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Course 6 Part 1 - Humanism Rev 2022

Humanism arose in 15th century Italy and emphasized secular, classical education and values. Humanists studied grammar, history, rhetoric and moral philosophy from Greek and Roman texts. They believed this "studia humanitatis" would develop virtuous and active citizens. Renaissance art and literature from this period often depicted man at the center of the world, as a powerful, ambitious being. However, the Reformation also saw man as sinful. Overall, humanism in the 16th century questioned traditional views of man's relationship with God and nature, and emphasized individual potential and skepticism of old values.

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16 views

Course 6 Part 1 - Humanism Rev 2022

Humanism arose in 15th century Italy and emphasized secular, classical education and values. Humanists studied grammar, history, rhetoric and moral philosophy from Greek and Roman texts. They believed this "studia humanitatis" would develop virtuous and active citizens. Renaissance art and literature from this period often depicted man at the center of the world, as a powerful, ambitious being. However, the Reformation also saw man as sinful. Overall, humanism in the 16th century questioned traditional views of man's relationship with God and nature, and emphasized individual potential and skepticism of old values.

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ياسمين كوراني
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16 Century

th

Humanism and
Reformation
RENAISSANCE

 Renaissance - rebirth of Greek and Roman Antiquity


>> rediscovery of the works of Cicero , Aristotle ,
Titus Livius, Seneca etc.
 Historical awareness (Petrarch)- 14th century Italy:
Antiquity (= model, golden age) > Middle Age (=
dark/barbarian)> the Modern Age (= Renaissance –
now called Early modern age) (see details- Course 1)
HUMANISM AND THE RENAISSANCE

 The word umanisti - derived from the studia


humanitatis a 15th century course of Classical
studies that consisted of grammar, poetry,
rhetoric, history and moral philosophy.

 The studia humanitatis - the equivalent of the


Greek paideia (education)

 Humanitas meant the full development of human


virtue, in all its forms.
Contemplatio versus Negotium=> involvement in the public sphere >>>
philology and political action.

- “The term thus implied not only such qualities as are associated with the
modern word humanity -understanding, benevolence compassion, mercy—
but also such more assertive characteristics as fortitude, judgment,
prudence, eloquence, and even love of honour. Consequently, the possessor
of humanitas could not be merely a sedentary and isolated philosopher or man
of letters but was of necessity a participant in active life. Just as action
without insight was held to be aimless and barbaric, insight without action was
rejected as barren and imperfect.
Humanitas called for a fine balance of action and contemplation, a balance
born not of compromise but of complementarity.” (
https://www.britannica.com/topic/humanism

- The aim of Renaissance humanism – educate the young +guide the adults
 Secular interests and concerns valorized positively -> MAN= the
measure of all things- VITALITY AND ENERGY.
 MAN – the conqueror, the master of the world (geographical
discoveries , conquest of America)
 => development of knowledge.
 Economic development:
 Cities- crafts, industry, banking, public sphere
 Trade - new trade routes-Mediterranean, round Africa, across the Atlantic;
spices and silk, English trade with the Ottoman Empire and America
(“plantations” >> colonization)
 ARTS- sculpture, painting, literature
 Golden ratio/mean/section Divine proportion – mathematical concept (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio) -- ideal proportions
The Vitruvian Man, Leonardo da Vinci (c.1490)
Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus (1483-85)
 Famous humanist thinkers:

Petrarch
Niccolò Machiavelli (The Prince),
Desiderius Erasmus, (Praise of Folly)
Thomas More (Utopia)
Baldassare Castiglione (Il Cortegiano)
Michel de Montaigne (Les Essais)
 Humanists- philologists- classical texts (re)discovered, interpreted, cleansed
and edited, translated.
 => AD FONTES (back to the sources)- classical texts= truth and model
 Position: teachers, secretaries, public figures
 Humanistic education :2ndary schools and colleges and then universities- >
humanistic revolution >> education of the young + guidance for adults
In Renaissance Italy, the desire to know and to match the
excellence of the ancients often engendered passionate endeavor.
The Florentine author Niccolò Machiavelli, for example, described his
nightly retreats into his library in these memorable words:

“At the door I take off my muddy everyday clothes. I dress myself
as though I were about to appear before a royal court as a
Florentine envoy. Then decently attired I enter the antique courts
of the great men of antiquity. They receive me with friendship;
from them I derive the nourishment which alone is mine and for
which I was born. Without false shame I talk with them and ask
them the causes of the actions; and their humanity is so great they
answer me. For four long and happy hours I lose myself in them. I
forget all my troubles; I am not afraid of poverty or death. I
transform myself entirely in their likeness.”
(Machiavelli, Excerpt from a letter dated 10 December 1513)
HUMANIST EDUCATION
 New institutions (colleges, grammar schools, then universities :
Italy [Bologna, Padova then all over Italy])
 New subject matter : a variety of texts from the Roman and Greek
antiquity plus their contexts.
 new subjects: history, literature, moral philosophy, geography,
rhetoric (Cicero)
- disputations (debates) =major activity, but also dancing and theatre
=> the birth of the humanities;
 2nd important field : natural philosophy – to train doctors,
development of science
 The importance of RHETORIC AND ELOQUENCE– outlet for the new
education: civil service, at court, in the public sphere => a new
model of accomplishment : “the courtier” (Castiglione)
 a new norm : civilitas (Erasmus)- civility at the personal and
communal level, or courtesy coupled with good will the quality
that allows people to avoid the pitfalls of extremism. (Dahrendorf)
Co-existing worldviews

1. MAN = God’s rival- to be admired but also praised as a demiurge ( as a poet,


as a scholar, as an artist) >>> TITANISM (defiance of and revolt against social
or artistic conventions.)
MAN= PEFECTIBLE (Erasmus), FREEDOM OF CHOICE (Pico della Mirandolla)

2. MAN – wretched, fallen - particularly a REFORMATION view

HUMANIST SCEPTICISM - old values questioned, traditional relations of man to


God, to one’s fellow human being, to nature undergo radical changes.

 social mobility => desire for riches, for self-assertion and for power, -
valorized both positively and negatively (Christopher Marlowe’s
Doctor Faustus)
Michelangelo’s Adam
Adam and god are almost on the same level , of equal size and similar stature
Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam (1508-12)

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