Imperfect Garden
The Legacy of Humanism
Chapter One
THE INTERPLAY OF FOUR FAMILIES
A revolution took place in the mind of Europeans-a slow revolution, since it took several centuries-which led to the establishment of the modern world. To grasp it in its most general sense, we can describe it as the passage from a world whose structure and laws were preexisting and immutable givens for every member of society, to a world that could discover its own nature and define its norms itself. The members of the old society gradually learned their assigned place in the universe, and wisdom led them to accept it. The inhabitant of contemporary society does not reject everything passed down by tradition but wants to know the world on her own, and demands that whole swathes of existence should be governed by the principles she chooses. The elements of her life are no longer all givens in advance; some of them are chosen.
Before this revolution, an act was declared just and praiseworthy because it conformed either to nature (that of the universe as well as that of man) or to divine will. These two justifications can sometimes confl ... read full excerpt from Imperfect Garden: The Legacy of Humanism ebook
