1-23-11chron.1612058..

Chronological Outline of a History of Knowledge and Beliefs, with Key Events, Rev. 6-11
What Man Knew, or Thought He Knew
©2010 Thomson von Stein
TvS2@ aol.com
Summary of the history of knowledge:
c8000BC
“W riting” used only to keep records, record laws. Men had hand weapons, boats, tools, believed in m any gods.
9 th cent. BC Iliad and Odyssey, at first oral, told stories of adventure, culture, and em otions of m en and gods. Gods ruled.
c500 BC
First explosion of rational system atic thinking/knowledge, philosophy, m athem atics, in Greece. The Greek
philosophers/scientists, Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, took knowledge from the priests.
c300 BC
Rom ans, pragm atic, built on Greek culture, developed a m ore or less world governm ent, the Rom an Em pire.
c450 AD
Rom an Em pire fell to barbarians. W estern Civilization sank into the Dark Ages, stagnation; the sum of W estern
knowledge actually shrank. Intellectual activity reverted m ainly to theological, except for Muslim s.
c1000
Theological thinking ruled the W est. Muslim s advanced m edicine, optics. Universities slowly were founded.
c1240s
Roger Bacon taught Aristotle at U. of Paris and advocated using induction and experim ent.
c1300
The Renaissance, G reek rational thinking, arts, philosophy, were rediscovered, first in Italy, spread very slowly.
1454
The Age of Printing began with Gutenberg’s m oveable type system . Books becam e available to the m iddle class.
c1500-today
Second explosion of knowledge; Scientific Method was developed. Science replaced theology as the m ost
im portant area of hum an intellectual activity & knowledge. Christians, Muslim s resisted. The Rise of the W est.
17 th century
Century of intellectual giants. Descartes discredited theology. Scientific Method perfected. Modern science began.
1687+
New ton’s Principia showed that m echanical principles rule all m atter. Scientific societies spread knowledge.
1688+
Age of Revolutions, scientific, m echanical/industrial, and political (England, USA, Germ any, France).
1815-1914
Colonialism and Industry transform ed the world into a m oney econom y.
1859
Darw in explained how Man and all living things evolved from sim ple organism s. Christians objected.
20 th cent.
Einstein, Planck, Bohr, Lemaitre, Russell, Hubble, Heisenberg, others, increased knowledge exponentially.
W hat m en “know” determ ines how they act. The political history of the world is one of constant, continual wars, large and sm all.
(Voltaire, and Bayle, “a history of crim es and m isfortunes.” Gibbon, “crim es and follies and m isfortunes.” Ingersoll, “slavery,
injustice, brutality”) This outline is not about who fought whom . It is an overview principally about what thinking people knew,
or at least believed they knew, in the context of certain background events. From the start, knowledge was a by-product of Man’s
quest for answers to fundam ental questions: W hat, if any, is the m eaning of life? W hat happens when we die? Is there som ething
beyond what we see? W hat caused X? W hy/how is there m atter? Aristotle, “All m en naturally desire knowledge.”
As a gross oversim plification, before the 17 th century, knowledge was m ainly theological. Thereafter it was m ainly scientific.
For all of recorded history until very recent tim es, the vast m ajority of people (including rulers) were illiterate, violent, ignorant,
& superstitious. Thus there is a distinction between what the m asses knew (cultural history) and what the very tiny percent of
thinking persons knew (intellectual history). This outline m ainly concerns what such thinking persons knew & believed. Som e ideas,
concepts, or perm utations of various schools of thought were/are so sophisticated that alm ost all thinking persons are not even
aware of them and such ideas (like string theory) stay within the even sm aller com m unity of, for exam ple, physicists or philosophers.
Plato postulated 4 levels of certainty of thought: im agining, belief, thinking, and, the m ost certain, knowledge, which he defined as
justifiable true belief. In epistem ology, the study of knowledge, there are 3 m inim um requirem ents for any belief to be considered
knowledge. 1. The belief m ust be based on adequate evidence. 2. The belief m ust be internally consistent, and 3. the belief cannot
contradict previously validated knowledge. As used herein, knowledge usually includes what Man believed he knew, irrespective
of its intrinsic justifiability. For m ost m en, believing is knowing. T here is no one universally accepted definition of knowledge.
Averroës: “Knowledge is the conform ity of the object and the intellect.” Carlyle, Knowledge is recorded experience. H G W ells,
“Our world today is only in the beginning of knowledge.” S.T. Coleridge: “The wise only possess ideas; the greater part of m ankind
are possessed by them .” W hitehead, “The history of ideas is a history of m istakes; it is also a history of the purification of conduct.”
English empiricists said all knowledge com es from experience. Continental rationalists said som e knowledge is known a priori.
The developm ent of civilization and knowledge was extrem ely uneven around the globe. Land travel was at walking speed. Som e
ideas, developm ents, inventions, (i.e., tools, weapons, boats, plows, stirrups, food production, wheels, paper, m onotheism ,
dem ocracy), developed independently in different parts of the globe. Som e appeared in one place and took hundreds or thousands
of years to spread to locales even relatively close. The Aztecs and Incas were unaware of each other. Mexican corn and beans took
c3,000 and c4,000 years respectively to spread from Mexico to the Eastern U.S. Farm ing took c5,000 years to m igrate from the MidEast to France. Pottery appeared in Ecuador c3100 BC but not in neighboring Peru for c1,300 years.
The rise of civilization in any given locale was enabled by a hospitable clim ate, a diversity of plants and anim als, and certain
knowledge of certain inventions/developm ents, such as tools and fire (2M BC), buildings (500K BC), burial (70K BC), art (28K BC),
farm ing (12K BC), dom esticated anim als (10K BC), weaving (6.5K BC), boats, weapons, and pottery, c6K BC), all of which had
developed long before writing/history. Som e hunter/gatherers rem ains so into m odern tim es, Africa, SE Asia, Australia, Africa.
Men seek a m eaning to their lives. “Science” tries to classify, categorize and find and quantify relationships between objects and
phenom ena. Along with the advance of knowledge has com e the advance of the idea and realization of equality am ong hum ans.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Abbreviations: “c” for circa = approxim ately. K = thousand. M = m illion. B = billion. BC = Before Christ. AD = Anno Dom ini
Nam es of real persons are in boldface. Titles: Saint, King, Lord, Pope, Khan, Sir, Bishop, Caesar, Prince, Cardinal, are not.
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Events
before
Know ledge
800M BC
c600 M
Geology/Cosm ology: The Big Bang was c13-15 B years ago. The first elem ent was hydrogen (1 proton), then nuclear
fusion fused 2 hydrogen atom s into helium and later into heavier elem ents. Earth began when m atter coalesced around
a m olten iron core into a planet c4.6 B BC. The surface cooled and solidified into plates that drifted over the softer m antle.
Prim itive bacteria appeared c4B BC. For 3 billion years the only living things on Earth were one-celled organism s.
Biology: Multi-celled organism s began to appear, evolved into different m ore-celled form s.
c600M-c530M BC Most m ajor anim al groups evolved during the Cam brian “Explosion,” which lasted c70M years.
c250M BC
Geology: One continent, Pangaea, slowly split into the present continents which drifted to their current locations.
c65M BC
6 m ile big asteroid hit Yucatan, 94 m i. crater. Dust clouds blocked Sun for years, killed 70% of species, dinosaurs.
c7M BC
Beginning
of
Knowledge
Hominids
c1.5 M
Biology: Hominids (i.e., m an-like), with an opposable thum b, probably first appeared in Chad c7M BC, then Ardi, in
Ethiopia, c4.4M BC (bipedal on the ground, used 4 lim bs in trees, brain size 1/4 Homo sapiens); then Lucy in Ethiopia
(Australopithecus) c3.3M BC, brain size 775 cc, half that of Homo sapiens but twice that of a chim p, walked upright. Thus
Hominids appeared in the last 1/600th of the age of the Earth. Hominids had clothing, spears, and flint knives. Rem ains
of pre-history are skim py with little certainty re the evolution of Man. Hominids did not change very m uch; they foraged
and used a sharpened stone as a hand tool for over one million years. Most died before age 20.
to 700K BC. Hominids (Homo erectus/upright) spread out of Africa. Last ice age began to cover N. Europe.
c700KBC
Paleolithic Age began. (Paleo=old; lithic=stone). Age nam ed lithic as Man used stone tools, foraged, likely knew m edicinal
plants. Homo erectus pekinesis in China; their brain was around 1,235 cc. Hunted large anim als in groups. Greatest prehistoric technological advance was use of fire. Men hunted; wom en cared for infants. First evidence of Man in Europe.
c370KBC
Neanderthal species branched from com m on ancestor of Cro-Magnan/Homo sapiens. They dom inated Eurasia.
c350KBC
Biology: Hominid settlem ents in China. W ooden spears used at Schoeningin, Germ any. Average lifespan c 20 yrs.
c200KBC
Biology: Homo sapiens/Thinking Man evolved in Africa, last of four now known Hominid species, m ade tools to m ake
tools, used spears, sharp stones. Foraged for food. Their brain size was 1,300 cc to 1,500 cc, sam e as today.
[Man: Phylum -Chordata, Group-Vertebrates, Class-Mam m als, Order-Prim ates, Fam ily-Hom inidae, Genus-Hom o,
Species-sapiens.] Som e insects have not changed in 50 M years. Homo sapiens evolved from Hominid in c7 M years.
c74K BC
74KBC: Toba, Sum atra, erupted, caused a 6year worldwide volcanic winter, m ay have reduced hum ans to a few thousand
c60K c10K BC
Last Ice Age: Neanderthal Man [c370K BC-c30K BC] (first found in the Neander Tal/Valley in Germ any). Neanderthal
brain was slightly larger than Homo sapiens. Neanderthal DNA not part of Homo sapiens fam ily. Neanderthals were first
m en known to bury their dead (c60K BC in Iran). Food buried with their dead suggests a belief in an afterlife. Late
Neanderthal tools were little better than early Neanderthal tools, i.e., no progress. Neanderthals had plant m edicines,
and crude sculptures. Neanderthals hunted in groups, and disappeared c30K BC, possibly through contact with Cro
Magnon/Hom o-sapiens. Thus, at 200K BC, Homo sapiens evolved in the last 1/23,000th of the existence of the Earth.
Ice
Age
c35K BC
Evidence of knowledge extrem ely skim py. First evidence of counting, 29 notches on a fibula, Swaziland.
c30K BC
CroM agnon
Biology: Cro-Magnon Man, (c30,000 BC-10,000 BC), earliest Homo sapiens in Europe. Skilled hunters, m ade m ulti-piece
tools, spear throwers, left sophisticated cave paintings in S. France that included witch doctors, sham ans. Cave paintings
generally of anim als, but bow and arrow also appeared in cave paintings in Veltora Gorge, E. Spain. The cave paintings
told stories and thus were the first “writings.” They had dug-out canoes, clothing, huts, needles, awls, rope, bow & arrow.
Dry Land
from
Asia to
Alaska
Glacial ice sheets receding. Modern Homo sapiens appeared in Europe. Neanderthals and Homo sapiens coexisted for
c130,000 years. The last Ice Age concentrated water at polar latitudes, thus lowered sea level, left dry land from Asia to
Alaska, Japan, and Sarawak; New Guinea to Australia. Homo sapiens followed caribou, m usk ox, m am m oths to Alaska
and further south. Possible DNA/archeological evidence of Ice Age hum ans from S. Europe in Am erica. All pre-1492 S.
Am ericans were in blood group O . North Am erindians were in blood groups A & O, suggesting a second m igration
reaching only N. Am erica after the one that reached S. Am erica. Homo sapiens put handles on tools for leverage.
c20K BC
Paleolithic Venus of Laussel, SW France, a crude cave carving of a nude wom an may be the first depiction of a goddess.
c18K 10K BC
c18-10K BC Magdalenian Homo sapiens, hunters of W . Europe, used harpoons, followed herds, painted sophisticated
grand elaborate cave paintings of anim als, used jewelry, lived in tipis, carved anim als. Earliest evidence in S. France.
c11K BC
Neolithic Age (Neo=New) began. Beginnings of agriculture, use of polished stone tools, plants and seeds. W ith every
developm ent of speech, Man could intensify and develop the traditions of taboos and restraints and cerem onies.
Language organized consecutive thought. (Som e posit that language was a requisite for religious thought.) Neolithic Man
associated the sun and snakes in decoration and worship. Evidence of sacrificial practices. Every food, plant, and anim al
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of im portance today was dom esticated during the Neolithic Age, i.e., pre-historic, i.e., before writing.
c15-10K
BC
Last Ice Age ending, Agriculture: Ice m elted, seas rose. The Sahara (m eans desert) was fertile. Som e hunter/gatherers
found they could grow food and use anim als, so didn’t have to follow a herd, the largest single step in the ascent of Man
toward m odern society. (m etallurgy next, c3000BC). Hunters becam e herders, daily seeking new pasture. Crude pottery.
11K
Gobekli Tepe, S. Turkey, 100s of huge cleanly cut stone pillars, in rings, w bas reliefs gazelles, snakes, foxes, boars.
No cities or “civilization” around. Man lived in huts perhaps in scattered villages. Suggests religion preceded civilization
c9000BC
In the Mid-East, by a genetic accident, a new hybrid form of wheat, Em m er, with a large full head of seeds, appeared, then
another fuller seeded hybrid, but it had to be planted; it did not blow in the wind like earlier wheat. So Man settled and
planted it, but did not abandon hunting/gathering. Man form ed logs or stones to build shelters, a great step intellectually.
A tem perate clim ate with water available enabled the developm ent of farm ing. Fam ily groups developed into villages, for
protection and to cooperate in the hunt. Men ruled/owned wom en. Slavery existed in all societies. Farm ing, even before
the plow was invented, produced far m ore food with less work, perm itting the population to increase greatly in a given
geographic area and providing surplus food for non-farm ers. H unter/gatherers, unschooled in m any respects, had an
encyclopedic knowledge of their natural world.
Man becam e a shaper of nature, not just a predator on it. The oasis of Jericho, ten acres big (just north of the Dead Sea),
the first town for which there are records, was fortified. People ground grain, had ovens, and houses of sun-dried bricks.
Towns grew along trade routes. Flax (linen), one of oldest crops, was grown for rope and cloth. Flax was the chief textile
of Europe until cotton supplanted it in the 18 th century. Som e cultures have still not advanced beyond crude agriculture.)
Farming
Jericho
Farm ing developed independently in at least 4 locales (with different crops). 1. The Am ericas, corn, potatoes, beans,
peppers. 2. Europe-Middle-East, where field agriculture, depending on reproduction by seed developed, grains, esp. wheat
and barley being the principal crops, (Bread of differing grains was the staple diet and rem ained so until m odern tim es.)
3. Monsoon Asia/Pacific islands where propagation of crops by transplantation of offshoots from a parent plant, such as
rice and m illet, prevailed, and where root crops dom inated. And 4. W estern Africa, m illet and yam s. Farm ing spread
slowly and unevenly, depending on clim ate and ease of travel. For exam ple, farm ing only cam e to France thousands of
years after it began in the Mid-East.
c8000BC
“History”
Arithm etic probably preceded writing. Prim itive writing, pictographs, developed in Sum er city-states in Babylon, a sm all
kingdom in south Mesopotam ia (land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers), current S. E. Iraq. Pictographs then
sim plified into sym bols for syllables/sounds. Only “inventions” were prim itive hunting/fishing tools (and perhaps a kiln).
“History” began with writing. The concept of preserving ideas/facts with writing was the first im portant developm ent in the
history of knowledge. But, the im portant knowledge that enabled civilizations to develop, i.e., tools, fire, art, buildings,
burial, farm ing, dom estic anim als, boat, weapons, pottery, weaving, m oney, m etal, all pre-dated writing.
Dogs, sheep, goats, and pigs were dom esticated by c8K BC in the Mid-East, the cow (in the Mid-East and India) by
c6K BC, Cotton cloth was used in Mexico. Copper and obsidian (glassy lava) were used in W estern Turkey).
Origin
of
religions
There is no agreed-upon theory of the origins of religions: If the cause of som ething like wind, sunshine, disease, luck
at hunting, rain could not be readily understood, it likely would have been ascribed to a supernatural force. So m ay have
evolved the oldest and m ost enduring argum ent for a god, the God by Default argum ent, an argument by inference, i.e.,
“W e don’t know what caused X, but som ething m ust have (a com m on sense reaction), so we infer that it m ust have been
done by a supernatural force/god.” Belief in the supernatural brought/brings m eaning and order to people’s lives; “Ah,
that explains it.” Burial of the dead is generally thought to be first evidence of belief in supernatural forces.
Arthur C. Clarke, “Any phenom enon sufficiently beyond one’s current experience is indistinguishable from m agic.”
c7000BC
Enter the priest/sham an, som eone who saw an advantage in asserting that som e supernatural force, a god, with whom
he had som e connection or influence, caused an event. The concept of sacrifice/obedience m ay well have developed
when priests ascribed to such supernatural force the hum an trait of trading. The god would accept a sacrifice/gift in
exchange for giving success in the hunt, or crop. The priest saw an advantage in proscribing rituals for such gift giving,
in which he was the m iddlem an between the people and the god (taking his com m ission as it were). Priests claim ed that
particular gods caused rain, or wind, or healthy children, and so on. “There’s no rain. The rain god m ust be appealed to.”
“Religion” put concepts of m orality, happiness, love, and proper behavior outside the control of m an’s m ind and knowledge
(Petronius, Rom an, in the 1 st century AD said: “It was fear that first brought gods into the world.”) Different beliefs
in the supernatural, different gods, developed in different cultures. A cult of a Great Goddess concerned with birth and
death flourished around Catal Huyuk in Anatolia, Central Turkey, where sam ples of woven cloth were found.
Enter
the
priest
c6000BC
Artifacts docum ent m en’s knowledge and illustrate technology. By 6000 BC, som e groups had boats, loom s, potter’s
wheels, oil lam ps, sim ple bows and arrows, harpoons, grindstone, ax (in Sweden), copper (in Anatolia), iron (from
m eteorites), flint sickles (a great technological advance). Cultures, if not civilizations, of farm ers developed in MesoAm erica as well as Eurasia. More food from farm ing enabled the world’s population to rise 17X from c8K BC to c4K BC.
In Mexico, natives dom esticated corn that led to the rise of sophisticated civilizations, first Olm ec, then Aztec, then Mayan.
c5000BC
Civilization/city life had shrines/tem ples to gods from their beginnings. In a broad sense, the settled com m unities can be
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considered com m unities of obedience (with slaves) where priests/gods ruled, with a god(s) who com pels obedience as
opposed to the nom adic peoples who can be considered com m unities of will, where the chief is voluntarily followed
because of his leadership/hunting abilities (probably no slavery). Inequality am ong hum ans, i.e., wom en, was a given.
Social
Control
Religion/ideology and governm ent were/are the two principal m eans of social control. In the beginnings of civilization, they
were the sam e institution. The tem ple system with its priests was the nucleus and the guiding intelligence about which
Mediterranean prim itive civilizations grew. Tem ples were the repository of knowledge and tradition, on how to live one’s
life and a binding force to keep the com m unity together. This or that god com m anded one to sacrifice, worship, act
according to certain rules, etc. Men never questioned what the priests said. It was a basic principle of all known early
societies that civil authority derived from the gods, with no separation of church and state
Sumer
First
citystates
“Civilizations” developed first in the irrigable river valleys, the Nile, Indus, and Tigris-Euphrates (Sum er), where a surplus
of crops (due to farm ing based on irrigation which was a com m unity activity) could feed non-working priestly/ruling and
artisan classes. A denser population and differences in abilities led to social classes, a governing structure, and m ore
form al rules for behavior & the specialization of labor, artisans & craftsm en, who developed technologies, i.e., “civilization.”
Sum erians were the first group that can be called a civilization. The tem ple com m unity organization helped Sum erians
create conditions for the developm ent of civilization. Priests told people how to gain a god’s favor, for exam ple, for a
bountiful crop, for success at the hunt, and how to qualify for the afterlife, don’t kill your neighbor, don’t steal, etc.
Sum er’s chief god was An/Anu, god of the sky, next was Enlil, god of the storm , then Earth goddess Ki or Nintu, then
Enki, lord of the creative forces of the Earth. All first known gods were anthropomorphic.
The city was the property of the city god. Tem ples were a god’s earthly hom e and the storehouses of grain. The large
irrigated fields were owned by gods and adm inistered by priests. Priests adm inistered and recorded the surplus of
agricultural products to support them selves and artisans. Tem ples were dedicated to one god. More refined and varied
beliefs in gods developed. Rich persons dead were buried with gold and silver ornam ents for the next life.
The first records of any city-states were in Sum er, cities of Eridu, Nippur, Ur, Uruk (first large walled city, six square
kilom eters, possibly c50,000 population, bureaucracy), Assur, Um m a, Kish, Lagash, and others. Their origins are
unknown. Sum erian “cities” differed from Neolithic villages in that the use of irrigation required com m unity cooperation.
These city-states were the basic units of Sum erian civilization. Sum erians had sailboats (sailed only with the wind), wove
baskets and cloth. Sum erians sailed/rowed, plundered when they could, traded when they had to, used balance scales.
Sum erians were the first m erchants/traders. Oars were m ore reliable than sails on the Mediterranean. Oars required
slaves/oarsm en. Sledges and pack anim als were used for cargo, as the wheel was not yet developed/invented.
The 3 m ain social groups were the nobles (kings/priests), com m oners, and slaves. Alm ost everyone was a farm er.
Sum erian priests taught the inequality of m en, that Man had been created expressly to free gods from having to work.
Man was thus obliged to work ceaselessly. The priests said that their first duty was to attend to the gods’s wants, i.e.,
cerem onies and sacrifices, then to instruct the people as to what the gods wanted from them . T he com m unity arose
around the altar of seed-tim e sacrifice. Before writing, the spread of knowledge was oral, sim ple, and slow. Farm ing was
probably wom en’s work. M en hunted, and later, when they dom esticated sheep, goats, or cattle, becam e herders.
W om en were the property of their fathers, then their husbands. Marriage was a m atter of property.
In the Mid-East, everyone worshiped num erous gods. As farm ing developed, worship of gods associated with the hunt
(developed during nom adic hunter/gatherer tim es) was supplem ented by worship of gods and goddesses associated
with agricultural fecundity, Mother Earth, rain, sun, etc.
c4000BC
By 4000 BC, the horse (Ukraine), the water buffalo (China), and the donkey (Egypt), were dom esticated. Earliest Egyptian
records indicate num erous gods; 3 m ain gods, Ra/Re (Sun god), brothers Osiris, & Set. Egyptians m ined and sm elted
copper ore in the Negev. They used papyrus for writing. (Papyrus is the pith of the stem of a plant abundant in the
m arshes of the Nile delta). How to m ake paper was a state secret. Egyptians m ade reed boats with push sails, not used
on the Med, only for the Nile. Megaliths (large stone structures) began to be erected in the British Isles and NW France.
3761 BC
Year of creation for Jews, its scriptures had com m on them es with Egyptian and Mesopotam ian m yths.
c3700BC
1st evidence of wheeled vehicles, in Sum er. So, Homo sapiens/Thinking Man didn’t think of the wheel for c200K yrs.
c3500BC
Pictograph W riting. After cave paintings cam e pictographs, the first order of words. The second order of words
com bined pictographs, i.e., a pictograph for a m outh with a pictograph for vapor m eant “words.” Then ideogram s, the
sign for words and the sign for vapor m eant speech.
Plow
The m ost powerful invention in all farm ing was the plow; it increased yields, so supported m ore people and a larger class
of non-farm ers who advanced civilization. The plow was first developed in the Mid-East, and was just a piece of forked
wood that loosened the soil. The plow required a draft anim al. Its use spread slowly; i.e., Aryan invaders around c1500
BC brought the plow to India. The plow was also in Denm ark by 1500 BC, but plows only cam e to China, separated from
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the Med civilizations by m ountains/deserts of central Asia, c2000 years later, c350 BC.
Peoples of som e geographic areas, isolated and/or with clim ates unsuited to farm ing, with no anim als suitable to pull
plows, never developed farm ing, thus lim iting their population. They developed cultures but not civilizations.
Every com m unity/culture believed that it was at the center of the world and all other peoples inferior.
c3400
M enes, king of the Upper (Southern) Nile, conquered the lower (Northern) Nile kingdom and unified Egypt. He ruled from
Mem phis (near Cairo). The Egyptian Kingdom lasted c3,000 years until Alexander the Great conquered it in 333 BC.
C3200 BC. were the first known Egyptian hieroglyphics/sym bols for words. Egyptian doctors practiced surgery.
Egypt
Egypt was the Nile and the Nile was Egypt. The Nile flowed north, the winds blew south; so, drift north, sail south, in reed
sailboats with push sails. Easy. Each of the various Egyptian tribes had num erous gods and goddesses, in total perhaps
2,000. In authority, the gods were the highest, then the dead, then the pharaoh/god king, then priests, then the people.
Egyptians traded with Minoans (Crete); had sym bols for 1, 10, 100, etc, i.e., a base ten num bering system .
W hat
Egyptians
knew
As explained by the priests, Egyptians knew that the sun went sailing over Egypt in a boat, and that a pig ate the m oon
every m onth. Egyptians saw no reason to change, barely changed in 3,000 years. Egyptians knew that the Lower Egyptian
god Ptah created the world. Their 365 day calendar had 12 m onths of 29 or 30 days (tied to the m oon’s c29.5 day phase),
with five days added at the end. The year started when the Nile flooded, in the Spring, and coincidentally, it was also the
first sighting of the star Sirius. Egyptians used sundials during the day and split the day into two 12 hour parts. Math was
lim ited to add, subtract, m ultiply, divide. Egyptians and Creteans had candles. Cretan civilization paralleled Egypt’s.
Egyptians had no concept of progress, i.e., a sense of im provem ent over the years and centuries. They dug canals to
irrigate and tam e the Nile. Yearly Spring flooding m ade the soil fertile. Egyptians traded with Phoenicians. c98% of the
people were illiterate. They used skins, grew grains, irrigated, fertilized, built shelters, carved, used fire, baked bread,
m ined and sm elted ores, wove wool and flax, used a forked wood for plow, had laws, a num bering system . Egyptians
practiced m edicine, but knew/believed there was a divine origin of diseases. Thus, doctors sought divine guidance.
c3000BC
Sum erians in cities, developed m etal working, had irrigation, a four wheeled cart, sun-dials, and, m ost im portantly,
developed a written language. Early pictographs developed into wedge-shaped sym bols, cuneiform , using a triangular
stylus on soft clay tablets (Sum erians didn’t have papyrus) with c2,000 characters, first as representing syllables,
which com bined with other syllables, denoted words. Sum erian cuneiform writing was not deciphered until the early
1800s. Sum erians/Babylonians used a base 60 place value counting system and the abacus.
Sacrifice of anim als (and/or hum ans) was the center of alm ost all known religions’s rites. There were num erous gods in
different tem ples, sun gods, bull gods (m ale fertility), hawk gods, m other or Earth goddesses (Ishtar), water god, heaven
god, goddess of birth, cow deities, etc. People invariably worshiped both good and evil gods.
Bronze
Age
Neolithic Stone Age developed into the Bronze Age as m en learned to sm elt m etals. Use of bronze first developed in the
Mid-East: Egypt, Crete, and Anatolia. Two soft m etals, copper 90% and tin 10%, com bined to create a very hard m etal,
bronze. Discovery of bronze m ay have occurred in m ore than one locale. (Bronze Age only spread to N. Europe and
China over 1,000 years after it began in the Mid-East.) Sum erians perfected m etallurgy to m ake weapons. Tin had to be
obtained from as far away as Central Europe, and, later, Cornwall (SW England). Most of Europe rem ained in Neolithic
barbarism . The W estern world consisted of the civilizations centered around the Mediterranean. Sim ple oil lam ps used.
Astronom ical observations were im portant for farm ing, i.e., when to plant. Astronom ers were the first “scientists” to see
order in nature. Babylonians developed a relatively accurate calendar based on astronom ical observations. They thought
that the Earth was a sphere. Their place-value system of num bering developed in Sum er but without a zero.
Phoenicians (Canaanite Sem ites) occupied present Lebanon/Northern Israel and becam e seafarers.
Akkadians, Sem ites from Syria, conquered Sum er and adapted their sign-for-a-sound writing to their own speech.
Eventually this developed through the Phoenicians into the m odern W estern alphabets.
c3000BC
to c2400 BC. Stonehenge and m any other stone rings built in Britain, Ireland, and Norm andy. Oriented to the solstices.
c2700BC
Botany/Biology: Sum erians listed 100s of anim als and 250 plants. Sum erians were first known to depict hum ans in art.
Chinese used wheeled vehicles and the loom . Chinese em perors claim ed their status cam e from the heavens. Chinese
developed pictograph writing and began to m ake silk, wrote on it. The secret of silk was not known in the W est for 3,000
years. Dragons sym bolized power, happiness, im m ortality, procreation, fertility, activity, warding off evil spirits, and
knowledge, and pervaded Chinese art and m ythology. Chinese developed the m agnetic com pass.
c2630BC
2630 BC: Sepulchral iconography appeared on the first great pyram id, the step pyram id, the tom b of king Zoser/Djozer,
built c2630-c2611. The Egyptians had no word for religion as there was nothing else that governed their lives. Egyptians
lived to die, spent their lives (and fortunes) preparing for death and the afterlife, im m ortality. Egyptians never disputed the
priests’s teachings that gods controlled all natural events. Pyram ids signify an extensive governing organization.
Egyptians (and Sum erians) put stars into constellations and assigned seasonal appearances to them . Egyptians used
5
three writing system s, pictorial hieroglyphics, a sim plified version called hieratic, and its derivative, dem otic.
The Pyram ids were built from c2630-c1830 BC. The Great Pyram id of Cheops/Khufu was built c2589-c2566 BC, using
c2.4M lim estone blocks, each c2.3-15 tons, and c100,000 workers. Its base is alm ost a perfect square. Its sides are
precisely north-south and east-west. W ithout m etal, obsidian (glassy lava) was used to cut the stones. Egyptians were
skillful stone cutters, sculptors. Levers, rollers, and ram ps were used to m ove the heavy stones.
c2600BC
Technology preceded science: Egyptians built boats with planks from Lebanon, enabling them to sail the Med, rougher
than the Nile. They used square “push” sails. (Triangular lateen sails, allowing sailing into the wind, slowly developed in
the Med over the centuries and were not fully developed until the 15 th century AD in Portugal.) Horses and cam els were
dom esticated in Central Asia. Cam els enabled caravans to cross the vast deserts. Egyptians began to use oxen to pull
plows. The wheel reached the Indus Valley and m ost of N. Europe 1,000 years after it was developed in Sum er.
c25001500 BC
Rise and fall of the Indus River Valley (Pakistan) civilization. Its m ajor cities were Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, gone now.
This was the third great river valley civilization. It was larger than Mesopotam ia or Egypt, until Aryan invaders destroyed
it c1500 BC. Its cities exhibited com plex town planning and engineering knowledge. It had toilets in private houses, public
baths, a drainage system , paved streets, a written language, which has not been deciphered. No tom bs or tem ples have
been found. Oven burnt brick used for irrigation canals. Nothing but the Aryan/Hindu caste system has survived.
c2400BC
Political Theory / Religion: In Egypt, a god-king/pharaoh, son of the Sun-god Ra, creator of the universe, judge of m ankind,
ruled. The Pyramid Texts indicate that the pharaoh ruled according to principles, the m ain one being Ma’at, truth and
justice. This was the first evidence of association of a concept of a deity and m orality, a useful concept for the ruling class.
Osiris
Egyptian beliefs predate history. The Pyramid Texts also told of Osiris, who reputedly had brought civilization to Egypt,
being cut into pieces by his evil brother, Set, then put together by his wife and resurrected. Osiris was the m ost notable
(but not only) m yth of resurrection until the story of Christ. Other pre-Christ resurrection m yths were of Tam m uz in
Mesopotam ia, Attis & Adonis in Syria, and Mithra (Persia). Osiris becam e popular throughout the Mid-East. Pyramid Texts
also described the em balm ing procedure used on Osiris (rem ove organs, dry body, wrap it); thereafter used by all who
could afford it. Egyptians believed/knew that Osiris was the judge of persons wishing to ensure a favorable journey to
eternal life in the afterlife. On death, one had to prove to Osiris, who resided in the afterlife, that one had lived a virtuous
life, that one had not done various specific nam ed bad acts. Fail the test and one is eaten by a com bination crocodile/lion/
hippo. This was a precursor to the later Christian concept of judgm ent and Hell. Osiris thus granted salvation. Belief in
an afterlife, Heaven and Hell/Hades, dependent on conduct in this life, was an effective m eans of social control.
G. C. Lichtenberg, Germ an, “Probably no invention cam e m ore easily to Man than when he thought up Heaven.”
M iddle
East
M yths
c2200BC
Egyptians developed weight standards and developed the arch (but rarely used it). The arch takes nature apart and
reshapes it, a great intellectual trium ph. Egyptians m ade leavened bread, the first to do so.
Sum erians and Egyptians developed wheeled war chariots, a powerful weapon. Alm ost everybody was illiterate.
Trigonom etry, the branch of m ath that studies relationships between the angles and sides of triangles, developed in
Egypt, Mesopotam ia, and the Indus Valley. The practice of m easuring angles in degrees, m inutes and seconds cam e from
the Babylonian base 60 num ber system . Mesopotam ians learned to solve quadratic equations, i.e., equations where the
highest power is 2. Thus, m athem atical thinking was the first “m odern” thinking.
c2000BC
Hinduism
Atheism
Hindu
Caste
System
W hat
Hindus
Hinduism: is the W estern term for the philosophic/religious traditions of India. Uniquely, it has no known single founder;
has innum erable sects. It is the oldest known religious tradition, evolved with a skeptical tradition. Its sacred texts, Vedas
and Upanishads, were com piled c2000 BC. One of its roots was the ancient Vedic religion. Hindu Vedas, the earliest
Indian literature, painted a circular picture of the universe. A universal spirit pervades all things. Hinduism is an anim istic
tradition with m illions of gods, not unlike that of the Egyptians. It does not have one dogm a; it does not believe in any one
philosophic concept, so it’s not a religion in W estern term s. Hinduism em braces vegetarianism and hum an sacrifice,
asceticism and orgy, varied cults. It has pantheists, m onotheists, and atheists. (Atheism is sim ply absence of a belief in
a god(s), no m ore and no less. It does not infer any positive beliefs, such as belief in m onarchism or com m unism .)
The religious activities of Hindus are devoted to ritual observances that perm it every aspect of life to com e into tune with
various gods. Religious Hinduism ascribes different powers to different gods, sim ilar to other god system s. The objectives
of hum an life in classical Hindu thought were dharma (righteousness, ethikos), artha (livelihood, wealth), kama (sensual
pleasure), moksa (liberation, freedom from samsara). It believes in reincarnation.
W hile it em braced m any som etim es differing beliefs, one of Hinduism’s two basic ideas is that one’s position in life,
one’s caste, results from one’s karma, how one lived in previous incarnations, i.e.,inequality am ong m en is God’s will.
The Hindu scripture Manusmriti states that the castes were created by God. Right and wrong actions increase the positive
and negative potential energy (apurva) of each person. Apurva is eventually released (in this or the next life) and causes
good or evil to the person. So, m isfortune is caused by one’s prior bad deeds, not from gods. W isdom is the realization
that everything is suffering. One’s caste determ ines: 1. W hom one m ay socialize with and m arry, 2. W here one m ay live,
3. W hat one can eat and drink, and 4. W hat job one m ay have. That is, if one is born into the dung collector caste, one
6
Know
Hindu
Trinity
stays there, all because of how one acted in a previous life. This was/is slavery with a supernatural justification.
As such unfairness in life was/is a “supernatural” belief which attributed one’s position to one’s past life, about
which one can do nothing, even the lowest castes, those it treated m ost cruelly, did not question it. Hinduism was thus
a useful belief system for the ruling Brahm in caste, which of course taught it relentlessly.
The Hindu divine trinity are Brahm a the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer and intellect.
Accepting the Veda (including the 112 Upanishads, written c700 BC) as the m ost sacred scriptures was/is
Hinduism’s other key idea. The Rig-Veda (verses of wisdom ), the Sama-Veda, the Yajur-Veda are books of hym ns. The
Atharva-Veda is a book of m agic spells. Artifacts relating to an early Shiva have been found in Mohenjo-Daro and
Harappa, the m ajor known cities of the Indus Valley civilization. Hinduism’s four m ain castes were/are:
1. Brahm ins - the priests, white, those with white skin are thought to possess goodness.
2. Kshatriyas - rulers and warriors, red skin, those with red skin possess passion.
3. Viasyas - com m oners/m erchants, professionals, yellow skin, have both passion and goodness
4. Sudras - artisans/laborers, black skin, attributed with darkness.
Plus the Untouchables -diseased- in no caste - beggars - they wander the streets.
In m ost Hindu sects, wom en have few rights. For m illennia, widows were expected to im m olate them selves.
c2000BC
Sumer
Epic
Jew s
Classes
Sum erian epic poem , Gilgamesh, (the historical king of Uruk, who lived c2700 BC), inscribed on 12 clay tablets, had
them es strikingly sim ilar to later Greek heroic epics and to the Bible, including a flood story (There are num erous
som ewhat sim ilar flood m yths from m any cultures of a few persons surviving after receiving instructions from a
supernatural being. One flood m yth later appeared in Genesis.) .There are thousands of m yths involving gods in every
culture to explain boulders, lakes, m ountains, rock form ations, etc. Comparative mythology is now an academ ic field.
Greeks, Jews, Chinese, Japanese, Rom ans, (and m uch later, Aztecs and Incas), sacrificed hum ans. According to
Genesis 22, Jews stopped hum an sacrifice c2000 BC. (God/Yahweh told Abraham not to kill his son Isaac after all.)
(Christians, Buddhists, and Muslim s never practiced hum an sacrifice. Aztecs and Incas did so on a large scale.)
According to the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, Abraham led Jews (then a sm all tribe with a novel idea of creation) from
Ur in Mesopotam ia to Canaan (Israel/Lebanon). God’s covenant with Abraham , founder of Judaism , was that Abraham’s
descendants would inherit Canaan. Judaism is m ost lasting and m ost influential religion of ancient Mid-East cultures.
The m ajor classes in the earliest civilizations were:
1. Priesthood. Priests everywhere joined kings to keep the lower classes subm issive.
2. Kings and their courts.
3. Peasants/slaves/serfs. (Artisans developed from the slave class).
4. Merchants, at first, shipowners.
Separate m inor classes were sm all retailers, gang workers, seam en, herdsm en, and m ercenaries.
Mesopotam ians worshiped hundreds of gods, goddesses, dem ons who controlled all aspects of life. They used
sundials and discovered / deduced what’s now known as the Pythagorean Theorem. The spoked wheel was used in
Mesopotam ia, but did not spread to Europe for 1,000 years. Mesopotam ians used a curved bronze sickle, sim ilar to
ones in use today in Egypt. Mid-East use of bronze (copper + tin) reached Europe and China c1800 BC.
c1750BC
Hammurabi, founder and warrior king of Babylon, prom ulgated the first secular Code of laws. Hit your father, lose your
hand. Help a slave escape, die. Put out a noblem an’s eye or break his bone, lose one eye or have your bone broken. Put
out a com m oner’s eye or break his bone, pay one m ina of silver. A son hits his father; cut off his hand. To divorce, return
the dowry. Hammurabi said the code was given to him by the god Marduk, a useful lie for a king.
Civilizations began to develop in places beyond irrigable river valleys. On Crete, the Minoan civilization (m atriarchal
religion, discovered only in 1900) flourished, and was the m ost sophisticated of all; bathroom s had running water, had
elaborate art, buildings had light and air shafts. Minoans dom inated the Med trade from c2000 BC to c1600 BC.
c1750BC
Shang
Dynasty
Shang, first known (to the W est) Chinese dynasty, united and ruled China until c1000 BC. Chinese ruling class, Mandarin,
was a m eritocracy, except for the em peror’s fam ily (hereditary). China had hundreds of local lords, roughly dom inated
by 12 m ore powerful lords. Fully developed Bronze Age culture (i.e., bronze urns) in China and Viet-Nam by 1600 BC,
over 1,000 years after Bronze Age in the Mid-East. Chinese m ade water clocks, developed pictographs for words. The
earliest known Chinese writing was pictographs on bones and tortoise shells. Chinese “religion” em phasized ritual with
little em phasis on theology. Slaves were buried with Shang kings to serve him in the afterlife.
c1700BC
Aryan speaking barbarian tribes, all Hellenes, first Ionians, then Aeolians, Dorians, Macedonians, and Thracians, m igrated
southward through the Balkan Peninsula to present day Greece, a sm all m ostly m ountainous area. The Hellenes
conquered the resident Aegean civilization, adopted the skills and arts of the far m ore sophisticated Minoan civilization
of Crete which had, inter alia, pottery; and established cities. Minoan writing has not been deciphered.
c1600BC
1.6M BC Volcanic eruption destroyed Santorini. The resulting tsunam i likely wiped out the Minoan civilization on Crete.
Chinese writing had 25,000 characters. The system of pictographs, still used, created the class of Mandarins who could
7
c1400BC
write and govern. A Mandarin’s education was m ainly learning to read. Only the wealthy could afford to study.
c1360BC
Pharaoh Amenhotep 4 / Akh-en-Aton (1375-1323 BC), husband of Nefertiti, said there’s only one god, Aten, the Sun
god. He abolished other gods. After his death, polytheistic priests of Am on Re discarded this “m onotheism .”
Jew s
Theology: Like all cultures at the tim e, Jews first had m any gods and believed m any m yths, com m on to other Middle East
cultures. Over centuries, Abraham’s tribe’s god, Yahweh (originally a desert war god), developed for Jews into being the
greatest god of all and then to being the only God. Judaism thus becam e the first enduring m onotheistic religion.
Date
uncertain
probable
c1300BC
M oses
According to the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, Exodus 20 and 21 (written hundreds of years later), M oses received the
Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai from Yahweh/God, Deuteronomy 5:6-21. The Ten Commandments were instructions
on how to live and gain favor with Yahweh/Jehovah. M oses was the first to proclaim that Yahweh created the world.
(Yahweh m eans “He causes to be”). Genesis 2:4ff shows Yahweh as the creator of the universe and m ankind. Yahweh
was transcendent. He created Nature but was not in it. The Moon and Sun were not gods but Yahweh’s creations.
The Ten Commandments closely resem ble parts of Hammurabi’s Code. According to the Old Testam ent, after getting
the Ten Commandments from God, M oses said that God told him to kill all those who had worshiped a golden calf. 3,000
persons were slaughtered. M oses also said that God also told him to build an altar to sacrifice of anim als. He did so.
M oses led Jewish slaves from Egypt to Canaan, where they joined Hebrew tribes living there. Jews developed the notion
that one God had m ade a paradise, from which Man, Adam (Hebrew for m an) and Eve (Hebrew for life) through their own
fault, were expelled. Jews were the first to insist that m en-not gods-were responsible for their acts. Yahweh supposedly
gave the pious a long life & the im pious an early death. But som e saw that m any evil people prospered & lived long lives.
(c1,000 years later, in the 2 nd century BC, Judaism adopted a personal post-m ortem judgm ent and resurrection belief.)
The Argument from Religious Experience (I saw / felt / spoke-to G od) (illustrated by M oses) is one of the oldest
argum ents for the existence of God. It is not a logical argum ent, so cannot be logically refuted, unlike argum ents which
purport to be logical. It relies solely on the authenticity of the experience, which can, of course, be assessed.
Olmec
13 thCent.
BC
Golden
Rule
Olm ec civilization, Central Mexico, first known civilization in the Am ericas, developed writing. (It declined c400 BC.)
Moral codes are basically social codes. Various versions of the Golden Rule: the m ost basic m oral principle:
Hinduism: Do not to others what ye do not wish done to yourself...this is the whole Dharma. Heed it well. c1300 BC
Zoroastrianism : Hum an nature is good only when it doesn’t do to another whatever is good for its own self. c1200 BC
Judaism : W hat is bad to you, do not to others; that is the entire law; all the rest is com m entary. Rabbi Hillel. 5 AD
Buddhism : Hurt not others in ways you yourself would find hurtful. c500 BC
Socrates/Plato, Do to others as I would they should do to m e. Republic, Bk.11:913
Confucianism (Analects XV 24), Aristotle, Isocrates, Christianity (Luke 6:31, Matthew 7:12), Epictetus, St. Aristedes,
Islam (The Koran, Surah 59), Baha’i, John W ycliffe, Hobbes, Spinoza, Kant (his categorical imperative, 1781), and
George Bernard Shaw (satirically), all later developed versions of the Golden Rule.
c1200 800 BC
Greek Dark Ages, Hellenes (1700 BC) were also influenced by the Mycenaean culture (centered around the northern
Peloponnesian peninsula). Barbarians invaded Greece, causing the so-called Greek Dark Ages. Hellenes civilization
stagnated, its language ceased to be written for hundreds of years, cities fell, fewer and sm aller com m unities, little or no
trade. Hellenes city-states, the polis, the m aster institution of Greek culture, then rose in the 9 th century BC as the political,
social, and econom ic unit. Greece is largely m ountainous, isolating its cities. Hellenes had m etal arm or by 800 BC.
c1100BC
The use of iron becam e widespread in Palestine and Syria, i.e., the Iron Age. It followed the Bronze Age. Iron, at first from
m eteors (9 to 1 iron nickel alloy, harder than bronze). Then from ores. Possibly accidentally carbon from charcoal used
to sm elt iron m ixed with the iron to becom e steel. The Iron Age spread slowly to Central Europe by the 8 th century BC
and to N. Europe in the 6 th century BC. Metal was used in chariots, swords, shields, cups, and jewelry. The plow was
im proved with an iron tipped m oldboard that turned the soil over. Farm ing yields could be 10-100 tim es better than hunting
Iron Age
c1000BC
China
Silk
Road
China: The Chou dynasty (rational philosophy) replaced the Shang Dynasty (m ysticism ), and ruled until 225 BC.
Chou developed a philosophy with a m andate from heaven. Its claim to obedience was its religious superiority.
Millet, adapted to the arid northern regions, was the staple diet in China, Korea and India until c1000 AD.
The East (East Asia) and the W est, (lands around the Mediterranean) were connected by only the thinnest of threads,
the caravan routes, nothing m ore than trails, which, collectively, centuries later becam e known as the “Silk Road.”
Technological Developm ents: Central Asian steppe horsem en, nom ads, with their speed and agility, becam e a form idable
m ilitary force, capable of attacking and conquering settled com m unities in hit, grab, and run tactics.
Mayan civilization began to form in the Yucatan, lasted til c900 AD.
Use of the cam el enabled desert nom ads and traders and arm ies to travel farther into previously inaccessible territories
in northern and central Asia. First known arched bridge was built in Sm yrna/Izm ir (W estern Turkey).
Sem i-barbarian Dorians with iron weapons invaded and conquered Mycenaeans who had only bronze weapons.
8
c900 BC
Jew s
Date
uncertain
9 th to 7 th
Cent. BC
Homer:
Iliad,
Odyssey
Jews: Jezebel, Phoenician wife of Ahab, Israelite king, built a tem ple to the Canaanite pagan god Baal. So followers of
Yahweh killed her. The oldest books of Old Testament/ Hebrew Bible were written around this tim e. The Old Testament
spoke to Jews and was largely silent about the rest of hum anity, and barely m entioned an afterlife. The Old Testament
(and later the New Testament) refer to m agic, witchcraft and soothsaying as realities.
The Iliad (the wrath of Achilles against King Agam em non) and The Odyssey (Ulysses’s wanderings back from the wars
at Troy/Ilion), the greatest epics of Greek m ythology/history, told of the heroic Greeks, how Troy was conquered. They
helped standardize the Greek language. The Iliad is the first great rom ance of high adventure, of deeds of chivalry and
wild fighting, of brave m en and noble wom en. The Odyssey is the first great novel of adventure in strange parts, of
m iscreants thwarted and brought to justice by the hero who wins and returns to his wife. These epics told of Greek gods
with all hum an characteristics. Zeus, the “father of gods and m en” was om nipotent. All hum an em otions were portrayed.
Both epics were (probably wrongly) ascribed to the non-literate blind poet Homer of Ionia. They contained num erous short
stories; were originally only oral, sung by wandering bards, with no fixed text, and not written until the Greeks developed
their alphabet from the Phoenicians c850 BC. W hen written, they were probably transcribed a century apart. They had
different writing styles. For hundreds of years until Plato’s tim e, these epics were the basis of Greek religion, m orals, the
chief source of history, and even of practical inform ation on geography, m etallurgy, navigation, and shipbuilding. Virtually
nothing is known about Hom er; starting with whether he was one or several persons.
Greek
colonies
Beginning during the Greek Dark Ages, m any Greeks sailed/rowed to Aegean islands and other parts of the Eastern
Mediterranean. They colonized Sicily and the coast of Anatolia (W . Turkey) (including Miletus, an Aegean port town). The
Greek econom y was based on trade. They established over 100 trading ports around the Black Sea, in Italy, Anatolia,
Libya, and S. France (Marseille), including Byzantium on the Bosporus (founded in 661 BC, later called Constantinople).
som e of which towns grew larger than Athens. They traded grain, salt, copper, m illstones, gum .
A feeling of national consciousness developed based on a com m on language, albeit with dialects. They had num erous
gods and built shrines/tem ples to their gods. Greeks (and later Rom ans) were expected to publicly worship the gods.
c850 BC
The Mediterranean civilizations all had widely differing alphabets (a system of writing that uses one sym bol for one sound).
One such alphabet, the Phoenician (derived from the Sum erian), of 22 consonants, reached Syria, Arabia, Cyprus, Malta,
Sardinia, and Greece. It was the basis of all m odern European alphabets. Som etim e around 850 BC, the Greeks added
seven sym bols for vowel sounds to the Phoenician alphabet, and used it to record their speech. Greeks, with their new
alphabet (of 14 consonants and seven vowels), wrote on papyrus from Egypt. Greek treatises (hand copied) on technical
subjects were circulated throughout the Mediterranean by seafaring Greek traders. The Greeks stepped out of unrecorded
history with a highly developed civilization, portrayed in their two epics. They started the m odern world going.
Alphabet
(Som e written languages are not alphabetical, i.e., Chinese pictographs, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, ancient
Sum erian, and ancient Hebrew (No vowels in m odern Hebrew).)
814 BC
753 BC
c750 BC
Greek
gods
Sem itic Phoenicians from Tyre and Sidon (present Lebanon), were principally seafarers/traders.
Phoenicians founded Carthage (Tunisia), and dom inated points west on the Mediterranean, and Cadiz just beyond the
Strait of Gibraltar on the Atlantic, sailed possibly to England. Carthage reached 1M people, m ade woven goods, becam e
the greatest sea power of its tim e, cam e to dom inate the Med, settled E. Spain. Centuries later, Carthage rivaled Rom e.
In m yth, Rom ulus killed Rem us (both sons of Mars, god of war) and founded Rom e. In fact, barbarians speaking a
prim itive variant of Latin had settled there. The Etruscians (Tuscany) conquered and ruled the town called Rom e.
Religion: Classic paganism was in full flower in Greece: gods Zeus, Athena, Hera, Poseidon, Apollo, Artem is, Aphrodite
(and 41 m ore, each with specific powers), coupled with rem arkable tolerance and scepticism in religious m atters,
perm itted speculation about social institutions. Greek gods were im m ortal glorified hum ans, with hum an em otions, i.e.,
lust, pride, envy, etc. (contra the rigid priest-dom inated society in Egypt.) The 12 m ain gods lived on Mt. Olym pus,
Greece’s highest m ountain, and paid little attention to the Greek people. The goddess Nem esis punished the arrogant.
“Know thyself “ and “Nothing too m uch” were inscribed on Apollo’s tem ple at Delphi.
First practical arches introduced by Etruscians.
c620
Greek city governm ents were “dem ocracies” but lim ited to city-born free m ales. (Usually also lim ited to property owners.)
For Athens, Draco codified the existing harsh oral laws (death penalty for m inor offenses), hence draconian.
6 th
Cent.
BC
The 6 th century BC m arked a zenith of hum an wisdom and achievem ent in 1. Confucius/K’ung fu-tzu/Grand Master
K’ung (551-479 BC), 2. Buddha (528 BC), 3. Zoroaster (ethical dualism ), 4. Jainism (self-denial, against the caste
system ), and 5. the Jews. King Ashurbanipal had all books in Nineveh copied and put in his library.
Reason
started
w ith the
In addition to the above philosophical/religious schools, the m ost important step in the history of knowledge
developed in Greece and India. Greeks began to think rationally, to ask “how ” do crops grow, instead of seeking
supernatural explanations for phenomena. In Greece, for the educated, reason took precedence over all other
forms of acquiring knowledge. The m asses continued ignorant and superstitious believers in the gods.
The Greeks started with the developm ent of a new com m unications device, their alphabet and papyrus, and a new
9
Greeks.
Science
seeks to
understand
Nature.
Technology
makes
life more
comfortable
m ethod of acquiring knowledge, system atic study / organized knowledge / science/ epistem e / rational thinking.
Reason/Science is the system atic attem pt to provide accurate verifiable explanations for natural phenom ena. Most people
today applaud new developm ents in science. It was not always so. The history of advances in knowledge has been the
slow uneven trium ph of reason over the constant efforts of priests of all beliefs to oppose all advances in hum an
knowledge based on reason and inconsistent with their particular beliefs.
Scientific thinking originated in Greece with the Ionian philosophers, Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, all from
Miletus, and Pythagoras of nearby Sam os (in the Aegean). W hile virtually all belief system s, theocratic or secular, believe
that their belief system is the one true belief system , Greeks, as seafarers, having invented gold and silver coins, traded
with other cultures, and saw that other cultures all had their own m yths/ belief system s, thus questioning all m yths. The
Greeks had no class of priests to dictate the nature of the world. Thus, thinking Greeks had no well-organized enforcers
of m yth and superstition to constrict their thinking. Greeks were the first to look for general principles beyond observations.
Pre-Greek thought was undirected, thinking in im ages. Greek thought was thinking in words.
India/Hinduism (also without a controlling priesthood) contem poraneously also saw an explosion in rational thinking. Six
darshana (philosophical schools) tried to answer the fundam ental questions: Is there a God? Is the world real? Samkhya
believed there was no God and that the world was real due to the interaction between the two substances, prakriti and
purusha. Yoga believed in a suprem e being (Isvara) and that the world was real. Vedanta believed that the world was not
real as it was an em anation of Braham ian, the only substance that truly exists. Mahabharata, sacred epic poem , to be read
literally and figuratively, good v. evil, described heaven and hell, som e concepts later in the Bible.
Date
Unknown
Zarathustra, Gr. Zoroaster, Persian, founded Zoroastrianism, wherein the basic fact of existence was the universal
opposition of the two creative cosm ic powers, a good god, Spenista Mainyu/Orm uzd (light, truth, frankness), and evil god,
Angra Mainyu/Ahrim an (secrecy, cunning, darkness, diplom acy. True religion was in Man’s allegiance with the one true
god, Ahura-Mazda, the only true god against the evil Ahriman. Such dualism appeared later in Gnosticism , Manichaeism ,
Judaism , and Christianity (to a very lim ited extent). Dualism explained the existence of evil, the basic problem for
Monotheists. (See Problem of Evil). At the end of tim e, Ahura-Mazda will em erge victorious and all hum ans shall
resurrect. Before Zoroaster, Persians worshiped the Sun, Moon, fire, winds. Mithra was a popular Zoroastrian god.
c600 BC
Philosophy/Science: Thales (c630- c546 BC) of Miletus (a port city on the Aegean in Anatolia). One of “Seven W ise
Men” of Greece. He was the first known philosopher and first scientist. (It was the sam e thing then.) Before Thales,
Greek knowledge was practical, Greeks knew hunting, crops, and households. Thales was well traveled, said to have
learned land surveying and thus geom etry in Egypt, and possessed astronom ical knowledge from Babylon (the 24
hour day, 360 degrees to a circle, the discovery of a cycle of lunar eclipses, perm itting them to be predicted).
Thales
He founded Greek geom etry; saw that any triangle whose hypotenuse is the diam eter of a circle and whose opposite
angle is on the circum ference of the circle, is a right triangle (Thales’s Theorem), and that the hypotenuse of a right
triangle squared = the sum of the squares of the other two sides. (now known as the Pythagorean Theorem). Thales
realized it; Pythagoreans later proved it. Athens was at the tim e just another Greek city, of no particular im portance.
Thales was the founder of what is known as the Ionian school of natural philosophy. Som e m em bers of this school
argued with him , using reasoned argum ents; thus began the history of philosophical argum ent and debate.
He proposed that the bright band in the night sky (now known as the Milky W ay) m ight consist of distant stars.
(Galileo confirm ed this 2200 years later in 1610 with his telescope.)
Geom etry m ay be the m ost elem entary of sciences, enabled Man, by purely intellectual processes, to m ake predictions
based on observations about the physical world. It becam e the basic discipline for m easuring all static objects. Geom etry
becam e the foundation for a rational system of philosophy that underpins W estern culture to this day. Thales was/is
erroneously reputed to have predicted a solar eclipse in 585 BC.
Thales’s
Big
Question
Thales’s big question: Does everything (trees, fields, plants, anim als) change, or is there som ething that does not
change? He was the first thinker to propose a single universal principle of the m aterial universe, a substratum that
underlay all change. His answer was water. W rong, of course, but his significance and probably the most important
insight in the history of know ledge is that he didn’t resort to an anim istic, supernatural explanation, but he assum ed
the world could be understood rationally by the hum an m ind. He thus rejected the Hom eric/Greek gods.
At least since Thales, underlying all advances in thought, knowledge and philosophy, there has been a persistent conflict
between those who believed in supernatural causes for events and conditions and those who believed that nature follows
natural laws/principles, i.e., that there is Order in Nature, and that Man can understand such causes.
Philosophical reasoning proceeds m ainly by clarification and argum ent. Philosophers argue for their opinions. They
present reasons, leading to new conclusions, that are hopefully m ore reasonable than com peting views. Thales m ade
knowledge public, not a priestly m ystery. The search for som ething perm anent is one of the deepest of the instincts
leading m en to philosophy and religion. Religion prom ises perm anence in two form s, God and im m ortality.
10
Thales’s influence gave rise to the expression “thinking about the world in the Greek way,” i.e., rationally. His idea to think
about the world rationally spread throughout the known W estern world (the world around the Med.). Greeks then
developed organized knowledge for all who could read (a tiny m inority in any case). The world that Thales tried to
understand was the world of things he could see and experience, not thoughts in people’s m inds
594 BC
594 BC Thales is also thought to have discovered that am ber (solidified sap), rubbed against wool, would attract light
objects (Greek: elektron = am ber). This is electrostatic attraction, different from m agnetism , which Thales also studied.
Solon
Solon the Law maker laid the foundations for Athenian dem ocracy, m oderated Draco’s harsh laws, covering all areas
of life, trial by jury, a constitution, cancelled all current land debts, freed people who had fallen into slavery for debts. Solon
gave m ale citizens who did not own land the vote in the assem bly and on juries (not in the U.S. until the 1820s). Greeks
invented politics, the idea of deciding public affairs by discussion in a public setting. But Greek cities’s citizenships did not
include wom en, slaves, freedm en, even city-born Greeks whose father was born outside the city.
c590BC
Philosophy/Science: Anaximander (610-547 BC), Greek, also from Miletus, first known cartographer, m ade charts of
the Med and the stars. A student of Thales, he theorized that all nature was m ade up of varying am ounts of four elem ents,
water, fire, air, and earth. He thought the Earth was a curved solid m ass shaped like a cylinder suspended in space.
His On Nature, introduced a concept of evolution, that is, he thought life started in slim e and m oved to drier places.
He held that all things com e from a single prim ordial source, unlike any known substances, infinite, eternal, ageless. If
water or air were the prim ordial substance, it would have elim inated all the others. He said that Man was descended from
fishes, but through som e interm ediate creatures. He was the first to state what later becam e known as the principle of
sufficient reason, that is, there’s a reason/cause for everything that happens. (See Leibniz 1710)
He believed that “justice” consisted of one not overstepping eternally fixed bounds, one of the m ost profound of
Greek beliefs. He introduced the sundial to Greece. It had been used for centuries in Mesopotam ia and Egypt.
Anaximenes (c585 - c528), third and last of the Miletean philosophers, said rainbows were natural phenom ena, not divine.
Re Thales’s question, he said air was the unchanging substance, and all things were m ade up of air in different densities.
Fire was rarified air. The next stage of Greek philosophy was m ore religious, less scientific.
c586 BC
Jew s
Old
Testament
W hat
Jew s
Know
W ho
must
be
killed
Theology: King Nebuchadnezzar had exiled Jews from Judah to Babylon. In “Babylonian exile,” Jewish scholars began
to com pile their holy scriptures, now known as the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible from Arabian, Assyrian, Persian,
Chaldean, Mesopotam ian, Egyptian, & their own m yths. The Old Testament has three parts, written over several centuries,
The Law/Torah, The Prophets, & The W ritings. The story of the baby Moses was identical to the earlier m yth of Sargon1.
The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament depicts its God as cruel, jealous, and vindictive. God dem anded hum an sacrifices
Leviticus 27: 28-29: Judges 11: 29-40; 2 Samuel 21:1-9. God killed the first born of every Egyptian fam ily (and all Egyptian
anim als), Exodus 11 4-6, 11-7, 12:12, 12: 29. He drowned every hum an and land anim al not on Noah’s ark. Genesis 7:4,
7:21-23. An uncircum cised boy is to be abandoned by his parents and the com m unity. Gen. 17:14. God killed every
hum an in Sodom and Gom orrah except Lot Gen. 19:24-26. He said, “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God (repeated
num erous tim es), visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children onto the fourth generation.” Ex. 20:25, 34:7;
Numbers 14:18. A girl was the property of her father who could sell her as a wife or slave Ex. 21:7. Sorcery is an
abom ination, Deuteronomy 18: 11-12. A child born out of wedlock could not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even
to the 10 th generation. Deut. 23: 2. God killed those who com plained. Num.11:1, and those who offered incense. Num.
16:35.God gave Phinehas and his sons everlasting priesthood for killing an Israelite for having a foreign wife. Num. 25:13.
The Hebrew Bible / Old Testament com m ands killing blasphem ers Lev. 24:11-14, 16,23; hom osexuals Lev. 20:13;
perjurers Zechariah 5:4; those who hit, curse, or disobey a parent Ex. 21:15, 17; Lev. 20.9; Deut. 21:18-21; non-virgin
brides Deut. 22. 20-21; m en who have sex with a betrothed wom an, and the wom an also, if it occurs in the city and she
does not cry for help. Deut. 22:22-26; thieves Zech. 5:3-4; Unchaste priests’s daughters Lev 21:9; those who work on
the Sabbath Ex. 31:14-15; Num. 15:32-36; adulterers Lev. 20:10-12, Deut. 22:22; persons who believe in other gods or
who worship idols, the Sun, or the stars. Deut. 13:7-11, Ex. 22:20; taking the Lord’s nam e in vain Lev. 24:16; witches Ex.
22:18, Lev. 20:27;; m en or wom en who have sex with anim als Ex. 22:19, Lev.20:11-16; dissidents Ex. 32:27; the sick
and crippled Num. 5:2-4; foreigners Deut 7:2; kidnappers Deut 24:7; m en who have sex with their father’s wife, other m en,
their m other-in-law, aunt, daughter-in-law, Lev. 20:11-16, (A loophole, sex with one’s daughter is not proscribed.)(harsh!)
A m an with a blem ish, or lam e, blind, or had a flat nose, or was a dwarf, could not approach the altar. Lev. 21:18-21.
Jews believed that Jerusalem was the center of the Earth. Jews could not charge interest to other Jews Deut. 23:20.
Slavery of foreigners was encouraged. If a m an had sex with a non-betrothed virgin, and is discovered, he m ust m arry
her and pay her father 50 shekels. Deut. 22: 28-29. W om en could never initiate a divorce. Husbands rule wives Gen. 316. Genesis said both that God created the Earth in 6 days as well as in just a m om ent; and that he m ade the Sun 3 days
after he m ade light. (Over the ages, theologians have tried to reconcile Biblical inconsistencies.) The account of the
creation of the world in Genesis is strikingly sim ilar to writings in the library of King Ashurbanipal at Nineveh written
around 650 BC and to other ancient writings of the Phoenicians and the Assyrians. Neither the devil nor Hell is
m entioned. Many parts of the Torah were also strikingly sim ilar to Hammurabi’s harsh Code, i.e., “an eye for an eye.”
11
God com m anded that Jews fear Him Deut. 6:2, 7:13, 24, 8:6 & other passages, and to take the Bible literally Deut.13-1.
Before 586 BC, Jews suffered num erous disasters. Rabbis said it was Yahweh’s punishm ent for their apostasy. Jews
were always God-obsessed. Jews believed the purpose of life was to serve God and prepare for the world to com e (like
Egyptians). Life is a precious gift from God. During the Babylonian Exile, m arriage with gentiles was banned.
Jews knew that they were the chosen people because:
1. They were given the law (the 10 Commandments and the Torah).
2. They had an eternal covenant with God that He would never desert them .
3. They were to witness to the world that God is and will be foreverm ore.
Pagans at the tim e had good and evil gods who caused good and evil. Jews said Man alone was responsible for his acts.
Judaism , in its expectation that a Messiah would com e and deliver them from their suffering, and was largely indifferent
towards unbelievers. (Cyrus the Great let them return to Jehud Province in 538 BC and rebuild the tem ple.)
c570 BC
Fossils
Philosophy/Science: Xenophanes of Colophon (now Turkey) speculated that as fossil sea shells were found on m ountain
tops, m ountains m ust have risen and fallen in the past. He criticized Greeks’s anthropom orphism , i.e., describing Greek
gods like them selves. “If horses could paint, they would paint gods as horses...Ethiopians’s gods are black and snubnosed; Thracians’s gods have blue eyes and red hair.” (Thracians were redheads.) Xenophanes posited that there was
one god greater than all other gods; “he sees over all, thinks over all, hears over all... without toil sets all things in m otion
by the thought of his m ind.” He said also that rainbows were natural phenom ena, a kind of cloud.
Greek culture: Art changed from archaic frontal style to m ore hum an. W hile Greek painting was m erely an adaption from
other cultures, Greek sculpture was new, realistically hum an. Greeks had several concepts of love: 1. the generative
principle of the cosm os, 2. philia / friendship, 3. the em otional attraction, 4.eros, akin to sexual love, the torm ent of a
passion, 5. sexual relations, and 6. agape, love of God and/or his creatures.
According to the historian Herodotus, Phoenicians sailed around Africa, taking 3 years. (If true, this was not done again
for 1,900 years). Thebes, Athens, Macedonia, Sparta, Phoenicians, Rom e, Etruscans (Tuscany), Persia, Syracuse
(Sicily), Carthaginians, Corinth, all fought one another interm ittently and entered into treaties governing com m erce,
property, naturalization, status of aliens, right of asylum , extradition, and diplom atic privileges.
c540450 BC
Pythagoras
Nature
can be
measured
Philosophy: Pythagoras (c570 - c490 BC) of Sam os, intellectually one of the m ost im portant persons who ever lived,
one of the first to say Earth is a sphere, but it m ay have been a m em ber of his school. He was religious, but was
antagonistic toward the Greek gods, who were not gods in the m odern theological sense as they were as im m oral as
hum ans. Said, “The soul of m an is divided into three parts, intelligence, reason and passion. Intelligence and passion
are possessed by other anim als, but reason by m an alone.
Pythagoras was founder of a group of scholars known as Pyhthagoreans, who thought m athem atics was the key to
understanding the universe, the world was a rational ordered whole, that num bers could have real influence on m aterial
things. They discovered that the length of a vibrating string was proportional to the notes produced. He and his followers
believed things are num bers and vice versa, verging on nonsensical num erology. They tried to explain the world in term s
of whole num ber ratios. They believed that the whole universe was based on a m ystic order, or kosm os. Pythagoras
treated wom en as m en’s equals, property was held in com m on, with a com m on way of life, scientific and m athem atical
discoveries were deem ed collective. Pythagoras was concerned with the im m ortality of the soul. He said planets traveled
around the Earth on crystalline spheres. He was/is incorrectly credited with the idea of the m usic of the spheres.
Pythagoras’s big insight, that there’s som ething about the real world that is intelligible in m athem atical term s, is probably
the second great advance in the history of hum an thought. Said, “Reason is im m ortal, all else m ortal.” He put knowledge
and science as a path to salvation. He and his disciples led a sim ple life. After his death, his disciples were credited with
the proof of what cam e to be called the Pythagorean Theorem, although the theorem itself was known to Thales and m ay
have been known to the Mesopotam ians/Babylonians 1,000 years earlier. This is the m ost im portant single theorem in
the whole of m athem atics. Pythagoreans said the Earth rotated on its axis. Philolaus of Croton, a Pythagorean,
suggested that the Earth orbited the Sun. This was further developed a century later by Heraclites and Aristarchus.
Triangles in sem icircles, i.e., right triangles (Thales’s Theorem), are the basis of trigonom etry. The Pythagorean
m ovem ent as such died out as they could not understand or accept the concept of irrational num bers, like ð (pi), i.e., a
num ber that could not be expressed as a ratio between two whole num bers, like 1/3. They believed that three kinds of
people went to the Olym pics, m erchants, the lowest rank, then athletes, and highest, spectators/thinkers.
Philosophy/Science: Alcmaeon, dissected hum ans, noted the optic nerve and the Eustachian tubes, saw the difference
between veins & arteries, recognized the brain as the seat of intellect, and the connection between the brain and sensing
organs. Suggested health was a balance between opposing hum ors. Illnesses caused by the environm ent and lifestyle.
c530 BC
Confucianism: without deities/gods, thus not a religion, established harm ony and justice as its central idea. Confucius,
a conservative, stressed the im portance of a central governm ent and filial piety. The ideal relationship am ong hum an
12
Confucius
beings is jen (hum anity or goodness), the perfect virtue of m en, He said, “W here wealth is centralized, the people are
dispersed. W here wealth is distributed, the people are brought together.”
His teachings gradually becam e China’s official state doctrine. He disclaim ed having any divine inspiration and had
no interest in cosm ology, the branch of philosophy that deals with the origin and structure of the universe. He taught
respect for the individual in a tim e when life was cheap. Confucianism is practical, social, ethical, full of advice on how
to behave, m ore code than creed, with no church or clergy.
Confucius taught that all em inence should be based entirely on m erit (ability and m oral excellence which essentially
m eant learning Confucian texts), except for the hereditary ruling (Chou) im perial fam ily China. One’s birth m eant nothing.
The prevailing feudalists wanted their positions of em inence and power to be passed down to their sons. Confucius
assum ed m en were unequal, m easured by their understanding of written (Confucian) texts. Confucius was m ore
concerned about the fate of society than the souls of its inhabitants. (Modern Confucian scholar Tu W ei-M ing said, “W e
can realize the ultim ate m eaning of life in ordinary hum an existence.”)
Confucius: “To be able to practice five things everywhere under heaven constitutes perfect virtue. These are gravity,
generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness...Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.”
“The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it; not having it, to confess your ignorance.”
Confucianism stressed the relationship between persons, based on proper behavior and sym pathetic attitude. His
“Golden Rule,”Do not im pose on others what you do not wish for yourself.” Analects 15 24.“The proper m an understands
equity, the sm all m an understands profits...W isdom , com passion, and courage are the three universally recognized m oral
qualities of m en.” “In a country well governed, poverty is som ething to be asham ed of. In a country badly governed,
wealth is som ething to be asham ed of.” Analects 8. The cautious seldom err, Analects 4:23.
Confucius’s sayings were later collected in a book called the Analects, then incorporated into the Thirteen Classics,
which were to China as the Bible was to the W est, to teach Chinese officials how to rule.
Confucius’s exception for the ruling fam ily from the m erit qualification was a politically expedient corollary to
Socrates’s Royal Lie (see 420 BC) and St. Peter’s later instruction to obey all hum an authorities 1 Peter 2:13-14, 17.
Chinese used iron weapons 200-300 years after Assyria, Egypt, and Europe. Chinese planted crops in rows, hoed
weeds, used m anure for fertilizer, not done in the W est for 2,000 years.
c529 BC
The Persian em pire arose under Cyrus the Great, a Zoroastrian, who conquered Mesopotam ia. W ith 40 m illion
people, it was far larger than all the Greek city-states.
Scribes wrote for king and com m oner (norm ally both illiterate). Thus were powerful figures.
528+ BC
Philosophy: Siddhartha Gautama Buddha (the Enlightened One) (c563-c483 BC), born wealthy in North India. At
29, he left his wife and infant son to wander and think, for 15 years.
In 528 BC, he said he had found the way out of the eternal cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, attained the Awakening,
realized the Truth, All acts, good and bad, have consequences. Longing hate, and ignorance lead to new suffering. To
break this chain, one m ust release all passions. Thus the Truth consists of four “Noble Truths,” nam ely:
1. Man’s existence is full of sorrow, duhkha, (and we are doom ed to an eternal cycle of death and rebirth unless we
find Nirvana (obliteration of desire),
2. Man’s sorrowful condition is due to Man’s craving (trishna), i.e., three selfish Desires (a. Desire to gratify the
senses, b. Desire for personal im m ortality, and, c. Desire for prosperity, worldliness),
3. But, Man can find em ancipation and freedom from desire - nirvana,
4. by seeking the m iddle way between self-indulgence and self-m ortification, known as the “Noble Eightfold Path,”
the eight elem ents of which are: 1. Right Views (truth) 2. Right aspirations 3. Right Speech 4. Right Conduct.
5. Right Livelihood. 6. Right Effort. 7. Right Mindfulness 8. Right Rapture /Concentration.
Buddha
“W hen a m an has pity on all living creatures, only then is he noble.” All desires m ust be overcom e before Man can
becom e serene. Men m ust lose them selves in som ething greater than them selves. Buddha specifically disclaim ed
any interest in the riddle of creation. As no god was involved, Buddhism could be considered an ethical doctrine rather
than a religion. But a theology developed about Buddha, that he was a god.
Buddha’s idea of social equality contradicted the caste system , led by the ruling Hindu Brahm ins. His ideas spread
across India, and then to China. (The Brahm ins, by the 11 th century AD, however, drove this egalitarian Buddhist
teaching out of India, but m any Buddhist teachings rem ained integral parts of Hinduism.). Buddhism’s em phasis on
social equality, its doctrine that m any hum an ills are caused by poverty, have inspired reform m ovem ents and anticolonial nationalistic m ovem ents in m any countries. Buddha focused on suffering, but ended up denying the
existence of the self: only events exist. Buddhism eventually split into three m ain stream s of thought
1. The Theravada (stress the brotherhood of m onks, the sangha as the principal m eans of achieving nirvana).
2. The Mahayana (1 st century AD, taught the existence of souls called bodhisattva, who achieved sainthood
but declined entering nirvana so they could help others achieve sainthood).
3. The Tantrics (6 th century AD, expanded the num ber of supernatural deities beyond the bodhisattva,
13
including dem ons who can be called on for help through rituals.
Buddhism and Jainism, both atheistic, took reincarnation to be a basic principle of the universe, and both sought to
escape from the circle of births and deaths through correct knowledge and conduct. Buddha and Lao-Tse both advocated
Christ’s later adm onition to turn the other cheek. The path Buddha taught is prim arily a study of your own m ind and a
system for training your m ind.
c510
M ahavira (c540-c468 BC) founded Jainism, prom oted self-discipline above all else. Jainism was a reaction against the
form alism of the Brahm anical religion. Following the ascetic teachings of jina, one achieves enlightenm ent (perfect
knowledge). The m eaning of life is to use the physical body to achieve self-realization and bliss. Everyone is responsible
for his actions and all living things have an eternal soul, jiva. Jainism includes strict adherence to ahimsa, a form of nonviolence that goes far beyond vegetarianism . Jains refuse food obtained with unnecessary cruelty.
509 BC
Rom e revolted, won its independence from the Etruscans, and form ed a republic with a ruling Senate, not elected, just
the wealthiest c300 m en. The Senate ruled, but Tribunes, representatives of com m on citizens, were also in the
governm ent. The city’s m otto was Senatus Populsque Romanus (SPQR), The Senate and People of Rome. Fam ilies were
the basic units of Rom an society. W orship of fam ily gods was im portant. As in Greece, slaves did the hard work.
508 BC
Cleisthenes took control in Athens, put all citizens in ten new tribes, each of which elected 50 m em bers by lot each
year for a new council of 500, which adm inistered Athens’s foreign and financial affairs and prepared the business to
be debated and voted on by the assem bly, i.e., all m ale citizens. This was the basis for Athenian dem ocracy.
c504 BC
Heraclitus of Ephesus (a Greek port in Anatolia) shifted the focus of Greek philosophy from what things consisted of
(Thales, Democritus, Anaximander) to the problem of change. One of first dialectic philosophers; his chief idea was
that “All is flux. Everything flows and nothing stays.” “You cannot enter the sam e river twice...(true, in a narrow sense,
by his definition. But, in another equally valid sense, one can, “Ole m an river just keeps rolling along.) Nothing endures
but change.” Fire, sym bolizing change, was the basic reality as well as his answer to Thales’s question, “Is there
som ething unchanging?” To his idea of fire he added the idea of reason as the universal law. Change was not a
haphazard m ovem ent but the product of God’s universal reason (logos). “The one is the m any; being is becom ing;
substance is change. A m an’s character is his fate.” The soul was a m ixture of fire (noble) and water (ignoble).
In contrast, Parmenides, from South Italy, the m ost Indian of the Greek philosophers, believed that nothing ever changes:
that there is only one, infinite, and eternal and indivisible reality, and we are part of this unchanging One, despite the
illusion of a changing world from our senses. He invented m etaphysics based on logic. He considered the senses
deceptive, and condem ned the m ultitude of sensible things as m ere illusions. The only true being is “the One,” which is
infinite and indivisible. It is not a union of opposites as there are no opposites. Dark is just “not light.” (Metaphysics is that
branch of speculation dealing with first principles of things, including such concepts as being, tim e, space, cause,
substance, essence, identity, The word metaphysics com es from chapters in Aristotle’s writings after Physics (m eta =
after) and cam e to be known as the science of things transcending what is physical or natural.
c500 BC
The cultural dom inance of Mid-East ended. The four m ajor civilizations of Eurasia, 1. Greek, 2. Mid-East, 3. Indus and
Ganges Valleys, and 4. China, developed in their separate ways in rough balance. (Europe’s dom inance, The Rise of
the W est, cam e 2,000 years later.) Slavery was accepted as the natural order of things everywhere.
Jews: By 500 BC, the religion of Yahweh had undergone far reaching transform ations from the cult of one tribe into
a world religion claim ing universal validity for itself and error for other religions.
Greek
Thinking
Overview: Athenian thinkers were the first m odern m en. Thus, it took c3.5+ m illion years from when Hominids/ hum ans
first evolved to develop writing and system atic thinking, just c2,700 years ago. In the beginning, all system atic search for
knowledge was called philosophy. Philosophers were sim ply thinkers, m athem aticians, physicists, and psychologists.
(philo = love-of, sophy = wisdom /knowledge) Athens had a public library by 530 BC.
The Hellenes, adopting the arts and skills of the Creteans/Minoans, evolved a new culture of scientific inquiry, individual
dignity, civic duty, and hum an freedom that inspired the western world for 25 centuries. W hile the Hellenes did not
progress as far as m odern Man in the physical sciences, the Hellenes probably carried philosophy, especially ethical
philosophy, farther than we have. Even m odern physical sciences have been partially based on Hellenes/Greek ideas.
Incredibly, the Greeks never caught on to the usefulness of positional notation.
Athens, at its peak, had c260,000 inhabitants, c50,000 of whom were adult m ale citizens/demos, and c100,000 were
slaves. These 50,000 demos m et periodically in “town m eetings.” The Greek polis / town was the m odel for the later
basic principle of European society, the prim acy of the territorial state over all com peting principles of social cohesion.
A tom b from c500 BC in Burgundy had a 4-wheel chariot, personal property, and a gold diadem (indicating a social
hierarchy, a warrior caste, and an artisan class).
5 th Cent.
BC
Shinto
Shinto, native religion to Japan, and a form of national patriotism , started around 500 BC, perhaps earlier, the origins
of its beliefs are unknown. Shinto says Japan is a divine country; the em peror is a descendant of the gods. Shinto has
thousands of spirits, polytheism , known as kam i, who are paid tribute at shrines. There is no overall dogm a, but
14
adherents m ust rem em ber and celebrate the kam i, rem ain pure and sincere, and enjoy life. Shinto sees death as
pollution and regards life as the realm where the divine spirit seeks to purify itself by rightful self-developm ent. Shinto
dealt with ordinary lives. There was no word for Shinto until Buddhism was m ade a state religion in 604 AD and Shinto
had to distinguish itself from Buddhism. Shinto is non-exclusive. One can be Christian and Shinto.
Drama
Dram a developed out of Greek worship cerem onies/festivals to the god of wine, Dionysus (He could turn water into wine,
like Jesus.) where one actor recited lines as Dionysus and a chorus (representing the people) responded. Aeschylus
(c525-465 BC) invented dram a by introducing a second actor into his plays. His plays dealt with age-old problem s of the
conflict between Man and gods. He wrote Agamemnon (whose hubris led to his death).Said, “Fear is stronger than arm s.”
Greeks were a relatively insignificant group of rival cities in a sm all area, and Athens was not the largest or richest Greek
city, Sparta, essentially one big arm y cam p, was larger. However, the Greeks had a com m on language and religion,
paganism , the num erous gods. Militarily, the Greeks developed the phalanx, a m ass of citizen/farm er/infantrym en in close
form ation, with overlapping shields, virtually unstoppable. Cavalry could not defeat it. It broadened the class of citizens
who took an active part in polis affairs. In Athens, basic education was for all m en. Beyond that, tutors or m en like Plato.
490 BC
Persia, then the largest W estern em pire, under Darius 1, attacked Greece. Persia’s attack united the Greek cities, and,
at Marathon, 26 m iles from Athens, the Greeks won. In 480 BC, the Persians tried again, took Athens, but the Greek fleet
at Salam is and the Greek arm y at Plataea defeated the Persians. One key to Athens’s victory was her fleet of 200 new
trirem es (3 levels of rowers), who though outnum bered, outm aneuvered the Persian fleet. The fleet enabled Athens to
take the battle to Asia Minor. The Greeks were m ariners and explorers. The sea was hom e to them . Thus, while Athens
is rem em bered for m any things, its m ilitary skills m ade them possible. Greece’s “Golden Age” started.
Herodotus (c484-c421 BC), invented history by telling why big events occurred. He told a coherent story, traveled widely,
explained how Greeks beat the m ore num erous and better arm ed Persians in 490 and 480 BC; nam ely, 1. Persian
arrogance, 2. The Greeks were fighting for their hom es. (Athenian citizens fought for “their” city), 3. Persian soldiers were
slaves, did not believe in their cause. He also described Indian cotton to Greeks.
Athens, not then the dom inant Greek city, becam e the focus of all that was m ost significant in Greek civilization. From
500 to 300 BC, the center of W estern civilization shifted from Mesopotam ia/Persia to Athens. Before Socrates, none of
the great Greek m athem aticians or philosophers were Athenians. Athens was a dem ocracy (for free m ales); wom en could
not own property. In Sparta, a m ilitary cam p, they could. Athens dom inated Mediterranean trade. In the 5 th century BC,
due to the Greek philosophers, reading and writing first escaped from the tem ples and king’s court, and was the first
beginnings of the free intelligence of m ankind, a dom inant power in hum an affairs.
c470 BC
Dram a: Sophocles (c496-406 BC), the second great Greek tragedian, added a third actor into the developing tragic
dram a; wrote Oedipus. Said, “The gods plant reason in m ankind, of all good gifts the highest...Live well, die well.
W isdom outweighs any wealth...Num berless are the world’s wonders, but none m ore wonderful than Man.”
Sophism
Sophism: Athens becam e the center of a new kind of teacher, the Sophists,/experts who taught wealthy young m en the
verbal skills and knowledge to advance in a dem ocratic polis, encouraged independent thought. Sophists rejected earlier
Greek philosophers’ speculation about the nature of the universe and the place of divine forces in it. They taught
rhetoric/argum ent, that language was susceptible to analysis and m anipulation according to logical rules, and also, using
precise rules of logic, could unravel the m ysteries of the universe. They were the first Humanists.
Sophists took a relativistic attitude toward m oral values and thought that the only worthwhile object of study was
hum an behavior as the pursuit of one’s own m aterial interests was the only valid end. Sophists caused Athenians to
consider whether their ideas and custom s were founded on truth or sim ply conventional ways of behaving. Sophists
rejected the rationalistic speculations (all knowledge com es strictly from reasoning) about the nature of the world in favor
of focusing on observation of events and phenom ena. Sophists used skeptical argum ents, using readily seen and
observed exam ples to underm ine earlier philosophers’s theoretical claim s based solely on reason.
Drama
Dram a: Euripides (c484-406 BC), third and last great Athenian tragedian. His gods were m ortal, cruel, and selfish.
Said, “Cleverness is not wisdom ...Love is all we have...Much effort, m uch prosperity...Question everything, learn
som ething. Answer nothing...Talk sense to a fool and he will call you foolish...Slavery is not to speak one’s thought...
Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first m akes m ad...No one who lives in error is free.”
c450
M o-tzu (479-438 BC) Chinese, taught universal love for the com m on plight of ordinary people; posited a law of inertia.
Anaxagoras (c500 - 428 BC), last great Ionian philosopher, first philosopher to m ove to Athens, first to introduce a
dualistic explanation of the universe, taught Pericles the Orator, who was the greatest Greek statesm an 430 BC.
M ind
and
M atter
Anaxagoras’s m ain contribution was the concept of m ind (nous) as distinguished from m atter, as the prim ary cause of
physical change, a m ajor developm ent in philosophy. He also taught the atom istic explanation of universe. Held that all
natural objects are com posed of infinitesim ally sm all particles he called seeds, each containing m ixtures of all qualities,
albeit in differing proportions, and that the m ind, or intelligence acts upon m asses of these particles to produce objects
15
we see. He said the Moon was a rock and the Sun was m ade of hot iron constantly em itting light and heat.
He said, “Nothing can be known; nothing can be learned; nothing can be certain; sense is lim ited; intellect is weak; life
is short.” Sim ilar to Anaximander, he believed that Man and anim als sprang from m oist warm clay. His answer to
Thales’s question (Is there anything that does not change?) was air. Anaxagoras regarded the conventional Greek gods
as m ythical abstractions with hum an qualities i.e., anthropom orphic . (He was reportedly sentenced to death for im piety
as he said the Sun and Moon were not gods and that Pericles saved him . This story is false.) He postulated a Teleological
(Design) Argum ent for a god, i.e., W e can think of no natural explanation for the universe / Earth, so we infer som e
supernatural being m ust have designed it. This is an argum ent by inference. Teleology m eans purpose in nature.
c450 BC
Leucippus (c490-c430 BC) form ulated the Atomist Theory, Democritus, later (see 430 BC) elaborated and explained
it, that everything is m ade up of tiny indivisible particles, atom s, his correct answer to Thales’s question, before philosophy
turned from the study of nature to the study of Man under Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Leucippus said every event
has a natural cause and thereby prepared the way for a coherent theory of m otion and change.
Sophism
Philosophy: Protagoras (c481- c420 BC) of Abdera, Thrace, NW Greece, likely the m ost influential Sophist, was best
known for saying “Man is the m easure of all things,” a radical notion at the tim e. That is, our knowledge is m easured by
how we perceive it. W ind m ay feel cold to one person and warm to another. Both persons are correct. This doctrine is
at the heart of relativism . As a Sophist, he taught that self-interest was the only valid end. He was also first to system ize
the study of gram m ar, parts of speech, etc. Said, “As to the gods, I have no m eans of knowing that they exist or that they
do not.” He did not seek to prevent anyone from worshiping the gods as it was a politic thing to do and m ade for a stable
society. Sophists were probably the first Empiricists in W estern philosophy. Empiricism is not a static concept. W ithin
empiricism different philosophers have different em phases and refinem ents. For exam ple som e hold that knowledge can
com e indirectly from experience. The role of our senses can differ as well.
449 BC
Concurrently, Rom e prospered, copied Greek culture (like the English copied the 18 th Century French). Rom ans adopted
Greek gods (and renam ed them , Zeus becam e Jupiter, etc.), copied the Greek alphabet, philosophy, dram a, the
Macedonian order of battle, Spartan arm or, studied Solon’s laws and around 449 BC, Rom ans codified their 12 Tables
of Laws, which becam e a great legal system with justice, and a bill of rights for all citizens. The separation of powers,
instituted first by the Greeks, was also contained in the constitution of the Rom an Republic.
c445 BC
Em pedocles (c490-430 BC), born in Sicily, discovered air was a separate substance. H e originated the cosm ogenic
theory of the 4 classical elem ents, earth, air, fire, and water (propelled by the opposite forces of love and hate), when
m ixed in different proportions m ade all m atter. He illustrated centrifugal force by twirling a cup of water around. He knew
that the Moon shines by reflected sunlight.
c435 BC
Thrasymacus: There is no justice except in the interest of the stronger. Governm ents m ake laws to benefit them selves.
431-404
BC
Peloponnesian W ars: Pericles (? -429 BC) m ade Athens powerful and the center of art and literature, and was
responsible for the Parthenon (tem ple on the Acropolis, com pleted in 432 BC) and other great works. Pericles caused
Athens and its Delian League allies to fight Sparta and its Peloponnesian (Peninsula) League, over 27 years. Sparta, with
Persian m oney, finally won, but all parties were severely weakened. At the end of the first year of the war, 430 BC,
Pericles gave an eloquent funeral oration for those who had died in the war. He extolled dem ocracy. “Power is in the
hands not of a m inority but of the whole people. Everyone is equal before the law. Our political life is free and open.”
During the Age of Pericles, the grandest tim e in Athenian history (He ruled for 30 years), Athenians becam e deeply
attached to their dem ocracy (which excluded wom en, resident foreigners, and slaves). Am ong other things, Pericles
decreed that Athenians could not m arry foreigners. His m istress, Aspasia was from Miletus. He died of the plague.
Pericles
c430 BC
Atomic
Theory
Philosophy: Democritus (c460-c370 BC) of Abdera, father of materialism, traveled widely (Egypt, Ethiopia, India).
Following Leucippus, he answered Thales’s question (Is anything unchanging?) by postulating that 1. Everything is m ade
of tiny discrete particles called atom s (Greek: atom os = indivisible) 2. Atom s were perpetually in m otion, 3. Such m otion
was inherent, and 4. W eight was not a property of atom s. (Incorrect). He and Leucippus thus invented Atomic Theory.
He also said that we live in an infinite universe, with m any worlds. Atomism fulfilled Ionian (Eastern Greece) philosophy.
Like Thales, he speculated that a bright band in the heavens was distant stars. (Galileo in 1613 confirm ed this.)
Democritus thought spiritual reality does not exist, that the soul and even thought was m aterial. He wrote 70 books on
m ath, ethics, history, m usic, etc. Only bare fragm ents of his writings survive. Democritus developed a set of rules for
hum an behavior; be m oderate in all things and cultivate culture, as the surest way to achieve the m ost desirable goal of
life, cheerfulness. There was no solid evidence for the Atomic Theory for over 2000 years. He said that the best form of
governm ent was the dem ocratic. And, “A wise m an lim its his am bition to his ability.”
c425 BC
Diagoras, a Sophist and wit, burned a wooden im age of a god to cook turnips and said that if it really was a god, it
should save itself with a m iracle. Disbelief in the gods was a crim e. He was sentenced to death. He fled to Sparta.
c400 BC
In Hindu belief, Manu was the progenitor of m ankind. The Code of Manu, “In childhood a wom an m ust be subjected to
16
her father, in youth to her husband, when her husband is dead, to her sons. A wom an m ust never be free of
subjugation. ”A wife m ust worship her husband as if he were a god, though he m ay be without virtue.”
c425399 BC
Philosophy: Athens in the 5 th century was an open m arket for ideas, with a m iddle class eager to learn. Before Socrates,
Greek philosophers had focused on trying to understand t, he natural world, had disregarded the gods, knew atom ic
theory. Heraclitus had shifted the focus of philosophy to the nature of change. Then the Sophists and Socrates shifted
the concerns of philosophy to the study of Man and his behavior.
Socrates
Socrates (470- 399 BC) and his student, Plato concentrated on abstract principles and the conduct of Man. They even
resisted study of the m aterial world. Socrates’s m ain concern was m orality, ethics. Socrates, from a m iddle class Athens
fam ily, took no m oney for his teachings and questioned others, particularly other Sophists and the elders of Athens. Like
the Sophists, Socrates engaged in a relentless analysis of any and all subjects. The Sophists sought to show that there
was no absolute truth, no absolute m oral standards. Socrates sought to find truth. To that end, he sought precise
definitions of ideas. Anything less than an absolute definition was doxa, m ere opinion, as opposed to true knowledge,
episteme. Knowledge was virtue. To Socrates, wisdom was knowing what you did not know. Said, “The only true wisdom
is knowing you know nothing.” (a paradox) (Ontology is the study of the nature of all existence.)
Ethics
In place of the Sophists’s self-centered rhetoric, he introduced dialectic (starting with an incontrovertible statem ent based
on sim ple experience and building on it with clear and logical rules). Dialectic was crucial in the developm ent of
philosophy. It dom inated philosophical thought for 2,000 years until the 16 th century when the Scientific Method
(observation, m easurem ent, hypothesis, prediction, and experim ent) took over. The Socratic Method was to ask questions
to elicit a clear and consistent expression of som ething supposed to be im plicitly known by rational beings.
Follow
the
evidence
Socrates said, “Follow the evidence, wherever it leads...The unexam ined life is not worth living...There is just one good,
knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.” By knowledge, he m eant the knowledge of the craftsm an as well as of a
scholar...”The im portant thing is not to live but to live honorably.” These sentim ents were then revolutionary. He just
asked hard questions, claim ed not to know anything. The pleasantness of an idea didn’t m ake it true. He wanted m en to
learn to live peacefully together. His needs were sim ple, “How m any things there are which I do not want.”
To overcom e the relativism of the Sophists and Heraclitus, Socrates wanted to find som e im m ovable foundation on
which to build the edifice of knowledge. He found it within Man, and he called it the psyche, the soul. The im m ovable point
in this conception of the soul was, for Socrates, Man’s conscious awareness of what words m ean. To know that som e
things contradict others, that justice cannot m ean harm ing others, represented for Socrates an exam ple of the type of
knowledge one could attain just by using the powers of reason. To attain reliable knowledge, state a presum ably obvious
proposition and exam ine, through dialectic conversation precisely what it m eans.
No writings of Socrates survive; what we know com es from Plato’s writings, which were extensive.
Socrates and Plato disdained Athens’s dem ocracy, believed that the best governm ent was by philosopher kings. Those
who know should rule, others to obey. But, until the kings became philosophers, he expediently accepted his Royal Lie:
“Those who rule deserve to do so.” He said people won’t accept rulers unless they feel the rulers are superior, i.e.,
philosopher kings. (Protagoras had said that all m en possessed “political arts” so all should participate in governing.)
Socrates divided philosophy roughly into five areas:
1. Logic, what is valid. W hat can be profitably argued and proven.
2. Ethics, which actions are right and which ends are good.
3. Aesthetics, Beauty and art and taste, and judgem ent.
4. Epistemology, The study of knowledge. Do we really know anything, and if so, what, and how?
5. Metaphysics, The search for ultim ate categories, to understand the ultim ate schem e of things.
411 BC
c400 BC
Theatre: Aristophanes introduced com edy, satire, to Greek theater; wrote Lysistrata. (W om en withhold sex to force
m en to m ake peace. Make love, not war.) He even, gently, satirized Socrates for questioning the existence of Zeus.
Hippocrates (c460-c370 BC) “Father of Medicine,” rejected divine causes of diseases.
The Bhagavad Gita, Hindu sacred poem , in Sanskrit, described a talk between Lord Krishna and Prince Arjuna. One’s
true self is one’s undying soul which is divine in nature.
399 BC
Trial of
Socrates
Socrates continually denigrated Athenian dem ocracy and com m on m en. He so enraged Athens’s elders by his
incessant questions that they tried him for im piety and corrupting the young, trum ped-up charges. “Socrates acted
wickedly, and is crim inally curious into things under the earth, and in m aking the worse appear the better cause.” But,
there was no law against im piety. He was tried essentially for practicing free speech, a principle purportedly venerated
in Athens. Ironically, neither Socrates nor Plato favored free speech. At his trial, the m ost fam ous trial until Jesus’s, he
lectured the judges, “Are you not asham ed that you give your attention to acquiring as m uch m oney as possible, and
sim ilarly with reputation and honor, and give no attention or thought to truth and understanding and the perfection of your
17
soul?” They forced him to drink poison/hem lock.
Socrates, awaiting his trial, had asked Euthyphro, “Is there a
universal concept of goodness? Is an act m oral in and of itself, i.e., independent of God, (if so, God is just a conduit for
m oral knowledge), or because G od com m anded it, (if so, m orality is based m erely on God’s whim .)” This Euthyphro
Dilemma has been com m ented on extensively by theologians through the ages, but has not been resolved.
Cicero (65 BC) said Socrates “was the first to call philosophy down from the heavens and to place it in cities, and even
to introduce it into hom es and com pel it to inquire about life and standards and goods and evils.” Socrates’s, Plato’s,
and Aristotle’s philosophical conceptions of the divine and ethics had great influence in Medieval Christian and Muslim
theology, but had little effect on the m asses of Greek people, who rem ained pagan, i.e., popular culture versus elites.
(“The m usic is nothing if the audience is deaf.” W alter Lippmann.)
387 BC
Philosophy: Plato (c427-347 BC), from a wealthy Greek fam ily, on Socrates’s death in 399 BC, Plato traveled abroad
and in 387 BC, returned to Athens and founded the Academy to research philosophy; wrote Dialogues re the
im prisonm ent and death of Socrates, with Socrates as principal speaker, and Symposium (on the nature of love). Plato
rejected the world of sense in favor of the self-created world of pure thought. Most of Plato’s writings were of
conversations with Socrates. Their ideas were alm ost indistinguishable. Plato believed that a Demiurge, a m inor god,
shaped the Earth. Politically, he said that im piety should be punished by 5 years in prison, death for a second offence.
Plato
Plato ruled out senses as a reliable source of knowledge, & focused on ideas, which exist in a world of their own. Plato’s
theory of Ideas or Forms was his m ost significant philosophic contribution. It supposed that everything we see, everything
we observe with the senses, is no m ore than appearance. W hen one says “red” or “good,” is that som ething that exists
separately, apart from red objects or good thoughts? There is a basic reality, but it is som ething we cannot see; true
reality is an essential Form or Idea and it is perm anent and unchanging. He saw God as the essence of the Good. He
said all claim s m ust have valid bases. Plato denigrated Democritus’s m aterialistic thinking, wanted to burn his books.
Ideas/
Forms
are
reality
Plato developed an idealistic m etaphysics which postulated an ultim ate eternal and im m utable reality of pure Ideas or
Essences. He felt that true knowledge can be obtained only by understanding the Ideas or Forms. Universals like “good”
and “catness” were Plato’s answer to Thales’s question. Philosophically, it’s fine. As science, it’s useless. Reason was
judgm ent based on good evidence. Knowledge through the senses was inferior to intuitive knowledge
For Plato, the m eaning of life was to attain the highest form of knowledge, which is the Idea (or Form) of the Good.
Hum ans have a duty to pursue the Good. In The Republic (360 BC), Plato said that the Idea of the Good is the child or
offspring (ekgonos) of the Good, the ideal or perfect nature of goodness, and so an absolute m easure of justice.
He m aintained that phenom ena perceived by the senses are just im perfect copies of the reality of external Ideas.
“Catness” is the essence of a cat. Beauty was a Form , which objects (or people) can som etim es attain. This was
confusingly called realism. In contrast, Nominalists said that abstract concepts like “red” and “good” were m ere “nam es”
and that the only real things were real things. Said, “Knowledge is the food of the soul, and a wom an is a lesser m an.
Plato’s
Republic
Plato’s
Distrust
of
Democracy
Political Theory: Plato was the first political theorist. Plato grew up in Athens a tim e of doubt and questioning about all
hum an relationships. Athens was largely a dem ocracy of free m ale citizens. (Sparta was a m ilitary dictatorship of
warriors.) Socrates and Plato assum ed Man was the m ost im portant being in the world. Like educated Greeks, Plato
believed the Earth was a sphere. Plato was concerned with the ordering of public affairs. His political thought was
incidental to his idealistic m etaphysics. He wrote The Republic, the first book on political theory. Said, To participate in
civic life was a citizen’s highest aspiration. The Republic is a utopian dream of a city in which hum an life is arranged
according to a novel and better plan, a stable conservative hierarchy, with separate social classes. The state is the soul
writ large. (Aldous Huxley took The Republic to its logical conclusion in Brave New W orld in 1932.) Plato also said that
there was a Great Chain of Being with God at the top, then Man, then anim als to plants.
Plato’s ideal society, was ruled by philosopher/kings who lived sim ply and com m unally, even with wives in com m on; (a
shocking concept to upper class Athenians, children would not know their parents), with professional soldiers, and lastly,
the workers, artisans, farm ers, entertainers, i.e., a class society. Each person contributes what he does best, not
interfering with others’s roles. To be a philosopher/king would be an econom ic step down, as kings have no wealth. Plato
did not question the legitim acy of the non-philosopher/kings who then ruled Athens, a prudent cop-out.
W ilfully and com pletely recasting hum an conditions, as Plato advocated, was a new idea in Man’s developm ent.
Greek law was sim ply tradition, not a m atter of legislation. Plato distrusted dem ocracy as he thought it would devolve
through anarchy into despotism . He thought that rule by one m an who is restrained by law is m onarchy, the best form of
governm ent. Rule by one m an unrestrained by law is tyranny, the worst form of governm ent. Rule by a few restrained by
law, aristocracy, is the second best form of governm ent. Rule by a few unrestrained by law is oligarchy, the second worst
form of governm ent. His principal contribution was the idea of an aristocracy of intelligence.
His second great idea was equality of opportunity. He said wom en could be trained as warriors like m en.
Using Socrates’s dialectic, Plato looked into the natural world using abstract and theoretical concepts, rather than careful
investigation and the derivation of a hypothesis to explain it. He and Socrates felt that experim ent and observation
18
(empiricism) were not only irrelevant but positively m isleading in the search for knowledge. This hindered the progress
of science. Plato’s theory that true or perfect reality could only be discovered through contem plation or revelation
becam e, through the teachings of St. Paul, 45 AD, a cornerstone of Christian thought.
Allegory
of the
cave
Plato used the allegory of the cave to illustrate the nature of hum an knowledge. Im agine a cave with a wall down the
m iddle. On one side of the wall are fires and people and anim als. On the other side of the wall are prisoners so bound
so that all they can see their whole lives are the shadows on their side of the cave of the persons and anim als on the
other side of the wall. If taken outside the cave, Man would at first be uncom fortable but gradually realize that he had
been seeing only shadows of real things in the cave. The goal of education was to take people out of their caves. This
refuted the skepticism and relativism of the Sophists. Knowledge was possible. After death pious persons’ souls went
to a beautiful place. Plato and Socrates considered alm ost all the great questions of philosophy through the ages.
Plato brought philosophy to its m aturity. Plato’s com prehensive treatm ent of knowledge was so powerful that his
philosophy becam e the m ost influential strand in the history of W estern thought. Plato brought together all the m ajor
concerns of hum an thought into a coherent organization of knowledge. Plato and Aristotle (335 BC) gave people the
freedom to think, and the legacy that a science of nature was possible.
(Alfred North W hitehead in 1929 said, “All European philosophy is but a footnote to Plato.”)
In Plato (and Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Spinoza, and Kant), there is a blending of religion and reasoning.
c370 BC
Callicles: W eaker folk m ake laws to restrain the strong, but nature’s true justice is that the m ore able rule.
c350 BC
Heraclides, pupil of Plato, credited with saying that Earth rotated, suggested that Venus and Mercury orbited the Sun.
4th
Century
BC
Philosophy, Lao-tzu: Tao /The W ay/The Path, developed in China, without a deity. It m eans the cosm ic order of nature
that cannot be grasped by hum an intellect. Lao-tzu focused on nature. Taoism is m ystical, devoted - even m ore than
Buddhism - to transcending everyday life and finding the Tao, the universal way of things, the all pervading principle of
all that exists; the virtue of power of every individual is a m anifestation of Tao. The m eaning of life is to realize the
tem poral nature of the existence, and one is expected to live sim ply, conduct one’s life by way of Xiuzhen and Xiushen,
as a preparation for the spiritual transcendence thereafter. The Tao is the infinite potential energy of the universe. Qi is
vital energy/m atter in constant flux that arises from the Tao. Qi is regulated by the opposites of Yin and Yang. Everything
is m ade of Yin and Yang. “He that knows others is wise. He that knows him self is enlightened.”
Tao
Lao-Tsu
c340 BC
Philosophy: Diogenes (412-323 BC), exponent of the Cynic school of philosophy (alm ost the opposite of its current
m eaning), held that happiness consisted in the satisfaction of one’s basic needs and decried the pursuit of wealth. “I am
a citizen of the world.” He sought virtue and m oral freedom in liberation from desire. Cynics disdained dem ocracy.
c335BC
Philosophy/Science: Aristotle (384-322 BC), the founder of life sciences, Macedonian, a doctor’s son, Plato’s pupil for
20 years. On Plato’s death in 347 BC, he traveled, founded several schools, tutored Philip of M acedonia’s son
Alexander (soon to be Alexander the Great) for 3 years, then in 335 BC opened his Lyceum in Athens devoted to
science. Plato’s Academy had ignored science. He cam e at the end of Greece’s creative period, and it was 2,000 years
before the world produced any scientist who could be considered near his equal. He taught at the Lyceum just 12 years.
During his tim e away from Athens, he did m ost of the scientific thinking for which he is known. He said philosophy is the
science of the universal essence of that which is actual. He and Plato both regarded philosophy as concerned with the
universal. But, rather than Plato’s universal in abstract ideas, Aristotle’s universal was in things.
Aristotle
Science
Contrary to Plato, Aristotle believed that knowledge com es only from the senses. To Aristotle, philosophy was
reasoning. In ethics, he stressed that virtue is a m ean between extrem es and that Man’s highest goal should be the use
of his intellect. Aristotle said that precisely defining term s was Socrates’s m ain contribution to philosophy.
Basic
Law s of
Thought
Aristotle posited three basic presuppositions as the basic laws of thought (whose aim is truth). These laws are
fundam ental axiom atic rules upon which rational discourse itself is based.
1. the law of identity
A is A, (This of course assum es but does not prove that A exists)
2. the law of contradiction
B cannot be both B and not B. Contradictory statem ents can’t both be true.
3. the law of the excluded m iddle A is either B or not B. A proposition is true or its negation is true.
Von Liebniz (1710), Kant (1751), and Schopenhauer (1819) later proposed m odifications to these laws of thought.
Aristotle criticized Plato’s Republic for ignoring the com plexity of society, the pleasure of ownership, of fam ily, of
participating in ruling. Aristotle’s Metaphysics coined the word physics, from the Greek word for nature.
W here Plato developed a world in which the physical sciences had little if any real reason to be, Aristotle developed
a world where such sciences were developed largely by observation of what is, but still m ore based on speculation on
what ought to be. Both taught that the highest occupation of Man was the discovery of nature’s laws.
In Organon, Aristotle taught that Man could reason about the world he saw. His studies and writings covered alm ost
all the then known sciences. They constitute one of the m ost am azing achievem ents ever credited to a single m ind.
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He com m ented on natural things. He m ade the study of all sciences respectable. Aristotle said that to be educated is
to be able to distinguish between sense and nonsense in all areas of knowledge.
Teleology: Aristotle believed that purpose was the fundam ental concept in science, a teleological concept. All actions,
plants, and anim als, had a goal/telos/purpose, which was som e good. To him , God was the prim e m over. He said, “Nature
m akes nothing without som e end in view, nothing to no purpose, it m ust be that that nature has m ade all things specifically
for the sake of Man.” Plants and anim als grow to fulfill them selves. An acorn, for exam ple, has an inner goal to becom e
an oak tree. “It is in the nature of a stone to m ove downward, and it cannot be trained to m ove upward even though one
throws it in the air 10,000 tim es.” For him the m eaning of life involved achieving eudaemonia (happiness or well-being
or flourishing). He said, “All m en, by nature, desire to understand, desire knowledge...The good life involves friendship
with virtuous m en and developm ent of the intellectual virtues.” He said the telos of hum an life was happiness.
Logic
Induction
and
Deduction
Aristotle founded System atic Logic, his m ost influential achievem ent, the discipline dealing with the principles of valid
inferences. Logic is the system atic building of ideas from other ideas. Aristotle invented the syllogism . Scientific
knowledge, said Aristotle, com es from syllogism s, where a m ajor prem ise and a m inor prem ise (with a com m on term )
reach a correct conclusion. For exam ple: Major prem ise; All m en are m ortal; Minor prem ise: Socrates is a m an;
Conclusion: Socrates is m ortal. Syllogism s used two known facts to prove a third previously unknown fact. The syllogism
provided an intellectual structure for the reconciliation of opposing views.
Aristotle divided System atic Logic into Deduction and Induction. Deduction goes from universally valid statem ents to
particular conclusions (like the syllogism above. Socrates is a m an.) A deduced conclusion is by definition accurate
because the prem ises are by definition accurate. Deduction and Induction are both largely reducible to a syllogism .
Prem ises m ay be explicit/expressed or implicit from the context of the syllogism . Im plicit prem ises m ay of course err.
Induction: where particular observed instances or phenom ena, prem ises, are used to prove general principles. As all
particular instances of any given prem ise cannot be known, The validity of any argum ent by Induction is based on
probability; the better the prem ises, the surer (but not 100% sure) the conclusion.
Exam ple: First Prem ise All trees I have seen in W yom ing are pines.
Second Prem ise - I have seen a lot of W yom ing. (An inductive argum ent can have one or m ore prem ises.)
Conclusion All trees in W yom ing are pines.
The conclusion is reasonable (albeit here wrong) until and unless m ore accurate prem ises are found.
A conclusion based on Induction was not good enough for Aristotle to be accepted as knowledge, as an induced
conclusion is not by definition 100% sure, Aristotle said that, “To be acceptable as scientific knowledge, a truth m ust be
a deduction from other truths.” (Nicomachean Ethics 6) (Hum e sim ilarly distrusted Induction, see 1739)
Aristotle divided sciences into three categories:
1. the theoretical
(physics, m athem atics, m etaphysics for disinterested knowledge,),
2. the practical
(ethics and politics, for the guidance of conduct), and
3. the productive/poetical (for guidance of the arts).
Aristotle
Aristotle taught to understand the world we see, with real objects (called substances). “A substance is a com bination
of both form and m atter. Matter does not exist by itself, nor does form .” He said m atter is pure potentiality and form is
what m atter becom es when it becom es anything. (Exam ple, m arble is m atter; the statue carved from it is form ). W e
understand the form s of things, and form s can be in our m inds, whereas things them selves cannot be in our m inds, i.e.,
“the knower is one with the thing known.” This is an ultim ate solution to Thale’s question. Real things are real things and
there’s nothing else. For Aristotle, experience was the sole fount of knowledge.
Alexander the Great, then conquering the known W estern world, sent Aristotle reports and zoological and botanical
sam ples, and put num erous collectors of natural objects to serve him . W ith this help, Aristotle established a m useum
of natural objects. He listed 560 different species, described anim als’s anatom ies. Thus, public knowledge now cam e
into being. Plato never would have established a m useum of things. (m ore Alexander at 334 BC)
Empiricism
Aristotle taught empiricism, the m ethod of gaining knowledge based solely through experience, experim ent, and
observation. As an observant scientist, he described the birth of bees in a hive, he investigated the pairing of insects, the
courtship behavior and m ating habits of birds, the behavior of drones in a beehive, that a cuttlefish attaches itself to a rock
in a storm . He saw that blood carried nourishm ent to the body. He classified 500 species of anim als into eight classes.
He founded anatom y, em bryology, and physiology. He described the internal anatom y of shellfish, fish, and squid. Until
Plato and Aristotle, Greeks had principally studied Hom er’s epics for knowledge in all areas.
To the question, “W hy do cats have kittens?” Aristotle said, “There’s a Formal Principle which passes from the parent
to the child.” This is as bad as Plato’s “catness;” it doesn’t answer what the form al principle is. But it was accepted for
centuries. This tim e m arked the beginnings of a m oral and intellectual process, an appeal to righteousness and to the truth
from the passions and confusions and im m ediate appearances of existence.
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Aristotle
Political
Theory
Political Theory: Aristotle’s fundam ental ideas were much like Plato’s, but he added an em pirical, inductive m ethod,
which m arked the beginning of political science away from ethical and philosophical m usings about the state. W here Plato
saw the state as originating from the necessity of division of labor, Aristotle saw the state as organically evolving from
the household or village. He saw the husband as ruling over the fam ily as a m onarch rules his subjects, due to his superior
intelligence. He believed that slaves had no intelligence at all, a sham eless rationalization of class prejudice. He perceived
that the ultim ate political problem was to strike a balance between liberty and authority. The goal of the state was to
produce cultured gentlem en. In Politics, c322 BC, “The only stable state is the one in which all m en are equal before the
law, a dem ocratic state.” But he also said, “Man is by nature superior to the fem ale.”
Aristotle said, “Man is by nature, a political anim al, m eaning only Man could m ake com m unal living possible. He
separated kings who ruled by an adm itted and inherent right and tyrants who ruled without the consent of the governed.
He believed the city state was the ideal form of political organization (with separation of powers), slavery was necessary
and just, workers were incapable of being in governm ent, Greeks were superior to others, education was im portant (for
m ales), law should govern, not individuals. Good consists of people achieving a state appropriate to their nature. His great
contribution to law was to say epieikeia/equity/fairness had to be a part of any legal system .
He said there is a Scale of Being with m inerals at the bottom and Man at the top, sim ilar to Plato’s chain of being.
Aristotle rightly thought that under unequal econom ic conditions, the poor view the system as a conspiracy against them
and would see no reason to follow the rules. Sim ilarly the rich would com e to feel that they were better than their fellow
citizens and see them selves above the law. Aristotle argued, “W e m ust regard every citizen as belonging to the state.”
(Cf. Kant: (1755) “Every hum an being is an end in him self.”)
Aristotle’s crowning achievem ent was to rethink the questions raised by Plato and to develop a m etaphysical system
as original and as well thought out as Plato’s. He rejected Plato’s theory of Forms. W ith Aristotle, there is a m ature
discipline with two carefully worked out but com peting points of view.
Aristotle established different m ethods and different criteria of knowledge for different subjects. His m any books were
taken around the known world by Greek travelers. And the idea grew that there was only one truth, not num erous truths,
about som ething, plus the idea of a relationship between knower and the thing known. The world is rational and Man can
understand it. Now there was a new paideia/curriculum for all (all m ale citizens) to learn, i.e., science. The spirit of inquiry
exploded as the seafaring Greeks exported it. Greek was the language of the Mid East.
Four
Causes
His Metaphysics’s four causes in science: 1. Material cause,
2. Form al cause,
3. Efficient cause,
4. Final cause,
what som ething is m ade of,
tells what a thing is,
that which initiates change,
the purpose of the object,
wood.
plans for a chair.
carpenter.
place to sit.
Aristotle distinguished between essential and accidental properties of things. Essential properties of som ething are
properties that determ ine what a thing is, i.e., an apple, while accidental properties determ ine how a thing is, such as big
or sm all or green or red. Both Plato and Aristotle’s argum ents were based on the use of opposites in argum ent (dialectic)
and the self evident nature of geom etric form s. In Metaphysics, Aristotle said that true knowledge is the knowledge of
ultim ate causes. Forms, or universals, exist only in things. And, “Define your term s.”
Aristotle posited a Cosmological / First Cause Argument for the existence of a god, his m ain argum ent for God: In
Physics (VIII, 4-6) and Metaphysics (XII 1-6). He said that there is an underlying essence of which the universe is
com posed, and a Prime Mover/God organized and set into m otion this pre-existing essence, but then left it alone (Akin
to Deism, see 1624).
The Cosmological Argument is part of classical natural theology, the attem pt to infer the existence of a supernatural
being within the context of the natural universe itself without recourse to faith or revelation. Most argum ents of natural
theology begin with a natural phenom enon, a fact that purportedly requires an explanation, but this fact cannot be
explained by other natural phenom ena, thus one posits a supernatural cause to explain it.
Cosmological arguments posit a m ystery, God, to explain a m ystery, W hat caused the world/universe? They are known
as “God by Default” or “God by Inference” argum ents. That is, “W e can’t explain the origin of the world with our current
knowledge, so we infer that a supernatural force (to believers, their particular God), m ust have done it.
(Al Ghazali (1085), Aquinas (1273), and von Leibniz (1710), all later developed cosmological arguments for God.)
Like m ost Greek thinkers, Aristotle believed the Earth was a sphere. In Egypt he had seen stars there that “were not
seen in northernly regions,” which could only occur on a curved surface of the Earth.
Aristotle
errors
Aristotle dom inated W estern science, such as it was, for c2,000 years. Despite his greatness, he erred. He believed:
1. Re the natural world, that all m atter is m ade up of four earthly elem ents: water, earth, fire, and air, and a heavenly
elem ent, aether. He didn’t accept Leucippus/Democritus’s atomic theory and, due to the deference given
Aristotle throughout history, atomism was ignored for 1,000 years.
2. That m en have m ore teeth than wom en, 3. that the brain cools the blood and is unrelated to thinking,
4. That the speed of light was infinite, a view then generally, but not universally, held.
21
5. That the speed of light was faster than the speed of sound as seeing was m ore noble than hearing.
6. That heavy rocks fell faster than light rocks. (Philoponus, Galileo and New ton, inter alia, refuted this.)
7. That the Earth was the center of the universe; i.e., that the Moon, the Sun, the planets (from the Greek word
for wanderer) and stars circled the Earth on four crystal spheres. (Ptolem y, astronom er in Egypt, c150 AD, bought
it and refined the theory into the Ptolem aic universe which, in the Middle Ages, becam e official Christian dogm a.)
8. That rocks fell and water ran downhill because everything had its “natural” place.
9. Earthquakes are air escaping from underground pockets.10.Rainbows are caused by clouds acting as a huge lens.
11. Sheatfish suffer from sunstroke as they swim so close to the surface.
12. His idea of a Prim e Mover/First Cause for the universe was not fully refuted until the 18 th century.
(These incorrect scientific beliefs hindered the developm ent of physics for c2,000 years.)
13. Socially: Slaves deserved to be slaves as they allowed them selves to be enslaved, i.e., natural slaves, a Fallacy
of the Consequent (circular reasoning), which, applied to Socrates’s Royal Lie, i.e., Rulers are justified as they
are rulers (also circular reasoning.) m akes the Royal Lie a theory of injustice. In his Nicomachean Ethics, he
wrote, “ W atch virtuous m en to learn virtue.” [a Fallacy of the Consequent]
14. As a corollary to the concept of natural slaves, war was OK to capture natural slaves.
15. W om en were inferior “on account of a kind of inadequacy.” thus m ust be subordinate to m en,
16. Foreigners were inferior as they did not speak Greek (both Fallacies of the Consequent).
(His theories of wom en’s inferiority and “natural slaves” helped justify slavery and the subjugation of wom en for 2,000
years. Both books of the Bible and the Koran (later) reflected the sam e attitudes toward wom en and slaves.)
Aristotle said that for a tyrant to retain power, he should kill any rival of m erit, prohibit com m on m eals, clubs, literary
assem blies, potentially dangerous education, em ploy spies, keep people busy with war or great works, and feign piety.
Philosophy: Four schools of philosophy flourished in Athens, the Academ ic (Plato), Peripatetic (Aristotle), Epicurean
(Epicurus, 300 BC), and Stoic (Zeno). [Aristotle walked around as he taught, hence Peripatetic.] Most of Aristotle’s
works (and m ost Greek works) were lost to Christian W estern civilization from the 5 th to 12 th centuries AD.
Babylonians had collected astronom ical data since the 8 th century BC. In the 4 th and third centuries, they discovered
m athem atical regularities in the observed data, such as the periodicity of ellipses and m athem atical coordinates defining
the exact path of the Moon and Sun. By 380 BC, they had developed the then m ost accurate calendar.
334 BC
Alexander
The
Great
Alexander the Great (355-323 BC) first conquered Greece, ending the Classical and beginning the Hellenistic Age of
Greece. He then conquered Asia Minor and Egypt, founding Alexandria, and putting one of his generals, Ptolemy 12, to
rule Egypt. Ptolemy’s daughter, Cleopatra 7 (not the m ore fam ous later Cleopatra) ruled Egypt with her husband/brother
Ptolemy 13. (Alexander nam ed 17 towns after him self.). In 330 BC, Alexander then burned Persepolis, Persia’s capital,
defeated Sam arkand. Alexander killed Greeks, Pisidians, Thracians, Illyrians, Cappadocians, the Thebian Sacred Band,
Paphlagonians, Galatians, Arm enians, Persians, Indians, Egyptians, and others, so earned the title “the Great.”
Alexander died in 323 BC in Babylon at 32 after conquering the three great em pires. Egyptian, Persian, and Indian.
Alexander spread Greek culture, cross pollinating Greek, Persian, and Egyptian law and custom s, but his em pire fell
totally apart after his death. After Alexander (Aristotle’s patron), died, Aristotle was condem ned as godless. So he left
Athens and died within a year. The Ptolemys, Macedonian Greeks, continued to rule Egypt for three centuries.
After Alexander, Cynics thought that that knowledge was im possible, and that attachm ent to m aterial things was the root
problem , and so advocated a return to nature. (Diogenes, 340 BC).
Pyrrho, a soldier of Alexander’s, taught skepticism. His skeptics agreed that knowledge was im possible and thought
that the search for knowledge caused angst, so one should avoid having any beliefs at all, an intellectually lazy and
popular position. There are different schools of skepticism. Pyrrho’s philosophical skepticism , is the m ost extrem e.
c325 BC
c325 BC Mauryan dynasty, first Indian em pire, began. Em peror Asoka unified India, adopted Buddhism, started India’s
golden age. He proscribed respect for the dignity of all m en, and above all, religious tolerance and non-violence. The
Hindu Brahm ins did not give up and eventually ousted Buddhism from India. (See 150 AD)
c300 BC
Epicurus (341-270 BC), from Sam os, student of Democritus and a confirm ed Materialist and Atomist, set up a school
in Athens called The Garden. It accepted wom en (other schools didn’t), taught that pleasure / happiness / tranquility
(avoidance of pain) is the suprem e good, achieved through a life of sim plicity, ease, and m oral rectitude, not sexual lust,
drink, or revelry. Barley bread and water was their preferred food. Epicureans believed that the universe was a m achine
and hum ans had no special status, and that superstitions and fear of death caused angst. They also said that organs
develop from exercise and weaken when not used (correct). Said, knowledge derives from sensations.
He taught that the greatest good of all is prudence: it is a m ore precious thing even than philosophy, and that two of the
greatest sources of fear were religion and the dread of death. Epicurius said that sight was caused by light entering the
eye. This was not accepted as accurate until al Haytham explained it c1300 years later. He taught that nothing is to be
believed except that which was tested through direct observation and logical deduction.
He valued science solely as providing naturalistic explanations of phenom ena which superstition attributed to gods.
Epicurius
22
The
Problem
of Evil
Epicurus stated the “Epicurean Paradox,” previously argued by Skeptics and later called the Problem of Evil, i.e., how
to reconcile the existence of evil and suffering in the world with an om niscient, om nipotent, and benevolent god(s) .
Epicurus said (one translation), “The gods can either take away evil from the world and will not, or, being willing to do
so, cannot, or they neither can nor will, or lastly, they are both able and willing. If they have the will to rem ove evil and
cannot, then they are not om nipotent. If they can but will not, then they are not benevolent. If they are neither able nor
willing, then they are not om nipotent. Lastly, if they are both able and willing to annihilate evil, how does it exist?”
Thus, as evil/suffering is clearly abundant in the world, an om niscient, om nipotent, and benevolent god can not exist.
The logic of the problem /paradox is sim ple and irrefutable. So believers in an all-powerful, all-good, benevolent God ever
since have suggested ways to get around it, i.e., by m aking evil subjective, or saying evil is just the absence of good, thus
not a thing, or, evil is to be overcom e by will and discipline, or by having an evil god, or by m aking evil retribution for sin,
etc. Shang Ti, in ancient China, addressed the Problem of Evil, as did Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, Ireneaus (177 AD),
Carneades (see 150 BC), Augustine (413 AD), Aquinas (1273), von Leibniz (1710), and Hum e (1751).
The Book of Job, also pre-dating Epicurius, stated that Man’s lim ited knowledge cannot understand the ways of God.
[Saying God is good m eans m an can distinguish good from evil. Saying m an can’t do this defeats the original prem ise.]
Plato, Aristotle, and Plutarch, early cosm ologists, said God can only be good, and separated good from evil into two
distinct m etaphysical statuses, where evil was reducible to som e source other than the good but also som ewhat
subordinate to good. (Som e, like John Stuart M ill (1859), just said God is not all-powerful and all-knowing.) Pantheists
said/say God is im m anent in the world and working to bring good out of evil, though evil, despite God’s efforts, will
continue to exist. Som e deny evil exists. However, Judaism , Christianity, and Islam are so com m itted to the existence of
evil that a reason to reject evil would be a reason to reject these religions.
Nonetheless, the Epicurean Paradox / Problem of Evil rem ains the fundam ental refutation of the possibility of a
m onotheistic benevolent, om niscient, and om nipotent God.)
M yths
Resurrection m yths: In the Hellenistic period, a num ber of religious cults focused on the concept of resurrection, including
the Eleusian Mysteries, the Orphic Mysteries, as well as the m yth of Dionysus, resurrected by his father Zeus.
Later, under the Rom ans, Christianity, with Jesus’s resurrection as a central tenet, began.
Hellenistic nobility com m issioned works of art, sculptures, literature, and great architecture.
300 BC
Zeno
the
Stoic
Philosophy: Zeno the Stoic (c335 - 263 BC), set up a school in Athens and taught that as one couldn’t change m uch in
life, happiness consists of conform ing one’s will to divine reason, accept one’s place in the world. Stoics, m aterialists,
m ost im portant political contributions were their ideas of universal law and universal reason, and their concept of the
brotherhood of Man. Reason, their god, was the m eans to happiness. Nature is Virtue. Stoics viewed the entire universe
as a m anifestation of God and happiness as surrendering the self to the divine order of the cosm os, as living in harm ony
of nature, contra the Greek em phasis on Man’s relation to the polis, thus preparing the way for Christianity. Everything
had a purpose related to Man. Som e anim als one eats; others provide wool, etc. Cruelty affords Man the opportunity to
exercise virtue. The m ixing of barbarians and the eclipse of the city state after Alexander facilitated these ideas.
Stoicism
Edith Hamilton (The Greek W ay) said, “The fundam ental fact about the Greek was that he had to use his m ind. The
ancient priests had said, “This far and no farther. W e set the lim its on thought.” The Greeks said, “All things are to be
exam ined and called into question. There are no lim its on thought.”
Unfortunately, three concepts pervaded and lim ited great Greek thinking: 1.the idea that the city was the ultim ate
political organization, 2.slavery was legitim ate, and 3. Greeks had little to no knowledge of the world beyond the Med.
Also lim iting Greek thought: Tools for m easurem ent are essential to studying the natural world. Greeks had no clocks
for short tim e intervals, no telescope, no m icroscope, no accurate scales, no really efficient num erical notation.
Greeks had seen, but used only for sewers, the arch, and, as seafarers, never saw the im portance of roads.
c300 BC
Science
Ptolem y
Euclid
Science: Library of Alexandria. Ptolemy Soter/Savior, Macedonian, ruler of Egypt (due to Alexander), founded and
supported a m useum (tem ple of the m uses) in Alexandria, in effect the first university in the world, with c500K scrolls.
(There were m any Ptolem ys.) In two generations, it outshone Athens. It becam e the center of Greek (and all W estern)
learning. Its scholars included Euclid (geom etry), Hero (50 AD, designed a prim itive steam engine), Eratosthenes (just
below). Herophilus (studied the brain’s functions, dissected hum ans, discovered nerves, described the optic nerve,
founded a m edical school, as fam ous as the Library), Apollonius (m athem atician), Hipparchus, astronom er (see 140
BC), and Archimedes (see 220 BC). Ptolem y brought in Jewish scholars and Alexandria becam e the largest Jewish city.
Ptolem y in Alexandria also established a tem ple, called the Serapeum, which had three gods: 1. Serapis, 2. Isis (the
m oon cow goddess), and 3. Horus, the child god with the idea of im m ortality predom inant.
Later, under the Rom an Em pire, Alexandria becam e the greatest trading center in the W estern world.
Science: Euclid took the Pythagorean Theorem to Alexandria around 300 BC, whence it entered the body of scientific
knowledge. Euclid did not invent geom etry, but he did com pile Elements of Geometry, used into the late 20 th century, the
m ost translated and copied book up until m odern tim es (except for the Bible). It was the m ost influential work in the history
23
of m athem atics. Euclid started with a few self-evident axiom s (parallel lines don’t m eet, non-parallel lines in the sam e
plane m eet som ewhere, etc) and then constructed by Deduction a series of theorem s all derived from the basic axiom s.
Euclid also said that the Earth was a sphere. His [wrong] reason: the m ost harm onious geom etric form was a sphere.
All books in Egypt and all books brought into Egypt were copied for the Library. Printing was not used. Face to face and
hand-copied letters were the only way scholars com m unicated.
Science: Eratosthenes (276 BC-194 BC), (from Cyrene in Africa), Greek, becam e director of the library. He com piled
a chronology of events dating from the establishm ent of Troy, and, c250 BC, very accurately calculated the circum ference
(and thus the radius) of the Earth by noting that the sun was directly overhead at Syene/Aswan, but 500 m iles away in
Alexandria, at precisely the sam e tim e, it was angled 7.2 degrees from the vertical. He realized this could only com e if
the Earth were round. (He was high by only 15%). He also mapped the Nile and drew a m ap of the known world with lines
of latitude and longitude.
Around 275 BC, Egyptians dug a canal connecting the Nile and the Red Sea.
270 BC
Philosophy/Science: Aristarchus (310-230 BC), Greek, of Sam os, said that the Earth itself revolved and also
revolved around the Sun 300 tim es bigger than Earth (see Heraclides 350 BC). This was not widely accepted. It was
called blasphem ous. Muslim scholars also hypothesized about this heliocentric theory, but, as it was contra to both
Aristotle, and later, Ptolem y the astronom er, it was ignored in the W est for 18 centuries until Copernicus revived it.
265 BC
Rom e ruled and unified all Italy. 300,000 persons were under Rom an control. Rom ans developed the arch (sem icircular
until the pointed Gothic arch); used it in bridges, aqueducts, buildings. (Pantheon had a span of 164 feet.) Rom ans first
enslaved conquered people but found that m aking them citizens worked better. Rom e began barbaric gladiator gam es.
c221 BC
Political Theory: China, first truly united under Ch’in (Pure) rule, first built a network of roads and then, finished the
Great W all (1,500 m iles, and with hundreds of thousands of soldiers guarding it) to keep the starving and destitute
Mongols out. Most im portantly, Em peror Shih Huang-ti abolished feudalism , introduced bureaucratic governm ent
based on Confucian principles, control of the econom y, and belief that m ost knowledge is dangerous. He
standardized writing and the width of carts’s axles throughout China. He caused all books but those on law, herbal
m edicine, horticulture to be burnt. China was then the largest nation, m ade gunpowder. Chinese used seed drills and
iron plows.
The two basic ideas in science in China were that 1. there are 5 elem ents: water, m etal, wood, fire, and earth and
2. there were two fundam ental forces, Yin (clouds, rain, fem ale, inside, cool, dark) and Yang (heat, warm th, sunshine,
m ale). Chinese reported Halley’s com et in 240 BC. (Com ets, shooting stars, eclipses have through the ages been
considered signs from a supernatural power.) There was no contact between China and the W est.
Chinese developed a harness where the horse’s chest, not its throat, pushed; not used in the W est for 650 years.
China
Yin and
Yang
c220 BC
Archimedes (c287-212 BC), born in Syracuse, Sicily, an Athenian colony. At the Library of Alexandria, he was a
hydrologist and m athem atician; discovered that a body weighs as m uch as the fluid it displaces. This is thus called the
Archimedean Principle. He worked out the m athem atical law of the lever (force m ultiplies by the ratio between the lengths
of the two arm s). He also calculated a very accurate value for ð by using 96 polygons, getting 3.1418. (ð = 3.14159265+.)
He invented the com pound pulley, and calculated the surface area and volum e of a sphere.
Form ulas he deduced: Volum e of a sphere = 4.189 (ð x 1 1/3) x radius cubed.
Volum e of a sphere = 2/3 that of a cylinder with sam e diam eter and height;
Surface of a sphere = 12.566 (4 ð) x radius squared or 4x a circle the sam e size;
Volum e of a square pyram id or a cone = 1/3 base x height.
Archimedes wrote about the water screw then used in irrigation to raise water. It was thus later nam ed after him .
c200 BC
Com paring Rom e and Greece: Rom e had virtually no indigenous culture. All Rom an culture was derivative from Greek.
Cato the Censor (234-149 BC), a Rom an official, opposed G reek culture as weak and im m oral and tried to m aintain
Rom an custom s. He was a cruel m an who carried on a lifelong war against everything young, gracious, or pleasant.
Rom ans enjoyed gladiatorial shows (m urder as a popular sport). Rom ans were m ore practical than Greeks and bent
Greek culture to their needs. Cato disliked wom en asserting even m inim al rights.
Rom an
The keystones of Rom an success were law, citizenship, and roads. Rom e’s. W hereas Greeks were concerned about
abstract standards of justice, Rom ans wrote their 12 Tables of laws. (The Greeks didn’t have a com m on law.) Used until
fall of Rom e, 410 AD, and in the Eastern Rom an em pire, (Constantinople), until 1453, when it fell to the Ottom an Turks.
Rom ans fiercely respected their laws. The 12 Tables were posted every place Rom e conquered. Rom ans had one
im portant belief that the Greeks did not, that a sm all idea that works is better than a grand idea that does not. People from
Spain to Persia all wanted to be Rom an “citizens.” Rom an roads were so well built they can still be used. W ith water
brought from the m ountains by an aqueduct, Rom e reached 1 m illion persons. Rom e destroyed rival Carthage.
Law ,
Roads,
Citizens
168
Antiochus 4, ruler of Syria, severely persecuted Jews/Macabees. Jews revolted, won Jerusalem /Judea. Rabbis told Jews
that Yahweh would eventually vindicate His suffering people, punish their Gentile oppressors, and usher in a new
supernatural order resurrecting the dead into the Kingdom of God. Halley’s com et was seen by the Babylonians in 164BC.
c150 BC
150 BC Carneades, Head of Plato’s Academy, a less extrem e Skeptic, who sim ply wanted proof before accepting an
24
The
Problem
of Evil
146 BC
c150 BC150 AD
Rom an
Empire
idea, accepted the logic of the Problem of Evil, said. “The existence of God is not self-evident, and therefore needs
proof...Those who affirm positively that God exists cannot avoid falling into an im piety. For if they say that God controls
everything, they m ake him the author of evil things; if on the other hand, they say He controls som e things only, or that
He controls nothing, they are com pelled to m ake God grudging or im potent, and to do that is quite obviously an im piety.”
Greece in decline: The power of Greece had declined, and by 146 BC, the rem nants of Greece were absorbed into
the Rom an Republic, becom ing m erely a backwater in the Rom an sphere, but Rom e adopted Greek culture.
Overview. These three centuries were the high point of classical civilization. Rom an em pire grew to the tim e of Christ to
include m ost of what Rom e knew as the world, from m id-Scotland to the Caspian and Persian Gulf, and from Rom ania
to the Sahara. Rom ans built 50,000 m iles of roads plus bridges and aqueducts. The Segovia, Spain aqueduct, built in 100
AD, ran ten m iles, with hundreds of arches, laid with no lim e or cem ent, still stands. The Rom an em pire did not include
India, China, Japan or the (to them ) unknown Am ericas. It was the highest point that W estern Man attained until the
discovery of Am erica. By 89 BC, all free inhabitants in Italy were “citizens” of Rom e. Rom ans never considered dealing
with other states as sovereign states.
Rom ans were indifferent to science and geography beyond their em pire. They m ade no attem pt to learn about India,
Buddha, Zoroaster, Persia, China, Huns, or Negroes. W hile there were m any schools in the em pire, there was no true
intellectual progress. Rom ans’ cardinal virtues were wisdom , courage, m oderation, and justice.
History after the Greek era is very largely the history of the three ideas: 1. Science, 2. Of a universal righteousness, and
3. Of a hum an com m onweal spreading out from the m inds of the rare and exceptional persons where they originated. Men
always faced the greatest political problem , i.e., how to live in peace and freedom . The Greeks usually chose freedom
(at the cost of constant conflict, both with other Greeks and with others).
140 BC
Hipparchus, at the Library of Alexandria, m ade the 1 st system atic catalog of 850 stars, calculated the length of a year
and lunar cycle, the distance to the Moon, said the Earth was closest to Sun on Jan. 4, furthest on July 4, developed a
scale of m agnitudes for stars to indicate their brightness; adopted the Babylonian 360 degree circle to W estern m ath.
c136 BC
The Han Em pire in China was as large and rich as the Rom an em pire and was developing a culture m ore sophisticated
than the Rom an Em pire. Emperor W u-ti m ade Confucianism China’s official philosophy. All sons were co-heirs of their
father. M eng-tzu / M enicus (371-289 BC) slightly altered Confucianism by arguing that the ultim ate justification of
rulership was the welfare of the people. He said that one who practices the principles of harm ony and righteousness with
sincerity radiates the spiritual influence of the universe. Men are born good. If he keeps his original nature, he will stay
good. Man inherently has a sense of sham e, a sense of courtesy and a sense of right and wrong.
c124 BC
China’s Im perial University was founded. Between 100 BC and 200 AD, the Chinese invented the crossbow,
paperm aking, a seed-planting m achine, a rotary winnowing m achine, the rotary fan, and wheelbarrow.
c100 BC
The Celts (N. Europe) developed the iron plow, Greeks the waterwheel to grind grain, Indians the toe stirrup.
73 BC
Third Rom an slave revolt, this one under Spartacus, lasted two years. Finally all the rebels were m assacred.
c65BC
Philosophy: M arcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC), Consul, leading lawyer of Rom e, prolific author, philosopher, and letter
writer, doubted the existence of supernatural powers, “As a philosopher, I have a right to ask for a rational explanation
of religious faith.” In his On the Nature of the Gods: 45 BC “So various and so contradictory are the opinions of the m ost
learned m en on [the nature of gods] as to [acknowledge that] philosophy is the child of ignorance.” He said that “in the
first place it is im probable that the m aterial substance which is the origin of things was created by Divine Providence. It
has and always had a force and nature of its own...that which we call Nature is therefore the power which perm eates and
preserves the whole universe.” Also said, “To think is to live...A house without books is like a body without a soul.”
Cicero
He didn’t convince enough Rom ans to save the Republic, but was the first m an to see that a near-universal belief in a
constitution will ensure peace and freedom . His 800 rem aining letters provide the m ost im portant source of
knowledge of life in Rom e. Cicero, in his writings, applied the principles of Greek ethical thought to the rough life of a
Rom an m erchant or politician. He introduced Aristotle and other Greek philosophers’s works to Rom ans. He sought
to resolve the conflict between peace and freedom by establishing a governm ent of laws, not m en. Like the Greeks,
the early Rom ans chose freedom (over peace). W ith Rom an power consolidated, civil conflict arose. A series of
ruthless m en offered to be tyrant to secure peace, including Gaius Julius.
Ethics: Cicero’s last book, On Duties, 44 BC, dealt with num erous com m on problem s: how to treat inferiors, how
honest m ust one be in business, when to protest? Answer, “W here is there dignity unless there is honesty?” Always
do the right thing, what’s legal, open, honest, fair, keep your word; a wrong action can never be really advantageous
as it is wrong; a m odest and profound directive, m ore understandable than Plato or Aristotle. Greek stoicism
becam e the dom inant philosophy am ong educated Rom ans. Also wrote that sure knowledge was im possible.
63 BC
Rom e under Pompey, captured Jerusalem , conquered the Jews in Judea, m ade Judea a Rom an province.
25
58 BC
Lucretius
Titus Lucretius Carus (c96-c53 BC), an extraordinary intellect, revived the philosophy of Epicurus, proponent of
atomism, wrote De rerum natura/ On the Nature of Things, the greatest classical statem ent of a system of atheism , which
com bined stoicism and Epicureanism. Nature was depicted as a landscape of plants and anim als transform ing and
progressing from prim itive to m ore advanced stages across the ages, including hum an’s rise from savagery to civilization,
an early depiction of evolution. Nothing is ever generated from nothing; nature consists of atom s m oving in a void. To
m ake it relevant and understandable to the people, the poem expressed forgiving yourself for being hum an; it’s better to
love than to hate, to live fully, even if im perfectly. Man’s soul is com posed of atom s, thus dies when m an dies. As this
contradicted Aristotle, it was ignored. (In 1473, the book was put into Latin, so atomism becam e known in the W est.)
c50 BC
Julius
Caesar
Gaius Julius (100 - 44 BC), Rom an consul and general, conquered France/Gaul (Veni, Vidi, Vici, likely killing one m illion
and enslaving another m illion), and after a failed attem pt in 55 BC, invaded Britain in 54 BC, but left shortly to quell a revolt
in Gaul, had a short dalliance with Cleopatra in Egypt (a com m on nam e in the Ptolem y fam ily).
In 49 BC, Gaius Julius returned to Rom e where the Senate, under Pompey, his rival, ordered him to disband his
arm y. Instead, he “crossed the Rubicon” River and conquered Rom e and Pompey, becom ing Julius Caesar/dictator.
45 BC
Julius instituted the “Julian” calendar of 365.25 days. (Designed by astronom er Sosigenes of Alexandria.) Not changed
until 1582, when it was off by just ten days. (A year is 365.242 days.) Julius nam ed July after him self.
c44 BC
Brutus, Cassius, and others m urdered Julius in the Senate, as he was considered a threat to their aristocracy. Most
Rom ans thought Julius’s death justifiable. M ark Antony/Anthony then inaugurated the system of institutional tyranny
that was the Rom an em pire. (W ith Julius gone, Cleopatra returned to Egypt, m urdered her brother/co-ruler, and attached
herself to Antony.) Mt. Etna, Sicily, erupted, darkened the skies for 3 years, caused crop failures as far away as China.
43 BC
Rom an Republic (which had begun c500 BC), weakened and becam e the Rom an Em pire. Augustus/Octavian (63 BC-14
AD), and Antony caused Cicero to be m urdered and nailed his severed hands to the Senate rostrum because Cicero
exposed Antony’s attacks on Rom ans’s freedom s.
27 BC
Augustus (after defeating Antony), received im perial power to be exercised only in em ergencies, shared power with the
Senate, consuls, and tribunes. The em pire stretched from Belgium to Syria. Augustus’s “Augustinian Age” of prom oting
farm ing and the arts was the golden age of Latin literature. He m ade his stepson, Tiberius, his successor. But then
Tiberius’s son died and he went to Capri and never returned. Anarchy and corruption ruled. Evil, m ad, corrupt em perors
followed. Not withstanding their em perors, Rom ans built a state, roads, a system of law, schools (for free m ales)
throughout the em pire. Rom ans developed the truss bridge. Shortsightedly, they neglected science.
c25 BC
Virgil (79 -19 BC) wrote The Aeneid as a national epic, which told of the wandering of Aeneas after the fall of Troy,
ended up in Rom e. As Homer’s epics did for the Greeks, The Aeneid taught Rom ans about their past.
c1 AD
Chinese used an adjustable caliper, built suspension bridges of cast iron, invented the wheelbarrow, pendulum , and a
water-powered bellows used in working cast iron. W orld population: rough estim ate: c300M, c60M in China.
c30 AD
Religion, Jesus: Rom an Judea at the tim e had m any Jewish sects, som e chiefly spiritual (like the Essenes), m any that
hoped for a warlike Messiah to liberate them from Rom an rule. Several sects worshiped a god who had died and was
resurrected, like the O siris m yth. An itinerant charism atic Jewish teacher nam ed Jesus, from Nazareth, preached in
synagogues and elsewhere a sim ple and profound doctrine, of a loving universal Fatherhood of God and the im m inent
com ing of the Kingdom of Heaven. He sought to prepare his fellow Jews for the kingdom of God. “The kingdom of God
is at hand.” His teachings were not reasoned argum ents like those of Socrates or Aristotle, but pronouncem ents from
an all-knowing God. Many of his prohibitions dealt sim ply with thoughts, forbidden lustful “sinful” thoughts, or, “Love thy
neighbor.” Jesus’s teachings were a prophetic teaching. This outline accepts the existence of the historical Jesus.
Love &
Charity
in the
New
According to the gospels (written m uch later), Jesus approved of the harsh Jewish laws, Matthew 5: 17-20, Matt.15:4,
Luke 29:9-16, Mark 7:9-10, but added com passion and tolerance based on love and m ercy, i.e., The Sermon on the
Mount, “Blessed are the poor, the m eek, the pure in heart.” Matt. 5:3-11. W hen som e Jews were stoning an adulteress,
he said, “He that is without sin am ong you, let him first cast a stone.” “Love your enem ies... do good to them .” Matt. 5:44.
“Judge not lest you be judged,” Luke 6:37, and, “Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee,
turn not thou away.” Matt. 5:42. He accepted the Jewish doctrine that all other religions were false. Jesus, possibly an
Essene, disdained wealth, said “If thou wilt be perfect, sell what you have and give to the poor, you will have treasure in
Heaven, and com e and follow m e...a rich m an shall hardly enter into the kingdom of Heaven...It is easier for a cam el (or
a rope, sam e word) to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich m an to enter the Kingdom of God. Matt 19:21, 23-24.”
Testament
Jesus’s
death
Jesus was reputedly baptized by John the Baptist. The later Biblical reports of Jesus’s death state that c30 AD the chief
Jewish rabbis and elders convicted Jesus for blasphem y (claim ing to be God), not for preaching any new and different
m oral standards from traditional Judaism , They then dem anded that the Rom an governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, kill
Jesus for treason, for setting him self up as king of the Jews. Mark 15:26, Matt. 27:11-23, John 19:7,12,14-15, and Acts
3:14, 5:30. Pilate com plied, had Jesus crucified. Reputedly, after three days in a cave/tom b, Jesus cam e back to life and
26
forty days later ascended bodily into Heaven. A disciple, Peter and several others reputedly saw the risen Jesus. 1
Corinthians 15:5; John 20-21; and Matt. 28-1-10.(Matt. 28:1-10 is contradictory to John 20:1-18 re the resurrection.)
c40 AD
c45 AD
Saint
Paul
Jesus’s apostles began to spread his teachings. Jesus always considered him self Jewish. At first, his disciples continued
their allegiance to Judaism . The Greek speaking am ong them proselytized Greek areas of Palestine. Jesus’s younger
brother James was a leader of the nascent “Christian” Jews. Christ m eans “the anointed one.” Followers of Jesus were
first called Christians in Antioch around 40 or 47 AD. Disciple Peter becam e “bishop” of Rom e.
Saul of Tarsus/Paul , a Rom an (? - c64 AD), who never m et Jesus, was a rabbi and theorist before he heard of Jesus.
Paul converted to Jesus’s teachings after believing Jesus rose from being dead, then walked throughout Asia Minor,
Greece, and Italy, preaching Jesus’s thoughts in Greek and infusing Jesus’s teaching into a Greek theological
fram ework. Paul taught a concept not found in Jesus’s sayings, that of a sacrificial person who is offered up to God as
an atonem ent for sin. He planned to use the Rom an capital as the base for his operations. Paul wanted to adm it gentiles
without dem anding circum cision. James, Jesus’s brother, and Peter wished their sect to be sim ply reform ed Judaism .
W hen Paul preached in Athens, he noted the open-m indedness of the teachers he m et. Acts 17:16-32.
Jesus had said that he would com e back, which would be the end of the world, fulfilling Jewish prophesy, and would
occur soon, before the deaths of som e who were hearing him . This im m inent end of the world, was a chief attraction of
the Jesus’s m essage, but what was m ost convincing was Paul’s claim that Jesus arose from being dead, a m iracle, said
Jesus, God’s son, was sent to Earth to die for hum ans and thus save them from going to Hell for Adam ’s original sin. He
explained in m ajestic term s the crucifixion, which was a great disappointm ent and puzzle to m any of Jesus’s followers.
Paul
founded
churches
Paul preached to Jews and non-Jews (The Old Testament/Hebrew Bible spoke only to Jews.). He was a great m issionary
and an organizational genius. In his travels, Paul founded m any churches, to which he wrote letters/epistles (later m ade
parts of the New Testament.) Paul preached the ancient religion of priests with an altar and the proprietary bloodshed,
concepts his audiences were fam iliar with. As taught by Paul, Jesus m orphed from being a m ere Jewish prophet into the
traditional Jewish Messiah that m any Jews were eagerly awaiting. He m ade Jesus’s teachings into a form of worship
fam iliar to his audience. He taught Jesus to be still part of Judaism . Jesus’s virtues of faith (the greatest virtue), hope,
and charity undercut the four Rom an virtues. Jesus’s m essage was love, m ercy, com passion, charity.
The num ber of converts to the m ovem ent grew steadily, m ainly in urban areas. The countryside rem ained pagan.
Jesus’s m essage appealed particularly - but not exclusively - to the poor and hum ble, who found a m essage of hope not
in the secular world, but in the com ing Heaven. As the end of the world was im m inent, the study of the natural world was
unnecessary. This basic Christian belief discouraged the study of the natural world, science, for over 1500 years.
Paul m ade clear that the kingdom of Jesus was in Heaven, not on Earth. And that unbelievers risked eternal dam nation.
The reward for the faithful was resurrection and eternal life in Heaven, as Jesus had been resurrected. There are m any
contradictory accounts am ong the gospels regarding the crucifixion and the resurrection.) The new “Christian” Jews
believed that loving God was the m eaning of life. To achieve this, one m ust ask for forgiveness of sins &and receive God
in one’s heart. Paul was as responsible as anyone for the spread of belief in Jesus’s divinity. As Christianity developed
and institutionalized under Paul’s teaching, Jesus could be seen as the seed rather than the founder of Christianity.
Argument
From
M iracles
Paul’s argum ent for Jesus’s divinity was/is the Argument from Miracles, i.e., Jesus perform ed m iracles and his
resurrection was a m iracle. Therefore, he is a god. The logic is irrefutable, but not the prem ises. Paul wrote re such
prem ise, ”If Christ has not risen, then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain.” Corinthians 15:14 and 17.
The Christological Argument for God is that Jesus was a great m oral leader who claim ed to be God and he wouldn’t lie.
Religion, Reincarnation/Heaven/Paradise/Im m ortality: As life is hard for m ost persons, an appealing thought is to im agine
an afterlife which is better than the m iseries and injustices of the present life. Neanderthals buried food with their dead
for an afterlife. As such religions as the Egyptian, the cults of Serapis and Isis, Mithraism (Sun worshipers) in Persia,
Hinduism (a better reincarnation), Sikhs, Judaism , Mahayana Buddhism, Islam, and the Incas, Christians taught that there
is an afterlife, Heaven or Hell, dependent on one’s actions in this life. Heaven is an attractive proposition for rich and poor.
The concept m akes the governed classes less likely to revolt, as they could look forward to a better life beyond death,
dependent, of course, on their acting virtuously (i.e., obediently) in this life. It also quiets those who see evil m en prosper
in this life, knowing/believing that evildoers will get their com euppance som eday.
Seneca
Seneca the Younger (4 BC - 65 AD), Rom an philosopher, said, “Religion is regarded by the com m on people as true, by
the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.” (Edw ard Gibbon in 1776 and various other scholars have said the sam e thing
(see 1532, Force, Fraud, Favors). Seneca said, “Every m an prefers belief to the exercise of judgm ent.”
“God is not to be worshiped with sacrifices and blood, for what pleasure can he have in the slaughter of the innocent.”
Seneca also said that philosophy was for the edification of the soul... “Man is a reasoning anim al.” and that com ets
cam e at regular intervals and were heavenly bodies obeying the great laws of the universe. (Luther disagreed 1543).
27
c50 AD
Hero (c10-70 AD), Greek, a teacher at the Library of Alexandria, calculated the form ula for the area of a triangle when
the height is not known: Area = square root of s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c) where a, b, and c are the sides, and s is half the perim eter.
He also devised a prim itive steam engine, where escaping steam is directed back, and the vessel rotates in reaction. He
described the five sim ple m achines for m oving weights: wheel on axle, lever, pulley, wedge, and screw.
67-70 AD
The gap between Jesus’s sect and other Jews widened when Christian Jews did not support the Jewish uprising in
Jerusalem wherein the Jews revolted but were crushed by the Rom ans and later dispersed from Judea.
c70-100
AD
Gospels
Jesus’s
message
83 AD
Christianity, like the world’s now largest religions were, in their beginnings, quite unlike the priest, altar, and tem ple cults
they becam e. Heaven was available to everybody. The first written stories about Jesus, by M atthew , M ark, Luke, and
John, som ewhat duplicative accounts of his life and sayings, appeared c40 years after his death (in Greek, which the
original 12 apostles did not speak or read) and becam e the Four Gospels. The oral tradition of early Christianity was
gradually replaced by com posed narratives, the earliest of which was probably the Gospel of Mark.
The central doctrine of Jesus’s m essage was to atone for Adam eating an apple from the tree of knowledge of good and
evil. Genesis 2:16-17. Because of such “Original Sin,” all future hum ans were doom ed to Hell, but could be saved through
Jesus. Christianity focused on sin. Saving one’s soul from Hell was the only really im portant thing. Unless forgiven,
com m itting a m ortal sin (serious and knowingly) condem ned one to the fires of Hell forever, a very powerful threat.
Confession and penance forgave the sin. Jesus did not speak of M ary, his m other. (The concept of the Virgin M ary was
derived from Diana of the Ephesians. The third ecum enical Council at Ephesus, 475 AD, affirm ed M ary’s divinity. Like
Jesus, she is believed to have ascended bodily into Heaven.) The im m inent Second Coming m ade science superfluous.
Jesus m ade a distinction between the religious and the secular, “Render unto Caesar, etc.” Luke 12:17; Matt.22:21.
Numerous sects grew. The beginnings of Christianity were a struggle between the teachings and spirit of Jesus, love and
com passion, and the lim itations am plifications, and m isunderstandings of the inferior m en who worshiped him .
Dioscorides’s De Materia Medica, listed 500 m edicinal plants, the definitive m edical and botany text for 1,600 years.
98117 AD
Em peror Trajan’s rule was the apex of Rom an territory, Britain to Persia. Rom an schools educated all free m ales.
Rom e gave its citizens free daily grain rations. Orators incited idle m obs, which could crown an em peror or kill him .
120 AD
Epictetus (c65-135): “The good life is a life of inner tranquility com ing from conform ing nature to reason and to truth.”
Said, “only the educated are free.” “No m an is free who is not m aster of him self.”
c100300 AD
Hsiung-nu nom ads from Mongolia exploded into China. The Han Dynasty resisted, destroying m uch of China. The
Hsiung-nu, now known as Huns, were driven west, across the vast em pty steppes of Central Asia to the Black Sea, forcing
the Goths and Vandals living there further west.
Buddhism reached China. Chinese used wood pulp paper for writing and used center rudders on boats.
Rom an paganism was without creed or dogm a. It just required certain rites be observed. Theology, as the dogm a of a
particular religion, developed with the rise of Christianity. Jews of course, had their theology. In the East, the Hindus,
Buddhists, and Confucians found no need for theology. The idea of a creator God of Jews and Christians grew.
c150 AD
Science: Ptolemy/Claudius Ptolemeus astronom er, m athem atician, introduced longitude and latitude into m aps. He
wrote Almagest, m uch copied from Hipparchus, with Earth at the center of the universe, Aristotle’s and everyone
else’s view, and the authoritative (but incorrect) text for astronom ers (and the Christian Church) for 1,600 years.
Ptolemy
Ptolemy explained that planets’s apparent irregular m ovem ents were because they m oved in circles. He cataloged 1,028
stars and the size and distances to the Moon and Sun. He posited that the planets (each with its own internal m otive
power) revolved on transparent celestial perfect spheres, one sphere carried the Sun, one the Moon, and the five thenknown planets (Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn), and the 8 th sphere held the stars. Astrology (the influence of the
celestial bodies on earthly events) becam e the prevailing “science.” The days of the week were nam ed after the planets
and the sun. (Tycho Brahe disproved the notion of celestial spheres only in 1572.) This becam e Christian thought.
c150 AD
c150
c160 AD
Christianity: M arcion, a leading Christian Jew in Rom e, proposed that the God of Jesus was wholly a God of love,
incom patible with the vindictive God of the Old Testament, which often depicted God as a warrior leading peoples in war.
M arcion proposed one gospel to be the sacred writings as authoritative for “Christians” and om itting the Old Testament
/Hebrew Bible. However, the wider Christian Jewish com m unity kept the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, but Jesus’s
Christian Jewish m ovem ent was becom ing an institution apart from traditional Judaism . Christian Jews’s insistence that
Jesus was divine and Jesus’s teaching that God is m erciful caused an inexorable split with traditional Judaism .
In India, under attack by the Brahm ins, Indian Buddhism declined. It never offered a com plete religion, i.e., no cerem onies
for birth and death, m arriage, illness, and other events of private life.
Galen, Greek, com piled a system of m edical knowledge used until c1600. Doctors m ust know logic and m edicine.
28
c177AD
Problem
of Evil
Irenaeus, Christian bishop of Lyon, asserted that the 4 gospels of M atthew , M ark, Luke, and John were divinely inspired.
Re the Problem of Evil, Irenaeus said that God m ade m an in his own im age but had not m ade hum ans or the world
flawless. Genuine hum an perfection can only com e about through Man achieving it through his free will. Evil can exist in
an im perfect world. A world totally free of evil wouldn’t be suitable to develop m oral qualities in m en. This is saying
hum anity would have to suffer for tens of thousands of years so later som e generation could achieve perfection.
c200 AD
c200 AD Sextus Empiricus, skeptic, doubted the validity of Induction, said suspend judgm ent of all beliefs, act on habit.
Various Christian writings were written between c50 and c150 AD. By about 200 AD, m ost Christians, but not all, had
accepted a certain collection of such scriptures as their holy writings, whose reading becam e the basis of the various
Christian sects’s worship. This collection from the larger group of Christian writings cam e to be called the New Testament.
New
Testament
compiled
The New Testament begins with the 4 gospels. Most features of Jesus’s birth in the gospels, such as the star in the East
(taken from Virgil’s account of Augustus’s birth), virgin birth, resurrection, ascension, etc, had appeared in various other
m yths around the Med previous centuries. M arcion (see 150 AD) m ay have edited Luke’s gospel and Paul’s epistles
(m ost probably not actually written by Paul.). It included also various beliefs of the popular pagan cult Mithraism , but
excluded writings of the Gnostic Christians and various other Christian sects. Gnostics believed that salvation com es not
just from worshiping Christ but in psychic learning to free one’s self from the m aterial world.
What
Christians
Know
Christians retained the Jewish O ld Testament/Hebrew Bible. Thus the active interference of Satan in m agic which the
Jews had taken from Persian m yths, becam e part of Christian thought. Christians were apolitical as they had no influence
on the state. Christianity believed that Man’s duty to God was m ore im portant than Man’s duty to the state (Stoicism ).
Ask and
ye shall
receive
The New Testament in several passages unequivocally prom ised that God will give believers what they pray for,
“W hatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” Matt. 21:22. “Ask, and it shall be given to you.” Matt. 7:7.
“Anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of m y Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 18:19. “W hat things soever
ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them , and ye shall have them .” Mark 11:24. “W hatsoever ye shall ask
in m y nam e, that I will do.” John 14:13. “If ye ask any thing in m y nam e, I will do it.” John 14:14.
Theologians through the centuries have explained why these words do not really m ean what they plainly say.
Slavery
w as
The New Testament sanctioned slavery, as did Jesus. Paul: “Slaves, be obedient to your m asters. Serve wholeheartedly,
as if you were serving the Lord.” Titus 2:9-10. Sim ilar, Ephesians 6:5, 6, 7, and 1 Corinthians 7:21, “Slaves, obey in
everything those who are your earthly m asters...W hatever your task, work heartily.” Colossians 3:22-24. (The Old
Testament/Hebrew Bible contains sim ilar passages, Lev. 25:44-46, and, If a slave owner beats a slave who survives for
a day or two and then dies, there is no punishm ent as the slave is the owner’s property.” Exodus 21:20-21.) In Luke 7:2,
Jesus cured a slave but did not free him . (The Koran later also sanctioned slavery. M uhammad owned slaves.)
the
natural
order
W om en
w ere
men’s
property
Jews
Children
Babies
Kings
Hom osexuals and effem inate m en don’t go to Heaven. Romans 1:31-32; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, 1 Timothy 1:10.
W om en: “Let your wom en keep silence in the churches; for it is not perm itted unto them to speak; but they are
com m anded to be under obedience, as saith the law.” 1 Corinthians 11:3, sim ilarly 14:34-35, 5:33, and Colossians
3:18, “Let the wom an learn in silence, with all subjection. “Suffer not a wom an to teach, nor to usurp authority over the
m an, but to be in silence.” 1 Timothy 2:11-12, sim ilar Titus 2:4-5. “The weaker vessel” 1 Peter 3:7; sim ilar 2 Peter 2:8.
“W ives, subm it yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord....The husband is head of the wife...Let the
wives [be subject] to their own husbands in everything.” Ephysians 5:22-24. (The Koran later said the sam e thing.)
Jews: Paul wrote that the Jews killed Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16. Repeated in Matt. 27:11-23; John 19:7, 12,1415, and Acts 3:14-15, 5:30, 7:51-52, 10:39. Matt. 3:7 referred to Jews as vipers.
Sex: Looking lustfully on a wom an is a sin. Matt. 5:28.
Children: Jesus, “He that curseth father or m other, let him die the death.” Matt.15:4, Mark 7:9-13, (O.T. Deut. 21:18-21).
Disciples: Jesus said, “Any m an... who hate not [all his fam ily] cannot be m y disciple.” Luke 14:26.
Babies are born in a state of sin (because of Adam ’s Original Sin, desiring knowledge). 3 Romans 5:12-21.
Rulers: “All authorities are appointed by God and therefore should not be resisted.” Romans 13: 1-7; 1 Peter 2:17,
This passage, and the phrase “Render unto Caesar, etc.” evilly justified the concept of the divine right of kings.
Many sayings attributed to Jesus were parables, som etim es obscure, causing m illennia of interpretations. Like other
ancient works, like the Icelandic Sagas, the Illiad, Syrian, Mayan epics, the Bible com m anded killing foreigners Deut 7:2.
c250 AD
Am ericas: Mayan civilization in the Yucatan and Central Am erica began its classical period, large scale construction,
m onum ental inscriptions, intellectual and artistic developm ent, under a priesthood of m athem atical diviners. Its civilization
lasted until c900. Its hieroglyphics were not deciphered until the 1990s. Aztecs built the Pyram id of the Sun.
c260 AD
Plotinus (205-270 AD), Egyptian, founder of neoplatonism, synthesized the ideas of Plato and other Greek philosophers.
He believed that all reality is caused by a series of outpourings (em anations) from a divine source.
277 AD
Christians crucified the Persian M ani, founder of Manichaeism , which posited an evil god (darkness) opposing a good
29
Problem
of Evil
god (light) in the cosm os. Manichaeanism thus solved the Problem of Evil, blam ing “Satan” for the evil in the world. Mani
m ade no claim to divinity, said M oses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, were true prophets. He just clarified what they said.
321 AD
Christianity strengthened: Sol Invictus/Unconquered Sun was the then pagan god of the Rom an Em pire. Em peror
Constantine (272-337) m ade Sunday, the day honoring Sol Invictus, as the holy day and day of rest for Christians. He
also m ade Sol Invictus’s birthday, just after the winter solstice, Dec. 25, a popular pagan feast day, as Jesus’s birthday.
The Church used the political structure of the Rom an Em pire. Rom e thus becam e im portant to Christians, its dioceses
were the adm inistrative divisions of the Rom ans. Constantine thus m ade Christianity the W estern world’s religion.
Christianity developed into a political system , m ade laws revoking m any civic privileges of Jews, kept Jews out of the
m ilitary, m ade sexual relations with Christians a capital offense; at tim es banning pagan idolatry and sacrifices.
4 th
Century
AD
There were num erous deeply held and contradictory beliefs am ong early Christians about the nature of God and other
issues. Docetists (Christ’s body was a phantom ); Manichaeists (see 277 AD). Ebionism (Jesus was m ortal and Mosaic
law/law of M oses governed). G nostics, developed in Alexandria, spread widely (various sects who claim ed superior
knowledge. Gnostics thought it unworthy of the son of God to be born a hum an and to die on a cross.). Sabellians said
Jesus was one aspect of God-God was creator, Savior, and Com forter. Marcionists (the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible
was a work of an im perfect cruel God, ignore it); Donatists of Africa (strict m oralists who didn’t accept the spiritual authority
of those clergy who had betrayed Christians during Em peror Diocletan’s reign and regained power under Constantine);
Arians of Egypt and Syria, founded by Arius, who said that as Jesus at one tim e did not exist, he was not equal to God;
thus at one tim e the Trinity did not exist, very logical. All the sects knew that their beliefs were the true Christian beliefs.
Christian
Sects
325 AD
Council
of
Nicaea
Nicene
Creed
Principally to resolve the Arianism dispute, Constantine, not then a Christian, convened, presided over, and dom inated,
the Council of Nicaea (now Iznik, Turkey). Nicaea “resolved” the dispute of one God or two (i.e., God the father and
Jesus) by declaring Jesus co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father. Arian and non-Trinitarian beliefs were not
consistent with orthodoxy and so deem ed heretical. (The Arian m ovem ent did not die out.) The Council m entioned the
Holy Spirit/Ghost. (Church councils in later centuries firm ly established The Holy Ghost/Spirit as part of the Trinity.)
The council also decreed that after ordination, priests should not m arry. The Council prohibited clergy from charging
interest for a loan and m oved the date of Easter from the tim e of Passover, saying the Jews had defiled their hands with
enorm ous sin. Easter com bined the Jewish Passover with pagan celebrations of a resurrected God. The Council also
produced the Nicene Creed, the basic set of beliefs of Christians: There have been versions and revisions, but basically
it’s, “I believe in one God...Creator of Heaven and Earth...and in one Lord Jesus Christ...and in the Holy Ghost,.etc..”
Constantine issued decrees enforcing Nicaea’s acts. The Church, of course, said it was the only path to salvation, based
on adm inistering the sacram ents. All the Church’s Councils failed to deter diverse Christian sects growing. In the 4 th
century, there were 45 “councils,” 13 adverse to Arianism , 15 in its favor, and 17 for the Sem i-Arians. As noted,
Christians ignored science. Jesus’s “religion” had no priests or altar or consecrated tem ples. It had no rites or
cerem onies. There was no “pope,” i.e., one person ruling over all other bishops, as we know him today. The bishop of
Rom e was just that, elected by the Christians of Rom e. Rom e was just one of several Christian com m unities, all equal
in authority over Christians in their area. The bishops of the largest Christian com m unities, Rom e, Athens, Antioch,
Byzantium , and Alexandria also had different theological opinions/dogm as. These bishops tended to exercise authority
over bishops of sm aller locales. Bishops were popularly elected. The bishop of Rom e did claim ascendancy from Peter.
c330
Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, “It is a thing equally deplorable and dangerous that there as m any creeds as opinions am ong
m en, as m any doctrines as inclinations, and as m any sources of blasphem y as there are faults am ong us, because we
m ake creeds arbitrarily and defend them arbitrarily. Every year, nay every moon, we m ake new creeds.”
331
Constantine rebuilt Byzantium , the Greek trading post on the Bosporus, nam ing it Nova Rom a, and m ade it his capital.
So Nova Rom a (later called Constantinople and still later Istanbul) becam e as im portant to Christians as Rom e.
c337
The W estern part of the Rom an em pire was ruled from Ravenna, Italy, but atrophying. The Eastern part was ruled from
Nova Rom a. O n his death in 337, Constantine willed the Em pire to his three sons. (Nova Rom a was renam ed
Constantinople, city of Constantine.) Latin was its language until the 7 th century, when Greek was adopted. (It becam e
the greatest and richest city in the W est for 1000 years.) But, m assive corruption and quarrels in the Church and the
governm ent weakened the em pire. Germ anic peoples and Goths began to m ove into the outlying parts of the Em pire.
Basil, The bread you hoard belongs to the hungry; the cloak in your chest to the naked, the gold you’ve hidden to the poor.
c370
374
Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, prom oted the independence of the Church from the Rom an em pire. (later deem ed a saint.
The concept of “saint” developed slowly.) Said, “The wise m an is always free.” In 378, Visigoths killed the Rom an em peror.
381
The Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople reaffirm ed Jesus’s co-equality with God and said the Holy Ghost/
Spirit was also fully God. The bishop/patriarch of Constantinople was given authority over Asia Minor and the Balkans.
392
Em peror Theodosius was the last em peror to rule the Eastern & W estern parts. He prom oted the Trinitarian doctrine
(decided at Nicaea). He m ade Christianity the em pire’s official religion. This shut out Greek thinking. Bishops were given
30
civil adm inistrative and judicial duties. The Church becam e a political as well as religious system . W hen he died in 395,
it split for good. He was as im portant as St Paul and Constantine in m aking Christianity the dom inant W estern religion.
c400
John Chrysostom, Patriarch/bishop of Constantinople (398-404) opposed slavery, child prostitution. He deposed bishops
who had bought their offices. He was particularly vitriolic against Jews, calling them “lecherous, greedy, rapacious, odious
assassins of Christ”. “It is incum bent on all Christians to hate Jews.” Jews could not hold office, serve in the arm y,
proselytize, or m arry Christians. Chrysostom has been forever quoted by anti-Sem ites.
Greek philosophy had opened the W estern m ind. The Rom ans closed it when they adopted Christianity as the im perial
religion and accepted the Bible as dogm a. Christian thinking (The Lord says.X, a proclam ation, was the opposite from
the Greeks. Let us exam ine, a discussion.) Rom e’s cardinal virtues of wisdom , courage, m oderation, and justice were
replaced by Faith, hope, and charity. The Church took over the em pire culturally. Christianity was largely an urban religion.
A school for priests grew up in Alexandria as the Church becam e m ore institutionalized. Priests began to wear the
costum es of Egyptian priests, wear m itres. By the fourth century, Christianity had spread throughout the em pire, as a
priestly religion, fam iliar in form to the older ones. Cerem onies becam e m ore ornate. Rom ans had zero interest in science.
405
Jerome with others, produced the Vulgate Bible, in Latin from the original Hebrew, Aram aic, and Greek, now the official
Catholic version. He also urged the ladies of the bishop of Rom e’s court to adopt an ascetic life, angering the bishop. (later
deem ed a saint. There was no form al canonization process until c1200.) He and Tertullian disparaged m arriage.
410
The Visigoths, under Alaric, went south and sacked Rom e. They were paid off and withdrew. W hile not a decisive m ilitary
victory, it was very im portant sym bolically, and did m ark the decline of Pax Romana, that had unified m uch of Europe and
the Mediterranean. W hen the barbarians m igrated into the em pire, there was no popular uprising against them .
In 416, Rom e hired the Visigoths to defeat barbarians who had taken over m uch of Spain. Rom e lost control of its
northern European possessions. Other Goths advanced into Gaul/France. The em pire disintegrated, the Rom an arm y
shrank. The Rom an em perors in Ravenna were helpless.
Decline
and fall
of the
Rom an
Empire
Overview: The Rom an part of the em pire “declined and fell”. Rom e, m ostly pagan, corrupt, was nom inally Christian.
Citizens of Rom e were devoted to consum ption of m aterial goods, while the great m ass of people in the em pire, including
barbarians, lived m iserably. The W estern em pire’s wealth (and grain) was shipped to Rom e. The Eastern part of the
em pire, including Greece, was ruled from Constantinople, and becam e far richer than the W estern part. Goths and
Vandals, forced out of Central Asia by the Huns, spread into Europe. Rom e was weakened by the pressure of the Arabs
from the South and its wars with Persia and oblivious to the growing threat from the barbarians from the north.
Num erous theories have been advanced to explain Rom e’s fall: lead poisoning, plague, non-Italians in places of power,
incom petence / decadence of the em perors. Pagans blam ed the wim piness of Christianity. Gibbon gave 4 principal
causes: 1. The injuries of tim e and nature, 2. Barbarian attacks, 3. The use and abuse of m aterials, and 4. Dom estic
quarrels of the Rom ans. H G W ells said that Rom e declined as there was no free m ental activity, no organization to
develop knowledge; it respected wealth, despised science, gave governm ent to the rich. It was a colossally ignorant and
unim aginative em pire. Rom e’s dem ise is considered the dom inant historical event of Europe.
413427
Augustine
Problem
of Evil
City
of
God
Christianity defined and defended: Aurelius/Augustinus/ St. Augustine (354- 430), the first of the two great Christian
theologians (he and Aquinas, see 1273), a “Doctor of the Church,” a Berber, born in present Algeria, who at first had
rejected the anti-rational m ysticism and intellectual confusions of Christianity, becam e a fam ous Manichaean teacher in
Milan (Manichaeanism gave a rational answer to the Problem of Evil, i.e., the Devil m akes Evil, see 277 AD), but heard
Ambrose (see 374) preach. He had a m istress. He then m oved to Rom e and, at 32, in 386, gave up his m istress,
converted to Christianity, prim arily due to his belief that Christ perform ed m iracles. He becam e a priest in 391 and Bishop
of Hippo (Algeria) in 396. He said that the essential nature of Man is will, and no m an wills the true God to be God unless
he is touched by divine grace. Theology is faith seeking understanding. Said, W e can know what God is not, but we
cannot know what He is. He wrote, “Si com prendis, non est Deus.” If you can understand it, it is not God.”
In 401, he wrote Confessions, the first ever tell-all autobiography, first to use the word I in its m odern m eaning.
In 413, he com pleted the first part of De civitate Dei/The City of God, (22 volum es) the m ost elegant defense of
Christianity of the tim e. It was Augustine’s answer to the pagan charge that Christianity facilitated the 410 sack of Rom e.
He finished it in 426. City of God also laid out a plan of world history. It postulated that there are two cities in eternal
conflict, the City of Man, m aterial, fleshy, selfish, downward turning, (“Cursed is everyone who places his hope in Man.”)
and the City of God, spiritual, turning upward. It is within the heart and soul of every true Christian, and cannot ever be
conquered. Earthly power could never com pare to the glory of the spiritual inner city, which could exist in a beggar as well
as a holy m an. Christians m ust renounce earthly glory and be willing to live in sm all isolated places where the glory of the
Heavenly City could m ore easily be seen. Give yourself to God and God will give you eternal peace. The goal (telos) of
Christians is in another life, to love God, not of this world. All study of Nature was futile due to the im pending end of the
world. Belief in an unknowable being is the central tenet of theism (belief in an all-knowing all-powerful creator God.).
Augustine argued that although Christian doctrines could not be justified by reason, they should not be rejected as
there were m any m arvels in the natural world that could not be rationally explained. He cited the case of peacock m eat
that did not rot and m ares in Capadocia that were im pregnated by the wind. Also said, “Hell was m ade for the inquisitive.”
31
From Paul, he developed the concept of original sin. Vegetables as well as all the anim al kingdom were cursed because
of Adam ’s Original Sin. Augustine also justified slavery as the result of Adam ’s Original Sin. The first theologian of note
to forcefully denounce slavery was St. Patrick in Ireland, who had been a slave. Augustine explained that earthquakes
and fam ine, i.e, natural evils, punish Man for Adam ’s Original Sin. Like Plato, Augustine said that Universals were the
true reality. He wrote, “I have not been able to discover in the accepted books of Scripture anything at all certain about
the origin of the soul.” He said, “I com e to understanding only through belief.” The City of God‘s philosophy of history
dom inated W estern thought for c1000 years. He was the greatest Christian scholar since St. Paul. He synthesized Greek
philosophical thought and Christian belief, thus creating theological system s basic to Christianity.
Augustine said, “As sinners, hum ans are utterly depraved, lack the freedom to do good, and cannot respond to the will
of G od without divine grace.” He asserted that God had foreordained, from eternity, those who would be saved. He
developed the principle of a just Christian war that becam e the foundation for all future discussion of the topic.
Torture
sinners
Kill
heretics
The
Problem
of Evil
He also said that torture was fitting for those who broke the laws of God. Heretics should be exam ined by beating them
to death. Augustine disfavored priests to have wives or concubines. He also said believing in witchcraft was heresy. (The
Hammurabi Code, Rom an, and Jewish law also outlawed witchcraft, thus accepting its existence.) Augustine argued:
1. There is unity in truth. 2. God reveals Him self through Scripture and Nature. 3. Scripture requires interpretation, and.
4. Religion trum ps science. He also said, [Slavery] happens only by the judgm ent of God, in whose eyes it is no crim e.”
Augustine, in Free Choice of the W ill, addressed the Problem of Evil: God created a perfect world of everything physical
and spiritual, but knew Man, Adam , of his own free will would turn away from God, thus evil cam e to the world. Augustine
said Epicurus (in the Epicurian Paradox) ignored the potential benefits of suffering in the world, and evil was a necessary
com ponent in a larger context. Evil is a deficiency or distortion in things that are them selves good but not perfectly good.
Moral evil represents the absence or privation in som ething that is in itself good, thus an evil action as such is not evil.
He argued that evil is not anything positive. God is not the cause of evil because evil is not a thing, thus cannot have a
cause. W ithout freedom , Man could not love God. Evil was not willed by God even though God willed Man to have
freedom .[But: If the world were perfect, things couldn’t go wrong. W ould a just God punish innocent babies and children?]
Augustine’s several argum ents to exonerate God from any charge of m oral im perfection becam e the foundation of
theological optim ism , accepted later by Thomas Aquinas and von Leibniz. (Other theologians have sim ilarly
disputed the prem ise that evil exists, or say hum ans can’t understand how God works. (i.e., God’s answer to Job.)
Naive
literalism
Augustine rejected taking the passages in the Bible literally (naive literalism), especially the harshness in the Old
Testament/Hebrew Bible. As a technique for finding m eaning in the Scriptures, use “careful interpretation,” exegesis.
This perm its one to provide m eanings, possibly quite different, from what the plain words say, i.e., the “surface
m eaning.” The six days of creation becam e six eras (the Day-Age Theory), etc. He said the Bible had been
“accommodated” to the lim ited understanding of the prim itive people who were its original audience
(Accommodation). Augustine m ade the Bible into the arbiter of hum an knowledge, not just a guide to goodness. He
could be called the father of theology.
Augustine believed that, as God had created the natural world “out of nothing,” studying it could only be good and
lead to a greater appreciation of God’s wisdom . But, at the sam e tim e, he said, “There is another form of tem ptation,
even m ore fraught with danger. This is the disease of curiosity. It is this which drives us to try and discover the secrets
of nature, those secrets which are beyond our understanding, which can avail us nothing and which Man should not
wish to learn.” “Seek not to understand that you m ay believe, but believe that you m ay understand.” His theory of the
divine nature of knowledge dom inated W estern thinking for centuries, and it was not until the 13 th century that it was
challenged in the universities in Oxford & Paris & by the rediscovered teachings of Aristotle. Greeks had found joy
and beauty in the every-day world. Christians will find it in the next life. Augustine, in De Genesi, said, “Man was
m ade to rule, wom an to obey.”
City of God,18:46, rejoiced that the Jews ”were doom ed to wander the world.” Their plight was proof that Christ was the
Messiah. Augustine said, “All diseases of Christians are to be ascribed to dem ons.” “The greatest good is wisdom .”
Augustine said that the Earth could not be a sphere as this was not m entioned in the Bible and because “ln the day
of judgem ent m en on the other side of a globe could not see the Lord descending through the air.”
F. W. Farrar, “Augustine’s Saviour was not the Saviour of the world. He was only the Saviour of the Church, and
in the Church itself, of only a m ere handful of the elect, whom he saves only under strictly ecclesiastical conditions.”
Pelagius, W elsh cleric questioned the doctrine of Original Sin, preached that when m en act virtuously, it is from their own
m oral effort and will therefore go to Heaven. Many theologians agreed. Augustine had it declared heretical in 416.
Carthage Proconsul M artianus Capella com piled a curriculum of the seven liberal arts, rhetoric, gram m ar, argum ent,
geom etry, m usic, arithm etic, and astronom y. Standard reference for W estern education for the next six centuries.
32
415
c4501000
Dark
Ages
Hypatia (c360-415) Alexandria, scholar, taught m ath, philosophy, astronom y. A m ob of Christian m onks killed her.
c450-c1000. Overview, the Dark Ages: W ith the fall of Rom e, the Dark Ages of W estern civilization began, lasted until
c1,000, am ong the worst periods in W estern history. W estern civilization collapsed, resulting in m isery and suffering
everywhere in the W est. Over the c500 years of the Dark Ages, the sum of hum an knowledge in the W est actually shrank.
Rom an legions withdrew from Britain. Vandals from Asia went west, fighting as m ounted archers, with short com posite
bows, conquered Spain, then Rom an North Africa. China and the Islam ic em pires flourished.
Rom e dwindled from one m illion people (c25% slaves) to 50,000. There were few roads, no m aps, no Rom an schools,
libraries disappeared. No news, no travel. Intellectual stagnation, less farm land, fewer farm anim als, constant danger from
m arauders, little m oney, com m erce by barter, churches were the only source of inform ation. Early Christian ascetics/
herm its, at first living alone, in tim e banded together and form ed com m unities, which becam e m onasteries. W hat little
intellectual activity survived did so only in m onasteries, with Latin texts, studying theology. Knowledge of Greek ideas/texts
disappeared as few spoke Greek. (Greece was ruled from Constantinople.) Local dialects were not understood 100 m iles
away. For alm ost all the people, i.e., peasants/slaves/serfs, the Dark Ages were not m uch different from any other tim e.
They continued to live in poverty, ignorant even of the next village, in hunger, danger, superstition, and privation.
Huns
Em pire of the Huns: The leader of the Huns, Attila, for a tim e ruled an em pire from the Rhine to Central Asia. Attila
invaded Gaul but was beaten there in 451 and retreated. Many learned m en of Gaul fled from the Goths and the Vandals
and settled in Ireland, establishing centers of learning. Vandals under Gaeseric sacked Rom e in 455.
In 476, Ostrogoths under Theodoric, took Ravenna deposing the last Rom an em peror and conquering m ost of Italy.
Barbarian Huns, Ostrogoths, and Vandals settled in various Rom an provinces and were gradually absorbed into the local
cultures and the Church. Gold, which Rom e paid as tribute to the barbarians, gradually filtered back to the m erchants in
Rom e, who sold goods that the barbarians grew to like. Germ anic Anglo-Saxons took over Britain
The early Medieval civilization that arose from the fall of the W estern Rom an em pire resulted from the coalescence of
1. the Germ an princes who m oved from Scandinavia into the W est, 2. the Greco-Rom an legacy, and 3. the Church.
Rom e dead becam e m ore powerful than Rom e alive. Christianity, the only surviving rem nant of the Rom an em pire,
spread. As the only institution which preserved som ething of a tradition of the defunct im perial tradition, the papacy at
Rom e slowly achieved increasing influence, at tim es m ore powerful than any king or em peror.
W hile Jesus appealed to the poor, the bishops (There was no “pope” yet) becam e rich. W hatever their rivalries, the local
rulers were Christian. The Church replaced the Rom an em pire as the unifying elem ent of Europe. It controlled the arts,
education and the language, Latin. The only educated people in the W est were clergym en.
The Middle /Dark Ages were a great experim ent in theocratic governm ent. After the barbarians had destroyed Rom an
society, Christians began to see m ore value in Augustine’s City of God. Christians looked inward, and cared about their
souls. Poverty was now the m easure of a Christian. As saving one’s soul was all im portant, and the world would soon end,
the study of science was futile and in any case could only support Scripture. Theology becam e the chief if not only subject
of thought and study in the W est for c1,000 years; science was ignored. Any subject studied was for a Biblical purpose.
The Church dom inated all thought as it was the only cultural institution. Virtually anyone who contributed to intellectual
life was a churchm an. Jews were sim ilarly God-obsessed, as later were Muslim s.
As the early Church spread, it m ade com prom ises, accom m odating itself in som e degree to the thoughts and behaviors
of its local converts. Thus, certain pagan fertility rites becam e Church feasts and festivals. In Germ anic lands, the tribal
chief was also the religious chief and, upon converting to Christianity, becam e head of the Church in his land. Such chiefs
evolved into kings and, claim ed the right to, for exam ple, appoint bishops. [The Christm as tree cam e from pagan Germ ans
later in the 600s]. The Eastern part of the em pire (Constantinople), and China were less affected by the Dark Ages. The
em perors in Constantinople, the largest and richest city in the world, ruled in splendor.
W hat today is China, Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan were then m ore advanced than the collapsed Rom an Em pire. Em pires
of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai in Africa, the Maya, Aztec, and Inca in Am erica, the Srivijaya and Majapahit in Southeast.
Asia, all rose. In all com m unities, violent death was com m on.
c458
c497
529
Indians used ten “Arabic” num erals including a zero, first known usage of a zero; not used in Europe. (Babylonians
had used a place value system 2,000 years previously, but without a zero.)
Northern Europeans developed a plow with wheels and the horse collar.
Clovis, king of the Franks, adopted Christianity. Ostrogoths ruled Italy. Clovis and his sons m ade the Franks the m ost
powerful of all the barbarian successors of Rom e for three centuries.
Rom an Em peror Justinian, lived in Constantinople, founded a university, but under pressure from the Christians, closed
Aristotle’s Lyceum and Plato’s Academy in Athens. They had lasted 1,000 years and their closing m arked the end of
Greek higher education in the W est. Greek academ ies, however, continued for centuries m ore in Constantinople.
33
Justinian prom ulgated the Codex Constitutionum, codifying the then large body of Rom an law. It was in effect for 1,000
years and is the basis for m odern civil law. It is the prim e legacy of Rom e to legal history. Inter alia, it stripped all rights
from non-Christians, and enacted harsh penalties against Jews and pagans. Not believing in the Resurrection and Last
Judgm ent was a capital offense. Justinian built Sancta Sophia (Gnostic/Greek goddess of wisdom ) Basilica in
Constantinople, consecrated in 538, the greatest building of the Byzantine em pire and the W est for 1,000 years, The
Eastern em perors in Constantinople were closer to the Christian patriarch than the Rom an em perors were to the bishop
of Rom e/pope and were usually canonized by the patriarch’s decree. The Byzantine em pire, nom inally Rom an, was
essentially Greek. Justinian covertly obtained silkworm s from China, still an industry in Turkey.
534
Benedict of Nursia (c450-c543), repelled by the licentiousness of the Rom an Church, founded a m onastery on Monte
Cassino (Benedictines), devoted to poverty, prayer, and good works. Benedict wrote a set of rules for com m unal life,
Regula Monachorum, which is still followed. This founded m onasticism in W estern Europe. Benedictine m onasteries
spread all over Europe and the m onks copied, preserved, and classified Greek and Rom an texts. These m onks also
proselytized throughout the Rom an em pire and into pagan regions. [Benedict was form ally canonized in 1220.]
Dogm atic theology, i.e., Christian dogm a, contributed to the decline of the Greek ideal. Superstition replaced rationality.
Faith replaced virtue. Based on scripture, the Earth was flat, surrounded by m ountains, and the center of the universe.
Justice in Heaven, up above, replaced Justice on Earth. Obedience to the Church replaced reason.
542
Plague, started in Constantinople from rats from Egypt, spread over Europe. [Not as bad as the plague in 1347-1349].
c549
John Philoponus (c490-570) of Alexandria, Christian philosopher, scientist. Initiated and anticipated the eventual
liberation of natural philosophy/science from Aristotle. He saw that heavy and light objects fell at the sam e rate. He
developed the theory of im petus (a decisive step away from Aristotle) and which led to the notion of inertia.
c550
By 550, Europe had disintegrated. Europe has never again been one nation, ruled from a central city, speaking one
language, obeying one set of laws, possessing a single culture, albeit with regional differences.
Life in
the
Dark
Ages
During the Dark Ages, the three m ain problem s for people in the W est were: sustenance, protection from m urderers /
thieves, and the m ost im portant, God. W ith the decline of secular education, m onasteries attracted intellectuals and
becam e the only centers of learning, but the “learning” was theological, not scientific. Christian theology replaced Greek
m ath and philosophy as the principal subject of study. Scholars sought to “draw forth the internal juice and m arrow of the
Scriptures to explain things.” Large num bers of the W est’s m ost intelligent persons retreated to m onastic life (Many went
to Irish m onasteries) and did not assum e the leadership roles in society that would have benefitted from their talents.
Rom an naturalism and rationalism gave way to the m ysticism and transcendentalism of the Church. These changes did
not occur in the other great civilizations, the Persian, the Indian, or the Chinese.
Except for m edicine, scientific inquiry in the W est virtually stopped. Medieval science was teleological. T he universe /
natural world was im portant only to show how it fit into God’s plan. Rom ans had never been particularly interested in
scientific inquiry. The universe of Augustine was static. All that m attered was preparation for the next life (not unlike m any
religions). The attitude towards the natural world was apathetic, if not pessim istic.
Feudalism : was not a uniform system . Europe was in chaos, the m ost successful m urderers cam e to control the m ost
land, so becam e lords, and protected his vassals, but at a high price, i.e., ½ of a vassal’s crop or taxing for the right to
run a m ill. In any geographic area, only a lord/king was autonom ous. (Sir W alter Scott, “W hat can they see in the longest
kingly line in Europe, save that it runs back to a successful soldier?”) The Church supported the lords and vice versa.
Lords frequently used Jews as their tax collectors, causing peasants to dislike Jews, but staying loyal to the lord.
591
The bishop of Rom e in tim e becam e the preem inent bishop, then pope. (Latin, papa, father) Bishop of Rom e St. Gregory
the Great (540-604), a m onk, from a wealthy fam ily, becam e m ost influential in transform ing the bishop of Rom e into the
pope of the Church with power over other bishops then largely autonom ous, as well as secular rulers. He did so by acting
like a pope, sent num erous letters to bishops sim ply lecturing and instructing them on Church m atters, often criticizing
them for sim ony or other actions. He directed bishops to seek out and care for the poor. He also ruled Rom e.
Problem
of Evil
Addressing the Problem of Evil, Gregory said, “If the work of God could be com prehended by reason, it would be no
longer wonderful, and faith would have no m erit if reason provided proof.” Gregory reproved Bishop Desiderus of Vienne
for teaching gram m ar. He also said all sexual desire is sinful in itself. He m ade his fam ily hom e into a m onastery.
c600
Slavery
St.Isidore, Archbishop of Seville, “Because of the sin of the first m an, the punishm ent of slavery was divinely im posed
on the hum an race, so that He m ight inflict slavery m ore m ercifully on those He perceived are not suited to liberty.”
604
Japan adopted Buddhism as a state religion. Shinto continued to be Japan’s predom inant religious tradition. In the 7 th
century, num erous m onasteries were founded in W estern Europe by m onks from Ireland, bringing books and scholarship
610
Islam/Submission: M uham m ad/The Praised One (c570-632), born Ubu’l Kassim in Mecca, largest city in Arabia,
34
Islam
orphaned, first a shepherd, then servant to, then husband of, a older rich widow, Khadija. In 610, reputedly, he got his
first m essage from God, Allah, through the archangel Gabriel. A m onotheist, he began to write the Koran/Qur’an (taking
22 years to finish it) with guidance from Gabriel. He also began to denounce the polytheistic faith of his fellow tribesm en.
622
M uhammad and 75 followers were forced to flee Mecca, went to Jathrib, later renam ed Medina (City of the Prophet). This
was the Hegira/Emigration, day one of the Islamic calendar). He said Abraham , M oses, and Jesus were prior prophets
(but not divine), and proclaim ed him self prophet for the authentic “religion of Abraham ,” whose teachings had been
distorted by Judaism and Christianity. Like Christianity and other state-supported religions, life was proclaim ed a test, and
how well one perform ed on this test determ ined whether one goes to Jannah (Heaven) or Jahannam (Hell). Islam had/has
no separation of church and state (unlike Christianity). Islam, as an offshoot from Judaism , was the culm ination of the
trend towards m onotheist, eschatological, egalitarian, and universal religions.
624
M uhammad m arried ten year old Aisha, daughter of Abu (father of) Bakr/Bekr, M uhammad’s m ost faithful follower.
M uhammad owned slaves, one of whom bore him a son. One of his daughters was Fatim a. All told, he had 11 (or 13)
wives, a com m on practice then to care for widows. After failing to convert the Jews of Medina and nearby towns to Islam,
M uhammad sim ply killed the m en, enslaved the wom en and children, and gave their land to Muslim s.
630-650
M uhammad took Mecca in 630. He pronounced rules for the fair treatm ent am ong all his followers, including slaves.
As he got older, he stressed the im portance of warfare/violence to spread Islam. In 632, M uhammad died and reportedly
ascended into Heaven on a winged horse. On his death, Abu Bakr/Bekr becam e first caliph/successor. A split developed
between Shi’ites who said that only descendants of M uhammad (by any of his wives or slaves) could lead Islam, while
Sunnis said the Muslim com m unity should pick a leader of utm ost piety. (85% of Muslim s now are Sunni.) The split was
based in a rivalry between Aisha and Fatima, a daughter of M uhammed. Abu Bakr soon died in 634.
c642
Muslim s set out to conquer the world for Allah. The rest of Arabia and Egypt (im portantly including Alexandria and its
Greek scholarship) fell soon. Islam cam e to dom inate m ost of the eastern parts of the Rom an Em pire (except Asia-Minor).
Omar/Umar, the second caliph, a powerful but hum ble m an, by 642, conquered Syria, Persia, and Alexandria, the then
capital of the W estern world’s scholarship, obtaining the Greek texts taken there after the fall of the W estern Rom an
Em pire. Omar said, “Burn the libraries, for all their value is in the Koran.” Nonetheless, Muslim s in Alexandria em braced
Greek learning, becom ing physicists, m athem aticians, astronom ers, often building on Greek texts.
[Note. In translation from Arabic script to English, Arabic names can have several different spellings.]
Omar
c644
Uthm an
The
Koran:
W hat
M uslims
Know
W ho
must
be
killed
The third caliph, Uthm an/Othm an (596-656), a baser and vainer m an, com piled the presum ably authoritative text of the
Koran/al-Qur’an (Recitations) from statem ents of M uhammad, purportedly inspired by talks with the archangel Gabriel.
and destroyed all other versions. Such hum an editing lessened the Koran’s purported divine source. It has 114 surahs
/ chapters. The Koran’s m essage of m ercy and charity for the downtrodden inspired m any, but taught Muslim s that
m odernity and secular culture were incom patible with m oral and spiritual health. Islam was also an ideology, as it
prescribed how to build a state. It m ade it the duty of every Muslim to struggle for the creation of a universal Islamic state.
Islam’s earthly m ission was political, to reform society and form a nation. M uhammad saw a purpose in nature.
The Koran has m any m essages of tolerance and charity and m ercy. But it also instructs Muslim s 1. to hate and kill nonMuslim s (see next paragraph), idolaters, apostates (leaving Islam), and blasphem ers; 2. to lash adulterers; 3. that
wom en are chattel; 4. that only believers go to Paradise; 5. that (contra Islam’s rigid repressive views re sex) m artyrs
(those who die in battle spreading Islam) go straight to Paradise where 72 virgins (or possibly, based on m odern
scholarship, 72 white raisins) await them ; 6. that God turned Sabbath breaking Jews and sundry other persons into apes
2:65-66; 7. that the Earth is fixed and does not m ove. 27:61; 8. that Jews are the greediest of all hum ans 2:96; 9. that
non-Muslim s will burn in Hell (repeated over 200 tim es.); 10. that Christians and Jews m ust believe Allah’s teachings or
he will turn them into apes; 11. that Muslim wom en m ay not m arry non-Muslim s; 12. that a wom an is worth one-half a m an
2:282; 13. that m ales inherit twice as m uch as fem ales 4:11; 14. That m en are in charge of wom en as Allah m ade m en
to be better than wom en 4:34, 15. that Muslim s should not have any non-Muslim friends 4:89; 16. If a m an or wom an
steal, cut off their hands.” 5:38 and 17. that Gabriel took M uhammad on a winged horse to Jerusalem and to the 7 th level
of Heaven, where he spoke to Abraham , and then back to Earth.
The Koran com m ands hating and killing non-Muslim s in num erous passages (copying Deuteronomy). “W ar is ordained
by Allah, and all Muslim s m ust be willing to fight, whether they like it or not. 2:216 [Christians and Jews] and the pagans,
resent that any blessing should have been sent down to you from your Lord. 2:105...[W e] shall let them live awhile, and
then shall drag them to the scourge of the Fire. 2:126 The, unbelievers are like beasts...Deaf, dum b, and blind, they
understand nothing. 2:172. Slay them wherever you find them . 4:89 and 9:5. Fight the disbelievers Be harsh with them .
9:73. W hen you fight with disbelievers, do not retreat. Those who do will go to Hell. 8:15-16 Don’t bother to warn the
disbelievers 2:6... Believers, do not m ake friends with any but your own people. 3:118... W e will put terror into the hearts
of the unbelievers... 3:149-51. Let not the unbelievers think that we prolong their days for their own good. W e give them
respite only so that they m ay com m it m ore grievous sins. 3:178... Do not be deceived by the fortunes of the unbelievers
in the land. Their prosperity is brief. Hell shall be their hom e.3:195–96 Do not seek the friendship of [Christians and Jews],
35
who have m ade of your religion a jest and a pastim e. 5:57... They are liars all. 6:29... Make war on the infidels who dwell
around you. 9:123.(There are num erous sim ilar statem ents in the Koran.)
Thus, the 3 m ajor W estern religions, Judaism , Christianity and Islam , were all relentless against those of other faiths.
Notwithstanding such com m ands to hate and kill, under som e caliphs, Muslim s in som e locales tolerated Christians and
Jews, especially in Spain, considering them “People of the Book.” Muslim s translated captured Greek texts into Arabic
(which were, centuries later, translated into Latin and becam e the basis of W estern intellectual studies.).
Five
Pillars
of
Islam
Islam
spread
The five Pillars of Islam are: Profess one’s faith, Pray 5x each day, Give alm s, Fast in Ram adan, Go to Mecca once.
Muslim s were/are God-obsessed like the Jews and Christians. All three religions preached an im m inent Judgm ent Day.
The ultim ate objective for Muslim s (like the Jews and Christians) was to seek the pleasure of God / Allah by living in
accordance with the Divine guidelines as stated in the Koran.
Never has a religion spread so fast or so far so quickly. By 650, Muslim s had conquered all of the Mid-East and all
the N. African lands on the Med (except Carthage and Tangier). Som e m onks blam ed Christians for not being holy
enough. The Sunnis accepted the Sunna, a body of sayings and custom s of M uhammad, as of equal authority with
the Koran. The split with Shi’ites endures. There are also sm aller Muslim sects. M uhammad, unlike Jesus, did not
claim to be divine.
Technology: Chinese built a iron-chain suspension bridge c580, block-printed books 640, developed porcelain c700.
Persians developed the windm ill to grind grain c640. China, India, and Japan did not seek to spread their religions.
675
683
Eleventh Council of Toledo (just 17 bishops) reaffirm ed the doctrine of the Trinity, also decreed if a bishop seduced a
noblem an’s wife, daughter or niece, he’s deposed and excom m unicated.
Thirteenth Council forbade clergy who had converted to Christianity from living with their wives, forbade clergy to sue
other clergy, forbade Jews to have Christian wives, slaves, or concubines, thus freeing all Christian slaves of Jews.
677
Hui-neng: “Perfect Buddha wisdom is in everyone. To learn one’s Buddha nature, one’s m ind m ust be free.”
692
Muslim s com pleted their Dom e of the Rock in Jerusalem .
c700
The Venerable Bede, a m onk in England, established the birth of Jesus as the first year of the Christian calendar.
c711
Muslim Em pire. Muslim s, having conquered North Africa, then took m uch of Spain in 711 (crossing the Strait of Gibraltar)
Muslim s also expanded into Sub-Saharan Africa, India, and South-East Asia. Muslim scholars seized on Greek learning,
established libraries in Baghdad, Cairo, Cordoba (400,000 volum es), Toledo, and Basra (S.E. Iraq), which becam e centers
of Muslim learning. Abbasid caliphate began to translate Greek texts like Euclid’s Geometry into Arabic. Virtually the only
science studied in the W est during the Dark Ages was done by Muslim s, largely m ath, optics, and m edicine.
Muslim m athem aticians com bined Greek m ath with Indian (Indians had a zero and the decim al system ). It replaced the
cum bersom e Rom an num erals. This greatly sim plified calculation. It was the m ost im portant single innovation that the
Muslim s brought to the W est. The decim al system did not take hold in Europe for 500 years,
718-719
Christian Constantinople withstood a one-year Muslim siege, Islam’s first serious defeat.
726
Em peror Leo 3 in Constantinople ordered all religious im ages destroyed. Rom e bishop Gregory 2 refused.
732
The Eastern regions of Christianity spoke Greek, the W est, Latin. This contributed to their separation and m utual distrust.
In the East, the Greek Church rem ained subservient to the em peror in Constantinople who decided m atters of faith
and appointed bishops as well as patriarchs. For centuries, the pope and the em perors of the Holy Rom an Em pire (“HRE”)
com peted for power. In 732, Charles M artel, de facto king of the Franks, allied with the pope and saved Christendom
by defeating the Muslim s advancing from Spain at Tours and Poitiers, France. The Muslim s retreated to Spain, where,
in 788, they built the Great Mosque in Cordoba. In philosophy, inhibited by the Koran, the Arabs were better as
com m entators than as original thinkers. Both Christian and Greek thinking influenced Muslim thought.
Charles
M artel
750
In one century, Arabs, now Muslim , went from being insignificant desert tribes to being the m ost powerful force on Earth.
The Islamic em pire becam e the m ost advanced civilization in the W estern world. The great G reek philosophers were
translated into Arabic. The wealthy fam ilies rivaling for the caliphate schem ed and m urdered each other. Nonetheless,
By 750, Islam ruled from Spain across Africa to the Indus River. W ar against infidels was/is a prom inent feature of the
Koran. Islam’s strength cam e in part from its teaching that civil governm ent was religious governm ent. In addition, it was
the best social and political order the tim es could offer (albeit disgraceful in its treatm ent of wom en). W herever it went,
it found oppressed, apathetic, unorganized, uneducated peoples living under unsound selfish governm ents.
Christendom and Islam both developed doctrinally developed religions, dem anding belief in their doctrines and teachings
and rejecting all deviations of thought as dangerously heretical, and thus to be elim inated by force. The introduction of
36
Greek thought produced a split in Islam ic thought between progressives and traditionalists.
c750
Virgil the Geometer, Irish-born priest, citing Greek texts, said the Earth was a sphere. Pope Zachary told St Boniface
such teaching was perverse and abom inable. Nonetheless Virgil was m ade bishop of Salzburg in 767 and later a saint.
751
Arabs captured two Chinese paper m akers in battle at Talas; then established paper m ills in Sam arkand and Bagdad.
753
The Donation of Constantine: Pope Stephen 3 gave Pepin the Short, son of Charles M artel and father of
Charlemagne, a forged docum ent saying that Em peror Constantine in 320 had donated dom inion over Rom e and the
W est to the then Pope Sylvester in Rom e and his successors. Pepin bought it, and so then gave the Papal States to
Stephen 3, m aking the pope a rich feudal lord. (A papal official, Christophorous, had forged & back-dated it. See 1440)
Christianity and Islam lived separate lives and not until c1000 did a freer cultural interchange begin to develop.
776
Mayans in the Yucatan used positional notation with a sym bol for zero (before the Europeans). Sixteen Mayan
m athem aticians attended an astronom ical congress at C opan, the center of Mayan science. Mayans used a base 20
arithm etical system . Mayans had a coastal trade using large canoes without sails. (Mayans were in decline c900).
c780
Jabir ibn Hayyan used the scientific m ethod for chem istry, developed processes as distillation, liquefaction, filtration.
787
The Second Nicaean Council m et to restore the use of holy im ages, icons; said im ages of Jesus, saints, and M ary,
should be displayed everywhere; all visual art works m ust be faithful to the Bible. Sculpture was condem ned as sensual.
The struggle between ecclesiastical and secular power was the center around which Medieval political theory was built.
Proponents of Church suprem acy cited the Bible, the Donation of Constantine, and Augustine, and argued that soul
saving was inherently m ore im portant than concerns of earthly life. As noted, the universe of Augustine was static and
unchanging. It was m ade for Man to bring him closer to God, and prepare for the next life, no other reason. Monarchs
argued for the divine right of kings, also citing the Bible. Popes had lands and troops. To exercise tem poral power, the
pope crowned (and excom m unicated 8) em perors of the Holy Rom an Em pire (“HRE”).
c800
Charlemagne (742-814) was the m ost powerful m an in Europe as king of the Franks and the Lom bards. He conquered
(killing around one m illion) and ruled all W estern Europe, except Scandinavia and Southern Spain. In 799, Charlemagne
restored Pope Leo 3 to the papacy, after a palace coup. In 800, Leo crowned him Em peror of the HRE, not to his liking.
There already was an em peror in Constantinople. There were at least 300 petty kingdom s/principalities in the HRE. Leo
3 separated the W estern part of the Church from the Eastern part and becam e suprem e bishop of the W est.
Charlemagne appointed bishops. Although illiterate, he sponsored a revival of the arts, established schools in every
m onastery, teaching Capella’s 7 liberal arts. The m ain source of knowledge were the texts of Isidore, archbishop of
Seville, on gram m ar, rhetoric, m edicine, m athem atics, and history. The erudite atm osphere in m onasteries led to the
founding of universities, whose diplom ates could teach in any Christian country. In the 9 th century, Irish scholars, fleeing
from the Scandinavians, m igrated to the continent. By 800, m onasteries were becom ing corrupt and dissolute.
After Charlemagne’s death in 814, the HRE split into its Germ an and French parts and largely disintegrated into
num erous sm aller kingdom s, cities, principalities, bishoprics. The HRE was, as Voltaire in 1756 said, neither holy, nor
Rom an, nor an em pire. It exercised no effective power beyond the Germ anic states and Italy. (Charlemagne was
canonized in 1165; but 600 years later, dem oted to “blessed”.) The HRE was a disorderly and prim itive com m unity
com pared to the Muslim em pire. Slowly, stirrings of com m erce began to reappear. Towns began to grow.
c820
Am ir ibn Bahr al Jahiz’s Book of Animals described 350 kinds of anim als, also said species evolved seeking food.
c825
M uhammad ibn M usa al Khw arizmi (780 - 850) Persian m athem atician, astronom er, geographer, used positional
notation, the zero, and the base ten decim al point system from India. His book, al-jabr / Algebra (825), was the first book
on the system atic solution of linear and quadratic equations, using letters for unknowns. Thus al Khw arizmi is the Father
of Algebra. Algebra and geom etry deal with static structures, not bodies in m otion (dealt with by calculus (New ton and
von Leibniz 17 th century)). Algebra gave m ath a new m uch broader developm ent path.
Algebra rests on certain general properties of num bers, i.e.,
Com m unicative law for addition:
Num bers add up the sam e no m atter which order you add them up.
Associative law for addition:
Num bers add up the sam e no m atter how you group them . A+(b+c) = (a+b)+c
Com m unicative law for m ultiplication: Num bers total the sam e no m atter how you m ultiply them . AxBxC = AxCxB.
Associative law for m ultiplication:
Num bers total the sam e no m atter how you group them . A(bc) = (ab)c.
Distributive law:
If num bers are added and m ultiplied, the way they are grouped affects the total: a(b+c) = ab+ac.
Algebra
846
Polaris,
Science: Sea Navigation: Polaris, the North Star, is directly above the North Pole. As such, at the Equator, it is just
barely visible over the horizon looking north. Between the Equator and the North Pole, i.e., from any given latitude in
the northern Hem isphere, looking north, Polaris is thus at the sam e angle above the horizon. It was thus a very sim ple
task to determ ine one’s latitude just by m easuring the angle of Polaris above one’s northern horizon.
37
the
North
Star
An astrolabe m easures the angle of a star over the horizon (its declination), and so determ ines one’s latitude. Being over
the North Pole, Polaris’s declination was the sam e every day. For other stars, an astrolabe’s star m ap could be turned
to m atch the sky at any tim e. Then seeing the star’s declination for that day in an alm anac gave one’s latitude. Greeks
first invented a crude land astrolabe around 200 BC. Muslim s perfected it to help them pray toward Mecca. Around 846,
Arabs further perfected an astrolabe for use at sea. This m arine astrolabe was not used in the W est for centuries.
846
Hadith
Theology: M uhammad Sahih al Bukhari, a com piler of Hadith (sayings and events of M uhammad), collected c300,000
attestations, cut them down to 2,602. These are considered by m ost Sunni Muslim s as the m ost trusted collection of
Hadith, a few of which encourage scholarship. Like the Bible, there are many internal contradictions in the Hadith.
c850+
c862
Al Sabi Thabit ibn Qurra (826-901) m ade im portant discoveries in algebra, geom etry, astronom y; calculated a
form ula to determ ine am icable num bers, accurately determ ined the length of the sidereal year, rejected Aristotle’s
idea of a “natural” place for objects; proposed a theory of m otion where up and down m otions are set by weight.
Johannes Scotus Erigena /John the Scot (810-877), Irish, translated works by Pseudo-Dionysius, reputedly a disciple
of St. Paul, from Greek to Latin, bringing neoplatonism to Christian theology. It greatly influenced Medieval thought. His
greatest work, On the Division of Nature, divided all things into four categories. 360 years later, Pope Honorius 3 ordered
all copies burnt. His Cosmological Argument, All things are caused and we infer God as the First Cause.
877
The Council of Ratisbon (now Regensburg) decreed that m onks m ay not study law or m edicine.
879
The Far East: Construction of Angkor W at, Cam bodia, originally a Hindu tem ple, still the world’s largest religious structure,
began. (Com pleted c1150). Chinese used printed paper m oney and adopted the m oldboard plow.
c880
Science: The m ajor scientific advances during the Dark and Middle Ages were from Muslim Arabs and Persians.
Al-Dinaw ari’s Book of Plants described 637 plants, described plant growth, m ade him the founder of botany in Islam .
10 th
century
Arabic
nam e
prefixes:
bin/ibn=
son-of.
abu =
father-of.
al = the.
abd =
servant
of.
M uhammad ibn Zakariya Razi/ al Razi /Rhazes (865-925) wrote a vast nine volum e m edical encyclopedia, The Large
Comprehensive; discussed and critiqued Plato and Aristotle. He was considered the greatest doctor of the Middle Ages.
Al Razi also wrote a m edical m anual for the general public, and did chem ical experim ents free from alchem ist notions.
He was the first to describe sm allpox and m easles and distinguish between them . He wrote over 100 m edical books. The
obliteration of W estern, i.e., Greek, scientific knowledge of the Dark Ages was so total that the W est eventually had to
re-learn its philosophy, science and m ath from the Arabs, then Muslim .
Astronom y: Abd al Rahman al Sufi/Azophi (903-986) Persian astronom er, without a telescope, discovered a galaxy
other than our Milky W ay, the Andromeda Galaxy (965). Sufi also corrected several of Ptolemy’s star list.
Al Jayyani developed spherical trigonom etry (polygons, especially triangles on the surface of a sphere).
Ibn Junus, Egyptian m athem atician and astronom er, m ade astronom ical observations with an astrolabe 1.4 m eters
large, so precise that 19 th century astronom ers relied on them .
Abu Nasr al Farabi (872-950) Persian, influenced by but then broke with Plato and Aristotle m oving from m etaphysics
to m ethodology. He was the first Muslim to develop a non-Aristotelean logic, categorized logic into two separate groups,
idea and proof, advocated a prophet-im am rather than Plato’s philosopher-king. Said religion is a sym bolic rendering of
truth, and absent a prophet-im am , dem ocracy was the m ost ideal state. He was considered second in knowledge to
Aristotle. .Arabs calculated the angle of the ecliptic (orbital plane of Sun’s planets) and the procession of the equinoxes.
Al M asudi wrote a descriptive geography of the world. Muslim scholars also translated Indian texts into Arabic.
In the 10 th century Europe, the “m anorial” system and the use of the heavy m oldboard plow (on larger fields than
prevailed in S. Europe), caused an agricultural surplus that enabled both urban and rural life and a standing arm y.
9041046
A low
point of
Papacy
932
The Papacy was a political prize largely under the control of the rich corrupt Rom an fam ily of Count Theophylact for c140
years. His wife, Theodora had him appoint her lover as Pope John 10, who nam ed a 5 year old boy and a 10 year old
boy as a bishops. It was 150 years of debauchery, m urder, and treachery. There were 35 popes from 903 to1049.
Theodora had Anastasius 3 and Lando nam ed as popes. Theodora pim ped her daughter, M arozia, to be, at 15, the
m istress of Pope Sergius 3. M arozia had their son nam ed Pope John 11 at 21, after im prisoning John 10, who quickly
died. Her grandson was at 18 Pope John 12, & killed by a cuckolded husband. Popes Benedict 8, John 19, & Benedict
9 were M arozia’s descendants. Benedict 9, nam ed pope at age 11, dissolute, sold the papacy to his godfather.
Spain was the jewel of Islam. Cairo and Cordoba both claim ed to be the califate. Toledo was the repository of all the
Greek, Mid-East, and Asian texts (and som e Chinese and Indian) that Islam had collected. Christians, Muslim s and Jews
lived there in relative harm ony. A great school of translator/scholars worked there, translating Greek texts into Arabic and,
later, into Latin. By 932, Muslim s had introduced irrigation and new crops to Spain and m ade Andalusia into a rich
agricultural cornucopia. Although “written” by M uhammad, who was guided by Gabriel, with a purported authentic
version prepared by Uthm an c650, the text of the Koran was only finalized in 935.
38
Cordoba was the grandest city in the W est, with 500,000 people, 700 m osques, 300 public baths, bookshops, over 70
libraries. The central library had 400,000 books, m ore than all of France). Other Spanish Muslim cities and industries
prospered. However, Castillians/Christians began to retake Spain from the Muslim s; took Madrid in 939. The recapture
of Spain by Christian forces took over 500 years; ending in 1492 when Ferdinand and Isabella took Granada.
Theology: Based on Revelation 20:7-8, m any Christian Europeans feared an apocalypse at 1000. So, leading up to 1000,
business declined. There was widespread lawlessness. The Med becam e a no-m an’s zone where Muslim , Moor,
Egyptian, Frank, Christians, Vikings, & Greeks plundered, traded & interm ixed cultures. Russia adopted Christianity c988.
c960
Abu al Qasaim Khalaf ibn al Abbas al Zahraw i (936-1013) wrote m edical texts used also in the W est, invented
num erous surgical instrum ents, considered the father of surgery, developed surgical procedures used for centuries.
c1000
Viking Leif Ericsson wintered in Newfoundland, called it Vineland, didn’t return. Merchant guilds organized in Europe.
c1000
Overview: 1000 is the arbitrary end of the Dark Ages and start of the Middle/Medieval Ages. There were no sharp
dem arcations between Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Enlightenment. These are oversim plifications, albeit not
without som e basis. Cultural change cam e to different locales at different tim es. By 1000, all of Europe, (save a sm all area
south of the Baltic Sea and part of Spain) had com e under Rom an or Orthodox Christianity. Spain, under benevolent
Muslim rule, flourished. The center of wealth, power, and culture began to shift from Italy to Northern Europe.
M iddle
Ages
The two m ajor occurrences decisively affected the balance of the known world during 1000-1500 were: 1. the outpouring
of Turkish, Mongolian, and Tungusic peoples from the Eurasian steppes, reaching a clim ax under Genghis Khan in the
thirteenth century, and 2. beginning c1300, the rise of a vigorous civilization in W estern Europe.
Universities developed: centers of intellectual ferm ent, dealing with Aristotle, Muslim , Christian, and Jewish philosophy
and science: Fez, University of al Karaouine 859. Public hospitals in Muslim countries becam e colleges of m edicine
beginning in the 9 th century. Cairo, Al-Azhar University c975. Salerno, m edicine 1050. Bologna, law 1088. Paris, theology
c1090. Oxford c1096. Theological scholarship continued in m onasteries.
c1020
Optics
Al
Haytham
Physics/Optics: The m ost brilliant of the Muslim scholars in Toledo was ibn al Haytham / al Hazen (965-1039) who
recognized that each point of an object reflects light into the eye. Pythagoras and Aristotle had thought vision was
som ething em anating from the eye. Al Haytham said that was absurd. He wrote The Treasury of Optics, 7 volum es
(1011-1021), the definitive work on optics. He explained how lenses worked, described the structure of the eye.
He studied and wrote about m irrors, m ade parabolic m irrors (now used in telescopes), said that light entering a denser
m edium , bent toward the perpendicular as it slows down, invented the camera obscura, and discovered Ferm at’s principle
of least tim e (Light travels between two points over the shortest tim e path.). Al Haytham laid the foundation for all future
work on optics, including the m icroscope, not developed / invented until c 1595. (There is no clear distinction between
inventions and developm ents.) (He erred on rainbows, accepted Aristotle’s explanation),
Al Haytham developed rigorous experim ental m ethods of controlled scientific testing to verify theoretical hypotheses and
substantiate inductive conjectures. His Scientific Method was very sim ilar to the m odern Scientific Method and consisted
of the following steps: 1. Observation, 2. Statem ent of problem , 3. Form ulation of hypothesis,
4. Analysis of experim ental results, 5. Interpretation of data and form ulation of conclusion, 6. Publication of findings.
He discussed the theory of attraction between m asses (later called gravity), and was aware of the m agnitude of
acceleration due to gravity and discovered that the heavenly bodies were accountable to the laws of physics. He said that
a body m oves perpetually unless a force acts on it. (650 years later Isaac New ton m ade it his first Law of Motion.)
c10001048
Biruni
Abu Rayhan M uhammad ibn Ahmad Biruni (973-1048) Persian, first M uslim scholar to study India, sim ilar to al
Haytham , developed a Scientific Method. He introduced the experim ental m ethod into m echanics, was the first to conduct
experim ents related to astronom ical phenom ena. He wrote 146 books, including 35 on astronom y, nine on geography,
23 on astrology (a false “science”). He observed and described a solar eclipse. W ith al Khazini, he com bined hydrostatics
with dynam ics to found hydrodynam ics. He said astronom ical data work as well if the Earth rotated and revolved around
the Sun as the earth-centered Ptolemaic m odel. He am azingly said that the Earth’s diam eter was just 1/4 of 1% less than
current knowledge.
He said there was an attraction of all things to the center of the Earth and that an object’s weight = the weight of
the water it displaced (Archimedes had said it before). He m easured the weight of cold and hot water, of salt and fresh
water. He speculated that the Milky W ay galaxy was a collection of num erous nebulous stars.
He rejected Aristotle’s view that the planets had circular orbits as well as Aristotle’s notion that the m otions of
the heavens begins from the right side and from the East.
Biruni and al Haytham , deduced that the speed of light was finite. Biruni said that the speed of light was faster
than the speed of sound (Aristotle had said this was true because seeing was nobler than hearing). Along with al Kindi
and Avicenna, he was one of the first chem ists to reject the alchem ists’s theory of the transm utation of m etals.
39
Religion: Heterodox religious m ovem ents proliferated in Italy, the Rhineland, Flanders, and France, all m ore or less
associated with Manichaeism. They had a purified spirituality, declared that the soul (created by God) was a prisoner of
the body (which had been created by Satan). Thus, the genuinely spiritual abstained from sex. The less spiritual sim ply
cursed m arriage. Catharism (the Pure) was the m ost powerful/widespread of these “heresies.”
In China, the bureaucratic reorganization of the first Sung rulers took full effect. China’s social and econom ic structure
achieved a new and lasting balance between the feudal (officials, landlords, peasants) and the new (m erchants, artisans).
Scholar officials becam e the dom inant class. The state encouraged education, creating a large urban literate class.
Through innovation, China developed the m ost advanced agriculture, industry, and trade in the world. Chinese ocean
trade (using cotton sails, the com pass, the astrolabe, an adjustable centerboard/keel, and far larger vessels than the W est
had) flourished and displaced Muslim traders in the Indian Ocean and farther East. Chinese perfected gunpowder and
used m ovable type to print. Paper was used in Cairo.
Dispute
About
Truth
Theology: The Dispute about Truth. The principal burning theological question in the Middle Ages in the W est was, “If
there is a City of God - faith- and a City of Man -reason, Do they have different truths?” This question is irrelevant now,
but big then. Seven them es dom inated this theological question, which dom inated theological thought for centuries:
Boethius
1. Boethius (c480-524), Rom an, In his Consolation of Philosophy (524), “If there is a God, whence proceed so m any
evils? As far as you are able, join faith to reason,” i.e., God can be understood by Man. The truths of faith and reason are
the sam e. He put Aristotle’s work on logic into Latin, the only im portant parts of Aristotle available til the 1100s.
2. Pseudo-Dionysus (c500), a m onk using Dionysus’s nam e, wrote The Names of God. Contra Boethius, he said that
God cannot be com prehended by finite hum an understanding. Only the truth of faith from God m atters.
Avicenna
3. Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdallah ibn Si’na / Avicenna (980-1037), Persian, m ost renowned Medieval Muslim
m athem atician, physician at 21, philosopher, m ost influential nam e in m edicine from 1000 -1500. W idely traveled. He
wrote the m illion word Book of Healing, an encyclopedia with sections on astronom y (he refuted astrology), geology (he
postulated that m ountains were form ed by upheaval of the crust of the Earth (ref. Xenophanes 570 BC)), in physics (1.
He built an air therm om eter, 2. Like al Burini, he deduced that the speed of light was finite, and 3. He developed a
precursor to New ton’s second law, of m om entum ). He discussed psychosom atic illnesses. H e was the first to divide
hum an perception into the five senses of hearing, sight, sm ell, taste, and touch. He described m elancholia.
Avicenna developed a system of logic different from Aristotle’s. He said that cause and effect are sim ultaneous and
therefore God and the world are co-eternal. He said he read Aristotle’s Metaphysics 40 tim es and did not understand
it. He said the five internal senses are com m on sense, representation, im agination, estim ation, and recollection. Reason
has two faculties, the practical and the theoretic. His Book of Healing was used for centuries in the W est. He also wrote
The Canon of Medicine which was used in m edical schools until the early 19 th century. It introduced experim ental
m edicine and clinical trials, as well as system atic experim entation and quantification into the study of psychology. He gave
philosophy, i.e.,science, equal status with theology as system s for explaining the cosm os. Not a Christian, Avicenna
showed Aristotle’s power of argum ent by syllogism to European/Christian scholars. He thus showed Christians that there
was m ore to scholarship than theology, even though he saw the universe as em anating from God. He said that God is
the eternal unm oved m over.
Peter
Abelard
4. Pierre de Pallet / Peter Abelard (1079-1142), Brittany, theologian, poet, philosopher, defeated his m aster, W illiam
de Champeaux, in debate, forcing Champeaux to m odify his views, resulting in the eventual trium ph of nominalism over
realism , until then dom inant. [Nominalism said that abstract term s, or universals, represented no objective real existence
but were m ere words, nam es. Realism at that tim e m isleadingly said Universals (concepts, colors, etc.) were real things]
His great idea: God considered...the spirit of the action. It is the intention, not the deed wherein m erit of the doer consists.
Abelard took the Aristotelian dialectic of logic and applied it to the scriptures. Like al Haytham , he laid down basic rules
for argum ent and investigation, advancing the developm ent of the Scientific Method, later perfected in the 17 th century:
1. Use system atic doubt and question everything.
2. Learn the difference between statem ents of rational proof and those m erely of persuasion.
3. Be precise in the use of words, and expect precision from others.
4. W atch for error, even in Holy Scripture.
In 1121, Abelard wrote Sic et Non / Yes and No, a collection of 188 apparently contradictory quotations from Church
officials on m any aspects of Christian theology, using dialectic for reconciling the contradictions. The Church declared
it and him heretical. He claim ed that his reasoning was sim ply finding the truth to benefit the Church. He was the m ost
popular teacher of his day. Because of him , Paris becam e a great center of Christian theology and dialectic. In 1122, he
said, “I m ust understand in order that I m ay believe.” Doubting leads to questioning; questioning leads to truth.
He loved and secretly m arried a student of his, Heloise. Abelard was the hero of the love-passion, i.e., love frustrated
by tragic obstacles. They nam ed their son Astrolabe. After m any travails, he founded a convent at Paraclete, where he
installed Heloise. She later becam e abbess. Their reputed love letters were later published.
5. Bernard (1090-1153), founder of and Abbot of Clairvaux m onastery, a Benedictine, criticized Abelard for presum ing
40
Saint
Bernard
to understand God by reason. He pronounced him self “visionary of the century,” as he had been selected by God to guide
Christianity along the right paths. Said that knowledge was only justified when it prom oted purification of the soul. Like
Hugo’s Javert, Bernard pursued Abelard relentlessly, convinced the pope to send him to a m eager life in a m onastery.
Averroës
6. Abu al-W alid M uhammad ibn Ahm ad ibn M uhammad ibn Rushd/Averroës (1126-1198), Arab, of Cordoba, wrote
explanations of Aristotle. He was the last and greatest of Arab Aristotleans. He said that there was one eternal truth which
could be comprehended through the Koran or by natural knowledge, with the aid of Aristotle and other philosophers. He
rejected the theological control of philosophy. “Knowledge is the conform ity of the object and the intellect.” He wanted
Islam to consider wom en equal to m en. Avicenna and Averroes unified religion and philosophy by saying everything
em anated from Allah. They wanted to infuse Islam with philosophy, i.e. reason, but failed, as Islam was as God-obsessed
as Christianity, and not receptive to speculation regarding spiritual m atters. (More Averroës c1150)
Thomas
Aquinas
7. Thomas Aquinas/Thomas de Aquino (c1225-1274), leading philosopher of the then Christian Church. He constructed
the second great synthesis of Christian thinking after Augustine. Aquinas realized the intellectual power of reason and
wanted to base religion on m ore than just faith. He wanted to unite Augustine’s two cities of God and Man. So, he said
Man is between them . Man has a body and a soul. There is unity in truth. (More Aquinas 1273.)
The obsession with theology in the Dark and Middle Ages reached ludicrous (by m odern standards) levels, i.e., the
argum ent over “Universals” or “How m any angels can dance on the head of a pin?” Aquinas and Abelard were pioneers
of the Scholastic philosophy, the attem pt to explain and define Christian doctrine using Aristotlean logic, to put together
a coherent system of traditional thought.
1046
Politics: King Henry 3 of France deposed two pope pretenders and installed Clem ent 2 as pope. Clem ent 2 that day
crowned Henry em peror of HRE. Under Henry 3, the Medieval HRE peaked, from Ham burg to Sicily to Hungary.
Several m onastic orders were founded in the eleventh century. They followed Benedict’s rules.
1054
Religion: An em issary of Pope Leo 9 excom m unicated Patriarch M ichel 1 of Constantinople, who then excom m unicated
the em issary. This was the culm ination of a linguistic (Latin v. Greek), political, doctrinal, theological, and geographic
schism in Christianity, called “ the Great Schism.” This break has never been healed.
Religion, Investiture Contest: The m ost significant conflict between secular and Church powers in Medieval Europe: who
m ay appoint church officials?, intensified when Pope Nicholas’s decreed only cardinal/bishops could elect a pope, and
a Church council said laity had no role in appointing other Church officials, such as bishops or abbots, as had been the
custom . The Church becam e the biggest business in the world, collecting m oney for preform ing sacram ents, weddings,
from offerings, from jubilees, selling indulgences, rents of Papal lands, sale of church offices, such as bishoprics, and
cardinalships. Selling a bishopric was lucrative for a king or the Church, and a good investm ent for the “bishop” who
bought it and in turn sold parishes to priests. Bishops and cardinals were often princes with huge estates. Sim ony was
of course a sin. The Church had a m onopoly on m arriages, forgiving sins, extrem e unction. Only a priest could perform
the m iracles of the m ass. Despite the disreputable clergy, the spirit of Jesus ennobled m any lives.
1059
Peter Cardinal Damian, an em issary of the pope, found that every cleric of every rank in Milan had practiced sim ony.
Damian, echoing the Church’s anti-reason world-view, declared all worldly sciences “absurdities” and “fooleries.” His
On Divine Omnipotence said that God can do things contrary to the law of contradiction and can undo the past. Aquinas
later rejected this. It is not followed now. Usually, only the clergy were literate, kings were not.
c1060
Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Yahya al Naqqash al Zarqali (1029-1087), instrum ent m aker and the leading theoretical and
practical astronom er of his tim e, wrote 2 works on an instrum ent to com pute planets’s positions, perfected a type of land
astrolabe, corrected Ptolemy’s geographical data, specifically the length of the Med. He contributed to Toledo’s fam e.
1066
W illiam of Normandy, natural son of the Duke of Norm andy, invaded England, defeated Harold at the Battle of
Hastings, becam e king. Norm ans introduced a single set of com m on laws and had trained professional judges.
Omar Khayyam (1038-1123), author of The Rubaiyat, deduced how to solve cubic equations, power higher than two.
10731085
New Pope Gregory 7 wanted a “religious society,” adm inistered by a secular arm and a religious arm , who were to
cooperate. He told Henry 4, the HRE em peror, that he could not appoint bishops. Henry defiantly appointed his chaplain
as Bishop of Milan. So Gregory excom m unicated Henry. The Germ an dukes sided with Gregory against the French
Henry. The controversy led to 50 years of civil war in Germ any, and the disintegration of the HRE.
Gregory 7 also required priests to be celibate to prevent them from passing church lands to their sons. His Dictatus
(1075) stated that the Church never erred and never would until the end of tim e, and popes can’t be judged by hum ans.
Due to Gregory 7, the Church was unified and directed from Rom e. Its dom inant m en were Italian, Spanish, or from S.
France, their education classical; the liturgy was in Latin. Gregory 7 canonized him self, the only pope to do so.
1076
“Going to the law” m eant having a priest pray for advice, trial by fire, or trial by drowning, or going to an astrologer. The
Rom an laws of Justinian had been lost since 603. In 1076, a Digest of Justinian’s Laws was found in a library in
41
Ravenna near Bologna. This put all Rom an law in the hands of all the people, who could then approach the law in a
rational way, a trem endous step forward. Bologna, relatively independent from both the pope and the em peror, becam e
a center of the teaching of law. The University of Bologna was founded in 1088, specializing in law.
1076
Anselm
Guanilo
Theology: Anselm (1033 -1109), Benedictine m onk, father of scholasticism , Archbishop of Canterbury, propounded an
Ontological Argument for the existence of God, [Ontological argum ents derive from sources outside observing the world,
i.e., from reason alone.] Anselm started with the idea of a perfect being. “Lord, thou art a being than which nothing
greater can be conceived. God exists in the understanding. If God exists in the understanding, we could im agine Him to
be greater by existing in reality. Therefore, God m ust exist.” Anselm thus defined God as perfect in every way, all-good,
all-knowing, all-powerful, the Christian position today. Said faith was essential to understand scriptures. (He was later
canonized.)
The m onk Guanilo of M armoutiers, a contem porary of Anselm’s, pointed out the error of Anselm’s syllogism . He
stated, “W e have in our m ind the idea of a perfect island. Such an island m ust exist, as, if it didn’t, it wouldn’t be perfect.”
If Anselm’s argum ent is valid, then every perfect thing a Man can think of m ust exist in reality. This is clearly false.
Anselm’s argum ent was forgotten until Descartes and Leibniz som ewhat revived it. Aquinas (see 1273) rejected it as
it was illogical to jum p from idea to reality. Kant killed it (see 1781). Anselm said that the theory only works for God
(Can a perfect God be both all-m erciful and all-just? An all-m erciful God forgives sin. An all-just God punishes sin. Or,
an om niscient god knows everything that will happen. Can he also be om nipotent, and change what will happen?)
Daily life: The Chinese built a m echanical water wheel clock and use a spinning wheel, print books with m ovable type.
The European dietary staple for centuries was sim ply bread, of varying grains. Ten percent of Britains were slaves.
1085
Toledo
Library
Science: Toledo fell to the Christians (in a friendly takeover), and its huge library, a literary treasure, including Aristotle’s
works, becam e available to European scholars, who flocked to Toledo, including Adelard of Bath. He translated Arabic
works on m eteorology, optics, acoustics, botany, and Euclid’s Geom etry from Arabic to Latin, and thus brought them to
Europe. Adelard’s exposition of the rational and secular investigative approach he found in the Arab texts m ost influenced
European scholars. He wrote on the astrolabe. Then m ore Christian and Jewish translators in Toledo and Seville put
Arabic texts into Latin. Arabs thus gave present arithm etical notation and num erous other scientific works to Europe.
The reintroduction of Greek learning to Europe appeared first as Latin translations of Islamic texts, either original Arabian
works such as al-Khw arizmi’s Algebra and al Haytham’s Optics, or as Arabic translations of, and learned critiques of,
Aristotle’s works. However, Muslim theologians, quoting al Ghazali (1058-1111), the m ost influential theologian of Islam
in the Middle Ages, stifled Muslim efforts at free inquiry and lim ited scholarship to studying the Koran and the Hadith. AlGhazali was the earliest philosopher to deny the necessary connection between cause and effect. He intended to prove
that m iracles are possible and God can intervene in the natural setting of causes and effects. Latin rem ained the language
of all scholars, and of course the clergy, in the W est.
al
Ghazali
Al Ghazali distrusted hum an reason, wrote The Incoherence of the Philosophers, which condem ned Muslim philosophers,
particularly Avicenna, for advocating doctrines incom patible with their faith. Al Ghazali also posited a Cosmological
Argument for God/Allah, based on the im possibility of an infinite regress of causes. Said, “Man’s nature is m ade up of 4
elem ents, which produce 4 attributes, the beastly, the brutal, the satanic, and the divine. In m an there is som ething of
the pig, the dog, the devil and the saint. Muslim scientists laid the foundations of m odern science with their introduction
of a Scientific Method and a m odern em pirical, experim ental, and quantitative approach to scientific inquiry. The Golden
Age of Muslim science ended with al Ghazili. Science in Islam has never recovered from al Ghazali’s stultifying influence.
1090
Technology: Although basic science stagnated during the Dark and Middle Ages in the Christian W est, technology
advanced. By 1090, 5,000 waterm ills were in use in England. As towns developed, piracy evolved into trade. Europe
had no paper, necessary for scholarship. Muslim s controlled Egyptian papyrus. Parchm ent was expensive and scarce
c10951272
Selling indulgences: Purgatory is where m oderate sinners who died were purified for varying periods to qualify to enter
Heaven. The Old Testament/Hebrew Bible described the concept of praying for the dead (to reduce their tim e in
Purgatory). Venal sins were assigned varying periods tim e in Purgatory. A m oderate sinner could easily incur a debt of
300 years in Purgatory. Germ an pagans had a custom of paying m oney to com m ute the penalty for a crim e. The Church
adopted the pagan custom by selling indulgences (which forgave various sins at different prices depending on the sin,
which reduced one’s tim e in Purgatory). One year of penance was 26 solidi of silver, or, if one couldn’t pay, 3,000 lashes.
1096
First crusade: Pope Urban 2 called for a holy war arm y to defeat the Muslim s who had captured the Holy Sepulchre in
Jerusalem . He prom ised the absolution of all their sins for those who enlisted to fight the infidels. He prom oted a salvation
fervor throughout Europe. Sinners by the thousands joined to inflict on the Muslim s what they had been inflicting on their
fellow m an. Christian m obs slaughtered thousands of Jews and stole their wealth on their way to Palestine. Urban 2 also
decreed that those who died in such battle would be m artyrs, and go to heaven (like the Koran’s prom ise to its m artyrs.).
In 1099, Crusaders captured Jerusalem , torturing and slaughtering 30,000 to 40,000 Jews and Muslim s, m en, wom en
and children. Urban 2’s Pax Ecclesiae/Peace of the Church banned fighting near churches, harm ing clerics, pilgrim s,
wom en, and peasants. Bishops were great landowners, feudal lords.
42
1123
First Lateran Council, Rom e: Priests can’t m arry, co-habit, or sell ecclesiastical benefits. Clerical m arriages were invalid.
1139
Second Lateran Council: Innocent 2 called the Second Lateran Council held to m inim ize effects of the schism which had
arisen after Pope Honorius 2 died and the setting up of Petris Leonis as the antipope Anacletus 2, a rival of Innocent
2. It repeated 1 st Council’s canons. Told clergy to dress m odestly. Prohibited jousts and use of the bow and arrow or
crossbow against Christians, condem ned usury. Priests couldn’t m arry, co-habit, or study Rom an law. (Before 1000, 11
popes were sons of popes or priests. After 1139, celibacy was required of priests; so after 1139, only six popes were
known to have had children, in the 1400s and 1500s.) Eastern Orthodox priests could m arry.
1140
Gratian, a Bolognese jurist, wrote a lawyer’s textbook, heavily influenced by Abelard’s Yes and No, taking
hypothetical cases and discussing the pros and cons with Aristotle’s rules of argum ent/deduction.
1143
As we have seen, belief in the supernatural was, in the W est, (m ore or less, until the Enlightenment in the 18 th century)
a cultural universal. Dogma, i.e., beliefs of a particular supernatural entity that has control over natural events, however,
is/was not a cultural universal. It is a subset of supernaturalism that developed to present Christian supernatural beliefs
as truth as opposed to the pagan supernatural beliefs of the Greeks and Rom ans. (The Koran was translated into Latin.)
1146
At the Second Crusade, which began with a m assacre of Jews in the Rhineland, Bernard (1090-1153), founder and
Abbot of Clairvaux said, “[A] Christian glories in the death of a Moslem because Christ is gloried.” (Onward Christian
Soldiers) The Crusades brought new ideas into Europe, sim ply from contact with a different culture.) The Crusades
were the first exam ples of overseas im perialism , gave Christianity a m ilitant tone.
c1147
Abu M erw an Abdal-M alik ibn Zuhr (1091-1161), considered the father of experim ental surgery, introduced m ethods
of dissection, autopsy, invented the tracheotom y, gave the first accurate descriptions on neurological disorders, wrote an
early pharm acopoeia, discovered the causes of scabies & inflam m ation, and with al Zahraw i, invented anesthesiology.
1147+
Religion: Cathars, a Gnostic Christian sect widespread in Southern France, believed in purifying them selves, clean living,
chastity, poverty, vegetarianism , no priestly hierarchy, no war, no capital punishm ent, and equality of the sexes. A dualistic
system ; things of the spirit were created by God and were good. Evil things were created by Satan. Man’s soul, a good,
was trapped in Man’s evil body. The organized Church was evil. The Cathars were the first m ass heretical m ovem ent after
1000 to seriously threaten the bureaucracy of the Church, albeit not the holiness of the Church’s teachings. Popes,
starting with Eugene 4 in 1147, sought to crush them . (See 1184 and 1208)
c1150
Science: Ibn Rushd Averroës of Cordoba (1126-1198), known in the W est as The Commentator, corrected m any of
Avicenna’s com m entaries. H e believed that Man thinks by abstracting the form s behind things and that the hum an
intellect is the receptacle of these “intelligible” form s. His ideas exerted an im portant influence on Medieval thinking.
He joined those who called for a return to Aristotle’s attitude towards nature, ie, study it. He developed the teachings of
Aristotle on lines that m ade a sharp distinction between religious and scientific truth, and so prepared the way for the
liberation of scientific research from the theological dogm atism that restrained it under both Christianity and Islam.
Averroës
Franciscans (later) generally favored Averroës’s ideas, Dom inicans (with Aquinas, see 1273) attacked him .
Averroës and Avicenna achieved a m om entous unification of religion and philosophy by envisioning the universe as a
series of em anations from Allah, from the first intelligence to the intelligence of hum ans. So they could claim that there
was only one truth, that appeared like two truths, religion for the uneducated m asses and philosophy for the educated elite.
Averroës was far m ore influential in Jewish and Christian thought than in Islamic as his doctrines were condem ned by
Muslim clergy, citing al-Ghazali (1085). A year before his death in 1198, a Muslim m ob burned Averroës’s books.
Many of Averroës’s students fled to Padua to continue teaching his philosophy of em pirical investigation of a rational
world. Padua was under the protection of Venice, anti-pope, anti-clerical and an equal of Constantinople or Paris. He also
advanced a First Cause/Cosmological Argument for God, “God is the eternal, unm oved First Mover, who exists
necessarily by his own nature and who eternally generated the first created being... The First Intelligence creates the
second intelligence and also the first celestial sphere... to the Tenth Intelligence.”
Last
Great
M uslim
scientist
Averroës was the last great Muslim scientist. There have been no scientific advances com ing from Islam for alm ost 800
years. Muslim s have translated virtually no scientific texts into Arabic for 1000 years. Science under Islam is m ired in
creationism, denying evolution. The 7th century m entality and knowledge in the Koran stifles science in Muslim lands. (The
Christian Church sim ilarly consistently has fought science that did not correspond with its im m utable “God-given” beliefs.
Unlike science, there is no m echanism to test or revise the core beliefs of religions in light of new knowledge.)
Technology: How to m ake paper reached Europe only c1150 through Muslim Spain.
Chinese used m oveable type in printing. China had far bigger, better, m ore reliable sailing ships than Europeans. Books
were rare, treasures; hand copying was very expensive. Knowledge was thus largely m em orized. Com m unications
between anyone, m uch less scientists who would benefit by trading ideas, was very slow. Hand copied letters were still
the only form of written com m unication.
43
1150-1250
Overview, In the post m illennium activity, num erous cathedrals were built in France (costing 25% of GNP.). The greatest
civil works since the pyram ids and no com parable projects were built until the 19 th century. The skilled m en who knew how
to build them , calling them selves freem asons, were the elite of workm en.
Troubadours sang of chivalry and courtly love. Latin was the universal language of W estern scholars/theologians.
Scholasticism began early in the twelfth century. It had certain characteristics. 1. It was confined within the lim its of
orthodoxy. 2. Aristotle becam e increasingly accepted as the suprem e authority. 3. There was a great belief in “dialectic”
and in Syllogistic reasoning. 4. It was discovered that Aristotle and Plato did not agree on the question of universals. The
downside to dialectic was the belief in reasoning on m atters that only observation could decide.
The astrolabe (originally a Greek invention) finally arrived in Europe from the Arab East. The astrolabe and the m agnetic
com pass were used in navigation. Chinese had used the m agnetic com pass since the fourth century BC. Later star-angle
m easurers were m ade by Hooke in1666, Halley in 1692, and Thomas Godfrey and John Hadley in 1731(an octant).
Daily life: As the horse becam e the m ain elem ent in warfare, the landowner was the m ost powerful warrior. Murder was
com m on. Merchants were the first to want rational factual inform ation. A new class of urban m erchants contributed to the
new prosperity. W ater m ills and windm ills began to harness energy for com m erce. Paper began to be m ade from rags.
The use of iron becam e com m on, even in workers houses. An urban wage laboring class developed. Merchant towns
won self governm ent. All these factors threatened the Medieval theocracy.
Traveling entertainers, jongleurs/m instrels, brought news in the form of stories or poem s. Translations of Aristotle into
Latin were beginning to be available to those who could read. (G reek had been largely forgotten in the W est). Missing
m ass was a m ortal sin. The m ass was essentially a m agic show, with the priests dressed in splendor, with incense, holy
water, speaking Latin to God, which peasants did not understand, perform ing m agic, changing a wafer and wine into the
flesh and blood of Jesus, i.e., transubstantiation, and instructing the people how to be saved from the fires of Hell. Church
paintings were used to tell Scripture stories to the illiterate populace. Peasants had no Bibles so the m ass and the priest
were their only contact with God.
1154
Cartography: Abu AbdAllah M uhammad al Idrisi (1099-1165) drew the m ost accurate m ap of the then known world.
1175
More universities founded in the, 12 th and 13 th centuries, Modena 1175. Cam bridge 1209. Valladolid/Palencia 1212.
Salam anca 1218. Montpellier 1220. Padua 1222. Naples 1224. Toulouse 1229. Siena 1240. Lisbon 1290, all under Church
control, Pope Alexander 3 forbade the clergy to study physics. so, effectively, no one in the W est studied physics. .
1179
Third Lateran Council: decreed only cardinals can elect the pope, condem ned usury, sodom y by priests, plundering,
and tournam ents. Clergy can’t have wom en in their houses, can’t charge to perform burials or m arriages. Jews can’t
have Christian servants. Evidence of Christians always to be accepted against Jews in court.
1182
King Philip 2 expelled Jews from France and took their property. Paris becam e the intellectual/artistic capital of Europe.
1184
Pope Lucius 3’s bull, Ad abolendam /To do away with instituted bishop-led local inquisitions to punish heretics like
Cathars. (See 1147) These inquisitions were not effective, as bishops often lived in Rom e and didn’t visit their dioceses
often and the right to know one’s accuser often led to the accuser’s death. Trials/punishm ents for heresy were com m on
and institutionalized in the Episcopal Inquisition (1184-1230s), the Papal / Roman Inquisition (1233+), the Spanish
Inquisition (1478-1834), and the Portugese Inquisition (1542-1860).
1190
Religion: M oses M aimonides / M oshe ben M aimon (1135-1204), Spanish Rabbi. Greatest figure in Jewish history since
M oses. Codifier, judge, and com m entator on the Bible and Talmud. His Moreh Nebuchim /Guide for the Perplexed,
sought to show that the teachings of Judaism were in harm ony with philosophical thinking and offered insights that reason
alone could not obtain. His Guide cited Aristotle, and to a lesser extent, Plato. He said that, “Thou shalt not kill” and “Love
thy neighbor as thyself ” were adm onitions that applied only to fellow Jews.
1198
Innocent 3 becam e pope. He regained control of the Papal States in central Italy; he nom inated HRE em perors. In 1199,
he sent a priest, Domingo/Dominic de Guzman, a Spaniard, to convert the Cathars. Dominic concluded only priests
who displayed genuine hum ility and zeal could succeed. (See 1202 and 1208)
c1200
Mongols: A new wave of tough horsem en burst out of Mongolia to create the largest em pire the world has seen. Genghis
Khan conquered Northern China and west to the Caucuses. Genghis was the m ost religiously tolerant leader in the world.
By 1231, the Mongols/Huns were stopped only at Vienna. Kublai Khan, a grandson of Genghis, and Timur u-lang/
Tamerlane (Tam m er the Lam e) expanded the Mongol em pire, but it withered after they died.
Genghis
Khan
13 th
century
Overview; Arbitrary end of the Middle Ages. Two consciously rival intellectual traditions arose in the 13 th century as a result
of the infusion of Aristotelianism into W estern thought. One, led by Dom inicans (Aquinas (1273) and Albertus M agnus)
Christianized Aristotle by asserting the superiority of revealed truth over any m ere hum an reasoning - thus preserving
central Christian doctrines which could not be rationally proven, but also trusted in reason insofar as it did not contradict
44
Christian truth. The other tradition, Franciscan (founded 1210), stuck m ore closely to the Augustinian and Platonic
intellectual traditions. National epics were written in the local languages, Beowulf, England 900. Edda, Scandinavia 1100.
Cantar del Cid, Spain 1140. Perceval, France1175. Niblengun, Germ any 1205. Chanson de Roland, France 1200.
Parzival, Germ any 1210. (largely based on the French Perceval.)
There also cam e a revival of religious fervor (cathedrals and crusades ) and a new spirit of scientific inquiry (led
by Albertus, Fibonacci, Grosseteste, and Roger Bacon). Terror of m agic and witchcraft was widespread.
1202
Mathem atics: Leonardo Fibonacci/Leonardo da Pisa wrote the first Latin treatise on Algebra, Liber Abaci,/ the Book
of Computation. It introduced to Europe the use of Indian-Arabic num erals, including the zero. His 1220 book, Practica
Geometriae, applied Hindu-Arabic num erals to geom etry and to trigonom etry (the m ath of triangles).
1202
Pope Innocent 3 ordered the Fourth Crusade in 1202, and the Children’s Crusade of 1212, where, 1000s of children went
to Marseille expecting to sail to Palestine and, according to H G W ells, the shipowners sold m ost as slaves in Egypt.
12081209
Final Solution for the Cathars: Innocent 3 sent Pierre de Castelnau to South France to convert the Cathars (see 1147).
Castelnau excom m unicated Count Raymond 6 of Toulouse, a protector of the Cathars. So a knight of Raymond killed
Castelnau. Innocent 3 then ordered what becam e known as the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars. He said all
property of convicted heretics could be confiscated. Nobles from North France went south to join the crusade and to grab
som e land. Arnaud, the Cistercian abbot/com m ander led a brutal m assacre against the town of Beziers. He reputedly
said, “Kill them all, the Lord will recognize his own.” Afterward, Arnaud wrote Innocent and portrayed the m urders as
part of a divinely engineered event. He wrote, "Our m en spared no-one, irrespective of rank, sex, or age, and put to the
sword alm ost 20,000 people. This great slaughter wiped out the whole town. Divine vengeance raged m iraculously." The
Cathars were wiped out.
All the 9 crusades against Muslim s over 2 centuries (the last in 1270, except arguably the 1 st, were a disastrous
bacchanalia of indiscrim inate slaughter, confusion, anti-Sem itism , with tens of thousands of crusaders, pagans, Jews,
and Muslim s m urdered. It is undecided whether the Christians m urdered m ore Jews or Muslim s. The bloodiest, m ost
“successful” crusade was the crusade against fellow Christians, the Cathars. The crusades to the Holy Lands brought
wealth and influence to the m ercantile city-states of Italy, who later financed voyages of discovery. The crusades were
extensively ridiculed in Charles M ackay’s 1841 book, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.
Crusade
against
Cathars
c1210
Saint
Francis
Religion: By 1200, as at 800, m ost m onasteries had becom e prosperous and corrupt. In response, Francis of Assisi
(1181-1226), a laym an, founded his lay order (Franciscans). Monks had to live on what they could beg. “Go two by two,
declare to all m en peace and penitence.” His sim ple dignity was a rebuke to the princely style of the Church hierarchy.
Innocent 3 reluctantly recognized Francis’s order, which captured for the Church the outpouring of religious enthusiasm
that Francis and his order generated. Canonized 1228. His successor, Brother Elias, gave up poverty and lived in luxury.
Religion: The advent of Aristotlean logic posed a problem for the Church, as em pirical observation was contrary to
Augustinian thinking. The Bishop of Paris thus banned the teaching of Aristotle. This was revoked in 1234.
Aristotle’s influence was so great that in the Middle Ages, that he was known sim ply as “the philosopher.”
1215
Political Theory: Under pressure, King John signed the Magna Carta/Great Charter, giving rights to English nobles (not
to com m oners). It was the m ost im portant landm ark in the tradition of the suprem acy of the law over the king’s will.
Fourth Lateran Council, convened by Innocent 3, was the m ost im portant council of the Middle Ages. It defined
transubstantiation, arranged for a new crusade, required annual confession, and com m union at Easter, and outlawed trial
by ordeal am ong priests. This opened the way for trial by jury in secular trials. The Council officially sanctioned torture in
aid of Inquisitions. Jews and Muslim s m ust wear yellow badges so that, inter alia, Christians wouldn’t have sex with them .
Jews couldn’t hold public office and had to live in ghettos. The Council also decreed that God created the universe out
of nothing Genesis 1 1-31. Councils over the centuries purported to decide eternal truths by m ajority vote. Not logical.
Saint
Dominic
Dominic, Spanish, founded the Dom inicans (vow of poverty) to assist in punishing heresies. He decreed that his friars
were “not to learn secular sciences or liberal arts except by dispensation.” (later rescinded). Sainted by Gregory 9 in 1234.
1217
Religion: Averroës’s clear analyses of Aristotle were widely read. Averroës subjected all but divinely revealed truth to
the cold light of Aristotle’s reason. He and M aimonides revived Aristotle’s philosophy. Pope Honorius 3 sent
Dom inicans (and in 1230, Franciscans) to Paris to try to stem the tide of free thought. The Dom inicans bitterly attacked
Averroësism , (adopted as well by M aimonides) said it was subversive of the m erits of the saints. It was too late. Jews
in Spain under the Muslim s prospered, becam e noted scholars, physicians, and treasurers m anaging public finances.
Albertus
M agnus
Science: Albertus M agnus/Albert the Great (1193?-1280), Dom inican, in Paris, teacher of Thomas Aquinas, was the
first representative of humanism in the Middle Ages. As a scientist, he stressed im portance of observation and experim ent,
empiricism. He advocated the peaceful co-existence of science and religion. He is considered to be the greatest Germ an
philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages. He said that the Earth is a sphere. Said, “Natural science does not consist
in ratifying what others have said but in seeking the causes of phenom ena.” His superiors accused Albertus of sorcery
45
and forced him to stop the study of science and study only theology. (In 1310, Dante m ade Albertus’s doctrine of free
will the basis for his ethical system . Albertus was canonized in 1931).
1229
Council of Toulouse form ed the first court of the Inquisition and also forbade non-clergy from having a Bible. The 1234
Council of Tarragona prohibited anyone from having a Bible in the Rom ance language.
1233
Religion: Pope Gregory 9 established the “Rom an” Inquisition under his direct control. He assigned Dom inicans to
adm inister it. The Church was relentless in punishing heresy, the greatest sin. It used torture and burning routinely.
The Church in the 1200s derived incom e (greater than that of all the secular rulers com bined) from its large land
holdings, fees to perform m arriages, confirm ations, etc, offerings, and from fees from the ecclesiastical courts.
c12251253
Science: Bishop of Lincoln Robert Grosseteste (1168-1253), was the central figure in England in the im portant
intellectual m ovem ent of the first half of the 13 th century. Fam iliar with Aristotle. He wrote about the nature of scientific
inquiry. Science, he said, began with Man’s experience of phenom ena and tried to determ ine the causes/reasons for such
experience. Then, to analyze such causes, break them down into their com ponent principles. Then reconstruct the
principles into the observed phenom enon based on a hypothesis, and finally, to test and verify the hypothesis by
observation. Grosseteste analyzed the sciences, showing how som e were dependent on others. Optics and astronom y
were subordinate to geom etry. Optics was the basic physical science. Like al Haytham , he wrote about direct visual light
rays, reflected light, refracted light, and the form ation of a rainbow.
Grosseteste and his student, Roger Bacon, further developed the Scientific Method advanced by Hayyam, Biruni,
al Haytham, Avicenna, and Peter Abelard. Their m ethod of investigation was m ore im portant than their results.
1242+
Physiology: Ibn al-Nafis (1213-1288) said the heart had 2 separate ventricles, one pum ped blood to the lungs and the
other to the body. His work on the circulation of blood was not surpassed until Harvey (1628). Al Nafis was also an early
proponent of experim ental m edicine. He tried to reconcile reason with the Koran by highlighting the rationality of Muslim
beliefs and prom oting the use of reason in m edicine. H e published a critical Commentary on Anatomy in Avicenna’s
Canon, correcting m any of Avicenna and Galen’s ideas. His Comprehensive Book on Medicine published in 1244 is one
of the largest m edical encyclopedias to date and cam e to replace Avicenna’s. He was also critical of m any hadith, term ing
them decidedly false.
Roger Bacon (c1214-1294) English philosopher and greatest scientist of his tim e, student of Grosseteste, studied
and taught at Oxford until c1241, where he becam e well versed in Aristotle, when he joined the faculty at Paris to teach
Aristotle. (Aristotle had been banned at Paris as a non-Christian and was being reintroduced.) He suggested lenses to
help eyesight, sailing west to reach China, wrote about China’s gunpowder.
1243
Roger
Bacon
1247
Dom inicans forbade m em bers of their order from studying m edicine and “natural philosophy, i.e., science.” Both the
Dom inicans and Franciscans condem ned research by experim ent and observation.
Roger Bacon returned to Oxford; becam e interested in m athem atics and science. In studying the natural world, he
advocated reading m ore than Scripture, such as non-Christian scholars as Aristotle and al Haytham (Optics). In an age
when experim enting could cost a m an his life, he experim ented. He becam e a Franciscan m onk c1252.(m ore 1267)
c1250
Jalal ad Din M uhammad Balkhi, known as Rum i, fam ous Persian poet, believed in the use of m usic, poetry, and dance
as a way to reach God. W rote Masvani, an epic poem with fables, scenes from everyday life and Koranic verses.
1252
Innocent 4's papal bull, Ad exstirpada, authorized torture by inquisitors to extract confessions of accused heretics.
1258
Hulagu Khan, another grandson of Genghis Khan, leading a Mongol arm y, looted and destroyed Bagdad, the religious
capital of Islam , including libraries, scientific institutions, laboratories, and m assacred 200K-1M Muslim s. The Mongols
then im posed a Pax Mongolia, perm itting trade with the W est and tolerant of Christians and Muslim s, and m ade
Peking/Beijing their capitol. The em pires of Persia, China, and the Ottom an Em pire were all larger than W estern states.
In the thirteenth century, Zen Buddhism cam e to Japan and becam e popular with the Japanese m ilitary.
1267
Bacon: In 1257, for seeking scientific explanations for m atters previously ascribed to supernatural powers, Bacon’s order
forbade him to lecture, ordered him to Paris to be kept under surveillance in a Franciscan friary there. He was kept there
for ten years. W hile there, in 1264, he proposed to Cardinal de Foulques to write a book on science which would benefit
the Church. De Foulques soon becam e Pope Clement 4 and in 1266 asked Bacon to prepare a book containing
treatises on gram m ar, logic, m athem atics, physics, philology, and philosophy. So in 1267 Bacon wrote Opus Majus for
the pope, recom m ending that sciences be taught at Paris, the principal Catholic university.
Opus
M ajus
Opus Majus discussed experim ents with light shining through water droplets showing the colors of the rainbow. It foresaw
the principles of telescopes and m icroscopes. Bacon built a m agnifying glass. Bacon wrote, “W e can shape transparent
bodies and arrange them ...that the rays will be bent in any way we desire, and under any angle we wish; we m ay see the
object near or at a distance. Thus from an incredible distance we m ight read the sm allest letters...So also we m ight cause
the Sun, Moon and stars in appearance to descend here below.”
46
(His predictions were not at once fulfilled. The m icroscope was not m ade until 1595, the telescope 1608.) He devised
form ulas for extracting phosphorus, m anganese, bism uth. He said that the Earth was a sphere.
Roger Bacon in Opus Majus said, “If in other sciences we should arrive at certainty without doubt, it behooves us to
place the foundations of knowledge in m athem atics.” He thus revived Pythagoras’s great 5 th century BC insight that
things in the world could be understood in m athem atical term s. (Galileo and Descartes adopted this sam e em phasis on
m ath 400 years later.) Bacon explicitly credited al Haytham’s developm ent of the Scientific Method. His discussion of
optics in Opus Majus was based on al Haytham ’s work. Clem ent 4 died before reading it and Bacon returned to Oxford,
starting to write General Principles of Natural Philosophy (science).
1268
Bacon
confined
half his
adult life
The next year, 1268, Bacon’s On Experimental Science, urged using Induction.
For Roger Bacon, there were four obstacles to understanding the truth of things:
1. Frail and unsuitable authority,
2. Uninstructed popular opinion,
3. Long custom , and
4. Concealm ent of one’s ignorance in a display of apparent wisdom .
Bacon said natural science led to knowing about things as well as knowing God, both types of knowledge form ing a unity
under the guidance of theology. Thus, study all disciplines, observe the natural world.
In 1271, he wrote Compendium Studii Philosophiae attacking clerical ignorance. Even though his writings showed
that he wanted to strengthen Christianity, in 1278, his order im prisoned him in solitary confinem ent for having “suspected
novelties” in his teaching. He was released only in 1290 at age 80 when a new friar took over the Franciscans.
Thus the Church im prisoned or confined the greatest scientist of his tim e for alm ost half of his adult life sim ply for
his ideas. He was of greater significance to m ankind than any king or em peror of his tim e.
Having the power of Heaven and Hell is heady stuff, m ost corrupting. Franciscans becam e rich and corrupt. Som e
Franciscans, called Spirituals, stuck to Saint Francis’s original values. For this, m any were burnt by the Inquisition.
1269
Kublai Kahn from Peking asked the pope to send 100 scholar/teachers to educate his Mongols; but there was no pope.
In 1271, new pope Gregory 10 sent 2 Dom inicans (who traveled with the Polos, see 1295). They quickly turned back.
1273
Theology: Thomas Aquinas (c1225-1274), the leading philosopher of the then Christian Church, influenced by Aristotle
greatest proponent of papal suprem acy versus kings, first a Benedictine (studied at Monte Cassino), then a
Dom inican. He represented the revival of the theological spirit of the 13 th century. First studied in Paris, a hotbed of
doctrinal discussions, including the doctrine of Universals, im portant then, but zilch now.
Thomas
Aquinas
Albertus, Grosseteste, and Roger Bacon had practically initiated the experim ental m ethod in science. But Aquinas
gave all his thoughts to bringing science again under theological m ethods and ecclesiastical control. He realized the
intellectual power of reason, “Reason in Man is like God in the world.”and wanted to base religion on m ore than just faith.
Said, all knowledge proceeds from first principles, which were them selves based on faith..
Aquinas’
Rational
Arguments
for God
Faith
perfects
reason.
Aquinas believed one could know God through reason, and thus devised rational argum ents to prove God’s existence.
He thought a loving God had placed Man here on Earth full of intellectual puzzles, equipped with a thinking brain to deal
with these puzzles. Said that all knowledge proceeds from first principles, which were based on faith-enabled
“apprehensions of intelligible form .” Had God really m eant for Man not to think? Had God intended Man to pass though
this Earth with blinders, only with his eyes on another existence in the future after he is dead? The question as posed, of
course, answers itself. So, he said, Man is at the juncture between Augustine’s two cities of God and Man, ie, Man has
a body and a soul. There is unity in truth. Natural reason can prove som e things, i.e., the existence of God, but not other
things, like the Trinity. Faith is god’s gift that lets Man surrender to the authority of God. Faith is m ore than belief, which
is filled with doubt; fearless certainty lets Man know they possess absolute truth. Faith is the greatest virtue. Faith is a gift
of God that allows the intellect to surrender to the authority of God by believing in the unknown and the unseen.
In his great work, Summa Theologica (1273), Aquinas worked out a new philosophical and theological system which
attem pted to reconcile reason (natural theology) and revelation (revealed theology).There are 2 sources of knowledge,
the m ysteries of the Christian faith and the truths of reason, He subordinated philosophy to theology, natural law to the
dogm a of the Church. Revelation gives m en m ysteries, to be believed even though they cannot be understood.
Aquinas’s position was between Plato’s Nominalism and Realism (every existing thing requires two elem ents, its
form and its m atter, The form of a m an is his humanness, a universal. The m atter of a m an is his individuality. This is
the opposite of its current m eaning.) Also, There can be no falsehood anywhere in the literal sense of the Holy
Scripture. He said that dem ons could produce wind, storm and rain of fire from Heaven.
He argued that these subordinations benefit natural law and philosophy. He said that reason can only take one so far and
then faith “perfects” reason. Summa was organized according to the dialectic m ethod of the scholastics. He posed a
question, cited sources that offered an opposing view, and resolved them by arriving at his own conclusion. He disputed
Averroës’s contention that philosophical truth is derived from reason and not from faith.
Aquinas thus fused Christianity with Greek and Arabic science. This becam e known as scholasticism. The basic tenet
47
of scholasticism is that there can be no contradiction between the truths which God has revealed, and the findings of the
hum an m ind in science and philosophy, and Scholastic scholars sought to prove this. He was hard on atheists and other
heretics. He said “the sin of unbelief (thinking wrongly) is greater than any sin that occurs in the perversion of m orals.”
Thus the scientific and m etaphysical system of Aristotle becam e dom inant in the high Middle Ages and was
considered to be in accord with Judaic-Christian scriptures (including all Aristotle’s erroneous beliefs, such as that
the Sun revolved around the Earth.). Greek, i.e., Aristotlean, scientific ideas thus becam e Christian dogm a. But
dogm a, as the word of God, cannot be revised, whereas scientific ideas change in the light of new knowledge/ideas.
Aquinas, in Summa, posited that there were areas of truth related to Revelation (which was reserved for theology) and
truths in the natural world which reason could handle. “Even God cannot m ake the sum of a triangle’s angles add up to
m ore than two right angles.” In Summa, Aquinas also said that heretics should be excom m unicated and killed. Summa
argued that punishm ent depends on whom one harm s. Striking som eone in authority gains a greater punishm ent than
striking a low born person. Strike God, the infinite m ajesty, and get the greatest punishm ent, Hell.
Aquinas
5 Proofs
for God
In Summa (1,q.2,a.3), Aquinas posited five proofs for the existence of God. Rather than Anselm’s ontological approach
of beginning with the idea of God, he rested all five of his proofs upon the ideas derived from a rational understanding
of the ordinary objects that we experience with our senses. In Man’s ordinary experience, he sees things /events causing
other things/events. The chief characteristic of all sense objects is that their existence requires a cause, which itself
requires a cause, etc. Thus, all five proofs are based on causality and the im possibility of an infinite regress, and are
Cosmological Arguments. They thus appeal to Man’s “com m on sense,” i.e., “There’s just got to be som ething that
caused the universe.” Until the 17 th century, it was “com m on sense” that the Earth was im m obile and the Sun revolved
around it. Com m on sense, but as we now know, wrong. Aquinas’s Proofs tell of aspects of God’s nature.
1. Aquinas’s Proof from Motion: Nothing m oves unless som ething causes it to m ove, which itself was caused to m ove,
and so on. So, there m ust have been a First Unm oved Mover. That was God. This m akes God unchangeable and eternal.
2. Aquinas’s Proof from Degree of Perfection: “W e see that things in the world differ in goodness or perfection, m easured
against som e m axim um goodness or perfection. As hum ans are good and bad, m axim um goodness cannot rest in
hum ans. Thus there m ust be som e other m axim um to set the standard for perfection. That is God.” [This is sim ilar to
Anselm’s Ontological Argument and suffers from the sam e logical flaws as did Anselm’s argum ent. For exam ple,
substitute “sm elliest” for “perfection” and the argum ent is shown to be fallacious.] (Descartes and Spinoza also posited
such argum ent. Guanilo 1076, Hum e 1751, and Kant 1781 refuted it)
3. Aquinas’s Proof from Necessary versus Possible Being: There are things that are possible to be and not to be, i.e.,
a tree. If all things in reality were only possible, then there was a tim e when nothing existed. But if there were a tim e when
nothing existed, then “[B]ecause that which does not exist begins to exist only through som ething else existing. But things
do exist, so not all things are m erely possible, there m ust exist som ething the existence of which is necessary.” So,
“Som e being having of itself its own necessity, and not receiving it from som ething else,” is God. This is a variant of the
Proof from Efficient Cause Argument, just below. W ithout God’s perpetual creative support, the world lapses into
nothingness. This m akes God pure actuality. (von Leibniz also advanced this argum ent, see 1710.)
Aquinas
5 Proofs
for God
4. Aquinas’s Proof from Efficient Cause: Aquinas adapted Aristotle’s, M aimonides, and al-Ghazali’s Cosmological
/First Cause Argument for God, but said that not only was God the entity that caused the universe to develop but he
created the essence of the universe as well. A statue requires as its cause a sculptor, and quarrym en, and so on. But we
can’t go back infinitely, so there m ust have been a first cause. That was/is God. This argum ent m akes God all-powerful.
5. Aquinas’s Proof from the Order of the Universe, the Teleological / Purposeful Design Argument. “Som e intelligent
being exists which directs all natural things to their ends and this being we call God.” The Teleological Argument infers
that the world was designed and asserts that the design is a good if not excellent design. The Teleological Argument
had been posited by Anaxagoras, Plato, and Aristotle but was not im portant until Aquinas expounded it.
All Aquinas’s argum ents are God by Default or God by Inference argum ents, i.e., “W e don’t know how X happened, so
we infer that a God m ust have done it.” It posits a m ystery, a God, to solve a m ystery, the origin of the universe.
Cosmological arguments by them selves don’t get one very far. Cosmological Arguments only say that a supernatural
force caused the universe; they assert at m ost that once there was such a force. They do not show that such supernatural
force is active today or that such force was benevolent or wise or even com petent (a god worthy of worship), or a
Christian, Jewish, Sum erian, or Muslim God, or his/its character, m otive or purpose, if any, or a personal god that answers
prayers, etc. And they do not explain why, if the universe needed a cause/m over/designer, why such force did not also
need a cause/m over/designer. (See Hume’s 1751 and 1779 and Russell’s refutations 1912)
Aquinas described a hierarchal and interconnected seam less universe, the Chain of Being (akin to Plato’s), with God
48
at the top, then angels, then Man, then anim als, plants, air, earth, fire, water.
Political Theory: Aquinas also advanced law by defining it as “an ordinance of reason for the com m on good, prom ulgated
by him who has care of a com m unity.” Greeks had thought law was im personal and entirely rational. Here law was a
volitional act of Man. Governm ent was/is to lead citizens to live virtuously. Contra Aristotle’s ideal of a city state, Aquinas
argued that a nation is preferable as it is m ore self sufficient and resourceful. Aquinas died at 47, canonized in 1323
Problem
of Evil
Summa Theologica am assed an array of authoritative opinions and carefully reasoned answers to questions of faith and
m orals. It soon becam e the m ost authoritative exposition of Christian theology, using Aristotelian logic to expound
Christian doctrine. Aquinas answered Socrates’s Euthyphro Dilemma as: God com m ands som ething because it is good,
but it’s good because goodness is in God’s character and m erely expressed in m oral com m ands. Aquinas listed God’s
attributes as sim plicity, actuality, perfection, goodness, infinitude, im m utability, unity, and im m anence (perm anence).
Aquinas said, “W e cannot know what God is but what he is not.”
Re the Problem of Evil, he adopted Augustine’s privation argum ent re evil, as well as Augustine’s so-called
Argument from Aesthetics/Beauty. Beauty exists, so God m ust have done it, a variant of the Design Argument.
Aquinas’s attem pt to reconcile faith and reason was disputed from both sides; 1. by strict believers who said that reason
intruded im properly into the m ythical com m union between God and Man, as well as 2. by those who saw no evidence for
a god and believed that reason did not have to accede to the ruler of the City of God, whoever/ whatever he/it may be.
. All of Christian thought m ay be seen as variations on the essential positions of Augustine, a Platonist, and Aquinas,
an Aristotelian. Sim ilarly, the history of philosophy m ay seen as be variations on the works of Plato and Aristotle.
1277
The Condemnation of 1277: Bishop Tempier of Paris prohibited the teaching of 219 philosophical and theological theses,
errors, in the university of Paris, on pain of excom m unication, including certain teachings of Averroës, Aquinas, and
Aristotle. However, within 50 years, Aquinas was seen as the Church’s m ost em inent scholar.
Overview: W hile Europe em erged from its Dark Ages, the largest em pires, the “gunpowder em pires,” China, India, and
the Ottom an Em pire, were at their peak. Constantinople was the largest and m ost sophisticated W estern city.
1280
c1290
Mechanical clocks, using weights or springs, began to replace water driven clocks, let m en standardize the day and
fostered belief in a world where quantitative m easurem ent and m athem atical certainty could be applied to nature.
Religion: John Duns Scotus (1265-1308), from Duns, Scotland, a Franciscan, a popular professor at Oxford, was one
who disputed Aquinas’s fusing of theology and Aristotelean philosophy/logic. Scotus m ade things safer for the scientist
(and the theologian) by separating experim ent and scientific reasoning from theology. W hereas Aquinas said that what
is logically necessary m ust necessarily be so, Scotus said that God is not circum scribed in any way whatsoever, least
of all by the hum an m ind. God is absolutely free and absolute freedom m eans being free of reason, as well as all else.
England expelled its Jews and confiscated their property, citing usury. Many Jews “converted” to Anglicanism and stayed.
1295
China: M arco Polo (1254-1324), born in Korcula (then under Venice). In 1271, with his father and uncle (who had been
there before) went by caravan to the Mongol court of Kublai Khan at Peking. Their trip took three years, transferring from
caravan to caravan. [Caravans traverse back and forth in lim ited territories. Only the m ost expensive goods could
profitably be transported over the Silk Road.] They stayed, getting rich trading. Polo becam e a diplom at for Kublai.
M arco
Polo
Polo’s boat trip back to Venice in 1292 took 2 years. In 1298, as a war prisoner in Genoa, Polo told his adventures.
Rusticello da Pisa wrote them up. It was a best seller. China’s grandeur was described. Polo’s description of Asia
(China, Burm a, Siam , Java, and Sum atra) was virtually the only W estern knowledge of Asia for centuries. Polo noted that
the great Chinese junks had bulkheads and used a center rudder, better than the steer boards used in the Mediterranean.
Polo asserted that the Earth was a sphere and that China could be reached by sailing west from Europe. China kept its
lead in grandeur over Europe until the dawn of scientific discovery and the spread of printed books and education in
Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Europe was still c98% illiterate, including the feudal lords.
1296
Pope Boniface 8's bull, Unam Sanctum, decreed that belief in the sovereignty of the pope over every hum an was
necessary for salvation, the m ost extrem e claim ever previously m ade by a pope. In 1298, he decim ated political rivals,
the Colonnas by killing all c6,000 residents of Palestrina & nearby areas and reducing the town to rubble. He used 2
years of papal revenue to buy land and cities he put under the control of his fam ily. In 1300, he instituted the year of the
Jubilee, when plenary indulgence was granted to all Christians who visited Rom e, preform ed certain cerem onies, and
donated m oney. Originally planned as an event each century, it was so profitable, it was changed to every 25 years.
c1300+
Overview: 1300, arbitrary end of the Middle Ages and beginning of The Renaissance, which started in Florence. The
forces of nationalism and royalty began to assert them selves, at the expense of the power of the pope. Popes had m ade
Hadrian’s Tom b on the Tiber into a fortress to escape the starving populace. The center of W estern civilization, such
as it was, through the Dark Ages, was Rom e. The Renaissance/rebirth did not look forward; it looked back to Greek and
Rom an rational thinking & knowledge, art, architecture, literature. Humanism, the spirit of inquiry, and the notion that Man
was the center of concern developed. Mechanical engineering & city states flourished, & evolved into nation states. Piero
End of
M iddle
49
Ages
Scaruffi says that the greatest invention of the Renaissance was the knowledge of self. The world began to be known.
Universities, all under clerical control, founded in the 14 th century: Rom e 1303. Orleans 1309. Florence 1321. Tim buctou
U. of Sankore 1327. Pisa 1343. Grenoble 1339. Valladolid 1346. Prague/Praha 1347. Milan/Milano 1361. Krakow 1364.
Vienna/W ien 1365. H eidelberg 1386. Cologne/Koln 1388. Ferrara 1391. Universities collected Spanish Muslim s’s
translations of Greek texts into Arabic, then into Latin, which helped spread the Renaissance. The Renaissance spread
slowly from Florence to the rest of Europe, reaching northern Europe only two centuries later.
Daily life: The fastest transportation was still at walking speed. Roads were wagon trails. W agons on the m ain road from
Frankfurt to Berlin were lim ited in width to the space between two houses (still there) in Gelnhausen, a sm all village east
of Frankfurt. Few traveled. Craft guilds were organized to protect their m onopolies. The idea of self-governing city-states
spread. Three field rotation (wheat/rye, oats/legum es, fallow) and the horseshoe in N. Europe increased crop output,
spurred growth of cities. Many com plained about the Church’s corruption. Venice signed a trade treaty with Egypt.
c13051378
Pope or em peror: who was m ore powerful? It fluctuated, depending on the strength of the particular em peror or pope until
the so-called Babylonian Captivity (1305-1378). In 1303, Boniface 8 sought to tax French King Philip 4. Philip 4 and
the Orsini fam ily im prisoned Boniface, who soon died. His successor was poisoned. In 1305, Philip 4 pressured the
college of cardinals in Rom e to elect his bishop of Bordeaux as Pope Clement 5. This was all politics, not religion.
Popes
lived in
Avignon
Clement 5 set up his court in Avignon, part of the Papal See, never going to Rom e. The new nation states of Europe,
even the Christian ones, thereafter paid only lip service to the sovereignty of the pope, seeing him , accurately, as m erely
a tool of the French king, It also sparked the Conciliar Movem ent. (Bishops in councils wanted to set church policies,
rather than the pope). The chronic warfare and extrem e disunity in western Europe ironically contributed to its rapid
cultural and econom ic growth, as unending com petition am ong rival polities and philosophies kept society fluid and
encouraged innovation. Italy, trading im porting goods from the Orient for sale in Europe, developed m anagerial and
banking system s.
1306
Religion: King Philip 4 expelled the Jews from France, stole their property. Jews, prohibited from owning land,
gravitated to finance. The m assacre/expulsion of Jews becam e a regular feature of Medieval European life. In 1307,
Pope Clement 5 and King Phillip 4 trum ped up false charges against the Knights Tem plar and stole all their property.
1307
Science: Theodoric of Freiberg, a Dom inican, following al Haytham , did the first known scientific experim ent in W estern
Europe, figured out what caused a rainbow, different angles of reflection and refraction of sunlight on raindrops. (Persian
astronom er Quth ash-Shirazi m ay have provided an explanation a few years earlier.)
The dissem ination of ideas am ong/between scholars still relied on hand-copied letters or treatises, very inefficient
1310
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) in 1296 was banished for life from Florence for backing the wrong politician. His Commedia/
The Divine Comedy (1310), a journey through Hell ( lots of clergy & sinners, interesting place), Purgatory, Heaven
(boring), was a m asterpiece of literature. Dante in Heaven m et all the great com peting theologians who lived together in
peace and harm ony. Dante wrote, “[God’s] will is our peace.” So, are we free? Is there any aspect of us where God does
not intrude? Dante’s answer, W e achieve a higher freedom by devoting ourselves to God. Thus the Middle Ages ended
in splendor and abject failure, unrealistic. Divine Comedy was anti-clerical but deeply Christian. Dante’s De Monarchia
(c1317argued for a world m onarch to assure peace, necessary for hum an happiness. It was later put on the Index.)
Divine
Comedy
1317
Religion: Christian horror of witchcraft was so severe that Pope John 22, in Avignon, issued a bull, Spondent pariter,
aim ed at alchem ists, but which crippled the em erging science of chem istry. In 1320, he authorized the Inquisition to
prosecute sorcery and urged princes to fight it. Christian fear of and hatred against the study of Nature was felt for
centuries. Chem istry cam e to be known as one of the “Seven Devilish Arts.” John 22, the “Banker of Avignon,” created
the com plex financial system that m ade the papacy far richer through sim ony and other devices. He destroyed friars who
claim ed that Jesus and the disciples were poor. Petrarch disparagingly nam ed Avignon Babylon.
1324
Political Theory, Dem ocracy: M arsilius of Padua / M arsiglio da Padova (c1275-c1343) wrote Defensor Pacis, “the
greatest and m ost original political treatise of the Middle Ages.” M arsiglio held that the legislator is the m ajority of the
people, and that the m ajority had the right to punish princes. He wanted the HRE separate from the pope. He applied
popular sovereignly to the Church as well. It started the new form of opposition to the pope. Local councils, including
the laity elect representatives to the General Council which has the power, inter alia, to excom m unicate the pope and
interpret Scripture. He wanted to preserve the unity of the Church, but dem ocratically, not by papal absolutism .
Democracy
Marsiglio
da Padua
Building on Aristotle’s doctrine that the end of governm ent is to enable persons to live a good life, said a state was
necessary, with a hierarchy within that state, and a sovereign to adjudicate conflicts, and m ake and enforce law. Popular
sovereignty/dem ocracy is desirable as pooling political wisdom brings better laws and can better perceive flaws in laws,
so fewer will be harm ed by laws, such laws are m ore apt to represent the com m on good, such laws are m ore likely to be
obeyed. The executive should spring from the com m on will. So, elect a king. For publishing his dem ocratic ideas, He
was excom m unicated.
50
c1331
W illiam
of
Ockham
Philosophy: W illiam of Ockham /Guillermo de Occam (c1290-c1350, died of the plague), separated faith from
knowledge, philosophy from theology, logic from m etaphysics, a Franciscan, was one of the principal agents of the
dissolution of the Medieval synthesis of philosophy and theology. Like Duns Scotus, he said that faith and reason have
nothing in com m on. No other Christian thinker of the Middle Ages rejected so m any or so im portant then-current
assum ptions as did Occam. He rejected Aristotle’s and Aquinas’s concept of a “prim e m over” who keeps things going
and reintroduced the concept of im petus, a precursor to inertia. He said God was the originator of im petus. God’s will is
not fathom able as it cannot be understood through hum an reason, but rather through faith and theology.
Occam also disputed Aquinas’s fusing of Aristotelean logic with theology. He rejected Aquinas’s im pressive system
of natural philosophy based prim arily on the notion of causality. Occam developed a strictly, and in a sense, skeptical
view regarding knowledge. God can affect our intuitive cognitions. Thus what we know depends on God’s will. “To
say that som e things are caused by other things gives no warrant to argue that God is the cause of the natural order.”
He concluded that we can know nothing about God but only that the unaided reason cannot discover God. Against
Aquinas’s notion that universals as such have som e form of existence, Occam argued that the only real things were
real things; and universals were m erely words/nam es, i.e., nominalism.
Occam’s
Razor
Occam’s razor: He said, “It is vain to do with m ore what can be done with fewer.” i.e., “Cut away the irrelevant, accept
the explanation with the fewest assum ptions.” (N.b. The sim plest explanation is not always the m ost accurate.) He
advocated the prim acy of logic in all disciplines. Like Abelard, Albertus, Aquinas, Averroes, and Duns Scotus, Occam
m ade a distinction between theological and philosophical/reason-based truth. He wrote, “The Truths of God (dealing with
salvation) are infinitely m ore im portant than truths of nature (which deal with m ere bodily com fort.).” Occam’s theology
thus for 300 years built a wall to protect Christian theology from reason. So reason, freed from the Church, flourished.
Then, in the Age of Reason, 18 th century, reason burst through the wall and dem olished faith.
Politically, he favored a m onarchy bound by natural law (respect private property.) and by international usages. The state
should prom ote virtue, dispense justice, m ake laws, and, m ost im portantly, punish law breakers. Occam rejected the
pope’s power in the secular realm and said that religious orders should own no property or wealth. In 1339, his works were
put under a ban and solem nly condem ned .
c1339
Humanism
Philosophy: Humanism, the concentration on the hum an rather than the divine. Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374), the
first great Humanist, loved the joy of living. He is often considered the father of the Italian Renaissance. He started a
search of m onasteries for forgotten Latin m anuscripts. Humanists believed that knowledge cam e from hum an observation
and analysis rather than supernatural powers, that the “liberal studies,” history, m oral philosophy, rhetoric, letters
(gram m ar and logic), poetry, m ath, astronom y, and m usic, were the key to true freedom . At 35, Petrarch was one of
Europe’s m ost fam ous scholars, poet laureate of Rom e. He wrote of the joys and sorrows of real people. He em phasized
the use of pure classical Latin, so scholars could use Cicero as a m odel for prose and Virgil for poetry. Humanists were
of course skeptical of supernaturalism /religion.
By 1348, m any Germ an states/principalities/fiefdom s had expelled Jews and stolen their property.
c1340
Ala al Din Abu’l Hasan Ali ibn Ibrahim ibn al Shatir (1304-1375) devised a non-Ptolem aic (but still geocentric) m odel
that reform ed the Ptolem aic m odel of the Sun, Moon, and planets, which elim inated the epicenter of the solar m odel.
13471349
Bubonic and pneum onic plague, Black Death, from bacteria in fleas on rats, m igrated from Asia on a ship that docked
in Messina, killed 1/3 to ½ of Europe and the Near East and m uch of the rest of the world. The plague caused a
m ovem ent to the cities. Farm land reverted to forests. It was the m odern world’s m ost devastating natural disaster.
Survivors inherited land, m oney, houses, clothes. Trade fell drastically, but it caused two significant results: excess clothes
were m ade into paper, which, in the 1400s, helped the spread of printing, and labor, being scarce, went up in value,
prom pting investm ents in technological innovation in industry, textiles, m ining, and banking.
Black
Death
1352
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), wrote The Decameron (100 Tales), celebrating the sensual nature of Man. W ith his
friend Petrarch, he attem pted to revive classical, i.e., Greek, culture. The humanism stim ulated by classical learning
penetrated every aspect of cultural life, broadening it beyond the confines of the religious sym bolism central to the
Medieval m ind.
Thomas a M odena, Italian, is credited with m aking m ade the first spectacles.
c1376
Religion: For centuries the Church had been infested with corruption, selling Church offices, nepotism , debauchery,
occasional m urder. John W ycliffe/W yclif (1320-1384), English theologian, a forerunner of the Reformation, taught
theology and philosophy at Oxford. Criticized the hierarchy of the Church. In 1382, with others translated the Vulgate Bible
into English. Gospels. Said, “This bible is of the people, by the people and for the people.” He preached against the
corruption in the Church. He said that Christ is Man’s only overlord, the Scriptures are suprem e authority, and the Church
bureaucracy was not needed to attain the state of Grace. He taught that property was a result of sin, that Jesus and the
apostles had no property, as should m odern clergy. This was a rebuke to the priests, but not to Christ. Said, “I believe that
in the end, the truth will conquer.” So, the Church expelled him from Oxford, condem ned him as a heretic, ordered him
jailed. But he died as a parish priest. In 1408, the 3 rd Synod of Oxford prohibited unauthorized-W yclif versions of the Bible.
John
W ycliffe
c1377
Ibn Khalud (1332-1406), “conceived and form ulated a philosophy of history which is undoubtedly the greatest work of
51
Ibn
Khalud
13781417
Great
W estern
Schism
its kind that has ever been created by any m ind in any tim e or place.” said Toynbee. Khalud was a governm ent official
in several N. African states and Spain. W riting in a tim e when settled areas were sm aller and surrounded by vast
ungoverned areas populated by nom ads, his 1377 Muqaddimat / Introduction to History explained the rise and fall of
states as a constant renewal or replacem ent of the ruling group by nom ads conquering the towns and settled lands, then
in 4 generations losing the hardness of the desert and acquiring the vices and slackness of town life, and being replaced
by hardier invaders from the desert. Although the world has vastly changed, the concept is still valid.
Great W estern Schism began. W hile the popes resided in Avignon (1305-1377), the so-called Babylonian Captivity, they
appointed 134 new cardinals, 113 of whom were French. In Avignon, the popes (all French) and his cardinals lived in
obscene splendor, discrediting the papacy and giving rise to critics like Geert de Groote (see 1380 just below) and Jan
Hus, (1398), som e calling for the pope to return to Rom e. So in 1377, Pope Gregory 11 returned to Rom e, ending the
Babylonian Captivity. He died in 1378. Cardinals were wealthy sharing all revenues of the papacy.
Rom ans pressured the cardinals to elect an Italian as pope. They elected Italian Urban 6. His opening address to
the cardinals personally attacked them for their lust for power, their scandalous wealth from sim ony, their neglect of their
duties, their im m orality, called one a fool, one a liar, one a bandit, all accurate epithets. Soon the French cardinals, now
a m ajority of cardinals, m et in Agani and elected a French pope, Robert of Geneva/Clement 7, who m oved to Avignon.
Urban 6 appointed m any Italian cardinals and established his Curia in Rom e. So, there were 2 popes, in Rom e and in
Avignon, the Schism. The nobles of Scotland, France, Spain and S. Italy supported French Clement 7. England,
Germ any, Scandinavia, and N. Italy supported Urban 6. Urban 6 and Clement 7 each called each other the Antichrist
and excom m unicated and cursed the other’s adherents. Each pope’s policies favored his patrons’s interests.
1380
Religion: Geert de Groote (1340-1384), a lay m an, walked around Holland, like W ycliffe, preaching a purer sim pler form
of Christianity. (Clergy were worldly and corrupt). His teachings attracted m any, including scholars. The Brethren of the
Common Life developed out of his preachings. After his death he was accepted by the pope.
1381
Peasants
Revolt
English Peasants Revolt. The 1348 plague had caused great social and econom ic disruption. Needing m oney, King
Richard 2 im posed a poll tax on all Englishm en. Preacher John Ball voiced the peasants’ response, “Good people,
things cannot go right in England and never will, until goods are held in com m on and there are no m ore peasants and
gentlefolk, . . W e are all one and the sam e. In what way are those we call lords greater m asters than ourselves? How have
they deserved it? W hy do they hold us in bondage? If we all spring from a com m on father and m other, Adam and Eve,
how can they claim or prove that they are lords m ore than us, except by m aking us produce and grow the wealth that
they spend?” “W han Adam dalf (delved) and Eve span, who was thanne a gentil m an (gentlem an)?”
The peasants revolted, burned m anor hom es, and advanced on London. King Richard prom ised them reform s. The
peasants dispersed. Richard then reneged on his prom ises and with the assistance of the nobles, arrested hundreds of
rebels, and hanged Ball in 1381. Other sim ilar revolts sim ilarly failed.
In 1396, France expelled c100,000 Jews.
c1397+
Florence: Cities becam e sovereign states, speaking their local languages which dim inished the use of Latin, the com m on
language of scholars. Florence em erged as a leader in com m erce and the arts. In 1397, the M edici fam ily began lending
m oney on an international scale, opening banks throughout Europe. Florentines thus becam e with their gold florin, which
was accepted everywhere, the first international bankers. The wool industry was Florence’s largest, but entrepreneurs
of all descriptions cam e and flourished. The tem poral power of the Church was curtailed. Church lands were confiscated.
Burghers and m erchants ruled. The Republic of Venice becam e a leader of diplom acy and international agreem ents due
to its far-flung sea trade and contacts with Muslim s.
Humanism
Humanism characterized the next 100 years of Florentine and European thought. Augustine’s ascetic in the cave was
gone. In his place was the m an of the world. Education was for public life (thus principally for m ales), not Church life.
Aquinas’s synthesis of faith and reason was unraveling. Humanists ridiculed Scholasticism as a preserve for m eretricious
verbalism and futile triviality. Many sim ply quietly began to ignore the Church.
Civic humanism: Florence gave humanism a new direction, away from Petrarch’s intellectual life as one of solitude
to one of civic participation. Cicero becam e the Humanist’s m odel, as an intellectual and as a m an of civic duty.
13981415
Jan Hus
1398-1415. Theology: Jan Hus/John Huss (1374-1415) priest, influenced by W ycliffe, preached against the corrupt
clergy and the power of the pope; becam e Rector of Karlova/Charles University in Prague. In 1410, the Archbishop of
Prague excom m unicated Hus and his followers and burned W ycliffe’s books. (See Council of Constance 1414)
c1400
Overview: Innum erable sm all states/principalities/free cities/bishoprics with varying degrees of independence/ sovereignty
peopled Europe. W hile Latin rem ained the language of scholars and clerics, literature from Dante and Chaucer
(Canterbury Tales) appeared in the local languages, although books (hand copied) were still expensive. M odern
conceptions of God em erged between 1400 and 1800.
Universities, all under clerical control, founded in the 15 th century: Leipzig 1409. St. Andrews 1411. Rostock 1419.
Leuven/Louvain 1426. Caen 1431. Poitiers 1431. Catania 1434. Barcelona 1450. Glascow 1451. Greifswald 1456.
Istanbul 1453. Freiburg 1457. Basel 1460. Munich 1472. Ingolstadt 1472. Tubingen 1477. Copenhagen 1479. Aberdeen
52
1494. Santiago de Com postella 1496. Madrid 1499. Valencia 1499.
In 1400, a Florentine brought Ptolemy’s second century m ap, Geographia, with grids, including the Canaries,
Iceland, and Ceylon from Constantinople to Florence. Its view of the world had been forgotten for 1,000 years.
1404
1405
Zheng
He
1409
Christine de Pizan, a widow with children, wrote powerfully against the prevailing m ale dom ination of all m atters.
Starting c1405, the Chinese general, Zheng He/Cheng Ho, sailed from Nanking with 300 ships (m any 5 tim es larger than
W estern ships) and 28,000 m en, to dom inate Indian Ocean trade. In 7 trips, he sailed as far west as Horm uz (m outh of
the Persian Gulf) and to East Africa and Malaysia. He had doctors, m erchants, bankers, boat repairers, gifts of tea, silk,
and porcelain. He brought back to China exotic anim als like giraffes. Abruptly in 1433, just a few decades before
Colum bus’s journey, the M ing/Enlightened Dynasty abandoned its ocean dom inance and sealed itself off from foreigners,
forbidding even the construction of seagoing ships. They could have sailed east to the Am ericas. M ings felt they couldn’t
learn anything from inferior peoples. In fact, as Polo had described, their culture then was richer and grander than the
W est. In China, faster growing varieties of rice increased crop yields (and population).
Religion: Council of Pisa. The Conciliar Movem ent em erged as the best way to resolve the disgraceful Schism begun
in 1378. Bishops from both cam ps m et in Pisa and “deposed” both popes, and elected John 23 as pope. But the two
sitting popes refused to resign, so there were three popes. (John 23 in 1411 also excom m unicated Hus.)
14141418
The Council of Constance, also convened to end the Schism, was the high point in the Conciliar m ovem ent to reform the
Church. HRE Em peror Sigismund prom ised Hus safe conduct to the Council in 1415. Hus cam e. He was prom ptly
im prisoned and burned at the stake. The then Rom e-based Pope Gregory 12 said, “W hen dealing with heretics, one is
not obligated to keep one’s word.” Gregory 12, resigned and two years later, in 1417, the Council elected Pope M artin
5, who ruled from Rom e and so resolved the Schism. Under pressure, Pope M artin 5 agreed to convene councils every
seven years. Hus was widely loved and respected. His m urder sparked a revolution in Bohem ia for 20 years. Heresy
continued. Starting in 1417, successive popes worked steadily to underm ine those conciliar reform s that dim inished their
powers. The council ordered that W ycliffe’s rem ains be dug up and burned.(Done in 1428, 44 years after he died.) The
Church has never decided the legitim acy of either line of popes.
1419+
Prince
Henry
Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) of Portugal, a poor nation, in 1419 set up his court and a school of navigation
at Sagres. He had Germ an m athem aticians, Italian m ap m akers, Jewish and Muslim scholars. He sponsored num erous
explorers to sub-Saharan Africa, at first to counter Islam, and to find gold, grain, but above all, to obtain slaves for the
sugar plantations in Madeira, and then later to seek a better route to Asia.
Portugal was also developing the lateen (triangular) sail (used by Arab traders) perm itting ships to sail into the wind,
and the sleek caravel, larger sleeker ships with m ultiple m asts vastly im proving ocean navigation with an astrolabe and
the m agnetic com pass enabling captains to return to where they started.
The Portugese system atically collected wind and current records and m ade m aps of wherever they sailed. Henry’s
captains constructed instrum ents and trigonom etric tables to m easure the latitude of all the places they sailed to.
However, they were deathly afraid of sailing beyond Cape Bojadour in W . Africa, until Dom Gil Eannes in 1434 did so.
Each year, they sailed further and further south toward the Cape of Good Hope. No Arab dhow reached Europe.
1421
Austria expelled thousands of Jews, stole their property. The Bible was always cited when Jews were persecuted.
1428
Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471), Germ an, Augustinian, in The Imitation of Christ, wrote, “At Judgm ent day, we will be
not judged by what we have read but how we lived...It is m uch safer to obey than to rule.”
1430
Aeneas Sylvius, later Pope Pius 2, visited England; wrote of prim itive huts, peat fires, no chim neys, bread unknown in
places, food was vegetables, som etim es bark, swarm ing with verm in, never a bath, no plum bing, straw beds.
c1430
New Style in Architecture. The Florentines began to build in classical Rom an/Greek form s, abandoning the Middle Age
Gothic style. Buildings were constructed with Man as their focal point. Geom etry, trigonom etry, and algebra were refined
and used to a greater extent than previously im agined.
The
Arts
New Style in Painting. The Florentines also began to paint in perspective, based on al Haytham ’s views on optics and
a book by Leon Alberti, with a vanishing point where all parallel lines converged. Never done before. Perspective not
been used outside W estern art. Perspective put Man’s viewpoint param ount, created a sense of m ovem ent in space.
Sienese painters did not use perspective for 100 years. In 1420, 95% of paintings were religious, by 1520, 80%.
14311449
Council of Basel/Ferrara/Florence: Bishops and lesser clergy (a m ajority) m et in Basel (outside the lands of the pope and
the HRE) for the purpose of reform ing the Church (i.e., weakening the pope.). It claim ed suprem acy over the pope,
prescribed an oath for new popes to take, and took other actions weakening the pope. After m oving to Ferrara and
Florence, the council ended in Lausanne inconclusively. The weak pope survived.
14371445
Religion: Pope Eugene 4 issued bulls urging inquisitors to be m ore diligent finding & punishing m agicians and witches
who, for exam ple, produced bad weather. He also declared Joan of Arc a heretic. Pope Callixtus 3 in 1456 cleared her.
53
c1440+
Trade
w ith the
East
Trade with the East. After Ptolem y, m ap-m aking had deteriorated into useless religious cosm ography. In the 1300s, the
m ore accurate ancient Rom an and Greek m aps of the Mediterranean began to reappear. Venice and Italian cities
m onopolized trade with China through the Muslim s who dom inated the Indian Ocean. Ships couldn’t m ake long sea trips.
The best W estern ships, Arabian dhows, were clum sy. Europe needed pepper from S.E. Asia to preserve m eat, then
obtained by caravan for gold, in short supply in Europe. Apart from the Silk Road, spices (pepper) from the Spice Islands,
the Moluccas, went by Chinese junks to Malacca (Malaysia). Muslim m erchants brought them to Calicut (S. tip of India),
then by dhows up the Red Sea, then by cam el to Alexandria or Dam ascus. Italian m erchants then took them to Europe.
A trip could take a year. A better route to the East was needed. China, centrally governed, rich, and self sufficient, had
declined to explore the world. The Koran in turn contained warnings that discouraged Arab traders from venturing west
beyond Madagascar. Merchants ruled the num erous diverse cities of Europe. They looked outside Europe’s boundaries.
Form al diplom acy developed in the 15 th and 16 th centuries, with perm anent em bassies established between cities.
In 1440, Lorenzo Valla, a hum anist, showed the Donation of Constantine/Donatio Constantini docum ent was a forgery.
1442
Pope Eugene / Eugenius 4 decreed “that from now on, and for all tim e, Christians shall not eat or drink with Jews, nor
adm it them to feasts, nor cohabit with them , nor bathe with them . Christians shall not allow Jews to hold civil honors over
Christians, or to exercise public offices in the state.” Eugene rem itted the sins of anyone fighting the Saracens/Muslim s.
c1444
Astronom y: Cardinal Nicolas of Kues/Cusa (near Trier) (1401-1464) deepened the gap between rational and theological
knowledge. “One cannot say anything authoritative about God due to His incom prehensibility. One can only acknowledge
this im possibility.” He also wrote Reconciliation of Opposites. “If the universe is infinite then the Earth is not necessarily,
or even possibly at its center. And if that is so, the Earth m ay well be circling the Sun.”
c1450
Neoplatonism: In the second half of the 15 th century, a dram atic upsurge in interest in Plato occurred. Cosimo de M edici,
the de facto ruler of Florence and head of the banking fam ily, founded an academ y where Plato was the chief subject of
study. Cosim o com m issioned the priest M arsilio Finici to translate and com m ent on Plato’s works. Finici sought to
synthesize Christianity and Plato’s works.
This neoplatonism was based on two central ideas, the neoplatonic hierarchy of substances and a theory of spiritual
love. Like Aquinas, Plato had postulated a hierarchy of substances, or “great chain of being” from plants to anim als to
Man to God. Man was the link between the m aterial world and the spiritual world, and Man’s highest duty was to ascend
toward a union with God. The principal Medieval question rem ained, “How shall I be saved?”
Hermeticism: Finici also translated the Greek work, Corpus Hermeticum, sparking the Hermetic m ovem ent. It was a new
view of m ankind, that hum ans had been created divine but had freely chosen to enter the m aterial world, but could regain
their divinity through a regenerative experience or purification of the soul. Thus regenerated, they had knowledge of God
and of truth and had the ability to em ploy the powers of nature for beneficial purposes. (Hermeticism has survived as a
very m inor fringe cult/sect.)
1450+
Voyages of Discovery: Around 1450, Prince Henry’s school developed the Mariner’s Quadrant, a star angle m easuring
device like the Greek/Arab astrolabe. It becam e widely used in the W est, especially am ong the Portugese. By prom oting
sea travel, Prince Henry m ade Portugal a first rate power. H e reduced the size of the world. Spanish, English, Dutch,
French, Portugese, sailed the seas. Forests of W estern Europe were cut down for the ships the new nations’s navies
needed. England denuded m uch of Ireland’s forests around Dublin.
1452
Pope Nicholas 5 authorized the Portuguese to “attack, subject, and reduce to perpetual slavery the Saracens, pagans,
and other enem ies of Christ southward from Cape Bojadour.” This further legitim ized slavery by Christians. He repeated
his advice in 1455. Portuguese sailors reached further and further down the west coast of Africa.]
1453
The end of the HRE in the East: Muslim Seljuk Turks captured Constantinople, converting the Christian churches, like
St. Sophia, into m osques, obliterating their paintings depicting people. Greek speaking refugees fled to Italy with
m anuscripts of Greek works, which also helped spread the Renaissance and revive scientific inquiry. The Metropolitan
of Moscow said Constantinople fell as it had deserted the true Orthodox faith. The HRE in the W est was by then little
m ore than a loose association of c300 Germ an feudal princes under the nom inal head of an em peror.
c1454
Gutenberg
Printing
System
Printing, Gutenberg Bible: The Chinese and Koreans had been printing with m ovable type for centuries. Parts of the Koran
had been printed in Cairo in the tenth century. Block-printed books had been printed in Germ any and Holland in the 1430s.
Then, Gustavus Adolphus Gutenberg of Mainz (c1400- c1468) developed a printing press system using m ovable type,
plus a stam ping m old to cast type, plus a lead alloy (lead, tin, and antim ony) for the type, and a com patible ink with an
oil base. Of crucial im portance was the m anufacture of paper. Only in the 1300s was suitable paper m ade in Germ any
. (Rem em ber. Never think particular invention, think system). He printed a 42 line Bible in Latin. Printing with m ovable type
reduced the price of books by 90%. The format of Gutenberg’s printing copied the m onotonous form at of then existing
hand copied texts, and such m onotonous form at is still used for m ost printing.
The classical texts printed brought classical ideas, long buried, to the m iddle class, and encouraged a new less form al
style of writing, thus securing Boccaccio’s and Petrarch’s am bition. A fortuitous conjunction of events, the availability
of rag paper (from the plague), the printing press, and the sudden appearance of a large num ber of worthwhile
54
m anuscripts, including m any Muslim translations of Greek texts into Latin, helped spread the Renaissance.
Printing spread rapidly to the m ercantile cities of Europe. Printing becam e one of the first capitalist enterprises.
c1455+
European
State
System
The European state system , the feudal system , was breaking down. Self-governing m ercantile cities and nations were
growing. Nation states, always despotic, developed out of city-states. The new kings of the new nation states, France,
England, Germ any, even Spain, sought m ore independence from the Church. Milan established the first perm anent
foreign em bassy, in Genoa, in 1455. The Renaissance spread slowly, from Italy throughout Europe, but not to
Russia/Muscovy, isolated behind hostile states. W hile com plaints about ignorant and incom petent parish priests were
com m on, people were clam oring for m eaningful religious expression.
W ith the growing independence of non-Italian states, the pope becam e m erely one of the Italian princes, engaged in Italian
power politics. The new national m onarchies in France, Spain and England had power in their states that neither the pope
nor the em peror could interfere. The nation state dom inated m en’s thoughts, which destroyed what was left of the Rom an
belief in the unity of civilization. During the fifteenth century, the m odern outlook had spread to the great m ajority of
cultivated Italians, although not with the respect for science that cam e in the seventeenth century.
Peasants unaffected: Most persons, peasants, even in Europe, lived on as before. To the com m on m an, year after year,
things did not change. The Medieval world was a world without facts, just Man’s experiences. Little travel; seven m iles
was the longest journey one took, as it enabled one to return hom e that day. The elders and priests ruled. They were the
judges. The priest was still the source of inform ation. Villages fifty m iles apart spoke different dialects. Even Medieval
elites/priests knew little m ore than Archimedes, except possibly regarding m edicine, m ath, and astronom y.
c1456
Science: Georg von Peuerbach, Austrian, published a book on how to calculate sines and chords of angles for
trigonom etry, the m ethod of calculation using ratios of the sides of triangles and the angles between them .
1464
Johann M ueller’s (1436-1476), Epitome showed flaws in Ptolemy’s geocentric theory. In 1472, he tracked a com et.
1478
Religion: W ith Pope Sixtus 4's approval, Ferdinand and Isabella instituted the Spanish Inquisition under their control
for Spain and its colonies. Isabella nam ed her confessor, Tom as Cardinal de Torquemada, a Dom inican, as InquisitorGeneral. In its first year, the Inquisition burnt 2,000, fined or im prisoned for life 17,000 victim s. Torquemada in 18 years,
burnt 10,227. One of the tortures used was pouring water onto a cloth on the face of a bound prisoner, causing agonizing
suffocation. (Sixtus 4 nam ed five of his “nephews” as cardinals and restored the Sistine Chapel.)
1483
Theodore of Gaza put Aristotle’s Historia Plantarum, a good book on botany, into Latin giving it wide readership.
1484
Pope Innocent 8 issued the bull, Summis Desiderantes, which let inquisitors in Germ any torture and kill m en and wom en
for sorcery and m agic as heresies. “Thou shall not suffer a witch to live.” Exodus 22:18. Innocent 8 had two Germ an
inquisitors, Jacob Sprenger, Dean of the U. of Cologne, and Prior Henrich Kramer, both Dom inican m onks, write a book
giving a juridical and theological justification for the persecution of witches. They defined witchcraft as fem ale, especially
m idwives. “All witchcraft com es from carnal lust, which was in wom en insatiable.” It instructed torture for all accused
witches. Not confessing showed the devil gave the accused strength; consequently there need be no lim it as to the cruelty
of the torture used . (Pagans had rules lim iting the severity of torture.) From 1450-1750, an estim ated c100,000 people,
80% wom en, were tried for witchcraft; c12,000 were confirm ed executed. Som e estim ates are m uch higher. Innocent
had a son m arry a form er m istress. At death, he left several children. He nam ed Giovanni M edici as a cardinal at 13.
Torture
OK for
Christian
God
1486
Science: Giovanni Pico della M irandola (1463-1494). One of forem ost Humanists of the Renaissance. At 24, he wrote
Oration on The Dignity of Man as a preface to 900 theses, which he publicly offered to defend. He wrote, “Man is the
spiritual center of the universe,” He im agined God saying to Man, “W e have set thee at the world’s center that thee
m ayest m ore easily observe whatever is in the world...so that thee m ay fashion thyself in whatever shape thou shalt
prefer.” Pope Innocent 8 prohibited even the reading of the 900 theses. The Vatican said 13 of the theses were
heresies, so im prisoned Pico. He recanted. He was absolved of heresy in 1492. He died at 31.
c14901519
Science: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), the natural son of a Florentine notary, one of towering m en of the
Renaissance, painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, scientist. He was responsible for the Renaissance of science. In 1490,
da Vinci observed capillary action of liquids in sm all bore tubes. Only 17 of his paintings survive (including the Mona Lisa
(1506) and the Last Supper (1498)), but thousands of annotated sketches of everything from geology to botany to
m echanical devices to m edical devices to anatom y to m ilitary devices to architecture to anim als survived.
Said, “Mechanics is the paradise of the m athem atical sciences because by m eans of it one com es to the fruits of
m athem atics...Nature never breaks its own laws.” Also, “All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.” ... “W hoever
in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but rather m em ory.” He m ade no attem pt to exploit his m echanical
genius. He was the first to note the true nature of fossils.
In 1510, he designed a horizontal water wheel, a turbine. He discovered that being at rest was not the suprem e
principle of the world (as Aristotle thought); restlessness and force were. In 1492, he designed a flying m achine.
da Vinci
1492
Religion: Ferdinand and Isabella conquered Moorish Granada/Alham bra, Islam ’s last foothold in Iberia. Torquemada,
55
then decreed all Spanish Jews to leave Spain or convert to Christianity in three m onths. He used unspeakable torture on
Jews and Muslim s whose forced conversions to Christianity he thought insincere. One of the tortures used was pouring
water onto a cloth over a bound prisoner’s face, causing agonizing suffocation. Pedro Arbues, a Spanish inquisitor said,
“Innocent or not, let the Jew be fried.” In 1502, all Muslim s were told to leave Spain for Muslim lands.
Ferdinand sent 100 Moorish/Black slaves to Pope Innocent 8, who kept som e and gave som e to his cardinals and papal
officials. (Despite the Bible, som e popes condem ned certain slavery, i.e., in 1435, Eugene 4 condem ned slavery in the
Canary Islands. Paul 3 in 1537 issued a bull against slavery of Am erican Indians. Urban 8 in 1639 prohibited enslavem ent
of South Am erican natives who joined m issionary com m unities. Benedict 14 in 1741 condem ned enslavem ent of Brazilian
natives, but slavery of Africans rem ained sanctioned by the Church (and by m ost everyone else))
Columbus
Am erica: Sponsored by Ferdinand and Isabella, Cristobal Colon/Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), Geneoan, like
m ost educated people, believed the Earth was round. He sailed west from Palos, Spain in 1492 with 3 sm all ships bound
for Asia. Only the Santa Maria was decked, The others were caravels (with hulls shaped like Arab dhows), one initially
lateen-rigged. He was an experienced Atlantic sailor. He had been to Iceland. The prevailing currents and winds of the
N. Atlantic are roughly clockwise, west from the Canaries to Am erica, up the Gulf Stream , and East to N. Europe. He had
vastly underestim ated the distance to China, based on an incorrect sm all Earth diam eter from the holy Second Book of
Esdras which was copied by the Greek Posidenius and Florentine m ap maker Paolo Toscanelli, who had told
Colum bus of the gold, silver, gem s, and spices to be found by sailing west. Columbus had a m agnetic com pass.
After 70 days, he landed probably on the Caribbean isle of Sam ana Cay/San Salvador. Columbus called the inhabitants
“Indians,” thinking he had gotten to the East Indies (or possibly derived from Los ninos in Dio (The children in God), used
by Columbus’s priest). He returned to Spain in 1493 with gold, 2 natives, cotton, som e anim als and birds. He sailed again
in 1493 with 17 ships and 1500 m en. He m ade 4 trips to the New W orld, to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Baham as, Jam aica, S.
Am erica. Until he died, he thought that he had reached the East Indies. Against Isabella’s wishes, Columbus enslaved
all the natives he encountered. As agreed, he was m ade Adm iral of the Seas and governor of lands he found. To
Europeans, he found a new world. To Am erindians, Europeans were sim ply invaders/killers.
1492
M artin Behaim, Nurem burg geographer, constructed the first terrestrial globe. It did not portray the Am ericas.
1493
Religion: Rodrigo Borgia/Pope Alexander 6, had been appointed as a bishop, then cardinal, by his uncle, Pope Calixtus
3. He bought the papacy, had several children, appointed his 18 year old son, Cesare Borgia, as a cardinal (also
appointing as cardinals a nephew and the brother of one of his m istresses). He urged Cesare to create a state out of the
Papal States in Italy. Alexander 6 gave away m any of the Church’s estates to his children.
Sicily expelled its Jews; as did Portugal in 1495, stole Jews’s properties. The Inquisition was later used in the Am ericas.
1497
Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498), Dom inican priest, ruler of Florence 1494-1498, anti-Renaissance, against clerical
corruption, carried out the Bonfire of the Vanities, which burned gam ing tables, pagan books, lewd pictures, m ade sodom y
a capital offence. He criticized the degenerate Alexander 6. So Alexander tortured and burned him .
14971499
37 years after Prince Henry died, Dom Vasco da Gam a (1462-1524), not believing Columbus had reached India, sailed
around the Cape of Good Hope to Zanzibar and then with an Arab pilot, to Calicut in S. India, a trip over twice as long as
Colum bus’s, destroying the m onopoly of Venice and the Muslim s in Eastern trade. By 1500, 700 kilos of gold and 10,000
slaves arrived yearly in Lisbon from W . Africa. By capturing Malacca in 1511 (dom inating the Straits of Malacca) and the
Spice Islands/the Moluccas in 1512, the Portugese soon dom inated the Asia spice trade, displacing Muslim traders.
Giovanni Caboto/John Cabot, a Venetian, and his son, Sebastian, sailing for Henry 7 of England, sought a north route
to India, explored Labrador, Cape Breton, and the St. Lawrence river. First since Vikings to reach N. Am erica.
1499+
Guru Nanak Dev founded Sikhism in Punjab. Its principal belief is faith in waheguru, a non-anthropom orphic universal
God. It is the universe and created the cosm os. Successor gurus through 1708 developed its dogm a.
Printing
Printing: Before 1500, m ost texts were printed in Greek or Latin. By 1500, throughout Europe, books were being printed
everywhere. 80 printing presses had printed 40,000 works; books began to be printed in the national languages, which
opened up a wider m arket for printers, although Latin rem ained the language of clerics and scholars. Printing spread news
and knowledge everywhere. Printing helped m ove Man away from respect for authority to respect for com m on em pirical
facts. Printing helped destroy the oral society. Printing took from the universities and m onasteries their m onopoly on
learning and gave it to the m iddle class, a huge shift in power. Local language scripts and spellings becam e standardized.
“How To..” books were the m ost num erous. Euclid’s Geom etry was printed in Italian.
1500+
Overview: Before 1500, civilization was essentially land-centered. Land travel was still rare and at walking speed. Slavery
was widespread, especially in Italy. By 1500, Classical Latin (not Medieval Latin) becam e the language of W estern
diplom acy and scholarship. At 1500, the Christian Church reigned suprem e in Europe, intim ately associated with the
tem poral rulers. It levied taxes, recorded births, m arriages, deaths, baptism s, m onopolized scholarship, controlled estates
56
and the courts, ruled central Italy, the Papal States. However, theocratic rule had failed. In the 1,000 years of theocratic
rule, the population of Europe had less than doubled. The corruption of the Church was beyond the im agination of m odern
m an. Every possible action by the clergy required a bribe or paym ent. Peasants were no better off in 1500 than in 500.
But the W est, from the depths of the Dark Ages, open to innovation and eager to seize power, was em erging as a new
civilization with religion as its heart. By 1,500, it equaled the other great civilizations.
The theocratic state was running on em pty. Renaissance ideas challenged it. Christian teaching, which was supposed
to be com prehensive, did not m ention the newly-discovered Am ericas. This em barrassed the Church. The Church saw
that the ideas of the Renaissance dissem inated by printing undercut the Church’s m onopoly of com m unication; so in 1501,
Pope Alexander 6 stupidly ordered burning all books questioning the Church’s authority. It was too late.
During the 16 th century, gold from the Am ericas m ade Spain the greatest W estern power. The Spanish enslaved Am erican
natives as well as Blacks. The W est, divided into c500+ states, was still only one, and not the greatest, of civilizations.
The Muslim s ruled far larger areas. Japan, China, Aztecs, Incas, and Hindu Indians flourished. China (100M people, m ore
than all of Europe) under the M ing Dynasty (1368-1644), was the m ost powerful and advanced nation.
The Rise
of the
W est
The Rise of the W est is the key to world history from 1500. Europe began to out-pace, out-gun, out-invent, out-think, outsail, out-produce, out-trade and dom inate all other civilizations. Several factors contributed to such rise:
1. The W est was largely uninhibited by its own past. It adopted freely from the classical, Muslim and Byzantine traditions,
2. Popular participation in econom ic, cultural, and political life was far greater in western Europe than in the other
civilizations, 3. W esterners were tough, 4. The W est had the best military technology, 5. They were inured to a variety
of diseases, and, 6. as previously noted, the W est’s disunity / diversity and internal warfare and com petition encouraged
innovation and technological developm ent.
The second knowledge explosion in hum an history began in Europe, continues today. The Scholastic philosophers of the
13 th and 14th centuries, based their work on Aristotle, used Deduction. This m ethod, however, did not develop science
to any great extent. However, using Induction, advocated by Roger Bacon (c1267) and others, there was great progress
in physical sciences (partly based on Greek ideas that were dorm ant from c500 to c1500).
From 1500-1550, num erous Europeans crossed the Atlantic, for gold, God, and conquest. At the sam e tim e,
Russians went East to conquer Siberia. The world was Europeanized, although the W est’s contacts with India, China, and
Japan were lim ited to trading outposts on their coasts.
From 1500 to 1800, the world’s population doubled from c400 m illion to c800 m illion, based m ainly on im provem ents in
farm ing. (The world’s population at 1 AD had been c300 m illion (including c100 m illion in Europe and Russia, i.e., the
W est.) By 1500, it had increased only to c400 m illion, an infinitesim ally sm all rate of growth).
The Church: For 1,000 years, W estern m en had given responsibility for their m oral lives to surrogates for God, i.e., the
Church, in order to achieve salvation; but now they learned that the Greeks and the Rom ans did no such thing. The
Church weakened. In concordats with Austria (1448), France (1516), and Spain (1526), the pope was forced to concede
far-reaching rights over the national churches. Henry 8 (see1532) sim ply declared him self head of the Church in England.
Towns and a m ercantile class grew. Literacy increased slowly in towns. Towns adm inistered the granaries, set all retail
prices, acted as banker, sold annuities on lives and inheritances. Europe becam e im m ensely rich from trade with Asia
and the Am ericas. No European state dom inated all others. The W est adopted Chinese gunpowder and since then, the
superiority of firepower over m anpower and tactics has stayed the central idea of m ilitary thinking.
1502
Cartography: Americus/Amerigo Vespucci, Italian m erchant, explorer, m ap m aker, after his second voyage to the new
world in 1502 where he went far south along S. Am erica, first to say and m ap the Am ericas as separate from Asia.
1509
Religion: Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536), Rotterdam , a hum anist, reputedly the natural son of a priest, was educated
by the Brethren of the Common Life, who cared little for personal possessions. He becam e a priest and eventually a m onk.
He taught Greek at Cam bridge for two years, becam e a friend of Thomas M ore. Contrary to the Church’s rules, he read
Plato and other Greek writers. He was the m ost influential Christian Humanist. He spoke Greek as well as Latin (All clergy
spoke Latin). He sought to uncover the pure and sim ple elem ents of the Church that had been obscured by the excessive
rationalism of Scholastic doctrine and the corruption in the Church. (He never returned to Holland.)
Erasmus
In
Praise
of Folly
W hat Erasmus saw in Rom e and in m onasteries led him to write The Praise of Folly (1509). It ridiculed the brainsick fools
in m onasteries. They have little religion in them yet are “highly in love with them selves and fond adm irers of their own
happiness.” They behave as if all religion consisted in m inute punctilio, the precise num ber of knots to the tying on of their
sandals...how broad and how long their girdles.” They are “pom pous foolish clergy, for their petty obsessions with such
m atters as pardons and indulgences and trivial calculations of a soul’s exact duration in Purgatory and em phasis on
irrelevant m inutiae of dress and discipline.) “These theologians are happy in their self love. They look down on all m en
as though they were anim als that crawled along the ground.” “Closely related are those who have reached the foolish
but com forting belief that if they gaze at a picture of Polyphemus, they will not die that day... They calculate the tim e to
57
be spent in Purgatory down to the year, m onth, day and hour...[and num erous m ore exam ples]. Things like that are so
foolish that I am alm ost asham ed of them m yself; yet they are accepted not only by the laity but by professors of theology
them selves.”
His chief com plaint was that the whole point of religion had been lost. Erasmus was relentless in his ridicule. Praise
is considered one of the m ost influential works of literature in W estern civilization, one of the prim e catalysts of the
Protestant Reform ation. Only the Bible outsold it in the 16 th century. Erasmus published Aristotle’s works. Erasmus first
favored the Reform ation (see 1517). He disapproved of Luther’s theology and his derogation of hum an reason; but he
defended Luther only for the sake of freedom of conscience and because he agreed with Luther’s criticism s of the
Church. Later, Erasmus opposed Luther and tried to reform the Church from within.
Erasmus said, “In the country of the blind, the one eyed m an is king...Of two evils choose the lesser... Fools are without
num ber... Prevention is better than cure... W ar is delightful to those who had no experience of it... I am conquered by
truth...W here there’s life, there’s hope...The worst peace is better than the m ost just war...By identifying the new learning
with heresy, you m ake orthodoxy synonym ous with ignorance.”
1512
1512-17
M ichelangelo Buonarriti (1475-1564), Florentine, sculptor, painter, architect, poet, another towering figure of the
Renaissance. His paintings gave strong expression to the new humanism of the tim e. It took him five years to paint the
Sistine Chapel. Italian literature declined after the deaths of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio.
The Fifth Lateran Council: Pope Julius 2 reasserted papal authority. Can’t print books without Church perm ission.
1513
Vasco Nunez de Balboa (1475-1519) sighted the Pacific Ocean from a m ountain top in Darien (Panam a).
Ponce de Leon, Spanish governor of Puerto Rico, discovered Florida. Claim ed it for Spain.
Piri Reis, Ottom an cartographer, drew the m ost accurate m ap of the world, the first known to include Antarctica.
1514
Astronom y: The Julian calendar was seen to be out of sync with the seasons. The pope’s secretary asked Nicolaus
Copernicus / M ikolaj Kopernik (1473-1543), a well educated priest/m athem atician who had studied law, m edicine, &
astronom y, with a doctorate in canon law, to resolve the problem of the calendar. Copernicus declined, saying he couldn’t
explain why the calendar was out of sync with the seasons until the relationship between the Sun, Moon, and Earth was
better understood. In 1514, he wrote a 40 page m anuscript, Commentariolus, suggesting a sun-centered / Heliocentric
system better explained certain observed anom alies am ong the observable skies and continued his astronom ical studies,
reading Aristarchus & Nicole Oreseme and possibly Seleucus of Selencia..
1514
Between 1494 and 1514, printer and scholar Aldus M anutius, in Venice, had printed the com plete works of Plato,
Aristotle, Pindar, Herodotus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Xenophanes, Demosthenes, Dante, and Petrarch.
1516
Sir Thomas M ore (1477-1535) lawyer, statesm an, author, Speaker of the House of Com m ons, Privy Counselor, Lord
Chancellor (thus the second greatest m an in England.), good friend of Erasmus, sought m ore radical reform and m ore
rational theology. He wrote Utopia in 1516, describing an ideal com m unity where everything is done in the best possible
way, com m unal ownership of land, all houses the sam e, coined the word communism, favored educating m en and
wom en, and religious tolerance. M ore opposed Luther and Tyndale’s (see 1536) efforts to have the Bible put in English.
Henry 8 had him killed. Catholics and Anglicans have declared M ore a saint. (See 1532 Henry 8)
Thomas
M ore
State of the Church: The Church was arrogant and corrupt, but powerful as the biggest gam e in town and with a m onopoly
on dispensing the sacram ents. Church offices were bought and sold. Priests m arried and had m istresses. Monks carried
relics around and charged a fee to touch them . Bishops sold indulgences until the pope took over the business. Many
clergy were incom petent. Num erous reform ers openly criticized the Church for its num erous offenses. Heresies and
heretics (in Rom e’s view) grew. Pope Leo 10 (who had been m ade a cardinal at age 13) continued the sale of indulgences
on a grand scale to pay for the building of a new St. Peter’s basilica. Johann Tetzel, com m issioner of indulgences for
Germ any, a Dom inican agent of Pope Leo 10, sold indulgences from a schedule with different prices for different sins.
1517
M artin
Luther
Protestant Revolt: The boiling point of dissatisfaction with the Church, particularly the selling of indulgences cam e when
M artin Luther (1483-1546), an Augustinian m onk and professor of theology at the University of W ittenberg. repelled by
Tetzel’s indulgences and other corruption in the Church, sent his Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences
(in Latin), later known as his 95 Theses to his archbishop and reputedly nailed them to the door of All Saints Church in
W ittenberg. Thesis 27 said, “There is no Divine authority for preaching that the soul flies out of Purgatory as the m oney
clinks in the till.” (As Tetzel had claim ed ) The Hebrew Bible had listed m any paym ents/sacrifices to atone various sins.
Luther had read Erasmus and other Christian Humanists. Luther took the Bible literally. He rejected allegorical
interpretations. He said Man could be saved by faith in Jesus alone rather than the Church’s teaching that Man could be
saved by faith and good works. Men did do good works, but out of gratitude to God. The basic issue was, Is the Bible true
because or the church, or is the Church true because of the Bible? Luther’s m ain differences with Rom e related to
purgatory, devotion to Mary, m ost of the sacram ents, priestly celibacy, and papal rule.
He burnt the volum es of canon law, saying that they were m eant to subvert civil governm ent (i.e., the Germ an princes)
58
only to exalt the pope. Like M uhammad, Luther at first only wanted to bring his Church back to its original holy pure roots
away from the corrupt institution it had turned into. The Church’s hostile reaction caused him to feel he had to oppose it
Regarding Hus, he said, “If John Hus was a heretic, then there is not a single Christian under the Sun.
Lither
hated
reason,
libraries
Luther was brilliant, but not a m odern m an. He did not trust reason. “Faith is direct to God. Faith m ust tram ple underfoot
all reason, sense, and understanding.” “Reason, the Devil’s harlot.” and “Reason is the greatest enem y that faith has,...
treating with contem pt all that em anates from God.” “W hoever wants to be a Christian should tear the eyes out of his
reason.” “Raising the issue of God’s existence reveals Man’s sinful state. Man, not God, needs to be justified. Only faith
has the assurance that God will use the evil in the world for his own ends. Faith exceeds our present understanding.”
“Reason is “God’s worst enem y.” “Reason m ust be deluded, blinded, and destroyed.”
He said, “The aggregation of large libraries tends to divert m en’s thoughts from the one great book, the sole source of
authority, the Bible, which ought, day and night, to be in every one’s hand.” Ritual was secondary. Also said that Aristotle
is “truly a devil, a horrid calum niator, a wicked sycophant, a prince of darkness, a beast, professed liar”
Luther spread his views through pam phlets and public debates, in Germ an. His criticism s were distributed throughout
Europe. “Print is the best of God’s inventions,” he said. By 1520, his various writings sold over 300,000 copies.
“Hier
stehe
Ich.”
In 1520, said, “The Rom an church, once the holiest of all, has becom e the m ost licentious den of thieves, the m ost
sham eless of all brothels, the kingdom of sin, death, and hell.” He was excom m unicated. In 1521, he had to appear
before HR Em peror Charles 5's Diet of W orms. There he reputedly said, “Hier stehe Ich. Ich kann nicht anders.” (Here
I stand. I cannot do otherwise).” The Diet put him under the ban of the em pire, his works to be burned, and for him to be
arrested. He took refuge with som e princes. This Reformation should be called the Protestant Revolt. It started slowly but
inexorably. (Inter alia, Luther said that flies were sent by the Devil to vex him while he was reading.) Luther believed in
witches; said excom m unicate them . Said, we know from Moses that the Earth is just 6,000 years old. The Church in turn
called him a bastard, an atheist, a drunk, a blasphem er. Protestants joined in burning witches, the exact num ber unknown.
Luther
hated
the M ass
Luther said, “The [Catholic] Mass is the greatest blasphem y of God, and the highest idolatry upon Earth, an abom ination
the like of which has never been in Christendom since the tim e of the Apostles.” The Reform ation required everyone be
able to read the Bible, causing Luther to support free education for all Germ an youth and to create a Bible in Germ an.
(Romans 3:28 says, “...m an is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” In his translation of this passage in 1522,
Luther inserted the word “alone” after the word “faith,” saying, “It’s m y translation.”) There is som e biblical support for
Luther’s position, Ephesians 2:8-9. Luther also said that all m aladies were caused by Satan; he poisons the air.
Ask &
ye shall
receive
Luther repeated the Bible’s prom ise in Matt 21:22 , “All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly
be heard, and will receive what they have asked for and desired.” Any believer could thus prove the Biblical God exists
m erely by praying for som ething, with safeguards to prevent fraud or coincidence, which then cam e about
Luther
on
W om en
Like the Bible and the Koran, Luther considered wom en to be the property of m en. Said, “The rule rem ains with the
husband, and the wife is com pelled to obey him by God’s com m and...Men have...m ore understanding than wom en.
They should rem ain at hom e, sit still, keep house, and bear and bring up children.”
Like Dante, W ycliffe, Hus, and the W aldensians, Luther said civil authority was derived directly from God, without
papal intercession. He cited Occam in his denunciation of the papacy, and said the clerical hierarchy and canon law were
un-Christian and worldly. For all its im portance to W estern C hristianity, Protestantism did not spread beyond western
Europe. Eastern Christianity (Orthodox) ignored it. Luther said Lot’s wife was a “faithful and saintly wom an.”
Luther
the
Luther’s theological positions changed with the political situation. W hen the Protestant princes were in conflict with
Em peror Charles 5, Luther said that Christians had the right to fight in self defense, and that the authority of a ruler
should be respected only so long as he was just and untyrannical. W hen the peasants revolted against the Germ an
princes in 1525, however, Luther sided with the princes, saying, “God would prefer to suffer the governm ent to exist no
m atter how evil, rather than allow the rabble to riot, no m atter how justified they are in doing so.” Luther advised the
princes, “Strike with the sword. Kill. Cut their throats. Burn, slay, crush the m urderous and rapacious peasants.”
The princes slaughtered over 100,000 peasants. Luther was not a dem ocrat. Said, “An earthly kingdom cannot exist
without inequality of persons. Som e m ust be free, others serfs, som e rulers, som e subjects.
politician
Sim ilarly, when he was at first in revolt against the Church, he dem anded individual freedom of conscience. Later when
confronted with the rise of the Anabaptists (Baptized Again) and other m ore iconoclastic sects seeking a purer Christianity,
he asserted that the state should tolerate only certain sects and persecute the others. Anabaptists wanted sim ple Christian
living, believed that the true Christian should not participate in or be governed by the secular state. All believers were
considered equal. Anabaptists said that the Last Supper was a m eal of fellowship according to Jesus’s exam ple. So,
Anabaptists were viciously persecuted and killed by both Catholics and Protestants.
Luther said each m an can read the Bible as he wants. Many did, so Protestants soon split into different sects.
Various factors contributed to the spread of the Reform ation, including a rising sense of nationalism , the invention
59
of printing, resentm ent of the pope’s dem ands for m oney, the rise of humanism, the intellectual barrenness of scholastic
theology and the corruption and low intellectual level of priests (both ridiculed by Erasmus). But m ost im portantly, it
flourished as the Germ an ruling princes prom oted it. It enabled them to escape the Church’s taxes.
15191522
Portugese Fernando M agellan (1480-1521) was sent by Spain to determ ine if the world was actually round. In 1519, he
sailed west and south from Spain, and around South Am erica through the Straits of Magellan westward. He nam ed the
Pacific Ocean as it was so peaceful. He was killed in the Philippines, but one of his five ships, laden with spices (and 18
of the 270 m en who started the trip) com pleted the trip in 1522. A sailor’s life was not easy. His voyage did not convince
all Christians that the Earth was a sphere. This route to the East was too long to be com m ercially viable.
1519+
The Am ericas. In the W estern Hem isphere, there were no anim als suitable to pull plows or wheeled carts.(Llam as
/alpacas in the Andes could carry som e goods but weren’t strong enough to ride or pull carts.) Am erindians were thus
lim ited to planting seeds with a pointed stick. The m ost advanced Am erindian cultures, Mayan (defunct by c950), Incas,
or Aztecs, were not as advanced as Sum erians of 4,500 years prior. As noted, they had no draft anim als, no potter’s
wheel, no wheeled carts, no m etallurgy, or a m erchant class. (Som e pre-1492 Mexican toys had wheels.) The
Mexaca/Aztecs and Incas were unaware of each other. The Aztecs were unaware of the potato, the Peruvian staple.
America
Conquistadores seeking gold, and m issionaries, hand in hand, swarm ed across the New W orld. Dom inicans led the
criticism of slavery in the Am ericas, and also m anned the Inquisition.
M exico
In M exico, the Aztec em pire, ruled by M ontezum a, c19M people, 5M under his direct control. Mexico City had c200K
people) had built huge pyram ids, used irrigation, crop diversification, prim itive pictographs, developed a highly accurate
calendar, used positional notation. The Aztecs felt they were the Chosen People. The scope of their hum an sacrifice was
staggering. Estim ates vary, but 20,000 per year is likely. The Incas and Aztecs ruled by fear and force.
1519
Eurasian diseases decim ated the Am ericas. In 1519, Hernan Cortes/Cortez landed in Mexico with 668 m en. In 1520,
he captured M ontezum a and began to loot the Aztec riches. The Aztecs rose up and drove Cortes’s m en out. But then,
sm allpox brought to Mexico by a Spanish slave belonging to Cortes, within six m onths killed from 1/4 to ½ of Mexicans.
As thus weakened, Cortes destroyed the Aztec em pire in one year. Mexico was nam ed New Spain.
Eurasian sm allpox, m easles, cholera, influenza, plague, TB, and typhus, killed far m ore than the m urderous Spanish
conquistadores, and killed num erous North Am erican Indians, especially those of the Mississippi River System .
Hispaniola’s Indian population of perhaps 100,000 was 300 by 1535. As Europeans had lived in contact with such
diseases for hundreds of years, they were largely im m une.
Columbian
Exchange
Columbus’s journey caused the greatest addition to hum an knowledge ever m ade by one m an and the largest
population/crop replacem ent in recorded history, called the Colum bian Exchange. It spread crops around the world, greatly
increasing output. [An acre of potatoes, the m ost im portant food im port to Europe, grows in northern clim ates and can
support twice as m any people per acre as any other crop.] Explorers to the Am ericas brought 100s of new species of
plants and anim als (wheat, sugar, horses, cows, sheep, goats), plus guns, insects, diseases, and m icro-organism s and
vice versa, Thus there are tom atoes in Italy, hot peppers in Thailand, potatoes and corn in Europe, oranges in Florida,
tobacco in Turkey, apples in the US, rice in Louisiana, etc.
The Church becam e the Rom an Catholic (catholic m eans universal) Church. There were deep divisions between
humanism and the dogm as of the Christian churches, although not necessarily against Jesus’s values.
Erasmus’s De Libero Arbitrio/On Free W ill, argued that hum an effort cooperates in the process of sanctification.
Luther responded with On the Bondage of the W ill 1525 where he argued that sin incapacitates hum ans from working
out their own salvation and preached the com plete sovereignty of God. Unredeem ed hum ans are dom inated by Satan,
unless overpowered by a stronger power, God. A reform ation also began under Ulrich Zw ingli in Switzerland.
All the Christian churches taught that God created all species independently, Genesis 1-21.
1525
W illiam Tyndale published an English translation of the New Testament. For this, Henry 8 had him strangled, burnt.
1527
King Gustav Vasa of Sweden and Finland took control of the Church, all its property, and appointm ents, and decreed
that the “pure word of God” was to be taught in all schools, effectively sanctioning Lutheranism .
Medicine had stultified. An iconoclastic doctor, Parcelus, in Basel, threw a m edical text of Avicenna into a student
bonfire and sparked new interest in new and better m ethods of cure. A printer he had cured spread Parcelus’s fam e.
15251700
W ars between Catholics and Protestants, fed by the m utual intolerance of Luther and the Church, engulfed Europe. The
Church revived its Inquisition. Distain for a central authority like the pope and num erous Protestant sects developed as
different groups interpreted the Bible in their own fashion. Calvinism, a very severe sect, grew strong in nom inally Catholic
France. Like the Rom an Catholics, Calvinists persecuted alleged witches. 1529, Suleim an besieged Vienna.
1532
The Incas, in Cusco, ruled an em pire from Quito to Santiago. Incas were the ruling fam ily only, perhaps a dozen people.
60
Incas
Peru
In the 1400s, the Incas had built, used, and abandoned Machu Picchu, with exquisite stonework. The Incas also sacrificed
hum ans, but far fewer than the Aztecs. Inti, the sun, had its own full tim e priesthood. Inca em perors, to show their divine
connection with the sun, wore suits of polished m etal to reflect the sun’s rays. Thunder, lightning, the m oon, stars, were
also worshiped. Everywhere, herds and fields were reserved for the gods. They attributed a m agical significance to
num erous natural features of their surroundings, a cave or a spring.
A sm allpox epidem ic had spread from Spaniards in 1526 and killed the Inca em peror and m ost of his court.
The new Inca em peror, Atahuallpa, never learned of the Spanish conquest of Panam a, just 600 m iles north.
In 1532-34, Francisco Pizarro (c1470-1542) and 168 m en captured Atahuallpa, obtained vast am ounts of gold as
ransom and then killed him . The Inca em pire, focused so com pletely on its em peror, then largely disintegrated in three
years. Incas had bronze knives. The Spanish never learned of Machu Picchu, which had been abandoned.
Under Spanish rule, in 50 years, Peru fell from c12M people to c500K, from diseases brought by the Spaniards and from
being worked to death as slaves in silver m ines. (The silver m ine at Potosi supplied Europe m ost of its bullion for 300
years. By 1650, Spain had obtained 16,000 tons of silver and 180 tons of gold objects.) The Inca’s writing, called khipu
/ quipus, was varying length strings with varying types of knots, tied to a larger string. It has not been deciphered.
Force
Fraud
Favors
Political Theory: The three stages of subjugation and control of a people are Force, Fraud, and Favors. (Frederick
Schum an) A country, or tribe, or group is first sim ply defeated m ilitarily and the victors rule by force and fear.
Eventually such technique becom es im practical, too expensive, then the conquerors rule by fraud, that is, superstition,
religion, appeals to patriotism , m yths, the caste system , all designed to keep the people docile and productive.
Gibbon, Rom an em perors knew and valued the advantages of religion. They used the arts of divination.W hen Caesar
subdued Gaul, [it] was divided into 3 orders, the clergy, who ruled by superstition, the nobility, by arm s, and the [people].
Diodorus Siculus, The m yths about Hades and the gods, though they are pure invention, help to m ake m en virtuous.
M achiavelli, “Prudent rulers pay hom age to popular superstitions,” [i.e., religion]... “There is nothing m ore necessary to
appear to have than [religion].” ”There never was any rem arkable lawgiver who did not resort to divine authority.”
Napoleon, “Religion is what keeps the com m on people from m urdering the rich...A nation m ust have a religion, and that
religion m ust be under the control of the governm ent.” He felt religion was useful for keeping com m on people quiet. “How
can you have order in a state without religion?...W hen one m an is dying of hunger near another who is [full], he cannot
[accept this] unless there is an authority which declares -God wills it.” He also proposed using m issionaries as spies.
Clarence Darrow , “Rulers have ever taught and encouraged the spirit of patriotism , that they m ight call upon their slaves
to give freely their labor to the privileged class, and to freely offer up their lives when the king com m ands.”
Baruch Spinoza, “Im m ense efforts have been m ade to invest religion, true or false, with such pom p and cerem ony
that it can sustain any shock and constantly evoke the deepest reverence in all its worshipers.” (See 1677 Spinoza )
Pope Leo 13, ”To despise legitim ate authority, no m atter in whom it is invested;...it is rebellion against God’s will.” 1885
M artin Luther, “God would prefer to suffer the governm ent to exist no m atter how evil, rather than allow the rabble to
riot, no m atter how justified they are in doing so.” (See 1517 and 1543 Luther).
Elbert Hubbard, “Form al religion was organized for slaves. It offered them consolation which earth did not provide.“
Thomas Hobbes, “Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.” (See 1651 Hobbes).
Robert Burton, Anglican, “The fear of som e divine power keeps m en in obedience...One religion is as true as another.”
Leo Tolstoy, “Patriotism ... for rulers is nothing else than a tool for achieving their power-hungry...goals, for the ruled it
m eans renouncing their dignity, reason, conscience, and slavish subm ission to those in power...patriotism is slavery.”
Frederich Nietzsche, “Morality is the best of all devices for leading m ankind by the nose.” (See 1883 Nietzsche)
Jefferson, “In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the
despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.” Sim ilar, Burke (1790), M arx (1848), and Nehru (1947).
Then, when too m any people see through the fraud, the ruling class uses favors to buy off the m iddle class (the class
m ost likely to fom ent revolution) with favors, em olum ents, lim ited wealth and influence. (Com pare this to W eber 1904)
1532
Political
Theory
M achiavelli
Realpolitik, Niccolo M achiavelli: (1469-1527), There were m any Italian sm all states; diplom acy was practiced
continuously. M achiavelli, the first m odern political thinker, was a Florentine diplom at and political theorist. His book,
The Prince / El Principe, first privately printed when he was alive and seeking to regain political office in Florence, was
published. The Prince, the first purely secular study of political theory in the W est, was a m anual for how a prudent
prince should govern. It cynically described how to m anipulate the m asses, largely through feigning religious piety.
M achiavelli revolutionized political philosophy by shifting the base of political thought away from the m oral ground of
Aquinas’s theory of natural law toward a new purely secular practical realistic theory of statecraft. M achiavelli saw
Christianity’s role in politics as a disaster that destroys the power of the state to govern. He rejected the idea that
popes were superior to kings. His advice to a prince: “As love and fear can hardly exist together, if we m ust choose
between them , it is far safer to be feared than loved. If one m ust be cruel, be cruel quickly, and cause great injuries,
for sm all injuries do not keep a m an from revenge...Princes should leave things of injustice and envy to the m inistry
and execution of others, but acts of favor and grace are to be perform ed by them selves... The chief foundations of all
61
states...are good laws and good arm s...A prince should therefore have no other aim or thought, nor take up any other
thing for his study, but war and its organization and discipline. But above all, a prince m ust refrain from taking
property, for m en forget the death of a father m ore quickly than the loss of their patrim ony.”
The prince m ust cultivate the appearance of m ildness, sincerity, and religiousness, but ignore such traits when necessary.
A prince should use violence, cruelty, perjury, and hypocrisy whenever political exigencies required it. Any act to gain or
retain power was perm issible. Religion and patriotism were sim ply tools to be used to stay in power. Im perialism , the
expansion of the state, is the basic trait of the state. As m en are stupid, deceit is easy, and the crafty m an will always win.
He also argued that only under conditions of relative econom ic equality could a republic endure. Otherwise corruption or
revolution would result. In his History of Florence, he wrote that “nearly all the barbarian invasions of Italy had been at the
invitation of the pontiffs.” The Prince was later put on the Index.
The Prince stated openly what ruling classes had practiced for m illennia but had not publicly adm itted, i.e., the use
of religion/superstition/m yth to control the governed m asses.
Francis Bacon, “W e are m uch beholden to M achiavelli and others, that write what m en do, not what they ought to do.”
1532
Henry 8
A new religion established by fiat: Henry 8 (1491-1547), king at 18, wanted an annulm ent from his first wife, Catherine,
as she bore only a fem ale heir, M ary. But Catherine’s nephew, the HR em peror, had im prisoned the pope, Clem ent 7,
for 6 m onths, so he refused to anull the m arriage. So, in 1532, to divorce Catherine for Anne Boleyn, he broke with the
pope, like Vasa of Sweden, confiscated the Church’s vast real estate and wealth, and established Anglicanism , declaring
him self as its head. Henry appointed Thomas Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury, who then declared Henry’s
m arriage to Catherine void. Henry had secretly m arried Anne Boleyn. Thomas M ore, the Catholic Lord Chancellor,
would not accept Henry as suprem e in religious m atters, so he resigned. Henry had him killed.
In 1534, at Henry’s direction, Parliam ent declared him the head of the Church of England. Henry m arried six tim es, and,
while head of his Anglican Church, m urdered two wives, Boleyn (on false allegations) and Katherine How ard. (“It’s good
to be king.” M el Brooks) Virtually all English Christian clergy sim ply obsequiously signed on with Henry.
An indifferent king, Henry 8 epitom ized the lusty, vain Renaissance m an, defying the Church. Catholic Christianity
was not popular in England anyway as it had com e with the Norm an invasion. After Henry’s death, his young son ruled
for six years. Then his daughter M ary, a Catholic, ruled. M ary burned over 300 Protestants, earning the nam e Bloody
M ary. She also had Cranm er (Luther called him an ass) excom m unicated and burned at the stake.
1534
John
Calvin
Usury
became
OK
Religion: John Calvin/Jean Cauvin (1509-1564) French theologian, first a Humanist and lawyer, left the Catholic Church
c1530 and converted to a new Christian faith, close to Lutheranism, but believed in Predestination. In 1536, he published
Institutes of Christian Religion, the first edition of an exposition of his religious philosophy. He revised and expanded it
throughout his lifetim e. The sum of hum an wisdom is in two parts, knowing God (only possible by studying scripture) and
knowing oneself. In 1536, said, “It is hard to find one m onastery in ten that is not rather a brothel than a sanctuary of
chastity. W hat frugality is there in their food? They are like so m any swine fattening in a sty.”
After various problem s, he was invited to Geneva in 1541 to lead reform s in the Church, and with the city council,
established a theocratic governm ent. Theological law was city law. He preached thrift, responsibility, sobriety (invite
som eone to have a drink, be fined three sous; be drunk, three sous; dance, be fined three sous and jailed). Like Luther,
he took the Bible literally, kept only the sacram ents of baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist). Despite som e
opposition, he ruled until his death. Calvinism , in Am erica, the Southern Baptist Church, becam e m ore widespread than
Lutheranism .
Lending m oney for interest, usury, was a sin for Christians. Thus m oney lending fell to the Jews, who also were usually
prohibited from owning land, serving in the m ilitary, holding office, etc. But, with the rise of Protestantism , supported by
the rich m iddle class, who were m ore likely lenders than borrowers, usury was dropped as a sin, first by the Calvinists,
then by other Protestant sects, and finally by the Catholics (in 1830), so usury becam e charging excessive interest.
The Rom an Catholic Church was derived from three sources. Its sacred history was Jewish; its theology was Greek; its
governm ent and canon law were, at least indirectly, Rom an. The Reform ation rejected the Rom an elem ents, softened
the Greek elem ents, and strengthened the Judaic elem ents. Protestants rejected the Church as a vehicle of revelation;
truth was to be sought only in the Bible, which each m an could interpret for him self. W hen interpretations differed, there
was no central authority to decide the dispute. So num erous Protestant sects em erged.
1536
1536+
15391541
The Portuguese Inquisition, under its king, began, m ainly targeted Sephardic Jews, burnt 1,175 victim s by 1794.
Universities founded in the Am ericas: Buenos Aires 1536. Asuncion 1537. Santo Dom ingo 1538. Lim a 1551. Mexico
City 1553. Cordoba 1573. Harvard 1636. W illiam and Mary 1693. Yale 1701. Princeton 1746. All church affiliated.
Am erica, Eurasian diseases: Hernando de Soto, explored Florida and the Am erican Southeast for gold. No gold. W hen
he m arched through the Southeast, he passed through Indian town sites, em pty due to Eurasian diseases.
Mexico m ay have lost 75% of its population and som e Caribbean island peoples were wiped out entirely.
62
1539
Ignatius
Loyola
Ignatius of Loyola 1491-1556, a soldier, then wanderer, then priest, at 47, founded the Society of Jesus, Jesuits. They
believed in absolute obedience to the pope, the use of education to achieve their goals, and to do “conflict for God.” The
Council of Trent (1545-1563) told the Jesuits to establish eight universities throughout Germ any and m ore in England,
Italy, and France. Math, scripture, cosm ology, rhetoric, good m anners, and geography were to be taught.
By 1556, when Ignatius died, they operated 74 colleges on three continents. He said, “I will believe white is black if
the Church so defines it.” Jesuits becam e the m ost powerful force in the regeneration of the Church.
Nonetheless the Church was losing authority, not at first to science but to kings/princes. Science had a very sm all part
in the Italian Renaissance. The m en of the Renaissance looked to antiquity, to the ideas of the Greeks, not to science.
1542
Pope Paul 3 set up the Congregation of the Holy Office of the Inquisition to conduct and oversee local Inquisitions.
1543
Astronom y: The first real incursion of science to the Renaissance was Copernicus (see 1514). He took the Earth (and
Man) from the center of the universe. He had, in 1514, resurrected the notion of heliocentrism, then accepted by a few
scholars. He com pleted his De revolitionibus orbium coelestium/On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, in the 1530s,
and lectured on heliocentrism . W ithout a telescope, he correctly fixed the orbits of the planets, som e closer to the Sun
than Earth, and som e further out. Heliocentrism of course m ade scientific sense. The skies could be accurately observed
and m easured. In 1536, Nikolas Cardinal von Schoenberg in Rom e asked him to m ake his theories known to scientists
and to send the cardinal all related inform ation. But Copernicus was afraid to challenge the Church’s Ptolem aic teachings
by publishing his book. He had it published only in 1543 when he was dying.
Copernicus
He dedicated his book to Pope Paul 3. A colleague, Andreas Osiander, wrote a groveling unsigned preface as if by
Copernicus presenting heliocentrism only as a hypothesis. Copernicus said there was a divine design in the placem ent
of the Sun at the center of the universe (as he knew it). He wrongly thought the planets’s orbits were circular.
Heliocentrism contradicted Aristotle, Ptolem y, and Catholic dogm a which had em braced the Earth-centered theory and
was a very traum atic concept for Christians. Taking the Earth from the center of the universe undercut the Church’s claim
of God’s focus on the Earth and was considered an assault on the Church. Possibly due to Osiander’s preface, the
Vatican did not im m ediately react to Revolutions (but later put it on the Index, see 1559). (Paul 3 had appointed his
grandsons, at 14 and 16, as cardinals.)
Citing Psalms, John Calvin and Philipp M elanchthon criticized Copernicus. Calvin said, “W ho will venture to
place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit?” Luther bloviated, “This fool wishes to reverse the entire
science of astronom y, but sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua com m anded the Sun to stand still, not the Earth.” Luther
also denigrated Seneca’s 1 st century statem ent that com ets follow natural law, “The heathen [Seneca] writes that a com et
m ay arise from natural causes; but God creates not one [com et] that does not foretell a sure calam ity.”
More serious Christian opposition to heliocentrism cam e with Kepler and Galileo in the seventeenth century.
Einstein in 1953 said, “Copernicus helped bring about a decisive change in m an’s attitude toward the cosm os. Once
it was recognized that the Earth was not the center of the world, but only one of the sm aller planets, the illusions of the
central significance of Man him self becam e untenable.”
1543
Luther
on Jew s
and
M uslims
Luther was a virulent Anti-Sem ite. His book, On the Jews and Their Lies (1543), is filled with hatred of Jews, whom
he term ed “poisonous worm s”. Said, “The Jews are the m ost m iserable people on earth. He advised to burn their hom es,
synagogues, prayer books and schools, to take away their hom es, placing them in forced labor cam ps, forbid them to
teach or pray, or even to utter God’s nam e. He said, “W e are at fault for not slaying them ...Jews and papists are ungodly
wretches.” Luther deepened and strengthened the Church’s anti-Sem itism . Luther was cited at the Nurem burg Trials
as a justification for the Holocaust. Hitler praised Luther in Mein Kampf, quoted him in his speeches against Jews.
Regarding Muslim s, Luther said: “The kingdom of Moham m ed is a kingdom of revenge, of wrath, and desolation.”
1543
Anatom y: Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), Belgian, published The Fabric of the Human Body, based on his dissect-ions
of corpses, a com plete, accurate description of the hum an anatom y, with 17 woodcuts and 600 pages of text.
1545
Science: Books were written about fish and birds, plants, m etals. Authors strove for accuracy. Konrad von Gesner
(1516-1565), Swiss, published in 1545 Bibliotheca universalis, a catalog of 10,000 then extant titles, with 3,000 authors.
His 4 volum e Historia Animalium (1551-1558) described all known plants and anim als of the New and Old W orlds, and
was the basis of m odern zoology. His De Rerum Fossilium gave rise to the new science of paleontology.
Arabic num bers finally replaced Rom an num erals in the 16 th century, greatly sim plifying m ath.
15451563
Counter-Reform ation: The Reform ation/Protestant Revolt destroyed the HRE. Kings and princes claim ed a divine right
to govern without the blessing of the pope. The Church m ade som e efforts to reform , but the 18 year Council of
Trent/Trento (Italy), stacked with Italians and Spaniards, rejected all com prom ise with Protestants. It did condem n the sale
of Church offices, the sale of indulgences, and bishops’s worldly, i.e., corrupt, pursuits. The num ber of parishes a priest
could have was lim ited. Bishops were required to live in their dioceses. Marriage was nam ed as a sacram ent.
The Council deem ed celibacy and virginity superior to marriage, ordered sem inaries in every diocese. Priests had to pass
an exam to be ordained. Art and architecture were to becom e m ore theatrical (baroque), to appeal to and educate the
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illiterate peasants in the scriptures. Attendance at Mass was m ade obligatory and declared the only true and proper
liturgical service, exacerbating Lutheran objections. The Council ordered all m usic to be m ore holy.
1546
Science: Gerardus M ercator (1512-1594), Flem ish geographer, stated that the Earth had a m agnetic pole. He was the
first to use the nam e Am erica for the new world. [In 1568, he devised a cylindrical projection for m aps.]
Dom inican Giovanni Tolsani denounced heliocentrism in a work defending the absolute truth of Scripture.
1553
M ichael Servetus, Spanish theologian, physician, had discovered the pulm onary circulation of blood, but didn’t accept
Trinitarianism. So the Inquisition condem ned him . He escaped to Geneva. Calvin, the “Protestant pope,” ruler of Geneva,
recom m ended beheading. The city council m erely burned him at the stake. The spirit of persecution lived.
1555
Peace of Augsburg between Catholics and Lutheran princes legally accepted Lutheranism . Religious war went on.
Pierre Belon described the basic sim ilarities in the skeletons of all vertebrates, i.e., bones in lim bs, from fish to m an.
1559
Index
Religion: Bishops in Holland 1529, Venice 1543, and Paris 1551 had lists of books they banned, but Pope Paul 4 created
the Index Librorum Prohibitorum/Prohibited W ritings, (“the Index”) to protect the faith and m orals of Catholics by m aking
it a sin to print, publish, sell, or read books on the Index. Erasmus’s works were put on the Index.
Biology: M atteo Colombo, Italian surgeon, showed the circulation of blood from the heart to lungs and back.
1560
The Goa Inquisition targeted m ostly Jews and Hindus.
The W est stayed ignorant of the Far East and vice versa.
1563
Johann W eyer’s On the Magic of Demons criticized witch hunts, said evidence from torture was useless.
Sea trade, slavery: In the century after Columbus, world sea trade blossom ed; spread the ideas of the Renaissance. Bulk
trade in slaves, sugar, rum , cloth, as well as luxuries, took over the Atlantic, and spurred Europe’s econom y to change
from agrarian to com m ercial. Spain and Portugal sailed to South and Central Am erica. Dutch, English, and French sailed
to North Am erica. Slaves were needed for the sugar and cotton plantations. Slaves in Europe were generally dom estic
servants, although sugar plantations in Cyprus and Crete had plantation slaves.
St. Augustine, the 1 st perm anent European settlem ent in the US, founded in 1565, had slaves. Only 5% of the African
slaves brought to the New W orld cam e to the N orth Am erican colonies. Alm ost all went to the Caribbean, Brazil, or
Spanish Am erica. In the Caribbean, slaves’s infant m ortality reached 75%.
1565
Pope Pius 4 ordered all Jews out of all lands under his control in 3 m onths. The popes subsidized the arts, not science.
1572
Catholic-Protestant W ars: King Charles 9, Catholic, age 12, obeying his m other, Catherine de M edici, ordered the
m assacre of Huguenots to prevent the Reform ation from gaining influence in France. In Paris, c3,000 were killed. In 40
days, throughout France c50,000 non-Catholics were killed. Pope Gregory 12 was so pleased that he com m issioned a
gold m edal inscribed “Slaughter of the Huguenots” and paintings to celebrate the killings of the “perfidious race.”
Huguenot
massacre
This “St. Bartholom ew’s Day Massacre” was a crucial turning point in the relations between Catholics and Protestants.
It caused Protestants throughout Europe to no longer view the Catholic Church as m isguided but as a force of evil itself.
Catholic and Protestant arm ies slaughtered each other as well as innocent non-com batants.
1572
Tycho
Brahe
Astronom y: Danish king Frederick 2 gave Hven, an island in the Danish Sound, to Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), Danish
astronom er Brahe there constructed large instrum ents to accurately m easure the stars. He had no telescope. Brahe.
noticed a new star in the constellation (group of stars) of Cassiopeia. [It was a supernova, a star in a m assive explosion.]
Like Copernicus’s 1543 Revolutions, this contradicted the Church’s teaching of a changeless universe. In 1573, he
published his findings, i.e., that the universe did change. It m ade him fam ous and, to the Church, dangerous. Catholic
theologians said he erred, blam ed the Devil, and said that above the m oon, the heavens did not change, that an
unchanging heaven reflected God’s im m utable love for the world.
1577
Brahe noted that a com et (also seen across Europe), had passed through where Aristotle’s celestial spheres were
supposed to be, i.e., beyond the m oon. He thus concluded that the planets m oved freely in space and not on rigid
spheres. Brahe also corrected all existing astronom ical records, which were inaccurate. His data provided the best proof
for heliocentrism , but, ironically, he still thought the Sun circled the Earth. W hen a new Danish king was not supportive,
Brahe concluded his life’s work in Prague with an assistant, Johannes Kepler.
1577-80
During 1577-1580, Francis Drake, a successful English pirate, was the second to sail around the world
1579
M atthew Ham ount, British, in Norwich, denied the divinity of Jesus. So Anglicans burned him at the stake.
1580
Hum anism : M ichel Eyguem de M ontaigne (1533-1592), m ayor of Bordeaux, exam ple of Renaissance scepticism.
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Montaigne
W rote Essays, the first book to reveal frankly the author’s m ind and heart, started a new genre of literature that has
becom e the m ost im portant of all in subsequent centuries, the essay. In studying him self, he studied m ankind, said Man
was not superior to beasts. He also said, “Men are blind to the brutalities of their hom eland while seeing clearly the
brutalities of other cultures. [W e are fierce; they are terrorists.]...The thing I fear m ost is fear...My trade and m y art is
living... Man is certainly crazy. He could not m ake a m ite and he m akes gods by the dozen...Nothing is so firm ly believed
as that which is least known, nor there any persons so sure of them selves as those who tell us fables, such as
alchem ists, ...quacks, and [priests]....See and say yourself as you really are...Men of sim ple understanding, little inquisitive
and little instructed, m ake good Christians.” He ridiculed witch hunts. His writings were put on the Index.
1582
Astronom y: The Gregorian calendar (leap years, etc.) replaced the Julian calendar reflecting Copernicus’s findings.
15831596
Science, Galileo Galilei: (1564-1642), leading m athem atical physicist of his tim e, taught m ath at Padua under relatively
secular Venetian control, not under the Church in Rom e. Einstein called him “the father of m odern physics-indeed of
m odern science altogether”. A contem porary of Francis Bacon and Descartes, he saw that what was considered
“science” was a kind of abstract philosophizing. For exam ple, Aristotle had said that objects rose or fell in order to reach
their “proper place,” i.e., a qualitative, not quantitative characteristic. Galileo m easured their weights.
Galileo
Galilei
In 1583, Galileo, at 19, determ ined that the period of a pendulum was solely proportional to the square root of its length.
(A one m eter pendulum takes c2 seconds.)
In 1586 Galileo published an essay describing his invention of the hydrostatic balance, a precise scale.
In 1589, at 25, he obtained the chair of m ath at the University of Pisa. During this period, he studied Copernicus. He
ridiculed the Scholastics students, who dressed in togas, “like little wax Aristotles.” Scholastics ran Pisa and he left.
In 1590, at 26, he published De Motu/On Motion, which dem olished Aristotle’s idea of two kinds of m otion, forced and
natural. He showed they were the sam e. H e postulated that a body in m otion would continue in a straight line until
som ething stopped it. (As Mo-tzu, al Haytham , Philoponus, Avicenna, Occam had said. New ton’s 1 st Law of Motion).
In 1590, Galileo described experim ents showing that all objects, heavy or light, fell and accelerated at a constant and
identical rate [c32 feet/sec/sec]. [John Philoponus (sixth century), G iovanni Benedetti, Italian (1585), and Simon
Stevinus, Flem ish (1586), had all said the sam e. Aristotle, without a clock, had said heavy objects fell faster.]
In 1592, Galileo m oved to the University of Padua and described problem s in raising weights and showed that projectiles
followed a parabolic path. (Aristotle had said projectiles follow two straight paths.)
In 1593, he invented a water pum p, powered by horses.
In 1596, he invented a prim itive therm om eter using the expansion of air to m easure tem perature. It was good but not great
as it did not com pensate for outside air pressure. (m ore Galileo, 1605, 1612+, 1633, 1634 et seq.)
1586
Jean
Bodin
Political Theory, The Concept of State Sovereignty Jean Bodin: The political units in Europe were essentially dynasties
of landed estates, accum ulations of property by fam ilies. Nations, as we now know them , did not exist. Jean Bodin,
French, form ulated the first system atic concept of state sovereignty in his De Republica. “Sovereignty is suprem e power
over..its subjects, unrestrained by laws, absolute and unqualified.” Sovereignty was the essential attribute of the state.
Rulers rule by divine right. 1 Peter 2:17. They are ethically, but not legally, lim ited by divine law or the laws of nature. This
power rests with aristocrats in an aristocracy and with the king in a m onarchy. This was between Aristotle’s concept of
the state as a natural growth and the social contract theory. He saw states as originating sim ply from one person or group
conquering and ruling another, rather than Aristotle’s concept that leadership cam e from preem inent wisdom or virtue.
The Protestant princes, in seizing the Church’s estates, sought to seize the universities.
Bodin’s view was challenged by Monarchom achs, who argued that sovereignty rested with the people, as governm ents
resulted from a tacit contract between a ruler and the ruled to escape the anarchy of the state of nature. (Althusius 1609,
a Monarchom ach, Hobbes 1651, Locke 1689, and Rousseau 1754, all later adopted Bodin’s social contract idea
although, as Hum e later said, there was no evidence that any state was ever form ed in this m anner.)
1589
Philosophy: Christopher M arlow e (1564-1593), dram atist, wrote The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus (m ake a deal with
the Devil, also Goethe 1808). Also, “I count religion but a childish toy, and hold there is no sin but ignorance.”
W illiam Shakespeare (1564-1616) world’s prem ier dram atist, without any personal dogm a, respected but not worldrenowned until the1800s. He sum m arized hum an em otions in sim ple and profound verse, told great stories, died at 50.
15891613
Shakespeare
He turned a phrase, still alive and relevant: “Salad days...W hat a piece of work is Man...star-crossed lovers...he did her
wrong... It’s Greek to m e...talkers are no doers...quiet as a lam b...naked truth...a plague on both your houses... .what fools
these m ortals be...sm all beer...the wish is father to the thought...act m ore in sorrow than in anger...fool’s paradise ...played
fast and loose...budge an inch...sink or swim ...let m e tell the world...the devil can cite scripture for his purpose...what the
dickens... as cold as any stone..the lady doth protest too m uch...the better part of valor is discretion...God save the king...
It is a wise father that knows his own child..the long and short of it..eaten m e out of house and hom e..Uneasy lies the head
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that wears a crown... we few, we happy few, we band of brothers..Beware the ides of March...Et tu, Brute...the m ost
unkindest cut of all...a motley fool...forever and a day...not a m ouse stirring..brevity is the soul of wit...the play’s the
thing...O! woe is m e..westward ho..m en are m en...nothing will com e of nothing...prince of darkness...every inch a
king...fortune’s fool...W e have seen better days...The m oon is down..double, double, toil and trouble..W hat’s in a
nam e?..Shall I com pare thee to a sum m er’s day?...W hat’s past is prologue... lily-livered boy...have not slept one wink.
brave new world..keep a good tongue in your head..white as driven snow..death by inches..charm ed life..love is blind
1594
Pierre
Charron
Pierre Charron (1541-1603), priest, in Les Trois Verities/Three Truths, argued that God existed, that the true religion
was Christianity, and the true Church was the Rom an Catholic Church. In 1601, he published his m ost rem arkable book,
De la sagesse, a com plete popular system of m oral philosophy. Said, with sense all our knowledge starts, and into sense
all m ay be resolved. The soul, in the brain is affected by the tem peram ent of the person; the dry tem peram ent produces
acute intelligence, the m oist, m em ory. Man’s qualities are vanity, weakness, inconstancy, and presum ption. He founded
his m oral system on his view of Man. He was as skeptical as his friend M ontaigne but m ore cynical. He becam e the
representative of the m ost intellectual skepticism . Jesuits called Charron an atheist.
1595
First true m icroscopes were m ade, building on Ibn al Haytham’s Optics (1011-1021), now credited to three different
eyeglass m akers in Holland, Hans Lippershey, Sacharias Jansen, and his son Zacharias.
1596
Medicine: The Chinese published a pharm acopeia of c1,000 plants and c1,000 anim als, with 8,000 prescriptions based
on them , plus discussions of various m edical m atters. Chinese always applied knowledge to practical ends. The Chinese
had no belief of a personal om nipotent deity as the source of power behind the universe.
1598
French King Henry 4 issued the Edict of Nantes. It allowed Protestants in France to practice their religions in peace (but
not attend universities). (Louis 14 stupidly revoked it in 1685).
1600
Giordano Bruno (c1548-1600), Dom inican m onk, who had secretly read com m entaries by Erasmus, in 1576 was
accused of heresy for reading them , accepted Copernicus’s theories. “There is in the universe neither center nor
circum ference.” Said the Scriptures were for m oral guidance, not to teach about physical things. W rote treatises prom oting
an extrem e form of pantheism . He was twice excom m unicated, hounded to Switzerland, then France, England, Germ any,
then lured to Italy where the Inquisition im prisoned him for 6 years, without pen or paper. In 1600, the Inquisition, Roberto
Cardinal Bellarmino presiding, after a 7 year trial, he refused to repent, so, as ordered by Pope Clement 8, burned at
the stake. His writings influenced Galileo, von Leibniz, and Spinoza. and other scientists.
Giordano
Bruno
c1600
Com m erce: Muslim s first brought sugar to Spain from Morocco, Spain took it to the Caribbean, was the largest industry
in the world. Its use was the m ost profound change in Man’s diet ever. Sugar plantations needed workers. The solution
was slaves purchased from Africa. Sugar interests controlled Parliam ent.
The spice trade: The Dutch conquered Malacca, and controlled Indonesia (nesia = islands) and the spice trade from there.
1600
Science: W illiam Gilbert (1544-1603), Queen Elizabeth 1’s physician, published De Magnete, which said that the Earth
is a m agnet and suggested that the planets were held in their orbits by som e kind of m agnetism . It was the m ost
com prehensive treatise ever written on m agnetism . Gilbert supported Copernicus’s Heliocentric theory.
17 thCent.
The Century of intellectual giants: Borelli, Bruno, Gilbert, Francis Bacon, Calderon de la Barca, Cervantes, Galileo,
Kepler, Herbert, Grotius, Boyle, M ersenne, Descartes, Hobbes, van Leeuw enhoek, Pascal, Huygens, Harvey,
M oliere, Fabricus, W ren, Hooke, Steno, Giovanni Cassini, Roemer, Shakespeare, Spinoza, Halley, New ton, von
Leibniz, Locke, Bayle.
Overview: It was a century of intense scientific activity and progress. The Scientific Method was the m ajor
developm ent of the 17 th century, the m ost valuable gift to the world, and the key to progress in m any kinds of knowledge,
infinitely m ore im portant than any particular invention, and absolutely enabled by developing tools of m easurem ent.
Science becam e the m ost distinctive hum an activity. Even so, the num ber of geniuses who influenced and advanced
m odern society through inventions or philosophical or econom ic or political thinking was (and is) infinitesim al and their
audience was also sm all, only the educated elite. The masses continued unaware, ignorant, illiterate.
In the 17 th century, Secularism (the doctrine that m orality should be based solely on the well-being of Man in the
present life, without considerations relating to God) becam e the dom inant characteristic of European intellectual thought,
although not of the m asses influenced by their religions.
The center of the W estern world, with new trade routes going to Am erica, was shifting to the cities of N.W . Europe.
Secularism
Ruled
c1600
Francis
Bacon
Sir Francis Bacon, (1561-1626), lawyer, MP at 23, Later lord chancellor, one of the principal founders of m odern science,
an advocate of em piricism and advocate of m odern Inductive m ethod, studied at Cam bridge, then a bulwark of Aristotlean
scholasticism . Only Anglican clergy could teach there. Most im portantly, he taught scholars how to think. Catholic science
rested on Aristotelian foundations, i.e., all species and the heavens were fixed by God for all tim e.
Galileo and Bacon were the first to forthrightly challenge Aristotle’s thinking that had dom inated science and philosophy
for 2000 years. A true Renaissance m an and a firm believer, Francis Bacon 1592, “I have taken all knowledge to be m y
province” “The true and lawful end of the sciences is that hum an life be enriched by new discoveries and powers.” The
66
basis of his philosophy was practical. He wanted to keep philosophy apart from theology. A failure of his was that he was
ignorant of and deprecated the use of m athem atics to physical inquiries. W hile he thought reason could show God existed,
all else in theology was known only by revelation. He said, “A little philosophy inclineth Man’s m ind to atheism , but depth
in philosophy bringeth m en’s m inds about to religion...He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune/”
In Advancement of Learning 1605, he wrote, “Knowledge grows as we observe, m easure, and describe objects or natural
phenom ena..(the science of m athem atical physics).W e are not to im agine or suppose but to discover what nature is or
to be m ade to do...They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.”
Bacon favored Induction (going from specific exam ples to general conclusions) over Aristotle’s Deduction, as Deduction
was often based on assum ptions which were logical and intuitive, but false, and not based on nature or hands-on
experim entation and m easurem ent. In Induction, the specific prem ises support the conclusion, but don’t ensure it. As
previously noted, the better the prem ises, the better the conclusion. Any serious scientific advance had to attack som e
Aristotelean theory. The phrase “Knowledge is power.” paraphrases a statem ent by Bacon in 1597
1603
Hieronymus Fabricus, Italian surgeon, described one-way valves in veins. The heart pum ped blood thru arteries.
1605
Literature: M iguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616) wrote Don Quixote, a novel m ocking chivalric rom ances of the
day. Quixote tilted at windm ills, forever being tricked and cheated, seeking the im possible dream of justice in an earthly
paradise. “There are but two fam ilies in the world, the Have-much and the Have-little.” Don Quixote is the m ost translated
book in the world. Quixote and Sancho Panza are the best known fictional characters in literature.
Poetry in the vernacular languages began to appear.
16051609
1605 Galileo described acceleration of falling bodies, lectured on a new star beyond the m oon, showing change in the
heavens, In 1606 he invented and sold “Military Com passes” a/k/a proportional com passes, an early type of slide rule.
In 1609, Galileo built a ten power refracting telescope and dem onstrated it for the Venetian Senate from the top of
Venice’s Cam panile (bell tower). It could see ships 50 m iles away. (Telescope had been patented in 1608 by Hans
Lippershey, Dutch, but others also claim ed the invention. A refracting telescope has a strong (short focal length) concave
lens near the eye and a weak (long focal length) convex lens at arm ’s length, the objective lens). The telescope released
the hum an im agination m ore than any other device ever. (m ore Galileo 1610, 1612+, 1624, 1633)
1607
Jam estown founded; 1619 slaves arrived. 2 earlier colonies on Roanoke Island, NC, had disappeared in 1586 and 1590.
In 1620, Pilgrim s sailed for Virginia; winds blew them to Plym outh, Mass. Pilgrim s shared possessions in com m on.
1609
Political Theory; the concept of the Nation State: Johannes Althusius, a Monarchom ach, defined state sovereignty as
“the highest and m ost general power of adm inistering the affairs which generally concern the safety and welfare of the
soul and body of m em bers of the state.” This power could not be absolute as it was lim ited by the laws of God, the laws
of nature, and a social contract with the people. This of course differed greatly from Bodin’s absolutism , although Hobbes
(in 1651) used the concept of a social contract as the basis of the m ost im posing intellectual justification of absolute state
power ever presented, absolutism .
1609
Astronom y: Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Austrian, once Brahe’s assistant, had, in 1604, studied another widely seen
supernova without a telescope. In 1609, he published Astronomia Nova /The New Astronomy, with a description of a new
supernova and introduced elliptical astronom y, and the first two of his still-valid three laws of planetary m otion that
explained the epicenters and eccentric orbits of planets. He put Copernicus’s general theory into precise m athem atical
form ula. Before Kepler, the Copernican heliocentric theory had very few adherents. Kepler said, “God is praised through
m y work.” He published, On the Motions of the Planet Mars. His three laws of planetary m otion were/are:
Kepler’s
Law s
1. Planets revolve around the sun in elliptical orbits; (not circular but close to circular).
2. A radius vector joining a planet circling the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal tim es. (It goes faster when it’s closer
to the sun). (This was not generally accepted until New ton’s Principia, 1687)
3. The further away from the sun, the longer a planet’s orbit around the sun. Specifically, the average distance to the sun
cubed is proportional to the orbit tim e squared. This third law was published in 1618 and all 3 were put on the Index.
Anticipating gravity, Kepler held that som e force of m utual attraction held the m oon in orbit around the Earth. The
Protestant Consistory in Stuttgart told Kepler “not to throw Christ’s kingdom into confusion with your silly fancies.”
Kepler’s laws enabled persons to calculate the exact distance to the Sun of every planet. He was the first to say that
planets’s orbits depended on physical m athem atical forces, not divine will. Thus he joined physics and astronom y for
the first tim e. Pluto (now term ed a dwarf planet as it’s only .002 the size of Earth), and the farthest out, has an orbit of
247.92 years, Neptune 164.8 yrs, Uranus 54.02 years, Saturn 29.4 yrs, Jupiter 11.86 years, Mars 1.88 yrs, Earth one
year/365.25 days, Venus 224 days, Mercury 88 days. Our Sun, as stars go, is not particularly large, but is 1.3 m illion tim es
larger than the Earth and com prises 99% of our solar system .
67
1609
16101611
By 1609, the HRE was two hostile cam ps, the Protestant Union and the Catholic League. Bloody warfare continued.
Galileo constructed a 30 power celestial telescope and saw the m oon had m ountains and valleys. He m easured the
heights of the m oon’s m ountains by the shadows they cast. Saw the Milky W ay was a huge num ber of faint stars. Saw
4 m oons around Jupiter. He saw Venus went through the phases of the m oon, which proved that Venus orbits the Sun;
he detailed stars previously too faint to see, far m ore than previously thought of, confirm ing Democritus’s and ibnBiruni’s star speculations. He thus turned the telescope into an instrum ent of research. He returned to the University of
Pisa. He wrote and published his findings re the Moon, Jupiter, and the stars in Sidereus Nuncius /Starry Messenger with
a m ap of the Moon that exists to this day (in the Vatican). It astonished the world. He showed his telescope to the
astronom ers at the Jesuit Collegio Romano and was warm ly welcom ed. His observations were confirm ed by astronom ers
in England, France, and by the Collegio Romano observatory of Christopher Clavius. W hile in Rom e, he was m ade a
m em ber of the Academia dei Linci./ Lincean Academy at a Collegio Romano banquet held for that purpose.
In a debate, he defended the Archim edean principle that bodies heavier than the water they displaced, sank, while bodies
lighter floated, as against the Aristotelean (and Church) view that objects floated as they could not overcom e the
resistance of the water. Cardinal Barberini, later Pope Urban 8, supported him in this debate.
1611
Religion: King James published the Bible in English (i.e.,The King James Bible, cited herein), to unite Anglicans, using
m ost of Tyndale and W ycliffe’s versions. James asserted the divine right of kings, citing 1 Peter 2:17 and Romans 13:17;
In 1609, told Parliam ent, “Kings are justly called Gods, for they exercise a m anner of resem blance of Divine power upon
earth. For if you consider the attributes of God, you shall see how they agree in the person of a king.”
1612
Galileo privately circulated his Sunspots Letters which described that sunspots rotated, so concluded that the Sun itself
rotated. [The Sun rotates once every 25 days.] Sunspots Letters also laid out Galileo’s view of the principle of inertia
(pre-dating New ton’s first law of m otion, 1687). Other European astronom ers also saw sunspots.
Galileo published Discourse on Floating Bodies, used principles of Archimedes to develop elem entary hydrostatics.
1613
In 1613, the Lincean Academ y published Galileo’s Sunspots Letters. Catholic clergy resisted. Monsignor Elci, head of
the University of Pisa, forbad the astronom er Castelli, a student of Galileo’s, to m ention sunspots to his students.
Mention of sunspots was banned at Catholic universities across Europe, in Spain even until the 19 th century. Galileo wrote
a letter to Castelli describing heliocentrism , that the planets including the Earth, itself revolving, revolved around the Sun
(geokinetic m otion, earth-centered is called geocentric). Copies were circulated. One copy reached the Vatican.
1614
Opposition to Galileo: In Decem ber 1614, Dom inican Friar Tom maso Caccini in Florence denounced heliocentrism and
Galileo personally and even m athem atics itself. “Geom etry is of the Devil... Mathem aticians should be banished as
authors of all heresies.” Friar Niccolo Lorini told the Inquisition that Galileo was a heretic. In 1615, the Inquisition in
Rom e began to investigate Galileo. Monk Paolo Foscarini tried in vain to reconcile Scripture with heliocentrism .
1616
A com m ittee of consultants told the Inquisition that heliocentrism was absurd in philosophy (science) and heretical. Pope
Leo 10 saw it as an attack on the Church. The Sacred Congregation of the Index suspended Copernicus’s Revolutions
until it could be corrected, as heliocentrism was false as it was opposed to Holy Scripture. The decree also prohibited
any work that said the Earth m oved. Roberto Cardinal Bellarmino, chief Catholic theologian, insisted physical reality was
explained not by m ath but by the Scriptures and the Vatican. “To adm it otherwise would discredit the Church’s deepest
beliefs.” He was correct; it did. Bellarmino told Galileo not to hold or defend the Copernican theory.
1616
1616
Bellarmino could have used Augustine’s m ethod of interpreting the Scriptures not literally, go below the “surface”
plain m eaning (i.e, “W hat this passage really m eans is...”) to avoid conflicts between science and dogm a, as m odern
Christian theologians routinely do, and, in fact, as Galileo him self suggested. Galileo was called an atheist..
Bellarmino was a political theorist as well. He criticized Plato’s Republic, said that such form of aristocracy m ay work
for a city state, but was not suitable for a nation. (He gave away all his goods, died a pauper in 1621, sainted in 1930.)
Galileo wrote that tides were caused by the uneven rotation of the Earth, his one m ajor scientific error.
1619
Lucilio Vanini, Italian priest, wrote Dialogues Concerning Nature. Inquisition cut out his tongue, strangled, burnt him .
1620
Francis Bacon: (also 1600) In Novum Organum (a takeoff of Aristotle’s Organum), Bacon introduced a new system
of logic. To find the essence of heat, 1. list all situations where heat is found. 2. list sim ilar situations except no heat. 3.
list situations where heat varies. The cause of heat is that com m on to all in list 1, lacking in list 2, and varies in list 3. This
was critical in developing the Scientific Method. Novum Organum is one of the greatest exhibitions of hum an genius in
the history of hum an thought. It showed the m odern world the way out of the scholastic m ethod and reverence for dogm a
into the experim ental m ethod and reverence for fact. It denounced those who have “endeavored to found a natural
philosophy on the books of Genesis and Job.” But said the end of science is the glory of the Creator.
Francis
Bacon
In Novum Organum, Bacon said that m ankind’s thinking was led astray by idolatry of five kinds:
1. Idols of the tribe, com m on to all people, i.e., the tendency to oversim plify, expecting m ore order in nature.
68
2.
3.
4.
5.
Idols
Idols
Idols
Idols
of
of
of
of
the
the
the
the
cave, are errors caused by individual idiosyncrasies, prejudices, characteristics.
m arketplace caused by loose language, of the tyranny of words, and escaping their influence.
theater, philosophical or religious system s that hindered the patient search for truth.
schools, thinking som e blind rule, like syllogism , can replace observation, judgm ent in investigation.
Bacon: “Nothing is terrible except fear itself.” In Essays (1625), “If a m an will begin with certainties, he shall end in
doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties...No pleasure com pares to standing upon
the vantage-ground of truth..Be so true to thyself, as thou be not false to others.” “Riches are for spending.” He identified
the issue of selective perception, where m an accepts results that agree with him and ignore those that don’t
1624
Galileo returned to Rom e as he felt he had better proof of heliocentrism . He based his defense of heliocentrism on his
incorrect theory of tidal m otion. The new pope, Urban 8, who in 1611 had defended Galileo’s anti-Aristotle argum ents
re floating bodies, told him to discuss heliocentrism only hypothetically until he had definite proof. Galileo returned to
Florence to put his proof in a book. Galileo was the first m odern m an to understand that m ath can truly describe the
physical world. Said, “The Book of Nature is written in m athem atics.” He and Francis Bacon resurrected Pythagoras’s
vision of m ath not for its own sake but to clarify the nature of physical relationships. The Church was in the m idst of the
assault by Protestants, vying for its place as the interpreter of the Bible.
1624
Religion, deism: Edw ard Herbert (1583-1648), diplom at, m etaphysical poet, historian, and philosopher, the Father of
deism, advanced an anti-em pirical theory of knowledge. Said the com m on articles of all religions apprehended by instinct,
include the existence of God, duty of worship and repentance, future rewards and punishm ent. Herbert published On
Truth which said “Instructed reason” is the surest guide to truth. To Herbert, the com m on beliefs of religions inferred a
God, but they did not infer anything beyond that. He then posited a religious philosophy consistent with what he saw.
Deism
Deism is belief in natural religion based on hum an reason rather than revelation; em phasizing m orality but denying God
interferes in the natural laws of the universe). An im personal God created the universe but thereafter let it run according
to its natural laws. Deism was thus not Christianity or any organized religion, m erely a religious philosophy as it posited
a divine creator. Organized clergy were sim ply hum an creations. It had no churches or priests or dogm a. Jefferson,
W ashington, Hobbes, Locke, Paine, Voltaire, Franklin, John Adam s, M adison, Pope, Rousseau, Adam Smith,
Robespierre, Hugo, Ethan Allen, Tw ain and m ost of the philosophes of 18th century Enlightenment were deists.
1624
Chem istry: Jan Helmont, Flem ish, said air was not the only kind of gas. King James ordered all Jesuits out of England.
1625
Political Theory, State Sovereignty: Huig de Groot/Hugo Grotius, Dutch, (1583-1645), the “Father of International Law,”
defined sovereignty as “that power whose acts are not subject to the control of another.” State sovereignty was not
absolute but subject to divine law, the law of nature, by international law, and by agreem ents between the rulers and the
ruled. Grotius said that a nation was sovereign when it was free from control by another state.
His great treatise, De Jure Belli ac Pacis / Concerning the Law of W ar and Peace (1625) was written in prison, from
which he escaped in a trunk supposedly full of books, with the aid of his clever wife.
He was revolted by the atrocities he saw being carried out in the then ongoing wars of religion of which “barbarous
nations would be asham ed.” He com piled the rules he felt nations ought to follow. He com bined custom and reason. He
m ade the case for natural law in international relations.
1628
Sir W illiam Drummond, Scot: “He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; he who dares not is a slave.“
W illiam Harvey, British doctor: Blood is pum ped from the heart thru arteries and returns through veins to the heart.
1631
Jesuit Frederick Spee’s Cautio Criminalis condem ned the cruelty and injustice of witch hunts.
1632
Augustine’s allegorical City of Man and City of God had becom e (as per Aquinas) Earth and the heavens, and to
question this im m utability was unacceptable. The heavens were the prom ise of G od to the faithful. Galileo published
Dialogo del due massimi sistemi del mundo / Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the W orld, The Ptolemaic and the
Copernican, wherein an anti-Copernican sim pleton quoted certain of Urban’s words from a private conversation he had
had with Galileo. Pope Urban 8 took offense. In fact, Galileo’s proof was based on his incorrect theory of tides; so he
had no real proof. But the m erits of Galileo’s proof were irrelevant. He was charged sim ply with teaching heliocentrism .
1633
Galileo
Trial
The Rom an Inquisition, ten Dom inican cardinals, convicted Galileo for “vehem ent suspicion of heresy,” not heresy,
teaching heliocentrism contrary to a m ost certainly forged and unsigned docum ent prohibiting him (and only him ) from
teaching heliocentrism “any way whatsoever,” even by way of discussion or speculation. The Church decreed that
scientific hypotheses could not contradict the Scriptures in any way. Repeatedly threatened with torture on orders from
Pope Urban 8, Galileo recanted his belief in heliocentrism . He was 70. The Church forbade him from further scientific
work, put his book on the Index, sentenced him for life to house arrest, and prohibited him from speaking about
heliocentrism to anyone. The Church widely distributed his recantation. The Church won the battle; it silenced Galileo,
but of course it lost the war. Science inexorably advanced. (Like Copernicus, Galileo still thought planets’s orbits were
circular, contra Kepler’s ellipses.)
69
Galileo returned to his house in Florence, but did not give up his studies. There he m easured the force of gravity.
In 1638, he tried to m easure the speed of light but his instrum ents were not accurate enough. In 1638, he went blind.
In his last years, he worked, unsuccessfully, on applying the pendulum to a clock. (Huygens succeeded in 1657.)
The conflict between Galileo and the Church was about the role of science itself in the world. Basically, Galileo’s whole
being was an affront to the Church. Galileo intended to replace the Church’s authority with reason/science. Galileo risked
his freedom for science itself, and the theory of another m an, Copernicus. Galileo said that what he could prove by
experim ent and m ath was true. Said, “I do not feel obligated to believe that the sam e God who has endowed us with
sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use.” Galileo caused an intellectual revolution by proposing
that physicists should discard Aristotelian essences and that the only way to find out what was happening was to observe,
experim ent, and m easure, empiricism. In experim ent, to look for the nearest cause for a phenom enon (Occam’s razor),
and realize that the universe could be reliably observed and should be reduced, if possible, to m athem atics.
Theology: The Bible and the Koran (and the Book of Mormon) have m essages of both m ercy and intolerance, and
statem ents about the world scientifically absurd. (Much m odern Christian theology explains how the absurdities in the
Bible, (purportedly inspired by G od) don’t m ean what they plainly say. Som e persons sim ply believe the Bible’s words
as literal truth, biblical inerrancy. (Muslim , Jewish, and Morm on scholars have sim ilar difficulties with their scriptures.)
The Church’s persecutions of Bruno, Vanini, and Galileo largely stopped scientific inquiry in Catholic Europe. So, the
center of intellectual inquiry shifted to Protestant Northern Europe. Descartes (1637) stopped publishing in Catholic
France, m oved to Holland. Galileo finished his scientifically m ost im portant book Discourse on Two New Sciences, a book
on physics, but could not get it published in Italy. In 1638, it was published in Leiden in the Netherlands. The Church’s rigid
adherence to Ptolem y (Earth centered universe) and hostility to science in general caused educated people to see
scientific investigations as different from , and perhaps m ore valid than, religious beliefs.
c1633+
Science: M arin M ersenne (1588-1648), a French Minorite friar, m athem atician, scientist, m ost im portantly corresponded
with all the leading thinkers of the day, spreading their ideas to each other. In 1634, he published Questions, and
advanced the developm ent of the Scientific Method that had been forbidden to Italians. His form ula:
1. Reject all previous authority
2. Base all results on direct observations (empiricism), and
3. Ground all understanding of natural phenom ena in m athem atics (Descartes, Galileo, Bacon).
W hile Europe was in a tim e of rapid crisis, with m any Protestant sects, m urderous religious wars, humanism spreading.
The Muslim , Chinese, Japanese, and Hindu civilizations were scarcely affected. They stagnated in relative isolation.
c1637
Rene
Descartes
Discourse
on
Method
Philosophy: Rene Descartes (1596-1650), French, with a Jesuit education, was the father of and m ajor figure of m odern
continental rationalism, later advocated by Spinoza and von Leibniz, and opposed by the empiricist school of Hobbes,
Locke, Berkeley, and Hum e. Both rationalism and empiricism contradicted Christian dogm a. Descartes was the founder
of m odern philosophy and the m ost im portant philosopher since Aristotle. He brought together all the leading ideas of
the 17 th century. Deeply Catholic, he did m ore to underm ine the Church’s authority than any other person, sim ply because
he created a scientific m ethodology (discarding Medieval divine revelation) that revolutionized how m ankind thought.
More than any m an, he m arked the intellectual transition from the Middle Ages to the m odern world. He invented a
m ethod for effectively dealing with the m aterial world.His basic idea was that all truth m ust be capable of proof; not just
handed down from authorities. Moved to Holland in 1628 to avoid French kings. In 1632, after m any years of study and
travel, Descartes wrote Le Monde organizing all current knowledge into one great structure. But, seeing Galileo’s
punishm ent, did not publish it. In 1637, sim ply wrote Discourse on Method, an astonishing book wherein he first cam e
to doubt everything doubtable, that is, everything but his own existence, therefore he existed. (“Je pense, donc Je suis.”
“I think, therefore I exist.”) In order to think, it is necessary to exist. He wanted to m ake a clean sweep of all the
com fortable old assum ptions from his existence, to take nobody’s word for anything, to find som ething he could be sure
of. Descartes classified ideas as: 1. Innate ideas, originate from within, such as the idea of self, 2. Adventitious ideas
that com e through the senses, and 3. Factitious ideas that are m ade up from the elem ents of ideas of other things.
The second principle he deduced was that as the m ind cannot be doubted, but the body and the m aterial world can be,
they m ust be different, Cartesian dualism. (Anaxagoras had separated m ind from m atter c450 BC.) As the physical
world was different from the m ind, it could be studied by reason and m athem atics. This was devastating to traditional
religious views. From there, all that he had doubted into non-existence, m inus all the useless lum ber of ancient and
Medieval learning, he dem onstrated back into existence.
In Discourse on Method, he said that the body works like a m achine and follows the laws of physics, whereas the m ind
(or soul) is im m aterial and follows its own set of rules.
His m ethod to find truth:
1. Only accept a proposition that is distinct and based on clear and convincing evidence.
2. Divide each of the difficulties into as m any parts as possible and as m ay be required to resolve them better.
3. Direct your thoughts in an orderly m anner, starting with the sim plest and m ost easily known parts.
70
4. Record all steps com pletely and clearly.
In using this m ethod, do the following; reduce the problem to m athem atical form s; Use the fewest num ber of axiom s (selfevident propositions) to shape it, use analytic geom etry (which Descartes invented for the purpose), further reduce the
description of the problem to a set of num bers; use algebra, solve the equation. This m ethod was less em pirical than
Bacon’s. He felt som e knowledge was independent of experience. i.e, a priori.
Descartes showed the basic weakness of the Argument from Religious Experience (I saw/felt/spoke-to God) one
of the oldest argum ents for a supernatural being) when he showed the uncertainty/unreliability of m ost everyday
perceptions. Hobbes and A. J. Ayer also both later questioned the Religious Experience Argument for its unreliability.
Descartes invented the graph, which turns pairs of num bers represented by X and Y into m eaningful shapes, (called
coordinate geom etry or Cartesian geom etry.) This changed geom etrical problem s into algebraic problem s and unified
algebra and geom etry, the first big step toward today’s integrated structure of m athem atics. This was his m ost
im portant discovery. It allowed both geom etry and algebra to address the sam e problem s.
Descartes also said that a body will always m ove in one direction at the sam e speed, an iteration of the law of inertia,
which New ton m ade his first law of m otion. He also deduced that secondary rainbows resulted from two internal
reflections in raindrops. He wrongly thought light traveled through ether, which filled space. (m ore Descartes 1644, 1664)
1638
Tokogaw a Shogunate severed ties with the W est, isolated them selves off from all the benefits of the scientific
revolution (for 200 years). Japanese abroad were not allowed to return. Japan’s foreign trade went down 99%.
1641
Massachusetts Colony Book of Liberties, “If any m an..shall worship any other god, but the Lord God, he shall be put to
death. If any m an or wom an be a witch..they shall be put to death. If any person shall blasphem e, [again] death.”
1644
Descartes’s theology was Middle Ages. He published The Principles of Philosophy (207 of them ), his replacem ent for
Aristotle. It repeated his m otto “I think, therefore I exist.” in Latin, “Cogito, ergo sum .” Much of The Principles of
Philosophy was an explanation of his Argument from the Idea of God, sim ilar to the Ontological Argument for God, built
on Anselm (1078). Descartes wrote, “God’s existence is inferred from the fact that necessary existence is contained
in the clear and distinct idea of a suprem ely perfect being,” i.e., God’s existence is self-evident. “As we are finite, the idea
of an infinite being m ust have com e from such infinite being.” That is, only God could have caused the idea of God to arise
in our m inds. Descartes’s infinite being was not the God of the Bible. His God was derived from reason, not faith.
But, “Divine authority takes precedence over all our perceptions. Also “That our will is free is self evident.”
He also said, “The greatest m inds are capable of the greatest vices as well as the greatest virtues.”
Also, “It is not enough to have a good m ind. The m ain thing is to use it well. And, ”The whole of philosophy is a tree whose
roots are m etaphysics, whose trunk is physics, and whose branches are the other sciences.”
Also, “As we cannot think of any lim it to space, it m ust be infinite.” (ref. Democritus, al Haytham, Bruno, Galileo)
The world of the im m aterial, i.e., theology, which had been the focus of scholarship for centuries, ceased to interest
Renaissance thinkers. Before Descartes, theology was the predom inant course of study, m athem atical physics a
m inor science. After Descartes, it was reversed. This was one of the m ost radical changes in the history of thought.
Universities established chairs in science. (m ore Descartes 1664)
1646
The Levellers, Brits. led by John Lilburne, argued for universal suffrage, equal electoral districts, biennial parliam ents.
1648
The Treaties of W estphalia (Muenster and Osnabrueck) ended the 30 Years W ar (1618-1648) between Catholics and
Protestants, the bloodiest war before the 19 th Century. It left m uch of Europe depopulated, destitute, and in ruin, traversed
by pitiable bands of refugees. The Treaties codified/ratified the political realities, Switzerland and Holland becam e
independent; 300 separate principalities, free cities and bishoprics; princes each chose their land’s religion. The treaties
effectively ended the pope’s pan-Europe political power. So Pope Innocent 10 attacked it as null, void, invalid, etc.
Cossacks slaughtered thousands of Jews.
1649
Politics: The W estern state system rests on state sovereignty, international law, and the politics of the balance of power,
i.e., if any one state becom es so powerful it endangers all other states, the other states will join to stop it.
1649
Oliver Cromw ell (1599-1658), Prim e Minister, adm irer of M achiavelli, led a civil war, begun in 1642 against Charles
1. Cromwell m ade his fam ous plea to the Assem bly of the Church of Scotland in an effort to change their allegiance to
Charles, “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you m ay be m istaken.” In 1649, Parliam ent declared,
“the People are, under God, the original of all just power...Com m ons (them selves) have suprem e power.” Charles 1 was
beheaded. Parliam ent becam e the suprem e power under Cromw ell, the first true governm ent of laws. The m onarch’s
power was reduced forever. Parliam ent (white, m ale, propertied, hugely unrepresentative, corrupt; 3% of British m ales
could vote) now ruled. As head of the arm y, Cromw ell brutally m assacred tens of thousands of Irish m en, wom en, and
children. He introduced an extrem e theocratic state, which, when he died in 1658, led to a restoration of the m onarchy.
1650
James
Ussher
Theology: Bishop James Ussher of Arm agh, Anglican Prim ate of All Ireland, Privy Councillor, calculated that God created
the Earth on October 22, 4004 BC and that Adam and Eve were driven from paradise 18 days later. This was consistent
with then current Christian thinking but no one had previously m ade such a precise calculation.
71
Despite the fact that Anglican dogm a was copied alm ost entirely from Catholic dogm a, he had written in 1626 that
“The religion of the papists (Catholics) is superstitious and idolatrous; their faith and doctrine erroneous and heretical;...
to give them a toleration or to consent that they m ay freely exercise their religion is a grievous sin.”
16501789
Overview: The failure of Europeans to agree upon the truths of religion, within as well as across state boundaries,
furthered secularism and m odern science. In states where the Reform ation (the Bible rules) cam e closer to success, i.e.,
where lay and church forces joined to im pose an alm ost religious conform ity, it caused intellectual stagnation. Religion
becam e m ore private. A m erchant class grew. The collision and interaction between the Renaissance and the
Reform ation raised the intellectual & m oral energies of Europe to a new height. No later tim e has been so revolutionary.
The com m on languages, French, Spanish, Portugese, & Germ an were used m ore. In France, nobles were lightly taxed.
States turned to frontier and colonial expansion. Spain im ported gold and silver. Furs from Siberia and Canada, gold and
diam onds from Brazil (from 1695) were the m ost im portant im ports. Europeans transform ed the Caribbean into sugar
plantations based on slavery. Exploration abated; trade expanded. Thousands of Spanish and Portugese m issionaries
turned S. and Central Am erica into Catholic countries. Islam spread across Central and Southeast Asia.
1651
Political Theory, The Social Contract: Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) wrote Leviathan, a defense of absolute m onarchy.
Founding father of m etaphysical m aterialism . He disputed Descartes’s separation of m ind from m atter. The two basic
“passions” of Man were appetite and aversion. Happiness is getting as m any of the good things one
desires and power is the m eans of getting such objects. Thus, power is a basic characteristic of Man, which leads to
aggression against others. In the state of nature there is no right or wrong, there is only self defense.
Thomas
Hobbes
He wrote, [In a state of nature], ”no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of
violent death; and the life of Man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.” So m en enter into a social contract to
establish a state to keep peace and order. (Hum e a century later pointed out that civilizations actually arose as
com m unities of obedience.) Because m en are selfish by nature, a powerful absolute ruler, a leviathan, is necessary.
Leviathan changed the subject of political thought from theology to anthropology, specifically the anthropology of religious
passions. He asked how people act, and why do they believe God speaks to them . To understand that m ay lead to why
religious convictions lead to political conflict/violence. Hobbes offended Catholics, said, “The Papacy is not other than
the deceased ghost of the Rom an Em pire, sitting crowned on the grave thereof.”
Hobbes felt dem ocracy was dangerous. “A dem ocracy is no m ore than an aristocracy of orators. The people are
so easily m oved by dem agogues that control m ust be exercised by the governm ent over speech and press.”
Solitary,
poore,
nasty,
brutish,
and
short
Hobbes’s philosophy was the m ost com plete m aterialistic philosophy of the 17 th century. He explained everything on
m echanical principles. “All knowledge com es by way of the senses, and the objects of knowledge are m aterial bodies
obeying physical forces.” Religious doctrines were “insignificant sound.” Man is a group of m aterial particles in m otion.
He so angered the Church that he was tem porarily exiled to France. He also offended the rationalists by claim ing that
m en, far from being capable of the highest intellectual achievem ents, were dangerous and aggressive creatures.
Like Aristotle, Hobbes said science is the knowledge of consequences and dependence of one fact upon
1654
Pascal
Science: Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) proved that air was not weightless, and that air pressure decreased with altitude;
we live at the bottom of a sea of air. Also that a vacuum exists at the top of a barom eter. Descartes disagreed, but
Pascal was right. W ith Pierre de Fermat, he invented the m athem atical theory of probability. Anticipating Popper’s 1920
falsifiability concept, he said that to show a hypothesis is evident, it is not enough that all phenom ena follow from it;
instead, if it leads to som ething contrary to a single one of the phenom ena, that is enough to show its falsity.
Theology: After an epiphany in 1654, Pascal devoted his life to Christ. He wanted to keep science and religion united,
“He who cannot believe is cursed, for he reveals by his unbelief that God has not chosen to give him grace.” There are
two essential religious truths: there is a God, & there is a corruption of nature which m akes m en unworthy of him .
1656
Huygens
1657
Leopold
de
M edici
Physics, Astronom y: Christiaan Huygens (1629-1697), Dutch, m ade the first practical pendulum clock, patented 1657.
It was spring-driven. So accurate that clocks could have m inute hands. He m ade the first balance spring clock. (Hooke
developed a balance spring watch at about the sam e tim e.) Huygens studied centrifugal and centripetal force and
generalized the concept of the center of gravity in strict m athem atical term s. Looking through a refracting telescope he
built, Huygens discovered that Mars rotated (every 24.67 hours) and that Saturn had rings. Huygens and Galileo showed
that force could act at a distance (m agnetism , gravity) and need not be directly applied. (m ore Huygens 1690)
Catholic fear of science continued: The Academy of Science was founded in Florence under the presidency of Prince
Leopold de M edici. Its only fundam ental law was “the repudiation of any favorite system or sect of philosophy, and the
obligation to investigate Nature by the pure light of experim ent.” This was hitting the Church in the head with a 2 by 4. The
Vatican declared it irreligious and Pope Alexander 7 bribed Leopold to Rom e by m aking him a cardinal. W ithout him ,
his Academy of Science faded and died in ten years.
Around this tim e, ancient theories of the m ystical power of num bers, 3 and 7 especially, becam e part of Christian
tradition, slowing scientific thought. Theologic and m etaphysical substitutes for scientific thought like the notion that the
perfect line is a circle, so planets m ust travel in circles, led astronom y astray even after Kepler.
72
c1660
By 1660, the m icroscope was teaching scientists as the telescope did. Scientific academ ies were established, a m ost
im portant developm ent. The English Royal Society 1660, Academie des Sciences, Paris 1666. Their m eetings and
journals spread previously isolated scientific knowledge, breaking the m onopoly of the universities, all under clerical
control. Most of the m em bers of the Royal Society were m oderate Puritans and friendly to science. Its charter said their
study of science was to glorify God. The center of activity in m ost intellectual spheres was m oving northwest from Rom e.
1661
Biology: M arcello M alpighi, Italian doctor, discovered blood capillaries with the newly invented m icroscope, closing the
circle of blood circulation W illiam Harvey had described. He wrongly thought hum ans pre-form ed in the m other’s egg.
Robert
Boyle
1664
Treatise
on Man
Chem istry: Robert Boyle (1627-1691), Irish, a leader of the Em pirical school of natural science, established a lab at
Oxford to study chem istry. He rejected Aristotle’s view that logical argum ent was sufficient to prove a case. Boyle
published The Sceptical Chymist. It critiqued parts of alchem y (the attem pt to turn base m etals into gold) he thought illfounded, although he experim ented extensively in alchem y. Sceptical Chymist established chem istry as a rational and
experim ental science. Boyle described elem ents and com pounds. He said there m ay be m ore than four elem ents,
perhaps m ore than five. Chymist refuted Aristotle’s ideas on the chem ical com position of m atter. Boyle introduced the
m odern concepts of elem ents, alkali, and acid, prom oted the corpuscular/atom istic view of m atter. Boyle also discovered
that air was necessary for the propagation of sound. Theologians at Oxford (now Anglican) said his researches were
destroying religion. In 1664,Boyle wrote that the study of nature is to the greater glory of God. (m ore Boyle 1666)
Descartes’s Treatise on Man and the Formation of the Fetus, printed in 1664, after he died, described anim als as purely
m echanical beings; there was no “vital force” that m ade anim als different from other m aterial objects. Louis 14 prevented
his burial in France, afraid of his ideas. His Le Monde, also printed in 1664, affirm ed Copernican theory. (He had written
but abandoned the book in 1633 after learning of Galileo’s persecution by the Church.) The Church did not want a
rationally argued acceptance of religious belief (It sim ply wanted faith) and so put aside Descartes’s devotion and in 1663,
put his books on the Index. Catholic universities condem ned his books. Protestants as well criticized his books. The
m odern concept of the subject (versus object) is based on his philosophy. To avoid French kings, Descartes lived in
Holland.
1663
James Gregory designed a reflecting telescope. It corrected spherical & chrom atic aberration of refracting telescopes.
16611675
Physics: Isaac New ton (1642-1727), natural philosopher (scientist) and m athem atician, the pre-em inent scientific genius
of all tim e. In 1661, he entered Trinity College, Cam bridge. There he invented differential calculus to deal with bodies in
m otion. Algebra and geom etry deal only with static objects. Calculus is the m athem atics of instantaneous rates of change,
and it has two m ain branches. Differential calculus perm its the calculation of these rates, such as finding tangents to
curves: given the rate of change of som e quantity, it derives the quantity itself, while Integral calculus does the converse.
(Von Leibniz (see 1710) independently and virtually at the sam e also developed calculus.)
The plague closed Cam bridge for 18 m onths after Newton’s 1665 graduation, during which tim e he lived on his
fam ily farm . W hile there, alone, in 1665, he used fluxions /calculus to find the tangent and the radius of curvature at
any point on a curve. He devised instrum ents to grind lenses with non-spherical curves. He conducted optical
experim ents with a prism and deduced that white light is m ade up of a spectrum of colored lights.
Isaac
New ton
Gravity
has a
inverse
square
force
On the farm , he form ulated his theories of gravity (with an inverse square force, i.e., it decreases as the square of the
distance between objects) and planetary m otion. He concluded that the force that caused an apple to fall was the sam e
force that m ade the m oon to “fall” towards the Earth and the Earth to stay in orbit around the Sun, gravity, thus unifying
terrestrial and celestial m echanics. New ton did not understand why gravity acts (No one yet knows), only how. (Descartes
had hypothesized that “vortices” caused gravity, as he did not believe that a force could act through em pty space.)
New ton would not hypothesize. In 1666, he introduced his works on calculus.
1664
Jean-Baptiste Polequin/ M oliere (1622-1673), great m aster of com edy in W estern literature. Le Tartouffe/The Hypocrite
1664, skewered religious hypocrites; Le Misanthrope (1666) ridiculed social m annerism s; Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
(1670) ridiculed social clim bers and m any others. Nobles and the Church took offense and attacked him .
1666
Boyle (also 1661) published The Origin of Forms and Qualities, with his view that everything is built of atom s, his
m echanical view of nature. Origin of Forms also explained gasses’s volum e-pressure-tem perature relationship, i.e.,
Boyle’s Law: At fixed tem perature, for a fixed m ass of gas, its volum e tim es pressure is a constant. [P = absolute
pressure, V = volum e. The form ula is PV = k (a constant)] i.e., double the pressure, halve the volum e, etc. Richard
Tow neley and Henry Pow er suggested it to Boyle. He published it. (Charles 1787 & Guy-Lussac 1802 added to it.)
Law s of
Gasses
Boyle
1668
John W allis, Brit, suggested the law of conservation of momentum, later becam e New ton’s 3 rd law of m otion.
1669
In 1666, New ton m easured the Moon’s orbit. He calculated the Moon’s period at 27.25 days. (Alm ost perfect).
By 1669, New ton had worked out the details of his 1665 discovery that white light was m ade up of different colored lights.
His first lectures at Cam bridge (1669-1671) were on optics. He did not repeat any lectures but m anuscripts were m ade.
In 1675, New ton said that light was a stream of tiny particles/corpuscles. (m ore New ton 1672, 1683+)
73
c1670
Robert
Hooke
1670
Pascal,
Bet God
exists
Physics: Robert Hooke (1635-1703) Brit, assistant to Boyle, then in 1662 Curator of Experiments for the Royal Society;
in 1666 he told the Society that all heavenly bodies m utually attract each other, and the closer the greater the attraction,
but he did not know the degree of attraction.) Also that such bodies m ove in a straight line unless deflected.
In 1670, he wrote Micrographia which explained com bustion as som ething com bining with oxygen. He proved
experim entally that the center of gravity of the Earth and Moon is the point describing an ellipse around the Sun. He
inferred that Jupiter rotated, invented a balance spring in a watch, regulated by a tiny pendulum (before Huygens).
In 1672, he discovered that light diffracts/bends at the edges of objects.
In 1678, he constructed a thirty power com pound m icroscope and expounded the correct theory of elasticity.
Pascal (see 1654), in Pensees /Thoughts , published 8 years after he died, proposed a cynical wager for the existence
of God: “Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will com e to you if you gam ble on its truth
and it proves false?...If you win, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. W ager, then without hesitation, that He exists.”
Pascal’s argum ent fails as: 1. it gives equal validity to any religion, cult, or any god, and 2. one can’t choose to believe
som ething one sincerely doubts. Diderot, a philosophe, a century later said, “An im am could reason the sam e way.”
His strategy in Pensees was to use the contradictory philosophies of skepticism (M ontaigne), and stoicism (Epicetus)
to so confuse an unbeliever that he would em brace God; a bold and questionable strategy.
Pensees: “Saying God exists m eans adopting a entire way of life...Reason is inadequate to satisfy Man...Reason
com m ands us far m ore im periously than a m aster; for in disobeying a m aster, we are unfortunate, and in disobeying
reason, we are fools. The suprem e function of reason is to show m an that som e things are beyond reason. Man is but
a reed, the m ost weak in nature, but he is a thinking reed...Thought m akes the whole dignity of Man; therefore seek to
think well; that is the only m orality...Men never do evil so com pletely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious
conviction...“If we violate the principles of reason, our religion will be absurd and ridiculous. Faith is different from proof;
proof is hum an; faith is a gift from God...Atheism shows strength of m ind, but only to a certain degree.”
1671
Fossils
Geology: Nicolas Steno (1638-1686), Dane, a founder of m odern geology, wrote Dissertation Concerning Solids
W ithin Solids. Posited that fossils were once living organism s that were left in softer m aterials which hardened. He
developed the principle of Superposition of geologic strata, i.e., younger strata are above older.
1672
Astronom y: Jean Richer and Giovanni Cassini, director of the Paris Observatory, calculated the distance to Mars, then
by triangulation between Paris and Cayenne, S. Am erica, to the Sun at c86,800,000 m iles, low by only 7%. Distance of
the Earth to Sun of c93 M m iles is known as an Astronom ical Unit (“AU”). The Earth circles the Sun at c67,000 m ph.
1674
Biology: Antoni van Leeuw enhoek, Dutch, an unlettered but well self-educated linen draper, built a 275 power
m icroscope, the construction of which he kept secret. (His secret was the m agnifying power of a droplet of m olten glass.)
He discovered m icro-organism s. Over 50 years he sent the Royal Society (He was m ade a m em ber) and other scientific
bodies over 500 reports with exquisite drawings of alm ost everything that could be exam ined by m icroscope. He saw and
described blood cells, sperm atozoa, and single-celled organism s like bacteria and swim m ing protozoans. His work
becam e the basis of bacteriology and m icrobiology. He is considered the father of m icrobiology. [ Even though cells
consist of trillions of atom s, they are still too sm all to be seen with the naked eye. 10 m illion would cover a pinhead].
1676
Roem er
Astronom y: Ole Roemer (1644-1710), a Dane, wrote that the apparent anom alous behavior of the eclipses of
satellites/m oons of Jupiter could be accounted for by a finite speed of light. [Aristotle had said the speed of light was
infinite.] W ith the aid of data from Cassini (Paris Observatory), Roem er calculated the light reflected off Jupiter at two
different tim es and estim ated the speed of light at 144,000 m iles/second. (Low by only c29%).
c1677
Philosophy: Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677), Dutch, m ost lovable of the great philosophers, one of the great rationalists
of 17 th century philosophy, paving the way to the 18th century Enlightenment and m odern Biblical criticism ; a Determ inist,
he applied Cartesian theory to philosophy and ethics, replaced Descartes’s “I think, therefore I exist” with, “Love your
neighbor and perfect your reason.” “Man is a social anim al.” He denounced the clergy for exploiting the ignorant m asses.
Baruch
de
Spinoza
Pantheism
Jewish, he did not rem ain orthodox. In 1656, at age 24, without stating reasons, his synagogue in Am sterdam expelled
him . He was offered 1,000 florins per year to conceal his opinions. He declined. It did not disturb him . He was critical of
the Jewish teachings, as well as those of other religions. He said happiness com es not from m aterial goods or in
unreflective attachm ent to the superstitions that pass as religion but from a life of reason. In 1670, he showed that M oses
could not have written the Pentateuch in the form then written.
Defining God differently, the Pantheistic Argument for God: In 1677, he posited an argum ent for God by redefining
God: “God is this, that, love, truth, nature, beauty, or som ething else. The existence of this, that, love, truth, nature, beauty,
or som ething else is obvious. Thus God exists. This is not Christianity or Judaism . He said, “There is no such thing as
free will. The m ind is induced to wish this or that by som e cause, and that cause is determ ined by another cause, and so
forth back to infinity.” Spinoza was the m ost em inent expounder of Pantheism. God was Nature, the universe. the
indivisible, uncaused, substantial, whole. He said that philosophy was independent from religion. Everything is One and
God is Everything. “God’s decrees and com m andm ents, and consequently God’s Providence, are, in truth, nothing but
nature’s order.” Things happen only because of Nature and its laws, methodological naturalism. (Philosophical naturalism
denies the existence of anything supernatural.) W hatever is the cause of itself, exists necessarily. Spinoza said that a
74
god that demands worship is not worthy of worship.
Descartes had left the problem of how two radically different substances as m ind and body com bine in m en and
cause effects in each other. Spinoza said that the m ind and body were two different expressions of one and the sam e
thing, Man. “W ill and Intellect are one and the sam e thing.” He argued that the m ind’s intellectual love of God is our
understanding of the universe, our virtue, our happiness, our well-being and our “salvation.”
He was critical of “opportunistic preachers “ who play on the hopes and fears in the face of a judging God. His essay, On
Human Bondage, circulated privately in 1673 argued that we are only a prisoner of religion or the state if we thought we
were. A sensible m ystic, Spinoza constructed the world’s first thoroughly logical, consistent m etaphysical system and
m ade the first attem pt at an objective, scientific study of hum an behavior. He doubted the divine nature of those laws that
sim ply were used as a m eans of social control of the Jewish people, i.e., no pork. They were valid as they prom oted the
well being of the com m unity, but they were not divine. The highest virtue of the m ind is to know God.
Freedom
personal
liberty
The chief end of hum an society for Spinoza was freedom , individual liberty,. “Happiness is the rational understanding of
life and the world.” He agreed with Hobbes that natural right is sim ply power and that Man is necessarily m otivated by
self-interest and that the state is based in a social contract to secure individual interests, especially security. The state
should enhance Man’s chance of self-fulfilm ent. Obedience to the sovereign did not im pinge on one’s freedom as one
had willingly ceded to that sovereign the power to rule justly. The type of governm ent m ost likely to respect and preserve
Man’s autonom y, issue laws based on sound reason, and serve the ends for which governm ents were instituted, was
dem ocracy.
“The m ost tyrannical of governm ents are those which m ake crim es of opinions, for everyone has a right to his thoughts.”
Stating the difference between philosophy and religion, he wrote, “Philosophy has no end in view save truth. Faith looks
for nothing but obedience and piety.” Like Anselm and Descartes, he posited an Ontological Argument for God, but, of
course, his god was nature. He m ade his living as a lens grinder, turning down prestigious teaching positions, and gave
his fam ily inheritance to his sister. Spinoza believed that wom en were naturally inferior to m en. He died at 44, perhaps
from the glass dust from his lens grinding. He is considered one of W estern philosophy’s definitive ethicists. His m ost
im portant am bitious work, Ethics/Ethica Ordine Geometrica Demonstrata, was published after he died.
c1683+
New ton
New ton: From 1673 to 1683, New ton lectured on algebra and the theory of equations. (Later, in 1707, artist James
W histler published transcripts as Universal Arithmetic.) He estim ated the speed of light at 16.6 Earth diam eters/sec,
low by c30%. He postulated that, due to centrifugal force, the Earth was not a perfect sphere but bulged at the
Equator. [This was confirm ed centuries later; the Equator is 43 kilom eters longer than the Earth m easured top to
bottom around the poles. Sea level at the equator is 13 m iles further from the center of the Earth than at the poles.]
He explained the m athem atical theory on tides under gravitational attraction of Sun and Moon (1683).[Berm uda,
being in the center of the Atlantic tidal basin, has very sm all tides, governed not by the Moon but by the Sun.]
1685
King Louis 14 revoked the Edict of Nantes saying that as there were no Protestants left; it wasn’t needed. Pierre Bayle,
French Huguenot and fideist, spent m uch of his life proving the Revocation was “an exam ple of grotesque intolerance
based on m oral and logical absurdity.” Bayle wrote Commenttire philosophique, a classic for toleration in 1687.
1686
Edmond
Halley
Edmond Halley, British (1656-1742), astronom er said uneven solar heat on Earth caused atm ospheric m otions and
established the relationship between barom etric pressure and height above sea level. He had in 1678 identified 341 stars
visible from the Southern Hem isphere, earning m em bership in the Royal Society. In 1690, he built a diving bell and a
liquid-filled m agnetic com pass. He was denied a post in astronom y at Oxford due to his atheism . (Dissenters from
Anglicism and Catholics were not adm itted to Oxford or Cam bridge, the universities for the rich.)
1686
Ideas of The Enlightenment were spread by popular books, such as Bernard de Fontenelle’s Plurality of W orlds, which
discussed heliocentrism , and by books about different cultures, which caused m en to question the im m utability of their
own culture, and by Locke’s notion that the hum an m ind was a blank slate capable of absorbing knowledge.
1687
Astronom y: Giovanni Borelli, an Italian astronom er, Robert Hooke (see 1665), Christopher W ren, and Halley, all
attem pted to understand what kept the planets circling around the sun. All thought the sun exerted som e attractive force.
They even suspected that it was an inverse square force, that is, it dim inished as the square of the distance; a planet twice
as far off would be attracted with one fourth the pull, etc. (They were right.) [Light and sound also dim inish in such ratio.]
1687
Principia
Principia: In 1684, Halley had asked New ton’s help in calculating planets’s orbits (see 1660). New ton said that he had
already calculated that such orbits were ellipses. Halley urged him to publish it. New ton put his notes into proper form ,
presented them to the Royal Society in 1686 and in 1687, published, in Latin, Books 1 and 2 of Philosophiae Naturalis
Principia Mathematica / Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (i.e., Science), his work on m otion and gravity. It
rejected Aristotelian principles. It was an im m ediate sensation.
In Principia, New ton did not use the system of calculus that he had developed, but put his argum ents in the m ore
cum bersom e classical geom etric reasoning. Geom etry was unsuitable to account for the m ore subtle higher-order effects
75
of interactions between the planets. Halley paid for its publication.
New ton, by his rigorous and logical approach to science, destroyed the idea that the universe was governed by
capacious gods who could determ ine the fall of an apple or the m otion of a star at their whim . He replaced this with the
concept of a universe running inexorably in accordance with predeterm ined inviolable laws of nature. New ton applied the
laws of dynam ics to celestial bodies.
New ton him self doubted that the arrangem ent and interactions of the planets could be described m athem atically
and suggested that an intelligent designer, God, was necessary to ensure the stability of the solar system .
(In 1799, De Laplace showed m athem atically that the solar system followed Newton’s laws of m otion.)
Newtons
3 Law s
of
M otion
Principia described New ton’s Three Laws of Motion: (which he had form ulated 20 years before), nam ely:
1. The principle of Inertia: (building on M o-tzu (450 BC), Philoponus (c549), al Haytham (c1000), Avicenna, (c1000),
Occam (1331), Galileo (1633), and Descartes (1644)). An object stays at rest or in m otion, as the case m ay be, unless
another force changes it, i.e., a m oving object continues in a straight line unless some other object or force, such as
friction, or gravity, act on it. (This destroyed Aristotle’s concept that being at rest was m atter’s natural state.)
2. A change in an object’s m otion (acceleration or deceleration) is proportional to the force put on it, i.e., force divided
by m ass = acceleration. Or: force = m ass x acceleration. (Velocity is a rate of change. Acceleration is the rate of change
of a rate of change.). (Avicenna and Huygens had written this in quadratic form . New ton reform ulated it. Gravity causes
a falling object near Earth to accelerate toward Earth at c32 ft/sec/sec. Al Haytham and Galileo had studied it.
3. For every applied force, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. (Shoot a gun; there’s a recoil.)
Gravity
Principia also described Newton’s universal Law of Gravitation, “Every particle in the universe attracts every other particle
with a force proportional to the product of their m asses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between
them .” New ton said Hooke, Halley, and W ren believed in the inverse square ratio concept, but he had proved it, a big
difference. The reality of gravity destroyed the Medieval picture of the world as a structure m oved by an unseen but everpresent god. Principia showed that the m otion of an object is described by a m athem atical relation between the forces
that act on that object and the acceleration it experiences. (Physicists then went looking for other laws of nature that could
explain natural phenom ena in term s of rate of change.) New ton coined the word gravity from gravitas (Latin for weight).
Kepler had based his Rules of Planetary Motion on observation and m easurem ent. New ton explained them with his
Laws of Motion and his Law of Gravitation. He published Earth’s gravitational attraction to the Moon, which he had
calculated in 1666. New ton dem olished the idea that heavenly bodies were divine and acted differently than other objects.
Principia unified Galileo’s and Huygens’s physical m echanics and the celestial m echanics of Kepler and Copernicus.
Principia also laid out four rules of reasoning:
New ton
4 Rules
of
Reasoning
1. Accept the sim plest true explanation of an event (i.e., Occam’s razor).
2. As far as possible, assign the sam e natural causes to the sam e natural effects i.e., respiration in hum ans and
anim als, stones in England or Iceland. That is, there is order in nature. “Uniformitarianism”
3. Qualities of bodies in our experim ents are to be considered the universal qualities of all bodies whatsoever.
(Exam ple: all m atter, even light rays, are affected by gravity, also showing there is order in nature.)
4. Most im portant rule: Accept phenom ena from Induction as accurate (or close to it) not withstanding any contrary
hypothesis, until other observed facts m ake them m ore accurate or liable to exception. That is, a m ere hypothesis,
however reasonable sounding, cannot discredit a conclusion based on Induction, which is based on observation and
m easurem ent and the regularity of Nature. New ton believed that God created the universe.
New ton hated hypotheses, explanations not directly supported by experim ents. Principia was the start and becam e
the foundation of physics for 200 years, now known as classical physics, Machina mundi, the m achine of the world, the
universe is a giant m echanism that operates in orderly and predictable ways. Newtonian physics does not, however, fully
explain what keeps the universe running. That is left to the concept of energy.
Aristotle and Descartes had advocated deducing scientific laws from valid universal principles; Francis Bacon had
advocated Induction (calculating the probability of a conclusion from the strength of its prem ises). New ton com bined
the two, use Induction to reach general principles and then use Deduction to reach further deductions that would be
verified by precise m easurem ent and observation.
Scientific
M ethod
The Scientific Method has three characteristics. 1. Scientists are objective.
2. Science deals with things, real and m easurable, not “feelings,” “is” and “are,” not “should” and “if.”
3. Science advances through repeatable, verifiable experim ents to prove/disprove a hypothesis.
76
M easure
The second essential key to success of new discoveries in science were new m easuring tools, therm om eter (1592),
m icroscope (1595), telescope (1608), barom eter (1643), pendulum clock (1657). The telescope released the hum an
im agination as no other im plem ent had ever done.. Modern Man takes order and m easurem ent of the physical world for
granted. It was not always so. Men learned to m easure, explain, and m anipulate natural phenom ena in a way we consider
scientific. Am id the disputes am ong Protestant sects, Principia established itself.
The Scientific Method showed the error of som e of Aristotle’s m ost cherished ideas (p. 22), which were based on logic
and intuition rather than experim ent and m easurem ent. The Scientific Method did not of course spring fully developed in
the seventeenth century. It developed slowly from , inter alia, the m inds of Thales, Protagoras, Pythagoras, Aristotle,
Hayyam, al-Razi, Averroes, Avicenna, Amhad Biruni, al Haytham , Peter Abelard, Roger Bacon, Albertus M agnus,
Robert Grosseteste, Francis Bacon, M arin M ersenne, Theodoric, Galileo, Descartes, Boyle, Hooke, and New ton.
New ton wrote in a letter to Hooke, “If I have seen farther than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
The authority of science is very different from that of the church, It reveals truths, bit by bit, not by proclam ation. It prevails
solely due to its intrinsic appeal to reason. It advances piecem eal; it does not present a com plete system like the body
of Christian/Judaic/Muslim dogm a. Its pronouncem ents are tentative, subject to correction. The trium ph of science has
been due to its practical utility. Scientism is the view that only science can explain phenom ena.
A rule of thum b in argum ent is, “The weaker the case, the longer the brief.” (Theodore M iles) That is why scientists favor
accepting the sim plest valid explanation of a phenom enon. The m ore com plex an argum ent, the greater the chance for
logical fallacies, rhetorical tricks, and reasonable seem ing but unproven or false assum ptions.
Isaac
New ton
New ton’s universe was an em inently com m on-sense place. The purpose of science was to investigate reality and m ake
definitive statem ents about it. In one sense, science does not explain physical phenom ena, it m erely describes them . An
explanation would give the purpose of a phenom enon. In science, there is no why. Scientific phenom ena have no purpose
The Scientific Method does not a priori rule out supernatural causes. Supernatural causes sim ply do not m eet the
Scientific Method’s tests of adequate evidence, verifiability, and falsifiability.
Despite Principia, New ton, as a Unitarian (didn’t accept the Trinity), could not becom e a parson, and thus could not
advance at Cam bridge, so he left, and becam e Master of the M int in London. He spent the rest of his life in politics. A
believer, he wrote m ore on theology and alchem y than he did on physics. New ton wrongly thought the world was created
in 3998 BC, (Kepler had said 3993 BC). New ton’s theological and alchem y writings have been rightly forgotten.
The period 1670-1734 was dom inated by the ideas of New ton, and to a lesser extent, von Leibniz. (1710).
In 1704, New ton published Opticks in English, written m ostly in 1675, adding to his fam e. He was knighted in 1705.
Leibniz, “ New ton robbed the deity of som e of his m ost excellent attributes & sapped the foundation of natural religion.”
The five sim ple m achines, 1. lever, 2. wedge, 3. wheel/axle, 4. pulley, and 5. screw, were ancient, and had been m odified,
com bined into m ore complicated m achines, and im proved over the centuries. But then, due to Newton, Descartes,
Galileo, and others, men realized how m achines did what they did, and began to see ways to m ake them do it better.
Belief in the truths of science is one of the key elem ents of m odern thought. Science becam e the m odel for knowledge
about hum ans and society, as well as the basis for knowledge about nature. Newtonian physics was the culm inating event
of the new science. Theology becam e a rearguard action against the juggernaut of reason. New ton was attacked by
Christians for “dethroning Providence.” He was given a royal funeral in W estm inster Abbey.
1687
English Declaration of Indulgence granted full religious freedom to all, legalized not attending Anglican m ass.
1688
Nicolas M alebranche, (1638-1715) French priest, re the Problem of Evil, said God could have created a perfect world
but didn’t, in order to get the best balance between perfection and the sim plicity and generality of its laws.
c1688+
John
Locke
Political Theory: John Locke (1632-1704) and the English “Glorious Revolution” of 1688. W illiam of Orange, Dutch,
Protestant, & his English wife M ary, were invited to the throne. (Charles 1 had been executed in 1649 by Cromw ell
and other kings hadn’t worked out.) W illiam took over without a fight, thus “Glorious.” Locke was the m ost influential
English philosopher, founder of philosophical liberalism as m uch as of empiricism, and in the theory of knowledge.
1689
Property
Locke cam e back to England on the sam e ship with M ary in 1689 with his two Treatises on C ivil Government, in the
second of which he discussed three great ideas, property, governm ent, and revolution. (M ary, as queen, in 1689 voided
the 1687 Declaration of Indulgence. She then signed a weak Bill of Rights.) The Treatises -published anonym ously - were
written to justify the English Revolution of 1688. Accepting Hobbes’s 1651 idea of a social contract between a governor
and the governed, Locke wrote, “There is a right to property, but only within reason. Governm ent com es into existence
to protect property.” So property is legitim ate, so is governm ent. Authority derives solely from the consent of the governed.
Governors m ust govern for the good of the people, who then consent to be governed. Locke: In the state of nature all
77
The Duty
to Revolt
m en are free and have equal rights. By his labor, m an acquires as his property the products of his labor. The people can
and should revolt and change their governm ent when the governor becom es a tyrant. Never before had revolution been
based on a general notion of property rights. Thus, deposing kings and revolution was now based on rights to property.
Very powerful concepts. Separation of powers prevented tyranny. Profits weren’t taxed, only im ports and consum ption.
Locke venerated property as the product of one’s labor. Land reform ers in the 18 th century also m ade the distinction
between property that was the fruit of one’s labor and land that should belong to the com m unity of m en (see 1782).
Tabula
Rasa
Theory of Knowledge: Locke stressed studying how we know things. He believed that the hum an m ind at birth was a
“tabula rasa,” a blank slate, upon which would be written all Man’s experiences, giving rise to knowledge which is
perfected by reflection. Thus our social environm ent shapes our beliefs, actions, and knowledge. So, im prove the
environm ent, im prove the person. Locke took a new interest in applying scientific insights to society. He felt that changes
in the environm ent changed people. So he advocated m ore wide-spread education. So there was a new confidence in
social reform . Like Galileo, Descartes, and Boyle, Locke distinguished between prim ary and secondary qualities of
objects. He was an acquaintance of New ton. Locke saw a great Chain of Being, m an at the top, created by God.
Though he did not particularly like dem ocracy, Locke was the theoretical architect of what we call dem ocracy, as he gave
us basic liberal ideals, such as that all m en have equal natural rights, and specific principles, such as m ajority rule and
checks and balances between different parts of the governm ent, originally Greek and Rom an ideas. Locke cam e to inherit
Cromw ell’s supporters. Locke was offended by Oxford’s teaching of scholasticism .
1689
Locke
Philosophy: Locke was influenced by Descartes. He said both that, “The bare testim ony of revelation is the highest
certainty.” but also, ”Revelation m ust be judged by reason.” So reason in the end rules. Of reason, he did not lim it it to
Aristotle’s syllogism s. Locke, “God [did not leave it] to Aristotle to m ake [Man] rational.” Reason is in two parts, what
we know with certainty, and propositions it is wise to accept in practice, even if they are only probably correct.
Locke was a m ost eloquent proponent that religious differences had to change. His An Essay Concerning Toleration
(1689), the first m ajor presentation of the em pirical theory of knowledge. “God is tolerant, you don’t have to kill other
faiths.”He said that toleration of other faiths is the only true Christianity. He disputed Luther’s harsh edicts. During the
two centuries before his essay on tolerance, it was easy for people of faith to believe (and practice) that their faith required
them to torture, to kill, to burn at the stake those who disagreed with them , even over slight differences (as of course their
holy scriptures taught), the basis of and practiced in the so-called W ars of Religion.
Locke’s “toleration” was severely lim ited. He said that atheism and Catholicism should be legislated against as inim ical
to religion and the state. Said atheists had no reason to act m orally. Catholics in England and Ireland had practically no
religious, political, or civil rights. Locke said that wom en and poor people should not be citizens. Locke said that the
qualities of objects are prim ary or secondary. Prim ary qualities are solidity, extension, figure, m obility, and num ber-are
inescapable from objects, but secondary qualities, such as colors and odors, are in the observer.
1690
His Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), a critical assessm ent of hum an reason, dealt with the problem of
the origin, extent, and certainty of science. Said, “New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any
other reason but because they are not already com m on.” Locke argued against Plato, Descartes, and the scholastics,
who had said that there were innate ideas or principles. In Essay, he said, “Things are good or evil only in relation to
pleasure or pain.... Happiness, in its full extent, is the utm ost pleasure we are capable of...The necessity of pursuing true
happiness [is] the foundation of all liberty.” Also, “No m an’s knowledge...can go beyond his experience.”
Locke and New ton gave England undisputed intellectual leadership of the world from c1689 to 1720. Principia spread
am ong the educated class swiftly. British universities were teaching it in less than a dozen years. In a century, 18 editions
of Principia were needed and 73 books were written about it, in English, French, Latin, Germ an, Portuguese and Italian.
But Catholic universities did not teach New ton’s physics for at least a century.
America
The Am erican colonies had differing religions. Mass. Puritans were heavily Old Testament, killed alleged witches, bigoted.
Each colony supported its brand of Protestantism and all discrim inated against the Quakers, who settled in Pennsylvania,
which becam e the m ost prosperous colony, with Philadelphia as the largest city. In the South, slaves were property. In
Virginia, killing non-Christians was legal. Virginia regulated religions so strictly that only Anglicism could qualify. W om en
had few rights, Blacks none.
1690
Huygens (also 1656) had developed a wave theory of light in 1678, He wrote Treatise on Light in 1678 but it wasn’t
published until 1690. And then, as it was opposed to the particle / corpuscular theory of New ton, it was largely
discounted. The wave theory explained both reflection and refraction. It was validated by Einstein in 1905.
1693
Thomas Aikenhead, Scot, a student, said Christianity was nonsense. Blasphem y. So, the Anglicans hanged him .
1694
Botany: Rudolph Camerarius, Germ an physicist, in Epistola de Sexu Plantarum, said plants reproduced sexually.
1696
Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) wrote the Historical and Critical Dictionary, the m ost popular book in the 18 th century, to
78
dem olish the “vices of religion.” Voltaire called him the “greatest m aster of the art of reasoning.” (see also 1685)
18 th Cent.
17001800
Know ledge
became
secular
Overview: The Age of Reason, growing out of the Renaissance. The giants of the 17th century had established a clim ate
of opinion that there was an Order to Nature. The wars of religion had left intellectuals disgusted with religious fanaticism .
18 th century m en called it the Age of Reason or The Enlightenment. W hile not always true, it reflected the tim e’s spirit,
when, as Kant said, m en left their self-caused puerility and could be m oral not because they feared God. It could also
be term ed an Age of Optim ism. There was new confidence in science and reason. Science becam e the m odel for
knowledge.
Alm ost any 18 th century W estern thinker was radically critical of traditional Christianity, Catholic or Protestant. 18th century
anti-clerical, anti-m onarchy, social critics, philosophes such as Diderot, M ontesquieu, d’Holbach, Voltaire, Bayle,
questioned authority, i.e., Aristotle, the Bible, and favored a purely rational religion, and carried out a m oral crusade
against intolerance, tyranny, and superstition. They wanted to change the world through science (like Locke). Philosophes
believed, forem ost in the power of reason & in knowledge, contra the prevailing religious and political dogm as.
It was also an age of revolutions. Men of The Enlightenment, sought to extend scientific m ethods and form s of knowledge
to social and political life as well as to religion itself. The two approaches to philosophy were empiricism, knowledge com es
from experience, and rationalism (knowledge com es from reasoning). Both approaches totally rejected any supernatural
causes. Morals and social thought becam e m ore and m ore secular. Science changed the philosophical outlook but not
society itself. The spirit of the Enlightenment underm ined all bases for a Christian God and scriptural authority.
Knowledge becam e scientific knowledge, not theological. Sciences continued to specialize. Men of the Enlightenment
had confidence that they (or their successors) could solve Man’s problem s.
Islam, although split into violently antagonistic factions, never experienced a Reform ation, a Counter-Reform ation,
Renaissance, or Enlightenment to rid it of its seventh century m ind-set, which it still retains, to its intellectual detrim ent
From 1700 to 1850, Europeans colonized and conquered and exploited the Am ericas, Africa, Australia, Siberia, India,
and the Mid-East. China and Japan felt no need to change their ways and rem ained isolated, also to their detrim ent.
Electricity
Early
Advances
in
the
17 th
&18 th
Centuries
Physics, Electricity 1663-1799: Scientists across Europe and the US, bit by bit, advanced the understanding and tam ing
of electricity. Electric shocks from fish and static electricity, rubbing glass with a cloth, were known in ancient tim es.
1663. Otto von Guericke, Germ an, m ade a prim itive electrostatic generator. (He also invented an air pum p.)
1731. Stephen Gray, British, realized static electricity could be m ade to flow along a conductor.
1745. Petrus/Pieter van M usschenbroek discovered the principle of the Leyden jar. It stored an electric charge.
1747. Benjamin Franklin, dangerously, flew a kite in a thunderstorm , identified lightning as electricity, showed that a
conductor can draw an electric charge from a charged body, so developed the lightning rod, invented the energy
efficient Franklin stove, and published the first m ap of the Gulf Stream . From 1732-1758, he printed the very popular
Poor Richard’s Almanack, which spread com m on sense and wisdom , “Early to bed, early to rise...tim e is m oney.
lost tim e is never found again...God helps those that help them selves.” In 1751, he showed difference between
positive and negative electricity, showed it can m agnetize forces of attraction and repulsion between 2 charged bodies.
1791. Luigi Galvani, Italian, showed electricity transm itted signals to m uscles.
1791. Charles de Coulom b, French, showed that an electrical charge is on the surface of a conductor.
1799. Alessandro Volta, m ade a battery, a stack of silver and zinc discs, separated by brine soaked cardboard.
Unlike static electricity, a battery was a steady source of current. Voltage is analogous to fluid pressure in a pipe.
1702
Bishop Bossuet of Meaux, France’s forem ost theologian, said heliocentrism was contrary to Scriptures. He was right.
1703
Peter the Great (1672-1725), Czar/Tsar of Russia, began to build St. Petersburg, his grand new capitol of Russia.
200,000 workers died from cold and fever. Peter forcibly m odernized Russia. He put the nobles in the barracks or behind
governm ent desks, sim plified the alphabet, abolished fem ale seclusion at court, introduced the Gregorian calendar,
drafted serfs for the arm y and arm s factories, built and m odernized the m ilitary, outlawed beards and caftans, introduced
the idea of science to Russia, where learning had been clerical, built up Russia’s m ining industry, killed landlords who
concealed m ineral resources on their property, built canals to link the Baltic to the Caspian, exported m inerals and lum ber.
The vast m ajority of Russians, the serfs, and som e nobles, rem ained illiterate. Russia was the last European country to
abolish serfdom . He had his eldest son, Alexis, whom he suspected of plotting a coup, m urdered.
Peter
the
Great
1705
Astronom y: Halley wrote that the com ets seen in 1531 and 1607 were the sam e com et as 1682's, with a 76 year orbit,
that com ets have regular orbits, and predicted it would return in 1758. It did. It was then nam ed Halley’s com et.
1709
Chem istry: Abraham Darby, British, (1678 -1717) developed a m ethod of producing cheap iron with a blast furnace and
using coke instead of coal (Coke had no im purities to im part to the iron.)
Bernard M andeville: Society is rightly based on the rich exploiting the poor. Vices prom ote prosperity m ore than virtue.
1710
von
Leibniz
Theology: Baron Gottfried W ilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716), one of the great seventeenth century continental
rationalists. At the sam e tim e as New ton, he had also developed calculus. Von Leibniz invented the binary system ,
wherein all num bers are written by just 0 and 1. To von Leibniz, they stood for nothingness and God. He also added two
79
axiom s to Aristotle’s laws of thought (335 BC), the principle of sufficient reason and the identity of indiscernibles.
His 1697 On the Ultimate Origin of the Universe asked for “a full reason why there should be any world rather than none.”
In 1714 in The Principles of N ature and Grace, Based on Reason he asked m ore generally, “W hy is there something
rather than nothing?” This question assum es that nothing is m ore logical than something. His answer, a Cosmological
Argument for God. Things m ust have causes. The ultim ate cause of the universe m ust be outside the universe. That is
God. Von Leibniz’s Cosmological Argument was founded on the Principle of Sufficient Reason, a Leibniz addition to
Aristotle’s Basic Laws of Thought. There has to be a sufficient reason for the universe to exist. That’s God. Aristotle,
Averroës, al Ghazali, and Aquinas all had sim ilar argum ents. (More on W hy is there something? on page 121.)
Essais
de
Theodices
Problem
of Evil
Mind and
body
don’t
interact
Von Leibniz had four argum ents for the existence of God, 1. ontological, 2. cosm ological, 3. the argum ent from the
eternal truths (certain statem ents are always true, eternal, and can only exist in the m ind of God, basically a cosm ological
argum ent), and 4. the Argument from Pre-established Harmony (akin to the design argum ent) i.e., the entire universe
was one large system expressing God’s plan. The truths of philosophy and theology cannot contradict each other. God’s
foreknowledge of Man’s inclinations did not involve predestination. Only m inds exist and everything has a m ind. Minds
com e in degrees, starting with m atter (whose m inds are sim ple) and ending with God (whose m ind is infinite.) Man is in
there som ewhere. Ideas rule Man’s m ind. The universe is the set of all finite m inds that God has created.
In 1710, von Leibniz published Essais de Theodices / Essays on Theodicies (a word he coined), reasons for God’s
existence and divinity in light of the Problem of Evil, i.e., how to avoid the Problem of Evil.
Von Leibniz postulated that God, being all-knowing, all-good, and all-powerful, created the best of all possible worlds.
Being God, he had to create the best possible world. Free will is a great good, but God could not grant free will and also
decree that there would be no sin. So the best world was one with the most possible good com pared to the am ount of
evil. The truths of philosophy and theology cannot contradict each other. So som e error, i.e., evil/suffering, is unavoidable
in any creature less perfect than its creator. Moral and physical evil add to the overall perfection of the world and hence
are not genuinely evil. All possible worlds contain som e evil. Evil im proves the good by contrast.
Von Leibniz also created the great analogy of the Cartesian clocks, which postulated that m ind and body do not interact,
but only seem to, as they are synchronized by God.. After von Leibniz said species m ay not be im m utable, Jesuits
stopped him from opening an Academy of Science in Vienna.(Hum e answered von Leibniz’s theodicies, see 1751)
In The Monadology, 1714, wrote, “There are two kinds of truths: truths of reasoning and those of fact. The truths of reason
are necessary and their opposite is im possible; the truths of fact are contingent and their opposites are possible.”
1713
Philosophy: Bishop George Berkeley, Irish. “The world, as we see it, depends for its existence on being perceived.” “Esse
est percepi /To be is to be perceived.” The objective world is all in the m ind. He rejected abstract ideas such as “red” or
“square.” Samuel Johnson kicked a stone and said, “I refute [Berkeley] thus.” Berkeley becam e an object of disdain
for this proposition and retreated to saying that as God sees everything, everything exists after all.
1714
After disasters in the British fleet, the Board of Longitude offered £20,000 for a m ethod to calculate longitude. (see1761).
1717
Physics: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, Dutch, m ade an accurate therm om eter, using the expansion of m ercury.
1725
Francis Hutcheson (!694-1746) Irish, in Inquiry concerning Moral Good and Evil, was first to use the phrase “greatest
happiness for the greatest num bers” as the criterion of m oral action. Priestley in 1768 and Bentham in 1789 used it.
1726
Sw ift
Social
Satire
Ethics: Jonathan Sw ift (1667-1745), Anglican priest, supporter of Ireland’s struggle for freedom from England, wrote
Gulliver’s Travels, wherein he painted m en not as rational anim als but only as beasts capable of reason. The depth of
his pessim ism re Man was shown in the satire, A Modest Proposal, which described the atrocious condition of the Irish
poor and proposed that they sell their children to their landlords for eating. O ne benefit, it would reduce the num ber of
Catholics in Ireland. Said, “W e have just enough religion to m ake us hate, but not enough to m ake us love one another.”
1728
Physics: James Bradley said light travels 301,000 km /sec, just .4% high, and that the earth’s m otion distorts starlight.
1733
Pope
Philosophy: Alexander Pope (1688-1744), British, a Deist, “Know then thyself, presum e not God to scan. The proper
study of m ankind is Man.” Also, ”A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.”
1735
Hadley
Physics: George Hadley, British, suggested that warm air rising over the equator m oved to the poles in the upper air
before cooling and sinking, identifying a circulation pattern now known as the Hadley cell.
1735
Linnaeus
Biology, Botany: Carl von Linne/Carolus Linnaeus (1708-1778), Swede, devised the first logical m ethod of classifying
anim als and plants, according to how they reproduce; showed they reproduced sexually. Also in 1747 said, “W hat is the
difference between m an and ape, based on natural history? Most definitely I see no difference.” His writings were
prohibited in Catholic States. He said the species were fixed at creation, and that there were five races of Man.
1736
Mathem atics: Leonhard Euler, Swiss, (1707-1783). One of the m ost prolific mathem aticians; m ade im portant discoveries
80
Euler
in all fields of m athem atics, including solving the form idable 3-body problem - the relative m ovem ent of the Earth, Moon,
and Sun. He created Differential Calculus practically single-handedly. His Mechanics recast Principia into explicit analysis,
bringing to bear the full power of calculus.
1736
Frederick 2 the Great, king of Prussia (1712-1786), “Theologians are all alike, of whatever religion or country they m ay
be; their aim always to wield despotic authority over m en’s consciences; they therefore persecute all of us who have the
tem erity to unveil the truth.” Frederick welcom ed Voltaire, philosophes, Muslim s, Jews, and Jesuits to Prussia.
1738
Physics: Apollo M urry’s Hydrodynamica, laid the basis for the kinetic theory of gasses. In it, Daniel Bernoulli, Swiss,
said that gasses consist of innum erable m olecules m oving in all directions, bouncing off one another, and their im pact
on a surface causes the pressure we feel. W hat we feel as heat is just the kinetic energy of their m otion. This was not
im m ediately accepted as conservation of energy had not been established, nor could physicists see how collisions of
m olecules could be perfectly elastic. Bernoulli also said that as a stream of fluid (gas or liquid) speeds up, its pressure
drops. [Air that flows over an airplane wing with a curved upper skin, goes a greater distance, so goes faster, than the
air flowing along the straight lower surface, thus creating less pressure above the wing than under, giving the wing lift.]
Kinetic
Theory
of
gasses
1739
David
Hume
Treatise
of
Hum an
Nature
Philosophy, David Hume: (1711-1776) Edinburgh, lawyer, Tory, diplom at, a deist, generally regarded as the m ost
im portant philosopher to write in the English language, considered him self a skeptic. He took Locke’s em pirical
argum ents to their logical conclusion (which Locke had not done) and ended by doubting our ability to know anything
at all. He deflated m etaphysical pretensions, m ade philosophers very nervous about their assum ptions, and m ade clear
that the Age of Reason had arrived at a dead end. His skepticism rested on his rejection of induction.
He said, “The Christian religion not only was at first attended with m iracles, but even to this day cannot be believed by any
reasonable person without one.” [Miracles are, of course, a prerequisite for Catholic sainthood.] ”W hen I hear a m an is
religious, I conclude that he is a rascal, although I have known som e instances of very good m en being religious.” He said
that the psychological basis of religion is fear of the unknown. He argued that hum an instincts and em otions were m ore
im portant than hum an reason, that every opinion and value judgm ent was based not on reason but on passion, a m ixture
of instincts, feelings, and em otions. ”Reason is, and ought to be, a slave of the passions.” Also, “Knowledge cannot go
beyond experience.”
Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature (1739) had said that all our knowledge com es from expressions and ideas.
The im pressions are m ore forceful than the ideas. Thus we cannot have any knowledge of causality. “W hat we call
causality is sim ply our habit of associating two events because we see them together.” “W hat we call a m ind is nothing
but a heap or collection of different perceptions, united together by certain relations, and supposed, though falsely, to be
endowed with a perfect sim plicity and identity.” Treatise criticized the view that causation is an objective productive relation
between two things and the Causal Principle, i.e., that every contingent being has a cause of its being, that lies at the heart
of the Cosmological Argument.
Mem ory and im agination preserve and arrange our ideas. W e have good reason to be skeptical of all conclusions
reached by the use of reason. All knowledge resolves itself into probability. Thus, Hum e denied inductive inference, for
unless the prem ises are absolute sure things, the conclusion cannot be a sure thing, perhaps close, but not 100%. He
wanted 100%. This argum ent hits at the heart of rationalism .
The logical outcom e of Hume’s empiricism was that there could not be any scientific knowledge, and this leads to
philosophical skepticism . But, science is built on causality and inductive inference and the regularity of nature. It assum es
that our knowledge of particular events in the present gives us reliable knowledge about an indefinite num ber of sim ilar
events in the future. W hile the concept is ancient, Hum e in 1742, in O f Civil Liberty, was probably the first to use the
phrase “a governm ent of laws, not of Man”. John Adam s put it in the Mass. constitution. (More Hume 1751, 1779)
1740
M ohammad ibn al W ahhab founded W ahhabism, an extrem e conservative Sunni sect. Ibn Saud agreed to enforce
W ahhabism for his political support, and the Saud fam ily, when it took over Arabia to this day enforces W ahhabism.
c17471778
Voltaire, Francios M arie Arouet (1694-1778), historian, philosopher, the suprem e debunker of hypocrisy, one of the
m ajor figures of the Enlightenm ent. He had a Jesuit education, defended victim s of religious intolerance. He wrote
volum inously. He was im prisoned, exiled, or hounded into seclusion several tim es during his life for his satire. He
corresponded with Frederick the Great, Catherine the Great, King Louis 15, and num erous prom inent m en.
Voltaire
His ideas prom oted the French Revolution. His overriding concern was freedom of thought. In 1726-1729, visited
England, absorbed Lockean liberal ideas. Voltaire spread Locke’s ideas to the French philosophes and m oderate
reform ers in France in his Lettres philosophiques (1733). His Lettres Philosophiques sparked the Enlightenment.
He wrote The Philosophy of History (1766) to ridicule the nonsensical beliefs of religions, from the Chaldeans to
Christianity. It added up the num ber of Jews killed by other Jews or at God’s order in the Old Testament at over 239,000.
It rivaled Erasmus’s Praise of Folly. Voltaire was a deist, a believer in God, term ed Jesus a “good fellow,” but not divine.
Voltaire in 1759 wrote Candide largely to ridicule von Leibniz, where the character Dr. Pangloss m outhed foolish
81
Leibniz-like brom ides. Candide said, “If this is the best of all possible worlds, what are the others like?”
Voltaire
sayings
Voltaire also wrote: “It is better to risk sparing a guilty person than to condem n an innocent one.” 1747
“All m en have equal rights to liberty, to their property, and to the protection of the laws.” 1754
“Nothing can be m ore contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and com m on sense.” 1764.
“Christians have been the m ost intolerant of all m en.” 1764
“Atheism is the vice of a few intelligent people.” 1748
“Clever tyrants are never punished.”
“Doubt is not a pleasant m ental state, but certainty is a ridiculous one.”
“The best is the enem y of the good.’’ 1764
“Prejudices are what fools use for reason.”
“History is no m ore than the portrayal of crim es and m isfortunes.” 1767
“Com m on sense is not so com m on.”
“It is dangerous to be right in m atters on which the established authorities are wrong.”
“Evil strides the world.”
“Every sensible m an, every honorable m an, m ust hold the Christian sect in horror.” “A witty saying proves nothing.”
“All m urderers are punished unless they kill in large num bers and to the sound of trum pets.”
“Christianity is the m ost ridiculous, the m ost absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world.”
“Anyone who can m ake you believe absurdities can m ake you com m it atrocities.” 1767
“ He is a hard m an who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.” “Christians have never observed their religion.”
“To succeed in the world, it is not enough to be stupid. You m ust also be well-m annered.”
“It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.”
“Man is free at the m om ent he wishes to be.”
“Superstition, born of paganism and adopted by Judaism , invested the Christian Church from earliest tim es. All the
fathers of the Church, without exception, believed in the power of m agic. The Church always condem ned m agic,
but she always believed in it: she did not excom m unicate sorcerers as m adm en who were m istaken, but as m en
who were really in com m unication with the Devil.” 1764
“Judge a m an by his questions rather than by his answers.”
“For 1700 years, the Christian sect has done nothing but harm .” 1767
“I have never m ade but one prayer to God, a short one. Make m y enem ies ridiculous. And he granted it.” 1767.
“Liberty of thought is the life of the soul.” And, ”If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him .” 1770
All his letters ended with Ecrasassiez l’infame / Crush the infam ous thing (official Christianity).
R. G. Ingersoll: “Voltaire did m ore for hum an liberty than any other m an who ever lived.” Said Paine: “His forte lay in
exposing and ridiculing the superstitions, which priestcraft, united with statecraft, had interwoven with governm ents.”
1748
Political Theory: Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de M ontesquieu (1689-1755) m ayor of Bordeaux, wrote The Spirit
of The Law. “Law in general is hum an reason.” It sought to determ ine the cause of actions in the social world. Geography
and clim ate are im portant factors. He also argued that laws work best when power to m ake laws is divided between
different parts of governm ent (separation of powers, which Locke had advocated), as in England. This influenced
Jefferson. W ith Locke, he had cleared away m any false ideas that had prevented attem pts to reconstruct hum an society.
1749
Geology, Biology, Evolution: Georges LeClerc, Compte de Buffon (1707-1788), French, wrote Historie Naturalle, (put
into English in 1781. Volume 1 posed an evolutionary origin for the Earth, a m olten ball that cooled, sim ilar to ideas of
Kant and English geologists. Fossils were evidence of anim al and extinct species. He said there was a com m on ancestor
for Man, apes, and quadrupeds. Useless organs (the appendix) showed change had taken place. He said the Earth could
be 500,000 years old. This was the first W estern history of life and the Earth not based on the Bible. The study of geology
shattered the Bible’s chronology of the world. Sorbonne Theologians forced him to recant.
Buffon
c1750
Psychology: The W estern concept of rom antic love, first sung by troubadours in the twelfth century, becam e widely
accepted by the W estern m iddle classes, but never spread beyond the W est. Brahm ins, Hindus, Chinese, Malayans,
Koreans, Japanese do not even have a nam e for it. The East does have desire and recipes for physical pleasure, such
as the Kama Sutra, and fam ily attachm ents, but none of the m oral anxieties, ideal passions, guilt feelings, nostalgia, and
obsessions that fill W estern novels, operas, and tragedies. For m any, rom antic love is real and wonderful, but som etim es
it fades. “Love is the invention of a few high cultures, independent, in a sense, of m arriage--it is a cultural artifact.”
M argaret M ead 1970 “There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.” George Sand 1862.
c1750
Political Theory, The rise of nationalism : Hans Kohn, a contem porary student of nationalism asserts that m odern
nationalism is not older than the second half of the 18 th century. Previous “nations” were but fam ily conquered lands.
“Nationalism , taking the place of religion, is as diversified in its m anifestations and aspirations, in its form and even its
substance as religion itself...Yet in all its diversities it fulfills one great task - giving m eaning to Man’s life and justifying his
noble and ignoble passions before him self and history, lifting him above the loneliness and futilities of his days, and
endowing the order and power of governm ent, without which no society can exist, with the m ajesty of true authority.”
Nationalism
gives
meaning
to lives
1751
Nationalism shares with religion a hatred of and a great fear of, dissent, and so rulers prosecute dissent fiercely.
No em otion unifies a group so readily as hatred for a com m on enem y. England, Germ any, France, Spain, Holland,
Italy, Switzerland, the U.S., Austria, Sweden, Denm ark, all attained unity by virtue of resistance to alien enem ies.
Hume (See also 1739) phrased the Epicurian Paradox/Problem of Evil as, “Is God willing to prevent evil but unable to
do so? Then he is not om nipotent. Is God able to prevent evil but unwilling to do so? Then he is m alevolent...If God is both
willing and able to prevent evil, then why is there evil in the world?”
82
Problem
of Evil
Hume on
arguments
for God
Von Leibniz had proposed a theodicy to avoid the Epicurian Paradox. “Evils we see are really goods to the universe. They
are only evil to Man’s narrow hum an perspective.” There aren’t any real evils, only apparent evils.
This is called the Greater Good Defense [Recent exam ples of this argum ent: 1. Israel’s chief Sephardic rabbi said
the Christm as 2004 tsunam i was “an expression of God’s ire with the world.” and 2. In 2003, Oxford professor of theology
Richard Sw inburne said the Holocaust gave Jews a wonderful opportunity to be courageous and noble]
Hume answered, “All theodicies have in com m on that suffering is a necessary precondition or outcom e of som e greater
good.” Saying evil is good is nonsense. This is contrary to hum an experience. The distinction between good and evil
depends on the hum an m ind and can’t be altered by som e philosophical theory or speculation. If one holds, as a m atter
of ethics, that there should be no unnecessary suffering, the Problem of Evil refutes traditional theism .
[It is, of course, “Man’s narrow hum an perspective” that judges God to be good in the first place.]
Free W ill
Argument
Irenaeus and Leibniz advanced The Free W ill Argument to refute the Problem of Evil : Evil exists as God gave Man free
will, and God will not or does not intervene when Man is cruel. If God intervened, m en would not have free will. Free W ill
m akes Man responsible for his actions. The argum ent supports our judicial ideal of retributive justice.
The Free W ill Argument assumes 1. That God m ade im perfect hum ans, 2. that free will, in and of itself, is a positive good,
of m ore worth than the evil or suffering the exercise of such free will m ay cause, and 3. that an om nipotent God was
unable to grant Man free will except when he wished to hurt others. These assum ptions say that God is not om nipotent.
Hume’s
answ er
to the
Free Will
Argument
Hum e said the Free W ill Argument was lim ited, illogical, and m is-stated history. It fails as:
1. It applies only to the evil and suffering wilfully inflicted by hum ans against hum ans, so-called m oral evils. But there
are other great evils, natural evils, fam ine (m illions of Irish, Africans), tsunam is, fires, potato blight, disease, drought (dust
bowl), sm allpox (1/3 of Mexicans in 1519), floods, earthquakes (200,000 in Haiti), im becility, blindness, SID, deafness,
deform ities, hurricanes, tornados, the Black Death, accidents, starvation, autism , insanity, m ental illnesses, avalanches,
Ebola virus, flu (50 M+ in 1918), etc. that torture m ankind. Such evils are known as “Acts of God.” Maybe they are.
2. Illogical. In all instances of Man causing evil/suffering to others, there are two free wills involved, the evil-doer and the
victim . God’s non-intervention m eans God chooses the free will of the evil doer, a rapist, torturer, or killer, over the free
will of the victim , not to be raped, tortured, or killed. [God apparently preferred the free will of a few twisted Nazis over the
free will of m illions of Jews who did not wish to die horrible deaths.] “He who allows oppression shares the crim e’ Pierre
Bayle “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Archbishop Tutu.
3. It m is-states history. According to the Bible, God does intervene. God delivered m anna and loaves and fishes to
Jews in the desert, why not to starving people today? He delivered the Jews from Egypt, why not deliver the Jews
from Hitler? A loving God would intervene and prevent m uch suffering done by persons exercising their “free will.
[An om niscient God precludes free will, as, if God knows the future, Man cannot change it by exercising his “free will;”
thus Man does not have free will. W ithout the ability to choose, m oral decisions are m eaningless as they are predestined.]
Holiness
Problem
Another von Leibniz theodicy: God perm itted som e evil in the world in order to create a better world. God’s will regarding
good in the universe is decretory (positive), but God’s will re evils is m erely perm issive; and perm issive willing of evils is
m orally OK as long as perm itting the evil is a necessary condition for m eeting one’s outweighing obligations, nam ely to
create the best world. This is known as the “Holiness Problem” of the Problem of Evil.
Hum e’s answer: If the evil in the world is intended by God, he is not good. If it violates his intentions, he is not alm ighty.
If only God can create, he m ust have created evil. If som ebody else (Satan) created evil, how can one know that God and
not Satan created the universe?
The Oxford Companion to Philosophy says the Problem of Evil is “the m ost powerful objection to traditional theism .“
This understates it. There is no rational acceptable Christian answer to the Problem of Evil. Christian dogm a sim ply
asserts two contradictory beliefs: that there is an all-good/all-powerful God, and that evil exists, a logical im possibility.
Argument
from
M iracles
Hume did not believe m iracles could be justifiably believed in. He said that there has never been a bona-fide verified
m iracle. In Essay on Miracles 1748 he answered the Arguments From Miracles/Religious Experience, i.e., “I saw/felt/
spoke-to God.” Hum e: “Is this evidence of God or m erely evidence of som eone’s belief?” “No testim ony is sufficient
to establish a m iracle, unless the testim ony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be m ore m iraculous than the fact
it endeavors to establish.” As such experience is unique, it is irrefutable, non-falsifiable, and unreliable. Hume: “Pick the
less im probable m iracle. W hat is m ore likely, that God spoke to som eone or that the report was m istaken?”
[W ho is right, M oses, M uhammad, Joseph Smith, Luther, Calvin, a pope, or the lady down the street who has
visions, all of whom claim that God told him /her certain things, but which contradict other persons’s claim s?]
At m ost, because of the law of contradiction, only one religion could possibly be right. Hum e said, “The only way a
proposition can be proved by logic and the m eaning of words alone is for its negation to be (or lead to) a contradiction.
The tendencies of theism that m ost concerned Hum e were its intolerance and opposition to liberty, its distorted m oral
standard and its willingness to sanction great crim es in the nam e of piety and devotion, i.e., doing evil in the nam e of God.
Politically, Hum e favored separation of powers (like Locke and M ontesquieu), voting (albeit only by persons of property),
83
lim iting the power of the clergy, decentralization, annual elections, and unpaid representatives. He preferred a m onarchy
to a republic for England. Hum e, a Tory, said Caucasians were superior to all other races. “I suspect the Negro to be
naturally inferior to the whites...There ever was a civilized nation of that com plexion, or even any individual em inent either
in action or speculation.”
Hume: Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous. More Hum e 1779
17511772
Encyclopedia
Encyclopedie: Voltaire, Rousseau, Jean Baptiste le Rond d’Alembert, d’Holbach (see 1761), and Denis Diderot (the
guiding spirit of the French Enlightenment and the editor of the Encyclopedie, a com pendium of the new scientific thinking,
and the flagship publication of the Enlightenment), were critical of both religion and the purported legitim acy of France’s
m onarchial despotism . The Encyclopedie was published from 1751 to 1772. It opposed both Church and State, and
helped dem ocratize scientific knowledge. Its goal was to transform society. 25,000 sets were sold before 1789, an
incredible num ber. King Louis 15 banned it before the last volum es were finished. So they were printed clandestinely.
Like m any philosophes, Diderot disdained Jews. Diderot was first a Deist, then an atheist. Said, “Let us strangle the
last king with the guts of the last priest (attributed also to Jean M eslier). He also said, “Islam is the enem y of Reason.”
1754
Anglican Bishop Thomas New ton described m any Christian practices taken from Paganism , like incense, sprinkling holy
water, lighting m any candles. “Is not the worship of saints and angels the sam e as the form er worship of dem ons?”
1754
Philosophy: Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), sparked the Romantic Movement’s reaction to m aterialistic reason.
Go back to nature to cure society’s ills. His Discourse on the Origins of the Inequality of Mankind argued that people had
adopted laws and governm ent to preserve their private property (the Social Contract), but that in the process they had
becom e enslaved by governm ent. “To be sane in a world of m adm en is itself a kind of m adness.”
The Social Contract (1762) which glorified the com m on m an, the noble savage, identified a social contract between m en
and their governm ent, fam ously began with, “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” His hero argued for a
“natural education” for children; he greatly influenced education. He felt that civilization was a decline from the state of
nature. Not reason but feeling was his idol. He wanted people (m en that is) to be free and equal, but in doing so, to
surrender their natural liberty to one another, fusing their individual wills into a General W ill. (Von Goethe was a
representative). Rousseau, like m any m en of the Enlightenment (but not Diderot or Voltaire), considered wom en to be
naturally inferior. “The whole education for wom en should be relative to m en. To please them , to be useful to them , to
win their love, to tend them ..., to...console them , and to m ake life sweet and pleasant for them ; these are the duties of
wom en at all tim es.” Rousseau had a new psychological obsession with the individual which was to flood into art and
literature, a sentim ental approach to nature and natural beauty, and a new child-centeredness in educational theory.
Rousseau stressed the idea of a link between liberty and equality. “Liberty is obedience to the law which one has laid
down for oneself.” Rousseau’s conception of equality suggested that nations are founded on the dignity of the com m on
people rather than on hierarchies. Rousseau’s ideas paved the way for the rom anticism of the 19 th century.
Bertrand Russell later said that after Hum e destroyed empiricism, unreason, i.e., rom anticism , grew; that
“Rousseau was m ad but influential, and Hum e was sane but had no followers.”
c1755
Physics: Joseph Black, Scot, deduced air was m ade up of different gasses. First to isolate pure CO2 and nitrogen.
1755+
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) published the Dictionary of the English Language. It standardized English spellings.
Som e of his ideas, “Curiosity is one of the perm anent and certain characteristics of a vigorous m ind.” 1751.
“It m atters not how a m an dies, but how he lives.” 1769. “Language is the dress of thought.”
“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” 1775. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
“How is it we hear the loudest yelps for liberty am ong the [Am erican slave owners]?
“I am willing to love all m ankind, except an Am erican.” 1778. (said during the Am erican Revolution)
“No m em ber of a society has a right to teach any doctrine contrary to what society holds to be true.”
“The true m easure of a m an is how he treats som eone who can do him absolutely no good.”
1755
Kant
Philosophy: Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), greatest Germ an m etaphysician and transcendental philosopher, professor
of logic and m etaphysics at University of Koenigsberg (Prussia) from 1770. He was the founder of Germ an idealism . Kant
credited Hum e for “awakening m e from m y dogm atic slum bers.” He put Germ any on the m ap as an intellectual power.
Hobbes, Locke, Hume, and Kant all agreed with Plato’s “All propositions m ust have a reason.”
He defined The Enlightenment as “Man’s leaving his self-caused im m aturity.” Its m otto, “Use one’s knowledge
without the guidance of another.” Extrem ely influential, Kant com bined Leibniz’s rationalism and Hume’s skepticism
into his “critical philosophy,” that ideas do not conform to the external world, but rather the world can be known only insofar
as it conform s to the m ind’s own structure. He felt that m orality required a belief in God, freedom and im m ortality, although
these cannot be proved scientifically or m etaphysically. He argued that the hum an m ind is the origin of the world as we
know it. The m ind is not a tabula rasa (Locke), but has an inherent structure (with synthetic a priori truths) through which
we filter all experience and which im poses its own order on the world of phenom ena.
Kant’s astronom y: In 1755, Kant’s General Natural History and Theory of the Heavens anticipated Laplace’s 1799
nebular hypothesis. Building on an idea from Emanuel Sw edenborg, Kant speculated that the galaxy that Earth was in
84
m ight be a rotating body of a huge num ber of stars, held together by gravity and that our solar system had evolved from
a globular m ass of incandescent gas rotating around an axis through its center of m ass. As the m ass cooled, it contracted
and successive rings broke off which in their turn cooled and becam e planets, while the sun at the core rem ained. Thus,
the outer planets were older than those closer to the Sun. He also posited nebulae (apparent cloudy stars/bright spots)
were galaxies beyond the Milky W ay, which he called ”island universes”.
Kant sought to describe the phenom ena of Nature, both organic and inorganic as a whole of interconnected natural laws.
“Two things fill the m ind with ever increasing wonder and awe, the starry heavens above and the m oral law within m e.”
The heavens, as described by New ton, were governed by specific laws, while the m oral law within was a product of
hum an freedom . Kant sought to find a theory unifying the universe and the working of the m ind.
Kant speculated that the Earth was m illions of years old, a radical idea at the tim e. (m ore Kant 1781)
1756
Edmund Burke (1729-1797), in A Vindication of Natural Society, All governm ents m ust frequently infringe the rules of
justice to support them selves, that truth m ust give way to dissim ulation, honesty to convenience...The m ost obvious
division of society is into rich and poor. The whole business of the poor is to adm inister to the idleness, folly, and luxury
of the rich...In a state of nature, a m an’s acquisitions depend on his labors. In an artificial society, it is an invariable law
that those who labor m ust enjoy the fewest things, and those who labor not at all have the greatest num ber of enjoym ents.
1757
Scurvy
Medicine: James Lind, British Naval surgeon, recom m ended that sailors get citrus to prevent scurvy, which killed m ore
sailors than war did. The Navy considered it for forty years, then gave its sailors citrus. Scurvy disappeared.
1758
Catholics were allowed to read Copernicus’s 1543 Revolutions (but not Galileo’s 1632 Dialogues until 1835).
1758
Claude A. Helvetius (1715-1771), French, a Deist, vehem ently anti-clerical, in his De l’Espirit, considered the differences
between individuals entirely due to differences in education. He accepted Locke’s tabula rasa idea, Men are born
ignorant, not stupid; education m akes them stupid. Ethically, a utilitarian; contra Rousseau, he valued knowledge.
1761
Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d’Holbach (1723-guillotined 1789), Germ an-French philosophe, all told, contributed c 400 m ostly
scientific articles to Diderot’s Encyclopedia. He published (anonym ously) several atheistic attacks on Christianity as an
im pedim ent to the m oral advancem ent of hum anity, starting with Christianisme devoile/Christianity Unveiled, in 1761. In
1770, he published his m ost fam ous, Le Systeme de la nature/The System of Nature. It denied the existence of a deity
and refused to accept all a priori argum ents. The universe was nothing but m atter in m otion bound by inexorable natural
laws of cause and effect. Inter alia it said, “Ignorance of natural causes created the gods and priestly im postures m ade
them terrible.” “All religious notions are uniform ly founded on authority; all religions...forbid exam ination, and are not
disposed that m en should reason upon them . The Catholic Church com m issioned a refutation and threatened the king
with ending financial support unless he effectively suppressed circulation of the book. This effort was unsuccessful.
Holbach
1761
Otis
1761
M arine
clock
James Otis Jr., Boston lawyer, argued against the “writs of assistance” allowing British troops to enter colonials’s houses
at will. Later, arguing against the Stam p act, declared, “Taxation without representation is tyranny.” Also, “God m ade all
m en naturally equal...Kings were m ade for the good of the people, not the people for them ...No governm ent has the right
to m ake slaves of its subjects.”
John Harrison, British watchm aker, working 19 years, devised the m arine chronom eter, sim ply a very accurate clock
that worked on ships. It could determ ine longitude. Thusly: as the Earth revolves 360 degrees every 24 hours, so it
revolves 1 degree of longitude every four m inutes. Greenwich/London is zero degrees longitude. W herever one is in the
world, at any latitude, by definition, when the sun is at its highest point above him , it is noon to him . So a sailor with an
accurate clock set to Greenwich Mean Tim e sees what tim e it is in Greenwich when the sun is at its highest point above
him , i.e., his noon. If his noon occurs at 12:04 GMT, he knows that he is 1 degree west of Greenwich, and so on. Captain
Cook used one on his 2nd circum navigation (1772-1775). In 1773, Parliam ent grudgingly partially paid Harrison.
W atchm akers were the ultim ate craftsm en of the day. [Latitude was reckoned by Polaris or other stars.]
1762
Catholics in Toulouse tried, tortured, and killed a Protestant for converting Catholics to “heresy.” Voltaire attacked it.
1764
Cesaer Beccaria, in Crimes and Punishments: Punishm ents ought to deter, not brutalize; against the death penalty.
1765
Politics: Trouble brewing in Am erica. The Am erican colonies differed widely in religion, acceptance of slavery, econom ic
system s, patterns of land ownership, but had in com m on the threat from the French, from Indians, and m ostly the shortsighted trade restrictions of the British. W hile Holland carried the m ost trade goods worldwide, all British colonies’s trade
with other countries had to be bought or sold through British ports and British agents. British im perial suprem acy was
based on its sea power. Brits were quartering troops in houses. In 1765, in New York City, the Stam p Act Congress
prom ulgated a Declaration of Rights, protesting the Tyrannical Acts of the British Parliament. Parliam ent snubbed it.
America
1766
Chem istry: Henry Cavendish, British, isolated hydrogen, called it flam m able air. In 1783, was first to realize that water
was not an elem ent when he exploded hydrogen and air with an electric spark and created water. He calculated the weight
of Earth from its gravitational effects (off by only 1.3%). He anticipated the law of the conservation of energy.
85
1768
Political Theory: J. B. Priestley, U nitarian m inister, chem ist. His Essay on the First Principles of Government used
Hutcheson’s 1725 phrase “the greatest happiness for the greatest num bers” as the test for m oral action. (also 1775)
17681771
Botany: Sir Joseph Banks sailed three years around the Pacific on Captain James Cook’s first circum navigation and
collected 30K plants, 1,400 not seen before, upping by 25% the num ber of known plants. Plant and fauna collecting
becam e an international m ania in the 18 th century. As m ore and m ore species were found, Christian theologians
announced that Noah’s ark was really six tim es larger than previously claim ed. W ith Harrison’s chronom eter, Cook
charted the transit of Venus in front of the sun (letting astronom ers fix the size of the solar system by parallax and Kepler’s
3 rd law) and extensively accurately m apped m uch of the Pacific. Cook was the first to prevent scurvy in his crew. He fed
them sauerkraut.
Russian traders settled Alaska, enslaved and brutalized the natives.
Joseph
Banks
1771
17741775
Revolution
1775
Burke
1775
1776
Thomas
Paine
The Age
of Paine
Declaration
of
Independence
Catholic universities, including the greatest, Salam anca, still refused to teach New ton’s physical science.
Discontent in Am erica ferm ented: King George 3 wouldn’t accept colonists as full British citizens. In 1774, Brits stupidly
decided to punish the colonies, closed Boston harbor. So the First Colonial Congress issued a Declaration of Rights. The
colonies’s elites, Enlightenment m en, knew their rights from Locke. In April 1775, a British arm y unit m arched from
Boston to Lexington to arrest John Hancock & Sam Adam s for treason. At Lexington, a ragtag m ilitia fired on them , “the
shot heard round the world.” They went to Concord and then retreated. The war was on. The 2 nd Continental Congress
convened in May in Philadelphia with delegates from the 13 colonies and nam ed George W ashington com m ander. Penn.
m ilitia privates, who elected their junior officers, petitioned to elect all officers, be allowed to vote, fines for not serving.
Political Theory: Edm und Burke (also 1759), Irish, eloquent in Parliam ent, Burke favored the Am erican colonists over
King George 3. In this regard, Burke wrote: “It is not what a lawyer tells m e I m ay do, but what hum anity, reason, and
justice, tell m e I ought to do... All governm ent-indeed, every hum an benefit and enjoym ent, every virtue and every prudent
act - is founded on com prom ise and barter...a great em pire and little m inds go ill together.” 1775 .” (m ore Burke 1790)
Chem istry: Priestley (see 1768) isolated oxygen, saw how brightly a candle burned; put a m ouse in it; saw how well the
m ouse did. Breathed it him self. He also discovered that green plants breath out oxygen. He discovered a wide range of
new gasses, including nitrous oxide, am m onia, nitrogen, carbon m onoxide, sulphur dioxide, and oxygen.
Political Theory, Am erican Revolution: Thomas Paine (1737-1809) Brit, in Philadelphia, in January, 1776, wrote Common
Sense, anonym ously, a pam phlet stirringly advocating a declaration of independence; 600,000 copies sold in a nation of
about c2.8 m illion (m aybe m ost influential pam phlet ever), “O! Ye that love mankind. Ye that dare oppose not only the
tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth...W e have it in our power to begin the world over again.” Paine proclaim ed Am erica’s
m ission to be the defense of freedom and dem ocracy by presenting to the world the exam ple of a republic of free m en.
M ontesquieu and Sir W illiam Blackstone, a learned jurist, saw the English “constitution” as a balanced system with the
king and Parliam ent checking each other. Paine saw it as sim ply a com bination of two ancient tyrannies com pounded
with “new republican m aterials.” Paine favored a unicam eral legislature in each colony and a national unicam eral one.
He also wrote for wom en’s rights and against slavery. John Adam s favored independence but disliked Paine’s
“dem ocratical ideas.” Adam s reluctantly called the era “The Age of Paine.” The colonies routed their royal governors.
In July 1776, Thomas Jefferson (1728-1826), after one year at war, wrote the Declaration of Independence, inspired
by the Netherlands 1581 Oath of Abjuration from Spain, and by the writings of Paine and Locke (1688), using
Locke’s words and the Enlightenment’s concepts of natural rights. Its style was that of a com m on law pleading.
1. W e hold these truths to be self-evident. That all m en are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” (A phrase once used by Locke as key to
liberty although Locke was far better known for saying “life, liberty, and property.”)
2. Governm ents are instituted to secure these rights (Locke: Governm ent’s job is to protect property).
3. A governm ent is legitim ate only when it continues to secure these three rights. (Locke).
4. The people have a duty to revolt when governm ent becom es destructive of these ends. Governm ents [derive] their
just powers from the consent of the governed.(Locke)
As King George 3 was the head of the Anglican Church, the Revolution was against both England and Anglicanism .
(At the tim e, England’s Caribbean possessions, because of sugar, were far m ore im portant econom ically to England than
the Am erican colonies.) Am erica’s population, of about 2.8 m illion was alm ost half that of England. Mexico City was then
grander than any Am erican city, with a larger population than any European city except Paris or London. W ashington
read Paine’s pam phlet, Crisis, to his m en in Valley Forge, before he “crossed the Delaware,” “These are the tim es that
try m en’s souls. The sum m er soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis shrink from the service of their country;
but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of Man and W om an. Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered.”
Benjamin Franklin in France sought and got French help, including the Marquis de Lafayette.
1776
Society: England pre-1770 was a m anufacturing country, but it was cottage based m anufacture. The m ost im portant
m echanical invention of the 18 th century was the factory, where Man becam e a part of a m achine.
86
Jews continued to be persecuted everywhere. Christians quoted The Bible in Parliam ent to defend the slave trade.
Adam
Smith
Wealth
of
Nations
Industrial
Revolution
Adam Smith, Scot, a Deist, student of Hutcheson, published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the W ealth of
Nations (It started the science of econom ics), which described how the division of labor in a factory increased productivity.
He proposed laissez faire capitalism , i.e., let entrepreneurs do whatever they wished, and an Invisible Hand would transm it
benefits to the whole people. Governm ent should be lim ited to national defense, police, & public works like roads. Smith
described the hypocrisy of advocates of laissez faire capitalism ; said, “People of the sam e trade seldom m eet together,
even for m errim ent and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in som e contrivance
to raise prices.” He also said, “Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.”
Sm ith knew the rich; he wrote, “W ith [m ost] rich people, the chief enjoym ent of riches consists in the parade of
riches, which in their eyes is never so com plete as when they appear to possess those decisive m arks of opulence which
nobody can possess but them selves.” In 1899, Thorstein Veblen nam ed this trait “conspicuous consum ption.”
The Industrial Revolution, centered around Manchester (with the port Liverpool, coal, canals, water m ills), caused a big
increase in knowledge, and, like the Am erican and 1789 French revolutions, was basically a social revolution. The big
increase in production from factories led to a quantum leap in transportation, especially railroads and steam ships. Self
m ade practical m en from the m iddle class m anaged the factories, built the m achines, not aristocrats, as Oxford and
Cam bridge only taught the classical subjects. England, with 2% of the world’s people, produced 20% of the world’s
m anufactured goods (a nation of shopkeepers), shipped them worldwide. This was the British Em pire.
East of the Elbe authoritarian governm ents ruled farm ing people. W est of the Elbe societies were becom ing freer and
m ore open. Around the Med, wom en rem ained chattel. In the m ore advanced Northern Europe, wom en had m ore
rights. In the North, salons, clubs (including the International Association of Freem asons), and coffee houses were
intellectual and social centers, all breaking up the ice of tradition and convention. Literacy expanded, m ainly in cities.
1779
Botany: Jan Ingenhousz, Dutch, discovered that plants absorb oxygen at night and em it it in the daytim e.
1779
Hum e
on the
Hume on the Design Argum ent: In Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, a classic text on theodicies, published at his
direction posthum ously in 1779, Hum e refuted the Teleological / Design Argument (i.e.,The universe and nature is so
well ordered it m ust have been designed by a God), m ost prom inently earlier pronounced by Aquinas (1273) and by von
Leibniz (1710), Hum e advanced several independent argum ents against the design argum ent. Specifically:
Design
1. Hume: The Design Argument posits a false dilem m a/lim ited choice, i.e., “W as the world designed or did it happen
by chance?” [Giving only two alternatives is not logical.] The Design Argument says order in the universe can only com e
from som eone’s design; but there are m any natural causes of order in the universe, i.e., snowflakes or crystal generation.
Making hum an intelligence the m odel for the cosm ic cause is suspicious when there were other possible explanations
that equally account for the order in the universe. The order in the universe is sim ply the m anifestation of causality, which
is a derivative, a logically corollary of the Law of Identity. One unm entioned alternative is the scientific one; Did the Earth
evolve?.] He who fram es the question has won the debate. ”You buy the prem ise; you buy the bit.” Johnny Carson.
Argument
False
Dilemma
Analogies
M islead
2. Hume: The Design Argument is based on an incom plete analogy: Because of our experience with objects, we can
recognize hum an designed objects, i.e., watch on a beach, or com paring scattered rocks to a rock wall. But to conclude
ours is a well ordered universe, we would have to know a range of different universes to see if ours is actually that well
designed. As we don’t know other universes, the analogy is not valid.
Proves
No
Dogm a
3. Hume: Even were the Design Argument com pletely accepted, it does not establish any particular god (Jesus, Allah)
or even a com petent or m oral designer, only that som ething som e tim e in the past designed the universe. One could easily
conclude that the universe’s configuration was the result of som e m orally am biguous, possibly unintelligent agent, or
agents, whose m ethods bears only a rem ote sim ilarity to hum an intelligence.
Poor
Design
4. Hume asked how we could be sure that the world was not created by a team , or that this is not one of m any attem pts
at creations, or that our world was not a poor attem pt “of som e infant deity who afterwards abandoned it, asham ed of his
lam e perform ance.” Specifically, “If the well functioning nature is evidence for intelligence, benevolence, and power; then
disease, pain, parasites, disorder, fam ine, and natural evil is sim ilarly evidence for stupidity, m alice and im potence... If
this world is the best the designer can or will do, he m ust like suffering. Heaven, with the sam e designer, m ust be just as
bad.” (Darw in rejected the Design Argument for this reason.) Suffering, starvation, and privation afflict billions to this day.
Do tsunam is, floods, droughts reflect intelligent design? (Aldous Huxley later said, “Maybe this planet is another planet’s
Hell.”) This is called the Underachiever Problem of the Design Argument. [Scientists have noted instances where the
hum an body is constructed m ore inefficiently than even an average com petent hum an engineer would design it.]
Von Leibniz had addressed the Underachiever Problem: “God created the best of all possible worlds... Hum an
happiness is an inadequate m easure of goodness in the world. Man is not com petent to judge goodness ”
(Jesuit scholars argued that God was not obliged to create the best world, just a m orally acceptable one. )
5. Hume: To determ ine if the universe is actually well ordered, we should know what the designer wanted to accom plish
87
What
Purpose?
in order to see if the universe is well ordered for such purpose. But that assum es that the designer exists, the very m atter
the argum ent is supposed to prove. The Design Argument is thus a circular argum ent, it assum es the conclusion.
W hat
6. Hume: If a well ordered world required a designer, then the designer/God’s m ind, being well ordered, also required
a designer, which required a designer etc. etc., ad infinitum . [It’s turtles all the way down.] Such response to the
Teleological Argument, and to the Cosmological (First Cause) Argument, is known as an infinite regress.
designed
God?
7. Hume: Often, what appears to be purpose, where it looks like an object has a particular feature in order to secure
som e particular outcom e, is better explained by a filtering process: that is, the object wouldn’t be around if it didn’t possess
that feature, and the outcom e is only interesting to us as a hum an projection of goals onto nature. This m echanical
explanation of teleology anticipated Natural Selection. [If God designed the world, He m ust like it just as it is.]
8. And, said Hum e (and Kant), such reasoning is natural, but it is not scientific. as it generates no new predictions. It
m erely represents a prim itive preference for explaining the unknown in term s of agency rather than in term s of nature.
The Design Argument sees the world as a finished design. [Popper would say the Design Argument isn’t falsifiable.]
[A win-win situation for believers. A m iracle, an event that violates the laws of nature, is proof of God (St. Paul re Jesus).
At the sam e tim e, the Design Argument says the regularity of the world is proof of God. (Aquinas and others)]
1779
M adison
John
Adams
Political Theory: James M adison (1751-1836) sought to resolve the “property or pursuit-of-happiness” dichotom y by
sim ply defining property as all that a m an owns and values, i.e., his property, his opinions, his religious beliefs, his security.
This concept is radically revolutionary, i.e., the U.S. governm ent m ust respect the rights of property and the property in
rights. It is not possible to go beyond it. (Even the Russian revolution did not protect a m an’s property.)
Like Locke, John Adam s venerated private property, “The m om ent the idea is adm itted into society that property is not
as sacred as the laws of God...anarchy and tyranny com m ence.” (Paine, in Agrarian Justice in 1795 distinguished
between property, as the bounty of nature like land, belonging to all, and property created by the fruits of one’s labor.)
1781
W ith French help, Cornw allis surrendered; Articles of Confederation were ratified. Paris Peace treaty was signed in 1783.
Geo. M ason’s Virginia’s Declaration of Rights: “All m en are by nature free & equal...governors are servants of the state.”
1781
The two m ajor scientific schools of the day were British empiricism (Locke, Berkeley, Hum e) and continental rationalism.
Kant wrote Critique of Pure Reason/a priori reason, his m ost im portant book and one of m ost influential books in the
history of philosophy, to counter Hume’s assertion that we can’t really know if som ething is true by observation as
causality can’t be proved in a reliable way: in short, the purely sensory base of knowledge is inadequate. This view led
to skepticism . Kant argued that all thinking depends on applying 12 certain fundam ental concepts or categories - like
unity, substance, quantity, causality which are not arbitrary concepts but basic operations of thought, i.e., laws of thought.
Immanuel
Kant
Thus knowledge a priori, i.e., from reason alone, is possible. That is, by virtue of the form s and categories inherent in
the m ind, like space, tim e, and causality, Man possesses the presuppositions for coherent and intelligible experience.
Ideas/concepts depend on prior m ore basic concepts, and so on. (See Braden 1964). Knowledge consists in
categorizing chaotic perceptions that we experience into a ordered world. Hum an understanding relies on m ore than
the senses as the m ind interprets the world with its own pre-sensory (a priori) structures and categories of thought.
True knowledge cannot go beyond experience (empiricism, Hum e, Locke). Kant’s m otto, “Dare to know.”
Kant reconciled empiricism & rationalism by postulating that in principle scientific knowledge and m etaphysical thought
were sim ilar, and therefore the justification or explanation of scientific thought and m etaphysical thought were the sam e.
That is, what the scientist did in describing nature is sim ilar to what the m etaphysician did when he discussed freedom
and m orality. By thus interpreting the nature of scientific and m oral thought, Kant provided a new function and a new life
for philosophy. The task for philosophy then becam e the critical appraisal of the capacities of hum an reason. He also
wrote, “Happiness is not an ideal of reason but of im agination.
In Critique, Kant also gave the m ost influential refutation of Anselm’s (1076) and Descartes’s Ontological Argument
for God. The Ontological Argument, said Kant, had two prem ises: 1. “God is the m ost perfect being conceivable,” and
2. “It is m ore perfect to exist than not to exist,” (Then the conclusion: “Thus God exists.”)
Ontological
Argument
Refuted
Kant argued that the Ontological Argument uses two distinct realm s of thought - that of pure reason - deduction -like
m athem atics, in which prem ises dictate conclusions, and that of things, in which we reach conclusions based on
experience. Kant said that existence was not a predicate, i.e., prem ise 2 was false, that, “Existence is not perfection.”
Postulating that things exist and therefore existence is an attribute of things is circular reasoning. The Ontological
Argument does not prove there is a God. It sim ply assum es there is a God. That is, “W hile we m ay conceive of God
as having the property of, for exam ple, being all-powerful, existence is not a property of a thing at all. For exam ple,
suppose that one gives a com plete description of an object, size, weight, color, chem ical com position, etc. To then
add that the object exists does not add anything to the object or the concept of the object. To say the object exists
does say som ething about the world, i.e., that the world contains som ething that m atches the concept of the object,
but does not say anything about the object itself. W ith prem ise 2 gone, the Ontological Argument fails.
88
Immanuel
Alternatively, sim ply substitute the word Utopia for God. Thus, 1.”Utopia is the m ost perfect society conceivable. 2. It is
m ore perfect to exist than not exist. Thus Utopia exists.” This conclusion is clearly false. Only observation can determ ine
that things exist. Kant also argued that the Cosmological Argument repeats the sam e error. It pastes the tag of “existing”
on things, then asserts that the existence of a thing requires the existence of an ultim ate being. The inference of a first
causer / first m over god in Cosmological Arguments is sim ply the Ontological Argument, which he had shown was false.
Kant
Even so, Kant was a believer in a God. After discrediting the Ontological and Cosmological Arguments, Kant posited an
Argument for God from Morality in The Critique of Practical Reason (1788). Arguments from Morality are a fam ily of
argum ents based on the thesis that because m oral norm s exist, the m ost likely source of such norm s is God.
Categorical
Imperitave
Kant said that hum ans have an innate awareness of m oral law in the form of the categorical imperative (i.e., a com m and
applicable at all tim es and in all situations). His im perative was, “Act only according to that m axim whereby you can at the
sam e tim e will that it should becom e universal law.” This was Kant’s central philosophical concept of his m oral
philosophy. Thus, laws should codify m oral duty. [In fact, only the m ost basic and general m oral rules are universal; “Don’t
kill innocents, don’t steal,” m any are not universal.] Such basic m oral rules of conduct would arise in any culture, as they
help that culture survive. Moral standards differ from culture to culture. Few today accept the Bible’s com m and to kill
unruly children and adulterers, or to endorse slavery or to consider wom en as property.
Order
in
Nature
Paradoxically, the existence of evil is the basis for the Argument from Morality while the existence of evil in the Problem
of Evil is the basis for establishing that all-good om nipotent om niscient God cannot exist
Kant wrote, “Science is organized knowledge. W isdom is organized life.” “I had to set lim its to knowledge in order to m ake
place for faith.” “Everything in nature acts in conform ity with law,” i.e., there is order in nature.” 1785
Political theory: Kant said, “Reason utterly condem ns war, which only an international governm ent can prevent.
In 1790, Kant wrote Critique of Judgment. It defined the pleasure one gets from art as “disinterested satisfaction.” He saw
art as uniting the opposite principles of reason and im agination. The purpose of law is to codify m oral values.
1782
W illiam Ogilvie, The Right of Property in Land, Everyone has a right to an equal share in the value of property in land.
Land values have 3 parts, the original, the im proved, and the im provable. The first and third belong to the com m unity, the
second to the landowner the value of whose land is the product of his labor.
1783
Chem istry: Antione Lavoisier (1743-1794) French chem ist, In 1778 said air is 2 different gasses. In 1783 said water
was not an elem ent but a com bination of oxygen and hydrogen and could be decom posed and recom bined. In 1789
wrote Elementary Treatise on Chemistry; defined a chem ical as the last point an analysis can reach and form ulated
the law of conservation of m ass. He m ade the first good list of elem ents, 33 of them (som e incorrect). Som e like gold
and copper were already known as they existed in their natural state. Said a rusting body gains weight; as iron adds
oxygen to becom e iron oxide. His fam ily com pany collected taxes; so he was guillotined during the French Revolution.
1783
Brothers Jacques and Joseph M ontgolfier flew a hot air balloon 6 m iles over Paris. Ben Franklin witnessed it.
1785
W illiam Hershel, Brit., posited that our solar system was part of a larger system of at least several m illions of stars;
he drew a diagram of the shape of the galaxy, the Milky W ay. In 1781, he had discovered Uranus.
1787
Jacques Charles added the tem perature variable to the pressure, volum e, tem perature ratios for a gas. Nam ely, at
fixed pressure, the volum e of a given m ass of gas goes up or down by the sam e factor as the tem perature m easured
from absolute zero, the Kelvin scale, goes up or down. Boyle’s Law, see1666, Charles’s Law, and Gay-Lussac’s
Law (see 1802) all describe the PVT relationship of a gas; P=V/T or V=PT or T=V/P.
1787
Black
Holes
Astronom y: John M ichell (1724-1793), English geologist, postulated the existence of a body so m assive that not even
light could escape its gravitational pull, i.e., a black hole. In 1796, French m athem atician/astronom er, de Laplace (1799)
described this idea in the first two editions of his book Exposition du Systeme du Monde. Later editions unfortunately
deleted it. The idea was not widely accepted, as com m on knowledge then said light had no m ass, and thus could not be
influenced by gravity. (Einstein in 1905 agreed that light was affected by gravity.)
1787
W olfgang Amadeus M ozart’s (1756-1791) Don Giovanni/Don Juan was a savage attack on religious intolerance. It was
also the tragedy of a m an whose only religion was knowledge. It was a new kind of tragedy. Giovanni respects no virtues,
laughs at society. The wom en he seduced want freedom and a new adventure as m uch as he does. After seducing m any
wom en, the father of his latest m istress challenged him to a duel. Giovanni easily killed him , but the m an’s ghost com es
to dinner. Giovanni says he has nothing to repent. In a crescendo, the fires of Hell consum e him . At 25, M ozart had
written 100s of works. He left his patron, the archbishop of Salzburg, and without a patron, died in poverty in 10 ten years.
Wolfgang
M ozart
1787
Political Theory: To establish a strong central governm ent, the U.S. Constitution was proposed and adopted in 1789, but
without a Bill of Rights. It prohibited nobility, but did not outlaw slavery and did not give wom en the vote. Slavery,
89
sanctioned in the Bible, was justified as being in slaves’s best interests, as it was in a slave owner’s best interest to treat
his slaves well, an odious argum ent. Slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person. As slaves didn’t vote, voters in slave holding
states were over represented. Slavery was legal in m ost of the 13 states in 1789 but outlawed in the Northern states by
1804. Alexander Hamilton had wanted a m onarchy; said, “Our real disease - which is dem ocracy.”
1789
James
M adison
M adison, Deist, proposed the Bill of Rights, speech etc, based on ideas of the Enlightenm ent and Geo M ason’s Virginia
Declaration of Rights. W hen soon adopted, the Bill of Rights m andated that the state tolerate and stay out of religion. This
provision was m eant to reduce the influence of the official religions then im posed by states. 11 of the first 13 states had
a religious test to hold public office, 9 had official churches, supported financially by the state. Am erica was the first
governm ent to explicitly exclude religion as one of its basic principles. But wom en generally could not vote, inherit, sue,
sit on juries, m ake a will, hold public office, keep her children in event of a divorce, keep her wages, or own property.
The colonies were m ostly Protestant, of different sects. But the m ajor founding fathers of Am erica were wealthy and
learned m en of The Enlightenment, thus anti-clerical, m any of them Deists (see 1624), thus not Christians. For exam ple:
M adison wrote, “During alm ost 15 centuries has the legal establishm ent of Christianity been on trial, what has been its
fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy, ignorance & servility in the laity: in both superstition,
bigotry, and persecution. Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the m ind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.”
Thomas
Jefferson
Sim ilarly, Jefferson wrote, “Question with boldness even the existence of God; because if there be one, he m ust m ore
approve of the hom age of reason than that of blindfolded fear.” 1785. “Religions are all alike, founded upon fables and
m ythologies.” In 1800, he wrote, “I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over
the m ind of Man.“ This appears in the Jefferson Mem orial in W ashington DC, and has been considered as a repudiation
of all organized religions. & “I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeem ing feature.” ...“The Christian God is a being
of terrific character - cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust.” Regarding the power of businesses, he wrote, “I hope we
shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our m oneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our governm ent.” and,
The governm ent is the strongest of which every m an feels him self a part...A little rebellion, now & then is a good thing.”
Also, “In every country and in every age the priest has been hostile to liberty; he is always in allegiance with the despot,
abetting his abuses in return for protection of his own.”
Franklin
Ben Franklin: “I have found Christian dogm a unintelligible. Early in life, I absented m yself from Christian assem blies.”
W ashington
George W ashington, a deist, m ade m any references to God in his writings, but none of them biblical, i.e., Christian.
He spoke of the “grand architect.” He signed the Treaty of Tripoli, which stated, “The governm ent of the United
States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” It was ratified in 1797 under the President John Adams.
John
Adams
John Adam s wrote, “The divinity of Jesus is a convenient cover for absurdity.” And in 1816, “This would be the best of
all possible words, if there were no religion in it.” Deists were distrusted by adherents of Am erica’s various religions.
1789
Political Theory: Jerem y Bentham (1748-1832), British jurist and philosopher, wrote Introduction to the Principles of
Morals and Legislation expounding his basic ethical doctrine that m en are obligated to do that which will produce the
greatest good for the m ost people, known as utilitarianism. This concept was taken from Hume’s A Treatise of Human
Nature (1739-40) and J.B. Priestley’s Essay on the First Principles of Government (1768), and originally from Francis
Hutcheson’s 1725 phrase. For Bentham , pain and pleasure were the only intrinsic values in the world. Intentions are
good or bad only insofar as they lead to pleasure or pain.
To Bentham , social problem s could be solved scientifically. His question was, “How good is the law? How can it be
im proved? This theory led to proposals for reform ing laws, im proving schools, changing the prison system , etc.
Jeremy
Bentham
1789
French
Revolution
Political Theory, the French Revolution, M aximillian Francois M arie Isidore de Robespierre: From 1650-1789, France
had held the concept that one person m ust rule. It was the wealthiest country and an absolute m onarchy. The “people”
were a m otley horde. The justification of m onarchy was based on the “Great Chain of Being” (from Plato) i.e., from the
lowest in society up through nobility, to king and God. However, som e Frenchm en had read Locke, Bentham,
Rousseau, and Jefferson, and had seen the United States kick out the British and prohibit nobility and a state religion.
The Am erican and French revolutions were the first to be expressed in secular, not religious, term s,
French Jacobins/Robespierre prom ulgated a “Declaration of Rights of Man” (1789) whose pream ble resem bled the U.S.
Declaration of Independence (Jefferson was a U.S. diplom at in France at the tim e) but went further than the Am erican
one. This Declaration said that the source of all sovereignty lies essentially in the nation. This was dangerous as it
perm itted a tyrant to claim he was acting for the state. Robespierre did just that. He decreed death to “enem ies of the
revolution.”
The French Revolution was the turning point in European history, destroying the old order, im m ensely m ore
im portant in changing intellectual history than the Am erican Revolution. Libertie, Fraternitie, and Egualitie was its m otto.
Som e who revolted were returned soldiers who under Lafayette had helped Am erica gain its independence. A m ob
storm ed the Bastille on July 14, 1789, freeing a handful of prisoners. In the first years of the revolution, to 1792, the
revolution abolished special privileges and prom oted freedom of speech, the press, religion, and trade.
90
1790
Edmund
Burke
Political Theory: Burke (1775) wrote Reflections on the Revolution in France, the founding text of m odern conservatism.
W rote, the French “are not fit for liberty, and m ust have a strong hand like that of their form er m asters to coerce them .”
He said the revolutionaries had “pulled down...their m onarchy, church, nobility, law, revenue, arm y, navy, com m erce, arts,
m anufactures.” The door was opened to an “irrational, unprincipled...confiscating, plundering, ferocious, bloody and
tyrannical dem ocracy.” Said, all useful and legitim ate innovations m ust result from the slow growth of the collective m ind
in accordance with tradition.
Reflections argued against natural rights, said all rights com e from the history of the society. “Governm ent is a contrivance
of hum an wisdom to provide for hum an wants... Men have a right that these wants should be provided for by this wisdom .”
Also, “W hat is liberty without wisdom , and without virtue?” He condem ned the Enlightenment. He wrote, “Religion is the
basis of civil society,” but also, “Superstition is the religion of feeble m inds.” “I love a m anly, m oral, regulated liberty.”
He was the authentic “Conservative.” His writings becam e the classic conservative critique of attem pts to reform society
on the basis of abstract theories. Such classic conservatism is a philosophy of governing, be cautious, respect tradition.
Burke agreed with the English Revolution of 1688 as it was a protection of the national traditions of Protestantism . The
prevailing British political system whose “traditions” Burke wanted to respect was the m onarch/ aristocratic/class system ,
He opposed poor people voting. Burke warned England not to im itate France, lest confiscation and plunder of property
result and atheism replace religion. He term ed the revolution a threat to Europe and all m ankind.
Paine replied in The Rights of Man (1791) that Burke pitied the plum age but forgot the dead bird.
1793
Louis 16 was beheaded. The Jacobins in 1793-94 during the “Reign of Terror” guillotined an estim ated 20,000-40,000,
m ainly noblem en and clergy and then even Robespierre, (far different from the Am erican Revolution.). They even
briefly im prisoned Thomas Paine, then living in France and a m em ber of the National Convention of 1792, for speaking
against the execution of Louis 16. Robespierre’s execution ended the revolution’s m ost radical phase.
The French revolution was led by a m ob, not by elites (as Am erica’s was). It put Europe in turm oil for 25 years. The
Revolution was the end of the Enlightenment. (Napoleon restored order and a m onarchy in 1799.)
M ary W ollstonecraft, British, in Vindication of the Rights of W omen: The Enlightenment’s chauvinism is hypocritical. Of
Burke, she wrote, ‘I sm other the contem pt I feel rising for your rhetorical flourishes and infantile sensibilities.”
1793
Political Theory: W illiam Godw in, Brit., “Governm ent can have no m ore than two legitim ate purposes - the suppression
of injustices against individuals within the com m unity, and the com m on defense against external invasion.”
1793
Paine published The Age of Reason, a scathing attack on Christianity: “All national institutions of churches, whether
Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to m e no other than hum an inventions, set to terrify and enslave m ankind, and
m onopolize power and profit.” ”W henever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and
tortuous executions, the unreasoned vindictiveness with which m ore than half of the Bible is filled, it would be m ore
consistent that we call it the work of a dem on than the word of God.” “The world is m y country, all m ankind are m y
brethren, and to do good is m y religion.” Age of Reason, part 2, 1795, ridiculed absurdities in the Bible, becam e the m ost
popular deist book ever written, introduced deism to the masses, gave deism an aggressive, anti-Christian tone.
And, “From whence then could arise the solitary and strange deceit that the Alm ighty, who had m illions of worlds
equally dependent on His protection, should quit the care of all the rest and com e to die in our world, because, they
say, one m an and one wom an ate an apple?” This is known as the Small God Problem, i.e., a God of one sm all
planet and not of the universe. Age of Reason m ade Paine a pariah to devout Christians everywhere.
Regarding science, Paine wrote, “It is a fraud of the Christian system to call the sciences hum an invention; it is only
the application of them that is hum an. Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable
as those by which the universe is governed. Man cannot m ake principles; he can only discover them .”
Thomas
Paine
Problem
of the
Small
God
1794
Biology: Erasmus Darw in, grandfather of Charles Darw in, in Zoonomia, speculated all warm blooded anim als cam e from
one species, and that species passed along to their offspring traits acquired during their lifetim e (see Lamarck 1809).
1795
Politics: The French revolution failed. Nobles throughout Europe resisted it. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)Corsican,
took over the arm y in 1795, led a coup d’etat in 1799, ruled as First Consul, then em peror in 1804, and thought him self
the nation (like Louis 14, “L’état? C’est moi”). He becam e a m ore absolute m onarch than any others before. Napoleon
disdained wom en. “W om en are nothing but m achines for producing children...Public education is not suitable for them ;
as they are never called upon to act in public..Marriage is all they look to.” The Code Napoleon, his proudest work, m ade
a wom en her husband’s property. He also said “England is a nation of shopkeepers.”
1795
Geology: James Hutton (1726-1795), Edinburgh, friend of Hume, Joseph Black, and Adam Sm ith, published an
im portant scholarly but unreadable A Theory of the Earth with Proofs and Illustrations. He created the science of geology.
He was the first to realize that the Earth was m any m illions of years old. He said clam shell fossils were found on
m ountaintops as m ountains were form ed by the heat from a hot core of the Earth pushing land up. Mountains eroded,
left sedim ents. Re the age of the Earth, said, “W e find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.”
After Hutton died, John Playfair, a friend and m athem atician, in 1802, published an easy-to-read version of his book.
1796
Geology, Biology: Baron Georges Cuvier, French, 1 st paleontologist, suggested in Note on the Species of Living and
91
Fossil Elephants, that from tim e to tim e, global catastrophes wiped out groups of anim als, contrary to the notion of the
great chain of being where everything was carefully ordered and planned for all tim e, as the Bible and Plato taught.
1796
Dr. Edw ard Jenner injected pus from a cowpox sore into a boy. Six weeks later, he injected the boy with sm allpox. The
boy stayed healthy. Thus, a m ild version of a m oderately bad disease im m unized against the severe disease. Turkish
peasants had been “inoculating” their children with sm allpox pus for centuries. Cowpox was virtually risk free.
1797
Paine, in Agrarian Justice: “It is wrong to say God m ade rich and poor. He only m ade male and female; and he gave them
the Earth for their inheritance. The Earth was and would... ever be the common property of the human race.”
1798
M althus
Politics, Econom ics: Thomas M althus (1766-1834), Anglican priest, published, anonym ously On the Principle of
Population. “Population naturally increases m ore than farm ing yields increase so there is a continuing struggle for food,
so preventative checks on procreation are necessary.” i.e., there will always be poor people. Darw in read it in 1838.
17981799
Inspired by the Am ericans and the French, The Irish, kept in grinding brutal poverty by the British, and with no political
rights, revolted, but were crushed. France helped the rebels, to no avail.
1799
The Rosetta Stone, with the sam e text carved in Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Egyptian Demotic, and classical Greek, was
found by French troops. It had been carved c198 BC. Scholars could then read num erous previously unreadable texts.
1799
Astronom y: Pierre Simon, Marquis de Laplace (1749-1827), French astronom er and m athem atician, in his Mecanique
celeste, showed m athem atically that the solar system was stable and did not need a divine hand to keep the planets in
their orbits. Napoleon asked him why his explanation had not m entioned God. De Laplace answered, “Je n’avais pas
besion de cette hypothese-la. Sire, I have no need of that hypothesis.” W hen a colleague of Napoleon’s, Joseph-Louis,
Com pte de Lagrange, also a m athem atician and astronom er, said to de Laplace that the God hypothesis explained
m any things, de Laplace replied that “The God hypothesis explains everything, but does not perm it to predict anything.”
Laplace thus defined science as a predicting tool. De Laplace also did pioneering work on the system of probability.
de
Laplace
The God
Hypothesis
In 1812, he said, “W e m ay regard the present state of the universe as the effect of the past and the cause of its future.
An intellect which at a certain m om ent would know all forces that set nature in m otion and all positions of all item s of which
nature is com posed. If this intellect were also vast enough to subm it these data to analysis, it would em brace in a single
form ula the m ovem ents of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom ; for such an intellect nothing
would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes.” This is called Laplace’s
demon.(Buckminster Fuller in 1960 proposed a sim ilar econom ic/trade m odel of the world to predict world trade.)
Pre-1800
Overview: There had been em pires larger than Am erica, but never one so united, despite the dispute re slavery. Before
c1800, land was the source of m ost wealth. (There were very few bankers and m erchants). Those who owned land were
wealthy. Those who did not were poor. Over 90 percent of hum ans did not live in cities and were peasants/slaves/
serfs/peons/untouchables/natives/low caste, m ostly illiterate. Money was irrelevant to them . They worked from dawn til
dusk, every day, from childhood until death, with lives as Hobbes said, “nasty, poore, brutish, and short.” This was
Leibniz’s “best of all possible worlds.” In England, one needed the perm ission of the Justice of the Peace, norm ally the
squire, to m ove from the town. Peasants could not own guns. The JP could (and of course often did) send one to a penal
colony for trivial offenses. The deer parks were closed to peasants. The average life span in Europe was c37.
Science: In broad term s, in the 17 th century, science was rational, deducing events; in the 18 th, it was em pirical,
describing the pictures that arose in experience; in the 19 th, it becam e experim ental, m anipulating biological events.
19 th
Century
Overview. By 1800, the world was connected. The century of colonialism was devoted to econom ic facts. New
technologies, especially electricity, did for experience what printing had done for knowledge. Railroads transform ed
econom ies and created untold wealth for their owners and those who owned nearby land. Before railroads, all land travel
was at walking speed. George W ashington could travel no faster than Aristotle. Power was a new idea in science.
Steam powered ships transform ed water traffic. The m erchant class (bourgeoisie) expanded, sea trade, steam power,
em ploym ent for m illions, m anufacturing, m ass produced furniture, cheap cast iron stoves, telegraph, oil, electricity, popular
literature, m issionaries, m oney, the science of econom ics, the concurrent settlem ent eastward into Siberia and westward
to California. Of these phenom ena, the m ost im portant was m oney.
Politically, the 19 th century was a reaction to the French Revolution. Religion cam e back into fashion. Conservatives said
that the revolution was destroying the grandeur of Europe, said violence was intrinsic to revolutions. In the 19 th century,
Europe’s population m ore than doubled, going from 20% of the world’s population to 25% , even while m illions m ore
Europeans em igrated to the Am ericas, principally to the U.S.
The early 19 th century was a period in which m odern historical consciousness becam e a central com ponent of
intellectual life, as science had becom e a key elem ent in the late 17th century.
During the 19th century, believers argued that m agic, witchcraft, i.e., so-called obvious religious frauds, preceded
m onotheism , but m odern religion (i.e., without witchcraft, etc.) m anifested itself only in the higher stages of hum an m ental
developm ent. Nonetheless, the advance of knowledge was dim inishing the authority of organized religion.
92
Various countries began to ban slavery. Prussia abolished serfdom in 1807. England banned slavery in 1808, India
(under British control) in 1843, French colonies in 1838, the U.S. only after the Civil W ar.
Colonialism : The m ajor European powers colonized the world to establish and control world m arkets. By 1850, the
factories of the industrial revolution needed m arkets for their m anufactured goods. England and France took m ost of
Africa; England took the Mid-East and India. Spain had S. Am erica, except for Brazil which Portugal took. Bishop
Desmond Tutu said, “W hen the m issionaries cam e to Africa, they had the bibles and we had the land. They said, Let
us pray. W e did and when we opened our eyes, we had the bibles and they had the land.” (From a Bantu saying)
England exported people, m anufactured goods, capital; im ported raw m aterials. The overall costs of Britain’s em pire
(colonial bureaucracy, Arm y, Navy, infrastructure, etc.) exceeded its benefits to the nation, but the class that ran the
governm ent, the m ercantile class, prospered greatly. As Adam Smith put it, ”To found a great em pire...is...a project
altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extrem ely fit for a nation whose governm ent is influenced by
shopkeepers.” Most 19 th century British scientists did not com e from classically narrow-oriented Oxford and Cam bridge.
18001899
Major
Electricity
Advances
in the 19th
Century
Electricity tim eline during the 19 th century. (See 1700 for earlier tim eline of developm ents in electricity.)
1800. W illiam Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle discovered electrolysis by passing a voltaic through water,
decom posing water into its com ponents, hydrogen and oxygen.
1802. Gian Romagnosi saw a voltaic pile m ove a m agnetic needle. So saw electricity and m agnetism were related.
1805. Luigi Brugnatelli, Italian chem ist, invented electroplating.
1808. Humphry Davy, British chem ist, discovered that an electric current applied to chem icals could produce new
chem icals. He isolated potassium , sodium , m agnesium , calcium , strontium , alum inum , and six m ore elem ents.
1820. Hans Christian Oersted, Danish, saw an electric current m ade a m agnetic field around a conductor, thus
electromagnetism. The discovery that there was a connection between m agnetism and electricity was one of
the m ost im portant discoveries regarding electricity. Electricity and m agnetism are sim ply aspects of one
fundam ental force, the electrom agnetic force (see M axwell 1867).
c1824. Dominique Arago, French, discovered that an iron bar was m agnetized when put inside a coil of a current
carrying coil, but he did not see the increased strength of the resulting field. He also developed the principle of
m agnetism by rotation. (As m inister of war and m arine, he also abolished slavery in French colonies in 1838).
c1825. Andre Ampere, French, form ulated Am pere’s Law that was the basis of study of electrodynam ics. The
m agnetic field in space around an electric current is proportional to the electric current that serves as its
source, just as the electric field in space is proportional to the charge that serves as its source. Electrical
current is now m easured in am peres, am ps.
1825. W illiam Sturgeon, British, saw that leaving iron inside a helical coil of wire connected to a battery greatly
increased the m agnetic field, thus m ade the first electrom agnet. He bent the iron core into a U bringing the
poles closer, concentrating the m agnetic field lines. He also m ade the first practical English electrical m otor.
1826. Georg Ohm, Electric current = voltage divided by resistance. Resistance of a elem ent is now tallied in ohm s.
1829. Francesco Zantedeschi, Italian, wrote that a m agnet nearing or leaving a closed circuit caused a current.
1831. M ichael Farady, British, studied the m agnetic field around a DC electric current conductor, thus established
the basis for the m agnetic field concept. He discovered electrom agnetic induction and electrolysis; established
that m agnetism could affect light. He pushed and pulled a m agnet through a coil inducing an electric current in
the coil, the foundation of electric m otor technology. All generation of electricity is based on this principle. He
largely enabled electricity for use in technology. He proved that vibrations of m etal could be converted into
electrical im pulses, crucial for the telephone.
1832. Baron Pavel Schilling m ade the first electrom agnetic telegraph, using a binary system of signal transm ission.
1832. Hippolyte Pixii, French, m ade the first practical electric generator. (He died at 27)
1833. Heinrich Lenz stated Lenz’s law. If an increasing (or decreasing) m agnetic flux induces an electrom otive
force, the resulting current will oppose a further increase (or decrease) in m agnetic flux, i.e., that an induced
current in a closed conducting loop will appear in such a direction that it opposes the charge that produced it.
1835. Joseph Henry, British, developed an im proved electrom agnet. W ith Faraday, he saw how to m ake an induced
current. He also invented the electrom agnetic m otor. He discovered the principle underlying electrom agnetic
telegraph. He invented low and high resistance galvanom eters. He discovered the oscillatory nature of electric
discharge and was the first Secretary of the Sm ithsonian Institution.1827-1850.
1837. W illiam Cooke and Charles W heatstone, Brits, patented and dem onstrated a telegraph.
1837. Samuel M orse, Am erican, patented a telegraph, used Morse code. Sent first telegram in January 1838.
c1839. Rudolph Kohlrausch, Germ an, showed an electrolyte has a specific, constant am ount of electrical resistance.
1840. James Joule, British, said that the am ount of heat produced in a circuit is proportional to the tim e duration
tim es resistance and the square of the current passing through it.
c1850. Arm and-Hippolyte-Louis Fizeau, French, discovered Doppler type effect for electrom agnetic waves.
c1860. Johann Geissler, Germ an, showed gas in a tube glows from an electric current.
1866. Siem ens Gm bH built the first practical dynam o. 1879 first electric railway. 1881 first electric tram system .
1867. James Clerk M axw ell, Scot (1831-1879), m erged m agnetism with electricity; posited that electricity, light, and
m agnetism , were all electrom agnetic waves of different wavelengths traveling at the sam e incredibly fast speed,
93
James
Clerk
M axw ell
Thomas
Edison
Nikola
Tesla
M axw ell m easured m icrowaves, then sm aller infrared waves, then visible light, then ultraviolet, then X-rays, then
the shortest, gam m a rays. M axw ell predicted that there should be waves of longer wavelengths also going at the
speed of light. (Hertz confirm ed this 20 years later, radio waves. See below). Visible light constitutes a tiny part of
the electrom agnetic spectrum , and acts as a wave (Huygens’s 1678 idea). Changes in a m agnetic field creates
an electric force and, conversely, changes in an electrical field creates a m agnetic force (3 & 4 below)
M axw ell sum m arized all we know about electricity & m agnetism and their connection in 4 M axwell’s Equations
(discovered by others, M axw ell realized that they were the heart of the theory of electricity and m agnetism .)
1. Unlike charges attract each other. (Coulom b’s law)
2. There are no isolated m agnetic poles. (If there’s a positive pole, there’s a negative pole.)
3. An electrical current gives rise to m agnetic fields.
4. Changing m agnetic fields can give rise to an electric current. (converse of 3)
He also m ade the first color photos. Einstein said he was the m ost profound and fruitful physicist since New ton
1877+. Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) invented the phonograph, the incandescent light, printing telegraph, alkaline
battery, m im eograph, kinetoscope, and c1,300 other electrical inventions. In 1882, he turned on an 110 volt
direct current electric power distribution system with 59 custom ers in lower Manhattan. Said, Religion is all bunk.
1879. Siem ens Gm bH dem onstrated the first electric railway and in 1881 the first electric tram system .
1883. Nikola Tesla, Serbian-Am erican, invented the induction m otor with no electrical connections to the part that
rotates, m aking it m ore reliable. Such m otors now power m ost of the world’s electrically driven m achinery. His
alternating current transm itted better than Edison’s direct current, thus becam e the standard, but only after
bitter, expensive, protracted lawsuits from Edison.
c1887. Heinrich Hertz, Germ an, m easured the length and velocity of the M axwell’s electrom agnetic waves and showed
that they could be reflected, refracted, and polarized like light. Hertz proved M axw ell’s theory re longer waves.
Such waves were radio waves, Hertzian waves, and like all electrom agnetic waves, travel through space and
m etal at the speed of light. His discoveries led to the wireless telegraph. The frequency of electrom agnetic waves
is how m any wave crests pass a point each second. Einstein accepted that all electrom agnetic waves travel at
the speed of light in 1905.
1890. AEG Gm bH developed the alternating-current m otor (Tesla) and the generator, so power plants could be built.
1891. Sebastian Ferranti, British, designed and built the first power generating station and distribution system .
1895. Wilhelm Roentgen, Germ an, m ade and detected X-rays, the birth of nuclear physics and the nuclear age.
1895. Guiglielmo M arconi, Italian, wireless transm ission of radio waves, sent a m essage across the Atlantic in1901.
c1899. Henryk Lorentz, contributed to the electrom agnetic theory of light and to the electron theory of m atter.
1802
Physics, Gasses: Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac’s law. The pressure of a fixed m ass of gas at fixed volum e is directly proportional to its tem perature from absolute zero; i.e., m inus 273.16 Celsius. Thus, at fixed volum e, a gas’s pressure
increases 1/273 each Celsius degree increase. Corollary to Boyle’s (1662) and Charles’s (1787) laws of gasses.
1802
Paley
1802 Teleology: Archdeacon W illiam Paley’s Natural Theology posed the watch found on a beach analogy, the heart of
the Design Argument. His 1785 Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy was required reading at Cam bridge.
1802
Biology: Gottfried Treviranus, Germ an biologist, said sim ple form s of life had gradually developed into m ore com plex
form s; living creatures can be m odified by external influences; that species develop into other species.
1803
Thomas Young, British, discovered interference of light, thus provided the first convincing proof of Huygens’s 1690
W ave Theory of light. He was also the first to m easure and describe astigm atism , and to explain that color sensation is
due to structures in retina corresponding to red, green, and violet. He also assisted in translating the Rosetta stone.
Physics: Benjamin Thompson, Am erican, later becam e the Germ an Count von Rumford, elucidated the principles of
convection of fluids and the circulation of ocean currents, the m ain agent of heat transfer on Earth.
1805
Sir W alter Scott, Breathes there a m an, with soul so dead, who never to him self has said, this is m y own, m y native land!
1806
Ulrich Seetzen killed the ancient m yth that apples, pears, figs, & lem ons near the Dead Sea were inedible, ashes.
1807
The Geological Society of London was form ed. Robert Fulton’s Cleremont was first practical and econom ical steam boat.
1808
Physics, Atomic Theory: John Dalton (1766-1844), proposed that at the root of all m atter are tiny particles he called
atom s (from Leucippus and Democritus), which could neither be divided or destroyed. He said that all atom s of any one
elem ent are identical and differ from other elem ents’s atom s in size and weight. The idea of atom s was not new but
Dalton studied their size and how they fit together. He showed that Atomic Theory could explain the law of definite
proportions (i.e., In com pounds, the elem ents com bine in a “firm union” in proportion with each other, by m ass.).
The idea of atom s was the m ost powerful idea in m odern science, but not fully accepted for about a century.
John
Dalton
1808
Philosophy: Johann W olfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), the m aster spirit of the Germ an people, leading figure of his
age after Napoleon. Scientist, novelist, philosopher, critic, poet. The legend of Faust (m aking a pact with the Devil) is as
94
Johann
von
Goethe
old as the legend of Don Juan. M arlow e in 1592 wrote of it. Von Goethe wrote it over 60 years, com pleting the first part
in 1808 and the second in 1832, a few m onths before his death. Faust, seeking knowledge, power, pleasure, and wealth,
m ade his pact with the Devil. Part One deals with the destruction of the Medieval world and its replacem ent by m odern
society, i.e., Faust falls in love with Gretchen and takes her out of a Medieval town but abandons her. The story dem ands
we recognize a new world is being born. For 2,000 years, Christians had known/believed that true freedom cam e from
God. It hadn’t worked, why not deal with the Devil? He studied Spinoza’s pantheism , Liebniz’s panpsychism .
Von Goethe also said, “A useless life is an early death...Nothing is m ore terrible than to see ignorance in action.”
“This occupation with im m ortality is for people of rank, and especially for ladies who have nothing to do.”
“To rule is easy, to govern difficult.” “Mysteries are not necessarily m iracles.” “Doubt grows with knowledge.”
“Nothing is m ore odious than the m ajority, for it consists of a few powerful leaders, a certain num ber of
accom m odating scoundrels, and subm issive weaklings, and a m ass of m en who trudge after them without thinking.”
1809
Lam arck
Biology: Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de M onet, Chevalier/Knight de Lam arck (1744-1829), French naturalist, like
Erasmus Darw in, was an early proponent of evolution. In Philosophie Zoologique 1809, he correctly said that organs
develop through use and wither through disuse. But, m ore im portantly, incorrectly said offspring inherit traits acquired
during an organism ’s lifetim e. One’s genes are set at conception. [De Vries’s 1901 discovery that cellular m utations
caused changes in organism s showed Lam arckism wrong.] He said that each species had an inescapable drive toward
perfection of its species; also wrong. Lam arck did im prove on Linneas’s system of classifying anim als.
1811
Poet Shelley was kicked out of Oxford for his atheism . In 1816, he lost custody of his children for the sam e reason.
1815
Tam bora, on an island east of Java, erupted, spewing 82 tim es m ore ash than Mt. St. Helens, 6 tim es m ore than Krakatoa
in 1885, and 150 tim es as powerful as Hiroshim a. The worldwide ash blocked sunlight and caused tem peratures to fall
1.5 degrees. 1816 becam e “the year without a sum m er.” Failed crops caused the worst fam ine of the 19 th century.
W illiam
Smith
Geology: W illiam Smith, British, canal construction supervisor, deduced that one could determ ine the relative, but not
absolute, age of rocks, by studying which fossils appeared at which levels of sedim entary rocks. He showed that species
had been wiped out repeatedly. This contradicted the Bible. He also noted that fossils in the upper (m ore recent) layers
were m ore com plex than those in lower/older layers. Published the first geological m ap of all England in 1815. After
debtors prison, he was called the Father of English Geology by the new Geological Society .
1815
Political Theory: After num erous successful m ilitary cam paigns throughout Europe, Napoleon was defeated, exiled to
Elba (in the Mediterranean near Italy). He escaped, returned to France, raised an arm y, but was defeated at W aterloo
in 1815 (his 100 days) and exiled to St. Helena (rem ote S. Atlantic), where he lost the will to live and died at 52 in 1821.
Napoleon there said, “Muham m adanism is less ridiculous than Christianity....and, W om en are nothing but m achines for
producing children.”
W ith Napoleon defeated, Count von M etternich, at the Council of Vienna, with England, Russia, Prussia and his
Austria, recreated the old political order in Europe. It lasted until 1914. In France, the anti-religious fervor of the Revolution
was followed by a wave of religious conservatism . In Italy, religious freedom was not won until 1945.
1817
David Ricardo (1772-1823), Brit. banker, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, “The natural price of labor
is that price necessary to enable the laborers just able to subsist and perpetuate their race, without increase or
dim inution...There is no way of keeping profits up, but by keeping wages down...If workers were paid m ore than a
subsistence wage, they would have m ore children & there would not be enough food for everyone. M althus’s iron law
of population and this “iron law of wages” justified not giving lower class workers higher wages. Henry Ford conclusively
refuted this “law” when he paid his assem bly line workers $5 per day.
David
Ricardo
1819
Philosophy: Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) Germ an, In The W orld as W ill and Idea, “Only through history does a
nation becom e com pletely conscious of itself... The greatest intellectual capabilities are only found in connection with a
vehem ent and passionate will....The m ajority of m en... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and...are not
accessible to reason, but only to authority...Man is the only anim al which causes pain to others without any further
purpose that just to cause it...Every m iserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud adopts as a last
resource pride in the nation to which he belongs.” He argued that Man is both a knower and a willer. As knowers, Man
has a view from without (the cognitive view) and as free-willing beings, Man has a view from within (the conative view).
He first advanced four laws of thought: 1. Everything that exists, is. 2. Nothing can be and not be at the sam e tim e. 3.
Everything either is or is not. 4. Of every thing that is, it can be found out why it is. Later, in 1844, he said the laws of
thought could be reduced to two; the law of the excluded m iddle and the law of sufficient reason or ground.
1820s
Political Theory, socialism : In response to the excesses of capitalism , certain groups began to question the sanctity of
private property in favor of state ownership, giving rise to the Socialist m ovem ent, often utopian in concept. Social reform
ideas grew. In the U.S., persons without property allowed to vote, the so-called Jacksonian Revolution in the 1820s and
1830s. Brit Factories Act of 1819 banned children under 9 from working; children 9-16 can’t work over 12 hours per day.
95
Bolivar
Simon Bolivar, (1783-1830) Liberator of S. Am erica, abolished inquisitions, becam e an atheist, so excom m unicated. In
all the South and Central Am erican wars for independence from Spain, the Church with its Inquisition sided with Spain.
Georg
Hegel
Philosophy: Georg W ilhelm Hegel (1770-1831) Germ an philosopher, gave Germ an idealism a com prehensive system
of thought. He took Kant’s m ind-ordered world from the hum an level to the cosm ic one, creating an awesom e system
into which all past, present, and future experience and thought fit together rationally in an encom passing dialectic that is
constantly evolving) toward suprem e self-consciousness, or Absolute Spirit. Thesis begets antithesis which conflict is
resolved by a synthesis, that becom es a thesis and so on. The Absolute spirit is behind all developm ents in the world.
Then we’ll know everything and see God. Soon, m ost academ ic philosophers em braced, theoretically, the idea of change,
accepted strife as essential to progress, saw things as parts of a whole, and them selves as characters in the unfolding
of history. “W hat experience and history teach us is this - that people and governm ents never learned anything from
history, or acted on principles deduced from it.” Said if Adam /Eve had obeyed God, they would stayed as children.
Hegel’s m ethod was to m etaphysicize everything, i.e., discern in concrete reality the working of som e idea or Universal
Mind. All change results from a conflict of great forces. He saw history unfolding as a thesis, then the a reaction,
antithesis, then the com bination, synthesis, which becom es the new thesis. A philosophy of the absolute, it was the
leading system of m etaphysics during the second quarter of the 19 th century.
Hegel had great influence on Karl M arx (see 1848). He glorified the state and felt that the end justified the m eans.
1823
Pope Leo 12 banned vaccination for Catholics as against God’s will; required all residents of Rom e to listen to
catchecism , forbad Jews from owning property, revived Medieval laws requiring Jews to wear distinctive dress.
1824
Sadi
Carnot
1824: Physics: Sadi Carnot (1796-1832) French, worked out a prelim inary science of heat, therm odynam ics. He realized
that it’s not possible to continually convert energy from one form to another and back again as som e energy is lost each
tim e. This lost energy is called entropy. Heat flows only from hot to cold. (2nd Law of therm odynam ics, see 1848+)
1826
Math: Nikolai Lobichevsky (1792-1856) showed for the first tim e that there was another kind of geom etry other than
Euclidian, a fundam ental discovery that only 90 years later was recognized in Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
Robert
Brow n
Physics: Robert Brow n (1773-1858), Scot, botanist, noticed that tiny grains of pollen suspended in water continued to
m ove no m atter how long the water stood. (The m otion of tiny particles in water had first been noted by Lucretius in 60
BC.) This becam e known as Brownian m otion. Brownian m otion is thus perpetual m otion. In 1831 he saw the control point
of a cell, called it the nucleus, and identified that structure as being the com m on elem ent of all plant cells - a find as
im portant as the later discovery of the atom ic nucleus. Nuclei were soon discovered in anim al cells.
1826
Political Theory: Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), Earl of Beaconsfield, later Prim e Minister (1868-70,74-80), “All power
is a trust...W e are accountable for its exercise...From the people, and for the people, all springs, and all m ust exist.”
[Lincoln copied this phrase in the Gettysburg Address] “Property has its duties as well as its rights.” 1845.
1827
Theology: Joseph Smith (1805-1844), convicted of fraud for claim ing to be able to locate treasure using peep stones,
in W estern New York State, said that a prophet Morm on wrote a book on gold plates, which he gave to his son Moroni,
an angel. Moroni then gave to Smith the plates and two m agic stones to translate the plates. From behind a curtain,
Smith, who could read but not write, dictated the Book of Mormon from the plates. He allowed no one to see the plates.
He claim ed that he was returning to the original teachings of Jesus. Polygam y was a central feature of his religion.
The
Book of
M ormon
W hat
Mormons
Know
The Book of Mormon was published in 1830. Most phrases in the Book were copied from the New and Old Testaments.
The phrase “and it cam e to pass” appears over 2,000 tim es. Sm ith said that virtually all Christian doctrine developed after
Jesus was false. A few sam ple passages: Jews are wicked (like Matt. 3:7). The Jewish lost tribe of Israel cam e to
Am erica around 600 BC and becam e Am erican Indians. God is m arried to his goddess wife. Hom osexuality is evil. God
sent fiery flying serpents to bite people. God will force people to eat their own flesh. God was once a m an on another
planet. God gave Indians dark skin because they turned away from God. Polygam y was OK. God will kill whom you ask
him to, God curses one who m arries an Indian. There is no salvation outside Morm onism . Jesus is both the Son of God
and the Father. Num erous passages describe Indians as filthy and loathsom e. W hile it purports to have been originally
written several centuries before Christ, Jesus is m entioned often. It often m entions horses and wheeled carts, unknown
in Am erica pre-1492. It is as scientifically accurate as the Bible or Koran. M ark Tw ain said it was “chloroform in print.”
Smith “excom m unicated” m ost of his original followers and was shot in Illinois. Four of Smith’s 35 wives were 14 to 16
years old. Christians persecuted the Morm ons, so Smith’s followers under Brigham Young settled in Utah. Morm onism
is a restorationist (all m en will eventually be restored to a state of happiness) Christian sect. Blacks were not perm itted
to enter the priesthood. Young said slavery is ‘of divine institution.” Major Christian sects consider it heretical.
1828
Biology: Frederich W oehler, Germ an, accidentally synthesized urea, an organic substance, from inorganic m aterials,
proving that an organic substance did not need a “vital force” present in plants and anim als to be form ed. He was one
of first to isolate alum inum , beryllium . Organic chem istry is essentially the chem istry of carbon.
96
1830
Geology
Charles
Lyell
Geology: Charles Lyell (1797-1875), British, wrote Principles of Geology, a history of geology and a description of the
inorganic physical processes at work in the world, such as volcanoes, erosion, earthquakes. It built on Playfair’s
sim plification of How ell’s 1795 work. Everything that happened in the past could be explained by events still going on,
uniform itarianism . Darw in read Volume 1 of Principles before his departure on the Beagle in 1831.(see 1939 Darw in)
Volume 2 of Principles (1832) dealt with processes like clim atic change which m ight cause species to appear or
disappear. Volume 3 (1833) wrote that the Earth m ust be m illions of years old to create the present world. The Anglican
Church strongly opposed Lyell’s theory of the extrem e age of the Earth and he was socially ostracized, albeit becom ing
fam ous.
Biology, Botany: Lyell theorized that changes in flora and fauna m ight be explained by their isolation in separate and
different ecological circum stances, and, re fossils, he wrote, “In the universal struggle for existence, the right of the
strongest eventually prevails.” (In 1859, Darw in praised Principles of Geology in his The Origin of Species.)
1830
W ebster
Daniel W ebster, in the Senate, said, “The people’s governm ent [is] m ade for the people, m ade by the people, and
answerable to the people.”
1830
Compte
Philosophy: Auguste Compte (1798-1857) a founder of sociology and positivism (recognizes only positive facts and
observable phenom ena without inquiry into ultim ate origins). He said all branches of knowledge go through 3 stages,
theological/fictitious, m etaphysical/abstract, and scientific/positive. He said, use quantitative data to m ake decisions.
“Religion is an illusion of childhood, outgrown under proper education.”
1832
Part Two of Goethe’s Faust depicted the world to com e. Progress, ruthlessness, the old destroyed. Goethe died.
1833
Germ an historian Leopold von Ranke: God said every state has a special m oral character; one should strive to fulfill the
idea of that state; ie, Germ ans, reject the French revolution. Every age is unique, should be judged in its own context.
England bought and freed all slaves in the British Dom inions. Very expensive. It had banned slave trade in 1808.
1834
Spanish Inquisition form ally ended, but an auto-da-fe literally act of faith, (public roasting in great pom p, of Jews or
heretics to save their souls, Voltaire), occurred in Mexico in 1850.
1835
Political Theory: Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), French noblem an, traveled around Am erica and wrote Democracy
in America, about the growing U.S., saw clearly that progress toward equality was irresistible. Though a noblem an, he
saw that the privileges of nobility had to end. “I know of no country where the love of m oney has taken stronger hold on
the affections of m en and where a profounder contem pt is expressed for the theory of the perm anent equality of property...
Am erica is a land of wonders, in which everything is in constant m otion, and every change seem s an im provem ent...There
is no country in the world in which the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of m en than in Am erica.”
[Cotton was 59% of US exports. Major source of US wealth. It allowed US to pay its debts.].
Pope Gregory 16: “From the polluted fountain of indifferentism flows that absurd... raving, which ...defends liberty of
conscience for everyone. From this com es the worst plague of all...unrestrained liberty of opinion and freedom of speech.”
R W Emerson’s Nature popularized transcendentalism , an ideal spiritual state transcending the physical and em pirical.
1839
1839
Doppler
Darw in
on
the
Beagle
Botany, Biology: M atthias Schleiden (1804-1881) and Theodor Schwann (1810-1882) Germ an biologists. Schleiden
had noted that plants were com posed of cells. Schw ann noted sim ilar structures in anim als. They then wrote that all
vegetable and anim al m atter was cellular; all cells have a m em brane, nucleus, and cell body and are the elem entary
particles of all plants and anim als, the basic principles of cell theory. This was accepted only in 1860 when Louis Pasteur
showed that life com es from preexisting cells. Cell theory is the basis of biology. Said, Chance favors the trained m ind.
Theology: Catholic Church dropped its claim that the Earth is the center of the universe, 300 years after Copernicus.
Physics: Christian Doppler, Austrian, discovered that an approaching sound source bunches up the sound waves it
em its, thus has a higher pitch than the sound from a stationary or departing sound source, where the sound waves are
spaced further apart. This is the Doppler Effect. A sim ilar effect works also with the electrom agnetic waves of light which
ninety years later enabled Hubble and other astronom ers to calculate how fast stars are receding from us (or
approaching). Sound waves are not electrom agnetic waves. Sound thru air goes c767MPH, through water 4.3 tim es
faster; through steel 17 tim es faster. The word scientist was first used in 1840, replacing natural philosopher.
Biology: Charles Darw in (1809-1882), then a firm believer, with a divinity degree from Cam bridge, spent 1831-1836 on
the British surveying ship, the Beagle, sailing the S. Atlantic and the S. Pacific, then west around S. Africa back to
England, collecting specim ens and taking notes.(He spent 3+ years on land, 18 m onths at sea.) Before and while at sea,
Darw in read Volume 1 of Lyell’s Geology, including its speculations on how changes in flora and fauna m ay be due to
their isolation and whether species die and others take their place. (Darw in read Volume 2 in 1834 in Montevideo.) The
specim ens and notes he shipped hom e during his journey m ade him a well regarded naturalist.
97
Darw in
back in
England
On his return, he becam e the Secretary to the Geological Society and a m em ber of the Royal Society and other scientific
societies. He read widely preparing his notes for publication. In 1838, Darw in read M althus’s Essay on Population
(“Population has the constant tendency to increase beyond the m eans of subsidence,” thus always a struggle/com petition
for food). M althus’s insight was the key to the riddle. From it, Darw in developed the theory of Natural Selection, that in
the struggle for food, som e species die and others com e into existence, and, within a species, the m ost fit to survive,
survive. Realizing the revolutionary and heretical nature of his theory, he planned to publish it only after he died. In 1839,
Darw in published Journal and Remarks on the geology, botany, and zoology he saw on his trips. He continued to publish
scholarly articles on geology, biology, and botany. (m ore Darw in 1859and 1871)
1840
Henri Hess, Russian, said that the am ount of heat developed or absorbed in a chem ical reaction was always fixed,
inferring the laws of therm odynam ics (see 1850) also applied to chem ical reactions, the science of therm ochem istry.
1840
Thomas Carlyle, Rector, U. of Edinburgh, term ed the Koran, “wearisom e confused jum ble, crude...stupidity.”
1840
Pierre Prudhon (1809-1865), “Slavery is m urder. .Property is theft, the suicide of society. .Com m unism is inequality.”
1841
Ludw ig Feuerbach (1804-1872), Bavarian, critical of Hegel’s idealism . “W herever m orality is based on theology, & right
is m ade dependent on divine authority, the m ost im m oral, unjust, infam ous things can be justified and established.”
1842
G J Holyoake, British social reform er, jailed for 6 m onths for saying he didn’t believe there was such a thing as God.
1844
Baha’u’llah, Persian, founded the m onotheistic Baha’i faith, em phasizing the spiritual unity of all m ankind. Its three core
principles, the unity of God, the unity of religion, and the unity of m ankind. Baha’i also teaches gender equality, elim ination
of all form s of prejudice, world peace, harm ony of religion and science, independent non-theological investigation of truth,
com pulsory education, universal auxiliary language, obedience to governm ent, end extrem es of wealth and poverty.
Adherents consider other religions as m anifestations of God who brought teachings suitable for their tim e, but Baha’u’llah
fulfills the end-tim e prophesies of earlier scriptures. The purpose of life is spiritual growth through an organic process that
continues after death. Baha’i says God is too great for hum ans to fully com prehend.
Baha’i
1844
Biology: Scot Robert Chambers published anonym ously Vestiges of Creation, M an evolved from lesser creatures
following God given laws, theistic evolution. It tied together several current theories. It was very popular.
1845
M ax Stirner (1806-1856), Germ an, founder of theoretical anarchism , “A race of altruists is necessarily a race of slaves.
A race of free m en is necessarily a race of egoists... The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual crim e.”
c18461907
Physics: W illiam Thomson, (1824-1907, m ade Lord Kelvin in 1892), entered U. of Glascow at ten, studied in Paris,
London, graduated from Cam bridge, m ade professor of natural philosophy (science) at Glascow at 22, taught there 53
years, wrote 661 papers, m any on pure and applied m ath, suggested the m ethod that led to refrigeration. In 1848, he
proposed that there was an absolute cold tem perature, at about -273 Celsius/Centigrade, so devised the tem perature
scale beginning at absolute zero, now known as the Kelvin scale.
Lord
Kelvin
He invented a depth sounder, plus did pioneering theoretical work in electrom agnetism , therm odynam ics, and the wave
theory of light. He established today’s standards of electrical m easurem ent. He revolutionized the m ariner’s com pass and
was the forem ost theoretician of underwater telegraphy. He invented boosting devices that allowed telegram s to be sent
across oceans. He went on the Great Eastern, the largest by far ship in the world, in 1866 as it laid an Atlantic cable.
(France was joined to England by cable in 1851.) W rongly, he calculated the Earth’s age at under 100 m illion years, finally
deciding on 24 m illion. (See second law of therm odynam ics at 1850.) He was buried next to New ton.
1846
Philosophy: Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) Dane. Father of m odern existentialism . Science and philosophy (esp.
rationalism & em piricism ) are vain and pointless. Only individuals m atter; existence is individual in character. As death
is im m inent, every choice has infinite worth, every m om ent is a unique occasion for decisive action; each individual
achieves his being through decisions. W hat really m atters is the pathos of existing. Said that there were three groups of
m en, aesthetes, who want entertainm ent, ethical m en, who live for the sake of duty, religious m en, who live to obey God.
1848
Political Theory: Revolutions: Germ any was the world leader in industrial m ight and was becom ing the m ost powerful
nation in Europe, overtaking Britain as the leading m ilitary power. Italy and Germ any were divided into num erous states.
(Germ any united into one country in 1871 under Count Otto von Bismark to fight France.)
W om en’s rights m ovem ent in the US kick-started at Convention on W omen’s Rights at Seneca Falls, NY
Karl
M arx
Political Theory: Cities, without the rural influence of the squire or pastor, with crowded filthy living conditions, becam e
centers of dissent and revolution. Unsuccessful socialist revolutions of Italy, Germ any, Austria, and France in 1848
prom pted Karl M arx’s (1818-1883) Communist Manifesto (1848), denigrating Utopians. “A specter is haunting Europe the specter of com m unism .” Trade unionism had sought to work within capitalism . M arx wanted to replace capitalism .
M arx understood history, thus he could predict the character of the world to com e, if not the run of com m unism . He was
influenced by the social ideas from the French Revolution, the econom ic ideas of the industrial revolution in England, and
98
the philosophical ideas com ing out of Germ any. He said the bourgeoisie in 100 years had created m ore colossal
productive power than all previous generations together. He focused on the process the bourgeoisie had invented, i.e.
the m oney process, new ideas supplanting older ones constantly, not the achievem ents (factories, bridges, railroads).
That is, the bourgeoisie had started a perm anent revolution. This needed m en and wom en who liked change. Econom ic
relationships were the basic forces in history.
M arx said that the state is the ideologically legitim ized power of the ruling classes over the working classes; its
disappearance under genuine egalitarian and advanced productive and social conditions is thus necessary by definition.
Denigrating dem ocracy, he said, “The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular
representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and depress them .”
1848
M arx accepted Hegel’s notion of great forces, but claim ed to start with concrete m aterial reality, and saw the great forces
as a struggle of the lower classes against the ruling classes, which would end with the trium ph of the working class. “The
proletarians have nothing to lose in this revolution but their chains. They have a world to win. W orkers of the world, unite.”
He saw how the ruling class exploited and controlled the lower classes and called on workers to throw off their chains.
In tribute, today, all serious history is econom ic history. M arx also denigrated religion, “Religious suffering is...the
expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. It is the opium of the people.”
Antonio Rosmini, priest, Prim e Minister of the Papal states, wrote The Five W ounds of the Church, rem oteness of the
clergy from the people, uneducated priests, disunity and acrim ony am ong bishops, Church enslavem ent to wealth,
dependence of lay appointm ents by the state. It was im m ediately put on the Index, and Rosmini was forced to retire.
19 th
century
social
critics
c1848+
Heat
Law s of
Thermodynamics
Num erous thinkers criticized the bourgeois, narrow-m inded, hypocritical m entality of 19 th century society:
Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) “To be a great m an and a saint for oneself; that is the one im portant thing.”
Anatole France (1844-1924) “The law, in its m ajestic equality, forbids the rich and poor alike from sleeping under
bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) Dombey and Son. A wealthy financier, has a sickly son who asks what good is m oney.
The father patronizes the boy, “Money can do anything.” But in the end, m oney cannot save the boy nor the
financier. Only a neglected daughter survives, whom he now sees is worth everything.(1848)
Herman M elville (1819-1891) Moby Dick ”Better sleep with a drunken cannibal than a sober Christian.” (1851)
Gustave Flaubert (1821-80) Madame Bovary, adulterous wife tries to escape the banalities of provincial life. (1856)
“My kingdom is as wide as the universe...I go forward always, freeing spirits and weighing worlds, without fear,
without com passion, without love, without God. I am called Science (1848).
Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) The secret of a great unexplained success is a crim e that has never been found out.
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) Les Miserables was powerful in describing social injustices. (1862)
George Eliot (pen nam e of M ary Anne Evans) Middlemarch, fiction, explored great them es, class, political reform ,
education, status of wom en, nature of m arriage, idealism , religion. Known as first fully adult work of fiction. (1874)
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) The Ladies, “For the Colonel’s lady and Judy O’Grady are sisters under their skins.”
(1895). He also wrote of the different m entality outside the W est, “And the end of the fight is a tom bstone white,
with the nam e of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear: A fool lies here, who tried to hustle the East.” (1892)
Oscar W ilde (1854-1900) Irish, “A cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing..Only a very shallow
person does not judge by appearances..Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious...Science is the record of dead religions”
Em ile Zola (1840-1902), “J’accuse” exposed French anti-Sem itism in the case of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. (1898)
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) Devil’s Dictionary. “A Christian: one who believes that the New Testament is a divinely
inspired book adm irably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor.” “Im piety: not worshiping m y God.” (1899)
Anon., from Social and Industrial History of England, “The law locks up both m an and wom an, who steals the goose
from off the com m on. But lets the greater felon loose, who steals the com m on from the goose.” (1901)
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) “A local cult called Christianity.” (1904)
These social critics all saw what M arx saw, a new m oral and intellectual world where the old evaporated in the
face of the new. (See also Nietzsche at 1883)
Physics, Therm odynam ics: that branch of physics pioneered by Carnot (1824) dealing with the transform ation of heat
into work and other form s of energy. A body does not contain heat, only therm al energy. Heat is energy transferred from
one body to another due to a difference in tem perature. Heat transfers by conduction, convection, or radiation. Specific
heat is the am ount of energy that is transferred to or from one unit of m ass (m ole) of a substance to change the its
tem perature one degree. Joule in 1843 had said X am ount of work m akes X am ount of heat. The am ount of energy
transferred is
now m easured in joules, British Therm al Units (BTUs), or calories. (1000 calories = 4,186.8 joules = 3.9683 BTUs.) The
rate of transfer is m easured in watts. A hot body contains m uch therm al energy, a cold body less.
First Law of Therm odynam ics, 1847, suggested first by Hermann von Helmholz in 1847, and developed by James Joule
and Rudolf Clausius, is the principle of conservation of energy for therm odynam ic system s. In a closed system , or the
universe, energy is indestructible and constant, it cannot be created or destroyed. It m ay, however, change its form , i.e.,
99
electricity to heat to light, etc. W ork and heat are both ways to transfer energy from one place to another.
Second Law: 1850, Clausius said, “No engine can convert energy into m echanical work with 100% efficiency.” Any
transform ation of energy loses som e energy, dissipated in heat, light, friction, etc. It is called entropy, and it cannot be
recovered. Heat energy flows from hot to cold. One of the m ost im portant single laws in science. Som e energy is available,
som e is not. In the universe, stars are burning up/fusing, entropy is always increasing, heat is draining into a sort of lake
of equality in which it is no longer accessible. New ton’s physics was built on an equal sign. This law was the first physical
law that was an inequality. (W m. Thomson/Kelvin had posited the concept of absolute zero in 1848.)
Third Law 1906, W alther Hermann Nernst. “As a system approaches absolute zero tem perature, all processes cease
and the entropy of the system approaches a m inim um value.” One can’t get to absolute zero. (Planck later in 1913 stated,
“The entropy of each pure elem ent or substance in perfect crystalline form is zero at absolute zero.”)
These laws are known as, “You can’t win; you can’t break even; and you can’t get out of the gam e.”
In 1852, Joule and Thomson/Kelvin showed that an expanding gas consum ed energy, and its tem perature would
drop, the basic principle of refrigeration.
1851
The Canton of Basel prohibited Jews from engaging in any trade, outlawed citizens from associating with Jews.
1852
Physics: Henri Giffard, flew a cigar shaped hydrogen balloon for 20 m iles over Paris with a 3 HP 350lb steam engine.
1853
Sir George Cayley, founder of aerodynam ics, built a glider with lift and stabilizer controls, first m anned glider flight.
1854
Dr. John Snow deduced that cholera was spread by contam inated water. One well caused all the cholera in London.
He disabled the pum p at the well. Cholera declined im m ediately
Theodore Parker, at the Anti-Slavery Society, Boston, said, “Governm ent over all, by all, and for the sake of all...The
Bible sanctions slavery. So m uch the worse for the Bible.”
1855
Alfred
Russel
W allace
Evolution Alfred Russel W allace, an acquaintance of Darw in’s, published an article in the Annals and Magazine of
Natural History that speculated that new species were evolved from preexisting ones, (W allace had also read M althus.)
It was very sim ilar to Darw in’s then unpublished theory, which Darw in term ed Natural Selection. To avoid his insights
being upstaged, Darw in’s close friends, scientists Thomas Huxley, Charles Lyell, and Joseph Hooker advised Darw in
to publish his theory. So he resum ed preparing his book on Natural Selection.
1856
Neanderthals, an extinct Hom inid species, (with a larger brain than Homo sapiens) were found in the Neander valley
in Germ any. This showed that Man was subject to the sam e evolutionary changes as other organism s.
Pasteur applied gentle, not boiling, heat to wine, to kill bacteria, prevented it from souring; later did the sam e for m ilk.
1857
The US Suprem e Court said descendants of slaves were not citizens; they were property. “The right of property in a
slave is distinctly and expressly confirm ed in the Constitution.” Chief Justice Roger B Taney, Dred Scott decision.
1859
Robert Bunsen & Gustav Kirchoff built a spectroscope, saw every elem ent em its a distinct set of wavelengths of light.
1859
Political Theory: John Stuart M ill (1806-1873), British, intensely hom e-schooled (fluent in Latin at 3, Greek at 8), a
devotee of utilitarianism at 15. Godson of Jeremy Bentham: (“The m oral rightness of an act is determ ined solely by its
consequences.”) M ill wrote On Liberty in 1859, “The sole end for which m ankind are warranted, individually or
collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of anyone is self protection...W hatever crushes individuality is despotism ,
by whatever nam e it m ay be called.” “Prohibit nothing on the grounds that it harm s a voluntary participant.” “Liberty
consists of doing what one desires... An individual’s liberty can rightfully be constrained only in order to prevent his doing
harm to others. “Pleasure and freedom from pain are the only things desirable as ends.” He also said, “Conservatives
are not necessarily stupid, but m ost stupid people are conservatives.”
John
Stuart
M ill
M ill, in Utilitarianism, 1863, argued that cultural, intellectual, and spiritual pleasures are of greater value than m ere
physical pleasure, because they would be valued m ore highly by com petent judges than physical pleasure. The ethics
of utilitarianism influenced a large num ber of public m en and helped shape im portant reform legislation in the 19 th century
in England. M ill explained that the logical process of Induction worked well due to the uniform ity of nature.
M ill argued for individual rights and for tolerance of unpopular ideas and persons. Influenced by his bright wife, he favored
wom en’s rights, wrote On the Subjection of W omen, 1869. “The influence of priests over wom en is attacked by Protestant
and Liberal writers less for being bad in itself than because it is a rival authority to the husband. And raises up a revolt
against his infallibility.” (m ore M ill 1874)
1859
All gas
molecules
are the
Physics: Italian Rom ano Amadeo Avogadro’s law: The theory that all gas m olecules are the sam e size finally was
accepted by scientists due to the efforts of Stanislao Cannizzaro. Avogadro had in 1811 proposed to m odify the Greek
Atomic Theory. He said 1. the ultim ate particles of som e gases were not atom s but m olecules (com binations of atom s,
like H20 or CO2), and 2. all m olecules of every gas, even with vastly differing atom ic weights, at the sam e tem perature
100
same
size
and pressure, are the sam e size. A radon gas m olecule with 86 protons and 136 neutrons occupies the sam e am ount
of space as a hydrogen m olecule with just one proton and 1 electron. This is why hydrogen and helium balloons work.
[1cc of any gas, at 0 Celsius and at atm ospheric pressure, contains 2.68986 X 10 19 m olecules.].
1859
Biology, Evolution: In 1858, W allace sent Darw in a m ore com plete discussion of his theory (He was also influenced by
M althus, even used the phrase, the best fittest survive, n.b. Spencer 1862) asking that it be given to Lyell. So Lyell had
W allace’s paper and a paper by Darw in on Natural Selection (written for the occasion) both read to the Linnean Society.
There was no reaction, so Darw in com pleted his book and in 1859, published the detailed 400 page The Origin of Species
by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Its m ain idea, “All species
evolved from earlier species through natural selection,” i.e., changes in individual species arise random ly, those changes
that enable its organism best to survive, survive and reproduce, passing along that change, and those random changes
that hurt an organism ’s chances sim ply die out. Darw in credited Lyell and M althus in Origin.
Evolution
Explained
Natural
Selection
Thus there is thus no “purpose” to changes in organism s; organism s with accidental random beneficial changes survive
and reproduce; organism s with accidental random non-beneficial ones often die out before reproducing even once.
Darw in didn’t know m echanically what caused the changes. T his was the chief weakness in the theory. (The cause,
random genetic m utations, was not known until 1900.) Origin was very detailed and com prehensive. Darw in even
explained how com plex organs of seeming irreducible com plexity, such as the eye, evolved from less com plex organs.
Previous
ideas of
evolution
The idea of species evolving was not new at the tim e. The Enlightenment was based on the idea of Man changing and
im proving. Chambers’s Vestiges (1844) had postulated the evolution of all species but according to divine laws. Several
earlier m en had advanced the concept of evolution, am ong them Anaximander, Lucretius, al Jahiz, de Buffon,
Lam arck, Cuvier, Laplace, Treviranus, Chambers, and Darw in’s grandfather, Erasmus Darw in. But Darw in am assed
a huge am ount of evidence for Natural Selection. Natural Selection was a natural process, not divinely directed.
The theory of natural selection was the single m ost im portant scientific event of the 19 th century. It showed that natural
causes and not a supernatural being created com plex organism s and new species. Hegel had put evolution into
philosophy. M arx had put it into politics. But Darw in explained how it worked for plants and anim als, i.e., Natural
Selection in the context of M althus’s world of a struggle for food. Darw in at first accepted Lamarck’s 1809 seem ingly
reasonable but incorrect theory that parents pass on characteristics they acquired during their lifetim e.
Origin did not m ention hum ans. The com m on W estern “knowledge” at the tim e held that all races of m en were separate
species, the result of different acts of divine creation, and of course, that the W hite race was superior to the others,
polygenism . Polygenists falsely believed that m ixed race children would be sterile. Evolution by Natural Selection
destroyed the Design Argument by showing that organism s that are exquisitely constructed com e about through natural
processes, without a designer (akin to Hume’s argum ent.).
Christian
reaction
to
Darw in
w as
fierce
Theology: The Origin of Species cam e “into the theological world like a plough into an ant-hill. Everywhere those thus
rudely awakened from their old com fort and repose swarm ed forth angry and confused,” wrote Andrew White in 1896.
Bishop Sam uel W ilberforce of Oxford wrote that Natural Selection was “absolutely incom patible with the word of God,”
that the fall of Adam explained strange species. English Catholic Cardinal M anning declared his abhorrence of Darw in’s
theory. W ith Vatican approval, he set up the Academia, to fight Darwinism that “threatens even the fragm entary rem ains
of Christian belief in England.” French Monseigneur Segur said, “Darw in’s ideas com e from Hell.”
Germ an Dr. Schund said, “If Darw in be right, then the Bible teaching in regard to Man is utterly annihilated.”
Another theological authority said, “If the Darw inian theory is true, Genesis is a lie, the whole fram ework of the
book of life falls to pieces, and the revelation of God to Man, as we Christians know it, is a delusion and a snare.”
A publication of the Episcopal Church in Am erica said, “If this hypothesis be true, then the Bible is an unbearable
fiction;...then have Christians for nearly 2,000 years been duped by a m onstrous lie.”
Dr. Perry, Lord Bishop of Melbourne, said that Cham bers, Huxley, and Darw in’s object was “to produce...a disbelief
in the Bible.” The Catholic W orld said that Darw in is the “chief m outhpiece of that infidel clique whose well-known object
is to do away with all idea of a God.” Anglican Rev. W alter M itchell, VP of the Victoria Institute, “Darwinism endeavors
to dethrone God.” French Abbe Fabre d’Envieu said that any doctrine other than that of the fixity and persistence of
species was absolutely contrary to Scripture. (He was right.)
Swiss theologian Rougemont called for a “crusade against the obnoxious doctrine.” Germ an theology professor
Christoph Ernst Luthardt, Germ an Lutheran theologian, said, “The idea of creation belongs to religion and not to
natural science; the whole superstructure of personal religion is built on the doctrine of creation.”
Benjamin Disraeli (a teenage convert to Anglicanism ), soon to be prim e m inister, said, “Is Man an ape or an
angel? I am on the side of the angels. I repudiate with indignation and abhorrence those newfangled theories.”
1860
Biology: Thomas Huxley (1825-1895), British, biologist, forceful advocate of Darwinism. W rote Man’s Place in Nature,
said, “Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science as the strangled snakes beside that of Hercules.”
101
Thomas
Huxley
...Scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of the necessary m ode of working of the hum an m ind...Science
is sim ply com m on sense at its best; that is, rigidly accurate in observation and m erciless to fallacy in logic..
Irrationally-held truths m ay be m ore harm ful than reasoned errors.” i.e., as errors can be corrected by better reason.
At a public m eeting of the British Association for the Advancem ent of Science at Oxford in 1860, Anglican Bishop Sam uel
W ilberforce asked Huxley, “I beg to know, was it through your grandfather or your grandm other that you claim to have
descended from a m onkey?” Huxley answered, “I assert that a m an has no reason to be asham ed of having an ape for
his grandfather. If there were an ancestor whom I should feel sham e in recalling, it would rather be a m an, a m an of
restless and versatile intellect who, not content with success in his own sphere of activity, plunged into scientific questions
with which he has no real acquaintance, only to obscure them by an aim less rhetoric, and distract the attention of his
hearers, from the real point at issue by eloquent digressions and skilled appeals to religious prejudice.”
The press interpreted this as, “I’d rather have an ape for a grandfather than a bishop.” (m ore Thomas Huxley 1869).
c1861
Herbert
Spencer
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), British, biologist, philosopher, developed an all-em bracing conception of evolution as the
progressive developm ent of the physical world, biological organism s, the hum an m ind, and hum an cultures and societies.
He was the first to use the phrase “survival of the fittest” to describe Darw in’s Natural Selection. He contrasted
creationism and evolution, arguing strongly for evolution. He was an early proponent of Social Darwinism (see 1871).
Science
chips
away at
religious
dogm as
In Education, 1861 Spencer said, “Science is organized knowledge.” (repeating Kant) “Science concerns itself with the
coexistence and sequences am ong phenom ena; groups these at first into generalizations of a sim ple or low order, and
rising gradually to higher and higher and m ore extended generalizations. First Principles 1862 said, Religion has been
com pelled by science to give up one after another of its dogm as, of those assum ed cognitions of the world which it could
not substantiate...Science thus trespassed on the province of religion, since it classed am ong the things which it
com prehended certain form s of the incom prehensible.” His Data of Ethics, 1879, said, “Scientific truths of whatever order,
are reached by elim inating perturbing or conflicting factors, and recognizing only fundam ental factors.”
1862
Lord John Acton, (1834-1902) Catholic, so couldn’t attend Cam bridge or Oxford, friend of P.M. Gladstone, in his Catholic
journal, The Home and Foreign Review, described Italian adventurer Pier Farnese as Pope Paul 3's son. The custom
had been to refer to popes’s sons as nephews. Vatican hostility killed the Review. (More Acton 1870, 1874, 1887)
1863
Sir Charles Lyell, England’s forem ost geologist, who had opposed Lam arck’s theory, published Geological Evidences
of the Antiquity of Man, wherein he changed his position and endorsed the fundam ental ideas of Darw in.
1863
Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the Confederate states, in revolt. “As I would not be
a slave, so I would not be a m aster. This expresses m y idea of dem ocracy.” Also in 1863, Gettysburg Address. In
1865, Congress freed all slaves with the 13 th Am endm ent. (England had ended the slave trade in 1808 and legal
slavery in the Carribean in 1833. France in 1838.) The legal abolition of slavery in m ost, not all, countries was the 19 th
century’s greatest achievem ent. But slavery & segregation (often governm ent enforced) and discrim ination continued.
At the dedication of the m ilitary cem etery in Gettysburg, Lincoln used the phrase, “”that governm ent of the people,
by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.” The phrase had been used previously by Senator
Daniel Webster, and was sim ilar to phrases of Disraeli and Massachusetts m inister Theodore Parker (see 1826).
Lincoln
on
slavery
1864
1864
Anglican
Clerics
Defend
the Bible
What
Christians
Know
Ecclesiastic charges were brought against 2 of the 7 authors of Essays and Reviews. Many Anglican clergy asked the
bishops to “save Christianity” by punishing the authors. Archdeacon Denison insisted on severe punishm ents “for the
sake of the young...thrust alm ost to Hell by the action of this book.” The em inent Rev Dr. Philip Pusey entreated the
Bishop of London, a judge in the trial, of the evil consequences of an acquittal. The panel of bishops acquitted the 2
accused authors on relatively narrow technical grounds. A firestorm of protest arose.
11,000 Anglican clergym en signed the Oxford Declaration, It declared, “If any part of the Bible was seen to be in error then
the whole of it could be called into doubt.” They were right.
The Bible does have questionable assertions, i.e., the Earth was created in six days. It was created in an instant. W om an
was m ade from Adam ’s rib. Som e m en lived hundreds of years. God drowned all hum ans except Noah’s fam ily, and all
except two of each land anim al. The Red Sea parted. The Sun stood still. 5 fish fed 5,000 people. W om en m ust obey their
husbands. Hom osexuals should be killed. God created all species separately. Jesus walked on water. Believers receive
what they pray for. W ith faith, one can m ove m ountains. M ary was a virgin when Jesus was born. If one has faith, one
won’t get sick. Jesus, M oses, Elijah, Tabitha, and Lazarus all died and cam e back to life. Devils crawl out of people
saying Jesus is the son of God. Devils cause epilepsy. Prayer heals. Mutes are possessed by devils. Jesus turned water
into wine. Sick were healed by touching Peter’s shadow or Paul’s handkerchief. Faith felled Jericho’s walls. Jesus has
eyes of fire, feet of brass, and a sword sticking out of his m outh. 144,000 celibate Jews will go to Heaven; all others to
Hell. Believers in Jesus aren’t affected by poison. An angel locked up Satan for 1000 years. John saw a m onster with
seven heads and ten horns. Jesus killed a herd of pigs by sending devils to them . Slaves shouldn’t want freedom . Man
was doom ed to eternal torture as a talking snake talked to Eve and Eve then tem pted Adam ; 4,000 years later m en got
a chance at heaven if they believed what the Bible said. The furor died down and the authors continued their distinguished
careers. Darw in m ade science em brace the centrality of change.
102
1864
Pope Pius 9 declared war on the m odern world. He issued the Syllabus of Errors, it condem ned dem ocracy and “the
insane opinion that liberty of conscience and worship is the right of every m an.” The “errors” Pius 9 cited were sim ply
80 ideas favoring reason and freedom of speech and thought. The Syllabus em barrassed m ost educated Catholics. Even
a Spanish journal regretted “the obstinacy and blindness of the [pope] in...condem ning m odern civilization.” In 1866, Pius
9, who had put Rom e’s Jews in a ghetto, said, “Slavery...is not at all contrary to Divine law.” (He had read St. Paul.)
1865
Anglican Bishop Colenso said M oses’s Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Bible, was self-contradictory, had im possibilities. M oses’s authorship and the contradictions had been doubted for centuries. Anglicans excom m unicated him .
1868
W illiam & M argaret Huggins saw a Doppler shift in the spectrum of Sirius, so deduced speed Sirius receding from Earth.
1869
Chem istry: Dmitri M endeleev, Russian (1834-1907) compiled the Periodic Table of Elements, showing fam ilies of
elem ents, com bined organizing elem ents by atom ic weight and characteristics. The vertical colum ns contain elem ents
with sim ilar characteristics. The horizontal rows list elem ents by atom ic num ber, i.e., the num ber of protons. (Atom ic
weight is protons plus neutrons+-.) The periodic table gave order to the elem ents. M endeleev did not accept the concept
of the electron. John Newlands c1860 and Alexander Beguyer de Chancourtois had first developed the concept of
repeated patterns of elem ents by atom ic weight. Modern tables are arranged by atom ic num ber.
The railroad across Am erica (largest industrial project ever) and the Suez Canal were com pleted.(1866 Atlantic cable)
1869
Thomas Huxley (also 1855 and 1860) coined the term “agnostic” to describe him self. Said, “It is wrong for a m an to say
that he is certain of the objective truth of any proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that
certainty...It is all that is essential to agnosticism .” Agnosticism is not an alternative to atheism and theism as it is not
concerned with beliefs, but the possibility of beliefs. Atheistic Agnostics say that the existence of a god(s) is unknowable.
Theistic Agnostics sim ply say that God exists but the nature of God is unknowable (Occam, Aquinas).
Thomas
Huxley
Huxley also said, "It is not who is right, but what is right, that is of im portance."
“Make up your m ind to act decidedly and take the consequences. No good is ever done in this world by hesitation."
"There is no greater m istake than the hasty conclusion that opinions are worthless because they are badly argued."
"The great end of life is not knowledge but action."
"Only a scientific people can survive in a scientific future."
"Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority."
"Only one absolute certainty is possible to m an, nam ely that at any given m om ent the feeling which he has exists."
"Science ... warns m e to be careful how I adopt a view which jum ps with m y preconceptions, and to require stronger
evidence for such belief than for one to which I was previously hostile. My business is to teach m y aspirations to
conform them selves to fact, not to try and m ake facts harm onize with m y aspirations."
"Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion... or you shall learn nothing."
"It is an error to im agine that evolution signifies a constant tendency to increased perfection. That process
undoubtedly involves a constant rem odeling of the organism in adaptation to new conditions; but it depends on
the nature of those conditions whether the directions of the m odifications effected shall be upward or downward."
"Science com m its suicide when it adopts a creed."
Like other liberal m inds of his tim e, Huxley considered Blacks an inferior race.
c1870
Philosophy: M ark Tw ain/Sam uel Clemens (1835-1910) author, prospector, reporter, printer, lecturer, river pilot. “Faith
is believing what you know ain’t so...The Bible is a m ass of fables and traditions, m ere m ythology...Man is a m arvelous
curiosity...he thinks he is the Creator’s pet...he even believes the Creator loves him .”.
1870
Pope Pius 9 called and packed the 1st Vatican Council with Italian and Spanish bishops. Specifically, 700,000 Catholics
in Rom an states had 62 bishops/votes, whereas 1,700,000 Poles from m ore liberal Breslau had 1 bishop/vote, a 150 to
1 disparity. Pius 9 caused the council to decree that the pope is infallible in m atters of faith and m orals. Pius 9 hated
dem ocracy, loved m onarchies, denounced freedom of conscience. (See 1864 Syllabus of Errors). Lord Acton led the
opposition to the decree. The decree was widely disdained. Victor Emmanuel conquered the Papal States, freed
Rom e’s Jews from Pius 9's ghetto, unified Italy, but allowed Pius 9 the use of, but not sovereignty over, Vatican City.
W hat
Catholics
Know
1871
Christian
Attacks
on
Darw in
again
Biology: Darw in published The Descent of Man to m ake explicit that Man’s ancestors were ape-like creatures. The Dublin
U. m agazine said Darwin was seeking “to displace God by the unerring action of vagary.” French Constantin James said
it was a work “so fantastic and so burlesque” and was a huge joke, like Erasmus’s Praise of Folly.” Pope Pius 9
profusely thanked James, gave him the apostolic blessing and m ade him an officer of the Papal Order of St. Sylvester,
and said, “Darwinism is repugnant to history, to exact science, to observed facts, and even to reason itself.”
Darw in cam e to prefer Spencer’s phrase, survival of the fittest, to his own phrase Natural Selection.
Darw in said, “Freedom of thought is best prom oted by the gradual illum ination of m en’s m inds which follows from the
advancem ent of science.” And, “The m ystery of the beginnings of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one m ust be
content to rem ain an agnostic.” W hen Darw in died in 1882, he was buried next to New ton in W estm inster Abbey;
Lyell was nearby. The inference from Darwinism that individuals are not born all equal contradicted the liberalism of
his tim e. W ithout Darw in’s blessing, what was called Social Darwinism cam e to justify the inequalities in society.
103
1871
Tennessee Suprem e Court: “Non-believers can’t be heard or believed in a court in a country designated as Christian.”
1871
Frederich Engels, co-author of the Communist Manifesto, “The state is no m ore than a m achine for the oppression of
one class by another; this is true of a dem ocracy as well as a m onarchy.”
1872
Theology: John Henry Newman, Episcopalian, then Catholic, theologian, “I have been unable to see the logical force
of the [Design] Argument. I believe in design because I believe in God; not in a God because I see a design.”
1872
W W Reade, Scot, philosopher, “Christianity is not in accordance with the cultivated m ind; it can only be accepted by
suppressing doubts, and by denouncing inquiry as sinful. It is therefore a superstition and ought to be destroyed.”
1874
In Theism, John Stuart M ill (see also 1859) argued that the Design Argument was evidence against an om nipotent God.
“W hat is m eant by design? Contrivance, the adaption of m eans to an end. But the necessity for contrivance - the need
of em ploying m eans - is a consequence of the lim itation of power. W ho would have recourse to m eans if to attain his ends
his m ere word was sufficient? ... W isdom and contrivance are shown in overcom ing difficulties, and there is no room for
them in a being for whom no difficulties exist.” Also, “The tim e appears to m e to have com e when it is the duty of all to
m ake their dissent from religion known...Judging by com m on sense is m erely another nam e for judging by first
appearance. Men who place im plicit faith in their own com m on sense are without exception the m ost wrong-headed.”
John
Stuart
M ill
1875
Physics: J. W illiard Gibbs, professor at Yale, wrote a series of papers, On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances,
now called the Principia of therm odynam ics. He showed that therm odynam ics didn’t apply only to heat and energy on a
large scale, but was also present and influential at the atom ic level of chem ical reactions (as Henri Hess in 1840 had
suggested.) As Gibbs was a shy person, his findings did not becom e well known for decades.
c1875c1910
The Golden Age of Freethought was a socio-political m ovem ent that developed in the US after the Civil W ar and lasted
through the first decade of the 20 th century. There was no precise beginning or ending year. It was an age when antireligious and rational argum ents reached a wide audience, principally through public lectures. Am erican freethinkers were
Republicans and Dem ocrats and adherents of m ore leftist philosophies. They were united by their support for the absolute
separation of church and state and for free public education. Freethought periodicals, such as the Truth Seeker from
Peoria and then NYC, with a national audience, the Boston Investigator, the Free-Thought Ideal and Free-Thought
Vindicator of Ottawa, Kansas, and the Blue Grass Blade from Lexington, Ky. spread its m essages. Its best known orator
and writer was Robert Ingersoll, colonel in the Civil W ar, Attorney General of Illinois, and prom inent Republican.
Golden
Age of
Freethought
1876
Telephone
Timeline
1876
1878
John W
Draper
Telephone tim eline: 1861 Philip Reis, Germ an, developed a crude “telephon” capable of changing m usical sounds
(but not voices) to electricity and back again.
1871 Antonio M eucci, Italian, got a prelim inary US patent for an electric telephone, teletrofono.
1876 Alexander Graham Bell patented an “im provem ent on telephony” crediting Reis’s and M eucci’s prior work.
1877 Emile Berliner m ade an iron diaphragm transm itter and added an induction coil to the loose-contact
transm itter, m aking a transform er that am plified electronic waves and prevented transm issions from fading. This
enabled Bell’s telephone to work.
1878 Bell bought Berliner’s device for $50,000 (a fortune at the tim e) and m ade him chief engineer of the Bell
Telephone Co., which then sold telephones as the Bell-Berliner telephone.
James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop Baltim ore, “The Church is not susceptible of being reform ed in her doctrines. The
Church is the work of an incarnate God. Like all God’s works, it is perfect. It is, therefore, incapable of reform .”
John W Draper (1811-1882) professor at NYU, first president of the Am er. Chem ical Society, in The History of the
Conflict Between Religion and Science: “The history of science...is a narrative of the conflict of 2 contending powers, the
expansive force of the hum an intellect...and the com pression arising from traditional faith...[Science] presents herself
unstained by cruelties. She has never attem pted to throw odium or inflict social ruin on any hum an being. She has never
subjected anyone to m ental torm ent, physical torture, least of all death, [to] uphold or prom ote her ideas.”
W hy torture for God? “It was just because m any of the Church leaders probably doubted secretly of the entire
soundness of their vast and elaborate doctrinal fabric that they would brook no discussion of it. They were intolerant of
questions or dissent, not because they were sure of their faith, but because they were not,” wrote H G W ells in 1902.
1877
Physics: Clausius’s 2 nd law of therm odynam ics said energy is lost into a pool of equality in converting heat to work,
entropy (see 1848+). Ludw ig Boltzmann (1844-1906) Austrian, established the relationship between entropy and his
statistical analysis of m olecular m otion. He devised a form ula to m easure such entropy. Like Gibbs (1875), he connected
the properties and behavior of atom s and m olecules with the large scale properties and behavior of the substances of
which they were a part. Boltzmann was im portant in getting atom s and m olecules accepted as real.
1879
Political Theory: Henry George (1839-1897) Progress and Poverty, “So long as all the increased wealth which m odern
progress brings goes but to build up great fortunes, to increase luxury and m ake sharper the contrast between the House
of Haves and the House of W ant, progress is not real and cannot be perm anent...W e m ust m ake land com m on property
”Great wealth always supports the party in power, no m atter how corrupt it m ay be. It...instinctively fears change.”
104
“How can a m an be said to have a country when he has no right to a square inch of it?”
1879
Physics, Newtonian physics lim ited: Physicist Albert M ichelson (1852-1931) said light went 186,320 m /sec (.000215
high), said that the absolute m otion of the Earth through space is not m easurable. They showed the speed of light [and
thus all electrom agnetic waves] was the sam e in all directions however m easured,(as M axw ell had said in 1867.) This
showed that New ton’s laws m ight not apply all the tim e everywhere. In 1880, he and chem ist E. W . M orley also refuted
the universally held belief (including held by Descartes and New ton) in ether/aether, a substance thought to exist in space
which conducted light. They proved that ether did not exist. M ichelson won the Physics Nobel prize 1907.
18791896
Robert Ingersoll (see 1875, Golden Age) thoughts: Few rich m en own their own property. The property owns them .
Reason observation and experience, the Holy Trinity of Science - have taught us that happiness is the only good.
Any God who would dam n one of his children for the expression of his honest thought wouldn’t m ake a decent thief.
I am the inferior of any m an whose rights I tram ple underfoot.
There are in nature neither rewards nor punishm ents – there are only consequences.
I do not believe Christians are as bad as their creeds. It is incredible that only idiots are absolutely sure of salvation.
Infinite punishm ent is infinite cruelty, endless injustice, im m ortal m eanness.
Martyrdom , as a rule, establishes the sincerity of the m artyr, not the correctness of his thought.
Nature never prom pted a loving m other to throw her child into the Ganges.
In all ages hypocrites called priests have put crowns on the heads of thieves called kings.
W hoever has an opinion of his own, and honestly expresses it, will be guilty of heresy.
Give any orthodox the power, and today they would punish heresy with a whip, and chain, and fire.
The m an who does not do his own thinking is a slave, and is a traitor to him self and to his fellow-m en.
W ho can overestim ate the progress of the world if all the m oney wasted in superstition were used to enlighten m ankind.
Re state blasphem y laws. An infinite God ought to be able to defend him self, without the help of state legislatures.
Re the Book of Job: The children of Job were m urdered [by God] to settle a wager between God and the Devil.
1881
August Bebel, in the Reichstag, “Christianity is the enem y of liberty and of civilization. It has kept m ankind in chains.”
1882
Biology: W alter Flemming wrote that anim al cells divide in stages, nam ed it m itosis. Every cell is a chem ical factory that
processes its own nutrients, generates energy from those nutrients, com m unicates with neighboring cells, and can divide
into two identical cells. The cell’s ability to replicate itself is the key to all life and growth.
W hat the atom is to physics, the cell is to biology. Atom s are the building blocks of all m atter. Cells are the building
blocks of all life. Cells are m ade up of m illions of atom s. Atomic theory was not yet accepted by m ost physicists.
Cells
Divide
1883
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), brilliant, professor of classics at Basel at 24, in Thus Spake Zarathrustra, wrote, “God
(i.e., supernatural explanations of the world) is dead.” (M ax Stirner had said it in1845)
Christian civilization is decadent, a slave m entality, herd morality. All hum an life is basically m otivated by the will to power
(over one’s own unruly passions), the desire for a richer and stronger life....The Christian resolution to m ake the world
ugly and bad has m ade the world ugly and bad.” “Christianity has waged a deadly war against the higher type of m an.”
He ridiculed the “social contract” theory of the state, said, ”He who com m ands, he who is m aster by “nature,” he who
com es on the scene forceful in deed and gesture – what does that have to do with contracts?”
Nihilism, cham pioned by Nietzsche, rejected claim s to knowledge and truth, and explored the m eaning of an existence
without knowable truth. Morals are valueless and only hold a place in society as false ideals.
Nietzsche said, “Everything in [the Bible] is cowardice and self-deception.” Christianity is “the one im m ortal blem ish of
m ankind.” Life is the will to power, and he who would truly live m ust overcom e the beliefs and conventions of com m on
m en; he m ust becom e a superm an, ein Ubermensch. T rue virtue should rem ain with the aristocratic m inority. It is
necessary for higher m en to m ake war on the m asses. Com passion was a weakness to be fought
Nietzsche
on
W om en
Beyond
Good
and Evil
1885
He held wom en in contem pt. In Thus Spake Zarathrustra, he said that wom en were not capable of friendship, they
were still cats, or birds, or at best cows. “Man shall be trained for war and wom an for the recreation of the warrior. All
else is folly...Thou goest to wom an? Do not forget thy whip...W e should think of wom en as property, as Orientals do...
W om an was God’s second m istake.” In 1889, W hat is it; is Man only a blunder of God, or is God a blunder of Man?
In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche argued that ideas that preserve life and add to a m an’s power are m ore im portant
than ideas sanctioned by logicians and seekers after the absolute. And, m en m ust turn conventional values upside down
in order to live creatively. He said that the established values of society were invented by the weak to enable them to
trium ph over the strong. (In contrast, M achiavelli said that the rules of society were to enable the strong to keep the weak
in subm ission.) Also, “Reason is only a tool.” “Anti-Sem itism is the final consequence of Judaism .”
Nietzsche, brilliant, a professor for just ten years, sickly, retired due to ill health, becam e insane at 44, died at 56.
Pope Leo 13: (In 1879, Pope Leo 13 had said, “God is not only true, but Truth.”) In 1885, he said, “Equal toleration of
all religions...is the sam e thing as atheism ...It is quite unlawful to defend, or grant unconditional freedom of thought, or
speech, or worship, as if these were so m any rights given by nature to Man.” (m ore Leo 13, 1893)
105
1886
Am erica welcom ed im m igrants, “Give m e your tired, your poor, your huddled m asses yearning to breath free... Send
these, the tem pest tossed to m e.” Part of Em ma Lazarus’s poem on the Statue of Liberty. (Unveiled 1886)
1887
Pow er
tends to
corrupt
Lord Acton said of the pope’s 1870 claim of infallibility, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
“To break with the Church because the Papacy had shown itself wicked in 1870 was ridiculous. The Papacy had been
wicked for centuries...It had “contrived m urder and m assacred on the largest and also on the m ost cruel and inhum an
scale..W hat was the [infallibility] decree com pared to the inquisition and the St. Bartholom ew day m assacre?” Also said,
“Great m en are alm ost always bad m en.” 1881, “There is no error so m onstrous that it fails to find defenders am ong the
ablest m en...Liberty is not a m eans to a higher end. It is itself the highest end.” 1895, “W hen a rich m an becom es poor
it is a m isfortune, not a m oral evil. W hen a poor m an becom es destitute, it is a m oral evil, injurious to society & m orality.”
c1890
W illiam
James
Philosophy: W illiam James (1842-1910), Am erican philosopher, felt that the truth of a statem ent lay in its practical
consequences, pragmatism, Am erica’s first indigenous school of thought. “W e say New ton’s law of gravity is true
because it has proven useful in predicting the behavior of objects. All our scientific and philosophic ideals are altars to
unknown gods...An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible...Be not
afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create that fact...It is wrong always, everywhere, to
believe anything upon insufficient evidence...The deepest principle in hum an nature is the craving to be appreciated
1890
A divine revelation told the Morm on president polygam y was not OK, so he ditched it. Utah could becom e a state.
1891
D C M acDonald, Brit., “W hen a child is born, we recognize that it has a right to its m other’s m ilk...and the sam e right
to m other Earth....The m onster that would deprive a babe of its m other’s m ilk...is not m ore deserving of being
destroyed than the m onster who seizes absolute possession of m ore than his share of the com m on m other of
m ankind, to the exclusion of his fellow creatures.
1891
J. W elton, “The laws of thought are those fundam ental, necessary, form al, and a priori laws which all valid thought m ust
agree with. They are a priori, that is, they result directly from the processes of reason exercised on the facts of the real
world. They are form al; for as necessary laws of all thinking, they cannot, at the sam e tim e, ascertain the definite
properties of any particular class of things, for it is optional whether we think of that class of things or not. They are
necessary, for no one ever does, or can, conceive of them reversed, or violate them , because no one ever accepts a
contradiction which presents itself to his m ind as such.
Basic
Law s of
Thought
1892
Thomas Huxley (see 1860, 1869) disdained Protestants, “From W ycliffe to [other Protestant reform ers], I fail to find a
trace of any desire to set reason free. The m ost [I see] is a proposal to change m asters from the papacy to the Bible.”
In Science and Christian Tradition, 1893, he wrote, “Agnosticism , in fact, is not a creed, but a m ethod, the essence of
which lies in the rigorous application of a single principle...every m an should be able to give a reason for the faith that is
within him , it is the great principle of Descartes, it is the fundam ental axiom of m odern science.”
1893
God
w rote
the
Bible
Theology: Pope Leo 13's (also 1885) encyclical on the Bible: “It is absolutely wrong and forbidden to...adm it that the
sacred writer erred.. “all the books that the Church receives as sacred and canonical (including the Old and New
Testaments), “are written wholly and entirely, with all their parts, at the dictation of the Holy Ghost ... they have God for
their author,” and were thus incapable of error. More recently, sim ilarly, the Southern Baptist Convention declared that
the Bible “has G od as its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any m ixture of error, for its m atter” so that
therefore “all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy.” This unwisely takes away any argum ent that the errors in the Bible
could be blam ed on im perfect hum an scribes. He also said, “Private property m ust be held sacred and invioable.”
1896
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, suffragette, “The Bible and Church have been the greatest stum bling blocks in the way of
wom en’s em ancipation... The whole tone of Church teaching is, to the last degree, contem ptuous and degrading.”
1896
Andrew Dickson W hite, president of C ornell, a Christian, am bassador to Germ any and Russia, president of the Am .
History Assn, in The W arfare of Science W ith Theology in Christendom, described innum erable instances where Christian
clergy, using, inter alia, torture and m urder, tried to im pede, stifle, and discredit all scientific knowledge inconsistent with
Christian scriptures, which m uch scientific knowledge surely was. He distinguished between religion, which he defined
as “recognizing a higher power in the universe, not ourselves, which m akes for righteousness,” which he favored, and
Christian dogma, the particular beliefs of Christian churches, which opposed science.
Christian
Dogm a
against
Science
How the
Bible is
true
W hite term ed the Christian holy scriptures “true,” not for their factual accuracy but because their m ortal authors strove
for higher m oral beliefs and aspirations. Said, “The list of those who the Christian churches have denounced as “infidel
and “atheist” includes alm ost all the great m en of science..., inventors, and philanthropists; persons of noble Christian
character like New ton, Pascal, Locke, M ilton, and Descartes.” H L M encken (1925) highly praised W arfare. As
Darwinism becam e widely accepted, som e Christian theologians began to say Natural Selection actually supported the
Bible. By 1896, m ost universities in the US and Europe were run by laym en, not clergy, which W hite favored.
Curie
Physics: Antoine Becquerel, Pierre Curie, and M arie Curie observed a fourth kind of force, the weak force, beta decay,
radioactivity. (The three then known forces were gravity, electrom agnetism , and the nuclear, or “strong” force).They
106
isolated radium and polonium . Curie: “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”
1897
Physics: Sir Joseph John Thomson (1856-1940), physicist, discovered the atom was not indivisible. He discovered
electrons, and proposed a m odel for the structure of the atom , i.e., a nucleus of protons random ly surrounded by
electrons, which were about 2,000 tim es sm aller than protons. He also studied the conduction of electricity thru gasses.
That was the intellectual breakthrough with which m odern physics begins. (1906 Physics Nobel prize)
1897
Lord Kelvin/W illiam Thomson, the m ost em inent scientist, finally decided the Earth was 20-40 m illion years old.
1899
Econom ics, Sociology: Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929), Am erican econom ist, wrote The Theory of the Leisure Class, a
scathing indictm ent of the shallowness of the wealthy, discrediting any veneration they had previously enjoyed. He coined
the phrase Conspicuous Consumption, to describe the ostentatious spending of m oney m erely to show others that the
spenders have wealth. Such spenders are insecure. “This conservatism of the wealthy class is so obvious a feature that
it has even com e to be recognized as a m ark of respectability...Conservatism , being an upper class characteristic, is
decorous; and conversely, innovation, being a lower-class phenom enon, is vulgar.” This concept was previously described
by Adam Smith in W ealth of Nations in1776. “The accum ulation of wealth at the upper end of the pecuniary scale im plies
a privation at the lower end of the scale.”
Conspicuous Consumption continued undeterred.
Thorstein
Veblen
1899
Physics: Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) saw 2 kinds of radiation com ing from thorium and uranium . He had said that
radioactivity was the spontaneous disintegration of atom s. In 1903, he saw a m ore powerful radiation from radium .
1899
Gregor
M endel
Evolution. Gregor Johann M endel (1822-1884) Moravian m onk, at an abbey in Brno, had discovered around 1865, after
eight years of patient experim entation, that certain traits in plants were controlled by one of a pair of entities (that in 1913
cam e to be called genes), from one or the other parent,. His eight years of experim ents with 30,000 pea plants disproved
the then universal assum ption of blended inheritance. He cross-pollinated tall and short plants and got all tall plants, no
short or m edium size. Then, he pollinated the new tall hybrids with them selves and got 3/4 tall plants.
Genetics
Thus certain traits like tallness are controlled by discrete factors from one parent rather than being a blend of both parents.
One in four plants would have purebred recessive alleles (shortness), creating a short plant, two were hybrids (creating
tall plants), and one would be purebred dom inant.(tallness). (i.e., 3/4 will be tall).
He established five principles of heredity that apply to all living things and are still valid.
1. Each physical characteristic of a living organism is the product of a specific hereditary factor, now called a gene.
Genes
come in
pairs
2. These “genes” exist in living things in pairs. The m other’s pair m ay have a gene for green eyes and a gene for
hazel eyes, and the father’s pair, a gene for green and a gene for blue.
3. For each characteristic (z.b., eye color), only one of the m other’s (green or hazel) and one of the father’s (green or
blue) will be passed to the child. So there are four possible com binations. G/G, G/B. H/G, H/B.
4. It’s 50-50 which of the two genes regulating a specific characteristic of each parent gets passed down. The child’s
eyes are never a m ixture of genes.
5. Som e characteristics are dom inant; som e are recessive. So if the green gene were dom inant over the blue or hazel
gene, and if the blue gene were dom inant over the hazel gene, then 3/4 of the offspring would have green eyes and
1/4 would have blue eyes. This three to one ratio is a fundam ental law of heredity.
M endel had published his findings in 1866 in the obscure Czech Journal of the Brno Natural History Society. Church
authorities criticized it as Darwinian. Though his work received favorable notice in the Encyclopedia Britannica, it was
totally ignored by scientists in general. M endel turned to other studies. His work only becam e widely known in 1899 (the
reason it appears here in this chron.) through de Vries’s Intracellular Pangenesis (below). This founded the science of
genetics. The Church disfavored his scholarship, and on his death, the m onks in his m onastery burned all his papers.
1899
Hugo
de Vries
Random
genetic
Biology: m echanism of evolution explained. Hugo de Vries (1848-1935), Dutch, wrote Intracellular Pangenesis that
caused M endel’s earlier work establishing the laws of heredity to becom e widely known. De Vries suggested the concept
of genes and, citing M endel, developed a m utation theory of evolution. He posited that different characteristics have
different hereditary carriers and such carriers of specific traits are units he called pangenes (shortened twenty years later
to genes). Thus M endel was confirm ed and becam e the father of heredity.
mutations
prompt
evolution
De Vries proposed that random genetic m utational changes suddenly appearing, caused well defined, inheritable
variations (confirm ing M endel’s work), (as opposed to the slight, cum ulative changes stressed by Darw in), and were the
forces in the origin and evolution of species. Mutations that change organism s in and of them selves are random and have
no purpose. Those m utations that help the organism survive (or at least don’t hurt), reproduce, those that don’t help, don’t
survive. This did in Lam arck. (Lam arckism is different from the science of genetics / eugenics wherein selective breeding,
107
often using artificial insem ination, is taught at m any universities under the nam e, Anim al Husbandry, which can create
new sub-species of anim als. For exam ple, all dogs, big and little are one species.)
As Natural Selection is first random , it is sloppy and wasteful, creating m illions of species or sub-species that died out or
did not even reproduce once as they were not fit to survive. Thus the evolution of organism s happens first by chance,
random gene m utations, and then survives or dies out by Natural Selection. c99% of all species that ever lived are extinct.
z.b., 16 contem poraneous species of horses lived in North Am erica between 15M and 8M years ago and died out. Giraffes
didn’t develop long necks/long legs in order to eat high leaves. This would im ply a purpose to random evolutionary
changes. A long neck was a random genetic accident occurring on one shorter necked creature which then survived in
part as it could eat high leaves and which then reproduced long necked offspring.
18991902
Colonialism : British, under Lord Horatio Kitchener, brutally subdued Dutch (Boer) settlers in South Africa. The U.S.
fought Spain and took the Philippines and Puerto Rico. By 1900, Europeans (or their descendants) ran the world.
1900
Physics: Classical (Newtonian) m echanics was found not to describe sub-m olecular phenom ena. For exam ple, the
repartition of energy in the m olecules of a gas and the energy distribution of radiation em itted by hot bodies. To answer
this, M ax Planck, Germ an physicist, form ulated a revolutionary new quantum theory, that all energy, including light,
consists of whole units (packets) of energy (quanta). An object can have one quantum or a m illion, but not 1.5 quanta,
i.e., energy m oves not in waves but in packets. The energy quantum of light is called a photon.
New ton
Physics
limited
It was published in the Germ an journal of physics, Annalen der Physik. This was a return to New ton’s particle theory of
light. People took notice of Plank’s quanta only when Einstein, in 1905, introduced the photon and used the idea to
explain the photoelectric effect (light shining on m etal knocks electrons out of the m etal), to reconcile theory and
experim ent for heat, and to account for the propagation of light without relying on an “ether.” Planck was an editor of
Annalen der Physik.
Q uantum physics is the study of the behavior of m atter at the m olecular, atom ic, nuclear, and even sm aller
m icroscopic levels. In the sub-atom ic world, the only way, so far, to observe a particle, is to bounce another particle off
of it, so necessarily disturbing the m easured particle. Thus, for such sub-atom ic particles, to m easure is to disturb, giving
rise to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle in 1927. New ton’s laws continued to govern m acroscopic objects.
(Huygens in 1690 had said that light traveled as a wave (as did Thomas Young and M axw ell in 1867). Diffraction and
interference were explained only if light traveled as a wave.). Planck: Light travels both as wave and as particles.
c1900
Botany: Luther Burbank (1849-1926), pioneered plant breeding; created num erous productive varieties of fruits and
vegetables, wrote, “The Bible is an incom plete history and the folklore of an ancient race, but no m ore.”
c1900c1939
Sigmund
Freud
Psychiatry: Sigmund Freud (1856 -1939), Vienna, discovered the unconscious; he invented psychoanalysis to sort out
the unconscious m ind. He was m ore controversial than Darw in. He said that sexual desires and fears underlay everyone’s
m inds, “Anatom y is destiny.” i.e., wom en’s bodies set their role in society. Freud felt that m en unconsciously craved war,
to kill, cruelly and brutally. Freud divided the self into three coexisting parts. The ego perceives, learns, and acts
consciously. The super-ego is the largely unconscious m oral conscience created during childhood. The id is the repository
of unconscious; it desires pleasure without lim it and without regard for reality, like the Greek eros
He wrote, “A personal god was nothing m ore than an exalted father figure: desire for such deity springs from infantile
yearnings for a powerful, protective father, for justice, for life to go on forever.” Also, “It would be nice if there were a God
who created the world and was a benevolent providence...[but] in the long run, nothing can withstand reason and
experience.” “W hen a m an is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live a norm al and wholesom e life.”
1901
Chem istry: Karl Landsteiner (1868-1943), Austrian pathologist, discovered blood was in different groups, and blood
from one group killed red cells of another group.
1902
H.G. Wells, a progressive for his tim e, in his utopian New Republic, said all races but Caucasians “will have to go.”
1903
Physics: After years of study and experim entation, Orville W right piloted a m otorized glider at Kitty Hawk, N.C. for 12
seconds and 120 feet (half the length of a 747) He and his brother, W ilbur, bicycle m akers, built it. Their crucial insight,
they perfected the guidance and control system s, ailerons and rudder, which other experim enters had ignored.
1903
Hirobumi Ito, Japanese: ”I regard religion as quite unnecessary for a nation’s life; science is far above superstition;
and what is religion, Buddhism or Christianity, but superstition, and therefore a source of weakness to a nation.”
1904
M ax Weber, a founder of sociology, said that Protestantism ’s connection of piety and work furthered capitalism . He
nam ed 3 kinds of authority, charism atic (fam ily and religions), traditional (kings, feudalism ), and legal (the m odern state).
“Philosophy is useful as only it can validate the concepts, such as the person, through which we understand and act.”
19051906
George Santayana (1863-1952), Spanish/Am erican philosopher, “Christianity persecuted, tortured and burned. Like
a hound it tracked the very scent of heresy. It kindled wars, and nursed furious hatreds and am bitions, It sanctifies,
quite like Moham m edism , extrem ism and tyranny. All this would have been im possible if, kike Buddhism , it had
108
looked only for peace and the liberation of souls.” “My atheism , like that of Spinoza is true piety toward the universe
and denies only gods fashioned by m an in his own im age.” (1922)
1905
Physics: Albert Einstein (1879-1955), born in Ulm , published four extraordinary papers in the Annalen der Physik,
while working as a patent exam iner in Berne/Bern, going further to solving the riddle of the world than anyone else.
Paper 1. He explained that Brownian Motion (the m otion of tiny particles suspended in liquid) was evidence of
m olecular action, which supported Dalton’s atom ic theory.) [Brownian m otion is perpetual m otion.]
Albert
Einstein
Paper 2. The photoelectric effect of light (i.e., light shining on m etal knocks electrons out of the m etal) could be
understood as light interacts with m atter in discrete “packets” (quanta) of energy (the idea advanced by Planck in 1900.
This seem ed to contradict the contem porary wave theory of light.). This helped create the system of quantum
m echanics/physics. Such packets/quanta of light are now called photons.
Paper 3. On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, proposed the radical Special Theory of Relativity, which showed that
the independence of an observer’s state of m otion on the observed speed of light required fundam ental changes to the
notion of sim ultaneity. The consequences of this include the tim e space fram e of a m oving body slowing down and
contracting (in the direction of m otion) relative to the fram e of the observer. All electrom agnetic waves, including light, go
the sam e speed, under all conditions and for all observers. Assum ing this, and that the laws of nature are constant, then
tim e and m otion are relative to the observer. It was called special as it dealt only with things m oving in an essentially
unim peded state, i.e., no gravity, thus m oving at a constant velocity. Nothing can go faster than electrom agnetic waves.
Space and tim e are flexible form ing spacetim e. This theory added spacetim e as the 4 th dim ension of the universe.
E=m c²
Paper 4. (A few m onths later), an extension of Paper 3: The inertia of a body depends on its energy content (and not on
its m ass alone, as New ton had said). Thus scientists had to accept the equivalence of m ass and energy. E=m c²
(E=energy, m =m ass, c=speed of light) Energy is liberated m atter; m atter is energy waiting to happen. The energy of a
photon is proportional to the frequency of the radiation. As c is such a huge num ber, there’s a huge am ount of energy
bound up in every bit of m atter. Even the uranium bom b, the m ost energetic thing yet produced, as far as we know,
releases less than 1% of the energy it could release if we really knew how. So stars/suns can burn for billions of years
(as ours has) without burning up all their fuel/m atter. (Electrom agnetic waves/light travel 186,282.3959 m iles/sec)
According to the form ula E=m c², one gram of m ass = c85.2 billion BTUs of energy. No experim ent has verified this.
Einstein said, “Measured against reality, science is prim itive and childish, yet the m ost precious thing we have.”
Einstein’s ideas at first attracted little attention. He was rejected for jobs as a university lecturer and as a high school
teacher so he continued as a patent exam iner. But his ideas slowly gained him attention and respect. He becam e a
professor only in 1909. (See also General Theory of Relativity, at 1915.) M ax Planck (see 1900) was an editor at Annalen.
1906
Physics: Richard Oldham determ ined that earthquake waves travel through the middle of the Earth slower than
through the m antle. Thus the core of the Earth is liquid.
1907
Physics: Bertram Boltw ood discovered how to determ ine the age of a rock by m easuring its radioactive decay.
1907
Theology: Pope Pius 10's syllabus, Lamentabile, listed 65 heretical beliefs, basically all those that asserted that hum ans
influenced the Church’s dogm a. He thus repudiated Andrew W hite’s 1896 attem pt to validate the Bible as the striving
of m ortal m en to reach for higher m oral values. All priests were required to take an oath against m odernism and those
studying secularism or m odernism had to stop. Pius 10 declared m odernism itself a heresy. He prohibited sem inarians
from reading any newspapers whatsoever.
Over the centuries, Catholics were forbidden to print, own, or read, inter alia, Abelard, Acton, Joseph Addison,
d’Alembert, Francis Bacon, Balzac, Bruno, Bentham , Berkeley, Calvin, de Beauvoir, Copernicus, Descartes,
Croce, Dante, Defoe, de Stael, Diderot, Dum as pere et fils, Erasmus, Flaubert, France, Frederick 2 of Prussia,
Galileo, von Gesner, Gibbon, Gide, Goldsm ith, Graham Greene, Heinrich Heine, Helvetius, Hobbes, Hugo, Hum e,
Kant, M ary Kow alska (later a saint), Kepler, Larousse (Dictionary), D H Law rence, Locke, Luther, M achiavelli, M arx,
M aimonides, M alebranche, M ontaigne, M ontesquieu, M ill, M ilton, Paine, Pascal, Rabelais, Rousseau, Sand,
Sartre, Spinoza, Stendhal, Sterne, Sw edenborg, Sw ift, M aria Valtorta, Voltaire, Zola, Zw ingli, and “all books which
affirm the m otion of the Earth.” The Index retarded scholarship and the advance of knowledge im m easurably.
Catholic
Index
1908
Plate
Tectonics
Geology: Plate Tectonics: Benjamin Franklin had said that the crust of the Earth could be like a shell, disturbable by
interior forces. Frank Bursley Taylor, Am erican geologist, in 1908 proposed that the continents once slid around and
that the crunching of such continental plates pushed up m ountain ranges. He was ignored.
Alfred W egener, of the University of Marburg, further developed the idea in 1912, nam ing the original m other
continent Pangaea. Geologists for years ridiculed the idea saying there was no force strong enough to do it.
In the 1940s, Arthur Holmes, British, further developed the concept. Very slowly, it has now been universally
accepted. There are 8-12 big plates and 20 or so sm aller ones, ranging in thickness from a few m iles to 60 m iles.
109
1910
Theodore Roosevelt, I believe in a graduated incom e tax on big fortunes and a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes.
1911
Physics: Rutherford (1899) form ulated the Rutherford m odel of an atom , a nucleus of neutrons and positively charged
protons orbited by negatively charged electrons (like a planetary system ), and that the nucleus is only one billionth of one
m illionth of the full volum e of an atom but contains 99.95% of an atom ’s m ass, like a BB in the SuperDom e.
1912
The galaxy Andromeda, 2.5M light years away, in the constellation Andromeda, with a trillion stars, was seen to approach
our Milky W ay galaxy at 186 m i/sec, one of the few galaxies that does. Clusters of galaxies m ove apart. W ithin a cluster,
where gravity can have an effect, galaxies can m ove toward one another. Androm eda is in the sam e cluster as our
sun/solar system . Our Sun is c27,000 light years from the center of the Milky W ay. One light year is nine trillion Km .
Gustav Hertz, Germ an, studied effects of im pact of electrons on atom s, which agreed with m odern atom ic theory.
1912+
Bertrand
Russell
All
faiths
do harm
Philosophy: Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), British lord, philosopher, agnostic, m athem atician. Russell took Einstein
literally and adopted the view that there is no substance: everything in the universe is m ade of space-tim e events, and
events are neither physical nor m ental. Mind and m atter are different ways of organizing space tim e. “The word “cause”
is so inextricably bound up with m isleading associations as to m ake its com plete exclusion from the philosophical
vocabulary desirable.”
Said, ”Christians hold that their faith does good, but other faiths do harm ...W hat I wish to m aintain is that all faiths do
harm . W e m ay define faith as a firm belief in som ething for which there is no evidence. W hen there is evidence, no one
speaks of faith. W e do not speak of faith that two and two are four, or that the Earth is round. W e only speak of faith when
we wish to substitute em otion for evidence.“ ”Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on Earth – m ore than death.
Thought is subversive, revolutionary, and m erciless to privilege, established institutions, and com fortable habits
His The Problems of Philosophy, 1912, said, “Philosophy is to be studied not for the sake of any definite answers to its
questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions
them selves. The goal of such study was to becom e a free intellect, an intellect that will see as God m ight see, without a
here and now, without hopes and fears, without custom ary beliefs and prejudices.
Stupid
people
are
sure;
smart
persons
have
doubts
First
Cause
Argument
Design
Argument
Orbiting
teapot
“The fundam ental cause of the trouble is that in the m odern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of
doubt...“The finding of argum ents for a conclusion given in advance (such as all argum ents by believers purporting to
prove God exists) is not philosophy, but special pleading.” “To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom .” “There is not
one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.” “Religion is based...m ainly on fear...fear of the m ysterious, fear of
defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty...it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand.”
“It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatsoever for believing it to be true.” (1928) ref
Huxley, 1869) “Fear is the m ain source of superstition, and one of the m ain sources of cruelty.” (1950)
“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence that it is not utterly absurd. Indeed, in view of the silliness
of the m ajority of m ankind, a widespread belief is m ore likely to be foolish than sensible.” “I do not pretend to be able to
prove that there is no God, or that Satan is a fiction, or the gods of O lym pus, or the Egyptian gods. No one of these
hypotheses is m ore probable than any other, and therefore there is no reason to consider any of them .”
“I regard [religion] as belonging to the infancy of hum an reason, and to a stage of developm ent we are outgrowing.”
(“I don’t know why it is that religions never ascribe com m on sense to God.” Somerset M augham )
Russell answered the Cosmological/First Cause Argument: "If everything m ust have a cause, then God m ust have a
cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it m ay just as well be the world as God, so that there cannot be any
validity in that argum ent. It is exactly of the sam e nature as the Hindu’s view that the world rested upon an elephant and
the elephant rested upon a tortoise; and when they said, "W hat does the tortoise stand on?" The Indian said, "Suppose
we change the subject.” Russell, “Science is what you know; philosophy is what you don’t know.”
Russell also disputed the Cosmological Argument that the universe was contingent, sim ply because objects within
that universe are contingent, which they certainly are. This is the fallacy of com position which states that as parts have
a certain property, the whole likewise has that property.
Russell sim ilarly answered the Design Argument, “If one contends that a divine m ind needs no designer, one could just
as logically say a well-ordered natural world needs no designer.” Also, “W hy did G od, if an im m ortal, create m ortal
hum ans; why not create im m ortal hum ans?” [and why not put them in Heaven, not on an im perfect Earth?]
Russell said that von Leibniz’s claim that there was no real evil in the world contradicted Christian dogm a.
And, “It is the preoccupation with possession, m ore than anything else, that prevents m en from living freely and nobly.“
Also, “All the conditions of happiness are realized in the life of the m an of science.”
To refute the assertion that doubters had the burden of proof to disprove false claim s of religions, Russell coined
the concept of an orbiting teapot. “If one person were to assert a teapot orbited the Earth, and assert that as it could not
be proven not to exist, that therefore it did exist, he would be laughed at. But, if 2,000 years ago, such a belief had been
written in theological texts, and taught to children as sacred truth every Sunday, not believing in the orbiting teapot would
110
be considered m ad.” Sim ply believing in an orbiting teapot (or a god) does not prove one exists.
Russell, Alfred North W hitehead, and Guiseppe Peano extended algebra from sym bols for num bers to sym bols
for concepts, creating sym bolic logic.
Alfred North W hitehead (1861-1947): ”I consider the Christian theology to be one of the great disasters of the hum an
race...It would be im possible to im agine anything m ore un-Christian than theology. Christ probably couldn’t have
understood it.” “Can you im agine anything m ore appallingly idiotic than the Christian idea of Heaven? W hat kind of deity
is it that would create angels & m en to sing his praises day and night to all eternity? Such a conception is an insult to God.”
Process
Theology
1913
Niels
Bohr
A new religious philosophy, Process Theology, developed out of W hitehead’s ideas. Process Theology is an attem pt
to retain a concept of a God in light of the overwhelm ing evidence of the power of science and reason. Its m ajor concepts
are that the Bible was a fallible history book. Jesus was not divine. God is not om nipotent in the sense of being coercive.
He/it has the power of persuasion, not coercion. Reality is not m aterial substances but is serially related events, which
are experim ental in nature. These events have both a physical and m ental nature. All experience is im portant and
contributes to the ongoing and interrelated process of reality. God is incarnate in everyone’s life when one acts in a godlike
m anner. As it denies the Bible’s divinity, it is not accepted by Judeo-Christian religions.
Physics: Niels Bohr (1885-1962), Dane, wrote On the Constitutions of Atoms and Molecules. Said electrons are set only
in fixed concentric orbits with different energy levels outside the nucleus of an atom with the num ber of protons (in the
nucleus) determ ining the atom ic num ber of the atom and the outerm ost orbit of electrons determ ining its chem ical
behavior. He explained how electrons could keep from falling into the nucleus by suggesting that they occupy only certain
well defined orbits. An electron m oving from one orbit to another would disappear from one orbit and reappear in another
orbit without visiting the space in-between, the fam ous quantum leap. An atom ’s structure was now as m athem atical as
Newton’s universe, but it contained also the principle of the quantum . (see 1919, 1927)
19141918
WW 1
W orld W ar 1: By 1914, m ost people in the developed countries lived in a m oney econom y. The Panam a Canal opened.
In 1914, a Serbian nationalist killed the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Anger, alliances, m iscues, and the world was
at war. 21 m illion killed. By 1918, Britain, US and France defeated Germ any. Germ any seethed. Most Am erican m ilitary
dead were from the flu. In 1918-1919, “Spanish” and “Swine” flu killed 40-50 m illion people worldwide, perhaps m ore.
1915
Einstein
Physics: Einstein expanded on his Special Theory of Relativity with Cosmological Considerations on the General Theory
of Relativity. Gravity is a distortion of the structure of tim e and space, a curved field in a spacetim e continuum that is
created by the presence of m atter, affecting the inertial m otion of other m atter. Gravity is a property of space (not a force
between bodies as New ton had said). His General Theory is a set of10 equations from which the degree of curvature
of spacetim e can be predicted based on the am ount and distribution of m ass present.
General
Theory
of
Relativity
Relativity m eans space and tim e are not absolute but relative to the observer and the thing observed. Tim e is variable
and ever changing. It even has a shape. It is interconnected with the three spacial dim ensions. To prove it, he predicted
that starlight passing close to the sun would deflect twice as m uch as New ton’s laws would predict. [i.e., light is affected
by gravity]. He was proven right during an eclipse in 1919. News of the proof of his prediction added to his fam e. This
won him the Nobel prize in Physics in 1921. (Einstein term ed com m on sense as those prejudices one learns before 18.)
The General Theory of Relativity solved problem s with gravity that were not explained by the Special Theory. His
equations described either a contracting or an expanding universe, but Einstein, like everyone else, thought the universe
was static. So he sim ply added a fudge factor, a cosmological constant, to his calculations to m ake his calculations
consistent with a static universe and attem pted to understand and quantify this constant. O ther scientists did likewise.
Also said, The whole of science is nothing m ore than a refinem ent of everyday thinking.” (More Einstein 1933, 1950)
1916
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Irish, in Androcles and the Lion, “No sooner had Jesus knocked over the dragon
of superstition than Paul boldly set it up again in the nam e of Jesus...Jesus was talking the m ost penetrating good sense
when he preached Com m unism ; W hen he declared that the reality behind the popular belief in God was a creative spirit
in ourselves called by him the Heavenly Father and called by us Evolution, Elan Vital, Life Force and other nam es.”
In 1891, Shaw had said, “The liar’s punishm ent is...not that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe any one
else.” Also said, “Patriotism is a pernicious psychopathic form of idiocy.”
1916
Astronom y: Karl Schwarzschild, Germ an, resurrected John M ichell’s 1787 idea that when a really m assive star has
collapsed to a single point, its gravity is so strong (even though gravity is by far the weakest of the forces) that within a
certain distance, even light cannot escape its gravitational pull. Now known as Black Holes, they cannot be seen as they
em it no light, but can be detected by their gravitational effect on nearby stars.
Black
Holes
1917
Vesto
Slipher
Astronom y, Red Shift: Light from a source going away from a viewer is redder than light at a constant distance, like, but
not the sam e as, the Doppler effect. Astronom ers had seen this red shift in stars’s spectrographs, deducing they were
receding from Earth. Vesto Slipher saw this red shift from spiral nebulae m uch redder than from stars, indicating m uch
greater speed, even 2 m illion m iles /hour. As he did not know how far away the spirals were, he could not conclude that
the universe itself was expanding. All cosm ologists, including Einstein assum ed the universe was static. (See 1923)
111
1918
Upton Sinclair (1878-1968), in his The Profits of Religion, “I can see how sincere, how passionately proletarian a religious
prophet m ay be – to be founder of an organization of fools, conducted by knaves, for the benefit of wolves. That fate befell
Buddha and Jesus, it befell Ignatius Loyola and Francis of Assisi, John Fox, and John Calvin, and John W esley.”
1919
Physics: Rutherford (see 1899, 1911) was the first to transm ute one elem ent into another, nitrogen into oxygen. In 1921,
he theorized about the existence of neutrons that created a nuclear force that kept nuclei from breaking apart.
1920
Philosophy: Benedetto Croce (1869-1952), Italian philosopher and Minister of Education, “Philosophy rem oves from
religion all reason for existing...as the science of the spirit, [philosophy] looks upon religion as a phenom enon, a transitory historical fact, a psychic condition that can be surpassed.” (Philosophy is com m itted to at least one all im portant
claim : that there is a real distinction between the true and the false.” Roger Scruton)
Croce
Karl
Popper
If it’s not
falsifiabile,
it’s not a
scientific
statement.
Physicists in the 1920s learned that one can’t know accurately and com pletely how the world inside atom s worked. Karl
Popper (1902-1994) Viennese, postulated that while unrestricted generalizations can’t be verified, they could be proven
false by a single experim ent, so the test of a theory’s adherence to the scientific m ethod was its falsifiability .i.e, can an
experim ent disprove it? That is, som e statem ents such as existence statem ents are in principle verifiable (able to be
shown true) but cannot be proven false, i.e., Unicorns exist. Find a unicorn; it’s verified. Conversely, claim s of a universal
form , like “All crows are black,” cannot be verified (unless one captures every crow that ever existed) but can be falsified,
i.e., find a non-black crow. As science seeks to m ake universally quantified statem ents, the test is not verifiability (as the
logical positivists asserted), but falsifiability. Science welcom es and seeks tests of its theories.
Popper also said that no other thought has been so powerful in the m oral developm ent of Man than separating the
individual from the crowd. (In 1957, he described The Oedipus effect, predicting an event m ay tend either to bring it about
or its negation, depending on persons’s reactions.)
Due to suffragettes, Am erican wom en won the right to vote.
1920
Sinclair Lew is’s Main Street, a brutal (but honest) portrayal of sm all-m inded drab ignorant dull unim aginative sm ug
com placent sm all towns. In 1922, his Babbitt skewered Am erican businessm en who worship them selves and m oney.
1922
Ludw ig W ittgenstein (1899-1951), “godfather of ordinary language philosophy,” said m ost philosophical problem s are
non-issues due to linguistic m isunderstandings. “The lim its of m y language are the lim its of m y world.” So he and Russell
turned the study of philosophy into the study of logic and language, analytic philosophy. For W ittgenstein and logical
positivists, things in a person’s life can have m eaning, but a m eaning of life itself, apart from those things, can’t be
discerned. He said, “W hat can be said at all can be said clearly; and about that of which one cannot talk, one m ust be
silent.” He said there was a fundam ental unity to the world, m ind and m atter were different aspects of one reality.
Language
is the
key
1922
Alexander Friedmann, in Zeitschrift fur Physik, posited that the universe could be expanding. Einstein dissed it.
1924
Hubble:
M ilky
W ay
is not
the only
galaxy
Astronom y: Edw in Hubble, an astronom er at the Mt. W ilson observatory, in Cepheids in Spiral Nebulae deduced that
light from som e stars was too far away to be from the Milky W ay, thus there were other galaxies, m any bigger than
ours. He & M ilton Humason subsequently found 46 galaxies and m easured their red shift. They concluded that such
stars were going away from us which helped Lemaitre in 1927 postulate that the universe was expanding..W hat had
previously been called nebulae, clouds, within the Milky W ay, m ost were now seen as galaxies apart from the Milky W ay
1924
Em ma Goldm an (1869-1940), Russian Am erican fem inist, “The institution of m arriage m akes a parasite of wom an, an
absolute dependent. It incapacitates her for life’s struggles, annihilates her social consciousness, paralyzes her
im agination, and then im poses its gracious protection, which is in reality a snare, a travesty on hum an character.” Also
said, “Of all social theories, Anarchism alone steadfastly proclaim s that society exists for m an, not m an for society.”
1925
M encken
Philosophy: H.L.M encken (1880-1956) Baltim ore editor and critic: “Religion is fundam entally opposed to everything I hold
in veneration -courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, the love of truth. The m ost com m on of all follies
is to believe passionately in the m ost palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of m ankind.”
Problem
of Evil
1925
John
Scopes
Physics: Louis DeBroglie argued that m atter can be viewed both as particles and as waves, dual aspects of the sam e
reality. This also explained the energy-frequency equivalence discovered by Einstein in 1905. The energy of a photon
is proportional to the frequency of the radiation.
“Christian theology is not only opposed to the scientific spirit; it is opposed to every other form of rational inquiry.” “The
whole Christian system , like every sim ilar system , goes to pieces on the. Its m ost adept theologians, after attem pting to
reconcile the [God] of their theory with the dreadful agonies of m an...can only retreat to Chrysostom’s despairing m axim ,
that ‘a com prehended god is no God.’” “Religion, generally speaking, has been a curse on m ankind.” “The basic fact
about hum an existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore.” “Dr. Johnson said patriotism is the last refuge of
scoundrels. But there is som ething worse: it is the first, last, and m iddle refuge of fools.”
Biology teacher John Scopes was convicted of teaching Darwinism contrary to a Tennessee law. [Such laws have since
been found unconstitutional.] Clarence Darrow, lawyer for Scopes said, “I...consider it a com plim ent to be called an
agnostic. I do not pretend to know where m any ignorant m en are sure - that is all that agnosticism m eans.”
112
1926
Physics: M ax Born realized that the wave corresponding to a particle was a wave of probabilities; it was a representation of the state of the particle. Unlike a pointless particle, a wave can be in several places at the sam e tim e.
1927
Physics: W erner Heisenberg and Erw in Schroedinger invented m athem atical procedures that accurately replicated
m any of the observed properties of atom s, thus giving birth to quantum m echanics, a synthesis of Schroedinger’s wave
m echanics (1926) and Heisenberg’s m atrix m echanics. Schroedinger: As species evolve and organism s grow, life
creates order from disorder, seem ingly contra the 2 nd law of therm odynam ics. How? Life is not a closed system .
Quantum
Mechanics
Paul
Dirac
Niels
Bohr
At the heart of it was Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle (1927) that says one can’t m easure both the m om entum
(essentiality velocity) and position of a sub-atom ic particle (such as an electron) at the sam e tim e, as m om entum com es
from a spread out wave, while position com es from a concentrated wave, and one can’t have both at once.
An electron’s speed and its position fit together in such a way as they are confined by the tolerance of the quantum .
This is one of the m ost fundam ental principles of quantum m echanics and one of the great ideas in the history of science.
W hat m akes the principle profound is that Heisenberg specified the tolerance that can be reached, i.e., Planck’s
quantum . An atom is in perpetual m otion; its electrons never stop m oving.
Paul Dirac, British, proved that the particle approach of Heisenberg and the wave approach of Schroedinger were
m athem atically equivalent to one another. The quantum world is particle and wave at the sam e tim e.
Dirac also developed the theory of the spinning electron. In 1928, Dirac realized that the equations of Quantum
Mechanics allowed for “anti-m atter” to exist next to the usual m atter, for exam ple a positively charged electron exists that
looks just like the electron but has the opposite charge.
Physics: Niels Bohr (also 1913), incorporated the Uncertainty Principle (which applies only to sub-atom ic particles) into
his concept of Complementarity: If one observes a sub-atom ic system , one interacts with it, as the only way to see it with
current technology is to bom bard it with another particle and see what happens. Bohr elevated Complementarity to a
fundam ental principle of the natural sciences; it includes the Complementarity between the wave and the particle theory
of light. Light can be viewed as a wave, for exam ple, when it is diffracted passing through a narrow slit, or as a particle,
when ejecting electrons from a m etal surface in the photoelectric effect. Bohr, a founder of quantum physics, said,
“Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.”
By the end of the 1920s, the idea of light having characteristics of both a wave and as particles had becom e, due
to Bohr, the foundation of a com plete theory of the subatom ic and atom ic world, quantum physics.
Thus, one needed three sets of laws to explain the behavior of the universe, quantum theory for the world of the subatom ic, relativity for the very larger universe beyond, and Newtonian physics for all else. New ton’s gravity well
explained why planets orbited suns or why galaxies tended to cluster but had no effect at the sub-atom ic level. To
explain what kept atom s together, in the 30s, two forces were discovered, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear
force. The strong nuclear force keeps atom s together and the weak nuclear force controls certain kinds of radioactivity.
The weak nuclear force is still 10BBB tim es stronger than gravity. The strong nuclear force is vastly m ore powerful, but
reaches out only 1/100,000 the diam eter of the atom . So the nucleus of an atom is dense. The nucleus of a hydrogen
atom , one proton, is proportionality like a grain of sand in the Superbowl.
1927
The Big
Bang
Cosm ology: Belgian priest George Lemaitre (1894-1966) opined that the universe at one tim e exploded from a geom etric
point, a singularity, and was expanding. Einstein was again critical, said Lemaitre’s m ath was OK but the physics was
abom inable. The theory was ignored for years. Einstein years later said the theory m ost beautiful and satisfactory.
1929
Astronom y: Hubble (also 1923) and Humason form ulated Hubble’s Law: The red shift in light com ing from distant
galaxies was proportional to their distance from Earth. They found that the further away the galaxy from ours, the
faster it was receding from ours, i.e., the redder the shift. Twice as far away, receding twice as fast, and so on. In
retrospect, they realized that a static universe would collapse in itself due to gravity. This phenom enon is the strongest
evidence for the Big Bang theory (not universally accepted until the 60s) and gave clues as to when the Big Bang
bung. Einstein then stopped his work on his fudge factor/cosm ological constant, which he term ed his greatest
blunder, accepted the expanding universe theory, and, while vacationing in California in 1931, went to Mt. W ilson to
thank Hubble. Big Bangers thought the universe was c1.8 B years old. (In 1952, c3.6 B years; in 1954, 5.5 B years.).
Edw in
Hubble
Distances between galaxies are so great as to m inim ize any gravitational influence between them . System s that are
gravitationally bound together, such as galaxies or solar system s, like ours, are not appreciably subject to Hubble’s Law
and do not expand, as there is equilibrium between expansion and gravity. Hubble classified galaxies in the still-used
Hubble Sequence. There are now 3 bases for accepting the Big Bang. 1. Hubble’s law. 2. Cosm ic background radiation
from the BB, and, 3. Calculating galaxies’s speed backward = the age of the oldest stars, c13-15 billion years.
1929
Econom ics: The central banks of the four superpowers, US, England, Germ any, and France, who printed their nation’s
currencies, were privately owned and not regulated. They sought to restore the gold standard, abandoned during W W 1.
Stock speculators pushed up stock prices to absurd levels. The bubble burst, the m arket crashed; the Great Depression
began, spread worldwide. Pius 11 m ade the Lateran Pact with Mussolini whom he praised as “A gift of Providence.”
113
Jean
Piaget
Epistem ology: Jean Piaget (1906-1980), Swiss, pioneer of the constructiveness theory of knowing, children develop how
to learn in different ways at different stages of developm ent and learn m oral developm ent in stages.
1931
Robert M illikan (1868-1953) physicist, Nobel 1923, Three ideas stand out as the m ost influential for the hum an race:
“1. The idea of the Golden Rule, 2. The idea of natural law [science], and 3. The idea of age-long growth, or evolution.”
Darwinism didn’t gain widespread acceptance until the 1930s when his ideas were com bined with M endel’s and others
in the Grand Synthesis. Basically M endel explained where Darw in’s variations cam e from . Evolution by Natural Selection
is sim ple and profound and is now universally accepted by scientists, but not by those influenced by religions.
1932
Physics: James Chadw ick proved Rutherford’s theory of neutrons (no electrical charge so they aren’t repelled by
protons), weighing the sam e as protons, which, with protons and electrons (and tinier bits), com prise atom s. And that
som e atom s of an elem ent have a different num ber of neutrons, isotopes. (Nobel prize in physics 1935)
1933
Fascism , pact with pope: In Mein Kampf / My Struggle (1925), Adolph Hitler had said, “I am acting in accordance with
the will of the Alm ighty Creator” in his actions against Jews. Hitler energized the volk with resentm ent against the victors
and appeals to racism , patriotism , and anti-Sem itism . In 1933, he m ade a pact with Pope Pius 11 that required Germ an
Catholic bishops and clergy to honor his governm ent, clergy couldn’t be active in political parties. He allied governm ent
with corporations, suppressed labor unions. He denigrated dem ocracy as inefficient, blam ed the Jews for Germ any’s ills.
Germ any, a literate, educated country accepted Hitler’s m adness. He gave them a scapegoat and hope.
Hitler
1933
United
Field
Theory
Physics: Einstein, like other scientists, continued to try to develop a Unified Field Theory, to unite gravity and
electrom agnetism , the two then-known fundam ental forces. He did not succeed. In 1933, he fled Hitler for the U.S. In
1934 said, “It is precisely am ong the heretics of every age that we find the m en of the greatest religious feeling and were
in m any cases regarded by their contem poraries as atheists, som etim es also as saints.
Astronom y: Arthur Eddington said that the Sun was m illions of degrees, also confirm ed that the galaxies were flying
apart. Bell Labs discovered that radio waves were com ing not just from the Sun, but from stars all over the universe. This
was the birth of radio astronom y which can detect stars beyond the vision of telescopes.
1934
Leo Szilard, Hungarian, realized that if one hit an atom with a neutron, and it broke up and released two, one would have
a chain reaction. He also described Inform ation Theory, the relation between knowledge, nature, and Man.
1935
Ecology: Arthur George Tansley coined the term ecosystem ; it united biology, physics, chem istry, and other scientific
fields to describe the environm ent. An ecosystem functions as an ecological unit.
1936
Philosophy: Alfred-Jules Ayer, in Language, Truth and Logic, articulated logical positivism, developed by a group of
Viennese and Germ an m athem atician/philosophers influenced by W ittgenstein, skeptical of theology and philosophy.
An idea is cognitively m eaningful only if there is a way to prove it. Logical positivists rejected Kant’s belief in synthetic a
priori knowledge. Scientists can speak m eaningfully as there is a com m on understanding of the words they use and their
assertions can be proven or disproved by experim ent and observation, and m easurem ent. Philosophers/theologians
cannot as the words they use have different m eanings to different people, “To say that ‘God exists’ is to m ake a
m etaphysical utterance which cannot be either true of false as it cannot be verified or falsified. And no sentence which
purports to describe the nature of a transcendent god can possess any literal significance.
The Encyclopedia of Philosophy says, “No problem s of knowledge are less settled than those of definition.”
A J Ayer
1936
John
M aynard
Keynes
John M aynard Keynes (1883-1946) thought the gold standard “a barbarous relic.” His General Theory of Employment,
Interest and Money asserted that the financial m arkets needed governm ent intervention and regulation, including printing
m oney for public works to fight unem ploym ent during slum ps. The m arket is not “efficient,” as short term speculation
dom inates it. “W hen the capital developm ent of a country becom es a by-product of the activities of a casino (W all Street),
the job is likely to be ill-done.” He also said, “The engine which drives enterprise is not thrift, but profit.” “I do not know what
m akes a m an m ore conservative-to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past.”
1937
Pope Pius 11's encyclical: The Jewish people crucified Jesus (not just the elders) [In 2011, Benedict 16 retracted this].
Pius 11 also said, “Married life presupposes the power of the husband over the wife,,,and obedience to the husband.”
1938
Stuart Chase’s Tyranny of W ords said there was little agreem ent on the m eaning of m ost philosophical concepts.
Edw ard Sapir and Benjam in W horf showed that one’s language determ ines how one thinks.
1938
FDR
Franklin Roosevelt, “Dem ocracy alone, of all form s of governm ent, enlists the full force of m en’s enlightened will... It is
the m ost hum ane, the m ost advanced and in the end, the m ost unconquerable of all form s of hum an society.”
1939
W orld W ar 2: In 1937, Japan m assacred 200-400K at Nanking. Europe’s beacon of com m erce, finance, knowledge, and
culture generally shone around the world. In 1939, Hitler invaded Poland. W ar again, 1941. Japan attacked the US.
Germ ans killed c6M Jews. (Jews believe that their God would never desert them .) Europe was flattened. The USSR lost
WW 2
114
20M. Industrialized m ight and a fission atom ic bom b (US) on Japan won. Never before in history was there such a total
victory. It resulted in the lightning spread of universal suffrage and the idea of dem ocracy (even if in nam e only to the
USSR.) No Germ an, not even Hitler, was ever excom m unicated for his crim es against Jews.
Fusion
Physics: Hans Bethe said, in the Sun 2 hydrogen (1 proton) atom s fuse (fusion) to becom e helium (2 protons), and lose
a little m ass. That lost m ass is sunlight/energy. (So the Sun burns for billions of years without burning up entirely.)
W illard
Libby
W illard Libby, University of Chicago, developed radioactive carbon dating (Nobel prize 1960) enabling one to determ ine
when carbon based substances existed. (An isotope of carbon, Carbon 14, decays into Carbon 12 one half each 5,600
years. So determ ining how m uch Carbon 14 is left in a piece of carbon determ ines when the organism died. The m ethod
is only accurate up to c40,000 years.
1941
Edw ard Dowling, Jesuit priest. “The two greatest obstacles to dem ocracy in the US are: first, the widespread delusion
am ong the poor that we have a dem ocracy, and second, the chronic terror am ong the rich, lest we get it. “
1942
Philip W ylie, Generation of Vipers, “The Church has stood, a rock colossus of bigotry, in the path of 10,000 reform s. “
1943
Jean
Paul
Sartre
1943
Philosophy: Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980), in Being and Nothingness, articulated existentialism, an atheistic attitude
rather than a philosophy, that Man is alone, there is no blueprint of what a m an should be, no ultim ate significance to the
universe. “Man is condem ned to be free.” Sartre argued that even if God existed, it would be necessary to reject him ,
as the idea of God negates our freedom . “Traditional religion tells us we m ust conform to God’s idea of hum anity to
becom e fully hum an. Instead we m ust see hum an beings as liberty incarnate.”
Joseph Campbell: (The Power of Myth) Life is without m eaning. You bring m eaning to it. Being alive is the m eaning.
1944
Aldous Huxley, “Religion, it seem s to m e, can survive only as a consciously accepted system of m ake-believe.”
1947
Indian Independence: Jawaharlal Nehru, (1889-1964). Indian statesm an, with M ohandas/M ahatma Gandhi (18691948), led India to independence. Nehru said of India, "No country or people who are slaves to dogm a and dogm atic
m entality can progress." Re Hinduism , “I want nothing to do with any religion concerned with keeping the m asses satisfied
to live in hunger, filth, and ignorance.” Gandhi said, “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are
so unlike your Christ.” and “God has no religion.” The truth is just the truth. As som e Muslim s lived in Hindu territory, and
vice-versa, they fought, 1M died, 15M were displaced, due only to their religious differences. India was split into m ostly
Muslim Pakistan and m ostly Hindu India. Muslim Kashm ir went to India as its ruler was Hindu.
In India, despite official governm ent opposition, the Hindu rigid class differentiation (caste system ) continues.
India
Nehru
Gandhi
1947-56
Dead Sea Scrolls found; showed Zoroastrianism ’s (Satan v.God, judgm ent day, expect a Messiah) influence on Jews.
1949
George Orw ell’s 1984 was a bleak picture of a totalitarian future. It coined doublethink, Big Brother, thought crime.
1950
Physics: Many scientists, including Einstein continued to work on a Unified Field Theory to reconcile the four then-known
forces: 1. Strong Nuclear force (holds quarks, neutrons and protons together in an atom ). 2. Electro-m agnetic force
(m agnetism ). 3. W eak nuclear force (radioactivity), and 4.Gravity, the weakest force by far .
Theology: Pope Pius 12, in his Humani Generis encyclical, perm itted Catholics to discuss evolution so long as the
process of ensouling hum ans (putting a soul in m an) was left to God, “but [evolution] should not be accepted as valid
without m ore evidence.” Pius 12 said the Big Bang was the Biblical tim e of “Let there be light.” and proof that God
existed. In 1950, adherents of a steady state universe derisively term ed Lemaitre’s 1927 theory the “Big Bang” theory.
1952
Stanley M iller, U. of Chicago, reconstructed the atm osphere of Earth at 4 B BC. Several am ino acids appeared.
1953
Political theory: The USSR m ade a hydrogen bom b. The doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction ensured that neither
USA or USSR would use it. The doctrine assum es the possessors of nuclear weapons act rationally.
DNA
Physics/Chem istry: DNA: Rosalind Franklin, M aurice Wilkins, James W atson (PhD at 22), and Francis Crick,
found that every cell in an individual living thing contains a DNA m olecule for that individual, shaped like a double helix
(2 spiral strings), each of which strings contains all the genes for that individual, the total genetic pattern for that
individual. W hen a cell divides, one helix/string goes to each new cell, which then creates an identical helix, and so
on, so each new cell has all the genes of the prior cell. Their discovery was confirm ed only in the 1980s.
The structure of a DNA m olecule can be seen with an electron m icroscope, and portions of the strings determ ining hair
color, etc, can be identified, cut out, m odified, and re-inserted in the m olecule. [Half of the 35,000 genes coded by the
DNA in the hum an genom e are expressed in the brain. There are about 100B neurons in the brain. Each neuron connects
with about 10,000 other neurons.] There are at least 20 different kinds of subatom ic particles, below.
1962
Saudi Arabia outlawed slavery, but rem ains the m ost backward country in the world due to its denigration of wom en.
115
1964
Protons were found to be m ade up of hadrons which were m ade up of different kinds of quarks. [c500 B protons can fit
in the dot of an “ I ” and a proton weighs c1840 tim es m ore than an electron, and ten m illion tim es m ore than an even
sm aller particle, a neutrino. (In the1960s, Utah and New Mexico were the last states to perm it Native Indians to vote.)
Braden
Nathaniel Braden: All knowledge and all concepts have a hierarchal structure, based on m ore basic concepts, ultim ately
on one’s sensory perceptions. Only when one knows som ething is certain can one determ ine what is not certain, and only
logic can separate the two. (recall Kant, 1781) If one uses a concept, one m ust be aware of and m ust not deny or
contradict the m ore basic concepts it is based on. To do so is the Fallacy of the Stolen Concept.
1964
Arno Penzias and Robert W ilson at Bell Labs detected cosm ic m icrowave background radiation; in 1965 cam e to realize
it was a rem nant of the Big Bang. Such CMB radiation had been predicted in 1948 by Big Bang proponents.
1966
The last Catholic Index was published. 4,000 books were in it. Hitler’s Mein Kampf/My Struggle had been exam ined but
not put on the Index. The Index was quietly abandoned in 1978, but Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict 16, said in
1885 that it still retained m oral value “for the m ore unprepared faithful.” It had retarded scholarship for Catholics.
1968
Steven
Physics: Steven W einberg, MIT, theorized that the weak interaction/weak nuclear force and the electrom agnetic force
were essentially identical, and that the apparent differences between them were due m ore to the low tem perature of the
universe than to anything fundam ental to their nature. W einberg, Sheldon Glashow, and Abdus Salam shared the 1979
Nobel Prize for Physics for the set of equations establishing this idea. This reduced the four fundam ental forces to 3.
Predictions m ade on the basis of his theory proved accurate, and it is now generally accepted. Building on this has
developed several theories seeking to unify the now three fundam ental forces.
Weinberg
The Big
Bang
Big Bang theory becam e generally accepted. The Bang is now thought to be c13.6 billion years ago. To scale, if our sun
were one yard across, the Earth would be the size of a pea and Pluto would be a 1.5 m iles away, 50 tim es sm aller than
a BB pellet.] The closest star to our star/Sun, Alpha Centari, is 26 trillion m iles away, 4.5 light years, in our Milky W ay
galaxy. Carl Sagan has estim ated that the universe has at least 100 trillion trillion stars. Our Milky W ay galaxy contains
200-400 billion stars and there are perhaps 100 to 500 billion other galaxies, m any larger than ours. Estim ates vary widely.
Light from the Androm eda Galaxy, the closest galaxy to ours (with an estim ated trillion stars) left Androm eda c2.5 M years
ago. One galaxy, the Abell 2029 Galaxy is 60 tim es the size of the Milky W ay, with c100 trillion stars. Star Antares itself
has a diam eter of 363 m illion m iles, 2 tim es the orbit of Earth around the Sun. Som e galaxies are 1 B light years away.
1968
National Catholic Almanac said God is “alm ighty, eternal, holy, im m ortal, im m ense, im m utable, incom prehensible,
ineffable, infinite, invisible, just, loving, present, patient, m erciful, m ost high, m ost wise, om nipotent, om niscient,
om nipresent, perfect, provident, suprem e, true.” These attributes are inconsistent with “incom prehensible.”
1969
A m eteorite over 4.5 billion years old found in Australia contained 74 different am ino acids, eight of which are involved
in m aking Earthly proteins. Am ericans walked on the Moon.
1973
Edw ard Tryon: The universe m ay be a random quantum fluctuation in a vacuum , so could have started from nothing.
Quantum cosm ology offers various hypotheses that allow for the universe to have begun from nothing for no reason.
1974
Anthropic
Argument
The Anthropic Argument from Improbability, or Argument from Fine Tuning, a new variant of the Design Argument for God,
developed in light of increased knowledge of the com plexity of 1. the universe (the planetary level of the argum ent), and
2. m olecular activity (the molecular level). This argum ent says that all the universal constants and seem ingly
incredible coincidences perm itting conditions for life to be on Earth were so unlikely that only a divine power could have
caused all such im probable circum stances and constants and He did so in order to produce Man (hence “anthropic.”).
The
Universe
w as
made
for M an
Specifically, Brandon Carter defined the two form s of the Anthropic Principle, a “weak” one (W AP) that dealt with our
planet, and a m ore controversial “strong” form (SAP) dealing with the fundam ental constants of physics.
W AP Planetary Level: Life on Earth exists as it has 1. the proper diam eter, 2. a m olten m agnetic core (to repel deadly
cosm ic radiation, 3. chem ical elem ents in the correct proportions 4. a m oon the correct size to prevent Earth from
wobbling like a dying top, 5. a star/sun of the proper size, 6. the certain age of the universe that perm its and has liquid
water [Our kind of life needs liquid water.] , 7. an orbit that is that certain specific distance away from the Sun in what can
be called a Goldilocks Zone (as in, not too hot, not too cold, but just right. Mars is too cold, Venus too hot.) Earth’s orbit
is in a Goldilocks Zone and is so close to circular it doesn’t stray beyond the Goldilocks Zone. All these seven conditions
are in their own Goldilocks zones. So far, so good.
SAP Molecular level: There are six fundam ental constants of physics that have to be just so. Such as 1. the m agnitude
of the strong nuclear force (the force that binds the com ponents of an atom ic nucleus), and 2. the gravitational attraction
between protons in stars. If such attraction were not m any orders of m agnitude weaker than their electrical repulsion, stars
would have collapsed long before the nuclear process could build up the chem ical periodic table from the original
hydrogen and deuterium .
Sim ilarly, were the carbon “resonance” 4% lower, carbon wouldn’t form in first place, The other ‘constants’ are
116
roughly of the sam e order of im portance/coincidence/rarity. These are laws of nature. And, if such fine tuned constants
enabling life were slightly different, life as we know it (carbon-based life) would not be possible. In other words, each of
such constants is within a Goldilocks Zone outside of which life as we know it is not possible.
Plus, there is an extrem ely delicate balance regarding the am ount of CO2 in the atm osphere. The argum ent concludes
that all this looks like the universe was designed just for us. These are called anthropic coincidences, although hum an
life is just as im probable as any other life. Som e new studies indicate that the constants don’t have to be quite so finely
tuned, but for purposes of argum ent we can accept the fine tuning thesis.
M ark
Ridley
Is it
logical?
Oxford zoologist M ark Ridley suggested that the origin of the eucaryotic cell, (our kind of cell, with a nucleus and other
com plicated features such as m itochondria) was an even m ore m om entous and statistically im probable step than the
origin of life. The Anthropic Argument, is a deist argum ent (God set the constants, the laws of nature, gravity, strong force,
etc,) then left the universe alone), It thus inconsistent with any m iracles as m iracles require divine intervention.
Nine Contra Argum ents: 1. Illogical: The Argument essentially says that c13.6 B years ago, a God created the universe
[so im m ense that our m ost powerful telescopes can’t see m ore than a tiny fraction of it], with hundreds of billions of
galaxies, one m edium size galaxy of which, our Milky W ay, holds our Sun, one of hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky
W ay, which itself form ed billions of years after the Big Bang, God then form ed Earth, sm aller than a dot in our m inor solar
system , which form ed c4.6 B years ago, and then billions of years later produced a one celled organism , that for 3 B
years was the only life on Earth, which, a billion years later, produced Man-like creatures, who for m illions of years lived,
as Hobbes said, with “no arts, no letters, no society; and which is worst of all, in continual fear and danger of violent death,
and the life of Man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish and short,” in fear, disease, privation, and ignorance, who evolved into
Hom o sapiens. That’s a long cruel way for an om nipotent God to go just to produce Man. W ould an om nipotent, loving
God have done it this way? Recall J S M ill said, If God is om nipotent, he/she/it could have done all this in an instant.
2. Unproven assum ption: The Anthropic Argument also assum es that carbon-based life is the only possible form of life,
an unproven assum ption. Bacteria live two m iles undersea living off the radioactive decay of nearby rocks. Bacteria live
in 12,000 year old ice in Greenland and m iles below Antarctica. Creatures live seven m iles down in the ocean, 17K pounds
pressure. In 1974, plant and anim al life was found deep in the Atlantic far below where the sun penetrates existing on
bacteria fueled by hydrogen sulfide from water m ixed with m olten basalt from the Earth’s core.
3. This argum ent is a God by Default or God by Inference argum ent like the classic Design Argument, i.e., W e can’t
conceive that such com plex things could have com e about by chance, so we infer that there m ust have been a
supernatural “designer.” It thus has all the infirm ities of the traditional Design Argument, i.e., who designed God, who
designed him , ad infinitum , false dilem m a, chance or god (no alternatives allowed), sloppy world indicates incom petent
designer, possible m ultiple designers, incom plete analogy, doesn’t infer anything about the designer’s purpose or value
system , if any, not falsifiable, illogical, as a God could have created our world in an instant, etc. (Simone De Beauvoir,
1966, “It is easier to think of a world without a creator, than a creator loaded with all the contradictions of the world.”
4. Som e critics have sim ply said that the SAP (the fundam ental physical constants) and W AP (Earth’s place in the
cosm os) are sim ply ways of saying, “If things were different, things would be different.”
5. The SAP is not testable or falsifiable, and thus not a scientific statem ent.
6. Natural Selection says that life adapts to physics, and not physics adapts to life. as the Anthropic Argument says.
John
Earman
7. Philosophers John Earman and Ernan M cM ullin conclude that the W AP is a tautology which does not allow one to
explain or predict anything that we did not already know, and that the SAP is sim ply gratuitous speculation.
8. God is m ore im probable: As the constants m ake life im probable (which they certainly do), then the god solution to such
set of circum stances is m ore im probable, as the god who did the designing would have to be far m ore com plex than
the things he was designing, i.e., far m ore im probable. Plus, that any one of the current popular gods, Catholic, Lutheran,
Baptist, Jewish, Muslim , Pentecostal, and so on, is the one true God, would be yet even m ore im probable.
Richard
Daw kins
9. A natural explanation is im probable but possible: All scientists agree that the chance of life appearing by natural causes
spontaneously anywhere in the universe is extrem ely sm all. Atheist Richard Daw kins answered both the planetary and
m olecular aspects. First, on the planetary level, he distinguished between the origin of life and the evolution and
developm ent of species once life has occurred. These are two com pletely different phenom ena. Random gene m utations
and Natural Selection explain the developm ent / evolution of species once life exists. So, at the planetary level, the
Anthropic Argument applies only to the origin of life, abiogenesis,, the production of living m atter from non-living m atter.
Daw kins’s argum ent is a statistical probability argum ent. Nam ely: life only has to originate once by natural m eans,
som ewhere, to prove its validity. W hat are the chances? Most planets are not in a Goldilocks Zone. However, there are
100 to 500 billion galaxies, each of which m ay have between 200 to 400 B stars/suns (as our Milky W ay galaxy does.)
If Carl Sagan’s estim ate of c100 trillion trillion stars/suns is even rem otely accurate, then factor in the odds of any such
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Carl
Sagan
sun having a planet in the Goldilocks Zone and the odds of a eucaryotic cell evolving, and if the chances of life occurring
spontaneously som ewhere on such planet are a billion to one against, then the chances are that life will occur on
som ewhere around 100 quadrillion solar system s. Thus the odds are that som ewhere, here, for exam ple, life will occur
spontaneously. Any and all such odds are rank speculation, of course, but the starting num ber of stars and planets is so
incredibly im m ense that using virtually any odds still favors life originating som ewhere.
[As the Constitution forbids public schools from prom oting religion, creationists now prom ote the Design Argument without
saying the designer is God. Schools m ay teach creationism in for exam ple a course on religious beliefs. They just m ay
not teach it as science.] Daw kins considered the Anthropic Argument an alternative to the Design Argument.
God of
the gaps
Einstein: “The doctrine of a personal God intervening in natural events could never be refuted...for this doctrine can
always take refuge in those dom ains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able to set foot,” i.e., the “God of the
gaps” argum ent (phrase coined by chem ist Charles Coulson). But, even som e theists feel it is a tactical m istake to base
belief in a god on gaps in scientific knowledge, as such argum ent weakens and fails as science fills the gaps.
1975
Paul Feyerabend, in Against Method and Science in a Free Society, said that as there are no m ethodological rules always
used by scientists, lim iting activities of scientists to any single prescriptive m ethod would restrict scientific progress. To
insist that a new theory be consistent with an older theory gave an unwarranted advantage to the old theory. Said the
Church in 1632 was m ore faithful to reason than Galileo. Then-Cardinal Ratzinger in 1990 quoted this approvingly.
1978
A divine revelation told the Morm on president it was now OK for Blacks to becom e full m em bers of the Church.
1980s
Haw king
In the 1980s, Stephen Haw king and other physicists theorized that there is a law of nature called the W ave Function of
the Universe that im plied that there is a 95% chance that our universe cam e into existence without a cause.
1988
W ith “rational” argum ents for God rationally refuted, the Catholic Church retreated. Pope John Paul 2 said, “Christianity
possesses the source of its justification within itself and does not expect science to constitute its prim ary apologetic.”
1993+-
Alvin Plantinga and Cornelius Van Til posited epistem ological argum ents for God, differing, but with the com m on idea
that God is a prerequisite for knowledge; Christian theism is the only alternative to skepticism . Calvin influenced them .
Plantinga: Christian God consistent with Problem of Evil. Logical for God to perm it free will as it m akes a better world.
c1995+
Astronom y: W ith better telescopes, astronom ers found planets around stars. However, the age of the universe is not
certain, nor are the distances to the stars, nor is their m akeup, nor are the properties of the physical laws all are acting
in conform ance with. As physicists and astronom ers learn m ore daily, the far reaches of the universe and the workings
in atom s becom es far m ore com plicated and uncertain and unknown than New ton or Bohr ever dream ed.
1996
Theology: Pope John Paul 2/ Karol Joseph W ojtyla announced Rom an Catholicism ’s m ost recent position re evolution.
(He had acquitted Galileo in 1992). John Paul 2 said that evolution was “an effectively proven fact,” but there cam e a
tim e in the evolution of Hominids/hum ans, and hum ans alone, which science could not identify, which was solely within
the “m agesterium of religion” when God intervened and ensouled (put a soul in) a previously anim al lineage. John Paul
2 said that Catholics could not accept any theory of evolution which denied the possibility that Man “was created in the
im age and likeness of God.” Genesis 1-27. It’s a m ajor step for Catholics but not Darwinism.
Stephen
Jay
Gould
Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould argued strongly that evolution is not linear toward m ore com plex and m ore intelligent
organism s, like m an, but sim ply random . Thus, hum ans are hum ans due to random genetic m utations. W e were not
predestined to be as we are. Though Man has progressed culturally, physical evolution does not im ply physical progress.
Natural Selection only deals with adaption to changing local conditions.
Contra; som e current believers today accept evolution but contend that God is guiding it, guided evolution.
1998
Pope John Paul 2 issued Fides et Ratio. Both faith and reason are needed, as per Augustine. Faith without reason “runs
the risk of withering into m yth or superstition.” Reason without faith can’t reach the ultim ate truths of existence. In 2000,
his Dominus Jesus, John Paul said that Rom an Catholicism is the one, true Church of Jesus Christ... the one path to
salvation.” Cardinal Ratzinger (now pope) said it was a necessary response to the theology of religious pluralism . i.e.,
accepting that other religions’s truths are valid, or the view that one’s religion is not the exclusive source of truth.
(“There is no need for tem ples; no need for com plicated philosophy...The philosophy is kindness.” Dalai Lama
Political Theory: The Trium ph of Dem ocracy. As dem ocracy is the only form of governm ent that perm its persons to
chose their governors and respects individuals, it is the only just form of governm ent. Dem ocracy is such a powerful
idea that all governm ents including dictatorships now claim that they are acting in the will of the people.
20 th
Century
In the 20 th century, com m unism becam e a dictatorship of the proletariat. Com m unism succeeded for a tim e, as it was
prim arily about justice. It failed as it did not produce the prom ised econom ic benefits. The concept of dem ocracy
trium phed over com m unism , totalitarianism , and theocracy. In the 20 th century, along with the rise and philosophical
trium ph of dem ocracy, cam e Jefferson’s / M arx’s notion of equality of opportunity and equality under the law. Dem ocracy
com es closer toward providing individual fulfillm ent than any other form of governm ent and is thus the logical form of
118
governm ent for those who believe in reason and hum an dignity.
Totalitarianism is interested only in power and a spurious sense of national honor. W hile dem ocracy provides Man
the best opportunity for an equal voice and equal opportunity in society; inequities continue.
As noted, the two principal m eans of social control are religion and governm ent. W hat influences how governm ents act,
i.e., ideology, corporations, the wealthy, is of course a separate question. All the largest religions tolerate and thus
perpetuate the inequalities in m ost societies. Many countries, even in m ostly secular Europe, subsidize religions to
varying degrees, paying clergy, no taxes, etc. The churches in turn, preach obedience to the state as God’s will.
Theocracy
Theocracy, the rule of God, was the rule in the Dark and Middle Ages in the Christian W est. The advantage of religion
as a m eans of social control is that it proclaim s its authority from a supernatural being/force, all-knowing and all-powerful.
That’s a tough act to buck. The Achilles heel of religion as a m eans of social control is that an all-knowing entity/God loses
credibility if its m essage is shown wrong. Such is an adm ission of not being all-knowing.
Theocracy of the Middle Ages failed, as science showed m uch of the Bible’s factual statem ents about the world false.
Theocracy also lost credibility due to the corruption and incom petence of the clergy. (Ref: Erasmus, W ycliffe, Hus)
Theocracy today. Most Islamic countries are theocracies. (e.g., Islamic Republics of Iran and Pakistan, Hashemite
Kingdom of Jordan, etc.) Theocracies consider m ost social change heretical, and thus cripple them selves. Dem ocracy,
rule of the people, accepts continual change, and thus contradicts theocracy. They are incom patible. Theocracy, be it
Judeo-Christian or Muslim , is also incom patible with reason and scientific advancem ent. Believing Rom an Catholics and
Muslim s are in constant terror of unbearable pain in Hell for eternity, a powerful form of m ind control.
Problem
of
Contradictory
beliefs
W hat can Man know of the supernatural? Over history, thousands of gods and hundreds of supernatural belief system s
have com e and gone from hum an belief; Osiris, Zeus, Isis, the hippo god, R a, the m onkey god, Thor, Aton, Mithra,
Poseidon, Sol Invictus. Science daily shrinks the realm of the unknown (the hom e of the supernatural).
Overriding all discussions of religions is The Problem of Contradictory Beliefs, the law of contradiction, i.e., Two
contradictory statements can not both be true, a basic law of thought. The holy scriptures of all religions, sects, cults, and
covens m ake different and contradictory statem ents not just about values or proper behavior but about the physical world
and physical phenom ena. And adherents of every religion “know” that their belief system is true and that all differing belief
system s are false. (Cicero’s reason for doubting them all). Believers are all atheistic about all gods but their own.
If there is in fact a supernatural being, a “God,” and if his m essage can be ascertained, then Man would know that his is
the one true religion, and thus by definition, all religions with contradictory beliefs are sim ply and clearly wrong, untrue,
false. Abraham Lincoln said, “In great contests each party claim s to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may
be, and one must be, wrong.” God cannot be for and against the sam e thing. This is a fundam ental axiom of thought.
Problem
of Evil.
Lesser
gods
W hat
can M an
know of
Scriptures
W hat can Man know of the Christian God? The Problem of Evil established that such a God can not exist. The Problem
of Evil also invalidates lesser benevolent gods who have lim ited supernatural powers: Zeus, god of weather, law, order;
Poseidon, god of the sea, floods, droughts; C oeus, god of the intellect; Apollo, god of healing; Lenantos, god of the
hunter’s skill; Sophia, Gnostic goddess of wisdom ; all could do im m easurable good, but do not.
Augustine and Aquinas said one cannot know what God is but rather what he is not. The Book of Job, Anselm, John
Duns Scotus, Pseudo-Dionysus, Nicolas of Kues, and Occam said Man cannot know anything about God. Recall, the
National Catholic Almanac (1968) said God is, inter alia, incom prehensible. i.e., He cannot be com prehended. If all these
authorities are accurate, it is logically im possible to m ake any authoritative statem ent, good or bad, about God. The
problem of defining God is a fundam ental unresolved problem am ong religions. Confusion is the enem y of purposeful
thought. Christians sim ply worship an unknowable/unknown entity.
The Problem of Incorrect Statements. The Bible & Koran were written by m en when basic factual knowledge of the world
was m iserably prim itive and ignorant of m ost of what we know today. They contain m yths and beliefs and taboos from
cultures long before there were civilizations or even writings. Despite the num erous dem onstrably false statem ents about
the physical world in such scriptures, all religions insist that their scriptures are thoroughly truthful because they are
divinely inspired. This insistence unwisely takes away the excuse that the hum an scribes sim ply m ade m istakes.
Billions of Jews, Christians, Morm ons, and Muslim s today believe that their holy scriptures, filled with m yths of pre-historic
m an, are accurate, and all others false. Despite m illennia of teaching that the Bible and/or Koran is the literal truth, like
Augustine, m ost theologians today interpret away the injustices and false statem ents in them . Hell, the place Christians
are saved from , is virtually ignored in m odern theology. Augustine explained the inaccuracies, said that the Bible was
accommodated to prim itive peoples’s understandings and thus required careful interpretation.
Tolerance
Many m odern theologians preach tolerance of other religions, even though intolerance is basic to m ost (not all) religions’s
holy scriptures. They dem and belief in their god, or eternal torture. (Bible: “Believe in Jesus or you will go to Hell,” John
12:48, and 15:6, Matt. 13, 40-42. 2 Thessalonians 1, 7-10, and other passages. Koran: “Unbelievers [non-Muslim s] will
be burned with fire” 2:39, 90; 2:114, and over 200 sim ilar passages. Book of Mormon: “Unbelievers will go to Hell.” Mosiah
119
26:27, and other passages). ”Tolerance” assum es that contradictions don’t m atter, that all religions are equally worthy,
with equally valid m oral standards, i.e., Baha’ism or pacifist Jainism is equal to angry m ilitant Islam .
Different
belief
systems
foster
murder
The spirit of Jesus inspires m any m en. But a significant problem with differing belief system s is that they justify m en
m urdering each other. Recall Pascal, “Men never do evil so com pletely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious
conviction.” And Voltaire, “Anyone who can m ake you believe nonsense can m ake you com m it atrocities.” And Reinhold
Niebuhr, “The tendency to claim God as an ally for our partisan values is...the source of all religious fanaticism .”
Apart from the bloody wars between religions (Northern Ireland, Palestine, Lebanon, Rwanda, Balkans, Kashm ir, Sudan,
Nigeria, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sri Lanka, Albania, Pakistan, Indonesia, Chechnia, Azerbaijan) are wars within religions. In
Islam, Sunni and Shiite sects kill each other. Hinduism, Buddhism, and the two largest Catholic churches, Eastern
Orthodox and Rom an (recall the Inquisition), have deeply different voices. W ithin Protestantism , there are thousands of
identifiable sects with often contradictory dogm as. Many do not identify with any larger group.
Am erindians, Anabaptists, alleged witches, atheists, Aztecs, Baha’is, Cathars, Catholics, Hindus, Zoroastrians,
Incas, Huguenots, Jews, Jehovah’s W itnesses, Lutherans, Morm ons, Muslim s, Nicene Christians, Palestinians,
Protestants, Rastafarians, Puritans, Quakers, all have killed and/or have been killed due to their belief (or disbelief) in
som ebody’s god. In 2005, George W Bush told Palestinian m inisters that God told him to invade Iraq. Differing religions
is of course not the only cause/excuse for war. Nationalism and desire for land/natural resources are also culprits.
Recent
Evils
in the
Name
of a
God
Pig
Eats
M oon
In 1994, in Bihar, N. India, a lower caste girl eloped with an Untouchable boy. In accordance with Hinduism, the village
council had him killed by sm ashing his head with a stone; she was branded and whipped repeatedly.
In 2001, a 13 yr old Nigerian girl becam e pregnant after her father pim ped her; an Islam ic court gave her 180 lashes.
In 2002, in Mecca, Saudi religious police, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue & Prevention of Vice, enforcing
W ahhabi rules, beat school girls trying to escape a fire as the girls were not wearing head scarves. 15 girls died.
In 2002, Nigeria, Muslim rioters protesting the Miss W orld pageant killed 200 just because of wom en in bathing suits
In 2006, in post-Taliban Afghanistan, following the Koran and Afghanistan’s new constitution, a Muslim m an was
sentenced to death for becom ing a Christian. Islam ic law also m andates stoning to death adulterers & hom osexuals.
Morm on fundam entalists use the terrifying threat of going to Hell to coerce young girls into subm itting to sex..
In 2007, in Karoda, India, 2 persons in the sam e clan (a com m on ancestor ages ago) m arried. Per Hindu law, both killed.
In 2008, in Som alia, a 13 year old girl was raped by three m en. An Islam ic court convicted her of adultery. 50 m en
stoned her to death in a stadium .
In Israel, Orthodox Jewish “m odesty police” terrorize young wom en who talk to m en, force wom en to sit in the back of
busses, invade their houses, stone “im m odest” wom en; in one instance sprayed acid in the face of a 14 year old girl.
Saudi Muslim wom en need their m ale guardian’s OK to travel, see a doctor, open a bank account, go to school, or work.
In 2009, the Brazilian Catholic Church excom m unicated the m other who authorized an abortion of a 9 year old rape
victim and the doctor who preform ed it. The Vatican approved. The operation was necessary to save the victim ’s life.
In 2010, a Pakistani Christian wom an was sentenced to death for blasphem y, i.e., asking what Muham m ed had done
for m an. In 2011, a Muslim killed the Punjab governor who tried to reform the blasphem y law.
In 2011, Bangladesh Muslim clerics ordered a 14 yr old rape victim accused of adultery flogged. She died after 80 lashes.
If Man knows nothing else, he could well believe/know that the Sun travels in a chariot from one side of the world to the
other every day, and that the person telling him that has som e power he does not have and thus m ust be obeyed. Modern
believers scoff at the Egyptian notion that a pig ate the m oon periodically yet accept statem ents about the physical world
in the Bible and the Koran with no m ore rational basis than the pig eats the m oon story. There is nothing qualitatively
different between the scientifically false beliefs of ancient Egyptians and scientifically false statem ents in the Bible or
Koran. Even though unconstitutional, laws of six U.S. states say non-believers can’t hold public office.
Apart from its Judeo/Christian/Islam ic m eaning, one can define God so as to m ake his/its existence a tautology. The word
“God” then becom es redundant, superfluous. Exam ples: “God is everywhere, God is ultim ate reality, or God is Nature,”
Lew is Carroll’s Hum pty Dum pty said, “W hen I use a word, it m eans just what I choose it to m ean, no m ore and no less.”
Problem
of the
Silent
God
The Problem of the Silent/Inactive God. If there is a God, he could easily give clear convincing evidence that he exists
(such as a bonafide m iracle) and end evil and suffering, som e due to differing religions’s claim s. Does he care? If not,
is he worthy of worship? If he has a m essage, would he want people to know it? If not, is he worthy of worship? If he once
did provide evidence that he exists, why are there so m any religions? Could he end evil/suffering? W hy doesn’t he? In
other words, if a God exists, why doesn’t he/she/it act like one, do som ething God-like, som ething worthy of worship?
M iracles
W hile “m iracles” are a prerequisite for sainthood for Rom an Catholics, the usual “m iracle” now com m on in the
canonization process is that som eone som ewhere, often a nun, was cured of som e m alady after touching or praying-over
som ething associated with the saint-candidate or praying to the saint-candidate. W hile such “m iracles” m ay suffice for
canonization, their scientific validity is problem atic. Hum e said, “Pick the less im probable m iracle. W hat is m ore likely,
that a m iracle occurred, or that the report m iraculously som ehow was m istaken?”
As noted herein, factual errors pervade m ost holy scriptures. Clerics have a history of inhum ane acts. Innum erable
injustices and evils pervade the planet; there is no unrefuted rational argum ent for an om nipotent om niscient benevolent
120
God. As a result, m any persons sim ply say they are “spiritual” and/or believe that there is som ething holy beyond their
understanding, that som e God looks after them , or sim ply say that they have faith that there is a God of som e sort.
“Faith”
validates
all gods.
W hat
drives
M an?
Faith, in and of itself, gives equal validity to any god or dem on, from the m onkey god to Aton to Jesus to Allah to
Zeus, as well as to Russell’s orbiting tea pot. As de Laplace (1799) said, “The God hypothesis proves everything.”
W hat drives/inspires Man? It is a cultural universal that Man seeks a m eaning to his life. Philosophers, scientists have
sought m eaning, security, dignity, com fort, freedom , and/or self expression, in seeking to understand the order in the
natural world. From the deep recesses of hum an existence, Man has struggled to m ake sense of his existence.
Like New ton, all great thinkers have stood on the shoulders of prior intellectual giants.
Search
for
meaning
As noted, both religion and nationalism give m eaning to m en’s lives. Men have also found m eanings for their lives in
allegiance to their fam ily, their tribe, an ideology, their job, a cause, in their saving lies, and even to sports team s.
Clever m en, claim ing knowledge of a god, have always used others’s ignorance or gullibility to rule over them . The
priests’s playbook has been: create a need or fear, then offer a solution, i.e., to avoid being eaten by a croc/lion/ hippo
or Hell, or reincarnation as a worm , you m ust act/sacrifice/tithe as I instruct. (This strategy is not lim ited to religions.)
Why
does
matter
exist?
W hat can Man know of the origin of the universe? As noted, Von Leibniz in 1710 asked, “W hy is there som ething rather
than nothing?” Em inent philosopher Adolf Grünbaum term ed it the Primordial Existential Question and said it is an illconceived non-starter which poses a pseudo issue, and “the philosophical enterprise need not be burdened at all by
[the query] because it is just a will-o’-the-wisp.”
Asking “why” is not a scientific question as it asks for a purpose of a physical phenom enon, i.e., the existence of
m atter. But physical phenom ena have no purpose. Thus, as posed, it precludes a rational scientific answer, and then
the only possible answer is a non-rational non-scientific answer, for which one can take his pick. If one says God did it,
that doesn’t work as it sim ply puts the question one step back, “W hy is there such a god rather than nothing?”
W hy
not?
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (and Grünbaum ) doubt the prem ise of the question, i.e., the presum ption that,
a priori, “nothing” is m ore logical than “som ething” and should therefore be the default position regarding m atter. The SEP
answers the question with, “W ell, W hy not? W hy expect nothing rather than something? No experim ent could support
such a hypothesis.” As for a scientist, as there is no purpose to nature, a scientist would ask, “How is there som ething
rather than nothing?” Still a tough one. To m any philosophers, the question is still unanswerable, as it im poses an
im possible explanatory dem and; it asks one to deduce the existence of som ething without using any existential prem ises.
How
does
matter
exist?
Stephen
Haw king
One scientific hypothesis: Before 1900, m any believed that sim ply as m atter existed, that was evidence of God. In 1905,
Einstein showed that m atter and energy were two aspects of the sam e thing. In the early 21 st century, it was found that
in the universe, an exact balance exists between the positive energy of m atter and the negative energy of gravity, so no
energy was required to produce the universe. The universe could have com e from nothing. Haw king and others in the
1980s said that the W ave Function im plied that there was a 95% chance that the universe is/was uncaused. Haw king’s
book, Grand Design (2010) ends with, “Spontaneous creation is the reason there is som ething rather than nothing, why
the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to...set the universe going.”
W hether a supernatural being/god created/caused the universe is not yet answered. Science is searching for the answer.
Believers believe/know that they know the answer. Hum e would say, “W hat is m ost likely? Exam ine the evidence.
Original
“Sin”
w as
desire
for
Know ledge
Leitmotiv
of the
History
of
Know ledge
Equality
of men
In Judeo-Christian dogm a, the very first sin, “Original Sin,” the act that got Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise and
every hum an from then on irrespective of his virtues, dam ned for eternity, was nothing m ore or less than Adam ’s desire
for knowledge. The Inquisitions tortured and m urdered thousands for im proper thinking. Catholics & Anglicans have
prohibited owning or reading unapproved editions of the Bible. The Vatican m ade it a sin to have or read the thousands
of books on the Index. In addition burning at the stake, Christian churches have punished in various ways thinkers as
Albertus M agnus, Roger Bacon, Bruno, Vanini, Galileo, Abelard, Darw in, Pico della M irandola, Charron, Boyle,
John the Scot, Occam, Hus, Hypatia, Voltaire. In Islam , the Koran stifles science and philosophical thought.
The leitm otiv of the history of knowledge has been the slow, uneven trium ph of reason over unending efforts of theists,
m ainly Catholic, to oppose, denigrate, and stifle, often by torture or m urder, all advances in knowledge inconsistent with
such theist’s particular scriptures. Russell, “Science...has forced its way step by step against the Christian religion,
against the churches and against the opposition of the old precepts.” Jefferson, “Priests dread the advance of science
as witches do the approach of daylight.” H G W ells, “There was a great struggle to establish [science] against the
prejudices of those to whom the Bible was the literal truth.” Only an infinitesim al num ber of persons have contributed
great insights that have advanced hum an knowledge. Emerson , “Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this
planet.” G B Shaw , “Beware of false knowledge; it is m ore dangerous than ignorance.”
But m yth and superstition re everything from the cosm os to disease have fallen to the power of reason.
As Man’s opportunity to think freely without clerical or state control grew, so did his consciousness of the concept of the
equality of rights of all hum ans, a concept central to dem ocracies. The concepts m utually assist each other. The
subjugation of wom en and slaves, enshrined in the Bible and the Koran, has stunted the advance of knowledge. Most
121
cultures, even m ost philosophers, have considered wom en subservient to and the property of m en. W om en have been
shut out of m ost scholarly endeavors. Discrim ination based on race or ethnicity has had the sam e effect.
The
Advance
of
Equality
of
Rights
W hat
do w e
know ?
Feynman
Summary of the Advance of Equality of Rights
Pre-history Rule by the strong; slavery & the subjugation of wom en was the norm in all societies and all religious codes
600-300 BC Greece: Solon established dem ocratic institutions. The polis: for free, city-born, m ales (no wom en or
slaves). Socrates: The art of governm ent is directed to the interests of those to be affected, the people.
Aristotle: Polities which lean toward dem ocracy possess the greatest political stability. Pericles oration.
5 th cent. BC Confucius taught the dignity of m an. Old Testament sanctioned slavery and the subjugation of wom en.
100 BC
Rom an Republic. Citizenship was lim ited to free m ale landowners – The Rom an Senate was an
aristocracy. The Rom an Twelve Tables had a Bill of Rights for its citizens.
1 st cent. AD Christianity added charity and m ercy to the Jewish scriptures, but sanctioned slavery & wom en as property.
750
The Koran treated wom en as property, sanctioned slavery. Anti-Sem itism pervaded Christianity.
11 th-12 th cent. Italian Com m unes, Milan, Pisa– oligarchies with touches of dem ocracy.
1215
Magna Carta - Absolute m onarchy lim ited. King forced to cede som e power to barons and earls.
1324
M arsiglio of Padua proposed dem ocracy for civil as well as Church governance.
17 th century Millions of Africans brought to the Am ericas as slaves, m ost to the Carribean and South Am erica.
1649
The king executed, England’s Parliam ent becam e the ruler, i.e., a representative governm ent of laws.
1689
Locke built on Hobbes’s social contract. Authority derives solely from the consent of the governed.
1776–1789 U.S. Declaration of Independence, “All m en are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights.” US Constitution, “W e the people do ordain and establish this Constitution.”
(Three branches of governm ent; checks and balances. Free m ale white landowners could vote.)
1789
French Revolution, Declaration of Rights of Man. The US and French revolutions m ade dem ocracy the
m ost powerful concept in any discussion of political theory.
1800s
Slavery legally abolished in m ost countries. But segregation and racial discrim ination continued.
1848
Seneca Falls Convention for wom en’s rights. Socialist organizations slowly develop; Com m unist Manifesto.
1863
Gettysburg Address: “Governm ent by, of, and for the people.” Most fam ous phrase in Am erican history.
1900s
W om en allowed to vote in m ost countries; not Muslim countries where wom en have virtually no rights.
Colonies becam e independent countries. Slavert contin ues in som e countries, principally African.
1945+
W W 2 spread the idea of universal suffrage and dem ocracy. Blacks & Am er. Indians fought for their rights.
1964+
US Civil rights Act. Lyndon Johnson’s best legacy. Thurgood Marshall appointed to the US Suprem e Court
1990-+
Soviet Union collapsed. The newly independent constituent states opted for dem ocracy.
Today, believers in the supernatural say that current gaps in the evolutionary fossil record or incom plete explanations
for various phenom ena are evidence of a divine creator, usually their god. However, no natural event has ever been
shown to have a supernatural cause based on objective m aterial evidence. But reason has by no m eans supplanted
superstition/faith/m yth. Only 40% of Am ericans believe in evolution, the lowest of all industrialized nations. In Turkey,
the m ost W estern Muslim country, it’s 16%. Rom an Catholic acceptance of evolution is conditional on accepting the
ensouling concept. Islam sim ply denies evolution. Recall Voltaire, “It is hard to free fools from chains they revere.”
A 2010 Pew poll said 45% of Catholics don’t know what transubstantiation is; 55% of Protestants don’t know M artin
Luther started the Reform ation; 43% of Jews don’t recognize M aimonides. “Nothing is so firm ly believed as what is
least known,” said M ontaigne. “W e are at the very beginning of time for the human race.” Richard Feynm an. #
Principal Sources Sources are quoted without attribution throughout.
Arons, A. B., Bork and A. M., Eds. Science and Ideas, Readings
Asimov, Isaac, Chronology of Science & Discovery
Bartlett, John, Bartlett’s Quotations, 16th ed. Justin Kaplan, Editor
Bible, The, King James Version, various authors
Boorstin, Daniel, The Creators
Bronowski, Jacob, The Ascent of Man.
Bryson, Bill, A Short History of Nearly Everything
Burke, James, The Day the Universe Changed
Cathcart, Thomas, and Klein, Daniel, Plato and a Platypus
Charles Scribner’s Sons, Dictionary of the History of Ideas
Columbia Encyclopedia
Collins Atlas of World History
Cuppy, Will, The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody
Dawkins, Richard, The God Delusion
Diamond, Jared, Guns, Germs, and Steel
Flew, Antony, Ed., Dictionary of Philosophy, A, Rev. 2nd Edition
Ferris, Timothy, Coming of Age in the Milky Way
Gibbon,Edward, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Gribbin, John, A Brief History of Science
Grun, Bernard, The Timetables of History
Harris, Sam, The End of Faith
Hellermans, Alexander & Bryan Bunch, The Timetables of Science
Jones, W. T., A History of Western Philosophy, Hobbes to Hume
Koran, The, Muhammad
Magill, Frank N., Masterpieces of World Philosophy
McNeill, William H, The Rise of the West
Melchert, Norman, The Great Conversation, Vol. 1
Mencken, H. L., A New Dictionary of Quotations
National Geographic, Inventors and Discoverers, Elizabeth Newhouse, Editor
Peters, Lawrence, Peters Quotations
Random House Encyclopedia
Roberts, John M., History of the World
Ronan, Colin, Science, Its History and Development Among the World’s Cultures
Russell, Bertrand, A History of Western Philosophy
Scaruffi, Piero, A History of Knowledge
Schuman, Frederick. L., International Politics
Seldes, George, Editor, The Great Thoughts
Singh, Simon, Big Bang
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stone, Irving, The Origin
Stone, I. F., The Trial of Socrates
Stumpf, Samuel, Socrates to Sartre, a History of Philosophy
Van Doren, Charles, A History of Knowledge
Webster’s Biographical Dictionary
Wells, H. G.,The Outline of History
White, Andrew, The Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (online)
Williams, Trevor, Science, A History of Discovery in the 20th Century
Wills, Garry, Papal Sin
Wikipedia
{Comments to TvS2@AOL.com}
122
The advance of knowledge depends on clear thinking and clear reasoning. Copy and paste laetusinpraesens.org/links/webcrit.php
Argum ents consist of prem ises and a conclusion. Logical fallacies are errors in argum ent/reasoning. Poorly argued opinions,
perhaps containing logical fallacies, probably are, but are not necessarily, wrong.
Som e com m on logical fallacies are:
Name of LogicalFallacy
Description and/or Example of Fallacy.
Ad Hom inem /Poisoning the W ell: Attack the speaker or his sources, not his idea. He’s a Com m ie, reads Karl Marx, so he’s wrong
Ad Hom inem Tu Quoque: You did it too, so it’s OK.
Guilt by association:
All his friends are Com m ies / fags, etc., so he’s a Com m ie / fag, etc. (Akin to Ad hom inem
Appeal to faith:
It’s in the Bible/Koran/Book of Mormon/Vedas/Analects, so it’s true. (Appeal to Divine Authority)
Appeal to com m on belief:
a/k/a Truth by Majority Opinion, a/k/a Band W agon. Everybody does it, so what’s the problem ?
Appeal to tradition:
It’s always been done this way. So this is the right way to do it.
(Appeal to Authority)
Appeal to popularity:
You’ll be popular if you use Dial.
(Appeal to Im proper Authority, Non sequitur)
Appeal to em otion:
See all the handsom e happy people drinking Bud Light (Bud watered down). (Akin to Bandwagon)
Appeal to patriotism :
Be a real Am erican. Support our Troops, so vote for X.
Appeal to pride:
Think how proud you’d be if your son were a Marine.
Appeal to fear:
You’ll burn in Hell if you don’t: 1. Believe-in-God. 2. do-such-and-such. 3 Go to church.
Appeal to flattery:
You are such an astute investor I know you’ll see the value in Schlock Inc. securities.
Appeal to m otive:
You’re just saying that because you love/hate m e, or... Because you’re a Dem ocrat/Republican.
Appeal to novelty:
It’s new, so it’s good. That’s an old argum ent, it’s outdated. So, forget it. (Non sequitur)
Appeal to probability:
Soccer fans are thugs. So if we have a soccer team here, thugs will ruin the town.
Appeal to pity:
If you don’t buy this X, I’ll lose m y job.
Appeal to prejudice:
Only fags wear garters.
Appeal to ridicule:
Hey, Macaca, W elcom e to Am erica.
Appeal to vanity/m acho: Buy this suit, m akes you look thinner. Real m en chew tobacco. This ’Vette hits 60 in 5 seconds.
Reductum ad Hitlerum :
That’s what Hitler/Stalin/bin Laden would say.
(Relate statem ent to a Repugnant authority)
Genetic fallacy:
My folks hated turnips so I hate turnips.
(Appeal to Im proper Authority)
False analogy:
Flying a plane is like riding a bike.
Fallacy of com position:
Som ething true of a part is true of the whole. Don’t confuse with Induction, a valid technique.
Transferred expertise:
Expert in one field considered expert in another field. (Non sequitur)
Racial/sexism fallacy:
It’s a wom an/guy/black/gay thing; you wouldn’t understand.
(Non sequitur)
Dueness fallacy:
Red hit 6 tim es; so black is due. Converse: Hot streak fallacy. Red hit 6 tim es. I’m sticking with a winner
False/faulty prem ise:
One prem ise is wrong, so conclusion wrong. (Rarely the prem ise is wrong but the conclusion still OK)
Hasty generalization: His hands are sweaty, don’t trust him .
(Non sequitur)
Circular reasoning: God exists as the Bible says so. The Bible is right as God inspired it.
Biased sam ple:
Quoting a resident of an old folks hom e as an expert on Social Security.
Naturalist fallacy:
It’s natural, therefore it’s healthy/good.
(Non-sequitur)
Red herring:
Introducing/Asserting an irrelevant fact to change the subject.
Special pleading:
I donated $1 m illion to this college. So, adm it m y son.
Setting up a straw m an:
Claim ing som eone said som ething foolish that he didn’t actually say, to easily refute it.
Half truth:
Statem ent m eant to convince that om its necessary facts. Yiddish proverb: A half truth is a whole lie.
The Stolen concept:
“All property is theft” The concept theft assum es while it denies the validity of the concept property.
Confirm ation bias:
Cherry-picking favorable evidence and ignoring adverse evidence. (akin to half truth).
Anthropo m o r p h is m :
Attributing hum an characteristics or m otives to som ething im personal or irrational or an anim al.
Middle ground:
Joe says dogs cause warts. Bob says no. So m aybe som e dogs cause warts.
Quoting out of context:
Movie reviewer, ”Not one of his best film s.” Ad in paper, “One of his best film s.”
Misleading vividness:
The plane crash yesterday killed 250 people. So, I’ll drive.
Argum ent from inference:
No one knows what caused X; so it m ust have been done by Zeus/Osiris/God/Aton/ the Devil.
Fallacy of the consequent:
W om en are inferior as they let m en control them . Slaves deserve slavery as they don’t revolt.
Fallacy of wishful thinking:
X is true because I really wish it were true.
Two wrongs m ake a right:
He took m y pen, so I’ll take his car.
Argum ent from ignorance:
You can’t prove UFOs / God / X doesn’t exist. So they / He / it m ust exist. (Non sequitur)
Statistics of sm all num bers:
My folks sm oked and lived to 95. Sam ple not big enough for valid generalization
Confusing cause and effect:
X and Y happened at the sam e tim e, so Y caused X. (Possibly of course, but not necessarily)
Post hoc ergo propter hoc:
X happened before Y, so X caused Y. Correlation is not causation. (Maybe, but not for sure)
Argum ent from om niscience:
Everyone knows that Fords are better than Chevvies. (Appeal to Im proper Authority)
False dilem m a/lim ited choice:
You’re with m e or for terrorism . Either ID form ed the world, or it cam e about by chance.
Non-sequitur/ It does not follow:
She’s blond, so she’s dum b. (Many logical fallacies are non sequiturs)
Balance fallacy/He said, she said:
Stating opposite claim s without analyzing each’s validity, usual practice of journalists.
Begging the question/loaded question:
a/k/a False unspoken prem ise: W hen are you going to stand up for Am erica?
Appeal to im proper authority/celebrity:
Tom Cruise says gun control is un-Am erican. (This is also appeal to patriotism )
Argum ent from averse consequences:
Find him guilty or others will do the sam e crim e.
Fallacy of accident/ignoring the exception: Cutting people with a knife is illegal. Surgeons do this. So surgeons are crim inals
Equivocation/using two m eanings of a word:
Feathers are light. W hat’s light isn’t dark. So feathers aren’t dark.
Slippery slope/cam el’s nose under the tent:
You let one of those people in the neighborhood, They’ll take over. #
123
Argum ents for the existence of God (principal)
Aesthetic/Argum ent from Beauty, 49
Anthropic/ Fine Tuning, 116-118
Abelard, Peter, Sic et Non, 40, 41, 43, 51, 77, 110, 122
Argum ent from Eternal Truths/ Pre-Established Harm ony, 80
Abraham , 7, 8, 35,
Argum ent from Miracles, 27, 83
Achilles, Illiad, fought King Agam em non, 9
Argum ent from Morality, 89
Acton, John Edward, Lord, Power corrupts, 101, 104, 106,
Argum ent from Religious Experience, 8, 71, 83
110
Argum ent from the Origin of the Idea of God, Descartes, 71
Adam s, John, Am erican revolutionary, 69, 81, 86, 88, 90
Christological, 27
Adam s, Sam uel, Am erican revolutionary, 86
Cosm ological, 21, 42-43, 47-48, 78, 80, 86-87, 107-108, 110
Addison, Joseph, essayist, poet, 110
Epistem ological, 118
Adelard of Bath, scholar in Toledo, 42
Ontological, Anselm , 42, 48, 71, 75, 80, 88-89, 120
Adonis, Syrian resurrected god, 6
Pantheistic, 75
Aeneas, hero of Virgil’s Aeneid, 26, 53
Teleological / Design, 16, 20, 30, 48-49, 76, 80, 87-88, 99, 101,
Aeschylus, Greek, invented dram a, 15
104, 116-118
Agam em non, King, The Illiad, 9, 15
Aristarchus, heliocentrism , 24, 58
Agnostic, 103, 101, 106, 110, 113
Aristedes, Saint, Problem of Evil, 8
Ahab, Israelite king 9
Aristotle /Aristotelean, 1, 8, 14, 16, 18-26, 28, 32, 43, 36-51, 55Ahura-Mazda, Zoroastrian god, 10
59, 63-74, 76-80, 92, 115, 118
Aikenhead, Thom as, heretic, 79
Arius / Arians, Christian sect, 30
Aisha, Muham m ed’s last wife, 35
Arjuna, Hindu prince, 17
al Karaouine University, Fez, 39
Arnaud, Cisterian abbot, slaughtered Cathars, 45
Alaric, Visigoth chief, 31
Artem is, Greek goddess of the hunt, 9
Alberti, Leon, perspective in art, 53
Albertus Magnus, hum anist, taught Aquinas, 45-47, 51, 77, Ashurbanipal, King of Nineveh, 9, 12
Asoka, great Em peror of India, 22
122
Astrolabe, latitude, 38-3941-42, 44, 53-54
Alchem y, 73, 77
Astrolabe, son of Abelard and Heloise, 40
Alcm aeon, Pythagorean, pathologist, 13
Astronom y, 33, 36, 39-40, 46, 51, 54-55, 58, 63-65, 67, 73-75,
d’Alem bert, Jean Baptiste le Rond, 84, 110
80, 85, 89, 92, 112-114, 118
Alexander 3, Pope, 44
Atahuallpa, Em peror of the Incas, 60
Alexander 6, Pope/Rodrigo Borgia, 56, 57
Aten, first declared m onotheistic god, 8
Alexander the Great, 5, 19, 20, 22
Atheism / atheist, 6, 14, 26, 48, 59, 66-68, 74-75, 78, 82, 84-85,
Alexis, son of Peter the Great, 79
91, 95-96, 102-103, 106-107, 109, 114-115, 117, 119-120
Algebra, 37, 38, 42, 45, 53, 71, 73, 75, 111
Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom , 9
Allegory of the cave, Plato, 19
Atom ic Theory, 16, 17, 22, 95, 101, 105, 109-110
Alphabet, 5, 9, 10, 16, 79
Attila the Hun, 33
Althusius, Johannes, 65, 67
Attis, resurrection cult god, 6
Am brose, Bishop of Milan, 30, 31
Augustine, St./Augustinian, City of God,19, 23, 31-34, 37, 41, 45,
Am enhotep / Akh-en-Aton, Pharaoh, 8
47, 49, 52, 53, 58, 68, 69, 118, 120
Am erican Revolution, 84, 86-91
Augustus, Rom an em peror, 26, 29
Am on Re, principal Egyptian god, 8
Averroës, ibn Rushd, com m ented on Aristotle, 1, 41, 43, 45, 48,
Am pere, Andre, electrom agnetics, 93
49, 51, 77, 80
Anabaptists, 59, 120
Avicenna / abu Alf ibn Si’na, physician, m athem atician,
An/Anu, Sum erian god of the sky, 4
philosopher, 39-43, 46, 60, 65, 76,-77
Anacletus 2/Petris Leonis, Pope, 43
Avogadro,
Rom ano Am adeo, All gas m olecules sam e size,1018
Anastasius 3, Pope, 38
Ayer, Alfred-Jules, linguist, 71, 112, 114
Anatom y, 20, 55, 63, 108
Aztecs, Mexico, 1, 3, 7, 29, 33, 56, 59, 119
Anaxagoras, Teleological Argument, 15, 16, 48, 70
Anaxim ander, 10, 11, 14, 16, 101
Anaxim enes, Rainbows are natural, 10, 11
Bacon, Francis, Lord Chancellor, Novum Organum, 62, 65, 66,
Aeneas/Aeneid, 26
67-71, 77, 106, 110
Angkor W at, largest tem ple, 38
Bacon,
Roger, Opus Majus, 1, 45-47, 57, 77, 122
Anselm , Saint, Ontological Argument, 42, 48, 71, 75, 80,
Baha’i, faith / Baha’u’llah, 8, 98, 120
88, 89, 120
abu Bakr/Bekr, first caliph/ successor and last father-in-law of
Antiochus 4, ruler of Syria 25
Muham m ad, 35
Antony, Mark, Rom an senator, 26
Balance of power, 71
Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love, 9,
de Balboa, Vasco Nunez, saw Pacific, 58
Apollo, Greek god of healing, 9, 23, 120
Ball, John, English peasants revolt, 52
Apollonius, m athem atician, 23
de Balzac, Honore, author, 99, 110
Aquinas, see Thom as Aquinas
Banks, Joseph, increased known species of plants, botanist, 86
Arabic num erals, 45
Basil, Saint, Bishop of Caesarea, 30
Arago, Dom inique, electrom agnetics, 93
Baudelaire, Charles, 99
Arbues, Pedro, Spanish inquisitor, 56
Bayle, Pierre, philosophe, 1, 66, 75, 79
Archim edes, hydrologist, 23, 24,39, 55, 68
de Beauvoir, Sim one, existentialist, 110, 117
Bebel, August, religious philosopher, 105
INDEX
124
Beccaria, Cesaer, crim inologist, 85
Becquerel, Antoine, radiation, 107
Bede, The Venerable, English m onk, 36
Behaim , Martin, first terrestrial globe, 56
Bell, Alexander Graham , 104
Bellarm ino, Roberto Cardinal, 66, 68
Belon, Pierre, saw sim ilarities in all vertebrates, 64
Benedict, St, / Benedictines, 34, 38, 40-42, 47
Benedict 8, Pope, 38
Benedict 9, Pope, 38
Benedict 14, Pope, 56
Benedict 16, Pope/Cardinal Ratzinger, 114, 116
Bentham , Jerem y, utilitarianism , 80, 90, 100, 110
Berkeley, George, Esse est percepti, 70, 80, 110
Berliner, Em ile, telephone, 104
Bernard, Abbott of Clairvaux, 40, 41, 43
Bernoulli, Daniel, pressure of a fluid, 81
Bethe, Hans, physicist, hydrogen in Sun m akes helium ,
115
Bierce, Am brose, Devil’s Dictionary, 99
Big Bang, 2, 113-117
Biology, 2, 5, 63, 71, 73, 79, 81, 90, 92- 93, 95-96, 98-102,
105, 109-110,112
al Biruni, Muham m ad ibn Ahm ad, 39, 46, 68, 77
von Bism ark, Otto Eduard, Baron, 99
Black Death, 51, 83
Black holes, 89, 112
Blacks/Negroes, 25, 57, 79, 84, 97, 103, 118-119
Black, Joseph, isolated CO2, 84, 92
Blackstone, W illiam , Brit, jurist, 86
Boccaccio, Giovanni, Decameron, 51, 55, 58
Bodin, Jean, state sovereignty, 65, 67
Boethius, “Join faith to reason.” 39
Bohr, Niels Henrik, structure of the atom 1, 111-113, 118
Boleyn, Anne, 2 nd wife of Henry 8, 62
Bolivar, Sim on, liberator S. Am erica, abolished inquisitions,
96
Boltzm ann, Ludwig, entropy, 105
Boltwood, Bertram , concept of radioactive decay,109
Boniface 8, Pope, 49
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 61, 91-92, 95
Borelli, Giovanni, astronom er, 66, 75
Borgia, Cesare, 56
Borgia, Rodrigo/Alexander 6, Pope, 56
Born, Max, physicist, 113
Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, 79
Botany, 5, 28, 38, 42, 55, 79, 81, 86-87, 97-98, 108
Boyle, Robert, Irish, chem ist, 66, 73-74, 77, 89, 94, 122
Braden, Nathaniel, objectivist, 116
Bradley, Jam es, speed of light, 81
Brahe, Tycho, astronom er, 28, 63, 66
Brahm a, Hindu creator, 7
Bronze Age, 5, 8
Brooks, Mel, Am erican philosopher, 62
Brown, Robert, botanist, Brownian m otion, 96, 109
Brugnatelli, Luigi, electroplating, 93
Bruno, Giordano, 66, 70-71, 110, 122
Brutus, Rom an senator, 26
Buddha/ Buddhism / Buddhist, 7-9, 13-15, 19, 22, 25, 2729, 34, 36, 46,109-112, 120
de Buffon, George Le Clerc, Com pte, evolutionist, 82, 101
al Bukhari, Muham m ed Sahih, com piler of Hadith, 38
Bunsen, Robert, physicist, 100
Burbank, Luther, botanist, 108
Burke, Edm ond, conservative, 61, 85-86, 91
Burr, W illiam , Bible contradictions, 102
Burton, Robert, 61
Bush, George, W , President, 120
Cabot/Caboto, John and son Sebastian, 56
Caccini, Tom m aso, Dom inican friar, 68
Callicles, philosopher, 19
Calixtus 3, Pope, 56
Calvin, John / Calvinism , 60, 62-64, 84, 110, 112
Cam erarius, Rudolph, physicist, 79
Cam pbell, Joseph, The Power of Myth, 115
Cannizzaro, Stanislao, gasses, 101
Capella, Martianus, 32, 37
Carlisle, Anthony, electrolysis, 93
Carlyle, Thom as, U. of Edinburgh, 1, 98
Carneades, skeptic, 23, 25
Carnot, Sadi, therm odynam ics, 96, 100
Carroll, Lewis, pen nam e of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, 121
Carter, Brandon, anthropic argum ent, 116
Carson, Johnny, 87
Cassini, Giovanni, astronom er, 66, 74
Cassius, Rom an senator, 26
Castelli, Beneditti, student of Galileo, 68
Cathars, Christian sect, 43-45, 120
Catherine, first wife of Henry 8, 62
Cato the Censor, Rom an, 24
Cavendish, Henry, hydrogen, 86
Cayley, George, aerodynam ics, 100
Cell Theory, life is based on cells, 97
de Cervantes, Miguel Saavedra, Don Quixote, 66, 67
Chadwick, Jam es, neutrons, 114
Cham bers, Robert, evolutionist, 98, 101
de Cham peaux, W illiam , 40
de Chancourtois, Alexander Beguyer, first to see patterns in
elem ents, 103
Charlem agne, Em peror of HRE, 36, 37
Charles, Jacques, gasses, 74, 78, 89, 94
Charles 1, English king, beheaded, 71, 72
Charles 5, Holy Rom an Em peror, 59
Charles 9, French king, at 12, ordered Huguenots m assacred, 64
Charron, Pierre, priest, skeptic, 66, 122
Chase, Stuart, Tyranny of W ords, 115
Chem istry, 37-39, 50, 69, 73, 80, 86, 89, 93, 97, 98, 103, 108,
114, 115
Cheops, Egyptian pharaoh, 6
Ch’in dynasty, 24
Chou Dynasty, 8, 13
Christ / Jesus, 6, 14-15, 118, 25-33, 35-37, 41, 43-44, 50-51, 53,
54, 58-60, 62, 64, 67, 71-72, 82, 88, 90, 96-97, 103, 111-112,
114-115, 118, 120-121
Christophorous, forged Donation of Constantine, 37
Chrysostom , John, Patriarch in Constantinople, 30, 31
Cicero, Marcus Tillius, Rom an, lawyer, philosopher, 18, 25, 26,
51, 52, 119
City of God, Augustine, 31-33, 40, 49, 69
Clarke, Arthur C., anthropologist, 2
Clausius, Rudolph, 2 nd law of therm odynam ics, 100, 105
Clavius, Christopher, astronom er, 68
Cleisthenes, Athenian, dem ocracy, 14
Clem ent 2, Pope, 41
Clem ent 4, Pope/Cardinal de Foulques, 46, 47
Clem ent 5, Pope, 50
Clem ent 7, Pope/Robert of Geneva, 52, 62
Clem ent 8, Pope, burned Bruno, 66
125
Cleopatra, (consort of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony), 26
Cleopatra 7, early Ptolem y queen, 22
Clovis, Frankish king, Christian, 33
Colenso, John, Anglican bishop, 103
Coleridge, Sam uel Taylor, 1
Colum bian Exchange, 60
Colum bus, Christopher/Cristobal, 53, 56, 60, 64
Colom bo, Matteo, blood circulation, 64
Com pte, Auguste, positivism , 97
Confucius/Confucianism , 8, 9,13, 24-25, 28,
Constantine, Rom an Em peror, prom oted Christianity, 29,
30, 36, 37
Constantinople, 9, 24, 30-34, 36-37, 41, 43, 49, 53, 54
Cook, Jam es, Captain, 85, 86
Cooke, W illiam , developed telegraph, 94
Copernicus, Nicolaus, astronom er, priest, revived idea of
heliocentrism , 24, 58, 63-68, 70, 76, 85, 97, 110
Cortez/Cortes, Hernan, conquered Mexico, 60
de Coulom b, Charles, physicist, 79
Cranm er, Thom as, (Henry 8), 62
Crick, Francis, DNA, 115
Croce, Benedetto, educator, 110, 112
Crom well, Oliver, Prim e, Minister, 71-72, 76, 78
Cro-Magnon Man, (Hom o sapiens), 2
Curie, Marie and Pierre, physicists, radioactivity, 107
Cuvier, Georges, evolutionist, 92, 101
Cyrus, Persian, Zoroastrian, 12, 13
Dalai Lam a, 118
Dalton, John, atom ic theory, 95, 109
Dam ian, Peter Cardinal, 41
Dante, Aligheri, Inferno, 46, 50, 52, 59, 118
Darby, Abraham , British chem ist, 80
Darius, Persian, attacked Greece, lost,15
Dark Ages, 8, 9, 32-34,36,38, 49-50, 57
Darrow, Clarence, lawyer, agnostic, 61, 113
Darwin, Charles/Darwinism , Origin of Species, 1, 88, 91,
95, 98, 00-102, 104, 107-108, 113, 114, 118, 122
Darwin, Erasm us, evolutionist, 91, 101
Davy, Hum phrey, chem ist, 93
Dawkins, Richard, philosopher, atheist, 117-118, 122
Dead Sea Scrolls, 115
DeBroglie, Louis, Matter acts as waves & as particles, 112
Deduction, in argum ent, 20, 223-24, 43, 57, 67, 77, 89
Defoe, Daniel, writer, 110
Dem ocracy/dem ocratic, 1, 9, 11, 14-19, 21, 38, 50-51, 72,
75, 78, 84, 86, 90-91, 97, 99, 102-104, 115, 118, 119
Dem ocritus, atom ic theory, 14,16,18, 22, 68, 71, 95
Dem osthenes, Greek statesm an, 58
Denison, Archdeacon, anti-Darwin, 102
Descartes, Rene, 19, 42, 47-48, 65-66, 70-71, 88, 106107, 110
Desiderus, Bishop of Vienne, 34
Diagoras, Athenian Sophist, 16
Dickens, Charles, author, 99
Diderot, Denis, editor of Encyclopedie, philosophe, 74, 79,
84-85, 110
al-Dinawari, Book of Plants, 38
Diodorus Siculus, historian, 61
Diogenes, skeptic, 19, 22
Dionysus, resurrected god, 15, 23, 39
Dirac, Paul, physicist, 113
Dioscorides, botanist, 28
Disraeli, Benjam in, Prim e Minister, 96, 102
Dom inic, Saint / Dom inicans, 43-47, 50, 55-56, 58, 60, 64,
66, 68-69
Donation of Constantine, 36, 37, proved a fake, 54
Doppler, Christian, 94, 96-98, 112
Draco, Greek law giver, harsh, 9, 11
Drake, Francis, English pirate, 64
Draper, John W illiam , Conflict between Science and Religion,
104-105
Dred Scott decision, US Suprem e Court, Slaves are property,100
Dreyfus, Alfred, Captain, 99
Drum m ond, W illiam , philosopher, 69
Eannes, Dom Gil, Portuguese, sailed past Cape Bojadour, 53
Earm an, John, W AP is a tautology, 117
Econom ics, 87, 92, 93, 107, 114
Eddington, Arthur, astronom er, 114
Edison, Thom as, Alva, prolific inventor, 94
Einstein, Albert, I 63, 65, 79, 80, 94, 96, 108-110
Elci, Monsignor, anti-Galileo, 68
Electrom agnetism , 93, 98, 107, 114
Elias, Dom inican m onk, Abbott, 45
Elijah, reportedly resurrected, 103
Eliot, George, writer, 99
Elizabeth 1, Queen, 66
Em m anuel, Victor, unifier of Italy, 104
Em erson, Ralph W aldo, 97, 122
Em pedocles, Air is a m ixture, 16
Em piricism , 16, 19, 20, 46, 66, 70, 78-79, 81, 84, 86, 88
Engels, Frederich, com m unism , 104
Enki, Sum er god of creative forces, 4
d’Envieu, Fabre, anti-Darwin, 102
Epictetus, Rom an, Conform nature to reason, 8, 28
Epicurean Paradox, see Problem of Evil
Epicurus, philosopher, 22, 23, 26, 32
Erasm us, Desiderus, philosopher, In Praise of Folly, 57-60, 64,
66, 82, 104, 110, 119
Eratosthenes, director of Library at Alexandria, 23, 24
Euclid, Elements of Geometry, 23, 24, 36, 42, 57, 96
Eugene 4, Pope, 43, 54, 56
Euler, Leonhard, m athem atician, 81
Euripides, 3 rd great tragedian, 15
Euthyphro dilemma, W hy is an act m oral?, 18, 49
Fabricus, Hieronym us, veins, 66, 67
Fahrenheit, Daniel, therm om eter, 80
al Farabi, abu Nasr, Persian, second in knowledge to Aristotle, 38
Farady, Michael, m agnetic field, 93
Farnese, Pier, son of Pius 3, 102
Farrar, F. W . (Re Augustine), 32
Fatim a, daughter of Muham m ed, 34, 35
Ferdinand, king of Spain, with Queen Isabella financed
Colum bus, 39, 55-56
de Ferm at, Pierre, 39, 72
Ferranti, Sebastian, engineer, 94
Feuerbach, Ludwig, 98
Feyerabend, Paul, 118
Feynm an, Richard, nuclear physicist,122
Fibonacci, Leonardo / Leonardo da Pisa, 45
Finici, Marcilio, translated Plato. 54
Flem m ing, W alter, cells divide and replicate, 105
Fizeau, Arm and Hippolyte-Louis, 94
Flaubert, Gustave, 99, 110
de Fontenelle, Bernard, rom anticist, 74
126
Ford, Henry, 95
Foscarini, Paolo, m onk, 68
de Foulques, Charles/Clem ent 4, Pope, 46, 47
France, Anatole, writer, 99
Francis of Assisi, Saint / Franciscans, 43, 45-47, 49, 51
Franklin, Benjam in, 69, 79, 87, 89-90, 110
Franklin, Rosalind, DNA, 115
Frederick 2, king of Denm ark, 64
Frederick 2, the Great, Prussia, 81, 110
Freud, Sigm und, psycharitist, 108
Friedm ann, Alexander, Russian, first to suggest an
expanding universe, 112
Fuller, Buckm inster, inventor, thinker, 92
Fulton, Robert, steam boat, 95
Gutenberg, Gustavus Adolphus, printing press, 1, 54
Hadley, George, clim atologist, 81
Hadley, John, developed octant to m easure latitude, 44
Halley, Edm und, astronom er/Halley’s Com et, 24, 25, 44, 66, 7576, 80
Ham ilton, Alexander, 90
Ham ilton, Edith, The Greek W ay, 23
Ham m urabi, Hammurabi’s Code, 7, 8, 12, 32
Ham ount, Matthew, denied Jesus’s divinity, so burnt at the
stake, 63
Han Dynasty, 25, 28
Hancock, John, revolutionary, 86
Hardy, Thom as, 99
Harrison, John, clockm aker, longitude, 85, 86
Gabriel, Archangel, 34, 35,
Harvey, W illiam , physician, 46, 66, 69, 73
Gaeseric, Vandal, sacked Rom e, 33
Hawking, Stephen, astrophysicist, spontaneous creation,114, 122
Galen, physician, 28
ibn Hayyan, Jabir, father of chem istry, 36
Galileo, Galilei, m athem atician, astronom er, physicist, 10, al Hazen/al Haytham , optics, 23, 39-40, 42, 46-47, 50, 53, 65-66,
16, 22, 47, 63, 65-73, 76-77, 85, 110, 118, 122
71, 76, 77
Galvani, Luigi, physicist, 79
Hegel, Georg W ilhelm , philosopher, 96, 99, 101
da Gam a, Vasco, sailed to India, 56
Heine, Heinrich, Germ an poet, 106
Gandhi, Mahatm a, gained independence for India, 115
Heisenberg, W erner, uncertainty principle, 1, 108, 113
Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis, gasses, 74, 89, 94
Heloise, student/wife of, Abelard, 40
Geert de Groote, Brethren of the Com m on Life, 52
Heliocentrism , 58, 63-64, 68-70, 75, 79
Geissler, Johann, neon lighting, 94
von Helm holz, Herm an, therm odynam ics, 100
Genghis Khan, Mongol conqueror, 39, 44, 46
Helm ont, Jan, Air is not the only gas, 69
George 3, English king during Am erican Revolution, 86
Helvetius, Claude Adrien, 85, 110
George, Henry, econom ist, land reform er, 104
Henry the Navigator, Prince, 53, 54, 56
von Gesner, Konrad, paleontologist, bibliographer, 63, 110 Henry 3, Em peror, HRE, French, 41
al Ghazali, influential conservative Muslim cleric,
Henry 4, Em peror, HRE, French, 65
philosopher, 21, 22, 42, 43, 48, 80
Henry 7, King of England, 56
Gibbon, Edward, Decline and Fall of Roman Empire, 1, 28, Henry 8, King of England, 57-58, 60, 62
31, 61, 110, 122
Henry, Joseph, electricity, 94
Gibbons, Jam es, Cardinal of Baltim ore, 104
Hera, Greek goddess of wom en, 9
Gibbs, J. W illard, therm odynam ics, 104
Heraclides, Earth rotates. Venus and Mercury circle the Sun, 19
Gide, Andre, writer, 110
Heraclitus, philosopher, 14, 17
Giffard, Henry, powered balloon w steam engine, 100
Herbert, Edward, deism , 66, 69
Gilbert, W illiam , Earth is a m agnet, 66
Herm eticism , 15 th century cult, 54
Gilgamesh, Sum er king, first epic, 7
Hero, physicist, prim itive steam engine, 23, 27
Gladstone, W illiam , British P.M., 102
Herodotus, Greek, historian,12,15, 57
Glashow, Sheldon, physicist, 116
Herophilus, Greek, first anatom ist, 23
Godfrey, Thom as, developed octant, 44
Hershel, W illiam , Sun is in a galaxy of m illions of suns/stars, 89
Godwin, W illiam , political theorist, 91
Hertz, Gustav, physicist, electrons, 110
von Goethe, Johann, 65, 84, 95, 97
Hertz, Henrich, electricity, 94
Gould, Stephen Jay, paleontologist, 118
Hess, Henri, therm ochem istry, 98, 104
Gratian, Bolognese jurist, 43
Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, 30
Gray, Stephen, physicist, 79
Hillel al Babli, Problem of Evil, 8
Greene, Graham , writer, 110
Hindu/Hinduism , 6-8, 10, 13, 17, 22, 28, 38, 45, 57, 64, 70, 82,
Gregorian calendar, 65, 79
111, 115, 120
Gregory the Great, St., Bishop of Rom e, 34
Hipparchus, astronom er, 23, 25, 28
Gregory, Jam es, invented the reflecting telescope, 73
Hippocrates, Father of Medicine,17
Gregory 2, Pope, 36
Hitler, Adolph, Mein Kampf, 63, 83, 114-116
Gregory 7, Pope, 41
Hobbes, Thom as, m aterialism , m onarchist, Life is nasty, brutal,
Gregory 9, Pope, 45, 46
and short, 8, 6,, 65-67, 69-72, 75, 78, 85, 92, 100, 117, 119
Gregory 10, Pope, 47
d’Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry, Baron, contributor to the
Gregory 11, Pope, 52
Encyclopedie, philosophe, atheist, 79, 84-85
Gregory 12, Pope, 53, 64
Holm es, Arthur, plate tectonics, 110
Gregory 16, Pope, 97
Holyoake, G. J., social reform er, doubted God, jailed, 98
Grosseteste, Robert, Bishop, 45-47, 76
Hom er, Greek poet, blind, 9,10, 21, 27
Grotius, Hugo, international law, 66, 69
Hom o sapiens /thinking m an, 2, 4, 100, 117
Grünbaum , Adolf, philosopher,121
Honorius 2, Pope, 43
Guanilo, m onk, refuted Anselm , 42, 48
Honorius 3, Pope, 38, 45
von Guericke, Otto, generator, 79
Hooke, Robert, astronom er, architect, physicist, 44, 66, 72, 74-77
127
Hooker, Joseph, 100
Hsiung-nu/Huns, Mongols, 28
Hubble, Edwin, Hubble’s Law, 1, 98, 112-114
Hugo, Victor, Les Miserables, 41, 69, 99, 110
Hui-neng, Buddhist teacher, 36
Hulagu Khan, burned Bagdad, 46
Hum anism , 45, 50-52, 58-60, 64, 70
Hum ason, Milton, Hubble’s law, 112
Hum e, David, philosopher, 20, 23, 29, 65, 70, 72, 80, 8385, 87-88, 92, 101, 110, 121-122
Huns, 25, 28, 31, 33, 44
Hus/Huss, John, Christian reform er, burnt, 52, 59, 108,
119, 122
Hutcheson, Francis, political theorist, Greatest good for
greatest num ber, 80, 84, 90
Hutton, Jam es, geologist, 92
Huxley, Aldous, Brave New W orld, 18, 88, 115
Huxley, Thom as, agnostic, “ape or bishop” 100-103, 106,
110
Huygers, Christiaan, wave theory of light, 66, 70, 72, 74,
76, 79, 94, 108
Hypatia, teacher, m artyred for being a pagan, 33, 122
Ignatius of Loyola, St./Jesuits, 62-63, 66, 68-70, 80-82, 88,
112, 115
Incas, 1, 7, 27, 57, 60-61, 120
Index of Prohibited W orks, 50, 62-65, 67-68, 70, 72, 99,
110, 116, 122
Induction, in reasoning,1, 20, 29, 47, 57, 67, 76-77, 81,101
Induction, in electricity, 93-94, 104
Ingenhousz, Jan, Oxygen in plants, 87
Ingersoll, R. G., writer, agnostic, 1, 82, 104, 105
Innocent 2, Pope, 43, 45
Innocent 3, Pope, crusades, 44, 45
Innocent 4, Pope, authorized torture, 46
Innocent 8, Pope, inquisition, 55-56
Innocent 10, Pope, 71
Inquisitions, 44-47, 50, 55-56, 60, 62-64, 66, 69, 96-97,
106, 120, 122
Irenaeus, Bishop, 29, 83
Isaac, son of Abraham , 7
Isabella, Queen of Spain, 39, 55-56
Isidore, Saint, Archbishop of Seville, 34, 37
Isis, Egyptian goddess, 23, 27,119
Islam /Muslim , 1, 7, 8,18, 23-24, 27, 33, 35-46, 49-50, 5257, 63, 66, 70, 72, 77, 79, 81, 84, 115, 117, 119-122
Ito, Hirobum i, philosopher, 109
Jam es, Constantin, Dr., anti-Darwin,104
Jam es, W illiam , philosopher, 106
Jansen, Sacharias and Zacharias, m icroscope, 66
al Jayyani, spherical trigonom etry, 38
Jefferson, Thom as, 61, 69, 82, 90-91, 119, 122
Jenner, Edward, Dr. inoculation, 92
Jerom e, Vulgate Bible, 31
Jesus, see Christ
Jews/Judaism , as a people, 4, 7, 8-9, 11-12, 14, 23-24,
26-29, 34-36, 38, 44, 62-63, 81-84, 103-104, 115,
120, 122
Jews, actions against, 24, 26, 29-30, 32-36, 42, 49-54, 56,
62-64, 71, 83, 87, 96-97, 100, 103, 114-115
Jezebel, Phoenician wife of Ahab, 9
Joan of Arc /Jean d’Arc, m artyred, 54
Job/ Book of Job, 32, 67, 105, 120
John, King, Magna Carta, 45
John, Saint/Gospel of John, 23, 27-29, 120
John 10, Pope, 38
John 11, Pope, 38
John 12, Pope, 38
John 19, Pope, 38
John 22, Pope, authorized torture, 50
John 23, Pope, 53
John Duns Scotus, 49, 120
John Paul 2, Pope, 118
John the Baptist, 27
John the Scot/Johannes Erigena, 37, 122
Johnson, Sam uel, dictionary, 80, 84, 113
Joshua, 63
Joule, Jam es, therm odynam ics, 94, 100
Judaism , see Jews
Julius 2, Pope, 58
Julius, Gaius, Caesar, 25, 26
ibn Junus, Egyptian astronom er, 38
Jupiter, planet, 28, 68, 74
Jupiter, Rom an god, 16
Justinian, Rom an em peror, 33-34, 41
Kant, Im m anuel, philosopher, continental rationalism , 8, 19, 21,
42, 48, 79, 82, 85, 88-89, 96, 102, 110, 116
Kelvin, Lord/W illiam Thom son, Kelvin Scale, 89, 98, 100, 107
Kepler, Johannes, astronom er, 63-64, 66-67, 70, 73, 76-77, 86,
110
Keynes, John Maynard, econom ist,114
Khadija, Muham m ed’s first wife, 34
ibn Khalud, historian, statesm an, 51, 52
al Khwarizm i, Moham m ed ibn Musa, algebra, 37, 42
Kierkegaard, father of existentialism , 98
al Kindi, chem ist, 39
Kipling, Rudyard, East is East...The Ladies...Gungda Din, 99
Kirchoff, Gustav, elem ents em it specific wavelengths of light, 100
Kitchener, Horatio, Lord, defeated Boers, 108
Kohlrausch, Rudolph, electrolytic conductivity, 94
Kohn, Hans, nationalism , 82
Koran/Qur’an, 8, 22, 29, 35-36, 38, 41, 42, 43, 46, 54, 59, 70, 9798, 119-122
Kowalska, Mary, Saint, 110
Kram er, Henrich, Dom inican, Anti-W itchcraft, 55
Krishna, Lord, Hindu, 17, 23
Kublai Khan, 44, 47, 49
de Lafayette, Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier,
Marquis, 87, 91
de Lagrange, Joseph-Louis, Com pte, astronom er, 92
de Lam arck, Jean Baptiste Pierre-Antoine de Monet, Chevalier,
Offspring inherit acquired traits, 91, 95, 100-102, 108
Landsteiner, Karl, blood groups, 109
Lao-tzu, The W ay, 19
de Laplace, Pierre Sim on, Marquis, astronom er, showed planets
orbit m athem atically, 76, 85, 89, 92, 101, 121
Larousse (Dictionary), 110
Lavoisier, Antione Laurent, Elementary Treatise on Chemistry,
deduced water was H2O, 89
Lawrence, D H, writer, 110
Law(s) of thought, 19, 80, 88, 95-96, 106, 119
Lazarus, reputedly returned from dead, 103
Lazarus, Em m a, Give m e your poor, your m eek, 106
128
van Leeuwenhoek, Antoni, Dutch, m icroscope,
m icrobiology, 74
von Leibniz, Gottfried W ilhelm , Baron, theodocies,
calculus, 21, 23, 32, 37, 42, 48, 66, 70, 73, 77, 80, 8283, 85, 87-88, 92, 111
Lem aitre, George, priest, astronom er, Big Bang, 112-113
Lenz, Heinrich, electric theory, 94
Leo 3, Pope, 36, 37
Leo 8, Pope, 60
Leo 9, Pope, 41
Leo 10, Pope 58, 67
Leo 12, Pope, 96
Leo 13, Pope, 61, 106
de Leon, Ponce, found Florida, 58
Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, Last Supper, 55
Leucippus, Atom ic theory, 16, 17, 22, 95
Lewis, Sinclair, Am erican social critic, 112
Libby, W illard, Carbon dating, 115
Lichtenberg, G. C., Man thought up heaven, 6
Lilburne, John, Brit., dem ocrat, 71
Lincoln, Abraham , 96, 102, 119
Lind, Jam es, British Naval surgeon, cured scurvy, 85
Linnaeus, Carlous / Carl von Linne, classified plants and
anim als, 81
Lippershey, Hans, telescope, 66, 67
Lippm ann, W alter, political writer, 18
Lobichevsky, Nickolai, non-Euclidian geom etry, 96
Locke, John, British political theorist, tabula rasa; life,
liberty, and property, 65-66, 69-70, 75, 78-79, 81-82,
84-86, 88, 90, 95, 103, 207, 110, 119
Logical fallacies, 123
Logical positivism , 114
Lom broso, Cesare, 122
Lorentz, Henryk, physicist, 94
Lorini, Friar Niccolo, anti-Galileo, 68
Louis 14, French king, L’etat? C’est moi, 66, 73, 75, 90
Louis 15, French king, 82, 84
Louis 16, French king, beheaded, 91
Lucius 3, Pope, inquisitions, 44
Lucretius, Titus Carus, philosopher, atheist, 26, 96, 101
Luke, Saint, Gospel of Luke, 8, 26, 28, 29
Luthardt, Christoph, Ernst, 102
Luther, Martin 28, 58-64, 78, 84, 110, 117, 120, 122
Lyell, Charles, geologist, 97, 98, 100-102, 104, 122
Mark, Saint, gospel, 26. 28, 29
Marlowe, Christopher, Doctor Faustus, 65, 95
Marozia, Rom an courtesan, 38
Mars, Rom an god of war, 9
Mars, planet, 28, 67-68, 72, 74, 116
Marsiglio of Padua, dem ocracy, 50, 119
Martel, Charles, king of the Franks, 36, 37
Martin 5, Pope, 53
Marx, Karl, Com m unist Manifesto, 61, 96, 99, b101, 110, 119
Mary, St., m other of Jesus, 28, 37, 58, 103
Mary, Bloody, Queen, daughter of Henry 8, 62
Mary, Queen, wife of W illiam of Orange, 77,
Mason, George, drafted Virginia Declaration of Rights, 88, 90
al Masudi, astronom er, geographer, 38
Matthew, Saint, Gospel of Matthew, 8, 26-29, 59, 96, 120
Maugham , Som erset, 110
Mauryan Dynasty, 23
Maxwell, Jam es Clerk, electrom agnetism , Four Equations, 94,
106, 108
Mayan Civilization, 3, 8, 9, 29, 37, 60
McMullin, Ernan, anthropic W AP is a tautology, 117
Mead, Margaret, anthropologist, 82
Medici fam ily, Florence, bankers, 52
de Medici, Catherine, m other of French Henry 4, 64
de Medici, Cosim o, ruler of Florence, 54,
de Medici, Giovanni, Cardinal (at 13) 55
de Medici, Leopold, Cardinal, 73
Medicine, 1, 2, 5, 17, 24, 28, 34, 36-40, 46, 55, 58, 60, 66, 85
Melanchthon, Philipp, anti-Copernicus, 63
Melville, Herm an, Moby Dick, 99
Mencken, H. L. author, critic, 107, 112, 122
Mendel, Gregor, genetics, 107-108, 114
Mendeleev, Dim itri, Russian, periodic table, 103
Menes, king, unified Egypt, 5
Meng-tzu / Menicus, Confucian, 25
Mercator, Gerardus, geographer, 64
Mersenne, Marin, friar, spread scientific knowledge, 66, 70, 77
Mesopotam ia, 3, 4, 6, 7,11, 12,13, 15
Metaphysics / m etaphysical, 14, 17-18, 20-21, 23, 38, 48, 51, 69,
73, 75, 84- 86, 96-97, 114
Metaphysics, by Aristotle, 14, 19-21, 40
von Metternich, Count, Austrian, Council of Vienna, 95
Meucci, Antonio, Italian, telephone, 104
Michelangelo, Buonarriti, Sistine Chapel, 58
Michel 1, Patriarch in Constantinople, 41
Michell, John, physicist, astronom er, black hole, 89, 112
Machiavelli, Nicolas,The Prince, realpolitik, 62, 71,106, 110 Michelson, Albert, physicist, 106
MacKay, Charles, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and
Microscope, 23, 39, 47, 66, 73-74, 116
The Madness of Crowds, 45
Middle Ages, 22, 38-42, 44-46, 50-51, 70-71, 119
Miles, Theodore, 77
Madison, Jam es, Bill of Rights, 69, 88, 90
Mill, John Stuart, 23, 100, 104, 110, 114, 117
Magdalenian m an, 2
Miller, Stanley, physicist, 115
Magellan, Fernando, 60
Milton, John, poet, 104, 110
Mahavira, founder of Jainism , 14
Ming Dynasty, 53, 57
Maim onides, Rabbi, 44, 45, 47-48, 110, 122
Minoan civilization, Crete, 5, 7, 8, 14
Malebranche, Nicolas, French priest, 77, 110
Miracles, 27, 31, 41-42, 81, 83-84, 95, 117, 121
Malpighi, Marcello, capillaries, 73
Mirandola, Giovani Pico della, 55, 122
Malthus, Thom as, Rev., Population growth naturally
Mitchell, W alter, Rev., anti-Darwin, 102
outstrips food supply growth, 92, 95, 98, 100-101
Mithra/Mithraism , Persian god, 6, 10, 27, 29
Mandeville, Bernard, 80
Moliere, Jean Baptiste Polequin, satirist, 66, 73
Mani / Manichaeism, 10, 30-31, 40
Monarchom ach, state sovereignty lim ited by God’s laws, 65, 67
Manning, English Cardinal, anti-Darwin, 101
de Montaigne, Miguel Eyguem , essayist, 64-66, 74, 110, 122
Manutius, Aldus, Venice, printer, 58
de Montesquieu, Baron, 79, 82, 84, 86, 110
Marcion, Christian Jew, Rom an, 28-30
Montezum a, Aztec king, 60
Marconi, Guiglierm o, wireless radio, 94
Montgolfier, Joseph and Jacques, hot air balloon, 89
Marduk, Babylonian god, 7
129
More, Thom as, Sir, Catholic, Lord Chancellor, Utopia, 5758, 62
Morley, E W , physicist, 106
Morm on / Moroni, 70, 96-97, 106, 118, 120
Morse, Sam uel F B, telegraph 1844, 94
Moses, 8, 11, 30, 35, 44, 59, 74, 84, 103
Mozart, W olfgang Am adeus, 90
Mo-tzu, Chinese philosopher, 15, 65, 76
Mueller, Johann, astronom er, 55
Muham m ad / Ubu’l Kassim , 29, 35-38, 59, 84
Muslim , see Islam
van Musschenbroek, Pieter, Leyden Jar, 79
an-Nafis, Ibn, described heart, 46
Nanak Dev, guru, founded Sikhism , 56
Napoleon, see Bonaparte
Naturalism , 34, 75
Neanderthal Man, 2, 27, 100
Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, 11
Nefertiti, wife of Am onhotep, 8
Nehru, Jawaharlal, 61, 115
Nem esis, Greek god, 9
Neoplatonism , 30, 38, 54
Nernst, W alter, therm odynam ics, 100
New Testament, 9, 23, 27, 29, 60, 97, 106
Newlands, John, physicist, 103
Newm an, John Henry, Anglican, Catholic, 104
Newton, Anglican Bishop, 84
Newton, Isaac, 1, 21, 37, 39-40, 65-68, 71, 73-80, 85-86,
94, 98, 100, 104, 106-109, 111, 113, 118, 121
Nicaea, Council of, 325 AD, 30
Nicene Creed, basic Christian beliefs, 30
Nicholas 5, Pope, 54
Nicholson, W illiam , electrolysis, 93
Nicolas of Kues, Cardinal, 54, 120
Nicom achean Ethics, Aristotle, 20, 22
Niebuhr, Reinhold, theologian, 120
Nietzsche, Frederich, 60, 105-106
Nintu, Sum er Earth goddess, 4
Noah, ark, 11, 86, 103
Occam /Ockham , W illiam of / Occam’s Razor, skeptic, 51,
59, 65, 70, 76, 103, 120, 122
Octavian, Rom an, defeated Antony, 26
Oersted, Hans Christian, electricity and m agnetism are
both aspects of electrom agnetism , 93
Ogilvie, W illiam , Scot, philosopher, land reform , 89
Ohm , George, electric resistance, 93
Old Testament / Hebrew Bible, 7-9, 11, 27-30, 32, 42, 79,
82, 96, 118
Oldham , Richard, earthquake waves, 109
Om ar Khayyam , cubic equations, 41
Om ar/Um ar, second caliph, 35
Optics, 1, 36, 39, 42, 46-47, 52, 66, 74
Opus Majus, Roger Bacon, 46-47
Origin of Species, 97, 101
Orwell, George/Eric Blair, 1984, Animal Farm, 115
Osiander, Andreas, (Copernicus), 63
Osiris, Egyptian god, 6, 26, 115,
Ostrogoths, 33
Otis, Jam es Jr., Boston lawyer, God m ade all m en
naturally equal, Taxation without representation, 85
Paine, Thom as, Common Sense, Age of Reason, Rights
of Man, Agrarian Justice, Crisis papers, pam phleteer
for Am erican independence, 69, 82, 86-88, 92, 110
Paley, W illiam , Rev, watch on beach analogy for Design
Argument, 9
Parcelus, doctor, m odernized m edicine, 60
Parker, Theodore, governm ent over all, by all, for all, 100, 102
Parm enides, Greek philosopher, 14
Pascal, Blaise, W ager God exists, 66, 72, 74, 107, 110, 120
Pasteur, Louis, cell theory, 97, 100
Patrick, Saint, Ireland, 32
Paul, Saint / Saul, 19, 27, 29, 31-32, 68, 103, 112
Paul 3, Pope, 56, 63, 102
Paul 4, Pope, 64
Peano, Guiseppi, sym bolic logic, 111
Pelagius, W elsh cleric, 32
Pepin the Short, gave Papal States to pope, 37
Pericles, Rom an, senator, 15-16, 118
Perry, Lord Bishop, anti-Darwinism , 101
Persia / Persian, 6, 10-13, 15-16, 22, 24-25, 27-29, 31, 3440, 46, 50, 52, 98
Peter, Saint, 13, 27, 29, 30, 65, 68, 103
Peter the Great, m odernized Russia, 79
Petrarch, Hum anist, 50-52, 55, 58
Petronius, Fear gave rise to gods, 4
von Peuerbach, Georg, m athem atician, 55
Philip 2, French king, 44
Philip 4, French king, 50
Phillip of Macedon, 19
Philoponus, John, philosopher, 22, 34, 65, 76
Philosophes, French intellectuals, 68, 74, 79, 81-82, 84-85
Phoenicians, seafarers, alphabet, 5, 9,12
Piaget, Jean, educator, 114
Pierre de Castelnau, 44
Pindar, Greek lyric poet, 57
Pius 2, Pope / Aeneas Silvius, 53
Pius 4, Pope, 64
Pius 9, Pope, 103, 104
Pius 10, Pope, 109
Pius 11, Pope, 114
Pius 12, Pope, 115
Pixii, Hippolyte, physicist, 93
de Pizan, Christine, fem inist, writer, 53
Pizarro, Francisco, defeated Incas, 61
Planck, Max, 1, 100, 108-109, 113
Plantinga, Alvin Carl, Am erican Protestant philosopher, 118
Plato, pupil and biographer of Socrates, 1, 9, 15-23, 25-26, 30,
32, 34, 38, 44, 45, 47-49, 54, 58, 68, 78, 85, 90, 92
Playfair, John, geologist, 92, 97
Plotinus, Neoplatonism , 29
Plow,1, 3-6, 8, 24-25, 33, 38, 60
Plutarch, Greek philosopher, 23
Polo, Marco, described the Far East, 49, 53
Polyphem us, son of Poseidon, 58
Pom pey, Leading Rom an senator, 26
Pontius Pilate, Rom an governor of Judea, 26-27
Pope, Alexander, poet, 81
Popper, Karl, physicist, falsifiability concept, 72, 112
Poseidon, Greek god of the seas, 9, 119-120
Power, Henry, physicist, gasses, 74
Pragm atism , Do whatever works, 106
Priestley, J B, political theorist, chem ist, 80, 86, 90
Process Theology, no belief in a divine God, 111
Problem of Evil / Epicurian Paradox, 10, 23, 25, 29-32, 34, 49,
77, 80, 83, 89, 113, 118-119, 120
130
Protagoras, Man is the m easure of all things, 16, 17, 77
Prudhon, Pierre, French labor leader, 98
Pseudo-Dionysus, God cannot be com prehended, 40, 120
Ptah, Egyptian god, created the world, 5
Ptolem y 12, Macedonian Greek general, ruled Egypt, 22
Ptolem y 13, brother of, husband of, Cleopatra 7, ruled
Egypt, 22
Ptolem y, astronom er/ Ptolem aic geocentric theory, 22, 23,
29, 38, 41, 53-55, 63, 70
Ptolem y Soter/Savior, founded m useum in Alexandria, 23
Ptolem y fam ily, ruled Egypt, 22, 24, 26
Pusey, Phillip, Dr. anti-Darwin, 102
Pyrrho, philosophical skeptic, 22
Pythagoras, 1, 10, 12, 13, 39, 47, 69, 77
Pythagorean Theorem , 7, 10, 12, 23
Ra, Egyptian sun god, creator of universe, 6
Rabelais, Francois, m onk, writer, 110
Rationalism , 34, 57, 70, 79, 81, 85, 88
Ratzinger, Cardinal, see Benedict 16, Pope
Raym ond 6, Count, Cathars, 45
al Razi, Moham m ed ibn, Zakariya, physician, 38, 77
Reade, W W , Scot, philosopher, 104
Reincarnation, 14, 27, 121
Reis, Philip, telephone, 104
Reis, Piri, Ottom an cartographer, 58
Rem us, in m yth, killed by brother Rom ulus, 9
Renaissance, very roughly 13 th through 17 th century
Rhea, goddess, m other of Osiris, 6
Richard, king of England, hanged John Ball, 51
Ricardo, David, apologist for subsistence wages, 95
Richer, Jean, astronom er, 74
Ridley, Mark, zoologist, 117
Rig-Veda, Hindu sacred text, 7
de Robespierre, Maxim illian Francois, leader of and victim
of French revolution, 69, 90-91
Roem er, Ole, speed of light is finite, 66, 74
Roentgen, W ilhelm , X-rays, 94
Rom agnosi, Gian, first to deduce electricity and
m agnetism were related, 93
Rom an Em pire,1, 24-26, 30, 33-37, 72
Rom ulus , in m yth, founded Rom e, 9
Roosevelt, Franklin, Dem ocrat, dem ocrat, 111
Rosm ini, Antonio, critic of clergy, 99
Rougem ont, Swiss theologian, 102
Rousseau, Jean, rom antic, 65, 69, 84-85, 90, 110
Rum ford, Count / Benjam in Thom pson, 94
Russell, Bertrand,1, 49, 84, 110, 112. 121-122
Rusticello, biographer of Marco Polo, 49
Rutherford, Baron Ernest, 107, 110, 112, 114
Sagan, Carl, astronom er, atheist, 116, 118
Salam , Abdus, physicist, 116
Sand, George, writer, 82, 110
Santayana, George, Spanish/Am erican philosopher, 109
Sapir, Edward, language influences thought, 114
Sartre, Jean Paul, existentialism , atheist, Man is
condem ned to be free,110, 115
Saul, see Paul, Saint
Savonarola, Girolam o, Florence, purist, 56
Scaruffi, Piero, historian, 49-50, 122
Schilling, Pavel, Baron, telegraph, 93
ash-Shirazi, Quth, astronom er, 50
Schleiden, Matthias, cell theory, 97
Schopenhauer, Arthur philosopher, 19, 95
Schroedinger, Erwin, physicist, 113
Schund, Dr. Germ an, anti-Darwin, 101
Schwann, Theodor, cell theory, 97
Schwarzschild, Karl, black hole, 112
Scientific Method, 1, 17, 37, 39, 40, 42, 47, 66, 69-70, 77, 79, 112
Scott, Sir W alter, first “nobles” were soldiers, 34, 94
Scopes, John, teacher, evolution, 113
Scruton, Roger, philosopher, 113
Seetzen, Ulrich, Germ an naturalist, 95
Segur, Monsiegneur, anti-Darwin, 101
Seleucus, heliocentrism , 58
Seneca, Rom an, Com ets follow, natural laws, 27, 63
Serapis, Greek god of the tem ple in Alexandria, 23, 27
Sergius 3, Pope, patron of Marozia, 38
Servetus, Michael, theologian, doctor, circulation of blood, 64
Sextus Em picurus, skeptic, 29
Shakespeare, W illiam , dram atist, 65-66
Shang Dynasty, m ysticism , 8, 9
Shang Ti, Chinese philosopher, 23
al Shatir, astronom er, 51
Shaw, George Bernard, author, 8, 111, 112, 121
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, poet, 95
Shih Huang-ti, Em peror, reform ist, 24
Shinto, Religion, Japan, 15, 34
Shiva, Hindu god, the Destroyer, 7
Siem ens Gm bH, electric com pany, 99
Sixtus 4, Pope, authorized Spanish Inquisition, 55
Skeptics / skepticism , 6, 15, 19, 22-24, 29, 51, 66, 74, 81, 84, 88,
Slipher, Vesto, red shift of spiral nebulae, 112
Sm ith, Adam , W ealth of Nations, 69, 87, 92-93, 96, 107
Sm ith, Joseph, Morm on, 96
Sm ith, W illiam , geologist, 95
Snow, John, doctor, cholera, 100
Socrates, 1, 8, 13,15-20, 22, 26, 49, 122
Sol Invictus / Unconquered Sun, Rom an Pagan god, 30, 119
Solon, Rom an law giver, 11, 30, 119
Sophism , relativistic, 15-16
Sophocles, 2 nd great tragedian,15, 58
Sosigenes, astronom er, Alexandria, 26
de Soto, Hernando, explorer, 62
Spartacus, led Rom an slave revolt, 25
Spee, Frederick, Jesuit, 69
Spencer, Herbert, evolutionist, survival of fittest, 101-102, 104
de Spinoza, Baruch, philosopher, pantheist, 8, 19, 48, 61, 66, 70,
74-75, 109-110
Sprenger, Jacob, theological justification for inquisitions, 55
de Stael, Anne Louise Germ aine,110
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, suffragette, 106
Stendhal / Marie-Henri Beyle, writer, realist, 110
Steno, Nicolas, geologist, 66, 74
Stephen 3, Pope, 37
Sterne, Laurence, Anglican clergym an, Irish novelist, 110
Stevinus, Sim on, physicist, 65
Stirner, Max, “God is dead,” 98, 105
Sturgeon, W illiam , electric m otor, 93
al Sufi abd al Rahm an, astronom er, 38
Sum er, first W estern civilization, 3-7, 9, 48, 60
Summa Theologica, defense of Christianity by Aquinas, 47-49
Sung Dynasty, 40
Swedenborg, Em anuel, astronom er, 85, 110
Swift, Jonathan, satirist, 80, 110
Swinburne, Richard, Anglican, 83
Sylvester, Pope, 37
131
Sylvester, St, Order of, 104
Sylvius, Aeneas / Pope Pius 2, 53
Szilard, Leo, atom ic bom b, 114
Valtorta, Maria, writer, 110
Van Til, Cornelius, Am erican Protestant philosopher, 118
Vandals, 28, 31-33
Vanini, Licilio, priest, wrote Dialogues Concerning Nature,
Inquisition strangled, cut out his tongue, burnt him , 68, 70, 121
Tabitha, reputed died, then resurrected,103
Vasa, Gustav, Swedish King, 60, 62
Tam bora, volcano, 95
Veblen, Thorstein, Am erican econom ist, coined the phrases
Tam erlane/Tim ur u-lang, Mongol, 44
Leisure Class and Conspicuous Consumption, 87, 107
Taney, Roger, Dred Scott decision, 100
Venus of Laussel, cave carving, possible goddess, 2
Tansley, Arthur George, ecosystem , 114
Vesalius, Andreas, anatom ist, 63
Tao/ the W ay, Lao-Tsu, 19
Vespucci, Am erigo, 57
Taylor, Frank Bursley, plate tectonics, 110
Virgil, Rom an poet, 26, 29, 51
Telephone tim eline, 104
Virgil the Geom eter, Bishop of Salzburg, 36
Telescope, 10, 23, 38-39, 46, 63-64, 67-68, 72-73, 77,114, Vishnu the Preserver, Hindu, 7
117-118
Volta, Allesandro, battery, 79
Tem pier, Bishop of Paris, Condemnation of 1277, 49
Voltaire / Francis Marie Arouet, 1, 37, 69, 79, 81-82, 84-85, 93,
Tesla, Nikolas, electric m otor, alternating current, 94
97, 110, 120-122
Tetzel, Johann, sold indulgences, 58
de Vries, Hugo, genetic m utations create new species, 95, 108
Thales of Miletus, Does anything not change? 1, 10, 11-12
14,16, 18,76
ibn W ahhab, Muham m ad, W ahhabism , Sunni, 81, 120
Theodora, Rom an courtesan, 38
W allace, Alfred Russel, evolution, 100-101
Theodore of Gaza, put Aristotle’s Botany into Latin, 55
W allis, John, physicist, 73
Theodoric of Freiburg, rainbows, 50, 77
W ashington, George, 69, 86, 90, 92
Theodoric, Ostrogoth, 33
W atson, Jam es, DNA, 115
Theodosius, H R Em peror, m ade Christianity Rom an state W eber, Max, sociologist, econom ist,109
religion, 30
W ebster, Daniel, Senator, 97, 102
Theophylact, Rom an Count, corrupt, 38
W egener, Alfred, advanced the theory of plate tectonics, 110
Therm odynam ics, 96, 98-100, 104-105, 113
W einberg, Steven, physicist, 116
Thom as Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 19, 21, 23, 31, 32,
W ells, H G, historian,1, 31, 45, 105, 109, 121, 122
41-45, 47-49, 51-52, 54, 61, 69, 80, 87-88, 103, 119
W elton, J, laws of thought, 106
Thom as a Kem pis, Imitation of Christ, 53
W eyer, Johann, anti-witch hunts, 64
W heatstone, Charles, telegraph, 93
Thom as a Modena, first spectacles, 51
W histler, Jam es Abbott, artist, 75
Thom pson, Benjam in / Count Rum ford, ocean current
W hite, Andrew Dickson, Science v. Theology, 101, 106-107, 109
circulation, 94
Thom son, W illiam , Lord Kelvin, physicist, 98, 100, 107
W hitehead, Alfred North, 1, 19, 111
Thom son, Joseph John, physicist, 107
W horf, Benjam in, semanticist, language influences thought, 114
Thought, basic laws of, 19, 80, 88, 95-95, 106, 119
W ilberforce, Sam uel, Bishop, anti- Darwin, 101-102
Thrasym acus, power rules, 16
W ilde, Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie W ills, Irish writer, wit, 9
Tiberius, Em peror, retired to Capri, 26
W ilkins, Maurice, DNA, 115
de Tocqueville, Alexis, Democracy in America, 97
W illiam of Norm andy, conquered England at Hastings, 41
W illiam of Orange, King of England, 77
Tokogawa Shogunate, 71
W ittgenstein, Ludwig, philosopher, 112, 114
Tolsani, Giovanni, 64
W oehler, Frederich, urea, 97
Tolstoy, Leo, Patriotism is slavery, 61
W ollstonecraft, Mary, fem inist, wife of poet Shelley, 91
de Torquem ada, Tom as, Cardinal, Inquisitor General, 55
W ren, Christopher, astronom er, 66, 75
Toscanelli, Paolo, m ap m aker, 56
W right, Orville & W ilbur, airplane, 109
Towneley, Richard, physicist, gasses, 73
W u-ti, Han Em peror, Confucianist, 25
Trajan, Rom an Em peror, 28
W ycliffe, John, Christian reform er, 8, 51-53, 59, 68, 106, 119
Treviranus, Gottfried, evolutionist, 94, 101
W ylie, Philip, Am erican writer, 115
Trigonom etry, 6, 12, 38, 45, 53, 55
Tryon, Edward P., 116
Xenophanes, geology, There’s a great god over others,12, 40, 58
Tu W ei-Ming, Confucian scholar, 13
Tutu, Archbishop Desm ond, 83, 93
Young, Brigham , led Morm ons to Utah, polygam ist, 96-97
Twain, Mark/Sam uel Clem ens, 69, 96, 103
Young, Thom as, physicist, wave theory of light, 94, 108
Tyndale, W illiam , English Bible, 58, 60, 68
Zachary, Pope, 36
Zantedeschi, Francesco, electric current, 9
Urban 2, Pope, first crusade, 42
al Zarqali, Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Yahya al Naqqash, 41
Urban 6, Pope, 52
Zeno the Stoic, 22, 23
Urban 8, Pope, (Galileo) 56, 68-69
Ussher, Jam es, Bishop, God created world in 4004 BC, 71 Zeus, principal Greek god, 9, 16, 17, 23, 119, 121
Zheng He (phonetic), Chinese general, adm iral, 53
Uthm an, third Caliph, hadiths, 35, 38
Zola, Em ile, “J’accuse!,” re Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, 99, 110
Utilitarianism , 90, 100
Zoroaster, founder of Zoroastrianism, 9, 10, 25, 30
Zoser/Djoser, Egyptian pharaoh, 5
Valla, Lorenzo, debunked Donation of Constantine, 54
Zwingli, Ulrich, Swiss, Protestant reform er, 60, 110
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