Socio-philosophical thought of the Renaissance.

Naturphilosophy of the Renaissance.

Literature:

1. Batkin L.M. Italian humanism: lifestyle, style of thinking. - M., 1978.

2. Batkin L.M. Leonardo da Vinci and features of the Renaissance creative thinking. - M., 1990

3. Batkin L.M. Italian humanistic dialogue of the 15th century. Expression of the style of thinking in the structure of the genre // From the history of culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. - M., 1976.

4. Revyakina N.V. The doctrine of man by the Italian humanist Gianozzo Manetti. From the history of culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. - M., 1974.

5. Khlodovsky R.I. Francesco Petrarch. Poetry of humanism. - M., 1974.

6. Retenburg V.N. Titans of the Renaissance. - L., 1976.

7. Gorfunkel A.Kh. Philosophy of the Renaissance. - M., 1980.

Sources:

1) Niccolo Machiavelli. Sovereign. - M., 1990.

2) Lorenzo Valla. About true and false good. About free will. - M., 1989.

3) Leonardo da Vinci. Selected natural science works. - M., 1995.

4) Copernicus N. On the rotation of the celestial spheres. - M., 1964.

5) Nicholas of Cusa. About scientific ignorance // Nikolay Kuzansky. Op. : In 2 volumes. - M., 1979. - T.I.

6) Bruno D. Dialogues. - M., 1949.

7) Pascal B. Thoughts // Library of World Literature. - T.42.

Ideas of humanism of the Renaissance.

Chronologically, the Renaissance covers the period from the 14th to the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries.

The term "Renaissance" (or "Renaissance") characterizes the culture of Italy, which during this period became the center of "humanitarian knowledge" (studia humanitatis). This is where the concept comes from humanism", which presents ideas about respect for the rights and dignity of man, his desire for freedom and happiness. Humanism was formed on the basis of ancient Greek and Roman literature. In the works of humanists there are numerous appeals to the philosophy of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Cicero, Seneca and other philosophers..

The founder of Italian humanism is usually called Francesco Petrarch. (Francesco Petrarca (1304 - 1374) was born in Arezzo. A great poet.)

The essence of humanistic anthropology is to present the earthly world as a field of real human activity. The humanists considered the main criterion of a person's value not by class, but by personal qualities.

The creative principle of the world was still considered to be God, who transferred this ability to man. Therefore, the meaning of philosophy was to reveal the harmonious unity of the Divine and the human, and not to oppose them.

The meaning of human life consisted not in overcoming sinfulness, but in the ability to follow nature, on the basis of which human morality should be substantiated. The idea of ​​Christian asceticism is being squeezed out anti-asceticism, which is based on the ideas of pleasure, benefit and personal gain.

Two groups of problems are presented in this direction:

Teaching about man, about his structure, about his general qualities, about his place in the world;

The doctrine of the ideal state structure of society.

A person was considered as the highest value, and his good, his happiness and development were presented as the highest goal and task of the state. Lorenzo Valla, author of the well-known treatise "On True and False Good" (in the first edition of "On Pleasure"), "The very concept of high morality," Valla believes, "is empty, absurd and very dangerous, and there is nothing more pleasant, nothing more excellent than pleasure ".

The figures of the Renaissance paid much attention to the artistic creativity of man, the place and role of art in people's lives. They created masterpieces of art, philosophically comprehended this sphere of creative activity. For example, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). This brilliantly gifted man did not receive a classical education, he was essentially the creator of himself. He was well-read known as an artist, architect, sculptor, engineer, scientist, writer and philosopher. In Renaissance literature, he is mentioned as a pioneer of modern natural science. Leonardo's paintings "Madonna in the Grotto", "The Last Supper", famous for her smile "Mona Lisa" and others are considered the most perfect. Leonardo brought art closer to science. The artist, as it were, merged with nature, and this was the meaning of creativity.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF HUMANISM OF THE RENAISSANCE

PLAN:

1. Anthropocentrism and humanism of the worldview in the Renaissance

2. The problem of human individuality. The ideal of man

3. Socio-political ideals of the Renaissance

1. ANTHROPOCENTRISM AND HUMANISM OF THE WORLD VIEW IN THE AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE

Chronologically, the Renaissance covers the 14th-16th centuries, although the first signs of the Renaissance appeared in the cities of Northern Italy as early as the end of the 12th-13th centuries. (Proto-Renaissance). To a large number of different periodizations of the Renaissance, we can add one more - philosophical:

ö humanistic period (XIV-mid-XV centuries) - Dante, Petrarch, Valla;

ö Neoplatonic period (mid-XV-XVI centuries) - Nicholas of Cusa, Pico della Mirandola, Paracelsus;

ö natural-philosophical period (the end of the 16th - the middle of the 17th centuries) - N. Copernicus, G. Galileo, J. Bruno.

The attention of the Renaissance philosophers was directed primarily to the person, it is he who becomes the addressee of philosophical interest.

Thinkers are no longer interested so much in transcendental religious distances as in man himself, his nature, his independence, his creativity, his self-affirmation, and finally, beauty. The origins of such philosophical interest were largely determined by the transition from the feudal-rural to the bourgeois-urban way of life and industrial economy. The very course of history revealed the special role of human creativity and activity.

And although formally the philosophers of that time still put God at the center of the universe, they paid primary attention not to him, but to man. Thus, the fundamental principle of the philosophical thought of the Renaissance was anthropocentrism - the view that man is the center and the highest goal of the universe.

This approach has contributed to the development humanism - a view based on the inherent value of a person as a person, his right to freedom, happiness, well-being.

Humanism had a long prehistory in antiquity and the Middle Ages, but as a broad social movement that has the most important political, social and moral applications, it takes shape for the first time precisely in the Renaissance. The dispute was fundamental - about a new worldview, moral and political ideal. Scholasticism was subjected to criticism and reflection, i.e., fruitless thinking divorced from life. In an effort to achieve a just social and state structure in Italy, parliamentary government was introduced. There was also a search for ways to harmonize people's interests. The humanists believed that the basis of human relations is love, friendship, mutual respect, which does not contradict the protection of private interests and individualism. Humanism (in this regard, the work of Dante is indicative) raises the question of the true nobility of man.

The founder of humanism is unanimously considered a poet and philosopher Francesca Petrarch. In his work - the beginning of many ways in which the development of the Renaissance culture in Italy went. In his treatise “On the Ignorance of His Own and Many Others,” he resolutely rejects the scholastic learning inherent in the Middle Ages, in relation to which he defiantly proclaims his alleged ignorance, since he considers such learning to be completely useless for a person of his time.

In the mentioned treatise, a fundamentally new approach to the assessment of the ancient heritage is manifested. According to Petrarch, it is not blind imitation of the thoughts of remarkable predecessors that will allow to come to a new flowering of literature, art, science, but the desire to rise to the heights of ancient culture and at the same time rethink and surpass it in some way. This line, outlined by Petrarch, became the leading one in the relation of humanism to the ancient heritage.

The humanists of this period, who constituted a very small creative elite, which included representatives of various social groups, along with God exalt man as the creator of the world of culture, deify him as a subject of creative activity, bringing him closer to God. Man in the Renaissance is not considered a passive "image and likeness of God", he becomes a "godlike" being. Equalizing a person with God are two main qualities inherent in him - reason and free will, according to humanists, allowing a person to sort out an infinite number of opportunities for creative self-realization. The life and work of many humanists, for example, Leonardo da Vinci, who was at the same time an artist, the author of the famous Gioconda, and an engineer, whose creative genius anticipated many discoveries of the future (tank, parachute, helicopter), and scientists, serves as an excellent illustration of the words of F Engels, who called the Renaissance an era "which needed titans and which gave birth to titans in strength of thought and character, in versatility and scholarship."

Exalting man, humanists at the same time sharply criticized scholastic philosophy, insisted on the need to go beyond the limits of "scholastic science" to informal, vital, humanistic knowledge.

So, the Middle Ages end with the XIV century and the two-century Renaissance begins, after which, in the XVII century, the New Age begins. If in the Middle Ages theocentrism dominated, now the hour of anthropocentrism is coming. In the era of modern times, a person is placed at the center of philosophical research. In the philosophy of the Renaissance, there are two centers - God and man. This corresponds to the fact that the Renaissance is the transition from the Middle Ages to the New Age.

Humanism occupies an important place in the system of spiritual values. Its decisive role in the ideological consciousness of European humanity (at least since the Renaissance) can be judged by the fact that not a single philosophical, political, artistic direction or doctrine that claims to be the spiritual and practical leader of European civilization could do without to declare himself a model of humanism. The humanistic ideals that "took root" in the Renaissance, established in the spiritual culture in the form of tradition, have withstood the test of time, proving their significance, enduring value.

2. THE PROBLEM OF HUMAN INDIVIDUALITY. IDEAL MAN

The Renaissance is a revolution, first of all, in the system of values, in the assessment of everything that exists and in relation to it. There is a conviction that a person is the highest value. Such a view of a person determined the most important feature of the culture of the Renaissance - the development of individualism in the sphere of worldview, a comprehensive manifestation of individuality in public life.

The main task of the works of philosophers of that time was the task of determining the place of man in the world and the ethical and social problems arising from this task. The collapse of the medieval hierarchy, the liberation of the essential forces of man from all the restrictions and constraints that the church and the class organization of society imposed on him, the unusually rapid growth of cultural achievements, especially in the field of art, were considered by Renaissance philosophers as proof of the central position of man in the universe. In their view, a person became a titan who could handle any transformation of natural and social forces. Hence the humanistic orientation of the entire European Renaissance. The philosophers of the Renaissance placed man much higher than the thinkers of classical Greece, who never tried to place man at the center of being.

Glorifying the power of man and his greatness, admiring his amazing creations, the thinkers of the Renaissance inevitably came to the rapprochement of man with God. In such reasonings of Giannozzo Manetti, Marsilio Ficino, Tommaso Campanella, Pico and others, the most important characteristic of humanistic anthropocentrism appeared - the tendency to deify a person. However, the humanists were neither heretics nor atheists. On the contrary, the overwhelming majority of them remained believers. But if the Christian worldview asserted that God should come first, and then man, then the humanists brought man to the fore, and then talked about God.

The presence of God in the philosophy of even the most radical thinkers of the Renaissance implied at the same time a critical attitude towards the church as a social institution. The humanistic worldview, therefore, also includes anti-clerical views, i.e., views directed against the claims of the church and the clergy to dominance in society.

The writings of Lorenzo Valla, Leonardo Bruni, Poggio Bracciolini, Erasmus of Rotterdam and others contain speeches against the secular power of the Roman popes, exposing the vices of the ministers of the church and the moral depravity of monasticism. However, this did not prevent many humanists from becoming ministers of the church, and two of them - Tommaso Parentuchelli and Enea Silvio Piccolomini - were even erected in the 15th century. to the papal throne.

Francesca Petrarch believed that the science of man should become the content of true philosophy, and in all his work there is a call to reorient philosophy to this worthy object of knowledge.

With his reasoning, Petrarch laid the foundation for the formation of personal self-awareness of the Renaissance. In different eras, a person realizes himself in different ways. A medieval person was perceived as more valuable as a person, the more his behavior corresponded to the norms adopted in the corporation. He asserted himself through the most active inclusion in a social group, in a corporation, in a God-established order - such is the social prowess required of an individual. The Renaissance man gradually abandons the universal medieval concepts, turning to the concrete, individual.

Humanists are developing a new approach to understanding a person, in which the concept of activity plays a huge role. The value of the human personality for them is determined not by origin or social affiliation, but by personal merits and the fruitfulness of its activity.

A vivid embodiment of this approach can be, for example, the versatile activities of the famous humanist Leon Battista Alberta. He was an architect, painter, author of treatises on art. According to Albert, a person is able to overcome the vicissitudes of fate only by his own activity.

For the head of the school of Florentine Platonists Marsilio Ficino man is the connecting link of the entire cosmic hierarchy. He can embrace with his knowledge all being, for his soul is involved in the world soul - the source of all movement and all life. The boundlessness of man's knowledge makes him related to God. Ficino essentially deifies man, endowing him with absolute freedom and unlimited creative power.

The most famous work in which the humanistic doctrine of the high purpose of man and the exclusivity of human nature has found a complete expression and philosophical justification, of course, should be considered "Speech on the Dignity of Man" Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. In his opinion, a person, not having his fixed place in the hierarchy of the cosmos, is free to form his human essence. Its highest purpose is to be the connecting link of the universe. Endowed with free will and boundless creative power, man is god-like: "... A man is rightly called and considered a great miracle, a living being, truly worthy of admiration."

Maybe not so colorful, but just as definitely, other thinkers of the Renaissance, especially its early period, spoke about the high place of man in the world.

However, it would be wrong to idealize humanism, not to notice its individualistic tendencies. Creativity can be considered a true hymn to individualism. Lorenzo Valla. In his main philosophical work "On Pleasure", Valla proclaimed the desire for pleasure as an inalienable property of a person. The measure of morality for him is the personal good. Lorenzo Valla considered death for the fatherland and homeland a dangerous prejudice and argued that the personal life of an individual is a greater good than the life of all people. Such a worldview position looks like an asocial one.

A well-known politician and the largest theorist of Renaissance politics Nicolo Machiavelli argued that in order to achieve the political goals that the sovereign sets himself, all means are acceptable. Unbridled egoism, the absence of any restraining norms in political activity, which the Renaissance demonstrated at every step, lead the French philosopher Michel Montaigne to skepticism about the conviction of Ficino and Mirandolla about the exceptional position of man in the system of the universe. Man, according to Montaigne, is part of nature, and his activity must be subject to the natural laws that govern the universe.

So, considering man as the crown of the universe and so highly appreciating his capabilities and abilities, the philosophers of the Renaissance as a whole correctly reflected the real processes that developed the social and creative activity of the individual. But this was only one side of the Titanism of the Renaissance. Its second side is that individual activity, not bound by any framework and restrictions, gave rise to unbridled egoism, disregard for all moral norms, moral principles in order to achieve the goal. Even the most brilliant figures of this era constantly demonstrated the unattractive properties of the reverse side of renaissance titanism.

3. SOCIO-POLITICAL IDEALS OF THE RENAISSANCE

One of the main conditions for the possibility of realizing the humanistic ideal of man was considered the transformation of society. It was during the Renaissance that the literary genre of utopia received further development and even its own name (translated from Greek - "a place that doesn't exist").

Most notable during this period were the activities of two so-called "utopian socialists": Thomas More And Tommaso Campanella. They are the forerunners of scientific socialism and their work is similar. Both of them, but each in their own way, tried to create a society in which people are equal among themselves, there is no private and even personal property, labor is the duty of all, and division occurs according to need.

According to the opinion, the social utopias of Thomas More and Tommaso Campanella were a reaction to the selfish desire for wealth and power at any cost, which characterized the period of primitive accumulation of capital that coincided with the Renaissance.

The most famous work in which the socio-political ideal of the Renaissance is revealed is the novel "Utopia" by Thomas More. It describes a fictitious state located on the island of Utopia that never existed: “The island of the Utopians in its middle part (for it extends the widest) extends for two hundred miles, over a long distance the island does not narrow very much, but gradually thins towards both ends .. There are fifty-four cities on Utopia; they are all large and magnificent... The nearest ones are twenty-four miles apart. And again, none of them is far enough away that it was impossible to walk from it to another city on foot in one day ... From each city, three old and wise citizens converge annually in Amaurot to discuss the general affairs of the island. For this city is considered the first and main ... "

The concept of "Utopia" has become a household name for various descriptions of a fictional country, designed to serve as a model of the social system, as well as in the expanded sense of all works and treatises containing unrealistic plans for social transformation.

In the history of mankind, Utopia, as one of the peculiar forms of social consciousness, embodied such features as the creation of a social ideal, criticism of the existing system, the desire to escape from the gloomy reality, as well as attempts to imagine the future of society. Initially, Utopia was closely intertwined with legends about the "golden age", about the "islands of the blessed." During the Renaissance, Utopia acquired primarily the form of a description of perfect states, supposedly existing somewhere on earth, or existing in the past; in the XVII-XVIII centuries. various utopian treatises and projects of social and political reforms became widespread.

So, the ideal society in the eyes of the humanists had to be built:

ö in the economic sphere - on the rejection of private property, universal labor service and the centralized distribution of manufactured products;

ö in the political sphere – on democratic principles, the election of all officials;

ö in the social sphere - on the replacement of the estate system, which determined the value of a person by his origin, with such a social hierarchy in which a person's place was determined by the degree of education and social significance of the duties performed by him;

ö in the field of culture - on the creation of a universal and compulsory system of education and upbringing, state support for the development of sciences.

It is difficult to give an unambiguous assessment of such a socio-political ideal: it was characterized by both those elements that were subsequently implemented and are now successfully functioning in many modern countries, and those that have not yet stood the test of time. However, it is obvious that the utopias of the Renaissance offered a system much more perfect than the one that existed at the time of their creation in the states of Western Europe.

On the means of achieving socio-political ideals in the Renaissance, political philosophy gives a vivid idea. Nicolo Machiavelli- Italian politician and historian. He was convinced that "fortune controls half of our actions, but still allows us to control the other half or so." The management of this "half" Machiavelli attributed to a special sphere - the sphere of politics, which is separated from morality. In politics, in his opinion, instead of the 10 commandments serving as the basis of universal morality, a different principle operates - “the end justifies the means”: “... A sovereign, especially a new one, cannot do only what people are considered good for, because for the sake of preserving the state he often you have to break your promises, go contrary to mercy, kindness and piety. So in his heart he must always be ready to change direction if circumstances change or the wind of fortune starts to blow in the other direction, that is, as we said, if possible, do not deviate from good, but if necessary, do not avoid evil. .

In conclusion, it is necessary to note the most important feature of the philosophy of the Renaissance - its non-professional character. For the humanists and thinkers of the Renaissance, philosophy was neither a profession, nor an occupation, nor even a creative hobby. Perhaps that is why, despite the general recognition of the uniqueness of the Renaissance culture as a whole, this period was not considered original in the development of philosophy for a long time and, therefore, worthy of being singled out as an independent stage of philosophical thought.

However, the duality and inconsistency of the philosophical thinking of this time should not belittle its significance for the subsequent development of philosophy, cast doubt on the merits of Renaissance thinkers in overcoming medieval scholasticism and creating the foundations of the philosophy of the New Age.

LIST OF USED LITERATURE:

1. Machiavelli N. Sovereign. - Mn., 1999

3. More T. Utopia. - M., 1998

4. Fundamentals of Philosophy: Textbook for universities / Ed. E.V. Popov. - M., 1997

5. Monuments of world aesthetic thought: Antiquity. Middle Ages. Renaissance. - M., 1962. - T.1

6., Kislyuk on philosophy. - Kharkov, 2001

7. Engels F. Anti-Dühring// Marx K., Engels F. Works. – T. 20

Kislyuk in philosophy. - Kharkov, 2001, p.249

Fundamentals of Philosophy: Textbook for High Schools / Ed. E.V. Popov. - M., 1997, p.136

Kislyuk in philosophy. - Kharkov, 2001, p.258

Fundamentals of Philosophy: Textbook for High Schools / Ed. E.V. Popov. - M., 1997, p.144

Engels F. Anti-Dühring// Marx K., Engels F. Works. - T. 20, p.346

Fundamentals of Philosophy: Textbook for High Schools / Ed. E.V. Popov. - M., 1997, p.142

Monuments of world aesthetic thought: Antiquity. Middle Ages. Renaissance. – M.,

1962. - V.1, p.506

Martynov: Teaching aid for university students. - Mn.,

Martynov: Teaching aid for university students. - Mn.,

More T. Utopia. - M., 1998, p.53-54

Kislyuk in philosophy. - Kharkov, 2001, p.262

Machiavelli N. Sovereign. - Mn., 1999, p.76

2.2. Humanism of the Italian Renaissance

At the end of the XIV - beginning of the XV centuries. in Europe, namely in Italy, an early bourgeois culture began to take shape, called the culture of the Renaissance (Renaissance). The term "Renaissance" indicated a new connection with antiquity. At this time, the Italian society begins to take an active interest in the culture of Ancient Greece and Rome, the manuscripts of ancient writers are being searched for, so the writings of Cicero and Titus Livius were found. The Renaissance was characterized by many very significant changes in the mentality of people compared to the period of the Middle Ages. The secular motives of European culture are intensifying, various spheres of society's life - art, philosophy, literature, education, science - are becoming more and more independent and independent from the church. The focus of the Renaissance was a man, so the worldview of the bearers of this culture is denoted by the term "humanistic" (from Latin humanus - human).

Renaissance humanists believed that what matters in a person is not his origin or social status, but personal qualities, such as intelligence, creative energy, enterprise, self-esteem, will, and education. A strong, talented and comprehensively developed personality, a person who is the creator of himself and his destiny, was recognized as an “ideal person”. In the Renaissance, the human personality acquires an unprecedented early value, the most important feature of the humanistic approach to life is individualism, which contributes to the spread of the ideas of liberalism and a general increase in the level of freedom of people in society. It is no coincidence that humanists, who in general do not oppose religion and do not dispute the basic provisions of Christianity, assigned God the role of the creator who set the world in motion and does not interfere further in people's lives.

The ideal person, according to humanists, is a “universal person”, a person is a creator, an encyclopedist. Renaissance humanists believed that the possibilities of human knowledge are endless, because the human mind is similar to the divine mind, and man himself is a mortal god, and in the end people will enter the territory of the heavenly sanctuaries and settle there and become like gods. Educated and gifted people in this period were surrounded by an atmosphere of universal admiration, worship, they were honored, as in the Middle Ages, saints. The enjoyment of earthly existence is an indispensable part of the culture of the Renaissance. 1

At the origins of the Renaissance (Early Renaissance) in Italy was the great Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), the author of the Comedy, which descendants express their admiration, called the Divine Comedy. 2

Dante, Francesco Petrarca (1304-1370) and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), famous poets of the Renaissance, were the creators of the Italian literary language. During their lifetime, their works became widely known not only in Italy, but also far beyond its borders, and entered the treasury of world literature.

The Renaissance is characterized by the cult of beauty, especially the beauty of man. Italian painting, which for a time becomes the leading art form, depicts beautiful perfect people. Painting

The early Renaissance is represented by the work of Batticelli (1445-1510), who created works on religious themes and mythological subjects, including the paintings "Spring" and "The Birth of Venus", as well as Giotto (1266-1337), who freed Italian fresco painting from the influence of Byzantine .

One of the most famous sculptors of that time was Donatello. (1386-1466), author of a number of realistic portrait works

1 Poets of the Renaissance. - M .: Pravda, 1989. - S. 8-9.

2Dante Alighieri. The Divine Comedy. - M.: Enlightenment, 1988. - S. 5

type, for the first time after antiquity, representing the naked body in sculpture. The largest architect of the Early Renaissance - Brunelleschi (1377-1446). He sought to combine elements of ancient Roman and Gothic styles, built temples, palaces, chapels.

The era of the Early Renaissance ended by the end of the 15th century, it was replaced by the High Renaissance - the time of the highest flowering of the humanistic culture of Italy. It was then that ideas about the honor and dignity of man, his high destiny on Earth were expressed with the greatest fullness and force. The titan of the High Renaissance was Leonardo da Vinci (1456-1519), one of the most remarkable people in the history of mankind, with versatile abilities and talents.

The last great representative of the culture of the High Renaissance was Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564) - sculptor, painter, architect and poet, creator of the famous statue of David.

The next stage in the culture of the Renaissance is the Late Renaissance, which, as is commonly believed, continued from the 40s. 16th century to the end of the 16th - the first years of the 17th centuries.

Italy, the birthplace of the Renaissance, was the first country where the Catholic reaction began. In the 40s. 16th century here the Inquisition was reorganized and strengthened, persecuting the leaders of the humanist movement. In the middle of the XVI century. Pope Paul IV compiled the "Index of Forbidden Books", subsequently replenished many times with new works. This list includes works that were forbidden to be read by believers under the threat of excommunication, as they contradicted, according to the church, the basic provisions of the Christian religion and had a detrimental effect on the minds of people. The "Index" also includes the writings of some Italian humanists, in particular, Giovanni Boccaccio. Banned books were burned, the same fate could well befall their authors, and all dissidents who actively defend their views and do not want to compromise with the Catholic Church. Many advanced thinkers and scientists died at the stake. So, in 1600, in Rome, on the Square of Flowers, the great Giordano Bruno, the author of the famous essay “On Infinity, the Universe and the Worlds”, was burned.

Many painters, poets, sculptors, architects abandoned the idea of ​​humanism, trying to learn only the "manner" of the great figures of the Renaissance.

The humanist movement was a pan-European phenomenon: in the 15th century. humanism goes beyond the aisles of Italy and is rapidly spreading throughout all Western European countries. Each country had its own characteristics in the formation of the Renaissance culture, its national achievements, its leaders.

2.3.Going out of humanism outside of Italy

In Germany, the ideas of humanism become known in the middle of the 15th century, exerting a strong influence on university circles and progressive intelligentsia.

An outstanding representative of German humanistic literature was Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522), who sought to show the divine in man himself.

The revival in Germany is inextricably linked with the phenomenon of the Reformation - the movement for the reform of the Catholic Church, for the creation of a "cheap church" without partings and fees for rituals, for the cleansing of Christian teaching from all the wrong provisions that are inevitable in the centuries-old history of Christianity. Martin Luther (1483-1546), 3 doctor of theology and a monk of the Augustinian monastery, led the movement for the Reformation in Germany. He thought. That faith is the inner state of a person. That salvation is given to man directly from God, and that to come to God

possible without the mediation of the Catholic clergy. Luther and his supporters refused to return to the bosom of the Catholic Church and protested the demand to renounce their views, marking the beginning of the Protestant trend in Christianity. Martin Luther was the first to translate the Bible into German, which greatly contributed to the success of the Reformation.

The victory of the Reformation in the middle of the XVI century. caused a public upsurge and the growth of national culture. Fine arts flourished remarkably.

Ulrich Zwingli was the founder of the Reformation in Switzerland. In 1523, he carried out a church reform in Zurich, during which church rites and services were simplified, a number of church holidays were canceled, some monasteries were closed, and church lands were secularized. Subsequently, the center of the Swiss Reformation moved to Geneva, and the reform movement was headed by Calvin (1509-1562). 4 The Reformation won in Switzerland in the 40s. XVI century, and this victory largely determined the general cultural atmosphere in society: excessive luxury, magnificent festivities, amusements were condemned, honesty, hard work, dedication, and strict morals were approved. These ideas are especially widespread in the Nordic countries. The largest representative of the Renaissance culture in the Netherlands was Erasmus of Rotterdam (1496-1536). The value of the works of the great humanist and educator, including his famous "Praise of Stupidity", for the education of free-thinking, a critical attitude towards scholasticism, superstition is truly invaluable. In England, the center of humanistic ideas was Oxford University, where the leading scientists of that time worked - Grosin, Linacre, Colet. The development of humanistic views in

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3 Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary. -M.: Soviet Encyclopedia.1989.-S.329.

4 Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary. -M.: Soviet encyclopedia, 1989.-p.242

in the sphere of social philosophy is associated with the name of Thomas More (1478-1535), the author of Utopia, who presented to the reader the ideal, in his opinion, human society: everyone is equal in it, there is no private property, and gold is not a value - they make it chains for criminals.

The greatest figure of the English Renaissance was William Shakespeare (1564-16160), creator of the world famous tragedies Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and historical plays.

The revival in Spain was more controversial than in other European countries: many humanists here did not oppose Catholicism and the Catholic Church.

In France, the humanist movement begins to spread only at the beginning of the 16th century. An outstanding representative of French humanism was Francois Rabelais (1494-1553), who wrote the satirical novel Gargantua and Pantagruel.

The largest representative of the culture of France of the XVI century. was Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). His main work - "Experiments" was a reflection on philosophical, historical, ethical topics. Montaigne proved the importance of experimental knowledge, glorified nature as a mentor of man. "Experiments" Montaigne were directed against scholasticism and dogmatism, asserted the ideas of rationalism; this work had a significant impact on the subsequent development of Western European thought.

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

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

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

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

Of particular interest are the XIV and XV books of this extensive work, written in the "defense of poetry" against medieval attacks on it. These books, which gained immense popularity during the Renaissance, marked the beginning of a special genre of "poetry apology".

In essence, we observe here a polemic with medieval aesthetics. Boccaccio opposes accusing poetry and poets of immorality, excess, frivolity, deceit, etc. In contrast to medieval authors who reproached Homer and other ancient writers for depicting frivolous scenes, Boccaccio proves the poet's right to depict any plot.

Also unfair, according to Boccaccio, is the accusation of poets of lies. Poets do not lie, but only “weave fictions”, they tell the truth under the cover of deceit or, more precisely, fiction. In this regard, Boccaccio passionately proves the right of poetry to fiction (inventi), the invention of the new. In the chapter "That poets are not false," Boccaccio says bluntly: poets "... are not bound by the obligation to keep the truth in the outward form of fiction; on the contrary, if we take away from them the right to freely use any kind of fiction, all the benefit of their labor will turn into dust.

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

In his apology for poetry, Boccaccio argued that its main qualities are passions (furor) and ingenuity (inventio). This attitude to poetry had nothing to do with the craft approach to art, it justified the freedom of the artist, his right to create.

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

A significant contribution to the development of the aesthetic worldview of the Renaissance was made by Italian humanist teachers, who created a new system of upbringing and education, oriented towards the ancient world and ancient philosophy.

In Italy, starting from the first decade of the 15th century, one after another, a whole series of treatises on education appeared, written by humanist educators: “On noble morals and free sciences” by Paolo Vergerio, “On the education of children and their good morals” by Matteo Vegio, “ On Free Education” by Gianozzo Manetti, “On Scientific and Literary Studies” by Leonardo Bruni, “On the Order of Teaching and Studying” by Battisto Guarino, “Treatise on Free Education” by Aeneas Silvia Piccolomini and others. Eleven Italian treatises on pedagogy have come down to us. In addition, numerous letters of humanists are devoted to the topic of education. All this constitutes a vast heritage of humanistic thought.

In the Renaissance, a completely new type of Neoplatonism arises, which opposed medieval scholasticism and "scholasticized" Aristotelianism.

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

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

Nicholas of Cusa is the last thinker of the Middle Ages and the first philosopher of modern times. Therefore, in his aesthetics, the ideas of the Middle Ages and the new, Renaissance consciousness are peculiarly intertwined. From the Middle Ages, he borrows the "symbolism of numbers", the medieval idea of ​​the unity of micro and macrocosmos, the medieval definition of beauty as the "proportion" and "clarity" of color. However, he significantly rethinks and reinterprets the legacy of medieval aesthetic thought. The idea of ​​the numerical nature of beauty was not a mere fantasy game for Nicholas of Cusa - he sought to confirm this idea with the help of mathematics, logic and empirical knowledge. The idea of ​​the unity of the micro- and macrocosm, in its interpretation, turned into the idea of ​​a high, almost divine destiny of the human personality. Finally, a completely new meaning is given in his interpretation of the traditional medieval formula about beauty as “proportion” and “clarity”.

Nicholas of Cusa develops his concept of beauty in his treatise On Beauty. Here he relies mainly on the Areopagitics and on Albert the Great's treatise On Goodness and Beauty, which is one of the commentaries on the Areopagitics. From the "Areopagitic" Nicholas of Cusa borrows the idea of ​​the emanation (origin) of beauty from the divine mind, of light as a prototype of beauty, etc. All these ideas of Neoplatonic aesthetics are expounded in detail by Nicholas of Cusa, providing them with comments.

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

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

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

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

Such is the teaching of Nicholas of Cusa about beauty. It is quite obvious that this teaching is closely connected with the philosophy and aesthetics of Neoplatonism.

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

The well-known Italian humanist philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) adjoined the Platonic Academy. He touches upon the problems of aesthetics in his famous "Speech on the Dignity of Man", written in 1486 as an introduction to the dispute he proposed with the participation of all European philosophers, and in "Comments on the canzone on love by Girolamo Benivieni", read at one of the meetings of the Platonic Academy .

In the Oration on the Dignity of Man, Pico develops a humanist conception of the human person. Man has free will, he is in the center of the universe, and it depends on him whether he rises to the height of a deity or descends to the level of an animal. In the work of Pico della Mirandola, God addresses Adam with the following parting words: “We do not give you, O Adam, neither your place, nor a certain image, nor a special obligation, so that you have both a place, a face, and a duty of your own free will, according to his will and his decision. The image of other creations is determined within the limits of the laws we have established. But you, not constrained by any limits, will determine your image according to your decision, in the power of which I leave you. I put you in the center of the world, so that from there it would be more convenient for you to survey everything that is in the world. I did not make you either heavenly or earthly, neither mortal nor immortal, so that you yourself ... formed yourself in the image that you prefer.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In numerous works of Alberti, among which were works on the theory of art, the pedagogical essay "On the Family", the moral and philosophical treatise "On the Peace of the Soul", a significant place is occupied by humanistic views. Like most humanists, Alberti shared an optimistic idea about the limitless possibilities of human knowledge, about the divine destiny of man, about his omnipotence and exceptional position in the world. Alberti's humanistic ideals were reflected in his treatise "On the Family", in which he wrote that nature "created man in part heavenly and divine, in part the most beautiful among the entire mortal world ... she gave him mind, understanding, memory and reason - properties divine and at the same time necessary in order to distinguish and understand what should be avoided and what should be striven for in order to better preserve ourselves. This idea, in many ways anticipating the idea of ​​Pico della Mirandola's treatise On the Dignity of Man, pervades all of Alberti's work as an artist, scientist and thinker.

Engaged mainly in artistic practice, especially architecture, Alberti, however, paid much attention to the theory of art. In his treatises - "On Painting", "On Architecture", "On Sculpture" - along with specific issues of the theory of painting, sculpture and architecture, general issues of aesthetics were also widely reflected.

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

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

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

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

Alberti, although he attached great importance to the mathematical basis of art, does not reduce, as medieval aesthetics does, beauty to mathematical proportion. According to Alberti, the essence of beauty lies in harmony. To designate the concept of harmony, Alberti resorts to the old term "concinnitas", borrowed by him from Cicero.

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

In this reasoning Alberti should highlight the following points.

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

In itself, this harmony is not only the law of art, but also the law of life, it "penetrates the whole nature of things" and "encompasses the whole life of a person." Harmony in art is a reflection of the universal harmony of life.

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

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

Harmony in art consists of various elements. In music, the elements of harmony are rhythm, melody and composition, in sculpture - measure (dimensio) and border (definitio). Alberti associated his concept of "beauty" with the concept of "decoration" (ornamentum). According to him, the distinction between beauty and decoration should be understood by feeling rather than expressed in words. But still, he draws the following distinction between these concepts: “... decoration is, as it were, a kind of secondary light of beauty, or, so to speak, its addition. For from what has been said, I think it is clear that beauty, as something inherent and innate in the body, is diffused over the whole body to the extent that it is beautiful; and the adornment is more of the nature of the attached than the innate.

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

Along with the concept of “beauty” and “decoration”, Alberti also uses a number of aesthetic concepts, borrowed, as a rule, from ancient aesthetics. He associates the concept of beauty with dignity (dignitas) and grace (venustas), following directly on Cicero, for whom dignity and grace are two kinds of (male and female) beauty. Alberti connects the beauty of a building with "necessity and convenience", developing the Stoic idea of ​​the relationship between beauty and usefulness. Alberti also uses the terms "charm" and "attractiveness". All this testifies to the diversity, breadth and flexibility of his aesthetic thinking. The desire to differentiate aesthetic concepts, to the creative application of the principles and concepts of ancient aesthetics to modern artistic practice is a distinctive feature of Alberti's aesthetics.

It is characteristic how Alberti interprets the concept of "ugly". Beautiful for him is an absolute object of art. The ugly acts only as a certain kind of error. Hence the demand that art should not correct, but hide ugly and ugly objects. “Ugly-looking parts of the body and others like them, not particularly elegant, let them cover themselves with clothes, some kind of branch or hand. The ancients painted the portrait of Antigonus only on one side of his face, on which the eye was not gouged out. They also say that Pericles had a long and ugly head, and therefore, unlike others, he was portrayed by painters and sculptors in a helmet.

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

Campanella entered the history of science, primarily as the author of the famous utopia "City of the Sun". At the same time, he made a significant contribution to Italian natural philosophical thought. He owns important philosophical works: "Philosophy Proven by Sensations", "Real Philosophy", "Rational Philosophy", "Metaphysics". A significant place in these works is occupied by questions of aesthetics. So, in "Metaphysics" there is a special chapter - "On the beautiful." In addition, Campanella owns a small essay "Poetics", dedicated to the analysis of poetic creativity.

The aesthetic views of Campanella are distinguished by their originality. First of all, Campanella sharply opposes the scholastic tradition, both in the field of philosophy and aesthetics. He criticizes all authorities in the field of philosophy, rejecting equally both the "myths of Plato" and the "fictions" of Aristotle. In the field of aesthetics, this criticism characteristic of Campanella is manifested, first of all, in the refutation of the traditional doctrine of the harmony of the spheres, in the assertion that this harmony does not agree with the data of sensory knowledge. “In vain, Plato and Pythagoras represent the harmony of the world like our music - they go crazy in this, like someone who would attribute our sensations of taste and smell to the universe. If there is harmony in heaven and among the angels, then it has other bases and consonances than fifth, fourth or octave.

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

The original concept of beauty is developed by Campanella in the essay "On the Beautiful". Here he does not follow any of the leading aesthetic trends of the Renaissance - Aristotelianism or Neoplatonism.

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

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

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

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

Thus, the ugly appears in Campanella as just a certain defect, a certain violation of the usual order of things. The purpose of art is, therefore, to correct the deficiency of nature. This is the art of imitation. “Art, after all,” says Campanella, “is the imitation of nature. The hell described in Dante's poem is called more beautiful than the paradise described there, because, imitating, he showed more skill in one case than in another - although in reality heaven is beautiful, hell is terrible.

In general, Campanella's aesthetics contains principles that sometimes go beyond the boundaries of Renaissance aesthetics; the connection of beauty with utility, with the social feelings of a person, the assertion of the relativity of beauty - all these provisions testify to the maturation of new aesthetic principles in the aesthetics of the Renaissance.

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

Renaissance humanists.

During the Renaissance in Italy, a social group of people called humanists. They made philosophy, literature, ancient languages, the discovery and study of the works of ancient authors, and philosophical research the main goal of their life.

Humanists cannot be considered intellectuals in the modern sense of the word, they represented an elite esoteric group, which, through their activities and way of life, established new systems of spiritual values. Characteristic is emergence of an intellectual and artistic elite. Among people of mental labor, those who solve the problem of man, form the national language and national culture, are more valued. This poets, philologists, philosophers. It is they who determine the independence of human thinking from state and church institutions. Passion for antiquity was expressed in an unprecedented interest in antique art .

The intellectuals of the Renaissance strive to fill the medieval gap with Antiquity and carry out multifaceted work to restore the riches of philosophy and art. The restoration of the ancient heritage began with the study of ancient languages. The invention of printing played an important role, which contributed to the spread of humanistic ideas among the masses.

Humanism developed as an ideological trend. He captured merchant circles, found like-minded people at the courts of the titans, penetrating into the highest religious schemes, established himself among the masses and left his mark on folk poetry. Builds up new secular intelligentsia . Its representatives organize circles, give lectures at universities, act as advisers to sovereigns. Humanists brought freedom of judgment, independence in relation to authorities into the spiritual culture. For them, there is no hierarchy of society, in which a person is only a spokesman for the interests of the estate, they oppose any censorship, and especially the church. Humanists express the requirements of the historical situation, forming an enterprising, active and initiative person.

The main character of the era becomes an energetic, strong-willed, liberated person who dreams of realizing earthly ideals. This person strives for sovereignty in all areas, challenging established traditions, restoring the ideal of a comprehensively developed harmonious personality.

“A well-bred harmonious individual must: be able to ride a horse, fight with swords, wield various kinds of weapons, be a good speaker, dance beautifully, play musical instruments, have knowledge in the field of science and art, know foreign languages, be natural in behavior and carry God in your soul.

IN Christian culture the highest form of existence was recognized as that which led to the salvation of the soul and made it possible to approach God: prayer, rituals, reading the Holy Scriptures; during the Renaissance traditions and higher authorities no longer pressed on a person, a person longed for real power over nature and himself. Man was not only an object of admiration, the ban was lifted from the scientific study of the human body and psyche. Artists, doctors study the structure of the body, and writers, thinkers and poets study feelings and emotions. Being engaged in creativity, the artists went through the perspective into the field of optics and physics, through the problems of proportions - into anatomy and mathematics. Renaissance artists developed the principles and discovered the laws of direct and linear perspective. The combination of a scientist and an artist in one person, in one creative person, became possible only in the Renaissance.