Renaissance Period

Renaissance 1450-1600
 Definition: “ Rebirth”

 Cultural Movement that originated in the Italian city-states of northern Italy and
then spread to the rest of Europe
 Period of history from 1450-1600.
 The Renaissance (14th through 16th centuries) was the period of transition from
medieval to modern philosophy
 There was renewed study of the works of ancient philosophers besides Aristotle
 Natural philosophy was invigorated
 the Renaissance indicates an interest in human beings, their activities, abilities,
and capabilities.
 II. RENAISSANCE HUMANISM
& SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
A. Introduction

 “Humanism” denotes an intense interest in human beings, as if we were
discovering ourselves for the first time.

 Moved from more God-centered interests to more human centered interests.

What was the Scientific Revolution?

 Scientists begin to question traditional beliefs
 Use of logic and reason, observation and experimentation
 Intense interest in the past.
• Intense interest in the works of the
early Greek and Roman poets,
philosophers, and politicians.
Individualism. • Desire to read and study originals,
• The concern for human potential not interpretations.
and achievement. The
individual has the power to
make a positive effects.
Anti-Aristotelianism.
• Anti-Aristotelian sentiment was prevalent
among humanist scholars

• Wanted to stop the Church’s practice of strict

Personal religion. adherence to Aristotelian science and
• Personal religion was a desire for philosophy as the prime authority with the
a less formal, ritualistic religion. Bible.
• Emphasis on religion experienced • The combination of Aristotle’s philosophy and
personally rather than imposed Christian theology, had created a complex set
upon people by the church. of rules, regulations, and beliefs that required
blind acceptance to be a Christian.
1. Francesco Petrarch (1304 - 1374)
• Father of the Renaissance.

• He attacked Scholasticism as stifling the human spirit . Petrarch

desired a more personal religion based on the Bible, personal faith,
and feelings.

• He insisted that God had given humans their vast potential and
wanted humans to use their capabilities to actualize potential, and
thus make the world better. Petrarch’s views about human potential
helped stimulate the many artistic and literary achievements that
characterized the Renaissance.

• Argued that a person’s life in this world is at least as important as life

after death

• Believed the classics be studied not for their religious implications but
because they were the works of unique human beings.
2. Giovanni Pico (1463–1494)
• Pico proposed that only humans have capacity for
change
Can choose instinctual, sensual lives and become
brutish.
Or exercise rationality and intelligence and become
more angelic and Godlike.

• Argued that all philosophical views were reconcilable.

Ultimately in agreement and all should be studied and
assimilated into the Christian worldview.

• Authored Oration on the Dignity of Man which has been

called the "Manifesto of the Renaissance”
3. Desiderius Erasmus(1466-1536)
• He wrote The Praise of Folly
He attacked the church, philosophers, and nobility.
His criticisms may have led to Martin Luther’s actions

• Opposed fanatic belief in anything.

• Criticized the classics, claiming that anything created
by humans was inherently imperfect.
• Attacked all forms of superstitions

• Desired people to take lessons from simple life of Jesus

instead of the pomp and circumstance of the Church.

• Was generally critical of excesses of all kinds, both within

the Catholic Church and the protestant religions.
Desiderius Erasmus(1466-1536)

• He believed that war was caused by fanaticism and was

nothing more than homicide, and he was especially
disturbed by bishops who became rich and famous
because of war.

• Commended women for their role as caregivers but argued,

contrary to the prevailing view, that they should have access
to education. He also argued against the idea that celibacy
is superior to marriage (Rummel, 1996, p. 3).
4. Martin Luther (1483–1546)
• Insisted on an intensely personal religion (each person is answerable
only to God)
• Deemphasized ritual and church hierarchy.

• Initiated the Reformation in 1517 by nailing ninety-five Theses to the

door of the church in Wittenberg.
• Had progressive ideas about sex and marriage.

• Luther also disagreed with the Catholic church over the compulsory
celibacy of nuns and priests.
First he noted that many church leaders “lived in open liaisons with
mistresses and fathered illegitimate children” and, like his contemporary
Erasmus, he denounced “the lawless clergy who went whoring or kept
concubines” (Marty,2004, p. 102).

Second, Luther believed that married couples are as capable of doing

God’s work as any nun or priest.
Luther’s Denial of Free Will.
• No free will as humans are servants to the will of God.
– “In all things pertaining to salvation or damnation, man has no free will,
but is captive, servant and bondslave, either to the will of God, or to the
will of Satan”
• God is the only one who knows why evil exists.

• Led Protestantism
– Denied the authority of the Pope
– Each person had the right to interpret the Bible for himself or herself.
• It insisted on accepting the existence of God on faith alone.
• To understand God through reason was foolish.
5. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)

• Proposed an extreme form of skepticism

• Human rationality caused most of human problems.
• Animals lack rational powers, therefore are superior to
humans.

• Rejected science as a means to attain reliable knowledge because

scientific “truth” is in constant flux.
Sensations are illusory
Didn’t share optimism expressed by other Renaissance humanists.
RENAISSANCE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
6. Claudius Ptolemaeusm, known as “PTOLEMY” (second century A.D.)

– Roman mathematician, astronomer, ge

ographer and astrologer.

Ptolemaic system
– Proposed a Geocentric system of the
universe
• Earth is the center of all heavenly bodies
• Became part of Church dogma put man as
center of the universe and creation.
RENAISSANCE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
7. ARISTARCHUS OF SAMOS (310 BC – 230 BC)
– Greek astronomer and mathematician,
born
D. on the island
Aristarchus ofofSamos
Samos, in Greece.
He was the first Greek

– Was the first man in general, to present

an explicit argument for a heliocentric
model of the solar system
• Placed the Sun, not the Earth, at the center
of the universe.
RENAISSANCE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
8. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543)

• He was the first astronomer to formulate

a scientifically-based heliocentric cosmolo
gy that displaced the Earth from the center
of the universe.
• Copernicus’s heliocentric theory questioned the traditional place of humankind in t
he universe. Once this realization occurred, a number of related questions
followed:

1. Were we favored by God and therefore placed in the center of the universe?
If not, why not?

2. If the church was wrong about this vital fact, was it wrong about other things?

3. Were there other solar systems that contained life?

4. If so, how were they related to ours, and which did God favor?
RENAISSANCE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
9. GIORDANO BRUNO (1548 -1600)

• an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet,

and cosmological theorist
• Believes that the magical religion of the ancients was the on
ly true religion.

• Believed in philosophy of HERMETISM

– Professes the divinity of humans, the existence of magical
forces that can be used to benefit the human kind and harm
ony among humans , stars and planets, and in the universe t
here are innumerable inhabited worlds and each worlds “the
sun” is divine.
RENAISSANCE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
9. GIORDANO BRUNO (1548 -1600)

• He proposed that the stars were just distant suns

surrounded by their own exoplanets and raised the
possibility that these planets could even foster life of
their own (philosophical position known as cosmic
pluralism).

• Accepted Copernicus’s Heliocentric Theory not for

scientific reasons but because it restored the divine
status given to the sun by the ancients.
RENAISSANCE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
10.JOHANNES KEPLER (1571 – 1630)
– Accepted heliocentric position
• It explained the universe in a simple mathe-
matical harmony.
• Proved many of the mathematical details of t
he Copernican system
• Anticipated Newton’s concept of gravity
– Insisted that all mathematical deductions be
verified by empirical observation.
RENAISSANCE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
11. GALILEO GALILEI (1564[-1642)
– Italian physicist, astronomer, mathematician,
& philosopher

• Father of Modern Science

• Explained the mathematical reality that existed b

e-yond the world of appearances

• “The ultimate explanation of reality must be in te

rms of the rational order of things; that is, the ulti
mate explanation must be mathematical.”
Mathematical studies allowed for distinction of objective and subjective reality.

Subjective Reality
Objective Reality
-Another type of reality is created by the
Includes what later would be called sensing organism; this reality consists of
primary qualities, which is what came to be called secondary qualities.
absolute, objective, immutable,
and capable of precise -Secondary qualities (which constitute
mathematical description subjective reality) are purely psychological
including: Quantity, shape, size, experiences and have no counterparts in the
position, and motion of objects. physical world.
Examples of secondary qualities
include the experiences of color,
sound, temperature, smell, and taste.
• Galilei believed Impossibility of a Science of Conscious. Exp
erience.Thus, Galileo excluded from science much of what i
s now included in psychology, and many modern natural sci
entists refuse to accept psychology as a science for the sam
e reason that Galileo did not accept it.

• There have been many efforts to quantify cognitive experien

ce since the time of Galileo, and in so far as these efforts ha
ve been successful, Galileo’s conclusions about the measur
ement of secondary qualities were incorrect. How successfu
l these efforts have been, however, has been and is widely
disputed
Because so much of our conscious experience consists of seco
ndary qualities, and because such qualities can never be descri
bed and understood mathematically, Galileo believed that consc
iousness could never be studied by the objective methods of sci
ence.
RENAISSANCE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
12. ISAAC NEWTON (1643 – 1727)
– English physicist, mathematician,
astronomer, natural philosopher, alche-
mist, and theologian.
• Saw the universe as a complex,
lawful machine created by God
who set in motion, after which He
ceased involvement (DEISM).

– He believed in a rationally immanen

t world, but saw evidence of design.
Upon discovering the “Law of Gravity”
• “Although the universe was a machine that God h
ad created, it operated according to principles that
humans could discover.”
• Newton found that these principles could be expre
ssed precisely in mathematical terms—thus his co
nclusion that

“God was a mathematician.”

RENAISSANCE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
13. FRANCIS BACON (1561 –1626) “KNOWLEDGE IS…POWER”
• Argued that science should based on induction, it only includes fact
s of observation.

• Baconian Science
– Generalizations made from many observations, noting their simi
larities and differences, and used to describe event classes
– Maintained that science should not include theories, hypotheses,
mathematics, or deductive methods.
– Proposed methods of agreement, difference, and concomitant va
riation.
– Science should: Provide useful information and improve the world
for mankind

**Skinner and behavior analysis adopted the Baconian inductive method

and the view that the main goal of science is to improve the human cond
ition.
Two Different Types of Experiments

01 02

EXPERIMENTA FRUCTIFERA
EXPERIMENTA LUCIFERA (EXPERIMENTS OF FRUIT)
(EXPERIMENTS OF LGHT)

-designed to discover -designed to explore how

causal the laws of nature might be
relationships, utilized.
Four sources of error that could hinder scientific investigation
according to Bacon:
01 Idols of the cave
Personal biases that arise from a person’s intellectual endowment, experiences, education, and feeling
s. Any of these things can influence how an individual perceives and interprets the world.

02 Idols of the tribe

Human nature biases, all humans have in common the abilities to imagine, to will, and to hope, and
these human attributes can and usually do distort perceptions.

03 Idols of the marketplace

are biases that result from being overly influenced by the meaning assigned to words. Verbal labels
and descriptions can influence one’s understanding of the world and distort one’s observations of it.

04 Idols of the theater

are biases that result from blind allegiance to any viewpoint, whether it be philosophical or
theological.
RENAISSANCE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
14. RENE DESCARTES (1596- 1650)

• “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am)

– He was a French philosopher, mathematician
and scientist.
– Father of modern Philosophy.
– He is accredited as the father of analytical g
eometry.
RENAISSANCE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
14. RENE DESCARTES (1596- 1650)
• He decided that he would be better off learning things for himself instead
of from the “experts” (self – exploration)
– Through self analysis, he determined that some ideas are innate
(natural components of the mind).

• INNATE IDEAS ,Ideas, like perfection and the axioms of geometry, that
Descartes believed could not be derived from one’s own experience. Such
ideas, according to Descartes, they were placed in the mind by God.

• Descartes’s method for analysis consisted of intuition and deduction.

– Intuition is the process by which an unbiased and attentive mind ar
rives at a clear and distinct idea, an idea whose validity cannot be d
oubted.
– Deduction is the method of reasoning by which conclusions must follo
w from certain assumptions, principles, or concepts.
RENAISSANCE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
14. RENE DESCARTES (1596- 1650)

THE REFLEX
(coined the term "reflex")
– Explained animals and humans employed mechanical
principles.
– The nervous system was a set of hollow tube
s connecting the sense receptors with cavitie
s in the brain (the ventricles)which are filled wi
th animal spirits which flow through the nerv
es resulting in sensation and movement.
• When the animal spirits flowed to the appropriate muscles
, they caused the muscles to expand and thus caused be
havior.
RENAISSANCE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
14. RENE DESCARTES (1596- 1650)

Example
• A person’s foot coming near a flame. The heat causes a pull on the threads
connected to cavities of the brain containing animal spirits. The pull opens
one or more of these cavities, allowing animal spirits to travel down small,
hollow tubes (nerves) to the foot muscles, which in turn expand and withdr
aw the foot from the flame. This was the first description of what was later
called a reflex.

That is, an environmental event (heat) automatically causes

a response (foot withdrawal) because of the way the organism is
constructed (nerves, muscles, and animal spirits).
RENAISSANCE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
14. RENE DESCARTES (1596- 1650)

THE MIND-BODY INTERACTION

• In humans, the mind provided consciousness, free will, and r
ationality. The mind was thought of non- physical , it could n
ot be located anywhere.
• He determined that the mind influenced the body at the pineal
gland in the brain.
– Mind  Body
• When the mind willed something to happen, it stimulated the p
ineal gland, which in turn stimulated appropriate brain areas, c
ausing animal spirits to flow to various muscles and thus bring
ing about the willed behavior.
RENAISSANCE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
14. RENE DESCARTES (1596- 1650)

THE MIND-BODY INTERACTION

• DESCARTES AS A DUALIST- CARTESIAN DUALI
SM
-According to Descartes ,the nonphysical mind and the
physical body can influence each other.
RENAISSANCE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
14. RENE DESCARTES (1596- 1650)
• EMOTIONS
-Emotions are related to the amount of animal spirits inv
olved in a response; the more animal spirits, the stronger the emo
tion. Emotions are experienced consciously as passions such as l
ove, wonder, hate, desire, joy, anger, or sadness.
According to Descartes, the will can and should control
the passions so that virtuous conduct results. If, for example,
anger is experienced and angry behavior is appropriate, the mind
will allow or even facilitate such behavior. If, however, such
behavior is seen as inappropriate, the mind will attempt to inhibit
it. In the case of an intense passion, the will may be unable to
prevent the reflexive behavior, and the person will act irrationally.
RENAISSANCE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
14. RENE DESCARTES (1596- 1650)
CONTRIBUTIONS TO PSYCHOLOGY

1. The mechanistic explanations of behavior and many bodily

functions
– Could be said to have led to stimulus-response explanations
and behaviorism.

2. The focus on the brain as an important mediator of behavior.

– Description of the mind-body relationship provided others
the opportunity to support or refute it.

3. Studied the bodies of animals as a means to understand the

functioning of human bodies. Led to physiological and compara
tive psychology.
– He paved the way for the scientific study of consciousness
.
THE ENLIGHTENMENT OCCURRED B/W
1650 -1789
The intellectuals of the Enlightenment (called
Philosophes)
• Belief in the idea of “progress”
• A desire for political and social change
Once the laws were known people could make
society better What’s new?: Enlightenment
philosophers believed reason could be
What’s the same?: Like all of these other used to uncover the laws that govern
movements, much Enlightenment thinking human life and wanted to use the ideas
challenged accepted beliefs. . and reason of the Scientific Revolution
for problems in government and society
Five Key Ideas of the Enlightenment
Reason: absence of intolerance, bigotry or
The five important prejudice in one’s thinking; beliefs should
philosophical concepts be rational and free of biases
are: •Nature: natural laws exist w/out man’s
creation; what was natural was good and
1. Reason reasonable; God is found in nature
2. Nature •Happiness: a person who lives by nature’s
3. Happiness law finds happiness; argued against
medieval notion that people should accept
4. Progress misery as part of life’s circle; Philosophes
5. Liberty believed in well-being on earth
•Progress: Philosophes believed
individuals could seek perfection and in
THOMAS HOBBES (1588-1679)
►Hobbes believed people are naturally selfish, cruel, and
greedy.

►In 1651, he published a book called Leviathan. In this book,

he wrote that people are driven by a restless desire for
power.

►Without laws, people would always be in conflict.

►In such a “state of nature”, life would be “nasty, brutish, and

short.”

►His idea: Governments were created to protect people from

their own selfishness. His ideas may sound harsh, but it was
based on his own observations of human nature and
reasoning.
JOHN LOCKE (1632 - 1704) : Social Contract and Natural
Rights
• He wrote Two Treatises of Government in 1690.
• He believed the purpose of government was to protect
people’s natural rights. He said government should
protect,” his life, liberty, and property—against the
injuries and attempts of other men.”

• His idea: The true basis of government was a social

contract between people and their government. If the
government didn’t respect people’s rights, it could be
overthrown.
►In exchange protection, people gave government the
power to rule on their behalf. We call this idea the
“consent of the governed.”
►Lasting Impact: the idea that government could be
overthrown if it failed to respect people’s rights.
VOLTAIRE (1694-1778)

• (real name François-Marie Arouet) a French philosopher and

writer

• Believed in the freedom of press and used it to expose the abuses

of corrupt political and church leaders.
• Fought for civil liberties- rights/freedoms of citizens
• Freedom of Speech
• Religious Tolerance (means the acceptance of different beliefs
and customs.):Freedom of Religion
• Separation of Church and State
• Believed that humanity’s worst enemies were intolerance,
prejudice & superstition
Voltaire Continued…

►Voltaire said, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will

defend to the death your right to say it.”

►His writings angered government and church officials.

He was imprisoned and forced into exile. To stop his
ideas from spreading his books and writings were
outlawed and burned.

►Lasting Impact: Voltaire met Benjamin Franklin, and

when the U.S. Bill of Rights was written, the ideas of
freedom of religion and freedom of speech were
added.
Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794): The Rights of the Accused
►In the Middle Ages, torture of criminals was common.
The rack was often used, as well as devices like
thumbscrews.
►Beccaria, an Italian, wrote a book called On Crimes
and Punishments in which he argued against brutal
punishments.
►His ideas: A person accused of a crime should receive
a fair and speedy trial. Torture should never be used.
Capital Punishment (death sentences) should be done
away with.
►“For a punishment to be just it, should consist of only
such gradations of intensity as to suffice to deter men
from committing crimes.” This means that
“punishment should fit the crime” and not be more
than necessary to stop someone else from doing it
again.
CHARLES DE MONTESQUIEU (1689-1755)
• Criticized absolute monarchies—admired Britain's limited monarchy and said it
protected people’s rights.
• Believed having 3 branches in government would prevent tyranny
• Having a separation of powers would prevent any one branch from
gaining too much power over the other two

• Believed gov’t should be split into these three branches, and that each branch
should be able to serve as a check on the other two:
-Executive (enforces laws)
-Legislative (makes the laws)
-Judicial (applies laws)

“In order to have…liberty, it is necessary that government be

set up so that one man need not be afraid of another.”
JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712 - 1778)
• Believed that people were naturally good, but were
corrupted by society

• Unequal distribution of property was an especially great

evil of society
• Stressed the importance of the general will- the will of
the people as a whole
• Believed the good of the community should be placed
above individual interests- common good
• Hated all forms of political and economic oppression
ROUSSEAU’S SOCIAL CONTRACT
• Rousseau wrote The Social Contract where he Remember— a social contract is an
lays out his ideas of government and society arrangement where people give up
their rights to be protected by the
• Society places too many limits on peoples’ government
behavior- some controls are necessary but should
be minimal

• Only governments that had been freely elected

should impose law

• Sovereignty (the power to make laws) should be

in the hands of the people, and therefore the only
good government is a direct democracy
ADAM SMITH (1723 - 1790)
• Father Of Modern Economics, and sometimes as the Father Of
Modern Capitalism
• Adam Smith was a Scottish economist who greatly admired
the physiocrats.
• Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations, in which he argues
for a free market without government interference.
• He believed that the forces of supply and demand should
run the market—whenever there was a demand for goods
or services, suppliers would try to meet that demand in
order to gain profits.
• Though Smith believed the government should stay out of
the economy, he believed that it had a duty to protect
society, administer justice, and provide public works.
 ENLIGHTENMENT FOR WOMEN
• Natural Rights were for men only. Though
enlightened thinkers said that women had
natural rights, they were limited to the areas
of home and family.
• Some women were exposed to enlightened
philosophy through salons. Prominent and
wealthy women would host informal parties
where enlightened thinkers could gather
and discuss literature, the arts, science,
philosophy and politics.
• Salons allowed Enlightenment ideas to
spread- because they were hosted by women,
guests were forced to speak in vernacular.
 ENLIGHTENED WOMEN

• MARY ASTELL
• Wrote A Serious Proposal to the Ladies (1694)
• Questioned the lack of educational opportunities for women
• Criticized the unequal relationship between men & women in a
marriage

• MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT
• Wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)
• Women need education to participate equally in public life
 The Spread of Enlightenment
In addition to salons, the theories of enlightened thinkers spread rapidly through the distribution of
pamphlets and books. People began to question the “traditional way” of doing things.

Before After
-Absolute monarchs rule by divine right -Government should work to protect the
people
-Church has authority
-Flexible social classes- all people have rights
-Strict separation between nobles and peasants
-Happiness on earth
-Suffer in life and be rewarded in heaven
 CENSORSHIP- restricting access to ideas & information

• Not everyone embraced the philosophes ideas-

most government and church authorities felt they
had a sacred duty to defend the old order that had
been established by God.
• These leaders waged a war of censorship- they
burned books and imprisoned or exiled enlightened
thinkers.
• However, enlightened thinkers still found ways for
their messages to be heard. Many disguised their
ideas in works of fiction. Despite the attempts of the
old order, Enlightened thought continued to
spread.
Summary:

1.Both the Renaissance and the Enlightenment world view contributed not only to European
history but the progress of human history. A world view is a definite set of ideals or beliefs of
people in a specific period of time.

2.Both world views encourage the progress of discovery and knowledge. At the same time they
empowered humans in their own capabilities.

3.The Renaissance world view is a departure from its predecessor, the Medieval world view. In
this type of world view, there was an emphasis on art and other artistic forms. This period also
anchored and celebrates the artistic side of humanity. In addition, the Renaissance gave rise to
changed human perspectives towards religion and the Church. These different perceptions
allowed scrutiny and reform toward religious views and issues.
4.On the other hand, the Enlightenment world view is a continuation of the Renaissance world view except for the
difference in focus. This world view is more focused on science, reason, and logic. The pursuit of discovery in the
Renaissance period continued. This particular world view of objectivity, rationality, and the use of reason is still
observable today in the modern era. It deals more on the human intellectual side.

5.-The Renaissance world view is what prompted the movement of discovery and objectivity, though its main focus
is on the humanistic perspective and view.
-The Enlightenment is the culmination of the use of reason, rationality, and objectivity and became the period’s sole
focus and viewpoint.

6.Both world views have had significant impacts on each other. The Renaissance influenced the growth of interest in
reason, science, and technology. Meanwhile, the Enlightenment is still prevalent in today’s modern world view. The
basic tenets of objectivity and reason are still used today in many areas.
 EMPIRICISM,
SENSATIONALISM,
AND POSITIVISM