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Class 18 : Early Modern Metaphysics

Class 18 : Early Modern Metaphysics. Dr. Ann T. Orlando 12 March 2014. Introduction. Rationalists and Empiricists France in 17 th C Descartes Pascal Metaphysics and Physics. Epistemology. Real question: how do we ‘know’

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Class 18 : Early Modern Metaphysics

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  1. Class 18: Early Modern Metaphysics Dr. Ann T. Orlando 12 March 2014

  2. Introduction • Rationalists and Empiricists • France in 17th C • Descartes • Pascal • Metaphysics and Physics

  3. Epistemology • Real question: how do we ‘know’ • What is best method for coming to certain (or probable) knowledge • What is relation (if any) of knowledge to God and Revelation • In my opinion, • Enlightenment answer is one of either presumption or despair • We still living in the Age of the Enlightenment

  4. 17th C Philosophy • ‘Paradigm’ shift in 17th C also led to search for ‘new’ philosophy • Driven by changes in • Politics • Physics • Religion • Voyages of discovery • Two different philosophical approaches: • Rationalists • Empiricist

  5. Philosophical Developments During the 17th C • Rationalist: Knowledge is from innate ideas(mathematicians) • Rene Descartes (1596-1650) • Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) • Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) • Empiricists: Knowledge is from senses (physicists) • Francis Bacon (1561-1626) • John Locke (1632-1704) • Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

  6. 17th C Philosophy: Rationalists • Rationalist: Knowledge is from ideas • Rene Descartes (1596-1650) • Mathematician and discoverer/inventor of analytic geometry and algebra • “I think, therefore I am” • Dualistic approach to mind and body • Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) • Mathematician and discoverer of many of laws of probability • Member of Jansenists: heretical Catholic group that was very Augustinian • Pascal’s Wager on the existence of God • Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) • Mathematician and co-discoverer of calculus • Because God is all good, this must be the best of all possible worlds • Complex metaphysics; many similarities to Stoicism • Coined term theodicy

  7. France: Intellectual Center in 17th C • France most important country in Europe • Victor in 30 Years War • Most populous country • University of Paris • French Academy established in 1653 by Cardinal Richelieu to promote all things French • Remains arbiter of ‘official’ French language • French becomes the language of culture in 17th C • Developing intellectual currents • Libertine morals • Skeptical epistemology

  8. Rene Descartes (1596-1650) • Born in France, but spent most of his life in protestant countries of Netherlands and Sweden • Philosopher, mathematician, ‘theoretical’ physicists • Discovered (invented) analytical geometry • Marriage of algebra and geometry • Claimed that mathematics not only described but represented (was) physical mechanisms • Cosmos guided by universal mathematical laws • The Meditations

  9. The Meditations (1639) • Written by Descartes to consider how we know • Written in French • Knowledge and even existence based on the fact that we recognize that we know (I think, therefore I am) • Attempts to establish the foundations for physics • The Meditations was circulated among Parisian intellectuals for response, then Descartes wrote a reply to these critiques

  10. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) • Born in France, spent his life in France • Father was a minor aristocrat; family deeply religious • Attracted to Jansenism • Pascal important experimental physicists • Existence of vacuums by experiments with barometers • Pascal even more important as mathematician • Probability theory (gambling)

  11. Jansenism • Cornelius Jansenius (1585-1638) • Belgian bishop • Opposed to policies of Louis XIV • Wrote Augustinus, published after his death • The ‘Catholic Calvinism’ • Supported Augustine’s view of corruption of man’s nature, and double predestination • Very influential in France, especially against Jesuit more optimistic view of human nature • Condemned by Pope Innocent X in 1653, and French Assembly of Clergy in 1681

  12. Convent at Port Royal and Pascal • Center for spiritual and intellectual elite of France • Most famous follower was Blaise Pascal, whose sister was head of convent • Pascal opposed Jesuit view that man could come to some certain knowledge of God and morality through his natural reason. • Pascal accepted the paradox that man was at the same time made in God’s image and man had a corrupted nature after the fall. • So man had a simultaneous claim to glory and depravity • But Pascal was not just writing against the Jesuits; also against rising tide of atheism that developed after the Thirty Years War

  13. Pascal’s Wager • Can not prove with certainty that God exists • But one must chose; cannot live in a state of agnosticism (same as atheism) • Observing the universe would lead one to at least 50-50 chance that God does exist • What is lost if I believe in God, and He does not exist? What is at stake if I do not believe and He does exist? • Therefore the rational thing to do is to wager for God

  14. Assignments • 1. Hitchcock, Chapter 10. • 2. Blaise Pascal Pensees Series III available at http://www.classicallibrary.org/pascal/pensees/pensees03.htm

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