Category: Society/Culture>> Historical Topics

Analysis:

Humanism is the leading idea of ??the Renaissance movement and the emerging bourgeoisie during the European Renaissance An ideological system that advocates putting people first in everything. The word "humanism" comes from "humanities" (Studiahumanitatis). During the Renaissance, it referred to the study of classical academics and the new trend of thought that valued the reality of life. People in the new culture at that time called themselves "humanists" (humanistas). After the 19th century, European academic circles began to use "humanism" to refer to this social trend of thought. The basic tendency of humanism is to advocate "humanity" against "Shinto", to advocate human rights against monarchy, and to advocate individual liberation against medieval religious shackles and all its remnants, so it is also called humanism. For the sake of distinction, China is accustomed to refer to this trend of thought during the Renaissance as humanism, and after the Renaissance as humanism.

Generally speaking, Western thought is divided into three different modes of viewing human beings and the universe. The first mode is beyond nature, focusing on God, and humans are part of God’s creation; the second mode is Natural, the focus is on nature, that is, the scientific model, and humans are part of the natural order; the third model is the humanistic model, the focus is on humans, and human experience is used as a basis for humans to treat themselves, God, and nature. starting point for understanding.

The most attractive thing about ancient Greek thought is that it is human-centered rather than God-centered. Humanism sharply attacks scholasticism because they focus on logical categories and metaphysics. Questions, abstract thinking and logical reasoning, are divorced from people's daily life. However, the humanism of the Renaissance did not want to replace scholasticism with another philosophical thought. They just wanted to resurrect the role that scholasticism had ignored.

The core of the humanistic worldview is "man", not God. It is believed that man does not live for God or God, but for the enjoyment of secular life. Man is not the Lamb of God, but the master of life. Therefore, they strongly advocate anti-feudalism, anti-theocracy, anti-asceticism, advocate personal freedom, human liberation, face reality and nature, pursue science, etc.; people with this kind of thinking are called humanists.

With the emergence of the capitalist economy, the emerging bourgeoisie demanded to get rid of the dominance of theology ideologically, and humanism came into being. Humanism originated in Italy, especially the Republic of Florence. In the second half of the 14th century, the first batch of humanists led by Petrarch and Boccaccio appeared. The humanistic trend of thought had flourished in Italy in the 15th century and spread to Germany, France, England and other parts of Western Europe in the 16th century. Humanism mainly opposes the ascetic dogma of religious theology, affirms life, praises human nature, and criticizes the darkness and ignorance of church rule. Humanists believe that the classical culture of Greece and Rome is the essence of all secular culture, so they spare no effort to study and study classical culture, respect them as good teachers and helpful friends, and call the new culture the revival of classical culture. However, humanism is not fundamentally opposed to religion and the church, and the human nature it emphasizes does not go beyond the limitations of bourgeois individualism in some aspects.

A favorite topic in humanistic discussions is, which one is better, an active life, or a contemplative life? The life of contemplation no longer occupied the most important place as it did in the Middle Ages.

The second topic is the impermanence of fate and the spirit that refuses to surrender to it. This determination to conquer fate generated an interest in people's personality and self-awareness, so the number of portraits, self-portraits, biographies and autobiographies increased more and more, and they were painted in a realistic style rather than a symbolic or figurative style.

We cannot avoid the conflict between Augustine’s sinful existence and the Renaissance’s view of man. Most Renaissance people were untroubled by this conflict and continued to take Christianity for granted.

As for the confused few, there are two paths to take: Neoplatonism and Biblical Humanism, which in different ways represented the religious element in Renaissance humanism.

Neo-Platonism believes that harmony and symmetry are the fundamental principles of the universe. Through contemplation, the highest human activity, people can achieve consistency with these two principles. This belief was very important to the Renaissance. thinkers have great appeal. In the hierarchy of the universe, man is the center of creation. The link with all created things belongs to the lower level of matter, but he can still improve himself and seek communication with God.

It is easy to go from Neoplatonism to mysticism, so the Renaissance was also fascinated by magic and astrology, and was interested in Pythagorean number symbolism, mythology and fables. All had a profound impact on European literature and art.

Biblical humanism is the application of humanistic scholarship to the study of biblical texts and the writings of church elders. For them, although the Renaissance was human-centered, it was not necessarily weak in religion.

Biblical humanism is mainly based in Northern Europe. Therefore, Northern Europe became one of the main sources of the religious reform movement. Many Christian humanists initially had the purpose of reforming the church. They believed that they were proficient in classical research and used it in the Bible. , is the key to restoring the true nature of Christian teaching. Moreover, Luther's intermediate role for the pastor and his insistence on direct personal communication with God may well be seen as a natural development of humanism, as was his insistence on the translation of the Bible into the local languages ??of each country.

Within Germany, Luther was attracted to the nascent national sentiments, but outside of Germany, if other Christian humanists wanted to follow him, they had to overcome at least two major obstacles: 1. Luther was abandoning church tradition. In terms of beliefs and beliefs, he went to more and more extremes, and finally broke away from the church altogether. 2. Luther and Calvin revived an emphasis on man's sinful nature; this would ultimately be completely incompatible with humanism.

Burckhardt has a famous saying: The Renaissance is about discovering the world and discovering people. Return to nature, return to the ancients, and be an imitator of all visible scenery.

They depict something concrete and universal, combining universal truth with concrete experience.

After Rome was sacked in 1527, Naples and Florence were besieged, followed by famine and plague. The last remaining republic in Italy was Venice, which survived because it was good at adapting to changing circumstances.

When Blézer painted "The Triumph of Death," early humanism's confidence in human dignity and creativity became a satire of the actual situation. This irony would reappear after the confidence in progress in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries collapsed in the twentieth century. If you want to hold on to your faith amidst this disillusionment, you have to make peace with tragedy. This is the reason behind Shakespeare's tragedy. Shakespeare no longer believes that courage and virtue can control destiny. All a person can do is to face his failure with perseverance.

The failure of the Japanese citizen spirit also led to Machiavelli's "The Prince": To achieve the goal, the means will justify the means.

They no longer view characters as Neoplatonic: like gods, or Michelangelo: like heroes. But, despite this, man remains at the center.

During the religious wars, both the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation set out to suppress people's spiritual freedom and no longer emphasized life in this life.

Renaissance humanism was individualistic by its nature, so as a historical force it had obvious weakness, and when some people organized it as heresy This weakness becomes even more obvious when suppressed by false fantasies. However, the ideas it represents, its insistence on the centrality of human experience and value, and its insistence on human dignity are too powerful. Once they are Recovered and re-proposed, they could not be permanently suppressed, and although it was difficult to realize this at the end of the sixteenth century, the future was on their side.

Humanism broke through the shackles of the feudal church during the Renaissance, and under the influence of this thought, many splendid cultural and artistic masterpieces were produced. Humanism also played an important role in educational reform, excavation and arrangement of ancient books, laying the foundation for modern education and humanities research in Europe. Because humanism advocates paying attention to reality and free thinking, it also provided ideological weapons for the two great historical movements of the Renaissance - the religious reform and the rise of natural science.