Introduction to philosophical thought: modernity and rationality [INFOB215]

Learning outcomes

This course, which represents the beginning of a journey, starting with introducing philosophy and concluding with epistemology and ethics of informatics in the fifth year, tackles the problem of how to understand what one calls modernity. It will introduce the students to the philosophical reflection and the methodology of how to expose and develop reasoning. It will contribute to the development of a critical attitude with regard to rationality.

Content

What is it to be modern? This is a question which often returns nowadays, especially with the current crisis and the questioning of the status of sciences in our societies. In this course, we will try to understand something of how that started. The scientific spirit which began with the Greeks fell asleep until its Rebirth. To understand modernity is also an understanding of how towards the 16th century the return of antiquity, the free examination developed by the reform, and the social and economic progress provides a base to an autonomous science. While separating what is revealed by God and is codified by the church from what is perceived by the men and is theorised by them, modernity authorised science, like it did with policy, art and, more slowly, ethics, to acquire its autonomy. We will see then how, during the 18th century, the ideal of ¿becoming Masters and owners of nature¿ was developed. We will analyse especially the emergence of a reason which decided to become the master of nature, reality, man, and society and we will try to show its limitations. We will study what can be called ¿the crisis of modernity¿ .