History and Context Journalism Lecture 1 - Renaissance - From Scientific Revival to Descartes' Cogito

The first lecture for the module History and Context Journalism was on the subject of the Renaissance period in which we familiarised ourselves with several philosophers; Plato, Aristotle and Descartes to name a few and formed a very brief understanding of the Renaissance period itself. 

Florence coat of arms

The Renaissance period began in the 14th century in Florence, Italy and later spread throughout Europe when Scholars in both North and South Europe became more interested in the world around them. There are three main divisions in the periods of history during the middle ages; the classical period, the medieval period, and the modern period. During this time it is thought that there was a huge deviation from classical learning, the Renaissance was the beginning of its rebirth; hence the translation of the French word 'Renaissance' meaning 'rebirth'. You could argue that the Renaissance was the beginning of modern history itself; it was a desperate attempt to combine the classical world with Christian teachings, it completely revolutionised politics, literature, science, philosophy, art and religion, it was the self-conscious rejection of tradition and scholastic-ism, it argued more for a humanist world view. The idea that "Man is the measure of all things" (Protagoras) up until this point man and the body was seen as a fallen creature, in need of salvation. 


The North of Europe was much more pessimistic, unlike the south who were hostile to scholasticism, the north tried to combine Christianity and classical learning.Although the scientific renaissance held other opinions, Gallielo argued that the bible shouldn't influence science. He followed Pythagoras who put the idea of numbers at the centre of understanding, he believed you could understand the universe through numbers. Gallielo believed that "nature was the book of god and it is written in the language of mathematics". 

Portrait of Galileo Galilei by Giusto Sustermans

Machiavelli however, were representative of southern Renaissance humanism, he formed the beginning of political science.He was fascinated with political rarity and had an intense ambition to see the Medici family assume a similar role in Italy as former royalty. Machiavelli used a ration approach avoiding getting involved in ethics and morals to write 'the prince' a guide to the Medici rulers of Florence. He claims 'It is better to be feared than loved, for fear is constant and love is fickle'.In 1527, Machiavelli died which was followed by the end of the Italian Renaissance.

Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli by Santi di Tito

During the Renaissance we see the age of discovery begin when Christopher Columbus departed Spain on August 2nd 1942 on a voyage in which the 'new world' was sighted on 2am on 12th October later that year. Columbus' contract, with conformation of his discovery, was abided by he was made Admiral of the Ocean Sea and began the owner of 10% of any new found wealth, however this never really worked out as he planed. Travel tales became a mundane tradition; one example is Moore's 'Utopia', a fantasy in which he describes the 'ideal' society. It is based on an imaginary island where all work is for the common good, in forming this country of Utopia, Moore points out many problems that he has seen in society. In the story Moore brings in the idea of dualism proposed by Descartes; "They (the Utopians) reckon up several sorts of pleasures, which they call true ones: some belong to the body and others to the mind."

Portrait after Frans Hals, 1648

Descartes despised Aristotle, he believed his system was full of errors. Descartes is often credited as the "father of modern philosophy"; the basis of his philosophy was to consider anything untrue if it falls to the slightest bit of doubt, this is know as 'the method of doubt' (Cartesian doubt). He came to the conclusion that if he was not to life life under false ideas then he would need to dismantle his entire belief system to begin at an epistemological ground-zero and build it up again. He believed he couldn't rely on anything he has learned from custom or example as it is only relevant to the context it occurs in, the place and the time. 


Descartes believes there is no truth in the presumption that the material universe exists. It was from this point he set out to discover something that lied beyond all doubt. Descartes claimed to only be trying to reinstate his opinions and was not trying to reform or change society, however this seems a little unconvincing and may only have possibly been as attempt to avoid the wrath if the church. He began with the idea of the perfect being, he saw this a proof of God; he claimed if you have a plan for some extremely complicated machine in your head - it would either mean you were genius of someone had give you the plan. He believed his idea of the perfect being can't come from him but only from a being that is of higher power, he began to except his faculties because they were given to him by god who wasn't a deceiver.Whilst overhauling his ideas he simply went along with the most moderate ideas around at the time. 


Descartes' idealism lead the the idea of dualism; the belief that the body is one thing and the mind is another. According to Descartes, the pineal gland in the brain is where the body and mind interact.Finally he reach the conclusion was "I think, therefore I am". Russell claims "this was insanity, and from this extreme philosophy has been attempting ever since to escape the world of everyday common sense".




For me, I found Descartes the most interesting; I enjoyed his argument for the existence of God, it was compelling and in wanting to understand more I have begun to read a book...'Descartes: A very short Introduction by Tom Sorell'