The Dark Ages of Europe

After Rome collapsed (c. 450 AD), Europe became deurbanized, ignorant and illiterate. Intellectuals coasted for a while on the fumes of Greek and Roman achievements, which quickly became neglected and forgotten. European literacy rates plummeted. These dark ages ended in the Renaissance (1200’s AD), when classical works were re-imported back to Europe. Aristotle made the earliest impact.

The Great Chain of BeingThe principles go back to the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BC).

Aristotle’s system was Christianized by St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274 AD).

Medieval Scholasticism:

The levels in the picture correspond to degrees of spirituality, from the lowly unmoving rocks at the bottom, up to plants on the higher level, to animals, people, angels and finally God.

The Four CausesTo understand any thing or phenomenon, you must grasp its four causes:

1. Marerial (what sort of stuff composes the phenomenon in question)2. Formal (what shape that material takes, and how it’s arranged)3. Efficient (what brought about the thing or phenomenon in question)4. Final (what purpose is served by the thing or phenomenon)

The Great Chain of Being is the comprehensive scheme to catalogue our full understanding of every aspect of reality. Once we grasp the four causes of something, then we know everything there is to know about it.

Noteworthy features of theGreat Chain of Being

Husband

Wife

Children Slaves

Pets

Pope

King

Duke

Lord

Commoner

Serf

1. It was profoundly hierarchical, with hierarchies inside hierarchies. Everybody “knew their place.” Gold

Silver

<the base metals>

Stone

The State

The Family

Minerals

2. Normativity: The Great Chain of Being described not just how the world is, but how it ought to be.

Because everything in the universe had a final cause (a purpose for its existence), it’s quite natural to think that it’s right for it to fulfill its purpose, and wrong for it to fail to do so. Subverting the great hierarchy was a depravity. The World Turned Upside Down

3. It was static: Things in the scheme didn’t shuffle around, and no species appeared or disappeared. In the big picture, the world was unchangeable, because God made it just as it should be. Disrupting the “natural order” was the highest possible crime. There was no better order than God’s order.

4. It was based on authority: The Great Chain of Being basically took Dark Age prejudices and described them as God’s law for all time. The total picture of reality described in the Great Chain of Being came from a combination of popular beliefs, traditions and religious authority. There was no scientific method for revising, improving or falsifying any portion of the Great Chain.

Sextus Empiricus and Pyrrhonean Skepticism

“We suspend judgment on all matters.”

“I assert nothing.”

“The reasons to assent or a claim, or to deny it, are in balance.”

“We live in accordance to the normal rules of life, undogmatically.”

“The regulation of life is fourfold: Appearances, instincts, custom and training.” (my paraphrase)

“It appears to us that the skeptic lives an unperturbed and fulfilled life, while the dogmatist who strives for knowledge is always perturbed and unfulfilled.” (my paraphrase)

Pyrrhonean arguments intended to induce a suspension of judgment

Most important starting point: Things may not be as they appear to you.

The way something appears

Seeming

Appearance

The way something is

Being

RealityOur senses and judgment only show you what’s on this side of the line.

To say anything about what’s here is to dogmatize. The skeptic refuses to do this.The senses show

how things appear.

Just because something appears to you in a certain way doesn’t mean that’s how it is. You might be deceived, or biased, or lacking the capacity to detect reality, or in a state from which you cannot objectively judge, or … [other ideas?]

The Ten Modes for the Suspension of Judgment1. The same thing may appear differently to you and to an animal, but you have no reason to think that your appearances match reality any better than the animal’s.

2. The same thing may appear differently to you and to other people, but …

3. The same thing may appear differently to your various senses, but …

4. The same thing may appear differently when I’m in different states, but …

5. The same thing may appear differently from different positions, but …

…

10. The same thing may appear differently to someone of a different culture, or to someone with different convictions, but …

The point of the Ten Modes of Pyrrhonism is to get people to stop dogmatizing, to “live with appearances” and make no judgments about how things really are.

“I am a man and think nothing human is foreign to me.” – Montaigne’s rafter

Fideism – The doctrine that true religion must be based on a leap of faith.

Fideism is best seen as a marriage between Pyrrhonean skepticism and an unquestioning and blind commitment to the Christian faith. Typically,

1.Fideists, like skeptics, see human reason as being too weak discover any truths whatsoever. Reason’s results are always subject to doubt.

2.Fideists think that salvation comes from a moment of grace, the irrational epiphany that God exists and is only possible source of truth.

3.Fideists don’t believe that reason can ever soundly lead to religion.

4.Fideists think that a misplaced confidence in reason leads not only to error, but also to impiety and irreligiosity. Reason competes with faith.

5.Fideists, like skeptics, live by social and religious traditions, not because they think these are right, but because they have no confidence that they’ve figured out anything better.