Student’s name
Professor’s name
Course title
Date
Comparison of the Renaissance and Enlightenment
Renaissance means rebirth. It has its origin in Italy and is associated with the recovery of the Greece-Roman civilization. Its age is assumed to have ended in a period that is over two centuries. Renaissance was an art that got its drive from the notion of humanism. This philosophy has been a base of several achievements in Greece.
The most significant art that was evident in the Renaissance was humanism. And according to David’s oath of the Horatti, the Greek philosophers took the perspective of drawing to cat the viewer’s eye. The first painting has people with orange and blue robes walking side by side as they discussed philosophy. Their discussion was mainly on how they could represent humanism. This painting creates a dynamic philosophy sense since it expresses it both in facial expressions and gestures.
Plato’s philosophy was upheld because, as it is evident, the changing world that we see currently is all from the shadow of a reality that is eternal. He focused mostly on what was invisible. On the other hand, Aristotle’s philosophy on truth is what we can see and experience by seeing and touching. His philosophy had an emphasis on relationships, friendships, and justice to humans. He focused on reality and believed in available things.
The other painting was on how the philosophers stood out to cover up for humanism. It gave more insight into how people should stand out for their rights, and they should not be looked down on. It was a thought of a pagan who did not believe in God but thought that human beings, especially women, deserved to be protected. It is an evolution that happened during the enlightenment period. That is why, during the enlightenment period, women dared to defend their rights.
The basis of the modern European civilization and capitalist system were founded in those years. Innovations in technology improved the economic development rates rapidly, and the discoveries on geography opened up the borders of the western world, enlarging its market.
The year that made significant changes was during the eighteenth century. This age was referred to as the enlightenment age. Although it’s a presence in Europe, its origin is much related to France and its philosophers. However, it has been promoted by the exceptional discoveries in the scientific revolution, which took place in the previous centuries. During this period, the revolution related to science was made known and gained popularity through the efforts of the philosophers (Yamuchi 2014).
During the enlightenment period, the most frequently used word was Reason, which meant a scientific method that pleaded to facts and encounters. This age was mainly for the reassessment of all life aspects and the intellectual moves that dared the understanding of life in general. For the intellectuals, it was a method of recouping from the dark and relieves from being tied to a specific religion allowing them to experience and revive the humanism that was diminishing.
Many philosophers in the eighteenth century perceived that they were philosophers that pushed for humanists of the Renaissance. They believed that the middle ages were a period of intellectual darkness and reduced the Reason for humans. Colonization arose during the Renaissance and brought new energy to the enlightenment period.
Both philosophies were reserved for the wealthy and upper class of people in the population of Greece. Both Renaissance and enlightenment achieved the elite product compared to the movement of masses. The philosophers improved gradually since they had an impact that could not .be reversed on the ordinary people.
They were both marked by significant social and political changes. However, they experienced changes during evolution, and this eventually led to achievements. Considering the intellectual parts between the two periods, Renaissance experienced the growth of humanism, which was in the form of education and culture. Humanists took a major on the secular parts since the majority of them were laymen and not clergy members.
Education was the significant aspect of a humanist because they believed that in school, there could be a lot of changes in human beings. Therefore, they went ahead and wrote books that could develop secondary education basing on their ideas. The difference is that during the enlightenment, most private schools were led by religious leaders compared to the Renaissance. Another difference in the Renaissance was the new schools’ development (Berryman 9). The new schools were made to give a wide range of education that offers modern languages and bookkeeping, which helps in preparing students for great careers in business.
Human beings are usually the link between the material and the parietal world. The philosophers in the Renaissance were not against Christianity but were against the practices that the catholic church had in that period. The enlightenment philosophers, however, went even past what the renaissance philosophers did. They had critics on the traditional religion and called for religious toleration.
The renaissance philosophers did not emphasize the role of God; this is because they reduced the responsibilities of miracles in history. On the other hand, the enlightenment philosophers eliminated the thought and purpose of God since they placed their account in a purely secular setting. For them, they did not compromise the role of God in history and miracles ultimately.
Renaissance was the primary prompt that discovered objectivity since it focused mainly on the humanistic perspective and enlightenment; on the other hand, it the peak of using Reason and rationality to become the focus of the exact period and point of view. These views had an impact on each other since the Renaissance influence growth and a path for the enlightenment(Berger, 2017). Enlightenment being dominant in the current world, it is a product of the fundamental objectives that were set by the Renaissance, and it is being implemented in different areas.
Renaissance printed their thoughts on encyclopedias, and the enlightenment was made public to anyone literate in that period. The renaissance period used to record their history in writing and offering a new sense of chronology. Although most of the publications were aimed to educate small groups such as women and urban artists, it also developed magazines that provided relevant information to the general public.
The enlightenment philosophers came out to call against the religious minors, and they eventually turned to believe in natural laws (Yamauchi, 2014). Most of the women in the renaissance period were uneducated, and their intellect could not be compared to that of men. However, they had essential roles that they took part in during the Renaissance; it, however, changed during the enlightenment period.
During the enlightenment period, women received a lot of positive views, and they also came out to be among the intellectual thinkers. They made sure they stood out to fight for their rights and improve their status in society. It was a difference that is evident from the renaissance women. During the enlightenment, women shared ideas that could educate and enlighten them.
As observed, Renaissance and enlightenment have a lot of differences and similarities. The main reason why the values that were there during the renaissance period continued to exist in the enlightenment period, and it also improved. Every time history is marked in human society; we value it even in our present days. We will always find some similarities in the current happenings and what happened centuries ago.
Works Cited
Berger, Susanna. The art of philosophy: Visual thinking in Europe from the late Renaissance to the early enlightenment. Princeton University Press, 2017.
Berryman, Jim. “A comparison of the German and Russian literary intelligentsia in Arnold Hauser’s Social History of Art.” Studies in East European Thought (2019): 1-15.
Yamauchi, Hitoshi. “Raphael, School of Athens.” YouTube, uploaded by Smarthistory, 27 July 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=89&v=Smd-q44ysoM&feature=emb_title
