Homework Check:

1. Homework Check: • Explain the difference between essence and existence using “What is a unicorn” as an example. • What was the major argument presented by William Ockham, known as Ockham’s Razor? • Thomas Aquinas believed a child is born tabula rasa. Explain the meaning of this.

2. Scholasticism • The philosophers who attempted to reconcile the beliefs of the Christian church and the ideas which had come down to them from the Greeks were known as “Schoolmen,” and the philosophies which they developed were in general called “Scholasticism.” • *Loyal members of Christian church • *Believed the doctrine without serious question • *Wanted to show that doctrines were reasonable and justifiable by the mind of man

3. Medieval Philosophy • John the Scot-aka John Scotus Erigena • Correct reasoning cannot lead to false conclusion. There can be no conflict between reason and divine revelation. They are both ways at arriving at truth. • Set out to rationally demonstrate truths of the Christian faith • Danger: his work could render both faith and revelation unnecessary

4. Erigena • God is unknowable, in the sense of not being the sort of entity that constitutes a possible object of knowledge. It is impossible for God to know himself, to understand his own nature. • Correct reasoning cannot lead to false conclusions • Conclusions, therefore cannot be no conflict between reason and divine knowledge • Creation is a kind of self manifestation wherein the hidden transcendent God creates himself by manifesting himself into a visible (but not material) human

5. Erigena • Divisions: • 1. That which creates and is not created • 2. That which creates and is created (ideas) • 3. That which is created and does not create • 4. That which is neither created nor creates • 1st and 4th refer to God as beginning and end of all things

6. Teleological Argument (design) • The natural world around us contains many apparently complex and seemingly well-designed working structures that appear to serve well various purposes. • It is improbable for these natural processes and structures to have just been around forever, or else to have been produced by blind chance • There is a divine designer behind the mechanisms of nature and responsible for the designs we see there

7. As a house implies a builder, and a garment a weaver, and a door a carpenter, so does the existence of the Universe imply a Creator. --Akiba in Midrash • 1. So far as we are able to determine, every highly complex object with intricate moving parts is a product of intelligent design. (the only such objects whose ultimate origin we are sure about are artifacts designed by people) • 2. The universe is a highly complex object with intricate moving parts. (from observation) Therefore, • 3. Probably, the universe is a product of intelligent design. • 4. No one could design a universe but God. (It's a big job) Therefore, • 5. Probably, there is a God

8. Ontological Argument • Human reason alone can draw at least one important conclusion about what exists in reality. • We have many ideas of things that don't exist, like unicorns and fairies. Typically when we have an idea of something that might exist, we have to somehow go look to see whether the ultimate inventory of reality includes any such thing or not. • God -”That than which no greater can be conceived” or “the greatest possible being”

9. Ontological Argument • 1. God is the one and only greatest possible being. • 2. A greatest possible being has the greatest form of existence possible, which is necessary existence, or existence in all possible circumstances. • 3. It is at least possible that there is a God. (There is a God in some possible set of circumstances, whether they are actual circumstances, or fictional, yet possible, ones) • 4. A God who exists in any possible circumstances exists in all. • 5. God exists in the actual world.

10. Cosmological Argument • Why is there something rather than nothing? How could all this profusion of being come to exist at all? Why is there light, and matter? • A cosmos or orderly universe of being exists. • The only adequate explanation for that fact would be the existence of a being very different from anything in that universe.

11. Cosmological Argument • 1. The existence of something is intelligible only if it has an explanation. • 2. The existence of the universe thus either a) is unintelligible, or b) has an explanation. • 3. no rational person should accept 2-a. • 4. A rational person should accept 2-b: the universe has an explanation.

12. Cosmological Argument • 5. There are only three kinds of explanation: • Scientific: independent initial physical Conditions + relevant Laws= Event • Personal: explanations that cite the desires, beliefs, powers, and intentions of some personal agent. • Essential: the essence of the thing to be explained necessitates its existence or qualities

13. 6. The explanation for the existence of the whole universe can't be scientific. (There can't be initial physical conditions and laws independent of what is to be explained.) • 7. The explanation for the existence of the whole universe can't be essential. (The universe is not the sort of thing that exists necessarily.) Therefore (hold onto your desk), • 8. A rational person should believe that the universe has a personal explanation • 9. no personal agent but God could create an entire universe. Therefore, • 10. a rational person should believe that there is a God • It is impossible to account for the creation of the universe without the agency of a Supreme Being. --George Washington

14. Medieval Renaissance 13th century • Interchanges between Christian and Islamic cultures • Aristotle’s works return from Arab world to Europe • Time of Arthurian Legends • French gothic cathedrals • Oxford and Cambridge University • Magna Carta/ House of Commons

15. Thomas Aquinas • Greatest philosopher since Augustine • Put together all the best stuff argued so far in Dark Ages and showed its compatibility to Christian belief • Incorporated Jewish, Islamic, Aristotle • Distinction between Philosophy and Religion/ reason and faith

16. Thomas Aquinas • Our knowledge is acquired through sensory experience- on which our minds then reflect • Tabula Rasa • “The soul is known by its acts” • Knowledge we gain is through God's creations- justification

17. Existence and Essence • Essence- what the thing is • His problem with ontological argument- provides the essence, not the existence. • Page 60, right column, middle paragraph-- Chicken or egg argument.... • --God must be pure existence

18. Duns Scotus • Criticized Aquinas's positions • Proofs of immortality of the soul aren't proofs at all • Distinction between reason and faith

19. KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID • William of Ockham furthered his work: necessity in logic but not in the natural order of things; can't reach any knowledge of world through purely logical argument—observation and experience provides us with reliable basis for knowledge. • Ockham's razor: 2 alternative explanations for the same phenomena the more complicated is more likely to have something wrong with it-- the more simple is the more likely to be correct.

20. Whatever God does is by definition good, regardless of what it is. There are no objective values apart from God's commands. “If God had commanded his creatures to hate himself, hatred of God would have been praiseworthy.” • Disapproved of Church's use of tons of money to construct buildings in honor of people. • Pope got mad—jailed, broke out, excommunicated-- but not executed. Spiritually inked out, not physically cut off. • Place of burial is marked by a plaque in a parking garage in Germany.

21. Roger Bacon (1214-1294) • 4 Causes of Ignorance (criticisms of the church) • He openly attacked clerical ignorance • Unsuited Authority • Custom • Unlearned crowd • Wisdom that covered up ignorance

22. John Wycliffe (1324-1484) • Righteousness alone gave people the right to property and power-- corruption • Wycliffe pointed out-- Christ and early apostles had no property and the clergy shouldn’t either • King was God's vicar and the church was subject to him • Translates the vulgate into English—gave access to people besides the clergy

23. Scholasticism • Initially shook up Catholicism, but Strengthened it in the long run • Accepted Aristotle as a greater thinker than Plato • Developed as a reaction to corruption in the church

24. Thomas More (1478-1535) • Beheaded for refusing to agree to Henry 8th • Wrote Utopia- sets out how a perfect society should be run • Equality of sexes, freedom of religion, a representative democracy and no private property • Laying the foundations of secular politics and a scientific way of thinking

25. Martin Luther (1482-1546) • Authority of the bible supreme over church tradition • Said that men must obey their rulers at all times.

26. John Calvin (1509-1564) • His ideas about a civil life organized in an egalitarian way influenced the Pilgrim Fathers of America • Egalitarian- one who believes in the equality of all people • His radicalism gave rise to Presbyterianism and Congregationalism

27. Zwingli (1484-1531) • Attacked the clergy for their corrupted image of living celibate, “poor,” unworldly lives • Denied transubstantiation- bread and wine becoming Christ's flesh and blood in eucharist • CATHOLIC RESPONSE: counter-reformation Council of Trent: doctrine was reformed and discipline restored

28. CHURCH ESTABLISHES NEW ORDERS – ESP. JESUITS *ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA (1491-1556) – EX-SOLDIER, SPANIARD, FORMS HIS SOCIETY OF JESUS ALONG MILITARY LINES. *STRENUOUS FIGHTERS OF HERESY, VIGOROUS MISSIONARIES, AND CREATED THE BEST SCHOOLS IN CHRISTENDOM. **COUNTER-REFORMATION SLOWS THE SPREAD OF PROTESTANTISM BUT DID LITTLE FOR PHILOSOPHY….

29. SO—WHAT HAS ALL THIS GOT TO DO WITH PHILOSOPHY? SCIENCE HAS ALWAYS BEEN CONNECTED WITH PHILOSOPHY, AND IN THE 17TH CENTURY ADVANCES IN SCIENTIFIC THINKING STARTED OFF WHAT WE CALL “THE MODERN WORLD” AND “MODERN PHILOSOPHY”