The first lecture is Francis Bacon. There are two Bacons in the history of philosophy, one is Rogier Bacon and the other is Francis Bacon. But we seldom mention Rogier Bacon, because his philosophy is not particularly representative. Generally, when we say bacon, we mean this Francis bacon.

Because this is the first lecture for us to enter this formal study. Therefore, the first lesson is to introduce the background of the times, that is, the background of the whole modern Europe and some important events in the whole modern Europe.

The background of the times has a great influence on these philosophers we will talk about later. Let's start with bacon's life. Bacon, the year of birth and death is 156 1 year to 1626. Here we want to see an important figure in this period-Martin Luther. If you have studied history, this class may be more like a history class. Luther was a leader of the Reformation because he translated the Bible into German.

This has caused one thing, which is a very big thing in Europe, because the beliefs in Europe were all Catholicism before. It can be said that the dispute between Catholicism and Protestantism is only the obvious line of the Thirty Years' War. What about Catholicism? That is to say, there is a God, and then he transmits his teachings to the following believers through an agent in this real world. This agent is the Pope, and the content of communication is the Bible.

Why can't others understand this Bible? Because the Bible was written in Latin at that time, everyone could not understand it. Therefore, the right to interpret this Bible belongs entirely to the church and the Pope. Here, the struggle for discourse power is also very obvious in secular understanding. Mastering the discourse power of religion is equivalent to controlling the actual power, so as to realize one's own pursuit of "God". However, whether Catholicism, Protestantism or Gnosticism have different understandings of God. Who doesn't want to pursue the "God" he believes in? So he wants to lead the people below, and he says that God said so, but the people below don't understand. Is that what God said? They can only trust the Pope, so the authority of the Pope is a representative of God. This is Catholicism, but in Martin Luther's time, because of the invention of printing, Martin Luther could translate the Latin Bible into German and print it quickly. With the advent of the technological age, "alienation" has developed, and alienation just lies in creating a kind of hope to break through the "container"-utopia-an externalized beautiful world. This is also closely related to the connotation of * * * aid society, alchemy and Nosti.

Printing accelerated the spread of the German version of the Bible, making it impossible for the Pope to ban it before it was widely spread. Therefore, after reading the German Bible, everyone found that many things the Pope said were not written in the Bible at all, so everyone would feel cheated. Gradually, contradictions arose, which eventually led to the 30-year war. Protestantism came into being at this time. Everyone began to obey their inner God. This is Protestantism. In fact, the differences between Protestantism and Catholicism have already appeared in the sects. Protestantism is just a sudden emergence in this struggle, and it has a new form of expression that integrates other sects. It emphasizes that every believer can believe in the God in his heart. It is not like Catholics who need to believe in a pope to believe in God. So there is a huge conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism. It led to the first European War all over Europe, which we usually call the 30-year War. This war took place after the death of Martin Luther, from 16 18 to 1648, during which Bacon lived.

That is to say, Protestantism has emerged. A few years before Bacon's death, this war and this contradiction finally broke out to the extreme. Europe at that time, because it experienced some very dark rule in the Middle Ages, um, so some people at that time felt that some bourgeoisie at that time needed some, er, some political ideas they appealed for for them. At this time, the bourgeoisie has begun to sprout slowly. Let's see. Several big things happened at this time. The first thing is what I just said. The second thing is the discovery of the new continent. I must talk about it with this bourgeoisie.

Because of this ideological liberation and religious ideological liberation, people finally got rid of this religion, which can be said to be more in line with a philosophy of hope that transcends their own "container" wishes. It's becoming more and more secular. What about this secularity? We understand it as a bad meaning. In China people's understanding, it is very "rustic" and they don't understand the meaning of amorous feelings. However, in the western context, secularism is people's secular power and political rights. However, the difference between the two meanings of "secularism" in China just shows that China people do not have western transcendental thinking. There is no theological tradition. Therefore, in the context of China's life, the words originally expressing transcendental relations have become words expressing the relationship between the ordinary and the noble, which has brought into China people's thoughts a strong moral judgment. The emperor began to pursue its secular power, not a restricted right bound by this religion and Catholicism. Well, the bourgeoisie is beginning to sprout, and then they will discover the new continent again, so they will want to go to the new continent and open up a new continent. The emergence of the bourgeoisie is actually a new type of fetishism obtained through alienation. This fetishism creates a utopia by escaping from the hope of "container", and then replaces God with objects. In a sense, Bacon's "utopia laboratory" has been realized in capitalism.

It began to expand. The bourgeoisie has also brought about the rise of some science and technology, because it requires science and technology, and it needs the development of this technology internally. To consolidate their fetishism. This period is a period of great development of the British bourgeoisie, and serfdom has begun to slowly disintegrate. During this period, Britain is carrying out a huge enclosure movement. Why do you want to carry out this enclosure movement? Is the collapse of serfdom. In fact, the statement of historical process has implied the assumption that some kind of history is "advancing", which hides the Christian linear view of time. The disintegration of this serfdom led the bourgeoisie to go to the enclosure for some industrial production and some large-scale production. Therefore, on the one hand, this enclosure movement has accelerated the development of the bourgeoisie, on the other hand, the bourgeoisie is something that is inherent in this development.

In this case, technology was discovered. It is found that this word is an extremely accurate usage here. The discovery of science and technology was also a great change at that time, and people's thoughts also had a great influence, which means that people used to believe in a religious philosophy. This philosophy is called scholasticism. Theology to be exact. After this period, some philosophers began to awaken slowly, and the word awakening implied the expression of * * * aid society. Awakening means sleeping before, but was it really sleeping before? I found that this thing seems wrong. Scholasticism is discussing some meaningless things at all. This is actually a misunderstanding of scholasticism after the discipline of current values (capitalist values). For example, there are several angels on the tip of the needle and so on. These are absurd discussions, which are actually considered absurd at present. And some ideas that they think have no basis, but you can't completely deny it in empirical philosophy, and it also gives people some enlightenment.

As I said before, you can't look at any philosophical thoughts, including scholasticism, with prejudice. You must stand in an objective perspective. Of course, he has his shortcomings, but you can't just see his shortcomings completely, just because it is a thing of the past, you think that he is completely bad, which is also wrong. Scholasticism has some thoughts of Thomas Aquinas. His five proofs of the existence of God have given us a lot of enlightenment, but not only in this respect, but also in many aspects. When Thomas Aquinas proves God in five ways, we will compare it with Descartes' way of proving the existence of God, which we will talk about next time.

Then the outbreak of the 30-year war led to chaos in the whole European society, and people began to hate this ruined European continent more and more. Now that a new continent has been discovered. Then why don't we use some of our new ideas in Europe and put them into practice in a new continent?

Can we establish our own country and re-establish our own country in the New World? It is the Anglo-Saxons, and the Anglo-Saxons have always been greatly influenced by the aid society, which is the hidden line of mysticism. They think that Catholicism in the old continent or the 30-year war in the old continent has ruined the European continent, and they want to establish a new country in the new continent. Of course, there are still some contradictions. During the lecture, I found that there were some hidden contents in it. At that time, I had not dug up a hidden line of mysticism, but only discovered some anomalies.

So the United States was founded in 1776, that is, 1776 when the war of independence broke out. This is a big framework. But there's another one in between. It's called the Enlightenment. About the Enlightenment, because its connotation is too rich, it has a great influence on the present. Therefore, if there is too much content to be attached, it will be scattered in various notes, and another article will be written to discuss the specific details. The idea of the Enlightenment is also here, which we will talk about when we talk about18th century French philosophy. This is a relatively thick content, so we can see that Bacon lived in the era of the enclosure movement in Britain, and this Martin Luther, whose influence has gradually begun to intensify, and the real outbreak of the war in his thirty years later. Then why should I put this Newton in here? Newton was actually one of the leaders of the aid society at that time. The general view of Newton is that he has some philosophical thoughts, but his main contribution is in physics. Then I think Newton is a mechanical philosophy.

People's philosophers at that time were inspired by this kind of Newton, or Newton was inspired by this kind of materialism and this kind of philosophical thought before, and developed its physics thought. In fact, it is a hidden line of mysticism that has been hidden in the western culture. And his mechanical physics thought in turn influenced the philosophers at that time. As for some later philosophers, Leibniz and Spinoza all had a mechanical thinking, that is, what is this mechanical thinking? It means that we should discover a philosophical law just like Newton's law. So that our philosophical thoughts have a set of philosophical thinking, which is pushed down like this mathematical reasoning, so it is not a kind of thinking of transformation, so we call it machinery. This mechanistic materialism is actually practicing the pursuit of "utopian laboratory".

It is a very rigid philosophy. In 1688, a glorious revolution finally took place in Britain, and this light revolution did not produce bloodshed and sacrifice. There is certainly spiritual sacrifice, but there is no bloodshed. Thanks to this revolution, Britain can finally develop on this capitalist road without any obstacles. An empire that never sets in the sun began to give birth to the industrial revolution, and the British colonial rule in the world began slowly. This is another story. This is the background of the whole era. The most important thing is the discovery of the New World, the emergence of Protestantism, the germination and slow development of the bourgeoisie, which is its huge background.

Then we look at some philosophers in this era, and we will understand their philosophical thoughts at a deeper level. Our later courses are in this order, but according to bacon. This is the first lecture. The second lecture is Descartes, and I may talk about Locke later. The fourth lecture will talk about Hobbes when we come back, and we will arrange the last words later. Hobbes' words may also come first. I'm not sure about this yet. Let's get into Bacon's thought, and this lecture will be short here.