This is final presentation of philosophy about the Enlightenment era to modern era with Rationalism Rene Descartes Ad Spinoza Theory

1. TOPIC:
Transformation of European Era from Middle age of
Enlightenment Era , Rationalism, Rene Descartes & Baruch
Spinoza
Group Members
• ALI AHMED (12889)
• ADEENA (11160)
• MUHAMMAD SHAFIQ (13494)
• MAHEEN BALUCH (13431)
• MUNTAHA ANSARI (13269)
• SHAFIQ UR REHMAN (13514)
• ZOOFISHAN NOUMAN (13337)

2. PHILOSOPHY & CRITICAL THINKING
Middle age
• The period of European history extending from about 500 to 1400–
1500 CE is traditionally known as the Middle Ages. The term was first used
by 15th-century scholars to designate the period between their own time and
the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
The Metal Ages
• Greeks, Romans, and barbarians
• The Renaissance
• The emergence of modern Europe, 1500–1648
• The great age of monarchy, 1648–1789

3. PHILOSOPHY & CRITICAL THINKING
ENLIGHTENMENT PRINCIPLES
1) Religion, Tradition and superstition limited
independent thought.
2) Accept knowledge based on observation,
logic and reason, not on faith.
3) Scientific and academic thought should be
secular.

4. Rationalism
In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source
and test of knowledge "or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or
justification".
Rationalist philosophy inWestern antiquity
• Pythagoras (570–495 BCE)
• Plato (427–347 BCE)
• Aristotle (384–322 BCE)
Classical rationalism
• René Descartes (1596–1650)
• Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677)
• Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716)
• Immanuel Kant (1724–1804

5. PHILOSOPHY & CRITICAL THINKING
Rene Descartes

6. PHILOSOPHY & CRITICAL THINKING
RENE DESCARTES
• 1596-1650 AC
• French philosopher
• Rationalism, Dualism, Cartesianism
• Father of modern philosophy/ Father of rationalism Father of
analytical geometry
• Regarded as the first thinker to emphasize the use of reason
to develop the natural sciences.
• Main work: " Meditations de prima philosophia (Meditation
on first philosophy)" 1641

7. PHILOSOPHY & CRITICAL THINKING
RENE DESCARTES RULES
• Rule 1:Never accept anything unless you know it to be true.
• Rule 2: To analyze problem divide it in as many part as are
necessary.
• Rule 3: To find the earliest solution (axiom) and work up the
most difficult.
• Rule 4: List every possible detail of the problem.

8. PHILOSOPHY & CRITICAL THINKING
Rationalism & Meditations
Rationalism can be acquired by a priori (deductive) means.
In accordance with the rationalist view, there are representations or ideas in the mind that
do not have empirical origins (a priori representations).
• Meditation 1: Existence of all things. (information through sense is not accurate). E.g.
things near and far vs size.
• Meditation 2: Absolutely certainity. (Mind is absolute)
• Meditation 3: Existence of god. (Something cannot come from nothing = causation)
• Meditation 4: possibility of error. (Judgement is a faculty of mind, resulting from the
interaction of will and intellect,. When our will to make decision, exceeds the ability to
understand, error arises).
• Meditation 5: Ontological arguments. (Body, Mind, God)
• Meditation 6: Dualism. (supported by catholic church)

9. PHILOSOPHY & CRITICAL THINKING
RATIONALISM
Brauch Spinoza

10. PHILOSOPHY & CRITICAL THINKING
BARUCH SPINOZA
• 1632-1677 Netherlands (Dutch)
• Modern biblical criticism- try to reinvent religion- attempt
to be quasi- scientist.
• Expelled and shunned at age of 23.
• Optical Lense grinder- fine glass dust- TB.
• Spinoza's magnum opus, the ethics (1677), was published
posthumously in the year of the death.
• saintly-life- how spider chases flies.

11. PHILOSOPHY & CRITICAL THINKING
PHILOSOPHY OF BARUCH SPINOZA
He rejected the propositional nature of
special revelation in the scriptures.
He rejected the existence of miracles
for miracles do not happen.
He argued that god and nature were
two names for the same reality.
God is the natural world and has no
personality.
God does not rule over men and things
but god is part of the system of which
every thing in nature is a part.
Every thing that happens in the
universe occur through the operation of
necessity.
Everything necessarily happen the way
it does.
There is no free will.

12. PHILOSOPHY & CRITICAL THINKING
THANK
YOU