Bacon, Descartes, and Pascal

Bacon 1561-1626

Order and assurance
English writer and diplomat
Novum Organum (New Method)
Use his own experiences
Systematically investigate natural world
Uses scientific method
--bad for working in areas where we care most about

Descartes 1596-1650

Mathematician (analytic geometry)
Cartesian coordinates
Scientist
Philosopher
---no certainty available
Traveled
Mathematics are certain
He applied it
   Accept nothing unless true
   Divide difficulties
   Conduct in an orderly manner
   No loop-holes
Rigorous proof
Disadvantage
   Small error=big problem
Provisional rules
Follow laws and customs
Be resolute, cannot wait for absolutes
Change yourself
Choose best occupation
Starts with metaphysics
Doubt everything
Can be certain we are thinking
Cogito Ergo Sum
   If we are certainly thinking, then there ARE ideas One thing exists due to others:
    Atom
    Hydrogen
    Water
    Ocean
Certain God exists
   Human existence dependent on a more perfect being
   I exist, therefore God must exist
Senses easily deceptive
   Devil creates stuff for illusions of good things
   Truthful God=truthful senses given
    e.g. circulation of blood is sensual
Bacon was inductive
Descartes was deductive
One problem: step between existence of God and man
   (division by 0 is an error)
Meditations=his justification
   Proofs:
1.modified first-cause argument
   everything has causes, even causes
       uncaused first cause
       ideas also have causes
    (Aristotle)
    2.modified argument from design
       order
       someone intelligent creates everything
       current order-some force is maintaining it
    3. modified ontological argument
        definition proves existence of God
        infinite potentiality
     God=everything that exists
        hot is hot, exist is exist
        no specific God proven
    Useless answer

Pascal 1623-1662

Mathematician and scientist
Uncertainty in the 17th c.
Concern about religion
   Doubts in Christianity
    Christians doing horrible things to each other Pensees (thoughts)
People beginning to doubt religion
Reasons to wish Christianity was true
1. unhappiness of men without God
a. idolatry-look at places of the world without God
i. worship wood, rocks, etc.
ii. people have a need for something to worship
b. injustice (unfairness beyond control)
i. tyranny and unjust rule
c. irrational wars
i. political decisions
d. selfishness
e. longing for glory----why?
i. We have an emptiness
ii. After a win, look for another
f. uncertainty
i. everything you love
1. worry about it and can lose it
g. shortness of life
i. you are going to die
ii. life only a drop in the bucket
   2. happiness of men with God
a. we should wish there was something to worship and
    fill the gap
b. everything justified, we should prefer Christ
3. evidence in Scripture
a. prophecies proved
b. historical dates
4. miracles recorded
a. many around us
b. the greater the miracle, the greater the rejection
5. probability
a. Pascal's Wagar
i. God exists
   A. if you're right-gain everything
   B. if you're wrong-lose nothing
ii. God doesn't exist
   A. if you're right-gain nothing
   B. if you're wrong-lose everything
6. greatest proof
--something wrong in our hearts, not head