1400 – 1600 · 6 philosophers
The Renaissance
Man is the maker of himself.
Fifteenth-century Italy rediscovered the classical texts and rediscovered the human being. In the Oration on the Dignity of Man, Pico has God tell Adam that he may shape himself into whatever he chooses. It was a new beginning: humanity was no longer just one link in the chain of creation.
Nicholas of Cusa spoke of learned ignorance and brought the infinite into thought. Bruno pushed Copernicus' cosmos into infinitely many worlds and was burned for it in Rome's Campo de' Fiori. Machiavelli coolly stripped the moral costume from politics, while Montaigne retreated to his study to test in essays what one person can really know.
The period left no single system. It left an attitude: doubt, curiosity, reverence for the ancients and impatience with authority. In the next century those attitudes became methods.
Schools of this era
Philosophers of this era
Nicholas of Cusa库萨的尼古拉
'Learned ignorance': God is the coincidence of opposites, the universe has neither centre nor edge, and the infinite is to be approached through mathematical figures.
Pico della Mirandola皮科·德拉·米兰多拉
At twenty-three he challenged all Europe to debate nine hundred theses; his Oration on the Dignity of Man declared that humans may make of themselves whatever they choose.
Erasmus伊拉斯谟
Prince of the northern humanists, who edited the Greek New Testament, mocked the whole age in The Praise of Folly, and defended free will between Luther and Rome.
Niccolò Machiavelli马基雅维利
Stripped politics of morality and asked only how power is won and kept; The Prince still unsettles its readers.
Michel de Montaigne蒙田
Invented the essay, took 'What do I know?' as his motto, and made himself the subject of a book about humanity.
Giordano Bruno布鲁诺
Preached an infinite universe with countless worlds; the Inquisition burned him in Rome's Campo de' Fiori, and he became the martyr of free thought.