Christianity remains dominant and structures the life of many people after the downfall of the Roman Empire in Europe. The bible is considered a holy book and the impact of the church on society and politics is significant. As a result of the partly difficult bible texts, which are hard to understand for many, and some discord about the interpretation of the church, philosophers are confronted with the question of a possible conflict between the bible and human reason. Old revelations that are only available through tradition and cannot be experienced by the people anymore are pushed through as dogmas and must be accepted. An increasingly sharp distinction of belief and knowledge establishes, and some wonder if both can be united again. Philosophers partly find themselves confronted with limitations how far human reason is allowed and able to interfere with religious questions.
Augustine of Hippo, who lived in the fourth century, believed that history is shaped by the conflict of Theocracy and other more worldly forms of government, which fight for power in every human being. God is eternal for Augustine, but the world is not. His worldview is influenced by neoplatonism and he considers all that exists as divine nature. Before God created the world, the eternal ideas already lived in God’s thoughts. The entire history is necessary to realize these ideas. The idea of humanity plays a key role for the world. Augustine considers all humans to have a spirit and a soul that can find God. The fall of man resulted in God partly withdrawing from guiding mankind, leaving the humans “free” and more on their own. In this absence evil can exist. Still, every single human can find a way to return to God.
Aristotle’s philosophy was long forgotten in Europe at the beginning of the twelfth century. This was changed by Arabic scholars who arrived in northern Italy, carrying Aristotle’s work and sparking an interest for this and the way of thinking behind it. This also caused a returning interest in questions around the field of natural sciences. At this time, in the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas lived and worked as a theologian and philosopher. He tried to bring Christianity in harmony with Aristotle’s philosophy. He is convinced that human reason can find the same truth that we also find in the bible. He sees two ways that bring us to God. One through revelations and belief, and another though sensory organs and reason. Both ways allow us to grasp a part of reality, and they meet in an overlap where we find God.
Both Augustine and Thomas Aquinas can be considered as philosophers of the middle ages, and in their worldview we find a gap between God and the world. Mankind had to leave the divine paradise as a consequence of the fall of man, and both philosophers try to find a way for humanity to return to God. Doing so is the task, the goal of humanity according to the philosophy of the middle ages. In contrast to this, the Pantheism of the renaissance considers God as infinite and everywhere – also present in the world and in every human. They equate reality with divinity. The world is judged to be good as it is. The focus of philosophy shifts to the examination of the world with the empirical method.
This scientific method already existed in the antiquity, but it is taken to new peaks in the renaissance. The purpose is to observe and examine nature with our sensory organs. To do so, old revelations and dogma must be left behind, including the authorities behind them. Old knowledge and wisdom, if it is no longer understood, gets rejected. Observation, experience and experiment become the foundation of philosophy. That had already been the case in earlier days, but the dominance of systematic experiments is something new. Natural sciences as an independent field are born. Carefully curated and carried out experiments and precise measurements are now expected, and what can’t be measured must be turned into something measurable.
Galileo Galilei says that the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics. Observations in nature are expressed in mathematical form. The laws of nature are written mathematically. Even that is not new in philosophy, but only now it gains an impact so significant that it spreads out on the worldview of almost the entire population. Mankind learns to interfere with nature deeper and to realize more complex ideas with the materials that nature provides. The environment is shaped to an increasing extend, as it suits the purpose of humanity. A growing understanding of the laws of nature helps doing so, in combination with bigger and more powerful machines. The creative human inventions and the influence on nature become more significant and begin to dominate the appearance of the entire planet.
In the renaissance, at the beginning of this trend, there were already two extreme perspectives what the conquest of nature by men could result in. One extreme is the concern that, with the technical advancement, men started a process that can no longer be controlled. Mankind moves away from its natural way of living and destroys its own habitat, the foundation of its own existence. The other extreme is the hope that technology is still in its early days and will eventually succeed in controlling and shaping nature without destroying it. Important for this question is not only a timely understanding of how to use nature without causing lasting damage, but also the ability to create a society that allows for motivation not to cause damage to an extend that can no longer be compensated by the healing powers of nature. We have this task as humanity for the entire planet, but also as individuals for our own body.