Ask a person about the Age of Enlightenment and they will undoubtedly tell you about how this was the period when reason became the main way to obtain knowledge. Sometimes it even seems like people believe that during the Enlightenment reason was invented! As if it had never existed before only now came in to being because of people like Spinoza. This believe is of course quite ludicrous. If previously reason was not the main way to obtain knowledge, what was? If we only obtain knowledge trough for example our senses, how could we ever arrive at conclusions about what we have sensed?
We once again find a classic case Europe believing they are the center of everything, which of course is ridiculous. Let’s take the Jewish philosopher Saadia Gaon who lived many centuries earlier when the French were being attacked by Vikings and organized by manorialism. In the meanwhile, Saadia was already emphasizing on the importance of reason in obtaining knowledge. For him reason also played an important role in religious matters, but this is reason nonetheless. The idea that reason is a tool to overcome doubt and through this live as happy individuals in certainty seems like an idea Enlightenment thinkers would embroider on a pillow.
Not just his emphasis on reason proves him having a very advanced mind, his interest in discovering authenticity of a text reminds me of the Academic skills courses I take now. Here, thinking about the validity and reliability of data and sources plays a very important part. To think that Saadia was already engaged with these kinds of things is really amazing. Of course, looking at the authenticity of a report given by a prophet many years ago is very different from a research paper written by John Mearsheimer I have to read, but it comes down to the same. Through reason the content of a text must be examined and judged for its validity. I of course do not have to use the laws of revelation when the laws of reason fall short, but maybe I should. Some people treat thinkers like Marx like they were actual prophets, so maybe we could also use a bit of revelation in our thinking to obtain an extra dimension to our knowledge.
An Introduction to Medieval Philosophy 