Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Humanism in the Renaissance period
Humanism in the Renaissance period
Humanism in the Renaissance period
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
2. By writing The Book of the Courtier, Castiglione developed the image of the perfect aristocrat. Courtier served as a basic handbook of how nobles should behave around officials. His ideal aristocrat was from noble descent and had good character, grace, and various talents. They needed to accumulate accomplishments such as military skill as well as achievements in the arts. Lastly, nobles were expected to abide to a code of conduct: make good impressions, have poise, and display their accomplishments while still maintaining modesty. 4. Renaissance humanism was an intellectual trend that came from interest in Greco-Roman literature. It changed theories and education because it secularized history--events were no longer blamed on God’s will. …show more content…
When looking for a wife for her son, Alessandra Strozzi wanted the family to have a good reputation and the bride to be skilled and able to handle children. She briefly mentioned attractiveness as well as the girl’s literacy and involvement in the arts. In Strozzi’s case, she had the disadvantage of having to find someone who would take her son even as he was in exile. Filippo would have an arranged marriage that would help the Strozzis carry on their family name and status. 4. Machiavelli’s advice for a prince was to not be deceived easily and that when it came to staying in power, being feared by the public would be more practical than being loved. The idea that the prince needed to be selfish and make decisions that result in the best for the state and for himself, rather than only exercising power when it was needed for the common good. Machiavelli did not seem sarcastic in his treatise. All his advices were reasonable and simple and even the controversial ones were justified with logic. 6. In Pico della Mirandola’s Oration, he stresses that man can be whatever he wills. Humanists believed that man should not conform to the belief that his potential is limited. Humans were in the middle of the world, “neither of heaven nor of earth”, and thus could be anything in between. As long as one had the desire to be something, they had the power within them to be
2. Castiglione helped developed Italian courtly society with The Book of Courtier. In this book, he talks about certain ideals that aristocrats should have. This book soon became very popular and is a fundamental guidebook for European aristocrats. Castiglione described his ideal courtier with three basic attributes. First, they should have fundamental personality like impeccable character, grace talents, and noble birth. Second, they should do bodily and military exercises and fill his life with arts (musical instrument, drawing, and painting). Finally, nobles have to make good impressions but also be modest. They should show grace in their accomplishments.
Humanism is also found throughout the Reformation. Christian humanists were the people who pushed for change of the Catholic Church. They believed that in order to change society, you had to change the individual human beings who make it up. Erasmus is one of the best know humanists of the Reformation. He wanted to spread the philosophy of Christ, provide education in works of Christianity, and criticize the abuses in the church. Overall the main tie of the Reformation and Renaissance was humanism. Both groups of people during those times wanted change towards a more secular view of things.
Machiavelli’s views were drastically different from other humanists at his time. He strongly promoted a secular society and felt morality was not necessary but stood in the way of a successfully governed state. He stated that people generally tended to work for their own best interests and gave little thought to the well being of the state. He distrusted citizens saying, “In time of adversity, when a state is in need of its citizens, there are few to be found.” In his writings in The Prince, he constantly questioned the citizens’ loyalty and warned for the leaders to be wary in trusting citizens. His radical and distrusting thoughts on human nature were derived out of concern for Italy’s then unstable government. Machiavelli also had a s...
Machiavelli believes that a government should be very structured, controlled, and powerful. He makes it known that the only priorities of a prince are war, the institutions, and discipline. His writings describes how it is more important for a prince to be practical than moral. This is shown where he writes, "in order to maintain the state he is often obliged to act against his promise, against charity, against humanity, and against religion" (47). In addition, Machiavelli argues that a prince may have to be cunning and deceitful in order to maintain political power. He takes the stance that it is better for the prince to be feared than loved. His view of how a government should run and his unethical conduct are both early signs of dictatorship.
In The Prince, Machiavelli separates ethics from politics. His approach to politics, as outlined in The Prince, is strictly practical. Machiavelli is less concerned with what is right and just, and instead with what will lead to the fortification of the government and the sustainment of power. Machiavelli believed that a ruler should use any means necessary to obtain and sustain power. He says, “…people judge by outcome. So if a ruler wins wars and holds onto power, the means he has employed will always be judged honorable, and everyone will praise them” (Machiavelli, 55). According to Machiavelli, the ends of an action justify the means (Machiavelli, 55). His motivation for these views in The Prince was the reunification of the Italian city-states (Machiavelli, 78-79). Machiavelli wanted Italy to return to its glory of the Roman Empire (Machiavelli 78-79). Some of the beliefs of Machiavelli could be perceived as evil and cruel, but he found them necessary. Machiavelli was not concerned with making people happy. His purpose was outcome and success, and in his opinion, the only way to be successful was to be realistic. These views of Machiavelli could classify him as one of the earliest modern
Machiavelli does not trust nor believe in human reason. He was sarcastic and satirical towards the very thought of human reason, which allows us to interpret that he was mocking the people of his time. In The Prince, Machiavelli expressed what the ideal Prince should embody, what he should do in times of war, what he should do for the economy daily, and how to rule in times of peace as well. Human nature to him however, is described as, rude, pessimistic, and shallow. Machiavelli makes it evidently clear that, “Men are much more taken by present than by past things, and when they find themselves well-off in the present, they enjoy it and see...
In The Prince he writes to a ruler about how to keep power and that word – Prince – is used on purpose as a representation of a political system. The Discourses is a little less about power and a little more about behavior in politics and more of Machiavelli’s ideas’ themselves are talked about. This is where one of his most famous quotes comes from: “It is best to be both feared and loved. But if you have to choose between the two, it is better to be feared than loved.” This is a pretty good generalization in one sentence of his overall ideas on politics. He didn’t care about how things SHOULD work, he focused on how to be successful with how things DID work. He was a
A central focus of the Renaissance was humanism. Humanism was an intellectual movement that claimed the heart of the Renaissance. Humanists studied the classical cultures of Greece and Rome. They used their newly acquired knowledge to develop a better understand of their own times. Humanists, although they were mostly Christian, did not focus of religion. Instead they were fixated on worldly subjects. It was believed that education should stimulate one’s creative mind. Humanists emphasized humanities, which are classic subjects such as grammar and poetry.
Although Machiavelli gives numerous points on what it takes to excel as a prince, he also shows some raw examples of how he feels a prince should act in order to achieve maximum supremacy. First, when he says, "ought to hold of little account a reputation for being mean, for it is one of those vices which will enable him to govern" proves Machiavelli feels mighty adamant about his view that being mean will help a prince achieve success (332). It is absurd to imagine the meanest prince as the most successful. Also, when Machiavelli states, "our experience has been that those princes who have done great things have held good faith of little account, and have known how to circumvent the intellect of men by craft" revealing his attitude to manipulate people into fearing and respecting the prince (335). Also, Machiavelli shows that for a prince to be successful, he must not think about good faith.
Machiavelli’s advice to princes directly correlated to his view on human nature. He believed that every common man was born evil and selfish. That did not stop him, however, from saying that humans many show instances when they exhibit generosity and wholeheartedness. He does tell princes, however, not to count on the few occurrences that may happen, and he says, “It is necessary to be a prince to know thoroughly the nature of the people, and one of the populace to know the nature of princes”. He is saying is that it is imperative that a prince knows the natural human nature, that each and every human will become more self-interested than interested in the good of the state. If he is ignorant to that fact, his kingdom/area of rule will deteriorate simply because he believes in the citizens that occupy it. He does believe, however, that with the right training, a human being can be molded (with the help of the state, of course) and he says, “Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many.” Although he believes that people cannot change themselves for the good, he does think that the state and military can shape humans for the better, but there will always be
Through his many years of experience with Italian politics Machiavelli wrote “The Prince”; a how-to guide for new rulers. We are given descriptions of what a leader should do to effectively lead his country. A leader should be the only authority determining every aspect of the state and put in effect a policy to serve his best interests. These interests are gaining, maintaining, and expanding his political power. Machiavelli’s idea is that a ruler should use a variety of strategies (virtues) to secure his power. Machiavelli lists five virtues that a ruler should appear to have; being compassionate, trustworthy, generous, honest and religious. A ruler should possess all the qualities considered good by other people.
Humanism and individualism was a big part of the age of exploration in 1492. All monarchs started to send people to explore for new places and just for curiosity. They started to discover humanity and things in the name of God. Another thing that humanism and individualism both played a role was in the Protestant Reformation. Humanism and individualism started to bring out Lutheranism by thoughts of humans being important to life, along with a new thoughts of religion into the Renaissance. For the political view, it was different because it became more secular instead of everything based on the church. In the Northern Renaissance, religious aspects began to change where people became Christian humanists while the Italian Renaissance become more culture but not as religious as the Northern Renaissance. Some historians believe that there was a break between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, but others believe that there was not. There are evidences like art from the Middle to the Renaissance showing the continuation of the Middle Ages emerging with new concepts. If you look at Middle Ages art like Ars Moriendi with Renaissance art, you could see that there was a period of time between the
Humanism can also refer to a specific happening in history: "the revival of classical letters, individualistic and critical spirit, and emphasis on secular concerns characteristic of the Renaissance." The phrase "characteristic of the Renaissance" shows how ambivalent is the relationship between the two terms, humanism and Renaissance. In other words, which term is the broader, encompassing the other? We associate both with the revival or rebirth of Greco-Roman civilization. Both have been broadened to include more than that. The more specific meaning of the Renaissa...
Humanism is known to be any belief by man or philosophy that centralizes on the realm of humans. There are many different types of Humanism: Literary, Renaissance, Cultural, Philosophical, Christian, Modern, Secular, and Religious. I will be focusing on Humanism that prevailed before the Renaissance. Humanism has been said to be the defining movement that lead into the Renaissance. The views of Humanism prior to the Renaissance were those that looked at the world as man being the sole center of the Universe. The beliefs that were based from Humanism were that the scientific, literary and philosophical works that began in ancient Greece and Rome were to be the guides for man. Not the Bible. The Humanists also put great emphasis on education and focused on grammar, history, math, astronomy, poetry, and music. There literary focus extended beyond religion into other elements of knowledge and learning. The view that man can do anything and will was popular along with the following of the ancient Greek’s views. The Humanist centered their beliefs around a scientific method that was used to establish fact base to human behavior. Humanism does not believe that any single religion can prove access to the peace...
The Renaissance is the guidance of ideology for the Western European from the medieval society to the modern excessive cultural and ideological movements. Humanism is the core of thought. Humanism is a people-oriented rational thought, mainly concern about human and human nature. It includes human dignity, the value of the human being. The humanism was based on the ancient Greek and Roman literature study, advocate the basis of man’ dignity, think that a man can control his/her own destiny and confirm the value of human. As the rebirth of literature, scholars found out importance of thinking and the power of reason. Therefore, many significant literatures had written by scholars during the Renaissance. Pico della Mirandola and Niccolo Machiavelli were the two of the important humanists during the Renaissance. Pico della Mirandola wrote about the human dignity. His work “Oration On The Dignity Of Man” has brought a new view of belief and influenced the later scholars. Niccolo Machiavelli’s work “The Prince” pointed out the significant being as a king.