The Renaissance, seen as a time of growth and expression for the individual, brings about a shift in people’s paradigms. In the time period before the Renaissance, labeled as the Middle Ages, the main focus was the role of the Church in everyday life. The common people would look up to the men of the Church, since they were the only literate members of the community. By receiving information from bishops, priests, and cardinals, values that encompassed the beliefs of the Church were formed. Therefore, each person strived to be as holy as possible. However, it all changed with the arrival of the Black Plague, which was an extremely devastating time for all of Europe’s citizens. As the plague began to take over more and more of Europe, the people …show more content…
Many great thinkers of the Church used reason and logic to search for answers in order to understand and justify the teachings of the Catholic faith. St. Thomas Aquinas provides a clear example in his work of the Summa Theoligica. It is composed of many logical and reasonable arguments intended to direct readers towards the truth found in Catholic teachings. In article three of question two, in the first part of the Summa, Aquinas focuses on the question of God’s existence. He provides a list of answers that appeal to both reason and logic because they are based on empirical observations about the world around us. The first of the reasons explains the existence of God through the theory of motion. Aquinas goes into intricate detail explaining how an object at rest remains at rest until an action is imposed upon it. The action causes the object to move; such action is derived from a previous one which also originated from another and so on and so forth. However, Aquinas points out that there cannot be an infinity of actions that cause movements, because there needs to be one ultimate mover. In this case, the label of such mover is attributed to God, for without Him, the first and foremost action, there would have never been the very first …show more content…
Machiavelli is well known for his book The Prince, in which he describes the various ways a man can achieve and maintain power. The book proved to be extremely controversial, since Machiavelli believed it better for a ruler to be hated than loved. Machiavelli supported his claims by pointing out the fickleness in human nature, believing that a ruler’s subjects would only offer support during the good times and leave a ruler desolate during the bad (Bondanella and Musa). Although his ideas were radical, he supported them well, much like the claim in which it was not necessary for a ruler to be generous; in fact, he looked down upon generosity. If a ruler were to be generous, then he would have to give from his own possessions, but eventually his abundance would dwindle down to nothing and he’d be left with nothing else to give. Finding himself in such a predicament, he would then have to take from the wealthier subjects in order to give to the poor. By doing so, he would have those from whom he is taking turn on him, while satisfying those to whom he is giving. Instead, if the ruler had not been concerned with generosity, he would have avoided the entire dilemma. It is in this example, that the fickleness of human beings is exemplified. By drawing attention towards the faults in human nature, Machiavelli embraces the paradigm shift of the Renaissance. Focusing on the