Renaissance Humanism

It is Protagoras (480-410 BC) who is credited with the declaration that "man is the measure of all things" (976). But Protagoras's declaration was an exercise in ontology and the legitimation of human reason; the whole of his statement reads thus: "Man is the measure of all things, of being things that they exist, and of nonentities that they do not exist" (Protagoras 976). By the time of the 15th century, the fact that man was the measure of all things had a different connotation, in that man as a reasoning individual was to be distinguished from what for more than 1,000 years had assumed measurement authority over things, from the real to the beautiful to the moral: the Church.

What Fremantle describes as the Age of Belief, in which the philosophical questions occupying the scholastics had to do with reconciling with faith and reason (x-xi). The key scholastic, Thomas Aquinas, was preoccupied with connecting theology with philosophy. In that regard, Herlihy explains scholasticism as an exercise in log

. . .
as and attitudes with which to rebuild. It was like going up to the attic and polishing up semi-discarded treasures (Barzun 46). Barzun cites "the usual pride of advanced thinkers" as explaining why self-aware Renaissance men failed to appreciate the scholastics' preservation of works of antiquity. Nevertheless, "the immediate past was 'Gothic' in language, thought, and sensibility," and antiquity was venerated as a more reliable model for the highest and best of human experience (Barzun 47). Reinforcing the secularization of European culture was the fact that novel mechanisms of civil organization were developing a life of their own. The structure of feudal/medieval society fostered the growth of towns, "an element of innovation, a place to seek one's fortune" (Cipolla 119). This is the milieu of mercantilism and an emerging bourgeoisie. Despite the persistence of feudatory class divisions and "very complex and very lengthy struggles" (Cipolla, p. 120) between ruling and underclasses, merchant and professional classes were centrally involved in economic activity, as well as serfs and villeins seeking independence from the landed gentry. Feudalism as a system of social and economic organization did not die easily. Whenever lord
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
God God's, Churchmen Protestants, Black Death, Rome Avignon, European Renaissance, Northern Humanism, According Barzun, Europe Cipolla, Continent Warfare, , renaissance humanism, 3rd ed, peasant revolts, vol 2, 3rd ed york, civil service, break rome, 1500 york, ed york, human reason, renaissance thinkers artists, york w norton, w norton company, middle ages,
Approximate Word count = 1830
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Renaissance Humanism