Topic 13- Enlightenment

• The Enlightenment - Essentials

  •  C. 1630-1800
  •  Intellectual movement 
  • Emphasis on the power of reason to increase knowledge and improve the human condition 
  • Often hostile to tradition 
  • Often hostile to Christian faith
• The Enlightenment - Factors in its rise

  •  Religious conflict 
  • Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) 
  • Religious Toleration 
  • Intellectual Successes
• Descartes- Background

  •  1596-1650 
  • French 
  • Devout Catholic 
  • Humanist education-rejected for experience and introspection 
  • Scientist, mathematician, philosopher
• Descartes: First and Second Meditations

  First:

  Everything that he accepted as true is from his senses. Things like 2 + 2 = 4 and the shape of a square. But things that are based on composite things like medicine or physics can be doubted. By being doubtful of everything, he can at least protect himself from evil.

  Second:

  He goes back to contemplating whether his senses are real or not. From the wax, he knows that he sees the wax, but he cannot imagine the countless possibilities of the shapes wax can form into. All things perceived from his senses to his mind are clear perceptions.
• Pascal's Background

  •  1623-1662 
  • French 
  • Mathematician, physicist, philosopher, theologian 
  • Devout Catholic 
  • Theologian of the heart
• Pascal's Wager

  •  Reason Inconclusive 
  • Finite Loss, Infinite Possible Gain 
  • Go with God 
  • Actual Outcome: Certainty (Wager excerpt, number 233)
• Jefferson's Deism

  •  God who creates, rewards, punishes (incl. in afterlife) 
  • Jefferson’s “Bible” – no miracles 
  • Against “priestcraft” 
  • For “natural religion” 
  • For religious freedom