HUMANISMDEFINED.doc

2. HUMANISM DEFINED Humanism has had a long and notable career, with roots reaching far back into the past and deep into the life of civi- lizations supreme in their day. It has had eminent represen- tatives in all the great nations of the world. As the American historian Professor Edward P. Cheyney says, Humanism has meant many things: “It may be the reasonable balance of life that the early Humanists discovered in the Greeks; it may be merely the study of the humanities or polite letters; it may be the freedom from religiosity and the vivid interests in all sides of life of a Queen Elizabeth or a Benjamin Franklin; it may be the responsiveness to all human passions of a Shake- speare or a Goethe; or it may be a philosophy of which man is the center and sanction. It is in the last sense, elusive as it is, that Humanism has had perhaps its greatest significance since the sixteenth century.” 3 It is with this last sense of Humanism that this book is mainly concerned. And I shall endeavor to the best of my ability to remove any elusiveness or ambiguity from this meaning of the word. The philosophy of Humanism repre- sents a specific and forthright view of the universe, the na- ture of human beings, and the treatment of human problems. The term Humanist first came into use in the early sixteenth century to designate the writers and scholars of the European Renaissance. Contemporary Humanism includes the most enduring values of Renaissance Humanism, but in philo- sophic scope and significance goes far beyond it. To define twentieth-century humanism briefly, I would say that it is a philosophy of joyous service for the greater good of all humanity in this natural world and advocating the methods of reason, science, and democracy. While this statement has many profound implications, it is not difficult to grasp. Humanism in general is not a way of thinking merely for professional philosophers, but is also a credo for average men and women seeking to lead happy and useful