Humanism and the Renaissance

Humanism and the Renaissance involved similar revivals of classical learning, an elevation of the individual, and a belief in the worth of human thought over authority, whether the latter be the authority of a political body or a church. The essence of humanism is found in the works produced during the Renaissance by writers, artists, and sculptors as they structured their works with humanistic values in mind.

The development of humanism in the Renaissance involved a shift in how people thought, and this occurred at the same time that the horizons of the West were expanding, be they geographical, mental, social, economic, or political:

Concurrent with these advances was an important psychological development in which the European character, beginning in the peculiar political and cultural atmosphere of Renaissance Italy, underwent a unique and portentous transformation. . . Whereas in earlier times, the life of the state was defined by inherited structures of power and law imposed by tradition or higher authority, now individual ability and deliberate political action and thought carried the most weight. The state itself was seen as something to be comprehended and manipulated by human will and intelligence. . . (Tarnas 227).

Tarnas sees this shift as a return to pagan (meaning classical) values. There as a new value placed on individualism and personal genius, and this was a shift from the more collectivist, social view of the medieval period:

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e took a basically amoral approach to the issue and examined what the record showed regarding the activities of the sovereign and used this as a basis for determining how the Prince would be most successful. Machiavelli wanted to provide the basis for the foundation of a new science of statesmanship. He looked to history in terms of the facts rather than theological or moral interpretations or implications. He has been accused of teaching evil precisely because he examines the world of man apart from the world of God, and also because he accepts immoral behavior from the Prince if that behavior promotes the interests of the state, while he rejects moral behavior on the part of the Prince if that behavior does not further the interests of the state. In fact, Machiavelli is above all a pragmatist in his approach to statecraft. The essence of Machiavelli's argument rests on the way people are viewed by others in terms of their actions and the consequences of those actions. He notes that men are spoken about and marked for qualities that bring them either praise or censure. For every good attribute that can be attributed to someone, there is a bad attribute that is its opposite and that can be attributed to someone else. This

Category: History - H