Renaissance Humanism by Frank Su [STUDENT]

“You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him to find it for himself,” Galileo—an Italian Astronomer during the Renaissance—once said.

The churches during the feudalistic times tried former approach; education was limited and dogmatic. Like the Dunning-Kruger effect, this helped them maintain power, as peasants did not know what they had been missing out on.

So what is humanism? No, it’s not the study of humans. Rather, an intellectual movement led by Francis Petrarch during Italy’s Renaissance, “typified by a revived interest in the classical world and studies which focused not on religion but on what it is to be human” (World History Encyclopedia). This revival is demonstrated in the name “Renaissance”, meaning “revival” or “rebirth” in French as to symbolize the coming back of Greek and Roman culture or intellect.

But how did this start? It occurred during the Renaissance. After the fall of feudalism due to multiple factors such as the Black Death, people began questioning religion; if God truly cares for us, why inflict such terror on us all?

It laid the blueprints for the Reformation, and “played a crucial role in shaping both the intellectual and religious landscape of Europe,” being a major inflection point in history (Humanism, Britannica).

Personally, my viewpoints on this universe align very well with those of humanists:

Humanism emphasizes the importance of education in achieving one’s potential. This is achieved through teaching and providing one with the tools to understand the world. You can give a man a fish and feed him for a day, but teach him how to fish and he will be fed for the rest of his life. I deeply resonate with this approach, and it can be seen in many of our courses in ISB as well. For example, in math, while Chinese schools tell children to memorize formulas and how to apply them, like giving them fishes to eat, our school teaches students how the formulas are derived, teaching us how to use them. This makes it so that when scenarios are slightly changed, we are still able to apply this knowledge because we fully understand it. This fully encapsulates my attitude towards learning; as an avid learner, I want to dig deeper to what we learn in class—not just what it is, but why it’s the way it is. This way, I can connect things to the bigger picture and feel more confident in my knowledge as well. Furthermore, the focusing on individual potential in humanism allowed for a more fluid social structure, as people could move classes depending on how productive they were in society.

On the other hand, humanism also upheld values I resonate with today.

The shift in thinking from the feudalism to humanism meant the beginning of breaking free from standardized ways of learning, which they achieved through secular inquiry—secularism and individualism. As people challenged religious institutions such as the church, the power of those institutions were also jeopardized. An example of this would be the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus’s theory that the solar system was heliocentric, instead of being geocentric which was adopted by the Catholic Church. Hence, humanism’s philosophy of questioning everything has contributed to figuring out solutions for countless phenomenons—even now—and those breakthroughs directly impact us today. Like our math teacher said, she doesn’t follow one single textbook. She takes information from a broad mix, because staying with one will always mean you lose out on another thing, like staying with education only from the church. I find myself to be aligned with this belief, as I often wish to create my own route in life and do not depend on a single person for guidance, similar to the individualist belief. This is because I want to understand how everything works—not just listening to other people, but finding out for myself.

Moreover, I also align with other values of humanism aside from thinking. Humanism emphasized valuing the current life and less of the life after death. Comparatively, the afterlife was more valued during feudalism due to its social structure. Peasants, making up to 85% of the population, lived horrible lives, so they wanted to invest in the life after death through religion, as if it were a way of escaping. As the church’s power waned during humanism, more people began to focus on the life they currently had, but this is not to say that religion was completely gone. As an agnostic person, I have mixed feelings about the afterlife. Regardless, the importance of life should not be diminished with the promise of something afterwards, so I try and cherish my life every day.

I previously mentioned that people began relying less on religion. But then, what did they focus on? They put more trust into the reality through science, math, and logic. This is also seen in modern days, where we have the freedom of right to choose whether we believe in a religion or not: religious freedom, which is a “fundamental human right and the first among rights guaranteed,” in the United States Constitution (Newsroom). The drastic increase in scientific advancements allow us to view the world through different lenses. Rather than believing that it is “God’s choice” that it rains today or tomorrow, we can see and experience the beauty of science; evaporation, condensation and gravity. As a student, I am not easily swayed through emotion, even though I may display it a lot. Instead, I care more about logic and the statistics, which cannot be easily changed. This connects to the belief of the observing and analyzing characteristics of humanism. It provides stability in a constantly fluctuating world; you cannot do everything right, so you must fall towards doing what is best for the majority.

Finally, humanism emphasized individual opinions. Consequently, trade of art and other items rapidly increased. Artists also began to be more keen to capture the reality of human beings and not just Christ. These paintings that were full of life were then spread across the world through inventions such as the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg and paper in China spread through the Silk Road. This impacts all of our lives, as it makes distributing information much more efficient and easy. As centuries pass, we wind up with social media, a platform allowing us to conveniently express our ideas, without the worry that the Catholic Church might hunt us down and try to execute us for treason; like Galileo, who died on house arrest after his theories were claimed to be “heresy” by the church.

Ultimately, I align myself with the philosophies of humanism, and it has undoubtably shaped our lives today; whether that’s seen today through education for all, religious freedom, critical thinking, or social media.

Works Cited (mostly for small details I wanted to add e.g. quotes or deeper connections, the infographic and explanations are 90% from our lessons):

Insperity
Study.com
World History
Britannica
The Art Story
LibGuides
National Library of Medicine
Newsroom