A renaissance man

One of the discussions I have tried to take on my blog here, and in general is; what is to be a good person. And in opposite, what is it to be a bad person.

There are off cause many answers to this question, but one of the more important answers is the, what we call “humanistic” answer.

In order to understand what “humanistic” values are, we need to understand, where these ideas, that were very influential in creating what we call the United States of America, really come from.

I have done a bit of research on this topic, and the answer is actually pretty straight forward. It comes from the Italian reneassance, where leading lights as Giordano Bruno, Leonardo da Vinci and the Medicis were really pushing that agenda forward.

The way they handled the whole discussion, was to find “hidden knowledge”, that they thought were somehow better than what they had already, thereby all the mystery.

BUT, and this where it gets perhaps a little mundane, but also more true, the sources they found that they thought were “superior” to what was already known, actually weren’t that superior.

I know my Aristotle and Plato by heart, so I can tell if something is superior to those two authors, who were known already.

The “Corpus hermeticum”, as they were called, were reflections on essentially Aristotle and Plato, mostly Plato.

That does not take any value out their ideas however, so let’s have a look at some of the reflections they had in the very basis of humanistic thought.

One of the base presumptions was the idea, that we live in a world that is enlightened and a world that is materialistic.

The materialistic world is base, all about greed, avarice, anger and looking only at the short term in terms of needs.

The superior renaissance man however was pure, devout, merciful and full of vitality. Good is those virtues, while as evil is greed, avarice, destruction.

A renaissance man will build and not destroy, while as a man in opposition to this, will destroy and ruin things.

So there is an element of construction and as they say; g-d is life and light.

Maybe these ancient virtues can still be of some quality today, where things are not exactly brimming with positivity and constructivity.

Being a true renaissance man is to be honest and pure, serious and merciful, full of vitality with a deep faith in a G-d that is truly good.

G-d bless the ability to be a good person in a world filled with greed and avarice.

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