Humanism+&+Philosophy

Questions to Expert

1. During the Italian Renaissance, we saw many great thinkers and philosophers emerge, and they would go on to make many great discoveries that improved society significantly, and ultimately changed the world forever. Do you see similar people or groups emerging from Calgary? Specifically, do you see people pushing the boundaries of their respective fields and striving to make new discoveries?

Chris Turner: The Geography of Hope: Guided Tour of the World We Need. He is one person that is trying to improve society with technologies. He says: we can not continue the relationship with the environment that we have right now, or else we will just destroy our world. He went around the world and looked at innovative new technologies, and saw what other people around the world were doing to help the environment. In Calgary, the LRT system is partly powered by wind power, so people in Calgary are thinking about the environment as well, trying to improve our future. There are definitely people trying to improve the world with new technologies, and some of them are originating from Calgary. There is no movement in Calgary, but more just individuals striving to make a difference in the world.

2. There were several conditions that allowed thinkers to emerge, and for the concept of humanism to surface. One of those conditions was the Black Death, a plague that killed many people and caused people to start questioning former beliefs of the church and the higher authorities. Another was the fall of the feudal system, which allowed for people to have more freedom in what they wanted to accomplish in life. Can you compare these situations to any happening in Calgary today? Specifically, can you make a connection between the Black Death and the H1N1 flu virus, or a comparison between the fall of the feudal system and a new social structure in Calgary that is starting to be encouraged?

H1N1 virus not as big a deal as it was made up to be, it was just blown out of proportion by the media. More people die from normal flu in the year than people have from H1N1. The H1N1 virus shows us the corruption of the media and their hunger for negative stories. H1N1 is not as big as the Black Death, and it is a lopsided comparison, considering that the Black Death killed about a third to half of the population of the Renaissance. Y2K was another thing that the media blew out of proportion, and we also blew the whole thing out of proportion. For the second part of the question, we have become extremely humanist, the opposite extreme of the feudal system, which isn't necessarily good, because people are too individualistic and self enclosed. We need start to think about others instead of just ourselves.

3. Humanism was a key concept in the Renaissance. It centered around humans choices and human concerns. Does Calgary have a similar view and structure that focuses on the importance of human beings? Specifically, would the social and political structures of Calgary endorse and fit with this concept, or would they contradict each other?

Liberalism, the idea that everybody has the right to persue their own self interest. We have taken humanism and liberalism to the extreme, so now we need to focus on becoming less individualistic and start to think about others as well as ourselves.

4. The Medici family was very influential in encouraging the whole new culture of the Renaissance. They supported new ideas and discoveries, started the first bank, and basically took Florence under their control, creating an environment where thinkers and humanism could flourish. Do you see people or groups like this in Calgary? Specifically, do you see people or groups trying to encourage revolutionary new ideas coming from our city?

There is no communication between modern thinkers. The reason being is because our modern day university's are very specialized, so people only ever have the chance to share their knowledge with the people that are in their specific field. Because of this, thinkers can not work together to help each other accomplish more things, and ultimately help society and help the people of the world. Therefore ideas and knowledge can not spread form group to group, person to person, thinker to thinker, so the answer is no.

SES Paragraphs

In response to whether Calgary possesses humanists that would make Calgary a Renaissance city, David Scott believes Calgary has taken the idea of humanism to a ridiculous level. Specifically, he thinks that people should talk to other people that they haven't met. He stated, "People are way to individualistic, they need to hear what other people have to say." I agree with Mr. Scott we need to be more collective. I think by doing this our society of Calgary will flourish just as it did during the Renaissance. By sharing ideas and knowledge with other people, revolutionary inventions will be discovered. Our society today in Calgary is too focused on humans choices. //It needs to change.//

In response to whether Calgary possesses people who are willing to support revolutionary new ideas in our city and encourage culture to make it a Renaissance city, David Scott believes that there isn’t enough communication between people of different fields, so nobody can support each other. Further, he believes that modern day universities are at fault, because everybody is so specialized within them, and that is where many of our city’s smartest minds are. This prevents any of those people communicating and as a result there is no support for anyone trying to make progress in their field because there are few to help them other than the people working on the same thing as them. He states, “Nobody knows what anybody else is doing, so it is impossible for them to communicate and support each other.” By this he means even people outside the university don’t know what everybody is doing, so there is no way they can support new ideas either.

In response to whether Calgary possesses great thinkers that are pushing the boundaries and striving to improve our world, David Scott is more optimistic. He has seen people trying to improve our world in Calgary. Specifically, he sees many of these people striving to make connections with the environment and help save the environment before we destroy it. He mentioned Chris Turner, who went around the world looking at innovative technologies designed to help decrease our environmental footprint. He wrote a book about it - The Geography of Hope: Guided Tour of the World We Need. That book informs us of these technologies that people in our world are creating to help improve our world. It is not a lot of people that are doing this, and there is no movement happening in Calgary to save the environment, but individuals are trying, and in the long run, that may help.