Here we’re going to begin our second talk this is the first part of a two-part talk on the cartesian darwinian narrative i mentioned this briefly at the start of the talk on human evolution but we’re going to spend some time in this presentation and tomorrow’s as well
Going into a more detailed history of what the narrative really is all about and this is basically the information here is taken from our newest book the fall of darwin’s last icon in the failure of the cartesian darwinian narrative so when we talk about what the narrative really is
It’s it’s a false view of reality what we call in the book a grand deception that has impacted virtually every domain of thought and even beyond of official domains pop culture media and so forth were constantly surrounded by the narrative the narrative is at its core you’re reconcilable with christianity
Although it has infected even many so-called christian intellectuals the narrative has a long history but it can basically be summarized in a single sentence and the sentence is as follows if there is a god he does not intervene in the affairs of men no miracles are allowed in the cartesian darwinian world if
There is a god so this allows for the possibility that there is not a god he does not intervene in the affairs of men so this would be very compatible with somebody that seems to be an agnostic or a deist who believes in some kind of a supernatural force but doesn’t believe
In the god of christianity and no miracles are allowed in the cartesian darwinian world so we’ll start to unpack that and show how the narrative came about while having ancient roots that extend back to greece before christ was born the narrative was formally introduced into the world in the year 1637
By somebody i refer to in the book as a masked man he introduced this under mysterious circumstances that will be explained shortly but this masked man referred to himself in that manner and so i borrowed the term from his own writings the coming of the narrative in the end
Times was foretold in sacred scripture the masked man who introduced the narrative in 1637 stated that his purpose was to combat the re-emergence of false ancient greek philosophies but his work turned out to be a great aid to these false philosophies and others to come the narrative has been destructive almost beyond imagination
Through the talk today and then the second talk tomorrow we will try to get through all of these domains of thought that in in the secular world into education and colleges especially are reflected in subject matters that you see here on the list as well as pop culture government policy international relations relations
Virtually every area of thought has been impacted by the narrative so let’s start now at the very beginning we’re going to go back to ancient greece and talk about developments in the area of philosophy that reemerged in the 16th century and then reemerged at the start of the 20th century
In a sort of mega philosophy that now dominates the world but there are three groups of philosophers that we want to introduce uh dating to ancient greeks the first group they were called the skeptics they brought a systematic doubt to philosophical questions and they mastered the art of arguing that
Any statement could be either true or false and they would they would put on demonstrations and conclude that there really is no such thing as as truth and the only way to reach a tranquil life and not have internal problems or just disturbances is to suspend judgment on philosophical questions and here
We’re talking mainly metaphysical questions such as the existence of a first first cause the existence of an afterlife in the existence of the soul so those skeptics said well we don’t really know you can argue either way let’s just suspend judgment second group uh is led by uh aristotle
He was a philosophical realist in other words he believed that we can trust trust our senses to gain authentic knowledge about the world he thought that the content life involves the pursuit of truth he developed mesophysics as a physical philosophical subject answering key questions that also touch on the area of theology
And then there was the philosophy of materialism this was introduced to the ancient greeks by a number of philosophers the most important for our purposes was named epicurus who died about three centuries before jesus was born the basic thrust of materialism says that all that exists is matter
And that the universe is either eternal or very very ancient and that it was the random combination of atoms that account for everything and so there’s no need to pull a creator into this whole explanation of how everything came about came about the goal of life according to epicurus was to seek
Pleasure and avoid pain or that fits today’s culture quite well doesn’t it that view is often called hedonism today materialism did not end with epicurus it was transferred over to roman theo roman society most notably by a philosopher named lucretius who died just before jesus was born what is
Notable about lucretius is that he advanced the biological aspect of materialist philosophy in his work on the nature of things he clearly anticipates the concept of natural selection that would be introduced to europe formerly in 1859 in the origin of species but he described the process of natural selection
And survival of the fittest as follows he wrote that many races of living things must then have died out and been unable to beget and continue their breed for in the case of all things which you see breathing either craft or courage or else speed as from the
Beginning of its existence protected and preserved each particular race but those to whom nature has granted none of these qualities would lie exposed as a prey until nature brought that kind to utter destruction so the fittest survive those that do not perish well when christianity emerged after
After the foundation of the church and um as christianity became legal in the roman empire there was a powerful counterpart in confrontation to materialist philosophy in the the uh acts of the apostles chapter 17 we read about paul the apostle paul engaging materialists the epicureans in athens and so we know that
His action was followed by writings of many church fathers against the materialists one very good writing against the materialists is by lucantius a latin father who died in 323 and in his in his book or the writings on the workmanship of god with the formation of man
He states i cannot be prevented from again showing the folly of epicurus for all the ravings of lucretius belong to him who in order that he might show that animals are not produced by any contrivance of the divine mind but by chance said that in the beginning of the world
Innumerable other animals of wonderful form and magnitude were produced but that they were unable to be permanent because either the power of taking food or the method of uniting and generating had failed them it is evident that he wished to exclude the divine providence by setting forth this explanation
So the question emerges if they had the basics the the fundamentals of darwin’s theory worked out in the early centuries in the roman empire and the church fathers clearly recognized this explanation of the world and reality as a philosophical maneuver to divide to deny the creator why don’t we in present times
Have the same attitude very few people recognize darwinism as simply a philosophical maneuver and of course the the explanation given by many people is the claim that well in the years after darwin good proofs of evolution have arisen of course we’ve seen in previous presentations this week that that’s a
Misunderstanding of where the evidence really leads well we’re going to fast forward here for the next 10 centuries in christian europe materialism was largely presented from having a strong influence on the western world as christianity spread when we get up to the middle of ages we enter the period of the
Of high scholasticism uh this period is is uh includes the teachings of saint thomas aquinas and was really a remarkable achievement one of the fundamental beliefs or teachings of tomism is the notion that truth cannot contradict truth you’ll hear that expressed today by many catholic theologians meaning that the truth in all domains
Science theology philosophy is in harmony and supports the christian worldview this gave rise to search for knowledge in all domains into advancements in all fields including science during that period theology was recognized as the queen of the sciences as some things could only be revealed by god however each area of study was
Recognized to properly have its own method of study thomas or atomism built upon aristotle’s philosophical system and showed it to be largely in harmony with christian thought well the period of high scholasticism did not last long after the death of st thomas aquinas and as as we move into the renaissance
In the 15th and 16th centuries we see a revival of classic greek scholarship emerging europe due to new and better translations and the emergence of the printing press and so uh reprints of the writings of lucretius and epicurus begin to circulate around europe and in fact by 1600 ancient greek philosophies and arguments
Were being increasingly set forth to battle for the minds of christian europe skeptic and materialist arguments led the way so these ancient greek arguments philosophies reemerged in a vengeance starting in the 1400s and by this 1600 there was a crisis emerging among the intellectuals in europe so broad skepticism resulted from this
In his book at the origins of modern atheism michael buckley just summarizes this period by stating that at the opening of the 17th century there was a widespread conviction that the atheists were at the gates one example was a french philosopher michael dimontan he was uh he’s classified as a skeptic
And he wrote in his apology for raymond saban this skeptical attitude he wrote or he asked the question has that quest for truth which has kept man busy for so many centuries actually enriched him with some new power or saw the truth he then goes on to compare widely varying opinions among philosophers
Concerning topics such as the existence of the soul he concludes there is a plague on man his opinion that he knows something man indeed is out of his mind he cannot even create a flesh worm yet he creates gods by the dozen he summarized and concluded by saying skepticism can
Be conceived through the form of a question what do i know and with that question the stage was set for the masked man all it would take for the masked man to emerge would be an indica inadequate response to the new skeptics and this in fact did occur in
Uh michael buckley’s book he calls what happened he refers to it as the self-alienation of christianity and basically what happened was rather than combat the the new skeptics and atheists with arguments from all areas of thought science theology philosophy the theologians of the time basically went back to ancient greeks
And they made arguments that were almost totally philosophical in nature and did not reflect the knowledge and learning that had been gained since the time of the ancient greeks buckley explains the response this way he said that the theologians of the day treated the atheistic question
As if it were a philosophical issue not a religious one as if the rising movement were not a rejection of jesus christ as the supreme presence of god in human history as if religious experience or christianity possesses nothing with which to engage this issue of the existence of god
The theologian as such is to say that he has nothing to say the warrant for the personal god was the impersonal world the strongest evidence for the personal god was the design within nature so we’re ignoring 16 centuries of christian teaching uh of the reality of the incarnation the
Death and resurrection of jesus christ was the re was the way most theologians responded and by by limiting these arguments to the single domain of philosophy and in fact going back to the argument set forth by the ancient greeks the ground rules were being set for the massive debates
That soon emerged during the enlightenment blais pascal a french philosopher and mathematician who knew the masked man he clearly was one of the few that understood the limits of the approach he wrote the following he wrote that jesus christ is the object of all things the center towards which all things tend
Whoever knows him knows the reason for everything all of those who seek god apart from christ and who go no further than nature either find no light to satisfy them or come to devise a means of knowing and serving god without a mediator thus falling into either atheism or deism
So that was the trap that many of the christian theologians fell into around 1600 and so as the new skeptics made inroads it was not clear what response against the skeptics and the atheists or the materialists would be effective and that’s what set the stage for the emergence of the masked man
So let’s introduce him now the masked man was born in 1596 in france he died in 1650 his name was rene descartes which you probably know that name uh well pronounced or spelled cartesias in latin so when we talk about the cartesian darwinian narrative we’re talking about a narrative beginning with descartes
That extends it’s a continuous line of thought that concludes with darwin he was educated by jesuits and then obtained a law degree in 1616 he was very highly intelligent and a genius in mathematics after he attained his law degree he volunteered as a soldier and spent time in holland
And then in 1619 he spent the uh his winter quarters were in germany and that’s where the key events took place that we’re going to discuss now by the spring of 1619 he became convinced that he had a great personal destiny one that would introduce a new method of discovering knowledge
And ending skepticism he wrote in march of 1619 to conceal nothing i propose to give the public an entirely new science which will allow of a general solution to all problems which can be proposed how incredibly ambitious he wrote to a friend he also wrote that the sciences are now
Masked from us the mask removed they will appear in all their beauty and must not he himself go and go mask until such time as he might find himself able in fulfillment of his mission to come forward publicly on its behalf so he had this sense of a personal
Destiny to to introduce new knowledge and a way of thinking to the world now mo the best information on descartes is from a french biographer adrian ballier who wrote the life of mr uh descartes in 1691 it was polybius a large two volume set there’s a that that i don’t believe is
Available in english there’s a condensed single volume set that is available in english but according to uh little progress was made by descartes into the fall of 1619 to introduce this this new way of thinking to the world and this led to a period of great agitation on the part of descartes
As he settled into where the winter quarters near olm germany he met some men of science and he discovered that there was a fraternity of learned men under the name of the brethren of rosie cross they were some sort of they were the sort of men which understood everything
And promised to help men to a new wisdom that is to say a new science not hitherto discovered descartes found himself so much the more intrigued because he received the news at the very time when he was the most busy concerning the mediums for finding out of truth so here descartes is
In the fall of 1619 frustrated that he’s not making progress on his new uh method of learning and he learns of men brother and other rosie cross these are the rosicrucians the gold society and so he makes an effort to meet these resecretions they became known in europe and germany through two tracks
That were released in 1614 and 1650 and you can see the appeal of the rosicrucian way of thought to descartes they match his quest almost exactly for example in the confessio the rosicrucians write no other philosophy we have than that which is the head and some the foundation and contents of all
Faculty sciences and arts all learned who will make themselves known unto us and come into our brotherhood shall find more wonderful secrets by us than heretofore they are able to they are able to believe or utter so again it was exactly what the young descarte was looking for in order to
Further his quest to introduce this new way of reasoning now bali claims that he was not successful descartes was not successful in making contact but there are many indications even in the the biography that he wrote that bailly wrote that descarte did in fact make contact with the rosicrucians
According to bellier the pebble date of november 10 1619 was key because on that day descartes was so he so fatigued himself that his brain became inflamed and he fell into a sort of enthusiasm in a state to receive impressions of dreams and visions that evening before he retired
A man descarte referred to as the genius told descartes that he would receive dreams that night to provide guidance in this quest that descartes self-appointed himself descartes received three dreams which he believed were from on high but in truth they were likely of demonic origin descartes descartes describes that a
Spirit caused great fear that descended on him to take possession of him among other indicators that this dream was not from the spirit of truth as descartes claimed descartes believed he was being asked to decide the kind of life to be chosen and he was so bold as to feel that the
Dream was giving him the opportunity to open before him the treasures of all the sciences during the remainder of his life so this was the breakthrough that descartes thought came from heaven but did not the dreams would guide descartes until his death in 1650 he considered them the most important
Event of his life now after 1619 descartes kind of appears disappears from the scene he travels europe and doesn’t re-emerge in france until 1622. for six years he lived in france in a very worldly way but in 1628 another turning point occurred in the story of the narrative
In november of 1628 descartes was invited to hear a lecture regarding a new philosophy said to be able to refute the rise of skepticism and atheism in europe cardinal de barul noticed that after the lecture descartes was only one not impressed by the lecturer and descartes explained that any
Philosophy relying on clever arguments and mere probability can result in the false being accepted as true and vice versa this this has some rings of the skeptic’s kind of view of arguments descartes was asked by the cardinal if there was any method that could avoid such problems descartes explained that he had
Developed a method from the treasury of the mathematical sciences capable of demonstrating all truth encouraged by the discussion descartes believed it was time to take off his mask and present the world with his method but to do so he relocated from france to holland and began several years of work
As he began he immediately rejected scholasticism in traditional metaphysics writing that his scholastic training had no effect other than the increased increasing discovery of my own ignorance descartes began by asking montaigne’s question the french philosopher what do i know what do i know for sure he was an idealist
Descartes was and believed that we could not trust our senses and so the only thing he knew was that he existed because he was a thinking being hence the famous statement that we’ve all heard i think therefore i am he concluded his existence could not be doubted
And he called this or described this as a clear and distinct idea that was really incapable of doubt and independent of the census he reasoned that if all questions in all domains can be reduced to clear and distinct ideas all doubt would be eliminated this approach became what he called
Universal mathematics through which we reject all such merely probable knowledge and make it a rule to trust only what is completely known and incapable of being doubted the clear and distinct ideas were the aim of in in all areas this new philosophy became came to be known as rationalism rationalism rationalism asserts that
Because everything must be reduced to clear and distinct ideas that are already present in the human mind there cannot be anything which exceeds the power of human reason to comprehend it’s a very important definition there cannot be anything which exceeds the power of the human reason to comprehend
So just think about if that’s your governing view of knowledge in all area what does that mean when we start to introduce that concept into the area of theology what does it mean about the origin of the world or the universe what does it mean about the incarnation the resurrection of christ
Very quickly we can see that because the bible is filled with miracles and prophecies that the human mind can’t fully understand we can see very quickly that rationalism would lead to a denial of the miraculous and the sacred and prophecies in the sacred scriptures this resulted not just in the separation
Of faith and reason but the elevation of reason above revelation descartes himself wrote i have faith in the teachings of the church but i simply bracket all that out it is in the realm of religious sentiment and emotion whereas my universal science is in the realm of reason
And knowledge and descartes himself was fairly cautious about applying rationalism directly to the scriptures that would come right after his death by other other philosophers but he did write a number of items that that make you understand he did intend to apply that to theology in meditations on first
Philosophy he wrote that even the concepts of god in the soul should be demonstrated by philosophical rather than theological argument he also wrote that all that which can be known of god may be made manifest by means which are not derived from anywhere but from ourselves and from the simple consideration
Of our minds given descartes intend to apply his new method to all domains of thought he could have chosen any field to demonstrate his method in his first manuscript what do you think he chose as the subject area of his first manuscript he chose the subject of origins in the
Beginning he started at the beginning and we know at the beginning was a supernatural event creation and so darwin or descartes targeted origins with his initial writings that was his very first topic so he began his work in 1628 on on a book uh called the world le monde in french
And he was ready for publication in by the year 1633 however within weeks of the publication something made him decide not to publish he pulled it from the publisher and the event was the galileo what is called the galileo affair descartes knew that lamonde was much more radical than anything galileo had
To say and that it would likely be condemned by the church so he’s very fearful of publishing it and he pulled it from the printer just weeks before it was to go to print well let’s ask ourselves what is it in le mans that was so radical that descartes after having spent
Almost five years on this pulled it from the printer the answer is that lamonde was a direct attack on the creation providence framework and it involved the reassignment of origins from historical theology to natural science it was meant to be the start of the narrative
So as we you start to read through the world and by the way le mans was never published in descartes lifetime but it came it came available after he died so we can now go look at lamonde and see why it was so radical in le mans he invites the reader to
Enter into a holy new world a make-believe world but he said let us not try to go all the way but rather enter it only far enough to lose sight of all the creatures that god has made let us suppose that god creates only matter and continues uh the matter continues
Moving thereafter in accordance with the ordinary laws of nature and even if god creates nothing more than this then raw matter the laws of nature are sufficient to cause the parts of this chaos to disentangle and in the form of the most perfect world containing all that appears
In the actual world then he clarifies he says by nature i do not mean some deity or other sort of imaginary power whether i use the word to signify matter itself think about how how closely this mirrors the beliefs of the materialists the ancient greek philosophers that were atheists
He said matter alone can organize the chaos the knowledge of these laws is so natural to our soul that we cannot but judge them infallible these are clear and distinct ideas in his mind when we conceive them distinctly and they can produce everything that can be be produced in this new world
He concludes and so that there will be nothing to prevent this we shall if you please assume god will never perform a miracle in the new world god is allowed to create the initial chaotic matter after that natural laws take over and account for everything fast forward to the 20th century we have
Supposed scientific demonstration the origin of the universe the origin of all life forms the explanation for the geological columns all of it is said to occur by natural processes so this has very ancient roots extending back to le mans that was actually not published and that’s a very interesting uh
Story that we’ll get into uh next here but in le mans he goes on to discuss the formation of the sun the stars the planets the earth’s geological features plants and animals and even explains that man is merely a machine but he demonstrates nothing scientifically and he kind of excuses himself from
Putting forth real scientific uh explanations by saying that i do not promise to set out exact demonstrations of everything i say it will be enough for me to open up the way for you to find them yourselves when you take the trouble to look for them so he was basically setting forth
The game plan if you will of naturalistic science to enter and explain things that were previously attributed to historical theology to supernatural creation and other events that natural science cannot fully explain le mans is one of one of the very first what we would call just so stories
That we see all the time by scientists all the false claims in the biology textbooks but it should also be understood as laying out a blueprint for future like-minded scientists who wanted to reallocate origins away from historical theology to philosophy and science after he set forth this lupine blueprint
He later wrote i know that several centuries may go by before all the truths it is possible to deduce from these principles have been deduced so that ended up being the role of lyell in 1830 and darwin in 1859 to to complete this game plan and then finally
In the early 20th century the big bang comes and takes care of the naturalistic explanation and cosmology all right so let’s talk about um how the narrative actually came into fruition uh to public knowledge if descartes decided not to publish le mans after 1633. well after le mans was not
Published descartes had to introduce his method to the world through a more subtle approach this attack occurred in part five of the discourse on method which marks the formal public beginning of the cartesian darwinian narrative In the discourse on method descartes claims to have demonstrated in le mans so this is part five he’s already gone through by this time in discourse on method he’s explained the whole concept of the distinct and clear ideas how that all came about by doubting everything and now he wants to demonstrate that
Applying his method can we can produce real result results so because le mans was not published he explains in part five of discourse on method what he demonstrated in the area of science using his method so he claims to have demonstrated in le mans how the greatest part of the matter
Must in accordance with these laws of nature dispose and arrange itself similar to our heavens and how some of its parts must form an earth some planets and comets and some others a sun and fixed stars and made it clear that there is nothing to be seen in our system which must not
Appear exactly the same i also showed in le mans how the mountains seas fountains and rivers could naturally be formed how the metals came to be and generally how all bodies might arise so again this is uh again setting forth the future program for naturalism and cosmology and geology he also
Uh moved then after this general discussion to directly attack the creation providence framework through three consecutive sentences that will will show on the next slide this basically was the introduction of the concept of gradualism or uniformitarianism into europe through through his work and again that would be completed by lyell in
Terms of application to geology and darwin in terms of life and origins all right so the three sentences that are really the key part of this whole discussion descartes explained that in le mans that was not published i did not wish to infer that this world was created in the manner which i
Described for it is much more probable that at the beginning god made it as it was to be what he’s doing here is trying to set at ease those theologians who would be looking to condemn descartes for his radical uh attack on the creation providence framework so he makes this this kind of
Don’t worry about it and then he goes into the following two sentences he says but it is certain and it is an opinion held by the theo theologians no it’s not that the action by which he now preserves it the world is just the same as that
Which by which at first he created it he said in this way giving no form of matter other than that of chaos we may well believe without doing outrage to the miracle of creation that by this means alone all things which are purely material might in
Course of time have become such as we observe them to be at the present and their nature is much easier to understand when we see them coming to pass little by little in this manner than were we to consider them all complete to begin with so descartes recognizes that natural processes
Are going to need millions and millions if not billions of years to bring about all that he says it brought about the the universe the solar system the plants geological features and life itself so um this is describing a period of you know or a process of uniformitarianism or gradualism
That occurs through natural laws that take millions upon millions of years to uh result in what we now see in the world according to descartes all right he also sets forth there the plan for paleoanthropology the study of human evolution that we just talked about his wording is interesting he says that
Since i had not yet sufficient knowledge to speak of man in the same style as the rest that is showing from what beginning and in what fashion nature must produce them i contended myself with supposing that god formed the body of man without first placing in an irrational soul
So he he kind of hints that well now i do have there is information out there that would allow me to make that argument but he’s kind of cautious because he knows he’s going to get in trouble with the the theologians if he pushes that issue too far again blaise
Pascal who knew descartes understood the game plan the strategy that was being invoked he wrote i cannot forgive descartes in his whole philosophy he would like to do without god but he could not help allowing him to allowing him a flick of the fingers to set the world into in motion after
That he had no more use for god and you see that attitude of descartes reflected in many of today’s scientists richard dickerson wrote in 1992 that science is fundamentally a game let us see how far to what extent we can explain the physical and material universe in terms of
Purely physical and material causes without invoking the supernatural the course on discourse on method you may have heard this talked about earlier in the week but this this really is marks the fulfillment of second peter three three through seven that says know this first of all that in
The last days scoffers will come living according to their own desires and saying everything has remained as it was from the beginning of creation they deliberately ignore they’re not looking at the real evidence they deliberately ignore the fact that the heavens existed of old and earth was formed
Out of water and through water by the word of god not natural processes by the word of god well in the in the uh the book the fall of darwin’s last icon and the failure of the narrative i go and discuss some of the problems with the philosophy itself that descartes put forth
And today you don’t you don’t see cartesian philosophers i mean we’ll they’ll they’ll study descartes and teach about descartes in terms of his historical significance but nobody really holds as true what descartes put forth so why is he revered so much in uh secular uh the secular university setting and secular philosophy
Well he really has a lasting legacy legacy that consists of at least four things one is that he accounted for began the separation of faith and reason he rejected scholasticism which afforded each domain his own method but recognized theology as the queen of the sciences he initiated the improper reassignment of origins from
Historical theology to natural science and he initiated the view that if god exists he does not intervene in the affairs of men no miracles are allowed in the cartesian world pope john paul pope st john paul ii has talked about the influence of rationalists during this period of time
In the encyclical faith and reason he wrote that and as a result of the exaggerated rationalism of certain thinkers there emerged eventually a philosophy which was separate from and absolutely independent of the contents of faith what for patristic and medieval thought was in both theory and practice and profound unity
Was destroyed descartes died in 1650 by that time he died at a young age but by that time rationalism had already infected many universities and intellectuals across europe after descartes theologians had less and less to say in the discussion among europe’s intellectuals about the existence of god the afterlife and
Immortality and morality the boundaries for the debates of the enlightenment had already been established by the time descartes died it would be a philosophical battle going back to the arguments put forth by the ancient greeks so the ending position the ending position of cartesian rationalism resembled ancient materialism and skepticism in
Many ways and we’ll see in tomorrow’s talk that by the start of the 20th century these three philosophies would merge into a mega philosophy that would quickly rise to dominate the western world all right so wrapping up the discussion of descartes um there are two perspectives that are worthy to consider
One is a summary by uh etienne gilsan he wrote that descartes philosophy was nothing else than a recklessly conducted experiment to see what becomes of human knowledge when molded into conformity with a pattern of mathematical evidence we would waste our time at asking descartes for a rational justification so gilsan just says well
Descartes was just a young reckless philosopher and came up with these notions he goes on does not acknowledge the influence of probable influence of of the demonic and the rosicrucians in taking descartes astray another perspective though is written by jacques maritime who concludes in a very good book this was i think
Written in the 1930s or 40s i think 30s called the dreams of descartes he concludes what was it that gave descartes the strength to break with an age-long tradition what was the spiritual germ the central intuition which contained all the energies of the cartesian revolution the notes made by the philosopher in his
Youth enabled us to answer that question with a certain degree of probability it is very embarrassing for modern rationalism to have been born in a dream and at that one in which a genius who had for several days past been exciting enthusiasm in him predicted to the philosopher before he
Had retired to his bed however that is the fact so he’s acknowledging that the possibility if not probability that demonic influence has played a role in the emergence of cartesian philosophy all right so we’ve seen that by the time of descartes death really between 1637 and 1650 descartes himself introduced a rationalistic philosophy
Into areas impacting a number of domains and in our next talk we’ll pick it up from there and we’ll talk about during the period from 1651 to 1830 we’ll see the expansion of the influence of rationalism and cartesian philosophy into the areas of political philosophy ethics and history
Then we’ll talk about by 1900 the domains of jurisprudence that’s legal philosophy clinical psychology sociology were added as far as being dominated by cartesian thought and then in the 20th century we have educational philosophy experimental psychology interla international relations government policy pop culture in other words it’s hard to find any
Area of society that is not influenced and in fact dominated by the narrative remember at the start of my talk in human evolution that uh concluding those concluding paragraphs i read before i went into the fossil evidence that was in a chapter talking about the inevitable outcomes of what happens when educational
Philosophy comes captive to false cartesian cartesian rationalism but actually in today’s terminology really is more of this mega philosophy that i was talking about and it’s called humanism which has dominated the public schools in this country since 1900 okay with that we’ll uh we’ll wrap it up and
We’ll go on to the next top talk thank you very much
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