The Modernity: the question of substance

Abstract

The article examines the views of Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz on substance. The author proceeds from the ontological gap between modernity and postmodernity, asking: are the significance of the concept of substance really unshakable and self-evident today? To raise the question of substance means to reinterpret the classics of modernity in such a way that the internal dissonance of their thinking, which explains the transition from modernity to postmodernity, appears as an inevitable course. In particular, the author finds in the texts of early modern philosophers the theme of the ontology of the event and the pluralism of foundations, not explicitly expressed at the level of content, but present in the lacunae and gaps in their thought. This paves the way to the postmodern ontology of language and consolidates the plot of «eternal modernity».