When the Old Map Stopped Working

In this brief intro to a seven-part series, Lee Braver traces how the Western world's dominant approach to knowledge, deferring to scripture and divine authority, began to crack during the 17th century. As he vividly illustrates, the Bible once functioned like Google Maps for human existence, and reasoning on your own seemed as foolish as wandering a strange city without directions. But growing dissatisfaction with inherited knowledge, combined with a hunger to cure diseases and reshape the world, fueled the scientific revolution. With that shift came a profound philosophical crisis: in the absence of divine authority, what is the foundation for truth? Braver introduces epistemology (the study of truth, knowledge, and how we achieve it) as the defining concern of early modern philosophy. The lecture culminates with Descartes, the thinker who dared to start from scratch and rebuild the entire edifice of Western knowledge from the ground up.