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Changes brought by the Renaissance in Europe
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Throughout its history, Europe went through several periods of dynamic change. From the 16th to the 17th century, however, these changes took a drastic shift in both religious as well as educational standards. As clearly seen through the writings of both Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis and Thomas More’s Utopia, these changes reflected a deeper movement in human culture. Referred to as the Christian Humanist movement (16th c) and the Scientific Revolution (17th c), Bacon and More capture the heart of the movement and portray it to their audiences in utopian societies. These works, then, demonstrate not only the authors’ attitudes towards the monumental changes of their time, but also the dramatic shift in ideology in approximately one hundred years.
In the early 16th century, Thomas More wrote a novel about a fictional society in which humanist ideas were dominant. During this time, European noble power was anything but a Humanist utopia. Europe was not only a mess, but a genocidal mess. Between the reigns of the Tudor Dynasty, and eventually under power of Queen Mary I, English citizens lived in constant fear of their religious rights and their lives. On top of the religious civil wars, the Catholic Church and other clergymen were progressively straying from ‘purity ideas’.
More addresses these real world issues with the idea of ‘true and counterfeit pleasures’. True pleasures are those pleasures that should enhance the body’s wellbeing (i.e. eating well, exercise, and other sensual indulgences). Counterfeit pleasures, on the other hand, were those that were embodied around ideas of unnatural origin (i.e. money, appearance enhancements, and power). These pleasures are the navigating factors of the fictional citizens’ lives and thu...
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...ence and ingenuity? Was More truly a rebel of his time? Regardless of the answer, these men were obvious influential leaders of their time and continue to be today.
The Humanist movement and the Scientific Revolution find their own haven in Utopia and New Atlantis. Written approximately one hundred years apart, these works clearly identify the attitudes of both the writers and of European society at that time. While Francis Bacon embodies the spirit of ingenuity and experimentation, Thomas More clearly illustrates the benefit of a communal society in the heart of a productive and virtue driven community. All the while, however, each author clearly shows the flaws of European society at that time. These aspects are what deliver the historical significance of the ideological movements of the 16th and 17th centuries, and will continue to do so for centuries to come.
The essay starts off by stating, “One could say that the dominant scientific world-view going into the 16th century was not all that “scientific” in the modern sense of the
Unlike previous centuries, the eighteenth century was the dawn of a new age in Western Europe where intellectuals thrived, science was honored, and curiosity was encouraged; and the framework of how civil society was changed as a whole. From the dawn of the Enlightenment, Western European culture was changing due to the revolutionary new ideas that were changing. With the social change going on, political change was as evident as time went on. With these changes rooted in social change, the effects of the Enlightenment can be seen over 18th century Western Europe and beyond. Towards the late 1780s the late German Philosopher Immanuel Kant described the Enlightenment as, “Man leaving his self caused immaturity” ( Spiel Vogel 503).
Much can be learned about England in the sixteenth-century from More’s Utopia both from the book itself and as a result of the circumstances of the time that influenced his writing of it. There is a great debate over More’s actual opinions, as More is a character in the book as well. It is not known wether More (the character) was supposed to represent More, himself, or if More’s opinions were more along the lines of Hythloday’s. There is a view that employs the knowledge of the Erasmian humanist movement to interpret Utopia as a work that illustrates the conflict between the Roman ideals of sixteenth-century England and the Greek ideals that were launched off the back of the Italian Renaissance.
The expression of Northern humanism did not follow the exact path as humanism in the Italian states. The ideals of humanism and humanist education were incorporated into the European countries according to their own experiences, which is in itself a humanistic approach. This gave rise to what is termed Northern humanism, which embraced not only the classics but the early Church writings as equally of educational importance. As a Northern humanist, Thomas More also embraced these beliefs in an effort to attain deeper piety and a reformed Church and society, and this was apparent in his life and writings (Wilcox, 1975; Rice & Grafton, 1994; Thompson,
Presented as a conversation between friends, Sir Thomas More’s Utopia offers an alternative to European life that is hopelessly unobtainable, but undeniably superior. Utopia is absolutely fiction, and yet it is written in a style that makes its content remarkably believable. More’s conversational attitude towards a serious and scholarly piece of thought makes his thesis at once obscure and obvious. He spends a majority of the narrative describing small, unconnected details of the lives of the Utopians, ignoring the lengthy scholastic explanations which are to be expected of a man of his education, and yet through the detail he reveals an expansive and original hypothesis. More sees the value of the European lifestyle and yet, through his fictional acquaintance Raphael Hythlodaeus, makes a convincing argument for the practices of the Utopians. The dichotomy between the virtues of one culture and the failures of another highlight More’s most central point: perfection would be obtainable in real life only if the world could be destroyed and created again. Pride and human ambition will forever limit the people of the real world from seeing the success of the people on More’s fictitious island.
Scientific and philosophical innovations during the 18th century brought about a new breed of thinkers. Their driving forces of rational and reason shifted the religious temperament of the elite from “enthusiasts” to intellectuals. “They argued that there was no divine standard of morality, no afterlife to divert humanity from worldly concerns” (The Western Experience, pg. 657). They were radicals who sought to displace the authority of religion. Driven by reason, enlightenment thinkers naturally opposed superstition and attempted to replace religious mysticism with philosophical standards and scientific formulations. Their shift of focus highlighted reverence for the Creator and moral teachings of the Bible. By eliminating superstition they hoped to bolster the Christian religion (The Western Experience, pg. 660). Two philosophies of the new enlightened view of religion were toleration and deism, both of which sustained the faith of the educated elite. However, these philosophies displaced the authority of religion in society (The Western Experience, pg. 660). Never again would the teachings of Christianity be so readily accepted. French critic Pierre Bayle put forth the concept of religious tolerance in his Critical and Historical Dictionary. Typical of an enlightenment thinker, Bayle put the claims of religion to the test of critical reason. He concluded that many of Christianity’s sacred traditions were myth and its history noth...
Throughout history many visionaries had glimpsed a world of new human culture, yet no way to create such a world had been achieved. Communism had become a tragedy. Sir Thomas More, author of Utopia, and James Redfield, author of The Celestine Prophecy, share many of the same ideas describing a new way of life. Written in 1516, More’s Utopia speaks about visions of a humanistic way of life. Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy, written almost five centuries later in 1993, reinforces the ideas of the Renaissance. Can this spiritual common sense become the model of the next century?
The text Utopia was written by Sir Thomas Moore in 1516, just before the outbreak of the Reformation. More’s life flourished through the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, which were influential years in the Renaissance, a flowering of art and thought that began in Italy and flooded through Europe and England. Humanists often stressed the dignity of man and the power of reason while remaining deeply committed to Christianity. Their thought and writings helped to break the strict religious orthodoxy that had forced itself through the Middle Ages. Humanists often argued against feudalism as it promoted a society dominated by the rich and unfair on everyone else. Further, they saw feudal society as irrational.
New Atlantis begins with the apparent utopian society successfully synthesizing scientific endeavor and achievement with Christian theology. This revelation is only half-hearted; Bacon’s true motive is nothing less than the subversion of Christian scholastic dogma and replacing it with material wellbeing through scientific scholarship as outlined in Bacon’s works. Through proper method a different kind of knowledge could be acquired liberating human destiny from divine intervention. Bacon’s knowledge empowers mankind reducing suffering and improving our wellbeing. “Wherefore, as in religion we are warned to show our faith by works, so in philosophy by the same rule the system should be judged by its fruits, and pronounced frivolous if it be barren,” (New Organon, Bacon, 12) Bacon in the 17th century elevated the measure for knowledge where it must be able to produce useful works separating itself from the past.
The preceding Enlightenment period had depended upon reason, logic and science to give us knowledge, success, and a better society. The Romantics contested that idea and changed the formula...
Sir Thomas More”s Utopia and Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince reflect the ideals of the Renaissance. Their reflections of the Renaissance are similar while also having palpable differences. The Renaissance or “rebirth” was a cultural movement that accompanied the passage of Europe from the Middle Ages to modern times. Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian civic humanist, historian, diplomat, philosopher, politician, and writer during the Renaissance. He applied the values of the Renaissance to his political treatise, The Prince. Sir Thomas was an English lawyer, philosopher, statesman, and an English humanist during the Renaissance. He employed the ideals of the Renaissance to his Latin dialogue, Utopia. Both The Prince and Utopia reflect the
Thomas More’s Utopia and Aldus Huxley’s Brave New World , are novels about societies that differ from our own. Though the two authors have chosen different approaches to create an alternate society, both books have similarities which represent the visions of men who were moved to great indignation by the societies in which they lived. Both novels have transcended contemporary problems in society , they both have a structured, work based civilization and both have separated themselves from the ways of past society. It is important when reading these novels to focus on the differences as well as the similarities. The two novels differ in their views of love, religion, and the way to eliminate social classes. These differences seem to suggest that if we do not come closer to More’s goal in Utopia, we will end up in a society much like that of Huxley’s Brave New World.
Sir Tomas More’s Utopia indirectly criticizes fifteen hundredth European catholic society of corruption, violence, poverty and of inequality. As a lord chancellor to Henry VIII, Thomas More was well aware of these problems and wrote a satire to propose his awareness in a carful manner, as we can see his hesitation to publish the book on his letter to Peter Giles especially when he described his “two minds” (More, 8). To criticize the problems of his times on a safe platform, he created a fictional character Raphael Hythloday, who is wise and knowledgeable of new places from the sailing experience with Amerigo Vespucci. This not only reflects the times in which people stepped out their voyages to the New World but also provides a foil to the European society—the
Most contemporary historians define the European early modern period from around the beginning of the sixteenth century, up until the commencements of the French Revolution of 1789. The ambiguity inherent in this apparent catch-all period is problematic, and invokes much debate and disagreement among historians. For the purpose of expediency, this paper will have its modernizing genesis in the thoughts of Mitchell Greenberg writing in the Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies. Greenberg states there was a common modernizing compulsion right across Europe during this time period ‘…marked by both a gen...
Francis Bacon grew from poverty to expand his career as a British politician & entrepreneur and wrote prominent essays on humanism and innovative scientific philosophy. Most notably known as “the father of the English essay,” (McDougal 455) Bacon’s influential works were vastly impacted by the tenets of the Renaissance period. Even Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of our nation, credited being influenced by Bacon’s essays (McDougal 455). One of the core ideologies determined by his works is humanism which depicts how logic and knowledge derived from ancient Greek and Roman records can provide the best guides for learning and living. Even more, Bacon, who was inspired by the Renaissance notions of humanism, significantly contributed to contemporary society by bringing about a lucid distinction between philosophy and religion. At a young age, Sir Francis Bacon rose steadily in politics and wrote widely influential essays pertaining to philosophical research, natural science and social status.