The Age of Enlightenment came in the 17th and 18th centuries AD to complete what the Renaissance had begun in the previous centuries, as a natural reaction to the injustice, oppression, and tyranny that the European peoples were suffering at the hands of political power represented by monarchy, religious power represented by the Church, and economic power represented by feudalism.
The Age of Enlightenment was the foundation upon which the intellectual construction of political, economic, religious, and ethical systems in the later centuries and up to our present day were based. In the previous article, we pointed out that the Age of Enlightenment witnessed two intellectual revolutions, one mental and the other experimental. We will discuss some of the pioneers of these two revolutions, including thinkers, philosophers, and scientists, to understand the differences between them, their stance on ethics, and the changes that occurred over time.
Descartes considered ethics to be the head of wisdom, the crown of sciences and knowledge, and that it was necessary to have an understanding of all sciences before delving into it. For him, philosophy is like a tree with metaphysics as its roots, natural science as its trunk, and the other major sciences as its branches, including medicine, mechanics, and complete higher ethics.
Pioneers of the Reason Revolution
During the Age of Enlightenment, three schools of thought emerged, each of which is considered a precursor to the next. The first current called for the elevation of reason while venerating God and emphasizing the importance of faith in life. The second believes that the light of reason precedes the light of God because it is the way to know and believe in Him. The third current called for the exclusion of religion and faith, and the complete dominance of reason. Each of these currents had its stance on ethics and the changes that occurred over time. In the following, we will learn about examples of pioneers of these currents.
René Descartes
The French philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650) is considered one of the most prominent philosophers of this period. He was keen on his affiliation with the Christian religion and his loyalty to it. In his book "Discourse on the Method", he says, "The first principle I followed was to obey the laws and customs of my country and to continue on the path of the religion in which the Lord raised me since I was young, and to follow in all areas the most moderate opinions and farthest from extremism and excess."
However, his method puts doubt in everything, in existence, in the world, and in knowledge, to the extent that his doubt became evidence of his existence, "I doubt, therefore I am." He begins with doubt in order to arrive at the existence of the self, the existence of God, and the immortality of the soul.
The Catholic Church in France realized the danger of Descartes' books, and quickly added them to the list of prohibited books in 1667. French King Louis XIV issued a decree banning the teaching of his books in French universities, which increased their importance and their role in sowing the first seeds of the social, political, and religious revolution that France and Europe witnessed.
Descartes believed that the mind and body were two distinct entities, and he developed a new philosophical method based on the mathematical and geometric approach, in an attempt to reach the same level of certainty that mathematical and geometric reasoning had reached. He outlined four rules for his method in his book "The Method," which were: certainty, analysis, synthesis, and induction.
Descartes believed that God is similar to the mind in that God and the mind both think but do not have a material or physical existence. However, God differs from the mind in that He is unlimited, and His existence does not depend on another Creator. Descartes believed in the existence of an all-powerful God beyond limits.
As for the science of ethics, Descartes considered it the head of wisdom, the crown of knowledge, and he believed that one must have a comprehensive understanding of all sciences before delving into it. For him, philosophy is like a tree with metaphysics as its roots, natural science as its trunk, and the remaining major sciences as its branches, including medicine, mechanics, and complete high-level ethics.
Despite Descartes' constant insistence on his belief in the existence of God, his methodology led many to atheism and denial of God's existence.
Baruch Spinoza
Spinoza is considered one of the pillars of the Enlightenment era. He was a Dutch Jewish philosopher (1632-1677) who was one of the first to be influenced by Cartesian thought. However, he differed from Descartes in his assertion that the body and mind are not separate entities, but rather one entity, and that the highest good is knowledge. For him, knowledge is the union of the spirit with the complete nature.
Spinoza authored the book "Ethics", which is considered one of the most important books that influenced Western philosophy in his era. He believed that all metaphysical philosophical contemplations and all the ideas that the human mind can conceive have no ultimate goal except to direct human beings towards a noble purpose for this human life, which is happiness and the safety of the human's mental and ethical state. In his book, he covered three main axes focused on God, human beings, and ethics. Like Descartes, Spinoza used mathematical and geometrical methods to present his arguments.
In an article titled "On the Improvement of the Understanding," Spinoza exclusively deals with human knowledge and links it to ethics, happiness, and human virtue. In his book "The Ethics," Spinoza discusses the types of knowledge and the appropriate means to achieve a correct understanding of what is good for humanity, so that he can prove the unity of the mind and nature, and that there is no contradiction between spirit, body, and thought. He believed that human religious and political inclinations were the reason for their enslavement, and that it was wrong to believe that wealth, fame, and pleasure bring happiness to humans, because these things do not lead us to true happiness, which can only be reached through enlightened reason and sound thinking.
Spinoza strongly adopts the separation between faith and reason, as he sees that faith and philosophy are separate and that the goal of philosophy is truth and reality, while the goal of faith is obedience and piety. He believes that the foundations of philosophy are the general principles that govern things, or the fixed laws of nature, which we derive from our study of nature alone. On the other hand, faith is based on the holy scriptures and submission to them.
As he sees that as long as the main goal of faith is to refine morals by making people obey ethical commands, then it will not be harmed by philosophy if it does not call for any disobedience, bias, or hatred in society.
Spinoza goes on to say that beliefs vary among people, and they also change and evolve, while faith, which is represented by piety, obedience, and the call for justice and kindness, is constant and unchanging. Therefore, the mind should not interfere in proving specific beliefs because this is not its function, but its main function is to discover laws and understand the system of nature.
Spinoza tends to believe that faith is a necessary path for leading the general public through the Holy Scriptures. The masses cannot reach ethical principles through rational contemplation, philosophy, or proof. Therefore, they need someone to present ethical truths to them directly in an imaginative and metaphorical manner, as imposed laws under religious doctrine.
This is because the masses cannot arrive at right and wrong through their own thinking, and they constantly need someone to guide them and provide them with ready-made rules, which religion offers. If the goal of human life is happiness, then religion offers a simple and straightforward path for the masses to achieve it through obedience, submission, and adherence to divine commands.
However, attaining happiness through rational contemplation and understanding the nature of existence and its laws, which lead to happiness if one's behavior is consistent with them, is not possible for the masses. Rather, it is specific to those with intellect and philosophical thinking. Therefore, Spinoza emphasizes the need to submit to the authority of religion and the Holy Scriptures and not subject them to the scrutiny of reason.
Pierre Bayle
Bayle (1647-1706) is considered one of the philosophers influenced by Descartes' philosophy of doubt, and one of the pioneers of the French Enlightenment movement. He became embroiled in a conflict with the Catholic Church that ultimately led him to abandon Christianity and call for religious tolerance, though he still believed in the existence of God.
However, Bayle took a new step when he first called for the triumph of natural light - that is, the light of reason - over supernatural light, namely the light of God. This is because understanding God or having faith in Him can only be achieved through natural light, the light of reason. This step had a significant impact in going further, towards complete liberation from the dominance of religion, and imposing the dominance of reason in its place.
Bayle contradicted his predecessors like Descartes and Spinoza regarding ethics and their connection to religion. He believed that ethics should be studied from the perspective of natural reason alone, rather than being determined by religion. His early proposal was that it was possible for an entire society to be made up of atheists, which played a significant role in opening up new discussions about the relevance of religion in society and the state, leading to subsequent calls for the secularization of the state and its complete separation from religion.
Although Bayle adopted a rational view of religion and criticized the authority of church officials and their control over minds, and called for religious and doctrinal freedom, he still feared exceeding the limits set by God for him. He believed that without the help of divine reason, human reason would go astray, wander, and get lost in endless mazes, which was not agreed upon by the next generation of Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire, Pedro, and Rousseau.
Previous Parts
A Philosophical Journey (1): Moralphobia
A Philosophical Journey (2): How Does The Moral Struggle Manifest In Islam?
A Philosophical Journey (3): Ethics In The Space Of The Greeks And The Darkness Of The Middle Ages
A Philosophical Journey (4): Western View Of Ethics In The Renaissance
A Philosophical Journey (5): Conflict of Ethics and the Age of Enlightenment