Comparison of the Renaissance and Enlightenment (Сравнение Ренессанса и Просвещения)
Renaissance means ‘rebirth’ or ‘recovery’, has its origins in Italy
and is associated with the rebirth of antiquity or Greco-Roman
civilization. The age of the Renaissance is believed to elapse over a
period of about two centuries, approximately from 1350 to 1550. Above all,
the Renaissance was a recovery from the Middle Ages and all the disasters
associated with it: the Black Death, economic, political and social crises.
For the intellectuals, it was a period of recovery from the “Dark Ages”; a
period, which was called so due to its lack of classical culture.
First Italian and then intellectuals of the rest of Europe became
increasingly interested in the Greco-Roman culture of the ancient
Mediterranean world. This interest was fostered especially by the migration
of the Greek intellectuals during the Middle Ages and the fact that the
ancient Greek works could then be translated more precisely into Latin.
Increasing popularity of archeology and discovery of ancient Roman and
Greek constructions also participated in this intense interest for the
classical culture.
But the Renaissance was not exclusively associated with the revival of
classical antiquity. It is believed that precisely from the fifteenth
century great changes took place affecting public and social spheres of
Europe and then the rest of the world; the basis of the modern European
civilization and capitalist system were then founded. Technological
innovations increased the rates of economic development. Great geographical
discoveries opened up the boarders of the Western world, thus accelerating
the formation of national, European and world markets. Major changes in
art, music, literature and religion wrecked the system of medieval values.
Another period marked by significant changes, is the eighteenth
century or an age of Enlightenment. Although present throughout Europe, the
origins of the Enlightenment are closely associated with France and its
philosophers such as Voltaire, Rousseau and others. The Enlightenment has
been fostered by the remarkable discoveries of the Scientific Revolution of
the seventeenth century. It was during this period that the ideas of the
Scientific Revolution were spread and popularized by the philosophers
(intellectuals of the 18th century).
Reason – was the word used the most frequently during the Enlightenment; it
meant a scientific method, which appealed to facts and experiences. It was
the age of the reexamination of all aspects of life, a movement of the
intellectuals “who dared to know” and who were arguing for the application
of the scientific methods to the understanding of all life. For these
intellectuals it was also a recovery from the ‘darkness’ since all that
could not be tested and proved by the rational and scientific methods of
thinking was darkness. Blind trust and acceptance was darkness, while
reason, knowledge and examination – was the ‘light’ that would lead to a
progress and better society.
There are similarities that can with certainty be traced between the
Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Many of the eighteenth-century
philosophers saw themselves as the followers of the philosophers of
antiquity and the humanists of the Renaissance. To them, the Middle Ages
were also a period of intellectual darkness whereby the society was
dominated by the dogmatic Catholic Church, allowed faith to obscure and
diminished human reason. Secularization that first arose in the Renaissance
erupted with new strength and particular intensity during the
Enlightenment. Development of secular art, music, literature and way of
thinking of the Renaissance was followed and further spread by the
philosophers of the Enlightenment. Both, the Renaissance and the
Enlightenment were primarily the preserve of the wealthy upper classes who
constituted a small percentage of the population. Achievements of both, the
Renaissance and the Enlightenment were the product of the elite, rather
than a mass movement. Gradually though, they did have an irreversible
impact on ordinary people. Another apparent similarity between the two
periods, of course, was the fact that both of them were marked by great
political and social changes. However, since evolution and progress cause
changes, and achievements of one century are built on those of the previous
one, there are probably more differences than similarities between the two
periods. Taking a look at different social and public spheres, we shall
examine the differences and the similarities between the Renaissance and
the Enlightenment.
Consider the intellectual areas of the two periods. The Renaissance
saw the emergence and growth of humanism. Humanism was a form of education
and culture based on the study of classics. Being primarily an educational
form, it included the study of such liberal arts subjects as grammar,
rhetoric, poetry, ethics and history that were based on the examinations of
classical authors. Humanists occupied mainly secular positions such as
teachers of humanities in secondary schools or professors of rhetoric in
universities; they were mostly laymen rather than members of clergy.
Education was central to the humanist movement since humanists believed
that education could change immensely the human beings. Humanists wrote
books on education and developed secondary schools based on their ideas.
Their schools though, were principally reserved for the wealthy elite;
children from the lower social classes as well as females were largely
absent from them. During the Enlightenment, as during the Renaissance,
private secondary schools were most of the times dominated by religious
orders, especially by the Jesuits. However, a great difference with the
Renaissance was the development of new schools designed to provide a
broader education, which offered modern languages, geography and
bookkeeping, preparing students for careers in business.
In Renaissance philosophy a change was expressed through an
assimilation of Platonic philosophy into Christianity by means of
translation and interpretation. This led to the emergence of a new form of
philosophy known as Neoplatonism. Renaissance humanists saw a human
occupying central position in the great chain of being between the lowest
form of physical matter (plants) and the purest spirit (God). A human being
was the link between the material world (through the body) and the
spiritual world (through the soul). M. Ficino (1433-1499) was one of the
most important humanists that contributed to the emergence of the
Neoplatonism. Concerning religion, Renaissance philosophers were not
rejecting Christianity, they mostly believed in God and were only against
the policies and practices of the Catholic Church at that period.
The Enlightenment philosophers such as Voltaire (1694-1778) or
Diderot (1713-1784) went beyond Renaissance philosophers. They severely
criticized traditional religion and actively called for religious
toleration. Moreover, the Enlightenment philosophers, Voltaire in
particular, championed, among other things, deism. Deism was based upon
Newtonian world-machine, which implied the existence of a mechanic (God)
who had created the universe, but did not have direct involvement in it and
allowed it to run according to its own natural laws. These philosophers
believed that God did not extend grace or respond prayers. Diderot, who
advocated similar ideas, made a great contribution to the Enlightenment
with creation of the famous Encyclopedia (Classified Dictionary of Science,
Arts and Trades), which included works and ideas of many philosophers.
Thanks to the Renaissance printing and the reductions in the Encyclopedia
price, Enlightenment ideas became available to general literate public of
the century.
One of the innovations in history during the Renaissance was in the
way history was recorded. In writing of history, humanists divided the past
into ancient world, dark ages and their own age, thus providing a new sense
of chronology. Humanists were also responsible for secularization of
history. By taking new approaches to historic sources, humanist historians
sensibly reduced the role of miracles in history. Concerning history, the
Enlightenment philosophers had a similarity with the Renaissance humanist-
historians in that they also placed their histories in purely secular
settings. However, the difference between the two was that if Renaissance
historians had de-emphasized the role of God and miracles, the
Enlightenment philosophers-historians, such as Voltaire, eliminated it
altogether. Also, philosophers-historians extended the scope of history
over the humanists’ preoccupation with politics by paying increasing
attention to economic, social, intellectual and cultural developments.
Among the most important technological innovations of the renaissance
was printing. J. Gutenberg played an important role in bringing the process
of printing to completion between 1445-1450. This process was vital for the
diffusion of knowledge and humanist ideas. Printing spread very rapidly
around Europe and its effects were soon felt in many areas of European
life. Continued after the invention of printing process, the expansion of
both, publishing and the reading public, became particularly visible during
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