III Renaissance Philosophy

The Renaissance was a short, dramatic period, from 1400 to 1500. The changes that took place then transformed the world. From the Medieval concentration on heavenly subjects and deductive logic the Renaissance mind turned to observation and appreciation of man and his world. It is ironic that Renaissance meant the rebirth of classical ideas in philosophy and art, the rebirth of the culture of Plato and Aristotle! But at the same time the Renaissance was a rejection of the Medieval version of these same thinkers, as found in St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. In art, Michelangelo sculpted the gloriously human figures of David and Moses and the Pieta. In science Galileo observed the heavens through a telescope and devised ingenious experiments to discover new truths about motion and gravitation, In religion there arose, with Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformation. And in philosophy Bacon formulated and used the scientific method, and Hobbes and Machiavelli applied it to politics. In every area of human endeavor the old Medieval acceptance of authority was rejected and replaced by scientific inquiry. It was a fabulously exciting time in the history of the world. The modern world of science and technology was not far away.