From Mountain Spirits to Newton: Europe's Test with Science

In the early Middle Ages in Europe, mountain spirits were a significant narrative in folk folklore; these dwarves, also known as kobolds, were vitally sacred to mine workers and the local people. Whenever there was any trouble in the mine, these protective creatures would warn the workers by making noise. In return, miners would not work on certain days out of respect for the kobolds. As the number of working days decreased, the probability of being trapped under cave-ins naturally decreased as well.

CORRELATION AND CAUSALITY

As Carl Gustav Jung describes in his book 'The Undiscovered Self' (Das Unentdeckte Selbst), if a villager who dreams of being swallowed by a snake accepts this as a warning and does not go hunting that day, his life will largely have been saved. Therefore, this villager, through an animistic logical inference, is certain that it was the dream he saw that saved his life.

The situation of mine workers was no different; they believed that working in the mine on certain days of the week would bring bad luck, and that if they angered the mountain spirits by working, the mountain spirits would not protect them in the event of dangerous situations that might occur in the mine.

Here, it is necessary to remember the concepts of correlation and causality. Because the human brain is constantly striving to reach a causality by making quick inferences from every correlation it encounters. Rational science, moving in the exact opposite direction, aims to train the human brain with scientific methods.

However, you cannot convince the thought gears of a convinced community to turn in reverse with any logical explanation. The only way to reach a result is to reprogram their thought systems from the very beginning.

THE CONSCIOUS INFLUENCE OF THE GRAND BOURGEOISIE ON THE PUBLIC

For the grand bourgeoisie, who owned the mines and the lands in the region, held bank assets, and wielded political influence, this resistance was not an insurmountable situation. For them, seeing mountain spirits as an obstacle to working in the mine was no longer even a subject of discussion. Because they had already experienced the necessary change within themselves.

Grand bourgeois families, who understood that the only way to increase profitability lay in positive sciences, technology, engineering, and rationalism, had long since incorporated the people who would provide this intellectual reform and the disciplines they brought with them into their lives.

The grand bourgeoisie knew that they had to share the change they had experienced with the local people. While financing the education and work of scientists on one hand, they also undertook the printing and publication of the works created by these people, ensuring that these works reached the masses and were included in the education system. Thus, a new and powerful class was created within society that adopted the understanding of rational thought, could overcome the obstacles that dogmatic patterns placed in front of science due to their wealth, and could direct politics in this direction.

THE NATURE OF ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE VISION OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY DEVELOPMENT

Scientists, who had known since ancient Greece that progress did not revolve solely around engineering and technology, knew very well that physics, philosophy, literature, mathematics, music, and painting were not disciplines that could be kept separate from one another. However, only people raised in and given the opportunity to work within a free system of thought that brought them all together could produce new ideas and inventions.

Enlightenment ideas, which also aimed to remove the right to education and learning from the monopoly of a certain group or a single gender, spread rapidly and successfully among the public.

Because the nature of enlightenment contains individuality, freedom, rationalism, elegance, and refinement. It is impossible for inventions, new ideas, and criticism to emerge in a place where there is oppression, bans, dogmatic obstacles, and where fears block the human mind at every step.

Such environments only produce rote-learning and imitative people. Even if thousands of years pass, these people continue to believe in spirits and fairies, closing the path to all potential developments both for themselves and for future generations.

PIONEERS OF THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

It is necessary to recall the first names that come to mind when the Age of Enlightenment is mentioned and to repeat once again the principles of these scientists that form the foundations of modern science and philosophical thought today. Knowing the pioneers of the Age of Enlightenment that took place in Europe and did not take place in the Ottoman Empire at that time, and the contributions they provided, will be enlightening in terms of understanding what kind of deficiencies this deprivation causes in our country even today.

In 1687, Isaac Newton's 3-volume book 'Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica' paved the way for scientific and rational inquiry, which is one of the fundamental principles of the Age of Enlightenment. By showing that the universe can be explained by mathematical laws and revealing that natural phenomena can be understood through rational and scientific means rather than mystical or religious explanations, Newton continues to illuminate the path of science even today with these findings. Furthermore, his work on the laws of physics and mechanics provided the fundamental influence on the development of the steam engine and other mechanical devices, enabling a leap in the 1st Industrial Revolution.

Before him, Descartes, who said "Cogito, ergo sum - I think, therefore I am", broke new ground in the development of scientific thought and methodology by creating one of the cornerstones of Rationalism with his book 'Discours de la méthode'.

Descartes speaks of four basic rules that must be applied in methodology when searching for the truth. This set of rules, which sounds simple when read, is actually like a roadmap for human life to progress along a rational line.

a. To accept as true only what is perceived clearly and distinctly.

b. To divide problems into as many parts as possible and necessary.

c. To conduct thoughts in an organized, orderly manner, starting from the simplest and most easily perceived objects and rising step by step to complex knowledge.

d. To ensure that the principle of "completeness" (Exhaustivé) is realized without skipping any details.

Of course, Immanuel Kant is the most important name of the Age of Enlightenment. With his work 'Kritik der reinen Vernunft' (Critique of Pure Reason) written in 1781, he analyzes the ways and methods of acquiring knowledge and redefines our ability to understand the world, establishing the foundations of modern science and philosophical thought.

It is certainly not possible to understand or explain Immanuel Kant in a single paragraph. However, the word 'Vernunft' in the title of the book does not exactly correspond to the word 'reason' (akıl) in Turkish; according to Kant, 'Vernunft' is the human ability to perceive the principles that are innate, and by using the decision-making power one possesses, to transcend pure sensory experiences and grasp abstract and universal truths.

THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT, THE 1ST INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, AND THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

While Europe was experiencing its brightest times with the Age of Enlightenment that began around 1650 and the 1st Industrial Revolution it developed alongside it towards the end of the 1800s, the Ottoman Empire was a country engaged in traditional agriculture. Since the Ottoman Empire never started the Enlightenment movement, it could not meet scientific methods and the philosophy of knowledge, and therefore lagged behind the 1st Industrial Revolution. Although efforts were made in different periods, since it was not possible to cover the 150-year distance at once, the chasm that formed between it and the changing world arrived at its doorstep as a problem from all sides.

The country, which lagged behind the 1st Industrial Revolution in those years, has not yet fully caught up with the fourth industrial revolution today, and is now faced with the rapidly advancing artificial intelligence revolution.

WHY CAN'T WE ENTER THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT?

With a practical way of thinking, the books of most Enlightenment-era authors have been translated into Turkish. I think it will not be possible to understand why we cannot be enlightened without asking the naive question, 'Why don't we read and become enlightened?'

Because the people in our country are still dealing with mountain spirits. We have official institutions that approve of spirits, demons (enkebir), hags (alkarı), the evil eye, amulets, all kinds of superstitions, and everything that is not rational. There are amulets written for toothaches, headaches, and psychological problems. We hear stories that leave even the definition of absurdity behind, not from villagers without primary education, but from educated people. Astrology appears in their sentences; horoscopes, stars, fortune-telling, and spells fly through the air. I have encountered very few people who are not afraid of spirits (cin). Even the mention of a spirit sends shivers down the spines of grown engineers, academics, and doctors.

If the Enlightenment mobilization that Europe started in the 1650s is included in our lives at the primary school level, and if the moneyed people and politicians in the country provide full support, perhaps a few generations later, mountain spirits will be saved from triggering the ignorant fears of our minds and from the handicap of our children becoming people who cannot think or produce.

However, wanting to reach the goal we left behind by walking in the opposite direction, and dreaming of encountering a leader who will accomplish all this for us on the wrong path we are walking, is not a very rational method, I think.