Revisiting the Ancients & Developing Humanism

The Renaissance in Europe featured a “rebirth” of cultural, artistic, political, and economic activity following the Middle Ages. Often categorized as spanning the 14th century to the 17th century, writers, artists, and thinkers during the Renaissance rediscovered ancient philosophy and classical culture and reconsidered the role of literature and art in public life as well as critical questions around politics, government, and religion.

Although not a uniform movement across all parts of Europe and sometimes studied by scholars in different subperiods within the Renaissance, the period marks a significant development in philosophical thinking and writing and is considered a cultural bridge between the medieval and modern eras.

Humanism is a term that has evolved to be applied to a wider set of views and ideals than those originally associated with it in the Renaissance. In the 16th century, the word literally referred to a tradition of study, studia humanitatis, a curriculum centered around classical languages, rhetoric, and literature. This course of study challenged what had been the predominant approach to higher learning in Scholasticism. Debates between the two approaches helped shape the writing of many philosophers of the period as well as stimulated a renewed approach to civic life.

Philosopher 1: Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam

Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (c. 1466–1536) was a Dutch philosopher who wrote about both religious and secular subjects and has been categorized as a Christian Humanist. Raised Catholic, he also held some sympathies with core ideas of the Protestant Reformation. His travels to England, France, and Italy informed his work and sparked lasting friendships with other Humanist thinkers, including Thomas More. In The Praise of Folly (1511), Erasmus crafts a satire in the form of a speech given by the personified character Folly; the work critiques the abuse of church authority and espouses principles of Humanism.

Philosopher 2: Sir Thomas More

Sir Thomas More (1478–1535) was an English lawyer who also served in Parliament. Although not a philosopher by training, his writing strongly engaged with Humanism - including through his friendship and correspondence with Erasmus - and his literary style has been read for its philosophical contemplation of education, politics, and religion. His work Utopia (1516) is considered a classic of the Renaissance and is regarded by historians as the first work to use the term "utopia." It questions the relationship between imagination and experience and dramatizes the differences between Scholasticism and Humanism, including the consequences for political life.

Philosopher 3: Niccolò̀ Machiavelli

Niccolò̀ Machiavelli (1469–1527) was an Italian diplomat and historian whose well-known work of political philosophy, The Prince (1532), by became hugely influential during the Renaissance and into the modern era. Organized as a kind of advice book for Princes regarding their approach to leading provinces and consolidating power, the treatise also engages questions of morality, vice and virtue, and reflects on the role of fortune. Much of the advice contradicts doctrines of Scholasticism and/or accepted principles of Catholicism and continues some of the principles and practices of Humanism in regard to the value of historical and humanistic study and attention to civic life; however, he also drew from the political thought of the ancient world.

Philosopher 4: Marie le Jars de Gournay

Marie le Jars de Gournay was a "woman of letters," in the sense that she wrote a variety of literary and intellectual works. A friend of the great French philosopher Montaigne, who referred to Gournay as his adopted daughter, she participated in the aristocratic salon culture of Paris and attempted to earn an income through writing, including translation and editing services in French, Latin, and Greek. Although her public life as an intellectual woman and author was unusual for the era and raised eyebrows in some circles, she did have a respected following and wrote both literary works and treatises on morality, theology, and gender politics. The Equality of Men and Women, written in 1641, is a treatise that defends the equality between the sexes and argues for equal access of both genders to education and to public offices. She borrows from arguments in both the Bible and within Scholasticism to make a case for social reform, yet her life as a student of classics and literary study and her interest in participation in civic life as a woman is also grounded in the Humanism of her age.