Religious Conflicts and Renaissance Skepticism
Religious Conflicts in 16th and 17th Century Europe
In the sixteenth century, the breakup of Christendom occurred through the Reformation. After the initial expansion of Protestantism in the mid-sixteenth century, a Catholic reaction, traditionally called the Counter-Reformation, took place.
By 1600, Europe was divided into Catholic and Protestant countries.
The Germanic empire was devastated by the bloody Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). This war became a European event as all the European powers entered, acquiring social and political overtones, not just religious ones.
It was not only the physical destruction that resulted from these wars, but also the eradication of free thought. A strict Inquisition ensured that no outbreaks of heresy or heterodoxy appeared. There were many cases of persecution of scientists. Giordano Bruno was condemned to death by fire in 1600; Vanini in 1610. The Copernican theory was convicted in 1616, and Galileo was tried for defending it in 1633.
However, despite this widespread religious intolerance, the ideas of secularization of life were timidly born.
Return to the Classics During the Renaissance
The Renaissance was characterized by a return to the classics of Greco-Roman antiquity. Several factors contributed, including:
- The discovery of codices that increased knowledge of literature and Greek and Roman philosophy.
- Contact with Byzantine scholars who emigrated to the West with the fall of Constantinople.
- Interest in classical art.
In ethics, the great influence of Stoicism and Epicureanism is evident. Platonism and Pythagoreanism, with their emphasis on the importance of number and geometry, played an important role in developing the new science.
The theologians of the Middle Ages were not interested in the classics for themselves, but as “valets” for developing Christian theology. They were taken as literary, ethical, and aesthetic models.
Renaissance Skepticism
Skeptics were provided with an arsenal of arguments against dogmatism, against those who pretended that man can achieve absolute certainty:
- The senses deceive us and are often subjective.
- Opinions oppose and argue; there is always another contrary.
- Great variability and opinions reign among men.
The conclusion of all the skeptical arguments is that one should refrain from judging.
There are three circumstances:
- Religious disputes have brought the question within the Christian belief.
- Geographical discovery: Europeans have come into contact with other peoples and other ways that contrast sharply with those of Europe.
- Skepticism is developed as an antidote to the dogmatism and excessive intellectualism of scholastic medieval thought.
Key figures include Erasmus, Michel de Montaigne, and Francisco Sanchez.
Francisco Sanchez and Skepticism
Francisco Sanchez was a Portuguese physician, professor of medicine, and author of the work entitled Quod nihil scitur (“That Nothing is Known”). He abhorred the criterion of authority and did not support more than what he noticed as true. He focused his criticism on the syllogism of Aristotle. Their conclusions are based on assumptions that do not have to admit. And if these premises are tested with other syllogisms, they depend in turn on other premises, which also need demonstration, and so ad infinitum.
Faced with the logic of Aristotle, Sanchez advocated trial and experience as the only way to obtain science.