Post on 22-May-2015
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Themes in the Western Humanities
Late Middle Ages
to the
Modern Age
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Three Fundamental Themes
Growth of a tradition of rational, scientific inquiry
Persistent tension between Judeo-Christian religious ideals and social realities
Emergence of constitutional forms of government
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Why Do They Hate Us?
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Bin Laden’s BeliefsFor this and other acts of aggression and injustice, we have declared jihad against the US … in our religion it is our duty to make jihad so that God's word is the one exalted to the heights and so that we drive the Americans away from all Muslim countries… The country of the Two Holy Places has in our religion a peculiarity of its own over the other Muslim countries. In our religion, it is not permissible for any non-Muslim to stay in our country.
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Large Sets of QuestionsGrowth of a tradition of rational, scientific inquiry
Classical legacies of study, education, and critical thinking; social, economic, political, and intellectual pluralism
Liberalism/tolerance and discernment concerning non-tolerance
Ethics/morality not directly tied to religion, tradition, or authority
Individualism
Technology used to improve the material standard of living across the social spectrum
Human realism in art, music, architecture, sculpture
Study and use of both deductive and inductive reasoning
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Large Sets of QuestionsTension between Judeo-Christian religious ideals and social realities
Nathan vs. David (II Samuel 12)
City of God vs. City of Man
Ambrose vs. Emperor Theodosius
Investiture Conflict to the First Amendment
Relationship between faith and reason
Separation of religious and secular life in government
Guarantees of individual rights
Academic freedom from Abelard onward
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Large Sets of Questions
Emergence of constitutional forms of government
Democracy /Republic /Oligarchy /Constitutional Absolutism
Rule of law
Equality before the law
Concept of citizen rather than a subject
Freedom of citizens/individual liberty
Concepts of human rights
Politics as a shared endeavor
Free market/enterprise concepts
Limits on arbitrary power (Becket
and Magna Carta)
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Areas of Intersection
How did the West grow rich?
Where did the Western sense of “self” come from?
What happened to the Western soul?
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How the West Grew Rich
Transformative mechanisms present in West, but…
Real story of move from poverty to wealth starts in 14th century, with breakdown of feudalism…
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How Did Distinctive Institutions Arise?
Free markets
Private property
Money and banking
Insurance/risk calculation and management
Freedom to organize economic enterprises
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How Did System for Generating Growth and Wealth Arise?
Non-economic factorsDemographics
Urbanization
Political approaches• Government involvements
Legal systems/protections Subsidies/tariffs Currency Education Transport systems
• Laissez-faire
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How Did System for Generating Growth and Wealth Arise?
Organizational factorsHierarchical
Market/non-hierarchical
Manorial
Science
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Are Western Economic Systems “Capitalist”?
Dominant features:Pragmatism
Lack of ideological commitment to principles other than efficiency/survivability
Capitalism is a term of convenience
From Poverty to Wealth
From:
Death
Famine/malnutrition
Plague/disease
Illiteracy, ignorance, and superstition
Limited horizons
Crowding
Limited choices
To:
Longer life expectancy
Improved nutrition
Better health and living conditions
Literacy and education
Variety of experience
Privacy
Personal choice
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Possible Mechanisms
Science and invention
Natural resources
Psychology
Luck
Misconduct
Inequalities of income and wealth
Exploitation
Imperialism
Slavery
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Deep Mechanism
Institutional mechanism built deep into structure of Western economies, continuously seeking out and adopting growth-inducing changes.
Deep is operative word…many (Malthus, Spengler) could not imagine continued growth.
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The Beginning:The Late Middle Ages
Periods of Economic GrowthRoman Empire
Early Middle Ages
1400s
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The Country:Key Features of Manorial System
Unified Political/Economic SpheresFertile Crescent
Egypt
Family/Clan/Tribal leadership
Widespread use of servile laborAncient solution to contract issues
High degree of self-sufficiencyBarter/lack of adaptability
They
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Uncertainty and Risk
Uncertainties hugeAgriculture
Warfare/ransom/expropriation
Markets
Role of calculation minorDid same things/same ways
“Security” enforced by law, custom, political control, claims of justice; actually reduced security
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Towns and Political Rights
Some autonomy through purchase of charters (city-states)
Central monarchies (France, England, Spain)
But nowhere is desire found to end political control of trade and taxation..simply to transfer control
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Medieval Technology
Metallurgy
Chemistry
Ceramics/glassmaking
Textiles
Architecture
Clock
Optics
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Decline of Feudalism
100 Years’ WarShift from chivalry to professional army
Introduction of siege cannon, rendering castles obsolete
Decay of barter economyInheritable interest in land
Saleable interest in land
Disasters
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The Result
Change
The
System!
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The Collapse of the High Middle Ages
The “calamitous” 14th Century
Famine and plague
Warring European states
New weapons and tactics/decline of chivalry and feudal system
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The Collapse of the High Middle Ages
The “calamitous” 14th Century
New ideas drive a wedge between philosophy and theology
Balanced High Gothic style gives way to florid Late Gothic style in architecture and art
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Hard Times Come to Europe
Ordeal by Famine, Plague, and War
1. Climate ShiftModest cooling
Higher rainfall
Soil exhaustion
EpizooticsFrom the Apocalypse in a Biblia Pauperum , created around the time of the Great Famine of 1315–1317. Death "(Mors") sits astride a lion whose long tail ends in a ball of flame. Famine points to her mouth.
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Hard Times Come to Europe
Ordeal by Plague, Famine, and War
2. The Black Death
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Hard Times Come to Europe
Ordeal by Plague, Famine, and War
3. The Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453)
Romantic painting of Joan of Arc at the Siege of Orléans.
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Hard Times Come to Europe
Ordeal by Plague, Famine, and War
4. Depopulation and the Crisis in the Towns
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Hard Times Come to Europe
Ordeal by Plague, Famine, and War
5. Peasant Uprisings in France (1358) and England (1381)
Richard II meeting with the rebels of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.
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Hard Times Come to Europe
Ordeal by Plague, Famine, and War
5. Urban Rebellions
Statue of Cola Di Rienzo by Girolamo Masini, located near the Campidoglio, where he was killed.
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Decline of Feudalism
100 Years’ WarShift from chivalry to professional army
Introduction of siege cannon, rendering castles obsolete
Decay of barter economyInheritable interest in land
Saleable interest in land
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Hard Times Come to Europe
The Secular MonarchiesFrance
England
The Papal MonarchyAvignon papacy (1309-1377)
Great Schism (1378-1417)
Conciliar movement
Restoration of Papal power
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Hard Times Come to Europe
TechnologyThe Rise of Industries
Wool trade, multiple spinning bobbins, Isaac Claes Swanenburgh, 1614-1638, London History Museum
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
Political, social economic events reflected in breakdown of cultural synthesis of High Middle Ages
Secular voices challenge traditional viewsInterests of bourgeoise have impact on art and architecture
Emergence of “individual”
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
ReligionAbsence of monastic reform
Lay piety • The devotio moderna • The flagellants
Heresies • John Wycliffe • Jan Hus
The Inquisition
Witchcraft
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
Theology and PhilosophyThe Via Antiqua vs. the Via Moderna
Duns Scotus and William of Ockham
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
ScienceHigh Gothic forerunners
• Robert Grosseteste
• Roger Bacon
Nicholas Oresme
This fresco shows the life of a late medieval hospital . Di Bartolo, Hospital of Santa Maria deall Scala,\ Siena
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
LiteratureNorthern Italian Literature: Petrarch and Boccaccio
English Literature: Geoffrey Chaucer
French Literature: Christine de Pizan
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
Late Gothic ArchitectureLate Gothic style more ornate
Virtuosity is main aesthetic goal
In architecture, basic forms pushed to stylistic limits
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
The ornate exterior of the church of St. Maclou in Rouen, France, illustrates the Late Gothic Style. Note how the facade fans out to form a semicircular entrance, the number of portals (5), and the intricately designed arches.
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
The choir of of Gloucester Cathedral illoustrates the Perpendicular Gothic style; note how the thin pier, attached to the walls, lace together on the ceiling, creating elaborate patterns that complement the glass.
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
This view of the south cloister of Gloucester Cathedral with its fan vaulting and rich, delicate decoration, further illustrates the Late Gothic Style.
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
While Italian Gothic architecture has much in common with the Romanesque style, the cathedral in Siena is a key example of Late Italin Gothic design.
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
While built in the Late Middle Ages, Giotto’s Tower in Florence anticipates the Classical ideal that was revived in the Renaissance.
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
Late Gothic Sculpture
In Italy (Siena and Pisano family), sculptural forms foreshadow Classical themes and values of Renaissance
In Burgundy, sculpture become highly “personal”
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
Giovanni Pisano, Pulpit in the Pisa Cathedral. The inscription on the piece -- in which he takes responsibility for the work -- shows the emergence of a new breed of artists in the 14th century
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
Pisano’s nativity scene in the Pisa Cathedral reveals a Classic sense of balance in a fundamentally Gothic piece – again foreshadowing the Renaissance.
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
Claus Sluter’s Moses has a sense of drama and personal emotion that make the statue nearly an individual portrait, though rooted firmly in the allegorical tradition.
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
Late Gothic Painting and the Rise of New Trends
• Illuminated manuscripts become more secular
• The Print (woodcuts, engravings, drypoint)
• New Trends in Italy: Giotto
• Flemish Painting: Jan Van Eyck and Hans Memling
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
Limbourg Brothers,Month of January, from Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. This mionaiature painting provides a wealth of detail about social history in the Late Middle Ages.
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
Housebook Master. Leisure Time at the Bath. This Chaucerian-like scene, with its frank sensuality, shows that the Late Middle Ages were becoming increasingly secualr and even sensual.
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
In his Pieta, which revives the realistic Classical tradition, Giotto creates three-dimensional space in a way even the Greeks and Romans had not used .
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
In the Ghent Altarpiece, van Eyck sought reality through the accumulation or precise and often symbolic details
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
van Eyck, The Arnolfini Wedding.
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
Hans Memling, Madonna and Child with Angels. Memling introduced some Italian elements into this painting (putti, stringed musical instruments) suggesting awareness of developments in Italy.
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The Cultural Flowering of the Late Middle Ages
Music
This painting surveys the state of music in the Late Middle Ages – partiiculalry how sacred music began to be overshadowed by secualr music .
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The Legacy of the Late Middle Ages
Release of powerful secular spiritGreatest impact was separation of painting and sculpture from service of architecture
Emergence of new breed of secular ruler
Growth of middle class as dominant force in society
First stirrings of industrialism