Renaissance Elites, Essay Example

Renaissance Elites: How did changes in military technology transform the lives of Renaissance elites?  Was there a “crisis of the nobility?”  What steps did nobles take to protect and defend their status?

Thesis

Adherents of the broadest notion of the Renaissance see it as an age defined, perhaps, by certain artistic, but an era nevertheless that was much more than the product of its creative elites.

Abstract

In the 16^th century, under the influence of scientists such as Galileo, Descartes, and Newton, tradition and speculative scientific claims gave way to claims of scientific knowledge, with the certainty of reason. This shifted power from the Gods and those that spoken in the name of them, to the individual. Emotionally linked communities transformed into societies and the self progressed. Elite male individuals spend their time advertising their own excellence and quarrelling over trifles all through renaissance. This group’s social identity allowed them to have effects on the world. Individuals are confronted with the task of balancing self-interest with social sentiments. With the industrial revolution, technology became causal to progress and technical progress, and societal progress became intertwined; a new religion that placed faith in mechanization over and above that human ability. This paper discusses how, in a strongly stratified society, dominated by military goals, religious aims or intellectual claims, social order is ensured through cohesive ties by higher order perceived as postulates for their survival. This study usesthis inherent logic thatreplicates elites’ social order through early and middle age societies legitimized the rights of the ruling class to define how technology is judged and transformed their lives.