The works of Rene Descartes and Francis Bacon were incredibly controversial. They encouraged people to think for themselves and question everything, which could potentially cause uprisings in the Church. Both men acheived high political positions early in their careers, which allowed them to do more scientific and philosophical research while under the protection of their monarchs. They cleverly managed to spread their findings and influence people without suffering an unfortunate fate, like Galileo, for their radical ideas.
One of Descartes' greatest feats was methodological skepticism. This method's purpose was to prove that things can be truly known through doubt, a concept that was novel at the time. The creater of the phrase, "I think, therefore I am," Descartes went on to prove his own existance. He disregarded perception and proclaimed that deduction was the only way to truly know anything. This concept that the human mind can prove its own existance through thinking was totally radical, suggesting that God was not needed for humans to understand their own nature. Bacon challenged religion even more directly with his deduced ethical system. He stated that no universal ethical rules could be made because situations and people differ. This does not comply with the Church's 10 Commandments and could have caused upset from religious officials. Bacon also tried to seperate the ideas of duty to community and duty to God, which were previously one and the same.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is really interesting. I like how thoroughly you analyzed how Descarte's ideas could have influenced society. However, unlike suggested by the title, there is very little about Bacon. Because of this the title is a little misleading, but the post itself is very well thought-out and is analytical.
ReplyDelete