Renaissance And Humanism

Humanism was a social movement that started during the Renaissance in Italy, by a man named Petrarch, and focused on the power of the individual and the study of the classics that led people to have a different view of the world and themselves. Humanism quickly spread to the rest of Europe and continued to influence individuals even after the Renaissance.
This essay will explain the impact of humanism on the culture and art of the Renaissance, on Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, and on the scientists of the Scientific Revolution. Humanism created the new mindset that was the bases for the Western Civilization and the Modern World; this mindset believed there was more importance and power in an individual than before and the
The scientific revolution was a radical shift in ideas pertaining to science that started in the 16th century in Europe. Such as, the heliocentric concept overtaking the geocentric concept. In May 1543, Copernicus published a book that contained his famous heliocentric concept of the universe that stated the sun was the center of the universe, not the Earth. Copernicus came to this conclusion because he questioned the geocentric, or Ptolemaic, system; the previously accepted system which developed during the Middle Ages based off the works of Ptolemy and Aristotle and stated that the Earth was in the center of the universe, heavenly planets orbited around earth in a circular motion, and that those heavenly planets were made of pure orbs of light. Copernicus believed it was too complicated and that it wasn’t correct. While he rejected the theory that the Earth was in the center of the universe, he agreed with the idea that the heavenly spheres orbited around the sun in a circular motion. Humanist during the Renaissance believed the classics would be the bases for understanding the world and the scientists of the Scientific Revolution continued with that mindset. Without studying the classical works of Aristotle and Ptolemy, Copernicus would have never come to the conclusion of heliocentrism that dominates what we know about the universe today. Another scientist to disagree with the geocentric system was Galileo Galilei. Galileo was the first European to study the heavens with the use of a telescope. His observations allowed him to conclude that the heavenly objects were not in fact shiny orbs of light, but rather made of material substances like Earth. This completely destroyed the Ptolemaic system and even received resistance from the church