A PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS OF RENAISSANCE CULTURE AS A SOCIOCULTURAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE CONTINUUM OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET)
Volume 9, Issue 11, November 2018, pp. 2569–2577, Article ID: IJCIET_09_11_260
Available online at http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJCIET?Volume=9&Issue=11
ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316
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A PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS OF
RENAISSANCE CULTURE AS A
SOCIOCULTURAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE
CONTINUUM OF EUROPEAN CULTURE
Lipetsk State Pedagogical P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky University, Lipetsk, Russia
ABSTRACT
The paper analyses Renaissance culture treating it not merely as an independent
stage in the continuum of European culture, but as a socio-cultural transformation – a
transitional period between the mediaeval and modern European cultures. It is argued
that like any socio-cultural transformation, the Renaissance combined features of the
mediaeval cultural paradigm and those of modern European culture as its successor.
Content analysis of Renaissance art, science, religion, and philosophy reveals that the
worldview foundation for the transitional period in question was provided by the
displacement of mediaeval theocentrism and the establishment of anthropocentrism.
The study explores features of the Renaissance era which allow characterising the
latter as a typical socio-cultural transformation and singling out unique
characteristics of the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern period. In
conclusion, inferences about the significance of Renaissance culture as a
sociocultural transformation in the continuum of European culture are made.
Key words: Renaissance culture, socio-cultural transformation, European culture
Cite this Article: Alexei N. Tarasov, A Philosophical Analysis of Renaissance Culture
as a Sociocultural Transformation in the Continuum of European Culture,
International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET) 9(11), 2018, pp.
2569–2577.
1. INTRODUCTION
The transition from mediaeval culture to modern European culture was conditioned by the
second sociocultural transformation in the continuum of European culture – the Renaissance.
As is known, sociocultural transformations are transition periods in the dynamics of culture,
entailing the demolition of the old paradigm of worldview and the establishment of a new
one, which results in systemic (though not structural) changes in the sociocultural system –
changes that bring about the advent of new cultural epochs. This process embraces all spheres
of society [1].
Continuum of European Culture
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The paper analyses the essence of Renaissance culture as a sociocultural transformation
reflecting the transition from mediaeval to modern European culture. There are quite a large
number of works dealing with a comprehensive study of various aspects of the Renaissance
era [2, 3, 4]. The analysis provided in the cited works embraces all the spheres of European
society during the Renaissance – economic, political, social, spiritual, and legal. Yet, it is only
recently, along with the introduction of the concept of sociocultural transformation, that
studies referring to the Renaissance as a transitional period in the dynamics of European
culture began to appear. Treating the Renaissance as a period of qualitative changes that took
European culture to a new level of anthropogenic culturedness is fraught with certain
difficulties as such stages mark paradigm shifts which undoubtedly affect not only society and
its culture, but first of all peculiarities of its social-psychological perception resulting from the
collapse of its world view. The whole set of the aforementioned factors testifies to the
relevance of analysing Renaissance culture as a transitional period in the continuum of
European culture.
2. METHOD
The choice of research methods was stipulated by peculiar characteristics of transitional
periods [5]. The logic of exploring Renaissance culture on a fairly extended timescale as a
transitional culture with all its qualitative parameters necessitates the implementation of the
interdisciplinary approach to its study. The major method employed in the undertaken
analysis is that of philosophical interpretation. It allowed establishing ontological foundations
of the Renaissance as a sociocultural transformation.
Revealing the particularities of the development of the art, science, religion, and
philosophy of the period under discussion required comparative and structural-functional
analysis. The methods of abstraction, classification, moving from the abstract to the concrete,
analysis and synthesis were employed to investigate the essence of the processes that occurred
during the lengthy timespan in question. The same methods helped to determine prospects for
the research subject. In order to single out cause-and-effect connections, the temporal method
was used. Collectively, the outlined methods made it possible to expose the essence of the
Renaissance as a transitional stage. The theoretical and methodological principle employed in
the survey is the analysis of the causes, essence, and achievements of the Renaissance as a
socio-cultural transformation.
3. RESULTS
The question of the chronological framework for the Renaissance is controversial. According
to the point of view adopted in this study, the Renaissance in Italy lasted throughout the 14th –
16th c., while in the other European countries it lasted throughout the 15th – 16th c.
Renaissance culture manifested itself most clearly in Italy – the country which at the turn of
the 15th c. embarked on a path of building a new socioeconomic system. Some time later,
Renaissance trends spread into Dutch as well as some Rhine and south German towns.
By the 14th c., Italy had achieved a high level of mediaeval civilisation as compared to the
other European regions. Owing to advanced forms of business and financial enterprise,
monopolistic positions on the external market, and extensive loans to European rulers and
nobility, free Italian cities became gained economic power. The formation of a new
socioeconomic setup contributed to the emergence of a new phenomenon in the spiritual life
of Italy at the turn of the 15th c. – city culture, which, in turn, facilitated the transition to a new
worldview paradigm.
Alexei N. Tarasov
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The foundations for the new cultural paradigm were laid, among other factors, by the
social basis. By the early 15th c., Italy still lacked clear-cut social groups, and its feudal lords
found themselves involved in the hectic city life, being closely connected with the most
affluent merchants as well as rich popolans. New features of world outlook and self-
awareness characteristic of various social groups took clearer shape in the urban environment.
In the world view respect, the birth of the new culture clearly manifested itself in the
changes occurring in the mindset of various social strata. In the circles of enterprisers,
principles of corporate consciousness were being gradually replaced by individualistic
tendencies. Along with the growing popularity of the idea of wealth accumulation, the notions
of collective and individual honour as well as respect for the law were preserved. Such
changes in the world view became an immediate token of a sociocultural transformation
which, in this particular case, materialised on the level of personal perception. It is for this
reason that new ideals came to dominate the secular-oriented merchant morality.
World view changes also affected the oldest aristocratic Italian families which can be
considered as a bulwark of spiritual conservatism as they traditionally preserved the notion of
virtues and placed a high value on family honour. Despite the fact, these social strata’s world
outlook and ideas of man’s place in the world also underwent change. As evidence suggests,
the nobility were now faced with commercial and industrial enterprise which gave rise to
pragmatic rationalism, mercenariness, and a new rationalised attitude to wealth accumulation
[6, 7].
Middling merchants and gild masters, together with the intellectuals (the clergy, doctors,
lawyers) advocated the maintenance of social peace and prosperity of a city-state, which
brought them closer to business circles in this respect. Yet, here traditions of corporatism
were more deep-rooted than in the circles of enterprisers. It is a peculiar feature of transitional
periods when the essence of a new cultural paradigm is not yet reflected by all the spheres of
socio-cultural reality. In other words, some elements of spiritual life already fit the new
culture, whereas others keep developing according to the principles of the old paradigm –
mediaeval, in this particular case.
At the same time, the analysis of causes of qualitative changes in the cultural system of
Italy in the 14th – 15th c. shows that some social strata continued to live in the mediaeval
system of views and beliefs. As researchers point out, one such example in Italy can be found
in the low-class urban environment [8].
Thus, a study of world view peculiarities found in various social strata of Italy during the
transitional period shows that the process of establishing the anthropocentric outlook was not
homogeneous. The upper classes were the driving force behind Renaissance culture, the lower
classes stuck to the mediaeval tradition, whereas the intellectuals were somewhere in-
between.
Among the factors explaining the establishment of transitional Renaissance culture
specifically in Italy, one can point out its well-developed system of education during the
stated period – from elementary and secondary schools funded by urban communes, home
schooling and vocational training in merchant and craftsmen shops, to numerous universities.
The transition to a new culture was also determined by qualitative changes occurring at
that time and spread through the ideas of the contemporaries who conceptually reflected the
essence of the transformational processes in their works. In Italy, these new trends were more
pronounced in the creations of Dante Alighieri. There are quite a number of ideas in his “The
Divine Comedy” that are humanistic in origin. Therefore the determination of Italian
Renaissance culture as a transitional one should be traced back to socio-economic reasons.
The economic aspect is linked to the transition from the feudal to the capitalist system of
management, while the social one – to changes in the collective consciousness of Italian
A Philosophical Analysis of Renaissance Culture as a Sociocultural Transformation in the
Continuum of European Culture
society and the establishment of humanistic ideology. Yet, internal, immanent causes of the
changes stipulated by the general course of the culture-historical process, which demanded
corresponding changes in sociocultural reality, should not be ignored.
The outlined set of factors that gave rise to the Renaissance as a sociocultural
transformation is also found in other European countries. In particular, by the 16th c. (later
than Italy), Germany had already embarked on a course of developing market relations and
innovations in manufacturing. The way for Renaissance culture was also paved by a generally
high level of spiritual and material culture primarily developed by cities as well as by the
increasing secularisation. As in Italy (though a little later), urban culture begins to take shape
in Germany.
However, in Germany, not only internal factors were key to the establishment of a new
culture, but also external ones, including the influence of Italy – its arts, ideas, scientific and
ontological approaches etc. All that was adopted and creatively applied with due regard to
local traditions by German humanists.
Italian culture had a similar influence on other European countries. The Italian
Renaissance became the engine of the Renaissance in the whole of Europe. In particular,
laying the foundations for establishing the paradigm of modern European culture in the
Netherlands, along with the influence of the Italian Renaissance, turned out to be linked to
internal conditions – such as the schooling and publishing activities of “The Brethren of the
Common Life” community.
Socioeconomic reasons determined the birth of the new cultural paradigm in England as
well. The analysis of the general level and all the spheres of English culture shows that the
country faced a continuous process of creating and establishing a new cultural paradigm
supported by rich city corporations and charity of individuals who made large capital
investments in building secular constructions. Socially, the establishment of the new world
view paradigm in England was connected with the development of literature. Early
humanistic tendencies emerge in English literature as far back as the second half of the 14th c.
Besides, by the 15th c., England was in active contact with Italy, which facilitated the spread
of humanistic ideas.
Pre-Renaissance tendencies in French culture are observed at the turn of the 15th c. The
Avignon Papacy ensured extensive contacts between France and Italian culture. Petrarch’s
stay in France helped to establish the cult of the antique and Italian tradition. The College of
Navarre became central to spreading new ideas.
Humanistic culture in France, as in other regions of Europe, was disseminated via the
system of education – socially, the educational reform, which began as a fight against
scholasticism reigning supreme at Paris University, played the key role in shaping
Renaissance culture. By the late 15th c. Paris became the meeting point for Erasmus and the
founders of the first circle of humanists at the Sorbonne – Guillaume Fichet and Robert
Gaguin. They published and studied works by classical and Italian authors.
Thus, by the early 16th c., the new world view paradigm became firmly established in
European culture. These processes were determined by socioeconomic factors. As the
economic leader of Europe, Italy acted as a growth driver for the whole region. The other
European countries, which were trying to catch up with it, adopted the new ideas through art
and the system of education, adjusting them to their own historical experience and national
peculiarities. The processes in question were also determined by immanent reasons – the
general course of the historical process requiring corresponding changes in sociocultural
reality.
Alexei N. Tarasov
http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJCIET 2573 [email protected]
Let us now subject the essential characteristics of Renaissance culture to content-analysis.
Paradigmally, the Renaissance is based on three concepts: humanism, naturalism, and
universalism. Humanism becomes the starting point for the whole epoch, glorifying and
extolling man as God’s wonderful creation, asserting human dignity, the freedom and all-
round development of a human being. Humanism functions as a certain spiritual movement
first in Italian and later in transalpine culture, and, as A. Gorfunkel rightly points out, this
movement can be described as “philology acting as ideology” [9] in that it initially spread in
literary circles, and from there it swept across Italian and then European society. Humanistic
ideology was based on the principles of classical thinkers – for instance, Plato’s ethics. The
nascent culture gives a special place to nature. People are now more interested in earthly
rather than in heavenly beauty. God is becoming closer to man, He is perceived
pantheistically (as merged with the world, dissolved in nature). That is why the world is filled
with divine beauty, and man’s task is to cognise and reflect it. Another paradigmal peculiarity
of the epoch is universalism. During the Renaissance, a person feels that they are God’s
beautiful creation also able to create rather than a sinful human being. Thus man likens
himself to God, trying to create another reality, and moving beyond the possible. This fusion
of antique and Christian ideas, earthly and heavenly beauty, elevating man to the level of the
Creator, intermingling of science, philosophy, and art, and the ambition of the outstanding
personalities of the time to embrace all the spheres of creativity, are, undoubtedly, a
manifestation of Renaissance universalism.
Modern research data on specific characteristics of Renaissance culture show that
culturology has recently adopted a point of view according to which the Renaissance, in light
of the aforementioned peculiarities, can be characterised as a transitional stage between the
Middle Ages and the modern period in the continuum of European culture. In particular,
many researchers point out the presence of the antique and of the mediaeval in Renaissance
culture, which stipulated its contradictory nature. It appears that this viewpoint requires the
following addition: the contradictory character of the culture of the stated time period is first
of all determined by the combination of two conceptual sources: the mediaeval and the
antique, the latter being transformed and adjusted to the new socioeconomic realities making
up the core of the European culture of the 15th–16th c. instead of being borrowed unchanged in
its original form. Besides, this contradictory nature was reflected in the ideology of humanism
starting with the mid-15th c. These contradictions, both in the ideology of humanism and
Renaissance culture on the whole, are a consequence of the transitional character of the epoch
marking the displacement of mediaeval culture and the establishment of modern European
culture.
Qualitative changes in the cultural paradigm of the epoch impacted on shaping a new
attitude to art as a special sphere of human activity which is not restricted to religion.
Renaissance humanism put forward the idea of the independence of the human world as co-
existing with the heavenly world. Art was now understood as an area with its own order
which cannot be reduced to supernatural truths.
Renaissance art had a social character, which definitely distinguished it from mediaeval
art. It is this feature that brings it closer to the art of Ancient Greece. Yet, Renaissance art
provided the embodiment of an image of man in which individual peculiarities were
combined with socially typified features.
The sociocultural transformation under analysis witnessed the rapidly increasing role of
the artist who comes to be compared to God. Artists themselves see their objective in
imitating nature, claiming that art stands even above nature at the same time.
Creative work is being gradually freed from church ideology: technical mastery,
professional independence, education, an insightful artistic outlook are gaining importance.
A Philosophical Analysis of Renaissance Culture as a Sociocultural Transformation in the
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This is why art, according to humanists, is supposed to delve into the genuine essence of
nature, revealing its beauty. Writers, artists, thinkers of the period strive not only to reflect
nature “as an immediate empirical reality, but to change it in their works” [10]. Apart from
that, the artists of the time believed that an image was to contain the quintessence of beauty
and be better than the work itself. Leonardo da Vinci write: “An Artist argues and competes
with nature… Pitiful is the master whose work is ahead of his judgement; only the master
whose works are surpassed by judgement is moving towards judgement” [11].
The observations presented above make it possible to agree with the opinion of A. F.
Losev, who emphasised the idea that the Renaissance created a special atmosphere of
aestheticism [10], so it is not by chance that the era is called “the golden age” of European art.
However, as is typical of any sociocultural transformation, along with the phenomena of
anthropocentric culturedness, due to the intersection of numerous forms, styles, and trends,
the Renaissance as a transitional epoch gives rise to negative phenomena as well. In the art of
the second sociocultural transformation it is exemplified by Mannerism. This phenomenon
existed in many regions of Europe, though in different time periods. In general, this stage is
characterised as anti-classical. Culturologists and art historians point out that during the stated
period artists adhering to humanistic ideals created works of art of a complex dramatic
character. The creative work of some of the artists displayed lower artistic quality, archaising
tendencies, and indulgence in depicting insignificant mundane details. The described
tendency is noted by numerous researchers, including Italian scholars [12].
To the major themes of Mannerist sculpture refer a tragic irreconcilability of conflicts,
struggle, and the inevitable death of the hero. The psychological portrayal of characters in
Mannerist literature achieved unprecedented complexity and profundity.
Thus, Renaissance art fully reflected the transitional character of the epoch. Due to its
specificity (of imagery) it was the first cultural sphere to respond to the transformational
processes that began to take place in European culture. It manifested itself in the fusion and
complex combination of styles, new artistic experiments based, nevertheless, on the principles
of humanism, universalism, and naturalism – all that gradually shaped features of art life
which will become typical of modern European culture on the whole.
Less obvious, yet no less important transformational processes of qualitative changes
during the Renaissance also took place in science. Worthy of note in this connection is the
specificity of scientific knowledge. It always moves towards an increase in the…