Italian humanism of the Renaissance. The first humanists of the Renaissance

The humanists included representatives of different professions: teachers - Filelfo, Poggio Bracciolini, Vittorino da Feltre, Leonardo Bruni; philosophers - Lorenzo Valla, Pico della Mirandola; writers - Petrarch, Boccaccio; artists - Alberti and others.

The work of Francesc Petrarch (1304-1374) and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) represents an early period in the development of Italian humanism, which laid the foundations for a more coherent and systematized worldview that was developed by later thinkers.

Petrarch with extraordinary force revived interest in antiquity, especially in Homer. Thus, he marked the beginning of that revival of ancient antiquity, which was so characteristic of the entire Renaissance. At the same time, Petrarch formulated a new attitude towards art, opposite to that which underlay medieval aesthetics. For Petrarch, art had ceased to be a simple craft and began to acquire a new, humanistic meaning. In this regard, Petrarch’s treatise “Invective against a certain physician” is extremely interesting, representing a polemic with Salutati, who argued that medicine should be recognized as a higher art than poetry. This thought arouses Petrarch's angry protest. “It’s an unheard of sacrilege,” he exclaims, “to subordinate a mistress to a maid, free art to a mechanical one.” Rejecting the approach to poetry as a craft activity, Petrarch interprets it as a free, creative art. Of no less interest is Petrarch’s treatise “Remedies for the Treatment of Happy and Unlucky Fate,” which depicts the struggle between reason and feeling in relation to the sphere of art and pleasure, and, ultimately, the feeling close to earthly interests wins.

Another outstanding Italian writer, Giovanni Boccaccio, played an equally important role in substantiating new aesthetic principles. The author of the Decameron devoted a quarter of a century to working on what he considered to be the main work of his life, the theoretical treatise The Genealogy of the Pagan Gods.

Of particular interest are the XIV and XV books of this extensive work, written in the “defense of poetry” against medieval attacks on it. These books, which gained enormous popularity during the Renaissance, laid the foundation for a special genre of “poetry apologia.”

Essentially, we are seeing here a polemic with medieval aesthetics. Boccaccio opposes the accusation of poetry and poets of immorality, excess, frivolity, deception, etc. In contrast to medieval authors who reproached Homer and other ancient writers for depicting frivolous scenes, Boccaccio proves the poet’s right to depict any subjects.

It is also unfair, according to Boccaccio, to accuse poets of lying. Poets do not lie, but only “weave fiction”, telling the truth under the cover of deception or, more precisely, fiction. In this regard, Boccaccio passionately argues for the right of poetry to fiction (inventi), the invention of the new. In the chapter “That poets are not deceitful,” Boccaccio says directly: poets “... are not bound by the obligation to adhere to the truth in the external form of fiction; on the contrary, if we take away from them the right to freely use any kind of invention, all the benefits of their work will turn to dust.”

Boccaccio calls poetry "divine science." Moreover, sharpening the conflict between poetry and theology, he declares theology itself to be a type of poetry, because it, like poetry, turns to fiction and allegories.

In his apology for poetry, Boccaccio argued that its most important qualities are passion (furor) and ingenuity (inventio). This attitude towards poetry had nothing in common with the artisanal approach to art; it justified the freedom of the artist, his right to creativity.

Thus, already in the 14th century, the early Italian humanists formed a new attitude towards art as a free activity, as an activity of imagination and fantasy. All these principles formed the basis of aesthetic theories of the 15th century.

Italian humanist teachers also made a significant contribution to the development of the aesthetic worldview of the Renaissance, creating a new system of upbringing and education focused on the ancient world and ancient philosophy.

In Italy, starting from the first decade of the 15th century, a whole series of treatises on education appeared one after another, written by humanist educators: “On noble morals and liberal sciences” by Paolo Vergerio, “On the education of children and their good morals” by Matteo Veggio, “ On free education" by Gianozzo Manetti, "On scientific and literary studies" by Leonardo Bruni, "On the order of teaching and learning" by Battisto Guarino, "Treatise on free education" by Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini and others. Eleven Italian treatises on pedagogy have come down to us. In addition, numerous letters from humanists are devoted to the topic of education. All this constitutes the vast heritage of humanistic thought.

During the Renaissance, a completely new type of Neoplatonism emerged, which opposed medieval scholasticism and “scholasticized” Aristotelianism.

The first stages in the development of Neoplatonic aesthetics were associated with the name of Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464).

It should be noted that aesthetics was not just one of the areas of knowledge that Nikolai Kuzansky addressed along with other disciplines. The originality of the aesthetic teachings of Nicholas of Cusa lies in the fact that it was an organic part of his ontology, epistemology, and ethics. This synthesis of aesthetics with epistemology and ontology does not allow us to consider the aesthetic views of Nicholas of Cusanus in isolation from his philosophy as a whole, and on the other hand, the aesthetics of Cusansky reveals some important aspects of his teaching about the world and knowledge.

Nicholas of Cusa is the last thinker of the Middle Ages and the first philosopher of the Modern Age. Therefore, his aesthetics uniquely intertwine the ideas of the Middle Ages and the new, Renaissance consciousness. From the Middle Ages he borrows the “symbolism of numbers”, the medieval idea of the unity of the micro and macrocosmos, the medieval definition of beauty as “proportion” and “clarity” of color. However, he significantly rethinks and reinterprets the heritage of medieval aesthetic thought. The idea of the numerical nature of beauty was not a simple fantasy game for Nicholas of Cusa - he sought to find confirmation of this idea with the help of mathematics, logic and experimental knowledge. The idea of the unity of the micro- and macrocosmos was transformed in his interpretation into the idea of a high, almost divine purpose of the human personality. Finally, completely new meaning receives in his interpretation the traditional medieval formula about beauty as “proportion” and “clarity”.

Nikolai Kuzansky develops his concept of beauty in his treatise “On Beauty”. Here he relies mainly on the Areopagitica and on Albertus Magnus's treatise On Goodness and Beauty, which is one of the commentaries on the Areopagitica. From the Areopagitik, Nicholas of Cusa borrows the idea of the emanation (origin) of beauty from the divine mind, of light as a prototype of beauty, etc. Nikolai Kuzansky expounds all these ideas of Neoplatonic aesthetics in detail, providing them with comments.

The aesthetics of Nicholas of Cusa unfolds in full accordance with his ontology. The basis of being is the following dialectical trinity: complicatio - folding, explicatio - unfolding and alternitas - otherness. This corresponds to the following elements - unity, difference and connection - which lie in the structure of everything in the world, including the basis of beauty.

In his treatise “On Beauty,” Nikolai Kuzansky considers beauty as the unity of three elements that correspond to the dialectical trinity of being. Beauty turns out to be, first of all, an infinite unity of form, which manifests itself in the form of proportion and harmony. Secondly, this unity unfolds and gives rise to the difference between goodness and beauty, and, finally, a connection arises between these two elements: realizing itself, beauty gives rise to something new - love as the final and highest point of beauty.

Nikolai Kuzansky interprets this love in the spirit of Neoplatonism, as an ascent from the beauty of sensual things to a higher, spiritual beauty. Love, says Nikolai Kuzansky, is the ultimate goal of beauty, “our concern should be to ascend from the beauty of sensual things to the beauty of our spirit...”.

Thus, the three elements of beauty correspond to the three stages of development of being: unity, difference and connection. Unity appears in the form of proportion, difference - in the transition of beauty into goodness, connection is carried out through love.

This is the teaching of Nicholas of Cusa about beauty. It is quite obvious that this teaching is closely related to the philosophy and aesthetics of Neoplatonism.

The aesthetics of Neoplatonism significantly influenced not only the theory, but also the practice of art. Studies of the philosophy and art of the Renaissance have shown a close connection between the aesthetics of Neoplatonism and the work of outstanding Italian artists (Raphael, Botticelli, Titian and others). Neoplatonism revealed to the art of the Renaissance the beauty of nature as a reflection of spiritual beauty, aroused interest in human psychology, and revealed dramatic collisions of spirit and body, the struggle between feelings and reason. Without revealing these contradictions and collisions, the art of the Renaissance could not have achieved that deepest sense of internal harmony, which is one of the most significant features of the art of this era.

The famous Italian humanist philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) was affiliated with Plato's Academy. He touches on problems of aesthetics in his famous “Speech on the Dignity of Man,” written in 1486 as an introduction to his proposed debate with the participation of all European philosophers, and in “Commentary on the Canzone of Love by Girolamo Benivieni,” read at one of the meetings of Plato’s Academy .

In his Oration on the Dignity of Man, Pico develops a humanistic concept of the human person. Man has free will, he is at the center of the universe, and it depends on him whether he rises to the heights of a deity or sinks to the level of an animal. In the work of Pico della Mirandola, God addresses Adam with the following parting words: “We do not give you, O Adam, neither your place, nor a specific image, nor a special duty, so that you have a place, and a person, and a duty according to at will, according to your will and your decision. The image of other creations is determined within the limits of the laws we have established. You, not constrained by any limits, will determine your image according to your decision, into the power of which I leave you. I place you at the center of the world, so that from there it will be more convenient for you to view everything that is in the world. I made you neither heavenly nor earthly, neither mortal nor immortal, so that you yourself... could form yourself in the image that you prefer.”

Thus, Pico della Mirandola forms in this work a completely new concept of human personality. He says that man himself is the creator, the master of his own image. Humanistic thought places man at the center of the universe and speaks of the unlimited possibilities for the development of the human personality.

The idea of the dignity of the human person, deeply developed by Pico della Mirandola, firmly entered the philosophical and aesthetic consciousness of the Renaissance. Outstanding Renaissance artists drew their optimism and enthusiasm from it.

A more detailed system of aesthetic views of Pico della Mirandola is contained in the “Commentary on the Canzone of Love by Girolamo Benivieni.”

This treatise is closely related to the Neoplatonic tradition. Like most of the works of the Italian Neoplatonists, it is devoted to Plato’s teaching on the nature of love, and love is interpreted in a broad philosophical sense. Pico defines it as “the desire for beauty,” thereby connecting Platonic ethics and cosmology with aesthetics, with the doctrine of beauty and the harmonious structure of the world.

The doctrine of harmony thus occupies a central place in this philosophical treatise. Speaking about the concept of beauty, Pico della Mirandola states the following: “The concept of harmony is associated with the broad and general meaning of the term “beauty”. Thus, they say that God created the whole world in musical and harmonic composition, but just as the term “harmony” in a broad sense can be used to designate the composition of every creation, and in its proper sense it means only the fusion of several voices into a melody, so beauty can be called the proper composition of any thing, although its own meaning applies only to visible things, like harmony - to audible things.”

Pico della Mirandola was characterized by a pantheistic understanding of harmony, which he interpreted as the unity of the micro- and macrocosm. “...Man, in his various properties, has connections and similarities with all parts of the world and for this reason is usually called a microcosm - a small world.”

But, speaking in the spirit of the Neoplatonists about the meaning and role of harmony, about its connection with beauty, with the structure of nature and the cosmos, Mirandola to a certain extent departs from Ficino and other Neoplatonists in understanding the essence of harmony. For Ficino, the source of beauty is in God or in the world soul, which serve as the prototype for all nature and all things that exist in the world. Mirandola rejects this view. Moreover, he even enters into direct polemics with Ficino, refuting his opinion about divine origin world soul. In his opinion, the role of the creator god is limited only to the creation of the mind - this “incorporeal and intelligent” nature. God no longer has any connection with everything else - the soul, love, beauty: “... according to the Platonists, says the philosopher, God did not directly produce any other creation other than the first mind.”

Thus, Pico della Mirandola's concept of God is closer to the Aristotelian concept of the prime mover than to Platonic idealism.

The center of the development of aesthetic thought of the Renaissance in the 15th century was the aesthetics of the greatest Italian artist and humanist thinker Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472).

In Alberti’s numerous works, including works on the theory of art, the pedagogical essay “On the Family,” and the moral and philosophical treatise “On the Peace of the Soul,” humanistic views occupy a significant place. Like most humanists, Alberti shared an optimistic thought about the limitless possibilities of human knowledge, about the divine destiny of man, about his omnipotence and exceptional position in the world. Alberti’s humanistic ideals were reflected in his treatise “On the Family”, in which he wrote that nature “made man partly heavenly and divine, partly the most beautiful among the entire mortal world... she gave him intelligence, understanding, memory and reason - properties that are divine and at the same time necessary in order to distinguish and understand what should be avoided and what should be strived for in order to better preserve ourselves.” This idea, in many ways anticipating the idea of Pico della Mirandola’s treatise “On the Dignity of Man,” permeates Alberti’s entire activity as an artist, scientist and thinker.

Being mainly engaged in artistic practice, especially architecture, Alberti, however, paid a lot of attention to issues of art theory. In his treatises - “On Painting”, “On Architecture”, “On Sculpture” - along with specific issues of the theory of painting, sculpture and architecture, general issues of aesthetics were widely reflected.

It should be noted right away that Alberti’s aesthetics does not represent some kind of complete and logically integral system. Individual aesthetic statements are scattered throughout Alberti's works, and quite a lot of work is required to somehow collect and systematize them. In addition, Alberti's aesthetics are not only philosophical discussions about the essence of beauty and art. In Alberti we find a broad and consistent development of the so-called “practical aesthetics,” that is, aesthetics arising from the application of general aesthetic principles to specific issues of art. All this allows us to consider Alberti as one of the largest representatives of aesthetic thought of the early Renaissance.

The theoretical source of Alberti's aesthetics was mainly the aesthetic thought of antiquity. The ideas on which Alberti relies in his theory of art and aesthetics are many and varied. This is the aesthetics of the Stoics with its demands for imitation of nature, with the ideals of expediency, the unity of beauty and benefit. From Cicero, in particular, Alberti borrows the distinction between beauty and decoration, developing this idea into a special theory of decoration. From Vitruvius, Alberti compares a work of art with the human body and the proportions of the human body. But the main theoretical source of Alberti's aesthetic theory is, undoubtedly, Aristotle's aesthetics with its principle of harmony and measure as the basis of beauty. From Aristotle, Alberti takes the idea of a work of art as a living organism; from him he borrows the idea of the unity of matter and form, purpose and means, harmony of part and whole. Alberti repeats and develops Aristotle’s thought about artistic perfection (“when nothing can be added, subtracted, or changed without making it worse”). This entire complex set of ideas, deeply meaningful and tested in the practice of modern art, lies at the basis of Alberti’s aesthetic theory .

At the center of Alberti's aesthetics is the doctrine of beauty. Alberti speaks about the nature of beauty in two books of his treatise “On Architecture” - the sixth and ninth. These considerations, despite their laconic nature, contain a completely new interpretation of the nature of beauty.

It should be noted that in the aesthetics of the Middle Ages, the dominant definition of beauty was the formula about beauty as “consonantia et claritas,” that is, about the proportion and clarity of light. This formula, having emerged in early patristics, was dominant until the 14th century, especially in scholastic aesthetics. In accordance with this definition, beauty was understood as the formal unity of “proportion” and “brilliance”, mathematically interpreted harmony and clarity of color.

Alberti, although he gave great importance the mathematical basis of art, does not, as medieval aesthetics does, reduce beauty to mathematical proportion. According to Alberti, the essence of beauty lies in harmony. To denote the concept of harmony, Alberti resorts to the old term “concinnitas,” which he borrowed from Cicero.

According to Alberti, there are three elements that make up the beauty of architecture. These are number (numerus), limitation (finitio) and placement (collocatio). But beauty represents more than these three formal elements. “There is something more,” says Alberti, “composed of the combination and connection of all these three things, something with which the whole face of beauty is miraculously illuminated. This we will call harmony (concinnitas), which, without a doubt, is the source of all charm and beauty. After all, the purpose and goal of harmony is to arrange parts, generally speaking, different in nature, by some perfect relationship so that they correspond to one another, creating beauty. And it is not so much in the whole body as a whole or in its parts that harmony lives, but in itself and in its nature, so that I would call it a participant in the soul and mind. And there is a vast field for it where it can manifest itself and flourish: it embraces the whole of human life, permeates the entire nature of things. For everything that nature produces is proportionate to the law of harmony. And nature has no greater concern than that what it produces is completely perfect. This cannot be achieved without harmony, because without it the highest harmony of the parts disintegrates.”

In this argument, Alberti should highlight the following points.

First of all, it is obvious that Alberti abandons the medieval understanding of beauty as “proportion and clarity of color,” returning, in fact, to the ancient idea of beauty as a certain harmony. He replaces the two-term formula of beauty “consonantia et claritas” with a one-term one: beauty is the harmony of parts.

This harmony itself is not only the law of art, but also the law of life; it “permeates the entire nature of things” and “encompasses the entire life of a person.” Harmony in art is a reflection of the universal harmony of life.

Harmony is the source and condition of perfection; without harmony, no perfection is possible, either in life or in art.

Harmony consists in the correspondence of the parts, and in such a way that nothing can be added or subtracted. Here Alberti follows the ancient definitions of beauty as harmony and proportionality. “Beauty,” he says, “is a strict proportionate harmony of all parts, united by what they belong to, such that nothing can be added, subtracted, or changed without making it worse.”

Harmony in art consists of various elements. In music, the elements of harmony are rhythm, melody and composition, in sculpture - measure (dimensio) and boundary (definitio). Alberti connected his concept of “beauty” with the concept of “decoration” (ornamentum). According to him, the difference between beauty and decoration should be understood by feeling rather than expressed in words. But still, he makes the following distinction between these concepts: “... decoration is, as it were, a kind of secondary light of beauty or, so to speak, its addition. After all, from what has been said, I believe it is clear that beauty, as something inherent and innate in the body, is diffused throughout the entire body to the extent that it is beautiful; and the decoration is more likely to be of the nature of an added rather than an innate one.”

The internal logic of Alberti’s thought shows that “decoration” is not something external to beauty, but constitutes its organic part. After all, any building, according to Alberti, without decorations will be “erroneous.” As a matter of fact, for Alberti “beauty” and “decoration” are two independent types of beauty. Only “beauty” is the internal law of beauty, while “decoration” is added from the outside and in this sense it can be a relative or accidental form of beauty. With the concept of “decoration,” Alberti introduced the moment of relativity and subjective freedom into the understanding of beauty.

Along with the concepts of “beauty” and “decoration,” Alberti uses a whole series of aesthetic concepts, borrowed, as a rule, from ancient aesthetics. He associates the concept of beauty with dignity (dignitas) and grace (venustas), following directly from Cicero, for whom dignity and grace are two types of (male and female) beauty. Alberti connects the beauty of a building with “necessity and convenience,” developing the Stoic thought about the connection between beauty and utility. Alberti also uses the terms “charm” and “attractiveness.” All this testifies to the diversity, breadth and flexibility of his aesthetic thinking. The desire for differentiation of aesthetic concepts, for the creative application of the principles and concepts of ancient aesthetics to modern artistic practice is a distinctive feature of Alberti’s aesthetics.

The way Alberti interprets the concept of “ugly” is characteristic. For him, beauty is an absolute object of art. The ugly appears only as a certain kind of error. Hence the requirement that art should not correct, but hide ugly and ugly objects. “Ugly-looking parts of the body and others like them, not particularly graceful, let them cover themselves with clothing, some kind of branch or hand. The ancients painted a portrait of Antigonus only from one side of his face, on which the eye was not knocked out. They also say that Pericles had a long and ugly head, and therefore he, unlike others, was depicted by painters and sculptors wearing a helmet.”

Problems of aesthetics occupy a significant place in the writings of the famous Italian philosopher, one of the founders of utopian socialism, Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639).

Campanella entered the history of science, primarily as the author of the famous utopia “City of the Sun”. At the same time, he made a significant contribution to Italian natural philosophical thought. He owns important philosophical works: “Philosophy Proven by Sensations”, “Real Philosophy”, “Rational Philosophy”, “Metaphysics”. Issues of aesthetics also occupy a significant place in these works. Thus, “Metaphysics” contains a special chapter - “On the Beautiful.” In addition, Campanella owns a short work, “Poetics,” devoted to the analysis of poetic creativity.

Campanella's aesthetic views are distinguished by their originality. First of all, Campanella sharply opposes the scholastic tradition, both in the field of philosophy and aesthetics. He criticizes all kinds of authorities in the field of philosophy, rejecting equally both the “myths of Plato” and the “fictions” of Aristotle. In the field of aesthetics, this criticism characteristic of Campanella is manifested, first of all, in the refutation of the traditional doctrine of the harmony of the spheres, in the assertion that this harmony is not consistent with the data of sensory knowledge. “It is in vain that Plato and Pythagoras imagine the harmony of the world to be similar to our music - they are as crazy in this as someone who would attribute to the universe our sensations of taste and smell. If there is harmony in the sky and among the angels, then it has different foundations and consonances than the fifth, fourth or octave.”

The basis of Campanella's aesthetic teaching is hylozoism - the doctrine of the universal animation of nature. Sensations are inherent in matter itself, otherwise, according to Campanella, the world would immediately “turn into chaos.” That is why the main property of all existence is the desire for self-preservation. In humans, this desire is associated with pleasure. “Pleasure is a feeling of self-preservation, while suffering is a feeling of evil and destruction.” The feeling of beauty is also associated with a sense of self-preservation, a feeling of fullness of life and health. “When we see healthy people, full of life, free, elegant, then we rejoice because we experience a feeling of happiness and preservation of our nature.”

Campanella also develops the original concept of beauty in the essay “On the Beautiful.” Here he does not follow any of the leading aesthetic trends of the Renaissance - Aristotelianism or Neoplatonism.

Rejecting the view of beauty as harmony or proportionality, Campanella revives Socrates' idea that beauty is a certain kind of expediency. The beautiful, according to Campanella, arises as the correspondence of an object to its purpose, its function. “Everything that is good for the use of a thing is called beautiful if it shows signs of such usefulness. A sword is called beautiful that bends and does not remain bent, and one that cuts and stabs and has a length sufficient to inflict wounds. But if it is so long and heavy that it cannot be moved, it is called ugly. A sickle suitable for cutting is called beautiful, so it is more beautiful when it is made of iron rather than gold. In the same way, a mirror is beautiful when it reflects the true appearance, and not when it is golden.”

Thus, Campanella's beauty is functional. It lies not in beautiful appearance, but in internal expediency. This is why beauty is relative. What is beautiful in one respect is ugly in another. “So the doctor calls the rhubarb that is suitable for cleansing beautiful, and the ugly that is not suitable. A melody that is beautiful at a feast is ugly at a funeral. Yellowness is beautiful in gold, because it testifies to its natural dignity and perfection, but it is ugly in our eyes, because it speaks of damage to the eye and illness.”

All these arguments largely repeat the provisions of ancient dialectics. Using the tradition coming from Socrates, Campanella develops a dialectical concept of beauty. This concept does not reject the ugliness in art, but includes it as a correlative moment of beauty.

The beautiful and the ugly - relative concepts. Campanella expresses a typically Renaissance view, believing that the ugly is not contained in the essence of being itself, in nature itself. “Just as there is no essential evil, but every thing by its nature is good, although for others it is evil, for example, as heat is for cold, so there is no essential ugliness in the world, but only in relation to those to whom it indicates evil. Therefore, an enemy appears ugly to his enemy, but beautiful to a friend. In nature, however, there is evil as a defect and a kind of violation of purity, which attracts things emanating from the idea to non-existence; and, as has been said, ugliness in essences is a sign of this lack and violation of purity.”

Thus, the ugly appears in Campanella as just some shortcoming, some violation of the usual order of things. The purpose of art is, therefore, to correct the deficiency of nature. This is the art of imitation. “Art,” says Campanella, “is an imitation of nature. The hell described in Dante's poem is called more beautiful than the paradise described there, since, in imitation, he showed more skill in one case than in the other - although in reality paradise is beautiful, hell is terrible.

In general, Campanella’s aesthetics contains principles that sometimes go beyond the boundaries of Renaissance aesthetics; the connection of beauty with utility, with human social feelings, the affirmation of the relativity of beauty - all these provisions indicate the maturation of new aesthetic principles in the aesthetics of the Renaissance.

Each figure of Humanism embodied or tried to bring his theories to life. Humanists not only believed in a renewed, happy intellectual society, but also tried to build this society on their own, organizing schools and giving lectures, explaining their theories ordinary people. Humanism covered almost all spheres of human life.

A significant difference between the culture of the Renaissance is humanism in its new European understanding. In ancient times, humanism was assessed as the quality of a well-mannered and educated person, elevating him above the uneducated. In the medieval era, humanism was understood as the qualities of the sinful, vicious nature of man, which placed him much lower than the angels and God. During the Renaissance, human nature began to be assessed optimistically; man is endowed with divine reason, capable of acting autonomously, without the tutelage of the church; sins and vices began to be perceived positively, as an inevitable consequence of life experimentation.

The task of educating a “new man” in the Renaissance is recognized as the main task of the era. The Greek word (“education”) is the clearest analogue of the Latin humanitas (where “humanism” comes from). Humanitas in the Renaissance concept implies not only the mastery of ancient wisdom, to which great importance was attached, but also self-knowledge and self-improvement. Humanitarian-scientific and human, learning and everyday experience must be united in a state of ideal virtu (in Italian, both “virtue” and “valor” - thanks to which the word carries a medieval-knightly connotation). Reflecting these ideals in a natural way, the art of the Renaissance gives the educational aspirations of the era convincing and sensual clarity. Antiquity (that is, the ancient heritage), the Middle Ages (with their religiosity, as well as their secular code of honor) and Modern times (which placed the human mind and its creative energy at the center of its interests) are here in a state of sensitive and continuous dialogue.

Certain standards of good manners and education became the norm during the Renaissance; knowledge of classical languages, awareness of the history and literature of Hellas and Rome, the ability to write poetry and play music became a condition for occupying a worthy position in society. It was then that leading importance began to be given to reason and its ennoblement through upbringing and education. There was a conviction that it was possible to improve through studia humanitas ( humanities) the whole society. It was then that Thomas More (1478–1535) and Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639) came up with projects to build an ideal society.

Some researchers talk about a new type of human dignity that was established during the Renaissance. It was conveyed by the concept of virtu and was determined by a person’s personal qualities, his talents, and intellectual abilities. In previous eras, a person’s dignity depended not on himself, but on belonging to an estate-corporate organization, a clan or a civil community. The rethinking of the idea of virtu gave rise to a new desire of man to demonstrate his talents and abilities, the desire for fame and material success as public recognition your talents. It was then that competitions for sculptors, artists, musicians, public debates among intellectuals, and the crowning of the first poets with laurel wreaths began to be held. The sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (1381–1455), the architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446), the artists Giotto (1266–1337) and Masaccio (1401–1428), the poets Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) and Francesco Petrarca were recognized as the first in their fields of creativity. (1304–1374). Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) managed to excel in music, painting, invention, and engineering. Michelangelo (1475–1564) was recognized as the best in sculpture, but also in painting, architecture and poetry.

The ideal of life has changed. If previously the ideal of a contemplative life (vita contemplativa) dominated, then during the Renaissance the ideal of an active life (vita activa) was established. If previously innovation and experiment were condemned as sin and heresy, changing the natural world seemed unacceptable, now they have begun to be encouraged; passivity and monastic contemplation began to seem like a crime; The idea was established that God created nature to serve man and discover his talents. Hence the intolerant attitude towards inactivity and idleness. It was during the Renaissance that the principle was formulated: “time is money,” the author of which is called Alberti (1404–1472), but which every figure of the 15th–16th centuries could subscribe to. Then a decisive transformation of nature began, artificial landscapes began to be created, to which Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were involved. Interest in earthly life, its joys, and the thirst for pleasure became the leading motives in the artistic creativity of Francesco Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375), Ariosto (1474–1533), Francois Rabelais (1494–1553) and other Renaissance writers. The same pathos distinguished the work of Renaissance artists - Raphael (1483–1520), Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian (1490–1576), Veronese (1528–1588), Tintoretto (1518–1594), Bruegel (1525–1569), Rubens (1577–1640), Durer (1471–1528) and other painters.

The establishment of intellectual autonomy was greatly facilitated by criticism of the medieval type of thinking, its dogmatism, and suppression by authorities. The main argument against scholasticism and dogmatics was drawn from the ancient ideological heritage. A special role in this was played by Lorenzo Valla (1407–1457), Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527), Erasmus of Rotterdam (1467–1536), Michel Montaigne (1533–1592) and others.
During the Renaissance, the leading role of the urban population was determined: not only the intellectual elite, but also merchants and artisans, who were the most dynamic groups of Renaissance society. By the end of the 15th century, the level of urbanization in Northern Italy and Northern France reached fifty percent. The cities of these regions of Europe had the greatest monetary savings, which were invested in the development of the arts and education.

The specificity of the Renaissance is by no means exhausted by the restoration of the ideals of antiquity and the denial of the dull atmosphere of the Middle Ages. During the Renaissance, a person begins to realize his not only spiritual, but also physical individuality and uniqueness. To realize and develop the individualistic manifestations of human nature, appropriate means were also needed. These, starting from the 14th century, were the disciplines dealing with human knowledge, that is, history, literature, philosophy and rhetoric. The concepts of “studia humanitais” and “studia humaniora”, dating back to Cicero, were updated, denoting humanitarian (i.e., studying the actual person) disciplines, and their teachers began to be called humanists (humanista). Subsequently, almost all figures of the Renaissance were called this way, and the concept of humanism also designated a new direction cultural development era, the core of which was the anthropocentric worldview.

The language of the humanistic movement became Latin (the classical language of Cicero, Horace, Seneca). One of the first researchers of the culture of Italy during the Renaissance, the Swiss philosopher Jacob Burckhardt noted that Latin language during this period it was so popular that even children knew Latin perfectly. Seven-year-old children wrote Latin letters, and among four-year-old children there were speakers who amazed the audience with pure Latin speech.

Humanists have done a lot not only to revive the ancient language, but also to restore its authentic texts. They began to restore the forgotten works of Greek and Roman authors, recreating original texts instead of those distorted in the Middle Ages. The many texts of ancient authors that we have modern science, were collected and recreated precisely by humanists.

Renaissance humanism placed the natural beauty of man and his spiritual self-affirmation in the world on a pedestal. It arises fundamentally new model a world in which the main event is a person. The personality is declared the center of the Universe and the goal of progress. The Renaissance man begins to feel like a true subject of his own life and a subject of history.

Humanism is rapidly developing as an ideological movement, it captures merchant circles, finds like-minded people in the courts of tyrants, penetrates into the highest religious spheres, becomes a powerful weapon of politicians, establishes itself among the masses, leaves a deep mark in folk poetry, architecture, and provides rich material for the search for artists and sculptors . Under the influence of humanism, a new secular intelligentsia is emerging. Its representatives organize circles, give lectures at universities, and act as the closest advisers to sovereigns. Humanists bring freedom of judgment, independence in relation to authorities, and a bold critical spirit to spiritual culture. They are full of faith in the limitless possibilities of man and affirm them in numerous speeches and treatises. For humanists, there is no longer a hierarchical society in which a person is only a representative of the interests of the class. Humanists express the requirement of the historical situation - they form an enterprising, active, enterprising person: a person forges his own destiny, and the providence of the Lord has nothing to do with it, a person lives according to his own understanding, he is “set free”*.

Lays the cornerstone of a new worldview Dante Alighieri (1265-1324) - “the last poet of the Middle Ages and the first poet of the New Age.” The great synthesis of poetry, philosophy, theology, and science created by Dante in The Divine Comedy is both the result of the development of medieval culture and the approach to the new culture of the Renaissance. Faith in the earthly destiny of man, in his ability to accomplish his earthly feat on his own, allowed Dante to make the Divine Comedy the first hymn to the dignity of man.

In The Divine Comedy, Dante uses a plot familiar to the Middle Ages - he depicts himself traveling through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, accompanied by the long-dead Roman poet Virgil. The work is full of pictures of life in contemporary Italy and is full of symbolic images and allegories.

Of all the manifestations of divine wisdom, man for Dante is “the greatest miracle.” This position was also characteristic of creativity Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374), philosopher and brilliant lyric poet, who is often called the founder of the humanist movement in Italy. The ideas of personality, a new vision of man as a free and perfect being are also developed by philosophers, writers and poets Gianozzo Manetti (“On the Dignity and Superiority of Man”), Lorenzo Valla (treatise “On Pleasure”), Pico della Mirandola ( essay “On the Dignity of Man”). Personal freedom has become central concept in essays Alamanno Rinuccini (a convinced republican, an ardent opponent of the Medici, Rinuccini considered freedom as the most important and indispensable condition for the moral improvement of individuals and societies; equality and justice in his ethics are the norm of social life).

Through the efforts of humanists, the clergy increasingly began to lose their authority and position due to a critical attitude towards the Church, priests, and scholastic education in the works of the great thinkers of the era. Thus, the critical attitude towards the Bible of the Dutch humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469-1536) made a revolutionary contribution to the development of the ideas of the Reformation; Erasmus’s “Praise of Folly” actively influenced changes in attitudes towards the Church and existing mores in society.

The Italian political thinker openly opposed the autocracy of the clergy in his book “The Prince.” Niccolo Machiavelli . He believed that, despite the fact that the republic is the most progressive form of government, in the current political situation of disunity and strife in Europe, it is not applicable. Unite people in single state Only a strong sovereign can. “With carrots and sticks” he must win the love of the people, force them to respect themselves for their strength and power. In his book, Machiavelli called for the church to deal only with spiritual issues and partly with the education of morality, while state power should become completely secular.

The main stages in the development of humanistic literature of the Renaissance generally coincide with the periods of the early, high and late Renaissance. The literature of the early Renaissance is characterized by the short story, especially the comic ( Boccaccio ), with an anti-feudal orientation, glorifying the enterprising and free from prejudices of the individual.

The High Renaissance was marked by the flowering of the heroic poem: in Italy - L. Pulci,F. Bernie , in Spain - L. Camoens , in the adventure-knightly plot of which the Renaissance idea of a man born for great deeds is poeticized. The original epic of the High Renaissance, a comprehensive picture of society and its heroic ideals in folk fairy-tale and philosophical-comic form, became the work Rabelais "Gargantua and Pantagruel".

Later, the Renaissance developed the pastoral genres of novel and drama. The Highest Rise of the Late Renaissance - Dramas Shakespeare and novels Cervantes , based on tragic or tragicomic conflicts between a heroic personality and a system of social life unworthy of a person.

The progressive humanistic content of Renaissance culture received vivid expression in theatrical art, which was significantly influenced by ancient drama. He is characterized by an interest in inner world a person endowed with the traits of a powerful individuality. Distinctive Features The theatrical art of the Renaissance was the development of folk art traditions, life-affirming pathos, a bold combination of tragic and comic, poetic and buffoonish elements. This is the theater of Italy, Spain, England. The highest achievement of the Italian theater was the improvisational comedy del arte (16th century). The Renaissance theater reached its greatest flowering in the works of Shakespeare.

Musical culture is not alien to the humanistic ideas of the Renaissance. During the Renaissance, professional music is no longer limited only to church canons, it is influenced by folk music, imbued with a new humanistic worldview. Various genres of secular musical art appeared - frottal and villanelle in Italy, villancico in Spain, ballad in England, madrigal, which originated in Italy but became widespread. Secular humanistic aspirations also penetrate into religious music. New genres of instrumentalism are emerging, and national schools of performing the lute and organ are emerging. The Renaissance ends with the emergence of new musical genres - solo songs, oratorios, opera.

Despite the lofty ideas of humanism and the exaltation of the perfect human personality, Renaissance society in many ways still lives by old medieval views and ideals. Problems of social relations are still solved with dagger and poison, conspiracies and wars. By cunning, resourcefulness, " double standards“The Borgia family, led by Pope Alexander VII himself, became famous - a murderer, robber and libertine, who, however, was endowed with brilliant talent statesman. The famous historian, poet and diplomat Machiavelli in his treatise “On the Prince” finds a justification for this: the ideal sovereign, he notes, must be able to combine the techniques of a fox and a lion, to be not only a man, but also a beast.

Researchers have repeatedly noted that good and evil were intertwined in the most bizarre way during the Renaissance. People have emerged from the Middle Ages, the high ideal of humanism has illuminated their spiritual life, but they are still new to freethinking. Harmony in the social order was not achieved, and uncontrollable passions possessed individuals, prompting them to act without stopping at anything and without thinking about the consequences.

The problem is that the emphasis on individuality, realized so powerfully and magnificently in the realm of art, turned out to be destructive to the social and political fabric of life in Renaissance society. Here individuality turns into clearly expressed individualism, the assertion of only one’s needs and desires, the degradation of humanistic morality. The spontaneous self-affirmation of individuality often turned out to be very far from the noble Renaissance humanism*.

In general, with all the diversity and, at times, contradictory nature of humanistic ideas and concepts, the main core of humanism remained anthropocentrism, according to which man is the center and highest goal of the universe.

Renaissance, humanism, anthropocentrism and individualism, human dignity, thirst for knowledge, information society

Annotation:

The article discusses the ideas of Renaissance humanists, which are in demand in the modern information society.

Article text:

In the 70s of the twentieth century, the industrial society was replaced by a post-industrial one, the distinctive feature of which is the widespread information technologies, and information resources are turning into a leading economic category. The transition to an industrial society is defined by the concept of “modernization”. The main stages of modernization are considered to be: Renaissance, Reformation, Industrial Revolution. The Renaissance was the initial stage of development industrial society. At this time, such values as self-respect and respect for the individual, the right to choose scientific research, etc. were established. These values were developed by the ideological movement of the 14th – 16th centuries. humanism, which approved A New Look per person. The ideas of the humanists of the Renaissance have not lost their significance today. Many achievements of that time had and continue to influence the development of modern society. IN transition period the formation of a paradigm for the development of society is also carried out through the use of ideas and achievements accumulated by humanity. The Renaissance refers to a period in the history of civilization when many humanistic principles were formulated. Their relevance continues to this day. Moreover, in modern conditions, humanitarian aspects in the development of society are highlighted as priorities. The dissemination of the experience accumulated by mankind is carried out through familiarization with the heritage outstanding people, in particular the humanists of the Renaissance.

The ideological trend of the Renaissance was humanism, in particular anthropocentrism and individualism, in which interest in man and faith in his limitless possibilities and virtues prevailed. A fundamentally new scientific and materialistic understanding of the world around us emerged, and the ideas of equality became widespread. Renaissance individualism awakened thought and will, and was aimed at maximizing the potential of man, the best aspects of the unique identity of the individual. The other side of individualism is the focus on the human person. According to the idea of anthropocentrism, man is the embodiment of the highest perfection and highest meaning of the universe, its natural center and true ruler, and therefore as the “measure of all things” (Protagoras’ formula).

These provisions are of great importance in modern conditions, since the most important role of humanitarian ideas for the development of mankind is recognized. Humanistic ideology was focused on the individual; but Renaissance individualism did not have the antisocial, morally destructive character that characterizes the reactionary individualism of the mature and late bourgeoisie. Nietzsche's definition of individualism as all-consuming egoism and social indifference has not yet disappeared in literature. In The Divine Comedy, Dante did not even allow the souls of people who lived their lives uselessly into hell. Leonardo da Vinci likened those who did not leave behind anything good or useful to people to an intestine with two holes, calling them “lurry fillers” and “kings of cattle.” He formulated his life conviction clearly: “It is better to lose the ability to move than to stop being useful” [cit. from: 17]. Petrarch wrote: “Philosophers teach to use valor in order to benefit, and not to use it for their own benefit.” Montemagno, reproaching the well-fed and dissolute slacker, exclaims: “Is there any mortal to whom you would ever be useful?..”.

A person should not live at the expense of others, but at the same time live a full life. A person must be useful to people. This question occupies an important place in the moral quest of humanists. We find reasoning in Lorenzo Valle, Poggio, and Alberti. The first two philosophers have thoughts about the opposition of the individual to society. Humanists do not see all the contradictions of bourgeois society, but they vaguely sense them. They think that they have found a way to harmoniously reconcile private and public interests. But the principle of social utility remains one of the integral components of the socio-ethical doctrine of Renaissance humanism. The main thing is that the great humanists were able to implement this principle practically: through tireless efforts for the good of their homeland (Petrarch, Salutati, Bruni), mental and creative work, inventions, discoveries (Alberti, Leonardo), the creation of a gigantic spiritual treasury, first of all, artistic values. Humanity will never cease to enjoy this treasury as long as it exists. Humanistic individualism demanded from a person the highest moral qualities and encouraged everyone to reach the heights of virtue and nobility through the effort of their own will, through their own labor.

And - glory. We are not talking about vanity, but about the heroic activity of the individual for the good of people, which leaves a grateful memory in descendants that A.S. Pushkin would call it “a noble sense of ambition.” The demand for a person’s right to glory, loudly declared in Renaissance humanism starting with Dante, clearly reveals the anti-feudal meaning of humanistic ethics: after all, in a feudal society, the individual was suppressed by religious and class traditions, a person’s manifestation of independence was condemned as the greatest sin of pride. “Let human pride be silent after the divine word has been spoken,” wrote the Venerable Peter. On the contrary, Renaissance individualism awakened thought and will, and was aimed at maximizing the potential of man, the best aspects of the unique identity of the individual. He did not allow a person to hide behind the screen of class and religion. Recognition of the high self-worth of the individual carried with it an indispensable requirement for her freedom and at the same time did not relieve everyone of her material debt. “Follow your path, and let people tell themselves whatever they want” - these words of Dante, which Marx put in the epigraph of his main scientific work, most clearly express the very essence and historical significance of the humanistic emancipation of the individual and allow us to get closer to understanding the amazing internal moral strength , which created great innovators: Dante, Masaccio, Brunelleschi, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo.

Humanistic individualism required from a person exertion of strength and will, creative feat in the name of high virtue and noble glory. “Light the very light of valor,” Petrarch urged, “break through difficulties with all your might, rise above the high.” Humanism did not call man to the passive contemplation praised by the church. Valor, Petrarch wrote, “is always restless and always more agitated than others... always in action.” This is why the ideology of humanism was able to give birth and inspire the titans of the Renaissance.

Related to this is another important aspect of Renaissance individualism: the focus on the human personality. Probably never before has the Socratic slogan “Know thyself” received such popularity, but also a new meaning: man, as the main, most interesting object of knowledge, displaces God. This is both the break with the Middle Ages and the resolution of its moral torment. In emancipatory individualism there was a powerful progressive force of humanism. He was addressed to a person: not to a nobleman, not to a merchant. His ideal was a person in general: a free, comprehensively developed, morally worthy, creative, socially active person. The merit of humanism is enormous both in spiritual emancipation and in the creative development of personality.

But this is also where his weakness was rooted. Humanists were convinced of the natural (moral) equality of people, that a person can achieve anything - just want to. This belief made it difficult to discern social inequality between people, to understand that education, the arts and sciences, and comprehensive personal development were not accessible to everyone. This revealed the fundamental internal contradiction of humanism as an anti-feudal ideology, but at the same time bourgeois, and therefore unable to rise above abstract humanism. And at the same time, this was the strength of humanism: historically limited, class-conditioned, from the very beginning it carried within itself the gift of high universal values.

One of key issues- the problem of human dignity. The source of nobility lies in ourselves - in the moral principles of the individual. “Nobility,” writes Coluccio Salutati, “is the best disposition given to us by nature towards all sorts of virtues and praiseworthy passions.” The theme of virtue - valor - becomes central in Renaissance humanism. Valor is not inherited from ancestors and cannot be secured by other people's merits, wealth, or titles. It is achieved through constant human efforts. “The truly noble,” wrote Petrarch, “are not born, but become.” And he makes a conclusion of decisive importance: “Which path of life you choose is the work of your hands.”

This puts forward a completely new moral principle: everyone is the creator of their own nobility. This principle was defended and proved by their personal example by humanists of different generations, but it was especially clearly expressed at the end of the 15th century by Pico della Mirandola in his “Speech on the Dignity of Man.” He puts into the mouth of God himself a declaration addressed to Adam about the moral sovereignty of man and the unlimited freedom of human will: “We do not give you, O Adam, neither your place, nor a certain image, nor a special duty, so that you may have a place, a person, and a duty.” had of his own free will: according to his own will and his own decision... so that you yourself, a free and glorious master, mold yourself in the image that you prefer... O the highest and most delightful happiness of a person who is given to own what he wants and be whoever he wants! . Pico proceeds from the biblical version of the creation of man by God, but in fact breaks with the fundamental postulate of religion about the complete and constant dependence of man on God's will. Moreover, it opens up limitless possibilities for freedom and improvement for man: God has placed in man “the seeds and embryos of heterogeneous life, and according to how each one cultivates them, they will grow and bear fruit in him.” He may fall to the level of an animal, but he may become "an angel and a son of God."

These statements by humanists looked like heresy in the eyes of the church and acted as a clear contradiction between humanists and the church. The moral side of this thought of humanists: everyone is the architect of their own happiness, which was the most important discovery of humanistic ethics. This postulate sounds quite often today; it is referred to by politicians, scientists, managers, etc.

Thus, the denial of class attachment inherent in feudal society, and likewise the denial of the age-old “truth” of faith about man’s dependence on God’s will, in turn led to that “discovery” - awakening, emancipation of the individual, which is usually designated by the concept of Renaissance individualism.

Breaking with the medieval ideal of man, humanism created its own moral ideal, which called man to knowledge. The thirst for knowledge becomes distinctive (very in tune with the modern situation, because modern society often defined as a knowledge society). Dante also proclaimed knowledge to be the first calling of man. This idea was developed by Petrarch. Faith caused him doubt: “Great faith often opened the way to great dangers.” In the Confessions, in his disputes with Augustine, he chooses as judge not God, not an angel or a saint, but truth. In the dialogues of the treatise “On Means Against Every Fate,” he sets out his social and ethical views on behalf of Reason.

“Man is born and destined for knowledge,” Manetti asserted. And the hero of Buonaccorso Montemagno’s treatise “On Nobility” admits: “By nature, a thirst for knowledge was inherent in me.” And nothing seemed to him “more worthy than to know the truth.” He considers wisdom to be an inalienable property of man. Thus, contrary to the demands of the church, humanism put forward the demand for knowledge as the highest duty of man. Montemagno is convinced that without knowledge of “all the best arts” a person cannot achieve nobility. Those who surpassed others in mastering knowledge not only achieved the highest nobility, but rose “almost to deity.” Gianozzo Manetti argues that “without knowledge, people ceased to be people at all.” He shows that knowledge and action, as the highest duty of man, make him similar to the angels and to God himself. These were new and bold ideas. After all, according to the Bible, God expelled the first people from paradise because they wanted to try the apple from the tree of knowledge, and, therefore, become equal to the gods.

A high assessment of the importance of man and his activities not only crossed out the medieval ideal of asceticism - contempt for the world and for man, not only morally elevated a person. It meant, in essence, the birth of a new picture of the world, in which the center became not God, but man. This was a turn from age-old theocentrism to anthropocentrism. It was anthropocentrism that became the central, supporting idea of humanism.

For Manetti, there is no doubt that “man... is something best... and even more than the best.” It was for the sake of man that the world was created, all its benefits and beauties. Manetti does not break with the idea that the world was created by God, but “most of what can be seen in the world was arranged and ordered by people... thanks to their various works.” This means that man himself is a creator, similar to God, and even surpasses him. The humanist comes to the idea, which is completely unacceptable for religion, that the creation of the world by God was only “initial and not yet completed” and only later “everything was invented, manufactured and brought to perfection by us.” Man turns out to be an even better creator and artist than God: created by God, “the world and its beauties... were made (by people) much more beautiful and excellent and decorated with much greater taste.” And all this is not by God’s inspiration, but only “thanks to... the exceptional sharpness of human thought” and the work of people.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Manetti declares “ours,” that is, belonging to people, cultivated fields, gardens, houses, towers, cities. He goes further and declares mountains, plains, streams, rivers, seas, grasses, trees - all earthly nature - to be the property of people. To this he adds air, and even transcendental ether. Man also lays claim to space. “Why say more? – writes Manetti. “We own the heavens, the stars, the constellations, the planets.” Thus, man appropriates for himself what religion has always considered the self-evident property of God - the celestial luminaries and the “heaven” itself, the abode of the deities. Thus man is proclaimed the ruler of the Universe. But this is not the limit. Man lays claim even to those invisible creatures with which religion has populated the world and which it has unconditionally subordinated to God. “Ours,” writes Manetti, “are the angels, who, according to the apostle, as spiritual leaders are considered created for the benefit of people.”

The reference to the apostle cannot obscure the sacrilegious, from the point of view of religion, attempt by a humanist on the inalienable property, the right of God. Indeed, as a result of this peculiar thought, God lost everything, became powerless, and man, this, according to religion, “a creature of God,” always and in everything dependent on the Almighty, became powerful. He is the true ruler of the world. Manetti writes: “From all that has been said... it follows directly and undoubtedly that man is the richest and most powerful, since he can use of his own will everything that has been created, and of his own will to dominate and command.”

This reveals the contrast between religious and humanistic anthropocentrism. The first, claiming that God placed man above all other earthly creatures, that he loves man most of all and constantly cares about his well-being, immediately conditioned this position with the indispensable requirement that man love God most of all, tirelessly glorify him and strictly obey him. It could not be otherwise in a religious worldview, where the starting point is always God.

On the contrary, man became the starting point of humanistic anthropocentrism. He was seen as the embodiment of the highest perfection and highest meaning of the universe, as its natural center and true ruler, and therefore as the “measure of all things” (Protagoras’ formula, which gained wide popularity during the Renaissance). Such real anthropocentrism inevitably took away God's imaginary power and put in his place man - sovereign, wise, strong in his mind and work, the mighty ruler of the world. Rebellious anthropocentrism became the foundation of humanistic freethinking.

The problem of human dignity was brought to the fore in this era not only by the need to throw off the shackles of class discrimination. After a millennium of dominance of the Christian-ascetic ideology, which proceeded from the dogma of “original sin”, which supposedly inexorably weighs on people, about the depravity and insignificance of man, and in contrast to this ideology, humanism was supposed to morally rehabilitate man, establish his moral sovereignty, justify his high dignity, its limitless possibilities for improvement and creativity.

Petrarch began the battle for human dignity. Already in secret confession he had to withstand the onslaught of militant asceticism. Augustine insistently inspires: “Look at man, how naked and ugly he is. He is more pitiful than the most insignificant worm." Human body seems “disgusting” to him. Augustine reproaches Francis (Petrarch) for being “proud of the good qualities of his body” and rejoicing in its power and flourishing health. Here the views of the first humanist on the physical nature of man do not coincide with the requirements of Catholic orthodoxy.

Later, in his large essay “On Remedies Against Every Fate,” Petrarch will begin an ardent defense of the human body - the primary proof of human dignity: it “has a pleasant appearance, a calm and upward gaze... Only to man has Mother Nature given a gaze and a forehead that reflects the secrets of the soul.” Coluccio Salutati will already say openly: “Man is the center of the universe.”

In the struggle against religious asceticism in the 15th century. the problem of human dignity will remain central to Italian humanism. In 1451 Gianozzo Manetti will write a treatise “On the Dignity and Superiority of Man.” Here he boldly enters into an open dispute with church authority - Pope Innocent III, who wrote at the end of the 12th century. treatise “On contempt for the world, or about insignificance human condition“, where man is a pitiful and disgusting creature, and it is the body, the physical nature of man that was attacked by the author.

Manetti begins his proof of the “greatest and immeasurable glory of mankind” by examining the body. The humanist expressed "admiration for the human body." “With extraordinary delight,” he describes all the advantages, “the magnificent qualities of our body.” He seeks an explanation for the perfection of the “noble and excellent” senses, as well as the human mind. Manetti sees the most important evidence of the perfection of the human mind in the extraordinary development of the sciences and arts. He often refers to the achievements of Renaissance scientists and artists. Manetti looks for the most important manifestations of the “great and brilliant” power of the human mind in the tools invented by man, and in the “great and wonderful deeds” accomplished with the help of these tools. He is admired by man's successes in inventing and building ships, in sailing unknown seas and oceans, in discovering new lands. Celebrating human ingenuity, Manetti admires both the Egyptian pyramids and the dome of the Florence Cathedral, built by Philip Brunelleschi without a wooden or iron frame. Before Voltaire, Manetti so highly appreciated and glorified human inventions. He appears as a true son of the active and inventive Florence.

Manetti also glorified hard work, without which all these achievements of the human mind and creativity are not possible. He emphasizes the decisive importance of human hands, these “as if living instruments”, with the help of which a person can “perform various kinds of work and duties in various ... arts.”

Manetti writes with pride about everything that has been created by people. “All houses, all fortifications, all cities... all buildings on earth”, “tongues and various types writing”, “painting, sculpture, art, science”, “all tools” - all this is evidence of the wisdom, ingenuity and hard work of man. In the human race, Manetti sees the power of cultural progress: after all, man “does not allow the earth to become wild from ferocious animals and become deserted from the rough roots of plants; Thanks to his work, the plains, islands, and shores are covered with arable land and built up with cities.” Such a beautiful and powerful being cannot be considered as a nonentity. After God, man must be the organizer of the world.

So the humanists denied the basis religious philosophy- renunciation worldly life, and most importantly – torture of the flesh. Renaissance philosophers believed that a person is beautiful from birth: not only mentally, but also physically. The other side of the “city of God” erected by religion was the suppression of earthly life. Hence the ethical doctrine of asceticism: contempt for the world and man, the demand for escape from the world, “killing the flesh,” suppression of natural human phenomena. “Christ snatches a monk from the abyss of the world, like a shepherd snatches a lamb from the mouth of a wolf,” wrote in the 12th century. Bernard of Clairvaux. Therefore, there was a demand for constant mention of the insignificance of man: Pope Innocent III, in his treatise “On Contempt for the World,” argued that man is the most vile of creatures, and his life is a continuous chain of suffering and disasters.

Petrarch already urged a person to look at the world differently, and “you will see a lot that makes life happy and joyful.” Revealing the richness and beauty of nature, the dignity and perfection of the human body, he comes to a lasting affirmation of life: it is necessary “for you to rejoice with joy.” Everything has changed: nature and the world are beautiful, and man has been returned to the world for happiness.

There are two amazingly bold lines in Petrarch's poetry:

So enjoy yourself in this world,

And the road to heaven will be open to you.

But in this phrase there is no fear of God, where an indispensable condition for “salvation” is repentance and humiliation in earthly life. The appearance of a “heavenly goal” seems to have been preserved, but Christian ethics has acquired a different meaning. Asceticism, an indispensable component of religious morality, was rejected. Sorrow gave way to joy. Petrarch wrote that “nature has established (man) an indefinite end to life.” The humanist gave to nature what religion considers the indisputable privilege of God. Petrarch motivates this action of nature: “so that (man) always believes in the present and the near future.” He considers earthly existence to be the main thing for man, but has little faith in the afterlife promised by religion. These were not abstract arguments. Petrarch dissuaded his brother from joining the monastery. The continuator of his ideas, Coluccio Salutati, wrote to one of his friends on the same occasion: “Do not think... that the path to perfection consists in leaving people, avoiding the contemplation of pleasant things, enclosing oneself in a monastery, becoming a hermit.” The point is not in the negative attitude of humanists to the idea of \u200b\u200bcontempt for the world. The traditional religious ethics of suffering, the “contrition of the spirit” required by faith, was deeply alien to them. Petrarch, “following Cicero,” called sadness caused by “a certain pleasure in suffering” an evil that must be avoided by all means, “the word of the stone of the soul.”

It is not surprising that humanists differed with the church on issues such as life and death. Already in The Secret, Augustine repeatedly reproaches Francis (Petrarch) for not thinking much about death, and this is the first duty of a Christian. On the contrary, Francis admits that death interests him little, that life is more important to him.

Target human life is formulated in a new way, not according to church regulations. “We must,” says Niccolo Niccoli in Poggio’s dialogue, “strive for what reason and wisdom prescribe, namely, honesty and everything that makes us blissful and happy.” But religion rejected the opportunity to achieve bliss in an earthly, imperfect life. It was declared accessible only in the otherworldly, fictional world and only for those who on earth were obedient servants of God, strictly followed the laws of the church, without which it was not possible to achieve saving “grace.” The humanist doesn’t even remember this. The central problem of the “salvation” of the soul in the ethics of Christianity does not interest him. He identifies bliss with earthly happiness, which he considers completely achievable. It lies in the possession of human virtues (both intellectual and moral), in the all-round development of man, in his constant moral improvement. True happiness can only be honest. And the way to this is to follow the requirements of reason and wisdom. Humanists, in contrast to religious philosophy, believed that a person can be happy on earth. At the same time, he does not need to be close to God, but what is nearby is enough.

These ideas are in demand today, since it is man and his intellect that can determine the further path of development of our civilization. Professionalism, education, aspirations to do a lot for the benefit of himself and others determine the niche that he can occupy in society, in a certain social group etc.

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Revival, Renaissance, Rinagimento - this is how contemporaries spoke about this era, implying liberation, rise, renewal. They believed that they were reviving the human culture of antiquity after the dark, long medieval stagnation. It was a transitional era, which was accompanied by an extraordinary rise in all spheres of life. This era was truly “the era of titans in terms of the power of thought and education” [Burlina 1994: 12].

At the beginning of the 13th century, the European spirit finally stopped striving for death and turned to life, finding for itself at the very beginning of its journey a new source of strength - the long-forgotten and desecrated antiquity. “In manuscripts saved during the fall of Byzantium, in manuscripts dug from the ruins of Rome antique statues A new world appeared before the astonished West - Greek antiquity: before its bright images the ghosts of the Middle Ages disappeared; in Italy there came an unprecedented flowering of art, which was, as it were, a reflection of classical antiquity and which could never be achieved again” [Engels 1969: 79 - 80], - this is how F. Engels wrote about this era.

Renaissance culture arose in Italy in the mid-14th century. and reached a brilliant peak in X? - X?I centuries. This was a new type of culture, secular-rationalistic in its main orientation. Its origins and rapid development were largely due to the historical characteristics of the country and the specifics of the cultural evolution of European society in the late Middle Ages. The free Italian city-states gained economic power under conditions of political particularism. They relied on advanced forms of commercial and industrial entrepreneurship, banking, as well as monopoly positions in foreign trade and extensive lending to European rulers and nobility. Rich, prosperous, extremely active in the sphere of economics and politics, the cities of Italy became the basis for the formation of a new, Renaissance culture, then serving as a model for other European countries.

It is generally accepted that the concept of “Renaissance,” the Russian translation of which is the word “Renaissance,” was introduced by an art historian in the mid-16th century. Giorgio Vasari, who so called the time from 1250 to 1550, which, from his point of view, was the time of the revival of antiquity. In his “Lives of the most famous painters, sculptors and architects” (1550), Vasari introduces this term, speaking about the decline of painting, sculpture and architecture, which since antiquity “have fallen to their utter destruction,” but since “the nature of these arts is similar to nature and others, who, like human bodies, are born, grow, grow old and die,” it is possible “to understand the progressive progress of the revival of the arts and the perfection to which it has risen in our days” [Vasari 1956: 55].

Subsequently, the content of the term “Renaissance” evolved. The revival began to mean the emancipation of science and art from theology, a cooling towards Christian ethics, the emergence of national literatures, and a person’s desire for freedom from the limited Catholic Church. That is, the Renaissance, in essence, came to mean humanism.

The Renaissance began very modestly, quite innocently, and certainly not everywhere. The birthplace of the Renaissance is undoubtedly Florence, which some art historians quite often call “Italian Athens.” It was in Florence, and a little later - in Siena, Ferrara, Pisa, that circles of educated people called humanists formed. however, not in the modern - moral - meaning of this word, indicating philanthropy, respect for human dignity, but in a narrower - educational sense. After all, the term itself comes from the name of the circle of sciences that poetically and artistically gifted Florentines practiced - studia humanitas. These are those sciences that had as their object man and everything human, as opposed to studia divina - everything that studies the divine, that is, theology.

The Renaissance was the time of the formation of a fundamentally new culture and worldview, united by the concept of “humanism.” Significant changes have affected, in fact, all spheres of life - both material and spiritual. The legacy of the Middle Ages was partially rejected, partially subjected to serious revision, and many achievements of antiquity returned, practically from oblivion.

The main activity of the humanists was philological science. Humanists began to find, rewrite, and study first literary and then artistic monuments of antiquity, primarily statues. Moreover, in Florence - an ancient city founded in antiquity, and in Rome, and in Ravenna, and in Naples, the most Greek and Roman statues, painted vessels, amazingly beautiful, but dilapidated buildings have been preserved.

Italian humanists discovered the world of classical antiquity, searched for the works of ancient authors in forgotten repositories and painstaking work cleared them of distortions introduced by medieval monks. Their search was marked by fiery enthusiasm. When the silhouette of a monastery loomed in front of Petrarch, who is generally considered to be the first humanist, he literally trembled with the thought that there might be some kind of classical manuscript there. Others dug up fragments of columns, statues, bas-reliefs, and coins. “I raise the dead,” said one of the Italian humanists who devoted himself to archeology. And in fact, the ancient ideal of beauty was resurrected under that sky and on that earth that had been eternally dear to it. And this ideal, earthly, deeply human and tangible, gave birth in people to a great love for the beauty of the world and a persistent will to understand this world.

Human comprehension of a world filled with divine beauty becomes one of the ideological tasks of the Italian revivalists. The world attracts man because it is spiritualized by God. And what better way to help him understand the world than his own feelings? The human eye in this sense, according to the revivalists, has no equal. Therefore, during the Italian Renaissance, there was a keen interest in visual perception, painting and other spatial arts flourished. It is they, possessing spatial patterns, that allow us to more accurately and accurately see and capture divine beauty.

Certain features of humanism, as we noted above, are also present in ancient culture, but Renaissance humanism was more comprehensive and holistic. Humanism meant not only that man is recognized as the highest value, but also that man is declared the criterion of all value. IN last decades XV century The cult of man as an earthly god is emerging. Man is exalted in every possible way for his ability to self-knowledge and comprehend the entire system of the universe, he is considered as the central link of this system, and finally, in terms of his creative capabilities, he is compared with God.

Peering at a person, Gianozzo Manetti gives him the following description: “A figure, the noblest among all others, this is how she appears to those who look attentively at her, so that there can be no ambiguities or doubts about her at all. After all, the human figure is so straight and slender that, at one time, like all other animate beings, they are bowed and bent to the ground, man seems to be the only lord, king and ruler over them all, ruling, reigning and commanding in the universe in all justice. Looking for the reasons for his erect position and height, we find at least four of them among doctors. The first is the lightness of matter; Being foamy and airy, especially in comparison with the mother of other living beings, this matter rises upward with the help of other properties. The second is the release of a significant amount of heat; It is believed that the human body, compared to animals of the same size, contains a larger volume and more intense heat. The perfection of form is placed in third place, since the most perfect form of the human mind (intelligence) requires the same perfect and straight figure. The fourth reason provides a goal: after all, man by nature is born and designed for knowledge” [Manetti 139 - 140].

It is on man that all the interests of the artists and poets of the Renaissance are focused, who never tire of glorifying his strength, energy, beauty, and great significance in the world. All aesthetic, ethical and intellectual standards various types The titans of the Renaissance sought art, philosophical and social thought in man. Man was shown in literature and art as nature created him, in all the richness of his feelings and passions. Reviving the humanistic traditions of ancient art, the geniuses of the Renaissance depicted a physically beautiful, perfect person, glorifying him as an object of the highest, most holy love and worship.

The poeticization of man and everything human entailed an aesthetic perception of reality, a passion for the beautiful and sublime. What is new in this era is the extremely energetic promotion of the primacy of beauty, and, moreover, sensual, physical beauty. Renaissance thinkers talk about the beauty of the world and life almost in the spirit of pantheism, carefully peering into the beauty of nature and man, into the “beautiful details of the entire cosmos” [Losev 1982: 53].

At the end of the XIV - beginning of the XV centuries. began to take successful steps new system education and upbringing, and the pedagogical theme has become one of the most prominent in humanistic literature. It was considered both in special treatises (“On scientific and literary studies” by Leonardo Bruni, “On the education of young people” by Maffeo Veggio, “On noble morals and liberal sciences” by Pier Paolo Vergerio), and in works of a more general nature - in the essays “On the Family by Leona Baggista Alberti and Civil Life by Matteo Palmieri. All these authors were unanimous in the idea of the need for a secular orientation of the entire system of upbringing and education. Thus, Vergerio defended the secular orientation of education, emphasizing its moral and social objectives. He saw the purpose of education in the acquisition of versatile knowledge that shapes the mind and high morality and helps in life’s affairs.

The thoughts of Renaissance humanists were aimed at the formation of a free, comprehensively developed person, widely erudite, morally responsible and civically active. And despite the fact that they all spoke about respect for religion, they did not call for the renunciation of earthly joys and renunciation of the world. In the new complex of humanitarian disciplines, they saw a solid basis for the formation of a perfect person, capable of revealing his virtues in everyday activities, in civil life.

Interesting is the humanistic position of the outstanding figure of the Italian Renaissance, Leon Battista Alberti, who left a clear mark in various areas of Renaissance culture - in humanistic and artistic thought, in literature, architecture and science. The starting premise of Alberti's humanistic concept is man's integral belonging to the natural world, which he interprets in the spirit of pantheistic ideas as the bearer of the divine principle. A person included in the world order finds himself at the mercy of its laws - harmony and perfection. The harmony of man and nature rests on his ability to understand the world and build his existence on reasonable grounds. The humanist saw the main purpose of man in creation, creativity, which he interpreted broadly - from the work of a humble artisan to the heights of scientific and artistic activity.

Alberti shared the humanists' belief in the possibility social world on the paths of moral improvement of the individual and society, but at the same time he saw the “kingdom of man” in all the complexity of its contradictions: refusing to be guided by reason and knowledge, people sometimes become destroyers rather than creators of harmony in the earthly world.

It should be noted that for the aesthetics of the Renaissance, the most significant becomes the independently contemplated and independently changing human body, which was captured in the sculptural forms of the period of classical antiquity. The culture of the Renaissance adopted the ancient principle of physicality, making it the main direction of its humanistic searches. The human body, this bearer of artistic wisdom, for the individualistic thinking of the Renaissance was the expression of the primacy of the physical, human and humane, which distinguished the Renaissance from the cultural models that preceded it.

As a result, during the Renaissance, theoretical treatises appeared that proposed an organized system of human physical education. The spokesmen for progressive ideas were humanists, utopian socialists, doctors, and teachers. Among them are V. Feltre - Italian humanist, T. Campanella - Italian utopian, T. More - English humanist and writer, I. Mercurialis - Italian doctor, F. Rabelais - French humanist, A. Vesalius - Belgian professor of medicine, W. Harvey - English doctor, J.A. Kamensky - Czech humanist teacher and others. Their principles and pedagogical views coincide in many respects, and if they are summarized, they come down to the following:

1. The attitude towards knowledge of a person as a prison of the soul was rejected, i.e., on the contrary, it was preached that it is possible to know the anatomical, physiological, mental characteristics of the human body.
2. It was proposed to revive and disseminate the experience of physical education of antiquity (antiquity).
3. It was noted that the natural forces of nature contribute to physical improvement.
4. It was recognized that there is an inextricable relationship between physical and spiritual education [Goloshchapov 2001].

So, the humanism of the Renaissance for more than two centuries determined the main direction of world cultural development. It developed into a broad worldview, which was based on new ideas about the place of man in the system of the universe and his earthly purpose, about the nature of the relationship between the individual and society, about the importance of culture in the perfect structure of individual and social existence. Humanists, with their tireless ideological searches, sharply expanded the horizons of knowledge and its sources, and highly raised the importance of science. They developed the ideas of anthropocentrism and exalted the creative and cognitive capabilities of man as an “earthly God.” Humanistic thought had a serious influence on various areas of Renaissance culture, stimulating innovation and creative achievements.

An integrated approach to man as the crown of creation in the synthesis of his physical and spiritual qualities, developed by the greatest minds of mankind, later allowed the genius of Pierre de Coubertin to put forward and implement the idea Olympic Games of our time, combining the ancient tradition, rethought by the humanists of the Renaissance, with the needs of people of modern times.

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