THE 7 MOST IMPORTANT RENAISSANCE VALUES - HISTORY - 2025

The values of the Renaissance were the peculiar qualities that emerged or re - emerged during the Renaissance. The three most important were anthropocentrism, secularism, and individualism. The other values ​​that accompanied this movement were skepticism, hedonism, and patronage.

The Renaissance (which means resurgence or flourishing of something) is the name given to the great cultural movement that occurred from the 14th to the 17th century in Europe, which produced great changes in the economy, science and society.

Three Renaissance Artists: Titian, Botticelli and da Vinci

It is a transitional period between the Middle Ages (from the 5th to the 14th century) and the Modern Age (from the 18th century). It started in Italian cities but soon spread throughout Western Europe.

In the Renaissance, an interest in classical scholarship was reawakened and an interest in the human being flourished as a being endowed with multifaceted capacities worthy of appreciation as much as the heavenly divinities.

There were numerous inventions and discoveries but we can highlight the discovery of gunpowder, the invention of the printing press, the invention of the compass and the discovery of new continents.

Main values ​​of the Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that awakened the intellect and individuality of the human being. Although it was revolutionary and changed many things of the time, like any other cultural change, it was slow and gradual.

So, although the highly educated men of the time were Renaissance, they lived with Church servants and the common people who were still medieval.

We will explain the characteristics of each of the values ​​below.

The human as the main center

The main value of the Renaissance is that the human began to be valued, his potential.

In this period there was a transition in the central axis of knowledge, philosophy and life in general. The Renaissance replaced religion and God as the central point (theocentrism) prevailing throughout the Middle Ages to grant it to the human being. This change was called anthropocentrism.

This change in focus recognized that the human being is the author and actor of human history, so that this is ultimately the center of reality.

Anthropocentrism was one of the philosophical, epistemological and artistic currents initiated by the Greeks and the Romans but forgotten during the Middle Ages, so the Renaissance turned to the classical knowledge of Antiquity to recover it. However, the anthropocentrism of the Renaissance gave way to humanism.

The humanism is the doctrine or life attitude based on an integrated approach of human values.

It is also understood as the belief system centered on the principle that the needs of human sensitivity and intelligence can be satisfied without having to accept the existence of God and the preaching of religions.

Thanks to Humanism, this time is full of optimism and confidence regarding the capabilities of the human being, that is why things never before imagined are ventured, such as exploring overseas territories, formulating rational explanations of natural events and creating new things.

It is essential to make clear that humanism does not rule out God, since many Renaissance writers, scientists and artists were devout believers in God or were inspired by it, but they did not reduce their creativity and explanation of things to the will of God.

Today anthropocentrism and humanism are used synonymously in various contexts. The terms are closely linked, but in fields such as epistemology and philosophy they have their peculiarities.

Earthly desires: hedonism

In the Renaissance, earthly desires were valued rather than spiritual needs.

It is the theory and doctrine that comes from the Greek school of thought that affirms that pleasure and happiness are the intrinsic goods that base human life.

Through this doctrine the suffering, resignation and guilt instilled by the Church throughout the Middle Ages are abandoned and the recovery of sensory, carnal and material pleasures is advocated.

Differentiate: individualism

Each person tried to differentiate themselves from all the others.

Humanism orbits around man but not as a collective but as a singular individual with his own desires who can achieve them without external interventions, be they divine, social, clerical or state.

Individualism emphasizes the moral, political and ideological principle of "moral dignity of the individual." At this time people discover themselves as individual beings who want to gain importance and be remembered as unique.

Thus, the artists begin to sign their works, the nobles and bourgeois ask to be portrayed by artists, biographies are drawn up, etc.

Questioning: skepticism

In the Renaissance it was questioned what he had accepted up to that moment with simple explanations.

The medieval Church and its simplistic and reductionist explanations of science and the social aspects of human life, liberated in Renaissance thinkers the desire to seek more structured and profound answers to natural phenomena and the lives of people. Out of this concern arises skepticism.

Skepticism was the inquisitive attitude in all aspects of life and science. Consequently, Renaissance thinkers began to doubt widely accepted truths or explanations about things.

Skepticism later gave way to rationalism and empiricism and opened a range of variants such as philosophical skepticism, religious skepticism and scientific skepticism.

Classicism: giving value to knowledge

The idea was that each individual should have knowledge and skills in different fields of interest.

Because anthropocentrism aroused interest in the capabilities and appreciation of the human being as the center of everything, the Renaissance revalued the valid classical knowledge of the world then known: that of the Greek and Roman empires.

Consequently, Renaissance thinkers turned to the philosophical, literary, historical and artistic works of the Greeks and Romans, studied them, learned them to bring them back after 15 centuries.

Thanks to this return, scientific theories of Greeks and Romans that were despised by the Church in the past were reconsidered.

The disadvantageous aspect that it had was that they only took into account the Greek and Latin ideas, excluding very advanced scientific ancient cultures such as the Egyptian or the Babylonian.

Secularism

From humanism and the empowerment of the human being as the author of his destiny and constructor of reality, secularism arises, a cultural doctrine that gains much ground in politics, economics and everyday life.

The Secularism is the belief or doctrine that believes that religion should have no part in public affairs, economics and management of the private lives of people.

Secularism along with humanism was present in the Renaissance but it does not mean that it was immediately accepted.

Let us remember that the Church was an institution with more than 1000 years of consolidation that had governed the economy, politics, religion, and social life of people, so its influence did not disappear in a matter of years, even centuries.

Patronage

Patronage is the financial sponsorship of artists, writers and scientists to develop their works.

It was carried out by wealthy noble or bourgeois families who provided money and other resources.

References

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5. History. (21 of 7 of 2017). Renaissance art. Retrieved from History: history.com.
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