So yeah, a topic for discussion of the early modern rationalists - Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz. Or heck, discuss any other forms of it, I'm not really knowledgeable. I thought of making a general "history of philosophy thread", but we might as well make more topics and promote diversity.
I just finished reading Descartes's Discourse on Method and Meditations on first philosophy.
I was actually surprised how interesting it was - I gotta commend the guy for presenting his philosophy very clearly and understandable, using real-life examples and even his knowledge of physics as arguments(he was really an all-around scholar). The obvious flaw is that his usage of scholastic arguments is very unconvincing, especially after he is so careful and doubtful of everything else. It's nothing new that he was trying to suck up to theologists, but there you go.
I'm about to move on to Spinoza. I find his metaphysics very compelling, being myself a pantheist, and from what I've read he was a really good-natured guy.
I just finished reading Descartes's Discourse on Method and Meditations on first philosophy.
I was actually surprised how interesting it was - I gotta commend the guy for presenting his philosophy very clearly and understandable, using real-life examples and even his knowledge of physics as arguments(he was really an all-around scholar). The obvious flaw is that his usage of scholastic arguments is very unconvincing, especially after he is so careful and doubtful of everything else. It's nothing new that he was trying to suck up to theologists, but there you go.
I'm about to move on to Spinoza. I find his metaphysics very compelling, being myself a pantheist, and from what I've read he was a really good-natured guy.
