Unit 4: Western Worldviews Outline PDF

UNIT 4: WESTERN WORLDVIEWS (general outline) CONTENTS 1. The 4 Periods of Western History and… 2. Periods of Western Worldviews 3. General Outline of Western Worldviews 1. THE 4 periods of Western History and… ANCIENT (3300 B.C- 476 A.C) From the invention of writing to the fall of the Roman Emp...

UNIT 4: WESTERN WORLDVIEWS (general outline) CONTENTS 1. The 4 Periods of Western History and… 2. Periods of Western Worldviews 3. General Outline of Western Worldviews 1. THE 4 periods of Western History and… ANCIENT (3300 B.C- 476 A.C) From the invention of writing to the fall of the Roman Empire MEDIEVAL (476 - 1492): Fall of the Western Roman Empire – Discovery of America MODERN (1492 - 1789) Discovery of America - French Revolution CONTEMPORARY (1789-today) 1. Typical 4 periods of Western History and… … an important clarification: The course “MAN and the MODERN WORLD” does not deal with the human worldview in the modern period of history (1492-1789) but tries to synthesize how the current Western worldview has been formed through the transition of worldviews from antiquity to the present, and especially through the genesis and crisis of Modernity (from the 14th century to the present). 2. Periods of Western Worldviews ANCIENT (VIII BC- late IV AC)– MEDIEVAL (V-XIV) ROOTS OF MODERNITY: RENAISSANCE (late XIV-late XVI), ENLIGHTMENT (XVII-XVIII) vs ROMANTICISM (XVIII) MODERN WORLDVIEWS (XIX) CRISIS OF MODERNITY (XX) POSTMODERN CONTEMPORARY … (late XX, and XXI) 3. General outline of Western Worldviews • This section overviews some changes and relationships between the worldviews of the different periods including a few elementary descriptions. • In the units of part II, the worldviews of each period are explained somewhat better and some of their own currents of ideas are to be detailed. 3. General outline of W. Worldviews ANCIENT MEDIEVAL (VIII BC- late IV AC) (V-XIV) • Mythos to Logos: Gods and Nature process of differentiation. • Humans between fate and search for excellence according to their potential (nature). • Christian culture in progression (God at the center of Nature and History, Monotheism, Creation and Providence) • Humans battle for “perfection” (sanctity) between fallen nature and God’s grace. PRE-MODERN (RENNAISANCE) (late XIVlate XVI) • Back to the Ancient and classical world: human excellence. • Beginning of the Anthropocentric culture. God placed at a back seat. • Complexity: scientifical discoveries, Artistic power, America, Protestantism, Catholic Mystics… 3. General outline of W. Worldviews MODERN ENLIGHTMENT (XVIIXVIII) • New antichristian culture. Deism: a rational version of God and religion. • Human reason above all. She is the new “Goddess”. • Modern Project: increase human AUTONOMY MODERN ROMANTICISM (XVIII) MODERN IDEOLOGIES • Opposed to Enlightment (reason) • Human feelings, phantasy and art experience the infinite above all rational processes. • 3 versions of the allencompassing reason. God is a human “creation” (Feuerbach) ✓ Marxism ✓ Capitalism ✓ Positivism (Comte) ▪ Evolutionism (Nature and Man) (XIX) 3. General outline of W. Worldviews ANTIMODERN (XIX-XX) • Nietzsche (vitalism and nihilism). Truth is a mummified metaphor. • Freud (unconscious instincts rule life) Eros and Thanatos. • Atheistic Existentialism (Sartre- S XX): life is nonsense. MODERN CRITICISMS (late XIX to present) • School of Frankfurt (critics to “instrumental reason”). Critical School (Neo Marxism) • Theistic Existentialism (Kierkegaard) • Personalism (Buber) • Catholic Social Teaching POSTMODERN and CONTEMPORARY CULTURE (late XIX to present) • “Pensiero debole” (G. Vattimo inspired by Nietzsche and Derrida). All is interpretation without logical laws. Non-sense. “Liquid life” (text * Z. Bauman). Subjectivism, multiculturalism, relativism, postruth… The Goddess Reason is ruined.