The second part of the book profoundly analyses the global periods that might be considered an ‘introduction’ to modern philosophy. Based on the antique schools of Greek and Roman philosophers, the new generation expanded the spheres of philosophical implementation. As a result, middle-aged and renaissance individuals were widely precepted by their main specialization, such as math or chemistry, and only then analyzed as philosophers that were using their scientific base for new evidence and interpretations.
The first philosopher, Pica Della Mirandola, represented the beginning of the renaissance. Compared to the ‘Middle Ages,’ the period between antiquity and the renaissance, Mirandola took Humans as the ‘departure point’ of his theories. By writing the Oration on the Dignity, he refused to consider God as the fundamental concept of any philosophical thought, as was the case in medieval times. As a result, the renaissance literally signifies the ‘renovation’ of the antique ideals, where the human is the central creature in the world and, consequently, the main object of analysis.
From another perspective, Nicolaus Copernicus was one of the first scientists of the renaissance who extrapolated the scientific theory to the philosophical domain. Moreover, he was the first person who officially contradicted the main thesis of the Catholic religion. More specifically, he claimed that the sun is a central object in the universe, which is inverse to the belief that it is an earth that represents the world’s center. Even though he misinterpreted the ‘centrality’ of the sun in the whole universe, whereas it is only a tiny part of the galaxy, Copernicus has begun an important trend focusing on philosophical debates on a scientific basis.
As a result, Johannes Kepler was the first person who supported Copernicus’ ideas and even developed the world’s knowledge about the galaxy. Kepler observed that the planets have their own movement trajectory that always follows elliptical or oval form. Moreover, from a philosophical perspective, he stated that all physical laws of nature might be applied anywhere on the planet, which has prevented many unnecessary debates.
Following that, one of the central people in the European philosophy of the 17th century was Rene Descartes, who sacrificed most of his life for interpretable subjects. In fact, he was the first person in the renaissance who was convinced of the importance of critical thinking in terms of not believing anything that was previously written without sufficient evidence. By doing this, he changed the modern trend for analyzing and using antiquity concepts and operated his own ideas to create the new theory.
Last but not least, Baruch Spinoza was known mostly for criticizing the most fundamental religious canons both in Catholicism and Judaism. Nevertheless, he developed an important idea by stating: “There is only one God, one nature, or one Substance” (145). In fact, one might interpret this theory as a religious diversity criticism, but it simply means that there is a single cause of everything that is happening in people’s lives, and for some people, this might be God, while others consider it as a Substance.
Finally, there is Rene Descartes’ expression that I would certainly agree with. In one of his works, he stated: “Cogito, ergo sum,” meaning ‘I think so that I exist (137). In my opinion, these three words contain much sense from a philosophical perspective. More specifically, our possibility to continuously think about the problem and finally resolve it has significantly extended humanity’s potential to manage broader issues, such as sophisticated disease treatment or life expectancy increase. In fact, this ability distinguishes people from animals, so it should be considered humanity’s main power. As a result, philosophers should be precepted as the locomotive of society’s development.