Learn Good from the Past and Discover Good in the Future

In my salon group, the Manifesto or the Oration on the Dignity of Man by Pico Della Mirandola was brought up.  As we were discussing the different themes of our class so far, one thing became very apparent to me as I was listening to the discussion.

One of my classmates who was in the group, Joseph, asked why we focus so much on the printing press as being the main force driving the Renaissance.  Of course, as Joseph pointed out, it was a huge development that obviously aided the Renaissance greatly.  Without the printing press, it would have been difficult for some of the great writings and ideas from the Renaissance to become so widespread.  However, as Joseph got to the point of why he was asking why the printing press is so largely credited for the Renaissance and nothing else seems to be, he pointed out that the Renaissance actually started about a century before the printing press was invented.

Up to this point, we had still mostly been focusing on the idea of going back to the sources and discovering the ancient works and philosophies and trying to be great like ancient peoples and cultures.  I know that discovering the past was a main focus of the Renaissance, but I think (and I was thinking during our discussion) that there is something more to the Renaissance and why it was great than just discovering the past.

When asked, Joseph pointed out that he thought that the Renaissance originally started because of people traveling and discovering different peoples and cultures.  We also discussed the idea of the Bubonic plague, and its effect on the people of Europe considering the devastation of losing a third of the population.  That, along with different warring countries, caused a lot of discussion and debate, and it changed the way people thought about things.  This went along more with what I was feeling about the Renaissance.

I have a brother who received a Master’s degree in History from the University of Reading in Reading, England.  My brother’s thesis focused on ancient Rome and how the founding fathers of the United States of America used what they knew about ancient Rome and its government to establish the government of the USA.  Our founding fathers learned much of what they used to form the government of this country by studying ancient Rome.

However, the founding fathers included the amendment process.  They knew that they couldn’t expect everything, so they allowed for the government in the future to make changes according to new ways of thought.

My feelings on the Renaissance are that it was a time not only to discover the good of the past, but to focus on the new things that are good as well.  We often don’t notice good, new things that could really benefit us until we go out and discover them, as Petrarch did.  So, I think that the Renaissance is an example not only of discovering the good of the past and applying it to our lives, but also discovering new things that are good and applying them to our lives as well.