Humanism, Renaissance, Enlightenment and Romanticism
Four big movements shaped modern thought. Years are rough.
- Humanism and the Renaissance (about 1350 to 1600): scholars in Italian cities studied old Greek and Roman texts again and put the dignity and abilities of human beings at the centre. The printing press (about 1450) spread books fast. Thinkers: Petrarch, Pico della Mirandola, Erasmus.
- Enlightenment (about 1680 to 1790): "dare to use your own reason" (Kant). Science, tolerance, public debate and the idea of progress. Thinkers: Locke, Voltaire, Hume, Diderot, Kant.
- Romanticism (about 1790 to 1850): a reply to a world seen only as machine and reason. It stresses feeling, nature, imagination, the genius and the spirit of a people. Thinkers and writers: Rousseau (a forerunner), Herder, Goethe, Novalis, Schlegel.
The thinkers below sit between these movements, mostly in the 1500s to 1700s.
Francis Bacon: knowledge from experiments
Francis Bacon (1561 to 1626, England) wanted a new way to learn about nature. In Novum Organum (1620) he said: do not start from old authorities or quick guesses. Collect many careful observations, do experiments, and move step by step to general laws. This is induction.
He warned about four "idols", habits of mind that fool us: of the tribe (mistakes common to all humans), of the cave (our own narrow experience), of the marketplace (confusing words) and of the theatre (accepting grand old systems). His slogan: knowledge is power, because knowing nature lets us use it. He is a founder of the modern scientific method.
Blaise Pascal: chance, calculation and the heart
Blaise Pascal (1623 to 1662, France) was a mathematician and physicist. With Fermat he laid the base of probability. He built an early calculating machine and studied pressure in fluids (the unit of pressure is named after him).
In his book Pensées he asks how a person should choose when the facts are uncertain. He compares a cost with a chance of a prize: chance × prize against cost. His famous "wager" uses this idea for the question of belief, when the prize is huge. He also said that the human heart has "reasons" that reason alone does not know: feeling and intuition are part of knowing. He held that people are both great (they can think) and weak (a reed).
Giambattista Vico: history in ages
Giambattista Vico (1668 to 1744, Naples) wrote The New Science (1725). His key idea: we understand best what we ourselves made. Nature was made by God, but history, law, language and customs were made by people, so people can understand them from inside.
He saw every nation passing through three ages: an age of gods (fear of the divine, rule by priests), an age of heroes (noble families rule) and an age of humans (equality, reason, laws). Then society can decay and begin again, a return called ricorso, but at a new level, not a copy. Vico was ignored in his lifetime but later influenced historians and anthropologists.
Denis Diderot and the Encyclopédie
Denis Diderot (1713 to 1784, France) edited the Encyclopédie with Jean d'Alembert, published from 1751 to 1772: 17 volumes of articles and 11 volumes of pictures. Hundreds of writers took part. Its plan followed Bacon's tree of knowledge: memory (history), reason (science and philosophy) and imagination (arts).
The goal was to put knowledge in front of ordinary readers and to teach people to think for themselves. This upset kings and church leaders, and the work was banned for a time. Diderot also wrote novels, plays and art criticism, and argued that nature, not a plan from outside, explains living things.
Baruch Spinoza: one substance
Baruch Spinoza (1632 to 1677, Amsterdam) earned his living grinding lenses. His book Ethics (printed after his death) is written like geometry, with definitions and proofs.
His big claim: there is only one substance, which he calls "God or Nature". Everything else is a mode, a way that this one thing appears. Mind and body are two sides (attributes) of the same thing, not two separate worlds. Everything follows by necessity, so we are free not by breaking the laws of nature but by understanding why things happen and so being moved by reason, not by blind feeling. His ideas about religion and the state were controversial in his time.
Gottfried Leibniz: many monads
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646 to 1716, Germany) was a philosopher, mathematician and diplomat. He developed calculus (independently of Newton) and the binary number system that computers use.
In philosophy he said the world is made of countless simple, mind-like units called monads. Monads have no windows: they do not push each other, yet they keep step because God set them in pre-established harmony, like clocks set to the same time. He used the principle of sufficient reason: everything has a reason why it is so and not otherwise. He argued that this is the "best of all possible worlds", an idea Voltaire later mocked in Candide.
Compare: Spinoza = one substance; Leibniz = many monads.
Try it
(1) Do a Bacon experiment: drop a pen, a coin and a paper ball from the same height 5 times each and note which lands first. What pattern do you see? Then crumple the paper and repeat. (2) Do a Pascal check: a school lottery ticket costs ₹10 and the prize is ₹100 with 5% chance. Is it worth it? (3) In the 3D, in step 1 slide the year to find which thinkers were alive in 1650.
Key formulas and definitions
- Key terms: humanism, induction, idol, probability, ricorso, substance, mode, monad
- Pascal's test: expected gain = chance × prize; bet if it is more than the cost
- Vico: gods, heroes, humans, then return (ricorso)
- Spinoza: 1 substance; Leibniz: many monads
- Dates: Bacon 1561–1626, Pascal 1623–62, Spinoza 1632–77, Leibniz 1646–1716, Vico 1668–1744, Diderot 1713–84
Worked examples
1. Put these in the right era: a. studying Greek texts in Italian cities; b. the Encyclopédie; c. Goethe's poems about nature and feeling.
a. Humanism and Renaissance. b. Enlightenment. c. Romanticism.
2. A farmer says "it rained after the crow called, so crows bring rain." What would Bacon ask?
He would ask for many more observations: how many times did the crow call without rain, and rain without the crow? He would also check his idol of the cave, seeing only what supports the idea.
3. A game costs ₹4 to play and pays ₹20 with 25% chance. Is it worth it by Pascal's test?
Expected gain = 0.25 × 20 = ₹5. Cost = ₹4. 5 > 4, so it is worth playing (on average).
4. Why did Vico think history can be known more surely than nature?
Because people made history (laws, customs, language) and so can understand it from inside. Nature, made by God, can be known only from outside.
5. Why was the Encyclopédie seen as dangerous by rulers?
It spread knowledge widely, questioned old authority and encouraged people to use their own reason. Rulers who relied on tradition feared this.
6. How do Spinoza and Leibniz differ on how many basic things exist?
Spinoza: one substance (God or Nature), and all things are its modes. Leibniz: infinitely many monads. Both used reason and both thought the world is understandable.
Common mistakes
- Mixing up the eras. Renaissance is before the Enlightenment, and Romanticism is a reaction to it.
- Thinking Bacon only guessed. He demanded many observations and experiments.
- Thinking Pascal's wager is only about religion. Its core is the chance × prize idea.
- Mixing up Spinoza (one substance) and Leibniz (many monads).