| 3.13 |
Philosophy 1400 CE to 1700 CE: The renaissance of the western mind
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Great periods of civilization can be defined by great events as well as great ideas. A singular and great idea that marks the turning point of the Christian mind to the western mind was the realization that the Earth orbits the sun according to predictable rules. |
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| 3.13.1 |
The helio centric mind |
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| Key concept: The Earth orbits around the sun |
Architect |
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) |
Main influence |
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Galileo (1564-1642) |
Idea |
That the Earth orbits around the Sun and that this orbit can be measured and predicted. That other celestial bodies and events (planets, moons, comets and eclipses) also adhere to natural scientific and mathematical principles and can be predicted and measured with accuracy. |
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That the heavens can be defined and mapped represented a profound philosophical breakthrough for the human mind at the time.
It ended the heavens as the domain of God and the angels. It ended the perfect picture of science being aligned with the ancient stories of Adam and Eve and the Earth being the centre of the Universe.
At the same time, it opened the minds of the great thinkers of the next few centuries to the language of mathematics and the science of reason and measurement.
With this new understanding also came some of the greatest and worst inventions of humanity– the printing press for mass communication of knowledge and gunpowder for mass murder.
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| 3.13.2 |
New secularism |
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| Key concept: An “ideal” form of balanced society |
Architect |
Thomas More (1477-1535) |
Main influence |
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Idea |
(Major works Utopia) an ideal commonwealth whose inhabitants exist under seemingly perfect conditions. Utopia is a pagan and communist city-state in which the institutions and policies are entirely governed by reason, self-restraint and complete mutual trust.
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| Key concept: The ends justifies the means of statehood |
Architect |
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) |
Main influence |
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Idea |
(major works The Prince) That men are wicked and times are wicked and for a prince to survive and be good, he must also do wicked things for the good of the state. To hold onto power, one must be ruthless. That good things can come from what might otherwise be seen as bad actions.
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New military weapons using new knowledge shifted the power from the church to secular authorities. New ideas began to emerge on the effective management of these new social structures. The city states of Italy provided fertile ground for ruthless models of management, while the opening up of new worlds spelt new opportunity for thinkers such as Thomas More. |
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| 3.13.3 |
Scientific knowledge as power |
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| Key concept: Methods for and encyclopedic classification of knowledge of natural sciences |
Architect |
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) |
Main influence |
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Idea |
Experience is the only source of valid knowledge. The method for classifying knowledge is based on tables of discovery of
which there are three kinds: tables of presence, of absence, and of degree (i.e., in the case of any two properties,
such as heat and friction, instances in which they appeared together, instances in which one appeared without the other, and instances in which their amounts varied proportionately);
By classifying and ordering facts in such a way the true causes of phenomena (the subject of physics) and the true “forms” of things can be inductively established.
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New scientific thinking in areas such as mathematics now emerged as a strategic asset for navigation, construction and trade. |
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Not since the time of Aristotle had an attempt to thoroughly document procedures and knowledge occurred. Now great minds such as Francis Bacon paved the way to the possibility of having a central and consolidated work of all human knowledge both categorized and validated.
As the printing press became more common in the following centuries from Mid 16th Century, such knowledge in the form of encyclopedia transformed the human mind forever.
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| Key concept: Theory of knowledge and reasoning |
Architect |
René Descartes (1596-1630) |
Main influence |
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Idea |
(Major works The World, Discourse on Method, Rules for the Direction of the Mind, Meditations on First Philosophy) There are four rules for reasoning: (1) Accept nothing as true that is not self-evident. (2) Divide problems into their simplest parts. (3) Solve problems by proceeding from simple to complex. (4) Recheck the reasoning.
Knowledge based on authority is not certain because even experts are sometimes wrong. Knowledge from sensory experience is untrustworthy because people sometimes mistake one thing for another. Knowledge based on reasoning is unreliable because one often makes mistakes of logic. Knowledge may be illusory because it comes from dreams or insanity or from a demon able to deceive men by making them think that they are experiencing the real world when they are not. What is certain is that I think, therefore I am. The knowledge I exist is certain.
All material bodies, including the human body, are machines that operate by mechanical principles. Animals do not have souls. Only humans have souls located inside the pineal gland.
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Brilliant thinkers such as Rene Descartes introduced a whole new way of approaching both self-knowledge as well as general knowledge. |
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| 3.13.4 |
Metaphysical reasoning |
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| Key concept: Everything is part of God. Everything exists because of God’s logical necessity |
Architect |
Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677) |
Main influence |
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Idea |
(major works Ethics) (acosmism) the belief that everything is God. That God is the sole and ultimate reality and that finite objects and events have no independent existence. Everything happens for a reason. The highest good/virtue is the knowledge of God. There is no absolute evil. Fear, jealousy and negative emotions are bad. Pleasure, happiness and love is good. |
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The response to the philosophy of a spiritual world also changed with new discoveries. Instead of vague descriptions of parallel worlds and “ideas”, new thinkers such as Leibniz and Spinoza outlined philosophies incorporating more sophisticated mathematics.
Their philosophies supported the idea of a measurable universe in so far as the most basic of all building blocks remains pure God/Spirit/Soul (or awareness).
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| Key concept: The universe made up of infinite number of points of spirit/soul (awareness) monads. Everything happens for a reason. |
Architect |
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) |
Main influence |
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Idea |
The universe is made up of an infinite number of points of spirit/soul called monads. Nothing you see is real, but spirit (monads) in form. Everything has a degree of free will. Everything in the universe happens for a reason. |
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| 3.13.5 |
Increasing self worth of being human |
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That leading philosophical thought validated the self, individual entrepreneurs, leaders and thinkers felt more aware and self-worth.
This confidence in self as something more, as being free from direct intervention of the Gods was reflected in the dramatic increase in creativity of the time.
Humans could think. What is more, they could think beyond their own planet. No longer was knowledge something for esoteric self-justification, knowledge was real power.
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