Renaissance and the Scientific revolution Earth centrism: Middle AgesHeliocentric: New Science M. Torres History of Western Philosophy. IES Campo San Alberto, Noia 1 Middle Ages Universe R. Osborne and R. Edner, Philosophy for beginners. 2 M. Torres History of Western Philosophy. IES Campo San Alberto, Noia 3 4 Renaissance Individualism. Humanism. The Renaissance Man as a whole educated man in all the arts. Classicism. Neo- Platonism ANTHROPOCENTRISM Renaissance" means "rebirth" because it was believed that the human spirit had to be reawakened as it was in the classical (Greco-Roman) times. 5 M. Torres History of Western Philosophy. IES Campo San Alberto, Noia R. Osborne and R. Edner, Philosophy for beginners. History and culture Marco Polo (c 1324) Gutenberg printing press, J. Gutenberg (c 1468) 1492 C. Columbus encounters America. Martin Luther (1483 1546) John Calvin (1509 1564) Counter-Reformation (Catholic Reformation) beginning with the Council of Trent (15451563) The Thirty Years' War (16181648) religious conflict between Protestants and Catho -lics in the Holy Roman Empire M. Torres History of Western Philosophy. IES Campo San Alberto, Noia 6 The School of Athens, fresco by Raphael(15091510), Renaissance: historical context Renaissance a historical age in Europe that followed the Middle Ages and preceded the Reformation, spanning roughly the 14th through the 16th century. The Italian Renaissance of the 15th century: a re-connection of the west with classical antiquity, the absorption of knowledge a focus on the importance of living well in the present (Renaissance humanism), and an explosion of the dissemination of knowledge brought on by the advent of printing The Italian Renaissance was often labeled as the beginning of the Modern Age, or the Early Modern. 7 Raffael: The School of Athens M. Torres History of Western Philosophy. IES Campo San Alberto, Noia Renaissance philosophy. 8 Renaissance philosophy is the period between the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment. Elements of Renaissance philosophy are the revival (renaissance means "rebirth") of classical civilization and learning; a partial return to the authority of Plato over Aristotle, who had come to dominate later medieval philosophy; and, among some philosophers, enthusiasm for the occult and Hermeticism. Humanism an increasing focus on the temporal and personal over merely seeing this world as a gateway to the Christian afterlife. Pico della Mirandola ( ) wrote Oratio de Hominis Dignitate or Discourse on the Dignity of Man in 1486 called "the manifesto of the Renaissance", where he invokes Plato and Aristotle to argue for a conception of human worth Petrarch ( ) Leonardo Bruni ( ) Lorenzo Valla ( ) Marsilio Ficino ( ) Pietro Pomponazzi ( ) Pico della Mirandola ( ) Desiderius Erasmus ( ) Niccol Machiavelli ( ) Thomas More ( ) Martin Luther ( ) Juan Luis Vives ( ) Michel de Montaigne ( ) Giordano Bruno ( ) Francis Bacon ( ) Galileo Galilei ( ) Rene Descartes ( ) Nicholas of Cusa (1401 1464) Tommaso Campanella (1568 1639) Franciscus Patricius ( ) Thomas Hobbs ( ) M. Torres History of Western Philosophy. IES Campo San Alberto, Noia Induction M. Torres History of Western Philosophy. IES Campo San Alberto, Noia 9To draws generalized conclusions from a finite collection of specific observations. (inductive probability) After observing three millions of white swans we could induce that Swans are highly probably white by nature. Deduction Deductive arguments show that a conclusion necessarily follows from a set of premises or hypotheses. A deductive argument is valid if the conclusion does follow necessarily from the premises. An example of a deductive argument: 1.All men are mortal 2.Socrates is a man 3.Therefore, Socrates is mortal M. Torres History of Western Philosophy. IES Campo San Alberto, Noia 10 Roger Bacon (c. 12201292) Roger Bacon English Franciscan friar described a repeating cycle method of research: observation, hypothesis, experimentation, and the need for independent verification. He recorded the way he had conducted his experiments in precise detail, with the idea that others could reproduce and independently test his results. ObservationHypothesisExperimentation Independent verification M. Torres History of Western Philosophy. IES Campo San Alberto, Noia 11 Nicolaus Copernicus ( ) Heliocentrism About 1532 Copernicus had basically completed his work on the manuscript of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium; but despite urging by his closest friends, he resisted openly publishing his views, not wishingas he confessedto risk "to which he would expose himself on account of the novelty and incomprehensibility of his theses." M. Torres History of Western Philosophy. IES Campo San Alberto, Noia 12 Galileo Galilei ( ) "Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe... It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures;.... Galilean`s telescope Experimentation: time of descent was independent of their mass Galileos scientific method M. Torres History of Western Philosophy. IES Campo San Alberto, Noia 13 R. Osborne and R. Edner, Philosophy for beginners. Tycho Brahe (1546 1601) Brahe was most famous for his accurate observations. He was able to construct an observatory to measure the positions of the stars and planets. The accuracy of these measurements was greater than had ever been made before. Once all his data was collected, he hired a student named Kepler to assist him with processing the data. Brahe would, unfortunately, die before establishing the rules for planetary motion. M. Torres History of Western Philosophy. IES Campo San Alberto, Noia 14 Johannes Kepler ( ) Kepler believed that the sun represented the spiritual essence and presence of God and should be placed at the center of the universe. He discovered Brahe's observations and calculations and set about using them to develop a new, sun- centered universe. In the Keplerian universe, the planets orbited around the sun and remained in their orbital paths; these paths, however, were elliptical rather than circular (by revising Copernicus's model through the use of Brahe's calculations, he produced a mathematical model of the universe that perfectly predicted planetary motions and accounted for every instance of planetary precession). This model he published in the book New Astronomy in 1609, and it instantly created a sensation. It would also inspire an Italian astronomer, Galileo Galilei, to fit his new observations into this Keplerian universe. It still didn't explain why the earth didn't move out from under us when we jumped in the air. Why would the planets move elliptically? M. Torres History of Western Philosophy. IES Campo San Alberto, Noia 15 Francis Bacon's eliminative induction (15611626) Bacon's method relied on experimental histories to eliminate alternative theories Bacon showed an uncompromising commitment to experimentation. M. Torres History of Western Philosophy. IES Campo San Alberto, Noia 16 Sir Isaac Newton (1643 1727) M. Torres History of Western Philosophy. IES Campo San Alberto, Noia 17 Newton outlines his four "rules of reasoning" in the Principia, 1.We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances. 2.Therefore to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes. 3.The qualities of bodies, which admit neither intension nor remission of degrees, and which are found to belong to all bodies within the reach of our experiments, are to be esteemed the universal qualities of all bodies whatsoever. 4.In experimental philosophy we are to look upon propositions collected by general induction from phnomena as accurately or very nearly true, notwithstanding any contrary hypotheses that may be imagined, till such time as other phnomena occur, by which they may either be made more accurate, or liable to exceptions. R. Osborne and R. Edner, Philosophy for beginners. Newtons Principia The fundamental arguments of the book were the following: 1.The universe could be explained completely through the use of mathematics; mathematical models of the universe were accurate physical descriptions of the universe. 2.The universe operated in a completely rational and predictable way following the mathematics used to describe the universe; the universe, then, was mechanistic. 3.One need not appeal to revealed religion or theology to explain any aspect of the physical phenomena of the universe. 4.All the planets and other objects in the universe moved according to a physical attraction between them, which is called gravity; this mutual attraction explained the orderly and mechanistic motions of the universe. M. Torres History of Western Philosophy. IES Campo San Alberto, Noia 18 A Mechanical Universe: everything could be fix, dont you think? M. Torres History of Western Philosophy. IES Campo San Alberto, Noia 19 R. Osborne and R. Edner, Philosophy for beginners.