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Unit 3: Renaissance Philosophy
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Introduction
Image: “Disputation of the Sacrament” by Raphael 1509-1510
The designation "renaissance philosophy" is used by historians to refer to the philosophies espoused
during the period running in Europe roughly between 1350 and 1650. Traditionally, the period of early
modern philosophy begins with Descartes (who published his discourse on method around 1635). Some
scholars consider the philosophical renaissance as beginning with the discovery of the works of Aristotle
during the 12th and 13th century. Although the beginnings of renaissance philosophy are rooted in
discussions around God, the ideas soon branched from there into more varied areas of metaphysics and
epistemology. We begin out look into the philosophies of the renaissance by looking at Saint Anselm
and Saint Thomas Aquinas. Although Anselm and Aquinas are not technically renaissance philosophers
because they lived and wrote during the medieval period, they had a tremendous influence on
renaissance and early-modern philosophy.
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Unit 3: Renaissance Philosophy
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Saint Anselm
Saint Anselm’s greatest contribution to philosophy comes in the form of his
ontological argument, which is both ingenious in its simplicity and yet
incredibly controversial in its application. This particular argument has been
restated many different ways and the validity of it continues to be debated
today.
Metaphysics
The Ontological Argument:
1. Our understanding of God is a being than which no greater can be conceived.
2. The idea of God exists in the mind.
3. A being which exists both in the mind and in reality is greater than a being that exists only in the
mind.
4. If God only exists in the mind, then we can conceive of a greater being—that which exists in
reality.
5. We cannot be imagining something that is greater than God.
6. Therefore, God exists.
Criticism and Response
- The first critic of the ontological argument was Anselm's contemporary, Gaunilo of
Marmoutiers. He used the analogy of a perfect island, suggesting that the ontological could be
used to prove the existence of anything.
o Some have refuted this this criticism in that an island is in and of itself limited in its
perfection or greatness by nature of being and island. An argument like this can only
apply to God because he is “a being than which not greater can be conceived”
- Saint Thomas Aquinas rejected the argument on the basis that one cannot truly know God
o One may assert that one need know truly know God, but simply have an understanding
of God
- Immanuel Kant criticised the argument on the basis that existence is not a perfection or
something that adds to the greatness of something
o In response to this Norman Malcolm proposed an alternate ontological argument that
argued in the negative. i.e. ‘a being whose existence is logically necessary is greater
than a being whose existence is not’ or ‘God is unlimited and the possibility of not
existing is in and of itself a limitation.’
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Unit 3: Renaissance Philosophy
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Saint Thomas Aquinas
Saint Thomas Aquinas is one of the favoured philosophers of the Catholic Church and
he is principally remembered for reconciling the philosophies of Aristotle with the
Christian doctrine. Although much of his work is derived from Aristotle, he also made
his own contributions to Aristotle’s ideas. In 1323, Saint Thomas Aquinas was
posthumously canonized by Pope John XII. His best known work “Summa Theologica”
is focused on proving the existence of God by means of logical argumentation.
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Metaphysics
The best known aspect of Aquinas’ philosophy is his “Five Ways” which are essentially five
logical proofs for the existence of God. They are as follows:
1. Change: Some things are undoubtedly undergoing change, and these things cannot cause
their own change. Therefore, since there can be no infinite chain of causes of change, this
leads to the conclusion there must be a first cause of changing that is not itself changed by
anything else, and this is what everyone understands by God. (This is an adaptation of
Aristotle’s unmoved mover)
2. Causation: Like change, nothing can cause itself, and like change there must be a First Cause,
called God. (This is actually closer to Aristotle’s unmoved mover)
3. Existence of necessary and the unnecessary: Our experience includes things certainly
existing but apparently unnecessary. Not everything can be unnecessary, because this would
mean that because there was nothing at one time, there would still be nothing. Therefore,
we are compelled to suppose something that exists necessarily, having this necessity only
from itself; in fact itself the cause why other things exist.
4. Gradation: If we can notice a gradation in things in the sense that some things are more hot,
good, etc., there must be a superlative which is the truest and noblest thing, and so most
fully existing. This then, we call God.
5. Ordered tendencies of nature: A direction of actions to an end is noticed in all bodies
following natural laws. Anything without awareness tends to a goal under the guidance of
one who is aware. This we call God Aquinas notes that even when we guide objects, the
source of all our knowledge comes from God as well. (This is of course derived from
Aristotle’s notion of telos)
Ethics
- Aquinas defined four cardinal virtues: prudence(self-discipline), temperance (moderation in
action), justice (a concept of moral rightness), and fortitude (courage or strength)
- He also identified three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity.
- These virtues are true by natural law and divine law and ought to be reflected in human laws.
Epistemology
- Aquinas believed that all knowledge comes from God and what we know that is not directly
from God is from a capacity that God has granted us.
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Nicolaus Copernicus
Some people believe that Copernicus is responsible for creating the idea
that the sun was the center of the universe, but in fact Copernicus was a
student of Greek philosophy at Cracow University, where he learned about
ancient Greeks who had espoused a similar theory. Also people tend to see
Copernicus as someone who challenged the Chruch, but in fact, Copernicus
was a man of impeccable orthodoxy and in fact a canon of the cathedral at
Frauenberg. It was when Galileo Galilei used his telescope to actually prove
that Copernicus’ theories were correct that Copernicus’ work was deemed
heretical by the church.
Astrology
- Copernicus primary contributions are firmly rooted in astrology.
- He revived the idea that the earth revolved around the sun, which was likely first proposed by
Aristarchus of Samos around 340 BCE.
- Using Pythagoras calculations and the theory of two-fold rotation, Copernicus managed to
account for a great deal of astrological phenomenon.
- By the end of the century, Copernicus’ view of a heliocentric universe would become so refined
it is seen as fact.
Importance:
- Copernicus’ ideas would create a scientific revolution in Europe giving rise to a firm belief in the
power of critical thinking
- His ideas lead to the decline of the power of the church and the beginning of new scientific
inquiry and innovation.
Why did the Church oppose these ideas?
- Prior to Copernicus astronomers had favoured the Ptolemaic system in which the Earth was the
center of the universe, with the sun, stars and moon orbiting around it.
- The Ptolemaic system was very much in keeping with creation narratives in which the universe
was created by God for the purpose of man, thus it made sense that man and the earth that
man lives on is the center of the universe.
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Niccolo Machiavelli
Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian philosopher who is best known for his work of political theories
espoused in his book, “The Prince”. These ideas would make his name synonymous with political
conspiracies. Machiavelli concentrated his work on techniques that a politician must use in order
to achieve his or her political ends. Machiavelli is often criticized for his almost complete
disregard for any sort of moral sensibility.
Epistemology
- Machiavelli believed that in order to understand, one must build generalizations from
experience and from historical facts.
- In this respect he emphasized empirical evidence and the study of history and deemphasized
imagination and theorizing
- He was also a firm proponent that information must be practical to be of any value.
Ethics
- Machiavelli notably said, “it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely
come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in
being loved.” (Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, p 60)
- He firmly believed that the ends justify the means. That is to say that any means become
ethically viable if they lead to an appropriate end.
- For example, he espoused that a leader must adopt unsavoury policies in order to continue his
regime.
Metaphysics
- Machiavelli was primarily concerned with practical matters and rejected ideas of telos or any
kind of higher authority.
- Machiavelli explained repeatedly the religion is man-made but had value in its ability to create
social order and rules of morality—thus should religion fail to do this, it ought to be dispensed
with.
Socio-Political Philosophy
- Machiavelli believed that certain political ends were good and he identified these as: national
security, national independence and a strong constitution.
- In keeping with his ethics, he espoused that to achieve these ends one must persue them with
strength and courage, employing whatever means necessary.
- He believed in the manipulation, sometimes through deceit, of others, including the general
population.
- He believed that virtue is not necessarily good in and of itself, but it is beneficial for one to
appear virtuous for political gain.
- Machiavelli believed that one ought to keep the population content in order to have a more
stable government.
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Francis Bacon
Sir Francis Bacon was a well-known English philosopher, statesmen, scientist, essayist and
author. In fact some people believe that Francis Bacon may have written some or all of the plays
traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare (this is referred to in academic circles as
Baconian theory). Francis Bacon was knighted and rose to the position of lord chancellor before
being found guilty of taking bribes and charged with corruption in 1621. After this, he retired
from public life. He died in 1626 from pneumonia while studying the effects of freezing on the
preservation of meat.
Epistemology
Sir Francis Bacon is best known as the father of modern empiricism and what would come to be known as
scientific method.
He is often attributed as the originator of the saying knowledge is power.
Bacon rejected the rationalist view that knowledge can be gained from analyzing general principals or
definitions of words.
He believed that collecting massive amounts of empirical data was equally useless claiming that the
repetitive occurrence of an incident does not guarantee that the same thing will happen again.
Bacon therefore concluded that we need to place the emphasis of investigation on looking for negative
instances to disconfirm hypothesis rather than trying to confirm a hypothesis.
Bacon believed that when gathering information about something, we must assign them to three
categories; properties which are present, properties which are absent and those cases which admit
varying degrees of the property in question.
In doing this analysis, Bacon believed we could arrive at suitable hypotheses.
Bacon cited several hindrances to scientific method, which he called idols (listed below).
o Idols of the Tribe (Idola tribus): This refers to our tendency to perceive more order and regularity
in systems than truly exists, and results from people following their preconceived ideas about
things.
o Idols of the Cave (Idola specus): This refers to an individuals' personal weaknesses in reasoning
due to their own personalities, likes and dislikes.
o Idols of the Marketplace (Idola fori): This refers to when one confuses language usage or takes
some words in science to have a different meaning than their common usage.
o Idols of the Theatre (Idola theatre): This refers to following academic dogma and not asking
questions about the world
Socio-Political Philosophy
Bacon was very concerned with how laws ought to be enacted and some scholars believe that he is
responsible for the legal system of common law that is currently in place.
He proposed 3 ideas of legal president based on his ideas around truth.
o Using cases as repositories of evidence about the "unwritten law";
o Determining the relevance of precedents by exclusionary principles of evidence and logic;
o Treating opposing legal briefs as adversarial hypotheses about the application of the "unwritten
law" to a new set of facts.
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Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes was a is best known as a political theorist. He believed that if
the laws of science and knowledge could be underpinned by the axiomatic laws of
nature, so then could the social sciences. The first indication of his theory of law
appeared in his, “Elements of Law” in 1640, which was not meant to be
published, but rather to be used by supporters of King Charles I against an
increasingly hostile parliament.
Sociopolitical philosophy
- Hobbes is best known for his statement that “without the rule of law the life of man would be
solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” (summarized from Leviathan, Chapter XIII by Thomas
Hobbes)
- Hobbes believed that man acted in accordance with certain natural laws (akin to Newton’s laws
of motion)
- Hobbes believed that the natural state of man is one of war and strife and this is how man will
behave unless acted upon by the rules of social living.
- Only a covenant kept by the rule of the sword can keep man from falling back into his natural
state and society would be a war of every man against every man.
- Thus, to avoid the poor life that is the natural state of man, we engage in a social contract and
establish a civil society.
- Hobbes believed that every man operates according to a natural law of self-preservation and
personal gain.
- The aforementioned covenant ensures this can only achieved through taking into account the
good of others.
Metaphysics
- Hobbes is known as a materialist in that be believed that everything in the universe is corporeal
and there is no such thing as spirits or souls.
- For Hobbes, even God is made up of matter.
- Hobbes believed that there was such thing as free will (the ability for choices) and deterministic
(driven by a series of cause and effect). Just as water is not constrained yet always flows to
earth, so man is free to choose, but constrained by natural law.
A Note on Determinism:
Determinism is the philosophy that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them,
nothing else could happen. That is to say for any given effect there is a cause, which is in and of itself and
effect. This creates a chain by which the universe unfolds the one way it can.
This philosophy is generally held in contrast to free will which states that we make choices, where
determinism states that whatever choice we make is the only choice we could make. The notion that they
are in fact compatible is known as soft determinism or compatibilism.