From the Renaissance to the Scientific Revolution

From the Renaissance to the Scientific Revolution Presented at Central University of Finance and Economics 中央财经大学 Beijing by 卜若柏 Robert Blohm Chinese Economics and Management Academy 中国经济与管理研究院 http://www.blohm.cnc.net June 8, 15 & 22, 2008 2008年6月8日和15日和22日

Modern Philosophy Period • Diminishing authority of the Catholic Church • Increasing authority of science • The State • increasingly replaces the Church as the entity in control of culture, but • has less influence on philosophers than the Church had in the Middle Ages • As in ancient Greece, kings are replaced by democracies and tyrants • Feudal aristocracy • loses its political and economic importance • is replaced by the king in alliance with rich merchants who become absorbed into the aristocracy

Modern Philosophy Period (cont.d) • Liberal culture emerges, associated with commerce • Rejection of ecclesiastical authority • begins before acceptance of scientific authority: the Renaissance is too early for science • is based on classical antiquity: a more distant past than the early Church or the Middle Ages

Modern Philosophy Period (cont.d) • Copernicus’ (1543) heliocentric theory of planetary motion was • the first irruption of science in the Renaissance • improved upon only a century later by Kepler and Galileo who began a long fight between science and dogma. Authority of science: • solely by appeal to reason within a set of procedural rules • not enforced by penalties • does not attempt to establish a complete system covering human morality. This does not mean that applications of science may not be subject to ethical considerations.

Modern Philosophy Period (cont.d) • Emergence of practical science • in attempts to change the world • made science increasingly a technique, and decreasingly a doctrine about the nature of the world. • 2 applications: in • warfare: Galileo and Leonardo da Vinci improved artillery and fortifications • machine production by steam and electricity

Modern Philosophy Period (cont.d) • Growth of individualism because of emancipation from the Church. • Scholastic discipline replaced by eclectic imitation of ancient models • Nothing of importance produced in philosophy until the 17th century • Moral and political anarchy in Italy gave rise to Machiavelli • Display of genius in art and literature

Modern Philosophy Period (cont.d) • Growth of individualism because of emancipation from the Church. (cont.d) • Society unstable: • Reformation • Counter-Reformation • Subjugation of Italy by Spain • causing • end of the good and bad of the Renaissance • spread of the Renaissance to Northern Europe without the same anarchy

Modern Philosophy Period (cont.d) • Growth of individualism because of emancipation from the Church. (cont.d) • Persists into the individualism and subjectivism of modern philosophy, exemplified in • Descartes, who builds up all knowledge from • certainty of own existence • clearness and distinctness • Leibniz’s singular and autonomous “monads” • Locke’s agreement or disagreement of ideas: in psychology “cognitive dissonance/consonance” • Berkeley’s abolition of matter, whose disorderly consequence is avoided by his use of God • Hume’s skepticism • Kant’s and Fichte’s doctrines and temperaments • Hegel, the bad aspects of whose philosophy are avoided in Spinoza • Rousseau’s extension of subjectivity to ethics and politics, ending in the anarchy of Bakunin

Modern Philosophy Period (cont.d) • Technique/technology (control) • conferred a sense power, social not individual • leaving individuals much less at the mercy of the environment • requiring cooperation of people organized in a single direction • requires a well-knit social structure • is considered ethically neutral. Not so today. • is a “can do”, not a “what to do” • in which ends are no longer considered, as only the skilfulness of the process is valued • inspires power philosophies, regarding everything non-human as mere raw-material

Modern Philosophy Period (cont.d) • Need to combine the solidity of the Roman Empire with Augustine’s City of God. Anarchy ended in • the ancient world by the brute force of the Roman Empire which could not be idealized • religion by Catholic doctrine, which ultimately could not be actualized in practice

Italian Renaissance: 15th-Century Recovery of Antiquity • Petrarch (14th century) was first exemplifier of the modern outlook • Fifteenth century cultivated Italians exemplified the modern outlook • Only Leonardo and a few others had the respect for science that characterized innovators since the 17th century

Italian Renaissance:15th-Century Recovery of Antiquity(cont.d) • Emancipation from the Church • Prompted only very partial emancipation from superstition, especially in the form of astrology • First effect of emancipation from the Church was not to make men think rationally but to open their minds to everything from antiquity • Magic and witchcraft might be wicked (and were being persecuted in Germany), but were not thought impossible • Astrology was prized by freethinkers, with a popularity not seen since ancient times • Was morally disastrous. Moral rules were discarded • Rulers • acquired their positions by treachery and • retained it by ruthless cruelty • Cardinals dining at the coronation of a pope brought their own wine and cupbearers for fear of being poisoned

Italian Renaissance:15th-Century Recovery of Antiquity(cont.d) • Had reverence for antiquity • prompting the same reverence for authority as medieval philosophers had, but for the authority of the ancients instead of the Church • making scholars aware that a variety of opinions had been held by reputable authorities on almost every subject • inciting individual genius to rival Hellenic achievements with a freedom unknown since Alexander’s time • Social instability favored individual development, while every stable social system that had ever been devised had hampered the development of exceptional artistic or intellectual merit.

Italian Renaissance:15th-Century Recovery of Antiquity(cont.d) • Italy became free from foreign influence after the death of Emperor Frederick II in the mid 13th century, for 2 1/2 centuries until invasion by French King Charles VIII • 5 main states in Italy: Milan (including Genoa), Venice, Florence, the Papal Domain (including Rome), and Naples. • Milan • led resistance to feudalism • fell under dominion of the plutocratic Visconti family for most of the independence period • until the Sforza family under whom Milan became an object of Spanish-French rivalry • until annexation by (Spanish and Holy Roman) Emperor Charles V.

Renaissance Italy 1350-1600 http://portal.chaminade-stl.com/Portals/87/renaissance%20italy.jpg

Italian Renaissance:15th-Century Recovery of Antiquity(cont.d) • 5 main states in Italy: Milan (including Genoa), Venice, Florence, the Papal Domain (including Rome), and Naples. (cont.d) • Republic of Venice • was an island never conquered by barbarians • first regarded itself subject to the Eastern emperors • had its trade primarily with the East • by redirecting the 4th Crusade to Western conquest of Constantinople, improved.its trade which suffered with the fall of Constantinople to the Turks • defeated • politically by • League of Cambrai formed in defense against Venetian acquisition of Italian mainland territory for food supply • loss of independence to Napoleon • economically by discovery of sea route to India

Italian Renaissance:15th Century Recovery of Antiquity(cont.d) • 5 main states in Italy: Milan (including Genoa), Venice, Florence, the Papal Domain (including Rome), and Naples. (cont.d) • Republic of Venice (cont.d) • evolved politically • from democracy • to a close oligarchy • governed by hereditary Great Council of leading families • with executive power in a Council of Ten elected by the Great Council • the ceremonial head of state the Doge • elected for life • with decisive influence • diplomatically exceedingly astute with ambassadors’ reports that • were remarkably penetrating • are among the best sources for knowledge of the events they cover

Italian Renaissance:15th Century Recovery of Antiquity(cont.d) • 5 main states in Italy: Milan (including Genoa), Venice, Florence, the Papal Domain (including Rome), and Naples. (cont.d) • Florence • most civilized city in the world • chief source of the Renaissance • nobles supported Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, but were defeated by the rich merchants • democratic party of small men eventually • overcame the rich merchants • led to tyranny by the Medici family because of family’s wealth acquired in commerce, mining and other industries, who ruled for 300 years • Cosimo, first clear Medici ruler • --skill in manipulating elections • --no official position • --astute, conciliatory when possible, ruthless when necessary

Italian Renaissance:15th Century Recovery of Antiquity(cont.d) • 5 main states in Italy: Milan (including Genoa), Venice, Florence, the Papal Domain (including Rome), and Naples. (cont.d) • Florence (cont.d) • democratic party of small men eventually (cont.d) • led to tyranny by the Medici family because of family’s wealth acquired in commerce, mining and other industries, who ruled for 300 years (cont.d) • Lorenzo the Magnificent (grandson) • 18-year interruption to Medici rule, begun by Savonarola’s puritan revival • --against gaiety and luxury, • --away from free thought and • --towards the piety of a simpler age • a Medici pope • governed as Grand Dukes of Tuscany until Florence became poor and unimportant

Italian Renaissance:15th-Century Recovery of Antiquity(cont.d) • 5 main states in Italy: Milan (including Genoa), Venice, Florence, the Papal Domain (including Rome), and Naples. (cont.d) • Papal Domain • temporal power of the pope • increased greatly • by methods that robbed the papacy of spiritual authority • manifested by victory over the Conciliar Movement that represented • the most earnest elements in the Church • ecclesiastical opinion north of the Alps in opposition to • --Italians (and to a lesser degree Spain) who were earnest • about culture (elegant Latinity) • --Pope Nicholas V, 1st humanist pope, who gave papal offices • to scholars he respected for humanism rather than for piety or • orthodoxy, including Epicurian Lorenzo Valla who became • papal secretary and • ----debunked the Donation of Constantine • ----ridiculed the style of the Vulgate • ----accused St Augustine of heresy

Italian Renaissance: 15th Century Recovery of Antiquity (cont.d) • 5 main states in Italy: Milan (including Genoa), Venice, Florence, the Papal Domain (including Rome), and Naples. (cont.d) • Papal Domain (cont.d) • temporal power of the pope (cont.d) • ultimately led to pagan warlike policy and immoral life of some popes • Papacy acquired Romagna and Ancona • --originally intended to be a principality for the pope’s son who • together with the pope was • --accused of innumerable murders • Pagan behavior of the papacy prompted the Reformation

Italian Renaissance: 15th Century Recovery of Antiquity (cont.d) • 5 main states in Italy: Milan (including Genoa), Venice, Florence, the Papal Domain (including Rome), and Naples. (cont.d) • Kingdom of Naples, including Sicily • former personal kingdom of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II • absolute Mohammedan-style enlightened but despotic absolute monarchy which gave no • no power to the feudal nobility • repossessed by the French (on the basis of Frederick’s Norman mother) with the Church’s support • French were massacred, and the Kingdom eventually passed to Alphonso the Magnanimous, a distinguished patron of letters, and later to the Spanish.

Italian Renaissance:15th Century Recovery of Antiquity(cont.d) • Italy became diminished by • Spain which ended the Italian Renaissance by • defending Milan and Naples from the claims of France, allied with Florence • leading the Counter-Reformation • under Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, causing Rome to be sacked by a Protestant army, prompting the popes to be religious again • unbelievably complex regional power politics where • there was no feeling for national unity; • the Italian states intrigued against each other, invoking the aid of France or Spain; • minor self-made-tyrant princes allied themselves alternately with one of the larger States; • constant wars (except between the Spanish and the French) were almost bloodless to avoid vocational risk to mercenary soldiers • discovery of America, the Sea route to Asia, and settlement in Macau (澳门) by the Portuguese

Italian Renaissance:15th Century Recovery of Antiquity(cont.d) • Not a great period of achievement in philosophy because humanists were too busy acquiring knowledge of antiquity to produce anything original • Achieved preliminaries for the greatness of 17th century philosophy by • breaking down the rigid scholastic system which had become a straight-jacket • reviving the study of Plato first hand, and encouraging first-hand study of Aristotle • hastened by contact with Byzantine scholarship • while Byzantine ecclesiastics maintained the superiority of Plato to Aristotle at the Council of Ferrara of the temporarily reunified Eastern and Western Churches

Italian Renaissance: 15th Century Recovery of Antiquity (cont.d) • Achieved preliminaries for the greatness of 17th century philosophy by (cont.d) • reviving the study of Plato first hand, and encouraging first-hand study of Aristotle (cont.d) • promoted by • Gemistus Pletho, an ardent Greek Platonist of doubtful orthodoxy • Bessarion, a Greek who became a cardinal • the Florentine Academy devoted to the study of Plato under founder Cosimo, and Lorenzo, de Medici. Cosimo died listening to one of Plato’s dialogues. • regarding intellectual activity as • a delightful social adventure • not a cloistered meditation aiming at the preservation of a predetermined orthodoxy

Italian Renaissance: 15th Century Recovery of Antiquity (cont.d) • Not a popular movement, but a movement of • a small number of scholars and artists • some of whom were avowed free-thinkers, and • most of whom were • impressed by the wickedness of contemporary popes, • but glad to be employed by them, and • therefore not disposed to inaugurate a reformation • They no longer had the medieval feeling for the subtleties of theology and so could see no half-way house between the dilemma of • --people living without vices or without power, or • --clerics living in saintliness or without material benefit, achievable if you deny purgatory which is what Luther did to keep the rest of the Catholic faith

Italian Renaissance:15th Century Recovery of Antiquity(cont.d) (cont.d) • Not a popular movement, but a movement of • a small number of scholars and artists (cont.d) • most of whom were (cont.d) • therefore not disposed to inaugurate a reformation (cont.d) • Italian unorthodoxy was purely intellectual and did not prompt a popular movement away from the Church because the Church’s income was • --only in small part from papal dominions, and consisted in • --mainly tribute from the entire Catholic world because the • pope held the keys to heaven; so, questioning this system • risked • ----the impoverishment of Italy and • ----loss of Italy’s position in the Western world. • who were encouraged by • liberal patrons, especially the Medici and the humanist popes, lacked by Petrarch and Boccacio in the 14th century.

Machiavelli • Florentine. Father a lawyer, neither rich nor poor. • In his 20s when Savonarola’s miserable end made a great impression on him: “Armed prophets have conquered and unarmed ones have failed” • Subsequently named to minor post in Florentine government • Opposed the Medici and was arrested when they returned to power, but he was acquitted and lived in retirement in the country near Florence • Died the year of Charles V’s troops’ sack of Rome, which marked the end of the Italian Renaissance

Machiavelli (cont.d) • A scientific and empirical political philosophy, based on the anecdotal evidence of his own experience of affairs • Determines the means to achieve ends, regardless of the moral value of the ends themselves • Intellectual honesty about potential political dishonesty • unprecedented at any other time or place, • except in Greece among men whose • theoretical training was by sophists and • practical training was in the wars of petty states (the political accompaniment of individual genius)

Machiavelli (cont.d) • The Prince • Dedicated to Lorenzo II de Medici and written to win his favor, vainly it turns out • One-sided view of his doctrine, fully presented in Discourses: does not mention republics in The Prince • How principalities are won, held and lost. Many examples in 15th century Italy: • few legitimate rulers • even popes secured election by corrupt means • no one shocked by cruelties and treacheries that would disqualify a man in the 18th or 19th century

Machiavelli (cont.d) • The Prince (cont.d) • Recommends for imitation the skill of his personal acquaintance, the pope’s son, Caesar Borgia, who prompted the papal acquisition of Romagna and Ancona. Borgia’s failure was due only to “the extraordinary malignity of fortune” due to his • own illness upon his father’s death, and his • consequent inability to prevent his bitterest opponent from succeeding his father. • Chapter “Of Ecclesiastical Principalities” (written in consideration that a Medici had just become Pope) • The only difficulty is to acquire them • Once acquired, they are defended by ancient religious customs. The princes do not need armies because they are upheld by higher causes, “exhalted and maintained by God”. Compare Stalin’s question: “How many divisions does the Pope (Pius XII) have?”

Machiavelli (cont.d) • The Prince (cont.d) • Places eminent men in an ethical hierarchy. In order of preference: founders of religion, of monarchies or republics, then literary men. • Bad men: • Destroyers of religions, subverters of republics or kingdoms, and enemies of virtue or letters are bad • Establishers of tyrannies, like Caesar. Brutus, Caesar’s assassin, was therefore good (in reversal of Dante’s judgement which does not reflect classical literature) • Religion serves the prominent purpose of social cement in the State. Approves of Romans’ pretension to believe in auguries and punish those who disregarded them.

Machiavelli (cont.d) • The Prince (cont.d) • Church has done two bad things: • It has undermined religious belief by its temporal conduct • Popes’ temporal power and the policy it has inspired have prevented the unification of Italy. • Twofold bad influences of the Church • The nearer people are to it, the less religious they are • It has inspired Italians to become irreligious and bad • Cannot therefore admire Caesar Borgia’s purpose, only his skill. Quasi-artistic admiration of skill, for example as a military strategist, was at its historical peak in the Renaissance • Appeals to the Medici to liberate Italy from the French and Spanish barbarians

Machiavelli (cont.d) • The Prince (cont.d) • A ruler will perish if he is always good: he must be as cunning as a fox and as fierce as a lion. • A ruler should keep faith when it pays to do so, but not otherwise • A ruler should be able to disguise his true character, taking advantage of men’s readiness to be deceived to obey their present necessities • A ruler must therefore appear to have the conventional virtues, for example seem to be religious. (No longer possible before people who have read Machiavelli!)

Machiavelli (cont.d) • Discourses. A commentary on Livy, a chronicler of Romans • More republican and more liberal. Like Montesquieu. • Explicit doctrine of checks and balances: princes, nobles, and people should all have a part in the constitution and “then these three powers will keep each other reciprocally in check.” • Lycurgus’ Spartan constitution was best for having the best balance; • Solon’s was too democratic and thereby led to tyranny; • The Roman constitution was good owing to the conflict of Senate and people.

Machiavelli (cont.d) • Discourses. A commentary on Livy, a chronicler of Romans (cont.d) • Political liberty requires a certain kind of personal virtue in the citizens • Since probity and religion are still common in Germany, there are many republics. • Tuscany has preserved its liberty because it contains no castles or gentlemen. • The people are wiser (“the voice of God”) and more constant than princes (contrary to the opinion of Livy and most other writers).

Machiavelli (cont.d) • Discourses. A commentary on Livy, a chronicler of Romans (cont.d) • The Italian Renaissance city-states gave actuality to Greek and Roman Republican political thought. • The Neoplatonists, the Arabs and the Schoolmen took little interest in the political writings of Plato and Aristotle because the City-State political systems had disappeared • The love of “liberty” and the theory of checks and balances come from antiquity • Power is for those to seize it in free competition. Unlike in Northern writers as late as Locke, there are no Christian or biblical grounds for legitimate power in political argument. • Preference for popular government is not derived from any idea of “rights”, but from observation that popular governments are less cruel , unscrupulous and inconsistent than tyrannies.

Machiavelli (cont.d) • Three very important political ends: national independence, security, and a well-ordered constitution. Best constitution apportions legal rights among prince, nobles and people in proportion to their real power: this makes • revolutions more difficult and stability more likely • stability more likely, the greater the power given to the people.

Machiavelli (cont.d) • Effective means are determined by a science of success, for which there are more examples of successful sinners than successful saints. • Power is required to achieve any political end, and power often depends on opinion. • So seeming more virtuous than your adversary is advantageous, and easier if you are virtuous even before a cynical population. • Virtue was an important element of the Church’s rise in power in the later Middle Ages.

Machiavelli (cont.d) • People from a large city are more corruptible in establishing a republic than mountain people. Politicians will behave better • if they depend on a virtuous population • North of the Alps which was shocked enough to stage the Reformation • versus Renaissance Italy’s cynical population • if their crimes can be made widely known, than if there is strict censorship under their control. • Mechanistic versus evolutionary. • Machiavelli tries to create a community all in one piece, like Lycurgus and Solon. • Not evolutionary: community is an organic growth that the statesman can affect only to a limited extent.

Renaissance North of the Alps • later than Italy • entangled with the Reformation • brief period (beginning of 16th century), when new learning spread through England, France, and Germany • not anarchic or amoral • associated with piety and public virtue • involved applying standards of scholarship to the Bible • sought to obtain a more accurate text than the Vulgate

Renaissance North of the Alps (cont.d) • less brilliant, more solid than the Italian Renaissance • less concerned with display of learning • more anxious to spread learning as widely as possible • represented by Erasmus and Sir Thomas More who were close friends. Both • were learned, but Erasmus more than More • despised scholastic philosophy • aimed at ecclesiastical reform from within: deplored the protestant schism

Renaissance North of the Alps (cont.d) • represented by Erasmus and Sir Thomas More who were close friends. Both (cont.d) • were leaders of thought before Luther • More martyred afterward • Erasmus sank into ineffectiveness • represented • temper of a pre-revolutionary age of • demand for moderate reform • timid men not yet frightened into reaction by extremists • dislike of everything systematic in theology and philosophy

Erasmus • Dutch, father was a priest with knowledge of Greek • Parents died and guardians took his money and cajoled him to be a monk • Secretary to Bishop of Cambrai. Travelled. • Highly accomplished in Latin. Greek slight at first. • admired Lorenzo Valla • regarded Latinity as compatible with true devotion, like Augustine and St. Jerome (forgetting Jerome’s dream reprimanding him for Latin)

Erasmus (cont.d) • at University of Paris • he found no interest • best days were over with the end of the Conciliar Movement • old disputes persisted between • Thomists and (Duns)Scotists, called the “Ancients”, and between • them and Occamists, called “Terminists” or “Moderns”, and between • both camps, once reconciled, and humanists making headway outside university circles • he hated scholastics

Erasmus (cont.d) • in England • liked the fashion of kissing girls • resolved to learn Greek in order to edit St. Jerome and bring out a new Latin translation of the Greek Testament, which he accomplished. • discovered inaccuracies in the Vulgate of later use to protestants • gave up trying to learn Hebrew

Erasmus (cont.d) • The Praise of Folly • is dedicated to Sir Thomas More, in playful reference to his Latin name “moros” as meaning “fool” • expresses Protestantism’s eventual rejection of Hellenic intellectualism in favor of the sentimentalism of the North (ancient Greeks viewed Northern races as “spirited” and Southern as “intelligent”) • is spoken by Folly in her own person • says there is no marriage without folly, no happiness without flattery or self-love • says happiest are those closest to the brutes and divested of reason, or full of national pride and professional conceit

Erasmus (cont.d) • The Praise of Folly (cont.d) • ridicules priests who compute the time of each soul’s residence in purgatory, and worship of saints and the Virgin • attacks monastic orders for having very little religion in them yet being highly in love with themselves and reducing religion to minute punctilio • imagines their self-defense at the Last Judgement when Christ berates them as “scribes and pharisees” • notes how these men are feared on earth for the many secrets they know from the confessional • criticizes popes’ departure from humility and poverty by too frequent use of non-spiritual sanctions against enemies

Erasmus (cont.d) • The Praise of Folly (cont.d) • promotes an alternative kind of folly in the form of Christian simplicity • in rejection of scholastic philosophy and learned doctors whose Latin was unclassical • as the first expression of Rousseau’s later claim that religion comes from the heart, not the head, and that all elaborate theology is superfluous. • during second visit to England • stayed for 5 years, in London and at Cambridge • influenced the English public school curriculum until the 20th century, • in its thorough grounding in Greek and Latin including translation, verse, and prose composition, including study of Plato • avoidance of science which, while intellectually dominant since the 17th century, was still thought unworthy of the attention of a gentleman or a clergyman

From the Renaissance to the Scientific Revolution