hough often characterized as a secular belief system that rejects God as the source of value in human life, this is not an accurate description of true humanism. Rather than arising from a negative impulse that rejects religion, humanism re-centers its fundamental values around human interests without reference to religion or God. This neutral stance is the reason that some of the greatest humanists were themselves deeply religious, such as Erasmus of Rotterdam and a number of other Renaissance thinkers. Indeed the humanistic values developed during the Renaissance were vital to the renewal of the Catholic Church in later centuries. Because the ultimate source of values and meaning is humanity itself, however, it does by implication reject belief systems based on an authoritarian or paternalistic god. In doing so, humanism also rejects the notion that some men--prophets--possess special knowledge of God’s will--and hence a special authority--or that man can know God’s will at all. God may be the source of all purpose and value in life, but humans are too infallible to ever truly know what this will may be. On earth the best that human communities can strive toward is an approximation. Values can and must course through a purposeful human society, but they are fundamentally human ideals resulting from knowledge to which everyone has access. Humanism thus rejects the view that any chosen group of men can make absolutist claims on other men.

The root of the word originated with the Latin humanus, a noun referring to human values or qualities. When Renaissance Italian writers rediscovered the texts of Cicero, Vergil, and the pantheon of other great Latin writers, they created the Italian word umanista, which was a form of the word humanitas, that was used in Ancient Rome to refer to the state of being cultivated. The word spread to other European languages, and in English it became humanist.

Truly recognizing the human-centric nature of all knowledge and ideals

This is brought out clearly by the first full formulation of modern humanism in the 20th century by F.C.S. Schiller, who wrote in 1907: ”The perception that the philosophical problem concerns human beings striving to comprehend a world of human experience by the resources of human minds.“ This fundamental recognition that our understanding of the world is by its nature human-centered precludes any direct knowledge of God’s will. While humanism does not reject religion or God per se, it does reject the existence of any extra-spiritual or supernatural realm not accessible to human cognition or mental activity.

umanism affirms a way of approaching one’s life that fully recognizes a human ideal, one that cultivates the means toward which all individuals can strive. Activity centers around human values and interests in which personal dignity is instilled with great significance; communities practicing humanistic values are structured to cultivate the individual as much as possible. It is a universal impulse that upholds fundamental rights for all humans living on the planet.

In its most essential form, humanism creates a universal value system, a Weltanschauung, or world view, that centers around the human condition, both physically and spiritually, and that cultivates through education the cultural conditions in achieving the highest of human ideals. It is a universal impulse in acknowledging that every human being possesses the means, or potential, for obtaining these ideals. These ideals are also aesthetic in nature, in that every human being possesses the

, as well as the rational faculties, in which

Originating in the Italian Renaissance and culminating during the era of German classicism in the late 18th century, at each historical phase in this development thinkers have attempted to define the term as broadly and inclusively as possible, though how this was interpreted was conditioned by the prevailing cultural and social values of the time. Precisely who was recognized as belonging to “humanity” has thus changed over the centuries, not because of an exclusionary or elitist impulse, but because the boundaries of recognition has changed from epoch to epoch.

Though varying somewhat in time and place, between the 15th and the 19th centuries the universal ideal implied in humanistic thought usually encompassed European white men; with few exceptions women were generally not included, nor were non-Europeans. This does not mean that humanist thinkers were hypocritical or false to their values.  Rather, they intended their values to be as inclusive as

Education plays a key role in humanism (liberal arts)

Philosophy. a variety of ethical theory and practice that emphasizes reason, scientific inquiry, and human fulfillment in the natural world

Quotes From the Dictionaries

Origin of the Word Human

[a. F. humain (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.) = It. umano, Sp., Pg. humano:

L. h

m

n-us of or belonging to man, human, a derivative of the same root as homo, homin-em man.

    A. adj.

    1. Of, belonging to, or characteristic of mankind, distinguished from animals by superior mental development, power of articulate speech, and upright posture.

1398 TREVISA Barth. De P.R. I. (1495) 6 This creatour thenne made man, and nature humayne comune. c1475 Partenay 951 Neuer humain ey saw to it egal! 1613 PURCHAS Pilgrimage (1614) 762 They thinke that all the gods are of humane shape. 1710 STEELE Tatler No. 120

1 The Contemplation of Humane Life. 1758 S. HAYWARD Serm. xiii. 370 The devil..knows humane nature.

1697 DRYDEN Virg. Georg. IV. 604 Conceal'd from Human Eyes.

    2. a. Of the nature of humans; that is human or consists of human beings.

1484 CAXTON Fables of Æsop VI. xii, Iupyter loued the humayn lygnage. c1500 Melusine i. 15 Thou shalt..dey as a naturel & humayn woman. 1613 PURCHAS Pilgrimage (1614) 320 Humane Sacrifices were offered to Diana.1804 Med. Jrnl. XII. 340 The calamities of the human race. 1858 KINGSLEY Lett. (1878) II. 54 Wherever human beings are concerned.

    3. a. Belonging or relative to human beings as distinguished from God or superhuman beings; pertaining to the sphere or faculties of mankind (with implication of limitation or inferiority); mundane; secular. (Often opposed to divine.)

a1533 LD. BERNERS Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) Bvjb, I haue vsed in this wrytyng, the whiche is humayne, that that diuers tymes hath bene vsed in diuinitie. 1590 SHAKES. Com. Err. V. i. 189 Past thought of humane reason. 1600 J. PORY tr. Leo's Africa II. 392 There are two natures in Christ, one divine..the other humane. 1709 POPE Ess. Crit. 527 To err is humane, to forgive divine.

Belonging or relative to humans, relating to or characteristic of activities, relationships, etc., which are observable in mankind, as distinguished from (a) the lower animals; (b) machinery or the mechanical element; (c) mere objects or events, as human affairs,

; human sciences n. pl. [cf. G. geisteswissenschaften, W. Dilthey (1883)], the sciences that treat of mankind, esp. those concerned with historical or social factors, as religion, the social sciences, literature, etc. (as opp. to natural and physical sciences).

1741 HUME Ess. Moral & Pol. I. 176 Such mighty Revolutions have happened in human Affairs..as are sufficient to beget the Suspicion of still farther Changes.

    1. A human being, a member of the human race.

a1533 LD. BERNERS Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) Ggvijb, No man among men, nor humain amonge the humains. c1611 CHAPMAN Iliad V. 441 Mars..smear'd with the dust and bloud Of humanes, and their ruin'd wals. 1652 KIRKMAN Clerio & Lozia 83 Among you earthly humanes. 1832 F. TROLLOPE Dom. Manners Amer. I. 70, I expect the sun will rise and set a hundred times before I shall see another human that does not belong to the family. 1839 MARRYAT Diary Amer. Ser. I. II. 211 Of all the humans, you're the one I most wish to see.

German Definitions

hūmānē, Adv. (humanus), I)

menschlich, auf menschliche Art, wie es sich für einen Menschen ziemt, dah. gemäßigt, mit Ergebung, ruhig

Cic.: si qui forte, cum se in luctu esse vellent, aliquid fecerunt humanius,

in ihrem Tun eine etwas ruhigere Stimmung zeigten, menschenfreundlich, gefühlvoll, liebreich, leutselig, freundlich

hūmānus, a, um (homo),

menschlich, I) im allg.: facies, Cic.: genus (Geschlecht), Cic.: gentes, Liv.: casus,

die die Menschen täglich zu ihrem Gebrauche machen,

Cic.: res humanae, menschliche Dinge od. Angelegenheiten, das Irdische, die irdischen Güter, das Diesseits, die Welt (Ggstz. res divinae),

Liv.: conspectus ab utraque acie aliquanto augustior (habitu) humano visus,
er erschien beiden Heeren als ein über-menschliches Wesen

Liv.: voluptas humanissima, Cic. – humanum est, das ist etwas Menschliches,

Cic. Verr. 5, 117. – humano quodam modo, auf eine echt menschliche Weise,

ein menschliches Wesen, einer aus dem Menschengeschlecht,

hūmānum, ī, n., Menschliches = menschliches Wesen, menschliches Geschick, menschliches Gefühl u. dgl.

hūmāna, ōrum, n., α) die menschlichen Dinge, -Angelegenheiten, die irdischen Güter od. Schwächen, das Irdische (Ggstz. caelestia, divina),

was zum Lose der Menschen gehört, was einen Menschen treffen kann, die menschlichen Begebnisse, -Leiden, -Schicksale, ferre humana, Cic., humana humanitus od. humane

menschlich =menschenfreundlich, leutselig, liebreich, freundlich , Cic.: homo humanissimus, Cic.: ingenium, Cic.: sensus humanissimus

von seiner Bildung, sein gebildet, gens humana atque docta, Cic.: Scipio homo humanissimus

menschlich, dem Menschen angemessen, vestis humanior, anständigere Kleidung

hūmānitās, ātis, f. (humanus)

die Menschennatur, Menschlichkeit, die menschliche Würde, das menschliche Gefühl (im Ggstz. zur wilden Natur des Tieres)

Cic.: commune humanitatis corpus, der moralische Gemeinkörper,

Cic.: natura tibi dedit, ut humanitatis non parum haberes, menschliches Gefühl,

Cic.  die Menschheit = menschliche Gesellschaft, das menschliche Geschlecht

φιλανθρωπία, die Menschenliebe, Menschen-freundlichkeit, Leutseligkeit, das liebreiche Wesen, die Freundlichkeit im Umgange mit andern

παιδεία, a) die feinere-, höhere Bildung, die bes. aus einer vertrauten Bekanntschaft mit Dichtern, Rednern, Geschichtschreibern u. den zu ihrem Verständnis nötigen Kenntnissen entsteht