Renaissance Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Humanism=== {{Main|Renaissance humanism|Renaissance humanism in Northern Europe|List of Renaissance humanists}} In some ways, [[Renaissance humanism]] was not a philosophy but a method of learning. In contrast to the medieval [[scholasticism|scholastic]] mode, which focused on resolving contradictions between authors, Renaissance humanists would study ancient texts in the original and appraise them through a combination of reasoning and [[empirical evidence]]. Humanist education was based on the programme of ''Studia Humanitatis'', the study of five humanities: [[poetry]], [[grammar]], [[history]], [[moral philosophy]], and [[rhetoric]]. Although historians have sometimes struggled to define humanism precisely, most have settled on "a middle of the road definition... the movement to recover, interpret, and assimilate the language, literature, learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome".<ref>Burke, P., "The spread of Italian humanism", in ''The Impact of Humanism on Western Europe'', ed. A. Goodman and A. MacKay, London, 1990, p. 2.</ref> Above all, humanists asserted "the genius of man ... the unique and extraordinary ability of the human mind".<ref>As asserted by Gianozzo Manetti in ''On the Dignity and Excellence of Man'', cited in Clare, J., ''Italian Renaissance''.</ref> [[File:Pico1.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Giovanni Pico della Mirandola]], writer of the famous ''[[Oration on the Dignity of Man]]'', which has been called the "Manifesto of the Renaissance"<ref>''Oration on the Dignity of Man'' (1486) [http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/pico.html wsu.edu] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110104024142/http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/pico.html |date=4 January 2011 }}</ref>]] Humanist scholars shaped the intellectual landscape throughout the early modern period. Political philosophers such as Niccolò Machiavelli and [[Thomas More]] revived the ideas of Greek and Roman thinkers and applied them in critiques of contemporary government, following the Islamic steps of [[Ibn Khaldun]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=H.|first=Miller, John|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/11117374|title=Ibn Khaldun and Machiavelli : an examination of paradigms|oclc=11117374}}</ref><ref>Religion and Political Development Some Comparative Ideas on Ibn Khaldun and Machiavelli by Barbara Freyer Stowasser</ref> [[Pico della Mirandola]] wrote the "manifesto" of the Renaissance, the ''[[Oration on the Dignity of Man]]'', a vibrant defence of thinking.{{cn|date=November 2023}} [[Matteo Palmieri]] (1406–1475), another humanist, is most known for his work ''Della vita civile'' ("On Civic Life"; printed 1528), which advocated [[Classical republicanism|civic humanism]], and for his influence in refining the [[Tuscan language|Tuscan vernacular]] to the same level as Latin. Palmieri drew on Roman philosophers and theorists, especially [[Cicero]], who, like Palmieri, lived an active public life as a citizen and official, as well as a theorist and philosopher and also [[Quintilian]]. Perhaps the most succinct expression of his perspective on humanism is in a 1465 poetic work ''La città di vita'', but an earlier work, ''Della vita civile'', is more wide-ranging. Composed as a series of dialogues set in a country house in the Mugello countryside outside Florence during the plague of 1430, Palmieri expounds on the qualities of the ideal citizen. The dialogues include ideas about how children develop mentally and physically, how citizens can conduct themselves morally, how citizens and states can ensure probity in public life, and an important debate on the difference between that which is pragmatically useful and that which is honest.{{cn|date=November 2023}} The humanists believed that it is important to transcend to the afterlife with a perfect mind and body, which could be attained with education. The purpose of humanism was to create a universal man whose person combined intellectual and physical excellence and who was capable of functioning honorably in virtually any situation.<ref>Hause, S. & Maltby, W. (2001). ''A History of European Society. Essentials of Western Civilization'' (Vol. 2, pp. 245–246). Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning, Inc.</ref> This ideology was referred to as the ''[[Polymath|uomo universale]]'', an ancient Greco-Roman ideal. Education during the Renaissance was mainly composed of ancient literature and history as it was thought that the classics provided moral instruction and an intensive understanding of human behavior. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page