17世紀宗教思想における理性の位置づけについて : ミルトンとその周辺

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In his great work Paradise Lost, John Milton, a poet and controversialist in the English Revolution days of the seventeenth century, divides the "Reason" (which is to him the soul's "being" itself) into "discursive" and "intuitive, " and regards the former as mainly for men, the latter for angels. The Milton scholars identify the "intuitive" with the "Right Reason" or, in Latin, "Recta Ratio, " which is understood as another name for "Conscience." Some scholars contrast, furthermore, this with the Reason held in the Enlightenment, for, supposedly, the modern Reason in our time is far from any religious cognition. But are these identifications right? Although Milton does distinguish these two, "discursive" and "intuitive, " he also says they are "differing but in degree, of kind the same." There are not two sorts of Reasons but only one sort. And, apart from the angels, this division does not directly indicate the difference between the secular modern reason and the religious one. The Reason, in any situation, had been discursive and intuitive at the same time, until Kant, who was standing at the end of the Enlightenment, denied an intuitive way in the human intellectual recognition. It must be understood, accordingly, that, before Kant, all types of human Reason had had intuitive nature. We don't call the Right Reason "right" because of its intuitiveness. Im addition to the aforesaid remark, it is not appropriate to distinguish the Right Reason from the Reason in the Enlightenment depending on whether there is religiousness or not. The Enlightenment itself was not only a secular movement but also a religious one, even in the distinct way from the orthodoxy of Christianity or from today's standard of any religion. The philosophers in the movement struggled only against the rule of the clergy. Milton's Right Reason must be certainly distinguished from the Reason in the Enlightenment, but it is not because the one is religious and the other is not. In the history of Christian thought, when human reason can appreciate God and his will by itself without the aid of his revelation, it is called natural theology, as the opposite of revealed theology, in which human beings could know about God's intention only through the revelation, i.e. the Scriptures. The Right Reason consequently belongs to the natural theological concepts. But in the "Evangelical" tradition, from Augustine to Calvinism, natural theology had been given low esteem. So, it is generally understood that the "Evangelical" position differs from Milton's. Some point out the importance of Milton's Right Reason because of his words in his De Doctrina Christian, "the existence of God is further proved by...conscience, or right reason, which even in the worst of characters, is not altogether extinguished." But Calvin also shows the similar viewpoint, saying no man is free from "that idea of God which is planted in their hearts." Calvin's point is, however, not this "natural" knowledge about God, but "what difference there is between true and false religion." For Calvin, "true" religion is possible only by hearing the Word of God revealed in the Scriptures. Natural theology in there has the only restrict role, which prevents any man from getting the pretext to shirk from the religion. The importance of the Right Reason, therefore, does not lie in its ability to obtain the intuitive direct knowledge about God's existence. Milton's Reason is "right" because of its ethical practicality to conduct human behavior. And it is, of course, no new discovery, for we know it has already been identified with "Conscience." But it is not completely useless to point out that it is a gross misunderstanding to identify anachronistically the Reason in the Enlightenment with the non-intuitive reason, or to emphasize the contrast between Milton's Right Reason and the Reason in the Enlightenment by some religious bias against the movement. In order to get the true and correct understanding of Milton and his Reason, there is need for more consideration from today's historical perspective about the dichotomy between Milton's humanistic attitude toward the "Reason" and the "Evangelical" attitude, especially in the English Puritanism about the seventeenth century. But this must be considered as another problem from the one argued above.
2007-03-31

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大城信哉
沖縄県立芸術大学

17世紀宗教思想における理性の位置づけについて : ミルトンとその周辺

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