1 / 22

Lecture 7: Enlightenment

Lecture 7: Enlightenment. Ann T. Orlando 25 April 2007. Introduction. History Review Enlightenment Real question: how do we ‘know’ and what is relation to belief in God Enlightenment answer is one of either presumption or despair

mitchelk
Download Presentation

Lecture 7: Enlightenment

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Lecture 7: Enlightenment Ann T. Orlando 25 April 2007

  2. Introduction • History Review • Enlightenment • Real question: how do we ‘know’ and what is relation to belief in God • Enlightenment answer is one of either presumption or despair • In my opinion we are no longer doing history, but modern analysis

  3. Political Developments in Europe (1500 – 1850) • England: Tudors, Revolution, Restoration with broader democracy, American Revolution, King as head of State • France: Strong Kings, Revolution, Napoleon, Restoration, Revolution, Democracy, sometimes King as head of State • Germany: Separate Duchies, Revolution, Strong National Leader (Bismarck), King as head of State • Italy: Separate states; Revolution; National Unity with Democracy, end of Papal States, King as Head of State

  4. Papacy • Paul III, pope 1543-1549 • Concerned about reform of Church • Approved Jesuits • Called Council of Trent • Popes 17th and 18th C faced with rising ‘national’ Catholicism • Gallicanism (France) • Febronianism (Germany) • Josephism (HRE) • Tension between national interests and universal Church interests leads to suppression of Jesuit order in 1773 by Pope Clement XIV • After Napoleon, Catholic countries view papacy as politically stabilizing force; Congress of Vienna, 1815, restores Papal States • Papacy becomes increasingly ‘conservative’ in reaction to European political and ideological turmoil during 18th and 19th C • Pope Pius IX, pope 1846-1878 • Considered a liberal, but shocked by revolutions of 1848 • Negotiates Church rights with many European governments (concordats) • Issues Syllabus of Errors condemning much enlightenment thought • Promotes Thomism as ‘official’ theology of Church • Convenes V I in 1869 • Loses Papal States in 1870 • Beatified along with John XXIII in 2000

  5. Development of a new secular philosophy: Enlightenment • Science (as we now define it) as the basis for knowledge; • Human reason can figure it (anything, everything) out; is always making progress • Devalue history, tradition • Toleration as the basis for political-religious relationship; • Separation of Church and State • Individual rights, not duty, as basis for political systems and society; • Social contract not natural law as basis of legal system • Becomes an alternative to established religions

  6. Church and Physics in the Thirteenth through the Seventeenth Century • Just as scholastic theology relied on Aristotle, so did medieval physics • Earth-centered cosmology • All substances composed of matter and form • No change to celestial spheres beyond the moon • Velocity is inversely proportional to density of medium through which an object moves; therefore a vacuum is impossible

  7. New Observations in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries • Telescope allows observations of heavens that calls older physics into question • Reveals changes in sun, moons of Jupiter • Earth revolves around the sun • New understanding of velocity • Dropped balls fall at same rate, regardless of weight • Velocity of a body not defined by resistance of medium • Experiments with gasses leads to speculation about atomic theory of matter, not matter and form

  8. Catholicism and Early Modern Science • Galileo (1564-1642) controversy • Church silences Galileo because of his theory that earth revolved around sun • But the Jesuits also supported Kepler against Protestant attackers • Part of Robert Bellarmine’s argument against Galileo was that his circular orbits were not consistent with observations; epicycles explained astronomical observations better than circular orbits • Real question: Where is knowledge to be found? • Church rejects the argument that only physics has access to truth; rejects attempts to relativize (trivialize) revelation

  9. The Revival of Hellenistic Philosophy • In rejection of Aristotelianism, new philosophical and political theories ‘reached back’ to the ‘golden era’ of Rome and Hellenistic philosophy: Stoicism, Epicureanism • Scientific theories developed around both cause and effect, as well as atomic motion

  10. The Enlightenment Emphasis on Science • Before Enlightenment ‘science’ meant any area of human knowledge • During the Enlightenment it comes to mean investigation of nature by our senses through inductive reasoning and then applying mathematical models to describe observations • Key Enlightenment Scientists • Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) • Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) • Robert Boyle (1627-1691) • Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

  11. Philosophical Developments During the 17th C • Rationalist: Knowledge is from ideas • Rene Descartes (1596-1650) • Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) • Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) • Empiricists: Knowledge is from senses • Francis Bacon (1561-1626) • Pierre Gassendi (1597-1655) • Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) • John Locke (1632-1704)

  12. The Giant of the Scientific Age: Isaac Newton • The most famous man in Europe in his own day and thereafter until Einstein • Founder of calculus • Fundamental discoveries in optics, mechanics, gravitation • Very deeply religious; focuses on Biblical exegesis, not physics, at end of his life • But rejected Jesus as divine; considered himself an Arian • Alexander Pope: “Nature and nature's laws lay hid by night; God said let Newton be and all was light”

  13. Religion and Science: Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle • Newton • At the end of his Opticks, he tries to distance himself from Epicurean ethics. He was concerned that a corpuscular theory of light could be interpreted as support for Epicurean philosophy • Newton’s favorite verse was Acts 17:28; he knew it was Stoic poetry; he tried to use this to explain how gravity could work across ‘empty’ space • Boyle • Called his units is gases corpuscles rather than atoms because he did not want his theory used to support Epicurean philosophy • Left an endowment for Christian lectures to be given in London opposing Epicureanism

  14. Epistemological Reaction: Skepticism • Begins in Seventeenth Century, but finds most eloquent voices in Eighteenth Century • Neither science nor religion can provide certain knowledge • Voltaire (1694-1778) becomes a skeptic • Satirizes “best of all possible worlds” • Shaken by Lisbon earthquake of 1755 • David Hume (1711-1776) • Sharp attacks on natural religion or deism • But equally sharp against presumptions of science

  15. Philosophical Giant: John Locke • Epistemology: how do we know? • Through our senses and more specifically our experiences • At birth mind is a blank slate • Simple ideas come from senses, mind builds more complex ideas from simple ones • But experience can be communal; does not have to be personal • Theology; deeply religious, believed that revelation was ‘real’ • Above human reason (revelation) • Contrary to reason • According to reason • Political Science • Man born with God-given rights of life, liberty and possessions (broadly defined) • Second Treatise on Government profoundly influential • Letter on Toleration • Strongly believed in natural law as basis for human laws: Carolina Constitution

  16. 18th C French and American Political Philosophy • Based upon John Locke • Puritan sermons in 18th C America frequently referred to “the great Mr. Locke” • Voltaire considered Locke one of the most important men of the previous generation • One of Jefferson’s three heroes (the other two being Bacon and Newton) • John Adams thought John Locke one of most important men who ever lived • Emphasize individual liberty and rights over duty to society

  17. American Revolution:New Political Structures • American Revolution (1776-1781), based on philosophy of John Locke (1632-1704) • Champion of individual rights • Religious toleration • Not clear (still isn’t) what is relation between religion and politics in America • Most States had an official religion; see for instance John Adams’ Constitution of Massachusetts • First Amendment to Constitution says only that Congress will not establish a religion; • Thomas Jefferson extends this to separation of Church and State (1802)

  18. French Revolution (1789-1799):Extreme Enlightenment • Impetus comes from group of 18th C French philosophers: philosophes (Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Turgot, Condorcet) • Philosophes embraced John Locke and science; encouraged by American Revolution • Franklin, Paine, Jefferson and Adams in France; • Adams writes against Turgot and Condorcet and notion of progress without sense of duty • Jefferson supports the philosophes and the Terror • Use it as a weapon against ‘throne and altar’ • Voltaire’s ‘Smile of Reason’ turns into glare of tyranny • Individual rights and toleration get replaced by suspicion of ‘enemy of people’ and a new ‘religion’; • Active persecution of Church

  19. American Election of 1800 Choice over: Adams vs. Jefferson: Role of Religion in Society and American view of French Revolution

  20. Epicurean Philosophy in Intellectual America • Jefferson’s acceptance of Epicureanism has become increasingly prevalent in American culture • Ethics based on personal pleasure • although in contemporary society pleasure is often defined as momentary fleeting pleasure, rather than long term peace of mind • Importance of individual rights over common good (abortion) • Self-sufficiency of individual is primary virtue, not harmony of society • Importance of science and technology; progress of human mind • God is not recognized as important in people’s lives

  21. 19th and 20th C New Nationalisms • 19th and early 20th C period of violent revolutions in Europe (France, Italy, Germany, Russia) • Also a period of violent revolutions and wars of independence throughout Western Hemisphere, Asia and Africa • Growth of labor movements opposed to oppression of laissez faire capitalism • Under the pretense of ‘will of the people’ new totalitarian regimes form in many countries • Marxism develops a theory of history and society that portrays religion as a phase that enlightened peoples will out grow • No child of 20th C can think that Enlightenment has led to a golden age: Shoah, gulags, racial wars, World Wars, etc., etc., etc.

  22. Catholicism’s Response • Syllabus of Errors, 1864 • Series of anathemas of Enlightenment views • Crude and ineffectual • Vatican I (1866-1870) • Reaffirmed that we can have sure knowledge in faith and morals (infallibility of Pope, Thomism as official theology) • Reaffirmed that religion is important to society’s well being • Reaffirm the importance of natural law • Increased spiritual devotion: Lourdes 1858, Fatima 1917 • Vatican II (1962-1965) • Toleration defined as toleration of religion against secular societies trying to prevent religious practice • Concern about new economic systems and materialism, whether Marxist or capitalist, that in fact undermine dignity of individual and families • Renewal of liturgical practices; often based upon early Christian practice

More Related