Western Philosophical Tradition Today

Rushcourt71

"Before [Rene] Descartes, the dominant Western Philosophical tradition was Neo Aristotelian scholasticism...

Scholastacism was also a religious tradition, with God at its centre. Descartes remained true to scholasticism in some ways, but he put humans instead of God at its centre.

He did so by trying to think his way to the essence of human existence- to strip away, through setting to work his rational faculties, everything he doubted until he arrived at an essential core."

(Source: 'Alternative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition' By Dwight Atkinson,  P6, 2011)

The quotation is from an essential text I am currently using as part of my degree. I thought I might share it with yourselves as well. The comments below are my own.

Neo Aristotelian scholasticism refers to the thoughts of Aristotle and all themes relating to the beliefs and traditions of others that followed using his basic thoughts and ideas. Aristotle lived at a time when the concept of God was highly prevalent throughout Greece and he felt he had to include a divine element or if possible at other times to negate it in other ways without causing serious disruption. One such area was that morals and goodness are what we say they are and have no real or actual divine aspect to them.

Aristotle's ideas became a central and cultural feature in Western thought at some point afterwards and remained so until the advent of Rene Descartes (1596-1650). Descartes [pronounced 'day cart'] primary idea was the concept, 'I think therefore I am'. From this he derived the thought or thoughts he or the human race was responsible for their own will, destiny and everything else. He spoke of God only in the sense that He existed and nothing more. It was sufficient to acknowledge God's existence to avoid government censure and condemnation and to generate excitement among others to read his work.

Since then Descartes philosophy has become one of the most influential dominant foundations for Western secular tradition.

mazherali

Interesting and informative. Thanks.

Rushcourt71

mazherali 7-3-2019 08:13 PM
Interesting and informative. Thanks.

The author, Atkinson, who included the quote, adds about Western secular tradition on the following page of the same book-

"Descartes placed the I-as-thinker' at the centre of existence; all else is incidental. The implications for understanding human life were profound. First, human mind was given the place formerly reserved for God-as the organising principle of human existence. and in fact all life.

Second, the human body and the rest of the world were radically separated from the mind, assigned a subsidiary position, and thus took on a special character.

Third, the human mind was viewed as logical -even mathematical-device.

Fourth and finally, cognition was reduced to what we now consider just one of its forms: consciousness.

The portrait of mind entailed by these four principles -as logical, conscious, radically isolated, and virtually godlike in its powers- effected a 'Copernican Revolution' in thinking about thinking and thinking about being. The resulting worldview has sometimes been called 'cognitivism'....

Cartesian-inspired cognitivism [i.e. the secular views of Descartes] has dominated Western thought since the 17th century. "

The above in a nutshell characterises Descartes view and by extension Western philosophical tradition as the idea the human mind, logic, intellect and rationalisation as the highest form of [inner] wisdom in the universe.

It can only by guided and nurtured by itself. Everything everywhere can be understood, explained and measured by the [human] mind mathematically and scientifically eventually.