during the baroque period, wars continued, society was in turmoil, and various ideological trends emerged and conflicted with each other, which was manifested in costumes, paintings, reliefs and other aspects in the baroque period, while the main conflict in philosophy was the confrontation between idealism and materialism.
so, what is idealism? What is materialism?
Idealism holds that human life should be oriented towards a lofty feature. Materialism, on the other hand, only believes in the feelings brought by the physical senses and thinks that they are real. Under the influence of these two concepts, some people choose the ascetic spiritual life, while others choose the hedonic life of leading a drunken life.
what is real? What exactly is certainty? In such confusion, Descartes sank himself into doubt. After deep thinking, he found that he could doubt everything, but he could not doubt the doubter who doubted everything, the doubter who could not see or touch but could really feel it-"I". So he said his famous saying: "I think, therefore I am." Descartes discovered the certain thinker who exists in man himself, and he felt the powerful rational power of that thinker, which is so real in man himself. He knocked down the philosophical building built by his predecessors, cleared away all the cornerstones and rubble on the construction site, and used his rationality and mathematical methods to start a grand philosophical building construction.
So, how was his philosophy building established?
First, demonstrate the existence of God. He believes that the concept of perfect entity can only come from perfect entity; People are not perfect but have the concept of perfect entity, and God is the perfect entity, and God endowed people with the concept of perfect entity. So God really exists.
Secondly, it proves that the material world is a real world. God is perfect; The reason given to us by God is perfect, and everything we know by reason must be true. The material world is a real world.
in this way, Descartes' philosophy building was established. He continued to enrich his philosophical system, and he divided God's creation into two parts: one is the soul entity; One is a material entity, and the two do not affect each other. In the world of thought, God endowed man with rationality, and at the same time gave him the decision to use rationality, and man became the subject to use his own rationality. In the material world, God created everything into a mechanized device, and everything operated according to mechanization. In this way, Descartes' dualism was born. Descartes' dualism highlights human subjectivity and affirms the authenticity of matter, but it also causes the division of human body and mind and makes life dual-subjective. Although Descartes later realized the deficiency of dualism and made up for it, he could not make up for it after all.
Realizing the deficiency of Descartes' dualism, Spinoza established her own monism philosophy system. Then, what is the content of his philosophical system?
In view of the troubles caused by Cartesian dualism, Spinoza put forward a new viewpoint. He believed that soul and matter are the attributes of a physical God, so that soul and matter are United here, and duality becomes unity.
Spinoza also put forward the concept of natural law, that is, the will of God. He believes that God exists in all things, and that God and all things are one, that is, God is all things and all things are God.
Descartes and Spinoza, two great rationalist philosophers, have made great contributions to the history of philosophy. Descartes discovered that man is a rational animal through doubt, thus effectively establishing human subjectivity. Spinoza, after bridging the division caused by Descartes' dualism, called on people not to let themselves be dominated by emotions, but to understand the inevitability of human nature with the help of reason and accept everything completely.
What does the philosophy of Descartes and Spinoza give us? Descartes tells us that people have their own rationality. Facing the world, we should keep thinking. We have and should make our own independent choices on some major issues. An unexamined life is not worth living. Spinoza tells us that people should understand human nature with the help of reason, let actions originate from human nature and live in harmony with everything. Yes, I love myself as much as I love myself. I love myself as much as I love others. Because the difference between me and others is only external, but in essence, I am no different from others, no more or less.
Stay rational, use my nature to meet the nature of everything, and be one with everything. The world is beautiful because of me and everything, and I and everything are happy because of the world.