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Brief Lives

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600)

Dale DeBakcsy delves into the secret origins of modern philosophy.

Philosophically, sixteenth century Europe was a mess. The rise of Protestantism knocked a millennium’s worth of self-assured theological development for a loop, opening the gates to all manner of new philosophical disciplines and roving intellectual cut-purses. Everything was up for grabs, and in the chaos some found freedom, many reaped profit, and the most daring often ended their lives in tragedy. Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was one of the latter, now known more for being burned alive at the hands of the Inquisition than for the actual content of his thought and life. However, for anybody interested in how modern philosophy emerged from the swirling mass of occult mysticism and scholastic nitpicking that preceded it, Bruno’s work, composed while wandering through every major intellectual center of sixteenth century Europe, makes an ideal starting point.

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