The Epoch of Renaissance as Heir, Representative and Forerunner of European Humanism – Philosophic,Cultural, Social and Political Aspects: syllabus
- The heritage of Greek and Roman humanism
- The influence of Christian humanism
- The Carolingian and the Otonian Renaissance as medieval precursors of the Age of Renaissance
Week 4-8: The Renaissance as representative of occidental humanism
- The economic, social and political background
- The philosophical and theological background
- The discovery of individuality (Petrarca, Pico della Mirandola, Boccaccio, Lodovico Cornaro, Michel de Montaigne, Baldessare Castiglione)
- The call for (religious) tolerance (Albericus Gentilis, Jean Bodin) as presupposition for the realization of all humanistic values
- The call for internal peace as presupposition for the realization of all humanistic values
- The fight against tyranny and the call for some fundamental rights, to be guaranteed by the concept of mixed government (Donato Gianotti, Paolo Paruta, Gasparo Contarini, James Harrington, John Locke)
- The strife for external peace or at least the taming of wars by transforming the concept of natural law into a system of international law (Francisco de Vitoria, Hugo Grotius, Samuel Pufendorf)
Week 9-12: The Renaissance as forerunner of occidental humanism
In the course of this third section of the seminar, the class will be invited to elaborate – Together with the professor- a list of attitudes, patterns and institutions which can be considered as vital in western societies and which can easily be traced back to ideas which were born or at least elaborated and developed during the age of Renaissance.