http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/humanism Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Sat, 13 Jun 2026 06:28:33 -0400 Sat, 13 Jun 2026 06:28:33 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1923/medusas-blood-on-the-ovidian-assertion-of-fame-in-cellinis-perseus By Hannibal De Pencier - Cast in one piece of bronze in 1554, Benvenuto Cellini'sPerseus with the Head of Medusa representeda monumental feat of artisticvirtuosity. Viewers marvelled at the imposing size of the bronze, the sense of liquid tactility in the blood pouring from either end of Medusa's neck, and—most importantly to Cellini himself—they marvelled at the artist's skill. Ostensibly meant to allude to the political mastery of Grand Duke Cosimo I de Medici, the sculpture's Ovidian iconographic program is demonstrably concerned with aggrandizing Cellini's generative power and asserting the artist... Tue, 30 Nov 2021 09:27 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1923/medusas-blood-on-the-ovidian-assertion-of-fame-in-cellinis-perseus http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1639/does-essence-precede-existence-a-look-at-camuss-metaphysical-rebellion By Scot N. DuFour - Albert Camus lived during a tumultuous time that included his experience of World War II and the Algerian War. Camus is most prominently known as an author of fine French literature but he was also a philosopher. While it is debatable whether Camus was an existentialist, a label he personally disliked, his analysis of rebellion in his work The Rebel serves as a relevant argument for the establishment of an ethic based on metaphysical rebellion. Camus faced and was witness to great oppression throughout his lifetime so it is no surprise that he wrote about rebellion. Camus was personally part of... Mon, 01 May 2017 10:41 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1639/does-essence-precede-existence-a-look-at-camuss-metaphysical-rebellion http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1609/the-rebel-hero-albert-camus-and-the-search-for-meaning-amidst-the-absurd By Meghan E. Von Hassel - Man in his search for meaning—everyman— is Albert Camus’ rebel. In The Rebel man must accept and seek to encounter the universe as it presents itself in absurdity. He encounters the universe out of a strange love and a need for something in which he can place his hope: “a moment comes when the creation ceases to be taken tragically; it is merely taken seriously. Then man is concerned with hope.”[1] Rebellion in the face of absurdity finds hope in the beauty of solidarity which is rooted in the dignity of man, namely, that there is value in human life. In the darkness... Tue, 04 Apr 2017 02:05 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1609/the-rebel-hero-albert-camus-and-the-search-for-meaning-amidst-the-absurd http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1431/erasmus-and-the-transformation-of-early-modern-political-authority-in-the-education-of-a-christian-prince By Zachary S. Brown - Often called the “prince of the humanists” Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) was one of the most influential European philosophers and theologians of the early modern period. However, today he is often overshadowed by his more radical contemporaries, particularly Niccolò Machiavelli, and regarded as a quixotic moderate. This article seeks to challenge this traditional view of Erasmus by exploring the rhetoric and claims of one of his most famous works, The Education of a Christian Prince (1516), a political advice manual written to the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. An... Sun, 07 Aug 2016 09:35 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1431/erasmus-and-the-transformation-of-early-modern-political-authority-in-the-education-of-a-christian-prince http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1045/the-development-of-the-printing-press-and-the-decline-of-the-chronicle-as-historical-method By Emily (Chavie) D. Sharfman - In his work The Idea of History, philosopher and historian Robin Collingwood outlines the development of historiography by leading his audience on a European cross-continental journey through time. He identifies the early modern period as a point at which there was a distinct change in historical writing. The Renaissance historians of this period brought about “a fresh reorientation of historical studies,” which manifested itself in a more narrative style of writing. The chronicles favored by medieval historians began to sharply decline.[1] Collingwood, along with other historians,[... Thu, 04 Jun 2015 09:04 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1045/the-development-of-the-printing-press-and-the-decline-of-the-chronicle-as-historical-method http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/564/posthuman-exploring-the-obsolescence-of-the-corporeal-body-in-contemporary-art By Ryan P. O'Donnell - A key practitioner in posthumanist art is the Australian performance artist, Stelarc. Stelarc’s work deals heavily with “the obsolete body”. The artist does not however suggest that the body is obsolete in the sense that it can be discarded entirely. He instead suggests that humans as a species have created a new technological environment in which we cannot operate effectively as living organisms. The body is obsolete in the sense that it is no longer compatible with its surroundings. We have reached an evolutionary endpoint where the next logical stage of adaptation is for the... Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:30 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/564/posthuman-exploring-the-obsolescence-of-the-corporeal-body-in-contemporary-art http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/54/viewing-four-vonnegut-novels-through-the-lens-of-literary-criticism By Lindsay D. Clark - I like Kurt Vonnegut because he’s innovative and unique, his literary voice speaking out of a time period I love, when he “was actually helping to breathe life into a new genre—modern, pop fiction,”[1] according to critic Tom Verde. Even though he himself isn’t a radical, and in fact most of his beliefs (according to him) stem from a childhood spent during the Great Depression, the unrest of the sixties and seventies allowed him not only liberation in what he could write about—science in an age of dizzying technological advancement; religion, sex, and tradition... Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:55 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/54/viewing-four-vonnegut-novels-through-the-lens-of-literary-criticism