Humanism affirms the value of the individual and their ability to think rationally. It originated from Greek philosophy and was rediscovered in the Renaissance. It has influenced education, psychology, and society, promoting individual interpretation of God and rejecting corruption in the church. Humanism aims to create a strong self through talk therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. It continues to influence modern systems of society.
Humanism is a huge term encompassing various movements in the arts, philosophical positions, and broad applications to disciplines such as psychology and education. You can reduce the term to a philosophy that affirms the value of the individual, of the human being, essentially. Every human being is endowed with the ability to think (rationality) and make rational decisions, such as distinguishing bad from good, so that every person can become a more moral self. “Moral” in this sense is not used to prefer one set of religious beliefs, but refers to a more universal concept of morality that allows for the belief that all people have intrinsic worth.
You see the ideas of humanism expressed by the Greek philosophers. In particular, Plato’s Socrates supports the development of humanity towards a better self, and does so through the Socratic method, intensely questioning people to help them understand how they think and to promote a greater capacity for wisdom and rationality. These philosophies were taken up by Aristotle and, together, the rediscovery of these Greek works in the 14th century AD define the humanist movement we often refer to as the Renaissance.
It’s important to note that even under this concept of self-worth, not all humans have gotten a fair deal. Although the Middle Ages were ending, and more and more people were learning to read, learning to rationalize and having their own ideas about themselves, religion and the like, there were many who were ignored and many who were illiterate: servants and many of the Merchants. Likewise in Greek teachings, Plato and Aristotle often miss the abuses of the common man, the slave or serf, and speak to a particular class of people, for the most part, those who had access to education.
While the humanist movement of the Renaissance could not cure all of society’s ills, it certainly began to provoke debate about how society treated its people. The large organizations that had controlled the flow of education, especially the Church, began to come under increasing criticism. From the humanist movement, we get the increased interest in an individual interpretation of God and a rejection of corruptions in the church that did not serve the individual.
What tends to be rejected the most is belief without a reason. Instead of turning to mysticism and faith, people have turned to their own ability to reason. This could lead to the individual concluding that God exists, or rejecting God altogether. Christian humanists have paid particular attention to Christ, as he expresses many of the thoughts in common with the humanist. In particular, Christ affirms the importance of the individual in many key points of the books of the New Testament.
Humanism in education can refer to specific “humanist” teachings designed to train the rational mind, or it can be a philosophy, as is more current, affirming the right for everyone to learn, and to some extent direct their own learning, as in Montessori schools. Traditional liberal arts education has trained the mind by studying a variety of subjects: languages, literature and art, mathematics, history and geography.
Some principles of humanism were adopted in psychology in the 1950s, which are now still reflected in many modern “counseling fields”. The goal of therapy was to create a strong self, sometimes called a “self-actualized.” Humanism rejected the ideas of behaviorism in preference to talk therapy. Today, many therapists use a combination of humanistic approaches and also a behavioral therapy called cognitive behavioral therapy, which integrates the reasoning process with behavior evaluation.
Overall, many people may find the term humanism broad and unwieldy due to its many definitions and sheer number of practical applications. It continues to influence our thought process and world view today in many unseen currents. It is interesting to go back to the classical Greek philosophers to see how humanism has influenced history, been variously applied across a number of disciplines, and how it has infiltrated many of the modern systems of society.
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