Question

What were the features of humanist thought?

Answer 1

Predominant social philosophy and literary and intellectual currents of the period from 1400 to 1650 is known as humanism. With trade expansions, growth of prosperity and luxury resulting in development in social values and secular attitudes, there was a shift from theocentric to anthropocentric world. The general emancipation of man was focussed upon. Humanism was a restoration of true civilization after the Dark Age that had set in after the fall of the Roman Empire. The main features of humanism are given below.

1. Humanism stressed on the individual skills. A person with many skills and interests have been referred to as the Renaissance man. The emerging belief in individual potential helped to identify a town by its citizens.

2. The Humanist thought had a very different idea of history. According to this thought only humanism could revive the long past true civilisation. This revival would enable to end the Dark Age that Europe was then passing through.

3. The establishment of the New Age would mark an end to the period of the supremacy of the Church. The basis of humanism is naturalism, which is antithetical to the beliefs of Christianity.

4. Humanism revived the classical Greek literature. The works of Aristotle and Plato were translated. Along with these subjects modern faculties such as chemistry, mathematics, natural science and astronomy also became a part of the college curriculum.

5. Not only formal education but also art, architecture and books were effective mediums of transmitting humanist ideas. Drawing realistic paintings and sculpting perfectly proportioned figures of men and women were expressions of humanism. Painters and sculptors started to rely on anatomy, geometry and physics to recreate reality.