This is a continuation of the article titled “How Modern Philosophy Attacks Christian Truths.”

Decartes and Kant Gave Rise to Modern Philosophy

Along with Rene Descartes, perhaps no other philosopher is as instrumental in ushering in the “modern era” as Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).[1] Many textbooks cite him as “The Father of Modern Philosophy.” His work was (and remains) controversial. His writings are voluminous. No attempt is made here to provide a synthesis of his system of thought other than to briefly describe what is his most lasting – and devastating – influence.

Kant gave priority to the subjective over the objective. His epistemology[2] marked a great inward turn into the mind of man. He argued that all man can actually be certain about is what is in his own mind. In other words, when I “see” an apple before me, what I really see is just “the apple in my mind.” This may (or may not) correspond with objective reality. However, for Kant, this issue becomes irrelevant because he claims humans never have direct contact with objective reality anyway. Thus, talking about objective truth is a moot point because we can never know it.[3]

Kant’s philosophy advanced the ideas of Rationalism and Freemasonry that would come to be known as the “Enlightenment.” This philosophy was the basis for both the American and the French Revolutions. Pope Pius IX would later warn Catholics of the errors of these philosophers, in Qui Pluribus (On Faith and Religion) on November 9, 1846.[4]

The So-Called Enlightenment Was Not Enlightening

Kant’s extreme subjectivism marked a dramatic rupture with the systems of thought developed in the tradition of Aristotle and Aquinas. It was a great divorce between objective reality and subjective truth, between external creation and internal reflection.

Our Catholic Faith teaches that all objective truth, reality, and existence are sourced in God. Revelation likewise comes from God and is therefore outside of – and independent of – the subject. Kant’s faulty reasoning could only have been conceived of within a Protestant framework which had already enthroned private and subjective interpretations of Scripture – and therefore of truth and of God.

We all know where this path leads. It fosters the notion that man can’t know truth, so the only truth that matters is ‘the truth inside me.’ (How often we hear people today speak of “my truth” and “your truth.”) Religious indifferentism therefore becomes virtuous. Practical atheism is inevitable. Man becomes the master of reality because he can alter the perceptions within himself. And if man can fashion reality according to his tastes, then he has effectively made himself a god, determining good from evil.

Modern Philosophy Does Not Know What Is “Truth”

Modern philosophy, often devoid from rational grounding, has tried to convince us of many things. Some of these things are:

• Truth is in the mind of the person, therefore, subjective.
• Faith and reason are contradictory; therefore, reason has disproved belief.
• The Church opposes reason; therefore, the Church is anti-scientific.
• Moral law comes from within each person individually; therefore, objective moral norms cannot be promulgated.
• Nothing exists besides what can be sensed with the body; therefore, immaterial beings do not exist.
• Creation is the result of chance occurrences devoid of Divine Providence; therefore, there is no purpose to anything.
• Freedom is absolute; therefore, one is free to do whatever he or she pleases.

Modern philosophy has greatly shifted its understanding of the nature of truth, and the effects have been detrimental to almost every area of life. For the ancient and medieval philosophers, the truth exists in the world and is discovered by the intellect. For modern philosophers, however, the truth exists in the mind and may or may not be related to the world at all.

If our ideas do not have their origin in the world, but in our own mind, there is nothing stopping us from distorting reality to fit our agendas. This is the biggest problem in all modern debate. The Modernist tells us that gender is based on what one determines for him- or herself in his or her own mind instead of external objective criteria. Modernists tell us that marriage is based on how one feels in their hearts instead of any objective criteria for the institution of marriage. These are examples of how a false understanding of the origin of ideas affects all areas of life and public discourse.

Modern morality, likewise devoid of classical philosophy, has devolved into a pleasure-based (i.e., what feels good is what is good) and utilitarian-based (i.e., what is most useful is what is good) system. Modern man has recognized the tension that exists between the moral law and freedom. If the moral law comes from an external source outside of man, this must mean that morality crushes our freedom and prevents our happiness (so the modernist says).

The Light of Truth

This runs contrary to the Natural Law system of St. Thomas Aquinas, which recognizes that happiness is derived from following the precepts of nature. This is because the precepts of nature participate in the Eternal Law of God. One does not become free by following their own law of morality; most often, they become enslaved. Freedom comes from choosing what is excellent and living virtuous lives. Although the law of morality comes from outside of man, it does not squash the will of man. This is because the source of the moral law (i.e., God) desires our human happiness and fulfillment.

Weighing modern errors against the truth is like driving a car at nighttime. As you approach oncoming traffic, the light from another car shines onto your windshield and illumines dirt and imperfections that you could not see before. Now that there is light shining on your windshield displaying the previously unseen dirt, it may hamper your view. This light that reveals imperfections is the light of truth. Many modern thinkers cannot see the falsity in their arguments because they have never held them up to the light. The Catholic philosopher sees the dirt, however, because Christ is both the Truth (John 14:6) and the Light of the world (John 8:12).

Catholics should be informed of the history of philosophy and logical reasoning to engage in apologetics and to better understand Theology. There is a reason that all seminarians must first study Philosophy before they study Theology. And even lay people should study Philosophy. The book Lord, That I May See: Fundamentals of Christian Philosophy, which is also available in an online self-directed course, would be a great starting point for anyone wanting to go further into understanding true Christian Philosophy and the errors of Modern Philosophy.

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ENDNOTES:

[1] Peter Kreeft, PhD, provides an insight into the work of Immanuel Kant. He writes:

“If we ever engage in conversation about our faith with unbelievers, we know from experience that the most common obstacle to faith today is not any honest intellectual difficulty, like the problem of evil or the dogma of the trinity, but the assumption that religion cannot possibly concern facts and objective truth at all; that any attempt to convince another person that your faith is true – objectively true, true for everyone – is unthinkable arrogance…

“Kant is largely responsible for this way of thinking. He helped bury the medieval synthesis of faith and reason. He described his philosophy as ‘clearing away the pretensions of reason to make room for faith’ – as if faith and reason were enemies and not allies. In Kant, Luther’s divorce between faith and reason becomes finalized.

“Kant thought religion could never be a matter of reason, evidence or argument, or even a matter of knowledge, but a matter of feeling, motive and attitude. This assumption has deeply influenced the minds of most religious educators (e.g., catechism writers and theology departments) today, who have turned their attention away from the plain ‘bare bones’ of faith, the objective facts narrated in Scripture and summarized in the Apostles’ creed. They have divorced the faith from reason and married it to pop psychology, because they have bought into Kant’s philosophy.”

[2] Epistemology is that branch of philosophy which explores the question of how man knows what he knows.

[3] Kant developed a complicated theory of how humans arrive at knowledge. He held that we can all perceive the same apple internally because our brains are fashioned in such a way as to process sensory data according to certain ”categories.” The commonality of these categories, hardwired into the human brain, is why we generally ”see” the same thing. In this manner, Kant believes his system remains connected to reality and reason. However, Kant had no way of refuting the possibility that in objective external reality there exists a tree which all humans perceive as an apple on account of how men internally process and categorize information. Although his fanciful theory grossly violates the principle of “Ockham‘s razor” (searching for explanations using the smallest possible set of elements) and runs contrary to common sense, it has attracted many adherents.

[4] Quoted in part:

“They feel as if philosophy, which is wholly concerned with the search for truth in nature, ought to reject those truths which God Himself, the supreme and merciful creator of nature, has deigned to make plain to men as a special gift. With these truths, mankind can gain true happiness and salvation. So, by means of an obviously ridiculous and extremely specious kind of argumentation, these enemies never stop invoking the power and excellence of human reason; they raise it up against the most holy faith of Christ, and they blather with great foolhardiness that this faith is opposed to human reason.

“Without doubt, nothing more insane than such a doctrine, nothing more impious or more opposed to reason itself could be devised. For although faith is above reason, no real disagreement or opposition can ever be found between them; this is because both of them come from the same greatest source of unchanging and eternal truth, God. They give such reciprocal help to each other that true reason shows, maintains and protects the truth of the faith, while faith frees reason from all errors and wondrously enlightens, strengthens and perfects reason with the knowledge of divine matters.

“…Also perverse is the shocking theory that it makes no difference to which religion one belongs, a theory which is greatly at variance even with reason. By means of this theory, those crafty men remove all distinction between virtue and vice, truth and error, honorable and vile action. They pretend that men can gain eternal salvation by the practice of any religion, as if there could ever be any sharing between justice and iniquity, any collaboration between light and darkness, or any agreement between Christ and Belial [the devil].”

The post How Modern Philosophy Rejects Truth | Part II first appeared on The Fatima Center.

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