12. Irrationalism. In 1741, Jonathan Edwards delivered a famous sermon in Massachusetts, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, which popularized Calvinism in America. The increased “rationalist” philosophical activity that began in the previous period continued during this and succeeding ones, becoming increasingly deist and atheist. In 1748, David Hume published A Treatise of Human Nature, which advocated skepticism–atheism and influenced Immanuel Kant. Hume discussed the problem of inductive reasoning and the uniformity of natural operations, saying that we are instinctually/necessarily compelled to believe things behave in a regular manner (in the absence of verified miracles) or have objective existence or are moral. Also in 1748, Emanuel Swedenborg claimed to have a spiritual awakening and a commission from God to reform Christianity. He published Heaven and Hell in 1758, saying that both faith and charity are necessary for salvation.
In 1749, Gotthold Lessing published The Freethinker, advocating freedom of thought and the sufficiency of human reason. In France, Voltaire, a deist, criticized the government and RC Church and devalued the Bible as an outdated human work, although saying, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.” His most popular writing was Candide (1759), which satirized the optimism of Leibniz. A contemporary, J.J. Rousseau, was exiled from France after he published Emile, or On Education in 1762, which espoused Unitarianism and religious equivalence, while rejecting sin and divine revelation. His valuing of the simple rural life or natural man over corrupt urban political society in his first book, New Heloise, influenced romanticism. In The Social Contract (1762), he advocated Locke’s view on government checked by the general will of its populace. In 1777, Lessing published a work advocating tolerance of all religions.
In 1781, Immanuel Kant published Critique of Pure Reason, which has been viewed as a philosophical watershed. He posited that the mind is not a blank slate, but rather it contains innate categories that shape experience, which was a sort of compromise or synthesis of the rationalist and empiricist positions. He also distinguished analytic propositions, which are tautological definitions, from synthetic propositions, which add a predicate concept that needs verification by experience. Joseph Priestley published A History of the Corruptions of Christianity in 1782, which influenced Thomas Jefferson’s ideology. He followed Spinoza in affirming materialism (no mind-body dualism) and determinism. He had assisted Theophilus Lindsey in founding the Unitarian denomination in 1774. In 1776, Moses Mendelssohn published Phadon or On the Immortality of Souls, after which he was compared to both Plato and Moses and later called the father of the Jewish Enlightenment for affirming religious tolerance and the priority of reason over revelation.
In 1785, William Paley published The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, in which he supported abolition of slavery, then in 1794 he wrote on natural theology, describing the teleological argument using the analogy of a watchmaker. About this time Jeremy Bentham propounded utilitarianism, which valued the greatest good as the primary ethical principle. He designed a prison called the Panopticon, which contained cells surrounding a central post for a hidden jailer, and advocated menial labor to help pay the cost of imprisonment. In 1791-92, Thomas Paine published The Rights of Man in defense of the French Revolution against criticisms by Edmund Burke, and then in 1794 The Age of Reason, criticizing organized religion and biblical inerrancy and advocating deism. In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, defending women’s equality, and Johann Fichte went beyond Hume’s and Kant’s subjectivism (inability to know things in themselves) by proposing idealism, the idea that consciousness is separate from anything outside of itself. Another idealist was Friedrich Schelling, who published System of Transcendental Idealism in 1800. He said that nature is visible spirit, and that history is the progressive disclosing of the Absolute.
In 1818, Georg Hegel succeeded Fichte as professor of philosophy in Berlin. He took his cue from Heraclitus, viewing Absolute Knowledge as evolving in a dialectical process of contradiction and negation, in which a thesis and its antithesis form a new and better or more complete synthesis, which in turn serves as the new thesis. Also in 1818, Arthur Schopenhauer published The World as Will and Idea. He affirmed Hinduism and agreed with Buddhism’s negation of volition in order to avoid painful desires, but viewed Hegel as vacuous and criticized Kant for over-looking the validity of intuition as prior to the operation of conscious reason. He adopted Aristotle’s four-fold analysis of knowledge: material using cause and effect, abstract using logic, mathematic using numerical operations, and psychological using moral reasoning. In 1820, Friedrich Schleier-macher published The Christian Faith, in which he argued that dependence on God rather than understanding Him is fundamental. He rejected hell in favor of universalism.
In 1830, Joseph Smith published the Book of Mormon and founded the Latter-day Saints or Mormonism, teaching that his church was the only true denomination of Christianity. In 1831, Johann Goethe discovered the Hypsistarians and affirmed their reverence for the best and most perfect knowledge as connected to God. The Spanish Inquisition ended in 1834. In 1835, David Strauss pioneered the skeptical investigation of the life of Jesus by viewing all miraculous elements as mythical. In 1838, Auguste Comte labeled Sociology as the most comprehensive of the sciences, and in 1844 he published a work recommending that positivism (the golden mean of poetic ideals between philosophical ideas and political realities) replace Catholicism. He also coined the term “altruism” for the moral obligation that trumps individual rights.
In 1839, Louis Blanc expressed the mantra of socialism: “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” In 1841, Ludwig Feuerbach published The Essence of Christianity, saying that God is a creation or projection of man, a chimera, personification and idolization of goodness. In 1846, Brigham Young established the Mormons in Utah. In 1843, Soren Kierkegaard published Either/Or, which described two phases of existence: the aesthetic, and the ethical. He argued that subjectivity is truth, meaning that ethical behavior is more important than physical facts. The loss of divine authority results in uncertainty, angst, dread and lack of meaning. His solution was to take a leap to faith despite having doubt, replacing herd mentality and state religion with personal passionate commitment. His views founded existentialism. In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels co-authored The Communist Manifesto, which described history in terms of class struggles, and promoted rule by the proletariat or working class, which would own all property and require universal labor.
In 1749, Gotthold Lessing published The Freethinker, advocating freedom of thought and the sufficiency of human reason. In France, Voltaire, a deist, criticized the government and RC Church and devalued the Bible as an outdated human work, although saying, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.” His most popular writing was Candide (1759), which satirized the optimism of Leibniz. A contemporary, J.J. Rousseau, was exiled from France after he published Emile, or On Education in 1762, which espoused Unitarianism and religious equivalence, while rejecting sin and divine revelation. His valuing of the simple rural life or natural man over corrupt urban political society in his first book, New Heloise, influenced romanticism. In The Social Contract (1762), he advocated Locke’s view on government checked by the general will of its populace. In 1777, Lessing published a work advocating tolerance of all religions.
In 1781, Immanuel Kant published Critique of Pure Reason, which has been viewed as a philosophical watershed. He posited that the mind is not a blank slate, but rather it contains innate categories that shape experience, which was a sort of compromise or synthesis of the rationalist and empiricist positions. He also distinguished analytic propositions, which are tautological definitions, from synthetic propositions, which add a predicate concept that needs verification by experience. Joseph Priestley published A History of the Corruptions of Christianity in 1782, which influenced Thomas Jefferson’s ideology. He followed Spinoza in affirming materialism (no mind-body dualism) and determinism. He had assisted Theophilus Lindsey in founding the Unitarian denomination in 1774. In 1776, Moses Mendelssohn published Phadon or On the Immortality of Souls, after which he was compared to both Plato and Moses and later called the father of the Jewish Enlightenment for affirming religious tolerance and the priority of reason over revelation.
In 1785, William Paley published The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, in which he supported abolition of slavery, then in 1794 he wrote on natural theology, describing the teleological argument using the analogy of a watchmaker. About this time Jeremy Bentham propounded utilitarianism, which valued the greatest good as the primary ethical principle. He designed a prison called the Panopticon, which contained cells surrounding a central post for a hidden jailer, and advocated menial labor to help pay the cost of imprisonment. In 1791-92, Thomas Paine published The Rights of Man in defense of the French Revolution against criticisms by Edmund Burke, and then in 1794 The Age of Reason, criticizing organized religion and biblical inerrancy and advocating deism. In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, defending women’s equality, and Johann Fichte went beyond Hume’s and Kant’s subjectivism (inability to know things in themselves) by proposing idealism, the idea that consciousness is separate from anything outside of itself. Another idealist was Friedrich Schelling, who published System of Transcendental Idealism in 1800. He said that nature is visible spirit, and that history is the progressive disclosing of the Absolute.
In 1818, Georg Hegel succeeded Fichte as professor of philosophy in Berlin. He took his cue from Heraclitus, viewing Absolute Knowledge as evolving in a dialectical process of contradiction and negation, in which a thesis and its antithesis form a new and better or more complete synthesis, which in turn serves as the new thesis. Also in 1818, Arthur Schopenhauer published The World as Will and Idea. He affirmed Hinduism and agreed with Buddhism’s negation of volition in order to avoid painful desires, but viewed Hegel as vacuous and criticized Kant for over-looking the validity of intuition as prior to the operation of conscious reason. He adopted Aristotle’s four-fold analysis of knowledge: material using cause and effect, abstract using logic, mathematic using numerical operations, and psychological using moral reasoning. In 1820, Friedrich Schleier-macher published The Christian Faith, in which he argued that dependence on God rather than understanding Him is fundamental. He rejected hell in favor of universalism.
In 1830, Joseph Smith published the Book of Mormon and founded the Latter-day Saints or Mormonism, teaching that his church was the only true denomination of Christianity. In 1831, Johann Goethe discovered the Hypsistarians and affirmed their reverence for the best and most perfect knowledge as connected to God. The Spanish Inquisition ended in 1834. In 1835, David Strauss pioneered the skeptical investigation of the life of Jesus by viewing all miraculous elements as mythical. In 1838, Auguste Comte labeled Sociology as the most comprehensive of the sciences, and in 1844 he published a work recommending that positivism (the golden mean of poetic ideals between philosophical ideas and political realities) replace Catholicism. He also coined the term “altruism” for the moral obligation that trumps individual rights.
In 1839, Louis Blanc expressed the mantra of socialism: “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” In 1841, Ludwig Feuerbach published The Essence of Christianity, saying that God is a creation or projection of man, a chimera, personification and idolization of goodness. In 1846, Brigham Young established the Mormons in Utah. In 1843, Soren Kierkegaard published Either/Or, which described two phases of existence: the aesthetic, and the ethical. He argued that subjectivity is truth, meaning that ethical behavior is more important than physical facts. The loss of divine authority results in uncertainty, angst, dread and lack of meaning. His solution was to take a leap to faith despite having doubt, replacing herd mentality and state religion with personal passionate commitment. His views founded existentialism. In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels co-authored The Communist Manifesto, which described history in terms of class struggles, and promoted rule by the proletariat or working class, which would own all property and require universal labor.