Ways of Thinking Learned from the Renaissance

2021/04/12

Today, knowledge has been popularized, and we live in an era where we can immediately check information on Wikipedia and other sites just by turning on our smartphones. Furthermore, information is constantly circulating through television quiz shows and programs explaining world affairs.

Looking at university education, "liberal arts" and departments advocating for multi-disciplinary fields are in "vogue," with general education being sought after more than specialization. In fact, the form of scholarship in the Renaissance is very similar to this.

During the Renaissance, academic genres were ambiguous and had not been established in a clearly separated manner. When discussing one discipline, there were many cases where elements were drawn from others. For example, when explaining the phenomenon of rainbows in an astronomy book, theories and stories would intermingle—such as stating Peripatetic (Aristotelian) theory and then using myths—or incorporating dialectics into geometric proof methods, showing a tendency to consider a single problem from multiple perspectives. This was because many things in nature had yet to be elucidated. Furthermore, "multiple perspectives" meant that scholars of the time acquired and organized vast amounts of knowledge. Additionally, the form of scholarship changed with the shifts of the era. For instance, as polymaths recognized the need for "practice" in mathematics alongside the technological progress of the time, they initiated a movement to revise theoretical texts. Through this revision, "mathematics" gradually became separated from other disciplines, yet even into the 17th century, academic fields themselves continued to intermingle with others in an ambiguous state.

Today, we aim for the "fusion" of academic fields and seek "integration," whereas in the Renaissance, various disciplines were "integrated," and the goal was the "separation" of academic fields. Through the processes of "fusion" and "separation," how do we gather or detach knowledge? When performing this task, it is necessary to judge which knowledge is correct or incorrect, or which knowledge to keep or discard. In other words, one must cultivate "judgment." This is because the act of "judging" itself is a vital process of thinking.

I believe that by learning this thought process—this way of thinking—from the people of the Renaissance and applying it, we may be able to arrive at a new "form of scholarship."