Renaissance Philosophers

Smart/Leaman p.263-270, p.233-240 (Jewish). The cutoff for this post is end of 16th century - thus I put Bacon in future posts rather than here, even though Smart/Leaman discusses Bacon here.

 

I don't expect to be able to do an Hexagon here, but it is still good look at these thinkers by generation.

 

Abraham Bibago (Jewish, d.c. 1489): influenced by Latin Scholasticism

 

Abraham Shalom (Jewishm d.c. 1492): influenced by Latin Scholasticism

 

Isaac Arama (Jewish, d.c. 1494): influenced by Latin Scholasticism

 

Marsilio Ficino (1433-99): reviver of Platonism; translated all of Plato's dialogues and issued the first complete edition of them; placed emphasis upon Plato's treatment of love and friendship; human soul stood at the middle of cosmic hierarchy bonded by love; souls' love is in the end to find their true expansion in union with God; humans are created for this purpose, but since the chance to achieve this is limited, our souls need immortality to achieve our destinies; one of the originators of 'perennial philosophy'

 

Count Pico della Mirandola (1463-94): 900 theses; affirmed human freedom; humans occupies a world which differs from the other orders (e.g. the angelic); syncretism towards Plato, Aristotle, Kabbalism (number symbolism), Christianity, ancient mythologies; strove for universalism in religio-philosophical teachings; Renaissance ideology of finding truth anywhere; attacked astrology as determinism (which is against human freedom); humans are free agents inside the unified and interconnected cosmic structure; beyond philosophy humans have mystical access even to God through Christ's sacrifice. 

 

Isaac Abravanel (Jewish, d.c. 1509): influenced by Latin Scholasticism

 

Judah Abravanel (Jewish, Isaac's son, c. 1460-1521): (emblematic of new understanding of Plato and Aristotle); discusses the role of eros in the cosmos (inspired by Symposium / Phaedrus); sees human intellectual love of God and God's reciprocal love of the whole of his creation as central

 

Galileo (1464-1542): mathematics as a useful tool in astronomy and other sciences; highly critical of Aristotelianism; stressed importance of empirical observation; religion and science should be kept apart

 

Machiavelli (1469-1527): empirical about politics; lack sentimentality; not taken up with right and wrong; concerned with efficiency

 

David ben Judah Messer Leon (Jewish, in Italy, c.1470-c.1535): read Kabbalistic texts philosophically, interprets the sefirot (divine hypostases/emanations) in light of the philosophical discussion of divine attributes. This synthesis was instrumental in the spread of Kabbala in Italy and the Ottoman Empire.

 

Copernicus (1473-1543): also a physician; put heliocentric theory on a mathematical basis

 

Girolamo Cardano (1501-76): professor of medicine; holistic philosophy, seeing the world as an organic system; World Soul; all objects in the world have souls (sympathy and antipathy); distinction between mortal and immortal souls, the latter endowed to humans by God; reincarnation of souls; interconnectedness of things explain astrology and alchemy; fascination with the occult; restless search for an alternative to official Aristotelianism

 

John Calvin (1509-64): the most philosophical of the main Reformers; doctrine of predestination; salvation based on God's grace alone; God's power is absolute; reformers generally called for return to bible (authority of the Word), tended to cut away accretions of Scholasticism; justification by faith (or equivalently, the grace of God, of which faith is a sign) alone

 

[Added from Condensed Copleston, Michel de Montaigne (1533-92): influenced by the Pyrrhonian scepticism, used doubt to attack the rationalism of his time; later saw scepticism as a means of forming one's judgment]

 

Isaac Luria (Jewish, 1534-72, Palestine): influential Kabbalistic master with disciples; the Absolute contracted itself to make room for the creation; the divine light emanated to begin the process of filling the space evacuated by the Absolute and to form a cosmos, some of the channels containing the light fractured; some of the light, imprisoned in its containers, fell into the void, bringing matter into being; so the whole universe itself is in need of reparation; universe is nevertheless organic; what happens on earth can help to restore heaven - as the vessels' break-up meant a division within the configuration of the sefirot; reminiscent of Gnostic/Manichaean; system attracted a wide following for over 3 centuries in post-medieval Judaism

 

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600): inspired by Hermetic saw cosmos as a boundless living thing; considered that there were innumerable other worlds; the whole cosmos in motion 

 

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Looks like a Hexagon is still possible (late 15th to 16th c., about 4 generations)

 

               Isaac Luria             Marcilio Ficino, etc.

[Montaigne]                                                                     (Jewish Scholasticism)

               John Calvin            Count Pico della Mirandola

                                              [Empiricism]

 

Isaac Luria is Kabballah - and even as Smart/Leaman thinks he is Gnostic, in our scheme Suhrawardi (Ishrqai) equally Gnostic also took the top-left node.

 

Marcilio Ficino is a follower / reviver of Plato, thus top-right. Besides him, Judah Abravanel, David ben Judah Messer Leon, Cardano, Bruno are also (neo-)Platonic in inclination. 

 

John Calvin is predestination, like Ashari kalam and Augustine, thus bottom-left

 

And Count Pico dello Mirandola emphasized human freedom, like conservative medieval Jewish thinkers, thus bottom-right. Machiavelli, Galileo, etc. are beginning of empiricism.