Download The Praise of Folly

HUMANISM
The heart of the Italian Renaissance
 An intellectual movement that focused on
secular (worldly) rather than on the spiritual
(religious) issues of the Medieval thinkers
Petrarch Image from
www.google.com/image
 Humanists were Christians who hoped to use
the wisdom of the Classics (Greek and
Roman literature) to increase their
understanding of their current place in time
To Seek fulfillment in daily life
Individual has dignity and worth
Challenge
long-accepted traditions and institutions
 One of the first person’s
to challenge was
Desiderius Erasmus with
his book
 The Praise of Folly
 Erasmus sought reform
within the Catholic
Church
Students should study…
 Grammar
 Rhetoric
 History
 Moral Philosophy (ethics)
 Mathematics
 Literary works
 Poetry
 Music
 Astronomy
To stimulate
creative and
logical powers
Each can exist without the other,
Seek
fulfillment
in daily life
Individual
has
dignity
and worth
Humanism
ties them together
Challenge longaccepted traditions
and institutions
Students
should
study…
Types
of
Humanism
Christian or Northern Renaissance
Major goal was to reform the CHURCH
Believed in the ability of human beings to
reason and improve themselves
Christianity should show people how to live
good lives on a daily basis rather than
provide a system of beliefs that people have
to practice to be saved
Civic
 Reflected the values of the urban society
 The duty of the individual is to live an active
life for one’s state (government)
 An individual only ‘grows to maturity’—both
intellectually and morally—through
participation’ in the life of the state
Intellects and their works






Petrarch—Father of Renaissance Humanism
Desiderius Erasmus—The Praise of Folly
Thomas More--Utopia
Leonardo Bruni—History of the Florentine People
Niccolo Machiavelli—The Prince
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola—Oration of the
Dignity of Man
 Pietro Paolo Vergerio—Concerning Character