Renaissance Philosophy Research Articles

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ЕКСПЛІКАЦІЇ ЛЮБОВІ ПРЕДСТАВНИКАМИ ДРУГОЇ СОФІСТИКИ

In the article, on the basis of the problem approach, a historical-philosophical reconstruction of the understanding of love in the movement of the second sophistic is performed. Its features and contribution to the development of the implicit philosophy of love are considered. It is proved that in the movement of the second sophistic, for the first time in historical and philosophical discourse, we can see an explicit thought about love not just as a feeling, but as a huge work, which involves incredible efforts and tensions of the participants in love discourse. The thinkers of the second sophistic also emphasized the rationality of the nature of love, thus such an understanding of love significantly raises it to such a height among all other human feelings. There- fore, love, which is able to know everything around and helps a person to know the Other, is not mercantile or evaluative, but creates in the human soul responsibility for the one she loves. It is revealed that the peculiarity of the explication of love in the second sophistic is also the understanding of love as a phenomenon of power, and the discourse of love as a discourse of war and conquest. It is these sentences that largely determined the course of development of the Renaissance philosophy of love and the emergence of courtly culture. It is shown that it is this school of the history of ancient philosophy that paid great attention to understanding parental love, emphasizing not just the connection and proximity to the animal world, but revealing the timeless depth and meaning of the relationship between children and parents.

RESULTS OF EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES OF COURT RENAISSANCE THINKERS IN THE CONNECTION OF THE PROBLEM OF EDUCATION OF THE “IDEAL RULER”

The article is devoted to the coverage of the results of pedagogical initiatives of Renaissance thinkers in the context of the problem of educating the “ideal ruler”. In addition to the theoretical development of the image of the “ideal ruler” and ideas for his upbringing, humanists had the opportunity to directly participate in the upbringing of children of nobles in the XIV – XVIth centuries. Thus, the article analyzes the best practices of elite education of the Late Middle Ages according to the author’s methods of court humanists. An important aspect of monitoring the effectiveness and reality of the measures taken by humanists to form the personality of the leader is the characterization of those historical personalities and their biographies with which they were in a “teacher-pupil” relationship. The article traces the results of the educational influences of Renaissance philosophers and educators through the study of the future fate of European authorities, through prosopographic and archontological special-historical methods of scientific knowledge. The imagological approach made it possible to assert that the experience gained by humanist educators in “nurturing statesmen from diapers” had both its achievements (for example, Philip IV the Beautiful and Sigismund Augustus) and its defeats (for example, Ferdinand of Aragon and Mary Tudor). The idea of educating the ruler with their practical Renaissance embodiment in a specific product – the formed personality of a statesman, is an important component of justifying the need to educate modern leaders.

IN SEARCH OF LITERARY SOURCES OF DIALOGUE «DE CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHIAE» BY SEVERIN BOETHIUS

The paper examines the literature basic of Severin Boethius work «The Consolation of Philosophy». The author starts with the historical context of the appearance of the text and then goes to consider its variety of literary genres and forms. Main of them are satura Menippea, consolation, protreptic, soliloquy and dialogue. Textual and conceptual analyses have relieved the connection between Boethius’s «The Consolation» and the works of other famous authors of Antiquity among them there are Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Cicero, and St. Augustine. As a connoisseur of Antiquity, Boethius uses literature to explain his philosophical ideas. In addition, the author of the article suggests an analytical review of the image of the Lade Philosophy in «Consolation». The genealogy of this literary character refers to the Greek mythology, Plato’s «Symposium» and «Crito» dialogues, Martianus Capella’s work «On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury» and Augustine’s the literary image of St. Monika. The article reconstructs an epistemological methodology of Boethius’s Neoplatonic dialogue that consists of five stages and describes a therapeutic role of philosophy in the traditions of Plato and Stoics. The essence of this role is a mind therapy. Philosophy teaches us to see the world as a whole, to describe it in clear notions and judgments. According to the text of «Consolation», Boethius takes us to make an intellectual Neoplatonic climbing from practical (ethic) to theoretical (metaphysic) philosophy – from vita activa to vita speculativa. The main aim or the top of this Neoplatonic meditation is a contemplative life or reminding own Ego. The great ideas of this work have the significant influence on Medieval and Renaissance philosophy and literature.

A difficult history of light. About metaphysical ideas of “light writing” formulated before the birth of photography

The reflections presented in this article are devoted to Junko Theresa Mikuriya’s book, A History of Light. The Idea of Photography. It is a unique view on the search for pre-photographic origins of photography in the field of philosophical writings ranging from Plato, through the neoplatonic philosopher Jamblich’s enquiry, to the texts by Philotheus of Batos and by an early Renaissance philosopher, Marsilio Ficino. When thinking about metaphysics present in (moving and still) images, one should not forget about the metaphysics of the image itself. The idea of photography – regardless of whether we are witnessing a fundamental change in an ontological transition from an analogue to a digital form of image recording – obliges us to discuss the “history of light”, as this is what Mikuriya does. While locating the discussed concepts in the context of the history and theory of photography, as well as the archaeology of media, the author of this essay engages in a dialogue with Mikuriya and polemically discusses many of her hypotheses. Key concepts such as chalepon, photagogia, triton genos, phôteinographeisthai are analysed in order to indicate inspiring moments in the Mikuriya’s reflections, but also a kind of interpretive abuse in the process of reading and analysing philosophical texts addressing the issues of light.

The Phenomenology of Elegance: an Outline

Elegance ranks low on the list of debated topics in philosophy, mainly because of the fleeting and mundane character of phenomena that it relies on for its existence. However, the rise of kinaesthesia as an important topic in today’s philosophical and phenomenological environment facilitates the inclusion of elegance in the canon of philosophical debates. This article reviews two important positions regarding elegance, that of Renaissance philosopher Baldassare Castiglione and of 20th Century realist phenomenologist Dietrich von Hildebrand. First, we underline three aspects of Castiglione’s concept of sprezzatura and showcase the significance and purpose of practicing elegance. This step is succeeded by a close look at von Hildebrand’s attachment to a realist phenomenological frame for understanding why he denies elegance the status of an ideal value. Last, we look at the connection between elegance and three ideas from a hybrid phenomenology from Husserl and Sheets-Johnstone. These connections form the basis for filling the significant gap between Castiglione’s Renaissance take on elegance and von Hildebrand’s realist perspective with a new phenomenological project regarding elegance. Keywords: Castiglione, von Hildebrand, Sheets-Johnstone, intentionality, kinaesthesia, axiology

The transformation of Plato’s theory of soul in the philosophy of Florentine Neoplatonism

The object of this research is the Platonic tradition of understanding of soul. The subject of this research is the interpretation of Plato's concept of soul in the philosophy of Florentine academicians. The goal is trace the historical-philosophical evolution of Plato's theory of soul from the Antiquity to the Renaissance philosophy. The article represents the authorial historical-philosophical and comparative analysis of the primary sources. Analysis is conducted on the works of Plato, Plotinus, Augustine of Hippo, Aristotle, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, M. Ficino, and D. Pico della Mirandola. The article outlines the key provisions of Plato's concept of the soul, reveals the tendencies of gradual historical transformation of this tradition within the history of philosophical thought. The topic at hand has not been previously covered in the scientific research, which defines the novelty of this paper. Soul is viewed as the mirror of the divine world that is in need of catharsis. Special attention is given to Neoplatonic comprehension of the luminous nature of soul. The concept of “universal soul”, which eclectically connects with the Christian understanding of soul as the individual and free principle is revealed. Analysis is conducted on components of the soul described by Plato, namely rational, appetitive, and the spirited. Special attention is turned to the rational soul as an immortal active principle. Position of the soul in the world hierarchy is considered. The article examines the soul as “bond of peace”, which encompasses the dialectical opposites of rational and sensuous, sole and numerous, separable and inseparable, time and eternity.

Historiography as a Subject of Conceptual and Axiological Analysis (Based on Sources about MICHEL MONTAIGNE)

The paper presents the procedure and results of conceptual and axiological analysis based on sources related to life and work of the XVIth century writer, humanist, and philosopher Michel Montaigne. The aim of the conceptual and axiological analysis is to identify notional, ontological, and value-based categories in the prepared historiographical corpus. The analysis was based on Russian, English, French, Italian, German, and Ukrainian texts related to scientific and historical discourse of various themes but united in personality of M. Montaigne. The study appeals to the term personal historiography introduced and used as textual repertory, which forms a well-balances corpus representing the information about a person in the example of M. Montaigne. Several conceptual and axiological components are revealed on the paratextual layer. The linguistic-axiological analysis of titles of texts about M. Montaigne aims to reveal recurrent means used to express verbal subjective evaluations and axiological dominants in modern researchers` discourse dedicated to life, work, and art of the Renaissance philosopher. The overall purpose of the multidisciplinary study of titles, which includes lexical, semantical, conceptual, axiological and content-analysis is to classify concepts, representing central concerns of Montaigne`s researchers, but also to identify axiological dominants of these researches. The analysis resulted in the determination of several basic concept fields perceived as set of concepts` representations with common features. All the recurrent concepts belong to highly various fields: philosophical beliefs; writing; values and anti-values; others; self-identity; intertextuality; politics; physicality; teaching and education. The formed historiographical corpus contains researches focused on all-round reconstruction of personality, creation, ways of thinking, and acts of M. Montaigne. The relevance of the study is ensured by the discovered conceptual multivalence, which indicates the lack of consensus between scientists in the field of M. Montaigne`s personality.

If only there was a Department of Fieldwork in Philosophy

Fieldwork in philosophy amounts to a second-order philosophical anthropology. It examines contemporary forms of the human by attending to lower-level concepts and practices. It departs from Michel Foucault’s gray and meticulous approach to the history of the present, which understands the transformation of high-level organizing concepts such as “Man” or “the subject” through an inquiry into scientific discourses, clinical practices, disciplinary institutions, etc. However, fieldwork in philosophy doesn’t approach the present by writing its history but by conducting anthropological fieldwork. This essay reconstructs Paul Rabinow’s conception of fieldwork in philosophy as it inspired the author’s work on the perennial philosophy of the psychedelic renaissance, a case study of neurophilosophers in a sleep laboratory, as well as research on cultural primatologists who took the Enlightenment question of human nature to the African rainforest. The essay ends with a plea for reimagining anthropology as fieldwork in philosophy.

A Journey Inside the Perception of the Self-Image - from the 15th Century Italian Portrait to the Glamorized Image on the Facebook

This article aims to present the philosophical perspective upon the birth of the idea of the individual and the consequences of the discovery of the self-image on the techniques of image reproduction from the Renaissance to the present day. The process of projecting the self-image into the public space acquires a special importance with the elaboration of the portrait technique in the Italian painting of the 15th century. Through Leonardo da Vinci's paintings, this technique of reproducing self-image reaches a certain perfection. Following the evolution of this kind of projections and reproductions of the self-image, it is found that there is an obvious tendency by which the individual tends to free himself from certain patterns, or rather canons, which a certain epoch imposes. This process manifested in the visual arts corresponds to a new philosophical perception of man opened by the works of Ficino and Pico della Mirandola. The assertion of a new type of dignity, correlated with the idea of the microcosm, of the Renaissance man will lead to an affirmation of his own personality and especially to an increase of the will to power reflected more and more in the works of art. With the resurgence of the Italian renaissance, artists and philosophers experienced a decline, but found a favorable space for their development at the court of Elizabeth I, Queen of England. The art of portraiture, but also the philosophy of renaissance survives and is even more flourishing at the court of this queen. But the most important moment of this renaissance is marked by Dutch art after its liberation from Spanish rule. From this moment on, the emancipation of the individual will occur on an unimaginable scale until then.

The case for post-scholasticism as an internal period indicator in Medieval philosophy

This article responds to a critical research challenge in Medieval philosophy scholarship regarding the internal periodisation of the register. By arguing the case for ‘post-scholasticism’ as an internal period indicator (1349–1464, the era between the deaths of William of Ockham and Nicholas of Cusa), defined as ‘the transformation of high scholasticism on the basis of a selective departure thereof’, the article specifies a predisposition in the majority of introductions to and commentaries in Medieval philosophy to proceed straight from 1349 to 1464, understating 115 years of pertinent Medieval philosophical discourse. It is argued that in the modern account of Medieval philosophy, this understatement is manifested in either a predating of Renaissance philosophy to close the gap between 1349 and 1464 as far as possible or in proceeding straight from 1349 to Renaissance philosophy. The article presents five unique philosophical themes from this delicate period, indicating that ‘post-scholasticism’ was indeed a productive period in late Medieval philosophy, which should not be bypassed as an inconsequential entrance to Renaissance philosophy. The period 1349–1464 should accordingly be appreciated for its idiosyncratic contributions to the history of ideas in the late-14th and early-15th centuries, with reference to the political intensification of the via moderna, the pivotal separation of philosophy and theology and the resulting independence of the natural sciences, in res critique of institutions, transforming pragmatics and the rise of philosophical materialism.Contribution: This article contributes to methodological development in Medieval philosophy by responding to a critical research challenge regarding the internal periodisation of the later Middle Ages. Arguing the case for ‘post-scholasticism’ as an internal period indicator (1349 to 1464 in Medieval philosophy, the article presents unique philosophical themes from the period, indicating that it was a productive stage in late Medieval philosophy which should not be bypassed as an inconsequential entrance to Renaissance philosophy.

PHILOSOPHY OF LATE RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND: HUMAN MORALITY

The author's purpose of the research is to visually show the timeline of philosophical development of ethical and moral laws, principles and concepts that have been identified and developed in different countries, among different peoples through the millenia history of mankind. As a particular subject of research English Late Renaissance philosophy appears. English philosophical traditions is presented with ones of the most oustanding studies of human and his nature. The study reflects the specificity and national originality of the process of the formation of ethics in England during the late Renaissance.

Economic Ideas of the Renaissance era: philosophical analysis

This article examines the economic views of the Renaissance philosophers. The socio-philosophical thought of this period raises the value and moral-ethical problems in economic sphere, as well as attempts to solve them. The subject of this research is the attitude towards the economic wealth of an individual and society. The goal is to reveal and structurize the economic ideas of the Renaissance philosophers. The relevance of this work lies in the overview of the philosophical concepts that reflect the economic ideas and value peculiarities of that time. Special attention is given to the development of foreign trade, which was accelerated by the Age of Discovery. The Renaissance era is complex phenomenon of human culture, where opens a new perspective upon articulation and solution of the old problems. For example, in discussing wealth and poverty, the philosophers raised the problem of social inequality, claiming the many people are poor not because they do not want to work, but because they were born to be poor. In this era, the bourgeois class, feudal lords and the highest royal nobility owned almost all lands, making it extremely difficult for ordinary people to become wealthy. This marked the “revolution” within the system of values, as well as in sociopolitical and economic spheres. Among the factors affecting the evolution of economic thought, the author indicates the problems of the development of economic activity and change in the subject area of economic tasks, both of which required a theoretical reflection. The author explores the solution of these tasks by different philosophers, as well as follows the evolution of the internal logic of economic views.

Introducing Renaissance Philosophy to the Undergraduate (Classics) Curriculum

Renaissance thought, as well as its intertwined reception of classical texts, generally receives little interest in either Classics or Philosophy departments. In this article, I outline my experiences teaching Renaissance philosophy in the format of a survey course treating a broad range of thinkers (e.g., Ficino, Della Mirandola, Machiavelli) and themes (e.g., “mirror for princes”, myth of Venice), examine the available materials and consider the student learning outcomes underpinning such a course. By evaluating the skill set that students acquire from such a course which could enrich their study of classical antiquity, I argue for a more widespread adoption of Renaissance thought on the undergraduate Classics curriculum and suggest how such a course might be implemented.

Impossible Desire and the Limits of Knowledge in Renaissance Poetry by Wendy Beth Hyman

Reviewed by: Impossible Desire and the Limits of Knowledge in Renaissance Poetry by Wendy Beth Hyman Ryan Netzley Wendy Beth Hyman. Impossible Desire and the Limits of Knowledge in Renaissance Poetry. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. xiv + 201 pp. Wendy Beth Hyman’s Impossible Desire and the Limits of Knowledge in Renaissance Poetry is one of those rare books that will immediately change how I teach. My students and I both tend to think that we have a pretty good bead on carpe diem poems. They maintain that they’ve heard enough pick-up lines that they can always see through such cringe-inducing clichés. I try to rebut their cynical reductions with a different brand of interpretive deflation: the invitation poem really commodifies time; the invitation really continues a classical tradition. Hyman’s book compellingly argues for the radical potential of the carpe diem tradition and the decidedly nuanced nature of its materialist philosophical commitments. In so doing, it serves as a useful antidote to my own and my students’ suspiciously pragmatic skepticism. Hyman’s introductory diagnosis of the invitation poem’s (the phrase she prefers to “carpe diem poem”) philosophical commitments and consequences is thoroughly convincing and sets the stage for much of what comes later: the Renaissance carpe diem tradition, which insists that death very much is the fast-approaching end, is predicated on a skeptical thought experiment that denies both Christian theology and social convention; in contrast to the classical invitation poem that offers non-actionable epideixis in the face of time’s inevitable passage, these Renaissance iterations insist on activity, even busyness; in part, that’s because these later poems must stage arguments against a Christian morality, as opposed to expression of consolation or contentment with the limited nature of time. Out of this compelling framing, Hyman draws two far-reaching consequences: 1) that religious unbelief is actually quite thinkable in the Renaissance and has been hiding in plain sight all these years; 2) that lyrics have speculative or optative aims on par with drama and narrative. Together, these two broad implications should prompt a welcome rethinking of materialist skepticism as something more interesting than mere cynical deflation or envious one-upmanship. [End Page 89] Impossible Desire and the Limits of Knowledge in Renaissance Poetry discusses non-canonical and canonical examples of carpe diem verse in the English Renaissance, but also extends its analysis to non-lyric genres and drama. Chapter two, in addition to discussing Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd,” Ralegh’s response, and Carew’s “A Rapture,” examines the materialist world-view of the characters in Measure for Measure. Chapter five examines negative reactions to invitations to “seize the day” in Spenser’s The Faerie Queene and Milton’s A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle. Of these examinations of non-lyric works, chapter four’s account of the eroticization of doubt in Hero and Leander seems to me the most compelling and provocative. Hyman finds traces of paradoxical encomium in Marlowe’s heroic epistle, when Hero defends (or is forced to defend) the “nothing” that stands in for virginity. This chapter deftly shows how these moments parallel Crashaw’s, Rochester’s, and William Cornwallis’ poems on “nothing” and evoke the physiological indiscernibility of the hymen as a “nothing” that must nonetheless be defended. The point here is not simply that Leander (or Marlowe) traps Hero with his rhetorical duplicity (although they both do). Rather, Hyman describes skepticism’s desirability as residing in something more than caginess in the face of thwarted aspirations, the rough-and-ready pragmatic activity that the carpe diem speaker advocates. Instead, she hints at how impossible knowledge might not be a mark of failed action, but rather a challenge to the notion that doing and acting should be our busy response to nothingness. The volume’s second chapter, on Measure for Measure and carpe diem lyrics, draws on chapter one’s careful account of the pervasive influence of Lucretian materialism in Renaissance philosophy and culture. The argument here is that Isabella and the various men in the play who seem monomaniacally interested in her chastity talk past each other because of a fundamental philosophical misunderstanding: she does not...

Dissecting a Forgery: Petronius, Dante, and the Incas

This article argues that a letter attributed to the Jesuit missionary and chronicler Blas Valera, sometimes dated to 1618, was written in the 20th century. A study of the Latin text shows that it is a patchwork of literary sources, including Petronius' Satyricon, the letters of Politian, a treatise by the Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino and Dante's Latin essays and letters. Linguistic analysis, source criticism and the transmission of those sources, particularly Petronius and Dante, show that Exsul Immeritus is inauthentic and date the forgery, on those grounds, to the second half of the 20th century.

Medieval and Renaissance Philosophers on Education

Philosophical understanding of education is a logical continuation of philosophical interpretation of the world and human beings in it. Therefore, it is not surprising that such an important social sphere has attracted attention of philosophers for centuries. Even a cursory glance at their concepts reveals that they have touched upon most issues that are still relevant today. The paper attempts to briefly describe the educational ideas of Titus Flavius Clemens, Origen, Saint Augustine, Boethius, Thomas Aquinas, Francesco Petrarch, Vittorino de Feltre, Michel de Montaigne, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Thomas More, Tommaso Campanella. The authors used hermeneutical, cultural-historical, and integrative approaches.

Notes on Contributors

Notes on Contributors

Honoring the Outermost: Saturn in Picatrix, Marsilio Ficino, and Renaissance Cosmology

ABSTRACT This article explores how the planet Saturn was conceptualized in the premodern cosmology that influenced the Florentine Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), particularly in the Latin translations of Arabic astrological works from which he drew inspiration in the production of his medical guide and mirror for princes, the De vita libri tres (1489). It puts special attention on the secret role of the astro-magical treatise Picatrix in Ficino's intellectual development and on some of the astrological correspondences or significations between Saturn and the concepts over which that planet was believed to hold dominion (e.g., melancholy, scholarship, and others). The article traces out some of the changes in the perceptions of Saturn, from his ambivalent role as a chthonic Roman divinity and the ruler of an agricultural golden age to a largely malefic force of nature in Late Antiquity up to Abū Maʿšar, and returning again to an ambivalent role as a volitional spiritual entity and a ruler of duality and extremes in the minds of astrologers from al-Qurṭubī (d. 964) to Ficino, who were also influenced by pseudo-Aristotelian, Aristotelian, Hermetic, and other pagan sources in constructing their knowledge of astral magic.

Of Hybrids and Hydras: Early Modern Political Zoology – and Shakespeare’s Coriolanus

Taking its starting point from ideas of human-animal hybridity in Renaissance philosophy and natural history, this paper explores the role of one particular hybrid, the Hydra, in early modern political thought. The epitome of noxious pluralization, the many-headed monster embodies the threat of corrosive civil strife. As such it figures in the writings of King James I and in pictorial representations of kingship. The monarch in the Herculean role of Hydra-slayer is a standard motif of early modern royal iconography. Shakespeare’s Herculean hero, Coriolanus, follows this pattern in his fight against the plebeian “beast / With many heads”. But in doing so, he moves remarkably close to what he most hates and opposes: “going alone / Like to a lonely dragon”, the outcast-hero becomes as politically disruptive as the Hydra-like crowd. Turning into a kind of superhuman hybrid, Coriolanus, the most Roman of all Romans, proves untenable for the social world of Rome.

Ramon Vinyes i la renovació de la narrativa colombiana: El proteisme literari a <i>El llac d'Atitlán</i>

Summary: This article analyses literary proteanism in Ramon Vinyes’ narrative and particularly in his short story “El llac d’Atitlán”. In this tale Ramon Vinyes turns into fiction his reflections about literary dynamism and the interconnection between literary systems. Literature facilitates knowledge transfer throughout epochs and cultures. Besides, the literary text is the result of various metamorphoses in which individuality and cultural hegemony play an outstanding role. “El llac d’Atitlán” fictionalises through the imagination of a Guatemalan poet the transfer of Renaissance philosophy in Latin America and its corruption under the influence of North American culture. Intertextuality and self-reference are the mechanisms to reshape knowledge. Literary proteanism becomes apparent through semantic and narratological transformation. Keywords: proteanism, knowledge transfer, intertextuality, self-reference, literary system, imperialism, metamorphosis, Pico della Mirandola, tellurism, Grupo de Barranquilla