renaissance thinkers and their values. what the renaissance was not not an immediate interest in...

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Renaissance Thinkers and Their Values

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Renaissance Thinkers and Their Values

What the Renaissance Was NOT• Not an immediate interest in classical

Greece and Rome since that had been going on since 12th century.

• NOT a total rejection of medieval values or a sudden return to the world view of Ancient Greece and Rome.

• NOT a sudden abandonment of Christian beliefs.

Essence of the Renaissance• The essence of the Renaissance lay in the

use of models of behavior and actions from classical Greece and Rome to test the wisdom and tastes of Late Medieval Europe.

• The Renaissance would not have occurred had not the Church fallen into disrepute during the Middle Ages. As a result, some Europeans began questioning the Church as the source of all authority.

Renaissance Led to Other Movements• The Renaissance would later lead to other

movements in the history of Europe.

• It was the first stage in the evolution that would lead to the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution and to the Enlightenment.

• The Renaissance would gradually give birth to ‘modern Europe.’

Independence of Mind• The Church was “corralled” into strictly

religious spheres, as limits were placed on religion’s influence over a human being’s private conscience.

• Thus, scientists, philosophers, artists, and authors, and rulers were freed from the control of the Church.

• The ideal person was one who, by mastering all branches of art and thought, need depend on no outside authority for the formation of knowledge, tastes, and beliefs.

Self-Confidence• The new way of thinking led to a growing belief

that humanity was capable of mastering the world in which he lived.

• The great Renaissance figures were filled with self-confidence.

• They felt that God-given ingenuity could, and should, be used to unravel the secrets of God’s universe; and that, by extension, man’s fate on earth could be controlled and improved.

The Medieval Mentality• The mentality (way of viewing the world) of

the Middle Ages was that men and women were helpless pawns of God’s will. Thus, Europeans felt that overwhelmed by the incomprehensible workings of their environment and of their nature.

• Medieval attitudes were dominated by a paralyzing anxiety about human inadequacy, ignorance, impotence—by the concept of original sin.

Renaissance Attitudes• In contrast, Renaissance attitudes were

bred by a sense of liberation and refreshment, deriving from the growing awareness of human potential.

• Speculation, initiative, experiment, and exploration could surely be rewarded with success.

Three Novel Features of Renaissance Learning

1.Cultivation of long-neglected classical authors such as Cicero and Homer who had not attracted Medieval schoolmen

2. Cultivation of ancient Greek as an essential partner to Latin.

3. Rise of biblical scholarship based on the critical study of the original Hebrew and Greek texts. This last activity provided an important bond between the secular Renaissance and the religious Reformation.

The Renaissance Values:• Humanism: The recovery and study of

classical authors and writings• Secularism: The emphasis on the here and-

now rather than on the spiritual and otherworldly.

• Individualism: The emphasis on the unique and creative personality

• Rationalism: The application and use of reason in understanding and explaining events.

• Virtu: The striving for personal excellence.

Renaissance Humanism and the Classical World• The words humanism and humanist were

used by Cicero to mean the literary culture needed by anyone who would be considered educated and civilized.

• Humanists studied the Latin Classics to learn what they reveal about human nature. Humanism emphasized human beings, their achievements, interests, and capabilities.

Classical Greece and Rome and Medieval Thought• Medieval scholars studied in order to know

God. Medieval thinkers held that human beings noblest of God’s creatures, and that though they have fallen, they are still capable of regeneration and thus deserving of respect. Ancient texts from Greece and Rome were interpreted in a Christian sense and with Christian meanings.

Humanism not in Christian context• Renaissance philosophers and poets

emphasized human dignity but usually not in a Christian context. For example, Mirandola in “On the Dignity of Man” maintained that man’s place in the universe may be somewhere between beasts and angels but that there are no limits to what he can accomplish.

Latin• Latin was used in Medieval times, yet in

the ancient writers, like Cicero and Virgil, the humanists discovered a new range on interests, a new sensibility, discussion of political and civic questions, a world presented without the overarching framework of Christian belief.

Humanism’s Admiration for Cicero• The ancient Roman writer Cicero once

wrote that “’The whole glory of man lies in his activity.’” His use of Latin was emulated and his ideas also penetrated the culture of the day.

• Indeed, the Renaissance was a period in which Europe’s heritage (both Greek and Roman) was reborn, adapted, and reintegrated into Western tradition.

Petrarch

Petrarch• Early humanist from Florence who loved

Cicero for his common sense and his commitment to political liberty. Also, he admired St. Augustine because of his belief that the world was not evil.

• He used language not as a political tool but as a means to communicate with himself, to convey moods of discouragement or satisfaction, to clarify doubts, to improve his own understanding of the choices and options that life affords.

The Dark Ages

• As a better indication of Petrarch’s view of the time he lived in, one can look at how he described the centuries in between the fall of ancient Rome and the 1300s. He called the time in between “the Dark Ages.” For him, there were no glories for a thousand years until his own time of the 1300s.

The vernacular

• The name for a language of a region is called a vernacular.

• Petrarch wrote Latin but also in the vernacular when he wrote in Italian.

• Boccaccio wrote the Decameron in Italian as well.

• By the way, Dante was the first to write in Italian.

Secularism• Secularism involves a basic concern with

the material world instead of eternal and spiritual interests.

• A secular way of thinking tends to find the ultimate explanation of everything and the final end of human beings within the limits of what the senses can discover.

Secularism: Medieval vs. Renaissance• In a religious society, such as the

medieval, the focus is on the other-worldly, on life after death.

• In a secular society, attention is concentrated on the here and now, often on the acquisition of material things.

• The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries witnessed the slow but steady growth of secularism in Italy.

Secularism Influenced by Economics• The late Middle Ages were a time of

dynamic economic growth. This continued into the Renaissance. Merchants and bankers prospered with the growth of a money economy.

• Money allowed greater material pleasures, a more comfortable life, the leisure time to appreciate and patronize the arts.

Secular Wants

• What man needs is “’house, property, shop”—possessions, wealth, the source of wealth, are essentials of the good life.

• These are focuses not life after death but on the here and now, on home, on friendship, on social and economic success.

A Secularist Thinker

• Lorenzo Valla actually wrote a book called On Pleasure. In it he defended the pleasures of the senses as the highest good.

Caution: Renaissance thinkers were not atheists• European art of the time continued to be

devoted to religious themes.

• All the great masters of art were religious believers.

• In addition, the broad mass of the people remained faithful to the Church.

Love of Latin and Greek but also of vernacular languages• Granted, there was an intense love and

admiration of ancient Latin and of ancient Greek, but the emphasis on the here and now also drove the development of vernacular languages (Italian, French, English vs. Latin)

Individualism: Why It Was Not in Middle Ages• In the Middle Ages individuals thought of

themselves as part of a group—as a member of a guild, as a resident of a particular area. Christian humility and the concept of Western society as an organic entity encouraged people to define themselves in terms of a larger religious, economic, or social group.

Individualism• The organic view of society eroded in Northern

Italy in the 14th & 15th centuries.

• The Renaissance witnessed the emergence of many distinctive personalities who glorified in their uniqueness.

• Italians of unusual abilities were self-consciously aware of their singularity, and unafraid to be unlike their neighbors; they had enormous confidence in their ability to achieve great things.

Examples of Individualism: Bernini and Cellini

• Leon Alberti Bernini, a writer, architect, and mathematician, wrote “Men can do all things if they will.”

• Completely lacking in modesty, talented people of the Renaissance were proud of their abilities and eager for everyone to know about them.

• Benvenuto Cellini was a talented Florentine goldsmith and sculptor.

• Individualism stressed personality, genius, uniqueness, and the fullest development of capabilities and talents. Artist, athlete, painter, scholar, sculptor, whatever—a person’s potential should be stretched until fully realized.

• Thirst for fame, a driving ambition, a burning desire for success drove such people to the complete achievement of their potential. The quest for glory was central to the Renaissance.

Giovanni Pico de la Mirandola

Individualism and Pico della Mirandola• What does Mirandola’s “Oration on the

Dignity of Man” say about man’s ability?

• How could his ideas influence the actions of others?

Individualism and Immortality• No, people did not seek for their bodies to

never die, but they did wish for their family names to perpetuate his family’s greatness.

• Thus you saw paintings of individual human beings with the purpose of conferring a lasting view of a man.

• At this time, wealthy individuals commissioned paintings, statues, and buildings so as to last long after the individual died.

• As a further sign of the emphasis on the individual, statues appeared to be free-standing as opposed to attached to a church wall. There is much symbolism behind a free-standing statue vs. a statue attached to a church.

Rationalism• In the Middle Ages, events occurred

because it was God’s will.

• The Renaissance sought to understand by the sheer use of reason.

• For example, Machiavelli’s The Prince he did not discuss God’s will and whether there is a right or wrong. Instead the observer attempts to discover what really happens when someone rules.

• The Donation of Constantine was purported to grant vast territories by the 4th century Roman Emperor Constantine to the pope. In a scholarly way, Valla examined the document and by looking at the Latin of the document, he proved that it could not have been written in the fourth century. The document was a fake.

Leonardo Bruni

• Besides coming up with the term “humanism”, he was also used history for practical political purpose to show that Florence had a long tradition of liberty and possessed values and attainments worth fighting for. In this sense he was part of a civic consciousness in Florence.

• In addition, his works displayed rationalism for he showed the need to use authentic sources when making an historical argument.

Virtu• Individualism influenced a haste to make

one’s mark, to make one’s greatness.

• In the Italian city-states, there grew a cult of the great individual. This cult gave little attention to the Middle Ages’ idea of collective responsibility.

Virtu and the individual• Renaissance individualism put its emphasis

on outstanding attainments. The great individual shaped his own destiny in a world governed by fortune. He had virtu, the quality of being a man (vir, “man”).

• It was to be expected in the most aggressive adult males, and it meant the successful demonstration of human powers.

• A man of virtu, in the arts, in war, or in statecraft, was a man who knew what he was doing, who, from resources within himself, made the best use of his opportunities, hewing his way through the world, and excelling in all that he did.

• One can see an example of this in Cellini’s autobiography. How so?

Baldassare Castiglione

Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier• A book designed for the upper class male,

it served as a book of etiquette. In it, men should be well rounded in the arts, including art, music, and poetry, and also fighting.

• The Renaissance intensified a new way of thinking. Granted, a small minority of the Italian and European population came into contact with this idea, but it at least began. This new way of thinking held the conviction that humanity was capable of mastering the world where it lived. Man’s fate on this earth could be controlled and improved. Out there was the idea that man is not helpless that man is not a pawn in God’s hands. The prime quality of the Renaissance has been defined as “‘independence of mind’”. Its ideal was a person who, by mastering all branches of art and though, need depend on no outside authority for formation of knowledge, tastes, and beliefs. Such a person was a universal man or a complete man. Prior to the Renaissance, the Church dictated acceptable ways of seeing the world, of what knowledge should be learned, and of what art should be produced. The Renaissance intensified a move toward the modern notion that we have today. This was a tremendous break with the mentality of the Middle Ages. Religion was still very important for individuals, but the move had begun to keep the Church out of the public arena to where it is today in the private realm. (Davies pp. 471-3)

The Example of Leonardo Da Vinci “the Renaissance Man”

A great painter, sculptor, and architect.

He also made valuable contributions to art theory, engineering, military science, anatomy, botany, geology, geography, hydraulics, aerodynamics, and optics.

Mona Lisa

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