Dogmatic Elements of Modern Rationality

Abstract

We call Modernity to the cultural and civilizational process that began to prevail in Europe in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, commonly it is established that this socio-cultural revolution was the miraculous result of the unique genius of intellectual heroes like René Descartes and Galileo Galilei. But, as usually happens, paying a little more attention to history we observe that reality is a little more complex. Some authors such as Stephen Toulmin assure that this civilizing process had two great starting points, on the one hand premodern humanism and on the other the rationality that emerged from the natural philosophy of the 17th century. The objective of this work is to delve into the sources that gave rise to this historical period, mainly in rationality, proposing that this was not only the result of the pressing social reality of Europe in the 17th century, as Toulmin and some other authors assure, rather this rationality is a direct consequence of the change of vision that the Protestant reform meant, that is, the Protestant reform is the source of the change of attitude towards the world and therefore, of the emergence of rationality that ends up being the core element of the Modern and contemporary science.