My dear friends, I decided to make some kind of philosophical diary and share with you some interesting things. I am not a philosopher, but I like to read about some of them and about things that kept their mind busy. Philosophy can help us to understand this world and it can show us different ways of seeing things. People said that philosophy was the mother of all of the sciences.  In my opinion, philosophy is somewhere between art and science. I like to say it is an art of thinking. 

I will begin with <b>philosophy of 17th century</b> and <b>René Descartes</b>. I chose this centary because it is one of the most important moments in human history and I chose Descartes because he is one of my favorite philosopher. Before I have even heard about philosophy and philosophers, I have heard about his famous statement <b><i>Cognito ergo sum</i></b>.<br>
![Frans_Hals_-_Portret_van_René_Descartes.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmWGLSNMEqvgyKe8291saG7JPuuRyx7PuVKH6voUx1hLNr/Frans_Hals_-_Portret_van_Ren%C3%A9_Descartes.jpg)
<center><a href=”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes#/media/File:Frans_Hals_-_Portret_van_Ren%C3%A9_Descartes.jpg”>Rene Descartes (Wikipedia)</a></center>

So, let us begin. 

Modern philosophy started with the 17th century. Because of that, this was a really important moment for humankind. Before the Renaissance and the 17th century our images of the universe, the world and the human body were completely different. No change in our view of the world was as dramatic as the one that took place at the beginning of the modern era.

Devices that prepared scientific revolution were constructed in the 17th century. Some of them were: Gutenberg's printing machine, telescope, microscope. This entire discovery, together with the tensions in medieval philosophy itself, has profoundly undermined everything that humankind believed in. It turned out that the world is much bigger than people thought, that the earth is not at the center of the universe, that there are undiscovered parts of the planet whit some different kinds of plants and animals (and people didn’t know about them), that the human body functions in completely different ways than the Galen described.<br>
![1280px-Daniel_Huntington_Philosophy_and_Christian_Art.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmV2AnZAyY96ZmScGNBZ22fkSnZ3ATm9GQmjAASpXFsatf/1280px-Daniel_Huntington_Philosophy_and_Christian_Art.jpg)
<center><a href=”https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daniel_Huntington_Philosophy_and_Christian_Art.jpg”>Philosophy and Christain Art, Daniel Huntington (Wikimedia Commons)</a></center>


In that moment people started to think about the world in a different way. Those discoveries increased the interest of scholars for nature and also contributed to the mechanistic concept of the world that still dominates today. The essence of this view of the world is the belief that nature can be understood as a body movement system that can be expressed in a mathematical way.

Also, the development of physical sciences has led to new tension in philosophy. The ambition of modern philosophers was to establish new methods in philosophy so they can discover new truths about the world. Some of them are Bacon’s <i>Novum Organum</i> and Descartes’s <i>Method</i>. The philosophers of the 17th century had to make all these changes in the sciences and in our vision of the world. Philosophers didn't want to take humanity to dogmatic understanding again. They believed that a new view of things should make humanity available to discover the truths about nature.

<center>![Descartes_Discours_de_la_Methode.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmYq4p1MBK86DWcBGjZ3chGSYx2VWZpKdMUEWS89SMpreC/Descartes_Discours_de_la_Methode.jpg)</center>
<center><a href=”https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Descartes_Discours_de_la_Methode.jpg”>Descartes's Discours de la Methode (Wikimedia Commons)</a></center>
<center><h1>Main questions of the philosophers in 17th century:</h1></center>

If the old Aristotle's method of syllogisms and all of his principles are not reliable enough to discover the truth about the world, then what is the reliable method?
Rationalists and empirists provided various answers to this question. The empirists believed that we can use our senses, our experience and experimental methods. They believed that can take us to the truth. Rationalists began with mathematics as the ideal of clear and reliable knowledge. They believed that every knowledge must be based on such clear and reliable truths. If we use our mind correctly, we will be able to discover the principles of reality. They will be as certain as mathematical principles. 

In the 16th and 17th centuries, there was a common belief that the nature of the reality is mathematical. There is a certain coincidence between nature and mathematical truths: the entire discovery indicated that the world functioned mechanically and that these mechanical laws can be mathematically expressed.
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This leads to the following question:
<h1>If the world is a mechanism and if it can be shown mathematically how do I fit into it as a human being with its free will?</h1>
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<p>Descartes tried to give an answer to this question. He believed that main tasks of philosophy are:</p>
<p><b>To establish and develop a reliable method for all sciences (philosophy must solve epistemological problems and let us know how we can overcome them).</b></p>
<p><b>To uncover the basic principles of reality and to solve the basic ontological problems.</b></p>

<p>He believed that philosophy is the basic for all other sciences and the other knowledge can be derivated from philosophical principles. To reach these two goals, Descartes used a <b>method of suspicion</b>.</p>
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<h1><center>Thank you for reading. I hope it was hopeful and interesting. I tried to explain things in a simple way. Follow me for part two. I will talk more about Descartes and his philosophy. </center></h1>
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