CLEP Western Civ I

Answer: C - Science would not have been part of a Renaissance humanist education. Science is not one of the humanities, though many Renaissance scientists were also humanists. The fundamental purpose of humanism was to promote classical thought and the values of the Greek and Roman philosophers. They primarily sought to elevate teachings that reinforced the concept of a man’s individual identity and his capacity for intellectual rigor. That kind of thought largely died at the beginning of the Dark Ages of the medieval period, as intellectual and academic pursuits were directed toward Christian theology and philosophy. Even the Scholastics, like Thomas Aquinas, who tried to find a meeting of the minds between classical thought and Christian theology, only pursued individual intellectual pursuit to solve conflict, not for the sheer sake of challenging oneself. In the Middle Ages, in the field of education, almost everything was tied to the Church. In the Renaissance, that shifted, and the thinker became the focus of his own intellectual work.