Consilience

Consilience is “the linking together of principals from different disciplines especially when forming a comprehensive theory” (Merriam Webster Online). This word comes to mind more often than not, when I begin thinking of the Renaissance. Some might say that perhaps the greatest example of this would be the linking of Martin Luther’s 95 theses, the printing press, and the church. I do not believe this to be so. Martin Luther may have greatly impacted the church but that is where his power ended. I believe that the greatest form of consilience throughout the renaissance was that of Galileo, the printing press, and the church. The combination of these three things created such a large impact that it even affected the ways in which people viewed themselves as humans.

Printing Press

“A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring an image” (Wikipedia.com). It was invented in the 1430’s by a man named Johann Gutenberg. This was revolutionary because for the first time people could mass produce copies of articles and get them out into the public. This was a critical invention for materials such as books, newspapers, flyer's, and the development of scientific journals. This was a critical piece in the spread of literacy and in the decline of Latin. This discovery redefined the term public knowledge.

Galileo

“Galileo Galilei was a Tuscan (Italian) physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, who played a major role in the scientific revolution” (Wikipedia). Through his sketches and looking through his telescope he proved that the sun has sunspots, that Venus and the moon both go through phases and that the Earth revolves on its axis. He drew several pictures of the phases of the moon and he wrote several books about the astronomical laws behind it. He was a devout Roman Catholic but reached a point of great controversy with the church, due to his scientific discoveries. He was a man that helped redefine what it meant to be a human.

Catholic Church

“The Catholic Church is the largest Christian church, representing around half of all Christians, and is the largest organized body of any world religion” (Wikipedia). The Catholic Church was the political head of everything during the renaissance. For the most part what was considered religiously correct would be considered politically correct. It was socially, politically, economically, and religiously accepted. People connected with one another through religion, the head of the government was the pope, and instead of paying regular taxes alone the citizens would pay a 10% tithe to the church.

Galileo's drawings of the moon

These three elements all link together in many different ways. Galileo made great discoveries through his telescope and made sketches of them and wrote several books about them. The printing press came along and allowed Galileo’s drawings and books to be published and mass produced. This invention made his knowledge more accessible to the general public. Galileo’s theories disagreed with certain aspects of the Catholic religion. So in effect, Galileo produced works of art that when mass produced changed the public’s idea's of religion and how they interacted with the church.

This affected the political and economical aspects of people’s lives drastically. Politically speaking, the citizens had been under the rule of the pope and when they began to see that everything did not revolve around the Earth, that they were simply just men on one tiny planet, they started to stray from the church. People that disagree with the teachings of the church, will not allow themselves to be ruled by such a power for very long. Economically speaking, people began to spend their money in other places. People do not want to give their money to a foreign power anymore than they want to be ruled by one.

This piece of consilience had a great impact on people socially and intellectually as well. Socially people began to interact with each other more outside of the church setting. People began to interact with one another in ways that the church would have found outrageous. It became a more accepting society all the way around. New ideas were no longer a forbidden evil. Intellectually people blossomed because of the impact that this had. The people in the hierarchy of the church were no longer the only ones accepted as brilliant. More people began to read and due to the printing press they could gain access to one of Galileo’s books and fill their minds with ideas that would have formerly been considered wicked.

The last and perhaps most important factor that Galileo, the printing press, and the church had a any significant impact on was aesthetics. All of what people believed had been turned upside down. Up until this point in time, everyone had faith in the concept of the sun revolving around the Earth. When it became public knowledge that the Earth was one of many planets and simply revolved around on its own axis and that we were simply one of many it did harm initially to many people’s psych. The church immediately jumped into war with this idea because it states in the Bible that everything revolves around the Earth. For example: Psalm 104:5 “Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be moved for ever”, Psalm 93:1 “The Lord reigns, He is robed in majesty and is armed with strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved” and 1 Chronicles 16:30 “Let all the earth be moved at His presence: for He hath founded the world immoveable.” This theory would potentially mean hard core evidence proving the Bible wrong. This was majorly devastating and mind boggling during this era. The people believed at this point in time that it may be hypocritical and contradictory to the Bible, the word that they lived by, but they could not ignore foolproof evidence.

The printing press, Galileo, and the church together had a huge impact on the renaissance and even on our world today. It redefined how people saw themselves and even how they viewed others around them. This is one undeniably important piece of consilience. It reshaped what was considered politically and socially acceptable during this era and even affected peoples psych. It boosted the rate of people’s expected intellectual capabilities and influenced how they spent their hard earned cash every week. Overall it affected people’s beliefs and what they chose to be most valuable in life. It revolutionized every aspect of that time period and forever changed the world as they knew it.

Ashley Nichols

Revolution

The word revolution means a drastic change in the ways that people think and act. A revolution can be caused by many different abstractions. Perhaps, the three largest causative factors are religion, politics, and economy. All of these generally tie into large changes in one way or another. However, I believe the largest of them all to be politics. Whenever you have some large changing factor there is almost always a shift in government or power of some kind.

Take the time period of the renaissance as an example. It was a time of great revolution or change. Up until that time and even during that time the people listened to the words spoken by the church. They were all careful to follow under its rulings. The pope for the most part ruled over everything. He was considered to be a god on earth. People did their best not to sin because the main goal of the era was to simply keep moving through your life and make it to heaven. Not to mention that the ways of the church were wholly accepted by society at that time as well. It would be considered social suicide to go against the grain.

The people of this time period underwent major changes that effected how they viewed daily life and even themselves as human beings. This was all due to politics and alterations that they underwent politically. They had been under the rulings of the church for many years and this was their big breakout. The church began to lose its control as new ideas began to reveal themselves. The three greatest men of that era that encouraged this change were Erasmus, Martin Luther, and John Calvin (in that order). They helped people to see other ways of life and brought the fall of the churches rule. As the political power began to shift ultimate change began to occur.

This was not a one time occurance by any means of the word. Politics has always played a big role in revolutionary time periods. Without political change revolutions could not occur. They would simply be ideas that were never acted upon. For example it was not until Hitlers take down that the Jews could begin to breath easier again. If he had continued to hold such great military power many more could have been persecuted. Even today we see similar examples all around us, such as in Iraq. They were under the rule of the terrible and cruel Saddam. It was not until the Americans invaded and took over and even tour down his statue that they began to see anything revolutionary occurring.

Some might argue that it is economy or religion that bring about revolutions. They would have a valid and arguable point. Economy does play a big role. During the Renaissance they were giving 10% to the church and could not do any banking because it was considered to be a sin (usury) so when this switched over into what we have today it would be considered revolutionary. However this would not have occurred without changes politically. If the church was still in power, than people would still be paying their 10%. The economy generally does under go change as does everything else when revolutionary ideas hit. It is not however, the main causative factor.

As for the religious aspect of revolution, one would perhaps have an even more arguable point. It is very true that what people believe in at the time is a large part of change. Like politics it is almost always present during revolutionary time periods. For example, during the renaissance it was not until people began to see things from outside of a Christian viewpoint that change occurred and people basically worshipped Hitler during WW II. However, unlike politics it can not simply cause a revolution by itself. If the Americans had not lent a hand secret Hitler worshippers may have still been in existance today. It takes a shift in power before vast majorities of people will band together to be different.

A final argument perhaps may be that people will only do what is socially acceptable. That social is the main causative factor of revolution. This is far from being true. It is true that people like to do what others are doing and that people slowly catch on to the spread of an idea. Political still holds its domain over this idea though because something can not be fully socially accepted until it is politically accepted. People did not want to be shunned from their families or churches during the renaissance and therefore refused to be different. During Hitlers rule soldiers did as they were told and followed his orders and it was socially accepted at that time. Though many of them may have had doubts they never really bonded together and brought about any change until Hitlers take down.

Though others can be justified it is easy to see that politics is clearly the most causative factor of revolution. It most likely will continue to be for many years to come. It has reshaped and changed history into what we have today. Revolution brings about ideas and how we react to them, as the general public, will reflect on our current government. Without politics where would we be today? Perhaps still under the complete rule of the church? Would we have banks throughout every state or simply in the back room of stores where money is passed under the table? Personally I feel politics to be a crucially important factor in all cultures and a part of every piece of society.

Humanism and the Flat World

Almost every era has its own revolution, one that will bring with it a key that unlocks the door to the following era. During the time period of the Renaissance, the revolutionary concept that took place was the acceptance of Humanism. Even today we have revolutionary ideas that are still randomly reflecting off of our globe. One that appears to have made its way through our atmosphere and is here to stay is globalization. Our world appears to be getting flatter by the second, and if we are not careful we may just tumble our way into orbit. Revolutions occur when people begin opening up their minds and toying with the unknown. They almost always help to further the development of the known society.

The flat world is revolutionizing how we view ourselves in society today. No, the world is not really flat this is just in a metaphorical sense. Technology is supposedly making our world a flatter place because today we can contact our pen pal in Japan just as easily as our next door neighbors. In this “flat world” our middle class jobs are being bumped up a level and the competition with our foreign countries is becoming more intense. Due to this competition and these recent technological developments we will have to put twice as much effort in as our parent’s generation did and certainly more then the generation before them. In short, the flattening of the world is revolutionizing what we find socially acceptable.

Humanism revolutionized how people living during the time period of the Renaissance, viewed themselves and the world around them. Humanism began when humanists started popping up amongst the population. Humanists were people that refused to accept the status quo at the time. This brought chaos, division amongst what had been one body of people, and essentially revolution.

During the Renaissance everyone was grouped together as one large body under the Catholic Church. People lived in fear daily of committing a sin such as usury and not being allowed into Heaven. Humanism brought an end to this fear for many people. They started living for today and not what tomorrow might bring. Many people did decide to stay in the church body, but even that began to divide within its self. Humanism is a huge piece of what caused the church to start to split off into different denominations. The entire world changed with this concept. People no longer viewed themselves and each other as simply people on the journey to Heaven, but as individuals living each day to its fullest.

Humanism had an amazingly large impact on society as it was previously known during the Renaissance. In fact, without it we would not have the current society that we have today. The amount of beliefs and many forms of art simply would not exist. Without Humanism, our world would be more circular as opposed to the pancake that it is rapidly becoming. The revolution of the flat world revolves around technological advances where as the revolution that Humanism has influenced revolves around religious and philosophical life meanings. Change cannot occur until someone dares to be different and think outside of the box. We have more than our fair share of right brain thinkers in America today. Does the flat world have as much in store for us and will the outcome be as positive? We can only hope.