Humanities & Classics 1002
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Renaissance Forum
Humanities & Classics 1002 |
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In Reply to: PLEASE POST YOUR SECOND REQUIRED POSTING AS FOLLOWUPS TO THIS POST posted by Tom Bacig on January 13, 1999 at 21:59:54:
Alberti believed that young people should devote their childhood to study.
They must write "perfectly". Children, regardless of age, must study
arithmetic, especially geometry. Poets, orators, and philosophers must be
studied. Children should also have good manners, learn grammar and be familiar
with, even memorize, the classics. They should not read crude books, or their
life will be tainted. In order to accomplish all of this, a child must abhor
laziness as he would a "deadly foe". Life, according to Alberti, should be a
"quest for praise and virtue", and anyone who does not participate in this quest
should be "deemed unworthy of life". All men should strive to make themselves
happy, so that he will be "useful to other men" and pleasing to God.
Alberti believes that any man can achieve the "highest honor and glory" if
he works hard enough in his studies. Any man can "reach the highest degree of
perfection and fame in any profession" with a little effort. These views are
remniscent of Pico della Mirandola's. Man can achieve greatness if he tries.
The ideal occupation for this man is one that makes money. This type of
person contributes to the community, and will recieve "fame and prestige".
Castiglione agrees with Alberti's educational standards, and even goes a
little farther by adding physical standards. An ideal man shouldn't be too tall
or short, but it is better to be shorter than average because tall men are
"often dull of intellect". He must have a good voice - not too high or rustic.
He should be well built, and be able to "handle every sort of weapon well on
foot and horse". He must always be corageous and prudent. He must be a
musician and be able to draw and paint, and finally, he must be good with the
ladies, and impress them with his skill in writing, poetry, music, and art.
The standards for women are somewhat different. First of all, she should be
beautiful, because a women who lacks beauty "lacks much". She must be able to
entertain men, and know how to speak without offending them.
She shouldn't be too vigorous, rather she should be dainty, gentle, and
graceful. When she plays a musical instrument, she shouldn't show off, because
then she would show "more skill than sweetness." Even the instruments she
chooses to play should be gentle - no woman, according to Castiglione, should
play the drums, fife, or trumpet. She should show a "touch of shyness" in
everything she does.
Machiavelli's views on humanity differ quite a bit from Castiglione's and
Alberti's. He believes that humans are fickle and sheeplike and need to be
controlled at every instant. "Men will always do badly by you unless they are
forced to be virtuous" and "are wretched creatures" who can be easily controlled
and will react as expected every time, so as long as the ruler has a copy of
"The Prince" he can deal with any situation properly. Ethics are not so
important to a leader as keeping power. Dissenters should be destroyed, because
enemies are biggest opposition and the downfall of many leaders. "Men must be
either pampered or crushed, because they can get revenge for small injuries but
not for grevious ones." Rulers must be "loved or feared", feared is ideal,
because "fear is quite compatible with an absence of hatred". Any other emotion
is unsafe for a leader, because men are a "sorry breed" who cannot feel loyalty,
rather they break "on every whisper of private interest".
Finally, a prince must aspire to all good traits, but should not be afraid
to put his vices to use if necessary, because "the conditions of human
nature"(such as thankless, fickle, false, greedy, devoted only when it is to
their benefit) don't allow a prince to be good all of the time. Machiavelli
pr