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The Renaissance - Humanism

Q: Who were prominent in the universities between 1350 and 1600?

In the period between 1350 and 1600 scholasticism , often with a strong Aristotelian emphasis, continued to be prominent in the universities, despite the attacks on it by the humanists.

6 important questions on The Renaissance - Humanism

How did Renaissance writers and artists differ from their medieval predecessors?

Burckhardt and those influenced by him laid stress on the Renaissance 'discovery' of man, contrasting the secular interests and outlook of Renaissance Italians with the otherworldliness of medieval attitudes.

What fundamental misunderstanding is there of the term 'humanism'?

A modern 'humanist' is someone who has a set of humane values, normally secular, based on a particular conception of man and of his potential;
humanista in fifteenth-century Italian, by contrast, denoted a teacher of the humanities, the studia humanitatis, a particular set of studies based on grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and moral philosophy.

Why is it idle to try to associate humanism with any particular doctrine?

When they addressed issues in moral philosophy, what they produced, in the main, was not markedly original, in part because the principal classical works from which they took their ideas, those of Aristotle, Seneca and Cicero, had been thoroughly discussed in the Middle Ages.
It is idle, moreover, to try to associate humanism with any particular doctrine, because humanists can be found as advocates of princely rule of man or the misery of human existence, Protestantism or Catholicism.

Why did humanists not have a new philosophy of man?

One reason why humanists did not have a new philosophy of man is that they were not essentially philosophers at all, but rather classical literary scholars who occasionally dabbled in philosophy.

Who were prominent in the universities between 1350 and 1600?

In the period between 1350 and 1600 scholasticism, often with a strong Aristotelian emphasis, continued to be prominent in the universities, despite the attacks on it by the humanists.

What was the fundamental discipline in fifteenth-century grammar schools?

The fundamental discipline in fifteenth-century grammar schools was what it had been for a long time, philology in its various branches, such as grammar and rhetoric, rather than moral philosophy.

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Early Modern History

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