Jean Gerson, moral certainty and the Renaissance of ancient Scepticism

Abstract

The early modern revival of scepticism and new scholastic trends in guiding uncertain consciences originated in the 15th century. This paper explores the motivating role of the Great Western Schism (1378–1417) on these developments, focusing on the work of the eminent theologian and philosopher Jean Gerson (1363–1429). The Schism created a rationale for a pluralistic handling of opinions and for a positive attitude towards scepticism, as Gerson's writings document. Moreover, innovations in the scholastic treatment of uncertainty, culminating in Gerson's concept of a moral certainty, made ancient scepticism palatable for scholastics. Hence, two major early modern traditions of dealing with uncertainty, the sceptic and the scholastic, were interrelated at the beginning. Gerson also addressed the problem of a reliable criterion of religious truth which Richard Popkin tied to the Reformation. The problem was much discussed well before the Reformation, notably in connection with the question of distinguishing true from false prophetic knowledge. The Schism, however, disqualified the Catholic hierarchy as arbiter of truth and motivated a reconsideration of established notions of epistemic uncertainty.

Heresy, witchcraft, Jean Gerson, scepticism and the use of placebo controls

“…6 Gerson's concerns may have remained primarily focused on matters of faith; nonetheless, his intellectual legacy reached the early modern period and came to influence enlightenment philosophers and sounded a bell for a newly emerging scepticism. 7 In terms of concrete methodology, Gerson's thinking indirectly influenced witch trials in early modern Europe and some of his texts (e.g. De probatione spirituum).…”

“…6 Gerson’s concerns may have remained primarily focused on matters of faith; nonetheless, his intellectual legacy reached the early modern period and came to influence enlightenment philosophers and sounded a bell for a newly emerging scepticism. 7…”

“…It was he who in On Distinguishing True from False Revelations (De distinctione verarum visionem a falsis) used the following numismatic image to illustrate the placebo principle: 'But sometimes the false coin can be so close in appearance to the true one that its counterfeit can only be detected by the most learned people'. 7 Declarations…”

Phantoms in and of the Archive: Mary Cudmore’s Encounters with a Ghost in Cork in 1688 and 1689

“…Defined by Rudolf Schüssler as 'certainty that suffices for action … a level of certainty where moral risk avoidance becomes unnecessary and an agent is entitled to trust his beliefs without fear of error', its use 'implied that a claim's validity … was beyond reasonable doubt'. 63 John Wilkins, bishop of Chester, distinguished between infallible certainty (achievable only by God), conditional infallible certainty (that which 'has to be accepted if we are to know anything'), and indubitable or moral certainty 'based on accepting the reliability of our faculties from which we can only reach an assurance "which doth not admit of any reasonable cause of doubting"'. 64 Bishop Edward Stillingfleet, in his defence of scriptural miracles, asked 'Do we not see that the most concerning and weighty actions of Mens lives, are built on no other foundation than this Moral certainty?'…”

“…Reading between the lines in seventeenth-century pamphlets of the supernatural', Seventeenth Century, 28 (2013), pp. 63 12 Raymond Gillespie, Devoted people: belief and religion in early modern Ireland (Manchester, 1997), pp. 110-14.…”