Humanism

Humanism

The term humanism over the past several centuries of Western thought has been used to express two different concepts. It is not too much to say that humanism in its original form created the intellectual foundation of the Renaissance. In modern times, humanism has most often come to mean an approach that characterizes all things in a human, rather than theistic, framework and emphasizes human rationality and experience in contrast to classic authority. It is arguable, however, that the adversarial relationship between theism and the human, including scientific knowledge and rationality, that is often imputed to modern humanism is unnecessarily simplistic, ignoring, for example, today's Christian humanists. Moreover, it is possible to detect the evolution of a new, more integrative, humanism as a response to a world whose natural cycles and processes are increasingly dominated by the human.

Humanism in its original sense meant simply the rediscovery and study of classic Greek and Latin language and texts, and the use of them to assess the work of doctrinal Scholastics and secondary commentaries of late Medieval Europe. Humanism during this time was more a cultural attitude and an academic program than a formal conceptual framework or a particular philosophy. Indeed, the first self-conscious humanist, the Italian poet Francis Petrarch (1304–1374), is notable for urging a new curricula based on original classical sources—the studia humanitatis, consisting of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and moral philosophy. During this period, the term humanist had no ideological content and simply referred to anyone, layperson or Church official, who had a competence in classical Greek, Latin, and to a lesser extent Hebrew, and some familiarity with classical texts.

Early humanism led to the recovery of the direct study of the Bible. Many early medieval Church figures such as Thomas More (1478–1535) and Desiderius Erasmus (1469–1536), and a number of reformers, strongly supported the humanist approach. In general, however, early humanism was stronger in Italy than in the more medieval north of Europe. Thus, Pope Nicholas V (1447–1455) is referred to by Bertrand Russell in A History of Western Philosophy (1945) as "the first humanist Pope" (p. 498). Nicholas's apostolic secretary was the epicurean humanist Lorenzo Valla (1407–1457). Reflecting their culture, the vast majority of humanists were practicing Christians, although they tended to react against the medieval Scholastic veneration of authority. Valla, for example, wrote a long treatise somewhat inelegantly titled Restructuring of All Dialectic with the Foundations of the Whole of Philosophy, in which he purported to demonstrate the invalidity of Aristotelian logic, a foundation of Scholasticism.

As Western culture evolved, however, humanism inevitably began to challenge medieval world-views in fundamental ways. Rather than the authority of Aristotle (384–322 b.c.e.), Augustine of Hippo (354–430), and Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274), humanists rediscovered and began to teach classical texts of all types. These not only greatly broadened the knowledge base available to scholars and the educated, but stimulated both increased curiosity about the world in general and a different concept of validity. During the early medieval period, reference to accepted authority was the highest demonstration of truth; humanism over time led to increased reference to the physical world as the ultimate source of validity in argument. The authority of Galen (c. 130–201 c.e.) in medicine or Aristotle in physics was increasingly challenged by data and argument derived not from accepted texts but from observation of the world itself. In doing so, humanism created the foundations for the profound ontological shift from the otherworldliness of medieval faith to scientific knowledge that characterized the Enlightenment and, subsequently, modernity.

The Enlightenment is often characterized as a conflict between faith and reason, but that is misleading. Major Enlightenment figures, including on the nascent rationalist side Francis Bacon (1561–1626) and, later, Isaac Newton (1642–1727), clearly viewed their scientific work as aligned with the Christian faith, even mandated by it. On the literary side, the Romantic project was seen by many of its leading figures as an effort to modernize and humanize Christian theology in light of Enlightenment science, which had come to represent an independent and in some ways equally powerful ontology. Thus, the poet John Keats (1795–1821) saw his goal as creating "a system of Salvation which does not affront our reason and humanity" (quoted in Abrams, p. 33), a goal that can be broadly attributed to the Romantic movement in general.

Attitudes toward modern humanism mirror the distortions of the Enlightenment characterization. In particular, the attacks by Christian fundamentalists on "secular humanism" in the United States, especially regarding the teaching of evolution, have created an impression that humanism is necessarily opposed to religion. Secular humanism, a tradition flowing from eighteenth-century Enlightenment rationalism and subsequent freethinking movements, is indeed characterized by a Promethean suspicion of theism and religious authority, and a belief that humans are the measure of all things; it is, however, but one branch of the humanist project. Modern humanists fall into many categories, including literary humanism, characterized by a devotion to the humanities; cultural humanism, the rational, empirical tradition derived from ancient Greece and Rome that forms the basis of modern Western societies; and philosophic humanism, systems of thought focused on human needs and realities.

Of particular interest, however, are the schools of humanism that explicitly integrate religious and scientific worldviews. Thus, Christian humanism, the philosophy that posits the self-fulfillment of humans within the framework of Christian principles and beliefs, has evolved from More and Erasmus through elements of the Anglican and German pietist traditions and philosophers such as Immanuel Kant (1724–1804). It is represented by modern theologians such as Jacques Maritain, Hans Küng, Paul Tillich, and James Luther Adams. More explicitly, the Unitarian Universalist tradition includes among its seven Principles three that are obviously humanist; they affirm (1) the "inherent worth and dignity of every person," (2) justice, "equity and compassion in human relations," and (3) a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning." The Unitarian Universalists also identify as among the sources of their tradition humanist "teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit."

This integration of faith and rationality will become increasingly important in light of the recognition that, as a result of the Industrial Revolution, population and economic growth, and globalization, the dynamics of most major natural systems are increasingly influenced by human activity. Since this results in a world where teleologies and belief systems are increasingly reified in natural systems through intentional human activity, a rational humanistic understanding, combined with the religious faith that is central to the human experience—perhaps an "Earth systems" humanism—may well be a future evolutionary path of humanism.

See also Aristotle; Augustine; Christianity; Creationism; Evolution; Newton, Isaac; Teleology; Thomas Aquinas

Bibliography

abrams, m. h. natural supernaturalism: tradition and revolution in romantic literature. new york: norton, 1971.

adams, james luther. on being human religiously: selected essays in religion and society. boston: beacon, 1976.

allen, michael j. b. "humanism." in the columbia history of western philosophy, ed. richard h. popkin. new york: columbia university press, 1999.

allenby, braden richard. "observations on the philosophic implications of earth systems engineering and management." batten institute working paper. charlottesville, va.: batten institute at the university of virginia darden school of business, 2002.

derr, thomas sieger. environmental ethics and christianhumanism. nashville, tenn.: abingdon, 1996.

küng, hans, and, schmidt, helmut, eds. a global ethic and global responsibilities: two declarations. london: scm, 1998.

noble, david f. the religion of technology. new york: knopf, 1998.

russell, bertrand. a history of western philosophy (1945). new york: simon and schuster, 1972.

unitarian universalist association. "principles and purposes." available from http://www.uua.org/aboutuua/principles.html.

brad alleby