The Philosophy Book

ANCE AGE ON ...

100 T he Renaissance—a cultural “rebirth” of extraordinary creativity in Europe—began in 14th-century Florence. It was to spread ...

101 and revived the connection between philosophy and science, especially mathematics, that dated back to pre-Socratic Greece. T ...

THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI (1469–1527) ...

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104 I n order fully to understand Machiavelli’s views on power, it is necessary to understand the background to his political co ...

105 Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449 –1492) effectively ruled Florence from the death of his father in 1469 until his death. Though ...

106 It must be understood that a prince cannot observe all those things which are considered good in men. Niccolò Machiavelli NI ...

107 Ruthlessness has been a virtue of leadership throughout history. In the 20th century, the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini ...

108 IN CONTEXT BRANCH Ethics APPROACH Humanism BEFORE 4th century BCE Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, argues that to be vi ...

109 Montaigne experienced the results of mindless mob violence during the French Wars of Religion (1562–98), including the atroc ...

110 KNOWLEDGE IS POWER FRANCIS BACON (1561–1626) IN CONTEXT BRANCH Philosophy of science APPROACH Empiricism BEFORE 4th century ...

111 Science, not religion, was regarded increasingly as the key to knowledge from the 16th century onward. This 1598 print depic ...

112 MAN IS A MACHINE THOMAS HOBBES (1588–1679) A lthough he is best known for his political philosophy, Thomas Hobbes wrote on a ...

113 See also: Aristotle 56–63 ■ Francis Bacon 110–11 ■ René Descartes 116–23 ■ Julien Offray de la Mettrie 335 ■ Gilbert Ryle 33 ...

114 THOMAS HOBBES For what is the heart, but a spring; and the nerves, but so many strings; and the joints, but so many wheels, ...

115 While Hobbes was formulating his mechanistic ideas, scientists such as the physician William Harvey were using empirical tec ...

I THINK THEREFORE I AM RENE DESCARTES (1596–1650) ...

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118 R ené Descartes lived in the early 17th century, during a period sometimes called the Scientific Revolution, an era of rapid ...