IDST Midterm Flashcards
(39 cards)
Thomas Aquinas
Premodern Thinkers
Pico Della Mirandola
High-born Renaissance Humanist, he exemplifes the modern rejection of the
preRenaissance, Scholastic understanding of human nature. He redefnes what it
means to be human. Whereas Aquinas understood human beings as created for
and destined to pursue beatitude, he argues that human beings are inherently
free and lack any pre-defned end; human beings should discover or even perhaps
invent the meaning of their lives
King James I
New Solomon
Immanuel Kant
Expressed the hopes of the Enlightenment, was a kew intellectual movement that
shaped modernity. The shackles of traditional authority can fnally be broken at
this moment in history, if each person will only have the courage to take individual
responsibility for the care of his or her own mind, spirit, and body. He shares Pico’s
optimism. The public/private distinction will help society reinvent ourselves.
Karl Marx
Argues that German proletariat must reinterpret their struggles not theologically,
but in revolutionary fashion, as indicating their right to become the one class that
represents the interests of all classes. German thought aims at universal human
liberation through a continual process of criticism. The economic base as the
foundation of all our values, including truth, justice, morality, etc.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Post-modern who advocated Life/will to power as the foundation for our fulfllment. Meaning for Humans is derived from our life/will to power. Argued against
Plato/Socrates, advocated for perspectivism. Denied Religion
Francis Bacon
-Highborn Englishman, a Baron
-A Protestant Christian, Humanism
-Focus on Pragmatic Utilitarianism
-Anti-Scholastic
-Anti-Aristotle
-Founder and Architect of the British Royal Society
Socrates and Plato
Modernity can be traced to Socrates belief in objectivity. It is possible to judge the
value of life objectively. Plato wrote the original Atlantis. Presented Atlantis as a
former golden age that was last. Enlightenment is for contemplation and not for
integration
Sigmund Freud
(1856-1939) Born in Moravia to a Jewish Family. Trained as a doctor in Vienna, lived
all over Europe. Founded the International Psychoanalytic Association. Pioneering
Psycologist, theory of mind: id/ego/superego. Both modern in the sense of the
progress and objectivity of science, and postmodern in the sense that he understands there is an ineptitude in it.
Reason (in the
modern sense)
As a border guard for theology. A purifcation of religion.
Optimism
Byproduct of modernity, of general progress in the feld of science and objectivity
Scholasticism
Aquinas’ philosophy that our nature is determined by divine law and natural law.
Renaissance Humanism
The attempt to understand human nature in naturalist terns—i.e. without reference to revealed teachings
Disenchantment/
Demythologization
Nature as mechanical and testable. Byproduct of modern thinking
Pessimism
Byproduct of postmodernism
Superstition
Irrational religion
Protestant Values
(Bacon)
Pragmatic Utilitarianism—focus on what works. Disenchantment and demythologization of nature. Systematic thinking.
Providential Deliverance (Bacon)
Scientific verification of the miracle and explanation.
Secularization
Becoming for skeptical of religion
Progress
Characteristic of modernity, optimistic about the development of science, human
flourishing etc.
Salomon’s House
The purpose of Salomon’s House, or “end of [the] foundation,”[3] is as stated:
“The End of our Foundation is the knowledge of Causes, and secret motions of
things; and the enlarging of the bounds of Human Empire, to the efecting of all
things possible.”[3] Modernist enterprise for gaining objective knowledge about
the world and God through Scientifc discovery.
Debate
Modern use of reason to purify religion.
(The) Enlightenment
“Enlightenment is the human beings emancipation from its self-incurred immaturity”
Scientific/Empirical Method
Byproduct of bacon,
