Philosophy

The study of philosophy changed a great deal over the course of the Renaissance. During the Middle Ages, philosophy had strong links to theology*. Although Renaissance philosophers continued to think about the general subjects of God, nature, and humanity, they no longer viewed their studies as focusing chiefly on God. With the rise of the scholarly movement known as humanism*, human beings took center stage in philosophy, as they did in most areas of culture and thought.

These changes in philosophy began in Italy and worked their way into northern Europe. The leading figure of the Italian Renaissance was the poet and philosopher PETRARCH (1304–1374), who turned to the ancient Greeks and Romans for inspiration. He believed that philosophy should focus on the human struggle to achieve dignity as a creature of God. Rudolf AGRICOLA (1444–1485) was an early leader of the northern Renaissance. He stressed the importance of discovery, rather than judgment, in gaining knowledge. He also made advances in the study of logic. The most important figure of the northern Renaissance was Desiderius ERASMUS (ca. 1466–1536). His philosophical works focused on the issue of human freedom.

Moral Questions. Renaissance scholars viewed philosophy as a practical subject, useful in everyday life. They believed that philosophy could promote virtue in the individual, the family, and society as a whole. They divided practical philosophy into three main areas of study: ethics, economics, and politics. Ethics focused on the question of how to become a good person. Economics taught people how to manage a household, and politics showed them how to be good citizens. Many scholars viewed ethics, which focused on the individual, as the most basic of these three disciplines.

Renaissance scholars based their study of ethics on the writings of ancient thinkers, especially the ancient Greek philosopher ARISTOTLE. His work Ethics became the main university textbook on the subject. This text influenced generations of scholars, inspiring classroom lectures, translations into Latin and other languages, and even an epic*. To Aristotle, leading a moral life meant avoiding extremes. Each moral virtue, in his view, occupied a middle position between the two extremes of too little and too much. Courage, for example, was the balance between being rash and being a coward.

Aristotle lived in the pagan* culture of ancient Greece. However, Renaissance scholars adapted his ideas to their Christian society. For instance, Aristotle had claimed that people could achieve their highest purpose—to gain wisdom—during their life on earth. Christians, by contrast, believed that humans could reach a higher goal: to enter heaven after death. Philosophers in the Middle Ages dealt with this conflict by arguing that Aristotle's supreme good was a step on the way to the ultimate goal of union with God in the next life.

Natural Philosophy. The ideas of Aristotle inspired work in other fields as well, such as natural philosophy. This discipline, also known as natural science, involved the study of the physical world. Students of natural philosophy drew on the work of other thinkers as well, including the ancient Greek philosopher PLATO and various Christian and Islamic scholars. Like ethics, natural philosophy became a major part of university studies in the Renaissance.

The basic ideas of natural philosophy came from two works by Aristotle: Physics and On the Soul. The discipline covered such topics as matter, form, chance, motion, time, and space. For some scholars, the study of these subjects led to larger questions about theology and the nature of being. Others saw links between natural philosophy and the sciences of mechanics, astronomy, and medicine. Patronage* by royal courts promoted studies in these fields and encouraged the search for practical results. In this way, natural philosophy served as the seedbed of modern science.

Over time, Renaissance scholars began to question classical* ideas about the natural world. For example, they disputed Aristotle's ideas about falling bodies. Aristotle had claimed that the speed of a falling body changes according to its weight and the resistance it encounters as it falls. However, as early as 1544, the Italian scholar Giovanni Battista Benedetti argued that this theory was wrong. Eventually scientists in Italy, including Galileo GALILEI, disproved Aristotle's claims through experiments. Their discoveries marked the beginning of the "new science" of nature, which relied on careful observation.

Metaphysics. Unlike natural philosophy, which deals with the physical world, metaphysics deals with those things that are beyond human experience. Aristotle described metaphysics as a "divine science" that studies those aspects of reality that never change. He also claimed that it served as the basis for all special sciences.

Renaissance studies in metaphysics took an important turn with the Council of Florence, held by the Roman Catholic Church between 1438 and 1445. One member of the council, the Greek philosopher George Gemistus Pletho, argued that the Latin theologians at the council had been misled by the teachings of Averroes, an Islamic thinker of the Middle Ages. Averroes had claimed that Aristotle's works contained all of human wisdom. Pletho argued that scholars had fallen into error by not paying enough attention to the teachings of Plato. His claim triggered a debate over the relative merits of these two ancient thinkers.

Several Italian philosophers developed new approaches to Plato's thought. For example, Marsilio FICINO combined Plato's ideas with Christian views. He argued that human beings could, through thought, achieve union with God and the universe. Ficino saw everlasting life in heaven as the true fulfillment of human nature. Another Italian scholar, Giovanni PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA, tried to link Christian ideas with ancient wisdom. Along with Greek and Roman sources, he drew on the Jewish Kabbalah, a mystical* religious system that involved reading encoded messages in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Some Catholic scholars, such as the Jesuit* Benito Perera, tried to use metaphysics to prove that the soul was immortal. They built a science of metaphysics based on the idea that God had created the world. Perera divided traditional metaphysics into two sciences. His "first philosophy" discussed the nature of being, and his "divine science" dealt with matters such as God and the soul.

Protestant scholars also studied metaphysics. The German religious reformer Martin LUTHER rejected most of Aristotle's ideas. However, some of his followers turned to Aristotle's theory of truth to prove that faith could exist in harmony with reason. They used this theory to counter the beliefs of extremists who saw faith as contrary to reason.

Scholasticism. Although Renaissance scholars revived classical ideas in philosophy, they also preserved some traditions of the Middle Ages. One such method was Scholasticism, or the Scholastic method. This term literally meant a way of teaching and learning used in schools, but it referred more generally to a system of solving problems by examining the arguments for and against an idea. Its goal was to reach a scientific solution that fit the facts and that did not contradict accepted authorities, human reason, or Christian faith.

Many humanist thinkers criticized the Scholasticism of the Middle Ages. They argued that it relied too much on tiny distinctions and that it paid too little attention to sources. Other Renaissance scholars responded to these charges by making changes in the Scholastic method. They created a rigid system of laying out arguments and stressed the importance of using accurate translations of Greek texts, such as the Bible. This new form of Scholasticism became popular in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Britain.

Both Catholic and Protestant clergy members promoted Scholasticism. The Jesuits became the strongest supporters of the movement. Jesuit scholars blended Scholasticism with humanism and developed new systems of thought that influenced both Catholic and Protestant thinkers throughout Europe. Some early Protestant schools even used Jesuit texts to teach metaphysics. Eventually, however, they replaced these books with new texts written by Protestants. By the 1600s, Scholastic thought had taken a central place in Protestant universities.

Scholasticism often came into conflict with humanism. The two movements took very different approaches to the search for truth. Humanists sought practical knowledge to guide human life. Scholastics, by contrast, focused on abstract truths. Humanists and Scholastics engaged in violent disputes about such issues as doctrines, teaching methods, and how to interpret the Bible.

Philosophy

Philosophy 101