Below are the theses you all wrote in class. Please indicate in a posted comment below your opinion of the top three and briefly explain why.
- Renaissance thinkers strove to cultivate the universal man, an ideal being that could be achieved through studying literature and practicing general skillfulness.
- During the Renaissance men believed that the freedom and virtue came from education and self-improvement.
- During the Renaissance men believed that education lead to freedom and virtue.
- The Renaissance was marked by a renewed importance of education in the Humanities.
- The Renaissance gave rise to a new type of education that emphasized the liberal arts.
- The Renaissance man sought a classical, humanist education in order to attain moral virtue, valorous character, physical fitness, and an understanding of the body, and excellence in presenting oneself through artistic cultivation and manners.
- Looking to ancient authors for guidance, Renaissance thinkers cast down their father’s religious priorities and studied rather the humanities and the arts as an expression of their individual freedom and cultivated personal wisdom, virtue, fame, and popularity.
- During the Renaissance, societal focus shifted in favor of the values of the ancients and emphasized the study of the self, finding virtue, engaging in liberal arts, and becoming a multifaceted individual.
- Renaissance writers, through their knowledge of classical antiquity, art, literature, and philosophy, tried to reveal the virtuous nature of man and to depart from the Medieval emphasis on mortality and salvation.
- The Renaissance began as a reflection of the people upon themselves and their predecessors, which resulted in the creation and study of many of the world’s modern subjects.
- During the Renaissance, a new-found interest in Classical Antiquity increased exploration and education in fields previously deemed of little value, such as art, music, and science.
- During the Renaissance…
- Renaissance thinkers synthesized classical philosophy, ideas about living virtuously, and an interest in individuality to create a new system of thinking that posited education as a means to living virtuously and glorifying God through reason.
- During the Renaissance, a movement recovered writings from the Classical world, leading to the study of the humanities and an explosion of scientific examination.
- Education saw a transition in its goals and social status, from unpopular and usually impractical to popular and purposeful amongst the upper classes.
- The Renaissance, through its renewed educational focus on humanity and life on earth, rejected the Medieval Church’s philosophy.
- The liberal arts ideology that emerged during the Renaissance synthesized the Medieval emphasis on virtue and classical rhetoric, changing the conception of the individual and the politician.
- The development of the Renaissance required that the times had departed from classical antiquity.
- During the Renaissance, renewed interest in the classics spurred many people to pursue previously forbidden knowledge and develop new creations in secular music and various other liberal arts, while other reacted with dread to these new developments.
- The Renaissance reintroduced the idea of self-enlightenment through classical studies and personal reflection and developed the notion of practical education for the betterment of the state and society.
- The rediscovery of classical philosophies during the Renaissance caused an increased focus on a liberal education, the study of man, and the enjoyment of earthly matters.
- A renewed emphasis on the study of history, science, and reflection on the inner soul hailed the creation of the liberal arts and a return to classical philosophy.
- The Renaissance began as a reflection of the people upon themselves and their predecessors, which resulted in the study of many modern fields of study.
European History 
Top 3 (in order): 13, 17, 9
Thought these three best fully captured the importance of the rise in individuality and reason and a departure from a Medieval Age emphasis on salvation and sin. Most clearly phrased and structured, and backed up with clear examples.
Top 3: 13, 9, 7
I thought these worked well because each was focused on the ways the Renaissance diverged from the past and supported with examples from the documents. They also all referenced where the Renaissance thinkers were getting their ideas as well as how their ideas differed from what had come before.
Top 3: 7, 8, 22
What I liked about these theses is that they really focussed on how the Renaissance was a shift as opposed to a rejection (7 might be a little weaker in this regard, but otherwise it was quite strong). For the most part, they also did a good job of capturing the spirit of intellectual rebirth that marked the Renaissance. Finally, they give a good sense of the Earthly focus of the Renaissance (as opposed to the Divine focus of the Middle Ages).
13,20,9
These theses are specific in their examples and characterize the priorities of Renaissance thinkers as distinct from many of their predecessors- they also incorporate ideas from many of the documents while staying syntactically clear.
Top 3 (no particular order): 22, 20, 6
All three of these theses identify the Renaissance both as a divergence from a previous way of thinking and correctly indicate the limited range of the shift. They are also active thesis statements and have specific subjects.
Top 3: 9, 7, 20
Each of these hit Dr. Shurmer’s big three: clarity, argument, and direction. They were clear and specific, with a nuanced argument that best captured the shift from the Medieval Man to the Renaissance Man. I got a good sense of where these papers would have gone.
7,9, 20
I thought 7 and 9 were very clear about the subject of their arguments and the agency behind the changes they described, while 20 explicitly discussed the goals of the liberal arts education a lot of people touched on
Listed in order of preference:
13 – The subject is nice and specific. the components of this new “system of thinking” that was developing can definitely be found in, or at least argued for with, the docs. It also doesn’t just summarize what the new mode of thinking was, but makes a claim that gives the argument definite direction and opens up the argument to elaboration on the ramifications of this claim (that the new mode of thinking “posited education as a means to living virtuously and glorifying God through reason”).
7 – A lot of the theses noted the shift in study towards the humanities that a revival in the study of antiquity sparked. This goes further to argue why the humanities and the arts were studied in the Renaissance, and the reasons it points to are either easily identifiable in the docs, or could be argued for with the documents. Also Renaissance thinkers isn’t bad for a subject.
17 – Though I’m not crazy about this one, I like it primarily because, like the above two, it does more than just summarize the documents. It provides an argument that could only be proven with careful analysis of the documents, not just listing the documents as obvious examples of what it claims. It also has a great, specific subject. It could of elaborated a bit on how it changed the conception of the individual though.
7, 17, and 20
These all present specific subjects and have active verbs. They also all include an engine to drive the thesis. What makes these stand out is that they go a step further as to discuss the result of the changed Renaissance attitudes and layout their arguments clearly. Additionally, their organization makes it clear what their argument is. (Really Ethan, using rise in the comments?)
7, 17, and 22 (not 7, 17, and 20)
21 – Weak subject, but strong points and well phrased. Emphasis on “enjoyment of earthly matters” is key and not seen elsewhere and is key in the comparison of the Renaissance to the Middle Ages.
7 – The subject might not only refer to “thinkers” but also to men of culture in general, and is thus a bit restrictive. That “freedom” and “popularity” are noted is key, because they are characteristic of the shift into the Renaissance period.
13 – Nice verb and good synthesis of the documents into a thesis. Same qualms about the subject.
Top 3: 7, 13, 17
All three had clear, concise subjects and objects, describing how the thinkers, not the Renaissance era itself, impacted the European society. These ones also presented the shift in from the more conservative Middle Age to Renaissance’s increasing secularism with specific examples found in the documents.
Top: 6, 7, 17
Though they are a little wordy and can be cleaned up in some places, I like how they all touch on the changing of education and the creation of the universal man, and the relationship between the two. They also all have clear subjects and powerful verbs that easily catch a readers attention, but do not distract from the concepts being described. They also all say the word “Renaissance,” which, though a minor detail, helps give the reader a more solid context as to what the writer is talking about—kind of like saying the title of the book in your thesis, if you are writing an english paper.
Top Three: 9, 13, 7
9. This thesis talked towards the importance of the classics on the “Renaissance Man,” but failed to address the key idea of education.
13. This one did not forget to make reference to the religious aspect of the Renaissance, which I thought many others did not. It also made it clear that the ‘thinking’ was different and backed it up with why.
7. Even though it deters religion from the Renaissance, the thesis still looks towards the specific arts that were studied, even though fame and popularity are redundant.
Top: 20, 9, 6
6. This thesis encompasses both the desire for education and the reasons for doing so. It does not portray the Renaissance as a rejection, rather a shift. Unlike others, it emphasizes “man.” However, it mentions “physical fitness,” which isn’t central to the documents.
9. This thesis uses the documents well, demonstrating the subjects central to the humanist education. However, I think the thesis misstates the emphasis as an attempt to reveal the virtuous, universal man. I would say the emphasis was to become the universal. I like the explicit mention of departure from “mortality and salvation,” a shift of focus from the afterlife to this life.
20. I like that this thesis portrays the Renaissance as a reintroduction of classical and introspective thought. “Self” and “personal” imply the importance of the individual. “Practical” possibly expands the thesis to the focus on this life rather than the afterlife.
Top three: 17, 6, 13
17: I like how the thesis mentions how the Renaissance not only effects the world of education, but also of political environments across Europe.
6: The thesis does a good job of incorporating multiple features of the shift of the focuses of education to reflect the ideal of the homo universalis.
13: This thesis brings in the fact that religion still had a strong foothold in the world, and that the Renaissance caused a shift in how people viewed religion in a different way than in the medieval ages.
6, 7, 13
All three mention the goals of the Renaissance that we talked about in class, including a humanist education and a focus on individuality and personal virtue. 6 is especially comprehensive. It mentions everything. Additionally, all three draw some sort of arguable connection that would make writing 300 pages in support of each thesis enjoyable and interesting.
20, 11, 13
20: This thesis does a good job of summarizing the goals and results of the Renaissance, while also managing to be specific. It also expresses a big differences between Renaissance education and Medieval education, which are the ideas of self-enlightenment and the state as an art.
11: This thesis stresses the role that classical antiquity played in the Renaissance and notices the cause-and-effect relationship between the classics and the creation of new fields of education, which is a very supportable thesis given the documents provided.
13: After Googling what “posited” means, I can say that this is a very good thesis. It captures the meaning of the Renaissance extremely well, but could stand to be more argumentative.
13: All though a little too wordy for my taste, I like the thesis’ emphasis on the role of education to gain reason. It claims that the worship of God and the growing importance of reason did not conflict but complement each other, which resolves many misunderstandings of the renaissance’s secular nature.
9: This thesis claims that educators were “revealing” the virtuous nature of man during the renaissance as though it had been disclosed during the middle ages. I thought this is a great way of capturing the rather sudden, conceptual transition from the dark ages to the renaissance.
15: I chose this thesis because of its thoughtful choice of words. “Purposeful” is an accurate way of describing education in the renaissance: it conveys well the practicality of classic philosophy in people’s lives.
20: This thesis invokes the idea we talked about in class of the state as an art with the part about “practical education for the betterment of state and society.” It also points out that it was a reintroduction of self-enlightenment, placing it above some which insinuate the Renaissance was the creation of self-enlightenment.
13. This thesis hits three main aspects of the Renaissance and correctly asserts that the Renaissance was not a rejection of religious studies but a reinterpretation of them.
7. Although it is a bit wordy, this thesis captures the idea of individual growth that was present during the Renaissance. My one criticism is that it fails to go into how the shift in thought affected society, but overall it’s well organized and could set up a convincing argument.
20: This thesis invokes the idea we talked about in class of the state as an art with the part about “practical education for the betterment of state and society.” It also points out that it was a reintroduction of self-enlightenment, placing it above some which insinuate the Renaissance was the creation of self-enlightenment.
13. This thesis hits three main aspects of the Renaissance and correctly asserts that the Renaissance was not a rejection of religious studies but a reinterpretation of them.
7. Although it is a bit wordy, this thesis captures the idea of individual growth that was present during the Renaissance. My one criticism is that it fails to go into how the shift in thought affected society, but overall it’s well organized and could set up a convincing argument.