MindStar

by Michael A Aquino

  emphasis upon vertical elements). Some notable ballads

  and poems ( Nibelungenlied, Parzival, Edda, etc.) were

  composed about this time, and music became somewhat

  more complex in its written formats.

  Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was a Christian cleric

  who ultimately achieved Catholic sainthood by his

  success in reacting to the challenge of Islam and the

  rediscovery of Classical philosophy, particularly that of

  Aristotle, ca. 1140. By 1250 Aristotle's influence had

  become so great that he was referred to as “the

  philosopher”. Hence it was necessary to refine

  Catholicism to an intellectual precision comparable with

  that of Aristotle, and also to make Aristotle's more

  secular/scientific works tolerable to the church through a

  flattering interpretation of them.

  Invoking Aristotle's argument for an “unmoved

  mover”, Aquinas suggests that the necessity for a “first

  cause” logically proves the existence of God. This was

  later to be challenged by David Hume (who suggests that

  causes and effects can go forward or backward

  indefinitely) and Immanuel Kant (who maintains that the

  doctrine of causality is applicable only to the realm of

  sense experience).

  Aquinas observes that Aristotle had advocated the

  principle that the “good” to be found on a large scale is

  better than the “good” to be found on a purely personal

  scale, since the larger good more closely approximates

  and reflects the whole of creation.

  For non-human animals the “good” consists of

  sensual pleasure, but for mankind something more is

  sought. However, following the doctrine of his

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  predecessor, Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Aquinas

  respected a distinction between the exaltation of God

  (Augustine’s “City of God”) and the lesser station of

  mankind (“City of Man”). Aquinas saw man’s mission as,

  while tied to his own City, to ever yearn for that of God. It

  was not an achievable telos, or even a visualizable one,

  because of mankind’s post-Edenic sinfulness -

  redeemable only by the intercession (“Grace”) of Christ.

  So mankind’s redemption lies beyond this life: the

  vision of God. The aim of incarnate life is thus “not

  merely to live in virtue, but rather through virtuous life to

  attain to the enjoyment of God”. Since natural human

  virtue is insufficient to attain this, it is not the task of

  secular rulers but rather that of Christ through his

  church, to whose pope “all kings in Christendom should

  be subject”.

  In addition to the Aristotelian content of Aquinas’

  thought, there is the legalistic element: The OU is

  obedient to laws. Aquinas defined “law” as “an ordinance

  of reason for the common good, made by him who has

  the care of the community, and promulgated”.

  But as nature is hierarchically organized into forms

  and organisms of greater and lesser complexity, so are

  the universal laws.

  At the top is Eternal Law, which more or less

  equates with the mind of God. Accordingly it is

  intelligible only to God.

  Next is Natural Law, which is Eternal Law to the

  extent that human reason can detect consistencies in it.

  Here would be found “scientific laws”.

  While Natural Law is comprehended through reason,

  Divine Law is identified by religious revelation -

  through Christ and the Christian church. Divine Law and

  Natural Law “rank” more or less side-by-side.

  Lowest on the scale is Human Law, a term which

  encompasses laws which mankind makes in imitation of

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  and towards the “good” perceived in/revealed by Natural

  and Divine Law. The “three drives” which tempt man

  away from goodness are wealth, carnal pleasure, and

  honor/status. Hence the “three virtues” are poverty,

  chastity, and obedience.

  It is the defining irony of Judæo-Christianity that it

  acknowledges “free will” only to condemn it as the

  “original [and ultimate] sin”. Mankind unaided cannot

  escape its curse; the species’ only course is to obey and

  imitate God’s laws, with the hope that this will win the

  Grace of Christ.

  This same demonization of individual consciousness

  and its free will occurs in the other conventional religions

  as well. In Buddhism, for instance, it is condemned as

  anatta, or “not-self”, which must be annihilated for the

  devotee to attain obliteration and absorption into the OU

  ( nirvana).

  7. Reformation:

  Crisis of Theological Determinism

  By 1500, as a consequence of the invention of the

  printing press, Europe possessed an estimated 9 million

  books, as opposed to fewer than 100 thousand hand-

  wrought manuscripts ca. 1450. The exchange of ideas was

  accelerated, and with it criticism of religious, political,

  and social norms.

  The Reformation, usually dated ca. 1517 to ca. 1648

  (end of the Thirty Years' War), was a 16th century

  religious movement aimed at correcting real or assumed

  abuses in the Roman Catholic Church, and marked

  ultimately by rejection of the supremacy of the pope,

  rejection or modification of much of Roman Catholic

  doctrine, and establishment of the Protestant churches.

  The Reformation's key proponents were Martin Luther

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  (1483-1546) in Germany and John Calvin (1509-1564) in

  Switzerland.

  While there were a number of sub-movements

  throughout Europe, they generally agreed upon

  Fundamental Christianity as characterized by (1) the

  finality and ultimate authority of the Bible, (2) denial of

  the authority of the church bureaucracy to interpret the

  Bible, (3) repudiation of reason and affirmation of faith

  instead, (4) condemnation of the use of force for religious

  conversion, and (5) “the two realms” [spiritual grace and

  political power] concept, which licenses unChristian acts

  if commanded by secular authority.

  To these essentially Lutheran points Calvin adds a

  strong element of church coercion of the individual and

  intolerance of alternative religions. “God makes plain that

  the false prophet is to be stoned without mercy. We are to

  crush beneath our heel all affections of nature when His

  honor is involved.”

  Luther and Calvin believed that mankind is totally

  depraved - that even “good works” fall short of God's

  standards of righteousness. The reason for ethical

  behavior is that a righteous man will automatically

  incline towards such behavior, not because it is logically

  or ethically justified in itself. Salvation is attainable only

  by complete surrender of the self to Christ.

  This constitutes a rejection of medieval scholasticism,

  and of the “logical ethics” arguments of Aristotle (“this

  damned, conceited, rascally heathen” - Luther) andr />
  Aquinas. “Reason” is mistrusted and even condemned.

  Concerning the two kingdoms Calvin stated: “Let us

  observe that in man government is twofold: the one

  spiritual, by which the conscience is trained to piety and

  divine worship; the other civil, by which the individual is

  instructed in those duties which as men and citizens we

  are bound to perform. To these two forms are commonly

  given the not-inappropriate names of spiritual and

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  temporal jurisdiction, intimating that the former species

  has reference to the life of the soul, while the latter relates

  to matters of the present life, not only to food and

  clothing, but to the enacting of laws which require a man

  to live among his fellows purely, honorably, and

  moderately. The former has its seat within the soul; the

  latter only regulates external conduct. We call the one the

  spiritual, the other the temporal kingdom.”

  Calvin avoided prescribing the best form of

  government, feeling that this is a question for secular

  authorities to decide. Luther considered collective

  governments to magnify human corruption, hence he

  favored monarchies.

  Against Catholicism Luther and Calvin argued the

  autonomy of the state under God. Against radical

  fundamentalists such as the Anabaptists, they argued the

  theological necessity for civil government. Against

  aggressive civil rulers they argued the autonomy of the

  church [in the Protestant sense].

  Calvinism condemned art, Lutheranism tended to

  ignore it, and within Catholicism there was a reaction

  against renditions of nudes, resulting in the defacing or

  alteration of many earlier works. Consequently there

  were few Reformation-era artists of note, with the

  exception of Dürer, Holbein, and El Greco. Artists began

  to work more as professionals, and to produce works for

  secular officials and for the middle classes.

  In the scientific realm Copernicus (d. 1543) asserted

  heliocentrism.

  The greatest support for the Reformation came from

  the secular nobility and the emerging merchant middle

  class. This support was born essentially of the desire by

  these groups to rid themselves of the economic burden of

  the papacy and its subordinate echelons.

  In time the Reformation provoked the Catholic

  “Counter-Reformation”, a somewhat desperate and

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  militant retrenchment by that church. From 1545 to 1563

  the Council of Trent, a Catholic Church conference, met

  to resolve questions of dogma. Once decided, these

  dogma were promulgated and enforced with a

  seriousness not found during the pleasure-loving papacy

  of the Renaissance. “If my own father were a heretic,”

  said Paul IV, “I would burn him.”

  In 1540 Ignatius Loyola founded the Society of Jesus

  (Jesuits), characterized by extreme discipline and

  Machiavellian social influence. Loyola placed great stress

  on education, and by the 17th century Jesuit-dominated

  universities were educating virtually all of Catholic

  Europe.

  After 1550 tensions between Catholics and Protestants

  had reached the stage of religious warfare, culminating in

  the terrible Thirty Years' War between Denmark, Sweden,

  and the Protestant German principalities on one hand

  and the Catholic Hapsburgs (Spain, Austria, Netherlands,

  Italy, and most of Catholic Germany) on the other.

  France, though Catholic, fought against the Hapsburgs

  for secular political reasons. Approximately one-third of

  Germany's population died from the war and its side-

  effects, and the final Peace of Westphalia (1648) was

  brought about more by exhaustion than by genuine

  reconciliation.

  8. Secular Negative Free Will

  Culturally the 16th and 17th centuries were a time of

  transition between medieval/Renaissance knowledge and

  the new, scientific climate of the Enlightenment. Ancient

  history was still known only by the “Old Testament”,

  other histories being considered later and inferior to it.

  While scripture put creation at 4004 BCE, histories

  began ca. 400 BCE, with large episodes of later history

  being unknown.

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  The universe was generally thought to be Earth-

  centric, and the non-Christian/European world was

  considered to be “savage”. It was difficult for intellectuals

  to know just what to believe. Even the noted Galileo

  published his Authority of Scripture in 1614, and Isaac

  Newton devoted many years to Biblical studies. He wrote:

  “If any question at any time arise concerning Christ’s

  interpretations, we are to beware of philosophy and vain

  deceit and oppositions of science falsely so-called, and

  have recourse to the Old Testament.” A generation after

  he published his famous Principia, Newton was still

  trying to discover the exact plan of Solomon’s Temple,

  which he considered the best guide to the topography of

  Heaven.

  Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) took a scientific,

  materialistic approach to the OU, asserting that the

  supernatural or SU was beyond rational understanding.

  Impressed by mathematics and geometry, Hobbes

  postulated human behavior as similarly structured. He

  thus sought to understand the “mechanics” or “laws” of

  human social behavior. Hobbes departed from Aristotle

  and the medieval tradition by denying that man is a social

  animal, i.e. that he seeks companionship, society, and

  political interaction as an end in itself. Man is indeed a

  “solitary beast”.

  Echoing the Sophists in Plato’s Republic: There is no

  “supreme good”; there is only self-interest and

  gratification. “In the first place, I put for a general

  inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire

  of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.” The

  “supreme evil” is death, and it is fear of death that

  prompts human cooperation. Society is thus negatively

  motivated.

  In contrast to the “natural inequality” espoused by

  Aristotle, Hobbes argues that all humans are “naturally

  equal”. Hence the door is opened for social contract,

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  which Hobbes defines as a de facto contract between the

  people and the state for popular security and prosperity.

  The individual “contracts” with society and is thus bound

  to obey its laws, but he may disobey if his life is

  threatened. He reserves the right to make this decision

  for himself.

  The social contract has two parts: agreement to

  acknowledge as sovereign the individual or group

  selected by the majority, and the vote determining the

  sovereign.

  The task of reason is to intensify the fear of death and

  the desire for comfort as factors in society - to the extent

  that the resultant cooperation overcomes the destructive

  desires for
“glory” and “pride”.

  Hobbes’ ideal government has a simple task: to

  maintain order and security for the benefit of the citizens.

  The citizens, he says, do not submerge their individuality

  in it; they are “contracting parties” with it. Government

  should be authoritarian but not totalitarian.

  Hobbes preferred monarchy as a form of government,

  but monarchy based upon its social effectiveness in

  maintaining order - not based upon the “divine right of

  kings” principle.

  While Hobbes is systematic, he is not scientific in the

  sense that he supports his contentions with empirical

  evidence. He is still a purely rational philosopher, much

  like Niccolò Machiavelli. He was the first exponent of

  “possessive individualism” - the trade-oriented ethic of

  the 17th century that ran counter to the landed

  aristocratic system and institutional religious conflict. He

  advocated politics based upon material self-interest for

  individuals.

  Hobbes differs from Machiavelli in that Hobbes does

  propose a morally-binding social law (based on natural

  law in the “observed behavior” sense). Machiavelli is

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  comparatively lawless: no social contract, and of course

  no telos: no rationale other than raw power politics.

  9. The Enlightenment:

  Secular Positive Free Will

  The late-17th and 18th centuries loosely encompass a

  scientific and cultural climate known as the

  Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was not an

  organized or coordinated movement [as could be said of

  the Reformation, compartmentalized though it was].

  Rather it was a sort of encouraging or stimulating

  atmosphere for certain kinds of thought brought about by

  at least the limited acceptance of the ideas of a few

  prominent pioneers such as Francis Bacon, Rene

  Descartes, Isaac Newton, and John Locke. Among the

  features of the Enlightenment were:

  (1) A relegation of mankind to a “natural

  place”, not a privileged place within the

  natural order of things.

  (2) A vague, general disbelief that God, if he

  were presumed to exist, would ignore the

  operation of natural laws to take an interest

  in the behavior of individual human beings

  for better or worse.

  (3) A sentimental admiration for the culture of

  ancient Greece and Rome, together with a

  distaste for the medieval Christian heritage.