The individualism of modern thought and life
first found distinct expression in the Renaissance; and it was essentially
a new creation, and not a revival. Hitherto the tribe, the city, the
nation, the guild, or the church, had been the source of authority, the
centre of power, and the giver of life. Although Greece showed a desire for
freedom of thought, and a tendency to recognize the worth of the individual
and his capacity as a discoverer and transmitter of truth, it did not set
the individual mind free from bondage to the social and political power of
the city. Socrates and Plato saw somewhat of the real worth of the
individual, but the great mass of the people were never emancipated from
the old tribal authority as inherited by the city-state; and not one of the
great dramatists had conceived of the significance of a genuine
individualism.[1]
[Sidenote: Renaissance.]
The Renaissance advanced to a new conception of the worth and the capacity
of the individual mind, and for the first time in history recognized the
full social meaning of personality in man. It sanctioned and authenticated
the right of the individual to think for himself, and it developed clearly
the idea that he may become the transmitter of valid revelations of
spiritual truth. That God may speak through individual intuition and
reason, and that this inward revelation may be of the highest authority and
worth, was a conception first brought to distinct acceptance by the
Renaissance.
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