Preliminary view

Modern era in philosophy is a period significantly marked by attempt to revive

scepticism and the rise of modern science. Philosophical venture within this period centers on the
relation between experience and reality, the ultimate origin of knowledge, the mind and its
relation to the body, the practical implications of the new natural sciences for free will and God,
and emergence of a secular basis for moral and political philosophy.

The canonical figures belonging to this group include Descartes, Hobbes, Lock, Spinoza,
Leibniz, Berkley, Hume, and Kant. These thoughtful men perhaps share similar intellectual
ancestry, hence, the era span 17th and 18th centuries chronologically and was considered by
historians to have ended with Kant whose vigorous attempt to reconcile Newtonian physics with
traditional metaphysical issue seems laudable.

Owing to this giant stride among philosophers of modern period, scholars have made
attempt to figure out actually the real father of modern philosophy, be that as it may, we have set
out in this exposition to trace the personality one can boldly call the father of modern
philosophy. In other to achieve this singular aim, we shall by way of methodology look into the
qualities that define modern philosophy, the man Descartes and his intellectual legacy, Issues
that labeled Descartes the father of modern philosophy and also arguments brought up to show
that Bacon rather than Descartes is the legitimate person to be given the title.

2.0 WHAT REALLY DEFINE MODERN PHILOSPHY?

Whereas the renaissance, the reformation, the discovery of new world, the rise of science
and capitalism, represent the external world, the core determinant of modernity and the major
driving forces have been undoubtedly the unleashed human subjectivity. This human subjectivity
is characterized by creativity, freedom, innovation, autonomy, self-reflection and the new vibrant
spirit of foundationalism-setting pace and stable grounds of all human knowledge and practical
endeavour.

The modern quest for the new reliable foundations manifests itself in the form of an old
ontological striving - to find the first and universal principles that ground and define everything
else in the totality of the world. However, instead of searching for the first principles of being(s),

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modern philosophers are looking for the first principles of human knowledge. This
epistemological turn away from the ancient realist ontology of nature was performed in a ground
breaking manner by Rene Descartes in his Meditations on First Philosophy (1641). A more
decisive and elaborate transformation of ancient Metaphysics (i.e., First Philosophy) into a
science of a priori principles of human knowledge was subsequently carried out by Immanuel
Kant in his Critique of Pure Reason (1781).

Formally, modern philosophy has been characterized by various dualisms. Based on its
substantive dualisms between matter and mind, determinism and freedom. Modern philosophy
has spawn a disciplinary dualism between facts and values or between science on the one hand,
and theology, ethics, and aesthetics on the other hand. As modern philosophy developed, this
dualism became that between the objective and the merely subjective.

Some practical presuppositions like that our bodies and the world beyond them are real,
and that they influence our experience; we also presuppose that we are nevertheless partially
free, and that our experience or minds can influence our bodies and world beyond them in turn.
Put differently, we presuppose the interaction of mind and matter, and the existence of both
causality and freedom. The reality of values especially that there is something like truth is also
presupposed, that some things are better than others, and that it is usually better to know the truth
than to believe falsehood. All these presuppositions above are what really occupied the thought
of modern thinkers. Surprising as it may appear, modern thinkers has not been able to justify
these presuppositions1.

In sum, these formal dualisms between objective facts and subjective values, and between theory
and practice, have been supported by the substantive character of modern philosophy. We can
put these characters in this threefold theories- a mechanistic, materialistic, non-animistic doctrine
of nature,(ii) a sensationist doctrine of perception, and (iii) a denial of divinity that divinity is
naturally present in the world. Modern philosophers have sought to understand the world on the
basis of the theory that its normal processes are fully intelligible in principle apart from any
reference to divine presence.

1
Robert Kane and Stephene H. Philips, Hartshorn,process philosophy, and theology, New York: State University of
New York Press, Albany,1989,p.2.

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3.0 THE MAN DESCARTES AND HIS INTELLECTUAL LEGACY
Rene Descartes, who was interested in both science and philosophy, introduced the idea
of separating academic knowledge from religious doctrine. He held the view that science filled
with uncertainty and myth could never promote learning or advancement of society. Descartes
responded to the growing conflict between these two forces with an attempt to bring clarity. He
was willing to challenge the accepted ideas of his day and introduce change. Religion had not
been separate from science in the past. By philosophy and science using reason as its
cornerstone, science effected a substantial increase in knowledge.2
There are lots of valuable things scholars found intellectually enriching in Descartes
work, for instance his theory of vision, the mechanistic account of psychology of the sensitive
soul and his view that animals are like machines. At the end, Descartes’ legacy in part consists
of problems he raised, or brought into prominence, but did not solve it. The mind-body problem
is a case in point and it persists till date. In distinguishing the domain of the mental from that of
the physical, Descartes struck a chord. Many philosophers accept the conceptual distinction, but
remain uncertain of the underlying metaphysics: whether mind is identical with brain; or the
mental emerges from complex processes in the brain; or constitutes a property that is different
from any purely physical property, even while being instantiated by the brain. In this case, a
problem that Descartes made prominent has lived far beyond his proposed solution. 3 The
problem still lingers till date and it is the epicenter of Descartes legacy.

4.0. Who is the real father of modern philosophy-Descartes or Bacon?A CASE OF

DEBATE
To attempt an answer to this question, the standard answer gives the honour to Rene
Descartes. The question that comes to mind is how did we arrive at the answer? We look briefly
at their views and see if we can gather what may satisfy our curiosity.
Descartes’s claim to the title hinged primarily on his epistemology specifically, his
method of doubt. This method constitutes a challenge to previous, more authoritarian
epistemology and a re-invigoration of scepticism that exercises philosophers till date.

2
Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy
3
Carriero, John. 2008. “Cartesian Circle and the Foundations of Knowledge,” in Companion to Descartes, ed. Janet
Broughton and John Carriero. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.

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 On the side of Bacon, his reputation is also based on epistemology for he re-introduced
and expanded inductive methods. What he did in empiricism is also a challenge to authoritarian
epistemologies and grounds much of the scientific method employed by investigators of today.
Based on the debate in vogue Stephen Hicks proposed four criteria and they include 1.The
influence each person thought had on academic philosophy. If we look at Descartes’s skeptical
challenges it has indeed generated a huge literature in academic philosophy and so it is with
Bacon as his empirical method has also generated a huge literature in developing philosophy of
science.The only tie here is that there is absence of quantitative measure of the literature.
2.The influence on philosophy as used by all thinkers 4. Here, Baconian epistemology has
been internalized by most modern intellectuals.For instance, in the field of sciences and social
sciences and it became part of their normal practice, and the more sophisticated inductive
methods explicitly used as guiding principle. The main Cartesian skeptical challenges are rarely
used outside academic philosophical discussions and this gave Bacon score higher than
Descartes’.
3.The third has to do with the positive and negative influence. Descartes’ legacy is
appears essentially negative as he digs philosophy into skeptical hole and he has not escaped the
problem whereas Bacon’s legacy is essentially positive as he provides tools many have used to
develop new knowledge. The concept of two cultures as echoed by C.P. Snow is deep seated
here- much of humanities is skeptical and pessimistic while much of science is progressive and
optimistic5. Assessment here is just a replica of the first point.4.
The last element here is that of chronology, looking at historical antecedents,Bacon’s key
works were written in the first quarter of the 17 th century like: The proficience and advancement
of learning (1605), The wisdom of the Ancients (1619), Novum Organum (1620), and The New
Atlantis (1626). Descartes’s key works were written in the second quarter of the 17 th century, and
some were not published until the third quarter:Rules for the Direction of the mind(1620 ;
published posthumously in 1684),6 Discourse on Method(1628), Meditations on First
philosophy(written in 1641, and published in 1647), and Principles of Philosophy(1644).
Applying a simple philosophical mathematics in the analysis above, Bacon wins by two but the

5
C.P. Snow, The Two Cultures (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993),p.3.
6

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question remains are there other criteria of judging this and this connects us to the factors that
made us label Descartes the father of modern philosophy.
5.0 Factors that labeled Descartes the father of modern philosophy
Numerous factors made us to state categorically that Descartes is the father of modern
philosophy among which is the apparent fact that the defining framework of rationalism and
idealism was his brain child and these concepts stand at the core of modern philosophy.
Frequently also, he has been called the father of modern philosophy because of his influence on
the rationalists like Baruch Spinoza, Nicolas Malebranche and Arnold Geulincx 7. This is one of
the senses we call him the father of modern philosophy.
On another note, he laid a formidable epistemological foundation in philosophy. So,
when we give this title we are simply trying to bring into focus the methodology he
commissioned. That is to say that he gave new subject matter and a methodology in 17 th century,
hence, he defined modern philosophy.
We cannot gloss over the mind-body conundrum he inaugurated. His separation of mind
and matter was a crucial step in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century and laid the
metaphysical foundations for mechanical philosophy that played the dominant role until Isaac
Newton surfaced in 1642-1727.
On a final note, Descartes contributed a great deal to the secularization of academics.
Science and philosophy were liberated from the shackles of tradition bringing a new form of
scholarship that continues to benefit and influence modern society. He employed format that
were entirely unconventional for his time to buttress his points. Taking what one may term
revolutionary step, Descartes removed as much as possible the influence of that church on his
research.Descartes helped to open the gate to the enlightment wherefore science was able to
more lucidly explain how the world functions.To this Langer R E writes, ‘He awakened mankind
out of sleep of dogma, and, from Carlyle, Descartes will continue to rule from his grave whole
nations and generations8.
6.0 Evaluation and Conclusion
With a thoughtful glance at what we have been able to achieve from the foregoing discourse, one
would find out that our exposition seems more of an eye opener to the subtle fact that Descartes
is the real father of modern philosophy. The methodology adopted above is more of conversation
7

8
R. E. Langer, “Rene Descartes,” American Mathematical Monthly 4, no. 8 (October 1937): 496.
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and debate as evident in the introductory part. As we can see if we consider the fatherhood in
terms of chronology, Bacon seems the winner but we looked at the fatherhood from the vantage
point of the issues raised and how the modern thinkers embraced or questioned it.
In my own view, Descartes is considerably the titular father of modern philosophy
because he has truly generated myriads of controversial thoughts which have instigated modern
critical remarks about mind-body interactionism, rationalism, among other submissions. In as
much as philosophy is not measured by the problem one is able to solve but one’s ability to stir
up ideas that would boggle the mind and profoundly force criticisms that question the veracity of
the claims advanced by Descartes’ persuasions about the modern philosophy. By and large,
Descartes paved the way for the academics of today and his thought-system has continued to
have impact upon modern society; hence, it might not be inappropriate to call him father of the
modern period.

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