History of Philosophy Outline

Mythological World picture:

§         In Greece, 700 B.C.E, myths were written down for the first time, which led to the early philosophers discussing, criticizing and arguing about what the myths said

Xenophades (570 B.C.E)

·        Gods are only a creation of humans because our gods took the form of humans and had the features of the humans that worshiped them, if animals had gods then they would be in the form of animals.

Pre-Socratics – The Natural Philosophers: (600-450 B.C.E)

Ø     To understand the nature world/physical world

Ø     To study the human world

Thales – Natural Philosopher: Miletus

Anaximander (611-549 B.C.E) Natural Philosopher: Miletus

·        Anaximander believed in infinite many of worlds that evolve and disappear in the “boundless” and that the arche is an unknown substance, which is infinite and necessary.  The “boundless” was Anaximander’s arche for he believed that none of the four elements could be the arche, because they would cancel the other elements out, for example if all things were made of water then it would cancel out anything dry or warm.

Anaximenes (570-526 B.C.E) Natural Philosopher: Miletus

·        Anaximenes believed that the arche is air because it is the most neutral of elements. If air is condensed it turns to wind then cloud, water earth and stone, if air is rarified then it turns into fire.

Pythagrous (581-497 B.C.E) Mathematician: Miletus

·        Pythagrous thought very highly of numbers and numerical equations, he is most famous for his theorem of right triangles (called the Pythrorium Theorem; the square of the hypotenuse of the right triangle equals the sum of the other two sides squared; A² + B² = C²), he realized that there were numerical patterns in music.

Heraclitus (540-480 B.C.E) Natural philosopher: Ephesus

Parmenides  (540-480 B.C.E) Rationalist

Zeno (490-435 B.C.E)

Empedocles (490-430 B.C.E) - Sicily

Anaxagoras (500-420 B.C.E) – Athens

Demaocritus (460-370 B.C) Materialist

§         Fatalism – fortune telling, oracles, astronomy

·        Pythia – The oracle at Delphi. In Greece before doing anything drastic people would consult the oracle and her priests. “Know thyself”.

·        Sickness is from the gods, you can pray to get well – Gods’ punishment

·        Medical science – when sickness comes it’s because nature is off balance, to be well is to have a sound, healthy mind in a sound, healthy body.

§         Athens was the center of Greek culture – and had the first system of democracy

The Sophists: (5^th century B.C.E)

·        Sophist means a wise and informed person. They would educate the people for money and taught that man cannot know the answers to nature.

·        The sophists asked what things man does are natural and what is socially induced.

·        The sophists think themselves smart and take money for their ideas whereas a philosopher knows that he doesn’t know very much and wants to know more. The meaning of a philosopher is a lover of wisdom.

Phales (615-546 B.C.E)

·        Phales preferred to consider and analyze the motives of individual and group behavior.

Gorgias (483-375 B.C.E)

·        Gorgias wrote a book called On Non-being and Nature, which basically said that nothing exists and people are not too sure if he actually believed this.

·        He gave up philosophy and became a teacher of persuasion. In a dialog by Plato Gorgias and Socrates meet and Socrates is angered at Gorgias because he believes in showing lots of emotion, even if one has to fake it, like at a tragic performance.

Protagoras  (500/480-410 B.C.E)

·        “Man is the measure of all things,” said Protagoras. The question of good or bad depends on the situation of the person in question.

·        Protagasis was an atheist, but he didn’t admit it, when asked he only said that he knew very little about the gods and he preferred to spend his time on other things.

Calicles  (5^th century B.C.E)

·        Calicles believed that it was human nature to strive for power, and nothing can (or should) stop it.

Thrasymachus  (5^th century B.C.E)

·        Thrasymachus was a teacher in Athens. In The Republic, by Plato Thrasymachus is at a banquet with Socrates, and the two get into an argument on the subject of justice. Thrasymachus gets enthusiastic and rude, finally concluding that justice was only the will of the strongest, and whoever wins calls what he has done justice. Socrates gives a long speech saying that by using logic one can see that justice does exist. (like most of Plato’s dialogs no one is sure if the banquet really happened)

Historians:

Herodotus (484-428 B.C.E) Historian

·        Herodotus was said to be the first historian. He wrote Historia, a book of researches, which was motivated by his passion to find the motives of the victories of the Persian Wars, and try to answer questions like how did the Athenian and Trojan armies defeat the Persians. He collected facts than he began to look into science and the psychological motivations of the leaders.

Thucydides (465-400 B.C.E)

·        Thucydides carried on the work of Herodotus, he explored the little “accidents” that had occurred in war, that had made a difference in history and wrote a book called The Peloponnesian War.

The “Classical” Philosophers:

Socrates (470-399 B.C.E) Rationalist: Athens

·        Socrates never wrote anything down, what we know of him is from the writings of his pupil, Plato and because of this people aren’t too sure if Socrates actually said what he does in Plato’s dialogs or if he is only Plato’s mouthpiece.

·        Socrates never lectured, only discussed. He asked questions that seemed stupid, within the discussion he would make the other person realize how weak their answer was and in that why make them grasp the right side of the issue. Socrates coaxed them to understand and get insight from within, using common sense. He would pretend to be dumber than he really was so he could point out the flaws in people’s statements; this is called now Socratic irony.

·        Socrates was more interested in human beings more than nature.

·        He didn’t think he was wise and it troubled him that he knew so little; “One thing only know and that is I know nothing” A story goes that the oracle at Delphi was asked who was the wisest man is Athens, she said Socrates. When Socrates heard about it he was surprised and went to ask the man that everyone thought was wise, but when the wise man couldn’t answer Socrates’ questions Socrates decided that the oracle must be right.

·        Socrates believed that he had a divine inner voice that told him what to do, “He who knows what good is will do good”; if you have the right insight to yourself you will know when to do good and what is good, you can’t be happy if you know you are doing wrong.

·        In 399 B.C.E he was accused of introducing new gods and corrupting the young – found guilty with the majority of 500 –he could have saved his life if he had left Athens, but he stayed and was condemned to drink hemlock and died.

·        Socrates thought that he had some great thing to do, or purpose and valued the truth more than he valued living; he wouldn’t say that he was wrong to save his life, for he believed that he was right. His traumatic death is part of what makes Socrates, Socrates.

Plato (428-347 B.C.E) Rationalist: Athens

·        Plato founded the first academy where philosophy, math and gymnastics were taught and discussed

·        Plato said that everything in material world can dissolve and disappear, but there are eternal, perfect forms or ideas for everything in the material world that reside in the idea world; the particles that make up life cannot form a being without a form to go by.

·        Since nothing in the material world lasts: everything flows, Plato said we cannot have true understanding of anything that isn’t everlasting, we can only have true understanding of what our reason tells us, the idea world.

·        Plato believed that man has a body and senses that only preserve the material world which flows with everything else-therefore the body can perish – but man also has an immortal soul that can perceive the world of ideas.

o       The immortal soul exists; in the world of ideas before coming into a human body, when there it forgets the perfect forms, but as the human grows up the soul sees the beings that the perfect forms were of and begins to long to go back to the world of ideas

·        There are three parts of the soul which belong to three parts of the body: Reason (wisdom) in the head, will (courage) in the chest and appetite (tolerance) in the stomach. A person who has mastered all three is a virtuous person.

·        A perfect state is like a virtuous person. The leaders down to the laborers. Everyone must know their place in a perfect state and be content.

·        In his book The Republic Plato says that the government should be ruled by a group of philosophers called “The Guardians” who have complete control over the state, he believed that people would better off if ruled by the wisest people in the land. Plato didn’t like democracy because he believed that the majority of people weren’t qualified to make political decisions.

·        Plato believed that women have the same reason as men, if they get the same training and don’t raise children. Plato thought that children should be raised by the state.

Aristotle (384-324 B.C.E) - Athens

·        Aristotle was a pupil in Plato’s academy for twenty three years

·        Aristotle was very interested in natural processes and became Europe’s first biologist, though he was a scientist in all fields, not just biology. He gave name and organized the different fields of science.

·        Aristotle said that Plato’s “idea” beings were formed in the human mind after many similar beings were seen; the “idea” being consisted of all the characteristics that all of the beings in that particular species had in common. He didn’t believe that there were any “forms” or “ideas” outside of the material world like Plato did.

·        Nature is the real world, Aristotle thought, and our senses gives us a true perception of the world.

·        Our knowledge comes from what we have seen, heard and felt, there are no innate ideas reason is part of what makes man, man, but one cannot have reason without having sensed something first

·        Substance is what makes the being, the form is it’s characteristics that that species is defined by – when it dies it no longer has that form and is only the substance. The form of things also applies to inanimate objects; it is it’s form to fall back down once it is thrown up – it is it’s nature. What it is: form, What it’s made of: matter.

·        Aristotle said that plants and animals have souls. Plants’ souls aren’t rational or immortal, he calls them nutritive souls and animals (excluding humans) have locomotive souls (which include nutritive qualities). Humans have souls that are nutritive and locomotive, they also have reason that sets them apart from animals, their souls he calls rational souls

·        Causality of natural processes, the potential to the actual – the material cause (that the substance was there at that time) The efficient cause (what happens, i.e. parents), The formal cause (the form) and then the final cause (the purpose; the end for the sake of which something happens – i.e. it rains so that plants can grow). Everything in nature has a purpose, the world moves toward a purpose.

·        Classification – all the time we put everything in categories; there are higher and higher categories for each thing

·        The Science of Logic – clarifications: all beings are mortal, humans are beings; therefore a human is mortal.

·        Two main categories: Non-living and living; then living can be divided between plants and animals, and so on. – Things can be categorized by their characteristics.

·        The First mover is the formal cause of the movements of the heavenly bodies – in other words, God.

·        Man can be happy only when he uses all of his abilities – Three states of happiness: A pleasurable and comfortable life, a free life, to be a thinker (philosopher). Man cannot live a happy life just by living off his head.

·        In Politics Aristotle disagrees with Plato by saying that people would not be happy being ruled by a group of wise people with full power. The power of the state occurs in the middle class. Aristotle’s states: Monarchy that is kept in check from becoming a tyranny and dictator, Aristocracy that doesn’t have only a few people running the state, Democracy that isn’t a mob rule.

·        Man needs a society. The point of laws are to help make people into more virtuous people

·        In his book Ethics Aristotle asks: What is the good for humans? After asking that he says he must ask: What is our “end”, our aim? His answer: happiness or success.

o       What goal is built into human nature? Virtue/excellence, good at being human

o       Happiness – the activity of the rational soul in accordance with virtue

o       Virtue – habit of soul; well doing acquired by practice. Virtues: Courage, temperance, justice giving people what they deserve) and practical wisdom. All need to be a mean between two extremes; one can’t be virtuous if one is foolish.

·        Aristotle is very set on the idea of the mean between two extremes, in his politics and his ethics: his middle class and with virtue (being courageous without being foolish)

·        Women are incomplete – Man’s sperm has everything to produce a child, a complete seed, the woman is the “soil” – the child only inherits the man’s characteristics

Hellenism and the Roman Period

Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.E.) conquered many lands that became dominated by Greek culture. About 50 B.C Rome conquered all of the Greek colonies and the three hundred years till then was known as the Hellenism.

§         National religions and country’s boarders disappeared as well as the boarders between religion and philosophy – In the cities one could find many things from far away.

§         People started to doubt some of their gods.

§         Hellenism’s philosophers were concerned with ethics, and how man can be the happiest he can be.

·        The Cynics: Happiness comes of not needing to depend on material things or good health and should not concern themselves with other people’s needs.

·        The Stoics: Everyone is a world unto themselves that reflect the greater world. There is a universal reason and natural laws govern the world. The soul and the natural body are one. Zeno of Cittium (334-262 B.C.E.) believed that nature was material and that what needed to be found were useful answers to everyday moral problems of people. He thought that every man had a duty to his community and the people around him. Zeno also believed in apatheia – freedom from paths, suffering and passion; to him there was a spark of divine and natural reason ruling it all, which he called the “Cosompilous”.  Another Stoic, Epitius believed that one should leave their body and will untainted to avoid pain at all costs. Politics were a big part of Stoicism, for example the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (C.E. 121-180) was a Stoic. He composed a book called the Meditations that he wrote a little bit in every night about his reflections about life. Cicero (106-43 B.C.E.) had the idea of “humanism” that had man at the center of the world, and Seneca (4 B.C.E. – C.E. 65) said; “to mankind, mankind is holy.” Believed in destiny, must except all things bad and good because you can’t escape fate.

·        The Epicureans: Epicurus (341-270 B.C.E) founded a school that was based on Democritus’s atom theory and something Aristippus, a pupil of Socrates, said: “The highest good is pleasure, the greatest evil is pain.” They thought the perfect, happy life would be free of pain. They conquered the fear of death, and thought that man was most happy if he withdraws himself from society. The Epicureans found most of their ways of life from Epecrus’ Epolalist, a book of letter of advice.

·        Neoplatonism: Their philosophy was based on Plato’s. Plotinus (205-270 B.C.E) thought that at one end of the world there was a light, the One, or God and the other end is complete darkness, the darkness is the absence of the One, and so it does not exist. Man’s body is in the darkness and his soul is near the One. 

§         The philosophy of the later Roman period was mainly synthetic of Greek philosophy and school traditions. The Romans would pick out only the best and clarify and expand on them.

Cicero (106-43 B.C.E) - Rome

·        He believed in practical philosophical insight and would talk to crowds about his thoughts – he was killed and his tongue and hands were cut off and nailed above a podium as a warning

·        Cicero was an Epercuristic Stoic. To him Epercurism meant what experience shows us actually works in a consistent manner.

·        He wrote a book in response to Plato’s “Republic” with his own “Republic” Which is a conversation about the most perfect government that could exist.

·        Cicero thought that there was an afterlife for those who are virtuous to the heroic degree, other than that when one dies her existence vanishes.

Skepticism

 The Skeptics tried to ground the pursuit of happiness in forgetting knowledge instead of figuring out how to achieve it.

Pyrrho of Ellyis (365-? B.C.E.) Skeptic

·        Taught that one must neither trust nor reject what the senses tell him nor any other kind of apparent knowledge.

·        He thought that things can only be known that is apparent to facilities

·        Be Decent. Pyrrho believed that one cannot get to far in any direction if she isn’t decent in all aspects.

·        His discipline Timion wrote the first book on Pyrrho’s sayings and stories, there were many to follow

Arcus Alous (?-211 B.C.E.) Skeptic

·        Said the he was not certain that he was uncertain

·        He was very critical of Stoic thought

·        Arcus Alous reincreated Socratic thought and methods.

Carnedaes (213-128 B.C.E.) Skeptic

·        Taught that knowledge is impossible to find; humans have no criteria of proof, any proof rests on assumptions that must be proved.

·        He thought that the best way to live was to be a hermit or silent; not a citizen of the world.

·        Even though he believed that one can never have knowledge one should still try to gain some.

·        Carnedaes was an atheist, like most skeptics.

Sextus Empricus (?) Skeptic

·        Many books by him survived, they were written in Greek. Among them are “The Outlines of Pyrrhism”, “Against the Mathematician” and “Against the Academics”

·        He started from the basics, not listening to other philosophies or traditions; he wanted to have a pure philosophy of his own.

·        Believed that experience is the closest one can get to the truth. He also believed that there was no knowledge, no certainty in the world, only probability.

Beginnings of Christianity and Antiquity 337-500 C.E.

§         For a long time among Jews there was a prophecy that a son of David, the Messiah would come and help the people

Jesus of Nazareth (0 B.C.E. - 33 C.E.)

·        Jesus’ message was that the kingdom of heaven would soon come and that man must repent all sins and hold true to the faith

o       “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe in the gospel.”

·        Man can either repent and be accepted into heaven or he can be thrown from heaven to hell.

·        He preached that God loves all men, and that He wants all men to love each other; love neighbors, love enemies

·        “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.”

·        Jesus believed in miracles and believe in salvation – if you believe that good things will help you and God will save you then it will happen – “All things are possible to him that believeth.”

·        He thought of himself as a prophet, and near the end of his life he believed that he was the Messiah of the prophecy – once when asked if he was Christ and the King of the Jews he said he was, which may have helped led to him being crucified as a pretender to the crown

·        After Jesus was crucified and the rumor spread that he had risen from the grave and ascended to heaven his disciples started to spread the word of Jesus as the Son of God and the role model for all mankind

Paul

The Middle Ages 500-1300 C.E.

§         The beginning of school systems at convents and the first universities.

·        The Problem of Universals (an issue that questions the relationship of names and things and the classification of phenomena): The Realist thinkers vs. the Nominalist thinkers.

o       The Realists maintained that the names for things were adequate in defining the things they were for. St. Lanfranc (1000’s) who was the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1089 was a realist. He was the teacher of logic at Beck and believed that one should “leave the world” and become a hermit (see Berengar of Tours). His student St Anselm (1033-1109) followed in his footprints; he was the Archbishop of Canterbury, Abbot of Beck and the teacher of logic. He said that the proof of God lay in his name; once you had understanding of the name of God then you have proven God.

o       The Nominalists maintained that names had nothing to do with reality, some name might contain information about the things they were for, but the information was coincidental and not to be relied on. Berengar of Tours (1000-1088) had an argument with Lanfranc about the body (bread) of Christ and the blood (wine) of Christ where he accused Lanfranc of wishing to understand the eternal truths with reason and angering God.

o       Peter Abelard (1079-1143) believed that there where three key questions were used to answer the problem of universals: a) Do names or things exist incrementally or in reality? b) If they exist in reality are they material or immaterial? c) If they exist in reality and weather they are material or immaterial are they separate from things or involved in them? Not being satisfied with the conclusions from those questions Abelard made three “new” questions: a) What is there in things that enables us to give them common names? b) If there are no such things as universals, what do common names designate? c) If particular things should cease to exist, would “their” names still designate the same content or notion to us? His conclusion was that logically defined names are adequate to logic; they aren’t absolutely different from things, they are just differently conceived parts of things.

St. Augustine (354 – 430)

·        Augustine studied many religions before becoming Christian, he wasn’t to sure about Christianity, even though he started studying the Scripture and when he was 35 he discovered Neoplatonism and was very taken with it’s logic. In 386 Christianity suddenly started to make sense to Augustine, so he wrote to the bishop asking the latter to baptism him, and was in 387. While he was in Hippo, Africa the bishop there made him joint-bishop in 395 – even though Augustine didn’t think it was right – and Augustine carried on the bishop’s work after he died.

·        Augustine thought that reason and philosophy could only get you so far; they will not make your soul content or happy. One needs Christianity to content the soul.

·        Augustine believed that evil is the absence of God, (See Platinus, in Hellenism) and that good is the presence of God. " Not only the greatest but also the smallest good things can not be, except from him from whom are all good things, that is, from God." He also believed, agreeing with the Bible, that there is a great divide between God and man. Man has no place to question God for he has created and predestined life.

·        The more famous of Augustine’s writings are The City of God and Confessions

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274)

·        Aquinas thought that Aristotle’s teachings were on the right track and he took Aristotle at his word and turned it Christian, believing that both reason and faith are necessary for life. God is the “formal cause” in all things, and in nature we can see God in his glory; and we hear God in the Bible. In Aristotle’s scale of higher forms of being (plants then animals then humans) Aquinas added two more steps; above humans are angels, and above them is God.

Hildegard of Bingen (1098 – 1179)

·        Hildegard was a nun, but also a preacher, author, physician, botanist, and naturalist

·        The female side of God - who was revered in many religions, but forgotten in western culture - reveled herself to Hildegrad in a vision.

Renaissance the 15^{th and} 16^th  centuries

§         Renaissance means “rebirth”, the rebirth of culture; art (visual and performing) and thought; science, and philosophy. Many invention were invented, like printing, which gave other people other than the church to make books, therefore the Church wasn’t the main source of education.  The discoveries of the time, like that of the earth not being the center of the universe gave civilization a shake. It became more important to reach God by your self then to do it through church. The Bible was translated and printed into languages that other people besides priests could read.

§         Many Reformations of the Church were happening, and the founding of many other churches that broke off from the Catholic Church.

§         Humanism was a big theme during the Renaissance, man was good and beautiful, and the age revolved around humans, not God. The Church looked down on humanism, they burned and hung those who went against it

§         Pantheism.

§         Empirical method – science discoveries and knowledge must be based on experience. Science became presented in mathematical terms, experiments and mathematics made inventions possible. Medicines were developed.

Niccoló Machiavelli (1469-1527) – Florence, Italy

·        Machiavelli wrote The Prince as a basis for ruling and addressed ‘how one holds or acquires princely power’ and ‘how not to be good’.

o       Power: In an old kingdom it is easy to hold power over the people if you stick with the customs and traditions held by the people. A newly founded state is much harder to govern. When one takes a state he will prosper and keep power if he is culturally aware and eliminates the pervious ruler and his family. The people would hardly notice in the long run, and if one is not culturally aware of the people he should either reside in the new state or colonize it with peoples who have the same culture and language.

§         States with ministers are hard to conquer, but easy to hole

§         States with monarchs with barons and such as his advisers are easy to conquer, but hard to hold. The barons and nobles would revolt.

§         Free cities, or republican states are hard to conquer and hard to hold, for the people are used to being free. The thing to do with a free city to destroy it completely, because even if you are resident in the state rebellion is a definite thing.

Coming into Power:

§         If you come to power by yourself it will be hard at first, but the power will be easy to hold, especially if you have the support of the military.

§         If you come to power by the will and dexterity of others then you most likely will become dependent on your benefactors, and if they desert you, you will not have the skills to continue to hold your power.

§         If you come to power by villainy then you must be certain to commit all your great acts of villainy at one time, then you should soften up a bit.

§         If you come into power with the support of your fellow citizens (such as democracy) you must make sure the people need you, military support helps greatly.

Military: The militia is the best form of military; mercenaries are dangerous and untrustworthy, and allies are dangerous for if they win a war for you then you are in their debt.

o       Never have to raise taxes; it leads to hatred. It is better to have the reputation of being cheep than to be hated by your people.

o       Have cruelty instead of clemency; cruelty is necessary to keep order in the state, but not villainy. Villainy has no virtue, leaders want glory and glory cannot be achieved by villainy. Never take someone’s property, it is better to kill a close kin than to take away a man’s property, for when someone is dead, there is no coming back, but one can find a way to get his property back.

o       Make sure you have a reputation of integrity, honesty and religion, but you don’t have to practice them to the extreme; they might get in your way and handicap you. 

Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536)

·        Erasmus entered and studied in an Augustinian monastery and became novice, he left before taking his final vows. He went to study in a university in Paris and became first northern European to know enough Greek to edit the old testament

·        Wrote in many forms – formal letters, model conversations, improve Latin and satires:

o       In The Praise of Folly - Folly herself is the main character and she stands on a platform and preaches a sermon on folly. She speaks; laughing at marriage; if one knew about childrearing beforehand they would never go that far. Mocks excessive honesty, scholars, neglecting kings, mocks monks, theologians and says enthusiasm is a virtue to be dreaded. It is better to be in the cave than brought to the light.

o       The Exclusion of Pope Julius about Pope Julius II who went overboard on trying to “save” the church from secular control and it undid him and made him a bad example of abuse of tradition. It got Erasmus in trouble because in attacking Pope Julius he was symbolically attacking all popes.

o       A Treatise on the Education of a Christian Prince is exactly that, and Erasmus starts by telling the prince to read Plotar, Cisero, Seneca and Plato and do not go overboard, restraint is wisdom and avoid being foolish

·        Erasmus believed what Christians needed to practice was the Philosophia Christi or the philosophy of Christ; the life of the Gospels and the formal doctrines.

·        Erasmus supported Luther in reading the Bible directly, but thought that the rest of his beliefs such as judging one owns faith, and that the will is not free weren’t true. Erasmus and Luther exchanged literary arguments until Luther became verbally abusive and Erasmus broke with Luther’s thought, believing that God was not the tyrant who was somehow just that Luther said he was. Above all Erasmus began to believe that Luther had been led astray with enthusiasm.

·         Erasmus thought that Latin was the best language to know to read, write and pronounce correctly. He believed that it should become a sort of universal language, except that people from different parts of the world tend not to understand each other because their pronunciation was so different. So Erasmus tried to find the classical pronunciation of Latin.           

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) Scientist: Poland

·        Publish a book called On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, where he introduced the ‘Copernicus Hypothesis’ that claimed that the planets were easier to understand if one believed that all the planets orbit around the sun and sun did not revolve around the earth. He also claimed that the sun was the center of the universe, and that the planets had a circular orbit.

Sir Thomas More (1477-1535) – England

·        More wrote a book called Utopia, which was like Plato’s Republic in which a traveler tells a tale of an island that he had been to and the society there.

o       A council composed of the most able persons, whom are elected along with the prince, led the Utopian society. Wars are very rarely fought, for the goals of the country is to protect the lives of the Utopians, and if war does threaten the leaders of Utopia find other ways to avoid war, but when it is necessary the hire mercenaries. 

Martin Luther (1483-1546) Reformation Leader: Germany 

·        Luther said to believe in faith alone. He broke from the Roman Catholic Church because he didn’t believe that people needed priests to be forgiven by God.

·        Do we have God’s grace from the beginning or do our choices and action bring God’s grace to us?  Luther thought that trying to “earn” God’s grace (i.e. fasting) was useless and above all torments one’s being.

·         Pure love and obedience of God is the right way to go, but if you are trying to earn grace and are mindful of your sins you will start examining your conscience. You will wonder if your love and obedience is really and truly pure, or if you are just loving and being obedient because you know if you are you will get something out of it. As a young man Luther spent many hours deliberating on this problem.

·        Instead of trying to see God Luther began to read the Gospels to hear the word of God. He fond them very comforting and they eased his mind about the many questions that plagued him. He spoke not of Law and Grace, but of Law and Gospel.

·        At the time the Pope was signing papers that would help whoever had them get rid of their sins and get to heaven quicker and they were being sold. Luther was angered, because most people thought that they were tickets to get them straight into heaven and he believed that the Pope had no right in handing these papers out. So he wrote ninety-nine theses and posted them on the church’s door meaning for them to be topics of discussion between scholars, but they were translated into the common language and it started the beginning of the Protestant church.

·        For Luther the devil was a little voice in your subconscious that would whisper to you telling you that you are a sinner and tempting you into forgetting and leaving the teachings of the Gospels.

·        Luther thought that the Pope had the power of an Anti-Christ. He said that he was trying to take the Gospels away from the people and sending the message that man could only earn God’s grace through him.

John Calvin (1509-1563) Reformation Leader: France to Geneva

·        John Calvin was the 2^nd generation of Switzerland’s reformation and was the President of the Reformation in Geneva – church reformed to the word of God

·        His book, The Institutes of the Christian Religion was on the theology of Protestants and Puritism

·        Said that man were only sinners standing before God

·        Calvin’s Three Solas to be guided by:

o       Faith Alone – Justification by faith alone

o       Grace Alone – It is only grace that allows us to be saved

o       Scripture Alone – Only the bible is the authoritive source of Christian doctrine

·        Merits of Catholics vs. Calvin and Luther

o       Catholics: Grace changes us and we are better for God’s approval. Catholics believed Protestants were authoritarians because they believed to trust the Bible and to submit to the authority of God, where Catholics thought that always bowing to authority and blindly trusting the bible wasn’t necessary.

o        Calvinism and Lutherans: Thought very strongly that man never deserves God’s approval, and are blessed by it and even if man is better for having God’s grace they must not rely on that, instead man should rely on God’s mercy. They also believed that the Catholics were authoritarian, because men can’t trust the priests; God’s words are the only way to know God.

·        The Calvinists had a very different view of damnation then Luther and the Catholics.

o       Catholics and Lutherans: Be justified everyday (confession, go regularly to church, etc.), because you can still be damned. You also must believe you are justified.

o       Calvin: If you are justified once than you cannot be damned, even if you turn away from the faith afterwards. You must ask yourself ‘Do I have true faith?’ and believe you believe it. God also does pre-destine some to be damned. 

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Scientist: England

·        Bacon studied at Cambridge university as a young man, and even then he was countering traditional scholasticism and later became Lord Chancellor of England

·        Argued that the Euoropian philosophical thought stood condemned on several grounds, but the two main ones are:

o       First philosophers mixed religion and natural philosophy (science) to the confusion of both

o       Second they substituted concern for words for concern of things; instead of mastering things they would manipulate words

·        He also said that all philosophy had become only five or six systems of thought that were developed in Greece. He said that the history was not the history of great minds debating what we knew/did not know rather “this” Greek system of thought against “that” Greek system of thought.

·        Bacon wanted to re-define human knowledge and developed two main ways he could convince the people to change their attitudes towards the goals of humans:

o       Convince them that new methods of knowledge would make possible expansion of the human empire over the circumstances upon our suffering or well being depends. Turn knowledge too nature and well being.

o       He believed that he could convince his audience that the Christian ethic demanded knowledge in the service of charity knowledge was not to be famed, to use knowledge as the power to aid and enhance one’s fellow creature’s well being.

·        Bacon wrote a book called The New Organon that was a counter to Aristotle’s Organon, which was at the heart of the education which he despised so. Bacon’s Organon taught to learn things that stood the test of time, and to ask  ‘where have the “great minds” gotten us?’ He said to look at other technology like navigation, and see how far those areas have come, because they have not been argued over for centuries, like philosophical questions. The main themes in The New Organon are:

o       Knowledge is human power

o       There must be a separation between natural philosophy and theology (natural philosophy must not go beyond the natural world)

o       The method for the acquisition of knowledge is induction

o       Science is a dynamic, cooperative, cumulative enterprise

·        Bacon asks why are we, as humans, are so hesitant to be patient and wait to learn from nature? And answers it by pointing out that we, as humans, are creatures of pride and arrogance, therefore we will not let ourselves wait to let nature teach us.

·        Bacon’s Idols of the mind (idolatry in Christian doctrine is a great sin, so Bacon made four forms of idolatry of the mind):

o       The Idols of the Tribe – tribe of humans which is pride and arrogance

o       The Idols of the Cave – that person’s need, education, psychology

o       The Idols of the Marketplace – where words take place of knowledge

o       The Idols of the Theater – our received philosophical thoughts

·        The New Atlantis was Bacon’s Utopian world in which he states the proper place of natural philosophy in society. People in this society govern with their knowledge of the natural world with their human interest (or charity).

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Scientist

·        Was a good friend of Johannes Kepler and read much of his works, but didn’t believe that his Law was true; they were much too speculative for Galileo’s taste.

·        Believed very strongly that we need to learn from nature and observation.

·        He watched the moon; through a telescope he studied it’s craters, saying that the moon had mountains and canyons like the earth. He also discovered Jupiter had four moons.

·        Galileo thought that the lunar forces did not have affect on anything because gravitation didn’t work over great distances

·        He said that there were Primary and Secondary qualities of all objects in the world:

o       Qualities like taste and smell were held to be the qualities of an item, but Galileo said those things were only the effect that the item had on our senses, human senses reacting to the things in the world.

o       The qualities apart from perception, like mathematics, were the true qualities of the objects themselves. Mathematics, mass, geometry, the laws of motions, bodies to time and distances are how to see the qualities of the world. One must not look for perfections or purposes in nature.

·        In debates Galileo would say that if Aristotle were alive he would agree with him, but his opponents would refuse to look through his telescope, saying he had made optical illusions to lead them astray.

·        Two sources of knowledge from God:

o       Book of Nature: our knowledge the creation that we can precise with the gifts of math and logic God gave to man.

o       Book of Scripture: our knowledge of beyond the creation.

Galileo was put under house arrest until his death and despite orders not to he wrote a test book that became the basis for modern physics

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) Scientist: Germany

·        Found evidence that the planets moved in an oval (elliptical) orbit and that the speed of the planets is faster the closer to the sun they get.

·        He claimed that physical laws are the same throughout the universe

·        He said that the tides must be affected by the lunar movements

·        Kepler’s Law of Planetary Motion, which he came upon after many years and many, many calculations said that the earth and the planets follow an elliptical orbit, not a circular orbit around the sun. Also the line joining a planet to the sun (the radical vector) sweeps out equal areas in equal lines

·        Kepler hated the fact that the planets’ orbits were elliptic and not perfect circles. He struggled for ten years after his law of planetary motion trying to find where God went in the picture, until he found one that gives proof of the divine mind: The square of the period of revolution of a planet is proportional to the cube of its average distance from the sun.

The Baroque or The “Age of Reason”: (17^th century)

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) - England

·        Hobbes’ philosophy revolved around the concept of fear. He said that the fear of death and strive for security is mostly what humans deal with. Hobbes wanted to find the cure for violence, he said that the only reason people become violent was not because human nature is aggressive, but because he is protecting himself from death or acting out of fear.

·        Humans are beings of passion and feelings rather than reason. He believed that humans were not governed by reason, like so many philosophers before him said, but went with their feelings or desires; if it makes me feel good than it is good. The first desire is that of power, for with power comes the ability to be secure, but only security, for if the strive for power threatens death then it will be abandoned.  Hobbes also said that there was no direct definition of good, or no great being/idea of good. Good is pleasure and security where bad is fear and insecurity. Happiness is continuous satisfaction and only from the want of peace and security comes war.

·        Hobbes thought that the job of the State was not to help man be virtuous, but to provide security for all of it’s citizens. He said that the cure for violence was in the proper ruling of the State, which should be run by an all powerful ruler. The citizen should give up all his rights to this leader and the ruler should recognize his power and responsibilities toward his state:

o       Execute the purpose and terms of contracts

o       Punish when necessary

o       Legislate civil laws

o       Distribute property

o       Have complete judicial power

o       Censure what he thinks necessary

o       Appoint his own heir

o       But he must not kill a citizen for no just reason

·        These theories of Hobbes are composed in a book called The Leviathan.

René Descartes (1596-1650) Rationalist: France

·        Descartes’ dream for his philosophy was to have perfect knowledge of Being, what things truly are and perfect knowledge of Cause, how things work and why. He wanted to get rid of all the handed down philosophical thoughts from history so he could make his own.

·        In Mediations on First Philosophy Descartes says that the skeptics never took skepticism far enough or believed in it strongly enough.

·        Descartes thought Reason alone can give us true knowledge, and the reason one uses for things like mathematics is the same reason to use for figuring out philosophical questions.

·        He makes the point that one can never be sure if she is dreaming or awake, for dreams can seem very much like reality.

·        Descartes proved the existence of God by reasoning that his imperfect mind could never come up with a perfect being unless the perfect being does exist. For example a triangle must have three corners, or it is not a triangle, therefore a perfect being must exist, because not existing would be self contradicting, for a perfect being to be a perfect being must exist. 

·        A famous line of Descartes was “Cogito, ergo sum” - “I think therefore I am.” One thing was certain: he doubted everything, therefore he could think, therefore he was a thinking “I” which is more real than the physical world.

·        Descartes was a dualist and believed that animals are machines, like humans, but only humans have souls, like the angels. Also there is a division between spirit and matter.

 Baruch Spinoza  (1632-1677) Rationalist: Amsterdam

·        Spinoza critically read the Bible and found many inconsistencies, he concluded that the Bible was not inspired to God down to the last letter. He became the first modern philosopher to completely reject the Judeo-Christian theories, because it didn’t work with science and reason.

·        Spinoza viewed nature in a purely mechanistic way, one very different from the Aristotelian view of nature that was so widespread. Spinoza was a monist, he believed that there was only one world, or realm, and that was the world that one can see, hear and taste. That world he called nature, or God, everything is nature and “God is in everything, and everything is in God”. He could even be classified as a Monistic determinist because Spinoza believed that the cause of things are logically implicated, (almost like mathematical fate) and in knowing that you have no freedom in the way things are going – everything is running off of mathematical laws – gives you an element of freedom.

·        In his book Ethics Geometrically Demonstrated or just Ethics he brought up the principal he called “conatus”, which is desire or instinct. He said that our feelings are just the responses and connections that we have to objects. For example love is the feeling of desire, warmth and inward joy that we have when we are near a certain person and we associate those feelings with that person and it becomes love.

·        Spinoza said that the well being and happiness of a person depends on how their environment affects them. To be happy you must remember that you are only as happy as your environment is affecting your psychological state, and if your environment is not giving you what you want don’t let it affect your happiness.

Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727) Scientist: England

·        Newton explained how the planets moved around the sun and why they did so, i.e. the moon is pulled to earth by gravity, but it doesn’t collide with earth because the moon was once flung through the universe at a great speed. Since that there is no resistance in space to stop it from moving, but it has gotten caught in earth’s gravity, and now it orbits the earth.

·        In a break from college Newton came up the Law of Universal Gravitation but forgot about the papers he had written it on for twenty years when a scientist brought up the question of gravity. Law of universal Gravitation – Every object attracts every other object with a force that increases in proportion to the size of the objects and decreases in proportion to the distance between the objects. Along with the discovery of the law of gravity, during his break Newton created the Infinitesimal Calculus (which got him the chair of mathematics at his college), founded modern optics and advanced the boundaries of mathematical understanding.

·        Newton also proved that very few nature laws exist throughout the universe, and ended laying down the foundations of modern physics: Laws of Motion and Mechanics:

o       First law or Law of Inertia: “An object in motion tends to stay in motion and an object at rest tends to stay at rest, unless acted upon by an outside force.” 

o       Second Law: Acceleration is produced when a force acts on a mass. The greater the mass (of the object being accelerated) the greater the amount of force needed (to accelerate the object).

o       Third Law: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

·        Newton believed in God and that his theories were a proof the magnificence of God.