Humanism+&+Philosophy


 * Humanism and Philosophy: Zoe, Gillian, and, Stephen 8.3**

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 * Renaissance Questions to Expert:**


 * 1.** During the Italian Renaissance we saw the re-birth of humanism. Through the corruption of the church, people were forced to find a new life model such as humanism. Do we possess this ability today; to find life models from remote sources?


 * 2.** During the Italian Renaissance we saw the spread of ideas through new inventions such as the printing press. The humanist thinkers were able to collaborate and become even more knowledgeable through the assistance of others. Does today’s society posses this collaborative potential?


 * 3.** In the Italian Renaissance people were able to live freely because of the wealth from the flourishing economy. Citizens didn’t have to stress about their financial situation. Even though we have the recession on our hands, is this idea of a more free life plausible?


 * 4.** Niccolo Machiavelli was a political scientist who wrote a book called “The Prince.” It is a manual for rulers to get power, and keep it, through methods such as assassination, lies, and deceit. Do you believe that this unethical way of obtaining authority is still present in Calgary today?


 * 5.** Our worldview is so based on the Renaissance thinkers idea of humanism that their hope for the future has become our reality. What do you think is the modern idea of humanism?

**//Laurence Abbott//** **, University of Alberta Instructor, PhD Student Responses:**

1. During the Italian Renaissance we saw the re-birth of humanism. Through the corruption of the church, people were forced to find a new life model such as humanism. Do we possess this ability today; to find life models from remote sources?


 * 1. Answer:** Yes, however humanism in the renaissance was a departure of a past time and we have been past that time so humanism still lives i our lives today, maybe we might take on a new life model that leans more towards or major problems like global warming or the recession, and since we are in this crises there is a very good chance that people might follow a lifestyle similar to these problems. Also things like the black plague set the stage for such a development in the sense that they were willing to try new things and explore anything just like today people are confused with our modern day crises.

2. During the Italian Renaissance we saw the spread of ideas through new inventions such as the printing press. The humanist thinkers were able to collaborate and become even more knowledgeable through the assistance of others. Does today’s society posses this collaborative potential?


 * 2. Answer:** Maybe because we have lots of social networking sites that are in a way like the renaissance printing press because you can get out what your saying but it might not always be helpful. Also as you get older people grow farther and farther away fro these types of sites so it really is only the younger generation. The new question is: Is this a reasonable way to interact through your life style and would this actually improve your surrounding community ?

3. In the Italian Renaissance people were able to live freely because of the wealth from the flourishing economy. Citizens didn’t have to stress about their financial situation. Even though we have the recession on our hands, is this idea of a more free life plausible?


 * 3. Answer:**

4. Niccolo Machiavelli was a political scientist who wrote a book called “The Prince.” It is a manual for rulers to get power, and keep it, through methods such as assassination, lies, and deceit. Do you believe that this unethical way of obtaining authority is still present in Calgary today?

Yes, kinda but it is not the same. In renaissance Italy you would have assassinations in our society we do not engage in that way of doing business anymore. We don’t assassinate people or those types of things. Companies and families with private armies fought each other. If you look at pictures of places like Florence in the renaissance these big houses had these huge towers partially because you had a private army and guards and such and people would be using these in fights with other companies. Imagine that Imperial Oil took on Petra Canada and they were shooting at each other. This isn’t really how it happens but still they do other kinds of things. So you look at the way we can hurt others through media like on the Internet there is ways or in the press in the news by saying something and it’s spreads and has that viral kind of quality. This is called character assassinations and by a video or pictures of someone doing something that they probably shouldn’t be doing. These kinds of things put pressure on people or using leverage against someone. Getting power should be about being ethical but it’s not always.
 * 4. Answer:**

5. Our worldview is so based on the Renaissance thinkers idea of humanism that their hope for the future has become our reality. What do you think is the modern idea of humanism?

Instead of the idea of humanism, the idea of individual self worth to people, people are now treating other people with more personal reflection, and treating everyone as equals, rather than classifying people into King, Nobles, Less Worthy Noble, and Peasants. This could lead to more collaboration, because people are more accepting, and more collaboration leads to more ideas and knowledge being spread. What I mean by treating people at a more personal level is treating people based on your personal relationship with that person. However, this isn't always the case. Once we start to look from people farther away from us, such as people we don't know, we might be prepared to treat people with less respect if they are more distant from us. We don't always think of the consequences of our actions. This is the modern idea of humanism, in which we don't always think of the consequences, and we don't treat everyone equally, even with the idea of humanism engraved into our daily lives. Although humanism is supposed to be all about human self worth, the modern application of humanism is not this. People do, in some respects, treat people fairly, and with all due respect, but people also may treat others disrespectfully when not in a close relationship with them.
 * 5. Answer:**


 * In-Depth Expert Reviews:**


 * By Gillian Haigh:**

Due to Laurence Abbott’s answer towards our fourth question, Calgary has the necessary qualities to be a Renaissance city. Our question was addressing the politics in Calgary and whether our system is ethical. Mr. Abbott said that politicians of today do not display their unethical fight for power because more people are educated. But Politicians they do other things behind the scenes such as character assignations. "Look at the way we can hurt others through media like on the Internet or in the press or in the news by saying something and it’s spreads and has that viral kind of quality." by this Laurence Abbott means that although people may not go around killing each other to get ahead in politics they are still using subterfuge to gain power. Although Calgary's politics are not exactly the same as the Italian Renaissance we still are using the same concept of deceiving to gain power. Therefore Calgary has the necessary conditions when considering politics to be a renaissance city.

In reasons to weather Calgary possesses the potential to find a new life model in order to make Calgary a renaissance city, Lawrence Abbott thinks that the answer is yes, however humanism already exists in our communities so we would have to find a different model. In these sense he believes that we might poses other life models to live by. For example a life of an environmentalist or somebody that deals with the recession (witch are major problems that people might look more into). He states, “Humanism is something that we have been living with for a long time now, is there another or other places were we could go or look at or think about E.X. something to do with the recession“? By this he means that if we were to eventually find a new life model from a corruption of something like the economy we would have to come-up that a new educational life model that would spark a modern day renaissance.
 * By Stephen Caddy:**

However in order for people to start to look for a new life model, there would have to be a corruption of something that large groups of people believe in maybe like the crass of our economy?


 * By Zoe W****u:**
 * Key Point #1:**

In response to the whether Calgary possess the necessary ability to find life models from remote sources to make it a Renaissance city, Laurence Abbott believes that this is possible. However, he thinks that we would take life models from somewhere from OUR past, and not from our now. Specially, further, in this sense, he said that during the Renaissance suggested a humanistic way of life. However, we need to look into our past, and not our now. Our now is like the guidelines that the citizens of Italy went to go look for, which is humanism. He states, “ We would look into something that regards our specialty of need, such as global warming, or the economy, and what not.” By this he means that we need to look for guidelines in something that regards our problems, and not repeating what the Italians during the Renaissance had problems with. Yes, we do possess this ability to find new models, but we should find models in which it would benefit our situation today, and not finding models based on the failures of society in Italy many years ago.
 * Key Point #2:**

In response to the whether Calgary possess a very collaborative potential to make it a Renaissance city, Laurence Abbott believes that we most likely to have this potential because we have lots of social networking sites that are in a way like the renaissance printing press because you can get out what your saying but it might not always be helpful. Specially, Further, in this sense, he believes we do possess this collaborative potential, especially in our technology outbreak these days. However, as we get older, we start to grow farther and farther away from these types of collaborative sites. So this potential really is only displayed within the younger generation. The new question is: Is this a reasonable way to interact through your life style and would this actually improve your surrounding community? He states, “Also as you get older people grow farther and farther away from these types of sites so it really is only the younger generation.” By this he means that we are in this revolutionary technology, mostly in instant messaging, however it is only within a certain amount of our total population, so this way of collaborating isn’t always credible. But yes, we do possess a pretty collaborative potential, but only with a certain amount of our population.
 * Key Point #3:**

In response to the whether Calgary possess unethical ways of obtaining authority to make it a Renaissance city, Laurence Abbott believes that we still do obtain authority in unethical ways, just not the same as in the past. Specially, Further, in this sense, he believes that we use unethical ways based on our strongest ability today. That would include technology. Unethical ways include embarrassing your opponent through means such as television, or instant messaging. It’s different from before, as they used lies and assassination, because they didn’t have things such as instant messaging or television. He states, “We don’t assassinate people or those types of things. Companies and families with private armies fought each other. If you look at pictures of places like Florence in the renaissance these big houses had these huge towers partially because you had a private army and guards and such and people would be using these in fights with other companies. Imagine that Imperial Oil took on Petra Canada and they were shooting at each other. This isn’t really how it happens but still they do other kinds of things. So you look at the way we can hurt others through media like on the Internet there is ways or in the press in the news by saying something and it’s spreads and has that viral kind of quality. This is called character assassinations and by a video or pictures of someone doing something that they probably shouldn’t be doing. These kinds of things put pressure on people or using leverage against someone. Getting power should be about doing it ethically but it’s not always.” By this he means that we don’t hurt people physically, but we do it using our way today, such as technology. This is called character assassination. Before someone even does this, we can already feel the pressure, making us want to do the right, or pleasing thing to the other “side” or opponent, so that they do not character assassin us. This is called using leverage against someone. He believes that getting power //should// be through and ethical way, but it isn’t always. So yes, we do use unethical ways to gain power, but not in ways of physical hurt, but in ways that our society today has advantages in.