Rejection of Religion by Renaissance Humanists
The Eurocentric narrative claims that Renaissance Humanists were unique in the way that they rejected religion and superstition in favour of modern, secular principles of “free will”, human rights, and universal education.
Using all relevant course terms and methods of inclusive critical analysis from Lecture 1, “Modernity & the West”: A General Introduction to Course Theories, examine the accuracy of one (1) of the topics. Each topic makes both sweeping and general claims that appear frequently in traditional, dominant, and/or Eurocentric narratives about the origin(s) of modernity in Western Civilization, such as the definition with which we began this course: “Modernity is the quality or condition of being modern. An intellectual tendency or social perspective characterized by a departure from or repudiation of traditional ideas, doctrines, and cultural values in favour of contemporary or radical values and beliefs, chiefly those of scientific rationalism and liberalism”. Scientificity, pseudo-science, reification, essentialism, eurocentrism and its “four mechanisms”, Civilization/civilization, coherences, etc.
The next step will be to organize your findings into a short, MLA-format essay. Specifically, the essay will have a clear and enabling thesis, body paragraphs that provide evidence from at least two course readings/viewings to support and illustrate your assertions using course-inflected language and concepts, and a non-repetitive conclusion that (a) brings your work to a logical and persuasive end; and (b) considers the implications of your study.
