads. The philosopher writes that monads do not have windows, therefore the influence of monads on each other is completely excluded; each of them is like an independent, “separate universe.” In this sense, each of Leibniz's monads is similar to Spinoza's substance: it is that which exists in itself and does not depend on anything other than God. And at the same time, any monad perceives, as if experiencing within itself, the entire cosmos in all its diversity. But not all monads have the light of reason to clearly recognize this. Even rational monads - human souls - have more unconscious than conscious ideas, and only the divine substance sees everything that exists in the bright light of consciousness. Monads, according to Leibniz, do not physically interact with each other, but at the same time they form a single developing world, which is regulated by a pre-established harmony depending on the supreme monad.

Although the problems of cognition became the focus of the philosophers of the 17th century, epistemology during this period had not yet broken away from its ontological root. It is no coincidence that the problems of substance turned out to be one of the central ones in the teachings of Descartes, Spinoza and other representatives of rationalism of this period. Most of them share the belief that thinking comprehends being and that this is the essence of thinking.

1. The founder of rationalism is considered René Descartes (1596 - 1650)- prominent French philosopher and mathematician. Main works: “Discourse on Method”, “Reflections on First Philosophy”, “Principles of Philosophy”, “Animal-Machine”.

Descartes' merit to philosophy is that he:

Justified the leading role of reason in cognition; put forward the doctrine of substance, its attributes and modes; became the author of the theory of dualism, thereby trying to reconcile the materialist and idealist trends in philosophy; put forward a theory about the scientific method of cognition and about “innate ideas.”

2. Descartes proved that reason lies at the basis of being and knowledge as follows:

There are many things and phenomena in the world that are incomprehensible to man (do they exist? what are their properties? For example: is there a God? is the Universe finite? etc.); but absolutely any phenomenon, any thing can be doubted (does the world around us exist? does the sun shine? is the soul immortal? etc.); therefore, doubt really exists, this fact is obvious and does not need proof; doubt is a property of thought, which means that a person, doubting, thinks; a really existing person can think; therefore, thinking is the basis of both being and knowledge; since thinking is the work of the mind, then only reason can lie at the basis of being and knowledge.

3. Studying the problem of being, Descartes tries to derive a basic, fundamental concept that would characterize the essence of being. As such, the philosopher derives the concept of substance.

Substance - it is everything that exists without needing anything other than itself for its existence. Only one substance has this quality (the absence of a need for its existence in anything other than itself) and it can only be God, who is eternal, uncreated, indestructible, omnipotent, and is the source and cause of everything.

Being the Creator, God created the world, also consisting of substances. Substances created by God (individual things, ideas) also have the main quality of substance - they do not need anything other than themselves for their existence. Moreover, created substances are self-sufficient only in relation to each other. In relation to the highest substance - God, they are derivative, secondary and dependent on him (since they were created by him).

Descartes divides all created substances into two types:

Material things); spiritual (ideas).

At the same time, he identifies the fundamental properties (attributes) of each type of substance:

Extension - for material; thinking is for the spiritual.

This means that all material substances have a common characteristic - length (in length, width, height, depth) and are divisible to infinity.

Yet spiritual substances have property of thinking and, conversely, indivisible.

The remaining properties of both material and spiritual substances are derived from their fundamental properties (attributes) and were called modes by Descartes. (For example, modes of extension are form, movement, position in space, etc.; modes of thinking are feelings, desires, sensations.)

Man, according to Descartes, consists of two substances that are different from each other - material (bodily-extended) and spiritual (thinking).

Man is the only creature in which both (material and spiritual) substances combine and exist, and this allowed him to rise above nature.

4. Based on the fact that a person combines two substances within himself, the idea of ​​dualism (duality) of a person follows.

From the point of view of dualism, Descartes decides "the fundamental question of philosophy": the debate about what comes first - matter or consciousness - is meaningless. Matter and consciousness are united only in man, and since man is dualistic (combines two substances - material and spiritual), then neither matter nor? consciousness cannot be primary - they always exist and are two different manifestations of a single being.

5. When studying the problem of knowledge, Descartes places special emphasis on scientific method.

The essence of his idea is that scientific method, which is used in physics, mathematics, and other sciences, has practically no application in the process of cognition. Consequently, by actively applying the scientific method in the process of cognition, one can significantly advance the cognitive process itself (according to Descartes: “transform cognition from handicraft into industrial production”). Deduction is proposed as this scientific method (but not in a strictly mathematical sense - from the general to the particular, but in a philosophical sense).

The meaning of Descartes' philosophical epistemological method is that in the process of cognition, rely only on absolutely reliable knowledge and, with the help of reason, using completely reliable logical techniques, obtain (derive) new, also reliable knowledge. Only by using deduction as a method, according to Descartes, can reason achieve reliable knowledge in all spheres of knowledge.

Also, Descartes, when using the rationalistic-deductive method, suggests using the following research techniques:

When researching, allow only true, absolutely reliable knowledge, proven by reason and logic, that does not raise any doubts, as starting points; break down a complex problem into separate, simpler tasks; consistently move from known and proven issues to unknown and unproven ones; strictly observe the sequence, the logical chain of research, not skip a single link in the logical chain of research.

6. At the same time, Descartes puts forward the doctrine of innate ideas. The essence of this theory is that most knowledge is achieved through cognition and deduction, but there is a special type of knowledge that does not need any evidence. These truths (axioms) are initially obvious and reliable. Descartes calls such axioms “innate ideas,” which always exist in the mind of God and the mind of man and are passed on from generation to generation.

Data ideas can be of two types:

Concepts; judgments.

Example the following may serve:

Innate concepts - God (exists); “number” (exists), “will”, “body”, “soul”, “structure”, etc.; innate judgments - “the whole is greater than its part,” “nothing comes from nothing,” “you cannot simultaneously be and not be.” Descartes was a supporter of practical rather than abstract knowledge.

The goals of knowledge, according to Descartes, are:

Expanding and deepening human knowledge about the world around us; using this knowledge to extract maximum benefits from nature for people; invention of new technical means; improvement of human nature.

The philosopher saw the dominance of man over nature as the ultimate goal of knowledge.

Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza(1632 – 1677) – Dutch philosopher, pantheist. Spinoza's main works are Ethics Proved Geometrically and The Theological-Political Treatise.

Spinoza in his philosophy overcame the dualism of Descartes on the basis of materialistic monism and pantheism. He proved the position that nature is the cause of itself, that nature is God, for it appears as creative nature and created nature. In his opinion, there is only one material substance, the main attributes of which are extension and thinking. Thus, all nature is alive and not only because it is God, but also because thinking is inherent in it. Having spiritualized all nature, Spinoza thereby acted as a philosopher - hylozoist (all matter has life, it is alive)

The doctrine of nature as a substance, the eternal existence of which follows from its essence, he rejects God as its creator, and his materialism actually merges with atheism. The attributes of a material substance are as eternal as matter itself: they never arise or disappear. Specific states of substance – modes. They exist as eternal, infinite modes and temporary, finite modes. Infinite modes follow from the attributes of substance - thinking and extension, and finite modes - all other phenomena and things.

Spinoza argued that movement is not a consequence of some divine impulse, because nature is “the cause of itself,” and movement is its essence and source. Movement, according to Spinoza, is not an attribute, but a mode (albeit eternal and infinite): it is inherent in concrete things, while substance is devoid of movement and change and has nothing to do with time.

Spinoza is a consistent determinist: the emergence, existence and death of phenomena are determined by objective reasons. There are two types of reasons: internal and external. The first are inherent in substance, and the second - in modes. His concept of determinism contains consideration not only of cause-and-effect relationships, but also of the relationships of chance, necessity and freedom. However, Spinoza did not see chance and necessity with their unity, but what he did meant an open struggle against the teleologism that dominated science (the expediency generated by God in nature)

At the center of Spinoza's social philosophy are problems of man, state, and religion. The problem of man is the problem of a “free man” who is guided by reason. He, like Hobbes, was an adherent of the concept of natural law and social contract.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz(1646 – 1716) – German philosopher. His main works are: “Discourse on Metaphysics”, “New System of Nature”, “New Experiments on the Human Mind”, “Theodicy” and a work that influenced many generations of philosophers - “Monadology”.

Leibniz, considering the relationship between reason and feeling, gave preference to reason. In his work “New Experiments on the Human Mind,” criticizing Locke’s thesis that “there is nothing in the mind that was not previously in the senses,” he adds: “Except the mind itself.” He divided all truths into necessary (“truths of reason”) and accidental (“truths of fact”). Among the first were the concepts of “substance”, “being”, “cause”, “action”, “identity”, etc. The source of these truths, in his opinion, is only reason.

Leibniz believed that philosophy should be distinguished by universality, the universality of basic principles and the rigor of judgments, therefore it is important to comprehensively examine the human mind. He came to the conclusion that there are a priori principles of existence independent of experience. These include: the consistency of every possible or mental existence (the law of non-contradiction); logical primacy of the possible over the actual; sufficient validity of the fact that this world exists, that exactly this kind of existence occurs, and not another (the law of sufficient awareness); the perfection of a given world as sufficient awareness for its existence. He understood this sufficiency of the existence of the world as the unity of essence and existence, the diversity and integrity of nature, the possibility of combining a minimum of means and a maximum result, etc.

Leibniz distinguished between the “intelligible world” (“truly existing”) and the “sensory world”, “phenomenal” (physical world). In Monadology, he declared material phenomena to be manifestations of indivisible, simple spiritual units - monads, which are indivisible, have no extension and are not in space, since space is infinitely divisible; which are eternal and indestructible by not changing under external influence.

Monads are always characterized by a plurality of states; something in them is constantly changing, but some things remain the same. The Monad is a microcosm, an infinitesimal world. Leibniz divided monads into three categories: life monads, soul monads, and spirit monads. Hence, he divided all complex substances into three groups: from monads - souls - animals; people are formed from monads - spirits. The less distinct the perceptions and other related mental properties. The more fully the material, bodily side is revealed. The monads themselves - the souls of bodies - are the immaterial, spiritual center of the activity of force, the “mirror of the Universe.” The external expression of the essence of the monad is a number.

Nature, Leibniz believes, cannot be explained by the laws of mechanics alone; it is also necessary to introduce the concept of purpose, for each monad is at once the basis of all its actions and their goal. The soul is the goal of the body, what the body strives for. And therefore, in relation to this internal goal, the body acts as a means of the soul. The interaction of soul and body is a “pre-established harmony” by God.

Leibniz developed the doctrine of analysis and synthesis, and was the first to formulate the law of formal logic of sufficient reason; The formulation of the law of identity that is accepted today belongs to him.