chapter 1 The unraveling of the medieval order (1450-1650)

common thread, through the trends = emergence of capitalism

renaissance: rebirth of classical antiquity (Romans, Greeks)

• new view on men, life and society

• groundwork for enlightenment

• gradually view on men central (not church/God), Curiosity to understand the world

renaissance: 2 phases:

1. rediscovery ancient Greek/Roman past

2. more future oriented, empirical

scientific progress and gradual emancipation of politics

• Leonardo Da Vinci:

  • the logical (the exact, math) and experimental (empirical, the actual): scientific method

  • changing economic relations in a divided Italy (city-states)

  • mercantilism: the sovereign had the task of developing the nation’s income; maximize the exports and minimize the imports for an economy (so use the country’s resources)

  • emancipation and secularization (city-states no longer led by church/clergy, still important though, but by men with vision)

• Nicollo Machiavelli:

  • book Il Principe: analysis of politics as art without morality and religion

  • rejected morality as basis politics, introduced more scientific view on human social behaviour

  • wanted to know how politics functioned

  • secularization of politics (≠ anti-religiousness)

  • 2 criticisms on church:

    • undermined religous belief by bad conduct

    • secular power popes + politics to which it leads prevents unification of Italy

  • ~scientific method = groundwork later scientific politcal approach

  • book la raison d’état: all means legitimate, if necessary

    • the end justifies the means

    • strong army very important, also an army motivated to fight for the state not because they get a paycheck

    • when people want freedom, they mean security, inviolability of private property = regulation needed

  • better to be feared than loved: you have control over who fears you = popular machiavellism

• Thomas More:

  • book Utopia:

    • part 1: description social and economic changes in England (capitalism)

    • part 2: description of the ideal society (positive mirror image of England at that time)

  • Utopianism; rejection of the existing, unjust order on religious and/or moral grounds, projection of an ideal into another, imaginary world

end catholic hegemony: reformation and counterreformation

• Luther: humanism, religious liberation of man (= strong government, not freedom)

  • 1517: these of indulgence (rebelled against these indulgences, paying for forgiveness sins, you don’t need church (institution) if you have faith, direct relationship with God)

• Calvin: turned his back to the church

  • man was helpless creature in face of God’s omnipotence

  • human predestination: assumed man’s fate fixed, he couldn’t do anything about it (God’s will) => seek signs of God’s favor

  • moved to geneva, commercial city, founded a theocracy there

    • government 2 parts: consistory (reponsible for morality) and ministry (spread Calvin’s teachings + acted as courts)

  • profit result of hard work (God’s will), wealth must be invested usefully = early capitalism economic order

  • social inequality but equality for the law

colonial encounters: dispute of Valladolid

1550-1555: how should Spain wage war on the American continent and spread catholicism? → actually question of humanity of the indigenous peoples; moral and theological debate anchored in the economic exploitation of the colonies

• first argument about handling indigenous people; underlying economic motivation

• Sepulveda:

  • brutal subjugation and christianization allowed

  • indigenous people are idolators; enslaved by nature, practiced human sacrifice, cannibalism and sodomy → wars had to be fought to eradicate these crimes against nature

  • natural slavery (Aristotle)

  • excessive force to convert indigenous people

• de las Casas:

  • against use of force to bring christianity

  • didn’t deny natural slavery but indigenous peoles weren’t Aristotle’s barbarians → no forced christianization by war

  • war against heretics and infidels was justified but not against the indigenous peoples because they weren’t heretics who needed to be punished

  • Portuguese had the idea of kidnapping Africans to the Americas to work in place of the indigenous people (who fled and died a lot), based on idea of natural slavery (Africans naturally inferior)

• conquistadores; encomienda system (slavery)

• slavery in exchange for the “gift” of catholicism

• it kicked off soread capitalism, slavery and racism

the glorious revolution

• capitalist changes in Britain → political & constitutional conflict

• 1629-1660

• King Charles I: conflict with parliament (puritans) over limitation king’s power; he disbanded parliament: realised he needed it

  • parliament (puritans who targeted Roman catholic church) listed objections, king didn’t do shit as reaction, leading to 1st and 2nd civil war

• Olivier Cromwell:

  • questioned king’s absolute power, because it endangered private property

  • he established the New Model army

  • groups with slightly different ideas and levels of radicalism develop

• the Levellers:

  • people’s sovereignty (the people = not workers class, of course white men, not beggers/unemployed, not women/children)

  • representation as an idea

  • defended private property

  • anti-normandism (royal family), against institutionalized church

• the Diggers:

  • economic equality

  • women still inferior, but foundation feminism laid by Mary Astell

scientific developments and new insights:

• Bacon: observation and experiment as the basic of knowledge

• Hobbes: dynamic view of man

  • authoritarian state authority

  • state of nature: human nature, self-realization, selfishness → he thought back to human in society without authority, leads to…

  • … homo-homini-lupus society → every man for himself, competition and combat

  • unconditional social contract (people give up part freedom to the leader (called Leviathan) in exchange for security

  • impose authority through monopoly legitimate force, take care of poor, religious/moral rules pushed aside (= state religion)

  • common wealth, administration, law and order, poor people’s welfare responsibility leader

• Descartes: reason as a possibility of knowledge (I know therefore I am)

• de Spinoza: God determined by reason

  • rationalist

  • combined reason and religion

  • break with medieval philosophy

  • God’s understanding according to reasonable understanding

  • selfishness of man can only be given up by the love of God, not by a social contract => taking away freedom from man doesn’t take away their selfishness, they’ll still fight amongst each other

  • man is selfish = power not in hands of 1 man

  • laid groundwork ideas of democracy