I am not personally so dismissive of either Plato or Aristotle. We can critique certain aspects of both, but there is no question that both philosophies are extraordinarily fruitful.
(For the record, I consider Aristotle by and large an improvement over Plato, but there are some important principles that Plato either discovered first, or that Aristotle cast aside too lightly: the notion of participation, for example.)
The highest point of Western philosophical thought, however, was not ancient Greek philosophy, in my opinion, but the great Christian thinkers of late antiquity and Middle Ages (often ignored outside of Catholic circles, which is unfortunate, because they are very interesting).
In reality, the changeover to “modern” philosophy began as early as the late 13th Century, a generation after Thomas Aquinas. I see the roots of Rene Descartes in philosophers as remote as Henry of Ghent, Bl. John Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham. I think Descartes’ philosophical “father” is Francisco Suarez, a Jesuit from Salamanca, Spain.
But, we could say, the watershed moment was Descartes. Before him, the emphasis of philosophical investigation was
being or, if you will,
reality. He placed the emphasis squarely on
knowledge. (He is famous for doubting everything, save the fact that he himself is thinking, hence the maxim, “I think, therefore I am.”)
The history of modern philosophy is extremely complex, but in a certain sense, it all revolves around the question of “how can we be sure that we can rely on our knowledge?”
What brought about the atheist “bogiemen” of the 19th century (e.g., Feuerbach, Nietzsche, Marx) was the immensely influential idealistic
philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel. Hegel’s philosophy is, frankly, brilliant, but extremely dangerous, because it Hegel’s method appropriates all other philosophies (and even theology) to itself, and yet effectively blurs the distinction between matter and spirit.
(Extremely briefly, according to Hegel, earlier philosophies–which include Christianity—are merely “moments” in the development of what Hegel calls the Absolute Spirit, which is a sort of collective consciousness. He practically identifies the Absolute Spirit with God; the implication is that God is “created” or “emanated” by the world, especially by man.)
You can see the echoes of Hegelian philosophy in the Church’s declarations in Vatican I (espcially
Dei Filius).
I think it is fairly evident that Feuerbach and later Neitzsche obtained their idea of God as “fabricated” by man, at least ultimately, from Hegel. (The connection between Marx and Hegel is even clearer.)
So, as you can see, Western philosophy has a fascinating history. I think it is important to know that history, so as to be able to dialogue with today’s culture.
