Modern philosophy will determine the scope of one's use of "modern philosophy." How much of Renaissance intellectual history is part of modern philosophy is disputed: the Early Renaissance is often considered less modern and more medieval compared to the later High Renaissance. By the 17th and 18th centuries the major figures in philosophy of mind, epistemology, and metaphysics were roughly divided into two main groups. The "Rationalists," mostly in France and Germany, argued all knowledge must begin from certain "innate ideas" in the mind. Major rationalists were Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, and Nicolas Malebranche. The "Empiricists," by contrast, held that knowledge
On the Harmony of Religions and Philosophy On the Harmony of Religions and Philosophy Fasl al-Maqal fi ma bayn al-Hikma wa al-Shariah min Ittisal (Arabic: "فصل المقال في ما بين الحكمة و الشريعة من إتصال" often translated as On the Harmony of Religions and Philosophy or The Decisive Treatise, Determining the Nature of the Connection between Religion and Philosophy, with the latter often shortened to The Decisive Treatise) is an Islamic philosophical treatise written by Andalusian Muslim polymath and philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes) (1126–1198), in which the author "critically examine[s] the alleged tension between philosophy and religion" and concludes that philosophy (in particular, Aristotelian philosophy) is not