How did the renaissance change man’s view of man? The renaissance changed man’s view of man through the lenses of philosophy, religion, art, and science. Philosophy was made that challenged the ideas of monarchs and how people should be ruled. There were many pre-conceived church doctrines which were challenged by the great scientists of that time. In religion a new culture was being formed that challenged the held believes of the Catholic Church. The artist broke from the church and religious ideals and pursued a more humanistic approach. Philosophy also had a major impact on changing man’s view of man. Philosophers shared a satirical, critical style, a commitment to open-mindedness and inquiry, and in various degrees a hostility to established political and religious authority. John Lock offered principles for constructing a constitutional government, a contract between rulers and ruled that was created by human ingenuity rather than divinely prescribed. Voltaire wanted equal rights for all religions and freedom of religion. These new ideas added new ways of looking at one self.
Religion. Religion had a turning point in the Renaissance age. After years of the Catholic church having the sole dominate control of Europe it was challenged. Thoughts changed from being all about god and heaven to a focus on the individual. Yet, religion still remained. Domes were built in cities such as Florence that revitalized the old roman building techniques. It meant that your place had power and wealth. It was also in their believes, pleasing to god. The Christian religion also spread out. After Martin Luther nailed his theses to the doors of a church his ideas quickly spread and Lutheran was born that differed from the church. The Catholic Church no longer had the main power and was now challenged by a new rival Christian religion. This allowed man to choose his own beliefs allowing man to question and seek the truth for what he believes is right. Religion was not only for about god but new ideas came about that people thought of as religions. Such as Humanism the belief that humans are the important parts and that we ourselves are important and are capable of great things As William Shakespeare said “In actions like an angel”( Doc B) . This went along with the idea of Individualism that the individual should be worshipped and not a great deity. As an excerpt from Shake spear says “What a great piece of man! (Doc B). Along with deity’s and Deism came about that believed that nature and god are one and the same. These new ideas and believes helped man change his view of himself. Close to any great religion was even greater art inspired by the religion.
Art, also called the greatest of human expression also expressed a new view of man. Art began is the low renaissance with painters such as Brunoscelli he invented what we know today as perspective this was a dramatic change from the old 2d paintings. Art would never be the same again. Other renaissance painters such as Donatello made a bronze statue of David. This was unheard of. A statue in the nude. It expressed the true artistic talents of the people and also a new way of looking at humans. This type of new perspective and statue making allowed people to “Feel a stronger attachment to the subjects.” (Doc A). In the high renaissance artist took the basic art ideas of the renaissance and made them even better. One such artist Leonardo made several famous works such as the Mona Lisa and the last supper. These employed brilliant perspective and use of space they gave way to “depictions of recognizable scenes” (Doc 4). “They would echo the broader movement [of the]… new age” Michelangelo also painted marble paintings that showed in great detail the nude human and gave a new sense of what being a human means. Also a new medium was made that allowed artist to show their paintings in new ways such as oil based paint, the use of wood and bronze for sculpting. This allowed artist to show off their view in a new way. In the north renaissance a new focus on Nature and landscape replaced the old religious oriented paintings that once dominated Europe. Artist helped change the way man though of man. The other way man’s view was changed was by the new philosophies of people and how they felt with the ruling monarchs. Science the discovery of something new or in this case discovering something new about man. Science went through a dramatic change in the Renaissance era. It began with the application of the scientific method. Before this anything said by a well respected individual such as Socrates or the Bible would be written down as fact. When the scientific method was applied a lot of these notions were proved false. These scientists helped with the discovery of a different view of man. Leonardo invented several things that allowed a greater discovery of the world that he lived in. One of his most known is his work on anatomy. In the discoveryof better understanding ourselves this was along with the work by Vesalius.
The notion of that time was that our bodies were dictated by “The Zodiac Signs … governed a certain part of the body. (Doc D) “He disproved this through his work of dissection and examination that showed that the heavens do not control our day to day bodily functions. Another thing that helped with the discovery of a new view of man was by studying the Heavens. The bible stated that Earth was the center of the universe and therefore the center of god’s attention this was backed up by the “scientist” Ptomly and therefore accepted. Along came a guy named Copernicus who “relying mostly on mathematics, developed a different understanding of the universe. (Doc C) This countered the ideals and determined that the earth is not the center of the universe and not the center of god’s attention. In the end Copernicus was forced to reprimand his view of the universe and accused of heresy. Galileo also used his studies and made a better telescope to better understand the universe and also better learn about ourselves. Another scientist was Newton, Sir Isaac Newton! He is known for enhancing our view on math and invented the concept of Calculus. He also had great discoveries that lead to our current understanding of gravity. Another scientist for math was Descartes who invented analytical geometry to that helped make better buildings. In the end, Science greatly helped man change his view of man. In Conclusion, The renaissance changed mans view of man. It changed it through the lenses of philosophy, religion, art and philosophy. If not for the renaissance Mans view of himself would be left as it was and we would never have evolved as greatly as we are.
