Claudius Claudius Ptolemaeus,Ptolemaeus,100-178 AD100-178 AD

Ptolemy (from behind), holding globe before Strabo, in School of Athens, by Raphael, 1509-10, Vatican

Ptolemaic Geocentric View Ptolemaic Geocentric View of Universe: It just made of Universe: It just made

sense.sense.

Dante Alighieri and Dante Alighieri and The Divine The Divine ComedyComedy,,

1265-13211265-1321

The RenaissanceThe Renaissance

Dante and His Poem, fresco by Michelino,

Florence, 1465

The Divine Comedy,

1308-1321

The RenaissanceThe Renaissance

The RenaissanceThe Renaissance

HellPurgatory

Heaven

The truth you seek to fathom

lies so deep in the abyss of the eternal law, it is cut off from every creature’s sight.

And tell the mortal world when

you return what I told you, so that no man presume to try to reach a goal as high as this.

(Divine Comedy, Paradiso, XXI, 94-102)

sperospero

“Death has not reached him yet,” my

master answered, “nor is it guilt that summons him to torment; but that he may gain full experience, I, who am dead, must guide him here below. . . . ”

(Divine Comedy, Inferno, XXVIII, 46-49)

spero, espero, esperienza, experience

to look for, seek; to hope for; to await; to fear

“ . . . one thing excepted, which lay at the bottom [of Pandora’s jar], and that was hope.”

(Bulfinch’s Mythology, 15)

The fear of God?

Gustav Doré, 1867

esperienzaesperienza

. . . to this brief waking-time that still is left unto your senses, you must not deny experience of that which lies beyond the sun, and of the world that is unpeopled.

(Divine Comedy, Inferno, XXVI, 114-17)

“

Gustav Doré, 1867

Nicolaus Nicolaus Copernicus, 1473-Copernicus, 1473-

15431543

Astronomer Copernicus: Conversation with God, by Jan Matejko, 1872.

The scientific The scientific revolutionrevolution

Cover page of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolution of the Heavenly Bodies), 1543.

Copernicus’s heliocentric view of the universe put the sun in the center.

The scientific The scientific revolutionrevolution

The The SCHOLASTICSSCHOLASTICS

St. Thomas St. Thomas Aquinas,Aquinas,

1224-1274 1224-1274

Rationality:

1. There is something moving.

2. Everything that is moving is put into motion by something else.

3. But this can go back only so far.

4. There must be an initial (prime) mover.

5. Therefore, that prime mover is God.

Empiricism:

1. We observe order and purpose around us.

2. There must be a causative agent behind that order and purpose.

3. That agent must be an intelligent designer.

4. Therefore, that intelligent designer is God.

The age of skepticsThe age of skeptics

Michel de Michel de Montaigne, 1533-Montaigne, 1533-

15921592

† How much can human beings presume to learn from rational inquiry alone?

† If empiricism is based on senses, does that alone make it infallible?

† Do not our senses deceive us?

The ERA of Empistemological Angst

The age of skepticsThe age of skeptics

Michel de Michel de Montaigne, 1533-Montaigne, 1533-

15921592

Reason hath so many shapes that wee

know not which to take hold of. Experience hath as many.

Montaigne Essays, Book III, Chapter 13

THERE IS no desire more naturall than

that of knowledge. We attempt all meanes that may bring us unto it. When reason failes us, we employ experience.

Montaigne Essays, Book III, Chapter 13

Whence ensueth this Platonicall subtilty, that

neyther those which know have no further to enquire, forsomuch as they know already; nor they that know not, because to enquire it is necessary they know what they enquire after.

Even so in this for a man to know himselfe,

that every man is seene so resolute and satisfied and thinks himselfe sufficiently instructed or skilfull doth plainely signifie that no man understands any thing, as Socrates teacheth Euthydemus.

My selfe, who professe nothing else, finde

therein so bottomlesse a depth and infinite variety, that my apprentisage hath no other fruit than to make me perceive how much more there remaineth for me to learne. To mine owne weaknesse so often acknowledged I owe this inclination which I beare unto modesty, to the obedience of beliefes prescribed unto me, to a constant coldnesse and moderation of opinions, and hatred of this importunate and quarrellous arrogancy, wholly beleeving, and trusting it selfe, a capitall enemy to discipline and verity.

Montaigne Essays, Book III, Chapter 13

O, how soft, how gentle, and how

sound a pillow is ignorance and incuriosity to rest a well composed head upon.

I know not what to say to it; but this is

seene by experience, that so many interpretations dissipate and confound all truth.

Of one subject we make a thousand:

And in multiplying and subdividing we fal againe into the infinity of Epicurus his Atomes . It was never seene that two men judged alike of one same thing: And it is impossible to see two opinions exactly semblable, not onely in divers men, but in any one same man at severall houres.

Montaigne Essays, Book III, Chapter 13

There are very few examples of life

absolutely full and pure. And our instruction is greatly wronged in that it hath certaine weak, defective, and unperfect formes proposed unto it, scarcely good for any good use, which divert and draw us backe, and may rather be termed corrupters then correcters. Man is easily deceived. One may more easily goe by the sides, where extremity serveth as bound, as a stay and as a guide, then by the midway, which is open and wide, and more according unto art then according unto nature, but therewithall lesse nobly and with lesse commendation. The greatnesse of the minde is not so much to drawe up and hale forward, as to know how to range, direct, and circumscribe it selfe.

Montaigne Essays, Book III, Chapter 13

The age of skepticsThe age of skeptics

Michel de Michel de Montaigne, 1533-Montaigne, 1533-

15921592

“What do I know?”from “Apology for Raymond Sebond,” ca. 1580

The age of skeptics:The age of skeptics:JansenismJansenism

Blaise Pascal, Blaise Pascal, 1623-16621623-1662

Jansenists: School of thought within Catholicism in the 1600s

Draws on philosophy of St. Augustine (364-430 AD)

Augustinians embraced Platonism

•Why do we have senses?

•Why do we have memory?

•Ideal Forms

•The One

Blaise Pascal, Blaise Pascal, 1623-16621623-1662

A Thinking ReedA Thinking Reed

Blaise Pascal, Blaise Pascal, 1623-16621623-1662

Man is but a reed, the most

feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapor, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But, if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him, the universe knows nothing of this.

All our dignity then, consists in

thought. By it we must elevate ourselves, and not by space and time which we cannot fill. Let us endavour then, to think well; this is the principle of morality.

Wretchedness Wretchedness of the human conditionof the human condition

Blaise Pascal, Blaise Pascal, 1623-16621623-1662

416. Wretchedness being deduced from greatness, and greatness from wretchedness, some have inferred man's wretchedness all the more because they have taken his greatness as a proof of it, and others have inferred his greatness with all the more force, because they have inferred it from his very wretchedness. All that the one party has been able to say in proof of his greatness has only served as an argument of his wretchedness to the others, because the greater our fall, the more wretched we are, and vice versa. The one party is brought back to the other in an endless circle, it being certain that, in proportion as men possess light, they discover both the greatness and the wretchedness of man. In a word, man knows that he is wretched. He is therefore wretched, because he is so; but he is really great because he knows it.

MiseryMisery

Blaise Pascal, Blaise Pascal, 1623-16621623-1662

171. Misery. -- The only thing which consoles us for our miseries is diversion, and yet this is the greatest of our miseries. For it is this which principally hinders us from reflecting upon ourselves and which makes us insensibly ruin ourselves. Without this we should be in a state of weariness, and this weariness would spur us to seek a more solid means of escaping from it. But diversion amuses us, and leads us unconsciously to death.

HappinessHappiness

Blaise Pascal, Blaise Pascal, 1623-16621623-1662

172. We do not rest satisfied with the present. We anticipate the future as too slow in coming, as if in order to hasten its course; or we recall the past, to stop its too rapid flight. So imprudent are we that we wander in the times which are not ours and do not think of the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists. For the present is generally painful to us. We conceal it from our sight, because it troubles us; and, if it be delightful to us, we regret to see it pass away. We try to sustain it by the future and think of arranging matters which are not in our power, for a time which we have no certainty of reaching.Let each one examine his thoughts, and he will find them all occupied with the past and the future. We scarcely ever think of the present; and if we think of it, it is only to take light from it to arrange the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means; the future alone is our end. So we never live, but we hope to live; and, as we are always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable we should never be so.

The WagerThe Wager

Blaise Pascal, Blaise Pascal, 1623-16621623-1662

Is there in fact such a thing as The Good – an infinite, perfect, unchanging One (i.e., God)?

Reason cannot tell us for certain.

This is a matter for faith (belief).

How can a reasonable, thinking individual accept a matter of faith?

Take The Wager:

Door No. 1: You may believe in God, and God existsDoor No. 2: You may believe in God, but God does not existDoor No. 3: You do not believe in God, but God existsDoor No. 4: You do not believe in God, and God does not exist.

Which door will you choose?