This page holds my notes on History and Christianity, from my reading.

1. Western Thought and Christian Values

            EXPLANATION - These notes are derived from Marvin Perry's book, An Intellectual History of Modern Europe (1992) with further material and updating by me. Perry's book is the best overall summary view that I have found. It aims to explain the breakdown of Western civilisation after 1914. It is slightly biased toward the Enlightenment and Greek “reason”, but presents Judaeo-Christian morality and belief with respect.

            The notes are an attempt by me (not Perry) to identify how Christian values have appeared in nearly all movements of Western philosophy and thought down the years. History is His Story. But they do NOT attempt to present all the significant strands of thought from any particular writer, thinker, philosopher or age.

NOTE - A newer book which I strongly recommend as a (possibly even more) definitive statement than Perry's is Nicholas Spencer's book Magisteria : The Entangled Histories of Science and Religion (2023). I may comment more on this when I have time.

    KEY QUESTION:    Can Christian principles and evidence of God’s purpose be seen throughout the history of Western thought?

    I have answered this via the blue text which highlights principles that Christians in particular will certainly or probably value. The amount of blue could vary, of course, depending on what criteria one uses!

    KEY SOURCE:        Marvin Perry:  An Intellectual History of Modern Europe (1992). 

    The black text is my notes made from the book. The red text (mainly at the end) is my own additions or quotes to add perspective and bring the notes up to the current date. The poem "One Solitary Life" by James Allan Francis is of course, quoted from his works. Some useful points from reviews of Perry’s book on Amazon are in brown.

MYTH-MAKING ORIGINS (ANCIENT NEAR EAST)

·           In earliest times, law, kingship, art and science were dominated by religion. History, nature and experiences interpreted through myths in Mesopotamia and Egypt..

·           All things had personality, rather than being objects. The river or the gods punished the people.

·           The gods were not absolute or all-powerful, and came from some prior realm.

·           No logical consistency was expected.

·           As C S Lewis points out, it should be noted that mythic gods become fewer, not more, as we go back through history. Monotheism was the starting point, not polytheism. Thus, the Greeks originally only name Kronos, from who the other gods “descended” – some were perhaps tribal leaders who became deified in legend.

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HEBREWS -

·           One God, concerned for humanity and justice for us.

·           Fully sovereign God, subject to nothing and shaping our moral laws Himself.

·           God is above nature, not part of or within it. Nature is created but not worshipped – a prerequisite for scientific thought.

·           God is good and makes ethical demands on us.

·           Moral autonomy – freedom to choose, free moral agents, but subject to voluntary obedience to commands that originate with God.

The Prophets -

·           In addition to religious messages, they were led by God to challenge the people over social justice. Their messages helped to shape the social conscience of the Western mind.

·           A command to conscience as an appeal to the inner person.

·           A universal message, alongside a meaning for individuals.

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THE ANCIENT GREEKS -

·           (By 5C BC) Reason applied to the physical world and all human thinking.

·           Application of general rules to nature and society.

·           Mythical thinking was still in the background throughout.

The Cosmologists (6C BC) -

·           Thales, Anaximenes, Anaximander – principles of order underneath the apparent chaos of nature; the gods were omitted.

·           Pythagoras – mathematics; Democritus – mechanical universe & atoms; mathematical principles of astronomy, rather than just observations of the Egyptians and Babylonians.

The Sophists -

·           Applied reason to human society, leading to good valuable laws, not ones derived from the gods. Opposed by conservative traditionalists.

Socrates (4C BC) -

·           Moral values derived rationally from universal standards.

·           The problem of good and evil investigated through reason.

·           Learning via logical discussion (dialectics), helping each other and making rational choices.

Plato -

·           The theory of Ideas and Forms, a higher world of reality independent of the world of things.

·           Rejection of democracy in favour of meritocracy as the basis of a sound political state.

Aristotle -

·           Synthesis of knowledge

·           Rational study with the senses - respect for the natural world and its study.

·           Regulation of the senses to achieve moral well-being.

·           Respect for law. A self-governing state led by the middle-class, not the rich or poor. Political freedom.

Stoicism -

·           A principle of order underlying reality – the Divine Fire, God, or Logos.

·           The logos principle in every human being leading to reasoning and happiness.

·           The Greek achievements  - rational thinking, political freedom, a humanist respect for the worth and value of the individual, and a celebration of human talent and the human form.

·           NOTE: Perry’s book does not fully explain that the culture and knowledge of the Ancient Greeks grew out of a cultural landscape influenced by many, including the Egyptians and the Persians.

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JESUS CHRIST –

One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village

The child of a peasant woman

He grew up in another obscure village

Where he worked in a carpenter shop

Until he was thirty when public opinion turned against him

He never wrote a book

He never held an office

He never went to college

He never visited a big city

He never travelled more than two hundred miles

From the place where he was born

He did none of the things

Usually associated with greatness

He had no credentials but himself

He was only thirty three

His friends ran away

One of them denied him

He was turned over to his enemies

And went through the mockery of a trial

He was nailed to a cross between two thieves

While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing

The only property he had on earth

When he was dead

He was laid in a borrowed grave

Through the pity of a friend

Nineteen centuries have come and gone

And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race

And the leader of mankind's progress

All the armies that have ever marched

All the navies that have ever sailed

All the parliaments that have ever sat

All the kings that ever reigned put together

Have not affected the life of mankind on earth

As powerfully as that one solitary life.

Dr James Allan Francis © 1926.

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THE ROMANS -

·           Move from narrow political city-states to a universal world-state with an effective government.

·           Important contact with Greek knowledge and learning.

·           A universal Roman law as a foundation of Western civilization.

Early Christianity -

·           A personal relationship with God, an intimate connection with a higher world and membership of a caring community.

·           Beyond Greek and Roman achievements: hope and a sense of dignity.

·           Christian teaching enriched by Greek philosophy after arising from Hebrew history.

·           A meaningful existence, unlike classical humanism which had no end in sight.

(Saint) Augustine of Hippo -

·           Dependency not on earthly powers and temporary cities but an eternal heavenly one.

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MIDDLE AGES

·           Waning of classical culture.

·           Ancient learning not extended, merely transmitted during Dark Ages.

·           Charlemagne – the 9C Carolingian Renaissance raises educational standards.

·           11C – Latin Christendom sees an intellectual flowering.

·           Christian Europeans started to lead the world (ahead of the Muslims, Byzantines and Chinese) in the use of technology. Christianity saw God as above nature, not within it, so saw no obstacle to making use of it (unlike Hinduism).

Mediaeval World-view -

·           Mediaeval scholastic view – based on Aristotle and Ptolemy, earth-centred universe, a hierarchy of heavenly spheres, everything has its God-fixed place. Planets move in circles. Heavenly realm and earthly realm of different kinds, with bodies of different sorts (perfect and imperfect). Observation only with no closer investigation.

·           Knowledge of spiritual things considered to surpass all worldly knowledge. God as the source and end.

·           Hierarchical society

·           Scholasticism tried to apply reason to revelation, to buttress faith.

Thomas Aquinas -

·           Rejected the view that reason would contaminate faith.

·           Set out to reconcile Aristotelianism with Christianity.

·           Presented 5 proofs of God’s existence through reason.

·           NOTE: Perry’s book does not point out the Muslim contribution to Aquinas’ thinking (he undoubtedly read the books of the Muslim scholar Averroes) and that of others.

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RENAISSANCE (14C-15C) -

·           Revival of classical learning. Based on study of the classics – a new humanist movement, aimed at bettering human condition (Christian humanism).

·           Ancient texts refound, eg. Archimedes. Art begins to be realistic, using mathematical proportions.

·           Mathematics as key to understanding reality – Pythagoras

·           Mysticism (Hermetical, after Hermes) still significant until Kepler.

·           Emphasized individualism and God-given unique dignity. Celebrated humanity.

·           Began to focus on the human condition. Rabelais (16C) criticised mediaeval view which had not done this.

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REFORMATION (16C) -

·           It is not true that it broke with the secular humanism of the Renaissance.

·           Destroyed the religious unity of Europe leading to growth of secular state authority.

·           Taught obedience but resistance to unjust authority.

·           Advanced equality from the mediaeval feudal and clerical system.

·           Individual conscience led to individual enrichment but subject to Scripture.

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SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION (16C-17C) -

Copernicus -

·           Proposed a sun-centred solar system (because existing system mathematically ridiculous).

Copernicanism later -

·           Later attacked by Catholics (due to alarm at turbulence of Reformation) and by Luther.

·           Caused later alarm at the idea of an infinite universe with humanity thus not central.

·           Pascal – in 17C, reacted by encouraging personal heart commitment to Christianity through love and faith, not thought.

Galileo -

·           Moon’s craters showed that celestial bodies were not pure and perfect.

·           Experimental physics to give new explanation of motion.

·           Telescope - moons of Jupiter proved Copernicus right.

·           Objected to unquestioned acceptance of Aristotle.

·           Never aimed to undermine faith but to treat it as separate from science.

Kepler -

·           Planetary motion, planets move in ellipses. But their movement was still unexplained until Newton.

Francis Bacon -

·           Invented the Inductive Method. (In observational sciences - empirical observation, data gathering, identifying and testing general laws). Knowledge pursued and organised in a new way.

·           Faith and science should be seen as separate – “Give to faith that only which is faith’s”.

Descartes -

·           Invented the Deductive Method (In theoretical sciences including mathematics  – deduction from obvious first principles).

·           God’s existence is obvious, His universe functions in harmony with the human mind.

·           Dualism – division of thinking into the mind and the physical.

Newton -

·           Climax of Scientific Revolution. Laws of inertia and gravity, also light,

·           God-centred universe. God could still do miracles but revealed Himself through the universe’s perfect design.

Spinoza -

·           Nature as an intelligible system.

·           God merely identified with the order of nature, not transcendent. Bible merely human. Rejected most of religion as superstition, to which scientific thought not subordinated.

·           Secular scientific spirit led to rejection of Bible as supernatural by Enlightenment thinkers, despite Newton.

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POLITICAL THOUGHT (16C-17C)

SOURCES – Rejection of mediaeval political thought in favour of political authority not derived from God or applied by churches; principles not arising from a higher world

·           Middle Ages – spiritual authority of the church dominant  (except for Marsilius) alongside feudal authority of the local powers and barons, balancing royal authority.

·           16C – church and barons faded but still strong monarchies everywhere. States became secularised after the Thirty Years war and the English Civil War.

·           The developing capitalist market economy accelerated political development.

Machiavelli -

·           Northern Italy, the first secular states, with rulers surviving by use of force alone. They needed to know how to survive. Required to preserve a safe and secure state.

·           Rejected ideal standards, dealt with real human behaviour. But had a bleak and pessimistic view of human nature.

·           Empirical drawing of principles from real data. State is a purely human creation.

Hobbes -

·           Rejected religious views of political life. Concerned with real human condition.

·           A dark pessimistic view of human intentions and nature with its unruly passions.

·           Government needs to suppress the harmful normal state of human nature.

·           Government should be a commonwealth with power vested in one man – absolute power as a lesser evil than civil war and anarchy.

Locke -

·           Individuals as good and rational, so their freedoms should be preserved.

·           Practical empirical approach with clear thinking which was widely followed.

·           A moral order that can be grasped through reason and impress rational people.

·           Limited government and safeguarding of human rights. Government has a duty to protect the natural rights of its citizens.

·           Humans endowed by nature (God) with fundamental rights, life, liberty, property. Opposed religious persecution. Supported education.

·           Rebellion only in the most extreme circumstances.

·           Foundation of liberal-democratic tradition, laws are for general welfare, not for rulers.

·           Freedom only exists bound to the obligation to support order and morality.

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THE PHILOSOPHES AND “THE ENLIGHTENMENT” (18C) –

SOURCES – Science from Newton (but rejected his theism); Locke’s theory of how the human mind works;  systematic doubt from Descartes; romance and noble sentiment (supposedly!) from the Middle Ages; moral teaching and Christian compassion from the Bible; the value of feeling, thinking & inner freedom from Rousseau

·           Rejected mediaeval otherworldliness.

·            Replaced the Age Of Faith with the Age Of Reason. Faith and reason incompatible, and mystery should be rejected. Only allow what is proven.

·           Believed in the power of the mind and the courage to use it. “Dare to know!”

·           Rejected the social order because it lacked the rationality of nature.

·           Preferred a “Science of Man” analogous to Newton’s physical laws of science.

·           People have no intrinsic nature or original sin, and only their experiences shape them.

·           Evil comes from faulty background or education, not flawed human nature.

·           Rejected despotism and privilege. Upheld justice, sound law, good government  and individual rights. Insisted on toleration and freedom of the press.

·           Supported humanitarianism, eg. opposed slavery, torture, war.

·           Attacked Christianity as superstitious, unreasoning, fanatical, cruel and opposed to passion.

·           Most were deists – saw God as a clockmaker who merely started it all.

·           Some were atheists.

·           Hume – a skeptic  - all religious belief was due to fear of death. Science could not prove anything absolutely because the mind is blank to start with – so no first principles

·           Also included Diderot, Bayle, Toland, Tindal, Thomas Paine & Benjamin Franklin in US

·           Helvetius held that all were exactly equal at birth. Actually untrue but influential in later debate

·           Note: Perry’s view of the Enlightenment presents a frame of reference with which later to comprehend the evolution of modern European thought.

Montesquieu -

·           Behaviour must be understood in the context of geography, economy & history. Careful study of human institutions.

·           Looked for principles – a universal standard of justice, but with respect for local issues and respect for traditional ways of life, avoiding sudden change.

·           Praised good government and religious tolerance.

·           Principle of separation of powers – executive, legislative, judiciary.

Voltaire –

SOURCES – Scientific discovery from Newton; theory of natural rights from Locke; rejection of metaphysics and support for scientific progress from Bacon

·           Respect for rule of law and rejection of arbitrary power and aristocracy.

Rousseau –

SOURCES – Ancient Greek democratic city-states which taught people community values; state “end justifies the means” acts from Machiavelli

·           Rejection of accumulation of knowledge that leads to moral corruption.

·           Natural man superior to civilized man because property created rivalry and injustice.

·           Rejected Hobbes’ brutal view of man: humans are inherently good.

·           Inequality must be overcome then reason will make people free.

·           The state can force people  to be free, obedient to the mass or strongest party – no limits on state .power or protection of liberal ideals. A charismatic dictator is acceptable.

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ROMANTICISM (early 19C) –

SOURCES - The value of feeling, thinking and inner freedom from Rousseau; romance and noble sentiment (supposedly!) from the Middle Ages; moral teaching and Christian compassion from the Bible

·           Rejected the Enlightenment rationalism of the philosophes and their view of people as soulless thinking machines.

·           Nature is full of God’s presence.

·           Celebrated the wealth of the personality. Emphasized one’s personal  individual significance, emotions and creativity.

·           The imagination should determine artistic creation. To think deeply we must feel deeply.

·           Spirituality is more important in Christian doctrine than close examination of doctrine.

·           Shelley, Wordsworth, Keats, Victor Hugo, Gounod, Constable, the later Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin.

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IDEALISM (18C-19C)

·           German philosophy which arose in response to the scepticism of Hume.

·           Primacy given to spirit over matter – the world explained in spiritual terms.

Kant –

SOURCES - Reason from the philosophes; scientific method from Newton

·           He rejected Hume’s skepticism by saying the mind is not blank but contains an instinct for ordering the world it sees.

·           The object is defined by the subject.

·           He said we cannot know ultimate reality – there is a higher moral and spiritual reality above our experience – and so a built-in moral law.

Hegel –

SOURCES - Reason from the philosophes; desire and passion from the romantics; subjective view from Kant; history with a purpose from the Bible; political community from Ancient Greece; state “end justifies the means” acts from Machiavelli

·           He said we can know ultimate reality.

·           Beyond our individual subjective view is the universal Mind, Absolute Spirit, which grows through history.

·           He said history has meaning, purpose and direction – towards greater freedom, which politically is only within community. We can grow only together.

·           But he thus subordinated the individual to the state, threatening individual liberty.

·           And he said power and Absolute Spirit belonged mystically to key groups in history.

Young Hegelians of the Left –

·           Saw him in context of radical change.

·           Strauss – Claimed the Jesus of history was not the Jesus of faith. Sparked a search for the “historical Jesus”.

·           Feuerbach – criticised Hegel for keeping religion; called it merely an unconscious projection.

·           Marx (see later) – supported Feuerbach’s rejection of Spirit but insisted physical revolution essential.

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IDEOLOGIES (19C) that arose following nationalist revolutions

1.     CONSERVATISM –

SOURCES – tradition, authority, Christian teaching on human nature

·         Rejected the Enlightenment and philosophes as overvaluing reason and working by contrived formulas. No new social discoveries were there to be made – and an overly critical spirit causes discontent and atheism and undermines authority.

·         Human nature is corrupt and cannot be controlled by reason. We are not good by nature

·         Society too complex to be engineered. God and history the only sources of authority.

·         Rejected liberal focus on the individual in favour of the philosophy of we, rather than I.

·         Rejected social contract between people and government. Equality was a distraction.

Burke –

·         Supported Glorious and American Revolutions but opposed French. Rejected abstract ideas divorced from historical experience.

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2.     LIBERALISM –

SOURCES – individual rights from John Locke; religious toleration from the Glorious Revolution; democracy of Ancient Greece; separation of powers from Montesquieu; driven by the middle class (rather than upper class of Conservatives); people as ends in themselves from Kant; confidence in human goodness

·         Rejected a social hierarchy in favour of measuring people by their achievement.

·         Wanted a rational state with institutions based on intelligible principles.

·         Eradication of tradition and prejudice, better education. Rich focus on individuals.

·         Opposed state power – insisted on written constitutions, press freedom, religious and property rights.

·         Opposed full democracy (women’s rights and government by the masses), as dangerous to social order. Also prone to demagogues.

·         Resisted social reforms as being unwarranted interference. Poverty was part of the natural order and beyond government’s scope – supported a harsh view.

·         Malthus and Ricardo – poverty inevitable due to too many children

Tocqueville –

·         Democracy more just but flawed because people’s passion for equality outweighs their desire for liberty. It empowers states to centralise control and crush minorities. State power must be checked and balanced by local government and private groups.

·         Democracy drives people to selfish hedonism forgetting the public good. Must encourage civic virtue.

Adam Smith –

·         Foundation of liberal-economic theory. A state’s main assets were the richness of its goods and services not its gold reserves.

·         Government intervention hinders – people should pursue their personal interests as this benefits the whole society.

·         Competition is self-regulating. Those in business should not take advantage. The value of the common good. Low wages hinder not help business.

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3.     RADICALISM – extension of Liberalism –

·         Liberals later leaned toward mass democracy because of the Industrial Revolution.

·         Parliamentary reformers and journalists (Cobbett) supporting the labouring poor

Paine –

·         Supported revolution to create just society based on natural rights; but naïve - underestimated consequences of violent change. Thus rejected by most radicals.

Bentham –

·         In contrast, rejected principle of natural rights.

·         Instead, offered the principle of utility, the greatest happiness of the greatest number.

·         Utilitarianism a driver for social and political reform, suffrage, secret ballots, women’s rights, sanitation and prison improvements (all neglected by laissez-faire liberals).

·         Abolish House of Lords and disestablish church.

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4.     Early SOCIALISM (19C)

SOURCES – Went beyond the Liberal concern for individual freedom and the Radical concern for suffrage.

·         Babeuf – called for abolition of private property during French Revolution.

·         Society is inept and unjust. Existing liberal principles merely protected the wealthy.

·         Society should aim for common property, community and the common good.

·         Christian socialists – believers should share their property and labour.

·         Saint-Simon – a grandly reorganised technocratic society run by trained experts. Religion reduced to the Golden Rule.

·         Fourier – society reorganised into small communities

·         Female equality important (for both of the above).

·         Robert Owen – Practical example of good industrial community (in Scotland).

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NATIONALISM (19C)

SOURCES – Pride in common history and tradition; belief in being chosen by God or for a purpose; sovereignty derives from the nation; the people are a whole (French Revolution)

·         Individual liberty sacrificed to the needs of the nation.

·         A religion-like passion with the ability to undermine reason, freedom and equality

·         Not necessarily attached to statehood, eg. Herder – the Volksgeist: spiritual and cultural nationalism, focusing on the uniqueness and preciousness of a people’s culture.

·         Could be liberal nationalism – extension of the rights of the individual eg. Mazzini (Italy) – in an era when few understood that nationalism and liberalism were fundamentally opposed.

·         Infectious – the Napoleonic wars (French nationalism) stirred up German nationalism among German romantics opposed to liberal values.

·         Worryingly competitive - German nationalists opposed Polish rights. Nationalists tempted to crush those of other nations.

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REALISM (19C) -

SOURCES – Logical view of the real empirical world

·         New view of art and literature, rejecting the inner values of romanticism.

·         Real world depicted in novels (Romantics had preferred poetry leading to accurate sympathetic portrayal of the poor and/or suffering – literary realism, by major novelists (Flaubert, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dickens,  Zola, Ibsen).

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POSITIVISM (19C) -

SOURCES – Ordered system of science and technology; the Enlightenment view of progress

·         Society to be studied and reorganised along scientific principles as a way to alleviate human problems.

·         Comte – science removing all mystery from nature. Replace organised religion with a Religion of Humanity. Invention of the science of sociology.

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DARWINISM (19C) -

SOURCES – Ordered systems being developed across all sciences; Malthusian idea of a struggle for existence. and food supply.

·         Natural Selection as a process corresponding to evolution over very long periods.

·         Great controversy - young-earth fundamentalists against non-Christians and other Christians.

·         Non-Christians use controversy as a convenient way to attack faith and religion.

·         In time, most religious thinkers are able to reconcile the arguments.

·         Result for Christians: the core arguments of Christianity become more dependent on pure faith.

·         Neo-Darwinism – in the 20C, this added the results of the science of genetics to Darwinism.

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SOCIAL DARWINISM (19-20C)

·         “Social Darwinism” – social thinkers recklessly applid the scientific concepts of Darwinism to social and economic issues.

·         Leaders of industry (Rockefeller) accept that business can be seen as a “survival of the fittest”, as a law of nature.

·          Social reforms are not a good idea insofar as they favour the least fit.

·         Social Darwinism concepts were used cruelly by totalitarian regimes in 20C.

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MARXISM (19C) -

SOURCES – Enlightenment view of goodness and perfectibility of human nature, and of need for full realization of human talents; rational view of society; Hegel’s view of purposeful history

Marx –

·         Seizure of power by working class and destruction of capitalism – deeply opposed to liberal values.

·         Value focused on the economic system, not on the value of the individual.

·         Rejection of Hegel’s higher Spirit in favour of a focus on real world problems.

·         Rejection of Hegel’s dialectical clash of ideas in favour of a clash of classes - dialectical materialism

·         Successive rise of different classes to the top through defeating earlier ruling groups.

·         Ensure control of the means of production.

·         The ruling class imposes its moral or religious standards to disguise its economic interests.

·         Rejection of the currently ruling capitalism which dehumanized both capitalists and workers.

·         Thus rejection of religion as a mere sop, in favour of revolution.

·         Classless society to liberate individuals free from exploitation.

·         Marxism did not fit the historical facts – workers’ main allegiance is in practice to their nations

·         Marxism did not predict the increased productivity and wealth that developed.

·         Marxism developed a religious quality that blinded its adherents.

·         Bernstein – rejected Marxism’s prediction of capitalist collapse as not happening.  Insisted non-economic factors were also important. Looked for a peaceful transition – his views in the West contributed to democratic socialism. Opposed by Kautsky who was orthodox Marxist.

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ANARCHISM (19C) –

·         Proudhon – peaceful anarchism: had aim of returning to a free pre-industrial society where workers had dignity.

·         Bakunin – rejected Marx’s mass political parties in favour of secret societies for violent terrorism. Predicted correctly that socialist revolution would lead to state power being intensified.

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LENINISM (RUSSIAN MARXIST REVISIONISM) (20C) –

·         Russia was still feudal so a socialist revolution (to overthrow capitalism which was to have followed feudalism) would logically be premature.

·         Neither progressive reform nor a proletariat revolution would work – the proletariat cannot be trusted to understand their true class needs.

·         Clever leaders must inspire revolution, then educate the working class to develop a proper class consciousness.

·         Democratic ideals had no intrinsic value – individuals must be sacrificed if necessary.

·         The leadership must hold control – totalitarianism – in order to free the proletariat from control and oppression…!

·         Ruthless removal of “enemies of the state” – starting with all other sorts of left-winger.

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BRITISH LIBERALISM AND SOCIALISM (19C) –

SOURCES – Liberal commitment to rights of individual and the free market; late 19C realisation of the human problems of industrialization - despite the advantages of an independent work ethic and the problems of state over-support.

John Stuart Mill –

·         Socially conscious liberalism - defence of individual freedom of thought and expression.

·         Restriction in passing on of wealth. Workers given respect by being involved in production.

·         Green et al – assist the self-development of the great majority of the population. Government has moral obligation to improve social conditions. Good government requires motivated citizens. The state has a moral and ethical dimension.

·         Herbert Spencer – a social Darwinist opposed to state aid to the poor.

Fabian Socialism (G B Shaw et al) -

·         Socialism naturally evolving from liberalism. Provision of state aid to a standard level fair to all, to free all in society. State socialism nationalising key industries and services . . . but the Fabians failed to realise states can exploit even more than private industry.

Feminism -

·         Mary Wollstonecraft – emancipate women who would then be better citizens

·         Pankhursts – Militancy in the liberal tradition.

Labour Party in Britain (1900) –

·         Working class originally looked to Liberals until Labour was formed (1900) – Keir Hardie

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IRRATIONALISM (19C) –

SOURCES – Rejection of Enlightenment human rationality

·         Reason is weak; the irrational is creative; the irrational is more reliable, perhaps even in violence.

Nietzsche –

·         The “dethronement of reason” and glorification of the irrational. Confusing writings which were easily distorted and exploited by the Nazis.

·         Life is full of cruelty and injustice, and irrational. The strong face reality and the weak make up fables.

·         Greek culture was based on passion and myth, and killed by reason and by Socrates.

·         Mocked all liberal, progressive, Christian, democratic, rational views and standards of good and evil.

·         Religion is a myth and nothing is true. God, man’s own creation, is dead. Christian belief and morality are a mask and Christianity morality must be obliterated.

·         A class of Superman or Overman must arise to save Europe, asserting himself as his own master. Supermen cast off all established values and restrictions.

·         The rejection of God meant a catastrophe in an amoral age of violent and sordid nihilism.

·         Nietzsche’s views were not constructive and helped no social policy, and helped WWII and WWII.

·         Schopenhauer – Beneath the intellect is the striving will, the real determinant of human behaviour. Its success lies between pain and boredom

Dostoevsky –

·         Humans are inherently depraved, irrational and rebellious. The Underground Man is a rebel.

·         People should not be robots in a rigorously regulated social order.

·         But unbridled freedom is disastrous; freedom is a burden that human beings may not be able to tolerate. The masses may prefer to be dominated. Christian love and altruism are the best guides.

·         Bergson – Intuition is better than science. The mind is not just a collection of atoms.

·         Sorel – A nonrational myth could be used for political ends, inspiring the proletariat potentially to strikes and violence (as a “social poetry” that inspired them to rebel). Violence was necessary. His views inspired Mussolini, although Sorel wanted worker power and Mussolini state power.

Freud –

SOURCES – Enlightenment view of human rationality; the power and influence of nonrational drives

·         Our conscious thoughts are controlled by hidden forces (unconscious impulses); these must be scientifically controlled. No knowledge from revelation or intuition. Evil is rooted in human nature.

·         External acts underlain by inner psychic reality. Childhood fears banished from conscious memory.

·         The subconscious id, if denied an outlet for its energy, causes frustration and anger.

·         Civilization imposes rules as our superego.  We are caught between the demands of it and our id.

·         Man is wolf to man, We have an aggressive desire to dominate, above all sexually. Human beings have little good about them.  

·         Truth based on scientific analysis of human nature leads via reason to social improvement.

·         We must show greater care for the emotional needs of children.

·         Marxism is based on an illusive idealization of human nature.

Jung –

·         Rejected Freud’s emphasis on sexuality.

·         Defined people as introverts or extroverts.

·         Underneath each individual unconscious is a deeper collective one identical to all, a common psychic substrate derived from common evolution.

·         Religious feelings are central to the human psyche and loss of them is distressing. Modern men and women suffer from a sense of religious emptiness. An inner subconscious journey is necessary.

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SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT (19C-20C) –

·      Problem of how society can preserve coherence and individual value in a regimented irreligious age.

·      Durkheim – People pursuing individualism demand the chance to progress. They suffer collapse of norms and values (“anomie”). Disoriented, they demand more and religion now offers no restraint. A rational system of morals must be discovered. People need to feel they belong to something.

·      Mosca – Ruling elites are inevitable in all societies. Collectivism and (sadly) democracy both thus fail.

·      Pareto – people are nonlogical and the ruling class must rule with cunning and possibly violence.

·      Le Bon – In “the era of crowds”, mass psychology overrides individual conscience and the mob responds to a fanatical leader. Mussolini and Hitler agreed.

·      Wallas – Voters in elections are significantly irrational so liberals are wrong to rely on universal suffrage.

·      Max Weber – Highly rational and organized Western society grew out of Protestantism. Now secularization has produced individual liberation and individual dehumanization. People may react nonrationally by following a charismatic leader.

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MODERNISM (20C) –

SOURCES – Rebellion against tradition in art and literature, analogous to Freudian rejection of Enlightenment view of society.

·         A restatement and expansion of the Romantic movement, with much increased introspection.

·         Abandonment of convention – breakup of the traditional unity and continuity of Western culture.

·         Writers – Rimbaud, Proust, Joyce, DH Lawrence, Kafka. Musicians – Stravinksy, Schoenberg.

·         Reality different to different observers. “Stream of consciousness” thinking.

·         Pessimism (from Schopenhauer, see earlier) and revulsion at the world.

·         Impressionism in art – Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Degas, Renoir: momentary impressions of life in an industrial world. Then Post-Impressionism – Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Munch, Matisse, Picasso, Kandinsky: even more personal impressions of reality.

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RELATIVITY AND EINSTEIN (20C) –

SOURCES – The atom no longer indivisible, from the work of James Clerk Maxwell (electromagnetism); Röntgen (X-rays); Becquerel (radioactivity); Thomson (the electron.

·         A second Scientific Revolution

·         Planck – Quantum Theory: rejected classical physical concept of continuous action in nature.

·         Einstein – Special Relativity – all radiant energy is quantised and related to mass and the speed of light. Observations depend on the observer’s state. Time and space only exist insofar as material things do.

·         Bohr – Newton’s physics cannot explain the atom.

·         Heisenberg – Absolute prediction or measurement is impossible (Uncertainty Principle).

·         All information is imperfect. We have to treat our limited understanding with humility. All (earthly) knowledge is limited. (Bronowski).

·         Twentieth century disorientation – result of the work of Darwin, Freud, modernism and Einstein. The 20C started with some liberal Enlightenment optimism but that world-view was struggling and in danger of being wiped out by increasing irrationalism and nationalism. Everything would face testing by shaking.

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POLITICAL IRRATIONALISM (20C) –

·         Rejection of shallow intellectualism. Irrational quest for the heroic.

·         Nationalism presented as a triumph of idealism over materialism.

·         Social Darwinism added the particularly dangerous idea of superior and inferior races, particularly the Teutonic and the Anglo-Saxon.

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1.     GERMAN VOLKISH THOUGHT (20C) –

·         Rejection of Enlightenment thinking and parliamentary democracy.

·         Glorification of ancient German tradition and culture , with a unique heroic history.

·         Riehl, Auerbach, Lagarde , Langbehn – idealised German peasantry, rejected Jews.

·         Wagner – glorified a pre-Christian Germanic past, supported Germanized religion and racism.

·         Racial theory – descent from ancient Aryans with superior racial features.

·         Gobineau – “the Father of Racism” (19C).

·         Houston Chamberlain – claimed Christ was Aryan, not Jewish. Forerunner of Nazism.

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2.     ANTI-SEMITISM (20C) –

·         Jew-hatred seen as a popular formula in Germany. Propagated for German nationalist reasons.

·         Christian anti-Semitism – irrational mediaeval hatred, a background still persisting.

·         Modern anti-Semitism – irrational dislike driven by success of Jews in banking, etc.

·         World Jewish conspiracy myths – widely believed.

·         Racial anti-Semitism (which is unavoidable) overtook religious anti-Semitism (which could be cancelled by conversion). Became a pure racist view.

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3.     WORLD WAR I (20C) –

·         Driven by belligerent nationalism and irrational sense of war as an ennobling celebration and purging. Rejection of liberal values.

·         Nationalist passions, overheated by the popular press, poisoned international relations. National power and militarism celebrated.

·         Failure to understand the brutal and dangerous sort of war modern technology would fuel.

·         International struggle took precedence even over social struggle even for liberals and socialists.

·         Nobody tried hard to prevent what was expected to be a short, decisive, gallant conflict.

·         The war deepened the spiritual crisis, not cured it. It seemed to doom Western civilization.

·         “European civilization had been weighed in the balance and found wanting.” (AJP Taylor).

·         See section on “World War Era Art and Thought” later.

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4.     THE RISE OF FASCISM (20C) –

SOURCES – Millions brutalized by military experience and propaganda, making recruits for extremist political movements that replicated wartime fellowship and action. Others wanted “peace at any price” and discouraged resistance to fascism. Economic dislocation and political instability.Impatience.

·         Cultural and intellectual pessimism led to irrational anti-democratic ideologies.

·         Irrational attraction of a strong military dictatorship to restore national pride and control.

·         Succeeded best in countries with weak democratic traditions.

·         Liberals were accused of despiritualizing human beings into materialist money-makers. Intellectual analysis and liberal reasoning accused of causing doubt and weakness.

·         Deeply opposed to Marxist class conflict because that divided the nation.

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5.     HITLER (20C) –

·         Nazional Socialism driven by German Volk mythology which made it more powerful than Italian nationalist fascism.

·         World-view of a thousand-year Reich. Not just a brilliant tactician.

·         Directly opposed Christian doctrine of individual value with his doctrine of individual nothingness and the immortality of the nation.

·         Rejected Marxism as a Jewish invention and aimed to prevent its triumph.

·         Supported Kultur (mystical bond to the nation) as distinct from civilization.

·         Divided the world into superior and inferior races. Germans must have Lebensraum.

·         Regarded Jews as the worst enemy, s source of Hebrew individual morality. And made them a simple emotionally satisfying object of hatred – destroyed other peoples’ critical judgement and objectivity.

·         Perfection of propaganda and showman techniques, simple slogans endlessly repeated.

·         Particularly, he believed utterly in himself. We must never centre our faith in ourselves.

·         His followers were mystics who embraced the Nazi view with religious fanaticism.

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TOTALITARIANISM (20C) –

·         Control over all phases of an individual’s consciousness and actions. Different from ancient despotisms, a new phenomenon. “Historically unique and sui generis” (Brzezinski).

·         Overriding importance of the leader and the cult surrounding him. The Fuehrer knew what was best and his power was unrestricted. Stalin was a god to the new communist religion, and millions wept when he died despite his murdering millions.

·         Isolated and alienated human beings need a sense of belonging

·         Aims to create a “New Man”, a true believer stirred by mission.

·         Ideology politicizes and invades every aspect of life and there is no distinction between private and public life; the state involves itself in all.

·         Human beings were made to need a purpose and totalitarianism offers one.

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THE HOLOCAUST (20C) –

·         Immense power of the irrational. The sub-man is utterly vile: eliminate like bacteria.

·         Aimed to remove the very root of the West’s ethical tradition, which came from Judaism and Christianity.

·         Utter obedience - to what the state had legally authorized - blinded most to their actions. Mass murderers need not be psychopaths. Ordinary people can commit demonic acts.

·         The commanders were among the most highly educated Germans, used to high culture.

·         The Holocaust was a consequence of dethroning God and making humans and human nature the ultimate power. But it also deceived many religious believers who took part too. Enlightenment and Christian traditions both failed.

·         Note: in Perry’s view, the holocaust was thus a religious (ideological) war. He quotes a Catholic priest: “Ethical Judaism invented and introduced, through Christianity in particular, an ethic of absolute respect for life, of the equal worth … of man. It invented, as Hitler himself said, ‘Conscience’. This ethic is totally incompatible with the idea of a hierarchy of races.”

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WORLD WAR ERA ART AND THOUGHT (20C) –

·         Post WWI anxiety, uncertainty and crisis of consciousness forced thinkers to consider better destinations, such as:

1)      the Soviet experiment;

2)      reaffirming the enlightenment liberal- rational-humanist tradition;

3)      antidemocratic ideas;

4)      a return to Christianity.

·         Postwar pessimism – A “broken world” in which “All the great words were cancelled for that generation” (D. H. Lawrence).

·         International hope rose  (League of Nations) but the Great Depression and further totalitarianism dampened it.

·         Negative views of the future from Freud, Schweitzer, Huxley, Hemingway, Yeats, Eliot, Steinbeck, Orwell and Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front.

·         Spengler (The Decline of the West) – the death of the West could not be averted.

·         Modernism – intellectual flowering in the writings of Proust, Gide, Joyce, DH Lawrence, Kafka, Eliot, Mann

·         Dadaism (Dada is a nonsense term) – revulsion of war and contempt for both God and reason.

·         Surrealism – succeeded Dadaism, stressing fantasy and Freudian insights to arrive at truths beyond reason’s grasp.

·         Artists picture terror – Picasso’s Guernica and Chagall.

·         Antidemocratic thought – in Germany, attacking the Weimar Republic, led to National Socialism. In England, it built on the earlier views of Burke, Carlyle and an elitist scorn of democracy for undermining cultural values.

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SOVIET COMMUNISM (20C) –

·         Attracted intellectuals desperate for an alternative to troubled democracy.

·         Koestler – supported Soviet communism against the Nazi horde until Stalin’s purges.

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THE CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW REAFFIRMED (20C) -

SOURCES – Rejection of liberal belief in the essential goodness of human nature, the primacy of reason, the efficacy of science, the inevitability of progress. Reaffirming of harmony of faith and reason (Thomas Aquinas).

·         Alternative view of human experience and history – Barth, Dawson, Tillich, Niebuhr, Maritain, TS Eliot.

·         History as a clash between human will and God’s command provided an explanation for the 20C.

·         Toynbee – a civilization’s breakdown provides opportunity for spiritual growth. Nationalism is a primitive religion which encourages people to revere the national community rather than God. Liberal humanism is too feeble to restrain this. Technology is another idol which human beings have misused.

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FREEDOM AND REASON REAFFIRMED (20C) -

·         Benda, Gasset, Cassirer, Fromm – Intellectuals have failed, masses have taken control, rational humanist ethics must be reaffirmed.

Orwell –

·         Reason, human dignity and freedom menaced by concentration and abuse of political power. He satirized unquestioning acceptance of “the Party” and acceptance of “Doublethink” where objective truth no longer exists.

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PHILOSOPHIES (20C) -

Pragmatism –

SOURCES – Rejection of Hegel’s metaphysical formula.

·         William James – ideas possess truth and there are no absolutes.

·         Dewey – Thought is what we apply to current issues; science is our greatest achievement. Principles must justify themselves by advancing social progress. Democracy should be improved by education.

Logical positivism –

SOURCES – Hume’s empiricism and scientific method; rejection of metaphysics.

·         Schlick, Carnap, Neurath, Hahn, Goedel – scientific method as way to knowledge.

·         Wittgenstein – Philosophy should not go beyond what can meaningfully be said. It offers no truth or picture of reality. Theology, metaphysics, ethics, etc. are nonsensical because they go beyond facts and what can be said.

·         Ryle, Ayer drew on the ideas of Bertrand Russell (who wanted language to have the precision of mathematics) and Moore (who said metaphysical statements were not common sense).

·         Held that the Verifiability Principle means that question like “Does God exist” cannot be tested and so are meaningless.

·         Metaphysics gives the illusion of knowledge without actually giving any knowledge.

·         Unlike pragmatism, did not reject the idea of truth itself.

·         Logical positivism cannot help acquire knowledge but can clarify the language used in the process.

Analytic philosophy –

·         Logical positivism was absorbed into it. Dealt with linguistic analysis.

·         Now seen as sterile – language games.

Phenomenology –

·         Husserl – protested against the rejection of absolute truth. Derived from reason, norms and values give ultimate purpose and meaning to life.

·         Systematic scientific study of consciousness and how we know things.

·         Idea of the “life-world” – how meaning is acquired from our daily experiences.

Existentialism –

·         Reality is beyond comprehension; reason is inadequate and participation is important; thought must translate into deeds; human nature is unique to each; existence is absurd and incomprehensible; In facing up to this we gain freedom.

·         19C forerunners were Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky and Nietzsche.

·         Kierkegaard – Christian existentialism: we are God’s creatures but can know Him not through reflection but only by commitment. We must believe by faith without needing logic.

·         Marcel, Beryaev – Christians; Buber – Jew; Heidegger, Jaspers – did not discuss God; Sartre – atheist.

·         Heidegger – the authentic life encompasses the feelings as well as the intellect.

·         Jaspers – philosophy and science cannot produce certainty. The individual can choose to be truly human.

·         Sartre, (Camus, Beauvoir )– influenced by resistance to Nazis. Evil is unredeemable. We must choose our own ethics and define our own lives. We choose how we live and that may liberate us or let others trap us. Sartre later tried to combine existentialism with Marxism.

·         Camus – existence is absurd but moralistic humanism is a worthwhile response to the absurdity of life.

·         Religious existentialism – active engagement with and love for others reveals God to us.

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POSTMODERNISM (1970s-)

SOURCES – Irrationalism and existentialism; a rejection of modernist hope of progress and the scientific metanarrative.

·         A rejection of the standardized patterns of modern life.

·         A profound pessimistic rejection of the prospect of science, industry or politics solving all problems.

·         Began as a rejection of standardized architecture, and an embracing of diversity in that and art.

·         Also used as a description for structuralism and poststructuralism. These are a fundamental break with the humanist tradition that led to the Enlightenment which was based on the autonomous self and independent reason.

Structuralism (1960s-)

·         Followed existentialism. The structure of the human mind underlies all cultural expression.

·         Chomsky - The deep structures of all languages resemble each other.

·         Aimed to learn the deep hidden structures or properties that underlie literature, myth and social relations.

·         Levi-Strauss – all cultural modes are related enabling us to see society as an organic whole. These could help us to learn the essence or structure of the mind itself.

·         Claimed human beings are not self-determining but agents of the universal mental structures. Structuralism has therefore been called antihumanistic. History has no over-arching patterns.

·         Faded and led to poststructuralism.

Poststructuralism (1970s-)

·         Diminished importance of the individual. It believes attainment of truth is not possible either.

·         Foucault, Leonard, Derrida - Postmodernists / poststructuralists deny any rational process of history – “incredulousness towards metanarratives”.

·         Linked to Deconstruction of literature which denies language can say what an author means. Authors are controlled by their words and used by ideologies. Texts can have no correct meaning. “Death of the author” and “death of the subject”. Moral judgements, and understanding of reality and society, are impossible. Fundamental ideas are fraudulent or obsolete. Deconstructionism merely takes things apart to no useful purpose.

·         Postmodernists reject all universal principles and seek the dismantling of all systems and beliefs. All interpretations are subjective.

·         The recognition that we live in a centreless universe produces creative cultural diversity and exciting plasticity in lifestyles.

·         This reduces the danger of loyalty to cruel ideologies of totalitarianism and political fanaticism.

·         But it promotes a dangerous nihilism in which anything is possible.

·         The Permissive Era – the 1960s onward undermining of traditional values which has led to the large-scale silencing of the voice of religion, tradition and moral guidance in sexual ethics in the West.

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HUMAN RIGHTS (20C-21C) -

·         Civil rights in the US (culminating in a black president) and women’s rights movements (led earlier by de Beauvoir) have achieved relative maturity and increasing success.

·         Equality continues to triumph and has extended to controversial and surprising areas, and the humanly valuable extent of its final reach as a concept has become a dividing question.

·         Multicultural diversity became a liberal aim but has often failed as communities refuse to mix.

·         Political correctness and “appropriateness” have become derided as well as celebrated terms as society divides over their value.

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NEW ATHEISM COMPARED WITH RECENT SCIENCE

SOURCES – The continuing metanarrative of modern science; a principled rejection within science of the Postmodern abolition of metanarratives

·         Traditional atheism refuses to abandon its own metanarrative (following the end of the great  Age of Atheism and its totalitarian regimes which existed for 200 years between the French Revolution (1789) and the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989)

·         Strong overlap with secular humanism.

·         Stephen Hawking – cosmology aims to be an explanation for everything.

·         Richard Dawkins – the concept of selfishness in biological evolution and a rejection of altruism (1970s-80s). But a rebuke to the popular concept of totally random evolution in favour of strictly (mathematically) controlled evolution. A “meme” as a unit of cultural (rather than genetic) transmission.

·         Sam Harris – attack on religion because of 9/11.

·         Tom Flynn – New Atheism is neither a movement nor new, merely a publishing phenomenon.

·         Frans de Waal – Rejection of Dawkin’s “selfish gene” as primate research reveals empathy is inherent in mammals (2010 on) – the “self-other” distinction which gives no personal evolutionary benefit. Morality comes from within, and is part of human nature. The role of religion is secondary. Empathy underlies all human society.

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THE ELECTRONIC AGE (1980s-)

·         Our striving for maximum efficiency has created a monster that can ruin our planet, destroy our bodies and deaden our spirits, causing stress and boredom.

·         Critical theorists – denounced both Soviet and capitalist technocracy for obliterating individuality.

·         Despair due to the feeling that hard work no longer leads to success.

The Internet Era and the Age of Communications

·         The internet and data revolution and the immense advances in communications have exposed  all facts and information to the common view causing privacy stress, a loss of a sense of personal uniqueness, a gross over-confidence in our abilities and remarkable expectations all round. Thus doctors now assume their patients will have researched their own cases before consulting them.

·         The headiness of the power of modern electronics is exhilarating and difficult for many to handle.

·         But a huge rise in access to knowledge has raised very many out of oppressed situations, and national affairs are now known to the whole world, hindering persecution. 

·         Email, mobile phones and social media have made nearly all communication possible, and made many spend immense amounts of time trying to influence others.

·         Photography and image availability means all the world is now a goldfish bowl, which is disturbing.

Globalisation

·         Crime has become global and often uncontrollable by individual states, which  impacts the vulnerable more than ever.

·         Globalisation has raised living standards but destroyed local and traditional industries. For the developed nations it acts as a reversal of colonialization, exporting wealth.

Environmentalism

·         Global warming has come to dominate international science and politics as the highest threat for the majority who believe in its existence.

·         The other three big environmental problems, waste of resources, pollution and loss of biodiversity, (all exacerbated by overpopulation), also dominate the scientific mind.

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POSTMODERN POLITICS AND WARS

The Collapse of Communism

·         Regimes across Europe and the Soviet zone break away and many choose to become democratic  free states with freedom of worship.

Ethnic Cleansing

·         The ugliest side of Nationalism, in Rwanda, Bosnia and later in Sunni/Shia conflict.

Islamic Fundamentalism, Neo-Conservatism and Isolationism (1990s- )

·         Fundamentalism – Islam divided and part of it reduced to a philosophy of violent revolution.

·         Radical Islamic terrorism, increasingly towards an Islamic State or Caliphate.

·         Neo-conservatism – A responsive American military philosophy, leading to constant conflict.

The Arab Spring, Migration and Economies

·         Democratic uprisings shook or overturned autocratic governments across the Middle East. But they often get diverted or hijacked.

·         Migrant workers seen as essential to fading Western economies. Yet economic migrants unpopular.

·         Civil war-driven migration on immense scale disturbs Western government itself.

Populism, Post-truth Politics and European Values (21C) –

·         Populism – mass protest against liberal centralization (despite its economic benefits) due to increasing petty legal burden and to pressure from human migration. Demand for simpler life in an over-regulated age, and self-government. A huge levelling of society has meant that experience is less respected especially in politics, which is destabilising.

·         Post-truth politics – fake news incites further populism among many who no longer trust their leaders and incline instead to conspiracy theory. Brexit and Trumpism.

·         European politics and the Euro project in danger of fragmenting. Liberal values are fiercely defended against a growing rejection.

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WHAT CAN BE EXPECTED NEXT…?

·         Philosophy – further descent into meaninglessness and nihilism?

·         Ideology – a spiritual vacuum – and nature abhors a vacuum…?

·         Politics – increasing nationalism, isolationism and conflict?

·         Information – increasing belief in a “conspiracy-led” world?

·         Democracy – undermined by technology but still fought for?

·         Communication – a “life noise background” that leaves many overwhelmed or cut off?

·         Science – faster and faster progress?

·         Health – more and more success, but less and less available to all?

·         Society – further disenchantment of the less well off?

·         Global – increasing distress and suffering, unevenly spread?

·         Environment – potential of huge serious or sudden degradation?

·         Christian action – constant challenge to protect the casualties of life?

·         Christian witness – great opportunity to offer hope to those seeking certainty?