Chapter 4

Question 1

Describe the four themes that characterized Renaissance humanism and give an example of each.

Answer 1

1) Individualism — focus on unique human potential (e.g., autobiographies, realistic portraiture). 2) Secularism — interest in worldly life alongside religion (e.g., civic politics in Italian city‑states). 3) Classicism — revival of Greek and Roman texts and styles (e.g., study of Plato and Cicero). 4) Skepticism — questioning tradition and authority (e.g., critical textual analysis of Church documents).

Question 2

What arguments did Erasmus offer in support of free will, and what arguments did Luther offer in opposition to it?

Answer 2

Erasmus: Moral responsibility requires free choice; scripture contains commands implying choice; a just God would not predetermine sin. Luther: Human will is enslaved by sin; salvation comes only through God’s grace; denying predestination limits God’s omnipotence.

Question 3

Describe the Ptolemaic astronomical system and explain why that system was embraced by Christian theologians.

Answer 3

Earth-centered universe with planets and sun moving in circular orbits using deferents and epicycles. It fit sensory experience, preserved idea of perfect heavens, and aligned with biblical passages placing Earth at the center of creation.

Question 4

Summarize the theological implications of Copernicus’s heliocentric theory. On what basis did Copernicus argue that his heliocentric theory should replace Ptolemy’s geocentric theory?

Answer 4

Heliocentrism displaced Earth (and humans) from cosmic center, challenging literal scriptural interpretations and medieval theology. Copernicus argued it was mathematically simpler, more harmonious, and explained planetary retrograde motion more elegantly.

Question 5

On what philosophical conception of the universe was the work of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo based? Explain.

Answer 5

Pythagorean/Platonic mathematical realism: the universe is ordered mathematically and governed by discoverable laws; nature is written in mathematical language.

Question 6

In what way(s) can the clash between the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems be likened to a Kuhnian scientific revolution?

Answer 6

It replaced a dominant paradigm with an incompatible one; involved resistance from authorities; required reinterpretation of observations; changed standards of explanation and worldview.

Question 7

Discuss the implications for psychology of Galileo’s distinction between primary and secondary qualities.

Answer 7

Primary qualities (shape, motion, number) exist objectively; secondary qualities (color, taste, sound) exist in perception. This distinction shifted study of sensation and perception toward subjective mental processes, influencing empiricism and psychology.

Question 8

What is deism?

Answer 8

Belief that God created the universe but does not intervene; knowledge of God comes through reason and observation of natural laws, not revelation.

Question 9

Summarize Bacon’s view of science.

Answer 9

Science should be empirical and inductive, based on systematic observation and experimentation; knowledge is for practical human benefit and control of nature.

Question 10

Describe the idols of the cave, marketplace, theater, and tribe.

Answer 10

Cave: personal biases from individual experience. Marketplace: confusion from language and social communication. Theater: unquestioned acceptance of philosophical or theological systems. Tribe: innate human tendencies to perceive patterns and order that may not exist.

Question 11

What was it that Descartes thought he could be certain of? Once this certainty was arrived at, how did Descartes use it in further developing his philosophy?

Answer 11

Certainty of his own existence as a thinking being (‘cogito’). Used it as an indubitable foundation to build knowledge; argued clear and distinct ideas are reliable; attempted to prove God’s existence and external world.

Question 12

Why did Descartes reach the conclusion that some ideas are innate? Give examples of ideas that he thought were innate.

Answer 12

Some concepts cannot come from sensory experience because they are universal and necessary. Examples: idea of God, self, perfection, infinity, mathematical truths.

Question 13

Summarize Descartes’s view of the mind–body relationship.

Answer 13

Substance dualism: mind is nonmaterial thinking substance; body is material extended substance; they interact but are fundamentally different in nature.

Question 14

How did Descartes reach the conclusion that the mind is nonmaterial and has an existence independent of the body?

Answer 14

Through methodological doubt he could doubt body but not thinking; conceivability of mind without body implies distinct substances; therefore mind is immaterial and separable.

Question 15

What were Descartes’s contributions to psychology?

Answer 15

Emphasized introspection and conscious experience; proposed mind–body interaction; advanced nativism; described reflex action; promoted mechanistic view of bodily processes.