THE MIDDLE AGES

• The 1st to the 5th centuries were dominated

by the Romans. As Rome collapsed, Europe
experienced setbacks in wealth, luxury, and
especially knowledge until the beginning of
the Renaissance.
• The Roman Catholic Church preserved
knowledge of the ancient world and was a
centre of learning BUT harsh with followers
(the Inquisition) and ill-advised (the
Crusades) at times.
 THE MIDDLE AGES
• Key Influencers
• St. Paul – early first century
• St. Augustine - very early Middle Ages –
City of God
• St. Thomas Aquinas - later Middle Ages –
“Christianization” of Aristotle
 THE MIDDLE AGES
Literature
▪ The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
▪ The Canterbury Tales
▪ Tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
Philosophy
▪ The Middle Ages was an age of faith and the point of
departure for all philosophical thought was God
Ethics
▪ The Ten Commandments
▪ The Beatitudes
▪ The Golden Rule
▪ Faith and Works
 THOMAS AQUINAS (1225-1274)
Admired Aristotle’s work
Aquinas’ personal ethics very strong
His ethical theory deviated from Aristotle’s because of
conceptual differences (meaning of magnanimous,
for example)
Christian virtues vs. pagan virtues (humility vs. pride)
Aristotle valued moral virtues (courage, justice) but
also intellectual virtues such as the ability to
understand the importance of health, good looks,
friends, and money
CHANGING PHILOSOPHICAL
IDEALS
Aristotle’s ideal
▪ Pleasant philosophizing
▪ Noble public service
Stoic ideal
▪ Accept circumstances
▪ Endure life
Christian ideal
▪ The self is as nothing
▪ Service to God
 COMPARISON OF GREEK AND
CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHERS
ARISTOTLE’S THOMAS AQUINAS’
THEORY THEORY
God exists, should be Good life more than just
imitated, but nature philosophical
always existed contemplation
because not even God Basic goods include
can create something existence, having &
from nothing educating children,
Aristotle’s god is not the knowledge, positive
creator of the world, social interaction,
but it’s prime mover reasonable choices,
(events can be caused, actions
but there is also a Natural law not identical
reason for everything with but dependent
– human life has an upon eternal law
ultimate purpose)
 COMPARISON OF GREEK AND
CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHERS
ARISTOTLE’S THOMAS AQUINAS’
THEORY THEORY
Pleasure, especially sensory, Natural law theory improves
important upon divine command
theory
Moral virtue – the virtuous life
of public service God and nature are perfect,
Using the mind – mental activity moral commands are
is in accordance with the perfect (not arbitrary,
greatest of virtues flow from perfection)
Moral goodness is obedience
to God’s law, but
“metaphysical goodness”
pertains to one’s nature as
a being
 THOMAS AQUINAS
Aquinas would argue
that people are part of
the human community,
and should behave
Essentially, Aquinas felt rationally, socially, and
that ethics should be be on the side of life.
based on nature.
However, today natural Conflicts arise with
law theory, as Aquinas respect to choosing
described it, is subject death, for example,
to much criticism. abortion, assisted
suicide, or euthanasia.
Conflicts arise with
regard to sexual ethics
and marriage and the
family.
 ON THE CUSP OF
THE RENAISSANCE
• Aquinas was the first theologian/philosopher to
suggest that faith and reason were compatible
because he believed, while there was only one truth,
the two aspects of truth - that obtained by reason and
that obtained by faith - overlapped.
• Aquinas also believed this to be true about morals.
God gave humans a conscience that allows them to
naturally discern between right and wrong (reason),
but the Bible teaches people how to live their lives as
God desires (faith).
 THE RENAISSANCE
• The period following the Middle Ages (roughly 400-
1400) was called the Renaissance, though some
historians refer to an earlier European Renaissance
that occurred during the High Middle Ages of the 12th
to the 14th centuries.
• The Renaissance period was characterized by
humanism.
• belief in man and his worth
• individualism
• a return to antiquity
• pantheism
 THE RENAISSANCE

• Philosophers during the Renaissance began to

propose ideas that were non-theological, science was
flourishing, and great progress was being made in
many areas of human life (Renaissance humanism).
• The invention of movable type (the first printing
press) by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439 set the stage
for great advances. The invention of the printing
press helped to disseminate ideas quickly, and a
multitude of opinions was inevitable.
 PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE
• The point of departure for philosophical
thought was man himself.
• Curiosity about the universe and our place and
that of our world in the universe occupied the
thoughts of many great scientists.
• Thinking man was on the edge of the age of
reason (the Enlightenment). Most scientists
accepted faith as important, but were not
satisfied that faith was enough. Through
reason, they attempted to explain the universe.
 THE REFORMATION
How then, did this split in the
Martin Luther was a
philosophy student and a Church change the world of
priest who took issue philosophy? No longer was
with the Church over the Church the principal
some rather unsavoury authority with regard to how
practices. He tacked his
Ninety-five Theses of individuals should lead good
Contention to the door of lives.
the church, not as an act
of war with the Church, Moral philosophy could be
but as an academic developed without the
challenge to debate the influence of the Church, and
issues. Unfortunately, we will examine the ethics of
the battle of wills that
ensued split the Church. several great thinkers who
did not have a religious point
of view.
 THE SCIENTISTS
Copernicus – heliocentric world
The period between the view
mid-1500s to the early
1700s marks a time of Kepler – laws of planetary
great achievement in motion (a Christian natural
physics and astronomy philosopher)
We changed our view
that the earth was flat, Galileo Galilei - Dialogue
and that our world was Concerning the Two Chief
the centre of the
universe in fairly rapid Systems of the World -
fashion. Who were the Ptolemaic and Copernican –
scientists that 1632; (the Inquisition - 1616)
contributed to our new
understanding? Newton - theory of universal
gravitation and the
universality of natural laws
 SO, WHO IS THIS MAN?

Giordano Bruno, a humanist and a priest at one time,

enthusiastically adopted the new view of the physical world
that the earth revolved around the sun, and that an infinite
God would be present in His creation – nature, of which
man was just one part. This concept is referred to as
pantheism. Bruno further stated that the universe was
infinite in scope. Bruno was tried by the Inquisition,
condemned to death, and burned at the stake. He was
condemned to death for refusing to recant his theological
errors, but some people believe that Bruno is a martyr for
free thought and modern science. Whatever the case,
killing someone for expressing ideas different from one’s
own is certainly unethical.
THE PHILOSOPHERS: HOBBES
A materialist
meaning that Our judgments
every action is a about good or
material event in
the brain bad actions
governed by reflect our
desire or preferences,
aversion. tastes, or
Anything perhaps our
attributed to values;
supernatural therefore, ethics
causes was is subjective.
frowned upon.
 THE PHILOSOPHERS: HOBBES
• Humans thrive on community, so conflict
can arise from competition, anticipation, or
ambition.
• Such a life would be dangerous and short
with little in the way of culture, society,
education, or communication. The only way
to improve the lot of humans would be to
establish a governing structure. Freedom
and equality are exchanged for law and
order.
 THE PHILOSOPHERS: HOBBES
• In nature, survival is key, but in society,
morality and ethics take on more
importance.
• The bottom line for Hobbes is that it is
rational to keep whatever social contracts
are agreed upon whether in a state of nature
or in a political society.
• Hobbes prefers a system of absolute
authority to one of checks and balances.
THE PHILOSOPHERS: DESCARTES
• Rationalists like Descartes trusted the speculation of
reason whereas empiricists believed that knowledge
was based on the experience of the senses.
• Descartes and the rationalists undervalued the role
of the senses whereas the British empiricists
eliminated the role of the intellect.
• Descartes, a contemporary of Hobbes, believed in
two kinds of reality: the mental or spiritual, and the
material (dualism).
 THE PHILOSOPHERS: DESCARTES
• In dualism, mind and matter have contrasting
elements.
• Human minds were the only souls in the created
universe; all else was lifeless machinery.
• The immaterial soul or mind (res cogitans) and the
material body (res extensa) were separate but for
their mysterious connection through the pineal
gland.
• The mind was the realm of whatever was accessible
to introspection, reason, and sensation.
 THE PHILOSOPHERS: SPINOZA
• Spinoza was a rationalist with a deterministic view of the natural
world. Spinoza believed that everything happens from necessity
according to natural laws, but that man’s passions prevent him
from achieving true happiness and harmony with nature.
• Outer constraints are not unlike the seven deadly sins and they
prevent man from achieving free will, but man can still free
himself from these constraints and develop his innate abilities,
contenting himself with the knowledge that everything is
connected.
• Spinoza is best known for his book, Ethics, in which he points out
that God is not the transcendent creator of the universe who rules
through providence, but Nature itself, and that man is a part of it.
Man must seek freedom from his passions, and live his life with
the guidance of reason. Spinoza believed, in fact, that if every man
learned this lesson, there would be no need for political authority
– society would be free of conflict.
 THE PHILOSOPHERS: LOCKE
• Locke, an early Enlightenment thinker,
believed that there was a God-given moral
law that awaited discovery even in nature.
• Locke advocated the theory that natural
laws led to natural rights, which eventually
caused man to develop social contracts with
others. Fulfillment of the obligations of a
contract were dependent on divine will, as is
all moral law.
 THE PHILOSOPHERS: LOCKE
• Like Hobbes, Locke believes that a state of nature can
lead to conflict, thus individuals band together and
form civil government.
• Unlike Hobbes, who allowed disobedience only when
life or honour was at stake, Locke proposed rebellion
when natural rights were violated.
• Both Hobbes and Locke felt that politics and ethics
were not easily separated. In the absence of civil
society, Hobbes believed ethics could not exist.
Locke believed that moral law set limits on
government, and if governments acted immorally,
then they were no longer legitimate.