Transcript The Humanistic Perspective A Horizon of Vitality, Creativity, and Hope

The Humanistic Perspective
A Horizon of Vitality, Creativity, and Hope
Humanism: a perspective
“
Humanism can be .. defined as the view that puts the
human person (humanus) at the center of things and
highlights the individual’s creativity, rationality, and esthetic
powers. This view is at least as old as the Greeks and
Romans. Although the word “humanism” was not used in
the classical age, Cicero referred to humanitas as the
quality of mind and spirit that distinguishes human beings
from mere animals.
• Cicero thought that that quality is best nurtured and
expressed through literature (including history, philosophy,
and oratory).
• Renaissance scholars, following Cicero’s lead, identified
the study of classical literature (both Greek and Latin) with
humanism, and they applied the term “humanist”
exclusively to classical scholars.”
•
From A Brief History of Western Man, by T H Greer (pp. 264-6)
Humanism in Western
Thought: A Historical Tour
Tendencies in Western Thought:
We find instances of the humanistic approach in
ancient Greece and Classical Rome. Then it virtually
disappears during to the Middle Ages, to be awakened
during the Renaissance. This surge in humanistic and
artistic activity eventually gives birth to the natural
sciences and to the development of empirical, rational
philosophies, leading us to the Enlightenment and the
modern age.
------------------------------------
“To be ignorant of what occurred before you
were born is to remain always a child.” - Cicero
Ancients and Renaissance
The humanistic perspective appears in a history of
Western thought.
•
•
Ancient Greeks and Classical Rome
An early expression of a secular and humanist
perspective of reality. After an early focus on
Speculative Metaphysics and Cosmology, some of
the ancient thinkers brought matters “Down to earth”
(human affairs).
Renaissance Period - Starting with the Italian
Renaissance, with the Humanists’ recovery of classic
works, we see a preference for a classical view of
nature and humanity, contrary to that of M.A.
“Back to the Classics & forward to a new vision of humanity”
Enlightenment and Darwin’s
Revolution
•
Science & Enlightenment:
Rise of Natural sciences (16th - 17th centuries) & the
Enlightenment, (17th - 18th centuries) - The secular
perspective gains the support of the natural sciences
and rational philosophies.
•
Darwin & Modernism*:
19th Century Evolutionary Biology: Darwin’s Theory of
Natural Selection. Evolutionary sciences add impetus
to overt secular views - Glance at 19th century
skepticism, secularism, & rational inquiry.
* Modernism as a movement to redefine traditional (religious) views in
light modern sciences and critical, historical studies and critical
philosophy.
Ancient Greeks, Hellenistic
Philosophers, & Classical Romans
Humanistic tendencies in Ancient Greek Thought
Pre-Socratics: Democritus, Sophists, Protagoras
Socrates: a focus on human issues, questions of moral
issues
Aristotle: – Ethics & Political thought geared to realization
of human excellence
Hellenistic (Greece): Epicurus, Stoicism, Skepticism
Classical Roman: Stoicism
Lucretious (Epicureanism) – a secular philosophy
Much of Pre-Socratic Philosophy offers
Grand Cosmology!
Metaphysical Speculation!
For example: Thales: Water is the primary element,
ultimate reality.
Parmenides: all reality is the motionless, changeless One,
Heraclitus, all reality is in flux; basic element is fire
Democritus brings the discussion
closer to home
• Democritus (460 – 370 BC) : argued for
a purely materialistic explanation of
nature, claiming that everything in the
universe is composed of tiny particles and that this is the true reality, not some
spiritual world beyond our present life.
[Later this philosophy is further developed
by Epicurus (342-270 BC).]
Democritus (460 – 370 BC):
Atomism (a naturalistic
cosmology) and Human Ethics.
“People are fools who hate life
yet wish to live through fear of
Hades”
“People are fools who live
without the enjoyment of life.”
“He is fortunate who is happy
with moderate;
unfortunate who is unhappy
with great possessions.”
…We can also detect early traces of ‘humanism’ in the
fifth century BC when the Sophists and Socrates “called
philosophy down from heaven to earth,” as Cicero later
put it, by their focus on social, political, and moral
questions.
“Sophists are great representatives of Greek
enlightenment. They came after the bold speculators and
metaphysicians and asked, what can we really know?
Their thought is critical, not constructive, and their criticism
does not stop before all kinds of prejudice and traditions.”
“Questioning of that sort is inseparable from honesty,...”
[ Walt Kaufmann, Philosophic Classics (71)]
Early philosophical tendency toward humanism
Sophist, Protagoras (490 BC – 420 BC) -
Among the early "humanists" we find Protagoras, a Greek
philosopher and teacher who lived around the 5th century
BC.
Protagoras exhibited two important features which remain
central to humanism even today.
First, he appears to have made humanity the starting point
for values and consideration when he created his nowfamous statement "Man is the measure of all things." In
other words, “it is not to the gods that we should look when
establishing standards, but instead to ourselves.”
Secondly, Protagoras was skeptical with regards to
traditional religious beliefs and traditional gods - so
much so, in fact, that he was accused of impiety
and exiled from Athens.
According to Diogenes Laertius, Protagoras
claimed that: "As to gods, I have no means of
knowing either that they exist or do not exist.
For many are the obstacles that impede
knowledge, both the obscurity of the question and
the shortness of human life."
This is a radical sentiment even today, much less
2,500 years ago.
SOCRATES (470-399 BC)
PLATO (428 BC – 347 BC )
ARISTOTLE (384-322 BC)
------------------------------------------------
These men are not ‘humanists’ in their entire
philosophy, but we can identify humanistic
elements, primarily in Socrates and Aristotle.
All reject supernatural myth as way of explaining
things and instead rely on reason. Two (S&A)
focus attention on ordinary human behavior in an
effort to understand human values.
Aristotle’s Ethics and Politics are clearly
humanistic (but not his metaphysics).
Socrates (470-399 BC)
His concern with reason, human values,
virtue, human action and human
wisdom makes him an early advocate
of a ‘humanistic’ perspective on the
world.
Plato’s early dialogues depict the wise
Socrates, an intellectual and moral
hero of many later philosophers. He
expounded typically humanist maxims
such as "Know thyself" and "The good
individual in the good society." While
Socrates believed in a god and held
hope for immortality, his search for
moral good independently of religious
doctrine makes his philosophy an
example of an ancient humanism.
Plato
(428 – 347 BC )
Plato’s main contribution to humanism
primarily comes by way of his
portrayal of Socrates in the early
dialogues.
Also, by his approach to truth on the
basis of reason rather than religious
authority, Plato reflects a secularist
outlook.
But other aspects of his thought are
contrary to the humanistic
perspective, e.g., the metaphysics of
his theory of forms, his view that
physical phenomena (matter, body)
are unreal, mere appearances, while
an abstract realm of eternal forms is
the ultimate reality.
Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
The Nicomachean Ethics ..considered
one the greatest works … in field of
ethics. His discussion of ethics as the
good for man, of moral virtue as the
mean, of the conditions for the
responsibility for an action,… of the
great-souled man (Aristotles’ ideal), of
the preference of loving over being
loved, of friendship and self-love, and
finally of human happiness…indicate
an ethical philosophy focused on
persons, not gods.
(Walter Kaufmann, Philosophic Classics (page 359)
(Aristotle continued)
(regarding politics):
The very nature of a polis [its true form] is to provide
all the conditions that are necessary for human
welfare, for acting well, that is, for the proper
functioning of the various human excellences…
. . . The best polis is the one that best fosters all
human excellences, all conduct in accord with moral
excellence and intelligence.” – again, a focus on
human good apart from any appeal to religion.
(Aristotle, John Herman Randall, Jr., page 255)
Pericles and Greek Drama
Greek humanism is found not merely in the work
and writings of philosophers – but also
was expressed in politics and art. For example,
the Funeral Oration by Pericles in 431 BCE, as
a tribute to those who died during the first year
of Peloponnesian War, makes no mention of
gods or souls or an afterlife. Instead, Pericles
emphasizes that those who were killed, died for
the sake of Athens, and that they would live on
in the memories of its citizens.
and the work of Greek Tragic dramatists:
Euripides (485-407 BC) The Trojan Women - he
challenged the religious and moral values of
his time. Sensitive to injustice, opposed
slavery and showed the other side of war.
Sophocles (496-406 BC) Oedipus The King Depicted the consequences of exaggerated
pride and self-confidence. He reflected the
Greek ideal of nothing in excess
Epicurus
(342 – 270 BC)
Epicurus adopted the
materialistic philosophy of
Democritus. He developed his
own system of ethics, arguing
that the enjoyment of this current,
material world is the highest
ethical good towards which a
person can strive. He held that
there are no gods to please or
who might interfere with our lives
- what we have here and now is
all that should concern us.
"Where you are, death is not;
where death is, you are not."
Hellenistic Period 323-200 BC
Rise of Macedonia 340 BC
Alexander the Great 336-323 BC
===========================================================
A set of philosophies which were
pessimistic in character developed after
the conquests of Alexander the great and
the later deterioration of the empire.
“Mankind lives in a tough world and must
accommodate to harsh realities”
The Cynics - ascetic philosophy taught that
people should get along with as little as possible
Antisthenes (445–365 BC), Diogenes (412–323 BC)
rejected conventional values – “Lived in a tub”.
Skeptics thought that there is very little that
human beings can know Pyrrho, 360-270 BC (by writings of Empiricus)
Stoicism: Zeno of Citium (Cypress, 336-264
BC), Cleanthes (330-240 BC)
The teachings of the Stoics survived because
they appealed to the Roman mind for the austere
moral emphasis, the stress on self-control and
superiority to pain.
Roman Classical period
(250 BC -180 AD)
Stoicism: The Roman Stoic philosophy
stressed cultivating the greatness of the
soul. Stoicism has religious aspect, with
an ideal of the unity of all processes, and
stresses that humans should live in
harmony with what ever happens.
Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD)
Epictetus (50 – 138 AD)
Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD)
was a Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD. He was the last
of the Five Good Emperors, and is also considered one of
the most important Stoic philosophers.
His work Meditations, written in Greek while on campaign
between 170 and 180, is still revered as a literary monument
to a government of service and duty “…. one should be concerned with two things only: acting
justly and loving what is allotted”
=========================================================
A Stoic sentiment: ‘….the sage is utterly immune to
misfortune and that virtue is sufficient for happiness’
(Seneca, Epictetus)
Epictetus (50 – 138 AD)
He spent a portion of his life as the slave of an
important administrator in the court of Nero. An
exponent of Stoic ethics notable for the consistency
and power of his ethical thought – Key to his philosophy
is seen in his account of what it is to be a human
being; i.e., to be a rational mortal creature. – He
rejected the way of thinking that says moral
improvement is achievable only by divine assistance.
“Have
you not hands, fool? Has not god made them for
you? You sit down now and pray your nose may not
run? Wipe it, rather, and do not blame god!”
“There is only one way to happiness and that is to
cease worrying about things which are beyond the
power of our will.”
[Roman Expression of Epicurus’ Philosophy ]
Lucretious (95-55 BC): “On the Nature of Things”
was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work
is the epic philosophical poem De rerum natura about the
beliefs of Epicureanism, and which is translated as On
the Nature of Things.
…when his poem began once again to be read (in the
Renaissance) Lucretious was charged with atheism. But
Lucretius was not in fact an atheist. He believed that the
gods existed. But he also believed that, by virtue of being
gods, they could not possibly be concerned with human
beings or with anything that we do. However, as many
elements of his poem show, he strongly rejected
supernatural and theistic religion. Hence, it is easy to
understand the hostility that defenders of religious
doctrine felt toward him.
Some surprisingly modern ideas in the poem:
Everything is made of invisible particles
The universe has no creator or designer
Nature ceaselessly experiments. There is no single
moment of origin, no mythic scene of creation. All living
beings, from plants and insects to the higher mammals
and man, have evolved through a long, complex process
of trial and error.
Humans are not unique (part of material process..)
Human society began not in a Golden Age of
tranquility and plenty, but in a primitive battle for
survival.
The soul dies.
There is no afterlife.
[Continue: Lucretious, “On the Nature of Things”]
•Death is nothing to us. When you are dead—when the
particles that have been linked together, to create and sustain you,
have come apart—there will be neither pleasure nor pain, longing
nor fear.
•All organized religions are superstitious delusions.
The delusions are based on deeply rooted longings, fears, and
ignorance.
•Religions are invariably cruel. Religions always promise
hope and love, but their deep, underlying structure is cruelty. This is
why they are drawn to fantasies of retribution and why they
inevitably stir up anxiety among their adherents. The quintessential
emblem of religion—and the clearest manifestation of the perversity
that lies its core—is the sacrifice of a child by a parent.
•There are no angels, demons, or ghosts. Immaterial
spirits of any kind do not exist.
[Continue: Lucretious, “On the Nature of Things”]
•The highest goal of human life is the enhancement
of pleasure and the reduction of pain. Life should be
organized to serve the pursuit of happiness. There is no ethical purpose
higher than facilitating this pursuit for oneself and one’s fellow creatures
•The greatest obstacle to pleasure is not pain; it is
delusion.
•Understanding the nature of things generates
deep wonder. The realization that the universe consists of
atoms and void and nothing else, that the world was not made for
us by a providential creator, that we are not the center of the
universe, that our emotional lives are no more distinct than our
physical lives from those of all other creatures, that our souls are
as material and as mortal as our bodies—all these things are not
the cause for despair. On the contrary, grasping the way things
really are is the crucial step toward the possibility of happiness
II. Renaissance (1400 – 1650)
and ‘humanism’
-- Surge in Humanism -• “Humanist” scholars & their recovery of ancient classics
• Erasmus – Christian humanist - attempted to humanize
the Church
• Niccoli Machiavelli – a realistic view of state and
governance – Empirical inquiry –
• Gutenberg – the printing press – 1447
• Seeds of science: Leonardo Da Vinci, Copernicus,
Galileo
The Renaissance, in brief
• The Renaissance is the profound revolution in European
thought and culture brought on by the economic, social,
and political changes that started late in 14th and into the
15th Century.
• “..Learning of the Middle Ages had been entirely in the
hands of the clergy. Architecture, sculpture, and painting
were generally commissioned by the Church and
involved a religious purpose or religious subject matter.
As the growth of private wealth in the fourteenth century
produced generous private patrons, learning and art took
on a secular character…”
(The World in Literature, Warnock and Anderson (1959),
page 528)
“it
is no accident that the Renaissance arose
in Italy . . The forces of social change were
further advanced there; the development and
spread of urban life, for example, had
progressed further in Italy than in northern
Europe.”
(A Brief History of Western Man, by T H Greer)
“… the
“renaissance” of the ancients was not simply a
recovery of ancient classics from oblivion, it was the
rebirth of an understanding of ancients in their own
terms, freed from the veil of medieval mysticism.
Only the revival of secular culture made possible this
new perspective, divorced from theology and
symbolism.” (Warnock & Anderson, Op. Cit., 529)
Humanism of the Renaissance
• Humanism awakens with the Renaissance,
which denoted a move away from God to man
as the center of interest. God still remained as
creator and supreme authority --- most of the
Renaissance humanists were far from being
atheists --- but God’s activity was seen as less
immediate, more as general control than as dayto-day interference, and this enabled a scientific
outlook to arise which saw the universe as
governed by general laws, even if these were
laid down by God.
“To
Renaissance humanists the classical view of
man was the proper view. They, like the
ancients, saw man as an aspiring egoist whose
interests were centered in the here and now.
[i.e., secular in nature] If the humanists seldom
renounced religion, they tended to regard it as a
formality or as an extension of man’s
knowledge and power.
“The good life, they thought, is the life that is
pleasing to man’s senses, intellect, and esthetic
faculties. Everything human is inherently good,
though it needs to be cultivated and
proportioned. (Greer, op.cit.,265)
The Italian ‘humanists’ made up the first substantial body
of secular scholars in Europe
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)1304-1374 – 1st
Renaissance humanist - writings of Cicero
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) – writings of
historian Tacitus
Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457) – textual analysis, exposed
“The Donation of Constantinople”
Pico Della Mirandola (1463-1494)
– perfectibility of human nature
Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459) – discoverer of
Lucretious poem “On the Nature of things”
Christian Humanism, Politics,
and Printing
• Desiderius Erasmus (1466- 1536)
The Praise of Folly (1509)
• Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
The Prince, 1513
• Johannes Gutenberg (1395 – 1468)
– the printing press – 1447
Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536 )
– a Dutch Renaissance humanist,
Catholic priest, social critic, teacher and
theologian – a Christian humanist
“.. he devoted his life to research and
writing, visiting the major centers of
learning. … In the classics, Erasmus
found models of behavior that could well
be followed by genuine Christians.
Socrates, Plato, and Cicero were
worthy, he thought, of a place among
the saints. But he read the ancient
writings as a true believer.”
(Greer, p. 273)
Erasmus (continued)
“.. He tried to cleanse the Church and society of
selfishness, cruelty, hypocrisy, pride, and ignorance -and to replace them with tolerance, honesty, wisdom,
service, and love. Repelled by violence and disorder, he
hoped that appeals to reason would bring about peaceful
change. But sometimes he doubted if reform could be
realized peacefully.
His work, The Praise of Folly (1509), is filled with ironic
skepticism and satirical criticism of ecclesiastics among
others. (274)
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
major work: The Prince, 1513
realistic view of state and governance – Machiavelli
set out to see what could learned through direct
observation of the world around him. ..Machiavelli’s work
was a watershed in the history of political thought. …his
view of the state contrasted with that of Thomas Aquinas,
but even greater was the contrast in the methodology of
the two scholars. Aquinas, the scholastic philosopher,
had sought truth mainly by reasoning from authority
(deduction). Machiavelli sought it mainly by generalizing
from collected data (induction). He drew his facts from
recorded history and personal experience. Though he
lacked the system, precision, and control that
characterize modern social science, Machiavelli was
clearly moving toward a new conception of knowledge
and its verification.
(Greer, p.272)
–a
Johannes Gutenberg (1395 – 1468) – Printing
– His use of the printing press – 1447 -
Humanism was an international movement which,
because of the freemasonry of scholars, found its
way to the northern countries before other phases
of the Renaissance.
Humanism was greatly accelerated by the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, which
freed learning from dependence on scribes for the
laborious reproduction of manuscripts, rapidly
increased the circulation of book knowledge, and
destroyed the Church’s monopoly of libraries.
Gutenberg likely contributed as much as the great
Renaissance scholars to the spread of a humanistic
thought.
Seeds of Modern Science
“… the age of the Renaissance saw the first major
discoveries of modern science and ended with the
articulation of the experimental method that was to
expand man’s knowledge of his world immeasurably in
the next period.”
(Warnock and Anderson, The World in Literature, 1959)
• Andreas Vesalius (1514 – 1564) anatomy, study of the human body
• Georgius Agricola (1494 – 1555) –
German scholar/scientist, metallurgy mineralogy
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 – 1519)
Besides his artistic work, Da Vinci had a great
interest in science. He carried on a study of
human anatomy and the mathematics of
perspective, partially to improve his painting and
sculpture, partially out of an enlightened interest
in pure science.
He also was a technological genius. He
conceptualized a helicopter, a tank, concentrated
solar power, a calculator, and the double hull,
and he outlined a rudimentary theory of plate
techtonics.
He made important discoveries in anatomy, civil
engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics, but did
not publish his findings and they had no direct
influence on later science.
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)
Several astronomers of the
Renaissance had questioned the
geocentric theory, but it remained for
Nicolaus Copernicus, a Pole, to
publish a formal challenge in his
Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies
(1543).
He long delayed announcement of
his heliocentric theory, fearing church
persecution as a heretic, but even
ecclesiastical condemnation could not
prevent the spread of his theory and its
acceptance … as the starting point of
modern astronomy.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
The Italian Galileo strengthened
the Copernican theory by
perfecting the first useful telescope
and proved by observing the spots
on the sun’s surface that it turned
on its axis.
Galileo's theoretical and
experimental work on the motions
of bodies, along with the largely
independent work of Kepler and
Descartes, were precursors of the
classical mechanics developed by
Isaac Newton.
In 1633 the Inquisition
found Galileo "vehemently
suspect of heresy", namely
of having held the opinions
that the Sun lies motionless
at the centre of the
universe, that the Earth is
not at its center and moves,
and that one may hold and
defend an opinion as
probable after it has been
declared contrary to Holy
Scripture. He was required
to adjure, curse, and detest
those opinions.
A New Concept of the Universe
• Referring to the great transformation in thought that took
place at this time, Timothy Ferris, states “[that what most
of us learned in school:] “..the transformation in three
acts --- the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and
the Enlightenment, and he states that
• “The Enlightenment is often dated as beginning with the
English Revolution of 1688 and ending with the French
Revolution of 1789. Meanwhile there was for some
reason a scientific revolution, and so the modern world
emerged…”
[Timothy Ferris, The Science of Liberty, (HarperCollins,
2010)]
Science & Enlightenment
• Science & Enlightenment:
Rise of Natural sciences (16th, 17th
centuries) & the Enlightenment, (17th,
18th centuries)
• Secular perspective gains the support of
the natural sciences and rational
philosophies – This results in great
confidence in human achievements and
human potential.
Themes & Names of this Period
•Rise of Science – new concept of the universe
•Francis Bacon – rejection of scholastic
Aristotelianism
•Mathematical Laws: Kepler and Isaac Newton
•A Transformed View of God?
•Rational and Empirical Philosophy
•Immanuel Kant’s statement of the
Enlightenment
•Skepticism
•French Philosophes
Francis Bacon - Empiricism
• Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626) was an English
philosopher, statesman, scientist, and author.
• He has been called the “creator of empiricism”
• He .. advanced a scientific method freed from medieval
objectives and prejudices …
• In the Novum Organ (1620) Bacon denounced the
deductive method of Aristotle, long used by the
Scholastics, because it ignored the facts of observation
except when they confirmed a preconceived truth or a
priori statement.
(Continue) Francis Bacon:
He argued that knowledge must originate in the
careful observation of natural facts and unprejudiced
experiment with them. The scientist must begin with
what is, not with what he has been told there is or
what he believes there should be. Neither bookish
authority, nor our own speculation, nor any prejudice
must stand in the way of our objective observation of
nature.
“Francis Bacon summarized the progress of scientific
method to the end of the Renaissance and led to the
greater achievements of Descartes and Newton in the
next generation.”
[The World in Literature, Warnock and Anderson
(1959) ( p. 534)]
Mathematics applied to physical sciences:
Johannes Kepler (1571 -1630) a German
mathematician, astronomer – best known
for his laws of planetary motion, which
later served as the basis for Newton’s
theory of universal gravitation.
Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727) a key figure
in the scientific . His book, Principia
Mathematica ("Mathematical Principles of
Natural Philosophy"), first published in
1687, laid the foundations for most of
classical physics.
Newton's Principia formulated the laws of motion and
universal gravitation that dominated scientists' view of the
physical universe for the next three centuries. It also
demonstrated that the motion of objects on the Earth and
that of celestial bodies could be described by the same
principles.
By deriving Kepler's laws of planetary motion from his
mathematical description of gravity, Newton removed the
last doubts about the validity of the heliocentric model of the
cosmos.
“Newton's system strongly encourages the Enlightenment
conception of nature as an orderly domain governed by
strict mathematical-dynamical laws and the conception of
ourselves as capable of knowing those laws”
(from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
The “enlightened” concept of the universe had profound
implications for the meaning of human freedom, responsibility,
and ethics, but it raised more disturbing questions about
religious convictions. What was to become of the belief in
God?
The “world-machine” had no need for supernatural guidance,
prayer, priests, sacraments, or penance; these seemed
superfluous, if not contradictory.
Many scientists and intellectuals, however, persuaded that
they could not logically reconcile Christianity with scientific
truth, rejected the former. But most did not give up the idea of
God. Newton had explained the operation of matter in motion,
but he gave no hint of its origin. The question of creation
remained unanswered*. Here was a role for God that
appeared reasonable to the philosophes and other
enlightenment figures.
Rational and Empirical Philosophy
• Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650)
Method of Doubt – Method of Inquiry
• Baruch Spinoza 1632 – 1677)
Rational Ethics – Textual Biblical Criticism –
“I
care not for the girdings of superstition, for superstition
is the bitter enemy of all true forms of knowledge and
true morality” - Spinoza
• John Locke (1632 - 1704)
Empirical Method to Knowledge – Theory of Classical
Liberalism, secular government.
Spinoza, a man ahead of this times.
The Tractatus Theologicus-Politicus (1670) is an
eloquent plea for religious liberty. True religion is shown to
consist in the practice of simple piety, and to be quite
independent of philosophical speculations. The elaborate
systems of dogmas framed by theologians are based on
superstition, resulting from fear.
The Bible is examined by a method, which anticipates in
great measure the procedures of modern rationalists, and
the theory of its verbal inspiration is shown to be
untenable. “The Hebrew prophets were distinguished not
by superior wisdom, but superior virtue, . . .”
Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804 ) A statement of the
Enlightenment:
For Kant “enlightenment” is humankind's release
from its self-incurred immaturity; “immaturity is the
inability to use one's own understanding without the
guidance of another.” Enlightenment is the process
of undertaking to think for oneself, to employ and
rely on one's own intellectual capacities in
determining what to believe and how to act.
“For enlightenment of this kind, all that is needed is
freedom. And the freedom in question is the most
innocuous form of all freedom to make public use of
one’s reason in all matters.”
Skepticism: “…skepticism is not merely a methodological
tool in the hands of Enlightenment thinkers. The skeptical
cast of mind is one prominent manifestation of the
Enlightenment spirit.” But it is a skepticism consistent
with scientific, rational inquiry.
Pierre Bayle (1647-1706 ) - A French Protestant known
for his skeptical questioning of religious, metaphysical,
and scientific dogmas. His epistemological attitude, as
manifest in distrust of authority and reliance on one's own
capacity to judge, expresses the Enlightenment valuing of
individualism and self-determination. - Bayle's Historical and
Critical Dictionary (1697), a strange and wonderful book, exerts great
influence on the age.
It is his “… attitude of inquiry” that marks his thought as a
distinctly enlightenment thought.”
David Hume (1711-1776) – Hume advanced an
empirical philosophy which rejected metaphysics and
theology - the great rational skeptic of the 18th
Century.
Argued that sensationalist-based empirical approach
resulted in skepticism, but also argued an enlightened,
skepticism regarding supernatural religion, e.g., in his
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.
Generally, by his critical, rational form of inquiry Hume
displays a surprisingly modern style of philosophy, and
surely is representative of humanistic, Enlightenment.
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Thomas Paine (1737-1809) : The Age of Reason strong criticism of the Bible – expression and defense
of free thought -
French Philosophes:
The philosophes (French for philosophers) were the
intellectuals of the 18th century Enlightenment. Few
were primarily philosophers; rather, philosophes were
public intellectuals who applied reason to the study of
many areas of learning, including philosophy, history,
science, politics, economics and social issues. . . .They
strongly endorsed progress and tolerance, and
distrusted organized religion and feudal institutions.
Many were deists. (Wikipedia)
The Vision of Progress
Faith in Nature and Reason
New Vision of Human Nature
A few of the Philosophes:
Marquis de Condorcet (1743 – 1794) - a vigorous
optimist. Expressed an unbounded faith in progress. . .
In his Progress of the Human Mind, written during a
chaotic year of the French Revolution (1794),
Condorcet made the most eloquent statement of this
faith in progress.
His expectation of universal happiness on earth was to
prove illusory, but his writings were nonetheless
prophetic. For example: foresaw rapid technological
advances that would improve human life; equal rights
for women, the reduction of poverty, and the ordering
of economic affairs to benefit a large portion of
humanity…
He is representative of great optimism and belief in
progress of the Philosophes
.
François-Marie Arouet “Voltaire” (1694-1778): …
writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit, his
attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his
advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression,
and separation of church and state. .. As a satirical
polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to
criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French
institutions of his day. His famous work: . Candide,
satirizes the passivity inspired by Leibniz's philosophy of
optimism; “The Best of all possible worlds?”
Denis Diderot (1713 – 1784) was a French
philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent
person during the Enlightenment and is best known for
serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the
Encyclopédie along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert
Darwin & Modernity
• Darwin & Modernism*:
19th Century Biological sciences, Darwin’s Theory of
Natural Selection. Evolutionary sciences and other
developments in modern science give impetus to overt
secular views - 19th century skepticism and secularism.
• Secular humanism takes on its modern character.
• Humanistic philosophy (John Dewey) based on scientific
knowledge and opposed to supernatural religions.
* Modernism as philosophical perspective that questioned many
traditional (religious) views in light modern sciences and critical,
historical studies, and critical philosophy.
• Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection and the rise
of the biological sciences (19th century).
• Implications for philosophy and theology – nontheism becomes respectable (?).
• 20th Century: John Dewey’s pragmatic
humanism.
• 19th Century skeptics, free-thought advocates,
agnostics (e.g. Robert Ingersoll).
•Critical studies of scripture and religious history.*
[*Followed by the 20th Century discoveries such as the Dead
Sea Scrolls (Essenes) and the Nag Hammadi documents
(Gnostics)]
Charles Darwin revolutionized the biological
sciences, and it is no exaggeration to claim that his
evolutionary science revolutionized much of Western
thinking.
“Darwin
and Darwinists created a veritable
revolution that profoundly influenced existing
presuppositions about man, religion, the natural
world, social institutions, and even the
fundamental presupposition that change is a
permanent aspect of human life and institutions.”
(Darwin and Darwinism (Revolutionary Insights concerning Man,
Nature, Religion, and Society). Edited and Introduction by Harold
Y. Vanderpool)
Prior to Darwin’s Origin of the Species, it was generally
believed that
•The world of living things ---humans, animals, plants--- were all created by God;
•the Bible and all its teachings were true and the
biological sciences generally conform to the truths of
religion, with some non-literal interpretations of Bible.
•humans are the highest creation of God and
categorically distinct from animal world in their moral,
intellectual, and spiritual nature.
•the moral decency of humans (e.g., compared to apes)
depends on religious truths
Even scientists and philosophers held to some form of this!
But Darwin Changed all that!
•Darwin’s Origin of the Species (1859) effectively
refuted the doctrine of divine creation and fixity of
species; it showed that the Bible was no longer
trustworthy as source for facts about the earth and
human origins.
•Darwin’s later major work, Descent of Man (1871)
further served to erode the religious views of human
origins. Here Darwin effectively applied his theory of
natural selection to human evolution.
•Darwin also had to overcome prevailing views in
Western philosophy: Essentialism & Idealism
(Fixity of Species, Mind-First metaphysics)
(See Daniel Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea;
Ernst Mayr, One Long Argument)
Darwinism undermines all philosophies which deny
(explicitly or implicitly) that naturalistic, material
processes can account for all reality.
-----------------------------------------------Daniel Dennett states that “before Darwin, a “mind-first”
view of the universe reigned unchallenged: an intelligent
God was seen as the ultimate source of all Design, the
ultimate answer to any chain of “why” questions.”
(Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, p. 33) - Mind, the
first and ultimate reality, makes possible the rest of
reality and is necessary for a complete explanation of
reality. .
Dennett recounts how Darwin turned this scheme on its
head by showing that natural, materialistic processes
give rise to complexity, including intelligence (mind).
(see Dennett’s Darwin’s Dangerous Idea.)
“Virtually
all philosophers up to Darwin’s time were
essentialists. Whether they were realists or idealists,
materialists or nominalists, they all saw species of
organisms with the eyes of an essentialist. They
considered species as “natural kinds,” defined by
constant characteristics and sharply separated from
one another by bridgeless gaps.” This thinking
strongly resisted the Darwinian idea that that current
species evolved from earlier species. Hence, Darwin
was required to build a strong, scientific case for the
view that all life forms evolve from a common
ancestor.
(Ernst Mayr, One Long Argument)
In the philosophical world, Darwin often gets a bad rap
because people don’t distinguish between his evolutionary
biological science and social Darwinism.
Most surveys of much modern philosophy mostly ignore the
philosophical implications of Darwin’s work or simply make
references to social and political theories that borrow from
Darwin’s theory of biological evolution.
But the more perceptive 20th century philosophers, writers,
and social scientists recognize the significance of Darwinian
science to many aspects of social, cultural, and intellectual
work. Among these is the great American philosopher, John
Dewey, with his scientifically-based, humanistic thought.
John Dewey (1859-1952’s) Pragmatic Humanism
Basing his work on the relevant findings of the sciences,
John Dewey developed a humanistic philosophy
focusing on a call for intelligence in individual action and
social policy, while shunning the grand speculative
metaphysics and idealism prevalent in much philosophy.
A humanist activist - an original thirty-four signers of the
Humanist Manifesto in 1933 - honorary member of the
Humanist Press Association, predecessor to the AHA.
"What Humanism means to me is an expansion, not a
contraction, of human life, an expansion in which nature
and the science of nature are made the willing servants of
human good."
“..philosophy is significant as a revelation of
predicaments, protests, and aspirations of humanity.”
19th Century Humanists, Positivists, Skeptics, FreeThought advocates, Agnostics.
Auguste Comte (1798-1857) - a French philosopher
- a founder of the discipline of sociology & the doctrine
of positivism - Comte's social theories culminated in
the "Religion of Humanity", which influenced the
development of religious humanist and secular
humanist organizations in the 19th century.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) - strong antiChristian, anti-metaphysics, attack on hypocrisy radical questioning of the objectivity of values & Truth
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Ingersoll (1833 – 1899) – American political
leader & orator - “The Great Agnostic” – great critic of
Biblical Christianity – friend of Walt Whitman
Critical studies of scripture and religious history.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here we have another kind of ‘scientific’ work, critical
scholarship and historical studies on scriptures which
give more support to secular humanists’ rejection of
dogmatic theology.
Starting in the 18th and 19th centuries, historians and
scholars carried out some very effective critical studies
of religious history and scriptures, which further
undermined claims to special religious truth.
The seminal figure in New Testament criticism was
Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694–1768), who applied
to it the methodology of Greek and Latin textual studies
and became convinced that very little of what it said
could be accepted as incontrovertibly true.
Baron d'Holbach (1723-1789) - "Ecce Homo -The
History of Jesus of Nazareth, a Critical Inquiry" (1769),
the first Life of Jesus described as a mere historical
man, published anonymously in Amsterdam.
In the 19th century important scholarship was done by
David Strauss, Ernest Renan, Johannes Weiss, Albert
Schweitzer and others, all of whom investigated the
"historical Jesus" within the Gospel narratives.
All this prepared the way for greater critical study of
scripture in the 20th Century, much of it indicating that
religious scripture is much like any other body of
literature --- the work of human beings.
---- In short, a very humanistic conclusion!
------
That’s All Folks! But you’re forgiven
if you’re still asking: