Giordano Bruno
The universe is infinite, filled with countless worlds.
Giordano Bruno (1548 – 1600, Italy, then all of Europe (Geneva, Toulouse, Paris, London, Wittenberg, Prague, Frankfurt), Venice and Rome) : humanism and neoplatonism. An infinite cause can only produce an infinite effect: the universe therefore has neither edge nor centre, and it holds an infinity of worlds like ours, with their suns and their earths. This universe is one: matter is not an inert dough, it carries all forms within itself, and one world-soul animates everything. On AskPhilosophy: 4 reconstructed arguments, 5 quotes checked word for word against the original texts, and 3 common beliefs examined; every text carries an authenticity badge (written by the author, posthumous, student notes, reported, apocryphal).
Why he matters
He is one of the first to argue, as a philosopher, that the universe is infinite and that the stars are other suns surrounded by worlds. He defends Copernicus when almost all scholars reject him, and he uses the ship example (a stone dropped from the mast falls at the foot of the mast) that Galileo made famous. His trial and death have made him, since the 19th century, a symbol of freedom of thought: a symbol that must be checked against the texts.
His life
He entered the Dominican order in Naples, was suspected of heresy, left the order in 1576 and wandered across Europe: Geneva, Toulouse, Paris, then London (1583-1585), where he lived with the French ambassador and published his Italian dialogues. He then taught in Germany and Prague. In 1591, invited to Venice by the patrician Mocenigo, he was denounced by him to the Inquisition in 1592. Handed over to Rome in 1593, he spent seven years in prison, finally refused to recant, and was burned alive on 17 February 1600.
Reading his dialogues
His major books are dialogues: characters do the talking. Filoteo (The Infinite, Cause I) and Teofilo (Cause II-V, The Ash Wednesday Supper) are his spokesmen; the others question, resist or are mocked (the pedant Polihimnio). The dedicatory letters, by contrast, are in his own voice. His 1592 depositions are known only through the Inquisition notary's record: his words, but spoken under interrogation. His books dated "Venice" were printed in England, and almost all the others too, even those dated "Paris": he explained this himself to his judges, saying the false address came from the printer.
His positions
click a row to see the evidenceHe never denies God: he speaks of an infinite cause, a universal providence, a divinity present "in everything". But he refuses to look for divinity outside the infinite world, and leaves the "supreme principle" to faith. To his judges he distinguishes nature, "shadow and trace of the divinity", from God, who is "in all and above all". A pantheist for some, a "panentheist" for others: it is debated.
The senses awaken reason but do not judge: "no sense perceives the infinite". It is for the intellect to judge what is far away in space and time.
He says he is as certain of the Earth's motion as of anything one can hold certain, "not by authority but by living sense and reason". On the other hand God's infinite substance can only be known through its traces.
Neither dualist nor materialist: everything is animated by a world-soul, matter carries all forms within itself, and matter and soul are one substance. A kind of "panpsychism" before the word.
In God, willing, being able and doing are one thing: he cannot do other than he does. Bruno judges this reasoning demonstrative, while approving the theologians who do not teach it to the people, lest they lose the sense of merit and justice. On human freedom our texts do not settle the matter.
There are "divine laws engraved in the centre of our heart". But in The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast, a law is judged by what it brings to the common life of humankind.
He says he always reasoned "by natural light", without aiming first at what faith requires. Scripture speaks common language to teach conduct: it is no authority in physics. But he leaves to faith the contemplation that rises above nature.
Contemplating the infinite universe frees us from vain fear and hope and "leads man to the true bliss he can have as a man".
In his own voice he says he hates "the vulgar herd". In The Expulsion, the character Saulino says that humans, more varied and inconstant than all animals, must be held by laws. But Bruno also celebrates the heroic effort of the mind that rises (The Heroic Frenzies).
In The Expulsion, Jupiter (as reported by Sophia, with Saulino's approval) holds that what matters is the "convitto umano", life in common: no law, even from heaven, is acceptable if it does not serve it, and faults are the more serious the more they harm common life. These are characters, but the idea runs through the whole book.
In The Expulsion, Jupiter replaces vices with virtues (truth, prudence, justice, diligence...) and orders that deeds always be preferred to mere belief (orders reported by Sophia). Virtues are valued for their fruits for life in common: a virtue ethics turned toward social usefulness.