Humanities 3The Last Class

Lecture 29

Where Have We Come From?Where Are We Going?

Outline

• Paradise Lost: Conclusion• Exam Format• Review: The Four Questions• Modernity and Progress

Adam’s Choice

Free willReason

Follow God’s command

Eat the fruit and fall with Eve(passion of love: 9.908-16, 955-9, 997-999)

true good

false good

Consequences• The first effect of Adams’ eating the fruit is lust

(9.1004-1016)• Then shame--before their bodies and their

transgression: innocence is lost• Then recriminations (of disobedience and

ingratitude): “Thus it shall befall/Him who toworth in Women overtrusting/Lets her Will rule;restraint she will not brook/And left to herself, ifevil thence ensue/She first his weak indulgencewill accuse.” (9.1182ff)

Patience and Heroic Martyrdom (9.25-33)

• Paradise has been destroyed, a highway tohell is build

• In desperation, Eve proposes that she andAdam die, so as not to pass on the curse ofsin to their progeny (10.992-1006)

• Adam rejects this: only if they endure lifepatiently and accept God’s “just yoke/Laidon our necks” will Satan be avenged(10.1013-46, 1078-96)

Final: Paradise Lost• You are responsible for books I-X• A collection of important passages is on the class

website

In general• You are responsible for all the material we have

covered in class (including my lectures)• The essay part of the exam will emphasize texts

covered since your second paper, especiallyLeviathan and Paradise Lost

• A sample exam is available on the website

Format of FinalPart I (25%): Short answer questions (2-4 sentences; no

multiple choice)Answer five out of six questions (5 pts each)

Part II (75%): EssaysAnswer three out of four questions (25 pts each)Your answers will be judged stronger to the extentthat you present your ideas in clear, coherent proseand can reference specifics in particular texts tosupport your claims.All you need are pens and a blue book (or two). Youdo not need texts, study materials, or cell phones

Final: How to Study• Focus first on Leviathan and Paradise Lost. !These

books will be crucial for the final.• Review my lecture slides. !They present the main

ideas that you are likely to be asked about.• Organize your thinking according to the topics laid

out on the syllabus: Italian Renaissance, Spain andthe New World, etc. !Think about the differentissues raised in each section of the course and thebroad themes that tie them together. !The latter aredescribed in the course Overview, which you canget from the website.

The Four Questions

• What are we?

• Who are we?

• What can we know?

• What can we say?

What are we?

• Prior to the 17th c., everyone in the J-C-Iworld believed that human beings are createdby God in his image

• At various points in history attempts aremade to unify this with the (pagan) theologyfound in Plato and Neoplatonists such asPlotinus (3rd c. CE)

• These two perspectives on the relationship ofGod and humanity clash at several points(Athens versus Jerusalem)

• One is the extent to which God is to beconceived as a perfect intelligence asopposed to a sovereign lawgiver and judge ofman’s righteousness

• Another concerns the perfectibility of humannature: how close can we come to divinity?

Christian Orthodoxy• Because of the Fall there are strict limits on

our perfectibility (original sin)• The prelapsarian state of Adam and Eve is

not perfection in the sense of divinity butmoral innocence (purity, lack of guilt)

• They are responsible for their fall becausethey have freely chosen to disobey God’scommand

• Our fallen nature makes it impossible toperfect our nature intellectually or morallyin a way that would guarantee salvation(eternal life and happiness)

• Redemption (remission from sin) is possibleonly through divine grace, conferred byJesus Christ (“the Son”)

• Hence only Christians can attain salvation,and not even all of them (only the “elect”)

Who are we?

• Traditionally in Europe, defined by religion:Jew, Christian, Muslim

• Emerging European national identities(England, France, Spain, Germany)

• Who are the indigenous peoples of the NewWorld? Are they us? Can they become us?(e.g. through religious conversion)

A Common Humanity?• Greek philosophical thought offers the basis

for a conception of humanity as universal,based on our shared reason

• Prior to the 17th century, this universalismwas usually associated with Christianity,which aspired to be a universal religion(“Catholic”=universal)

• Montaigne is inspired by ancient ideals ofuniveralism

• But Montaigne characterizes our humanityless in terms of a shared reason than sharedexperiences, emotions, and ways of living(“On the Cannibals”)

• Human beings are united by a commonhumanity as opposed to a common divineorigin (Shakespeare)

The Relation ofPolitics and Religion

• Is political authority, citizenship and lawgrounded in religion?

• Or does politics demand conceptions ofpolitical authority, citizenship and law thatare independent of religion (and henceneutral with respect to the claims ofdifferent religions)?

What can we know?

Because we are made in the image of Godand endowed with reason, we are capable ofwisdom: knowledge of God and the secretsof nature.

versusBecause we are fallen and our reasoncorrupt, we are capable of knowing almostnothing of God or the secrets of nature.

The Emergence of Science• Bacon attacks the basis of Aristotle’s picture

of nature• He argues for the improvement of the human

condition through the progress of knowledge• Thus, our fall has not been complete: even in

this life, our dominion over nature can berestored through science (NO II.52)

• Bacon cites Genesis 3:19: “In the sweat of thyface shalt thou eat bread.”

• Book X of PL ends by invoking the same text,though without the suggestion of unendingprogress:

such fire to use,And what may else be remedy or cureTo evils which our own misdeeds have wrought,He will instruct us praying, and of GraceBeseeching him, so as we need not fearTo pass commodiously this life, sustain’dBy him with many comforts… (1077-84)

• Galileo goes beyond Bacon in producing amathematical physics that overturnsAristotle’s cosmology

• This physics and Galileo’s observations withthe telescope confirm the Copernican theory

• For Galileo, science has an independentauthority as knowledge: this knowledge isseen as dictating how we should interpretscripture

What can we say?

• Language is fundamental to humanity

• Speech, the uttering of intelligible sounds,is a mark of reason (the serpent)

• All the texts we have read are attempts toexpress in language the aspirations, fearsand self-understandings of humanity

• But language consists of signs that must beinterpreted, and interpretation is alwayssubject to indeterminacy

• Thus we cannot rule out the possibility ofmisinterpretation and multipleinterpretations

• Interpretation of the Bible bears this out:literal, allegorical, “hidden” levels ofmeaning

• But the same is true of any literary text (e.g.Julius Caesar, Paradise Lost)

• We can attempt to discern the author’sintention or we can respond to it in terms ofwhat it means to us

• We can try to understand what it wouldhave meant in its historical context in lightof contemporary theological or politicalthought

Science and Interpretation• Bacon suggests that the goal of science is an

“interpretation of nature” (NO I.28)• But he also criticizes philosophers’ reliance

on meaningless words (idols of themarketplace)

• Galileo: earlier attempts to understand naturehave lacked the correct translation key: theBook of Nature is written in the language ofmathematics

Looking Ahead

What is Progress?• The different monotheistic religions each

represent a goal for humanity that is definedby a divine plan

• The conception of progress that emerges inthe 17th c. is distinct from this

• It links the ancient Greek idea of theperfectibility of human beings to theinvention of modern science

• Progress in knowledge is in principleunending

• And it promises unending advances inmaterial prosperity, moral enlightenment,and individual autonomy

• Bacon: “We intend at the end… to hand men theirfortunes when their understanding is freed fromtutelage and comes of age, from which animprovement of the human condition must follow,and greater power over nature.” (II.52)

Questions• Looking at the world today, here and

abroad, how far along the road of progresshave we come?

• Certainly not far enough to make thelessons of the 15-17th c. irrelevant to us

• Was the road of progress the right road toset out on? Have we take a wrong turnalong the way? What today represents theroad of progress?

THE END