Humanism Lecture Two

Humanism – Lecture Two 1/11/05


The Spread of the Renaissance

With the invention of the printing press in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries spread to Germany, France, England, and Spain.

These in the north were also devoted to the ancients.

Erasmian Humanism

(quote one)

Erasmus (1466-1536)

Francois Rabelais (1494-1553)

Thomas More (1478-1535)


Eramus

Dutch - made humanism international - He also taught study of the ancients – but must be linked to Christianity – was the first humanist who used the printing press – argued against the ‘justified’ war of Augustine and Aquinas – and for the virtues of tolerance, friendliness, and gentleness – which for him were all Christian virtues.

Rabelais

French - a humanist – also a comic writer – known best for his book Gargantua and Pantagruel – which celebrates earthly life and earthly enjoyments – it possible to have heaven here on earth if we stop listening to the clergy – in the book people eat and sleep when they wanted and read, wrote, sang, and played many instruments and learned to speak many languages – there was only one rule: Do What You Want – admired Eramus – believed in peoples native goodness

More

English – a lawyer by profession – after refusing to recognize that Henry VIII was the head of the English Church – was beheaded as a traitor – his most famous work is Utopia (a place where everything is perfect) - in it he write of a perfect place where private property is eliminated – Utopian has come to mean an realistic vision of a perfect society.

The Renaissance - review

Marks the beginning of modernity.

Humanism was the idea that the human being was free to make their own destiny – it didn’t depend on God.

Human beings made history – not God.

Humanist liked the secular learning of the Greeks and Romans – rather than the philosophers of the Middle Ages – because the Greeks and Romans cared about many of the same things that they did.

The Scientific Revolution

(quote two)

The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment

1543 Publication of Copernicus’s On the Revolutiosn of the Heavenly Spheres begins modern astronomy

1605 Publication Francis Bacon’s Advancement of Learning

1632 Galileo’s teachings are condemned by the church, and he is put under house arrest

1687 Publication of Issac Newton’s Principia Mathematica

1690 Publication of John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government

1733 Publication of Voltaire’s Letters Concerning the English Nation

1751-1765 Publication of the Encyclopedia edited by Diderot

1776 American Declaration of Independence

1789 French Revolution begins

There was a huge change in the way humans saw the universe – the earth was no longer at the center of the universe – this changed the way in which people thought about themselves, society, and the purpose of life.

However, the scientific revolution included not only a new way of seeing the world – but also a new way of asking questions about nature and the universe – and recognition of how science might serve humans.

Two important thinkers that helped introduce this scientific revolution were Francis Bacon and Rene’ Descartes.

(quote three)

Francis Bacon (1561-1626): The Inductive Method

Rene Descartes (1596-1650): The Deductive Method

[analytic and synthetic arguments]


Francis Bacon

Strongly supported science and scientific method – thought scholastic philosophers had keep science from growing till that time – shouldn’t rely on the ancients ie. Aristotle - knowledge needed to be organized in a new way – the inductive method.

(quote four)

The Inductive Method

careful observation of nature
collection of data
general laws (hypothesis)
testing of those laws

Such a method would not rely on the Bible or myths or stories, etc – knowledge should help us to improve human life – wanted governments to set up scientific institutions - knowledge is power.

Rene Descartes

(quote five)

The Deductive Method

used in mathematics and physics

begin with a ‘first principle’ and build knowledge step by step from that

a ‘first principle is something that cannot be doubted

Descartes wanted to find something that he could believe to be absolutely true – this would be his first principle – and on that he would build – he began by doubting everything that he could doubt – he could doubt what he saw in front of him – he could doubt that anything that he was thinking was true – but he could not doubt that he was thinking – on that he built his first principle – “I think – therefore I am”.
Therefore Descartes had a starting point for knowledge.

The scientific achievements of the modern age have been a combination of both the deductive and inductive methods.

(quote six)

Picture of Descartes teaching Queen Christina of Sweden.

The Meaning of the Scientific Revolution

This scientific revolution was key in forming the modern world that we know today – today we see the universe as very different than they did in the Middle Ages – we know that the earth is one of billions and billions of stars and perhaps even planets – and that the universe is almost 12 billion years old – do you think that such a universe could have been created just for human beings?

This new view of the universe weakened Christianity and the need for and belief in God.

Everywhere in scientific academies, in salons, and in coffee houses educated men and women met to discuss these new ideas. European culture was going through a big change because of the rise of science and a secular spirit.

More and more authority could be challenged – not only the church’s but also now the ancient’s – their views and understandings had to pass the test of scientific testing.

This new way of seeing things – brought about – first by the Renaissance humanism – and then the scientific revolution – brought about the beginning of the Enlightenment.

It was the confidence in human abilities expressed by the Renaissance that gave thinkers of the scientific revolution confidence in the power of the mind.

More and more this confidence in the power of the human mind – autonomous reason – gave people the feeling that humans would eventually discover all of nature’s secrets – and that by gaining more and more knowledge humans would progress to a better and better future.

This idea of humans progressing to a better future through science and reason was the very basis of the Enlightenment.