Am I a Humanist? By Youngjin Roh
To kick off our second unit, “The Renaissance” in G8 Humanities, we learned about Renaissance humanism and its qualities.
Renaissance humanism was an intellectual movement that appeared during the Renaissance period in 14th-century Italy. Humanists wanted to revive and study the classical world. Renaissance humanism focuses not on religion, but on importance and what it means to be human.
Studying the core beliefs of humanism, we asked ourselves a question: Am I a Humanist? To answer this question, we were asked to take some traits that make up Renaissance Humanism and rate ourselves on how humanist we were. Using my infographic, I discovered that I was 95% humanist.
I agree with most of the ideas that humanists believed in. Social mobility, emphasis on humans, and prioritizing education all seem reasonable and beneficial to me. The only thing I slightly disagree with is how centered humanists were only on ancient Greece and Rome. Greek and Roman ideology was one of the most important things that made up Renaissance humanism, and throughout the whole period, humanists focused on emulating Greek and Roman ideals. While there isn’t anything wrong with this, there was no diversity and they were neglecting the contributions of other cultures. For example, I grew up in ISB. ISB has an incredibly diverse setting, and throughout my life, I’ve met many people from different cultures. Meeting so many people has helped me learn about the different traditions around the world. Additionally, I am Korean, and I’ve been living in China since I was little. This has opened my eyes to the traditions, food, and way of life in China. Knowing that this world is so rich in culture, I can’t help but think that it could’ve been useful to incorporate knowledge from different civilizations to better understand the world during the Renaissance.
Overall, I think Renaissance humanists had some great ideas that sped up the progress of civilization, and without them, our world would look extremely different.
Works Cited:
Cartwright, Mark. “Renaissance Humanism.” World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 04 Nov 2020. Web. 20 Oct 2023.
Kennedy, Lesley. “How the Renaissance Challenged the Church and Influenced the Reformation.” HISTORY, A&E Television Networks, 27 Sept. 2021, www.history.com/news/renaissance-influence-reformation-humanism. Accessed 21 Oct. 2023.
Britannica, The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia. “Renaissance”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 Oct. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/facts/Renaissance. Accessed 22 October 2023.
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