Aims

Specifically, humanism designates the intellectual movement that restructured the image of the world and the conception of the human being in the Renaissance. The aim of the course is to study the elements that allowed and favored the emergence of such a movement, and to study the ways in which this movement attained a lasting influence.

Main themes

The lecture course is tailored to a diverse audience; we shall either examine essential themes (the book, the Reformation, the Great Discoveries, education, the return to Antiquity, etc.), or illustrious personalities (Petrarch, Politus, Erasmus, etc.), which will reveal different facets of humanism: a movement that sought to come to terms with the important transformations in what one knew about the world and the human being. The course will likewise show humanism's contribution to the different areas that now make up the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters (history, philology, literature, art, etc.).

Content and teaching methods

This course reflects on themes demonstrating different aspect of Humanism in its relationship to the important transformations of the world and of the human being brought about during the Renaissance. Among others, the following themes are broached: the interest of studying Humanism and the Renaissance for today's student; the place of Antiquity in the definition of the Humanist ideal: relationships between Humanists, and between Humanists and economic and political power (Discovery of the New World).

Other credits in programs