Humanism

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=185 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="03fb9c00dduajq.jpg"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="70" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 76 WIDTH="66"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="76" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="66" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Apologetics Issues"><U><B>Apologetics Issues</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFBF0" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Christian Debatorial Works</B></FONT>    |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Christian Debatorial Works"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id312.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Defending God"><U>Defending God</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id309.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Defending Christianity"><U>Defending Christianity</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id110.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Defending the Bible"><U>Defending the Bible</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id98.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Strategies for Witnessing to Atheists"><U>Strategies for Witnessing to Atheists</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id138.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Countering Islam"><U>Countering Islam</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id325.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Countering Judaism"><U>Countering Judaism</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id211.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Paganism"><U>Paganism</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id374.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Panentheism"><U>Panentheism</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id375.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Pantheism"><U>Pantheism</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id231.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="WarGods"><U>War-Gods</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id261.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Marxism"><U>Marxism</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id337.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bahai"><U>Baha'i</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id338.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Buddhism"><U>Buddhism</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id359.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hinduism"><U>Hinduism</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id377.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Shinto"><U>Shinto</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id351.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sigmund Freud"><U>Sigmund Freud</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id362.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Human Genome Project"><U>Human Genome Project</U></A>   |   <B>Humanism</B>   |   <A HREF="id365.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="David Hume"><U>David Hume</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id369.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Immanuel Kant"><U>Immanuel Kant</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id373.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Miracles"><U>Miracles</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id376.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Prayer and Meditation from a Scientific "><U>Prayer and Meditation from a Scientific Perspective</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id385.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JCNot4Me Webpage"><U>JCNot4Me Webpage</U></A></div> <div> Humanism</div> <div> The term <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>humanism </I></FONT>over the past several centuries</div> <div> of Western thought has been used to express</div> <div> two different concepts. It is not too much to say</div> <div> that humanism in its original form created the intellectual</div> <div> foundation of the Renaissance. In modern</div> <div> times, humanism has most often come to mean</div> <div> an approach that characterizes all things in a</div> <div> human, rather than theistic, framework and emphasizes</div> <div> human rationality and experience in contrast</div> <div> to classic authority. It is arguable, however,</div> <div> that the adversarial relationship between theism</div> <div> and the human, including scientific knowledge</div> <div> and rationality, that is often imputed to modern</div> <div> humanism is unnecessarily simplistic, ignoring, for</div> <div> example, today’s Christian humanists. Moreover, it</div> <div> is possible to detect the evolution of a new, more</div> <div> integrative, humanism as a response to a world</div> <div> whose natural cycles and processes are increasingly</div> <div> dominated by the human.</div> <bR> <div> Humanism in its original sense meant simply</div> <div> the rediscovery and study of classic Greek and</div> <div> Latin language and texts, and the use of them to</div> <div> assess the work of doctrinal Scholastics and secondary</div> <div> commentaries of late Medieval Europe. Humanism</div> <div> during this time was more a cultural attitude</div> <div> and an academic program than a formal</div> <div> conceptual framework or a particular philosophy.</div> <div> Indeed, the first self-conscious humanist, the Italian</div> <div> poet Francis Petrarch (1304–1374), is notable</div> <div> for urging a new curricula based on original classical</div> <div> sources—the <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>studia humanitatis, </I></FONT>consisting of</div> <div> grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and moral philosophy.</div> <div> During this period, the term <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>humanist</I></FONT></div> <div> had no ideological content and simply referred to</div> <div> anyone, layperson or Church official, who had a</div> <div> competence in classical Greek, Latin, and to a</div> <div> lesser extent Hebrew, and some familiarity with</div> <div> classical texts.</div> <div> Early humanism led to the recovery of the direct</div> <div> study of the Bible. Many early medieval</div> <div> Church figures such as Thomas Moore (1478–1535)</div> <div> and Desiderius Erasmus (1469–1536), and a number</div> <div> of reformers, strongly supported the humanist</div> <div> approach. In general, however, early humanism</div> <div> was stronger in Italy than in the more medieval</div> <div> north of Europe. Thus, Pope Nicholas V</div> <div> (1447–1455) is referred to by Bertrand Russell in <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>A</I></FONT></div> <div> <I>History of Western Philosophy </I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-Light" >(1945) as “the first</FONT></div> <div> humanist Pope” (p. 498). Nicholas’s apostolic secretary</div> <div> was the epicurean humanist Lorenzo Valla</div> <div> (1407–1457). Reflecting their culture, the vast majority</div> <div> of humanists were practicing Christians, although</div> <div> they tended to react against the medieval</div> <div> Scholastic veneration of authority. Valla, for example,</div> <div> wrote a long treatise somewhat inelegantly titled</div> <div> <I>Restructuring of All Dialectic with the Foundations</I></div> <div> <I>of the Whole of Philosophy, </I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-Light" >in which he</FONT></div> <div> purported to demonstrate the invalidity of Aristotelian</div> <div> logic, a foundation of Scholasticism.</div> <bR> <div> As Western culture evolved, however, humanism</div> <div> inevitably began to challenge medieval worldviews</div> <div> in fundamental ways. Rather than the authority</div> <div> of Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.), Augustine of</div> <div> Hippo (354–430), and Thomas Aquinas (c.</div> <div> 1225–1274), humanists rediscovered and began to</div> <div> teach classical texts of all types. These not only</div> <div> greatly broadened the knowledge base available to</div> <div> scholars and the educated, but stimulated both increased</div> <div> curiosity about the world in general and a</div> <div> different concept of validity. During the early medieval</div> <div> period, reference to accepted authority was</div> <div> the highest demonstration of truth; humanism over</div> <div> time led to increased reference to the physical</div> <div> world as the ultimate source of validity in argument.</div> <div> The authority of Galen (c. 130–201 C.E.) in</div> <div> medicine or Aristotle in physics was increasingly</div> <div> challenged by data and argument derived not from</div> <div> accepted texts but from observation of the world</div> <div> itself. In doing so, humanism created the foundations</div> <div> for the profound ontological shift from the</div> <div> otherworldliness of medieval faith to scientific</div> <div> knowledge that characterized the Enlightenment</div> <div> and, subsequently, modernity.</div> <bR> <div> The Enlightenment is often characterized as a</div> <div> conflict between faith and reason, but that is misleading.</div> <div> Major Enlightenment figures, including on</div> <div> the nascent rationalist side Francis Bacon</div> <div> (1561–1626) and, later, Isaac Newton (1642–1727),</div> <div> clearly viewed their scientific work as aligned with</div> <div> the Christian faith, even mandated by it. On the literary</div> <div> side, the Romantic project was seen by many</div> <div> of its leading figures as an effort to modernize and</div> <div> humanize Christian theology in light of Enlightenment</div> <div> science, which had come to represent an independent</div> <div> and in some ways equally powerful ontology.</div> <div> Thus, the poet John Keats (1795–1821) saw</div> <div> his goal as creating “a system of Salvation which</div> <div> does not affront our reason and humanity” (quoted</div> <div> in Abrams, p. 33), a goal that can be broadly attributed</div> <div> to the Romantic movement in general.</div> <bR> <div> Attitudes toward modern humanism mirror the</div> <div> distortions of the Enlightenment characterization.</div> <div> In particular, the attacks by Christian fundamentalists</div> <div> on “secular humanism” in the United States, especially</div> <div> regarding the teaching of evolution, have</div> <div> created an impression that humanism is necessarily</div> <div> opposed to religion. Secular humanism, a tradition</div> <div> flowing from eighteenth-century Enlightenment</div> <div> rationalism and subsequent freethinking</div> <div> movements, is indeed characterized by a</div> <div> Promethean suspicion of theism and religious authority,</div> <div> and a belief that humans are the measure</div> <div> of all things; it is, however, but one branch of the</div> <div> humanist project. Modern humanists fall into many</div> <div> categories, including <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>literary humanism, </I></FONT>characterized</div> <div> by a devotion to the humanities; <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>cultural</I></FONT></div> <div> <I>humanism, </I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-Light" >the rational, empirical tradition derived</FONT></div> <div> from ancient Greece and Rome that forms the basis</div> <div> of modern Western societies; and <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond-LightItalic" ><I>philosophic humanism,</I></FONT></div> <div> systems of thought focused on human</div> <div> needs and realities.</div> <bR> <div> Of particular interest, however, are the schools</div> <div> of humanism that explicitly integrate religious and</div> <div> scientific worldviews. Thus, Christian humanism,</div> <div> the philosophy that posits the self-fulfillment of humans</div> <div> within the framework of Christian principles</div> <div> and beliefs, has evolved from Moore and Erasmus</div> <div> through elements of the Anglican and German</div> <div> pietist traditions and philosophers such as Immanuel</div> <div> Kant (1724–1804). It is represented by</div> <div> modern theologians such as Jacques Maritain,</div> <div> Hans Kung, Paul Tillich, and James Luther Adams.</div> <div> More explicitly, the Unitarian Universalist tradition</div> <div> includes among its seven Principles three that are</div> <div> obviously humanist; they affirm (1) the “inherent</div> <div> worth and dignity of every person,” (2) justice, “equity</div> <div> and compassion in human relations,” and (3)</div> <div> a “free and responsible search for truth and meaning.”</div> <div> The Unitarian Universalists also identify as</div> <div> among the sources of their tradition humanist</div> <div> “teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance</div> <div> of reason and the results of science, and warn us</div> <div> against idolatries of the mind and spirit.”</div> <div> This integration of faith and rationality will become</div> <div> increasingly important in light of the recognition</div> <div> that, as a result of the Industrial Revolution,</div> <div> population and economic growth, and globalization,</div> <div> the dynamics of most major natural systems</div> <div> are increasingly influenced by human activity.</div> <div> Since this results in a world where teleologies and</div> <div> belief systems are increasingly reified in natural</div> <div> systems through intentional human activity, a rational</div> <div> humanistic understanding, combined with</div> <div> the religious faith that is central to the human experience—</div> <div> perhaps an “Earth systems” humanism—</div> <div> may well be a future evolutionary path of</div> <div> humanism.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>