#🏖️Universe-Humans
The Big Idea
Collection of thoughts about where we are in the course of history and philosophy
How We Got Here
The Enlightenment as the Birthplace of Modernity
The revolutionary period from the late seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century in Europe and America—represented a philosophical, intellectual, and religious shift from the historical Christian understanding of faith and reason.
Key Philosophers
- René Descartes (1596-1650) is an early influence putting forward the famous phrase: “I think, therefore I am.” Which can be found in his 1637 Discourse on the Method. He focuses truth and existence all on the fact that humans think and have reason.
- German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), encouraged people to think in a manner entirely independent of prior traditions.
- Enlightenment ideals were developed in the essays of John Locke (1632–1704).
- Thomas Paine’s (1737–1809) “Common Sense,” “Rights of Man,” and “The Age of Reason” and Thomas Jefferson’s (1743–1826) Declaration of Independence are notable representations of Enlightenment ideals.
- Benjamin Franklin(1706–90) championed the ideas of the Enlightenment, especially those of individual liberty, religious toleration, and the free agency of man.
- The French philosopher Voltaire (1694–1778) was an avowed advocate of Enlightenment and modernist thought. In his Philosophical Dictionary (1764), he criticized historical-traditional institutions and religion, aiming to demystify the universe and purge supernatural beliefs that clouded true knowledge and understanding. These articulations would later find a developed naturalistic system of thought in Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859).
- The landmark, thirty-five volume Encyclopédie, compiled by Denis Diderot (1713–84), uniquely helped propel Enlightenment thought across Europe and America.
Modernity
Arising out of the Enlightenment is a worldview broadly called “Modernity”. This is the era in which God and religion were set aside as the ultimate sources of knowledge, and they were replaced by science and reason.
Preeminence of Human Reason, Science, and Freedom
- We can figure the whole world out and fix it ourselves using logic put to use through the scientific method.
- We should have total freedom from any old things so that we are totally free to use reason and science without any restrictions.
Deism
- God is the watchmaker that just wound stuff up and stepped back.
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism
- God is there to help me be a good person.
- God is there to take care of my problems and make me feel good.
- God is not directly involved in much of my life.
Human Rights as moral Code Separated from God
- I can assert my right against anyone even God
- Right to life makes life my thing to control not God’s
- Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness - Sounds real close to Moralistic Therapeutic Deism
Inevitability of Progress
- Humans as a species and as societies will always be getting better and better no matter what.Â
Rate of Change - Faster is better
- Society is pictured as always moving away from the bad old to the good new.
Thing Pitted against Each Other
- Science vs Religion
- Church vs State
- Reason vs Superstition or Religion
In the end, the Enlightenment and modernism suffered from their own over-emphasis upon self-actualized reason. Modernity starts to show cracks during the horrors of both World Wars leading to a short revival in Christendom for those seeking to make sense of the world in a more full way. This revival does not last long however in the face of a new “alternative” worldview called Postmodernism.
Postmodernism
People grew weary of the narrow understanding of the world offered by modernism, some turned to faith, but many turned to the emotional life. This would result in the Romanticism of the nineteenth century. Seen in things like the sexual revolution, LGBTQ, etc.
Questioning the Validity and Dependability of Human Reason
- Everyone has assumptions and a place they come from so they point out that no one is totally objective in the way that modernity’s science claimed to be. In other words, it is impossible for humans to have an emotionless and unbiased take on things.
- Therefore reason and logic are not valid across people. Each individual has their own internal reason and logic that is valid for them and them alone.
Individual Truths no real Truth
- Since everyone is not objective that means that everyone’s own perspective is different but all valid at the same time.
- Consequently, emotion ends up becoming a large way to “find your truth”.
Antirealism
- Reality is subjectively constructed by human thought and feeling.
- If I feel or think something, then it is real for me and no one can say otherwise.
Break down of Common Truth
- As postmodernism rises and spreads across culture more and more things that are assumed to be objectively true start to break down.
- Basic Morality is questioned and redefined all over the place.
- Science is no longer a stable authority. People end up asking the question “Who’s” science do you believe? We see that breakdown of authority especially after covid.
Dual definition of Tolerance
- Definition One:
- I recognize someone else’s beliefs without sharing them (Worked well in Modernity)
- Definition Two:
- Everyone’s truth claim is equal. What you believe is just a true as what I believe (Works well in Postmodernism and Ancient Rome as long as you sacrificed to the emperor)
- Christian Response:
- We do not just tolerate people, we love even our enemies.
Emerging (Reemerging) World Pictures
Books for Further Reading
How the Light Shines Through: Resilient Witness in Dark Times By Chad Lakies
- Very good grounding for making sense of the current forces behind culture and how our witness in Christ is just as important now as ever. This is a book from Concordia Publishing.
Life’s Big Questions God’s Big Answers by Brad Alles
- A solid apologetics book aimed at youth explaining a lot of the various worldview issues that arise out of Post-Modernism.
All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age by Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly
- Academic Survey of how cultural foundations shifted from the Greco Roman world to the Present. Written by non-Christians but a very good overview.
Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh by Kidd.
- Have not personally read it but outline of Jefferson’s enlightenment philosophy.
A Biblically Lutheran Perspective
Example of Luther on absorbing philosophy that is not from Scripture:
- “44. Indeed, no one can become a theologian unless he becomes one without Aristotle”
- “50. Briefly, the whole Aristotle is to theology as darkness is to light. This is in opposition to the scholastics. ”
Luther’s Works Vol 31: Career of the Reformer. “Disputation Against Scholastic Theology”, PP. 12 Para. 50
Two Kingdoms
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Two Realms
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The Three Estates
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Source Article https://learn.ligonier.org/guides/the-enlightenment-and-modernism