Naturalistic Philosophy of the Period

Article 3. Naturalistic Philosophy of the Period The Renaissance fostered love of the fine arts, and aroused interest in the study of Nature, the exemplar of all the arts. During the 15 and 16 centuries interest in the sciences which investigate nature increased day by day. The experimentalists discovered many wonderful and valuable truths, but, lacking a stable basis of philosophy, they oftentimes interpreted their findings in a manner harmful to true philosophy and to religion. We group the experimentalists here as “Naturalists.” This does not mean that all professed a philosophy of Nature, complete and concordant, or that each philosopher agreed with the others—on the contrary. We group these scientists as Naturalists merely because they engaged in the study of natural science rather than in that of Logic, Metaphysics, and Ethics. The more important naturalistic philosophers of the time were: i. Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543), who wrote four books On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies; ii. Bernardine Telesius (Telesio; 1508-1588), who instituted at Naples an Academy for the study of natural sciences; iii. Thomas Campanella (1568-1639), a Dominican Scholastic who was disturbed by the anti-Scholasticism of the time, and tried to reform the whole philosophic system ; iv. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), a mathematician and astronomer, called by many “The Father of Modern Experimental Science.” His doctrine on the heliocentric movement of the earth aroused bitter controversies, even among theologians ; v. Johann Kepler (1571-1631), a famous astronomer; vi. Paracelsus (1493-1541), a physician, experimentalist, and philosopher ;

vii. Geronimo Cardano (1501-1576), a physician and naturalist ; viii. Francesco Patrizzi (Patritius 1529-1597), a follower of Telesius; he abandoned Aristoteleanism for the Platonism of his time; ix. Giordano Bruno, a Dominican (1548-1600), naturalist; he was a proud and dissolute man, and was expelled from his Order for insubordination and heterodox doctrine. He travelled throughout Europe preaching heretical and immoral doctrines. Taken at Venice and brought to Rome, he was condemned and burned at the stake in 1600. The foregoing agree in stressing the importance of experimental science, but they differ much in their philosophy. Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler did not enter the domain of natural philosophy, generally speaking, but kept to experimental physics. Yet their sane use of induction led to the discovery of many natural laws, and demonstrated the value of this philosophic method in the field of experimental science : thus they indirectly contributed to the cause of true philosophy. Telesius and Campanella proposed a philosophy of nature that may be roughly summed up as follows : God created matter inert, and then gave it two opposed powers, viz., heat and cold. At first these powers divided matter evenly between them. The heated matter became thin, white, and readily movable; while the cold matter became dense, heavy, and opposed to motion. The heated matter, ascending, composed the heavens; the cold matter, remaining below, made the earth. By the action of heat upon the earth, and the reaction of the cold earth, different kinds of things were gradually formed, of which living things are the most perfect. Life itself is due to a heated substance penetrating a bodily organism. Telesius substitutes this heated-life-principle for the substantial form of Aristotle (i. e., in living things), and calls it soul in plants, brutes, and men. To save his Faith, Telesius also postulated in man a strictly spiritual soul created by God, which spiritual soul is the principle of thought and free-will. At this point Campanella leaves Telesius and advances some further theories of his own. He analyses human nature. He declares that man has the power of acting, the power of thinking, and the power of willing. He asserts that these powers are found, in more or less perfect degree, in all existent beings. Everything that exists has its power of acting, it knows its entity, and it wills the last end towards which it tends. Hence it is the function of true philosophy to investigate the principles of being, knowing and willing in all things, and to refer these to God, who is Himself constituted in the infinite grade of being, power, intellection, and volition. This doctrine of universally extended power, knowledge and will in all beings is called Pan-Psychism. Paracelsus and Cardano were physicians who cultivated experimental science. They proposed nothing of any moment to the philosopher. They professed a kind of mysticism, and practised theurgic and magical arts, seeking to cure the sick and to ward off the bad influence of evil spirits, stars, etc. Patrizzi and Bruno entered the field of philosophy more directly than any of the “Naturalists.” The former wrote A New Philosophy of All Things, in which he strikes at Aris-totelean doctrine, and professes himself a Platonist. As. a matter of fact, however, he is rather a Neoplatonist than a Platonist. He says that in the beginning there existed only the absolute One, containing all things in Itself. By successive emanations, the one produces pure spirits, the world-soul, human souls, and bodily nature {Pantheism}. No bodily being has its own proper activity; all activity in the universe proceeds from the world-soul. Analogously, all activity regarded as proper to man proceeds from the human soul alone. In Physics, Patrizzi follows Telesius. Bruno professes a pantheism of manifestation. In the works of Nicholas of Cusa he had read that “God is the complication of all things ; He is the coincidence of opposites.” Therefore, says Bruno, God is the essence of all things.

Things are but the manifestations or “unfoldings” of God, who is latent in everything. This divine manifestation has two phases, matter and form. Matter is a passive principle; form (which is single and unique in the whole of matter) is an active principle, which functions universally, being the efficient and final cause of all things. The human soul is but a manifestation of the universal form, and thus will never perish. In Physics, Bruno follows Telesius.