The purpose of this course is to study and discuss the humanistic philosophy that emerged during the Italian Renaissance. We will focus on two themes that rest at the core of that philosophy — namely, the dignity of man and the virtuous life. Renaissance theories concerning the dignity of man address issues such as: individual human potential; humankind’s place in the universe; and the nature of our relationship with fate and fortune. As the Italian Renaissance philosophers revised their notions of what it means to be human, they also reconsidered their understanding of what constitutes the virtuous (or “good”) life of a human being. Therefore, the second portion of this course examines “civic humanism” as the ethical/social-political theory that constituted the Renaissance philosophers’ response to the Socratic question, “How, then, shall we live?”
We will approach these themes by reading excerpts from philosophical and literary works by Renaissance scholars and their contemporaries. Further insight into this topic is provided through a selection of contemporary scholarship that illuminates the pivotal nature of this moment in our intellectual history.
Instructor: Laura DeSisto, postdoctoral fellow in education, Lawrence University