The characteristic of the philosophy of modern times can be summarized as follows. This era of the development of human thought substantiated the scientific revolution and prepared the Enlightenment. Quite often, in the literature there is a statement that it was during this period that methods of scientific knowledge were developed, namely empiricism, which proclaimed the priority of experience based on feelings, and rationalism, which defended the idea of reason as the bearer of truth. However, the one and the other approach considered mathematics and its methods ideal for any science. Features of the philosophy of the New Age in this regard can be considered on the example of Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes.
Opponents
The English philosopher believed that the human mind was so "littered" with a kind of "idols" that prevented him from perceiving real things, that he elevated experience and direct study of nature into an absolute. Only this, according to Bacon, can lead to the autonomy and independence of the researcher, as well as to new discoveries. Therefore, experiment-based induction is the only way to truth. Indeed, the latter, from the point of view of the thinker, is not the daughter of authorities, but of the era. Bacon was one of the famous theorists with whom the New Age began. The philosophy of his contemporary Descartes was based on other principles. He was a supporter of deduction and reason as a criterion of truth. He agreed that everything should be doubted, but he believed that thinking is the only way to distinguish error from truth. It is only necessary to adhere to a clear and definite logical order and move from simple things to more complex ones. But, besides these thinkers, this era is interesting for several more names.
New Age: John Locke's Philosophy
This thinker proposed a compromise between the theories of Descartes and Bacon. He agreed with the latter that only experience could be the source of ideas. But by this term he understood not only external sensations, but also internal reflections. That is, thinking, too. Since man alone is a kind of “blank sheet” on which experience draws certain images, these images, or qualities, can also be sources of knowledge. But this can only be said about the most essential ideas. More complex concepts such as “God” or “good” are a combination of simple ones. In addition, as the thinker believed, we are so arranged that some qualities that we perceive are objective and correspond to reality, while others reflect the specifics of the action of things on the senses and can deceive us.
New time: David Hume's philosophy
Another feature of the described time is the appearance of agnosticism and skepticism. Both these directions are connected with David Hume, who preferred not to come from high truths, but from common sense. “What is the use of arguing about Being,” he thought, “it’s better to think of something practical.” Therefore, mathematics is the most reliable knowledge, it can be proved logically. It was as if all the New Time had concentrated in this idea. Hume's philosophy leads him to the conclusion that all other knowledge, even from experience, is only our assumptions, and it can be exclusively probabilistic in nature. All sciences proceed from the fact that any action has a reason, but it is far from always possible to understand it. We cannot know for sure whether our knowledge of the Universe and its order is true. But some ideas are very useful, because they can be put into practice.