The Commencement of the Modern Age

Abstract

Chapter 3 sets out some of the developments in natural science, religion, politics and law in the beginning stages of the Modern Age, that is, from around the 15th and 16th centuries. It presents the philosophies of Calvinism, Machiavelli, Descartes, and Grotius. Descartes’ methodological scepticism typically led him to reconstruct (knowledge of) the world from the perspective of the subject (if I doubt everything, one fact still remains beyond doubt: that I am doubting, therefore, that I think, therefore, that I exist), who can attain scientific knowledge of the external world. Grotius introduced the social contract: individuals have a natural right to freedom, but can reasonably be expected to agree with the institution of state authority to secure their self-preservation.’ The aim is specifically to show the source of the modern ideas of an original position of freedom of the individual, as well as the notion of the social contract. The Scientific Revolution in this period led to a worldview which deviated radically from the Christian-Aristotelian outlook of the preceding period. This raised a number of new problems regarding the foundation of a duty to obey the law. The most important problem was that the classical idea of the world as a rationally coherent and purposive whole was abandoned in the modern view. Therefore it was no longer evident that human society constituted a moral order with which the individual should identify. Instead, in modern philosophy the individual acquired the central position. A new line of reasoning, therefore, had to be developed to indicate why, and under which conditions, an individual had to subject himself to a legal order. Insofar as religious developments are concerned, the Reformation made an important contribution in rethinking the relation between religion/the church and the state. Because of man’s sinful nature, government and law would be exceeding their powers should they attempt to force subjects into a morally perfect way of life. One could not expect more from the state than the safeguarding of social order. Protestantism, moreover, strongly emphasised the direct accountability of every human individual towards God. Legal enforcement of the ideals of the good life is then inappropriate. The Renaissance, which already started flourishing in Italy from the 13th century, similarly regarded the human individual as central, but without religious considerations playing any substantial role. The ideals of the humanists of the Renaissance concerned the full development of the abilities of each person.