"The Renaissance, that is, the period that extends roughly from the middle of the fourteenth century to the beginning of the seventeen century, was a time of intense, all-encompassing, and, in many ways, distinctive philosophical activity. A fundamental assumption of the Renaissance movement was that the remains of classical antiquity constituted an invaluable source of excellence to which debased and decadent modern times could turn in order to repair the damage brought about since the fall of the Roman Empire. It was often assumed that God had given a single unified truth to humanity and that the works of ancient philosophers had preserved part of this original deposit of divine wisdom. This idea not only laid the foundation for a scholarly culture that was centered on ancient texts and their interpretation, but also fostered an approach to textual interpretation that strove to harmonize and reconcile divergent philosophical accounts. Stimulated by newly available texts, one of the most important hallmarks of Renaissance philosophy is the increased interest in primary sources of Greek and Roman thought, which were previously unknown or little read. The renewed study of Neoplatonism, Stoicism, Epicureanism, and Skepticism eroded faith in the universal truth of Aristotelian philosophy and widened the philosophical horizon, providing a rich seedbed from which modern science and modern philosophy gradually emerged."
Natural Philosophy in the Renaissance
"Natural philosophy, as distinguished from metaphysics and mathematics, is traditionally understood to encompass a wide range of subjects which Aristotle included in the physical sciences. According to this classification, natural philosophy is the science of those beings which undergo change and are independent of human beings. This vast field of inquiry was described in Aristotelian treatises such as Physics, On the Heavens, On Generation and Corruption, Meteorology, History of Animals, On the Parts of Animals, On the Generation of Animals, On the Soul (whose Renaissance reception is not discussed in the present entry); the so-called parva naturalia (other minor writings); and some apocrypha (e.g., the Problemata), which were taught in the universities in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance. During the Renaissance, despite the enduring centrality of the Aristotelian paradigm for the discipline, natural philosophy was enriched and expanded by a number of further approaches. By the end of the sixteenth century natural philosophy was no longer purely identified with the Aristotelian system or a standard university curriculum. At the same time, the proliferation of new contexts and ways of learning did not automatically eliminate older ones, and this fusion contributed to the birth of modern science in a period of religious and political upheaval."
"With the revival of the knowledge of Greek that occurred in Florence and other Italian cities after 1400, scholars began to read Plato and other Greek philosophers in their original texts. By the mid-fifteenth century knowledge of Greek expanded even further because of the political situation in the Eastern Mediterranean."
"The time when the term 'Humanism' was first adopted is unknown. It is, however, certain that both Italy and the re-adopting of Latin letters as the staple of human culture were responsible for the name 'Humanists.' Literoe humaniores was an expression coined in reference to the classic literature of Rome and the imitation and reproduction of its literary forms in the 'new learning'; this was in contrast to and against the Literoe sacroe of scholasticism. In the time of Ariosto, Erasmus, and Luther, the term umanisa was in effect an equivalent to the terms 'classicist' or 'classical scholar.'"