Ancient Greece and Rome

November 7, 09:55 At the beginning of the 14th century, with the gradual formation and development of the capitalist mode of production, the demand for science and art also increased. Becoming urgent and intense. Europe began to enter the Renaissance era. The Renaissance was the second peak period in European cultural history after the cultural prosperity of ancient Greece and Rome. This period lasted for more than 300 years from the 14th century to the first half of the 17th century. The Renaissance, with the face of restoring Greek and Roman classical literature, art and scholarship, completely shook the foundation of the Christian Church's rule in Europe and led to the emergence and development of modern natural science.

1. The revival of ancient Greek and Roman culture

The fifth to fifteenth centuries AD were known as the "Dark Middle Ages." This was a period when the Christian church was dominant, the classical culture of ancient Greece and Rome declined, and Europe entered an era in which theology ruled everything. The medieval Christian theological worldview believed that humans are born sinful. According to the doctrine of "original sin", human ancestors Adam and Eve lived in paradise and lived a beautiful and happy life. However, they were punished by God for eating forbidden fruit. He was expelled from paradise and fell into the mortal world forever. Therefore, people are sinful in this life. Only by turning to the church, repenting and praying to seek God's favor and be saved from sin can they enter heaven after death. God dominates everything, and man is worthless. Man is God’s slave and God’s lamb, and can only obey God’s mercy. In those days, science was considered an insult to God, and all learning was "owned" by the priests, and all wisdom was "concentrated" in the Bible. In this era, as Engels pointed out: "Science is only the humble handmaiden of the church. It must not exceed the boundaries set by religious beliefs." The church used its privileges to suppress all "heresies." According to statistics, about five million people were sentenced to death in various European countries during the Middle Ages, many of whom were natural scientists. Therefore, during this period, the development of science was extremely slow, and in some areas even regressed compared with ancient science.

“In Italy, capitalist production developed earliest, and serfdom relations also collapsed first.” (Marx, Volume 1 of Capital) So the Renaissance movement first started in Italy. Florence, the "cradle of the Renaissance", has become the center of the bourgeois new cultural movement since the 14th century. During the reign of Cosimo of the Medici family (1434-1464) and later the reign of Rossosso (1469-1492), Florence experienced unprecedented economic and cultural prosperity, becoming a bright light in the "dark" medieval Europe. At that time, the New Culture Movement in Italy and Florence was under the banner of "reviving" ancient Greek and Roman culture, and pointed its finger directly at the theocracy of the church. The bourgeoisie, which has just stepped onto the stage of history, does not yet have a mature and complete ideological system. To fight against the power of medieval Christian theology, it must have powerful ideological weapons. They believe that this weapon is the secular and rational ancient Greco-Roman culture. Although these classical cultures were rejected by the Christian church in the Middle Ages, denounced as heresies, and imprisoned for thousands of years, emerging bourgeois thinkers still restored their glory.

In the cultural circles of Florence, Italy, "humanism" has also become a weapon to challenge theology. Humanists quoted the famous saying of the ancient Greek philosopher Protagoras: "Man is the measure of all things." They advocated respect for nature and human rights and opposed asceticism; they advocated science and culture and opposed superstition. They pull people from the world of God back to the real world of man. They praise people, praise life and nature, and advocate science and reason. Under the guidance of humanistic ideas, both social sciences and natural sciences have developed, giving rise to modern realist literature and art, modern natural sciences based on experimental methods, new materialist philosophy, political science, history and education, etc. A large number of versatile and knowledgeable giants were produced. These giants held high the banner of humanism and launched a fierce attack on feudal despotism and Christian theology, thereby writing a new chapter in the history of human culture.

2. The Liberation of Natural Sciences

The Renaissance was an era of active thinking that was conducive to bold innovation. The great geographical discoveries of Columbus, Magellan and da Gama; the artistic innovations of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael were all completed in this era.

After the dark night of the Middle Ages, science suddenly re-emerged with unexpected power and developed at a miraculous speed. Among them, the major discoveries in astronomy made by scientific giants such as Copernicus, Bruno, Galileo, Kepler and Newton are especially represented and pioneered.

In the era of Copernicus, Ptolemy's "geocentric theory" was dominant in Europe. The medieval church deified geocentrism and used it as a basis to prove the existence of God. Copernicus believed that Ptolemy regarded illusion as reality because he failed to distinguish between appearance and essence. Because we cannot feel the rotation of the earth, we only feel that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west every day. This is just like when people are sitting on a large ship and sailing, they often cannot feel the ship moving, but only see things on the shore moving. Same as moving backward. As a result, Copernicus proposed the heliocentric theory and published his masterpiece "On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres". He bravely proposed that the sun is the center of the universe and that the earth is not the center of the universe. It is just an ordinary planet orbiting the sun. Because Copernicus was limited by his time and class, he could not completely get rid of the influence of old traditional concepts. He followed the ancient Greek idealist school's statement that the circle is the most perfect shape, and believed that the orbits of planets around the sun are circular and move at a uniform speed. But it turns out that the orbits of planets around the sun are elliptical and non-uniform. These imperfections in Copernican theory were developed and perfected by Bruno and Kepler. The birth of Copernicus' "heliocentric theory" liberated astronomy from the shackles of religious theology, and natural science was reborn. This was of epoch-making significance in the history of the development of modern science.

3. The challenge of natural science to theology

For thousands of years, theological obscurantism has been rampant. They exalt the power of gods, belittle human beings, stifle scientific discoveries, and let science act as theology. 's servant. The introduction of the Copernican theory was an open challenge to theology, and it pointed the spearhead of the struggle directly at the Roman Church. Copernicus's theory overturned the basic theories of astronomy at that time and distinguished science from mysterious witchcraft. It violated Christian doctrine and was opposed by the church. The Pope denounced Copernicus's theory as a "wrong and completely unbiblical heresy" and banned his works. At the same time, he brutally persecuted scholars who promoted Copernicus' theory.

Bruno, a natural scientist who shouted for the truth, boldly exposed the ignorance of religion despite the church's prohibition. He organically combined the advanced natural science and philosophy at that time and established his own materialist natural philosophy of the universe. He insisted on supplementing and developing the Copernican theory. Copernicus reduced the earth from the central celestial body of the universe to a planet in the solar system, thus shaking the foundation of Catholic theological rule. Bruno reduced the sun from the central celestial body of the universe to an ordinary star, which brought people's scientific understanding of the universe another step forward. This is a further development of the "geocentric theory" preached by the church and the resulting "anthropocentrism" Complete denial. Bruno's ideas caused hundreds of religious inquisitions to declare him a heretic, and the Roman Catholic Church tried every means to put him to death. For this reason, they used despicable means to lure him back to the country and imprisoned him in dungeons in Venice and Rome for eight years in an attempt to force him to bow his head and confess his sins, give up his views, repent to the church, condemn himself, and surrender. However, during these eight years of prison life, although Bruno was tortured, he never wavered in his beliefs, did not give up his doctrines, and did not admit his "mistakes." On February 17, 1600, Bruno was burned at the stake in the Campo de' Fiori in Rome. Bruno enthusiastically promoted materialism and atheism everywhere, and spread the Copernican theory throughout Europe, making him the most determined and brave fighter against the church and scholasticism.

At the same time, the scientist Galileo also fought unrelentingly against the Holy See in order to safeguard the truth. He used a homemade telescope to observe the sun, moon, and stars in the sky, uncovering many secrets in the celestial bodies, providing favorable evidence for the Copernican theory, and defeating the "world of gods" that attempts to anesthetize people's spirits and wills. A fatal blow. Pope Paul V (1605-1621) seriously felt that although the Holy See eliminated Bruno physically, it did not eliminate Copernican theory ideologically. Now Galileo is using new discoveries to support Copernican theory. The Holy See was once again hit. Therefore, on March 5, 1616, the Pope reiterated that Copernicus's theory was a "heresy" and his works were listed as banned books. No one was allowed to talk about, promote or read them, otherwise they would be tried by the Inquisition.

However, the warning from the Holy See did not make Galileo give up his astronomical research work. After long-term observation and study of the movements of celestial bodies, he became more convinced of the correctness of Copernicus' theory. In 1632, Galileo's "Dialogue Concerning the Two World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican" was finally published after a long period of review. After the publication of this work, it was greatly hated by some clergymen. They complained to the Inquisition on the pretext that the ban of 1616 was still in effect. Soon, the book was banned from sale, and Galileo was summoned to stand trial before the Roman Inquisition. At this time, Galileo was nearly 70 years old and his body was weak. Although he was exhausted from torture and was dying, he still argued hard and insisted on his own views and refused to bow to the Holy See. In the end, Galileo was sentenced to prison, and after his release from prison, he was placed under house arrest in Florence for 7 years.

The famous German astronomer Kepler also fought against the church to defend the truth. During his studies at university, Kepler gradually became an admirer of Copernicus' theory, and his belief in theology was shaken. He often had fierce arguments with his classmates and unequivocally defended Copernicus' theory of the universe. In his later years, he continued to fight against idealism. The Catholic Church hated Kepler's actions, surrounded his residence, and threatened to execute him. Kepler later escaped death because he was once the emperor's mathematician. But this did not shake his belief. He still insisted on scientific research and made great developments in Copernicus' heliocentric theory.

4. The victory of natural science

Once human reason is freed from the constraints of the theological worldview, it will have tremendous power. The great discoveries in astronomy made by astronomers such as Copernicus and Kepler were very different from religious prejudices and were a complete negation of the theological system. It was the discoveries of these giants that promoted the development of the materialist worldview. The power of truth cannot be suppressed, and human understanding will never be stopped by the fooling of religious ideas. More than two hundred years later, the Pope of Rome had to admit that the heliocentric theory was correct, and successively vindicated Bruno, Galileo and other scientists who had died unjustly. This is the victory of truth, the victory of science, the victory of the giants of the Renaissance.