metodichka_dlya_filos

UNIT 5

PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN TIME

KEY WORDS

Monads

(in the metaphysics of Leibnitz) a simple indestructible nonspatial element regarded as the unit of which reality consists.

Substance

the supposed immaterial substratum that can receive modifications and in which attributes and accidents in here; a thing considered as a continuing whole that survives the changeability of its properties.

Conscience

the sense of right and wrong that governs a person's thoughts and actions.

5.1 THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

In the eighteenth century, philosophy and religion fell upon hard times. The success of the scientists and explorers of the preceding century, and the daring propaganda of liberty-loving students of social science, had begun to undermine the ancient foundations of metaphysics. In the face of the century's impressive scientific achievements, the adherents of the old metaphysics ignored the temptation to fashion new theories in order to devote themselves to defending such traditional ideas as might still carry weight with their opponents.

The eighteenth century, the century of the great liberators, ruthlessly sought to destroy every vestige of religiometaphysical speculation. Men like Hume, Voltaire, Rousseau, Condillac, Collins, Tyndale – a whole army of intellectual giants – joined the fight against superstition. In its battle for life, superstition raised the familiar cry for tolerance which the revolutionaries themselves had used against the merciless wielders of dogmatism.

But the ignorance which still reigned among the masses, still dominated by the forces of conservatism, prevented the spirit of an aroused Europe from using the victory in its hands. Religious dogmatism and metaphysical phantasy eventually resumed their authority. After the destructive attacks on metaphysics by Locke and Hume and the others, the renaissance of traditional philosophy was accomplished by professor Immanual Kant.

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This final epoch of philosophy is all the more shameful because of the great and marvelous discoveries which the sciences were unfolding during the same time. One would suppose, after all that the human mind had discovered, invented and made available for the progress of man, that speculative philosophy and religion would have become a thing of the past. But no, they continue to weigh just as heavily on the society of our time.

I. Practise reading the following words and find the sentences with

them in the text :
accomplish [əʹkɒmplɪʃ; əʹkʌm-]	preceding [prɪʹsi:dɪŋ]
adherent [ədʹhɪərənt]	renaissance [rəʹneɪsəns]
Collins [ʹkɒlɪnz]	Rousseau [ruʹso]
Condillac [kɔdɪʹjak]	ruthless [ʹru:Ɵlɪs]
dogmatism [ʹdɒɡmətɪzəm]	tolerance [ʹtɒlərəns]
Hume [hju:m]	Tyndale [ʹtɪndəl]
ignore [ɪɡʹnɔ:]	undermine [ˏʌndəʹmaɪn]
Immanual Kant [ɪʹmænjʋəl] [kænt]	Voltaire [vɒlʹtɛə; vəʋl-]
Locke [ʹlɒk]	weight [weɪt]
merciless [ʹmɜ:sɪlɪs]

II. Answer the questions to the text:

1.Why did philosophy and religion fall into hard times in the 18th century?

2.How did the daring propaganda of liberty-loving students of social science influence philosophy?

3.What tendencies dominated in the 18th century?

4.Why are some intellectuals called ‘giants’? What did they fight against?

5.Did all the people possess the spirit of liberalism and innovations? Why so?

6.Who attacked metaphysics most of all?

7.Did the human mind overcome numerous specializations in philosophy and religion?

III. Give Ukrainian equivalents for the following wordcombinations:

to fall upon hard times, daring propaganda, to undermine the ancient foundations of metaphysics, to fashion new theories, the century of the

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great liberators, to destroy every vestige of religious and metaphysical speculations, to fight against superstition, to raise the cry for tolerance, forces of conservatism, religious dogmatism and metaphysical phantasy, marvelous discoveries.

IV. Give English equivalents for the following word-combinations:

підривати давні засади (настанови) метафізики, впливові наукові дослідження, поборники старої метафізики ігнорували нові теорії, сторіччя великих визволителів і революціонерів, боротися з забобонами, у масах царювала неосвіченість, релігійний догматизм і метафізичні фантазії, відродження традиційної філософії.

V. Put the words in the following sentences into the correct order:

1.Hard times / in the 18th century / fell upon / philosophy and

religion.

2.The adherents / the temptation / of the old metaphisics / to fashion

/new theories / ignored.

3.Against superstition / a whole army / the fight / of intellectual giants / ignored.

4.By the forces / but the ignorance / of conservatism / was still dominated.

5.Didn’t become / speculative philosophy / a thing of the past / and religion / in the 18th century.

VI. Find in the text the synonyms / antonyms to the following words and make up your own sentences with them:

Synonyms: hard, freedom, to ruin, all, struggle, famous, wonderful. Antonyms: easy, new, opponent, great, merciful, death, knowledge, to

stop.

VII. Find three sentences in the text which demonstrate the fight between ignorance and knowledge, progressive and regressive tendencies in the society. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian without a dictionary.

5.2 RENE DESCARTES

The French philosopher, Rene Descartes du Perron (1596-1650), was a mathematician of note and consequence. A volunteer soldier in many armies, Descartes spent most of his spare time and unquestionable abilities

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on problems which may have seemed important to him, but which are sometimes little more than the playful games of a scholarly dilettante. Unable to forget his Jesuit upbringing and prompted by his enthusiastic friends, he overreached himself in an attempt to write a new "natural philosophy."

Descartes began to set down his philosophic ideas in writing. For a long time his natural timidity and fear of the Catholic Church, which he greatly honored, kept him from making these ideas public. For the same reason he refrained from setting down his ethical theories. It is for the rulers, he said, to prescribe laws of conduct. He insisted that Catholic theology could be combined with his philosophy, and tried to base his ideas on the Biblical story of creation and on Biblical genealogy.

For Descartes, the existence of the trinal Catholic Deity was the main theme of philosophy. He directed his prayers for enlightenment to the Virgin Mother of God. "Never," he declared, "will a treatise come into the world from my pen in which there would be the slightest word that could be disapproved of by the Church."

Starting from the fundamental principle of all science, "De omnibus dubitandum," Descartes elaborated the rational method which was to dominate European thought for more than a century. Like St. Augustine, he asked, "What is certain?" "My first and only certainty," he answered, "lies in my thought. Cogito ergo sum – I think, therefore I am." With this fundamental Augustinian principle Descartes ended the first part of his introspective philosophy. Continuing his Catholic reasoning (this time a la Thomas Aquinas), Descartes argued, "I have an idea of God as an infinite being, but I, as a finite being, cannot produce from within myself an idea of the infinite. Thus an infinite and perfect divinity must exist outside of me."

At first, Descartes posited God as the one idea inborn in man, while all other ideas were acquired. Later, he added other "inborn" ideas, such as the idea of the soul, of mathematics, of color, and so on. Finally he comes to the conclusion that all ideas are innate.

The mathematics of Descartes is imposing; his philosophy severely limited. Like many who followed him, Descartes could never free himself completely from traditional metaphysics. Indeed, the famous steps of his method (intuition, analysis, synthesis, and review) are essentially those of the modern scientist. In Descartes we have one of those rare instances where knowledge and superstition, science and philosophy, are combined in the same individual.

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The psychology of Descartes is a storehouse of human error. Descartes was philosophizing about "dust-like living spirits" which come in contact with the nerves and so "mediate between the perceptions and motion." The soul has its seat in the glans pinealis, which is in the center of the brain, and from which it sends out its commands to all parts of the body. Man is a "machine inspired by life spirits."

What Descartes accomplished philosophically was to express the Scholastic ideas of substance in mathematical formulas. Relying on Cardinal Cusanus, he distinguished between a thinking substance and a body substance in addition to the substance of God. The substance of God needs nothing outside itself for its existence, but the substance of thought and body require the substance of God for their existence. This idea became a major theme in modern philosophy and is one of the reasons Descartes is known as "the founder of modern metaphysics

I. Practise reading the following words and find the sentences with

them in the text :
Deity [ʹdeɪtɪ, -ʹdi:ɪtɪ]	innate[ɪʹneɪt]
dilettante [ˏdɪlɪʹtæntɪ]	inspire [ɪnʹspaɪə]
distinguish [dɪʹstɪŋɡwɪʃ]	introspective [ˏɪntrəʹspektɪv]
divinity [dɪʹvɪnɪtɪ]	mediate [ʹmi:dɪeɪt]
enthusiastic [ɪnˏƟju:zɪʹæstɪk]	overreach [ˏəʋvəʹri:tʃ]
ethical [ʹeƟɪkəl]	Rene Descartes [rəʹne] [ʹdeɪˏkɑ:t]
genealogy [ˏdʒi:nɪʹælədʒɪ]	timidity [tɪʹmɪdɪtɪ]

II. Answer the questions to the text:

1.What jobs and professions did Descartes try to perform in his day?

2.What education did Descartes get and how did it influence his writing a new ‘natural philosophy’?

3.How did he pray? Why so?

4.How long did his method dominate in Europe?

5.What fundamental principle did Descartes work out?

6.Was his teaching connected with St. Augustin’s ideas or with Nicolas Cusanus’ philosophy?

7.If we compare Descartes as a mathematician and a philosopher, where was he more imposing?

8.What error did Descartes make while philosophizing about the nerves and the spirits?

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III. Give Ukrainian equivalents for the following wordcombinations:

unquestionable abilities on many problems, a playful game of a scholarly dilettante, an attempt to write a new ‘natural philosophy’, natural timidity and fear of the Catholic Church, to refrain from setting down ethical theories, to base the ideas on the Biblical story, ‘My first and certainty lies in my thought’, ‘God is the one idea inborn in man’, to free oneself from traditional metaphуsics.

IV. Give English equivalents for the following word-combinations:

записувати філософські ідеї, подолати страх і соромливість, відокремлювати себе від написання етичних теорій, заснувати свої ідеї на засадах Біблейської генеалогії, існування триєдиного католицького Бога, спрямовувати молитви про відродження Діві Марії, розробити раціональний метод, інтроспектива філософії, продовжувати католицькі розмірковування, ‘я міркую, отже я існую’, нескінченеита ідеальне знаходиться зовні (від мене), інтуїція, аналіз, синтез, перегляд (рецензування) – це складові частини метода Декарта, поєднувати (утілювати) у собі знання та забобони, душа знаходиться у середині мозку людини, висловити схоластичні ідеї про субстанцію за допомогою математичних формул, знати як фундатора (засновника) сучасної метафізики.

V. Put the words in the following sentences into the correct order:

1.Is know / of modern metaphysics / Descartes / as the founder.

2.Dust-loke living spirits / with the nerves / contact / come in.

3.In the glance pinealis / its seat / the soul / has.

4.Introspective philosophy / the first / of his / with this fundamental Augustinian principle / ended / Descartes.

5.Must exist / an infinite band perfect / outside of me / divinity.

6.He / finally / are innate / comes to the conclusion / that all ideas.

7.Science and philosophy / in Descartes / in the same / are combined

/individual.

VI. Find in the text the synonyms / antonyms for the following words and make up your own sentences with them:

Synonyms: free (time), to unite, to make basic, topic, contemporary. Antonyms: much, able, to finish, short, to improve, rarely.

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VII. What information is not true to the text?

1.Descartes studed Catholic Philosophers.

2.His education and upbringing was in no way connected with religion.

3.His ideas were disapproved of by the Church.

4.The second part of his introspective philosophy was based upon Augustinian principles.

5.It was Descartes who wrote: Cogito ergo sum.

6.According to Descartes a human is a finite being.

7.The perfect divinity has its seat in the centre of the brain, it is God.

8.A man is a mechanism inspired by life spirits.

9.The famous steps of his method are: intuition, analysis, synthesis and review.

10.The dust-like living spirits never contact with the nerves.

VIII. Find in the text the sentences which refer to 3 kinds of substances, translate them into Ukrainian and explain why Descartes was not against the Catholic Church.

IX. Prepare a brief retelling of the text.

5.3 GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

In addition to his mathematical and historical studies, the diplomat, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), busied himself also with philosophy. Characteristically, he wanted above everything to harmonize all ideas and make all knowledge agree. He boasted that he had found some truth in every philosopher, which he had incorporated into his own system. He called himself "Placidus" ("Peacemaker"). However well he realized his aim, this much is certain: Leibniz borrowed practically all his ideas from earlier philosophers. "My theory of substance," he wrote, "is identical with that of the Aristotelian school, except that they failed to recognize the 'monads.'"On another occasion, he compared his theory of substance with that of Spinoza.

The principle of "monads" in Leibniz' philosophy can be traced back more than two thousand years to the atomic theory of Leucippus and the mathematical monads (units) of Pythagoras. Leibniz evades the question whether the monads are material or transcend the material by saying that they are "well-founded phenomena" (phenomene bien fonde). All monads have consciences. No monad, however, affects another. The monads have

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no windows looking outward.

Leibniz has his own conception of the relation of body and soul. This relationship is so contrived "that the body works as if it had no soul, and the soul, as if it had no body; but at the same time they work as if they affected each other." God has so arranged it that at the precise moment of the sad memory tears fall independently. Leibniz makes wonderful use of this theory of pre-established divine harmony.

Leibniz asserts quite plainly: "I state very sincerely that God was moved to create the world by a free emotion of kindness, and I conclude there from that this same emotion led him to create the best possible world." With Scholastic lack of humor, Leibniz derives the existence of God from the necessity of the existence of "a perfect, unlimited being."

In his theology, Leibniz tries to demonstrate how good and wise everything really is and that this is indeed the best of all possible worlds. The good in the world far outweighs the evil; indeed, there is really no evil, merely an absence of good. Suffering is necessary in order that we may appreciate happiness by contrast. As for sin, Leibniz assures us that in the other world there is a balanced system of justice. God can do no evil; if there is any in the world, God did not create it, but merely permitted it to come to be.

I. Practise reading the following words and find the sentences with

them in the text :
Aristotelian [ˏærɪstə(ʋ)ʹti:lɪən]	justice [ʹdʒʌstɪs]
borrow [ʹbɒrəʋ]	Leucippus [lu:ʹsipəs]
existence [ɪɡʹzɪstəns]	outweigh [ʹaʋtweɪ]
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz [ʹgɒtfri:t]	permit [pəʹmɪt]
[ʹvɪlɛm ] [ʹlaɪbnɪts]	pre-establish [ʹpri:ɪʹstæblɪʃ]
harmonize [ʹhɑ:mənaɪz]	the monad [ʹmɒnæd; ʹməʋ-]
incorporate[ɪnʹkɔ:pəreɪt]

II. Answer the questions to the text:

1.Did Leibniz busy himself only with his diplomatic activity? Prove it.

2.What great idea did Leibniz try to implement?

3.Was Leibniz a knowledgable person in philosophy?

4.Why did Leibniz call himself ‘Placidus’?

5.Why are such names as Aristotle? Spinoza? Pythagoras? Leucippus related to Leibniz in a way?

6.What is ‘the monad’ and how does it ‘behave’?

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7.In what way did Leibniz demonstrate God’s wisdom and a balanced system of justice?

8.What is ‘God’s kindness’ according to Leibniz?

III. Give Ukrainian equivalents for the following wordcombinations:

to busy oneself with philosophy, to incorporate into one’s system, to borrow the ides from earlier philosophers, to recognize ‘the monads’, the atomic theory of Leucippus and mathematical monads of Pythagoras, to have no windows looking outward, the pre-established divine harmony, the necessity of the existence of a perfect, unlimited being, suffering is necessary to appreciate happiness by contrast.

IV. Give English equivalents for the following word-combinations:

більш за все він хотів гармонізувати усі ідеї і знання, утілити у свою власну систему, не визнавати монад як одиниць субстанції, своя концепція відносин між тілом і душею, створити світ через (завдяки) добpоту, виводити існування Бога з необхідності існування перфектної сутності, добра у світі набагато більше, ніж зла, страждання – це необхідність, бо через нього можна оцінити щастя, збалансована система правосуддя, Бог не створив злоб але дозволив йому увійти у цей світ.

V. Put the words in the following sentences into the correct order:

1.Had found / he boasted / in every philosopher / that he / some truth.

2.From earlier philosophers / borrowed Leibniz / all his ideas.

3.Looking outward / have / the monads / no windows.

4.Everything really is/ tries to demonstrate / good and wise / Leibniz

/how.

5.In the world / the evil / far outweights / the good.

6.By contrast / suffering / we may appreciate / is necessary/ in order that / happiness.

7.Didn’t create / but merely / God / it to come to be / permitted / any evil.

VI. Find in the text the synonyms / antonyms to the following words and make up your own sentences with them:

Synonyms: purpose, case, to influence, absence, to allow.

Antonyms: ignorance, evil, conscienceness, backward, inward, happy, limited.

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VII. Find in the text about the monads.

VIII. Explain why Leibniz’s theory was on the one hand materialistic, and on the other – idealistic. Did he manage to harmonize all knowledge? Give your comments.

REVISION

I. Read the following text and summarize the previous information:

Modern philosophy is a branch of philosophy that originated in Western Europe in the 17th century, and is now common worldwide. It is not a specific doctrine or school (and thus should not be confused with Modernism). 17th-century philosophy is generally regarded as being the start of modern philosophy, and a departure from the medieval approach, especially Scholasticism.

This philosophy is often called the Age of Reason or Age of Rationalism and is considered to succeed the Renaissance philosophy era and precede the Age of Enlightenment. The period is typified in Europe by the great system-builders — philosophers who present unified systems of epistemology, metaphysics, logic, and ethics, and often politics and the physical sciences too. The most outstanding representatives are René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, and Gottfried Leibniz.

II. Find the correct variant:

1. …wanted above everything to harmonize all ideas and make all

know knowledge agree.
a) Leibniz;	c) René Descartes;
b) Spinoza;	d) Leucippus.

2. Unable to forget his Jesuit upbringing and prompted by his enthusiastic friends, he overreached himself in an attempt to write a new …

a) treatise;	c) essay;
b) metaphysics;	d) natural philosophy.

3. Men like Hume, Voltaire, Rousseau, Condillac, Collins, Tyndale – a whole army of intellectual giants – joined the fight against …

a) traditional philosophy;	c) superstition;
b) ignorance;	d) Catholic Church.

4. 17th-century philosophy is generally regarded as being the start of

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