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Critical Lens Of The Renaissance Essay

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Humanity Through the Lens of the Renaissance The Renaissance is one of the most illuminating period of our history. From 1350-1700, there are breakthroughs in science, literature, and art. Some of the most prolific artists lived during this time; people such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo. However, the study of the Renaissance leads us to one question: how exactly did it change man’s view of the world? The Renaissance changed humanity’s views of the world through reason, individualism, and a focus on enjoying life. The focus on individualism played a large role in the effect of the Renaissance on man’s view. One way individualism showed itself was through the art work of the time. “The [clearest] evidence of the break …show more content…

One of the beliefs that shifted during the Renaissance was that people realized the solar system was heliocentric. Ptolemy, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, came up with the geocentric universe where the sun and all the planets revolve around the Earth. In his universe, there is also a home for their Deity in the outer rings. Later, Copernicus created the heliocentric universe model with the sun at the center and all the planets revolving around it. Ptolemy represents the pre-Renaissance thinking that the world had at the time. People believed that Earth has to be at the center of the universe because humans were on it. However, Copernicus later shows Renaissance-like thinking by using reason to realize that the Earth was actually revolving around the sun. Another thing that people learned more about during the Renaissance was the human body. Previously, during the Middle Ages, people believed that each sign of the zodiac corresponded to a certain part of the body. During the Renaissance, Andreas Vesalius dissected human corpses to better understand the body and drew a realistic human muscular system. Vesalius uses reason to determine that the zodiacs didn’t have an influence on the human body and he researched how exactly they were built. Because the church and religion no longer dictated the thoughts of the masses, individual citizens were free to make their own scientific

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