THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD

Philosophical thought during the Enlightenment was characterized by a rejection of existing sources of authority. The broadly Aristotelean scientific worldview was undermined by a period of scientific revolution—conventionally beginning with Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (1543) and culminating with Newton’s Philosophia Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687)—which raised important questions about our epistemological practices. Simultaneously, the rise of an increasingly powerful mercantile middle class challenged the traditional political order and the legitimacy of government. As a result, philosophical emphasis turned toward the individual, giving rise to the idea that our knowledge of the world is to be built up from either personal observation or deduction from self-evident principles, rather than from reading ancient authors. Citizenship came to be understood as a voluntary contract between individuals and the state, rather than decreed by God. These two strands of thought received their most sophisticated articulation in Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), whose legacy has profoundly influenced all subsequent philosophy.