Philosophy of The Renaissance and Reformation

General Characteristics and Worldview Foundations of the Renaissance

The Renaissance, or Renaissance (from French Renaissance meaning "rebirth"), was a social and ideological movement spanning the 14th to 16th centuries in European countries, aimed against Christian scholasticism and serving as a transitional stage from the Middle Ages to the culture of the Modern Era. Replacing medieval symbols—such as the cathedral and the castle—was the city, with its narrow stone streets, market squares, and public buildings. A new social stratum began to emerge: the bourgeoisie. The dark night of the Middle Ages was giving way to a bright and clear day, heralded by the brief and romantic moment of dawn, signaling the beginning of something new and grand.

The term "Renaissance" was first introduced by Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), an Italian artist, theorist, and historian of art, in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550) to define the cultural-historical era that followed the Middle Ages. "Renaissance" signifies the aspiration to revive the values and ideals of antiquity.

The Renaissance spans approximately four centuries, chronologically from the second half of the 13th century to the early 17th century. Its figures sought not merely a formal return to "antiquity," but aimed to integrate ancient principles with the ideals of new life and emerging social and economic relations, focusing on the uniqueness of the individual.

During this period, the process of disintegration of feudal relations began in Western and Central Europe, giving rise to the nascent bourgeois relations, significantly facilitated by the great geographical discoveries and the exploration of new, previously unknown lands. Feudal ties increasingly became a hindrance to social development.

The new culture, primarily arising on the Apennine Peninsula (Italy), was predominantly humanistic in nature. This was an era of incredible human activity and great discoveries. The findings and inventions made during this time profoundly impacted the entire subsequent history of humanity. Here are some notable facts.

In the early 13th century, specifically in 1202, The Book of Abacus (Latin: Liber Abaci)—the main work of Fibonacci (Leonardo of Pisa, c. 1170 — c. 1250)—was published. Fibonacci's works were studied for mathematics until the time of René Descartes (17th century). It was Fibonacci who replaced the static Roman numerals with more dynamic Arabic numerals.

The Book of Abacus describes a problem involving rabbits, leading to the famous Fibonacci sequence, where each subsequent number equals the sum of the two preceding ones, starting with one: 1; 1; 2; 3; 5; 8; 13; 21; 34; 55; 89; ...

If any Fibonacci number (except for 1 and 2) is multiplied by a given number (4) and added to any other Fibonacci number, the result will again be a Fibonacci number. The ratio of two adjacent numbers in the Fibonacci sequence approaches the golden ratio, a number known since antiquity. This ratio became known as the Divine Proportion. Kepler referred to it as the treasure of geometry. In algebra, it is denoted by the Greek letter φ = 0.618.

This unique number, when added to 1, yields its own inverse: 0.618 + 1 = 1: 0.618.

The properties of Fibonacci numbers are such that: — every third Fibonacci number is divisible by two; — every fourth number is divisible by three; — every fifth number is divisible by five; — every sixth number is divisible by eight.

In 1307, Dante Alighieri published his renowned Divine Comedy. In 1320, gunpowder was first used.

In the mid-14th century (1347-1353), Europe was engulfed by the pandemic of the plague, known as the "Black Death," which was brought from Eastern China. The 14th century was marked by a period of global cooling. In Eurasia, climatic changes occurred particularly rapidly, attributed to a decrease in solar activity. Decades of dry years were followed by prolonged periods of rain, leading to crop failures and chronic malnutrition, which resulted in a significant decline in the population's immunity, making it vulnerable to the devastating plague. The epidemic began to spread around 1320, carried along the Silk Road by armies and traders. Medicine in Christian Europe was in a deep decline. The Hundred Years' War in France and the high population density due to overcrowding in fortified cities exacerbated the vulnerability of people to disease.

By 1347, the pandemic began, and both the Church and the populace were convinced that the end of the world was approaching. During this time, churches and monasteries became immensely wealthy, but they were also reminded of all their transgressions: the sale and purchase of ecclesiastical offices (simony), fornication, intrigues, and even murders within monasteries. Consequently, the authority of the Church over people's consciousness significantly weakened.

The Florentine plague served as the backdrop for Giovanni Boccaccio's famous Decameron. Francesco Petrarch wrote about the plague in his renowned poems to Laura, who died during the epidemic in Avignon.

As a result of the plague, the population of European countries decreased by estimates of 30-60%, which significantly affected the demographic situation in Europe for subsequent centuries.

In 1450, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with movable type. This invention greatly accelerated the dissemination of knowledge, which, in turn, contributed to the advancement of science and philosophy. During the Middle Ages, books were copied in monasteries, making them unique and irreplaceable, existing in a single copy (notably, the mistakes made are still evident today), serving, so to speak, for internal use only. Typically, the copied books did not circulate beyond the monasteries and cathedrals.

In 1452, Gutenberg printed the Bible—the first major book that was both technically and aesthetically refined for its time. The printed book became mass-produced and literally "entered the world," a phrase that perfectly captures the spirit and dynamism of the age! It was a weapon of far-reaching effect, akin to gunpowder, replacing swords and spears.

This period witnessed the rise and expansion of paper money, made possible by the same printing press, which began to be used for the mass production of currency. Unlike metal coins, which retain their value for millennia in any country, paper money holds no intrinsic value; it serves merely as a symbol in circulation. Thus commenced what is sometimes referred to as the era of "mature" Renaissance.

In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus completed his heliocentric theory of the solar system, figuratively halting the Sun and compelling the Earth to revolve around it.

The fall of Constantinople in 1453 saw Orthodox monks migrate north to Moscow, seeking to establish the Third Rome, while those who embraced humanistic values fostered a revival of all things ancient, spurring a renaissance on the Italian Peninsula. It was at this time that Constantinople was renamed Istanbul.

In 1471, the first observatory was established. In 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered America. In 1498, Vasco da Gama found a sea route to India around Africa. In 1519, the navigator Ferdinand Magellan undertook the first circumnavigation of the globe, during which he lost his life. His expedition validated the hypothesis of the Earth's spherical shape and the indivisibility of the oceans encircling the land. Thanks to the compass and the telescope, the spherical form of the Earth transitioned from a purely theoretical hypothesis to a palpable reality that we inhabit a globe adrift in the vastness of space.

In 1505, the first postal service emerged. This is a far from exhaustive list of the symbols of this epoch.

The evolution of philosophical thought during the Renaissance can be divided into three distinct periods:
a) The humanistic or anthropocentric phase, in contrast to the medieval theocentrism (mid-14th to mid-15th century);
b) The Neoplatonic phase, associated with the exploration of broad ontological issues (mid-15th to early 16th century);
c) The natural philosophical phase (late 16th to early 17th century).