Lecture 4

René Descartes

• Applied scientific method to past philosophers, inventing “Rationalist Philosophy”
• Credited with creating modern philosophy
• Greatly influenced all the famous philosophers

Enlightenment

• Reason, logic, rationality are primary sources of knowledge
  • Not dogma, magic, etc
• To gain knowledge follows the scientific method
• No more orthodoxy / blind tradition

• Germans did rational philosophy on rational philosophy
  • Trying to figure out what the enlightenment really is

Immanuel Kant

• Enlightenment is “humanity’s emergence from self-imposed immaturity” (immaturity = not thinking for themselves)
• Having people think for you is nice and convenient, but not enlightened

Overall! on Enlightenment

• This is a new way to create knowledge
• Blind tradition and faith are out; scientific method is in
• Needs community to double check (this is not personal enlightenment, like sitting in a cave and thinking real hard)
• Freedom for public scholars
• Obedience for private workers