History of the Origins of World Philosophy, One of the Western Philosophies of the Seventeenth Century: Modern Philosophy Is Distinguished and Independent

One of the Western philosophies of the seventeenth century: modern philosophy is outstandingly independent

　　The 17th century is an important period in the history of Western philosophy, and some philosophical historians define the true source of the history of modern Western philosophy in the 17th century. They may think that Francis. Bacon is the first representative of the history of modern Western philosophy; or descartes is the true ancestor of modern Western philosophy.

　　The reason why Western philosophy in the 17th century is so important is that it has its own distinctive characteristics compared with Western philosophy in the 15th and 16th centuries.

　　

1. The century in which clusters of philosophers appeared in the history of modern Western thought

　　Modern sociology has such a view: the basic mark of the prosperity of a profession is to see whether there is a phenomenon of talent clusters in this profession. Obviously, this is a persuasive criterion.

　　The emergence of clusters of talent proves that their careers are thriving and that the field has reached or is reaching its heyday. Regardless of the region or ethnic group in the world, the emergence of talent clusters is rare, or very rare, the ancient Greco-Roman era was a period in which Western philosophers were clustered or rose in groups; China's Spring and Autumn Warring States Period was also such a period. This situation rarely recurred in the more than 1,000 years after them, both in the East and the West. But the 17th century in the West was once again brilliant, recreating the emergence or rise of clusters of philosophers.

A century is indeed too long for a person, after all, centenarians are rare today. But compared to the entire human race, 100 years is only a gap between the white colts, just an instant. The so-called hundred years are easy to pass, like flowers like dreams. But in the 100 years of the 17th century, Western philosophers appeared in batches, and as many as seven or eight of them have been influencing today's philosophers. Although human beings have a history of civilization for thousands of years, there are a few people who can be called philosophers, and there are a few who can have a historical impact for hundreds of years. Humanity— calculated by the respective histories of different peoples,—— sometimes for centuries without even one such figure appearing. In the 17th century alone, there were as many as seven or eight such great thinkers, which is a miracle. If it were not for the fact that there were other figures and events of equal influence in this century, the 17th century would simply be called the Century of Philosophy. Nevertheless, the 17th century is not hesitantly named the Age of Reason.

2. The century of outstanding independence of modern Western philosophy

　　As I said earlier, the humanistic thinkers of the 15th and 16th centuries, though they had a giant influence on the course of human thought, did not win by philosophy in terms of the concrete composition of each of their ideas or achievements, which was an age of giant philosophy, not an age of philosophical giants, so that Russell wanted to criticize that era as a barren place of philosophy. Among the most influential figures of the time, Martin. Luther was known for the Reformation, Machiavelli was known for his political views, Thomas Jefferson was known for his political views. Mohr was known for his utopian ideas, Copernicus and Galileo for their achievements in the natural sciences, Bruno for the dissemination of copernican doctrine, Montaigne for his humanistic prose essays, Erasmus for his literary masterpiece Ode to the Fools, Da Vincent for his essays. Finch was known for his versatility, especially his achievements in painting. Arguably, this was the age of philosophers without narrow philosophy.

　　By the 17th century, the melons were ripe and the wind and clouds were changing. Among the great philosophers of the 17th century, there are certainly great scientists and mathematicians who have achieved great achievements in science, such as Descartes' contribution to analytic geometry and Leibniz's contribution to calculus, which can be compared with the super-first-class great scientists in human history. But what distinguishes them from their predecessors is that their scientific achievements, for all their scientific achievements, do not prevent them from making equally great historical contributions to philosophy. They are both great mathematicians and great philosophers. If one compares the characteristics of the thinkers of these two epochs in a concise and concise language, perhaps this should be said:

　　The philosophical characteristics of the 15th and 16th centuries are that the giants are thinking;

　　The philosophical characteristic of the 17th century was that there were giants in the philosophical world.

　　The 17th century's ideological Yinghua really began to appear on the stage of history as a generation of philosophical greats. By the way, the main creative era of these philosophical figures is almost all within the historical time of the 17th century. Their earliest character, Bacon, was born in 1561 and died in 1626, but his main creation was not in the 16th century, but in the 17th century. Hobbes was born in 1588 and died in 1679, almost entirely as a 17th-century thinker. Locke, the last representative of the century, was born in 1632 and died in 1704, although his influence was only most fully expressed in the 18th century, and in terms of his own life course, he remained a literal philosophical genius of the 17th century.

　　Therefore, by the 17th century, although the Renaissance movement had experienced nearly 300 years of history, modern Western philosophy did not reveal its true face until Bacon and Descartes.