CHAPTER 5

MORAL THEORIES OF FAMOUS

PHILOSOPHIER

Soriano, Kim Jlo

BPA-2C
 A. Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

Descartes was a French philosopher and mathematician whose s philosophical

preoccupation was on the problem of guaranteeing the certainty of knowledge.
In this connection, he proposed a method in order to formulate a strong
foundation for knowledge. He was convinced on the Necessity of a clear and
definite idea that could not be doubted and could become the point of
departure to derive further truths.
 B. Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza (1632-1677)

Not too long after Descartes' death, a brilliant thinker emerged to improve on what Descartes had
developed. Spinoza advanced his idea that reality has only one substance and that is God, and two
of God's attributes are thought and extension. Everything that exists and can be known about is a
"piece", an aspect of God. Spinoza's God, however, was antithetical to the God of Judeo-Christian
religious tradition. For him, God was Nature and Nature was God - this is not classical theism but
the all-embracing pantheism. Spinoza's God was the laws and principles of reality from which
everything followed. He also thought that the mind and body were two aspects of the same entity
that could be understood by logic and natural science.
 C. Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716)

The third leading rationalistic philosopher of the 17th century was Leibniz. He was
basically a metaphysicist who advanced the concept of the most fundamental
elements of the world; these he called monads. According to Leibniz, monads were
independent centers of force or energy and each ad was internally determined by its
definition. Since monads are independent entities, they could not interact among
themselves. But they have "pre- established harmony," so that the movement of a
monad.