Pantheism

Theory of Social contract

Leviathan

Only through public and state violence people can live in the community, to behave kindly with the relatives.

That is why Hobbes calls state as supreme good for man. Only with emergence of state morality, and culture, and civilization arise.

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

In his opinion, the scientific method can only be a method of deduction.

Discourse on the Method

Truth must always be clear.

Descartes proposes to doubt everything. “ Cartesian doubt”

Since doubt is a part of thinking process, he thought that doubt provided real existence of mind, so of Me. That’s why he believes: “I thing, therefore, I am"

(Cogito, ergo sum)

Descartes believed that in the world there is nothing but matter. Philosophy denies the existence of emptiness. Matter is divisible to infinitely small quantities (величина).

Everything is in motion, as movement is inherent quality of matter.

But Descartes could not explain the essence of human thought through the mechanical motion.

So along with matter, Descartes assumes the existence of a special “ substance ” which thinks (God).

Thus, in the world, there are two substances: an extended (протяженный) and thinking.

Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza (1632-1677)

“Ethics”, “Theologico-Political Treatise”

Spinoza believed that only from the standpoint of mind we can search for truth. In contrast to Descartes’ dualism, Spinoza was a monist.

He acknowledged existence of only one fundamental principle of world, which he named substance and identified it with the material nature.

Nature (substance) exists by itself, reason of nature in nature (Causa sui). Attributes of substance are extension and thinking.

Everything in nature has its own reason. Determinism

“Freedom is conscious necessity”.

Reliable knowledge of nature gives man the opportunity to be a moral being.

John Locke (1632 - 1704)

Sensual theory of cognition.

In mind there is nothing that would not be in sensation. Mind a newborn is “ Tabula rasa ”

Locke distinguished two kinds of cognition: perception and analysis of sensual experience.

Locke acknowledged cognition through intuition

Locke, writing his “ Letters Concerning Toleration”, formulated a classic reasoning for religious tolerance.

Gottfried Leibniz (1646 -1716)

“Monadology”

According to Leibniz, every monad has eternal nature. They appear and exist due to continuous fulguration (излучение) of supreme Monad: Godhead.

Thanks to God, pre-established (предустановленный) harmony prevails among monads. Leibniz stood on positions of rationalism, arguing that truth is only available to reason.

David Hume (1711 - 1776)

“Enquaries concerrning the Human Understanding”(Очерк о человеческом познании)

All our knowledge has experiential origin. Only truths of mathematics have a rational origin. For us there are only our feelings, our personal experience.