Father of Modern Philosophy?

Descartes is called the father of modern philosophy because he is the first thinker to establish the subject (the self who can reflect on its own existence) as the starting-point of philosophy. Hume, Kant, and all the moderns accept Descartes's basic starting-point, even if they disagree with him on other things. Kant, perhaps, can be called the father of transcendental philosophy, but no one ever refers to him as the father of modern philosophy. Besides, Kant came a couple hundred years after Descartes; modern philosophy was already well under way.

To call a philosopher the "father" of modern philosophy is not to say he is the most influential or even the most important, but rather to say that he is the first philosopher to introduce a new way of doing philosophy that we call "modern". By "modern" philosophy, it is usually meant the philosophy that takes the self's own existence as the starting-point for philosophy and the sciences.

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Father of Modern Philosophy?

I understand that Rene Descartes is the father of modern philosophy. I was just wondering how does Aristotle also known as ''the philosopher'' and Plato fit into this and what are their theories? I have read about these three but not in so much detail hence I'm hoping to get a better understanding....

Descartes was the first philosopher to see doubt as a tool and useful for science. Before him, most philosophers were idealists; like Plato and Aristotle. The Church was in complete control and shut down the Greek schools. Many of the ancient greek writings were lost and we went through what is called the "Dark Ages." Descartes takes what the church considered a sin; doubt and made it a tool for research. This is why he called the father of modern Philosophy. It was the first step toward an empirical science.

Difficult to answer this question in a short space!

Plato and Aristotle are a part of the classical tradition as opposed to the modern tradition which began at the time of Descartes. It's all splitting hairs and it's a very biased Westernized viewpoint to think Descartes kicked it all off. What about Avicenna? What about the eastern traditions? I think the way philosophy is taught presently is quite limited to a few grand old white men, and misses out on all sorts of challenging and stimulating thought.

For me though, in terms of influence and importance to where we are today in Western Europe, I think Schopenhauer wins the prize. His ideas changed so many people and were so far reaching he deserves the title!

I'd scarcely call Descartes the father of modern philosophy. The real father of modern philosophy would be Immanuel Kant. Almost all of19th and 20th century philosophy was either directly based on his work or a direct criticism. There has been no philosopher who has been more influential in the last few centuries.

"the unexamined life is not worth living"

the self as a starting point was not a novel concept to philosophy

I would say that Aristotle is because of his methodology for making epistemological claims

his methodology was essentially the first attempt at science

and this changed human civilization

I dispute the claim that Descartes is the father of modern philosophy

but of course I consider the hundreds of thousands of years that went unrecorded in human history

well to me that is the ancient philosophy

steeped in myth and superstition

so from my perspective

Aristotle is not simply an ancient philosopher

Ayn Rand

is a modern philosopher that has influenced western culture a great deal

perhaps she is the serogate you seek

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Well, theres Descartes for Modern Philosophy in general...then theres Kant for Philosophy as we see it....along with Hegel, Wittgenstein, Sartre, Leibniz, Russell, and others. It just depends on what degree of modern you mean.

I think Swami Vivekanand is father of modern philosophy . Read more about his philosophy at wikipedia

actually I am the father of modern philosophy =P