Renaissance & Reformation
•	The period
•	Accomplishments
•	Representative figures
Controversial Period
•	Roughly 1350-1600
–	Began in Italy and spread North
–	Exists at different times in different places
•	Special period?
–	Great developments during 13th
–	But some regressive during 14th because of plagues
–	Not linear – fits and starts
Enormous Contradictions
•	Obsession with antiquity and turning away from present
•	Concern with what it means to be human, yet cruelty
•	Release from religious concerns, yet superstition
–	Astrology
–	Magic
–	Hermetic revival (disciples of Hermes anticipated Christianity)
Accomplishments
•	Rise of humanism
•	Exploration
•	Nationalism
•	Rise of city
•	Science
•	Medicine
•	Reformation
•	Printing
Humanism
•	Emphasis on human psychology rather than religious orthodoxy
–	In practice emphasis on wisdom of the ancients
•	Cicero
•	Rediscovery of Plato
–	Mystical works first used
–	Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) and Florence’s Platonic Academy
–	Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494)
•	Emphasis on progress
•	Rational solutions to problems
Trade and Exploration
•	Era of Columbus, Magellan, deGamba
•	Evidence of new cultures and ideas
•	Economics becomes important
–	More secular
–	Speculation about economic motives and psychology
Nationalism
•	France, England, Spain
•	Stability 
–	Science and intellectual thought
–	Self-confidence
•	Needs of new politics
–	Analysis of state and society
–	Psychology of politics – Machievelli
Development of City
•	More cosmopolitan 
–	Sophistication 
–	Easy spread of ideas and fad
•	Individualism
Rise of Science
•	Beginnings of emphasis on observation
•	Initially practical concerns 
–	Accuracy in navigation
–	Time
–	Ballistics
•	Copernicus (1473-1543)
–	Earth revolves around sun (~1540)
–	Primacy of science over Church dogma
–	Humans no longer center of universe
–	Can’t trust immediate sense data
•	Galileo (1564-1642)
Medical Advances
•	Discovery of blood circulation
–	Harvey (1578-1657)
–	Mechanism for circulation of information
•	Great advances in understanding anatomy
Reformation
•	Luther (1483-1546) 95 thesis in 1517
–	Not first to challenge Church
–	But first to make it stick
•	Importance
–	Emphasis on redemption through faith rather than good works – psychological
–	Vernacular
•	Translate Bible into German
•	Ministers not responsible for interpretation
Invention of Printing
•	Gutenberg (~1450)
•	 Importance
–	Encouraged vernacular for religious and political tracts
–	Education
Three Representative Figures
•	Machiavelli
•	Montaigne
•	Leonardo di Vinci
Machaivelli (1469-1527)
•	Studied the state
•	And psychology of rulers and subjects
•	Psychology
–	No place for religion – entirely secular
–	Emphasis on egoism and individualism
Montaigne (1533-1592)
•	Inventor of personal essay
•	Psychology
–	Realistic and cynical
–	Nothing is absolute 
–	Religion takes back seat
•	“To know how to live is my trade and my art”
Leonardo (1452-1519)
•	Great painter
•	But also great observer and inventor
•	Anatomy
•	No special psychological insights
–	But model of polymath
–	And heady self-confidence