Modernity: A Hitchhikers Guide

1
Modernity A Hitchhikers Guide

• The Not-all-you-need-to-know-but-this-will-give-y
  ou-a-bluffers-head-start introduction to
  modernism

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William of Ockham the Via Moderna

• Everything relating to God (including the
  existence of God) is known only by revelation.
• Individual things are known on their own terms.
  (science) Theology known only by revelation.
• Occams view is known as nominalism, since the
  names given to things are not copies of universal
  ideas.

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The Rise of the Via Moderna

• All knowledge is of one type there is no
  distinction between philosophy and theology.
• Two paths emerged
• Renaissance - Humanism (Scientific Philosophy)
• Reformation - The acute Augustinianization of
  the Church. All true knowledge depends on
  revelation.

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The Renaissance The Foundation of Modernity

• Renaissance - rebirth of classical study
• Focus on man as the ultimate standard. Leonardo
  Da Vinci - homo mensura Man is the measure of
  all things
• Francis Bacon and The New Atlantis. Scientific
  experimentation will lead to a complete mastery
  over the natural world and therefore the
  continued happiness of humanity. Led to an
  application of scientific induction to every
  discipline. (philosophy, psychology and theology)

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The Enlightenment

• Began with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and
  ended with the 30 years War and the publication
  of Kants Critique of Pure Reason in 1781.
• Displaced a theocentric view of the universe
  which held that the universe as a whole was
  explainable only by theological categories.
• Enlightenment thinkers placed human beings at the
  center of the story of history, and elevated the
  powers of the human mind.

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Kants Copernican Revolution

• In Critique of Pure Reason, Kant argued for a
  shift in understanding between the premodern and
  modern person
• Kants shift to the subject

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The Age of Reason

• Enlightenment thinkers began to appeal to human
  reason rather than externally imposed revelation
  as the final arbiter of truth. In fact, they
  appealed to reason in order to determine what
  constitutes revelation. We could characterize
  the resulting mind-set by turning Anselms thesis
  on its head I believe what I can
  understand. -- Stanley Grenz

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The Rational Revolution

• The Cartesian Revolution - René Descartes defined
  modern philosophy with a single phrase Cogito
  ergo sum.
• The Empirical Revolution - All of the disciplines
  had to establish their legitimacy on principles
  of scientific induction.

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An illustration . . .

• Nature and Natures laws lay hid in night God
  said, Let Newton Be! And all was
  Light. Alexander Pope

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Enlightenment Presuppositions

• Reason the basic metaphysical principle
• Nature orderly, natural law
• Harmony the wholeness of nature
• Autonomy suspicion of authority
• Progress The bounds of reason and induction are
  limitless

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The Three Great High Priests of Modernity

• Kant the wall of separation
• Hegel historical process
• Nietzsche knowledge is power