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Humanism

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Philosophy

   Part of Philosophy series on
   Humanism
   (humanist philosophies)
   Happy Human

   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
   Philosophy Portal ·

   Humanism is 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 the human condition,
   suggesting that solutions to human social and cultural problems cannot
   be parochial.

Aspects

Religion

   Humanism clearly rejects deference to supernatural beliefs in resolving
   human affairs but not necessarily the beliefs themselves; indeed some
   strains of humanism are compatible with some religions. It is generally
   compatible with atheism and agnosticism but doesn't require either of
   these. Agnosticism or atheism on their own do not necessarily entail
   humanism; many different and incompatible philosophies are atheistic in
   nature, and there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all
   atheists adhere.

   As humanism encompasses intellectual currents running through a wide
   variety of philosophical and religious thought, several strains of
   humanism allow it to fulfill, supplement or supplant the role of
   religions, and in particular to be embraced as a complete life stance.
   For more on this, see Humanism (life stance). In a number of countries,
   rights given by laws to 'religions', have required a secular life
   stance to become legally recognized as a 'religion'.

   Renaissance humanism, and its emphasis on returning to the sources,
   contributed to the Protestant reformation by helping to gain what they
   believe was a more accurate translation of Biblical texts.

Knowledge

   According to humanism, it is up to humans to find the truth, as opposed
   to seeking it through revelation, mysticism, tradition, or anything
   else that is incompatible with the application of logic to the
   evidence. In demanding that humans avoid blindly accepting unsupported
   beliefs, it supports scientific skepticism and the scientific method,
   rejecting authoritarianism and extreme skepticism, and rendering faith
   an unacceptable basis for action. Likewise, humanism asserts that
   knowledge of right and wrong is based on one's best understanding of
   one's individual and joint interests, rather than stemming from a
   transcendental truth or an arbitrarily local source.

Speciesism

   Some have interpreted humanism to be a form of speciesism (regarding
   one species as being more important than another). The philosopher
   Peter Singer argues that many humanist's views on the moral interaction
   of people with other animals remain rooted in the Abrahamic religions'
   assertion that man has dominion over the animals. Thus he feels that
   humanists tend to be less supportive of the animal rights movement than
   they should be, in sharp contrast to their full support of human rights
   issues.,

Optimism

   Humanism features an optimistic attitude about the capacity of people,
   but it does not involve believing that human nature is purely good or
   that each and every person is capable of living up to the humanist
   ideals of rationality and morality. If anything, there is the
   recognition that living up to one's potential is hard work and requires
   the help of others. The ultimate goal is human flourishing; making life
   better for all humans. Even among humanists who do believe in some sort
   of an afterlife, the focus is on doing good and living well in the here
   and now, and leaving the world better for those who come after, not on
   suffering through life to be rewarded afterward.

History

   Contemporary humanism can be traced back through the Renaissance to its
   ancient Greek roots. Though humanism can also be traced back to the
   Warring Era of Confucious's time (551-479 B.C.E.), it is the Western
   philosophers that are more widely known.

   The term "humanism" is an early 19th century coinage, based on the 15th
   century Italian term umanista, which was used to designate a teacher or
   student of classic literature. The evolution of the meaning of the word
   humanism is fully explored in Nicolas Walter Humanism — What's in the
   Word.

Greek roots

   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 reserved the divine for 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.

Middle Ages

   Applying the definition of humanism as a re-discovery of classic texts,
   there were two movements in the Middle Ages that saw this happen, the
   Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century and the Renaissance of the
   12th century.

Renaissance

   Renaissance humanism was a broad movement that affected the social,
   cultural, literary and political landscape of Europe. Beginning in
   Florence in the last decades of the 14th century, Renaissance humanism
   revived the study of Latin and Greek, with the resultant revival of the
   study of science, philosophy, art and poetry of classical antiquity.
   The revival was based on interpretations of Roman and Greek texts,
   whose emphasis upon art and the senses marked a great change from the
   contemplation on the Biblical values of humility, introspection, and
   meekness. Beauty was held to represent a deep inner virtue and value,
   and an essential element in the path towards God.

   The crisis of Renaissance humanism came with the trial of Galileo,
   which forced the choice between basing the authority of one's beliefs
   on one's observations, or upon religious teaching. The trial made the
   contradictions between humanism and traditional religion visibly
   apparent to all, and humanism was branded a "dangerous doctrine."

   Renaissance humanists believed that the liberal arts (music, art,
   grammar, rhetoric, oratory, history, poetry, using classical texts, and
   the studies of all of the above) should be practiced by all levels of
   wealth. They also approved of self, human worth and individual dignity.

   Noteworthy humanists 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.

Modern era

   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 became the cornerstones of modern humanism.
   Both of these sources envision humanism as a religion.

   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 followed as honorary president
   until his death in 2007.

Modern humanist philosophies

   There are many people who consider themselves humanists, and much
   variety in the exact type of humanism to which they subscribe. There is
   some disagreement over terminology and definitions, with some people
   using narrower or broader interpretations. Not all people who call
   themselves humanists hold beliefs that are genuinely humanistic, and
   not all people who do hold humanistic beliefs apply the label of
   humanism to themselves.

   All of this aside, humanism can be divided into secular and religious
   types.

Secular humanism

   Secular humanism is the branch of humanism that rejects theistic
   religious belief, and the existence of the supernatural. It is often
   associated with scientists and academics, though it is not at all
   limited to these groups. Secular humanists generally believe that
   following humanist principles leads to secularism, on the basis that
   supernatural beliefs cannot be supported using human-centered rational
   arguments and therefore all traditionally religiously associated
   activity must be rejected.

   When people speak of humanism in general, they are usually referring to
   secular humanism, as a default meaning. Some of the secular humanists
   take this even further by denying that religious humanists qualify as
   genuine humanists. Others feel that the ethical side of humanism
   transcends the issue of religion, because being a good person is more
   important than rejecting supernatural beliefs.

   Some secular humanists prefer the term Humanist (capital 'H', and no
   adjective), as unanimously endorsed by General Assembly of the
   International Humanist and Ethical Union following universal
   endorsement of the Amsterdam Declaration 2002.

Religious humanism

   Religious humanism is the branch of humanism that considers itself
   religious (based on a functional definition of religion), or embraces
   some form of theism, deism, or supernaturalism, without necessarily
   being allied with organized religion; if allied, in the US it is often
   with Unitarian Universalism, frequently associated with artists,
   liberal Christians, and scholars in the liberal arts. Also subscribers
   to a religion who do not hold such a necessary source for their moral
   values, may be considered religious humanists. The central position of
   human beings in humanist philosophy goes with a humane morality; the
   latter alone does not constitute humanism. A humanitarian who derives
   morality from religious grounds does not make a religious humanist.

   A number of religious humanists feel that secular humanism is too
   coldly logical and rejects the full emotional experience that makes
   humans human. From this comes the notion that secular humanism is
   inadequate in meeting the human need for a socially fulfilling
   philosophy of life. Disagreements over things of this nature have
   resulted in friction between secular and religious humanists, despite
   their similarities.

Other forms of humanism

   Humanism is also sometimes used to describe "humanities" scholars,
   (particularly scholars of the Greco-Roman classics). As mentioned
   above, it is sometimes used to mean humanitarianism. There is also a
   school of humanistic psychology, and an educational method.

Educational humanism

   Humanism, as a current in education, began to dominate school systems
   in the 17th 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, or the belief in distinct
   intellectual faculties, such as the analytical, the mathematical, the
   linguistic, etc. Strengthening one faculty was believed to benefit
   other faculties as well (transfer of training). A key player in the
   late 19th-century educational humanism was U.S. Commissioner of
   Education W.T. Harris, whose "Five Windows of the Soul" (mathematics,
   geography, history, grammar, and literature/art) were believed
   especially appropriate for "development of the faculties". Educational
   humanists believe that "the best studies, for the best kids" are "the
   best studies" for all kids. While humanism as an educational current
   was largely discredited by the innovations of the early 20th century,
   it still holds out, in some elite preparatory schools and some high
   school disciplines (especially, in literature).

Liberal Humanism

   In modern western societies social practices, such as politics and
   economics are shaped by humanist ideas. There are many humanist strands
   such as scientific and religious thinking, but the most dominant form
   of humanism is liberal humanism. Liberal humanists state that the
   individual right needs to be protected and society should provide for
   the differences between people as long as ones individual actions do
   not result in harm to another. An example of this is when a country is
   forced to vote on a political or social matter and the voice of the
   majority is heard. In the liberalist view, each individual has their
   single individual nature as well as a shared human nature. The centre
   and essentially the hero of liberal humanism is man and a commitment to
   man, whose essence is freedom. When researching liberal humanism, it
   can be found that the subject is not only free but is unconstrained by
   history, meaning or action. This in turn guarantees freedom of choice,
   particularly when studying the political system. The following are some
   of the many beliefs of liberal humanism:
     * “Absolute Truth”
     * The world is controllable
     * “Purpose = humanist enhancement of life”
     * “Human-ness is in the work, not the author”
     * Literature is timeless and constant in human nature
     * Everyone is individual regardless of environmental influences
     * Form and content are fused

   Barry best sums up liberal humanism in his text “Beginning Theory: An
   Introduction to Literary and cultural theory” as:

   “Politics is pervasive,
   Language is constitutive,
   Truth is provisional,
   Meaning is contingent,
   Human nature is a myth.”

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