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Chapter 3 Rise of Modern Humanism. Humanism. Humanism. Humanism is a broad category of ethical philosophies that places man, not God, at the center of social life. Humanists believe in man’s capacity for lasting social and moral progress. Founders and Classical Philosophy.
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Chapter 3Rise of Modern Humanism Humanism
Humanism • Humanism is a broad category of ethical philosophies that places man, not God, at the center of social life. • Humanists believe in man’s capacity for lasting social and moral progress.
Founders and Classical Philosophy • Founders used classical texts to support a version of humanism whose emphasis on progress and individual rights was distinctly modern.
Enlightenment: 18th Century • The intellectual and philosophical developments of that age (and their impact in moral, social, and political reform) aspired toward more freedom for common people based on self-governance, natural rights, natural law, central emphasis on liberty, individual rights, reason, and the principles of deism. • These principles were a revolutionary departure from theocracy, oligarchy, aristocracy, and the divine right of kings.
Scientific Revolution (1550-1700) • Working Definition: By tradition, the "Scientific Revolution" refers to historical changes in thought & belief, to changes in social & institutional organization, that unfolded in Europe between roughly 1550-1700.
Scientific Revolution (1550-1700) • Begins with Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543), who asserted a heliocentric (sun-centered) cosmos.
Galileo Galilei [1564-1642] • By his own reckoning, Galileo's most important contribution involved neither the astronomical discoveries that immortalized his name, nor his published defense of Copernicus, but rather his application of mathematics to the study of motion.
Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1727) • Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1727), mathematician and physicist, one of the foremost scientific intellects of all time. • In this work, Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries.
Revolutions:16th-18th Centuries • The Commercial Revolution was a period of European economic expansion, colonialism, and mercantilism which lasted from approximately the sixteenth century until the early eighteenth century. • Beginning with the Crusades, Europeans rediscovered spices, silks, and other commodities rare in Europe. • This development created a new desire for trade, and trade expanded in the second half of the Middle Ages.
Early Modern Technology • Carracks were the first proper ocean-going ships in Europe: large enough to be stable in heavy seas, and roomy enough to carry provisions for long voyages. • They were the ships in which the Portuguese and the Spanish explored the world in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Revolutions:16th-18th Centuries • European nations, through voyages of discovery, were looking for new trade routes in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which allowed the European powers to build vast, new international trade networks.
Revolutions:16th-18th Centuries • The Commercial Revolution is marked by an increase in general commerce, and in the growth of non-manufacturing pursuits, such as banking, insurance, and investing.
Stoic Theory of Natural Law • According to Stoicism, the whole cosmos is rationally ordered by an active principle variously named God, mind, Providence, or fate. • cosmos.
Stoic Theory of Natural Law • The Stoic view of Natural Law [universal ethical code]: based on both reason and intuition [direct and immediate apprehension of truth]. • Ancient Greek philosophers were the first to elaborate a natural law doctrine.
Stoic Theory of Virtue • To live virtuously means to live in accord with one's nature, to live according to right reason. • This doctrine was popularized among the Romans . • Founders’ Virtues: frugality, simplicity, temperance, fortitude, love of liberty, honor, etc.
Epicurean Humanism: Reason • In the Epicurean view, the highest pleasure (happinessand freedom from fear) was obtained by knowledge and reason.
Epicurean Humanism • In modern times Thomas Jefferson referred to himself as an Epicurean, and the preamble to the United States Declaration of Independence demonstrates Epicurean influence by inalienable right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Religious Beliefs of Founders • If there is a clear legacy bequeathed by the founders, it is the insistence that religion was a private matter in which the state should not interfere.
Most Founders Believed? • Faith in a remote God • Afterlife: Rewards and Punishments • Justification by good works • Religion/morality vital to survival of Republic • Free will • Jesus: ethical philosopher, not divine
Religion and Founders • Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson believed in the existence of a God on the basis of reason, and observation of the natural world. • They seemed to stress the social utility of faith and religion.
Religion and Founders • George Washington harbored a Stoicsense of providential destiny. • Believed in a distant, impersonal God • Lifelong Anglican • Stressed the social utility of religion and morality • Rarely referred to Jesus
Religion and Founders • John Adams began a Congregational-ist and ended a Unitarian. • Emphasized ethics over theology.
Founders and Religion • Founders interwove Christianity with classical philosophy. • Founders acceptance of modern science caused them to question traditional religious doctrines of direct divine intervention in the world.
Founders and Classical Philosophy • Founders used classical texts to support a version of humanism whose emphasis on progress and individual rights was distinctly modern.
