For Ron Hallman’s Class
March 5, 2012
Man – an emancipated being with autonomous reason
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An intellectual movement which began in England in the
seventeenth century, but then spread to have eventual influence
over all sections of the world. The term "Enlightenment," rooted
in an intellectual skepticism to traditional beliefs and dogmas,
denotes an "illumined" contrast to the supposed dark and
superstitious character of the Middle Ages. From its inception, the
Enlightenment focused on the power and goodness of human
rationality. Some of the more characterisitic doctrines of the
Enlightenment are: 1) Reason is the most significant and positive
capacity of the human; 2) reason enables one to break free from
primitive, dogmatic, and superstitious beliefs holding one in the
bonds of irrationality and ignorance; 3) in realizing the liberating
potential of reason, one not only learns to think correctly, but to
act correctly as well; 4) through philosophical and scientific
progress, reason can lead humanity as a whole to a state of
earthly perfection; 5) reason makes all humans equal and,
therefore, deserving of equal liberty and treatment before the
law; 6) beliefs of any sort should be accepted only on the basis of
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reason,
and not on traditional or priestly authority
Reason is the most significant
and positive capacity of a human.
Reason enables mankind to break free
from primitive, dogmatic, superstitious
beliefs holding one in ignorance.
Reasonable thinking will lead to right
living.
Reason and scientific progress will lead to
earthly perfection.
Reason makes all humans equal deserving liberty.
All beliefs are subject to reason not tradition or priestly
authority.
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“Our story has its being in the beginning of the Enlightenment,
the Age of Reason, a time of our intellectual awakening. The
Enlightenment began when the Dark Ages ended, a time when
the minds of men were cowed by the great mystery of the
universe and their minds, through ignorance, were ruled by
fears. The Enlightenment was a time when man, stepping out
of his shackles, began to use his rational facilities and pulled
himself out of the medieval pits of mysticism and in the process
shoved aside the state and church authorities of the day. It was
a spontaneous and defused movement which fed upon itself
and led to the great scientific discoveries from which we all
benefit today. Beliefs in natural law and universal order sprung
up, which not only promoted scientific findings and
advancements of a material nature, but which also gave a
scientific approach to political and social issues.”
(A bit of exaggerated rhetoric)
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Where are we going??
The Rise Of Modern Science & Modern Philosophy
(A few seminal thinkers in Early Modern history who influenced
Enlightenment thought)
Early modern science: Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Isaac
Newton; science seems to displace religion
Early modern Philosophy: Descartes, Locke, et. al. - philosophy
emphasizes reason and the scientific method as sufficient.
The Age of Reason, the Enlightenment and Christianity: Deism
And early modern approaches to biblical criticism, especially
coming out of the Enlightenment (Aufklaerung) in Germany.
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Pre-Enlightenment Thought
-Reformation thinking was Ptolmaic, but this changed with Copernicus,
The Founder of Modern Astronomy
Nicolas Copernicus
1473-1543
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"Of all discoveries and opinions, none may have
exerted a greater effect on the human spirit than the
doctrine of Copernicus. The world had scarcely
become known as round and complete in itself
when it was asked to waive the tremendous
privilege of being the center of the universe. Never,
perhaps, was a greater demand made on mankind for by this admission so many things vanished in
mist and smoke! What became of our Eden, our
world of innocence, piety and poetry; the testimony
of the senses; the conviction of a poetic - religious
faith? No wonder his contemporaries did not wish to
let all this go and offered every possible resistance
to a doctrine which in its converts authorized and
demanded a freedom of view and greatness of
thought so far unknown, indeed not even dreamed
of." [Goethe]
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Claudius Ptolemy, ca. 150 AD, was
an Egyptian in Alexandria who
taught that the earth was a fixed,
immovable mass located at the
centre of the universe and all
celestial bodies including the sun
and the fixed stars revolved around
it.
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Ptolemaic View of the Universe
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Geocentric universe
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Ptolemy thought that all
celestial objects — including
the planets, Sun, Moon, and
stars — orbited Earth. Earth,
in the center of the
universe, did not move at
all.
NOTE: The outer planets,
like Uranus and Neptune,
are missing from both
charts because they had not
been discovered at the time.
The planets are lined up to
make the charts easy to
read; they never line up this
way in nature.
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Heliocentric universe
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Copernicus thought that the
planets orbited the Sun, and
that the Moon orbited Earth.
The Sun, in the center of the
universe, did not move, nor
did the stars.
Copernicus was correct
about some things, but
wrong about others. The
Sun is not in the center of
the universe, and it does
move, as do the stars. Also,
both Copernicus and
Ptolemy thought the orbits
of the planets were circular,
but we now know they are
elliptical.
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Copernicus:
Born in Poland, educated in Cracow University, Bologna.
Then a high church position in Frauenburg, Poland,
where he spent the rest of his life. He had time to
investigate astronomy and without any aids and with
the naked eye came to the conclusion that the earth is
not fixed, that it revolves on its axis every day and
revolves around the sun each year. This was astounding
thinking at the time.
It exploded Ptolmaic thought. But he was a
perfectionist and did not publish for thirty years then
reluctantly. He died (1543) before he realized the stir
his ideas caused. His book, De Revolutionibus was
placed on the Index in 1516, not removed until 1835.
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Copernicus’
Observatory
Copernicus’ statue
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Johannes Kepler was a German mathematician and astronomer
who discovered that the Earth and planets travel about the sun in
elliptical orbits. This corrected errors of Copernicus and made
accurate astronomical observations possible.
Throughout his life, Kepler was a profoundly religious man. All his
writings contain numerous references to God, and he saw his work
as a fulfilment of his Christian duty to understand the works of God.
Man being, as Kepler believed, made in the image of God, was
clearly capable of understanding the Universe that He had created.
Moreover, Kepler was convinced that God had made the Universe
according to a mathematical plan (a belief found in the works of
Plato and associated with Pythagoras). Since it was generally
accepted at the time that mathematics provided a secure method of
arriving at truths about the world, we have here a strategy for
understanding the Universe.
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1564-1642
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Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy on February
15, 1564. He was the first of 7 children. Although
his father was a musician and wool trader, he
wanted his clearly talented son to study
medicine as there was more money in medicine.
So, at age eleven, Galileo was sent off to study in
a Jesuit monastery.
After four years, Galileo had decided on his life's
work: he announced to his father that he wanted
to be a monk. This was not exactly what father
had in mind for his gifted son, so Galileo was
hastily withdrawn from the monastery. In 1581, at
the age of 17, he entered the University of Pisa to
study medicine, as his father wished.
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Shortly thereafter, at age 20, Galileo noticed a lamp
swinging overhead while he was in a cathedral.
Curious to find out how long it took the lamp to
swing back and forth, he used his pulse to time
large and small swings. Galileo discovered
something that no one else had ever realized: the
period of each swing was exactly the same. The law
of the pendulum, which would eventually be used
to regulate clocks, made Galileo instantly famous.
In the end, Galileo left the University of Pisa
without a degree--a college dropout. But he had
some inventing successes, and within the year,
Galileo
had received a three-year appointment to the
University of Pisa, the same university that never
granted him a degree!
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In Venice on a holiday in 1609, Galileo Galilei heard
rumors that a Dutch spectacle-maker had invented
a device that made distant objects seem near at
hand (at first called the spyglass and later renamed
the telescope).
Galileo was determined to attempt to construct
his own spyglass. After a frantic 24 hours of
experimentation, working only on instinct and
bits of rumors, never having actually seen the
Dutch spyglass, he built a 3-power telescope.
After some refinement, he brought a 10-power
telescope to Venice and demonstrated it to a
highly impressed Senate. His salary was
promptly raised, and he was honoured with
proclamations.
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Months passed, and his telescopes improved. On January 7,
1610, he turned his 30 power telescope towards Jupiter, and
found three small, bright stars near the planet. One was off to
the west, the other two were to the east, all three in a
straight line. The following evening, Galileo once again took a
look at Jupiter, and found that all three of the "stars" were
now west of the planet, still in a straight line!
Observations over the following weeks lead Galileo to the
inescapable conclusion that these small "stars" were actually
small satellites that were rotating about Jupiter. If there were
satellites that didn't move around the Earth, wasn't it possible
that the Earth was not the center of the universe? Couldn't
the Copernican idea of the Sun at the center of the solar
system be correct?
And there were more discoveries via the new telescope: the
appearance of bumps next to the planet Saturn (Galileo
thought they were companion stars; the "stars" were actually
the edges of Saturn's rings), spots on the Sun's surface, and
seeing Venus change from a full disk to a sliver of light.
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As another amusement, Galileo started writing about ocean
tides. Instead of writing his arguments as a scientific paper,
he found that it was much more interesting to have an
imaginary conversation, or dialogue, between three fictional
characters. One character, who would support Galileo's side
of the argument, was brilliant. Another character would be
open to either side of the argument. The final character,
named Simplicio, was dogmatic and foolish, representing all
of Galileo's enemies who ignored any evidence that Galileo
was right. Soon, he wrote up a similar dialogue called
"Dialogue on the Two Great Systems of the World." This book
talked about the Copernican system.
"Dialogue" was an immediate hit with the public, but not, of
course, with the Church. The pope suspected that he was the
model for Simplicio. He ordered the book banned, and also
ordered the scientist to appear before the Inquisition in Rome
for the crime of teaching the Copernican theory after being
ordered not to do so.
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Galileo Galilei was 68 years old and sick.
Threatened with torture, he publicly confessed
that he had been wrong to have said that the
Earth moves around the Sun. Legend then has it
that after his confession, Galileo quietly
whispered "And yet, it moves."
Unlike many less famous prisoners, he was
allowed to live under house arrest in his house
outside of Florence. He was near one of his
daughters, a nun. Until his death in 1642, he
continued to investigate other areas of science.
Amazingly, he even published a book on force
and motion although he had been blinded by an
eye infection.
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1642-1727
-Newton's theory of gravitation and his contribution to astronomy mark the final stage of the
transformation of the Aristotelian world-picture begun by Copernicus. For a vision of spheres, operated
by a first mover or by angels on God's order, Newton had effectively substituted that of a mechanism
operating according to a simple natural law, requiring no continuous application of force, and only
needing divine intervention to create it and set it in motion. He demonstrated mathematically that
heavenly bodies moved by laws and gravity.
Newton's accomplishments in life were many. Generally, he devoted much of his energy towards alchemy,
theology, and history. In 1668, Newton built the first reflecting telescope. During his lifetime he was
involved in the development of calculus. It was Newton who struck upon the Laws of Motion and the Law
of Gravitation. He sat in parliament, 1689-90. In 1696, he was appointed warden of the Mint; and then, in
1699, he was appointed the master of the Mint, a position which he held until his death. He sat again in
parliament in 1701 for his university. In 1703, Newton was to become the president of the Royal Society,
another post that he held at his death. In 1705, Newton was knighted by Queen Anne.
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Newton has been regarded for almost 300 years as the
founding exemplar of modern physical science, his
achievements in experimental investigation being as
innovative as those in mathematical research. With equal, if
not greater, energy and originality he also plunged into
chemistry, the early history of Western civilization, and
theology; among his special studies was an investigation of
the form and dimensions, as described in the Bible, of
Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.
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In 1687, Newton devised his law of universal
gravitation, which introduced gravitation as the force
that both kept the Earth and planets moving through the
heavens and also kept all things from flying into space,
allowing scientists to quickly construct a plausible
heliocentric model for the solar system. In his Principia,
Newton explained his system of how gravity, previously
considered to be an occult force, conducted the
movements of celestial bodies, and kept our solar
system in its working order. His descriptions of
centripetal force were a breakthrough in scientific
thought, and finally replaced the previous schools of
scientific thought, i.e. those of Aristotle and Ptolemy.
However, the process was gradual.
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The Father of Modern Philosophy
René Descartes
Philosopher
1596 -1650
If you would be a real seeker after truth,
it is necessary that at least once in your life
you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
—Descartes
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René Descartes was born on March 31, 1596 in La Haye, France. Descartes
became one of the most influential thinkers in human history, and is sometimes
called the founder of modern philosophy.
Descartes' parents were Joachim Descartes and Jeanne Brochard. His mother
died the year following his birth. His father was a lawyer and magistrate, which left
little time for raising a family. René and his brother and sister, Pierre and Jeanne,
were raised by their grandmother.
From 1606 until 1614, Descartes attended La Fleche, a Jesuit college in Anjou. He
spent the following two years in Paris studying mathematics, and being
introduced to fashionable French society. In 1616, he began the study of law at
University of Poitiers, but in 1617, set out for the Netherlands where he
volunteered in the Dutch army. Over the following eleven years Descartes
travelled throughout Europe, settling in the Netherlands in 1628. He completed
two additional years of education in the Dutch cities of Franeker and Leyden.
Descartes later claimed that his formal education provided little of substance, and
that only mathematics, any real knowledge.
Descartes published his major philosophical work, Meditations, in 1641, the year
before Galileo died and Isaac Newton was born. Because he lived at a time when
traditional ideas were being questioned, he sought to devise a method for
reaching the truth. This concern and his method of systematic doubt had an
enormous impact on the subsequent development of philosophy. Descartes
introduced the now famous Latin phrase "cogito ergo sum," or in English "I think,
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therefore I am."
In Descartes' view, the universe was created by God on
whose power everything depends. He thought of God as
resembling the human mind in that both the mind and God
think, but have no physical being. But he believed that God is
unlike the human mind in that God is infinite and does not
depend on a creator for His existence.
In addition to his accomplishments as a philosopher
Descartes was an outstanding mathematician, inventing
analytic geometry and attempting to devise the simple
universal laws that governed all physical change.
In 1649, Queen Christina of Sweden persuaded Descartes to
come to Stockholm. On February 11, 1650, after only a few
months in that cold climate, he died of pneumonia.
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John Locke (1632-1704):
"The Philosopher of Freedom."
"Good and evil, reward and
punishment, are the only motives to a
rational creature: these are the spur
and reins whereby all mankind are
set on work, and guided." (Locke.)
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Briefly, the core of Locke's beliefs are to be found in his Essay
Concerning Human Understanding (1690). It is with this book
that there was established the principles of modern Empiricism
(the human mind begins as a tabula rasa, and we learn
through experience). It is in this book, Human Understanding,
that we see Locke attacking the rationalist doctrine of innate
ideas. His other work naturally follows: Two Treatises of
Government (1690). Locke's Treatises were written in defense
of the Glorious Revolution: that government rests on popular
consent and rebellion is permissible when government
subverts the ends - the protection of life, liberty, and property for which it is established.
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If a government subverts the ends for which it was created
then it might be deposed; indeed, Locke asserts, revolution in
some circumstances is not only a right but an obligation.
Thus, Locke came to the conclusion that the "ruling body if it
offends against natural law must be deposed." This was the
philosophical stuff which sanctioned the rebellions of both the
American colonialists in 1775, and the French in 1789.
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He accepted the existence of God, but he did not consider
man to be a divine creature fixed with ideas on coming into this
world. Locke was an empiricist, viz., all knowledge comes to
us through experience. "No man's knowledge here can go
beyond his experience." There are no innate ideas; there are
no moral precepts; we are born with an empty mind, with a soft
tablet (tabula rasa) ready to be writ upon by experimental
impressions. Beginning blank, the human mind acquires
knowledge through the use of the five senses and a process of
reflection. Not only has Locke's empiricism been a dominant
tradition in British philosophy, but it has been a doctrine which
with its method, experimental science, has brought on
scientific discoveries ever since, scientific discoveries on which
our modern world now depends.
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Francois Marie Arouet
Voltaire
Author and Philosopher
1694 - 1778
“Those who can make
you believe
absurdities
can make you commit
atrocities.”
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Deism is the belief that by rational methods alone men
can know all the true propositions of theology which
it is possible, necessary, or desirable for men to know.
Deists have generally subscribed to most of the following propositions, and have ranged widely from Christian rationalists or fideists to atheists:
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•1. One and only one God exists.
•2. God has moral and intellectual virtues
in perfection.
•3. God's active powers are displayed in the
world, created, sustained, and ordered by means
of divinely sanctioned natural laws, both moral
and physical.
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•4. The ordering of events constitutes a
general providence.
•5. There is no special providence; no
miracles or other divine interventions
violate the lawful natural order.
•6. Men have been endowed with a rational
nature which alone allows them to know
truth and their duty when they think and
choose in conformity with this nature.
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•7. The natural law requires the leading of a
moral life, rendering to God, one's neighbor,
and one's self what is due to each.
•8. The purest form of worship and the chief
religious obligation is to lead a moral life.
•9. God had endowed men with immortal
souls.
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•10. After death retributive justice is meted out to
each man according to his acts. Those who fulfill
the moral law and live according to nature are
“saved” to enjoy rewards; others are punished.
•11. All other religious beliefs or practices
conflicting with these tenets are to be regarded
critically, as at best indifferent political
institutions and beliefs, or as errors to be
condemned and eradicated if it should be prudent
to do so.
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“These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in
this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love
and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this
consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain
too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.” Tom Paine
The political writer Thomas Paine (1737–1809) also brought
Enlightenment ideas to bear on the American Revolution. An
Englishman who immigrated to America, Paine was inspired by
America and wrote the political pamphlet Common Sense (1776),
which encouraged the secession of the colonies from England. Later in
his life, Paine’s religious views and caustic demeanor alienated him
from much of the public, and he died in somewhat ill repute.
In America: Thomas Paine, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, most of the “founding
Fathers” were deists.
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". . . [We] have every opportunity and
every encouragement before us, to form
the noblest purest constitution on the
face of the earth. We have it in our
power to begin the world over again. A
situation, similar to the present, hath
not happened since the days of Noah
until now. The birthday of a new world
is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps
as numerous as all Europe contains, are
to receive their portion of freedom from
the event of a few months."
Tom Paine, “Common Sense”
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In many ways, the new United States was the Enlightenment, for
its leaders could actually implement many of the ideas that
European philosophers could only talk idly about. Americans were
exposed to, and contributed to, the leading works of science, law,
politics, and social order, yet lacked the traditions and
conservatism that impeded the European countries from truly
changing their ways. Indeed, the Declaration of Independence
borrows heavily from Enlightenment themes—even taking
passages from Locke and Rousseau—and the U.S. Constitution
implements almost verbatim Locke and Montesquieu’s ideas of
separation of power. America was founded as a deist country,
giving credit to some manner of natural God yet allowing diverse
religious expression, and also continued in the social and
industrial veins that were begun in Europe.
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‘Aufklaerung’
Christian Wolff, (1679-1754), mathematician, philosopher, truth
can only be deduced by rational thought. Ideas are
innate; world a huge machine driven by natural laws.
God and his attributes can be deduced rationally. Miracles
possible but not probable. Positive view of human
nature. Man and society progressing toward completeness;
no supernatural revelation or rescue from sin needed. He
taught at Halle, was opposed by Pietists, driven away, then
reinstated. This ended Pietism’s influence at Halle.
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Reimarus (1694-1768) – A true deist, the world
itself is the only true miracle and revelation. Subjected life of Christ to literary criticism, rejecting
supernatural. Bible writers frauds.
Lessing (1729-1781) ‘The Education of the Human
Race’ – childhood (OT), youth (NT), maturity needs
reason alone to guide us. Historic Christianity
belongs to the past.
Rational religion continues into 19th C. Jesus the
great moral teacher.
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