Modern Philosophy: Reason and Liberty

Posted on Nov 6, 2024 in Philosophy and ethics

Modernity: Reason and Liberty

The Problem of the Two Substances

There are no absolute truths, but appearances and illusions. Calderón believed life is a dream and the world a great theater. Pascal stated that human life is nothing but perpetual illusion, disguise, lies, and hypocrisy. This context discards rationalism and utilizes doubt as a method. It doubts all dogmatically established truths to find an undeniable truth: I think, therefore I am. With this proposition, thought, conscience, and human reason become the most emblematic sign of human existence, regardless of faith, and self-sufficient to meet and transform the world. Descartes describes reality, and human existence, as composed of two substances:

  1. Thinking Substance: consciousness, self, spirit, soul.
  2. Extended Substance: matter.

From this moment, reflection relates to:

  1. Body-Machine: dominated by the laws of physics and biology, governed by regular laws that leave no space for freedom.
  2. The Human Spirit: the soul, reason, superior to the body and dominated by the freedom of human will. Freedom, and with it passions and emotions, should be directed by reason.

The Problem of Human Nature

Locke

In the state of nature, men are free and equal, although not necessarily good, since they may violate the rights and liberties of other individuals. Men naturally possess certain rights, such as property.

Rousseau

His thoughts framed the Enlightenment, an intellectual movement that stands for a new European civilization based on:

  1. Reason as a tool to fight against ignorance and dogmatism.
  2. Development of science.
  3. Optimism about progress.
  4. Encyclopedic knowledge and the secularization of thought.

Rousseau criticizes society, attacking one of its main ideals: progress. Progress does not necessarily lead to the development of human beings. He defines progress as an artificial construction of society and often a tool at the service of political power, which corrupts the individual, leading to a loss of liberty and innocence, and establishes inequality between men.

Hobbes

Hobbes considers man in nature as not sociable. Human nature is characterized by the desire for power and fame, selfishness, constant competition, and mistrust. All this leads to violence and a war of all against all. From there, Hobbes defends the necessity of the state and society to guarantee the security of the individual as the only way possible to live together.

Kant

Kant’s thought represents the pinnacle of modernity, dedicating part of his philosophy to asserting the dignity of human beings. Given radically opposing views, how do we know what man is? He answers these questions:

  1. What can I know? First, I must find out the limits of human knowledge.
  2. What should I do? The rational thing to do is to act out of duty, not selfish interests. Act so as not to treat people as a means or instrument for your own purposes, but always consider them as an end in themselves. This signifies that persons have dignity.
  3. What can I expect? We are only as happy as we act with respect to ourselves and in relation to others. If we act rationally and fulfill our duty, we can aspire to a dignified and happy life.

Humans in Philosophy

Philosophy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is rich in currents and tendencies. The common objective has been to know human beings and the nature of their actions. Philosophers questioned the concept of the person from the Enlightenment, which had settled in Western civilization.

Freud

Freud discovered a new way to understand the mind’s processes through psychoanalysis. He opened the door to another dimension of human beings, uncovering their hidden face of irrational instincts and drives governing their minds. We all have desires that are the true motor of our personality, but which we cannot consciously accept due to the limitations of living in society. These desires are deliberately kept in the unconscious, repressed, although always active. Freud conceived of mental life as a battlefield between two innate instincts governing human conduct:

  1. Death Drive: which aims to return living matter to its non-living state, the dissolution of life.
  2. Life Drive: which tends towards the maintenance and reproduction of life.

Marx

The society that emerged from the industrial revolution had great disparities and infrahuman labor conditions. Marx analyzed this model of society and concluded that the social and economic system prevents man from developing:

  1. The human being is an active and dynamic being, permanently transforming reality and building history and themselves.
  2. This transformation is realized through work. To survive, one must earn a salary, perform as a person, and relate to others.
  3. In ideal work, man projects and creates. From the work plan to the finished product, they denounce that the worker does not own the means of production. This produces the alienation of the person: the product of their work becomes estranged from them, making them poorer. The product ends up becoming their enemy. Human relationships become pure economic interests.

Nietzsche

Nietzsche defended human life and criticized Western morality based on Christian values and the rationality of Socrates and Plato. Judeo-Christian morality forgets concrete and real human beings, situating the key to life in a transcendent world, causing contempt for this one. God directs the external world, using punishment and guilt to destroy the noblest values. Life celebrates the values of the flock. Nietzsche proposes a new human being characterized by:

  1. Accepting and exalting life and its greatness.
  2. New values achieved by the will to power, the tendency to be more, to develop.
  3. Overcoming the present state of man to achieve the Superman, able to create values and love life.