Humanism - the exaltation of man

If in medieval society there were very strong corporate and class ties between people, and a medieval person was perceived as more valuable as a person, the more his behavior corresponded to the norms adopted in the corporation and he asserted himself through the most active inclusion with a social group, in a corporation, in a divinely established order. Then in the Renaissance, on the contrary, the individual acquires a much greater independence, he increasingly represents not one or another union, but himself. Hence, a new self-consciousness of a person and his new social position grows: pride and self-affirmation, the consciousness of one's own strength and talent become the distinctive qualities of a person.

In other words, medieval man considered himself entirely obliged to traditions, even if he made a significant contribution to them, and the Renaissance individual is inclined to attribute all his merits to himself. At the same time, the desire to become an outstanding master - an artist, poet, scientist, etc. - the general atmosphere surrounding gifted people with literal religious worship promotes: they are now honored as heroes in antiquity, and in the Middle Ages - saints. The diversified individual became the ideal of the Renaissance man.

It is with this that the concept of "humanism" is connected, because the well-known Roman orator Cicero said that humanism is the upbringing and education of a person, contributing to his elevation. Therefore, in improving the spiritual nature of a person, the main role was assigned to a complex of disciplines, consisting of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, ethics. It was these disciplines that became the theoretical basis of the Renaissance culture and received the name "studia humanitatis" (humanitarian disciplines).

Considering "humanism", it should be noted that it was the Renaissance that gave the world a number of outstanding individuals who had a bright temperament, all-round education, who stood out among the rest for their will, determination, tremendous energy.

The main center of the humanist movement in all its aspects was Florence, which can be called the capital of the Italian Renaissance. The great poet and thinker Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was born here and spent many years of his politically very active life. the primary source of the most important ideas of the humanistic worldview - "The Divine Comedy" - the initial document of humanistic thought is Dante's interest in man, for "of all manifestations of divine wisdom, man is the greatest miracle." Moreover, this interest is deeply social, because the fate of a "noble man" is by no means predetermined by the convention of being born in a particular class rank and should be formed not on the basis of his "animal share", but on the basis of a relentless striving for "valor and knowledge."

However, with Dante, the perishable world of the earth is opposed by the eternal peace of heaven. And in this confrontation, the role of the middle link is played by a person, for he is involved in both worlds. The mortal and immortal nature of man also determines his dual purpose: extraterrestrial existence and human bliss realizable on earth. Earthly destiny is realized in civil society, and the church leads to eternal life. Thus, man realizes himself in earthly destiny and in eternal life. The separation of the earthly and the afterlife raises the problem of the church abandoning its claims to secular life.

If Dante is the inspirer of many humanists, then the generally recognized founder of the humanist movement is Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374), who managed to overcome the theocentrism of the Middle Ages. Addressing the problems of human existence, F. Petrarch declares: "The celestials should discuss the heavenly, but we - the human." Earthly concerns are the primary duty of man and in no case should be sacrificed to the afterlife. The old stereotype of contempt for the earthly gives way to the ideal of man in his worthy earthly existence. As a result, the subject of philosophy is the earthly life of man, his activities. The task of philosophy is not the opposition of the spiritual and the material, but the disclosure of their harmonious unity. A new ethics is also being formed, based on the unity of the soul and body, the equality of the spiritual and the body. It is absurd to care for one soul, for it follows the nature of the body and cannot act without it. “In nature itself lies beauty, and a person should strive for pleasure and overcome suffering,” notes Casimo Raimondi. Earthly bliss, as an existence worthy of man, should become a prerequisite for heavenly bliss. Overcoming savagery and barbarism, a person says goodbye to his insignificance and acquires a truly human condition.

Another representative of the era of humanism is Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457), whose work can be considered a true hymn to individualism. In his main philosophical essay, On Pleasure, Valla proclaims the desire for pleasure as an inalienable property of man. The measure of morality for him is personal good. “I cannot sufficiently understand why someone wants to die for their homeland .. You are dying because you don’t want your homeland to perish, as if it would not perish with your death.” Such a worldview position looks like an antisocial one.

As a summary, we can say that the philosophy of humanism "rehabilitated" the world and man, posed, but did not solve the problem of the relationship between the divine and the natural, the infinite and the finite.

Anthropocentrism - man, not God at the center of research

Another critical hallmark the worldview of the Renaissance is human orientation. If the focus of the philosophy of antiquity was natural and cosmic life, and in the Middle Ages - religious life- the problem of "salvation", then in the Renaissance secular life comes to the fore, human activity in this world, for the sake of this world, to achieve human happiness in this life, on Earth. Philosophy is understood as a science that is obliged to help a person find his place in life. The philosophical thinking of this period can be characterized as anthropocentric. The central figure is not God, but man. God is the beginning of all things, and man is the center of the whole world. Society is not a product of God's will, but the result of human activities. A person in his activities and intentions cannot be limited by anything. He can do anything, he can do anything.

How does the Renaissance understanding of man differ from the ancient and medieval?

One of the humanists of the 15th century in his famous "Speech on the Dignity of Man" wrote: "You, man, were created neither heavenly, nor earthly, nor mortal, nor immortal! For you yourself must, according to your will and your honor, be your own artist and architect and create yourself out of your own material. You are free to descend to the lowest level of animality. But you can also ascend to the higher realms of the divine. You can be what you want. "

Thus, man here is not just a natural being, he is the creator of himself and this is what distinguishes him from other natural beings. He is the master of all nature. This biblical motive has now been significantly transformed: in the Renaissance, the belief in the sinfulness of man and the corruption of human nature, characteristic of the Middle Ages, gradually weakens, and as a result, man no longer needs divine grace for his salvation. As a person realizes himself as the creator of his own life and destiny, he also turns out to be an unlimited master over nature.

Since man no longer needs the grace of God, he himself is now a creator, and therefore the figure of the artist-creator becomes, as it were, a symbol of the Renaissance. From now on, the artist imitates not just the creations of God, but the very divine creativity. Therefore, in the Renaissance, a cult of beauty arose, and painting, depicting primarily a beautiful human face and a human body, became in this era the dominant art form. The great artists - Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, the perception of the Renaissance receives its highest expression.

Thus, now it is not God, but man who is placed in the center of attention.

Secularization - Liberation from Church Influence

The process of secularization - liberation from religion and church institutions - took place in all areas of cultural and social life. Not only economic and political life is acquiring independence in relation to the church, but also science, art, philosophy. True, this process takes place very slowly at first and proceeds in different ways in different European countries.

This process was facilitated by the largest crisis in the Roman Catholic Church. So the apogee of her moral decline and, the subject of special indignation was the sale of indulgences - letters of certification, testifying to the absolution of sins. Trade in them opened up the opportunity to atone for the crime without any remorse, as well as to buy the right to future misconduct. This caused violent indignation in many segments of the population.

Pantheism - the formation of experimental sciences and the formation of a scientific and materialistic understanding, free from theology

In solving ontological problems, the philosophy of the Renaissance was guided mainly by the works of Plato.

The revival of Platonism in Italy was facilitated by the activities of George Plithon (1360-1452), who in his work "Laws" makes an attempt to overcome the gap between the divine and the natural, seeks to substantiate the idea of eternity and the uncreatedness of the world, preserving God as the primary cause. That is, the world is not the result of God's alienation, but the very image of God open to knowledge, i.e. the world is God.

Nikolai Kuzansky (1401-1464) is also actively working on the idea of the world as God, trying to solve the problem of the relationship between the world and God, not in a theological reading, but in a philosophical study.

The following conclusions can be noted:

The doctrine of the infinity of the cosmos called into question the theological-scholastic ideas about the Universe and was a direct consequence of the solution to the question of the relationship between God and the world. God in the philosophy of Kuzansky receives the name of the absolute maximum, or the absolute, which is not something outside the world, but is in unity with it. God, embracing all that exists, contains the world in himself. This interpretation of the relationship between God and the world characterizes the philosophical teaching of Kuzansky as pantheism, the most important feature which is the impersonality of a single divine principle and its maximum proximity to nature. According to the pantheistic teachings of Kuzansky, the world, absorbed by God, cannot have an independent existence. The consequence of this dependence of the world on God is its infinity: the world has “everywhere a center and nowhere a circle. For its circumference and center is God, who is everywhere and nowhere. " The world is not infinite, otherwise it would be equal to God, but "it cannot be thought of as finite, since it has no limits between which it would be closed."

In the cosmology of Kuzansky, the doctrine of the Earth as the center of the Universe was rejected, and the absence of a fixed center led him to the recognition of the motion of the Earth. In his treatise On Scientific Ignorance, he directly says:

".... Our Earth is actually moving, even though we do not notice it."

It would be wrong to see in the cosmological constructions of Kuzansky a direct anticipation of Copernicus' heliocentrism. Rejecting the central position and immobility of the Earth, he did not give preference to any particular pattern of movement of celestial bodies. But by shaking the traditional ideas about the World, he opened the way to liberating cosmology from religious interpretation.

Closely connected with pantheistic ontology and cosmology in Kuzansky and his doctrine of man. The ratio of the maximum “rolled up” in God and the infinity “deployed” in the cosmos is reflected in the “small world” of human nature (the cosmos is reflected in the microcosm). As the cosmos is contained in a collapsed form in God, so the absolute nature of Christ is a collapsed state of human nature.

The assimilation of man to God is carried out on the path of knowledge of the world. Moreover, the possibility of a person's knowledge of the world is not limited to the interpretation and interpretation of Holy Scripture. This possibility is inherent in the very nature of the human mind, in its practical activity. Just as God unfolds the world from himself, so man unfolds from himself the objects of reason. The human mind is based on sensations combined with imagination. The beginning of the process of cognition is impossible without sensory arousal. With this, Kuzaksky essentially lays the foundations of philosophical epistemology - the theory of knowledge, in which the highest forms cognitive activities sensations and perceptions precede.

Kusansky also touches upon the problem of the Middle Ages about the relationship between faith and reason. Without specifying the priorities, the thinker notes that faith is the way to comprehend God in his "folded" state, cognition of the "expanded" world (God) is a matter of reason. And this activity of the mind cannot be replaced by faith. The path of reason should not be confused with the path of faith, and vice versa.

If N. Kuzansky mainly examines the problems of ontology and epistemology through the prism of Platonism, then Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) pays more attention to socio-ethical problems, in the center of which is the person. Through the efforts of Ficino, the Florentine Platonic Academy was created - a humanistic circle The works created by like-minded people became something like official philosophy, or the state policy of the city, or even religion. The name of the circle is borrowed from the one that actually existed in Ancient Greece philosophical school under the leadership of Plato, in which a wide range of disciplines was developed: philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, natural science, etc. The meetings were held in the grove, in which, according to legend, the mythical hero Akadem was buried, therefore the grove, and later the school, received the name "Academy ".

It was a free community of like-minded people who were in love with Plato and gathered for scholarly conversations about him - a platonic family, as the members of the academy called it. This included representatives of the most diverse professions and estates: the physician and clergyman Marsilio Ficino, the count and philosopher Pico della Mirandola, the poet Luigi Pulci, professor of Latin and Greek eloquence Angelo Poliziano, orator and scientist-Dante Cristoforo Landino, statesmen Lorenzo and many Giuliano Medici others.

In the Platonic Academy, the Spirit of the Renaissance flourished like nowhere else: it was a community of hopeless dreamers and romantics, in love with philosophy and with each other, who believed in lofty ideals and did not forget about earthly joys. They all wanted to make this world a better place. “They recognize each other by those three clear signs — the sublime soul, religion, and spiritual eloquence — that distinguish a true Platonist; and they consider themselves divine, because they know the shortcomings of this world and because it is given to them to imagine another, better world. "

However, the members of the academy did not create any complete philosophical system and did not even strive to create it. Their views are different, but they are all aimed at glorifying Man and at confirming his high role in the world. That is why the teachings of the Florentine Neoplatonists are often called "revival humanism."

Pantheism and humanistic anthropocentrism provided a stable human belief in the ability to know the world and oneself in this world, which was carried out by natural scientists. Leonarodo da Vinci (1452-1519) rightfully earned the name of the pioneer of the modern natural scientist. With his multifaceted creative activity, he paved the way for the science of the future. His numerous notes, made in a special mirror-like handwriting, were not intended for printing. They did not become the property of contemporaries - he worked for future generations.

The revelation of Scripture, astrology and alchemy, dreams and mysticism, Leonardo contrasted with experience. The appeal to experience as a source of knowledge was a consequence of the everyday practice of a natural scientist. He believes that an untested thought can give rise to deception, not bring, but lead away from the truth. Only knowledge based on experience can claim to be reliable, and the latter is the hallmark of true science.

Consequently, since theology has no support in experience, it cannot be a science, cannot claim to possess the truth - there cannot be science even where experience is replaced by dispute and shouting, where emotions rule the show.

Leonardo sees another obstacle on the path to truth in excessive admiration for authorities - one should not imitate, but work, seek.

However, we will not find in Leonardo any developed experimental technique. Rather, he was guided by spontaneous experimentation carried out in many Italian art workshops, which, while improving, he practiced himself. But the scientist's methodological insight led to a clear understanding that this kind of experimentation in itself is still far from an insufficient way to achieve reliable truth, for "nature is full of countless reasons that have never been in experience." Hence the need for a theory for his comprehension, summed up in his widely known words: "Science is a commander, and practice are soldiers."

As a result of such experiments, it is difficult to survey the range of inventions and projects of Leonardo da Vinci - in the field of military affairs (the idea of a tank), weaving (the project of an automatic self-spinning wheel), aeronautics (including the idea of a parachute), and hydraulic engineering (the idea of locks). Almost all of them far outstripped the technical capabilities and needs of their era and were appreciated only in the past and present centuries.

It should also be noted that Leonardo da Vinci also makes interesting judgments on the problems of cosmology. His thought that not the Earth, but rather the Sun is the center of our universe, anticipated heliocentrism and undermined the theocentrism of scholasticism with its geocentric concept. Leonardo's sun is a symbolized physical reality, a source of warmth and life of nature, body and soul; condition and foundation of the harmony of the world. The soul is inextricably linked with the body - it forms the body, acts as a creative, active principle. And everything is in a state of harmony. But the thought of the harmony of the world is not at all cloudless - it bears the imprint of the gloom and even tragedy of thoughts about the insignificance of human thoughts and actions, when “some people should be called nothing other than food passages ... because they are not good for them. is accomplished, and therefore nothing of them will remain, except for complete necessities! " ...

As a result of the elevation of experience, the Renaissance is called the era of "great discoveries":

The decisive role in the revision of ideas about the world was played by the work of N. Copernicus (1473-1543), published in 1543, "On the Circulation of the Celestial Spheres." The main idea of this great work, which is the basis of the heliocentric system of the world, consists in the provisions that the Earth, firstly, does not constitute a fixed center of the visible world, but rotates around its axis, and, secondly, revolves around the Sun located in the center of the world. Copernicus explained by the rotation of the Earth around its axis the change of day and night, as well as the apparent rotation of the starry sky. By the revolution of the Earth around the Sun, he explained its apparent movement relative to the stars. At the same time, Copernicus perceived his astronomical doctrine as philosophical. Presumably, first of all, because he received the initial, most general inspiration for his discovery, directly getting acquainted with the ideas of the ancient Greek Pythagoreans.

Copernicus devoted his entire life to the development of the concept of heliocentrism. But he was in no hurry to make it public, for he feared persecution by the church. After all, the new cosmology required a revision not only of Ptolemaic astronomy, but also of the orthodox interpretation of Catholic theology. The division of the world into "perishable" earthly substance and eternal celestial substance was called into question. The theological opposition of earth and sky was abolished - the earth is not the center and does not pretend to confrontation, but it forms a single Universe with other planets, which is in constant self-motion. Copernicus' fear was justified - in 1616 his teaching was banned as "stupid, philosophically false, decisively contrary to Holy Scripture and downright heretical."

- The doctrine of Copernicus was developed by Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), whose scientific ideas became an immediate prerequisite for the development of science and philosophy of modern times. Anticipating the discovery of the law of universal gravitation, Kepler substantiated the proposition that the planets move around the Sun not in ideal circular, but in elliptical orbits; that the motion of the planets around the Sun is uneven and that the time of revolution of the planets depends on their distance from the Sun. Kepler created scientific astronomy, on which natural science and philosophy were guided in their development, with which religion had to reckon. His discoveries created the precondition for the rehabilitation of Copernicus' teachings.
- Another step in the formation of science as an independent form of consciousness of society, as specific kind the development of the world was made by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Dealing with questions of mathematics and mechanics, he constructed a telescope with a magnification of 30 times. Thanks to the telescope, the sky has appeared in a completely new form.
D.J. Bruno (1548-1600) also developed new views in his works, with whose name the decisive turn in the approval of the new cosmology is associated. The central idea of Bruno's cosmological doctrine is the thesis of the infinity of the universe. "It can in no way be covered and therefore incalculable and limitless, and thus infinite and limitless ...". This Universe is not created, it exists forever and cannot disappear. It is motionless, "for it has nothing outside of itself where it could move, in view of the fact that it is everything." In the Universe itself, there is a continuous change and movement.

Referring to the characterization of this movement, Bruno points out its natural character. He abandons the idea of an external prime mover, i.e. God, but relies on the principle of self-propulsion of matter: "Endless worlds ... all move as a result of the inner principle, which is their own soul ... and as a result, it is in vain to look for their external engine."

The position of the infinity of the Universe allowed G. Bruno to pose the question of the center of the world in a new way, while denying not only the geocentric, but also the heliocentric system. Neither the Earth nor the Sun can be the center of the Universe, because there are countless worlds. And each world-system has its own center - its star.

Breaking the boundaries of the world and affirming the infinity of the universe, Bruno is faced with the need to develop a new idea of God and his relationship to the world. - in Bruno, God is identified with nature, and he is inconceivable outside the material world.

Thus, knowledge of the world is based on experience and reason, and not on intuition. And as a result of seeing in nature not only divine creation, but above all the totality of its inherent laws, free from direct interference, the natural philosophy of the era opened the way for the further development of experimental natural science, the emergence of Newton's classical mechanics, the creation of philosophical concepts of the 17th - 18th centuries.

High interest in social problems, society and the state and the development of ideas of social equality

The humanistic thought of the Renaissance is multifaceted.

The works of Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469-1536) "The Instruction of the Christian Warrior", "Memoirs of the Christian Sovereign" are devoted to questions of morality and politics. And "The Praiseworthy Word of Folly" became the book of the century. Erasmus sees in Christianity, first of all, human values, the requirements of human morality, determined not by the dogmas of the church, but by the commandments of Christ. A person must become imbued with love for God and people and fulfill his duty of love and mercy towards them. Being a philosopher and Christian, professing Christianity and preaching the philosophy of Christ means strictly following the natural rules of morality.

Erasmus' optimism and civic pathos got their further development only in the views of the author of the famous "Utopia" Thomas More (1478-1535), who opposes the ethical ideal of universality to selfish selfishness associated with the existence of private property and the domination of private interest. T. More substantiated the ethical ideal of universality by referring to the Holy Scriptures: "The Lord foresaw a lot when he decreed that everything should be common." In his "Utopia" T. More deduces not only the socio-political, but also the moral ideal. People live for happiness. And “happiness lies in receiving pleasures, honest and noble, in preserving good health, in the absence of fear. " However, the dream of the universal unity of peoples in a Christianity cleansed of abuses, of the onset of the "golden age" collapsed with the onset of the era social conflicts.

In the depths of feudal society, bourgeois social relations were born, which demanded the creation of a strong centralized state power, free from the church. One of the ideologues of the emerging bourgeoisie was Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527). Machiavelli's ideal is monarchy in the form of a lifelong, one-man and unlimited dictatorship.

His work "The Sovereign" is dedicated to the substantiation of the power of a one-man dictatorship, where he paints a portrait of the "ideal ruler". Machiavelli sees the basis of the state only in a force that is not bound by either tradition or moral standards... The effectiveness of government is ensured by good laws and a good army. Paradoxical as it may seem, the sovereign's excessive generosity is pernicious. She generates contempt for her ruler among her subjects.

Machiavelli freed politics from morality, but after all, at that time, morality was religious, i.e. he freed politics from religion. The ethical principles of Christianity, "Christian humanism" are impracticable in politics. People departed from the commandments of Christ, lost their religion and became corrupted. Christian humanism has degenerated into utopia. Preferring humble people rather than active people, Christianity unties the hands of scoundrels. And in this sense, it does not work to strengthen the state. Machiavelli focuses on the sovereign - reformer, legislator, spokesman for national interests, and not on the sovereign - tyrant, usurper.

Machiavelli formulated ideas that appear to be politically significant postulates.

1 human nature and personality traits are the foundation for all political behavior;
2 when considering political phenomena, one should free oneself from theological limitations - hence the question of morality in politics acquires a completely different sound from the Florentine;
3 there is a recognition that in political practice there is a colossal gap between the declared goals and the real will to achieve them;
4, the problem of political values appears not as an abstract category, but as a basis for considering the interaction of society and state, government and people. Thus, the personality of a political leader is viewed as a subject of political reform, movement towards high social ideals and goals. That is why the "sovereign" is obliged to master perfectly the art of political intrigue, ie. strategy and tactics of survival in the political struggle.

In addition, the social and political thought of the Renaissance found its development in the works of Jean Boden (1530-1596). In his work "On the State" he defends the ideal of absolute monarchy. Not the people, but the monarch is the "source of law and law." But the ruler himself must follow natural and divine laws, must respect the freedom and property of citizens; must ensure order in the country and guarantee the safety of citizens.

Another philosopher was Michel Montaigne (1533-1592), author of the famous Experiments, a book about a man of his era. Although Experiments are about nature and God, about the world and man, about politics and ethics, the subject of this book is the same - a heightened interest in one's own “I”. If others create Man, then Montaigne explores the real man in everyday life and simple. Experiments recreate a picture of introspection. This close attention to oneself, according to Montaigne, is quite justified, because it allows "to trace the winding paths of our spirit, to penetrate into the dark depths of it ...". Montaigne is trying to find ways to improve everyday consciousness.

According to this thinker, human life is valuable in itself, has its own meaning and justification. And in the development of a worthy meaning, a person must first of all rely on himself, in himself

to find the support of genuine moral behavior. That is, Montaigne's individualism is not opposed to society, but to public hypocrisy, because not every person can be useful to society, but only a sovereign person. The individualistic nature of M. Montaigne's ethics was a response to the social need of the emerging bourgeois relations. This probably explains the fact that in the 50 years after Montaigne's death, The Experiments were reprinted 20 times in France.

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Introduction

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Introduction

The era of the Middle Ages was replaced by the Renaissance or the Renaissance (XIV-XVII centuries). During this period, the transition from feudalism to capitalism took place in the socio - economic sense. This era is characterized by the development of industry, trade, navigation, military affairs and, accordingly, technology, natural science, mechanics, mathematics, an unprecedented creative upsurge in the field of art, literature, science, socio-political thought. The considered features of socio-economic and cultural-scientific development predetermined the main features of philosophical progress.

The very name of the era speaks of a revival of interest in ancient philosophy and a culture perceived as a model for modernity. The Christian tradition is being rethought, the secularization (secularization) of social life and culture takes place. Philosophy ceases to be the servant of theology. The ideal becomes not religious, but secular knowledge. In this era, a new philosophical outlook was developed thanks to the work of a whole galaxy of thinkers: Francesco Petrarca, Michel Montaigne, Marsilio Ficino, Nicholas of Cusansky, Leonardo da Vinci, Pico della Mirandola, Giordano Bruno, Telesio, Tomaso Campanelli, and Dr Niccolo Maciavene.

Distinctive features of the Renaissance worldview:

Human orientation (anthropocentrism). If the focus is medieval philosophy there was a relationship between God and man, then the philosophy of the Renaissance is addressed to man. Formally, God remained in the center of the universe, but the primary attention was paid to man, his nature, independence, beauty, creativity, forms of self-affirmation;

Orientation towards art and postulation of the creative essence of man. In the process of creative activity, a person creates a new world and the highest thing in the world - himself according to the laws of beauty. It is no coincidence that during this period the idea of Prometheism appears in philosophy;

Orientation to the personal-material understanding of the world. Everything that exists is understood in projection onto a person with the maximum consideration of the bodily principle (the body is not "the fetters of the soul", as it was in the Middle Ages, bodily life itself is valuable in itself). For the aesthetics of the Renaissance, syncretism of the spiritual and the personal-material is characteristic (painting, sculpture primarily depict the human face and the human body in harmony with the spiritual);

Orientation to humanism (from the Latin humanus - "human"), to the recognition of a person as a person, his right to creativity, freedom, happiness.

1. The main features of the philosophy of the Renaissance

1.1 Humanism - the exaltation of man

The main center of the humanist movement in all its aspects was Florence, which can be called the capital of the Italian Renaissance. Here the great poet and thinker Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was born and spent many years of his politically very active life, the primary source of the most important ideas of the humanistic worldview - "The Divine Comedy" - the original document of humanistic thought makes it Dante's interest in man, for "of all the manifestations divine wisdom man is the greatest miracle. " Moreover, this interest is deeply social, for the fate of a "noble man" is by no means predetermined by the convention of birth in a particular class rank and should be formed not on the basis of his "animal lot", but on the basis of a relentless striving for "valor and knowledge."

Another representative of the era of humanism is Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457), whose work can be considered a true hymn to individualism. In his main philosophical essay "On pleasure" as an inalienable property of man, Valla proclaims the desire for pleasure.

1.2 Anthropocentrism - man, not God at the center of research

Another important distinguishing feature of the Renaissance worldview is the orientation towards a person. If the focus of the philosophy of antiquity was natural and cosmic life, and in the Middle Ages - religious life - the problem of "salvation", then in the Renaissance, secular life comes to the fore, human activity in this world, for the sake of this world, to achieve human happiness in this life, on Earth. Philosophy is understood as a science that is obliged to help a person find his place in life. The philosophical thinking of this period can be characterized as anthropocentric. The central figure is not God, but man. God is the beginning of all things, and man is the center of the whole world. Society is not a product of God's will, but the result of human activities. A person in his activities and intentions cannot be limited by anything. He can do anything, he can do anything.

Thus, now it is not God, but man who is placed in the center of attention.

1.3 Secularization - Liberation from Church Influence

The process of secularization - the liberation from religion and church institutions, took place in all areas of cultural and social life. Not only economic and political life is acquiring independence in relation to the church, but also science, art, philosophy. True, this process takes place very slowly at first and proceeds in different ways in different European countries.

This process was facilitated by the largest crisis in the Roman Catholic Church. So the apogee of its moral decline and, the subject of particular indignation was the sale of indulgences - letters of certificate testifying to the absolution of sins. Trade in them opened up the opportunity to atone for the crime without any remorse, as well as to buy the right to future misconduct. This caused violent indignation in many segments of the population.

1.4 Pantheism - the formation of experimental sciences and the formation of a scientific and materialistic understanding, free from theology

In solving ontological problems, the philosophy of the Renaissance was guided mainly by the works of Plato.

The following conclusions can be noted:

In the cosmology of Kuzansky, the doctrine of the Earth as the center of the Universe was rejected, and the absence of a fixed center led him to the recognition of the motion of the Earth. In the treatise "On Scientific Ignorance" he directly says: ".... Our Earth is actually moving, although we do not notice it."

Closely connected with pantheistic ontology and cosmology in Kuzansky and his doctrine of man. The ratio of the maximum "collapsed" in God and the infinity "unfolded" in the cosmos is reflected in the "small world" of human nature (the cosmos is reflected in the microcosm). As the cosmos is contained in a collapsed form in God, so the absolute nature of Christ is a collapsed state of human nature.

If N. Kuzansky mainly examines the problems of ontology and epistemology through the prism of Platonism, then Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) pays more attention to socio-ethical problems, in the center of which is the person. Through the efforts of Ficino, the Florentine Platonic Academy was created - a humanistic circle The works created by like-minded people became something like official philosophy, or the state policy of the city, or even religion. The name of the circle was borrowed from the philosophical school that actually existed in Ancient Greece under the leadership of Plato, in which a wide range of disciplines was developed: philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, natural science, etc. The meetings were held in a grove in which, according to legend, the mythical hero Akadem was buried, therefore the grove, and later the school, received the name "Academy".

It was a free community of like-minded people who were in love with Plato and gathered for scholarly conversations about him - a platonic family, as the members of the academy called it.

In the Platonic Academy, the Spirit of the Renaissance flourished like nowhere else: it was a community of hopeless dreamers and romantics, in love with philosophy and with each other, who believed in lofty ideals and did not forget about earthly joys. They all wanted to make this world a better place. "They recognize each other by those three clear signs - the sublime soul, religion and spiritual eloquence - which distinguish a true Platonist; and they consider themselves divine, because they know the shortcomings of this world and because they are given to imagine a different, better world."

1.5 High interest in social problems, society and the state and the development of ideas of social equality

The works of Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469-1536) "The Instruction of the Christian Warrior" and "Memoirs of the Christian Sovereign" are devoted to questions of morality and politics. And "The Praiseworthy Word of Folly" became the book of the century. Erasmus sees in Christianity, first of all, human values, the requirements of human morality, determined not by the dogmas of the church, but by the commandments of Christ. A person must become imbued with love for God and people and fulfill his duty of love and mercy towards them. Being a philosopher and Christian, professing Christianity and preaching the philosophy of Christ means strictly following the natural rules of morality.

Machiavelli formulated ideas that appear to be politically significant postulates.

1. Human nature and personality traits are the foundation for all political behavior;

2. When considering political phenomena, one should free oneself from theological limitations - hence the question of morality in politics takes on a completely different meaning for the Florentine;

3. There is a recognition that in political practice there is a colossal gap between the declared goals and the real will to their realization;

4. The problem of political values appears not as an abstract category, but as a basis for considering the interaction of society and state, government and people. Thus, the personality of a political leader is viewed as a subject of political reform, movement towards high social ideals and goals. That is why the "sovereign" is obliged to master perfectly the art of political intrigue, ie. strategy and tactics of survival in the political struggle.

Another philosopher was Michel Montaigne (1533-1592), the author of the famous "Experiments" - a book about a man of his era. Although Experiments are about nature and God, about the world and man, about politics and ethics, the subject of this book is the same - a heightened interest in one's own "I". If others create Man, then Montaigne explores the real man in everyday life and simple. "Experiments" recreate a picture of introspection. This close attention to oneself, according to Montaigne, is quite justified, because it allows "to trace the winding paths of our spirit, to penetrate into its dark depths ...". Montaigne is trying to find ways to improve everyday consciousness.

According to this thinker, human life is valuable in itself, has its own meaning and justification. And in the development of a worthy meaning, a person must first of all rely on himself, find in himself the support of genuine moral behavior. That is, Montaigne's individualism is not opposed to society, but to public hypocrisy, because not every person can be useful to society, but only a sovereign person. The individualistic nature of M. Montaigne's ethics was a response to the social need of the emerging bourgeois relations. Probably, this explains the fact that during the 50 years after Montaigne's death "Experiments" were reprinted 20 times in France.

2. The main directions of philosophy of the Renaissance

The main directions of the philosophy of the Renaissance were:

* humanistic (XIV-XV centuries, representatives: Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca, Lorenzo Valli, etc.) - put a person in the center of attention, praised his dignity, greatness and power, sarcastically over the dogmas of the Church;

* Neoplatonic (mid-15th-16th centuries), whose representatives - Nikolai Kuzansky, Pico della Mirandola, Paracelsus and others - developed the teachings of Plato, tried to know nature, space and man from the point of view of idealism;

* natural philosophical (XVI - early XVII centuries), to which belonged Nicolaus Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilei and others, who tried to debunk a number of the doctrine of the Church about God, the Universe, the Cosmos and the foundations of the universe, relying on astronomical and scientific discoveries;

* Reformation (XVI-XVII centuries), whose representatives - Martin Luther, Thomas Monzer, John Calvin, John Usenlif, Erasmus of Rotterdam and others - sought to radically revise church ideology and the relationship between believers and the Church;

* political (XV-XV) centuries, Nicolo Machiavelli) - studied the problems of government, the behavior of rulers;

* the utopian-socialist (XV-XVII centuries, representatives - Thomas More, Tommaso Campanella, etc.) - sought ideal-fantastic forms of building society and the state, based on the absence of private property and universal equality, total regulation by state power.

Conclusion

In literature, it is customary to cover the Renaissance in enthusiastic tones, which is understandable. It was a harbinger of another era - the era of reason (XVIII century), which in turn gave rise to the century of rapid development of science and technology - our XX century. However, one cannot fail to see negative consequences - this concerns, first of all, the gradual withdrawal of humanism from our life, an example of this is two world wars, many local wars and other events that stimulated and were accompanied by anger and cruelty.

The Renaissance itself soon gave way quite naturally. Reformation and counter-reformation, peasant and religious wars of the 15th-16th centuries. already had a different direction, and thinking developed along a different path. The science of nature also contributed to this in no small measure; the works of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton and others changed the views of man and put him face to face in front of an infinite cosmos. Even in literature (Shakespeare, Rabelais and other authors) heroes freed from high morality appeared, whose actions were accompanied by hitherto unheard-of naturalistic details, shocking scenes of cruelty and violence. Painting - the holy of holies of the Renaissance - and that has changed under the influence of time; its principles have evolved towards mannerism. The ideals of republican rule were shaken by the resulting absolute monarchies.

Bibliography

1. Alekseev P.V., Panin A.V. Philosophy. M .: Prospect, 1998 .-- 568 p.

2. Vasilyeva LN New Machiavelli: the theory of political reform // Social and humanitarian knowledge. - 2009. - No. 4. - S. 64-79.

3. Introduction to philosophy. Ed. A.L. Subbotin. Moscow: Center, 2001 .-- 365 p.

4. Hegel G.V.F. Lectures on the history of philosophy. In 3 kn. S.-Pb, 1993-1994.

5. Gorfunkel A.Kh. Renaissance philosophy. - M., 1980.

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Introduction

"The greatest progressive revolution", which was, according to F. Engels, the Renaissance, was marked by outstanding achievements in all areas of culture. The era "which needed titans and which gave birth to titans" was the same in the history of philosophical thought. It is enough to name the names of Nicholas of Cusansky, Leonardo da Vinci, Michel Montaigne, Giordano Bruno, Tommaso Campanella in order to imagine the depth, richness and diversity of philosophical thought of the XIV-XVI centuries. Replacing the centuries-old domination of scholasticism, Renaissance philosophy was a kind of stage in the development of European philosophy, preceding the "great systems" of the 17th century and the era of the European Enlightenment.

This period of history is called the "Renaissance" or "Renaissance" (in French) primarily because this term is understood as the revival of classical antiquity, ancient culture, including ancient philosophical teachings (philosophical renaissance), the emergence of a new sense of life, which was considered as akin to the vital feeling of antiquity and as the opposite of the medieval attitude to life with its detachment from the sinful, earthly world. However, the Renaissance, whose homeland is Italy, should not be understood as a simple repetition of ancient culture, as a return to old traditions and customs, to a past way of life. This was the historical process of the formation of a new culture, new natural science, world trade, corresponding to new socio-economic transformations, which in its essence is a period of the collapse of feudalism and the formation of new bourgeois social relations, which is progressive in nature, despite the deepest social contradictions inherent in them.

The philosophical thought of the Renaissance creates a new picture of the world based on the idea that God is dissolved in nature. This identification of God and nature is called pantheism. At the same time, God is considered to be co-living with the world and merging with the law of natural necessity, and nature appears as the materialized beginning of all things.

Features of the philosophy of the Renaissance

The "greatest progressive revolution" was the Renaissance, which was marked by achievements in all areas of culture. Therefore, it is not surprising that the philosophical thought of this period was characterized by incomparable depth, wealth and diversity. Renaissance philosophy replaced the centuries-old domination of scholasticism, which developed a system of artificial, formal arguments for the theoretical justification of the dogmas of the church.

The philosophy of the Renaissance is closely connected with the development of contemporary natural science, with great geographical discoveries, with successes in the invention of new instruments (complex microscope, telescope, thermometer, barometer), thanks to which scientific observations have become much more accurate and more extensive than ever before; in the natural sciences (growth in the amount of information about living nature), medicine (the emergence of scientific anatomy, the discovery of blood circulation, etc.), mathematics and mechanics.

The philosophy of the Renaissance was permeated with the rejection of the authorities inherent in scholasticism, the appeal to experimental data, high confidence in man and his own mind, the denial of all kinds of fantasies (the scholastics even wrote about the nature of devils) and their replacement with evidence of natural science, the idea of a single nature and the idea of this world human culture. If for the medieval scholastics everything had already been said in Holy Scripture, then the thinkers of the new era were convincingly looking for answers in life itself to those "truths" that seemed certain and eternal. They believed that one should study nature not by scholastic reasoning, not by references to authorities, not by magical conclusions, but by real experience. For them, the universe exists eternally, and is not created, as the medieval theologians argued; it is the temple of the eternal deity, the prime mover of all that exists, the creator of the primordial mind, from where the soul comes from, animating all the luminaries and human bodies, animals and plants. Also, the philosophy of the Renaissance is distinguished by a pronounced anthropocenism. Man is not only the most important object of philosophical consideration, but also turns out to be the central link in the entire chain of cosmic being.

From the point of view of this philosophy, what is true is not what was considered true for centuries, not what was said by Aristotle or Thomas Aquinas, but only what appears to be reliable and convincing to one's own reason. Philosophy no longer wants to play the role of the "servant" of theology.

Thus, the characteristic features of the philosophy of the Renaissance include:

Formation of a pantheistic picture of the world, expressed in the identification of God and nature;

Opposition to the Church and church ideology (that is, the denial not of religion itself, God, but of an organization that has made itself a mediator between God and believers, as well as a frozen dogmatic philosophy serving the interests of the Church - scholasticism;

Anthropocentrism - the predominance of interest in a person, belief in his unlimited possibilities and dignity;

Moving the main interest from the form of the idea to its content.

The main directions of the philosophy of the Renaissance were:

Humanistic (XIV-XV centuries), representatives: Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca, Lorenzo Valli, etc.) - put a person in the center of attention, praised his dignity, greatness and power, sarcastically over the dogmas of the Church;

The Neoplatonic (mid-15th-16th centuries), whose representatives - Nikolai Cusansky, Pico della Mirandola, Paracelsus, and others - developed the teachings of Plato, tried to know nature, space and man from the point of view of idealism;

Natural philosophical (XVI-early XVII centuries), to which belonged Nicolaus Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilei and others, who tried to debunk a number of provisions of the Church's teaching about God, the Universe, the Cosmos and the foundations of the universe, relying on astronomical and scientific discoveries.

Humanism

Humanism (humane, humanity, philanthropy) is the first period of philosophical thought in the Renaissance. It covers a period of time of about one hundred years - from the middle of the XIV century to the middle of the XV century. In contrast to the Christian-theological, religious-ascetic understanding of man as "the likeness of God," the reasoning of church ideology, which in every possible way belittled man and inspired the idea that he was weak and helpless, the humanists of this time proclaimed man to be the crown of nature, the center of the universe and the highest value; glorified a freely acting, comprehensively developed living human personality, combining natural and spiritual principles, possessing wide creative possibilities and the ability to unlimited progress. This person has the right not to enjoy and happiness in earthly life, to all earthly joys in accordance with his "human nature". "I am a man, and nothing human is alien to me" - was the main slogan of the humanists. Thus, the focus of attention of the thinkers of the Renaissance was man, it was he who was brought to the fore, and not God, therefore such a philosophy is called anthropocentric with a fundamentally new understanding of man, intended not so much for "salvation" in the name of eternal life as for earthly affairs. ...

Humanists attached particular importance to the human mind, its limitless possibilities, they praised the creative daring of the mind, which at the same time is capable of subordinating to its control all sensual impulses, all the good principles of human nature. Therefore, humanists demanded, along with political freedom, getting rid of the domination of the Church and its claims to political dominance, mental freedom, which would represent an opportunity for a person to freely develop his abilities and creative powers, to create a new secular culture capable of opposing himself to the church culture of the Middle Ages. Humanists were convinced of the power of human knowledge, hence their greed for the comprehensive accumulation of knowledge, which was one of their characteristic features. They strive to revive ancient culture, return to the sources of ancient wisdom, study Plato, Aristotle and other ancient thinkers, pay a lot of attention to ancient art, history, literature, natural science. Humanists have given birth to a new life-affirming worldview. Striving for the highest cultural and moral development of diverse human abilities combined with gentleness and humanity, i.e. with what was called humanism in the days of Cicero, was the goal of the thinkers of the Renaissance.

In its genre, humanistic philosophy merged with literature, was presented allegorically and in an artistic form. The most famous humanist philosophers were also writers.

The majestic figure of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) stands at the origins of the philosophical culture of the Renaissance. "The last poet of the Middle Ages and at the same time the first poet of modern times", Dante was an outstanding thinker who laid in his works (primarily in the immortal "Divine Comedy", as well as in the philosophical tracts "Feast" and "Monarchy") the foundations of a new humanistic doctrine about a human

In his work, Dante was closely associated with contemporary philosophy, theology, and science. He embraced the various currents of the then philosophical culture. The picture of the world presented to the reader is still quite medieval in structure. The point here is not only in the inherited from antiquity geocentric cosmology, according to which the Earth is the center of the Universe, but also in the fact that the creator of the world and its organizer is God. And yet, the picture of the world order in comparison with the Bible and the views of philosophers early middle ages significantly complicated and hierarchically arranged in more detail and detail. Taking the dogmas of Christianity as an incomprehensible and immutable truth, Dante goes his own way in interpreting the relationship between natural and divine principles - both in the world and in man. The idea of a gradual, mediated transition from the divine principle to the elements of the "lower" world is the most important part of his ideas about the world order.

The era of the Renaissance for the most advanced countries of Europe is the era of the emergence of capitalist relations, the formation of national states and absolute monarchies, the era of the rise of the bourgeoisie in the struggle against feudal reaction, the era of deep social conflicts - peasant war in Germany, the religious wars in France and the Dutch bourgeois revolution.

The philosophy of the Renaissance is closely connected with the development of contemporary natural science, with great geographical discoveries, with successes in the field of natural science (an increase in the volume of knowledge about living nature, the first steps were taken in the field of plant systematization), medicine (the emergence of scientific anatomy, the discovery of blood circulation, research into the causes epidemic diseases), mathematics, mechanics, astronomy. A special role in the development of ontological concepts was played by the creation of a new cosmology by Copernicus.

The development of natural science followed from the needs of the development of a new bourgeois mode of production, the beginnings of which began to form in the 14th-16th centuries. in the cities of western Europe.

The Renaissance era got its name from the fact that it went under the slogan of the revival of classical antiquity. The decisive role in this was played by the appeal to the philosophy of the ancient Greeks and Romans. At the same time, in a sharp polemic against the scholastic tradition, not only the assimilation of the knowledge accumulated in antiquity, but also their original processing was carried out. In the philosophy of the Renaissance, we meet with the original modifications of Aristotelianism and Platonism, Stoic and Epicurean philosophical thought. Attempts to harmonize the ideas of representatives of different schools and trends of the past were used to find answers to new philosophical questions that were posed to philosophers by life itself.

The philosophy of the Renaissance is distinguished by a pronounced anthropocentrism. Man is not only the most important object of philosophical consideration, but also turns out to be the central link in the entire chain of cosmic being. The humanistic philosophy of the Renaissance is characterized by the consideration of man primarily in his earthly destiny.

In the evolution of the Renaissance, it seems possible to distinguish three characteristic period: humanistic, or anthropocentric, opposing to medieval theocentrism interest in man in his relationship with the world; neo-Platonic, associated with the formulation of broad ontological problems, that is, significantly expanding the concept of being, matter, motion, space and time; natural philosophical. The first of them characterizes philosophical thought in the period from the middle of the XIV century. until the middle of the 15th century, the second - from the middle of the 15th century. until the first half of the 16th century, the third - the second half of the 16th century. and the beginning of the 17th century

The first stage in the development of the philosophy of the Renaissance

The first stage in the development of the Renaissance is associated with the predominance of thinkers' interest in the problems of man's structure in the world, which was considered as the center of the universe and the creator of himself. A kind of cult of the creator man is being established.

A majestic figure stands at the origins of the philosophical culture of the Renaissance Dante Alighieri(1265 - 1321). Dante was an outstanding poet and thinker. He is known to the public as the author of the "Divine Comedy" and the treatises "Feast" and "Monarchy", who laid the foundations of a new humanistic teaching about man in his works. Dante fought against the feudal privileges and secular authority of the church. For this he paid for life in exile. It is significant that the impetus for the creation of something new came not from a professional philosopher, but from a poet who came from among people who realized the need for changes in life.

In his work, Dante was closely associated with contemporary philosophy, theology, and science. He embraced the various currents of the then philosophical culture.

The picture of the world presented to the reader of The Divine Comedy is still quite medieval in structure. The point here is not only in the geocentric cosmology inherited from antiquity, according to which The earth is the center of the universe, but also in the fact that God is considered the creator of the world and its organizer. And yet, the picture of the world order, in comparison with the Bible and the ideas of the philosophers of the early Middle Ages, is significantly complicated and hierarchically arranged in more detail and in detail.

As for the destiny of man, Dante sees him not in asceticism in the name of renouncing the world and avoiding worldly concerns, but in reaching the highest limit of earthly perfection. Both the reminder of the brevity of earthly existence and the reference to the divine origin of man served not to affirm the insignificance of man in his earthly existence, but to justify the call to "valor and knowledge."

Thus, the belief in the earthly destiny of man, in his ability to accomplish his earthly feat on his own, allowed Dante to create in the "Divine Comedy" the first hymn to the dignity of man. Dante opens the way to a new humanistic teaching about man.

The beginning of humanism, which determined the main content of the philosophical thought of the Renaissance in the XIV-XV centuries, is associated with the multifaceted work of the great Italian poet, "the first humanist" Francesco Petrarch(1304 - 1374). Petrarch was the creator of new European lyrics, the author of the world famous sonnets “for life” and “for death”, “Madonna Laura”, canzon, madrigals, epic poem “Africa”.

Petrarch wrote a number of philosophical works: "My secret" (dialogue) (1342 - 1343), treatises "On the solitude of life" (1346), "On monastic leisure" (1347), "Invective against the enemy" (1352 - 1353) and a pamphlet “About his own and other people's ignorance” (1307).

The great poet became the first outstanding thinker of the emerging humanistic philosophy.

Humanism arises as new system of cultural values meeting the needs and interests of those social strata that are formed in industrialized cities. Hundreds of Petrarch's letters have survived, which are essentially short essays on moral, political and literary issues. They persistently promote humanistic values. Petrarch neglected to study at the best scholastic universities in Europe, but, studying independently, became one of the most educated people of his time. He opposed the scholastic way of philosophizing. In the philosopher, he wanted to see not an interpreter of other people's texts, but the creator of his own.

The thinker was keenly interested in the problems of man, as for the problems of ontology, that is, the doctrine of being and matter, they recede into the background in his philosophy. "An appeal to oneself, to one's inner aspirations is the main content of all the diverse works of Francesco Petrarca." At the same time, Petrarch acts as a genuine and knowing life teacher.

Another interpreter of the ancient philosophical heritage of Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457) defended the Epicurean philosophy. In the dialogue “On Pleasure” or “On True and False Good,” he contrasted the ethics of Epicurus with its egocentrism to the harsh ethics of the Stoics. Valla defends belief in the power of the human mind and demands religious tolerance. He opposed the ideal of a contemplative life with an active struggle for his ideas, demanded the education of the will to act.

In the writings of humanists, man was considered as a creature worthy of happiness in earthly life. The world is seen by representatives of humanism as a place where a person is called to act and enjoy the benefits created. God is considered by them to be the creative principle and the concentration of good. A person, in their opinion, should strive to become like God. The task of philosophy for humanists is not to contrast the divine and natural, spiritual and material principles in man, but to reveal their harmonious unity.

The second stage in the development of the philosophy of the Renaissance

The second stage in the development of the philosophy of the Renaissance (from the middle of the 15th century to the first third of the 16th century) connected with the interpretation of the ideas of the Platonists and Aristotelians in relation to the needs of the renewing world... During this period, Nicholas of Cusansky (1401-1464), Marsilio Ficino (1422-1495), Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Pietro Pomponazzi (1462-1525), Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494), Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469) - 1536), Nicolo Machiavelli (1469 - 1527), Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543), Thomas More (1479 - 1535). These figures of the Renaissance made a significant contribution to the study of ontological problems, to the development of ideas about all forms of life. Taking into account the achievement of the philosophical thought of Plato and Aristotle, as well as rethinking the philosophy of Neoplatonism, they improved the theory of knowledge and ethics.

So, one of the greatest philosophers of this period, Nikolai Kuzansky, in his works "On scientific ignorance" (1440) and "On assumptions" (1444), "The Simpleton" (1450) considers God as beingness that generates all that exists. The unity of the world, in his opinion, lies in God.

He considers the movement to truth as a process. Achieving final truths, according to the thinker, is problematic. Man is nevertheless capable of contemplating nature to the extent that he is permitted by God. God himself remains incomprehensible to man. And yet, thanks to reason, man is connected with the world and God.

Marsilio Ficino carried out a significant revision of the ancient heritage and especially the ideas of Plato. In his main work "Plato's Theology of the Immortality of the Soul" (1469 - 1474), the universe is presented as a hierarchically structured unity. Ficino identifies God with the universal nature of things. God and the world in his philosophy appear in unity. The thinker, continuing the humanistic tradition of raising man, likens him to God.

Pico della Mirandola reinforces the pantheistic tendency in philosophy. According to the pantheistic view, God as the essence of things is everywhere. Pico sees God as perfection, enclosed in an imperfect world. Hence, the knowledge of the world is the knowledge of God. In his opinion, human perfection is not given only as a consequence of the fact that man is created in the image and likeness of God, but is attainable.

A particularly striking example of the interpretation of scholastic Aristotelianism in new way, transforming this once again reinterpreted philosophy into a phenomenon of the philosophical thought of the Renaissance, is presented in the work of Pietro Pomponazzi. The peculiarity of his philosophy lies in the fact that, while recognizing the need for religion, he consistently defended the independence of philosophy from theology, that is, from the research of religious doctrine. In his work "Treatise on the Immortality of the Soul", which brought him wide fame, he argued that the human soul is mortal.

Pomponazzi considered earthly life a blessing and believed that in this life it is possible to achieve happiness. Earthly life, in his opinion, can be arranged fairly.

The thinker paid attention to the problem of the mediation of all that exists. For him, it turns out to be a deterministic law of perpetual motion. However, this movement of the world, which knows no end or beginning, goes in a circle. The law of the movement of the world in this case acts as the law of eternal repetition, circulation.

Pomponazzi believed that human freedom is due to natural necessity, of which a person should be aware. Hence the recognition by him of the responsibility of a person for his actions. The natural need for understanding Pomponazzi is not the same in content as the materialists understood it in subsequent times. In his texts, natural necessity is God, but God understood in a philosophical way. Identified with nature, he is deprived of free will and acts in accordance with necessity. Therefore, God is recognized as innocent for the evil that reigns in the world.

Erasmus of Rotterdam made a great contribution to the development of Renaissance philosophy. He often called his teaching "The Philosophy of Christ". The essence of this philosophy was reflected already in the first significant work "The Guide of the Christian Warrior" (1501 - 1503). In this essay, the philosopher defended the idea that a normal person, imitating Jesus Christ, is able to rise to follow his commandments. For this it is necessary to return to genuine Christian morality. He believed that such a return was possible without reforming the Catholic Church.

Erasmus satirically denounced the vices of feudal society and the self-righteousness of the scholastics in the composition Praise of Foolishness (1509-1511). Later, François Rabelais (1494 - 1553) criticized the glorification of the past and satire on the new of his time in his novel Gargantua and Pantagruel. Erasmus called for peace in the essay "Complaint of the world, expelled from everywhere and crushed everywhere" (1517) and argued that the cause of wars lies in the shortsightedness and stupidity of people. In the essay "On Free Will", to which the head of the Reformation in Germany, Martin Luther, responded with the essay "On the Bondage of the Will." Erasmus of Rotterdam defends the principles of human freedom developed by the humanists of his time. In his opinion, the presence of divine providence does not abolish the free will of man, since without this the calls of the Holy Scriptures lose their meaning, the meaning of sin and punishment is lost. Erasmus' ethics is based on the principle of "nothing beyond measure."

Erasmus' views were close to the philosophical views of his great contemporary and friend, humanist and author of the famous "Utopia" Thomas More. T. More in "Utopia" depicted in literary form a social structure based on public property. Later, the famous work of Tommaso Campanella "City of the Sun" appeared, depicting a society in which people own property together. These works have become landmarks in social fiction, and their authors are attributed to the heralds of utopian communism.

N. Machiavelli made a contribution to political philosophy. In his work "The Sovereign", he outlined the rules of political activity for a sovereign who wants to raise his state. Machiavelli's views have been criticized by many philosophers for proclaiming the principle that the end justifies the means. His opponents argued that immoral means should not be used to achieve any ends, since the ends, in their opinion, do not justify the means.

The third stage in the development of the philosophy of the Renaissance

The last third stage in the development of the philosophy of the Renaissance - from the second half of the XVI century. until the beginning of the 17th century. This period is marked by the works of Pierre-Angelo Manzoli, Michel Montaigne (1533-1592), Bernardino Telesio (1509-1588), Francesco Patrizi (1529-1597), Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639), Jacob Boehme (1575 - 1624), Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642). These thinkers were interested in various philosophical issues. For example, Manzoli and Montaigne studied the questions of human existence in the world. M. Montaigne wrote a voluminous essay "Experiments", which up to our time serves as a model of moralizing literature. In his work, Montaigne managed to summarize the experience of the moralizing literature of the past and to disassemble such models of moral assessments of behavior that are perceived by the modern reader as quite acceptable.

A significant increase in philosophical knowledge from the middle of the 16th century. went along the line of development of ideas about the philosophy of nature.

Synthesis of natures philosophical ideas was carried out in the writings of Giordano Bruno. His main treatises are "On the cause, the beginning and the one" (1584), "On the infinity of the universe and the worlds" (1584).

The central category of his philosophy is the One. It is understood by him as the highest level of the cosmic hierarchy of being. In the dialogue "On the cause, the beginning and the one" D. Bruno argued that the Universe is one, infinite and motionless. In one, matter coincides with form, multiplicity and unity, minimum and maximum. He considers matter as a substrate and a possibility.

D. Bruno, following his predecessors, believed that nature is animated and evidence of this, in his opinion, is its self-movement. He owns the hypothesis about the inextricable connection between space, time and moving matter. The thinker believed that the universe is infinite and equal to God, who is identified with the world.

Cognition, according to D. Bruno, is possible. The ultimate goal of cognition is the contemplation of the deity. Such contemplation opens only with a heroic enthusiasm.

The ethical teaching of D. Bruno is directed against medieval asceticism and bigotry. The thinker became the forerunner of new customs entering European life, with the formation of a bourgeois lifestyle in it.

Feature final stage development of the philosophy of the Renaissance is that it increases its potential along with the development of science. This synthesis of philosophy and science, giving rise in the field of methodology, is characteristic of the works of Galileo Galilei. An example is his works such as: "Dialogue about the two main systems of the world - Ptolemaic and Copernican"; "Assay master".

The dialectically integral concept of the inseparable unity of man and nature, the Earth and the infinite cosmos, developed by the philosophy of the Renaissance, was taken up by the philosophers of the subsequent time.

The ideas of humanism, talentedly defended by the thinkers of the Renaissance, had a large-scale influence on the entire public consciousness of Europe.

1 General characteristics of the Renaissance

2 The main features of the philosophy of the Renaissance

2.1 Humanism - the exaltation of man

2.2 Anthropocentrism - man, not God at the center of research

2.3 Secularization - Liberation from Church Influence

2.4 Pantheism - the formation of experimental sciences and the formation of a scientific and materialistic understanding, free from theology

2.5 High interest in social problems, society and the state and the development of ideas of social equality

The results of the development of philosophical thought of the Renaissance

List of used literature

1 General characteristics of the Renaissance

The philosophy of the Renaissance, or Renaissance, was an important stage in the development of philosophical thought and covers the period from the 14th to the beginning of the 17th centuries, when a number of changes take place in socio-economic and spiritual life. Western Europe... Here is how F. Engels characterizes these changes: “The royal power, relying on the townspeople, broke the power of the feudal nobility and created large, essentially based on nationality, monarchies, in which modern European nations and modern bourgeois society began to develop ... only now, in fact, the land was discovered and the foundations were laid for the later world trade and for the transition of handicrafts to manufacture, which, in turn, served as the starting point for modern large-scale industry. "

As a result, the Renaissance is marked by the development of industry, trade, navigation, military affairs, that is, the development of material production.

In the political field, the Renaissance is the era of the emergence of capitalist relations, the formation of national states, the era of the struggle against feudal reaction, deep social conflicts.

In natural science, this is the time of great discoveries and inventions, in particular:

great geographical discoveries such as the discovery of America;

expansion of knowledge about space (establishment of a new astronomical system associated with the name of Copernicus);

development of knowledge about environment and about the living world (the beginning of the systematization of plants, the emergence of scientific anatomy, which laid the foundation for modern medicine).

These revolutionary changes in the political system, industry and natural science demanded the liberation of reason from the dogmatic principles of scholastic thinking, and the leading figures and thinkers of this time sought to revive the values and ideals of classical antiquity and ancient philosophy. Hence the very name of the era - the Renaissance, when the discoveries of the philosophers of Ancient Greece and Rome, brought to life by the work of humanists, gave a powerful impetus to the development of philosophical thought.

However, in this sense, the term "Renaissance" should be interpreted very conditionally. Rebirth actually meant the search for the new, not the restoration of the old. In history it is impossible to turn back, to return to any past era. The past, the accumulated experience and cultural potential cannot be thrown away or overcome. It will still have its impact, since it is this capital that is the economic and cultural environment in which people have to act, focused on overcoming it.

The Middle Ages was such a capital, a legacy for the thinkers and figures of the Renaissance. Although the Renaissance opposes itself to Christianity, it arose as a result of the development of medieval culture, and therefore bears the imprint of many of its features. Objectively, the Renaissance epoch should be characterized as an epoch of transition, because it is a bridge to the system of social relations and culture of the New Age. It was in this era that the foundations of bourgeois social relations were laid, primarily in the field of economics, it was during this period that science developed, relations between church and state changed, and the ideology of humanism was formed.

2 The main features of the philosophy of the Renaissance

2.1 Humanism - the exaltation of man

In other words, medieval man considered himself entirely obliged to traditions, even if he made a significant contribution to them, and the Renaissance individual is inclined to attribute all his merits to himself. At the same time, the desire to become an outstanding master - an artist, poet, scientist, etc. - the general atmosphere surrounding gifted people with literal religious worship promotes: they are now honored as heroes in antiquity, and saints in the Middle Ages. The diversified individual became the ideal of the Renaissance man.

Another representative of the era of humanism is Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457), whose work can be considered a true hymn to individualism. In his main philosophical essay, On Pleasure, Valla proclaims the desire for pleasure as an inalienable property of man. The measure of morality for him is personal good. “I cannot sufficiently understand why someone wants to die for their homeland ... You are dying because you don’t want your homeland to perish, as if it would not perish with your death.” Such a worldview position looks like an antisocial one.

2.2 Anthropocentrism - man, not God at the center of research

How does the Renaissance understanding of man differ from the ancient and medieval?

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Thus, now it is not God, but man who is placed in the center of attention.

2.3 Secularization - Liberation from Church Influence

2.4 Pantheism - the formation of experimental sciences and the formation of a scientific and materialistic understanding, free from theology

In solving ontological problems, the philosophy of the Renaissance was guided mainly by the works of Plato.

The following conclusions can be noted:

The doctrine of the infinity of the cosmos called into question the theological-scholastic ideas about the Universe and was a direct consequence of the solution to the question of the relationship between God and the world. God in the philosophy of Kuzansky receives the name of the absolute maximum, or the absolute, which is not something outside the world, but is in unity with it. God, embracing all that exists, contains the world in himself. This interpretation of the relationship between God and the world characterizes the philosophical teaching of Kuzansky as pantheism, the most important feature of which is the impersonality of a single divine principle and its maximum proximity to nature. According to the pantheistic teachings of Kuzansky, the world, absorbed by God, cannot have an independent existence. The consequence of this dependence of the world on God is its infinity: the world has “everywhere a center and nowhere a circle. For its circumference and center is God, who is everywhere and nowhere. " The world is not infinite, otherwise it would be equal to God, but "it cannot be thought of as finite, since it has no limits between which it would be closed."

The assimilation of man to God is carried out on the path of knowledge of the world. Moreover, the possibility of a person's knowledge of the world is not limited to the interpretation and interpretation of Holy Scripture. This possibility is inherent in the very nature of the human mind, in its practical activity. Just as God unfolds the world from himself, so man unfolds from himself the objects of reason. The human mind is based on sensations combined with imagination. The beginning of the process of cognition is impossible without sensory arousal. With this, Kuzaksky essentially lays the foundations of philosophical epistemology - the theory of knowledge, in which sensations and perceptions precede the highest forms of cognitive activity.

If N. Kuzansky mainly examines the problems of ontology and epistemology through the prism of Platonism, then Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) pays more attention to socio-ethical problems, in the center of which is the person. Through the efforts of Ficino, the Florentine Platonic Academy was created - a humanistic circle The works created by like-minded people became something like official philosophy, or the state policy of the city, or even religion. The name of the circle was borrowed from the philosophical school that actually existed in Ancient Greece under the leadership of Plato, in which a wide range of disciplines was developed: philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, natural science, etc. The meetings were held in a grove in which, according to legend, the mythical hero Akadem was buried, therefore the grove, and later the school, received the name "Academy".

Leonardo sees another obstacle on the path to truth in excessive admiration for authorities - one should not imitate, but work, seek.

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It should also be noted that Leonardo da Vinci also makes interesting judgments on the problems of cosmology. His thought that not the Earth, but rather the Sun is the center of our universe, anticipated heliocentrism and undermined the theocentrism of scholasticism with its geocentric concept. Leonardo's sun is a symbolized physical reality, a source of warmth and life of nature, body and soul; condition and foundation of the harmony of the world. The soul is inextricably linked with the body - it forms the body, acts as a creative, active principle. And everything is in a state of harmony. But the thought about the harmony of the world is not at all cloudless - it bears the imprint of gloom and even tragedy in the thought of insignificance of human thoughts and actions, when “some people should be called nothing other than food passages ... because they do nothing good. , and therefore nothing will remain of them, except for complete necessities! " ...

As a result of the elevation of experience, the Renaissance is called the era of "great discoveries":

Copernicus' doctrine was developed by Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), whose scientific ideas became an immediate prerequisite for the development of science and philosophy of modern times. Anticipating the discovery of the law of universal gravitation, Kepler substantiated the proposition that the planets move around the Sun not in ideal circular, but in elliptical orbits; that the motion of the planets around the Sun is uneven and that the time of revolution of the planets depends on their distance from the Sun. Kepler created scientific astronomy, on which natural science and philosophy were guided in their development, with which religion had to reckon. His discoveries created the precondition for the rehabilitation of Copernicus' teachings.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) made another step in the formation of science as an independent form of society's consciousness, as a specific type of world exploration. Dealing with questions of mathematics and mechanics, he constructed a telescope with a magnification of 30 times. Thanks to the telescope, the sky has appeared in a completely new form.

J.J. Bruno (1548-1600) also developed new views in his writings, with whose name the decisive turn in the approval of the new cosmology is associated. The central idea of Bruno's cosmological doctrine is the thesis of the infinity of the universe. "It can in no way be covered and therefore incalculable and limitless, and thus infinite and limitless ...". This Universe is not created, it exists forever and cannot disappear. It is motionless, "for it has nothing outside of itself where it could move, in view of the fact that it is everything." In the Universe itself, there is a continuous change and movement.

2.5 High interest in social problems, society and the state and the development of ideas of social equality

The humanistic thought of the Renaissance is multifaceted.

The works of Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469-1536) "The Instruction of a Christian Warrior", "Memoirs of a Christian Sovereign" are devoted to questions of morality and politics. And "The Praiseworthy Word of Folly" became the book of the century. Erasmus sees in Christianity, first of all, human values, the requirements of human morality, determined not by the dogmas of the church, but by the commandments of Christ. A person must become imbued with love for God and people and fulfill his duty of love and mercy towards them. Being a philosopher and Christian, professing Christianity and preaching the philosophy of Christ means strictly following the natural rules of morality.

The optimism and civic pathos of Erasmus received their further development only in the views of the author of the famous "Utopia" Thomas More (1478-1535), who opposes the ethical ideal of universality to selfish selfishness associated with the existence of private property and the domination of private interest. T. More substantiated the ethical ideal of universality by referring to the Holy Scriptures: "The Lord foresaw a lot when he decreed that everything should be common." In his "Utopia" T. More deduces not only the socio-political, but also the moral ideal. People live for happiness. And "happiness lies in receiving pleasures, honest and noble, in maintaining good health, in the absence of fear." However, the dream of the universal unity of peoples in a Christianity cleansed of abuses, of the onset of the "golden age" collapsed with the onset of the era of social conflicts.

His work "The Sovereign" is dedicated to the substantiation of the power of a one-man dictatorship, where he paints a portrait of the "ideal ruler". Machiavelli sees the basis of the state only in power, which is not bound by either tradition or moral norms. The effectiveness of government is ensured by good laws and a good army. Paradoxical as it may seem, the sovereign's excessive generosity is pernicious. She generates contempt for her ruler among her subjects.

Machiavelli formulated ideas that appear to be politically significant postulates.

1 human nature and personality traits are the foundation for all political behavior;

2 when considering political phenomena, one should free oneself from theological limitations - hence the question of morality in politics acquires a completely different sound from the Florentine;

3 there is a recognition that in political practice there is a colossal gap between the declared goals and the real will to achieve them;

4, the problem of political values appears not as an abstract category, but as a basis for considering the interaction of society and state, government and people. Thus, the personality of a political leader is viewed as a subject of political reform, movement towards high social ideals and goals. That is why the "sovereign" is obliged to master perfectly the art of political intrigue, ie. strategy and tactics of survival in the political struggle.

According to this thinker, human life is valuable in itself, has its own meaning and justification. And in the development of a worthy meaning, a person must first of all rely on himself, find in himself the support of genuine moral behavior. That is, Montaigne's individualism is not opposed to society, but to public hypocrisy, because not every person can be useful to society, but only a sovereign person. The individualistic nature of M. Montaigne's ethics was a response to the social need of the emerging bourgeois relations. This probably explains the fact that in the 50 years after Montaigne's death, The Experiments were reprinted 20 times in France.

3 The results of the development of philosophical thought of the Renaissance

Continuation
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Summing up the development of the philosophy of the Renaissance, it should be noted that, of course, the philosophy of this period is a new stage in the development of philosophy, although it carried out its innovations, relying largely on antiquity and absorbed all the best that gave the legacy of the Middle Ages.

The main specific traits Renaissance philosophies are:

humanism - the elevation of a person;

anthropocentrism - man, not God at the center of research;

secularization - liberation from church influence;

pantheism - the formation of experimental sciences and the formation of a scientific and materialistic understanding, free from theology;

high interest in social problems, society and the state and the development of ideas of social equality.

The philosophy of the Renaissance gave the world many great philosophical and cultural figures, among whom should be noted Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374), Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457), George Plifon (1360-1452), Nicholas of Cusansky (1401-1464), Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), Leonarodo da Vinci (1452-1519), Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), D.J Bruno (1548-1600), Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469-1536), Thomas More (1478-1535), Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), Jean Boden (1530-1596), Michel Montaigne (1533-1592) and other greats of people.

Thus, the culture of the Renaissance prepared an intensive development of the philosophical achievements of modern times. And most importantly, there was a change in the direction of development of thought from scholasticism to reality, the appeal of philosophical thought to man and nature, philosophy and science were given a practical orientation - from that time not God, but man attracts more and more attention of philosophy and culture.

List of used literature

Alekseev P.V., Panin A.V. Philosophy. M .: Prospect, 1998 .-- 568 p.

Vasilieva L.N. New Machiavelli: Theory of Political Reforming // Social and Humanitarian Knowledge. - 2009.- No. 4.- P.64-79.

Introduction to philosophy. Ed. A.L. Subbotin. Moscow: Center, 2001 .-- 365 p.

Introduction to philosophy. Ed. I.T. Frolov. M .: Politizdat, 1989 .-- 367 p.

Gryadovoy D.I. Philosophy: a structured textbook. M .: UNITI-DANA, 2003 .-- 383 p.

Ivanova A. Florentine Academy // Historical journal. - 2007. - No. 2. - S. 85-91.

History of philosophy: West-Russia-East (second book: Philosophy of the 15th-19th centuries). M .: GLK, 1996 .-- 557 p.

Kalnoy I.I., Sandulov Yu.A. Philosophy for graduate students. SPb .: Lan, 2003 .-- 512 p.

Kokhanovsky V.P., Zolotukhina E.V., Leshkevich T.G., Fatkhi T.B. Philosophy for graduate students. Rostov n / D .: Phoenix, 2003 .-- 448 p.

V.I. Kurbatov History of Philosophy. Abstract. Rostov n / D .: Phoenix, 1997 .-- 448 p.

Mareeva E.V. Pietro Pomponazzi: At the Origins of Cultural-Historical Methodology // Problems of Philosophy. - 2006 .-- S. 146-159.

Fundamentals of Philosophy. Ed. E.V. Popov. M .: VLADOS, 1997.-320 p.

A.A. Radugin Philosophy. Moscow: Center, 1997 .-- 272 p.

Spirkin A.G. Philosophy. M .: Gardariki, 2003 .-- 736 p.

Philosophy. Ed. A.F. Zotova, V.V. Mironova, A.V. Razin. Moscow: Academic Project, 2003 .-- 656 p.

Philosophy. Ed. V.N. Lavrinenko, V.P. Ratnikova. M .: UNITI, 1998 .-- 584 p.

Philosophy. Ed. O.A. Mitroshenkov. M .: Gardariki, 2002.-655 p.

Characteristic features of the philosophy of the Renaissance. General characteristics of the philosophy of the Renaissance

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