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 RenaissanceThe 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 humanismSophist, 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 now-famous 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 possibleAntisthenes (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 particlesThe universe has no creator or designerNature 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 day-to-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 CiceroGiovanni 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

– a 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)

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 inven-tion 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.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 – non-theism 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, Free-Thought 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 anti-Christian, 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: