The peculiarities of dialectic of good and evil in works of the philosophers of the Early Modern Age (T. Hobbes, B. Spinoza, G. V. Leibniz)

Abstract

The subject of this research is the categories of good and evil in philosophy of the representatives of the Early Modern Age (on the example of the works of T. Hobbes, B. Spinoza, and G. W. Leibniz). These philosophers conceptualized the dialectic of good and evil leaning on the shifted paradigm at the turn of the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. However, the article advances a hypothesis that despite a fundamental turn in the philosophy of the Modern Age, the prevalent n medieval philosophy dialectic of good and evil had a strong impact upon the views of the philosophers of the Early Modern Age. The research employs the dialectical method and metaphysics, which allowed viewing the categories of good and evil from the perspective of the logical-philosophical position of their contradiction, as well as revealing their initial nature and the role in human world. The novelty of this study consists in the fact that in a certain sense it explores the dual dialectic: on the one hand, it is a longtime problems of good and evil, while on the other hand, the philosophy of good and evil of the Early Modern Age is ambiguous and contradictory, when the previous paradigm is no longer relevant, although a new philosophical concept of good and evil is yet to be formed. There is a good reason why the author chos the ideas of T. Hobbes, B. Spinoza, and G. W. Leibniz – their approaches towards the problem of good and evil in the traditions of the Early Modern Age mark the key milestones in the research of these categories in the transitional historical period.