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How were early modern and modern philosophy related to the scientific revolution?
Introduction
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Much of early modern empiricist philosophy, as developed by John Locke (1632–1704) and Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), was directly inspired by the scientific revolution. Francis Bacon (1561–1626) had proposed that science could be used for the betterment of mankind and that was also René Descartes’ (1596–1650) dream. However, both Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and John Locke (1632–1704) took a practical and strictly empirical approach to knowledge that was closer to the science of their day than either Bacon or Descartes’ views. The scientifically grounded empiricism of Hobbes and Locke was later refined by David Hume (1711–1776) and codified by John Stuart Mill (1806–1873).