Humanism and the Arts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Humanism and the Arts - Essay Example Discussion All academic circles today acknowledge humanities as a separate academic discipline or field of study. However, humanists of the late fifteenth century are responsible for the development of the same. As mentioned earlier in the paper, that they named it as studia humanitatis that included grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and ethics or moral philosophy. Quite understandably, the idea of having such as an outline of subjects was twofold. Firstly, the goal was to make the students with exceptional, graceful, and elegant orators and writers (Gay, 2001). Secondly, the idea was to make sure that people realize the importance of moral values, their collective responsibility towards the society and acknowledge their power of reasoning so that they can outclass their supernatural religious dogma, contribute for the betterment of their societies and can persuade others to do the same (Kelley, 1991). In addition, it is very interesting to compare scholasticism, the idea that pervaded in much of the pre-Renaissance European society, with humanism, which to a considerable extent, became successful in replacing it. Actually, humanism was a response to the inefficiencies, loopholes, and failures of scholasticism. Firstly, scholasticism failed to give the taste of practical experience to its followers and relied heavily on abstract thoughts. As mentioned earlier, humanists proposed that physical and moral development is also important with intellectual development (Grassi, 1988).