Renaissance and Naturalism

Renaissance is:

• Bridge between Middle Ages and Modern History;
• Cultural movement, started in the 14th century in Italy and then spread on Europe, ending in 16th century(in some sources 17th);
• French word meaning ‘rebirth‘

How it all started:

• Firstly, Rennaissance stays on a concept of ‘humanism’, which has origins in Greek philosophy. Greek philosophy was passed on to the Roman Empire. Therefore, ideas of antique philosophers were considered most seriously in Italy
• Secondly, Italy had become very wealthy by 14th centtury. Consequently, community of wealthy people increased and they started to invest more money on art and science.

That is why, it all started in Italy, in 14th century.

Briefly, what people did or accomplished during Renaissance:

1. They rediscovered the concept of ‘humanism’. Humanism is when: human, his personality, his freedom and his creative activities, – were considered as the highest values
2. Due to investments of many wealthy people – many institutes of science and art were opened, without being under control of church
3. In the 15th century, Johannes Guttenberg introduced a mechanical type printing. Books started to be printed out in large quantities.
4. Art:
   • people like Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo revolutionized the ways of painting and sculpturing (e.g. 1-dot and 2-dot perspective drawing techniques were invented)
   • Many developments were reached in architecture, music and other signs of culture
5. Science:
   • people like: Galileo Galilei, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, – advanced the science a lot with their discoveries (e.g. telescope, laws of planetary motion).
   • Galileo Galilei, Copernicus, Francis Bacon and others developed and actively promoted a new method for making discoveries – ‘the scientific method‘. The scientific method focused on empirical evidence and mathematics (Aristotelian science, for example, did not)

Naturalism is…

… According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, it has no precise meaning and its definition is still an object of debates.

However, naturalists are famous for their following assertions:

• The structure of the universe is fully governed by natural laws, not supernatural
• All the changes that occur in the universe are results of natural rules, not supernatural

There are different branches of naturalism. The most remarkable one is a ‘methodological naturalism‘. It asserts:

Religious commitment of a scientist does not have any relevance in science.

Which means that it does not matter whether one follows any religion or not, one’s beliefs must not affect the scientific fact.

• Interestingly, methodological naturalism has its roots in the works of Thales.
• Evolved significantly during the Renaissance

 

For further study:

If you want to get more insight into the rennaissance or naturalism, I recommend you to visit websites, which I used to write this blog:

• http://www.ducksters.com/history/renaissance.php – introduction to renaissance for kids
• https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation – khan academy about renaissance
• https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/itar/hd_itar.htm – about architecture of renaissance
• http://www.windows2universe.org/people/ren_epoch.html – scientists of renaissance
• http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/naturalism/#MetNat – Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy writes about naturalism
• http://www.angelfire.com/linux/vjtorley/zackfive.html –  deep analysis of methodological naturalism

 

Last but not least, I kindly recommend you to watch at least one of the following short videos from youtube.com, which you will enjoy:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMf8hFBJylA – interesting video about Leonardo da Vinci
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwOlIGGDVjE – top 7 inventions of da Vinci
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQUi5Ue_fLY – a (brief) history of perspective in European Art
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HZ5V9rT96M – ‘epic rap battle’ 😉