Unit 1 - Chapter 4 - Renaissance Science and Philosophy Flashcards
What does the word Renaissance mean?
rebirth
What period of time did the Renaissance encompass?
1450 to 1600
What four themes does renaissance humanism encompass?
1) individualism
2) personal religion
3) intense interest in the past
4) anti-aristotelianism
What is meant by Renaissance humanism?
human-centered, as if we were discovering ourselves for the first time.
Individualism
concern with human potential and achievement
Personal religion
religion less formal and ritualistic
Anti-Aristotelianism
- humanists believed Aristotle was capable of error and church emrbaced his philosophy too much
Francesco Petrarch
- writings mark the beginning of the Renaissance
- targeted scholasticism
Giovanni Pico
- argued that god had granted humans a unique position in the universe.
- humans are capable of change & freedom of choice
Desiderius Erasmus
- opposed fanatical belief
- nothing humans create can be perfect
- learn from Jesus not church
- progressive views on women
- views reflected ancient cynicism
Martin Luther
- followed erasmus lead
- downfall of catholicism was aristotle’s philosophy
- leader of protestantism
Protestantism
denies authority of the pope and insists that every individual has the right to interpret the Bible for themselves.
Negative aspects of early Protestantism
regresses to accepting the existence of God on faith alone.
What did reformation lead to?
division of western Christianity into Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.
Michel de Montaigne
demonstrated most skepticism among the Renaissance humanists.
In what respect did Montaigne’s philosophy stimulate Bacon and Descartes?
responded to his doubts concerning human knowledge.
Ptolemy
- Summarized mathematical and observational astronomy.
- Ptolemaic system
Ptolemaic system
belief that the heavenly bodies were spherical and that the sun, moon, and planets travel around the earth in orbits that are circular and uniform
- geocentric theory
Who arrived at Corpernican system before Copernicus?
Aristarchus of Samos
Nicolaus Copernicus
belief that the earth revolved around the sun (Heliocentric theory)
Johannes Kepler
- Paths of planets around the sun were elliptical.
- Mathematic deductions be verified by empirical observation.
- Objects project an inverted image onto retina.
Why did Ptolemy’s incorrect model of the universe prevail for over a thousand years?
1) Accorded with the testimony of the senses.
2) Allowed reasonable astronomical predictions.
3) Gave humans a central place in the universe.
Explain why Pythagorean and Platonic thinkers tended to be the first to embrace a heliocentric view of the solar system.
pythagorean-platonic belief that universe operated according to mathematic principles and occams razor.
Describe the roles that Giordano Bruno and Michael Servetus played in the history of science.
- were both burned at stake for their views
- explains why so many scientists and philosophers were cautious.
Galileo
- discovered 11 bodies in the solar system
- viewed universe as a machine
Explain why Galileo’s attitude toward experimentation was Pythagorean-Platonic.
- A physical law is like a Platonic form.
- Nature of reality explained using mathetimatical principles.
Describe Galileo’s views of (a) objective and subjective reality
Objective reality
- can be studied scientifically.
- primary qualities.
- independent of perception.
Subjective reality
- cannot be studied scientfically.
- secondary qualities.
- created by senses.
Primary qualities
capable of mathematical description.
Ex: size, shape, position, motion.
Secondary qualities
psychological experiences, with no counterparts in the physical world.
- Ex: color, sound, taste, smell.
Describe Galileo’s views of the possibility of a science of conscious experience.
conscious experience mostly consists of secondary qualities and impossible to study objectively
Isaac Newton
- universe is lawful machine
- developed law of gravitation
universal law of gravitation
all objects in the universe attract each other.
Deism
belief that God’s creation of the universe exhausts his involvement with it.
Six principles of Newtonian science.
1) Deism
2) Material world is governed by natural law
3) No place for purpose in natural laws.
4) Occam’s razor is to be accepted.
5) Natural laws are absolute but our understanding is imperfect
6) Classification is not explanation.
Newton claimed that everything that happens can be explained in terms of;
(1) space
(2) time
(3) matter
(4) force
Francis Bacon
- “knowledge is power”
- radical empiricist.
- distrusted math & rationalism
Describe Bacon’s perspective on science.
- positivist approach to science.
- only trusted the direct observation of nature.
- promoted induction.
Radical empiricism
all true knowledge is derived from sensory experience alone.
Deduction
- starts with an assumption
- proceeds from the general to the particular
- Galileo & Newton.
Induction
moves from the particular to the general.
Contrasts between induction and deduction
deduction
- starts with an assumption
- proceeds from the general to the particular
induction
- proceeds from the particular to the general.
What is positivism?
belief that only events that can be experienced directly should be the object of scientific inquiry.
According to Bacon, scientists should follow two rules
1) Lay aside received opinions
2) Restrain the mind from high generalizations.
Identify the four sources of error that influence scientific work, according to Bacon.
1) Idols of the cave
2) Idols of the tribe
3) Idols of the marketplace
4) Idols of the theater
Idols of the cave
Personal biases that arise from experiences, education, and feelings.
Idols of the tribe
Biases due to human nature
Idols of the marketplace
Biases that result from being overly influenced by the meaning assigned to words.
Idols of the theater
Biases that result from blind allegiance to any viewpoint
Specify and describe the two types of experiments Bacon identified.
1) Experiments of light
2) Experiments of fruit
Experiments of fruit
explore how laws of nature might be used
Experiments of light
Designed to discover causal relationships.
René Descartes
- mechanist
- mind has innate ideas
- used intuition and deduction
- ultimate knowledge = mathematical knowledge
Intuition
unbiased and attentive mind arrives at a clear and distinct idea whose validity cannot be doubted.
What were Descartes reasons for believing that philosophy was useless?
Believed it was too easy to doubt and he sought something concrete.
Describe Descartes’ beliefs regarding the process of discovering philosophical truth
only thing he could be certain of was the fact that he was doubting
- doubting –> thinking –> a thinker = ‘i think therefore i am”
Describe Descartes’ beliefs regarding innate ideas
- there are natural components of the mind.
- ideas that cant come from experience are placed in mind by God.
Descartes believed sensory information must be ____ and ____ before it can be accepted as valid.
clear; distinct
Describe Descartes’ beliefs regarding the reflexive nature of organisms’ interactions with the environment
1) sense receptor is stimulated
2) delicate threads are pulled and cavities in the brain open
3) animal spirits released into nerves
4) behaviour occurs
Describe Descartes’ beliefs regarding the mind-body interaction.
- mind is nonphysical, body is physical.
- interactionist
- pineal gland in mind influences body
Did Descartes make lasting contributions to psychology?
- focused attention on brain influence in behaviour.
- birthed physiological psychology and a comparative psychology.
