Philosophy of the Renaissance

Renaissance is a rather complicated phenomenon of Western culture of the middle XIV and the beginning of the XVII century.

The western Renaissance generally divided into three periods:
1st period (Humanistic): Mid of XIV-Mid of XV.
2nd period (Neoplatonic): Mid of XV-Beg of XVI.
3rd period (Natural-philosophical): end of XVI-Beg of XVII.

Many of the ideas of the Renaissance originated much earlier than the beginning of this epoch, when there were disputes in the medieval universities, where the main ideas were the ideas of Thomas Aquinas.

But at the same time in Italy, originated some ideas, which were opposed to prevailed scholastic outlook of that time.

Main cause of the Renaissance was considered economic cause, as this was a time of rapid development of handicrafts, the emergence and strengthening of cities (Renaissance begins in Italy, where there are cities, like Rome, Naples, Venice, Florence).

Economically free people required to justify their activities through a new outlook, more than scholastic edifices or ascetic Catholic priests, monks, and the early Fathers of the Church gave.

In this approach, God becomes not the center of the world, but the object of purely theoretical knowledge, allowing all kinds of doubts. Thus scholastic philosophy prepared such a phenomenon that we call the Renaissance.

Renaissance humanism is not protection of human rights, but it studies human as he is given. Main feature of humanism is its the attention to antiquity.

First thinker of the Renaissance called Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) notwithstanding that he lived in the heyday (расцвет) of scholastic philosophy.

He is the author of well-known «the Divine comedy». Dante indicated that nature itself has divine essence. Thus human is involved in two natures: the terrestrial and heavenly.

Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374), perhaps better known as a great poet, but nevertheless founded humanistic philosophy in the Renaissance.
(“On my and another’s ignorance” and “My Secret“)

Human life is given only once and it’s unique;
A person should not live for God;
A person can be free;
A person can achieve happiness, relying only on himself and his capacity;

Probably afterlife doesn’t exist, and immortality can be achieved only in people’s memories;
A person mustn’t be brought as a sacrifice to God, and should enjoy his life and love;

Neoplatonic period
Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499). He translated the works of Plato and Platonists to the Latin.

The philosophy is understood as the scientific religion, opening the truths containing in faith. The main feature of a person is his aspiration to freedom

The world is ordered. The hierarchy of the world has, according to Ficino, the five stages: God, angels, spirit, quality and matter. Soul is situated in the middle of this hierarchy and connects all of its units.

Lorenzo Valla
(1407-1457),
(“On the pleasure”)
He was a philosopher, reviving (возрождающий) Epicurean philosophy.

George Gemistus Plethon (1355–1452) – an orthodox priest from Constantinople.
He prefers the emanation vision of the world instead of creationism.

Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494). (“900 theses”).
The world has three levels: the angelic, celestial (небесный) and elemental. These worlds are eternal, because God is eternal.

Human is the fourth world, he is absolutely free and can therefore put himself at every level of this world.
Nature has a causal structure that can be described by the language of mathematics.

Younger contemporary (современник) of humanists was Nicholas of Cusa (Nicolaus Krebs) (1401–1464) – “On Learned Ignorance”

He is trying to return to the spirit of the early church fathers (Origen). We can not say anything on God, so we can not know the truth. This is our ignorance.
A human is microcosm.

Nicholas of Cusa is a pantheist, and in a question on interaction of faith and reason he accepts a position of “two truths”.

Natural-philosophical period
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
One of founders of applied (опытного) natural sciences.

Nature is a creative active beginning, God is the Supreme artist. Anticipating (предвосхищая) Copernicus he asserted (утверждал) that the Earth isn’t the center of the Universe.

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)
The author of a heliocentric system of the world. He entered a self-movement principle.

Giordano Bruno
(1548-1600)
The central category of his philosophy is Integrity (Единое)

Integrity is being which is the reason of itself. The Universe is infinite and motionless, it isn't created by God. But within Universe all is incurred (подвержено) to development, change and destruction

He used Neoplatonic terms: “single”, “mind”, “soul”, “matter”
The conception of plurality of the worlds.

God and the world are identical essences.
Because God is infinite, so far the world is infinite.
God is the maximum and minimum, so He exists at each point of the world.

Galileo Galilei
(1564-1642)
Has laid the foundation for classical mechanics,

has formulated a principle of a relativity of movement, has offered the idea of energy, the law of free falling of bodies. At the heart of the nature is the unity of material substances existing under the laws of mechanics.

Political-legal ideas of the Renaissance
Human nature, customs of the people and the history are put forward

Hugo Grotius
(1583-1645)
The main work «On the Law of War and Peace: Three books». State is result of the agreement. Republic is most ancient and the optimum form of a governmental system

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527).
(“The Prince”). God is completely excluded by him from public life: a person himself creates a policy, based on terrestrial interests

States appear and disappear according to the laws of fortune.
People – self-preservation – society – rulers – army – political laws. Politics and morality are incom’patible (несовместимы).

Christianity too believes in the afterlife and does not appreciate reality.
Politics is completely au’tonomous, morality and religion are products of politics. Therefore, the political aim is the highest one.

Philosophy of RENAISSANCE
in northern Europe

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (1469-1536) (Holland)
Important for Erasmus is the upbringing (воспитание) and education of man.

He opposed super’stitions (суеверие), pseudoscience, scholastic philosophy and theology.
He also defended the existence of human free will.

Martin Luther (1483-1546) “Faith alone justifies man”
In October 1517, Martin Luther exhibits (выставлять) at the door of church in Württemberg his famous 95 theses on in’dulgences, (era of the Reformation).

Man has no free will, all his actions are predetermined from over.
After the Fall man’s will was imperfect and began to be focused onto evil.

The most significant philosopher of the Renaissance in France is Michel de Montaigne (Монтень) (1533-1592).
“Essays”
Philosophy of everyday life through self-knowledge.