The affirmation of spirituality is the basis for the revival of Russia. Abstract: Culture of the Renaissance XIV-XVI XVII centuries Ideological basis of the Renaissance

What we should hope for in divine affairs is a question we will leave to the angels... Celestials must discuss the heavenly, but we must discuss the human.

Francesco Petrarca

At the end of the 14th century. In Europe, one of the brightest and most fruitful periods in the history of human culture begins - the Renaissance. Although this era affected almost all European countries, the classical country of the Renaissance, its homeland, was Italy. The chronological framework of this era is end of the XIV-XVI centuries. The figures of the Renaissance themselves contrasted their era with the darkness and ignorance of the Middle Ages. But it was still not just about the spread of literacy, book printing, and the emergence of sciences. The Middle Ages were not a “hole” in history - we already know that even then human thought did not stop in its quest to understand the world. The Renaissance was distinguished from the Middle Ages primarily by a revolution in the value system, in the assessment of the world, man, and knowledge. If the Middle Ages can be called a time theocentrism- God (gr. MeoB) was at the center of all speculation about the world, the Renaissance became a period anthropocentrism(gr. apMgdro - man), that is, it was man that interested thinkers and philosophers, it was him that they studied and researched. This era became a hymn to the beauty of the human body and the power of the human mind.

general characteristics Renaissance philosophy

This view of man determined the most important feature of Renaissance culture - the development individualism. What is meant by individualism? a worldview in which the interests of the individual, the individual, are declared the highest value. Of course, this also manifested itself in philosophy. Man became the main subject of her research.

Philosophy separated from theology and started talking about earthly affairs. Culture as a whole began to wear secular, rather than ecclesiastical character. In this regard, the statement of Cosimo de Medici, the ruler of Florence, attracts attention: he said that he who seeks support in heaven for the ladder of his life will fall, and that he personally always strengthened it on earth. Of course, the dominant worldview in society was of a religious nature, the Catholic Church had not yet lost its influence, the fires of the Inquisition were still burning, but at the same time, free, independent philosophizing, not bound by any unconditional authority, appeared again, which criticized scholasticism.

This was partly due to the fact that the Renaissance turned to antiquity. After all, its very name suggests that something was being revived. But what? Antique samples! Both in art and in philosophy a burning interest in the ancient past is obvious.

It would seem that the Middle Ages did not break with the ancient tradition. Yes it is. But in the Middle Ages, only individual works of individual philosophers were quoted and studied, which could be interpreted in the spirit of Christianity: everything else was either forgotten or banned. During the Renaissance, the ancient philosophical heritage was restored and mastered in full - antiques forgotten in the Middle Ages were revived philosophical schools(Epicureanism and Neoplatonism became especially popular), the teachings of Plato and Aristotle were rethought - they were freed from the scholastic shell, the texts of ancient authors began to be translated into national European languages. Moreover, for the first time attempts were made to surpass antiquity (the Philosopher himself - Aristotle) ​​and create a fundamentally new explanation of the world.

Philosophy has found again connection with natural science research. Great geographical discoveries expanded the horizons of humanity. Copernicus turned the usual picture of the world upside down and literally gave it a different center. Thanks to the development of the craft, a mass of new empirical data appeared, because of which the previous indisputable authorities collapsed. Science gradually lost its bookish character and turned to experience, to independent study of reality. At this time, the thesis became dominant that knowledge should be based on sensations, what we ourselves feel in the process of research. At the origins of such an experienced empirical(from gr. etreta - experience) approach to reality stands the figure of not only the greatest artist, but also the natural scientist of the Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). He rejected any knowledge not based on direct study of nature - even if it was obtained from the Holy Scriptures or supported by the authority of outstanding scholastics. “Conceivable things that have not passed through sensation are empty and do not give rise to any truth, unless it is deceptive,” he wrote.

By the 15th century European science surpassed ancient science in its level. The connection between philosophy and developing natural science during the Renaissance was manifested in the revival natural philosophy(philosophy of nature). This was caused by an appeal to antiquity, where natural philosophy was extremely developed, and by attempts to philosophically comprehend the new information received by people about the world. Systems of outstanding thinkers of that time - Giordano Bruno, Nicholas of Cusa, Tommaso Campanel-

ly- were of a natural-philosophical nature.

Natural philosophy of the Renaissance, as a rule, had pantheistic character. The identification of God and nature made it possible to study natural processes under the dominance of a religious worldview. Nature from a lower reality, “the foot of God’s throne,” turned into a manifestation of God, His essence.

All these features of Renaissance philosophy appeared in humanism- an important phenomenon of that era, which received its development in modern times.

Humanism

The term "humanism" (lat. humanus - humane) was used back in the 1st century. BC e. outstanding Roman orator Cicero (106-43 BC). For him humanitas (humanity) - This is the upbringing and education of a person, contributing to his elevation. In improving the spiritual nature of man, the main role was given to such disciplines as grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and ethics. These disciplines are called "studia humanitatis" (humanitarian disciplines).

In the broad sense of the word, humanism represents a way of thinking that proclaims the idea of ​​human welfare as the main goal of social and cultural development and defends the value of man as an individual. This term is still used in this interpretation. But how complete system views and a powerful current of social thought, humanism arose during the Renaissance.

The poet and philosopher are unanimously considered the founder of humanism Francesco Petrarca(1304-1374). He was not only the author of world-famous sonnets dedicated to his beloved Laura, but also an outstanding thinker of his time. In his work one can find the beginning of many paths along which the development of Renaissance culture took place in Italy. He resolutely rejected scholastic learning, because he considered such learning to be completely useless for humans. Socrates did not graduate from university, and Plato did not have a doctorate in theology; a scholastic university education only dulls thought, Petrarch believed. He has a satirical description of how academic degrees were awarded in medieval universities: “Our time is happier than antiquity, since now there are not one, not two, not seven wise men, but in every city there are whole herds of them, like cattle. And it's no wonder there are so many of them, because they are so easy to make. To the doctor's temple (to the university. - Years.) a foolish youth comes to receive signs of wisdom; his teachers, out of love or delusion, glorify him; he himself swaggers, the crowd is silent, friends and acquaintances applaud. Then... he ascends to the pulpit and, looking at everyone from above, mutters something incomprehensible. Then the elders vying with each other praise him, as if he had said something divine... After this is accomplished, the one who entered it as a fool descends from the pulpit as a sage - an amazing transformation, unknown even to Ovid (Ovid’s donkeys sometimes turned into people. - Years.)".

According to Petrarch, it is not blind imitation of the thoughts of remarkable ancient predecessors that will allow us to achieve a new flowering of literature, art, and science, but the desire to rethink tradition and surpass it in some way. This line, outlined by Petrarch, became the leading one in relation to humanism towards the ancient heritage.

Petrarch believed that the content of true philosophy should be the sciences about man, and throughout his work there is a call to reorient philosophy towards this worthy object of knowledge. Moreover, the value of the human personality for humanists was determined not by origin or social affiliation, but by a person’s personal merits and actions.

A new idea expressed by humanists was the position that God (contrary to church dogma) did not create man in his own image and likeness in a “ready-made form,” but gave him the opportunity to create himself. For example, the famous Italian humanist Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) wrote that the dignity of man lies in his freedom: he can become whatever he wants. Glorifying the power of man and his greatness, admiring his amazing creations, the thinkers of the Renaissance (who, of course, were not atheists, but believers) inevitably came to bring man closer to God. “Man tames the winds and conquers the seas, knows the count of time... In addition, with the help of a lamp, he turns night into day,” man’s hands work miracles - all this speaks of his “divinity.” The philosophy of humanism elevated man and emphasized his “proportionality” to God.

Renaissance and Reformation

Since the end of the 15th century. A serious crisis in the Roman Catholic Church was growing, which found expression in the Reformation movement, which captured almost all European countries. Under Reformation(from lat. reformatio- transformation) understand religious social movement of the 16th century. in Europe, aimed at radically changing the traditional forms of religious life in the Roman Catholic Church. The subject of particular indignation among believers was the sale of indulgences - letters testifying to the remission of sins. Having money, one could buy absolution even for a future offense. The German theologian became one of the main ideologists of the Reformation Martin Luther(1483-1546), who in 1517 hung his famous "95 Theses against Indulgences" right on the door of the church in Wittenberg. These theses had a huge resonance. They served as a powerful stimulus for opposition to official church ideology, giving the movement for the renewal of faith and against the papacy a theoretical justification.

The ideologists of the Reformation put forward a new concept of the church, eliminating the opposition between clergy and laity. In fact, the need for the Catholic Church with its complex and branched hierarchy was denied: the reformers defended the idea that the believer does not need intermediaries to communicate with God. The Holy Scriptures were declared to be the only source of religious truth. while for the Catholic Church the indisputable authority was also the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils and the judgments of the popes. The Reformers reasoned differently: the Bible can be interpreted by anyone, not just Augustine or the Pope, but all these interpretations are only human attempts to understand divine truth, which means they may contain errors. One more important point was criticism of papal authority: The head of true Christians is not the Pope, but Jesus Christ.

These main theses of the Reformation were adopted throughout Europe. Revolutionary criticism and attacks on the monopoly position of the Catholic Papal Church manifested themselves with varying degrees of intensity in all countries of Catholic Europe. Martin Luther's cause was taken up by a Swiss priest Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531), French theologian John Calvin (1509-1564) and other reformers. IN Europe has broken out real war between supporters of Catholicism and its critics (remember, for example, the Night of St. Bartholomew, when thousands of Huguenots, supporters of Calvinism, were literally massacred in Paris, or the peasant wars in the Czech Republic under the leadership of Jan Hus). The result of the Reformation movement was schism of the Roman church in the 16th century and the creation of a new variety of Christianity - Protestantism.

Protestantism was not originally united. Puritans, Calvinists, Lutherans, Anabaptists and others - all these Protestant movements differed from each other, but they were united by their rejection of the state of affairs in the Catholic Church: flagrant abuses of the clergy, immoral acts of popes, formalism in relation to believers, accumulation of wealth by the church, etc. Ultimately, three main forms of Protestantism emerged: Lutheranism(gained predominant influence in Germany, Scandinavia, the Baltic states), more radical Calvinism(spread primarily in Switzerland, Holland, France) and Anglicanism(became the dominant religion in England). Then other Protestant churches arose, some of which emerged quite recently, for example, Baptists, Mormons, Methodists, Quakers, etc. And this process has not yet ended; new versions of Protestantism are still appearing today.

In Protestantism there is no distinction between a priest and any other believer; Thus, the priest does not have the right to confess and absolve sins. Protestant churches do not have such magnificent decoration as Catholic churches; there are no statues, holy relics, icons, bells, etc. Divine services in Protestantism are simplified; they are conducted in the national language (and not in Latin). Monasticism and the vow of celibacy (obligatory for all Catholic priests) were abolished as an unnatural tradition. A person should not, like monks, run away from the world; on the contrary, he should conscientiously fulfill his earthly calling. The morality of Protestantism reflected the processes of the gradual formation of bourgeois society, Protestant ethics in a simplified form can be reduced to the position "pray and work“, that is, be active, prudent, thrifty, modest and simple in life. Success in business, wealth and career are a sign of being called to this business by God. Any activity, if its benefits are beyond doubt, can be considered a sacred deed. Protestantism abolished many sacraments, leaving only baptism and communion. The Bible was translated into national languages, and its study and interpretation became the most important responsibility of all believers. Of course, we have not listed here all the “innovations” introduced by Protestantism into religious life, but what has already been mentioned is enough to understand: as a result of the Reformation, another branch of Christianity emerged - the third after Orthodoxy and Catholicism.

How was the Reformation connected to the Renaissance? The relationship between the Reformation and the Renaissance is contradictory. On the one hand, the humanists of the Renaissance and representatives of the Reformation were united by a deep hostility to scholasticism, a thirst for religious renewal, and the idea of ​​a return to origins (in one case - to ancient models, in the other - to the evangelical ideals of poverty and pure faith). The reformers, criticizing the Roman Church and defending the point of view according to which the matter of one's own salvation is in the hands of each person, continued the work of the thinkers of the Renaissance. After all, the worldview of the Renaissance was also characterized by the ideal of liberation of the individual, his activity, and responsibility for his destiny. On the other hand, the Reformation is a protest against the Renaissance exaltation of man. Lutheranism, for example, was characterized by a rejection of humanistic values: the human mind is weak, it is insignificant, only faith can save a person. Therefore, what is typical of early Protestantism is not so much the exaltation of man in the spirit of the Renaissance, but rather the justification of his complete dependence on God.

Natural philosophy of the Renaissance

Another crushing blow to the scholastic worldview, along with humanism and the Reformation, was dealt by the development of natural science, which in the 16th century. has achieved significant success. The desire to understand nature is reflected in creativity Leonardo da Vinci, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630), Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Their research contributed not only to changing the image of the world, but also to changing ideas about science and the relationship between theory and practice. The already mentioned Leonardo da Vinci wrote: “Science is the commander, and practice is the soldiers.”

Of course, one of the greatest achievements of natural science of this time was the creation by the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus heliocentric system peace. This was a revolution that refuted the geocentric picture of the universe that had existed for more than a thousand years. Advances in the development of natural science have to a large extent determined the nature of philosophical reflection. The leading direction of philosophical thought of the 16th century, as we have already said, becomes natural philosophy.

A new look at space was partly prepared by the natural philosophical teachings of the greatest thinker Nicholas of Kuzansky(1401 - 1464), born in Germany in the town of Cusa. Despite the fact that he made a brilliant church career - he became a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, his teaching about the boundlessness of the cosmos questioned theological and scholastic ideas about the Universe. Unlike other humanists, Nikolai Kuzansky studied mathematics and natural science and created a unique Christian naturalistic pantheism. The world exists in God and God exists in the world, and since God is infinite, then the world is limitless. Thus began a great revolution in the worldview of Europeans - overcoming the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic geocentric picture of the world. God in the philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa is not something outside the world, but is in unity with it, He contains the world within himself.

The infinity of the world led Nicholas of Cusa to the idea of ​​the infinity of the process of cognition. One of his works was called “About learned ignorance”: No matter how much people discover the laws of nature, their knowledge will always be scientific ignorance, because even more unknown remains ahead.

Natural philosophy of the Italian thinker Giordano Bruno(1548-1600) also proceeded from the thesis about infinity Universe: “It cannot in any way be embraced and is therefore innumerable and limitless, and thereby infinite and limitless...”. This Universe is not created, it exists forever and cannot disappear. The Universe as a whole is motionless, “for it has nothing outside itself where it could move, due to the fact that it is everything.” In the Universe itself there is continuous change and movement. Turning to the characteristics of this movement, Bruno points out its natural character. He rejects the Aristotelian idea of ​​the prime mover, that is, God: “The infinite worlds... all move due to an internal principle, which is their own soul... and as a result it is in vain to look for their external mover.” Giordano Bruno believed that there are countless worlds. And each world has its own center - its Sun.

Bruno was there too pantheist, because nature and God coincided with him. He argued that nature is God in things; God does not oppose the world as its Creator, but is in nature itself as an internal active principle.

As you know, Bruno was accused of heresy. Forced to leave Italy, he lived in France, England, and Germany. Possessing an amazing memory, he gave lessons in “mnemonic art” (the art of memorization). When Bruno received an invitation to give such lessons to a rich Italian, he returned to the country, but was captured and thrown into prison. Despite the weakening influence of the Catholic Church, the Inquisition was still in effect, and after 8 years imprisonment Giordano Bruno was burned in Rome in the Square of Flowers.

Social and philosophical thought of the Renaissance

The changes that took place during the Renaissance affected not only people's views on nature, but also on society. Here we can distinguish two main trends of change - on the one hand, this is an attempt by Renaissance philosophers to look at social life from the point of view of reality with its wars, clashes of interests of rulers and groups of people, human selfishness and enmity, and on the other hand, the desire to give society a new ideal fair social life. If the first tendency found its expression in the work of such thinkers as Niccolo Machiavelli(1469-1527) and Francesco Guicciardini(1483-1540), then the second was most fully manifested in utopias Thomas More(1478-1535) and Tommaso Campanella(1568-1639).

Machiavelli gained notoriety thanks to his book "Sovereign". In fact, this Italian diplomat, politician, writer, philosopher created new type political theory: he proceeded not from discussions about morality, goodness, justice, but from tragic social reality, analyzed not what should be, but what actually is. Based on historical research, he came to the conclusion that the most powerful stimulus for human activity is interest, mainly, the interest of preserving and increasing property. First property, and then conscience and honor,” he stated with bitterness and pessimism. People are selfish, for them their own shirt is always closer to their body. This is human nature.

The ineradicable egoism of human nature requires strong state power that establishes order through violence and coercion. Strength is the basis of right- this thought of Machiavelli had a great impact on both the theory and practice of public administration. (Mussolini, for example, never parted with a volume of Machiavelli and believed that he had learned a lot from this author.) The term “ Machiavellianism"as a synonym for immoral politics. Indeed, in his book, Machiavelli gives unusual advice to sovereigns: when you can make a promise and not keep it, in what case it is better to exterminate a captured people, how best to eliminate competitors (sometimes physically) on the path to power, etc. This is where the bad luck began glory. But the careful reader will see that everything is not so simple in this controversial book. The fact is that, from the point of view of the Italian thinker, the common good of the people is paramount, It is the achievement of such good that justifies any violence, deception, or lies. That is, the end justifies the means. The goal is not destruction, but creation. Machiavelli dreamed of strong nation state(and at the same time thought first of all about his beloved Italy, then fragmented and unable to resist the invaders). “You should know,” wrote Machiavelli, “that when the salvation of the homeland is weighed on the scales, it will not be outweighed by any considerations of justice or injustice, mercy or cruelty, praiseworthy or shameful; on the contrary, preference in everything should be given to the course of action that will save her life.” and preserve freedom."

Thus, Machiavelli first proposed to evaluate policies not from a moral point of view, but by their effectiveness: What is the use of moral sermons if they cannot be used to solve the problem! People are angry, selfish, and out of respect for justice they will not behave better. Therefore, for the sake of the noble goal of uniting the nation, they can be forced, intimidated with severe punishments, and deceived - a noble goal! Any policy is cruel, so let these cruelties serve a noble cause, Machiavelli reasoned. "Purposeful cruelty" - This is what this political philosopher proposed. Unfortunately, the history of mankind has given us many examples of how the use of immoral means to achieve a noble goal modifies the goal itself, transforms it. No wonder they say: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. But Machiavelli's merit was that he clearly showed: politics and morality are different things, and attempts to build politics only on the requirements of morality are illusory. Alas, he was right.

Another typical direction of social thought for the Renaissance was the construction of various utopias. And the first of them belongs to the English thinker and politician Thomas More, the founder utopian communism. He wrote a wonderful work with a long title: “A golden book, as useful as it is funny, about the best structure of the state and about the new island of Utopia.” Using the word in the title "Utopia"(from gr. and topos -“a place that does not exist”), More made it clear that he was describing an imaginary state, not a real one. Although outwardly the plot looked quite real: a certain sailor, who had not been in England for a long time, returned to his homeland and saw how everything had changed for the worse in his absence. The book contained a description of the social life of England during the era initial capital accumulation: processes of enclosure, when peasants were driven off the land and they became vagabonds; hanged along the road (according to the laws against vagrancy, the “homeless” who was caught a second time faced the gallows); corruption of officials who think about their own benefits, and not about state prosperity, etc. The first part of the book ended with More’s conclusion that all this was to blame private property.

The second part described the ideal life of some happy islanders, which the sailor met during his travels. There was no private property on the island of Utopia, everyone worked, and the products produced were distributed depending on the needs of the people. In building his utopia, More relied on the teaching and practice of early Christianity with its community of property and on Plato’s theory of the ideal state. IN communist society everyone works, for the Apostle Paul said: “He who does not work, let him not eat.” Universal free labor provides an abundance of things, which are accounted for and distributed centrally, so there are neither poor nor rich.

This order on the island arose thanks to the wise ruler Utop: by chance, having discovered an island where peace-loving savages lived, he created such an ideal society from scratch. True, More himself did not know how to implement his ideas into life, but he knew for sure that there was no need to implement them: he was against violence, uprisings, revolutions, blood, believing that nothing good would come of such mass unrest, at best case will be established egalitarian communism, but he didn’t like him at all. In his ideal society, people received according to their needs, and not equally, because people have different needs, egalitarianism would lead to injustice. (Think about why equal distribution is unfair?)

The life of Thomas More ended tragically: he made a dizzying career - he was the sheriff of London, chairman of the House of Commons of the English Parliament, took the highest government post of Lord Chancellor, but then fell out of favor with the king when he refused to swear allegiance to him as the head of the Anglican Church, being a supporter of the supreme power dads. He was accused of treason, imprisoned in the Tower Fortress, and three years later executed. But in the history of human thought he will remain forever as the author of a book that expressed the humanistic ideal of a just society.

Concluding the consideration of the philosophical quests of the Renaissance, it should be noted that two and a half centuries of Renaissance culture were a big step forward from the medieval cultural tradition and the transition to the philosophy of the New Age. They were marked by the creation of a new picture of the world, a different understanding of man and society, and the restoration of ties with the ancient past. Man again became the center of philosophical reflection, the ability to create put him on a par with God, and earthly life began to be viewed not only as a vale of sadness and suffering, but also as a time of accomplishment.

Questions and tasks

• 1. What is the chronological framework of the Renaissance? Why did this era get such a name?
• 2. What are theocentrism and anthropocentrism? Why is anthropocentrism characteristic of Renaissance philosophy?
• 3. What is humanism? What representatives of humanism do you know? Tell us about them.
• 4. What features were inherent in the philosophy of the Renaissance?
• 5. What is the Reformation? Where did it start? What ideas were put forward by the reformers?
• 6. How was the pantheism of natural philosophy of the Renaissance manifested?
• 7. How do you understand what “scientific ignorance” of Nicholas of Kuzan is?
• 8. Why did N. Machiavelli’s book “The Prince” cause mixed reviews? In what ways do you agree with Machiavelli and in what ways do you disagree?
• 9. One of the utopias of the Renaissance is the utopia of Tomaso Campanella about the City of the Sun. Find material about his teachings in books, reference guides, and the Internet, and tell us how his utopia differed from that of Thomas More. Why is Campanella’s communism often called “barracks”? In which society would you prefer to live - one created according to the recipes of More or Campanella?

From the 14th to the 17th centuries, new philosophical trends arose and developed in Europe. Gradually they united into a separate movement - the philosophy of the Renaissance. Its main ideas were taken from antiquity: apologists of the movement denied the authority of the Church and considered man as a separate person, endowed with limitless possibilities. The philosophy of the Renaissance is a unique historical stage that gave rise to the development of modern sociological sciences.

How did Renaissance philosophy begin?

The Renaissance (its second name is Renaissance) arose as a natural response to current human needs. In the Middle Ages, the authority of the Church was unshakable. Commoners were forced to pay huge taxes to support the clergy, and monarchs had no right to make any significant decisions without the approval of the Pope. The current situation did not suit either the first or the second.

Thanks to the active development of science in the 14th-15th centuries, people got the opportunity to travel, study natural phenomena, and get acquainted with other cultures. New trade ties emerged and strengthened. Society developed: the first parliaments and societies independent of church influence appeared. The level of education of the urban population has increased several times. Taken together, this led to the formation of a new society that had outgrown the forced imposition of dogmatic religion.

Basic prerequisites for the development of a new cultural era:

• political crisis - mass protests against feudalism arose in all European countries, and mainly in Italy, the cradle of Christian philosophy;
• technical breakthrough - invention and improvement of tools, the emergence of firearms, new medical equipment and treatment methods;
• strengthening of individual cities - infrastructure development turned them into independent commercial, industrial, military and cultural centers.

Faith in Christian postulates began to decline sharply. Church (scholastic) ideals were subject to increasing skepticism. Technological advances and the triumph of science over religious myths marked the beginning of a new perception of man. At the head of everything was individual personality– significant and unique. Philosophers did not deny the existence of God, but rejected the idea of ​​his unlimited influence on man.

The essence of philosophy: main ideas and features

The specificity of the new philosophical direction is the rejection of servile worship of God as the supreme Creator, and a return to the ideals of Ancient Rome. It was characterized by humanism - a movement professing the principles of personal freedom, individualism and equality. Man is a new subject of study in the 14th century, and he is also the main source of knowledge.

Fundamentals of Renaissance philosophy:

1. Anthropocentrism, created on the postulates of ancient humanism. Man is the basis of the universe. According to humanists, God endowed the first man Adam with free will, the ability to independently determine his own destiny.
2. Priority attention to the development of science. Cognition is a way of understanding the world, its structure and hidden properties. Particular attention was paid to geography, physics, mathematics and literature.
3. Natural philosophy as the only perception of the world. According to it, nature is a whole organism; not a single object can exist on its own. It is possible to understand all natural processes and phenomena only through comparison and contrast. The famous natural philosopher Paracelsus viewed nature through the prism of alchemy - an occult movement designed to control the forces of nature with the help of secret knowledge.
4. Pantheism is a religious doctrine according to which God is equal to nature and merges with it into a single whole. It was intended to unite science and the church, which rejected any attempts to question Christian dogmas. Thanks to pantheism, the progressive development of physics, chemistry, and medicine became possible.

The founders of Renaissance philosophy were not recognized philosophers of that time, but representatives of bohemians: poets, rhetoricians, teachers, scientists. The new culture arose in communes, patrician houses and street meetings. It spread quickly and was readily accepted by representatives of different segments of the population, despite the active opposition of the Church.

Periods and their key achievements

The Renaissance is divided into 3 periods. Each of these periods of philosophy has its famous followers:

1. Humanistic stage. Began in the mid-14th century and lasted until the mid-15th century. The early century of the development of Renaissance philosophy focuses on man as a creator. He deserves a happy life and should strive for it. The highest task of man is to become like God.
2. Neoplatonic stage. Lasted from the mid-15th century to the mid-16th century. Philosophers sought to unite the image of God and man in the public consciousness. Contrary to church ideas about value afterlife, they put forward the idea of ​​​​the mortality of the soul. Revolutionary calls were made to overthrow the ruling regime and establish social equality.
   Natural philosophical stage. Began towards the end of the 16th century and ended by
3. Natural philosophical stage. It began towards the end of the 16th century and ended towards the middle of the 17th century. During this period, natural sciences actively developed. For the first time, the theory of the infinity of the Universe was put forward.

By the end of the 17th century, the perception of God and the Universe as a single whole was finally formed. Attempts by the Church to prohibit the spread of new perceptions were unsuccessful. The basic ideas of Renaissance philosophy spread despite the emergence of the Inquisition, constant persecutions and executions.

Characteristics of the Renaissance

Among the common features that characterize the periods of the Renaissance, the following features can be distinguished:

1. Godlessness. Philosophers tried to find a compromise between their ideas about the world and the established views dictated by Christianity. They did not dispute the existence of God, but tried to move away from the concept of divine superiority.
2. A natural scientific way of understanding the world. The development of science is based on the principle of knowledge through experience. First, a hypothesis was put forward, then experiments were carried out, and the resulting result either confirmed or refuted the original version.
3. Rapid spread of new cultural trends. The foundations of the philosophical idea, which originated in Italy, penetrated into all European countries.
4. Charity. Based on the values ​​of humanism, a sharply negative attitude towards financial inequality gradually developed. Charity, as the idea of ​​sharing wealth equally, has found a keen response among many public figures.
5. Tolerance. Tolerance for others is a direct consequence of accepting the uniqueness of the human personality.
6. Denial of demagoguery. Any debate based on theoretical knowledge was considered a waste of time and an attempt to distract the human mind from its true purpose - the active study of the world.
7. Individualism. Self-development and satisfaction of one's personal needs, which might not meet social expectations, were encouraged.

Individual features of the Renaissance supported one general idea - only a free person can be happy.

Ideologies and their followers

The ideologies are based on ancient Greek ideas about the world and man. Among the numerous movements that emerged at the beginning of the 15th century, 4 main directions can be distinguished.

Ideologies of the Renaissance:

1. Humanism. An ethical position that presupposed a person's right to self-determination.
2. Secularism. A socio-political movement that proposed the separation of church and government.
3. Heliocentrism. According to this teaching, the Sun is the center of the world system. The earth revolves around him and is subject to his influence. Heliocentrism originated in ancient times, and during the Renaissance it was rethought and became widespread.
4. Neoplatonism. A branch of philosophy based on the teachings of Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher. It is based on the ideas of cosmic hierarchy and the ascent of the soul to the level of the primary source - God.

Followers

Among the famous philosophers of the Renaissance, there are the following:

1. N. Machiavelli. He became the first philosopher to criticize and reject the idea of ​​theocracy - the direct influence of the Church on the ruling monarchy. According to Machiavelli's ideas, the state should be based on the secular principle of governance. In his opinion, a person is greedy by nature and strives for selfish satisfaction of his desires. Only a state built on non-violent management methods, the absence of corruption and developed jurisprudence will make it possible to manage and improve the human essence.
2. D. Alighieri. Poet, author of The Divine Comedy. In his work, he describes a model of the world similar to the medieval one. According to it, the center of the universe is the Earth, and the only creator is God. But man’s main purpose was not to serve God’s will, but to achieve perfection within the framework of his earthly life. Dante believed in the greatness of man and his limitless possibilities.
3. F. Petrarch. He is called the "first humanist." Petrarch became famous as a lyric writer, author of sonnets, plays and madrigals. He also wrote philosophical treatises in which he promoted humanistic values. Refusing to study at a prestigious scholastic university, Petrarch chose self-education and became one of the most revered thinkers of his time.
4. N. Kuzansky. According to his teaching, God is a principle unattainable for man. A person is able to comprehend the secrets of nature and recognize the true essence of objects and phenomena. Reason is the thread that connects man with both God and nature. Kazansky outlined his ideas in the essays “On Scientific Ignorance” and “On Assumptions.”
5. E. Rotterdamsky. Known as the author of the teaching “Philosophy of Christ”. He argued that any person can follow the commandments of Jesus and become a Christian in the true sense of the word. He condemned the feudal system, complacency and war. In his essay “On Free Will,” he defended the human right to self-determination. His close friend and colleague T. More published the works “Utopia” with similar ideas. In it, More considered a social structure based on the principles of public ownership.
6. M. Montaigne. He explored questions of humanity. Montaigne outlined his ideas in his essay “Essays,” a monumental work that touches on many aspects of society. His views remain relevant and acceptable in the 21st century.
7. D. Bruno. He wrote several philosophical treatises in which he argued about the unity and infinity of the Universe. He is the author of the hypothesis about the continuity of space, time and matter. According to Bruno, the ultimate goal human cognition- contemplation of the deity. It is available only to enthusiasts - active, purposeful people who do not accept hypocrisy and asceticism. He adhered to the ideas of pantheism and heliocentrism. For his views he was convicted and executed as a heretic.
8. G. Galileo. A scientist based on the principles of methodology. Studied geography, physics, chemistry. In his view, philosophy and science are inextricably linked and should develop in parallel. He wrote several scientific works on which scientists of the 18th and 19th centuries relied.

The Renaissance is the heyday of scientific thought. Thanks to him, the perception of human life as the highest value, the rejection of the medieval ascetic worldview, and the desire to create an equal society arose. The achievements of modern science became possible thanks to discoveries made from the 14th to the 17th centuries, and the names of their authors are known and revered to this day.

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Ideological foundations of the Renaissance

1. Humanism

culture hedonism renaissance

The term “humanism” comes from the Latin “humanitas” (humanity), which was used back in the 1st century. BC. famous Roman orator Cicero (106-43 BC). For him, humanitas is the upbringing and education of a person, contributing to his elevation.

As a cultural movement, humanism arose in the 14th century in Italy and spread to Western Europe from the 15th century. The Renaissance, or Renaissance (from the French renaitre - to be reborn) became one of the most striking eras in the development of European culture, spanning almost three centuries from the middle of the 14th century. until the first decades of the 17th century. This was an era of major changes in the history of the peoples of Europe. In conditions of a high level of urban civilization, the process of the emergence of capitalist relations and the crisis of feudalism began, the formation of nations and the creation of large national states took place, a new form of political system appeared - the absolute monarchy, new social groups were formed - the bourgeoisie and hired workers. The spiritual world of man also changed. The Renaissance man was gripped by a thirst for self-affirmation and great achievements, actively involved in public life, rediscovered the natural world, strived for a deep understanding of it, and admired its beauty. The culture of the Renaissance is characterized by a secular perception and understanding of the world, an affirmation of the value of earthly existence, the greatness of the mind and creative abilities of man, and the dignity of the individual. Humanism became the ideological basis of Renaissance culture.

The poet and philosopher Francesca Petrarch (1304-1374) is unanimously considered the founder of humanism. Petrarch was the first great humanist, poet and citizen who was able to discern the integrity of the pre-Renaissance currents of thought and unite them in a poetic synthesis, which became the program of future European generations. With his creativity, he managed to instill in these future multi-tribal generations of Western and Eastern Europe a consciousness - albeit not always clear - of a certain spiritual and cultural unity, the beneficial effects of which are reflected in our modern age. The long-term love story of Petrarch for Laura, expressed by the poet in a wonderful cycle of canzones and sonnets, published under the title “Book of Songs,” has become world famous. This book, as well as other poetic works of Petrarch, made such a great impression on his contemporaries that during his lifetime he was recognized as one of the greatest poets and was crowned with a laurel wreath.

His work marks the beginning of many paths along which the development of Renaissance culture took place in Italy. In the treatise “On the Ignorance of His Own and Many Others,” he decisively rejects the scholastic scholarship inherent in the Middle Ages, in relation to which he demonstratively proclaims his supposed ignorance, for he considers such scholarship to be completely useless day a man of his time. However, Petrarch is not only a poet, but also a unique and interesting thinker and philosopher. It was he who was the first in Europe to formulate the ideas of humanism and began to talk about the need to revive the ancient spirit and ideals of antiquity. It is not for nothing that already at the beginning of the 15th century. wrote: “Francesca Petrarch was the first on whom grace descended, he recognized and realized and brought to light the grace of the ancient style, lost and forgotten.” Humanism brought into ethical thought recognition of the very value of the human person and earthly life. From here the ideas of happiness, justice and equality of people gradually developed. Willingly or unwittingly, the humanistic movement of the Renaissance contributed to the establishment of individual rights and, in particular, the recognition of the right to happy life. It should not be surprising that later humanism organically transformed into philanthropy, promoting gentleness in relationships, compassion, mercy, friendliness, and, over time, tolerance towards dissidents. Many philosophical movements have absorbed the features of humanism. Humanism as a phenomenon turned out to be a historically changing system of views. Originating in art, it opened the way to science, the scientific and technological revolution, and contributed to an economic boom, enlightenment, social transformations and revolutions.

2. Anthropocentrism

Anthropocentrism (Greek anthropos - man, and Lat. centrum - center) is the view that man is the center and highest goal of the universe. Anthropocentrism received its most complete development in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, influencing the cosmological, eschatological, social, ethical, legal and other concepts of these religions. For example, the theory of geocentrism, which has dominated the minds of believers for many centuries, is directly related to anthropocentrism. Under the influence of Christian doctrine, the anthropocentric view became widespread in medieval European philosophy. It was substantiated by the largest representatives of patristics and scholasticism. In the philosophy of the Renaissance and Modern times, the idea of ​​anthropocentrism in its religious version ceased to be popular, which was due to the development of natural sciences and philosophy.

The emergence of new facts and theories has overcome traditional teleology and the thesis that man occupies a unique position in space. In philosophical and theological circles, the term anthropocentrism is beginning to be used in a different meaning. It is interpreted mainly as a way of solving ideological problems, when the researcher does not go from God and the world to man, but, on the contrary, from man to the world and God. This method of solving ideological problems was developed in detail in the philosophical systems of Rene Descartes and Immanuel Kant. In the 19th century, anthropocentrism was developed in the philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach (naturalistic anthropocentrism) and Søren Kierkegaard (irrationalistic anthropocentrism).

However, the most radical “turn to man” was carried out in the philosophical teachings of the 20th century. This can be clearly seen in the philosophy of life, phenomenology, philosophical anthropology, personalism, and existentialism. The “turn to man” also occurred in Christian theology of the 20th century. Many theologians believe that in our time we can say something meaningful about God and the world only by speaking at the same time about man. Moreover, they argue that one must first answer questions about the essence of man, the reasons and nature of his aspirations, his cognitive capabilities, etc., and then begin to construct traditional metaphysics, which includes the doctrine of God. Recognizing that anthropocentrism is an effective means of solving worldview problems, Christian theologians emphasize that it should be closely connected with theocentrism. Otherwise, theology will be deprived of its religious dimension and its specificity among the disciplines that study man. The most important distinguishing feature of the Renaissance worldview is its orientation towards art: if the Middle Ages can be called a religious era, then the Renaissance can be called an artistic and aesthetic era par excellence. And if the focus of antiquity was natural-cosmic life, in the Middle Ages - God and the associated idea of ​​salvation, then in the Renaissance the focus is on man. Therefore, the philosophical thinking of this period can be characterized as anthropocentric.

Renaissance humanism and the problem of unique individuality. In medieval society, corporate and class ties between people were very strong, so even outstanding people acted, as a rule, as representatives of the corporation, the system that they headed, like the heads of the feudal state and the church. In the Renaissance, on the contrary, the individual acquires much greater independence; he increasingly represents not this or that union, but himself. From here grows a new self-awareness of a person and his new social position: pride and self-affirmation, awareness of one’s own strength and talent become the distinctive qualities of a person. In contrast to the consciousness of the medieval man, who considered himself entirely indebted to tradition - even when he, as an artist, scientist or philosopher, made a significant contribution to it - the individual of the Renaissance tends to attribute all his merits to himself.

3. Optimism

A wide range of creative impulses was opened during the period of the first heroic onslaught on the feudal world. People of this era have already abandoned the networks of the past, but have not yet found new ones. They believed that their possibilities were limitless. It was from this that the birth of optimism, which is so characteristic of the culture of the Renaissance, came about. A cheerful character and endless faith in life gave rise to a belief in the infinite possibilities for the mind and the possibility of personality development harmoniously and without barriers. The fine art of the Renaissance contrasts with the medieval in many respects. European artistic culture developed in the development of realism. This leaves an imprint both on the spread of images of a secular nature, the development of landscape and portraiture, close to the genre interpretation of sometimes religious subjects, and on the radical renewal of the entire artistic organization. Medieval art was based on the idea of ​​the hierarchical structure of the universe, the culmination of which was outside the circle of earthly existence, which occupied one of the last places in this hierarchy. There was a devaluation of earthly real connections and phenomena in time with space, since the main task of art was to visually personify the scale of values ​​​​created by theology.

Renaissance masters create images that embody a proud awareness of one's own powers, the limitlessness of human possibilities in the field of creativity and true faith in the freedom of one's will. Many works of Renaissance art are consonant with this expression of the famous Italian humanism Pico Della Mirandola: “Oh, the wondrous and sublime purpose of a person who is given the opportunity to achieve what he strives for and be what he wants.”

If the character of fine art was largely determined by the desire to reflect reality truthfully, then an appeal to the classical tradition played an important role in the formation of new architectural forms. This consisted not only in the recreation of the ancient order system and in the renunciation of Gothic configurations, but also in classical proportionality, the anthropocentric character of the new architecture and in the design of centric buildings in temple architecture, where the interior space was easily visible. In the field of civil architecture, many new creations were created. Thus, during the Renaissance, multi-story city public buildings: town halls, universities, houses of merchant guilds, educational institutions, warehouses, markets, warehouses received more elegant decoration. A type of city palace, or otherwise a palazzo, appears - the house of a wealthy burgher, as well as a type of country villa. New systems of facade decoration are being formed, a new structural system of a brick building is being developed (preserved in European construction until the 20th century), combining brick and wooden floors. City planning problems are being resolved in a new way, and city centers are being reconstructed.

The social status of the artist also changes. Despite the fact that artists are in search and enter the workshops, they often receive awards and high honors, take places in city councils and carry out diplomatic assignments. There is an evolution in man's attitude towards fine art. If earlier it was on the level of craft, now it is on a par with the sciences, and works of art for the first time begin to be considered as the result of spiritual creative activity.

The emergence of new techniques and art forms was provoked by expanding demand and an increase in the number of secular customers. Monumental forms are accompanied by easel forms: painting on canvas or wood, sculpture made of wood, majolica, bronze, terracotta. The ever-growing demand for works of art led to the emergence of wood and metal engravings - the most inexpensive and most popular form of art. This technique made it possible for the first time to reproduce images in large numbers.

4. Hedonism

Hedonism (Greek hedone - pleasure) is a type of ethical teachings and moral views in which all moral definitions are derived from pleasure and suffering. In a systematized form as a type of ethical teaching, hedonism was first developed in the teachings of the Greek Socratic philosopher Aristippus of Cyrene (435-355 BC), who taught that everything that gives pleasure is good. From the very beginning, hedonism emerges as a type of worldview that defends the priority of the individual’s needs over social institutions as conventions that limit his freedom and suppress his originality.

At the same time, hedonism could take extreme forms; Thus, already among the followers of Aristippus - the Cyrenaics - there were those who believed that any pleasure is justified, moreover, any actions and efforts are justified if they lead to pleasure. In this, the Cyrenaics differed from Socrates, who, while recognizing the importance of pleasure, interpreted it as the consciousness that something is being done well. In his polemics with the Sophists, Socrates insisted on distinguishing between pleasures - bad and good, as well as true and false.

Plato, in his mature works, hoped to show that although the good life is not good because it is full of pleasures, it is still possible to prove that the most pleasant life is also the best life. Aristotle believed that pleasure as such is not good and is not worthy of choice in itself. A moderate version of hedonism was proposed by the Greek philosopher Epicurus, who taught that only natural and necessary pleasures are worthy because they do not destroy the inner equanimity of the soul. The ethical teaching of Epicurus was called “eudaimonism” (from the Greek eudemonia - happiness). Epicurus considered the state of ataraxia to be the highest good, i.e. equanimity, “freedom from bodily suffering and mental anxieties.” However, the difference between hedonism and eudaimonism is insignificant: both teachings orient a person not towards good, but towards pleasure (personal happiness), and if towards good, then for the sake of pleasure (personal happiness). During the Renaissance, the ideas of hedonism, both extreme and moderate, received a new impetus, becoming an important theoretical means of humanistic affirmation of the value of man in all his life manifestations.

For the enlighteners (Gassendi, La Mettrie, Holbach), hedonism was a means of expressing spiritual opposition to the religious-dogmatic worldview. The most recent theoretical form of hedonism was the utilitarianism of J. Bentham and J.S. Mill (late 18th-19th centuries) Consistent criticism of utilitarianism by G. Sidgwick and J.E. Moore, along with the general development of human sciences, primarily psychology, revealed the limitations of the hedonistic description and justification of behavior in general and morality in particular.

5. Controversy

Renaissance culture, striving to resurrect antiquity and following its example in everything, was never able to achieve that clear and calm harmony that was characteristic of ancient culture and was fully revealed in classical Greece. The worldview of the man of the Renaissance, who went through the school of medieval Christianity, lost Characteristic of antiquity was a feeling of harmonious unity with the cosmos and nature. If ancient man nature acts as an object of contemplation - artistic and cognitive, then Renaissance man moves to an active position, acting as a conqueror and conqueror of nature. For a Renaissance man, the world very quickly loses its harmony. Anthropocentrism as a theoretical slogan of the Renaissance in the practical plane of social behavior often manifests itself as nothing, egocentrism and subjectivism are not limited. In place of traditional, conventional morality, which required each individual to unconditionally submit to custom and tradition, comes autonomous morality, which provides him with complete freedom in self-determination of his own actions. But the degree of autonomy to which the individual of the Renaissance strives is already beginning to contradict morality itself in any of its forms, threatening the destruction of society itself. The influence of humanists on their era found its very expression in the destruction of medieval ascetic morality.

But, as it turned out, the result of this was a general decline in morality. The downside of Renaissance titanism was the creative person’s absolutization of his exclusivity and individuality, which led to the humiliation of another individuality. In an attempt to assert itself, such competition often destroys the other’s surrounding world, denying his right to originality and independent existence. A war of all against all begins, in which there can no longer be winners. Even among the brilliant artists of the Renaissance there was a sharp struggle, competition led to open hostility between them.

6. Pantheism

The main philosophical system of the Renaissance is pantheism. Pantheism is a philosophical doctrine based on the identity of God and nature. (Literal translation: “pan” - everything, “theos” - god: “everything is God”). Pantheism thinks of God and nature as one. In pantheism, God is immanent to the world (located inside the world), and not transcendental (located outside the world), as in medieval philosophy. God is considered to be the energetic principle of the world, the world is alive, self-developing. Pantheism, to a certain extent, is similar to ancient hylozoism, but only on the basis of monotheism. At its core, pantheism is one of the Christian options for rethinking ancient Neoplatonism. The term “pantheist” was introduced by the English philosopher John Toland (1705). Scientists interpreted the new direction of philosophy in different ways. Thus, pantheism was called religious naturalism, and Schopenhauer believed that it was, first of all, one of the varieties of atheism. Despite the different interpretations of this concept, no disputes arose regarding the main idea of ​​the teaching. She invariably remained the opinion that God is a kind of abstraction that surrounds us everywhere and does not have embodiment in a single person. In other words, pantheists denied the existence of a certain Creator God, God the Father, and the existence of his personal expression.

Forms of pantheism:

Physiomonic pantheism. Its adherents believe that God himself does not exist, he is embodied in nature, the surrounding world and the Universe. Among the scientists who worked in this direction are Haeckel, Ostwald and Taine.

Theomonistic pantheism. This direction was otherwise called acosmism. His main idea was that the world, in itself, is devoid of independent existence, only the divine principle exists.

Transcendent pantheism was also called mystical pantheism or panentheism. This teaching has its roots in medieval philosophy - echoing past scientific traditions, representatives of mystical pantheism believe that every person contains a so-called divine spark, through which each of us seems to merge with God. It follows from this that Catholicism is not the only possible form of communication in the man-God regime - for this position, panentheists were called oppositionists to the church.

Immanent-transcendent pantheism. The traditions of this direction were laid by the famous Dutch philosopher B. Spinoza. He believed that material reality was endowed with some kind of divine power, that it was a logical continuation of some transcendental world. God does not exist as an independent entity, but manifests himself in all the things around us. Representatives of this ideology were also Goethe, Eiken and Schleiermacher. The main idea of ​​pantheism today is that man should not act as a conqueror of living nature and enslaver of the surrounding world. He must fit organically into the system of the universe, live and create in harmony and harmony with nature.

Return to the traditions of antiquity. The term Renaissance, which arose in the 16th century, meant the revival of classical ancient culture. The new era recognizes itself as a revival of ancient culture, an ancient way of life, a way of thinking and feeling, which is where the self-name “Renaissance” comes from, that is, “Rebirth”. In reality, however, the Renaissance man and the Renaissance culture and philosophy differ significantly from the ancient one. Although the Renaissance contrasts itself with medieval Christianity, it arose as a result of the development of medieval culture, and therefore bears features that were not characteristic of antiquity. The Middle Ages treated antiquity as an authority, the Renaissance - as an ideal. Authority is taken seriously and followed without distance; the ideal is admired, but admired aesthetically, with a constant sense of distance between it and reality. The main features of the Renaissance were: integrity and versatility in the understanding of man, life and culture.

Having revived ancient ideals, it at the same time reflected the Renaissance idea of ​​the value of the individual and the beauty of the world around him. Renaissance humanism saw the value of a person in the unity of his moral and ethical dignity, in the nobility of the spirit and the beauty of the body.

7. Formation of bourgeois ideals

The Renaissance for the most advanced countries of Europe is the era of the emergence of capitalist relations, the formation of national states and absolute monarchies, the era of the rise of the bourgeoisie in the fight against feudal reaction, the era of deep social conflicts - the Peasant War in Germany, religious wars in France and the Dutch bourgeois revolution. The philosophical thought of the Renaissance arises in the struggle of Italian townspeople for the creation and strengthening of independent city-republics; it develops during the era of the rise of absolutism, the Reformation and Catholic reaction in Europe.

From the second half of the 19th century. The Renaissance began to be associated with the emergence of bourgeois relations and bourgeois culture. In the variety of facts of economic history, cultural life, scientific activity and artistic creativity, they began to highlight everything that could indicate the bourgeois roots of the Renaissance. Indeed, the Renaissance coincides with the beginning of capitalist production and exchange. The presence of capitalist elements in the economy of the Renaissance is undeniable, but they did not have a dominant position. Renaissance culture did not develop for the sake of the power of money. The political theory of the Renaissance thinkers was not the ideology of one of the classes. She strove to protect the interests of man in general. This ideal cannot be considered exclusively bourgeois.

Still, the church still played a huge role in the formation of Renaissance culture; especially in artistic creation, architecture and music. The church remained the largest customer and richest patron of the arts. Outstanding monuments of Renaissance architecture are Catholic churches (the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence by the architect Brunelleschi, St. Peter's Cathedral by the architect Bramante in Rome), paintings are altar compositions, icons, temple frescoes ("Sistine Madonna" by Raphael, "The Secret supper" by Leonardo), sculptures are statues for temples and tombs ("Saint George" by Donatello, "Pieta" by Michelangelo). The art of the Renaissance owes much to the papal throne. The head of the church patronized humanists - thinkers, poets, artists - and gave them honorary positions at the papal court. To be a citizen of a free city, to participate in its management and decoration corresponded to the ambition of a city dweller. This proud feeling of a citizen encouraged him to stand out among others with power and knowledge. Thus, many patrons of the arts appeared, gifted with the extraordinary taste of amateurs, and the great cultural life of the era awoke, full of movement. Never has ambition been such a universal driver for a politician, a commander, a scientist, an artist. And there has never been a time when talent was so highly valued.

Thus, the Renaissance was the era of the emergence and rapid development of capitalist market relations in Europe, the emergence of science, the emergence of states and absolutist monarchies, and the rise of the bourgeoisie.

8. The value foundations of Renaissance art

The basis of the culture of the Renaissance, undoubtedly, was the principle of humanism, which affirmed the beauty and dignity of a real person, his will and reason and creative powers. The humanistic life-affirming culture of this time, unlike medieval culture, was secular in nature. Cultural values ​​were no longer created by anonymous craftsmen, because guild mastery, subjugated to a common goal, began to give way to individual creativity, in which the human personality was highly elevated in the consciousness of society. The creative individuality of artists began to attract more and more attention from those who enjoyed their art. Unlike the medieval ones, the cultural values ​​of the Renaissance were fundamentally of an authorial nature.

The concept of individual manner gradually became more and more relevant. All these characteristics of art in different countries developed in their own way and in different time periods. For a long time The starting point in the periodization of Renaissance art was the cultural history of Italy, the birthplace of the Renaissance. The cultural values ​​of the Renaissance were liberated from church systems, which greatly contributed to the development of science. Admiration for the real world and a passionate thirst for studying it led to the depiction of all aspects of reality in various fields of art. The most important role in the development of Renaissance art was played by ancient art, understood in a new way. The influence of ancient views and art had the greatest impact on the formation of the culture of that time in Italy, where a large number of ancient Roman monuments were preserved. The developing humanistic orientation, its optimism, the social and heroic nature of its images interested representatives of all walks of life.

The art of the Renaissance was formed when the consequences of the capitalist division of labor, which had a detrimental effect on the process of personal development, had not yet begun to appear; and resourcefulness, courage, strength of character and intelligence have not yet lost their importance. At this time, unique cultural values ​​were created, causing the illusion of man's endless abilities. The image of a titanic personality increasingly appeared in art. The amazing brightness of human character during the Renaissance was reflected in art. This was explained by the fact that the heroes of that time were not yet slaves to the process of division of labor, which created one-sidedness and limitations of cultural processes.

The nature of the applied art of the Renaissance, which borrowed motifs and forms of ornamentation from ancient traditions, was more associated not with church, but with secular orders. The new demands facing art had a qualitative impact on the enrichment of its genres and types. Fresco became widespread in Italian monumental painting. Starting from the fifteenth century, easel painting was also very popular, the development of which was especially influenced by Dutch artists. Along with the already known genres of mythological and religious painting, such cultural values ​​as portraiture, landscape and historical painting were filled with new meaning. The inquisitive minds of the Renaissance, who turned to the ancient heritage to find an ideal, looked for fragments of ancient statues and columns, found forgotten works of ancient authors in monastic vaults, discovered the classical world of antiquity in order to create amazing and original cultural values ​​and works of art that still amaze contemporaries today .

9. Italian Renaissance

The tendency to reinterpret antiquity during the Italian Renaissance is strong, but it is combined with cultural values ​​of many origins, in particular the Christian (Catholic) tradition. It is this combination that gives the culture of Italy in the 14th-16th centuries. Uniqueness and originality. Without losing God and Faith, the figures of the Renaissance took a new look at themselves. They have already begun to realize themselves as significant, responsible for their destiny, but have not yet ceased to be people of the Middle Ages.

These two equally significant trends in the culture of the Italian Renaissance determined the inconsistency of this culture. On the one hand, it can be boldly characterized as an era of joyful self-affirmation of a person, and on the other hand, as an era of a person’s comprehension of the whole tragedy of his existence. Collisions between ancient and Christian principles served as the reason for the deep division of man, believed the Russian philosopher N. Berdyaev. The great artists of the Renaissance, he believed, were obsessed with a breakthrough into another, transcendental world, the dream of it was given to them by Christ; they were focused on creating a different being, they felt forces in themselves similar to the forces of the creator; set themselves essentially ontological tasks. However, these tasks were obviously impossible to accomplish in earthly life (in the world of culture, according to Berdyaev). Artistic creativity, which is distinguished not by its ontological but by its psychological nature, does not solve such problems. The artists' reliance on the achievements of antiquity and their aspiration to the higher world opened by Christ do not coincide. This leads to a tragic worldview, to revivalist melancholy. Berdyaev writes: “The secret of the Renaissance is that it failed. Never before have such creative forces been sent into the world, and never before has the tragedy of creativity been so revealed.”

When characterizing the culture of the Italian Renaissance, we must not forget that humanistic education became aristocratic in nature. Its influence on broad sections of the people was felt much later. Both the ancient faded culture of Rome and the new one, which sought support for itself in the old, were alien to the broad mass of the Italian people.

Due to the transitional nature of the Italian Renaissance, its chronological framework is quite difficult to establish. This era differs from both the Middle Ages and modern times, but at the same time has much in common with these periods of history. If we are based on the identified features of the culture of the Italian Renaissance (humanism, anthropocentrism, modification of the Christian tradition, revival of antiquity), then the chronology of the Italian Renaissance is as follows: the time in which these features only appear is characterized as the Pre-Renaissance, or Ducento (2000s - 13th century .) and trecento (three hundred years, counting from the thousandth - XV century).

The time when the cultural tradition corresponding to these features can be clearly traced was called the Early Renaissance (Quattrocento - four hundred years - XV century). The time that became the flowering of the ideas and principles of Italian Renaissance culture, as well as the eve of its crisis, is usually called the High Renaissance (Cinquecento - the five hundred years, 16th century). The culture of the Italian Renaissance gave the world the poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), the painter Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337), the poet, writer, humanist Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), the architect Philippe Brunelleschi (1377-1446), the sculptor Donatello (Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi) (1386-1466), painter Masaccio (Tommaso di Giovanni di Simone Guidi (1401-1428), humanists, writers Lorenzo Balla (1407-1457), Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494), philosopher, humanist Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), painter Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), painter, scientist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), painter, sculptor, architect Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), painters Giorgione (1477-1510).

In the 17th century Rome became the center of development of a new style - Baroque. A transition is being made to the creation of entire architectural ensembles, which include not only individual buildings and squares, but also a system of streets. Thanks to this, the main entrance of the city is connected to the main architectural ensembles of Rome. Instead of a statue, an obelisk began to organize the square. Fountains decorated with sculptures are built. As development progresses, the accents change - if at the initial stage the Baroque decorates, first of all, the interior of the building, the courtyard, the palace park, then in the late Baroque period the architectural decoration is enhanced. A large area is decorated with facades, churches, villas, palazzos, parks, gardens, tombstones, fountains.

The largest architect of the century was Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680). His main creation is the grandiose colonnade on the square of the Cathedral of St. Peter's in Rome. He designed the royal staircase in the Vatican. Bernini is a magnificent sculptor, the author of numerous sculptural portraits. His style is full of expression and drama. A wonderful example is the marble Apollo and Daphne, made for Cardinal Borghese. The representative of the early Italian Baroque in painting is Guido Reni (1517-1642). The fresco “Aurora” occupies a special place in his work. Reni is the creator of numerous religious images, including the Madonna. Italy became a country where in the 16th century. the foundation was laid for the doctrine of harmony by G. Zarlino (1517-1590). In the 16th century this doctrine developed and took shape. A new genre of musical art appeared - opera, to which the composer C. Monteverdi (1567-1643) introduced drama, achieving true harmony of words and music. His operas Orpheus and The Coronation of Poppea contributed to the development of this genre. In 1637, the first public opera house, San Cassiano, opened in Venice. There is a change in the themes of operatic works - mythological plots give way to historical, dramatic and heroic ones, sometimes intertwined with a comedic and even farcical plot.

The economic stagnation experienced by Italy was reflected in literature. Poetry was dominated by an elaborate style - Marinism, named after the Neapolitan poet D. Marini (1569-1625), although the leading people of Italy defended the art of high civil purposes, for example, Tommaso Campanella (1569-1625) - author of the novel “The City of the Sun, or the Ideal Republic” . The artist and poet Salvator Rosa (1615-1673) spoke sharply against the aristocratic style. A genre of parody-burlesque poems emerged with attacks on the church and aristocracy, on fashionable Marinism and academicism. The best work This genre is recognized as “The Stolen Bucket” by Alesandro Tassoni (1565-1635).

Art during the Renaissance was the main type of spiritual activity. There were almost no people indifferent to art. Works of art most fully express both the ideal of a harmonious world and the place of man in it. All types of art are subordinated to this task to varying degrees. The main stages and genres of Renaissance literature are associated with the evolution of humanistic concepts during the Early, High and Late Renaissance. The literature of the Early Renaissance is characterized by a short story, especially a comic one, glorifying an enterprising and free from prejudices personality. The High Renaissance was marked by the flowering of the heroic poem. During the Late Renaissance, the genres of novel and drama developed, based on tragic and tragicomic conflicts between a heroic personality and an unworthy system of social life. The progressive humanistic content of Renaissance culture is clearly expressed in theatrical art, which is significantly influenced by ancient drama. He is characterized by an interest in the inner world of a person endowed with a bright individuality.

Professional music in the Renaissance was imbued with a new humanistic worldview, ceased to be a purely church art and was influenced by folk music. Various genres of secular musical art appeared - frottal and villanelle, which spread from Italy to all European countries. New genres of instrumental music are emerging, national schools performance on the organ, lute. The Renaissance ends with the emergence of new musical genres - solo songs, opera, oratorios. The ideals of the Renaissance were most fully expressed by architecture, sculpture, and painting, and painting during this period came to the fore, pushing aside architecture. This is explained by the fact that painting had more opportunities to display the real world, its beauty, richness and diversity.

A characteristic feature of Renaissance culture is the close connection between science and art. Artists, trying to most fully reflect all natural forms, turn to scientific knowledge. Produced new system artistic vision of the world. Renaissance artists developed the principles of linear perspective. This discovery helped to expand the range of depicted phenomena, to include landscape and architecture in the pictorial space, turning the picture into a kind of window into the world. The combination of scientist and artist in one creative personality was possible only in the Renaissance.

10. Northern revival

The northern Renaissance (Germany, the Netherlands, France) had a unique character. The Northern Renaissance lags behind the Italian by a whole century and begins when Italy enters the highest stage of its development. In the art of the northern Renaissance there is more of a medieval worldview, religious feeling, symbolism; it is more conventional in form, more archaic, and less familiar with antiquity.

The philosophical basis of the northern Renaissance was pantheism. Without directly denying the existence of God, this teaching dissolves him in nature, endowing it with divine attributes, such as eternity, infinity, and limitlessness. Pantheists believed that in every particle of the world there is a particle of God, and concluded that any manifestation of nature is worthy of depiction. Such ideas led to the emergence of landscape as an independent genre in the artistic culture of the Northern Renaissance. Such ideas lead to the emergence of landscape as an independent genre. German artists - masters of landscape A. Dürer, A. Altdorfer, L. Cranach depicted the majesty, power, beauty of nature, conveying its spirituality.

The second genre that was developed in the art of the Northern Renaissance is portraiture. An independent portrait, not associated with a religious cult, arose in Germany in the last third of the 15th century. Durer's era (1490-1530) was the time of his remarkable heyday. It should be noted that German portraiture differed from Italian Renaissance portraiture. Italian artists, in their admiration for man, created the ideal of beauty. German artists were indifferent to beauty; for them the main thing was to convey character, to achieve emotional expressiveness of the image, sometimes at the expense of the ideal, at the expense of beauty. Perhaps this reveals echoes of the “aesthetics of the ugly” typical of the Middle Ages, where spiritual beauty could be hidden in an ugly appearance. In the Italian Renaissance, the aesthetic side came to the fore, in the northern - the ethical. The greatest masters of portrait painting in Germany are A. Durer, G. Holbein Jr., in the Netherlands - Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, in France - J. Fouquet, J. Clouet, F. Clouet. The third genre, which arose and developed primarily in the Netherlands, is the everyday painting. The greatest master of genre painting is Pieter Bruegel the Elder. He painted authentic scenes from peasant life, and even placed biblical stories in the rural setting of the Netherlands at that time. Dutch artists were distinguished by their extraordinary virtuosity of writing, where every smallest detail was depicted with extreme care. Such a picture is very fascinating for the viewer: the more you look at it, the more interesting things you find there.

Giving a comparative description of the Italian and Northern Renaissance, one more significant difference between them should be highlighted. The Italian Renaissance is characterized by a desire to restore ancient culture, a desire for emancipation, liberation from church dogma, and secular education. In the Northern Renaissance, the main place was occupied by issues of religious improvement, renewal of the Catholic Church and its teachings. Northern humanism led to the Reformation and Protestantism.

Albrecht Durer. Durer’s role in the history of world art is so great that art historians rightfully call the end of the 15th and first half of the 16th centuries “the era of Durer.” In the art of the Northern Alps and Germany, which still had a medieval character, Dürer managed to instill innovative forms of the Italian Renaissance, which allows us to talk about Dürer's Renaissance. Dürer is considered the most accomplished master of wood and copper engraving. He achieved the unity of space and physical volume of the characters, almost photographic precision. "One Hundred Great Artists." D.K. Samin. Dürer expressed humanistic inclinations in some of his works (for example, “Knight, Death, and the Devil”, “St. Jerome in his Cell”, “Melencolia I”). A theoretician, Dürer wrote a treatise on human proportions, a work on practical geometry, and a treatise on the construction of fortifications. In 1502, Dürer traveled to the Netherlands, where he was recognized as a master. Thus, Dürer became the first German artist to be recognized outside his homeland. In the second decade of the 16th century, Dürer concentrated on translating light and tonal effects into graphics. http://all-biography.ru/alpha/d/dyurer-albrext-durer-albrecht.

Albrecht Altdorfer. A special movement of the German Renaissance, distinguished by a pronounced national identity, is formed by the work of the masters of the Danube school, the head of which was Albrecht Altdorfer. Albrecht Altdorfer German artist, born ca. 1480 in Regensburg in Bavaria and worked there from 1505 until the end of his life. Altdorfer is the most outstanding representative of the so-called Danube school, whose masters are characterized by an unconventional interpretation of Christian and other subjects, placed in a luxurious landscape environment. Altdorfer mainly painted small-scale paintings, which have a touch of fairytale; however, he was also capable of creating works of a monumental style, for example, an altar image for the monastery of St. Floriana in Austria. One of Altdorfer's most outstanding works is the painting The Battle of Alexander. Among his small paintings are the first purely landscape compositions in the history of German art. Altdorfer worked extensively in woodcut and other types of engraving; It is possible that he was the first to make etchings printed from copper rather than iron boards.

Lucas Cranach. The work of Lucas Cranach the Elder is an integral part of the culture of the Northern Renaissance. The range of his subjects is very wide: crucifixions, many triptychs on gospel themes, Madonna and Child, ancient subjects, portraits. The tastes of the Saxon court, with which the artist was associated almost all his life, left a certain imprint on Cranach’s art. Gothic motifs are especially clear in his paintings. Many details and some mannerisms were neutralized by the amazing beauty of color. His Madonnas and other biblical heroines are obvious city dwellers, contemporaries of the artist. They are too fragile, but they look luxurious fashionable dresses, wonderful hairstyles. However, it best works, written at the beginning of the 16th century, remain an example of Renaissance artistic culture. Among them is the famous “Crucifixion”.

Hieronymus Bosch. The work of Hieronymus Bosch is perceived by modern viewers as very complex and mysterious, since he constantly resorted to allegories. His paintings on the themes of hell, heaven, Last Judgment, the temptations of the saints, the artist populated with legions of fantastic creatures, which in the most incredible way combine parts of different animals, plants, objects, and sometimes humans. Modern scientists have come to the conclusion that Bosch’s work contains a much deeper meaning, and have made many attempts to explain its meaning, find its origins, and give it an interpretation. Some consider Bosch to be something like a 15th-century surrealist, who extracted his unprecedented images from the depths of the subconscious, and when they mention his name, they invariably remember Salvador Dalim. Others believe that Bosch's art reflects medieval "esoteric disciplines" - alchemy, astrology, black magic. Still others try to connect the artist with various religious heresies that existed in that era.

His technique is called alla prima. This is an oil painting method in which the first strokes create the final texture. Based on the results of modern studies of Bosch’s work, art historians attribute 25 paintings and 8 drawings to the surviving heritage of Hieronymus Bosch. The paintings are triptychs, fragments of triptychs and separate, independent paintings. Only 7 of Bosch's works are signed. History has not preserved the original names of the paintings that Bosch gave to his creations

11. Socio-political teachings of the Renaissance

The Renaissance and Reformation as anti-feudal, early bourgeois movements that undermined the foundations of the old medieval world. Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church. Formation of humanistic culture, art, worldview. The influence of the spiritual heritage of Antiquity. Affirmation of the self-worth of the individual. Using “Holy Scripture” to justify new demands and values. The relationship between secular and spiritual power and the idea of ​​popular sovereignty among French jurists and W. Ockham. Dante's doctrine of the universal "secular monarchy": the division of spiritual and secular power, the ideas of universal peace and humanity. Marsilius of Padua: the state as a perfect community; the legislative people and the principle of the supremacy of natural law. John Wycliffe and Jan Hus: man is the rightful “holder of his own”; the principle of the reliability of internal evidence of faith and the denial of the authority of the clergy and its special status. N. Cusansky and L. Valla: criticism of the validity of the “Donation of Constantine” as the fundamental theories of papal power. Leading thinkers of this period: N. Machiavelli, Martin Luther, Thomas More, Tommaso Campanella, Jean Bodin, T. Gobbe, G. Grotius, J. Locke, B. Spinoza.

Features and characteristics of this period:

liberation of political thought from theology;

analysis of the problem of human rights and freedoms;

analysis of law and state, democratic structure of public life.

The socio-political teachings of the Renaissance are represented primarily by major philosophers such as Thomas More and Tommaso Campanella. The foundations of their views are the ideas of utopian socialism:

1) they sharply criticized the emerging capitalist society with its spirit of profit and the sacredness of private property;

2) they considered the liquidation of private property to be the first necessity for the formation of a future communist society;

3) they imagined communist society as a society of universal equality and justice, in which there would be no exploitation of man by man, market relations, or monetary circulation. Work will be obligatory for everyone, and needs will be satisfied according to the principle “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”;

4) society, in their opinion, should take care of the upbringing and training of future citizens, providing them with all the means for comprehensive harmonious development. At the same time, the regulation of family and marriage relations was assigned to society;

5) utopian socialists called on people to fight for a better structure of society, which should be based on public property, be classless, in which equality and justice would be established.

The ideas of the utopian socialists later had a great influence on the formation of Marxist philosophy.

Political doctrines of the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages are characterized by the following political processes:

the creation of fairly large but poorly integrated monarchies;

their disintegration into fragmented political entities;

the rise of class-representative monarchies.

Features of political doctrines of this stage:

the undivided dominance of the Catholic Church in spiritual life;

political science has become a branch of theology, the dogmas of religion take the form of laws;

socio-political thought is developed through the efforts of religious figures;

substantiation of the theological theory of political power.

Political teachings of the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Characteristic features of political thought of this era:

liberation of political science from theology;

development of humanistic principles in political theory;

analysis of human problems and freedoms, law and state, democratic structure of public life.

12. The increasing role of the individual in the social life of medieval Europe

The center of change in the Renaissance is man. His image and his position in life change. It became important to find yourself, to find your individuality. There was a great desire to realize oneself in life and to work. It began to be considered valuable not just to exist, not just to live and act according to certain traditions, life attitudes, but it became fundamentally important to be different from everyone else, so to speak, then to find oneself. Gurevich P.S. Cultural science: Textbook / P.S. Gurevich. - M., 1996 [electronic. resource http://www.philosophy.ru/iphras/library/gurevich.html]. The Renaissance is a time of turning to the problems of human existence, albeit at the cost of abandoning universal ontological problems, which are closely related to theological ones. During the Renaissance, the focus on oneself and one’s inner world was especially pronounced, characteristic of Renaissance individualism: the path to a new ontology, to a new worldview went through a new kind of anthropocentrism. A kind of anthropocentrism was also characteristic of medieval consciousness. The path was being paved for a new, secularized anthropology, attention was drawn to the inner world of the human personality and through this to a new interpretation of human dignity, man's place in the Universe. Turning to oneself, to one’s inner aspirations is the main content of all the diverse creativity of Francesco Petrarch, his poems, philosophical treatises, letters. One of the brightest works of this period is “The Divine Comedy,” which reflects on the place of the individual in the world and the sinfulness of man.

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Ficino's position has corresponding analogues in Pico della Mirandola. One of the main directions of Pico's work was the development of the doctrine of human dignity. The doctrine of this grandiose “manifesto” is presented in the form of wisdom acquired in the East, in particular, as the teaching of Asclepius Hermes Trismegistus: “The great miracle is man.” But why is man such a great miracle? Pico's famous explanation is as follows. All creations are ontologically determined by their essence by what they are and not otherwise. Man, on the contrary, is the only one of creations who is placed on the border of two worlds, whose properties are not predetermined, but are given in such a way that he himself sculpts his image according to a pre-selected form. And thus a person can rise through pure reason and become an angel, and can rise even higher. The greatness of man, then, will lie in the art of being the creator of himself. While animals cannot be anything other than animals, angels cannot be angels, in man there is the seed of all life. Depending on these seeds that germinate, man will become either a thinking animal or an angel; and, if he is not satisfied with all this, then in his depths he will then reveal “the only spirit created in the image and likeness of God, the one that was placed above all things, and remains above all things” 1. In this doctrine, man is placed at the center of the world and is not constrained by any limits in determining his image.

So, we see that despite the particular differences in the above theories, they, as well as all other Neoplatonist speculations, have one important common point: man appears as the border or unity of two worlds - the spiritual (divine) and the material (physical) . At the same time, man becomes not just a likeness of his Creator as in the Middle Ages - now he is the Creator himself, unlike not only animals, but also angels. Let us now consider a slightly different theoretical movement in order to get a more complete picture of the definition of man by Renaissance humanism.

The Renaissance brought back to life, among other things, the teachings of Aristotle. Of great importance is the controversy that erupted regarding the superiority of Plato over Aristotle. The most famous Aristotelian is Pietro Pomponazzi. His work “On the Immortality of the Soul” discussed a problem that for the 16th century. became central. Compared with the sensual soul of animals, the intellectual soul of man is capable of cognizing the universal and supersensible. However, it is not separated from sensory images through which it reaches knowledge. But if so, the soul cannot do without the body, it belongs to the body, and cannot carry out its own functions without it. Therefore, it is considered a form that is born and dies along with the body, without having any ability to act separately from it. Pomponazzi did not want to deny the immortality of the soul at all, he only wanted to refute the thesis that this “truth can be demonstrated with the help of reason.” That the soul is immortal is an assumption of faith, which, as such, must be established by the means of faith, while other arguments are not suitable. Expressing his point of view, he relied on the theory of “double truth,” which distinguished between truth accessible to reason and truth accessible only to faith.

However, despite this crushing destruction of the metaphysical image of man, Pomponazzi again turns to the idea of ​​man as a “microcosm” and to some ideas of Pico’s “manifesto”. The soul is in first place in the hierarchy of material beings, and therefore borders on immaterial entities, uniting both. It is material in comparison with immaterial beings and immaterial in comparison with material beings. She is involved in both the rational and the material. When she acts in harmony with spiritual beings, she is divine; when he acts like an animal, he turns into one.

So, we again see that a person appears as a unity of the material and immaterial, he unites them in himself. Let us also note others, not so large, but still important for compiling the overall picture of humanism, movement and theory.

In the era of humanism, Greek and Eastern teachings come back to life, turning to magic and theurgy, which were widespread in some written sources, which were attributed to ancient gods and prophets. They had consequences of significance and were reflected in the views of Neoplatonist philosophers.

In the 16th century, Epicureanism, Stoicism and skepticism began to re-gain positions.

So, before giving the final definition of man from the point of view of the humanists of the Renaissance, I want to note the problematic of the myth of humanism. Having examined in general terms the direction of the theory of humanists, it becomes obvious that these scientists did not contribute many original elements to it. This is where I see the problem of the myth of humanism - despite the fact that humanism, if we take its theoretical aspect, in principle was only a processing of the ideas of previous eras, it was declared as a fundamentally new philosophical direction. It was during the Renaissance, as we remember from the first chapter, that humanism was born, although it was a collection of more or less interconnected ideas from previous movements. However, this fact does not in any way diminish the significance of such a phenomenon as humanism. And all because, in addition to the theoretical aspect, there is also a practical one, thanks to which humanism becomes not just a reworking of the speculations of philosophers of past eras, but an ideology, the embodiment of the synthesis of these ideas in such spheres of life as politics, education, and art. This will be discussed in the next chapter of my coursework, but now I should summarize and finally define the concept of man in the philosophy of the Renaissance.

So, all of the above traditions were linked into one phenomenon, the definition of which was the philosophy of Humanism. They all sought to find the essence of man. But it is clear that we are not talking about any coherent philosophical system here; the philosophy of Humanism is not an integral phenomenon, but a collection of heterogeneous fragments of ideas from antiquity, moreover, aimed at the practical aspect of Humanism.

As a result, for the philosophers of humanism, man became a kind of interweaving of the physical and divine principles. The qualities of a god now belonged to a pitiful mortal, who in the Middle Ages was only a likeness of his creator. Now man has become the crown of nature, all attention was paid to him. A beautiful body in the spirit of Greek ideals combined with a divine soul was the goal that humanists sought to achieve. Through their actions, humanists tried to introduce the ideal of man. Therefore, theory alone is not enough to denote humanism. It is necessary to explain the practical side of the problem.

3. The practical aspect of humanism

So, now I would like to consider how the speculations of the Renaissance humanists were put into practice by them. This will help to create a more or less complete picture of the semantic essence of humanism and answer the question of what it is - disparate, revised theories, held together only by the framework of the era, or something more?

By the middle of the 15th century. humanism grows into a powerful cultural movement in Florence, Venice, Rome, Milan, Naples, Bologna, Mantua, Ferrara and a number of other cities. Humanists act as politicians, secretaries in the service of republics or at the courts of rulers, and university teachers. A new social stratum is emerging - the humanistic intelligentsia. A cultural environment is being formed around humanists, uniting representatives of various social circles and professions. Humanistic circles (often called academies in the ancient tradition), where ancient authors and their own works were read in an atmosphere of free discussion, became an important form of intellectual communication. In the lively polemics of humanists of different directions, the ideological principles of the movement crystallized.

The stage of early humanism ended by the beginning of the 15th century. Its main result was the emergence of Renaissance literature and the reorientation of knowledge and education towards the problems of human existence on earth, the rehabilitation of the ancient heritage, especially poetry and philosophical thought. The next stage in the history of Italian humanism covers the first four decades of the 15th century. The new generation of humanists actively implemented the program of their predecessors. The search and study of ancient manuscripts gave impetus to the rapid development of humanistic philology, the perfect mastery of the language of classical Latin, and the mastery of the Greek language with the help of Byzantine scholars who taught in Florence and other centers of Italy. Rhetoric in the style of Cicero and Quintilian and pedagogy developed, treatises on new principles of education and upbringing appeared, and private humanistic schools arose. Particular attention was paid to history. Ethics experienced a real rise, which traditionally included socio-political ideas. The development of ethical problems had an energetic impact on the formation of humanistic ideology in general, as well as on the fine arts of the Renaissance.

So, we can highlight several areas of practical activity of humanists:

1. Upbringing and education
2. Government activities
3. Art, creative activity

Let us now consider each in order.

1. As we see, humanists spent a lot of effort and creative energy on the upbringing and education of society. By organizing scientific circles, academies, organizing debates, giving lectures, making reports, humanists sought to introduce many scientists, poets, writers, artists, fellow citizens, and their contemporaries to the spiritual wealth created by generations of many scientists, poets, writers, artists, fellow citizens; They pinned hopes on strengthening humanistic ideas in the public consciousness. Representatives of the new spiritual community, who were united by a thirst for knowledge, a love of literature, and the study of studia humanitatis, taught at universities in Italy, became educators, mentors for the children of city rulers, and created schools (including free ones for the poor). It is important that in these and similar schools attention was paid not only to the process of learning, transfer of knowledge and skills, but also to the process of education, understood as a targeted impact on the spiritual and physical development of a person. The goal of the teachers' pedagogical activity was to educate a person who would embody humanistic ideals.

Humanitarian disciplines - studia humanitatis - were called upon, according to humanists, to form a new person, for the “free sciences” have great educational power, improve and beautify a person; studia humanitatis awaken the possibilities inherent in nature in the individual.

The spiritual emancipation of the individual, proclaimed by the first humanists, was closely linked by them with the task of building a new culture, mastering the ancient heritage, and developing a complex of humanitarian knowledge focused on the upbringing and education of a person free from a narrow dogmatic worldview. The humanist and political figure of Florence, Coluccio Salutati (1375-1406), devoted his scientific work to the theoretical justification of these tasks. He proceeded from the conviction that the path to true knowledge was opened not by scholastic philosophy, but by ancient wisdom contained in poetry, mythology, philosophy, but also in early Christian teaching. Poetry and theology have equal rights in understanding the foundations of the universe and the meaning of human existence, he believed, and Greek myths are quite comparable to the Bible. Thus, the ancient spiritual tradition was also included in the cultural and historical experience of mankind, and the idea of ​​​​the exclusivity of the Christian religion was called into question. Salutati put forward a new, humanistic understanding of humanitas (humanity), gave a detailed interpretation of this Ciceronian term, symbolizing an entire cultural program designed to exalt man. Thus, the traditional sacred limitations of scholastic knowledge were rejected and the boundaries of culture itself were widely expanded. Denying the leading role of dialectics as a method of cognition, the humanist emphasized the practical importance of humanitarian knowledge filled with new content: grammar, which should become the science of the way of expressing thought, rhetoric, as a conductor of wisdom drawn from philosophy, history - the keeper of the social experience of mankind - and ethics, which is the main instrument for improving the individual and society. Salutati made a significant contribution to the development of humanistic ethics; his essays “On Fate, Fate and Chance”, “On Life in the World and Monasticism”, “On the Labors of Hercules” and many letters are devoted to moral problems. Considering, in accordance with the Christian tradition, the earthly vale to be the kingdom of the devil, he at the same time called for an active struggle against evil, and saw the main purpose of man in building the kingdom of goodness and justice on earth through his own efforts. Salutati's ethics were far from ascetic morality, from the monastic ideal of hermitage and escape from the world. The main value here was secular, civil life. Therefore, Salutati emphasized the importance of history, which reveals all the richness of the past experience of mankind.

2. Let us now consider the political orientation of the humanists. Let's take, for example, representatives of the so-called civic humanism - Leonardo Bruni and Matteo Palmieri, who affirmed the ideal of active civil life and the principles of republicanism. In “In Praise of the City of Florence,” “History of the Florentine People,” and other works, Leonardo Bruni (1370/74-1444) presents the republic on the Arno as an example of Polish democracy, although he notes aristocratic tendencies in its development 1 . He is convinced that only in conditions of freedom, equality and justice is it possible to realize the ideal of humanistic ethics - the formation of a perfect citizen who serves his native commune, is proud of it and finds happiness in economic success, family prosperity and personal valor. Freedom, equality and justice here meant freedom from tyranny, equality of all citizens before the law and respect for the rule of law in all spheres of public life. Bruni attached particular importance to moral upbringing and education, and saw in moral philosophy and pedagogy the practical “science of life” necessary for everyone to achieve earthly happiness. Leonardo Bruni - a humanist and political figure, who for many years was the chancellor of the Florentine Republic, an excellent expert in Latin and Greek, who made a new translation of Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics” and “Politics”, a brilliant historian who for the first time turned to a serious study of documents about the medieval past of Florence, - Bruni, highly revered by his fellow citizens, did an extraordinary amount for the development of Renaissance culture in the first decades of the 15th century. Under the influence of his ideas, civil humanism was formed, the main center of which throughout the 15th century. Florence remained.

In the works of Bruni’s younger contemporary, Matteo Palmieri (1400-1475), especially in the dialogue “Civil Life,” the ideological principles of this direction found a detailed presentation and further development. Palmieri's moral philosophy is based on the concept of “natural sociality” of a person, hence the ethical maxim of subordinating personal interests to collective ones, “serving the common good” 1. Palmieri's humanistic ethics were closely linked with his socio-political ideas.

3. Let's now consider art.

Humanism had a huge influence on the entire culture of the Renaissance, becoming its ideological core. The humanistic ideal of a harmonious, creative, heroic person was particularly fully reflected in the Renaissance art of the 15th century, which in turn enriched this ideal with artistic means. Painting, sculpture, architecture, which entered already in the first decades of the 15th century. on the path of radical transformation, innovation, creative discoveries, developed in a secular direction. In the architecture of this time, a new type of building was formed - a city dwelling (palazzo), a country residence (villa), and various types of public buildings were improved. The functionality of the new architecture is harmoniously connected with its aesthetic principles. The use of the order system established on an ancient basis emphasized the majesty of the buildings and at the same time their proportionality to the person. Unlike medieval architecture, the external appearance of the buildings was organically combined with the interior. The severity and solemn simplicity of the facades are combined with spacious, richly decorated interior spaces. Renaissance architecture, creating a human habitat, did not suppress, but elevated him, strengthening his self-confidence. Sculpture moves from the Gothic to the Renaissance style by Ghiberti, Donatello, Jacopo della Quercia, the Rossellino brothers, Benedetto da Maiano, the Della Robbia family, and Verrocchio. The art of relief reaches a high level, marked by harmonious proportions, plasticity of figures, and secular interpretation of religious subjects. An important achievement of Renaissance sculpture of the 15th century. there was a separation from the architecture, the removal of a free-standing statue into the square (monuments to the condottieri in Padua and Venice). The art of sculptural portraiture is developing rapidly.

Short description

What is humanism? A movement, a historically established set of ideas, a myth, or just a special type of philology? I will try to answer this question based on an analysis of treatises, dialogues, speeches, letters of humanists of the second half of the 14th-16th centuries: Petrarch, Pico della Mirandola and others, as well as on an analysis of critical literature on this issue. Although the writings of humanists use different approaches to solving certain issues, methods of argumentation, and adherence to various philosophical traditions of antiquity and the early Middle Ages, in general, humanists are united by their attention to the topic of man.

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Formation of humanism

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Theoretical aspect of humanism

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The practical aspect of humanism

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Conclusion

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List of used literature

Renaissance, or Renaissance (from the French renaître - to be reborn), is one of the most striking eras in the development of European culture, spanning almost three centuries: from the middle of the 14th century. until the first decades of the 17th century. This was an era of major changes in the history of the peoples of Europe. In conditions of a high level of urban civilization, the process of the emergence of capitalist relations and the crisis of feudalism began, the formation of nations and the creation of large national states took place, a new form of political system appeared - an absolute monarchy (see State), new social groups were formed - the bourgeoisie and hired workers. The spiritual world of man also changed. Great geographical discoveries expanded the horizons of contemporaries. This was facilitated by the great invention of Johannes Gutenberg - printing. In this complex, transitional era, a new type of culture emerged that placed man and the surrounding world at the center of its interests. The new, Renaissance culture was widely based on the heritage of antiquity, interpreted differently than in the Middle Ages, and in many ways rediscovered (hence the concept of “Renaissance”), but it also drew from the best achievements of medieval culture, especially secular - knightly, urban , folk The Renaissance man was gripped by a thirst for self-affirmation and great achievements, actively involved in public life, rediscovered the natural world, strived for a deep understanding of it, and admired its beauty. The culture of the Renaissance is characterized by a secular perception and understanding of the world, an affirmation of the value of earthly existence, the greatness of the mind and creative abilities of man, and the dignity of the individual. Humanism (from the Latin humanus - human) became the ideological basis of the culture of the Renaissance.

Giovanni Boccaccio is one of the first representatives of humanistic literature of the Renaissance.

Palazzo Pitti. Florence. 1440-1570

Masaccio. Tax collection. Scene from the life of St. Petra Fresco of the Brancacci Chapel. Florence. 1426-1427

Michelangelo Buonarroti. Moses. 1513-1516

Rafael Santi. Sistine Madonna. 1515-1519 Canvas, oil. Art Gallery. Dresden.

Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna Litta. Late 1470s - early 1490s Wood, oil. State Hermitage Museum. Saint Petersburg.

Leonardo da Vinci. Self-portrait. OK. 1510-1513

Albrecht Durer. Self-portrait. 1498

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Hunters in the snow. 1565 Wood, oil. Museum of Art History. Vein.

Humanists opposed the dictatorship of the Catholic Church in the spiritual life of society. They criticized the method of scholastic science, based on formal logic (dialectics), rejected its dogmatism and faith in authorities, thereby clearing the way for the free development of scientific thought. Humanists called for the study of ancient culture, which the church rejected as pagan, accepting from it only that which did not contradict Christian doctrine. However, the restoration of the ancient heritage (humanists searched for manuscripts of ancient authors, cleared texts of later layers and copyist errors) was not an end in itself for them, but served as the basis for solving pressing problems of our time, for building a new culture. The range of humanitarian knowledge within which the humanistic worldview was formed included ethics, history, pedagogy, poetics, and rhetoric. Humanists made valuable contributions to the development of all these sciences. Their search for a new scientific method, criticism of scholasticism, translations of scientific works of ancient authors contributed to the rise of natural philosophy and natural science in the 16th - early 17th centuries.

The formation of Renaissance culture in different countries was not simultaneous and proceeded at different rates in different areas of culture itself. It first developed in Italy, with its numerous cities that had reached a high level of civilization and political independence, with ancient traditions that were stronger than in other European countries. Already in the 2nd half of the 14th century. In Italy, significant changes took place in literature and humanities - philology, ethics, rhetoric, historiography, pedagogy. Then fine arts and architecture became the arena for the rapid development of the Renaissance; later the new culture embraced the sphere of philosophy, natural science, music, and theater. For more than a century, Italy remained the only country of Renaissance culture; by the end of the 15th century. The revival began to gain strength relatively quickly in Germany, the Netherlands, and France in the 16th century. - in England, Spain, Central European countries. Second half of the 16th century. became a time not only of high achievements of the European Renaissance, but also of manifestations of the crisis of a new culture caused by the counter-offensive of reactionary forces and the internal contradictions of the development of the Renaissance itself.

The origin of Renaissance literature in the 2nd half of the 14th century. associated with the names of Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio. They affirmed humanistic ideas of personal dignity, linking it not with birth, but with the valiant deeds of a person, his freedom and the right to enjoy the joys of earthly life. Petrarch’s “Book of Songs” reflected the subtlest shades of his love for Laura. In the dialogue “My Secret” and a number of treatises, he developed ideas about the need to change the structure of knowledge - to put human problems at the center, criticized the scholastics for their formal-logical method of knowledge, called for the study of ancient authors (Petrarch especially appreciated Cicero, Virgil, Seneca), highly raised the importance of poetry in man’s knowledge of the meaning of his earthly existence. These thoughts were shared by his friend Boccaccio, the author of the book of short stories “The Decameron”, and a number of poetic and scientific works. The Decameron traces the influence of folk-urban literature of the Middle Ages. Here, humanistic ideas were expressed in artistic form - the denial of ascetic morality, the justification of a person’s right to the full expression of his feelings, all natural needs, the idea of ​​nobility as the product of valiant deeds and high morality, and not the nobility of the family. The theme of nobility, the solution of which reflected the anti-class ideas of the advanced part of the burghers and people, will become characteristic of many humanists. The humanists of the 15th century made a great contribution to the further development of literature in Italian and Latin. - writers and philologists, historians, philosophers, poets, statesmen and speakers.

In Italian humanism there were directions that had different approaches to solving ethical problems, and above all to the question of man’s path to happiness. Thus, in civil humanism - the direction that developed in Florence in the first half of the 15th century. (its most prominent representatives are Leonardo Bruni and Matteo Palmieri) - ethics was based on the principle of serving the common good. Humanists asserted the need to educate a citizen, a patriot who puts the interests of society and the state above personal ones. They affirmed the moral ideal of active civil life as opposed to the church ideal of monastic hermitage. They attached particular value to such virtues as justice, generosity, prudence, courage, politeness, and modesty. A person can discover and develop these virtues only in active social interaction, and not in flight from worldly life. Best form government structure Humanists of this school considered a republic where, in conditions of freedom, all human abilities could most fully manifest themselves.

Another direction in humanism of the 15th century. represented the work of the writer, architect, and art theorist Leon Battista Alberti. Alberti believed that the law of harmony reigns in the world, and man is subject to it. He must strive for knowledge, to comprehend the world around him and himself. People must build earthly life on reasonable grounds, on the basis of acquired knowledge, turning it to their own benefit, striving for harmony of feelings and reason, the individual and society, man and nature. Knowledge and work obligatory for all members of society - this, according to Alberti, is the path to a happy life.

Lorenzo Valla put forward a different ethical theory. He identified happiness with pleasure: a person should receive pleasure from all the joys of earthly existence. Asceticism is contrary to human nature itself; feelings and reason are equal in rights; their harmony should be achieved. From these positions, Valla made a decisive criticism of monasticism in the dialogue “On the Monastic Vow.”

At the end of the 15th - end of the 16th century. The direction associated with the activities of the Platonic Academy in Florence became widespread. The leading humanist philosophers of this movement, Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, exalted the human mind in their works based on the philosophy of Plato and the Neoplatonists. The glorification of personality became characteristic of them. Ficino considered man the center of the world, the connecting link (this connection is realized in knowledge) of a beautifully organized cosmos. Pico saw in man the only creature in the world endowed with the ability to shape himself, relying on knowledge - on ethics and the sciences of nature. In his “Speech on the Dignity of Man,” Pico defended the right to free thought and believed that philosophy, devoid of any dogmatism, should become the lot of everyone, and not a select few. Italian Neoplatonists approached the solution of a number of theological problems from new, humanistic positions. The invasion of humanism into the sphere of theology is one of the important features of the European Renaissance of the 16th century.

The 16th century was marked by a new rise of Renaissance literature in Italy: Ludovico Ariosto became famous for the poem “The Furious Roland”, where reality and fantasy are intertwined, glorification of earthly joys and sometimes sad and sometimes ironic understanding of Italian life; Baldassare Castiglione created a book about the ideal man of his era (“The Courtier”). This is the time of creativity of the outstanding poet Pietro Bembo and the author of satirical pamphlets Pietro Aretino; at the end of the 16th century Torquato Tasso’s grandiose heroic poem “Jerusalem Liberated” was written, which reflected not only the gains of secular Renaissance culture, but also the emerging crisis of the humanistic worldview, associated with the strengthening of religiosity in the conditions of the Counter-Reformation, with the loss of faith in the omnipotence of the individual.

The art of the Italian Renaissance achieved brilliant successes, which began with Masaccio in painting, Donatello in sculpture, Brunelleschi in architecture, who worked in Florence in the 1st half of the 15th century. Their work is marked by brilliant talent, a new understanding of man, his place in nature and society. In the 2nd half of the 15th century. in Italian painting, along with the Florentine school, a number of others emerged - Umbrian, Northern Italian, Venetian. Each of them had its own characteristics; they were also characteristic of the work of the greatest masters - Piero della Francesca, Adrea Mantegna, Sandro Botticelli and others. All of them in different ways revealed the specifics of Renaissance art: the desire for life-like images based on the principle of “imitation of nature”, a wide appeal to the motifs of ancient mythology and secular interpretation of traditional religious subjects, interest in linear and aerial perspective, in the plastic expressiveness of images, harmonious proportions etc. Portrait became a widespread genre of painting, graphics, medal art, and sculpture, which was directly related to the affirmation of the humanistic ideal of man. The heroic ideal of the perfect person was embodied with particular completeness in the Italian art of the High Renaissance in the first decades of the 16th century. This era brought forward the brightest, multifaceted talents - Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo (see Art). A type of universal artist emerged, combining in his work a painter, sculptor, architect, poet and scientist. Artists of this era worked closely with humanists and showed great interest in the natural sciences, especially anatomy, optics, and mathematics, trying to use their achievements in their work. In the 16th century Venetian art experienced a special boom. Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto created beautiful canvases, notable for their coloristic richness and realism of images of man and the world around him. The 16th century was a time of active establishment of the Renaissance style in architecture, especially for secular purposes, which was characterized by a close connection with the traditions of ancient architecture (order architecture). A new type of building was formed - a city palace (palazzo) and a country residence (villa) - majestic, but also commensurate with the person, where the solemn simplicity of the facade is combined with spacious, richly decorated interiors. Huge contribution Leon Battista Alberti, Giuliano da Sangallo, Bramante, Palladio contributed to Renaissance architecture. Many architects created projects for an ideal city, based on new principles of urban planning and architecture that met human needs for a healthy, well-equipped and beautiful living space. Not only individual buildings were rebuilt, but also entire old medieval cities: Rome, Florence, Ferrara, Venice, Mantua, Rimini.

Lucas Cranach the Elder. Female portrait.

Hans Holbein the Younger. Portrait of the Dutch humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam. 1523

Titian Vecellio. Saint Sebastian. 1570 Oil on canvas. State Hermitage Museum. Saint Petersburg.

Illustration by Mr. Doré for the novel by F. Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel”.

Michel Montaigne is a French philosopher and writer.

In the political and historical thought of the Italian Renaissance, the problem of a perfect society and state became one of the central ones. The works of Bruni and especially Machiavelli on the history of Florence, based on the study of documentary material, and the works of Sabellico and Contarini on the history of Venice revealed the merits of the republican structure of these city-states, while historians of Milan and Naples, on the contrary, emphasized the positive centralizing role of the monarchy. Machiavelli and Guicciardini explained all the troubles of Italy, which became in the first decades of the 16th century. arena of foreign invasions, its political decentralization and called on the Italians for national consolidation. A common feature of Renaissance historiography was the desire to see in people themselves the creators of their history, to deeply analyze the experience of the past and use it in political practice. Widespread in the 16th - early 17th centuries. received a social utopia. In the teachings of the utopians Doni, Albergati, Zuccolo, an ideal society was associated with the partial elimination of private property, equality of citizens (but not all people), universal compulsory labor, and the harmonious development of the individual. The most consistent expression of the idea of ​​socialization of property and equalization was found in Campanella’s “City of the Sun.”

New approaches to solving the traditional problem of the relationship between nature and God were put forward by natural philosophers Bernardino Telesio, Francesco Patrizi, and Giordano Bruno. In their works, the dogma of a creator God directing the development of the universe gave way to pantheism: God is not opposed to nature, but, as it were, merges with it; nature is seen as existing forever and developing according to its own laws. The ideas of the Renaissance natural philosophers met with sharp resistance from the Catholic Church. For his ideas about the eternity and infinity of the Universe, consisting of a huge number of worlds, for his sharp criticism of the church, which condones ignorance and obscurantism, Bruno was condemned as a heretic and committed to fire in 1600.

The Italian Renaissance had a huge impact on the development of Renaissance culture in other European countries. This was facilitated to a large extent by printing. The major centers of publishing were in the 16th century. Venice, where at the beginning of the century the printing house of Aldus Manutius became an important center of cultural life; Basel, where the publishing houses of Johann Froben and Johann Amerbach were equally significant; Lyon with its famous Etienne printing house, as well as Paris, Rome, Louvain, London, Seville. Printing became a powerful factor in the development of Renaissance culture in many European countries and opened the way to active interaction in the process of building a new culture of humanists, scientists, and artists.

The largest figure of the Northern Renaissance was Erasmus of Rotterdam, with whose name the movement of “Christian humanism” is associated. He had like-minded people and allies in many European countries (J. Colet and Thomas More in England, G. Budet and Lefebvre d'Etaples in France, I. Reuchlin in Germany). Erasmus broadly understood the tasks of the new culture. In his opinion, this was not only the resurrection of the ancient pagan heritage, but also the restoration of early Christian teaching. He did not see any fundamental differences between them from the point of view of the truth to which man should strive. Like the Italian humanists, he associated the improvement of man with education, creative activity, the disclosure of all inherent in him abilities. His humanistic pedagogy received artistic expression in “Easy Conversations,” and his sharply satirical work “In Praise of Stupidity” was directed against ignorance, dogmatism, and feudal prejudices. Erasmus saw the path to people’s happiness in a peaceful life and the establishment of a humanistic culture based on all values historical experience of mankind.

In Germany, Renaissance culture experienced a rapid rise at the end of the 15th century. - 1st third of the 16th century. One of its features was the flourishing of satirical literature, which began with Sebastian Brant’s essay “Ship of Fools,” in which the mores of the time were sharply criticized; the author led readers to the conclusion about the need for reforms in public life. The satirical line in German literature was continued by “Letters of Dark People” - an anonymously published collective work of humanists, chief among whom was Ulrich von Hutten - where church ministers were subjected to devastating criticism. Hutten was the author of many pamphlets, dialogues, letters directed against the papacy, the dominance of the church in Germany, and the fragmentation of the country; his work contributed to the awakening of the national consciousness of the German people.

The largest artists of the Renaissance in Germany were A. Dürer, an outstanding painter and unsurpassed master of engraving, M. Niethardt (Grunewald) with his deeply dramatic images, portrait painter Hans Holbein the Younger, as well as Lucas Cranach the Elder, who closely associated his art with the Reformation.

In France, the Renaissance culture took shape and flourished in the 16th century. This was facilitated, in particular, by the Italian wars of 1494-1559. (they were fought between the kings of France, Spain and the German emperor for the mastery of Italian territories), which revealed to the French the richness of the Renaissance culture of Italy. At the same time, a feature of the French Renaissance was an interest in the traditions of folk culture, creatively mastered by humanists along with the ancient heritage. The poetry of C. Marot, the works of humanist philologists E. Dole and B. Deperrier, who were part of the circle of Margaret of Navarre (sister of King Francis I), are imbued with folk motifs and cheerful freethinking. These trends were very clearly manifested in the satirical novel of the outstanding Renaissance writer Francois Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel”, where plots drawn from ancient folk tales about cheerful giants are combined with ridicule of the vices and ignorance of contemporaries, with the presentation of a humanistic program of upbringing and education in the spirit of the new culture. The rise of national French poetry is associated with the activities of the Pleiades - a circle of poets led by Ronsard and Du Bellay. During the period of civil (Huguenot) wars (see Religious Wars in France), journalism was widely developed, expressing differences in the political positions of the opposing forces of society. The largest political thinkers were F. Hautman and Duplessis Mornay, who opposed tyranny, and J. Bodin, who advocated the strengthening of a single national state headed by an absolute monarch. The ideas of humanism found deep understanding in Montaigne's Essays. Montaigne, Rabelais, Bonaventure Deperrier were prominent representatives of secular freethinking, which rejected the religious foundations of their worldview. They condemned scholasticism, the medieval system of upbringing and education, scholasticism, and religious fanaticism. The main principle of Montaigne's ethics is the free manifestation of human individuality, the liberation of the mind from subordination to faith, and the fullness of emotional life. He associated happiness with the realization of the individual’s internal capabilities, which should be served by secular upbringing and education based on free-thinking. In the art of the French Renaissance, the genre of portrait came to the fore, the outstanding masters of which were J. Fouquet, F. Clouet, P. and E. Dumoustier. J. Goujon became famous in sculpture.

In the culture of the Netherlands during the Renaissance, rhetorical societies were a distinctive phenomenon, uniting people from different strata, including artisans and peasants. At meetings of societies, debates were held on political, moral and religious topics, performances were staged in folk traditions, there was a refined work on the word; Humanists took an active part in the activities of societies. Folk features were also characteristic of Dutch art. The greatest painter Pieter Bruegel, nicknamed “The Peasant,” in his paintings of peasant life and landscapes expressed with particular completeness the feeling of the unity of nature and man.

). It reached a high level in the 16th century. the art of theater, democratic in its orientation. Household comedies, historical chronicles, and heroic dramas were staged in numerous public and private theaters. The plays of C. Marlowe, in which majestic heroes challenge medieval morality, and B. Johnson, in which a gallery of tragicomic characters appears, prepared the appearance of the greatest playwright of the Renaissance, William Shakespeare. A perfect master of various genres - comedies, tragedies, historical chronicles, Shakespeare created unique characters strong people, personalities who vividly embodied the traits of a Renaissance man, life-loving, passionate, endowed with intelligence and energy, but sometimes contradictory in his moral actions. Shakespeare's work exposed the deepening gap in the Late Renaissance between the humanistic idealization of man and the real world, filled with acute life conflicts. The English scientist Francis Bacon enriched Renaissance philosophy with new approaches to understanding the world. He contrasted observation and experiment with the scholastic method as a reliable tool. scientific knowledge. Bacon saw the path to building a perfect society in the development of science, especially physics.

In Spain, Renaissance culture experienced a “golden age” in the 2nd half of the 16th century. - the first decades of the 17th century. Her highest achievements are associated with the creation of new Spanish literature and national folk theater, as well as with the work of the outstanding painter El Greco. The formation of new Spanish literature, which grew out of the traditions of knightly and picaresque novels, found a brilliant completion in the brilliant novel by Miguel de Cervantes “The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha.” In the images of the knight Don Quixote and the peasant Sancho Panza, the main humanistic idea of ​​the novel is revealed: the greatness of man in his courageous struggle against evil in the name of justice. Cervantes's novel is both a kind of parody of the chivalric romance that is fading into the past, and the broadest canvas of the folk life of Spain in the 16th century. Cervantes was the author of a number of plays that made a great contribution to the creation of the national theater. To an even greater extent, the rapid development of the Spanish Renaissance theater is associated with the work of the extremely prolific playwright and poet Lope de Vega, the author of lyrical-heroic comedies of cloak and sword, imbued with the folk spirit.

Andrey Rublev. Trinity. 1st quarter of the 15th century

At the end of the XV-XVI centuries. Renaissance culture spread in Hungary, where royal patronage played an important role in the flowering of humanism; in the Czech Republic, where new trends contributed to the formation of national consciousness; in Poland, which became one of the centers of humanistic freethinking. The influence of the Renaissance also affected the culture of the Dubrovnik Republic, Lithuania, and Belarus. Certain pre-Renaissance tendencies also appeared in Russian culture of the 15th century. They were associated with a growing interest in human personality and its psychology. In art, this is primarily the work of Andrei Rublev and artists of his circle, in literature - “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom,” which tells about the love of the Murom prince and the peasant girl Fevronia, and the works of Epiphanius the Wise with his masterful “weaving of words.” In the 16th century Renaissance elements appeared in Russian political journalism (Ivan Peresvetov and others).

In the XVI - first decades of the XVII century. significant changes have occurred in the development of science. The beginning of new astronomy was laid by the heliocentric theory of the Polish scientist N. Copernicus, which revolutionized ideas about the Universe. It received further substantiation in the works of the German astronomer I. Kepler, as well as the Italian scientist G. Galileo. The astronomer and physicist Galileo constructed a telescope, using it to discover the mountains on the Moon, the phases of Venus, the satellites of Jupiter, etc. Galileo’s discoveries, which confirmed the teaching of Copernicus about the rotation of the Earth around the Sun, gave impetus to the more rapid spread of the heliocentric theory, which the church recognized as heretical; she persecuted her supporters (for example, the fate of D. Bruno, who was burned at the stake) and banned the works of Galileo. A lot of new things have appeared in the field of physics, mechanics, and mathematics. Stephen formulated the theorems of hydrostatics; Tartaglia successfully studied the theory of ballistics; Cardano discovered the solution of algebraic equations of the third degree. G. Kremer (Mercator) created more advanced geographic Maps. Oceanography emerged. In botany, E. Cord and L. Fuchs systematized a wide range of knowledge. K. Gesner enriched knowledge in the field of zoology with his “History of Animals”. Knowledge of anatomy was improved, which was facilitated by the work of Vesalius “On the structure of the human body.” M. Servet expressed the idea of ​​the presence of a pulmonary circulation. The outstanding physician Paracelsus brought medicine and chemistry closer together and made important discoveries in pharmacology. Mr. Agricola systematized knowledge in the field of mining and metallurgy. Leonardo da Vinci put forward a number of engineering projects that were far ahead of contemporary technical thought and anticipated some later discoveries (for example, the flying machine).