Humanism :: essays research papers

Humanism, in philosophy, attitude that emphasizes the dignity and worthy of the individual. A basic premise of secular humanism is that people are acute beings who possess within themselves the capacity for truth and goodness. The term humanism is most(prenominal) often used to describe a literary and cultural execution that spread through western Europe in the 14th and fifteenth centuries. This Renaissance revival of Greek and Roman studies emphasized the value of the classics for their protest sake, rather than for their relevance to Christianity.The humanist movement started in Italy, where the late knightly Italian writers Dante, Giovanni Boccaccio, and Francesco Petrarch contributed greatly to the discovery and preservation of unpolluted works. Advertisement humane ideals were forcefully expressed by another Italian scholar, Pico della Mirandola, in his disquisition on the dignity of man. The movement was further stimulated by the inflow of Byzantine scholars who cam e to Italy after the fall of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) to the Ottomans in 1453 and as well by the foundation of the Platonic Academy in Florence. The academy, whose leading thinker was Marsilio Ficino, was founded by the 15th-century Florentine statesman and patron of the arts Cosimo de Medici. The institution sought to revive pragmatism and had particular influence on the literature, painting, and architecture of the times.The collection and translation of classical manuscripts became widespread, especially among the higher clergy and nobility. The invention of printing with movable type, around the mid-15th century, gave a further impetus to humanism through the dissemination of editions of the classics. Although in Italy humanism developed principally in the fields of literature and art, in profound Europe, where it was introduced chiefly by the German scholars Johann Reuchlin and Melanchthon, the movement extended into the fields of divinity fudge and education, and was a major underlying cause of the Reformation.One of the most authoritative scholars in the development of humanism in France was the Dutch cleric Desiderius Erasmus, who also played an important part in introducing the movement into England.