Introduction

Modern philosophy is philosophy developed in the modern era and associated with modernity. It
is not a specific doctrine or school (and thus should not be confused with Modernism), although
there are certain assumptions common to much of it, which helps to distinguish it from earlier
philosophy.
The 17th and early 20th centuries roughly mark the beginning and the end of modern philosophy.
How much of the Renaissance should be included is a matter for dispute; like-wise modernity
may or may not have ended in the twentieth century and been replaced by postmodernity. How
one decides these questions will determine the scope of one's use of "modern philosophy."
How much of Renaissance intellectual history is part of modern philosophy is disputed: the Early
Renaissance is often considered less modern and more medieval compared to the later High
Renaissance. By the 17th and 18th centuries the major figures in philosophy of mind,
epistemology, and metaphysics were roughly divided into two main groups. The "Rationalists,"
mostly in France and Germany, argued all knowledge must begin from certain "innate ideas" in
the mind. Major rationalists were Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, and Nicolas
Malebranche. The "Empiricists," by contrast, held that knowledge must begin with sensory
experience. Major figures in this line of thought are John Locke, George Berkeley, and David
Hume (These are retrospective categories, for which Kant is largely responsible). Ethics and
political philosophy are usually not subsumed under these categories, though all these
philosophers worked in ethics, in their own distinctive styles. Other important figures in political
philosophy include Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Body
Rene Descartes
Demon Theory there is a malicious demon with full control over our minds continuously
deceiving us
Cogito ergo sum "I think, therefore I am"
Chapter / Mediation 1: On the things that may be called Into doubt
Chapter / Mediation 2: On the nature of the human mind and that it is easier to understand than
bodies
Chapter / Mediation 3: On the existence of God
Descartes' anthropological argument of God
Descartes' anthropological proof of god is offered in meditation 3. Being a doubting entity as
Descartes is, he must be aware of not being aware to everything. We know that we are imperfect
beings. But knowing imperfection must be the result of having a concept of perfection in our
mind. Since I am imperfect I cannot be the source of this knowledge about perfection. This must
mean that there is a greater, unbounded, power which precedes me.
Descartes' cosmological argument of God
Descartes' cosmological proof is also offered in meditation 3 and goes as follows: If I exist, and I
exist since I think, then there must be a reason for my existence. I cannot be the reason for my
existence since that would make me perfect and in want of nothing. If it try to explain my limited
existence as the result of other limited beings, such as my parents, I will be forced to account for
their origins and so forth. In the end of the chain, say Descartes, there must reside something
which is perfect and is the source of all imperfect things such as myself.
Descartes' ontological argument of God
Descartes' ontological proof of God is found in meditation 5. This argument holds that existence
is a necessary trait of something which is perfect. Since God is by definition perfect it follows
that he must exist.

Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish Mikołaj Kopernik, German Nikolaus Kopernikus, (born February
19, 1473, Toruń, Royal Prussia, Poland—died May 24, 1543, Frauenburg, East Prussia [now
Frombork, Poland]), Polish astronomer who proposed that the planets have the Sun as the fixed
point to which their motions are to be referred; that Earth is a planet which revolves around the
Sun annually.
Geocentric vs Heliocentric
Geocentric and heliocentric are terms used in relation to the solar system.
Geocentric
- which Earth is placed at the center of the solar system and other objects or planets are located
around it. Philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle propagated this theory which proposes that all
objects or planets encircle the Earth, with the stars being located at the outermost sides, and the
moon being at the innermost side. This theory is the oldest one developed centuries ago by Greek
philosophers.
Heliocentric
-The geocentric theory was replaced by the heliocentric theory. According to this theory, the
solar system has the Sun as the center of the solar system. The dictionary meaning of
“heliocentric” is stated as “being seen from the center of the Sun”.
First Manuscript
"On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres" in 1532.
De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium Libri Vi ("Six Book Concerning the Revolutions of the
Heavenly Orbs") published at the year of 1543 then 2 months later he died at age 70 yrs old. The
church banned the book for decades until 1835.

David Hume
David Hume was born on May 7 [April 26, Old Style], 1711.
David Hume died on August 25, 1776.
David Hume’s philosophical works included A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40), An
Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751), An Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding (1758), and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (posthumously published in
1779). He also wrote on political economy (the Political Discourses, 1752) and history (the
multivolume History of England, 1754–62).
David Hume is famous for the elegance of his prose, for his radical empiricism, for his
skepticism of religion, for his critical account of causation, for his naturalistic theory of mind, for
his thesis that “reason is...the slave of the passions,” and for waking Immanuel Kant from his
“dogmatic slumber,” as Kant himself admitted.
Immanuel Kant
Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals
Kant aargues a Moral theory must be grounded from something that is Unconditionally Good. If
something is merely conditionally good then it depends on a goodness and then it depends on
another goodness or it will be unconditionally good All goodness, then, must ultimately be
traceable to something that is unconditionally good. There are things that we think are good but
in reality they may be used for evil for example is money or power where its goodness depends
on how you use it. There is only one thing that Kant believes to be unconditionally good is one’s
good will. A person has a duty to do good
Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science
The book is divided into four chapters. The chapters are concerned with the metaphysical
foundations of phoronomy (now called kinematics), dynamics, mechanics, and phenomenology.
Critique of Practical Reason
Kant argues that morality and the obligation that comes with it are only possible if humans have
free will. This is because the universal laws prescribed by the categorical imperative presuppose
autonomy (autos = self; nomos = law).
Critique of Judgement
The Critique of Judgment, often called the Third Critique, does not have as clear a focus as the
first two critiques. In broad outline, Kant sets about examining our faculty of judgment, which
leads him down a number of divergent paths. While the Critique of Judgment deals with matters
related to science and teleology, it is most remembered for what Kant has to say about aesthetics.
Categorial Imperative
Actions that are done because it is one’s duty
Hypothetical Imperative
Actions that are fueled from one’s desire to be compensated for a reward

John Stuart Mill

A System of Logic, Rationative and Inductive
By taking the methods of the natural sciences as the only route to knowledge about the world,
Mill sees himself as rejecting the “German, or a priori view of human knowledge,” (CW, I.233)
or, as he also calls it, “intuitionism,”. For Mill, the problems with intuitionism extend far beyond
the metaphysical and epistemological to the moral and political
Principles of Political Economy
Another work that addresses issues of social and political concern is Mill’s Principles of Political
Economy of 1848. The book went through numerous editions and served as the dominant British
textbook in economics until being displaced by Alfred Marshall’s 1890 Principles of Economics.
Mill intended the work as both a survey of contemporary economic thought (highlighting the
theories of David Ricardo, but also including some contributions of his own on topics like
international trade)
On Liberty
The topic of justice received further treatment at Mill’s hands in his famous 1859 book On
Liberty. This work is the one, along with A System of Logic, that Mill thought would have the
most longevity. It concerns civil and social liberty or, to look at it from the contrary point of
view, the nature and limits of the power that can legitimately be exercised by society over the
individual.
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism, by John Stuart Mill, is an essay written to provide support for the value of
utilitarianism as a moral theory, and to respond to misconceptions about it. The Argument is
composed 5 chapters.
Considerations on Representative Government
Mill argues for representative government, the ideal form of government in his opinion. One of
the more notable ideas Mill puts forth in the book is that the business of government
representatives is not to make legislation.
The Subjection of Women
The object of the essay was to show “(t)hat the principle which regulates the existing social
relations between the two sexes—the legal subordination of one sex to the other—is wrong in
itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement; and that it ought to be
replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on the one side, nor
disability on the other.”
Autobiography
He mentions here different topics such as; stress of his education and of his youthful activity
combined with other factors to lead to what he later termed, problems with intuitionism

John Locke
John Locke was an English philosopher and political theorist who was born in 1632 in Wrington,
Somerset, England, and died in 1704 in High Laver, Essex. He is recognized as the founder of
British empiricism and the author of the first systematic exposition and defense of political
liberalism.
John Locke’s most famous works are An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), in
which he developed his theory of ideas and his account of the origins of human knowledge in
experience, and Two Treatises of Government (first edition published in 1690 but substantially
composed before 1683), in which he defended a theory of political authority based on natural
individual rights and freedoms and the consent of the governed.
In epistemology (the philosophical theory of knowledge), John Locke argued against the
existence of innate ideas (ideas present in the mind naturally or at birth) by showing how all
except “trifling” human ideas may be derived from sensation or reflection (observation of the
operations of the mind) and how knowledge may be defined in terms of the perception of
agreement or connections between ideas.
In political theory, or political philosophy, John Locke refuted the theory of the divine right of
kings and argued that all persons are endowed with natural rights to life, liberty, and property
and that rulers who fail to protect those rights may be removed by the people, by force if
necessary.
John Locke’s philosophy inspired and reflected Enlightenment values in its recognition of the
rights and equality of individuals, its criticism of arbitrary authority (e.g., the divine right of
kings), its advocacy of religious toleration, and its general empirical and scientific temperament.
John Locke’s political theory directly influenced the U.S. Declaration of Independence in its
assertion of natural individual rights and its grounding of political authority in the consent of the
governed. Locke also advocated a separation of executive, legislative, and judicial powers, a
feature of the form of government established in the U.S. Constitution.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
On the social contract
The Social Contract helped inspire political reforms or revolutions in Europe, especially in
France. The Social Contract argued against the idea that monarchs were divinely empowered to
legislate. Rousseau asserts that only the people, who are sovereign, have that all-powerful right.
The Social Contract, originally published as On the Social Contract; or, Principles of Political
Rights by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, is a 1762 book in which Rousseau theorized about the best
way to establish a political community in the face of the problems of commercial society, which
he had already identified in his Discourse on Inequality.
Confessions
The Confessions is an autobiographical book by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In modern times, it is
often published with the title The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in order to distinguish it
from Saint Augustine's Confessions. Covering the first fifty-three years of Rousseau's life, up to
1765, it was completed in 1769, but not published until 1782, four years after Rousseau's death,
even though Rousseau did read excerpts of his manuscript publicly at various salons and other
meeting places.
Discourse on the origin of inequality
Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men also commonly known as the
"Second Discourse", is a work by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Rousseau first exposes in this work his conception of a human state of nature, broadly believed
to be a hypothetical thought exercise and of human perfectibility, an early idea of progress. He
then explains the way, according to him, people may have established civil society, which leads
him to present private property as the original source and basis of all inequality.
Discourse on the sciences and arts
A Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences also known as Discourse on the
Sciences and Arts and commonly referred to as The First Discourse, is an essay by Genevan
philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau which argued that the arts and sciences corrupt human
morality. It was Rousseau's first successful published philosophical work, and it was the first
expression of his influential views about nature vs. society, to which he would dedicate the rest
of his intellectual life. This work is considered one of his most important works.
Thomas Hobbes
Born: April 5, 1588 in westport, Wiltshire Died: December 4, 1679 in Derbishyre , United
Kingdom was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political
philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book Leviathan, which expounded an influential
formulation of social contract theory.
Conclusion
Philosophy has yet to arrive at answers to these questions that have been universally accepted
and gone without a challenge through time. Philosophers keeping working at it and have come
to realize a good deal about what appear to be simple matters to most people who do not stop to
ponder the issues that arise when one would reflect on the assumptions being made in the simple
positions being taken in an uncritical manner. One thing that now appears to be fairly certain is
that the post-modern ideas supporting relativism on these topics are proving insufficient to the
needs of the human community and so the critical thinking and philosophical reflection on these
matters will continue. And lest it be dismissed or forgotten there is a case to be made that truth
does really matter see WHY TRUTH MATTERS