Today we are going to talk about a type of doctrine that affirms the central position of the human being in the universe. Its about anthropocentrism. In this current of thought we find that the human being is responsible and is at the center of all things. If we analyze the importance from the point of view of anthropocentrism we see that only all human interests should receive moral attention. It is a different kind of alternative to the theocentrism that had its dominance in the Middle Ages.
In this article we are going to tell you everything you need to know about anthropocentrism and its characteristics.
Key features
Theocentrism was an earlier doctrine in which God was considered the center of the universe and directed everything, including human activity. Since these divine weaknesses were losing importance in history over time, all responsibility was given to the human being. In this way, it is only human interests that receive moral attention and are above all matters of importance. The passage from theocentrism to anthropocentrism meant that all the responsibilities that the gods had and their importance will become the human being. This caused great transformations both in the intellectual and artistic fields.
We know that it arose at the beginning of the Modern Age precisely in the transmission between the Late Middle Ages and the Modern Age. By then almost all civilizations had already evolved both in the ethical, moral, judicial and philosophical fields. This makes them have certain concerns to know who is responsible for the entire universe. If we still give the knowledge of some philosophies in ancient civilizations we find some scientific investigations that try to find what is the origin of the human being. These investigations led the society of that time to question theocentrism. In other words, when looking for the origin of the human being, interest was lost and the fact that the gods were the center of the universe was questioned.
Anthropocentrism and mentality change
The result of the change in doctrine was a new general mentality. Here is included a mental scheme that had as its protagonist the human being as a supreme being and at the center of the universe. This type of doctrine considers that reason must be the only guide for human beings to advance and develop. They go from having faith as the engine of doctrine to reason. It should be borne in mind that all this change in mentality caused a revolution of all beliefs at the time.
The doctrine of anthropocentrism was based on man is a being independent of all religious and biblical myths and stories. All these stories up to that moment involved the human being and forced society to perform certain acts or maintain certain behaviors.
We are going to summarize which were the main movements that were the basis of the change of mentality thanks to the introduction of anthropocentrism.
Renacimiento
It is an artistic movement that emerged in the XNUMXth century and emerged in northern Italy. This artistic movement could be represented and expressed through painting, sculpture and architecture. The renaissance name comes from the fact that in this style some characteristics of the classical and Roman tradition were used. Given that anthropocentrism managed to dominate this entire era, many artists took the opportunity to translate their representations into works. For example, there were numerous representations of the human body that were made by classical Greco-Roman art. There were also some artistic currents that served to recover other techniques of harmony and proportions that were lost with the passage of time.
Anthropocentrism caused the renaissance to spread throughout Europe and to remain in force until the XNUMXth century.
Humanism
It is another of the intellectual movements in which anthropocentrism was summarized. It may originate in Italy by the fourteenth century and were expressed in different disciplines such as were philosophy, literature and theology. The philosophy he had imposed on anthropocentrism came to recover the classical Greek and Roman tradition. These classical traditions also placed the human being as the object and center of study and responsible for being the center of the universe.
Throughout this period in which humanism prevailed, various translations and dissemination of some Greco-Roman works were made. These works would remain hidden due to the existence of theocentrism during the Middle Ages. It should be noted that, although the human being was considered the center of the universe and responsible for all things, at no time was religion completely abandoned. Humanism spread throughout Europe and reached its peak between the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries.
Fundamental aspects of anthropocentrism
We are going to analyze which are the main fundamental aspects of anthropocentrism as a doctrine. Keep in mind that the main characteristic is that the human being and not God is situated in the center of thought. As a result, they are born from the rest of the thoughts and currents that were spreading in the society of that time.
Thanks to the characteristics of this doctrine we find full confidence in the human being. It was fully trusted in everything that was a creation of the human being and in the ability of this to be able to dominate the environment. The glory and personal prestige the year the goal of every person. High values were given to prestige, glory, power or fame. They reached a point where they were considered ambitions that were navigating value to the human being. That is, people who had no prestige or power had no value.
All of this triggered further optimism. Although there was a greater concern for earthly life, the idea that the human being lived to enjoy the here and now prevailed. This is known as carpe diem. And it meant that the world stopped being a place of transit and became a place that served to be enjoyed in its entirety.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about anthropocentrism and its characteristics.