Humanism During The Renaissance Essay, Research Paper

The Renaissance was an incredibly important turning point in

Western Intellectual and Cultural Tradition. All of these changes

centered around the idea of Humanism — in which, people became less

“God Centered” and more “Human-centered”. I have narrowed down these

changes, and will discuss in detail, these changes in three major

categories: Political, Education, and the Humanism of Arts.

The major pollical changes of the Renaissance were from the

old Feudal System of the Middle Ages into a more flexible and liberal

class system. This was most noticeable in Italy (particularly in

Florence), where the divisions consisted of the old rich, the new rich

nobles, the middle class, and the lower middle class(The poor didn’t

count). This created great conflict between these social divisions.

The new rich consisted of successful merchants, capitalists, and

bankers innovators of new systems of making money. The Humanism

philosophy was also a very popular with the people and many political

leaders rose to high positions with support of these ideals. Three

humanists even became chancellors of Florence — they used their

rhetorical skills to strongly rally the people of Florence against

their enemies.

The great changes in Education of the Renaissance were

inspired at first, by the desire of Humanists to be wise and to speak

eloquently. The idea of useful education for the people, and very

“well rounded” schooling in many different fields of learning were the

new defined goals of Renaissance education. People all over

(Especially in Florence) revived the Ancient Greek studies of Plato,

Aristotle, and many others. People began seriously questioning what

these people said and re-developed the “Scientific Theory” in which

you didn’t just accept whatever was said to you, but you tested the

truth of it.

In the area of Humanism and the Arts, Renaissance Artists no

longer were subordinate to the interests and the values of the Clergy,

and were able to create anything of their “artistic will”. Both men

and women were now able to appreciated arts beyond just religious

themes. Artists could also now take advantage of new techniques, such

as oil painting and linear perspective to enhance the quality of their

works. All of the great artists of the time used became who they were

solely because of this new artistic freedom that the Renaissance

brought them. These artists also created works that were more complex

than before. Taking advantage of this, artists such as Leonardo da

Vinci — the ultimate example of the Renaissance man working in all

types of educational fields, and Michelangelo who was possibly the

most famous artist and sculptor in history.

As you can see, the Renaissance was to great extent and a

major turning point in history from the Middle Ages in just about

every element of the Society. The Renaissance have truly become the

original roots of our culture from the West. This was was the time

when people questioned the past, and decided to go back to the schools

of learning taking the past of the Greeks into their present to make a

better future.