Humanism

For the Renaissance liberal arts movement, see Renaissance humanism

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Humanism (humanist philosophies)

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International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU)

Secular humanism

Humanism (life stance) American Humanist Association Council for Secular Humanism A Secular Humanist Declaration

Religious humanism

Christian humanism Ethical Culture Humanistic Buddhism Humanistic Judaism Integral humanism

Related articles

Posthumanism Neo-humanism Incarnational humanism Marxist humanism List of humanists

History of humanism

Renaissance humanism Humanism in Germany Humanism in France Humanist Manifesto

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Humanismis a broad category of ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appeal to universal human qualities, particularly rationalism. Humanism is a component of a variety of more specific philosophical systems, and is incorporated into several religious schools of thought. Humanism entails a commitment to the search for truth and morality through human means in support of human interests. In focusing on the capacity for self-determination, humanism rejects the validity of transcendental justifications, such as a dependence on faith, the supernatural, or divinely revealed texts. Humanists endorse universal morality based on the commonality of human nature, suggesting that solutions to human social and cultural problems cannot be parochial.

Humanism is characterized by confidence in human reason and the scientific method as a means of discovering truth and organizing society; an emphasis on earthly life; and optimism that life can be made better for all humans.

History

Ancient Greece

Sixth century B.C.E. pantheists Thales of Miletus and Xenophanes of Colophon prepared the way for later Greek humanist thought. Thales is credited with creating the maxim "Know thyself," and Xenophanes refused to recognize the gods of his time and recognized the divine as the principle of unity in the universe. Later Anaxagoras, often described as the "first freethinker", contributed to the development of science as a method of understanding the universe. Pericles, a pupil of Anaxagoras, influenced the development of democracy, freedom of thought, and the exposure of superstitions. Although little of their work survives, Protagoras and Democritus both espoused agnosticism and a spiritual morality not based on the supernatural. The historian Thucydides is noted for his scientific and rational approach to history.

The humanist tradition of philosophy can be said to originate in the fifth century B.C.E., when the Sophists and Socrates introduced social, political and moral questions into their philosophical discussions. Various schools of thought which used human experience as the ground for theories of knowledge, value and ethics began to develop a concept of human identity in the context of a greater reality. The Skeptics questioned whether humans could acquire actual knowledge of the universe and substituted “plausible knowledge” which could be acquired and verified through experience. Epicureans established a moral system based on the principle that human beings seek pleasure and avoid pain. Stoics attempted to overcome human suffering and transcience by defining man’s place in the cosmic order.

Renaissance Humanism

Renaissance humanism (often designated simply as humanism) was a European intellectual and cultural movement which began in Florence, Italy in the last decades of the fourteenth century, rose to prominence in the fifteenth century, and spread throught the rest of Europe in the sixteenth century. The movement developed from the rediscovery by European scholars of many Latin and Greek texts. Its focus was on human dignity and potential and the place of mankind in nature; it valued reason and the evidence of the senses in reaching the truth. The humanist emphasis upon art and the senses marked a great change from the contemplation on the Biblical values of humility, introspection, and meekness that had dominated European thought in the previous centuries. Beauty was held to represent a deep inner virtue and value, and an essential element in the path towards God.

Renaissance humanism was a reaction to the Christian scholasticism which had dominated the universities of Italy, and later Oxford and Paris, and whose methodology was derived from Thomas Aquinas. Renaissance humanists followed a cycle of studies, the studia humanitatis (studies of humanity), consisting of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and moral philosophy, based on classical Roman and Greek texts. Many humanists held positions as teachers of literature and grammar, or as government bureaucrats. Humanism affected every aspect of culture in Europe, including music and the arts. It profoundly influenced philosophy by emphasizing rhetoric and a more literary presentation and by introducing Latin translations of Greek classical texts which revived many of the concepts of ancient Greek philosophy.

The humanist emphasis on the value and importance of the individual influenced the Protestant Reformation, which rejected the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church and declared that every individual could stand directly before God. Humanist values also brought about social and political change by acknowledging the value and dignity of every individual regardless of social and economic status. Renaissance humanism also inspired the study of Biblical sources and newer, more accurate translations of Biblical texts.

Humanist scholars from this period include the Dutch theologist Erasmus, the English author Thomas More, the French writer Francois Rabelais, the Italian poet Francesco Petrarch and the Italian scholar Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.

Humanism in Philosophy

The term “humanism” was coined by the nineteenth-century German educator F. J. Niethammer to refer to an education based on Greek and Latin classics. The term has come to encompass a series of interrelated concepts about the nature, definition, capabilities, values, and education of human persons. In philosophy it refers to theories of anthropology, history, epistemology, aesthetics, ontology, ethics, and politics which are based on the human being as a point of reference.

Humanism refers to any system which is committed to the centrality and interests of human beings. It also refers to a belief that reason and autonomy are the basic aspects of human existence, and that the foundation for ethics and society is autonomy and moral equality. Humanism also describes the belief that everything can be understood , and all social and political problems solved, through reason and the scientific method.

During the last two centuries, various elements of humanism have been manifested in philosophical systems such as existentialism, utilitarianism, pragmatism and Marxism.

Modern Humanist Movements

One of the earliest forerunners of contemporary chartered humanist organizations was the Humanistic Religious Association formed in 1853 in London. This early group was democratically organized, with male and female members participating in the election of the leadership and promoted knowledge of the sciences, philosophy, and the arts.

Active in the early 1920s, F.C.S. Schiller considered his work to be tied to the humanist movement. Schiller himself was influenced by the pragmatism of William James. In 1929 Charles Francis Potter founded the First Humanist Society of New York whose advisory board included Julian Huxley, John Dewey, Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann. Potter was a minister from the Unitarian tradition and in 1930 he and his wife, Clara Cook Potter, published Humanism: A New Religion. Throughout the 1930s Potter was a well-known advocate of women’s rights, access to birth control, civil divorce laws, and an end to capital punishment.

Raymond B. Bragg, the associate editor of The New Humanist, sought to consolidate the input of L. M. Birkhead, Charles Francis Potter, and several members of the Western Unitarian Conference. Bragg asked Roy Wood Sellars to draft a document based on this information which resulted in the publication of the Humanist Manifesto in 1933. The Manifesto and Potter's book, both of which envision humanism as a religion, became the cornerstones of modern humanist organizations.

In 1941 the American Humanist Association was organized. Noted members of The AHA include Isaac Asimov, who was the president before his death, and writer Kurt Vonnegut, who is the current honorary president.

Secular and Religious Humanism

Secular humanism rejects theistic religious belief, and the existence of a supernatural, on the grounds that supernatural beliefs cannot be supported rationally. It is often associated with scientists and academics who are committed to scientific inquiry. Secular humanists generally believe that successful ethical, political and social organization can be accomplished through the use of reason.

Religious humanism embraces some form of theism, deism, or supernaturalism, without necessarily being allied with organized religion. The existence of God or the divine, and the relationship between God and human beings is seen as an essential aspect of human character, and each individual is endowed with unique value through this relationship. Humanism within organized religion can refer to the appreciation of human qualities as an expression of God, or to a movement to acknowledge common humanity and to serve the needs of the human community.

Humanism in Education

Humanism, as a current in education, appeared during the seventeenth century. It held that the studies that develop human intellect are those that make humans "most truly human." The practical basis for this was “faculty psychology,” the belief that the mind consists of distinct intellectual faculties, such as the analytical, the mathematical, and the linguistic. Strengthening one faculty was believed to benefit other faculties. A late nineteenth-century educational humanist was U.S. Commissioner of Education W.T. Harris (1835 -1909, founder of the Journal of Speculative Philosophy), whose "Five Windows of the Soul" (mathematics, geography, history, grammar, and literature/art) were believed especially appropriate for "development of the faculties." Harris, an egalitarian who worked to bring education to all children regardless of gender or economic status, believed that education in these subjects provided a “civilizing insight” that was necessary in order for democracy to flourish.

See also

• List of basic humanism topics
• List of humanists
• Category:Humanists

Forms of humanism

See the humanism philosophy box at top on the right.

Related philosophies

• Deism
• Extropianism
• Infinitism
• Objectivism
• Pragmatism
• Rationalism

Other

• Antihumanism
• Humanistic psychology
• Social psychology
• Religious freedom — freedom of religion and belief

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Petrosyan, M. 1972 Humanism: Its Philosophical, Ethical, and Sociological Aspects, Progress Publishers, Moscow.

External links

Manifestos and statements setting out humanist viewpoints

• Humanist Manifesto I (1933)
• Humanist Manifesto II (1973)
• A Secular Humanist Declaration (1980)
• Amsterdam Declaration (2002)
• Humanist Manifesto III (2003)

Introductions to humanism

• What Is Humanism? from the American Humanist Association
• Humanism: Why, What, and What For, In 882 Words
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Civic Humanism
• Catholic Encyclopedia article on Renaissance Humanism

Organizations

• International
  • Center for Inquiry International
  • Rationalist International
  • International Humanist and Ethical Union
  • International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organisation
• Europe
  • British Humanist Association
  • Humanist Society of Scotland
  • UK Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association
  • Humanist Movement — Europe
  • Humanist Movement — German
  • Humanist Movement — The Netherlands
  • Humanist Association of N. Ireland
  • Humanist Association of Ireland
  • Humanist Movement — Italy
  • Humanist n.e.t. — German/ English
  • Norwegian Humanist Association
  • Swedish Humanist Association
  • Romanian association Solidarity for Freedom of Conscience — Romanian/ English
  • Virtual Sociedade Humanista Mineira
• North America
  • American Humanist Association
  • The Church of Spiritual Humanism
  • HUUmanists, Unitarian Universalist publishers of the journal Religious Humanism
  • Humanist Association of Canada
  • Chicago humanist wiki pages
  • Institute for Humanist Studies
  • Humanist Association of Manitoba
  • Society of Ontario Freethinkers
  • The Humanist Fellowship of San Diego
  • Council for Secular Humanism
  • Freethought Association of West Michigan

Web articles

• New Humanist British magazine from the Rationalist Press Association (RPA)
• Nanovirus — A humanist perspective on politics, technology and culture
• Modern Humanist An Online Journal for Modern Humanism, Humanist Philosophy & Life

Web books

• A Guide for the Godless: The Secular Path to Meaning
• European Region of the Humanist International
• Thinking And Moral Problems, Religions And Their Source, Purpose, and Developing A Universal Religion, four Parts of a Wikibook.

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