European Renaissance: The Main Crisis of Humanism
1.0 What is Humanism?
Humanism puts its basis on the ability to determine right and wrong on rational thinking and rejects the supernatural, thus divine interference. In humanism, it is up to humans to find the truth as oppose to divine revelation. A branch of humanism, Renaissance Humanism, was originally described as a curriculum of study that included rhetoric, moral philosophy, poetry and history.
2.0 The Main Crisis of Humanism
The main crisis of Humanism was the denouncing of Galileo’s belief in the Copernican theory of Heliocentrism. The coperinican theory states that the sun is the center of the universe. The denouncing of this belief has been called the start of the relationship between science and the church. The fundamental problem of Heliocentrism is that it did not agree with the bible.
3.0 Galileo and Heliocentrism
Galileo received many attacks about his defense of heilocentrism. One attack came from Tommaso Caccini, a Dominican friar, who preached a sermon in 1614 denouncing Galileo’s letter to Castill which showed how Galileo related scripture to natural phenomenon. This attack eventually led to the Roman Catholic inquisition of Galileo’s belief in heliocentrism.
3.1 The Qualifers
The judge at Galileo’s trial forwarded the case to a group of commission theologians called the qualifiers. The qualifiers believed that Galileo was wrong and that the heliocentrism theory was “absurd and foolish.” The qualifiers believed that the theory was hypothetical but could not be true. The outcome of the trial was that Galileo could not write about heilocentrism in any of his books.
3.2 Dialogue concerning the Two Chief World Systems
Gailieo then stayed away from heliocentrism, until the publishing of his book, Dialogue concerning the Two Chief World Systems in 1632. The book, which was suppose to be written to provide supporting statements of heliocentrism and Aristotle’s theory of Geocentrism( Geocentrism places the earth as the center of the universe). The book was more of an attack on geocentrism and mostly supported heliocentrism. Because the book supported heliocentrism, Gaileo was charged and latter convicted of heresy.
References
Galileo affair. (2007, November 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 6 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair
Galileo Galilei. (2007, November 5). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 6 , 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei
Heliocentrism. (2007, November 6). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 6, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliocentrism
Humanism. (2007, November 5). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 6 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism
Renaissance humanism. (2007, November 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 6, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_humanism