Abstract
Commentators have often considered a preference for the active versus the contemplative life one of the defining aspects of the Renaissance. This entry points to the long-standing nature of the debate on the possible kinds of life. It also underlines the variety of solutions put forth (also in the Renaissance) and the subtlety of many views (which tended to reconcile the two kinds of life rather than opting for just one of them). Aside from developments in fifteenth-century Florence, where a strong turn toward civic humanism led to exaltations of the active life, the Renaissance saw numerous defenses of the contemplative life and (as a separate category) of the religious life. Throughout Europe, contemplation therefore was often reaffirmed as an ideal, although thinkers rarely believed that one could engage in contemplation exclusively.
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Lines, D.A. (2019). Action and Contemplation in Renaissance Philosophy. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_181-1
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