Essay On Philosophical Movement: Humanism

Essay on philosophical movement: Humanism

Humanism was a philosophical and lesson movement that was born in the cities- state of the Italian Peninsula in the 14th century. Its maximum splendor was in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its main characteristics are anthropocentrism (focused on human being), rejected at the beginning of the Middle Ages, man was now guided by reason and not by faith, attraction for the classical world (Greece and Rome) and promoting literature usingvulgar or common languages. Humanism spreads thanks to the invention of printing, academies and universities, patronage, geographical discoveries.

Imagine a world without technology, without phones, without laptops, without television, nothing. Most of us cannot even survive one day without logging on Facebook or sending text messages with our friends. If it weren’t for humanism, that is the type of world in which we would live at this time. We would not have airplanes, and we would not have internet. We would not have been able to land a man on the moon. We would live in an isolated world, and most of what we have invented in recent centuries would not even exist. Terrifying thought, right?

When we listen to an song on an iPod or play at Xbox 360, we never think about the innumerable hours of development and tests that it implies. One of the key components of most of what we use today is electricity. Electricity was first used by Thomas Edison, a man who invented the first light bulb. How do you think Thomas Edison was able to achieve this goal? Well, with a little luck and intuition, he could change the world.

The majority of what I knew came from two key people: Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton. Leonardo Da Vinci was an Italian polymites, who came up with many ideas, some of which are being used in our world at this time. Isaac Newton made great contributions in the calculation areas and is considered the father of mechanics.

Our way of thinking has been refined and developed from a way of thinking for a very important period of time: the Renaissance. The Renaissance, which means rebirth, was a time that happened at the dark age. The dark age was a time where nothing wrong happened. Events such as black death severely reduced the population of the world. There was no significant invention either. The Renaissance was a time when many thinkers emerged. There were many debates at that time, and rational thinking was everywhere. Humanism resurfaced at that time, and many people began to look back in history and study human nature. These people helped the world to leave the dark age, and finally led to the world where we are now.

If it had not been for humanism, our world would lack many things. We would not have the art, technology and the way of thinking that we currently have. We, as a race, would grow from the grace and character we have. Our rational thinking and creativity allows us to highlight and continue expanding our skills. We owe it to the people who lived before us, since they have contributed to the world as we know it.

Although it lacked permanence, humanism largely established the climate and provided the means for the emergence of modern thought. An impressive variety of important developments in literature, philosophy, art, religion, social sciences and even natural sciences had their basis in humanism or were significantly nourished by him. Important spokesmen in all fields regularly made use of humanistic eloquence to promote their causes. In more general terms, the so -called modern awareness: that sense of alienation and freedom. 

Humanism has traveled a long way from the choice of issues during the Renaissance in continental Europe to our times when postmodern ones have to built the term and indicated fallacies, mainly the notion that there is something called ‘essential human nature’. And yet, what Protágoras, the presocratic Greek philosopher, said: ‘Man is the measure of all things’, remains central to all types of humanism.