Christianity's Impact in the Middle Ages & Key Philosophies

Christianity's Influence

With Christianity came new ways of thinking.

Manichaeism

Manichaeism is a religious doctrine of salvation based on the philosophical idea that the world is divided into good and evil, light and dark, spirit and matter.

Augustine on Reason and Faith

Both reason and faith can lead to God; there is no contradiction between them. "Believe to understand, understand to believe."

Creation: Augustine vs. Greeks

St. Augustine held that God created the world out of nothing, while the Greeks believed the world has existed forever.

Augustine's View on Evil

Evil is the absence of God, something that is not, resulting from human disobedience to the will of God.

Rebirth

Rebirth was a cultural movement that originated in Italy in the late fourteenth century. It later spread to the rest of Europe, reviving ancient culture and placing man at the center of everything.

The Empirical Method

The new method, called empirical, involved investigating nature through the senses.

Geocentric vs. Heliocentric Views

• Geocentric: Everything revolves around the Earth.
• Heliocentric: Everything revolves around the Sun (proposed by Copernicus).

The Law of Universal Gravitation

This law states that two bodies attract each other with a force proportional to their masses.

Idealism vs. Materialism

• Idealism: A philosophy that posits a spiritual aspect to nature.
• Materialism: A philosophy that reduces all natural processes to physical quantities.

Determinism

Determinism is the attitude that everything that happens is predetermined.

Descartes' Main Concerns

Descartes was interested in the certainty of our knowledge and the relationship between soul and body.

Descartes' Method

In his Discourse on Method, Descartes explored the proper method for a philosopher to solve problems.

Descartes' Proof of God's Existence

Descartes believed that the idea of a perfect being must originate from that perfect being, not from imperfect humans.

Dualism

Descartes viewed humans as dualistic beings, composed of both body and soul.

Substance

Substance is the fundamental foundation that supports individual qualities and attributes.

Empiricism

Empiricism is a philosophical current that holds that the origin of knowledge lies in the senses and reason. It rejects innate ideas and uses induction as its method.

"Nothing in Consciousness Not First in Senses"

This phrase means that the ideas of consciousness are captured through sensory experience.

Locke's Tabula Rasa

Locke believed that our conscience is like a tabula rasa, or blank slate, initially containing no thoughts or concepts.

False Knowledge According to Locke

Locke rejected knowledge that could not be derived from simple sensations.

Hume on God

Hume argued that since we have not experienced God through our senses, we cannot know if God exists.

Agnosticism

An agnostic is someone who does not know if God exists, maintaining a 50/50 position.

Berkeley's Doubts About the Physical World

Berkeley doubted that the physical world is a reality, asserting that we only perceive matter, and what one sees is what truly exists.

Seven Points of the French Enlightenment

1. Rebellion against authorities
2. Rationalism
3. The idea of enlightenment
4. Cultural optimism
5. Return to nature
6. Humanized Christianity
7. Human rights