Italian Renaissance - Course Approach and Concepts Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key thinkers, historical figures, theoretical concepts, and philosophical paradigms from the introductory lecture on the Italian Renaissance.

Sigmund Freud

Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis (1856–1939) who developed theories about the unconscious mind, repression, dreams, sexuality, and childhood.

Torquato Tasso

Italian Renaissance poet (1544–1595) best known for the epic poem Jerusalem Delivered (Gerusalemme liberata).

Italo Svevo

Italian novelist (1861–1928) best known for Zeno's Conscience and strongly associated with early modern psychological literature.

Late Style

The concept that artists may create differently near the end of their careers because they have less to prove and feel freer to ignore audience expectations.

Theodor W. Adorno

German philosopher, social critic, and music theorist (1903–1969) and member of the Frankfurt School known for analyzing modern culture, society, and music.

Modernity

The modern way of organizing society and thought around ideas like progress, innovation, rationality, growth, and continually moving forward.

Etymology

The study of where words come from and how their meanings developed over time.

Hegemony

Power maintained not only through force, but by making certain beliefs and values seem normal or accepted.

Antonio Gramsci

Italian Marxist philosopher and political theorist (1891–1937) who analyzed culture, power, and political hegemony, writing the Prison Notebooks while imprisoned by the Fascist regime.

Virtù

Machiavelli's concept of political ability or capacity to act effectively, including skill, courage, strength, adaptability, decisiveness, and political intelligence.

Fortuna

Machiavelli's concept of fortune or chance, encompassing timing, luck, and circumstances outside a person's complete control.

Cesare Borgia

Italian Renaissance military and political leader (1475/76–1507), son of Pope Alexander VI and one of Machiavelli's major examples of bold political leadership in The Prince.

Italian Fragmentation

The historical state of Renaissance Italy being divided into many independent or semi-independent political states rather than existing as one unified country.

Giovanni Boccaccio

Italian writer and poet (1313–1375) best known for The Decameron, a collection of 100 stories framed around the Black Death.

Antinomy

A deep conflict between two principles or laws that may both have legitimate force and validity, derived from Greek roots meaning 'law against law.'

René Descartes

French philosopher and mathematician (1596–1650) and major founder of modern philosophy, famous for methodical doubt and the ideal of the autonomous thinking subject.

Isabella Stewart Gardner

American art collector and philanthropist (1840–1924) who created Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum using an extensive collection of European art and architectural objects.

Culture Industry

A concept developed by Adorno and Horkheimer stating that modern mass media and entertainment are produced like industrial products, creating standardized culture while giving the illusion of choice.

Roberto Esposito

Contemporary Italian philosopher (born 1950) known for political philosophy and author of Pensiero vivente (Living Thought), which examines the distinctive characteristics of Italian thought.

Immanentization of Antagonism

Roberto Esposito's concept recognizing that political and social conflict exists inside the order itself rather than being something that can be permanently eliminated.

Historization of the Non-Historical

Esposito's concept recognizing that pre-rational human origins—such as instinct, violence, and bodily drives—continue to exist within civilized historical life.

Mundanization of the Subject

Esposito's concept understanding a person not as an isolated abstract mind, but as a relational subject formed through ordinary worldly relationships, bodily life, language, and community.

Dasein

Martin Heidegger's term for human existence as 'being-there,' emphasizing that humans always exist situated within a world rather than as detached minds outside it.

Giovanni della Casa

Italian Renaissance writer, cleric, and diplomat (1503–1556) best known for Galateo, an influential treatise on manners and social behavior.

Reciprocity

Mutual exchange within a relationship where individuals respond to one another, maintaining social recognition and balance rather than exact financial equality.

Theory of Mind

The cognitive ability to understand that other people have their own beliefs, knowledge, intentions, and perspectives that can differ from one's own.

Intersubjectivity

A shared or mutually recognizable experience between different conscious subjects, where each recognizes that others can experience the world from their own perspective.

Aesthetics

The philosophical study of beauty, art, and sensory experience, derived from the Greek word aisthesis meaning sensation or perception.

Discontinuity

A meaningful break or separation between two things rather than complete connection, as symbolized by the deliberate tiny gap between God and Adam's fingers in Michelangelo's Creation of Adam.

Fabrica

A historical term meaning construction, structure, or making, as used in the title of the 1568 Renaissance book La Fabrica del Mondo.