GVPT241 Lecture 3 25 14 The Early Modern Crisis of Authority The Tragic in Lear Crises of Authority 1 Religious Scholars refuse to recognize him as a king Politics is generally a domain of misrecognition Glosters Blindness fails to recognize his son after his blindness and even the inner eye misrecognized which of his two sons was loyal Lear misrecognized true piety when he banished people Lear and Gloster come to these realizations when political order has collapsed and there is violence most of the principles die and disappear o Prevailing religious authority found itself in a two fold crisis Set of allegations performed that a person of particular authorities in the church were corrupt Martin Luther Samuel de Champlain etc Internal crises to church doctrine and the authority that we should treat it more general Series of problems with conflicting authorities o How can one depend on authorities that are corrupt or contradictory o Solution to this problem Simplify a situation by reducing the church authorities to one source of authority being scripture Start fresh with a single authority that everyone would recognize Instead of simplifying the problem it multiplied the number of authorities too many points of view about church doctrine 2 Intellectual o Interest of skepticism o Any attempt to justify a belief you have is bound to fail Problem of the three year old toddler Infinite Regress theres no point at which the regress stops Problem of circularity 3 Cultural o Combination of well educated and well raised o European political units competing for power project their power outside of borders through colonization slave trade missionaries o Languages habits customs and forms of authority were altered because of the colonization 4 Political etc o Leaders warring on each other emperors clashing together o Rise of a commercial class merchants bankers etc o Weakening of structures of power lead to military All of these crises of authority are known as the role of religion because all can affect it Conflicts between kings and cities became holy wars The European Wars of Religion competition Massive famine Diseases Early Modern little ice age Political Philosophy for Dark Times Hobbes new goal was to avoid starvation and violent death In such a condition there is no place for industry no culture of the earth no account of time no arts no letters no society and which is worst of all continual fear and danger of violent death and the life of man solitary poor nasty brutish and short Thomas Hobbes Leviathan xiii 9
View Full Document
Unlocking...