Humanism

Humanism

1. What is humanism?

   • Literary , philosophical and intellectual movement that appeared during the XIV and XV century. Shape the anthropocentric mindset.
     • Anthropocentric mindset
       • Trust in human beings and everything that is human creation.
         • Arts Sciences Reasoning Ideas Literature

2. Humanism breaks the medieval scholastic traditions and exalting in its entirety the qualities of human nature, it sought to discover man and give a rational meaning to life by taking as teachers the Greek and Latin classics, whose works he rediscovered and studied.

   • Theocentrism
     • is the belief that the Christian god is the central aspect to our existence.
   • Eagerness for knowledge, observation of the nature and search of its laws as the study of the philosophical and cultural tradition inherited from the Greek and Latin world.
     • This appeared in the last centuries of the Medieval Period with the creation of cities and universities. Education was carried out by the church. Students were taught to read and write, but new schools appeared for gifted students who were now able to improve their skills. Eventually these universities came out of the hand of the church. More people got interested in learning new subjects such as mathematics, astronomy and literature.

3. Focus on the human beings

   • Human beings are the center of the universe. Religion doesn’t disappear. Appear new possibilities to interpret the world, not just biblical texts

4. Recovery of ancient knowledge

   • Study old and new manuscripts Manuscripts from the medieval period are rejected, they are considered biased.

5. Importance of critical thinking

   • Reasoning Being critical No memorization

6. Main humanists and their works

   • Dante Alighieri The divine comedy Francesco Petrarch Il Canzoniere, secretum, triumphs Giovanni Boccaccio The Decameron Nicolas Macchiavello The prince Erasmo de Rotterdam colloquies / in praise of Folly Thomas More Utopía