Wikipedia - Humanism

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Contents
Articles
Humanism Outline of humanism Antihumanism 1 18 25 30 30 36 42 43 54 56 56 68 74 79 82 87 91 91 96 101 105 109 115

RENAISSANCE HUMANISM
Renaissance humanism Greek scholars in the Renaissance Platonism in the Renaissance Hermeticism List of Renaissance humanists

SECULAR HUMANISM
Secular humanism Secular ethics Humanist Manifesto A Secular Humanist Declaration International Humanist and Ethical Union Marxist humanism

RELIGIOUS HUMANISM
Religious humanism Christian humanism Christian existentialism Humanistic Judaism Buddhist humanism Humanistic Buddhism

References
Article Sources and Contributors Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 120 123

Article Licenses
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Outline of humanism List of humanists History

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Council for Secular Humanism A Secular Humanist Declaration Amsterdam Declaration Religious humanism

Christian Jewish Buddhist Organizations

International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) American Humanist Association British Humanist Association National Secular Society Humanistischer Verband Deutschlands Related articles

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Humanism

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Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence (rationalism, empiricism) over established doctrine or faith (fideism). The meaning of the term humanism has fluctuated, according to the successive intellectual movements which have identified with it.[2] Generally, however, humanism refers to a perspective that affirms some notion of a "human nature" (sometimes contrasted with antihumanism). In modern times, humanist movements are typically aligned with secularism and with non-theistic religions.[3] Historically however, this was not always the case.

Background
The word "Humanism" is ultimately derived from the Latin concept humanitas, and, like most other words ending in -ism, entered English in the nineteenth century. However, historians agree that the concept predates the label invented to describe it, encompassing the various meanings ascribed to humanitas, which included both benevolence toward one's fellow humans and the values imparted by bonae litterae or humane learning (literally "good letters"). In the second century A.D, a Latin grammarian, Aulus Gellius (c. 125 c. 180), complained: Those who have spoken Latin and have used the language correctly do not give to the word humanitas the meaning which it is commonly thought to have, namely, what the Greeks call (philanthropy), signifying a kind of friendly spirit and good-feeling towards all men without distinction; but they gave to humanitas the force of the Greek (paideia); that is, what we call eruditionem institutionemque in bonas artes, or "education and training in the liberal arts [literally 'good arts']". Those who earnestly desire and seek after these are most highly humanized. For the desire to pursue of that kind of knowledge, and the training given by it, has been granted to man alone of all the animals, and for that reason it is termed humanitas, or "humanity".[4] Gellius says that in his day humanitas is commonly used as a synonym for philanthropy or kindness and benevolence toward one's fellow man. Gellius maintains that this common usage is wrong, and that model writers of Latin, such as Cicero and others, used the word only to mean what we might call 'humane" or "polite" learning, or the Greek equivalent Paideia. Gellius became a favorite author in the Italian Renaissance, and, in fifteenth-century Italy, teachers and scholars of philosophy, poetry, and rhetoric were called and called themselves "humanists".[5] Modern scholars, however, point out that Cicero (106 43 BC), who was most responsible for defining and popularizing the term humanitas, in fact frequently used the word in both senses, as did his near contemporaries. For Cicero, a lawyer, what most distinguished humans from brutes was speech, which, allied to reason, could (and should) enable them to settle disputes and live together in concord and harmony under the rule of law.[6] Thus humanitas included two meanings from the outset and these continue in the modern derivative, humanism, which even today can refer to both humanitarian benevolence and to scholarship.[7] During the French Revolution, and soon after, in Germany (by the Left Hegelians), humanism began to refer to an ethical philosophy centered on human kind, without attention to the transcendent or supernatural. The designation Religious Humanism refers to organized groups that sprang up during the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is similar to Protestantism, although centered on human needs, interests, and abilities rather than the supernatural. In the Anglophone world, such modern, organized forms of humanism, which are rooted in the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, have to a considerable extent more or less detached themselves from the historic connection of humanism with classical learning and the liberal arts. The first Humanist Manifesto was issued by a conference held at the University of Chicago in 1933. Signatories, included the philosopher John Dewey, but the majority were ministers (chiefly Unitarian) and theologians. They

Humanism identified humanism as an ideology that espouses reason, ethics, and social and economic justice, and they called for science to replace dogma and the supernatural as the basis of morality and decision-making.[8]

History
In 1808 Bavarian educational commissioner Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer coined the term Humanismus to describe the new classical curriculum he planned to offer in German secondary schools,[9] and by 1836 the word "humanism" had been absorbed into the English language in this sense. The coinage gained universal acceptance in 1856, when German historian and philologist Georg Voigt used humanism to describe Renaissance humanism, the movement that flourished in the Italian Renaissance to revive classical learning, a use which won wide acceptance among historians in many nations, especially Italy.[10] But in the mid-18th century, during the French Enlightenment, the other use of the term had become current. In 1765, the author of an anonymous article in a French Enlightenment periodical spoke of "The general love of humanity ... a virtue hitherto quite nameless among us, and which we will venture to call 'humanism', for the time has come to create a word for such a beautiful and necessary thing".[11] The latter An ideal society as conceived by Renaissance part of the 18th and the early 19th centuries saw the creation of humanist, Saint Thomas More in his book Utopia ("Nowhere"). numerous grass-roots "philanthropic" and benevolent societies dedicated to human betterment and the spreading of knowledge (some Christian, some not). After the French Revolution, the idea that human virtue could be created by human reason alone independently from traditional religious institutions, attributed by opponents of the Revolution to Enlightenment philosophes such as Rousseau, was violently attacked by influential religious and political conservatives, such as Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre, as a deification or idolatry of man.[12] Humanism began to acquire a negative sense. The Oxford English Dictionary records the use of the word "humanism" by an English clergyman in 1812 to indicate those who believe in the "mere humanity" (as opposed to the divine nature) of Christ, i.e., Unitarians and Deists. In this polarised atmosphere, in which established ecclesiastical bodies tended to circle the wagons and reflexively oppose political and social reforms like extending the franchise, universal schooling, and the like, liberal reformers and radicals embraced the idea of Humanism as an alternative religion of humanity. The anarchist Proudhon (best known for declaring that "property is theft") used the word "humanism" to describe a "culte, dification de lhumanit" ("cult, deification of humanity") and Ernest Renan in Lavenir de la science: penses de 1848 ("The Future of Knowledge: Thoughts on 1848") (184849), states: "It is my deep conviction that pure humanism will be the religion of the future, that is, the cult of all that pertains to manall of life, sanctified and raised to the level of a moral value".[13] At about the same time, the word "humanism" as a philosophy centred around humankind (as opposed to institutionalised religion) was also being used in Germany by the so-called Left Hegelians, Arnold Ruge, and Karl Marx, who were critical of the close involvement of the church in the repressive German government. There has been a persistent confusion between the several uses of the terms: philanthropic humanists look to what they consider their antecedents in critical thinking and human-centered philosophy among the Greek philosophers and the great figures of Renaissance history; and scholarly humanists stress the linguistic and cultural disciplines needed to understand and interpret these philosophers and artists.

Humanism

Predecessors
Asia Human-centered philosophy that rejected the supernatural can be found also circa 1500 BCE in the Lokayata system of Indian philosophy. Nasadiya Sukta, a passage in the Rig Veda, contains one of the first recorded assertion of agnosticism. In the 6th-century BCE, Gautama Buddha expressed, in Pali literature, a skeptical attitude toward the supernatural: Since neither soul, nor aught belonging to soul, can really and truly exist, the view which holds that this I who am 'world', who am 'soul', shall hereafter live permanent, persisting, unchanging, yea abide eternally: is not this utterly and entirely a foolish doctrine? Another instance of ancient humanism as an organised system of thought is found in the Gathas of Zarathustra, composed between 1,000 BCE - 600 BCE[14] in Greater Iran. Zarathustra's philosophy in the Gathas lays out a conception of mankind as thinking beings dignified with choice and agency according to the intellect which each receives from Ahura Mazda (God in the form of supreme wisdom). The idea of Ahura Mazda as a non-intervening deistic divine God/Grand Architect of the universe tied with a unique eschatology and ethical system implying that each person is held morally responsible for their choices, made freely in this present life, in the afterlife. The importance placed on thought, action, responsibility, and a non-intervening creator was appealed to by, and inspired a number of, Enlightenment humanist thinkers in Europe such as Voltaire and Montesquieu. In China, Huangdi is regarded as the humanistic primogenitor.[citation needed] Sage kings such as Yao and Shun are humanistic figures as recorded.[citation needed] King Wu of Zhou has the famous saying: "Humanity is the Ling (efficacious essence) of the world (among all)." Among them Duke of Zhou, respected as a founder of Rujia (Confucianism), is especially prominent and pioneering in humanistic thought. His words were recorded in the Book of History as follows (translation): What the people desire, Heaven certainly complies? Heaven (or "God") is not believable. Our Tao (special term referring to "the way of nature") includes morality (derived from the philosophy of former sage kings and to be continued forward). In the 6th century BCE, Taoist teacher Lao Tzu espoused a series of naturalistic concepts with some elements of humanistic philosophy. The Silver Rule of Confucianism from Analects XV.24, is an example of ethical philosophy based on human values rather than the supernatural. Humanistic thought is also contained in other Confucian classics, e.g., as recorded in Zuo Zhuan, Ji Liang says, "People is the zhu (master, lord, dominance, owner or origin) of gods. So, to sage kings, people first, gods second"; Neishi Guo says, "Gods, clever, righteous and wholehearted, comply with human." Toaist and Confucian secularism contain elements of moral thought devoid of religious authority or deism however they only partly resembled our modern concept of secularism. Ancient Greece 6th-century BCE pre-Socratic Greek philosophers Thales of Miletus and Xenophanes of Colophon were the first in the region to attempt to explain the world in terms of human reason rather than myth and tradition, thus can be said to be the first Greek humanists. Thales questioned the notion of anthropomorphic gods and Xenophanes refused to recognise the gods of his time and reserved the divine for the principle of unity in the universe. These Ionian Greeks were the first thinkers to assert that nature is available to be studied separately from the supernatural realm. Anaxagoras brought philosophy and the spirit of rational inquiry from Ionia to Athens. Pericles, the leader of Athens during the period of its greatest glory was an admirer of Anaxagoras. Other influential pre-Socratics or rational philosophers include Protagoras (like Anaxagoras a friend of Pericles), known for his famous dictum "man is the measure of all things" and Democritus, who proposed that matter was composed of atoms. Little of the written work of these early philosophers survives and they are known mainly from fragments and quotations in other writers, principally Plato and Aristotle. The historian Thucydides, noted for his scientific and rational approach to history, is

Humanism also much admired by later humanists. In the 3rd century BCE, Epicurus became known for his concise phrasing of the problem of evil, lack of belief in the afterlife, and human-centred approaches to achieving eudaimonia. He was also the first Greek philosopher to admit women to his school as a rule. Medieval Islam Many medieval Muslim thinkers pursued humanistic, rational and scientific discourses in their search for knowledge, meaning and values. A wide range of Islamic writings on love, poetry, history and philosophical theology show that medieval Islamic thought was open to the humanistic ideas of individualism, occasional secularism, skepticism, and liberalism.[15] According to Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, another reason the Islamic world flourished during the Middle Ages was an early emphasis on freedom of speech, as summarised by al-Hashimi (a cousin of Caliph al-Ma'mun) in the following letter to one of the religious opponents he was attempting to convert through reason: "Bring forward all the arguments you wish and say whatever you please and speak your mind freely. Now that you are safe and free to say whatever you please appoint some arbitrator who will impartially judge between us and lean only towards the truth and be free from the empery of passion, and that arbitrator shall be Reason, whereby God makes us responsible for our own rewards and punishments. Herein I have dealt justly with you and have given you full security and am ready to accept whatever decision Reason may give for me or against me. For "There is no compulsion in religion" (Qur'an 2:256) and I have only invited you to accept our faith willingly and of your own accord and have pointed out the hideousness of your present belief. Peace be with you and the blessings of God!" According to George Makdisi, certain aspects of Renaissance humanism has its roots in the medieval Islamic world, including the "art of dictation, called in Latin, ars dictaminis", and "the humanist attitude toward classical language".

Renaissance
Renaissance humanism was an intellectual movement in Europe of the later Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. The 19th-century German historian Georg Voigt (182791) identified Petrarch as the first Renaissance humanist. Paul Johnson agrees that Petrarch was "the first to put into words the notion that the centuries between the fall of Rome and the present had been the age of Darkness". According to Petrarch, what was needed to remedy this situation was the careful study and imitation of the great classical authors. For Petrarch and Boccaccio, the greatest master was Cicero, whose prose became the model for both learned (Latin) and vernacular (Italian) prose. Once the language was mastered grammatically it Portrait of Petrarch painted in 1376 could be used to attain the second stage, eloquence or rhetoric. This art of persuasion [Cicero had held] was not art for its own sake, but the acquisition of the capacity to persuade others all men and women to lead the good life. As Petrarch put it, 'it is better to will the good than to know the truth'. Rhetoric thus led to and embraced philosophy. Leonardo Bruni (c.13691444), the outstanding scholar of the new generation, insisted that it was Petrarch who "opened the way for us to show how to acquire learning", but it was in Bruni's time that the word umanista first came into use, and its subjects of study were listed as five: grammar, rhetoric, poetry, moral philosophy, and history".

Humanism

The basic training of the humanist was to speak well and write (typically, in the form of a letter). One of Petrarchs followers, Coluccio Salutati (13311406) was made chancellor of Florence, "whose interests he defended with his literary skill. The Visconti of Milan claimed that Salutatis pen had done more damage than 'thirty squadrons of Florentine cavalry'".

Coluccio Salutati, Chancellor of Florence and disciple of Petrarch (13311406).

Contrary to a still widely current interpretation that originated in Voigt's celebrated contemporary, Jacob Burckhardt,[17] and which was adopted wholeheartedly, especially by those moderns calling themselves "humanists",[18] most specialists now do not characterise Renaissance humanism as a philosophical movement, nor in any way as anti-Christian or even anti-clerical. A modern historian has this to say: Humanism was not an ideological programme but a body of literary knowledge and linguistic skill based on the "revival of good letters", which was a revival of a late-antique philology and grammar, This is how the word "humanist" was understood by contemporaries, and if scholars would agree to accept the word in this sense rather than in the sense in which it was used in the Poggio Bracciolini (13801459), an early nineteenth century we might be spared a good deal of Renaissance Humanist, book collector, and useless argument. That humanism had profound social and reformer of script, who served as papal [16] secretary. even political consequences of the life of Italian courts is not to be doubted. But the idea that as a movement it was in some way inimical to the Church, or to the conservative social order in general is one that has been put forward for a century and more without any substantial proof being offered. The nineteenth-century historian Jacob Burckhardt, in his classic work, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, noted as a "curious fact" that some men of the new culture were "men of the

Humanism strictest piety, or even ascetics". If he had meditated more deeply on the meaning of the careers of such humanists as Abrogio Traversari (13861439), the General of the Camaldolese Order, perhaps he would not have gone on to describe humanism in unqualified terms as "pagan", and thus helped precipitate a century of infertile debate about the possible existence of something called "Christian humanism" which ought to be opposed to "pagan humanism". --Peter Partner, Renaissance Rome, Portrait of a Society 15001559 (University of California Press 1979) pp. 1415. The umanisti criticised what they considered the barbarous Latin of the universities, but the revival of the humanities largely did not conflict with the teaching of traditional university subjects, which went on as before.[19] Nor did the humanists view themselves as in conflict with Christianity. Some, like Salutati, were the Chancellors of Italian cities, but the majority (including Petrarch) were ordained as priests, and many worked as senior officials of the Papal court. Humanist Renaissance popes Nicholas V, Pius II, Sixtus IV, and Leo X wrote books and amassed huge libraries.[20] In the high Renaissance, in fact, there was a hope that more direct knowledge of the wisdom of antiquity, including the writings of the Church fathers, the earliest known Greek texts of the Christian Gospels, and in some cases even the Jewish Kabbalah, would initiate a harmonious new era of universal agreement.[21] With this end in view, Renaissance Church authorities afforded humanists what in retrospect appears a remarkable degree of freedom of thought.[22] One humanist, the Greek Orthodox Platonist Gemistus Pletho (13551452), based in Mystras, Greece (but in contact with humanists in Florence, Venice, and Rome) taught a Christianised version of pagan polytheism.[23] Back to the sources The humanists' close study of Latin literary texts soon enabled them to discern historical differences in the writing styles of different periods. By analogy with what they saw as decline of Latin, they applied the principle of ad fontes, or back to the sources, across broad areas of learning, seeking out manuscripts of Patristic literature as well as pagan authors. In 1439, while employed in Naples at the court of Alfonso V of Aragon (at the time engaged in a dispute with the Papal States) the humanist Lorenzo Valla used stylistic textual analysis, now called philology, to prove that the Donation of Constantine, which purported to confer temporal powers on the Pope of Rome, was an 8th-century forgery.[24] For the next 70 years, however, neither Valla nor any of his contemporaries thought to apply the techniques of philology to other controversial manuscripts in this way. Instead, after the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Turks in 1453, which brought a flood of Greek Orthodox refugees to Italy, humanist scholars increasingly turned to the study of Neoplatonism and Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam Hermeticism, hoping to bridge the differences between the Greek and Roman Churches, and even between Christianity itself and the non-Christian world.[25] The refugees brought with them Greek manuscripts, not only of Plato and Aristotle, but also of the Christian Gospels, previously unavailable in the Latin West. After 1517, when the new invention of printing made these texts widely available, the Dutch humanist Erasmus, who had studied Greek at the Venetian printing house of Aldus Manutius, began a philological analysis of the Gospels in the spirit of Valla, comparing the Greek originals with their Latin translations with a view to correcting errors and discrepancies in the latter. Erasmus, along with the French humanist Jacques Lefvre d'taples, began issuing new

Humanism translations, laying the groundwork for the Protestant Reformation. Henceforth Renaissance humanism, particularly in the German North, became concerned with religion, while Italian and French humanism concentrated increasingly on scholarship and philology addressed to a narrow audience of specialists, studiously avoiding topics that might offend despotic rulers or which might be seen as corrosive of faith. After the Reformation, critical examination of the Bible did not resume until the advent of the so-called Higher criticism of the 19th-century German Tbingen school. Consequences The ad fontes principle also had many applications. The re-discovery of ancient manuscripts brought a more profound and accurate knowledge of ancient philosophical schools such as Epicureanism, and Neoplatonism, whose Pagan wisdom the humanists, like the Church fathers of old, tended, at least initially, to consider as deriving from divine revelation and thus adaptable to a life of Christian virtue.[26] The line from a drama of Terence, Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto (or with nil for nihil), meaning "I am a human being, I think nothing human alien to me",[27] known since antiquity through the endorsement of Saint Augustine, gained renewed currency as epitomising the humanist attitude.[28] Better acquaintance with Greek and Roman technical writings also influenced the development of European science (see the history of science in the Renaissance). This was despite what A. C. Crombie (viewing the Renaissance in the 19th-century manner as a chapter in the heroic March of Progress) calls "a backwards-looking admiration for antiquity", in which Platonism stood in opposition to the Aristotelian concentration on the observable properties of the physical world.[29] But Renaissance humanists, who considered themselves as restoring the glory and nobility of antiquity, had no interest in scientific innovation. However, by the mid-to-late 16th century, even the universities, though still dominated by Scholasticism, began to demand that Aristotle be read in accurate texts edited according to the principles of Renaissance philology, thus setting the stage for Galileo's quarrels with the outmoded habits of Scholasticism. Just as artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci partaking of the zeitgeist though not himself a humanist advocated study of human anatomy, nature, and weather to enrich Renaissance works of art, so Spanish-born humanist Juan Luis Vives (c. 14931540) advocated observation, craft, and practical techniques to improve the formal teaching of Aristotelian philosophy at the universities, helping to free them from the grip of Medieval Scholasticism. Thus, the stage was set for the adoption of an approach to natural philosophy, based on empirical observations and experimentation of the physical universe, making possible the advent of the age of scientific inquiry that followed the Renaissance. It was in education that the humanists' program had the most lasting results, their curriculum and methods: were followed everywhere, serving as models for the Protestant Reformers as well as the Jesuits. The humanistic school, animated by the idea that the study of classical languages and literature provided valuable information and intellectual discipline as well as moral standards and a civilised taste for future rulers, leaders, and professionals of its society, flourished without interruption, through many significant changes, until our own century, surviving many religious, political and social revolutions. It has but recently been replaced, though not yet completely, by other more practical and less demanding forms of education.[30]

From Renaissance to modern humanism

Early humanists saw no conflict between reason and their Christian faith (see Christian Humanism). They inveighed against the abuses of the Church, but not against the Church itself, much less against religion. For them, the word "secular" carried no connotations of disbelief that would come later, in the nineteenth century. In the Renaissance to be secular meant simply to be in the world rather than in a monastery. Petrarch frequently admitted that his brother Gherardo's life as a Carthusian monk was superior to his own (although Petrarch himself was in Minor Orders and was employed by the Church all his life). He hoped that he could do some good by winning earthly glory and

Humanism praising virtue, inferior though that might be to a life devoted solely to prayer. The methods of the humanists, however, combined with their eloquence, would ultimately have a corrosive effect on established authority. Yet it was from the Renaissance that modern Secular Humanism grew, with the development of an important split between reason and religion. This occurred as the church's complacent authority was exposed in two vital areas. In science, Galileo's support of the Copernican revolution upset the church's adherence to the theories of Aristotle, exposing them as false. In theology, the Dutch scholar Erasmus with his new Greek text showed that the Roman Catholic adherence to Jerome's Vulgate was frequently in error. A tiny wedge was thus forced between reason and authority, as both of them were then understood.[31]

19th and 20th centuries

The phrase the "religion of humanity" is sometimes attributed to American Founding Father Thomas Paine, though as yet unattested in his surviving writings. According to Tony Davies: Paine called himself a theophilanthropist, a word combining the Greek for "God", "love", and "man", and indicating that while he believed in the existence of a creating intelligence in the universe, he entirely rejected the claims made by and for all existing religious doctrines, especially their miraculous, transcendental and salvationist pretensions. The Parisian "Society of Theophilanthropy" which he sponsored, is described by his biographer as "a forerunner of the ethical and humanist societies that proliferated later" ... [Paine's book] the trenchantly witty Age of Reason (1793) ... pours scorn on the supernatural pretensions of scripture, combining Voltairean mockery with Paine's own style of taproom ridicule to expose the absurdity of a theology built on a collection of incoherent Levantine folktales.[32] Davies identifies Paine's The Age of Reason as "the link between the two major narratives of what Jean-Franois Lyotard[33] calls the narrative of legitimation": the rationalism of the 18th-century Philosophes and the radical, historically based German 19th-century Biblical criticism of the Hegelians David Friedrich Strauss and Ludwig Feuerbach. "The first is political, largely French in inspiration, and projects 'humanity as the hero of liberty'. The second is philosophical, German, seeks the totality and autonomy of knowledge, and stresses understanding rather than freedom as the key to human fulfilment and emancipation. The two themes converged and competed in complex ways in the 19th century and beyond, and between them set the boundaries of its various humanisms.[34] Homo homini deus est ("Man is a god to man" or "god is nothing [other than] man to himself"), Feuerbach had written.[35] Victorian novelist Mary Ann Evans, known to the world as George Eliot, translated Strauss's Das Leben Jesu ("The Life of Jesus", 1846) and Ludwig Feuerbach's Das Wesen Christianismus ("The Essence of Christianity"). She wrote to a friend: the fellowship between man and man which has been the principle of development, social and moral, is not dependent on conceptions of what is not man ... the idea of God, so far as it has been a high spiritual influence, is the ideal of goodness entirely human (i.e., an exaltation of the human).[36] Eliot and her circle, who included her companion George Henry Lewes (the biographer of Goethe) and the abolitionist and social theorist Harriet Martineau, were much influenced by the positivism of Auguste Comte, whom Martineau had translated. Comte had proposed an atheistic culte founded on human principlesa secular Religion of Humanity (which worshiped the dead, since most humans who have ever lived are dead), complete with holidays and liturgy, modeled on the rituals of a what was seen as a discredited and dilapidated Catholicism.[37] Although Comte's English followers, like Eliot and Martineau, for the most part rejected the full gloomy panoply of his system, they liked the idea of a religion of humanity. Comte's austere vision of the universe, his injunction to "vivre pour altrui" ("live for others", from which comes the word "altruism"),[38] and his idealisation of women inform the works of Victorian novelists and poets from George Eliot and Matthew Arnold to Thomas Hardy.

Humanism The British Humanistic Religious Association was formed as one of the earliest forerunners of contemporary chartered Humanist organisations in 1853 in London. This early group was democratically organised, with male and female members participating in the election of the leadership, and promoted knowledge of the sciences, philosophy, and the arts. In February 1877, the word was used pejoratively, apparently for the first time in America, to describe Felix Adler. Adler, however, did not embrace the term, and instead coined the name "Ethical Culture" for his new movement a movement which still exists in the now Humanist-affiliated New York Society for Ethical Culture. In 2008, Ethical Culture Leaders wrote: "Today, the historic identification, Ethical Culture, and the modern description, Ethical Humanism, are used interchangeably". Active in the early 1920s, F.C.S. Schiller labelled his work "humanism" but for Schiller the term referred to the pragmatist philosophy he shared with William James. In 1929, Charles Francis Potter founded the First Humanist Society of New York whose advisory board included Julian Huxley, John Dewey, Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann. Potter was a minister from the Unitarian tradition and in 1930 he and his wife, Clara Cook Potter, published Humanism: A New Religion. Throughout the 1930s, Potter was an advocate of such liberal causes as, womens rights, access to birth control, "civil divorce laws", and an end to capital punishment. Raymond B. Bragg, the associate editor of The New Humanist, sought to consolidate the input of Leon Milton Birkhead, Charles Francis Potter, and several members of the Western Unitarian Conference. Bragg asked Roy Wood Sellars to draft a document based on this information which resulted in the publication of the Humanist Manifesto in 1933. Potter's book and the Manifesto became the cornerstones of modern humanism, the latter declaring a new religion by saying, "any religion that can hope to be a synthesising and dynamic force for today must be shaped for the needs of this age. To establish such a religion is a major necessity of the present." It then presented 15 theses of humanism as foundational principles for this new religion. In 1941, the American Humanist Association was organised. Noted members of The AHA included Isaac Asimov, who was the president from 1985 until his death in 1992, and writer Kurt Vonnegut, who followed as honorary president until his death in 2007. Gore Vidal became honorary president in 2009. Robert Buckman was the head of the association in Canada, and is now an honorary president.[citation needed] After World War II, three prominent Humanists became the first directors of major divisions of the United Nations: Julian Huxley of UNESCO, Brock Chisholm of the World Health Organisation, and John Boyd-Orr of the Food and Agricultural Organisation.[39] In 2004, American Humanist Association, along with other groups representing agnostics, atheists, and other freethinkers, joined to create the Secular Coalition for America which advocates in Washington, D.C. for separation of church and state and nationally for the greater acceptance of nontheistic Americans. The Executive Director of Secular Coalition for America is Sean Faircloth, a long-time state legislator from Maine.

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Types of humanism
Renaissance humanism
Renaissance humanism was an activity of cultural and educational reform engaged in by civic and ecclesiastical chancellors, book collectors, educators, and writers, who by the late fifteenth century began to be referred to as umanisti "humanists". It developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of scholastic university education, which was then dominated by Aristotelian philosophy and logic. Scholasticism focused on preparing men to be doctors, lawyers or professional theologians, and was taught from approved textbooks in logic, natural philosophy, medicine, law and theology.[40] There were important centres of humanism at Florence, Naples, Rome, Venice, Mantua, Ferrara, and Urbino.

Humanism Humanists reacted against this utilitarian approach and the narrow pedantry associated with it. They sought to create a citizenry (frequently including women) able to speak and write with eloquence and clarity and thus capable of engaging the civic life of their communities and persuading others to virtuous and prudent actions. This was to be accomplished through the study of the studia humanitatis, today known as the humanities: grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry and moral philosophy.[41] As a program to revive the culturaland particularly the literary legacy and moral philosophy of classical antiquity, Humanism was a pervasive cultural mode and not the program of a few isolated geniuses like Rabelais or Erasmus as is still sometimes popularly believed.[42]

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Secular humanism
Secular humanism is a comprehensive life stance or world view which embraces human reason, metaphysical naturalism, altruistic morality and distributive justice, and consciously rejects supernatural claims, theistic faith and religiosity, pseudoscience, and superstition.[43] It is sometimes referred to as Humanism (with a capital H and no qualifying adjective). The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) is the world union of 117 Humanist, rationalist, irreligious, atheistic, Bright, secular, Ethical Culture, and freethought organisations in 38 countries. The "Happy Human" is the official symbol of the IHEU as well as being regarded as a universally recognised symbol for secular humanism. According to the IHEU's bylaw 5.1: Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality.

The Humanist "happy human" logo.

Religious humanism
Religious humanism is an integration of humanist ethical philosophy with religious rituals and beliefs that centre on human needs, interests, and abilities. Though practitioners of religious humanism did not officially organise under the name of "humanism" until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, non-theistic religions paired with human-centred ethical philosophy have a long history. The Cult of Reason (French: Culte de la Raison) was a religion based on deism devised during the French Revolution by Jacques Hbert, Pierre Gaspard Chaumette and their supporters. In 1793 during the French Revolution, the cathedral Notre Dame de Paris was turned into a "Temple to Reason" and for a time Lady Liberty replaced the Virgin Mary on several altars. In the 1850s, Auguste Comte, the Father of Sociology, founded Positivism, a "religion of humanity". One of the earliest forerunners of contemporary chartered humanist organisations was the Humanistic Religious Association formed in 1853 in London. This early group was democratically organised, with male and female members participating in the election of the leadership and promoted knowledge of the sciences, philosophy, and the arts. The Ethical Culture movement was founded in 1876. The movement's founder, Felix Adler, a former member of the Free Religious Association, conceived of Ethical Culture as a new religion that would retain the ethical message at the heart of all religions. Ethical Culture was religious in the sense of playing a defining role in people's lives and addressing issues of ultimate concern.

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Polemics
Polemics about humanism have sometimes assumed paradoxical twists and turns. Early 20th century critics such as Ezra Pound, T.E. Hulme, and T.S. Eliot considered humanism to be sentimental "slop" (Hulme) or overly feminine (Pound)[44] and wanted to go back to a more manly, authoritarian society such as (they believed) existed in the Middle Ages. Postmodern critics who are self-described anti-humanists, such as Jean-Franois Lyotard and Michel Foucault, have asserted that humanism posits an overarching and excessively abstract notion of humanity or universal human nature, which can then be used as a pretext for imperialism and domination of those deemed somehow less than human. Philosopher Kate Soper[45] notes that by faulting humanism for falling short of its own benevolent ideals, anti-humanism thus frequently "secretes a humanist rhetoric".[46] In his book, Humanism (1997), Tony Davies calls these critics "humanist anti-humanists". Critics of antihumanism, most notably Jrgen Habermas, counter that while antihumanists may highlight humanism's failure to fulfil its emancipatory ideal, they do not offer an alternative emancipatory project of their own.[47] Others, like the German philosopher Heidegger considered themselves humanists on the model of the ancient Greeks, but thought humanism applied only to the German "race" and specifically to the Nazis and thus, in Davies' words, were anti-humanist humanists.[48] Such a reading of Heidegger's thought is itself deeply controversial; Heidegger includes his own views and critique of Humanism in Letter On Humanism. Davies acknowledges that after the horrific experiences of the wars of the 20th century "it should no longer be possible to formulate phrases like 'the destiny of man' or the 'triumph of human reason' without an instant consciousness of the folly and brutality they drag behind them". For "it is almost impossible to think of a crime that has not been committed in the name of human reason". Yet, he continues, "it would be unwise to simply abandon the ground occupied by the historical humanisms. For one thing humanism remains on many occasions the only available alternative to bigotry and persecution. The freedom to speak and write, to organise and campaign in defence of individual or collective interests, to protest and disobey: all these can only be articulated in humanist terms."[49] Modern Humanists, such as Corliss Lamont or Carl Sagan, hold that humanity must seek for truth through reason and the best observable evidence and endorse scientific skepticism and the scientific method. However, they stipulate that decisions about right and wrong must be based on the individual and common good, with no consideration given to metaphysical or supernatural beings. The idea is to engage with what is human. Contemporary humanism entails a qualified optimism about the capacity of people, but it does not involve believing that human nature is purely good or that all people can live up to the Humanist ideals without help. If anything, there is recognition that living up to one's potential is hard work and requires the help of others. The ultimate goal is human flourishing; making life better for all humans, and as the most conscious species, also promoting concern for the welfare of other sentient beings and the planet as a whole.[50] The focus is on doing good and living well in the here and now, and leaving the world a better place for those who come after. In 1925, the English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead cautioned: "The prophecy of Francis Bacon has now been fulfilled; and man, who at times dreamt of himself as a little lower than the angels, has submitted to become the servant and the minister of nature. It still remains to be seen whether the same actor can play both parts".[51]

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Inclusive humanism
Humanism increasingly designates an inclusive sensibility for our species, planet, and lives. While retaining the definition of the IHEU with regard to the life stance of the individual, inclusive Humanism enlarges its constituency within homo sapiens to consider humans' broadening powers and obligations. This accepting viewpoint recalls Renaissance Humanism in that it presumes an advocacy role for Humanists towards species governance, and this proactive stance is charged with a commensurate responsibility surpassing that of individual Humanism. It identifies pollution, militarism, nationalism, sexism, poverty and corruption as being persistent and addressable human character issues incompatible with the interests of our species. It asserts that human governance must be unified and is inclusionary in that it does not exclude any person by reason of their collateral beliefs or personal religion alone. As such it can be said to be a container for undeclared Humanism, instilling a species credo to complement the personal tenets of individuals. Dwight Gilbert Jones writes that Humanism may be the only philosophy likely to be adopted by our species as a whole it is thus incumbent on inclusive Humanists to not place unwarranted or self-interested conditions on its prospective adherents, nor associate it with religious acrimony.

Humanistic psychology
Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective which rose to prominence in the mid-20th century in response to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B.F. Skinner's Behaviorism. The approach emphasizes an individual's inherent drive towards self-actualization and creativity. Psychologists Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow introduced a positive, humanistic psychology in response to what they viewed as the overly pessimistic view of psychoanalysis in the early 1960s. Other sources include the philosophies of existentialism and phenomenology.

Notes
[1] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?title=Template:Humanism& action=edit [2] An account of the evolution of the meaning of the word humanism from the point of view of a modern secular humanist can be found in Nicolas Walter's HumanismWhat's in the Word (London: Rationalist Press Association, 1997 ISBN 0-301-97001-7). A similar perspective, but somewhat less polemical, is found in Richard Norman's On Humanism (Thinking in Action) (London: Routledge: 2004). For a historical and philologically oriented view, see Vito Giustiniani's "Homo, Humanus, and the Meanings of Humanism", Journal of the History of Ideas 46: 2 (AprilJune, 1985): 16795. [3] See for example the 2002 Humanism issued by the International Humanist and Ethical Union. [4] Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, XII: 17. [5] Humanissime vir, "most humane man", was the usual Latin way to address scholars. (Giustiniani, "Homo, Humanus, and the Meanings of Humanism" : 168.)

There was a time when men wandered about in the manner of wild beasts. They conducted their affairs without the least guidance of reason but instead relied on bodily strength. There was no divine religion and the understanding of social duty was in no way cultivated. No one recognized the value inherent in an equitable code of law.(Cicero, De Inventione, I. I: 2, quoted in Quentin Skinner, Visions of Politics, Volume 2: Renaissance Virtues [Cambridge University Press, 2002], p. 54.)
[7] A noted authority on the subject, Paul Oskar Kristeller, identified Renaissance humanism as a cultural and literary movement, which in its substance was not philosophical but which had important philosophical implications and consequences." "I have been unable to discover in the humanist literature any common philosophical doctrine," he wrote, "except a belief in the value of man and the humanities and in the revival of ancient learning." (Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Thought: The Classic, Scholastic, and Humanist Strains [New York, Harper and Row, 1961], p. 9). As the late Jacques Barzun has written:

The path between the onset of the good letters and the modern humanist as freethinker or simply as scholar is circuitous but unbroken. If we look for what is common to the Humanists over the centuries we find two things: a body of accepted authors and a method of carrying on study and debate. The two go together with the belief that the best guides to the good life are Reason and Nature. (Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence :500 years of Western Cultural Life [New York: HarperCollins, 2000], p. 45)

Humanism
[8] Although a distinction has often been drawn between secular and religious humanism, the International Humanist and Ethical Union and similar organizations prefer to describe their life stance without qualification as 'Humanism'. See Nicolas Walter, Humanism: What's in the Word? (London: RPA/BHA/Secular Society Ltd, 1937), p.43. [9] Niethammer's book was entitled Der Streit des Philanthropinismus und des Humanismus in der Theorie des Erziehungs-Unterrichts unsrer Zeit (The Dispute between Philanthropinism and Humanism in the Educational Theory of our Time), which directly echoes Aulus Gellius's distinction between "philanthropy" and humane learning. Neithammer and other distinguished members of the movement they called "Neo-Humanism" (who included Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and Johann Gottlieb Fichte), felt that the curriculum imposed under Napoleon's occupation of Germany had been excessively oriented toward the practical and vocational. They wished to encourage individuals to practice life-long self cultivation and reflection, based on a study of the artistic, philosophical, and cultural masterpieces of (primarily) Greek civilization. [10] As J. A. Symonds remarked, "the word humanism has a German sound and is in fact modern" (See The Renaissance in Italy Vol. 2:71 n, 1877). Vito Giustiniani writes that in the German-speaking world "Humanist" while keeping its specific meaning (as scholar of Classical literature) "gave birth to further derivatives, such as humanistisch for those schools which later were to be called humanistische Gymnasien, with Latin and Greek as the main subjects of teaching (1784). Finally, Humanismus was introduced to denote 'classical education in general' (1808) and still later for the epoch and the achievements of the Italian humanists of the fifteenth century (1841). This is to say that 'humanism' for 'classical learning' appeared first in Germany, where it was once and for all sanctioned in this meaning by Georg Voigt (1859)". (Giustiniani, "Homo, Humanus, and the Meanings of Humanism" : 172.) [11] "L'amour gnral de l'humanit ... vertu qui n'a point de nom parmi nous et que nous oserions appeler 'humanisme', puisqu'enfin il est temps de crer un mot pour une chose si belle et ncessaire"; from the review Ephmrides du citoyen ou Bibliothque raisone des sciences morales et politiques, Chapter 16 (Dec, 17, 1765): 247, quoted in Giustiniani, "Homo, Humanus, and the Meanings of Humanism" : 175, note 38. [12] Although Rousseau himself devoutly believed in a personal God, his book, Emile: or, On Education, does attempt to demonstrate that atheists can be virtuous. It was publicly burned. During the Revolution, Jacobins instituted a cult of the Supreme Being along lines suggested by Rousseau. In the 19th-century French positivist philosopher Auguste Comte (17981857) founded a "religion of humanity", whose calendar and catechism echoed the former Revolutionary cult. See Comtism [13] "Ma conviction intime est que la religion de l'avenir sera le pur humanisme, cest--dire le culte de tout ce qui est de l'homme, la vie entire santifie et lve a une valeur moral". quoted in Giustiniani, "Homo, Humanus, and the Meanings of Humanism" : 175. [14] "Principles of Integral Science of Religion", By Georg Schmid, page 109, 'As an Example: Yasna 32:8', p. 109 [15] Lenn Evan Goodman (2003), Islamic Humanism, p. 155, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-513580-6. [16] Following an old engraving; from Alfred Gudeman, Imagines philologorum: 160 bildnisse... ("Portraits of Philologists, 160 prints"), (Leipzig/Berlin) 1911. [17] The influence of Jacob Burckhardt's classic masterpiece of cultural history, The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy (1860) on subsequent Renaissance historiography is traced in Wallace K. Ferguson's The Renaissance in Historical Thought: Five Centuries of Historical Interpretation (1948). [18] For example the Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, adhering to the tenacious 19th-century narrative (or myth) of the Renaissance as a complete break with the past established in 1860 by Jacob Burckhardt, describes the liberating effects of the re-discovery of classical writings this way:

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Here, one felt no weight of the supernatural pressing on the human mind, demanding homage and allegiance. Humanitywith all its distinct capabilities, talents, worries, problems, possibilitieswas the centre of interest. It has been said that medieval thinkers philosophised on their knees, but, bolstered by the new studies, they dared to stand up and to rise to full stature.
[19] "The term umanista was associated with the revival of the studia humanitatis "which included grammatica, rhetorica, poetics, historia, and philosophia moralis, as these terms were understood. Unlike the liberal arts of the eighteenth century, they did not include the visual arts, music, dancing or gardening. The humanities also failed to include the disciplines that were the chief subjects of instruction at the universities during the Later Middle Ages and throughout the Renaissance, such as theology, jurisprudence, and medicine, and the philosophical disciplines other than ethics, such as logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics. In other words, humanism does not represent, as often believed, the sum total of Renaissance thought and learning, but only a well-defined sector of it. Humanism has its proper domain or home territory in the humanities, whereas all other areas of learning, including philosophy (apart from ethics), followed their own course, largely determined by their medieval tradition and by their steady transformation through new observations, problems, or theories. These disciplines were affected by humanism mainly from the outside and in an indirect way, though often quite strongly". (Paul Oskar Kristeller, Humanism, pp. 113114, in Charles B. Schmitt, Quentin Skinner (editors), The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy [1990]. [20] See their respective entries in Sir John Hale's Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance (Oxford University Press, 1981). [21] To later generations, the Dutch humanist, Desiderius Erasmus, epitomised this reconciling tendency). According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Enlightenment thinkers remembered Erasmus (not quite accurately) as a precursor of modern intellectual freedom and a foe of both Protestant and Catholic dogmatism". Erasmus himself was not much interested in the Kabbalah, but several other humanists were, notably Pico della Mirandola (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ erasmus/ . ). See Christian Kabbalah.) [22] "Only thirteen of Pico della Mirandola's nine hundred theses were thought theologically objectionable by the papal commission that examined them.... [This] suggests that, in spite of his publicly expressed contempt in his Apologia for their intellectual inadequacies, the

Humanism
Curial authorities hardly saw these theses as the work of a dangerous theological modernist like Luther or Calvin. Unorthodox though they were, most of the issues raised in them had been the subject of theological dispute for centuries and the commission ... condemned him not for innovations but for 'reviving several of the errors of gentile philosophers which are already disproved and obsolete'". Davies (1997), p 103. [23] Richard H. Popkin (editor), The Columbia History of Western Philosophy (1998), p. 293 and p. 301. [24] More than 100 years earlier, Dante in the Divine Comedy (c. 13081321) had pinpointed the Donation of Constantine (which he accepted as genuine) as a great mistake and the cause of all the political and religious problems of Italy, including the corruption of the Church. Although Dante had thunderously attacked the idea that the Church could have temporal as well as spiritual powers, it remained to Valla to conclusively prove that the legal justification for such powers was spurious. [25] Ironically, it was a humanist scholar, Isaac Casaubon, in the 17th century, who would use philology to show that the Corpus Hermeticum was not of great antiquity, as had been asserted in the 4th century by Saint Augustine and Lactantius, but dated from the Christian era. See Anthony Grafton, Defenders of the Text: The Traditions of Scholarship in an Age of Science, 14501800 (Harvard University Press, 1991). [26] "Renaissance humanists rejoiced in the mutual compatibility of much ancient philosophy and Christian truths", M. A. Screech, Laughter at the Foot of the Cross (1997), p. 13. [27] Homo in Latin specifically means "human being", in contrast to vir, "man", and mulier, "woman": Annabel Robinson, The Life and Work of Jane Ellen Harrison (Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 206; Tore Janson, A Natural History of Latin (Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 281; Timothy J. Moore, Roman Theatre (Cambridge University Press, 2012), p. 62 (note to the line in Terence); as a "watchword" for humanists, Humanism and the Humanities in the Twenty-First Century, edited by William S. Haney and Peter Malekin (Associated University Presses, 2001), p. 171; similar homo sum declaration by Seneca, James Ker, The Deaths of Seneca (Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 193. [28] The statement, in a play modeled or borrowed from a (now lost) Greek comedy by Menander, may have originated in a lighthearted vein as a comic rationale for an old man's meddling but it quickly became a proverb and throughout the ages was quoted with a deeper meaning, by Cicero and Saint Augustine, to name a few, and most notably by Seneca. Richard Bauman writes: "Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto., I am a man: and I deem nothing pertaining to man is foreign to me.' The words of the comic playwright P. Terentius Afer reverberated across the Roman world of the mid-2nd century BC and beyond. Terence, an African and a former slave, was well placed to preach the message of universalism, of the essential unity of the human race, that had come down in philosophical form from the Greeks, but needed the pragmatic muscles of Rome in order to become a practical reality. The influence of Terences felicitous phrase on Roman thinking about human rights can hardly be overestimated. Two hundred years later Seneca ended his seminal exposition of the unity of mankind with a clarion-call:

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There is one short rule that should regulate human relationships. All that you see, both divine and human, is one. We are parts of the same great body. Nature created us from the same source and to the same end. She imbued us with mutual affection and sociability, she taught us to be fair and just, to suffer injury rather than to inflict it. She bid us extend or hands to all in need of help. Let that well-known line be in our heart and on our lips: Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto." (Bauman, Human Rights in Ancient Rome (Routledge Classical Monographs (1999], page 1.)
[29] A. C. Crombie, Historians and the Scientific Revolution, p. 456 in Science, Art and Nature in Medieval and Modern Thought (1996). [30] Kristeller, Humanism in The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy, p. 114. [31] Os Guinness, The Dust of Death: A Critique of the Establishment and the Counter Culture and the Proposal for a Third Way (Intervarsity Press, 1973) p. 5. [32] Tony Davies, Humanism (Routledge, 1997) p. 26-27. [33] In La Condition postmoderne [34] Davies, Humanism, p. 27. [35] Davies, Humanism, p. 28. [36] quoted in Davies (1997), p. 27. [37] "Comte's secular religion is no vague effusion of humanistic piety, but a complete system of belief and ritual, with liturgy and sacraments, priesthood and pontiff, all organised around the public veneration of Humanity, the Nouveau Grand-tre Suprme (New Supreme Great Being), later to be supplemented in a positivist trinity by the Grand Ftish (the Earth) and the Grand Milieu (Destiny)" According to Davies (p. 28-29), Comte's austere and "slightly dispiriting" philosophy of humanity viewed as alone in an indifferent universe (which can only be explained by "positive" science) and with nowhere to turn but to each other, was even more influential in Victorian England than the theories of Charles Darwin or Karl Marx. [38] Davies, p. 29. [39] American Humanist Association (http:/ / www. americanhumanist. org/ publications/ morain/ chapter-8. html) [40] Craig W. Kallendorf, introduction to Humanist Educational Treatises, edited and translated by Craig W. Kallendorf (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London England: The I Tatti Renaissance Library, 2002) p. vii.

Early Italian humanism, which in many respects continued the grammatical and rhetorical traditions of the Middle Ages, not merely provided the old Trivium with a new and more ambitious name (Studia humanitatis), but also increased its actual scope, content and significance in the curriculum of the schools and universities and in its own extensive literary production. The studia hunanitatis excluded

Humanism logic, but they added to the traditional grammar and rhetoric not only history, Greek, and moral philosophy, but also made poetry, once a sequel of grammar and rhetoric, the most important member of the whole group. (Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Thought II: Papers on Humanism and the Arts [New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1965], p. 178.)
See also Kristeller's Renaissance Thought I, "Humanism and Scholasticism In the Italian Renaissance", Byzantion 17 (194445): 34674. Reprinted in Renaissance Thought (New York: Harper Torchbooks), 1961. [42] Vito Giustiniani gives as an example of an out-dated, but still pervasive view, that of Corliss Lamont, who described Renaissance Humanism as, "first and foremost a revolt against the otherworldliness of mediaeval Christianity, a turning away from preoccupation with personal immortality to make the best of life in this world. Renaissance writers like Rabelais and Erasmus gave eloquent voice to this new joy of living and to the sheer exuberance of existence. For the Renaissance the ideal human being was no longer the ascetic monk, but a new type - the universal man - the many-sided personality delighting in every kind of this-earthly achievements. The great Italian artists, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, typified this ideal." (Giustiniani, "Homo, Humanus, and the Meanings of Humanism" : 192.) [43] A decidedly anti-theistic version of secular humanism, however, is developed by Adolf Grnbaum, 'In Defense of Secular Humanism' (1995), in his Collected Works (edited by Thomas Kupka), vol. I, New York: Oxford University Press 2013, ch. 6 (pp. 115-148) [44] Fascist apologist Ezra Pound called sentimental humanism "an old bitch gone in the teeth". See Tony Davies, Humanism (Routledge, 1997) p. 48. [45] in Humanism and Anti-humanism (Problems of Modern European Thought) (La Salle, Illinois: Open Court Press, 1986, p. 128. [46] quoted in Davies (1997) p. 49. [47] Habermas accepts some criticisms leveled at traditional humanism but believes that humanism must be rethought and revised rather than simply abandoned. [48] "The antihhumanist Humanism of Heidegger and the humanist antihumanism of Foucault and Althusser" (Davies [1997]), p. 131. [49] Davies (1997), pp. 13132 [50] See for example [51] Science and the Modern World (New York: Simon and Schuster, [1925] 1997) p. 96.

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References
Bauman, Richard. Human Rights in Ancient Rome. Routledge Classical Monographs, 1999 ISBN 0-415-17320-5 Berry, Philippa and Andrew Wernick. The Shadow of Spirit: Post-Modernism and Religion. Routledge, (1992) 2006. ISBN 0-415-06638-7 Burckhardt, Jacob, Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy' 1860. Davies, Tony. Humanism The New Critical Idiom. Drakakis, John, series editor. University of Stirling, UK. Routledge, 1997 ISBN 0-415-11052-1 Ferguson, Wallace K. The Renaissance in Historical Thought. Five Centuries of Interpretation. New York: Nachdruck: AMS, 1981 (Boston: Mifflin, 1948) Gay, Peter. The Party of Humanity: Essays in the French enlightenment. New York: W. W. Norton (1971). OCLC 11672592 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/11672592) Gay, Peter. Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom. New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 1996 ISBN 0-393-31366-2 Giustiniani,Vito. "Homo, Humanus, and the Meanings of Humanism", Journal of the History of Ideas 46 (vol. 2, April June, 1985): 167 95. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/5642760/ Homo-Humanus-and-the-Meanings-of-Humanism) (http://www.jstor.org/pss/2709633) Grafton, Anthony. Defenders of the Text: The Traditions of Scholarship in an Age of Science, 14501800. Harvard University Press, 1991 Grafton, Anthony. Bring Out Your Dead: The Past as Revelation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004 ISBN 978-0-674-00468-9 Grendler, Paul F. '"Georg Voigt: Historian of Humanism", in: Humanism and Creativity in the Renaissance: Essays in Honor of Ronald G. Witt. Christopher S. Celenza and Kenneth Gouvens, Editors. Humanism and Creativity in the Renaissance. Leiden 2006, pp.295326 ISBN 90-04-14907-4 Guinness, Os. The Dust of Death Intervarsity Press 1973 ISBN 0-87784-911-0 Hale, John. A Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance. Oxford University Press, 1981 ISBN 0-500-23333-0.

Humanism Johnson, Paul. The Renaissance. Modern Library Chronicles. New York: Modern Library, 2002 ISBN 0-8129-6619-0 Kristeller, Paul Oskar. The Renaissance Philosophy of Man. The University of Chicago Press, 1950. Kristeller, Paul Oskar. Renaissance Thought and its Sources. Columbia University Press, 1979 ISBN 0-231-04513-1 Partner, Peter. Renaissance Rome, Portrait of a Society 15001559 University of California Press, 1979 Proctor, Robert. Defining the Humanities. Indiana University Press, 1998 ISBN 0-253-21219-7 Vernant, Jean-Pierre. Origins of Greek Thought. Cornell University Press, (1962) 1984 ISBN 0-8014-9293-9 Schmitt, Charles B. and Quentin Skinner, Editors. The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy. Cambridge, 1990. Wernick, Andrew. Auguste Comte and the Religion of Humanity: The Post-theistic Program of French Social Theory. Cambridge University Press, 2001 ISBN 0-521-66272-9

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External links
In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg. Humanism (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00547bk). BBC Radio discussion with Tony Davies, Department of English, University of Birmingham; Lisa Jardine, Professor of Renaissance Studies, Queen Mary College, University of London and Honorary Fellow of Kings College Cambridge; Simon Goldhill, Reader in Greek Literature and Culture at Kings College Cambridge. Humanism at the Open Directory Project. A web portal to Humanist Societies. (http://www.dmoz.org/Society/ Religion_and_Spirituality/Humanism/) The Philosophy of Humanism (http://www.corliss-lamont.org/philos8.htm) by Corliss Lamont American Humanist Association (http://www.americanhumanist.org) International Humanist and Ethical Union (http://www.iheu.org) The British Humanist Association (http://www.humanism.org.uk/home)

Outline of humanism

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Outline of humanism
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Outline of humanism

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e [1]

v t

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to humanism: Humanism group of philosophies and ethical perspectives which emphasize the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers individual thought and evidence (rationalism, empiricism), over established doctrine or faith (fideism). Two common forms of humanism are religious humanism and secular humanism.

Nature of humanism
Humanism can be described as all of the following: Approach manner in which a problem is solved or policy is made. Branch of philosophy study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. Social movement type of group action. A large informal grouping of individuals or organization which focuses on specific political or social issues. In other words, it carries out, resists or undoes a social change. Ethical movement Philosophical movement either the appearance or increased popularity of a specific school of philosophy, or a fairly broad but identifiable sea-change in philosophical thought on a particular subject.

Branches of humanism
Religious humanism philosophy that integrates secular ethics with religious rituals and beliefs that center on human needs, interests, and abilities. Buddhist humanism philosophical perspective based on the teaching of inherent dignity of all human beings, their potential for attaining highest wisdom about their condition [1] and their essential nature of altruism exemplified by the Bodhisattva spirit of compassion.[2] In practical terms, humanism is expressed on the individual level through action: to relieve sufferings and impart joy,[3] to contribute to the welfare of society,[4] abiding by the attitude of nonviolence [5] supporting human rights,[6] and acting for world peace,[7][8] effectively advocating the concept of global citizenship.[9] Christian humanism emphasizes the humanity of Jesus, his social teachings and his propensity to synthesize human spirituality and materialism. It regards humanist principles like universal human dignity and individual freedom and the primacy of human happiness as essential and principal components of, or at least compatible with, the teachings of Jesus Christ. Christian existential humanism theo-philosophical movement which takes an existentialist approach to Christian theology. Humanistic Judaism movement in Judaism that offers a nontheistic alternative in contemporary Jewish life. It defines Judaism as the cultural and historical experience of the Jewish people and encourages humanistic and secular Jews to celebrate their Jewish identity by participating in Jewish holidays and life cycle events (such as weddings and bar and bat mitzvah) with inspirational ceremonies that draw upon but go beyond traditional literature. Secular humanism philosophy or life stance that embraces human reason, ethics, social justice and philosophical naturalism, whilst specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, pseudoscience or superstition as the basis of morality and decision making. Alternatively known by some adherents as Humanism,

Outline of humanism specifically with a capital H to distinguish it from other forms of humanism Personism ethical philosophy of personhood as typified by the thought of the preference utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer.[10][11][12] It amounts to a branch of secular humanism with an emphasis on certain rights-criteria. Posthumanism "after humanism" or "beyond humanism". It has at least 5 contexts, and may refer to: Ideas concerning the Posthuman condition Cultural posthumanism Philosophical posthumanism Transhumanism (see below) Antihumanism the view that concepts of "human nature", "man", or "humanity", should be rejected as historically relative or metaphysical. Renaissance humanism Transhumanism international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. That is, striving to become posthuman. According to transhumanist thinkers, a posthuman is a hypothetical future being "whose basic capacities so radically exceed those of present humans as to be no longer unambiguously human by our current standards."

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Humanist positions
Religious humanist positions Secular humanist positions
Supports logic scientific skepticism scientific method rationalism empiricism humanitarianism human rights Naturalism (philosophy) secularism

Rejects revelation mysticism divinity tradition authoritarianism extreme skepticism faith

Outline of humanism

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Manifestos and statements setting out humanist viewpoints

Humanist Manifesto Amsterdam Declaration 2002 A Secular Humanist Declaration

History of humanism
Main article: History of humanism Greek roots Democracy Free thinking Greek philosophy Renaissance humanism 1853 - Humanistic Religious Association formed in London 1900 to the 1930s New Humanism developed by the American scholar Irving Babbitt and the scholar and journalist Paul Elmer More. It was an influential strand of conservative thought up to the 1930s. 1929 - First Humanist Society of New York 1930 - Humanism: A New Religion published 1933 - Humanist Manifesto published 1941 - American Humanist Association founded By region Humanism in Germany Humanism in France

Humanist beliefs
Secular humanist beliefs
Agnosticism Atheism Evolution

Humanist ethics
Humanist virtues and values
Common good Compassion Creativity Empiricism Experience Experimentation Freethought Human dignity Humanitarianism

Human rights Imagination Justice

Outline of humanism Knowledge Nature Observation Personal liberty Rationality Reason Scientific method Social responsibility

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Humanist culture
Ceremonies and services Celebrancy movement to provide agents to officiate at ceremonies often reserved in law to clergy or officers of the courts. These agents, generally referred to as "celebrants", perform weddings, funerals, and other life ceremonies for those who do not want a traditional religious ceremony. Humanist officiant person who performs secular humanist celebrancy services for weddings, funerals, child namings, coming of age ceremonies, and other rituals.

The "Happy Human"

Humanist baby naming some humanists perform a naming ceremony as a non-religious alternative to ceremonies such as christening. The principle is conceptually similar to a civil wedding ceremony as an alternative to a religious wedding ceremony. Symbols Happy Human (pictured) icon and the official symbol of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), a world body of Humanist organizations, and has been adopted by many Humanist organisations and individuals worldwide.

General concepts pertaining to and embraced by humanism

Other humanist terms include: Ecosphere (global ecosystem) Ethical Ethics Evolutionary Humanism Life stance Non-theistic Rationalism Scientific skepticism Secular

Outline of humanism

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Organizations
American Humanist Association British Humanist Association Council for Secular Humanism Human-Etisk Forbund the Norwegian Humanist Association Humanist Association of Canada Humanist Association of Ireland Humanist International Humanist Movement Humanist Party Humanist Society of Scotland Institute for Humanist Studies International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) National Secular Society Rationalist International Sidmennt Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association

For more organizations see Category:Humanist associations

Humanists
Leaders in humanism
People who have made a major impact on the development or advancement of humanism: Charles Francis Potter Julian Huxley John Dewey Albert Einstein Thomas Mann F.C.S. Schiller Raymond B. Bragg Roy Wood Sellars Isaac Asimov Kurt Vonnegut

Other notable humanists

Phillip Adams Steve Allen Sir Arthur C. Clarke Richard Dawkins Gareth Evans Richard Feynman Tim Flannery E. M. Forster (see in particular "What I believe") William Hayden

Thomas Jefferson Paul Kurtz Philip Nitschke

Outline of humanism Philip Pullman Gene Roddenberry Bertrand Russell Carl Sagan John Ralston Saul Michael Shermer Peter Singer Barbara Smoker Ibn Warraq Robyn Williams E. O. Wilson

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Related philosophies
Empiricism Extropianism Freethought Infinitism Objectivism[13] Philosophical naturalism Pragmatism Rationalism Rationalist movement Secularism

References
[1] http:/ / www. daisakuikeda. org/ main/ philos/ buddhist/ buddh-05. html [2] http:/ / zenbuddhisttemple. org/ about. html [3] http:/ / www. iop. or. jp/ 0515/ ikeda_unger. pdf, page 4 [4] http:/ / www. accesstoinsight. org/ lib/ authors/ jones/ wheel285. html [5] http:/ / www. wabashcenter. wabash. edu/ syllabi/ g/ gier/ 306/ gbnd. pdf [6] http:/ / www. buddhanetz. org/ texte/ rights. htm [7] http:/ / www. uthumanist. com/ 2011/ 02/ secular-ethics-necessary-for-world. html [8] http:/ / www. iop. or. jp/ 1121/ Journal21_Y. Kawada1. pdf [9] http:/ / www. columbia. edu/ cu/ buddhism/ document/ tc1996. pdf [10] Rethinking Peter Singer: a Christian Critique, by Gordon R. Preece [11] Applied ethics: a non-consequentialist approach, by David S. Oderberg [12] Humanism and Personism: The false philosophy of Peter Singer, by Jenny Teichman [13] http:/ / toolserver. org/ %7Edispenser/ cgi-bin/ dab_solver. py?page=Outline_of_humanism& editintro=Template:Disambiguation_needed/ editintro& client=Template:Dn

Outline of humanism

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External links
This outline displayed as a mindmap (http://wikimindmap.com/viewmap.php?wiki=en.wikipedia.org& topic=Outline+of+humanism&Submit=Search), at wikimindmap.com The Philosophy of Humanism (http://www.corliss-lamont.org/philos8.htm) by Corliss Lamont Organizations Humanism at the Open Directory Project. A web portal to Humanist Societies. (http://www.dmoz.org/Society/ Religion_and_Spirituality/Humanism/) American Humanist Association (http://www.americanhumanist.org) International Humanist and Ethical Union (http://www.iheu.org) The British Humanist Association (http://www.humanism.org.uk/home)

Antihumanism
Part of a Philosophy series on

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Outline of humanism List of humanists History

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Antihumanism

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Ethical culture Marxist humanism Deistic humanism Cosmic humanism Existential humanism Neohumanism Rationalist humanism Integral humanism Transhumanism Personism Posthumanism Antihumanism Philosophy portal

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In social theory and philosophy, antihumanism (or anti-humanism) is a theory that is critical of traditional humanism and traditional ideas about humanity and the human condition.[1] Central to antihumanism is the view that concepts of "human nature", "man", or "humanity", should be rejected as historically relative or metaphysical.[2]

Origins
In the late 18th and 19th centuries, the philosophy of humanism was a cornerstone of the Enlightenment. From the belief in a universal moral core of humanity it followed that all persons are inherently free and equal. For liberal humanists such as Kant, the universal law of reason was a guide towards total emancipation from any kind of tyranny.[3] Criticism of humanism being over-idealistic swiftly began in the 19th Century. For Friedrich Nietzsche, humanism was nothing more than an empty figure of speech [4] - a secular version of theism. He argues in Genealogy of Morals that human rights exist as a means for the weak to constrain the strong; as such, they deny rather than facilitate emancipation of life.[citation needed] Nevertheless the author Claude Pavur in a book called Nietzsche Humanist argues that "there are excellent ground for reading Nietzsche first and foremost as a humanist".[5] The young Karl Marx is sometimes considered a humanist,[6] as opposed to the mature Marx who became more forceful in his criticism of human rights as idealist or utopian. Given that capitalism forces individuals to behave in a profit-seeking manner, they are in constant conflict with one another, and are thus in need of rights to protect themselves. Human rights, Marx believed, were a product of the very dehumanisation they were intended to oppose. True emancipation, he asserted, could only come through the establishment of communism, which abolishes the private ownership of all means of production.[7] In the 20th century, the view of humans as rationally autonomous was challenged by Sigmund Freud, who believed humans to be largely driven by unconscious irrational desires.[8] Martin Heidegger viewed humanism as a metaphysical philosophy that ascribes to humanity a universal essence and privileges it above all other forms of existence. For Heidegger, humanism takes consciousness as the paradigm of philosophy, leading it to a subjectivism and idealism that must be avoided. Like Hegel before him, Heidegger rejected the Kantian notion of autonomy, pointing out that humans were social and historical beings, as well as Kant's notion of a constituting consciousness. Heidegger nevertheless retains links both to humanism and to existentialism despite his efforts to distance himself from both in the "Letter on Humanism" (1947).[9]

Antihumanism

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Positivism and "scientism"

Positivism is a philosophy of science based on the view that in the social as well as natural sciences, information derived from sensory experience, and logical and mathematical treatments of such data, are together the exclusive source of all authoritative knowledge. Positivism assumes that there is valid knowledge (truth) only in scientific knowledge.[10] Obtaining and verifying data that can be received from the senses is known as empirical evidence.[] This view holds that society operates according to general laws like the physical world. Introspective and intuitional attempts to gain knowledge are rejected. Though the positivist approach has been a recurrent theme in the history of Western thought, the concept was developed in the modern sense in the early 19th century by the philosopher and founding sociologist, Auguste Comte. Comte argued that society operates according to its own quasi-absolute laws, much as the physical world operates according to gravity and other absolute laws of nature. Humanist thinker Tzvetan Todorov has identified within modernity a trend of thought which emphasizes science and within it tends towards a deterministic view of the world. He clearly identifies positivist theorist Auguste Comte as an important proponent of this view.[11] For Todorov "Scientism does not eliminate the will but decides that since the results of science are valid for everyone, this will must be something shared, not individual. In practice, the individual must submit to the collectivity, which "knows" better than he does." The autonomy of the will is maintained, but it is the will of the group, not the person...scientism has flourished in two very different political contexts...The first variant of scientism was put into practice by totalitarian regimes."[12] A similar criticism can be found in the work associated with the 'Frankfurt School' of social research. Antipositivism would be further facilitated by rejections of 'scientism'; or science as ideology. Jrgen Habermas argues, in his On the Logic of the Social Sciences (1967), that "the positivist thesis of unified science, which assimilates all the sciences to a natural-scientific model, fails because of the intimate relationship between the social sciences and history, and the fact that they are based on a situation-specific understanding of meaning that can be explicated only hermeneutically ... access to a symbolically prestructured reality cannot be gained by observation alone."[13]

Structuralism
Structuralism was developed in post-war Paris as a response to the perceived contradiction between the free subject of philosophy and the determined subject of the human sciences;[14] and drew on the systematic linguistics of Saussure for a view of language and culture as a conventional system of signs preceding the individual subject's entry into them.[15] Lvi-Strauss in anthropology systematised a structuralist analysis of culture in which the individual subject dissolved into a signifying convention;[16] the semiological work of Roland Barthes (1977) decried the cult of the author and indeed proclaimed his death; while Lacan's structuralist psychoanalysis inevitably led to a similar diminishment of the concept of the autonomous individual: "man with a discourse on freedom which must certainly be called delusional...produced as it is by an animal at the mercy of language".[17] Taking a lead from Brecht's twin attack on bourgeois and socialist humanism,[18] Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser coined the term "antihumanism" in an attack against Marxist humanists, whose position he considered a revisionist movement. Althusser considered "structure" and "social relations" to have primacy over individual consciousness, opposing the philosophy of the subject.[19] For Althusser, the beliefs, desires, preferences and judgements of the human individual are the product of social practices, as society moulds the individual in its own image through its ideologies. For Marxist humanists such as Georg Lukcs, revolution was contingent on the development of the class consciousness of an historical subject, the proletariat. In opposition to this, Althusser's antihumanism downplays the role of human agency in the process of history.

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Post-structuralism and deconstruction

Post-structuralists such as Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida rejected structuralism's insistence on fixed meaning, its privileging of a meta-linguistic standpoint;[20] but continued all the more to problematize the human subject, favoring the term "the decenter-ed subject" which implies the absence of human agency. Derrida, arguing that the fundamentally ambiguous nature of language makes intention unknowable, attacked Enlightenment perfectionism, and condemned as futile the existentialist quest for authenticity in the face of the all-embracing network of signs.[21] He stressed repeatedly that "the subject is not some meta-linguistic substance or identity, some pure cogito of self-presence; it is always inscribed in language".[22] Foucault challenged the foundational aspects of Enlightenment humanism,[23] as well as their strategic implications, arguing that they either produced counter-emancipatory results directly, or matched increased 'freedom' with increased and disciplinary normatization.[24] His anti-humanist scepticism extended to attempts to ground theory in human feeling, as much as in human reason, maintaining that both were historically contingent constructs, rather than the universals humanism maintained.[25]

Cultural examples
The heroine of the novel Nice Work begins by defining herself as a semiotic materialist, "a subject position in an infinite web of discourses - the discourses of power, sex, family, science, religion, poetry, etc."[26] Charged with taking a bleak deterministic view, she retorts, "antihumanist, yes; inhuman, no...the truly determined subject is he who is not aware of the discursive formations that determine him".[27] With greater life-experience, however, she comes closer to accepting that post-structuralism is an intriguing philosophical game, but probably meaningless to those who have not yet even gained awareness of Humanism itself.[28]

References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] J. Childers/G. Hentzi eds., The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism (1995) p. 140-1 Childers, p. 100 Childers, p. 95-6 Tony Davies, Humanism (1997) p. 37 Claude Pavur. Nietzsche Humanist. Marquette University Press, 1998 Marxist Humanism (http:/ / www. marxists. org/ subject/ humanism/ index. htm) Karl Marx On the Jewish Question (1843) Peter Gay, Freud (1989) p. 449 What becomes of the Human after Humanism? (http:/ / home. southernct. edu/ ~gillilandr1/ jobs/ WhatBecomesoftheHumanafterHumanism5. htm) [10] Jorge Larrain (1979) The Concept of Ideology p.197 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=9ocOAAAAQAAJ& pg=PA197), quotation: [11] Tzvetan Todorov. The Imperfect Garden. Princeton University Press. 2001. Pg. 20 [12] Tzvetan Todorov. The Imperfect Garden. Princeton University Press. 2001. Pg. 23 [13] Outhwaite, William, 1988 Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers, Polity Press (Second Edition 2009), ISBN 978-0-7456-4328-1 p.22 [14] Elisabeth Roudinesco, Jacques Lacan (2005) p. 332 [15] R. Appignanesi/C. Garratt, Postmodernism for Beginners (1995) p. 56-60 [16] Appiganesi, p. 66-7 [17] Jacques Lacan, crits: A Selection (1997) p. 216 and p. 264 [18] M. Hardt/K. Weeks eds., The Jameson Reader (2005) p. 150 [19] Simon Choat, Marx through Post-Structuralism (2010) p. 17 [20] Appignanesi, p. 76-9 [21] Halliwell, p. 39 and p. 48 [22] Quoted in John D. Caputo, The Tears and Prayers of Jacques Derrida (1997) p. 349 [23] [24] [25] [26] G. Gutting ed., The Cambridge Companion to Foucault (2003) p. 384 Gutting, p. 277 Halliwell, p. 20 David Lodge, Nice Work (1988) p. 21-2

Antihumanism
[27] Lodge, p. 22 [28] Lodge, p. 153 and p. 225

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Further reading
Roland Barthes, Image: Music: Text (1977) Michel Foucault, The Order of Things (1966) Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (1977) Martin Heidegger, "Letter on Humanism" (1947) reprinted in Basic Writings Karl Marx, "On the Jewish Question" (1843) reprinted in Early Writings Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals (1887) Stefanos Geroulanos, An Atheism that is not Humanist (2010)

External links
James Heartfield, Postmodernism and the Death of the Subject (http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ philosophy/works/en/heartfield-james.htm)

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RENAISSANCE HUMANISM
Renaissance humanism
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Renaissance humanism is a collection of intellectual Greek and Roman teachings, undertaken by scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists, taking place initially in Italy, and then spreading across Europe.[1] It developed during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of medieval scholastic education, emphasizing practical, pre-professional and scientific studies. Scholasticism focused on preparing men to be doctors, lawyers or professional theologians, and was taught from approved textbooks in logic, natural philosophy, medicine, law and theology.[2] There were important centres of humanism in Florence, Naples, Rome, Venice, Genoa, Mantua, Ferrara, and Urbino. Humanists reacted against this utilitarian approach and the narrow pedantry associated with it. They sought to create a citizenry (frequently including women) able to speak and write with eloquence and clarity and thus capable of engaging the civic life of their communities and persuading others to virtuous and prudent actions. This was to be accomplished through the study of the studia humanitatis, today known as the humanities: grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry and moral philosophy. Early Italian humanism, which in many respects continued the grammatical and rhetorical traditions of the Middle Ages, not merely provided the old Trivium with a new and more ambitious name (Studia humanitatis), but also increased its actual scope, content and significance in the curriculum of the schools and universities and in its own extensive literary production. The studia humanitatis excluded logic, but they added to the traditional grammar and rhetoric not only history, Greek, and moral philosophy, but also made poetry, once a sequel of grammar and rhetoric, the most important member of the whole group.[3] As a program to revive the culturaland particularly the literarylegacy and moral philosophy of classical antiquity, humanism was a pervasive cultural mode and not the program of a small elite.

Origins
Some of the first humanists, including Petrarch, Coluccio Salutati and Poggio Bracciolini, were great collectors of antique manuscripts. Of the three, Petrarch was coined the "Father of Humanism" because of his devotion to Greek and Roman scrolls. Many worked for the organized Church and were in holy orders (like Petrarch), while others were lawyers and chancellors of Italian cities - like Petrarch's disciple, Salutati, the Chancellor of Florence - and thus had access to book copying workshops. In Italy the humanist educational program won rapid acceptance and, by the mid-fifteenth century, many of the upper classes had received humanist educations. Some of the highest officials of the Church were humanists with the resources to amass important libraries. Such was Cardinal Basilios Bessarion, a convert to the Latin Church from Greek Orthodoxy, who was considered for the papacy and was one of the most learned scholars of his time. There

Renaissance humanism were several fifteenth-century and early sixteenth-century humanist Popes[4] one of whom, Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pius II), was a prolific author and wrote a treatise on "The Education of Boys".[5] These subjects came to be known as the humanities, and the movement they inspired is shown as humanism. With the adoption of large-scale printing after the end of the era of incunabula (or books printed prior to 1501), Italian Humanism spread northward to France, Germany, Holland and England, where it became associated with the Protestant Reformation. In France, pre-eminent Humanist Guillaume Bud (14671540) applied the philological methods of Italian Humanism to the study of antique coinage and to legal history, composing a detailed commentary on Justinian's Code. Although a royal absolutist (and not a republican like the early Italian umanisti), Bud was active in civic life, serving as a diplomat for Francis I and helping to found the Collge des Lecteurs Royaux (later the Collge de France). Meanwhile Marguerite de Navarre, the sister of Francis I, herself a poet, novelist and religious mystic,[6] gathered around her and protected a circle of vernacular poets and writers, including Clment Marot, Pierre de Ronsard and Franois Rabelais.

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Paganism and Christianity in the Renaissance

Many humanists were churchmen, most notably Pope Pius II (Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini), Sixtus IV and Leo X,[7] and there was often patronage of humanists by senior church figures.[8] Much humanist effort went into improving the understanding and translations of Biblical and early Christian texts, both before the Protestant Reformation, on which the work of figures like Erasmus and Jacques Lefvre d'taples had a great influence, and afterwards. The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy describes the rationalism of ancient writings as having tremendous impact on Renaissance scholars: Here, one felt no weight of the supernatural pressing on the human mind, demanding homage and allegiance. Humanitywith all its distinct capabilities, talents, worries, problems, possibilitieswas the center of interest. It has been said that medieval thinkers philosophized on their knees, but, bolstered by the new studies, they dared to stand up and to rise to full stature.[9] Inevitably, the rediscovery of classical philosophy and science would eventually challenge traditional religious beliefs. In 1417, for example, Poggio Bracciolini discovered the manuscript of Lucretius, De rerum natura, which had been lost for centuries and which contained an explanation of Epicurean doctrine, though at the time this was not commented on much by Renaissance scholars, who confined themselves to remarks about Lucretius's grammar and syntax.[10] Lorenzo Valla, however, puts a defense of epicureanism in the mouth of one of the interlocutors of one of his dialogues.[11] Valla's defense (or adaptation) of Epicureanism was later taken up in The Epicurean, by Erasmus, the "prince of humanists:" If people who live agreeably are Epicureans, none are more truly Epicurean than the righteous and godly. And if it is names that bother us, no one better deserves the name of Epicurean than the revered founder and head of the Christian philosophy Christ, for in Greek epikouros means "helper." He alone, when the law of Nature was all but blotted out by sins, when the law of Moses incited to lists rather than cured them, when Satan ruled in the world unchallenged, brought timely aid to perishing humanity. Completely mistaken, therefore, are those who talk in their foolish fashion about Christ's having been sad and gloomy in character and calling upon us to follow a dismal mode of life. On the contrary, he alone shows the most enjoyable life of all and the one most full of true pleasure. (Erasmus 549) This passage exemplifies the way in which the humanists saw pagan classical works such as the philosophy of Epicurus as being in harmony with Christianity, when properly interpreted. Renaissance Neo-Platonists, such as Marsilio Ficino, whose translations of Plato were still used into the nineteenth century, attempted to reconcile Platonism with Christianity, according to the suggestions of the early Church fathers, Lactantius and Saint Augustine. In this spirit, Pico della Mirandola, who was not a humanistWikipedia:Please clarify

Renaissance humanism but an Aristotelian trained in Paris, attempted to construct a syncretism of all religions, but his work did not win favor with Church authorities. Historian Steven Kreis expresses a widespread view (derived from the nineteenth-century Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt), when he writes that: The period from the fourteenth century to the seventeenth worked in favor of the general emancipation of the individual. The city-states of northern Italy had come into contact with the diverse customs of the East, and gradually permitted expression in matters of taste and dress. The writings of Dante, and particularly the doctrines of Petrarch and humanists like Machiavelli, emphasized the virtues of intellectual freedom and individual expression. In the essays of Montaigne the individualistic view of life received perhaps the most persuasive and eloquent statement in the history of literature and philosophy. Two noteworthy trends in Renaissance humanism were Renaissance Neo-Platonism and Hermeticism, which through the works of figures like Nicholas of Kues, Giordano Bruno, Cornelius Agrippa, Campanella and Pico della Mirandola sometimes came close to constituting a new religion itself. Of these two, Hermeticism has had great continuing influence in Western thought, while the former mostly dissipated as an intellectual trend, leading to movements in Western esotericism such as Theosophy and New Age thinking.[12] The "Yates thesis" of Frances Yates holds that before falling out of favour, esoteric Renaissance thought introduced several concepts that were useful for the development of scientific method, though this remains a matter of controversy. Though humanists continued to use their scholarship in the service of the church into the middle of the sixteenth century and beyond, the sharply confrontational religious atmosphere following the Protestant reformation resulted in the Counter-Reformation that sought to silence challenges to Catholic theology, with similar efforts among the Protestant churches. With the Counter Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent, positions hardened and a strict Catholic orthodoxy based on Scholastic philosophy was imposed, and some humanists, even moderate Catholics such as Erasmus, risked being declared heretics for their criticism of the church. The historian of the Renaissance Sir John Hale cautions against too direct a linkage between Renaissance humanism and modern uses of the term: "Renaissance humanism must be kept free from any hint of either "humanitarianism" or "humanism" in its modern sense of rational, non-religious approach to life ... the word "humanism" will mislead ... if it is seen in opposition to a Christianity its students in the main wished to supplement, not contradict, through their patient excavation of the sources of ancient God-inspired wisdom"[13] According to George Makdisi, certain aspects of Renaissance humanism has its roots in the medieval Islamic world, including the "art of dictation, called in Latin, ars dictaminis," and "the humanist attitude toward classical language", in this case classical Arabic.

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Notes
[1] Humanism is not the study of humans. "The term umanista was used, in fifteenth century Italian academic slang to describe a teacher or student of classical literature and the arts associated with it, including that of rhetoric. The English equivalent 'humanist' makes its appearance in the late sixteenth century with a similar meaning. Only in the nineteenth century, however, and probably for the first time in Germany in 1809, is the attribute transformed into a substantive: humanism, standing for devotion to the literature of ancient Greece and Rome, and the humane values that may be derived from them" (Nicholas Mann "The Origins of Humanism", Cambridge Companion to Humanism, Jill Kraye, editor [Cambridge University Press, 1996], p. 12). [2] Craig W. Kallendorf, introduction to Humanist Educational Treatises, edited and translated by Craig W. Kallendorf (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London England: The I Tatti Renaissance Library, 2002) p. vii. [3] Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Thought II: Papers on Humanism and the Arts (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1965), p. 178. See also Kristeller's Renaissance Thought I, "Humanism and Scholasticism In the Italian Renaissance", Byzantion 17 (194445), pp. 34674. Reprinted in Renaissance Thought (New York: Harper Torchbooks), 1961. [4] They include Innocent VII, Nicholas V, Pius II, Sixtus IV, Alexander VI, Julius II and Leo X. Innocent VII, patron of Leonardo Bruni, is considered the first humanist Pope. See James Hankins, Plato in the Italian Renaissance (New York: Columbia Studies in the Classical

Renaissance humanism
Tradition, 1990), p. 49 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=BLgfAAAAIAAJ& pg=PA49& dq=renaissance+ Humanist+ popes& hl=en& ei=lPjAS6DqFYO8lQeqj-ndBA& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=9& ved=0CFoQ6AEwCDge#v=onepage& q=renaissance Humanist popes& f=false); for the others, see their respective entries in Sir John Hale's Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance (Oxford University Press, 1981). [5] See Humanist Educational Treatises, (2001) pp. 126259. This volume (pp. 92125) contains an essay by Leonardo Bruni, entitled "The Study of Literature", on the education of girls. [6] She was the author of Miroir de l'ame pecheresse (The Mirror of a Sinful Soul), published after her death, among other devotional poetry. See also "Marguerite de Navarre: Religious Reformist" in Jonathan A. Reid, King's sister--queen of dissent: Marguerite of Navarre (1492-1549) and her evangelical network (http:/ / www. brill. nl/ print. aspx?partid=210& pid=18212) (Studies in medieval and Reformation traditions, 1573-4188; v. 139). Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2009. (2 v.: (xxii, 795 p.) ISBN 978-90-04-17760-4 (v. 1), 9789004177611 (v. 2) [7] See note two, above. [8] Davies, 477 [9] p.397 quotation: [10] Only in 1564, did a French commentator, Denys Lambin (151972), announce in the preface to the work that "he regarded Lucretius's Epicurean ideas as 'fanciful, absurd, and opposed to Christianity". Lambin's preface remained standard until the nineteenth century. (See Jill Kraye's essay, "Philologists and Philosophers" in the Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism [1996], p. 153.) Epicurus's unacceptable doctrine that pleasure was the highest good "ensured the unpopularity of his philosophy" (Kraye [1996] p. 154.) [11] Charles Trinkhaus regards Valla's "epicureanism" as a ploy, not seriously meant by Valla, but designed to refute Stoicism, which he regarded together with epicureanism as equally inferior to Christianity. . See Trinkaus, In Our Image and Likeness Vol. 1 (University of Chicago Press, 1970), pp. 103170 [12] Plumb, 95 [13] Hale, 171. (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=dJc3cOUVIYMC& q=contradict#search_anchor) See also Davies, 479-480 for similar caution.

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Further reading
Bolgar, R. R. The Classical Heritage and Its Beneficiaries: from the Carolingian Age to the End of the Renaissance. Cambridge, 1954. Cassirer, Ernst. Individual and Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy. Harper and Row, 1963. Cassirer, Ernst (Editor), Paul Oskar Kristeller (Editor), John Herman Randall (Editor). The Renaisssance Philosophy of Man. University of Chicago Press, 1969. Cassirer, Ernst. Platonic Renaissance in England. Gordian, 1970. Celenza, Christopher S. The Lost Italian Renaissance: Humanism, Historians, and Latin's Legacy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2004 ISBN 978-0-8018-8384-2 Erasmus, Desiderius. "The Epicurean". In Colloquies. Garin, Eugenio. Science and Civic Life in the Italian Renaissance. New York: Doubleday, 1969. Garin, Eugenio. Italian Humanism: Philosophy and Civic Life in the Renaissance. Basil Blackwell, 1965. Garin, Eugenio. History of Italian Philosophy. (2 vols.) Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2008. ISBN 978-90-420-2321-5 Grafton, Anthony. Bring Out Your Dead: The Past as Revelation. Harvard University Press, 2004 ISBN 0-674-01597-5 Grafton, Anthony. Worlds Made By Words: Scholarship and Community in the Modern West. Harvard University Press, 2009 ISBN 0-674-03257-8 Hale, John. A Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance. Oxford University Press, 1981, ISBN 0-500-23333-0. Kallendorf, Craig W, editor. Humanist Educational Treatises. Cambridge, Mass.: The I Tatti Renaissance Library, 2002. Kraye, Jill (Editor). The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism. Cambridge University Press, 1996. Kristeller, Paul Oskar. Renaissance Thought and Its Sources. Columbia University Press, 1979 ISBN 978-0-231-04513-1 Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni. Oration on the Dignity of Man. In Cassirer, Kristeller, and Randall, eds. Renaissance Philosophy of Man. University of Chicago Press, 1969.

Renaissance humanism Skinner, Quentin. Renaissance Virtues: Visions of Politics: Volume II. Cambridge University Press, [2002] 2007. McManus, Stuart M. "Byzantines in the Florentine Polis: Ideology, Statecraft and Ritual during the Council of Florence". Journal of the Oxford University History Society, 6 (Michaelmas 2008/Hilary 2009). Melchert, Norman (2002). The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy. McGraw Hill. ISBN0-19-517510-7. Nauert, Charles Garfield. Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe (New Approaches to European History). Cambridge University Press, 2006. Plumb, J. H. ed.: The Italian Renaissance 1961, American Heritage, New York, ISBN 0-618-12738-0 (page refs from 1978 UK Penguin edn). Rossellini, Roberto. The Age of the Medici: Part 1, Cosimo de' Medici; Part 2, Alberti 1973. (Film Series). Criterion Collection. Symonds, John Addington.The Renaissance in Italy. Seven Volumes. 1875-1886. Trinkaus, Charles (1973). "Renaissance Idea of the Dignity of Man" (http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/ view?docId=DicHist/uvaGenText/tei/DicHist4.xml;chunk.id=dv4-20). In Wiener, Philip P. Dictionary of the History of Ideas. ISBN0-684-13293-1. Retrieved 2009-12-02. Trinkaus, Charles. The Scope of Renaissance Humanism. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1983. Wind, Edgar. Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance. New York: W.W. Norton, 1969.

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External links
Humanism 1: An Outline by Albert Rabil, Jr. (http://www.globaled.org/nyworld/materials/humanism/H1. html) "Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library & Renaissance Culture: Humanism". The Library of Congress. 2002-07-01 (http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/vatican/humanism.html)

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Greek scholars in the Renaissance

The migration waves of Byzantine scholars and migrs in the period following the Crusader sacking of Constantinople and the end of the Byzantine Roman Empire in 1453, is considered by many scholars key to the revival of Greek and Roman studies that led to the development of the Renaissance humanism[1] and science. These emigres were grammarians, humanists, poets, writers, printers, lecturers, musicians, astronomers, architects, academics, artists, scribes, philosophers, scientists, politicians and theologians.[2] They brought to Western Europe the far greater preserved and accumulated knowledge of their own (Greek) civilization. Their main role within the Renaissance humanism was the teaching of the Greek language to their western counterparts in universities or privately together with the spread of ancient texts. Their forerunners were Barlaam of Calabria (Bernardo Massari) and Leonzio Pilato, both drawn from culturally Byzantine southern Italy. The impact of these two scholars on the very first Renaissance humanists was indisputable.[3]

Demetrius Chalcondyles (brother of Laonikos Chalkokondyles) (14241511) was a Greek Renaissance scholar, Humanist and teacher of Greek and Platonic philosophy.

Collegio Pontifico Greco was a foundation of Gregory XIII, who established a college in Rome to receive young Greeks belonging to any nation in which the Greek Rite was used, and consequently for Greek refugees in Italy as well as the Ruthenians and Malchites of Egypt and Syria. These young men had to study the sacred sciences, in order to spread later sacred and profane learning among their fellow-countrymen and facilitate the reunion of the schismatical churches. The construction of the College and Church of S. Atanasio, joined by a bridge over the Via dei Greci, was begun at once. The same year (1577) the first students arrived, and until the completion of the college were housed elsewhere.[4] Besides the southern Italians who inhabited ex-Byzantine territories of the peninsula and Sicily which were still closely connected with the Byzantine culture (and still Greek speaking in many areas), by 1500 there was a Greek speaking community of about 5,000 in Venice. The Venetians also ruled Crete, Dalmatia, and scattered islands and port cities of the former empire the populations of which were augmented by refugees from other Byzantine provinces who preferred Venetian to Ottoman governance. Crete was especially notable for the Cretan School of icon-painting, which after 1453 became the most important in the Greek world.[5]

Greek scholars in the Renaissance

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John Argyropoulos (14151487) was a Greek Renaissance scholar who played a prominent role in the revival of Greek philosophy in Italy.

Greek scholars in the Renaissance

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Contribution of Greek scholars to the Italian Renaissance

Although ideas from ancient Rome already enjoyed popularity with the scholars of the 14th century and their importance to the Renaissance was undeniable, the lessons of Greek learning brought by Byzantine intellectuals changed the course of humanism and the Renaissance itself.[citation needed] While Greek learning affected all the subjects of the studia humanitatis[citation needed], history and philosophy in particular were profoundly affected by the texts and ideas brought from Byzantium. History was changed by the re-discovery and spread of Greek historians writings, and this knowledge of Greek historical treatises helped the subject of history become a guide to virtuous living based on the study of past events and people. The effects of this renewed knowledge of Greek history can be seen in the writings of humanists on virtue, which was a popular topic. Specifically, these effects are shown in the examples provided from Greek antiquity that displayed virtue as well as vice. The philosophy of not only Aristotle but also Plato affected the Renaissance by causing debates over mans place in the universe, the immortality of the soul, and the ability of man to improve himself through virtue. The flourishing of philosophical writings in the 15th century revealed the impact of Greek philosophy and science on the Renaissance. The resonance of these changes lasted through the centuries following the Renaissance not only in the writing of humanists, but also in the education and values of Europe and western society even to the present day.[6][7][8] Deno Geanakopoulos in his work on the contribution of Byzantine scholars to Renaissance has summarised their input into three major shifts to Renaissance thought: 1) In early 14th century Florence from the early, central emphasis on rhetoric to one on metaphysical philophy by means of introducing and reinterpretation of the Platonic texts, 2) In Venice-Padua by reducing the dominance of Averroist Aristotle in science and philosophy by supplementing but not completely replacing it with Byzantine traditions which utilised ancient and Byzantine commentators on Aristotle, 3) and earlier in the mid 15th century in Rome, through emphasis not on any philosophical school but through the production of more authentic and reliable versions of Greek texts relevant to all fields of humanism and science and with respect to the Greek fathers of the church. Hardly less important was their direct or indirect influence on exegesis of the New Testament itself through Bessarion's inspiration of Lorenzo Valla's biblical emendations of the Latin vulgate in the light of the Greek text.[9]

One of Georgius Gemistus (Plethon)'s manuscripts, in Greek, written in the early 15th century.

Cardinal Bessarion (13951472) of Trebizond, Pontus was a Greek scholar, statesman, and cardinal and one of the leading figures in the rise of the intellectual Renaissance.

Greek scholars in the Renaissance

39

Scholars
Leo Allatius, Rome, librarian of the library of Vatican George Amiroutzes, Florence, Aristotelian Henry Aristippus Michael Apostolius, Rome Aristobulus Apostolius Arsenius Apostolius John Argyropoulos, Universities of Florence, Rome Simon Atumano, Bishop of Gerace in Calabria Basilios Bessarion Barlaam of Seminara, he taught Petrarch some rudiments of Greek language Zacharias Calliergi, Rome Laonicus Chalcocondyles Demetrius Chalcondyles, Milan Theofilos Chalcocondylis, Florence Manuel Chrysoloras, Florence, Pavia, Rome, Venice, Milan John Chrysoloras, scholar and diplomat: relative of Manuel Chrysoloras, patron of Francesco Filelfo Andronicus Contoblacas, Basel, teacher of Johann Reuchlin Johannes Crastonis, Modena, Greek-Latin dictionary Andronicus Callistus, Rome Demetrius Cydones Mathew Devaris, Rome Demetrios Ducas Elia del Medigo, Venice Antonios Eparchos, Venice, scholar and poet Theodorus Gaza, first dean of the University of Ferrara, Naples and Rome George Gemistos Plethon, teacher of Bessarion George of Trebizond, Venice, Florence, Rome George Hermonymus, University of Paris, teacher of Erasmus, Reuchlin, Budaeus and Jacques Lefvre d'taples Georgios Kalafatis (professor) (ca. 1652 ca. 1720), Greek professor of theoretical and practical medicine Andreas Musalus (ca. 1665/6 ca. 1721) Greek professor of Mathematics, Philosopher and Architectural theorist Nicholas Kalliakis Mathaeos Kamariotis Isidore of Kiev Ioannis Kigalas (ca. 1622 1687), Greek scholar and professor of Philosophy and Logic
Theodorus Gazis (Gaza). Manuel Chrysoloras.

Ioannis Kottounios, Padua Konstantinos Kallokratos Constantine Lascaris, University of Messina

Greek scholars in the Renaissance Janus Lascaris or Rhyndacenus, Rome Leonard of Chios, Greek-born Roman Catholic prelate Nikolaos Loukanis, Venice Maximus the Greek studied in Italy before moving to Russia Maximos Margunios, Venice Marcus Musurus, University of Padua Michael Tarchaniota Marullus, Ancona and Florence, friend and pupil of Jovianus Pontanus Leonardos Philaras (15951673), an early advocate for Greek independence Nicholas Kalliakis (Nicolai Calliachius) (16451707)-was a Greek scholar and philosopher who flourished in Italy. Leozio Pilatus, he taught Boccacio some rudiments of Greek language Maximus Planudes, Rome, Venice John Servopoulos, scholar, professor, Oxford Nikolaos Sophianos, Rome, Venice: scholar and geographer, creator of the Totius Graeciae Descriptio Nicholas Leonicus Thomaeus, Venice, Padua Iakovos Trivolis, Venice Gregory Tifernas, Paris, teacher of Jacques Lefvre d'taples and Robert Gaguin Gerasimos Vlachos, Venice Francesco Maurolico, mathematician and astronomer from Sicily
George of Trebizond.

40

Constantine Lascaris.

Greek scholars in the Renaissance

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Painting/Music
Marco Basaiti, painter Belisario Corenzio, painter, Napoli Michael Damaskenos, Venice, Cretan painter Thomas Flanginis, Venice, funded the establishment of the Flanginian Greek school for teachers El Greco, Cretan painter, Italy, Spain Francisco Leontaritis, Italy, Bavaria: singer and composer Anna Notaras, Venice, first Greek typing press Angelos Pitzamanos (14671535), Cretan painter, Otranto, South Italy[10] Janus Plousiadenos, Venice, hymnographer and composer Theodore Poulakis, Venice, painter Emmanuel Tzanes, Venice, Cretan painter John Rhosos, Rome, Venice well-known scribe Antonio Vassilacchi, painter from Milos worked in Venice with Paolo Veronese
Dominikos Theotokopoulos.

References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Byzantines in Renaissance Italy (http:/ / www. the-orb. net/ encyclop/ late/ laterbyz/ harris-ren. html) Greeks in Italy (http:/ / how-to-learn-any-language. com/ e/ polyglots/ greeks-in-italy. html) The Italian renaissance in its historical background, Denis Hay Cambridge University Press 1976 De Meester, "Le Collge Pontifical Grec de Rome", Rome, 1910 Maria Constantoudaki-Kitromilides in From Byzantium to El Greco,p.51-2, Athens 1987, Byzantine Museum of Arts Constantinople and the West by Deno John Geanakopulos- Italian Renaissance and thought and the role of Byzantine emigres scholars in Florence, Rome and Venice: A reassessment University of Wiskonshin Press, 1989 [7] From Byzantium to Italy: Greek Studies in the Italian Renaissance. by N. G. Wilson The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Autumn, 1994), pp. 743-744 [8] Eight philosophers of the Italian Renaissance, Paul Oskar Kristeller, Stanford University Press,1964 [9] Constantinople and the West by Deno John Geanakopulos- Italian Renaissance and thought and the role of Byzantine emigres scholars in Florence, Rome and Venice: A reassessment University of Wiskonshin Press, 1989 [10] Nano Chatzidakis: The character of the Velimezis Collection (http:/ / www. eikastikon. gr/ kritikesparousiaseis/ velimezi_en. html)

Sources
Deno J. Geanakoplos, Byzantine East and Latin West: Two worlds of Christendom in Middle Ages and renaissance. The Academy Library Harper & Row Publishers, New York, 1966. Deno J. Geanakoplos, (1958) A Byzantine looks at the renaissance, Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 1 (2);pp:157-62. Jonathan Harris, Greek migrs in the West, 1400-1520, Camberley: Porphyrogenitus, 1995. Louise Ropes Loomis (1908) The Greek Renaissance in Italy The American Historical Review, 13(2);pp:246-258. John Monfasani Byzantine Scholars in Renaissance Italy: Cardinal Bessarion and Other migrs: Selected Essays, Aldershot, Hampshire: Variorum, 1995. Steven Runciman, The fall of Constantinople, 1453. Cambridge University press, Cambridge 1965. Fotis Vassileiou & Barbara Saribalidou, Short Biographical Lexicon of Byzantine Academics Immigrants to Western Europe, 2007. Dimitri Tselos (1956) A Greco-Italian School of Illuminators and Fresco Painters: Its Relation to the Principal Reims

Greek scholars in the Renaissance Nigel G. Wilson. From Byzantium to Italy: Greek Studies in the Italian Renaissance. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.

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External links
Greece: Books and Writers. (http://www.greece2001.gr/docs/1-66.pdf) Michael D. Reeve, "On the role of Greek in Renaissance scholarship.' (http://130.238.50.3/ilmh/Ren/ hum-reeve-greek.htm) Jonathan Harris, 'Byzantines in Renaissance Italy'. (http://www.the-orb.net/encyclop/late/laterbyz/harris-ren. html) Bilingual (Greek original / English) excerpts from Gennadios Scholarios' Epistle to Orators. (http://www. ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/gennadius_wordfathers.asp) Paul Botley, Renaissance Scholarship and the Athenian Calendar. (http://www.duke.edu/web/classics/grbs/ FTexts/46/Botley.pdf) Richard C. Jebb 'Christian Renaissance'. (http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/camenaref/cmh/cmh116. html) Karl Krumbacher: 'The History of Byzantine Literature: from Justinian to the end of the Eastern Roman Empire (527-1453)'. (http://www.library.nd.edu/byzantine_studies/documents/krumbacher.pdf) San Giorgio dei Greci and the Greek community of Venice (http://www.venice-sights.co.uk/ san-giorgio-dei-greci.htm) Istituto Ellenico di Studi Byzantini and Postbyzantini di Venezia (http://www.istitutoellenico.org/)

Platonism in the Renaissance

Platonism underwent a revival in the Renaissance, as part of a general revival of interest in Classical antiquity. Interest in Platonism was especially strong in Florence under the Medici. During the sessions at Florence of the Council of Ferrara-Florence in 14381445, during the failed attempts to heal the schism of the Orthodox and Catholic churches, Cosimo de' Medici and his intellectual circle had made acquaintance with the Neoplatonic philosopher George Gemistos Plethon, whose discourses upon Plato and the Alexandrian mystics so fascinated the learned society of Florence that they named him the second Plato. In 1459 John Argyropoulos was lecturing on Greek language and literature at Florence, and Marsilio Ficino became his pupil. When Cosimo decided to refound Plato's Academy at Florence, his choice to head it was Ficino, who made the classic translation of Plato from Greek to Latin (published in 1484), as well as a translation of a collection of Hellenistic Greek documents of the Hermetic Corpus,[1] and the writings of many of the Neoplatonists, for example Porphyry, Iamblichus, Plotinus, et al.. Following suggestions laid out by Gemistos Plethon, Ficino tried to synthesize Christianity and Platonism. Ficino's student Giovanni Pico della Mirandola also based his ideas chiefly on Plato, but Pico retained a deep respect for Aristotle. Although he was a product of the studia humanitatis, Pico was constitutionally an eclectic, and in some respects he represented a reaction against the exaggerations of pure humanism, defending what he believed to be the best of the medieval and Islamic commentators (see Averroes, Avicenna) on Aristotle in a famous long letter to Ermolao Barbaro in 1485. It was always Picos aim to reconcile the schools of Plato and Aristotle, since he believed they both used different words to express the same concepts. It was perhaps for this reason his friends called him "Princeps Concordiae, or "Prince of Harmony" (a pun on Prince of Concordia, one of his familys holdings.[2]) Similarly, Pico believed an educated person should also study the Hebrew and Talmudic sources, and the Hermetics, because he believed they represented the same view seen in the Old Testament, in different words, of God.

Platonism in the Renaissance The writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus had played an important role in the Renaissance Neoplatonic revival.[3]

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Notes
[1] Yates, Frances A. (1964) Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. University of Chicago Press 1991 edition: ISBN 0-226-95007-7 [2] Paul Oskar Kristeller, Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance. Stanford University Press (Stanford, California, 1964.) P. 62. [3] Heiser, James D., Prisci Theologi and the Hermetic Reformation in the Fifteenth Century, Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-4610-9382-4.

External links
Christian Platonists and Neoplatonists (http://www.john-uebersax.com/plato/cp.htm)

Hermeticism
Part of a series on

Hermeticism

Mythology

Hermes Trismegistus Thoth Poimandres Hermetica

Corpus Hermeticum Kybalion

"Three Parts of the Wisdom of the Whole Universe"

Alchemy Astrology Theurgy Movements

Rosicrucianism Orders

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor Hermetic Brotherhood of Light Ordo Templi Orientis Topics

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Hermetic Qabalah Influence and influences Occult and divinatory tarot People

John Dee Aleister Crowley Israel Regardie Thbit ibn Qurra Paracelsus Giordano Bruno Ahmad al-Bni Samuel MacGregor Mathers William Westcott Franz Bardon Jakob Bhme

e [1]
Part of a series on

v t

Spirituality

Outline

Influences
Category

e [2]

v t

Hermeticism, also called Hermetism, is a religious and philosophical tradition based primarily upon pseudepigraphical writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus ("Thrice Great").[3] These writings have greatly influenced the Western esoteric tradition and were considered to be of great importance during both the Renaissance[4] and the Reformation.[5] The tradition claims descent from a prisca theologia, a doctrine which affirms that a single, true theology exists which is present in all religions and was given by God to man in antiquity.[6][7] Many Christian writers, including Lactantius, Thomas of Aquinas, Augustine, Giordano Bruno, Marsilio Ficino, Campanella and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola considered Hermes Trismegistus to be a wise pagan prophet who foresaw the coming of Christianity.[8][9] An account of how Hermes Trismegistus received the name "Thrice Great" is derived from the The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, wherein it is stated that he knew the three parts of the wisdom of the whole universe.[10] The three parts of the wisdom are alchemy, astrology, and theurgy. The Poimandres, from which Marsilio Ficino formed his opinion, states that "They called him Trismegistus because he was the greatest philosopher and the greatest priest and the greatest king."[11] The Suda (10th century) states that "He was called Trismegistus on account of his praise of the trinity, saying there is one divine nature in the trinity."[12]

Hermeticism Much of the importance of Hermeticism arises from its connection with the development of science during the time from 1300 to 1600 A.D.[citation needed] The prominence that it gave to the idea of influencing or controlling nature led many scientists to look to magic and its allied arts (e.g., alchemy, astrology)[citation needed] which, it was thought, could put Nature to the test by means of experiments.[citation needed] Consequently it was the practical aspects of Hermetic writings that attracted the attention of scientists.[citation needed] Isaac Newton placed great faith in the concept of an unadulterated, pure, ancient doctrine, which he studied vigorously to aid his understanding of the physical world.[citation needed] Many of Newton's manuscriptsmost of which are still unpublished[citation needed]detail his thorough study of the Corpus Hermeticum, writings said to have been transmitted from ancient times, in which the secrets and techniques of influencing the stars and the forces of nature were revealed.

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Etymology
The term Hermetic is from the medieval Latin hermeticus, which is derived from the name of the Greek god, Hermes. In English, it has been attested since the 17th century, as in "Hermetic writers" (e.g., Franz Bardon). The word Hermetic was used by Dr. Everard in his English translation of The Pimander of Hermes (1650).[13] Mary Anne Atwood mentioned the use of the word Hermetic by Dufresnoy in 1386.[14][15] The synonymous term Hermetical is also attested in the 17th century. Sir Thomas Browne in his Religio Medici of 1643 wrote: "Now besides these particular and divided Spirits, there may be (for ought I know) a universal and common Spirit to the whole world. It was the opinion of Plato, and is yet of the Hermeticall Philosophers." (R.M. Part 1:2)

History
Late Antiquity
In Late Antiquity, Hermetism[16] emerged in parallel with early Christianity, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, the Chaldaean Oracles, and late Orphic and Pythagorean literature. These doctrines were "characterized by a resistance to the dominance of either pure rationality or doctrinal faith."[17] The books now known as the Corpus Hermeticum were part of a renaissance of syncretistic and intellectualized pagan thought that took place from the 3rd to the 7th century A.D. These post-Christian Greek texts dwell upon the oneness and goodness of God, urge purification of the soul, and defend pagan religious practices such as the veneration of images. Their predominant literary form is the dialogue: Hermes Trismegistus instructs a perplexed disciple upon various teachings of the hidden wisdom.
The caduceus, a symbol of Hermeticism. Many lost Greek texts and many surviving vulgate books contained discussions of alchemy clothed in philosophical metaphor.[citation needed] One of these, known as The Asclepius (lost in Greek but partially preserved in Latin), contained a bloody prophecy of the end of Roman rule in Egypt and the resurgence of paganism in Egypt.[citation needed]

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Renaissance
Plutarch's mention of Hermes Trismegistus dates back to the 1st century Porphyry were all familiar with Hermetic writings.[18]
A.D.,

and Tertullian, Iamblichus, and

After some centuries out of favor (though apparently a subject of study at least in the eastern part of the Roman Empire), Hermeticism was reintroduced to the West in 1460 when a monk, Leonardo da Pistoia,[19] brought the Corpus Hermeticum to the city of Pistoia to be translated by Ficino. "Leonardo da Pistoia" was actually the pseudonym of Leonardo Alberti de Candia, a nobleman of the Alberti (family) of the counts of Prato in Pistoia. De Candia was one of many agents sent out by Florence's ruler, Cosimo de' Medici, to scour Greek monasteries for ancient writings and to either get a copy or steal the original.[20] "Leonardo da Pistoia" searched for ancient Hermetic manuscripts throughout the regions surrounding Constantinople, Pera, and Galata. He conducted his investigations under the protection of the Byzantine podest during the period of the joint Byzantine and Italian podest and before the capture of Constantinople by Ottoman Turks in 1453. In 1614, Isaac Casaubon, a Swiss philologist, analyzed the Greek Hermetic texts for linguistic style. He concluded that the writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus were not the work of an ancient Egyptian priest but in fact dated to the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D.[21][22] Even in light of Casaubon's linguistic discovery (and typical of many adherents of Hermetic philosophy in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries), Thomas Browne in his Religio Medici (1643) confidently stated: "The severe schools shall never laugh me out of the philosophy of Hermes, that this visible world is but a portrait of the invisible." (R.M. Part 1:12) In the 19th century, Walter Scott placed the date of the Hermetic texts shortly after 200 A.D., but W. Flinders Petrie placed their origin between 200 and 500 B.C.[23] In 1945, Hermetic texts were found near Nag Hammadi. One of these texts had the form of a conversation between Hermes and Asclepius. A second text (titled On the Ogdoad and Ennead) told of the Hermetic mystery schools. It was written in the Coptic language, the latest and final form in which the Egyptian language was written.[24]

Philosophy
In Hermeticism, the ultimate reality is referred to variously as God, the All, or the One. God in the Hermetica is unitary and transcendent, he is one and exists apart from the material cosmos. Hermetism is therefore profoundly monotheistic, in a deistic and unitarian understanding of the term. "For it is a ridiculous thing to confess the World to be one, one Sun, one Moon, one Divinity, and yet to have, I know not how many gods." [25] Its philosophy teaches that there is a transcendent God, or Absolute, in which we and the entire universe participate. It also subscribes to the idea that other beings, such as aeons, angels and elementals, exist within the universe.

Prisca theologia
Hermeticists believe in a prisca theologia, the doctrine that a single, true theology exists, that it exists in all religions, and that it was given by God to man in antiquity. In order to demonstrate the truth of the prisca theologia doctrine, Christians appropriated the Hermetic teachings for their own purposes. By this account, Hermes Trismegistus was (according to the fathers of the Christian church) either a contemporary of Moses[26] or the third in a line of men named Hermes Enoch, Noah, and the Egyptian priest-king who is known to us as Hermes Trismegistus.[27][28]

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"As above, so below"

These words circulate throughout occult and magical circles. They are recorded in Hermetic texts, although they originated in the Vedas.[citation
needed]

The actual text of that maxim, as translated by Dennis W. Hauck from The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, is: "That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracle of the One Thing."[29] Thus, whatever happens on any level of reality (physical, emotional, or mental) also happens on every other level. This principle, however, is more often used in the sense of the microcosm and the macrocosm. The microcosm is oneself, and the macrocosm is the universe. The macrocosm is as the microcosm and vice versa; within each lies the other, and through understanding one (usually the microcosm) a man may understand the other.[30]

Alchemy (the operation of the Sun): Alchemy is not merely the changing of lead into gold.[31] It is an investigation into the spiritual constitution, or life, of matter and material existence through an application of the mysteries of birth, death, and resurrection.[32] The various stages of chemical distillation and fermentation, among other processes, are aspects of these mysteries that, when applied, quicken nature's processes in order to bring a natural body to perfection.[33] This perfection is the accomplishment of the magnum opus (Latin for Great Work). Astrology (the operation of the stars): Hermes claims that Zoroaster discovered this part of the wisdom of the whole universe, astrology, and taught it to man.[34] In Hermetic thought, it is likely that the movements of the planets have meaning beyond the laws of physics and actually hold metaphorical value as symbols in the mind of The All, or God. Astrology has influences upon the Earth, but does not dictate our actions, and wisdom is gained when we know what these influences are and how to deal with them. Theurgy (the operation of the gods): There are two different types of magic, according to Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's Apology, completely opposite of each other. The first is , Gotia, black magic reliant upon an alliance with evil spirits (i.e. demons). The second is Theurgy, divine magic reliant upon an alliance with divine spirits (i.e. angels, archangels, gods).[35] Theurgy translates to "The Science or Art of Divine Works" and is the practical aspect of the Hermetic art of alchemy.[36] Furthermore, alchemy is seen as the "key" to theurgy,[37] the ultimate goal of which is to become united with higher counterparts, leading to the attainment of Divine Consciousness.

The Magician displaying the Hermetic concept of "As above, so below."

The three parts of the wisdom of the whole universe

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Posthumous lives
Reincarnation is mentioned in Hermetic texts. Hermes Trismegistus asked: O son, how many bodies have we to pass through, how many bands of demons, through how many series of repetitions and cycles of the stars, before we hasten to the One alone?[38]

Good and evil

Hermes explains in Book 9 of the Corpus Hermeticum that nous (reason and knowledge) brings forth either good or evil, depending upon whether one receives one's perceptions from God or from demons. God brings forth good, but demons bring forth evil. Among the evils brought forth by demons are: "adultery, murder, violence to one's father, sacrilege, ungodliness, strangling, suicide from a cliff and all such other demonic actions."[39] This provides evidence that Hermeticism includes a sense of morality. However, the word "good" is used very strictly. It is restricted to references to God.[40] It is only God (in the sense of the nous, not in the sense of the All) who is completely free of evil. Men are prevented from being good because man has a body, is consumed by his physical nature, and is ignorant of the Supreme Good.[41] A focus upon the material life is said to be the only thing that offends God: As processions passing in the road cannot achieve anything themselves yet still obstruct others, so these men merely process through the universe, led by the pleasures of the body.[42] One must create, one must do something positive in one's life because God is a generative power. Not creating anything leaves a person "sterile" (i.e., unable to accomplish anything).[43]

Cosmogony
A creation story is told by God to Hermes in the first book of the Corpus Hermeticum. It begins when God, by an act of will, creates the primary matter that is to constitute the cosmos. From primary matter God separates the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water). Then God orders the elements into the seven heavens (often held to be the spheres of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon, which travel in circles and govern destiny). "The Word" then leaps forth from the materializing four elements, which were unintelligent. Nous then makes the seven heavens spin, and from them spring forth creatures without speech. Earth is then separated from water, and animals (other than man) are brought forth. The God then created androgynous man, in God's own image, and handed over his creation. Man carefully observed the creation of nous and received from God man's authority over all creation. Man then rose up above the spheres' paths in order to better view creation. He then showed the form of the All to Nature. Nature fell in love with the All, and man, seeing his reflection in water, fell in love with Nature and wished to dwell in it. Immediately, man became one with Nature and became a slave to its limitations, such as gender and sleep. In this way, man became speechless (having lost "the Word") and he became "double," being mortal in body yet immortal in spirit, and having authority over all creation yet subject to destiny.[44]

Hermeticism Alternative account An alternative account of the fall of man, preserved in the Discourses of Isis to Horus, is as follows: God, having created the universe, then created the divisions, the worlds, and various gods and goddesses, whom he appointed to certain parts of the universe. He then took a mysterious transparent substance, out of which he created human souls. He appointed the souls to the astral region, which is just above the physical region. He then assigned the souls to create life on Earth. He handed over some of his creative substance to the souls and commanded them to contribute to his creation. The souls then used the substance to create the various animals and forms of physical life. Soon after, however, the souls began to overstep their boundaries; they succumbed to pride and desired to be equal to the highest gods. God was displeased and called upon Hermes to create physical bodies that would imprison the souls as a punishment for them. Hermes created human bodies on earth, and God then told the souls of their punishment. God decreed that suffering would await them in the physical world but he promised them that, if their actions on Earth were worthy of their divine origin, their condition would improve and they would eventually return to the heavenly world. If it did not improve, he would condemn them to repeated reincarnation upon Earth.[45]

49

As a religion
Tobias Churton, Professor of Western Esotericism at the University of Exeter, states that, "The Hermetic tradition was both moderate and flexible, offering a tolerant philosophical religion, a religion of the (omnipresent) mind, a purified perception of God, the cosmos, and the self, and much positive encouragement for the spiritual seeker, all of which the student could take anywhere."[46] Lutheran Bishop James Heiser recently evaluated the writings of Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola as an attempted "Hermetic Reformation."[47]

Religious and philosophical texts

Hermeticists generally attribute 42 books to Hermes Trismegistus,[citation needed] although many more have been attributed to him. Most of them, however, are said to have been lost when the Great Library of Alexandria was destroyed.[citation needed] There are three major texts that contain Hermetic doctrines: The Corpus Hermeticum is the most widely known Hermetic text. It has 18 chapters, which contain dialogues between Hermes Trismegistus and a series of other men. The first chapter contains a dialogue between Poimandres (who is identified as God) and Hermes. This is the first time that Hermes is in contact with God. Poimandres teaches the secrets of the universe to Hermes. In later chapters, Hermes teaches others, such as his son Tat and Asclepius. The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus is a short work which contains a phrase that is well known in occult circles: "As above, so below." The actual text of that maxim, as translated by Dennis W. Hauck, is: "That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracle of the One Thing".[29] The Emerald Tablet also refers to the three parts of the wisdom of the whole universe. Hermes states that his knowledge of these three parts is the reason why he received the name Trismegistus ("Thrice Great" or "Ao-Ao-Ao" [which mean "greatest"]). As the story is told, the Emerald Tablet was found by Alexander the Great at Hebron, supposedly in the tomb of Hermes.[48] The Perfect Sermon (also known as The Asclepius, The Perfect Discourse, or The Perfect Teaching) was written in the 2nd or 3rd century A.D.and is a Hermetic work similar in content to The Corpus Hermeticum. Other important original Hermetic texts include the Discourses of Isis to Horus,[49] which consists of a long dialogue between Isis and Horus on the fall of man and other matters; the Definitions of Hermes to Asclepius;[50] and many fragments, which are chiefly preserved in the anthology of Stobaeus.

Hermeticism There are additional works that, while not as historically significant as the works listed above, have an important place in neo-Hermeticism: The Kybalion: Hermetic Philosophy is a book anonymously published in 1912 A.D. by three people who called themselves the "Three Initiates." Many of the Hermetic principles are explained in this book. A Suggestive Inquiry into Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy was written by Mary Anne Atwood and originally published anonymously in 1850 A.D. This book was withdrawn from circulation by Atwood but was later reprinted, after her death, by her longtime friend Isabelle de Steiger. Isabelle de Steiger was a member of the Golden Dawn. A Suggestive Inquiry was used for the study of Hermeticism and resulted in several works being published by members of the Golden Dawn:[51] Arthur Edward Waite, a member and later the head of the Golden Dawn, wrote The Hermetic Museum and The Hermetic Museum Restored and Enlarged. He edited The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus, which was published as a two-volume set. He considered himself to be a Hermeticist and was instrumental in adding the word "Hermetic" to the official title of the Golden Dawn.[52] William Wynn Westcott, a founding member of the Golden Dawn, edited a series of books on Hermeticism titled Collectanea Hermetica. The series was published by the Theosophical Publishing Society.[53] Initiation Into Hermetics is the title of the English translation of the first volume of Franz Bardon's three-volume work dealing with self-realization within the Hermetic tradition.

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Societies
When Hermeticism was no longer endorsed by the Christian church, it was driven underground and several Hermetic societies were formed. The western esoteric tradition is now steeped in Hermeticism. The work of such writers as Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, who attempted to reconcile Jewish kabbalah and Christian mysticism, brought Hermeticism into a context more easily understood by Europeans during the time of the Renaissance. A few primarily Hermetic occult orders were founded in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Hermetic magic underwent a 19th-century revival in Western Europe,[54] where it was practiced by groups such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Aurum Solis, and Ragon. It was also practiced by individual persons, such as Eliphas Lvi, William Butler Yeats, Arthur Machen, Frederick Hockley, and Kenneth M. Mackenzie.[55] Many Hermetic, or Hermetically influenced, groups exist today. Most of them are derived from Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, or the Golden Dawn.

Rosicrucianism
Rosicrucianism is a movement which incorporates the Hermetic philosophy. It dates back to the 17th century. The sources dating the existence of the Rosicrucians to the 17th century are three German pamphlets: the Fama, the Confessio Fraternitatis, and The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz. Some scholars believe these to be hoaxes and say that later Rosicrucian organizations are the first actual appearance of a Rosicrucian society.[56] This argument is hard to sustain given that original copies are in existence, including a Fama Fraternitatis at the University of Illinois and another in the New York Public Library. The Rosicrucian Order consists of a secret inner body and a public outer body that is under the direction of the inner body. It has a graded system in which members move up in rank and gain access to more knowledge. There is no fee for advancement. Once a member has been deemed able to understand the teaching, he moves on to the next higher grade. The Fama Fraternitatis states that the Brothers of the Fraternity are to profess no other thing than "to cure the sick, and that gratis." The Rosicrucian spiritual path incorporates: philosophy, kabbalah, and divine magic.

Hermeticism The Order is symbolized by the rose (the soul) and the cross (the body). The unfolding rose represents the human soul acquiring greater consciousness while living in a body on the material plane.

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Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

Unlike the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was open to both sexes and treated them as equals. The Order was a specifically Hermetic society that taught alchemy, kabbalah, and the magic of Hermes, along with the principles of occult science. The Golden Dawn maintained the tightest of secrecy, which was enforced by severe penalties for those who disclosed its secrets. Overall, the general public was left oblivious of the actions, and even of the existence, of the Order, so few if any secrets were disclosed.[57] Its secrecy was broken first by Aleister Crowley in 1905 and later by Israel Regardie in 1940. Regardie gave a detailed account of the Order's teachings to the general public.[58] Regardie had once claimed that there are many occult orders which learned whatever they know of magic from what had been leaked from the Golden Dawn by those whom Regardie deemed "renegade members."[citation needed] The Stella Matutina was a successor society of the Golden Dawn.

Esoteric Christianity
Hermeticism remains influential within esoteric Christianity, especially in Martinism.

Mystical Neopaganism
Hermeticism remains influential within Neopaganism, especially in Hellenism.

References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?title=Template:Hermeticism& action=edit http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?title=Template:Spirituality_sidebar& action=edit Churton p. 4 "Hermeticism" The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions Heiser, James D., Prisci Theologi and the Hermetic Reformation in the Fifteenth Century, Repristination Press, Texas: 2011. ISBN 978-1-4610-9382-4 [6] Yates, F., Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, Routledge, London, 1964, pp 1418 and pp 433434 [7] Hanegraaff, W. J., New Age Religion and Western Culture, SUNY, 1998, p 360. [8] Yates, F., Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, Routledge, London, 1964, pp 915 and pp 6166 and p 413 [9] Heiser, J., Prisci Theologi and the Hermetic Reformation in the Fifteenth Century", Repristination Press, Texas, 2011 [ISBN 978-1-4610-9382-4] [10] Scully p. 322. [11] Copenhaver, Hermetica, p. xlviii [12] Copenhaver, Hermetica, p. xli [13] Collectanea Hermetica Edited by W. Wynn. Westcott Volume 2. [14] See Dufresnoy,Histoire del' Art Hermetique, vol. iii. Cat. Gr. MSS. [15] A Suggestive Inquiry into Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy by Mary Anne Atwood 1850. [16] van den Broek and Hanegraaff (1997) distinguish Hermetism in late antiquity from Hermeticism in the Renaissance revival. [17] van den Broek and Hanegraaff (1997), p. vii. [18] Stephan A. Hoeller, On the Trail of the Winged GodHermes and Hermeticism Throughout the Age, Gnosis: A Journal of Western Inner Traditions (Vol. 40, Summer 1996). [19] This Leonardo di Pistoia was a monk (http:/ / www. ritmanlibrary. nl/ c/ p/ lib/ coll. html), not to be confused with the artist Leonardo da Pistoia who was not born until c.1483 CE. [20] Salaman, Van Oyen, Wharton and Mah,The Way of Hermes, p. 9 [21] Tambiah Magic, Science, Religion, and the Scope of Rationality pp. 2728. [22] The Way of Hermes, p. 9. [23] Abel and Hare p. 7. [24] The Way of Hermes, pp. 910.

Hermeticism
[25] http:/ / www. sacred-texts. com/ eso/ pym/ pym11. htm [26] Yates, F., Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, Routledge, London, 1964, p 27 and p 293 [27] Yates, F., Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, Routledge, London, 1964, p52 [28] Copenhaver, B.P., "Hermetica", Cambridge University Press, 1992, p xlviii. [29] Scully p. 321. [30] Garstin p. 35. [31] Hall The Hermetic Marriage p. 227. [32] Eliade The Forge and the Crucible p. 149 and p. 155157 [33] Geber Summa Perfectionis [34] Powell pp. 1920. [35] Garstin p. v [36] Garstin p. 6 [37] Garstin p. vi [38] The Way of Hermes p. 33. [39] The Way of Hermes p. 42. [40] The Way of Hermes p. 28. [41] The Way of Hermes p. 47. [42] The Way of Hermes pp. 323. [43] The Way of Hermes p. 29. [44] The Poimandres [45] Hermetica Volume 1, pg 457 ff (http:/ / books. google. ca/ books?id=dk38iSa-hvQC& printsec=frontcover& dq=hermetica+ volume+ 1& hl=en& sa=X& ei=esfaUOuIMeSQ0QGy2oGoCQ& ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage& q=Isis to Horus& f=false) [46] Churton p. 5. [47] Heiser, James D., Prisci Theologi and the Hermetic Reformation in the Fifteenth Century, Repristination Press: Texas, 2011. ISBN 978-1-4610-9382-4 [48] Abel & Hare p. 12. [49] Walter Scott, Hermetica Volume 1, pg 457 (http:/ / books. google. ca/ books?id=dk38iSa-hvQC& printsec=frontcover& dq=hermetica+ volume+ 1& hl=en& sa=X& ei=esfaUOuIMeSQ0QGy2oGoCQ& ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage& q=Isis to Horus& f=false) [50] Salaman, Van Oyen, Wharton and Mah, The Way of Hermes (http:/ / books. google. ca/ books?id=1JoqHAAACAAJ& dq=way+ of+ hermes& hl=en& sa=X& ei=D8jaULObKsKB0AGk2oGYCw& ved=0CDwQ6AEwAA) [51] "A Suggestive Inquiry into Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy" with an introduction by Isabelle de Steiger [52] "Hermetic Papers of A. E. Waite: the Unknown Writings of a Modern Mystic" Edited by R. A. Gilbert. [53] "The Pymander of Hermes" Volume 2, Collectanea Hermetica" published by The Theosophical Publishing Society in 1894. [54] Regardie p. 17. [55] Regardie pp. 156. [56] Prof. Carl Edwin Lindgren, "The Rose Cross, A Historical and Philosophical View" http:/ / users. panola. com/ lindgren/ rosecross. html [57] Regardie pp. 157. [58] Regardie p. ix.

52

Bibliography
Abel, Christopher R. and Hare, William O. (1997). Hermes Trismegistus: An Investigation of the Origin of the Hermetic Writings. Sequim: Holmes Publishing Group. Anonymous (2002). Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin. Budge, E. A. Wallis (1895). The Egyptian Book of the Dead: (The Papyrus of Ani) Egyptian Text Transliteration and Translation. New York: Dover Publications. Churton, Tobias. The Golden Builders: Alchemists, Rosicrucians, and the First Freemasons. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2002. Copenhaver, Brian P. (1992). Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a new English translation, with notes and introduction (1st ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-42543-3. Garstin, E.J. Langford (2004). Theurgy or The Hermetic Practice. Berwick: Ibis Press. Published Posthumously Heiser, James D. (2011). Prisci Theologi and the Hermetic Reformation in the Fifteenth Century. Texas: Repristination Press. ISBN978-1-4610-9382-4.

Hermeticism Hoeller, Stephan A. On the Trail of the Winged God: Hermes and Hermeticism Throughout the Ages, Gnosis: A Journal of Western Inner Traditions (Vol. 40, Summer 1996). Also at "Hermes and Hermeticism" (http://www. gnosis.org/hermes.htm). Gnosis.org. Retrieved 2009-11-09. Powell, Robert A. (1991). Christian Hermetic Astrology: The Star of the Magi and the Life of Christ. Hudson: Anthroposohic Press. Regardie, Israel (1940). The Golden Dawn. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications. Salaman, Clement and Van Oyen, Dorine and Wharton, William D. and Mah, Jean-Pierre (2000). The Way of Hermes: New Translations of The Corpus Heremticum and The Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius. Rochester: Inner Traditions. Scully, Nicki (2003). Alchemical Healing: A Guide to Spiritual, Physical, and Transformational Medicine. Rochester: Bear & Company. Yates, Frances (1964). Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. University of Chicago Press. ISBN0-226-95007-7.

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External links
Online Version of the Corpus Hermeticum, version translated by [[John Everard (preacher)|John Everard (http:// www.levity.com/alchemy/corpherm.html)] in 1650 CE from Latin version] Online Version of The Virgin of the World of Hermes Trismegistus, version translated by Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland in 1885 A.D. (http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/vow/index.htm) Online version of The Kybalion (1912) (http://www.gnostic.org/kybalionhtm/kybalion.htm) The Kybalion Resource Page (http://www.kybalion.org) An introduction to Hermeticism by Paul Newall (2004) (http://www.galilean-library.org/manuscript. php?postid=43803) Hermetics Resource Site (http://www.hermetics.org)Many Hermetics texts The Hermetic Library (http://www.hermetic.com)A collection of texts and sites relating to Hermeticism Hermeticism (http://www.dmoz.org/society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Esoteric_and_Occult/Hermeticism) on the Open Directory Project TransAlchemy (http://www.transalchemy.com)-Modern scientific and singularitarian Hermetic research

List of Renaissance humanists

54

List of Renaissance humanists

This is a list of Renaissance humanists.

Renaissance humanists
The careers of individual humanists throw light on the movement as a whole. Petrarch (1304-1375) (Italian) Nicholas of Kues (1401-1464) (German) Simon Atumano (?-c.1380) (Greco-Turkish) Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) (Italian) Francesc Eiximenis (c. 1330-1409) (Catalan) Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406) (Italian) Geert Groote (1340-1384) (Dutch) Bernat Metge (c.1340-1413) (Catalan) Manuel Chrysoloras (c.1355-1415) (Greek) George Gemistos Plethon (c.1355-1452/1454) (Greek) Niccol de' Niccoli (1364-1437) (Italian) Leonardo Bruni (c.1369-1444) (Italian) Guarino da Verona (1370-1460) (Italian) Vittorino da Feltre (1378 - 1446) (Italian) Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459) (Italian) Cosimo de Medici (1389-1464) (Italian) Peter, Duke of Coimbra (1392-1449) (Portuguese) Flavio Biondo (1392-1463) (Italian) Zachary Wolf Quenum (1396-1479) (English, Swiss, French) George of Trebizond (1395-1486) (Greek) Francesco Filelfo (1398-1481) (Italian) igo L pez de Mendoza, marqus de Santillana (1398-1458) (Spanish) Theodorus Gaza (c.1400-1475) (Greek) Bessarion (1403-1472) (Greek) Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II) (1405-1464) (Italian) Niccol Perotti (1429-1480) (Italian) Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) (Italian) John Doget (c.1434-1501) (English) Stefano Infessura (c.1435-c.1500) (Italian) Francisco Ximnez de Cisneros (1436-1517) (Spanish) Giovanni Michele Alberto da Carrara (14381490) (Italian) Antonio de Nebrija (1441-1522) (Spanish) Rodolphus Agricola (1443-1485) (Frisian) Lucio Marineo Siculo (1444-1533) (Italian) Janus Lascaris (c.1445-1535) (Greek) William Grocyn (c.1446-1519) (English) Johannes Stffler (1452-1531) (German)

Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522) (German) Peter Martyr D'Anghiera (1457-1526) (Italian) Jacopo Sannazaro (1458-1530) (Italian)

List of Renaissance humanists Johannes Trithemius (1462-1516) (German) Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) (Italian) Hector Boece (14651536) (Scottish) Desiderius Erasmus (c.1466-1536) (Dutch) Niccol Machiavelli (1469-1527) (Italian) Henrique Caiado (1470-1509) (Portuguese) Aires de Figueiredo Barbosa (1470-1540) (Portuguese) Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) (Italian) Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) (Italian) Thomas More (1478-1535) (English) Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529) (Italian) Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520) (Italian) Bartolome de las Casas (1484-1566) (Spanish) Alphonsus Ciacconius (1540-1599) (Spanish) Pieter Gillis (1486-1533) (Flemish) Sigismund von Herberstein (1486-1566) (Austrian/Slovene) Macropedius (1487-1558) (Dutch) Pietro Alcionio (c.1487-1527) (Italian) Alfonso de Valds (1490-1532) (Spanish) Joan Bosc i Almogver (c.1490?-1542) (Hispanic-Catalan) Pietro Aretino (1492-1556) (Italian) Joan Llus Vives i March (1492-1540) (Hispanic-Valencian) Franois Rabelais (c.1494-1553) (French) Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) (German) Pier Paolo Vergerio (1498-1565) (Italian) Andre de Resende (1498-1573) (Portuguese) Janus Cornarius (1500-1558) (German) Damio de G is (1502-1574) (Portuguese) Giovanni della Casa (1503-1556) (Italian) George Buchanan (1506-1582) (Scottish) Arnoldus Arlenius (c.1510-1582) (Dutch) Michael Servetus (1511-1553) (Spanish) Francis Robortello (1516-1567) (Italian) Johannes Goropius Becanus (1519-1572) (Dutch) tienne de La Botie (15301563) (French) Michel de Montaigne (15331592) (French) Justus Lipsius (1547-1606) (Flemish) Giordano Bruno (15481600) (Italian) Ignazio Cardini (1566-1602) (Corsican/Italian) Thomas Reid (?1624) (Scottish) David Hume of Godscroft (15581629) (Scottish) Gian Vittorio Rossi (1577 1647) Italian poet, philologist, and historian.

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56

SECULAR HUMANISM
Secular humanism
Part of a Philosophy series on

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Secular humanism

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Ethical culture Marxist humanism Deistic humanism Cosmic humanism Existential humanism Neohumanism Rationalist humanism Integral humanism Transhumanism Personism Posthumanism Antihumanism Philosophy portal

e [1]

v t

The philosophy or life stance of secular humanism (alternatively known by some adherents as Humanism, specifically with a capital H to distinguish it from other forms of humanism) embraces human reason, ethics, social justice and philosophical naturalism, while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, pseudoscience or superstition as the basis of morality and decision making.[1] It posits that human beings are capable of being ethical and moral without religion or a god. It does not, however, assume that humans are either inherently evil or innately good, nor does it present humans as being superior to nature. Rather, the humanist life stance emphasizes the unique responsibility facing humanity and the ethical consequences of human decisions. Fundamental to the concept of secular humanism is the strongly held viewpoint that ideologybe it religious or politicalmust be thoroughly examined by each individual and not simply accepted or rejected on faith. Along with this, an essential part of secular humanism is a continually adapting search for truth, primarily through science and philosophy. Many Humanists derive their moral codes from a philosophy of utilitarianism, ethical naturalism or evolutionary ethics, and some advocate a science of morality. The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) is the world union of more than one hundred Humanist, rationalist, irreligious, atheistic, Bright, secular, Ethical Culture, and freethought organizations in more than 40 countries. The "Happy Human" is the official symbol of the IHEU as well as being regarded as a universally recognised symbol for those who call themselves Humanists. Secular humanist organizations are found in all parts of the world. Those who call themselves humanists are estimated to number between four and five million people worldwide.

Terminology
The meaning of the phrase secular humanism has evolved over time. The phrase has been used since at least the 1930s,[2] and in 1943, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, was reported as warning that the "Christian tradition... was in danger of being undermined by a 'Secular Humanism' which hoped to retain Christian values without Christian faith."[3] During the 1960s and 1970s the term was embraced by some humanists who considered themselves anti-religious,[4] as well as those who, although not critical of religion in its various guises, preferred a non-religious approach. The release in 1980 of A Secular Humanist Declaration by the newly formed Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH, now the Council for Secular Humanism) gave secular humanism an organisational identity within the United States. However, many adherents of the approach reject the use of the word secular as obfuscating and confusing, and consider that the term secular humanism has been "demonized by the religious right... All too often secular humanism is reduced to a sterile outlook consisting of little more than secularism slightly broadened by academic

Secular humanism ethics. This kind of 'hyphenated humanism' easily becomes more about the adjective than its referent".[5] Adherents of this view, including the International Humanist and Ethical Union and the American Humanist Association, consider that the unmodified but capitalised word Humanism should be used. The endorsement by the IHEU of the capitalization of the word Humanism, and the dropping of any adjective such as secular, is quite recent. The American Humanist Association began to adopt this view in 1973, and the IHEU formally endorsed the position in 1989. In 2002 the IHEU General Assembly unanimously adopted the Amsterdam Declaration, which represents the official defining statement of World Humanism for Humanists. This declaration makes exclusive use of capitalized Humanist and Humanism, which is consistent with IHEU's general practice and recommendations for promoting a unified Humanist identity.[6] To further promote Humanist identity, these words are also free of any adjectives, as recommended by prominent members of IHEU.[7] Such usage is not universal among IHEU member organizations, though most of them do observe these conventions.

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History
The term secularism was coined in 1851[8] by George Jacob Holyoake to describe "a form of opinion which concerns itself only with questions, the issues of which can be tested by the experience of this life." Once a staunch Owenite, Holyoake was strongly influenced by Auguste Comte, the founder of positivism and of modern sociology. Comte believed human history would progress in a "law of three stages" from a theological phase, to the "metaphysical", toward a fully rational "positivist" society. In later life, Comte had attempted to introduce a "religion of humanity" in light of growing anti-religious sentiment and social malaise in revolutionary France. This religion would necessarily fulfil the functional, cohesive role that supernatural religion once served. While Comte's religious movement was unsuccessful, the positivist philosophy of science itself played a major role in the proliferation of secular organizations in the 19th century. Historical use of the term humanism (reflected in some current academic usage), is related to the writings of pre-Socratic philosophers. These writings were lost to European societies until Renaissance scholars rediscovered them through Muslim sources and translated them from Arabic into European languages. Thus the term humanist can mean a humanities scholar, as well as refer to The Enlightenment/ Renaissance intellectuals, and those who have agreement with the pre-Socratics, as distinct from secular humanists. In the 1930s, "humanism" was generally used in a religious sense by the Ethical movement in the United States, and not much favoured among the non-religious in Britain. Yet "it was from the Ethical movement that the non-religious philosophical sense of Humanism gradually emerged in Britain, and it was from the convergence of the Ethical and Rationalist movements that this sense of Humanism eventually prevailed throughout the Freethought movement".[9] As an organized movement, Humanism itself is quite recent born at the University of Chicago in the 1920s, and made public in 1933 with the publication of the first Humanist Manifesto. The American Humanist Association was incorporated as an Illinois non-profit organization in 1943. The International Humanist and Ethical Union was founded in 1952, when a gathering of world Humanists met under the leadership of Sir Julian Huxley. The British Humanist Association took that name in 1967, but had developed from the Union of Ethical Societies which had been founded by Stanton Coit in 1896.

Secular humanism

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Manifestos and declarations

Humanists have put together various Humanist Manifestos, in attempts to unify the Humanist identity. The original signers of the first Humanist Manifesto of 1933, declared themselves to be religious humanists. Because, in their view, traditional religions were failing to meet the needs of their day, the signers of 1933 declared it a necessity to establish a religion that was a dynamic force to meet the needs of the day. However, this "religion" did not profess a belief in any god. Since then two additional Manifestos were written to replace the first. In the Preface of Humanist Manifesto II, in 1973, the authors Paul Kurtz and Edwin H. Wilson assert that faith and knowledge are required for a hopeful vision for the future. Manifesto II references a section on Religion and states traditional religion renders a disservice to humanity. ManifestoII recognizes the following groups to be part of their naturalistic philosophy: "scientific", "ethical", "democratic", "religious", and "Marxist" humanism.

International Humanist and Ethical Union

In 2002, the IHEU General Assembly unanimously adopted the Amsterdam Declaration 2002 which represents the official defining statement of World Humanism. All member organisations of the International Humanist and Ethical Union are required by bylaw 5.1 to accept the Minimum Statement on Humanism:
Organizations like the International Humanist and Ethical Union use the "Happy Human" symbol, based on a 1965 design by Denis Barrington

Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality.

To promote and unify "Humanist" identity, prominent members of the IHEU have endorsed the following statements on Humanist identity:[7] All Humanists, nationally and internationally, should always use the one word Humanism as the name of Humanism: no added adjective, and the initial letter capital (by life stance orthography); All Humanists, nationally and internationally, should use a clear, recognizable and uniform symbol on their publications and elsewhere: our Humanist symbol the "Happy Human"; All Humanists, nationally and internationally, should seek to establish recognition of the fact that Humanism is a life stance.

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Council for Secular Humanism

According to the Council for Secular Humanism, within the United States, the term "secular humanism" describes a world view with the following elements and principles: Need to test beliefs A conviction that dogmas, ideologies and traditions, whether religious, political or social, must be weighed and tested by each individual and not simply accepted by faith. Reason, evidence, scientific method A commitment to the use of critical reason, factual evidence and scientific method of inquiry in seeking solutions to human problems and answers to important human questions. Fulfillment, growth, creativity A primary concern with fulfillment, growth and creativity for both the individual and humankind in general. Search for truth A constant search for objective truth, with the understanding that new knowledge and experience constantly alter our imperfect perception of it. This life A concern for this life (as opposed to an afterlife) and a commitment to making it meaningful through better understanding of ourselves, our history, our intellectual and artistic achievements, and the outlooks of those who differ from us. Ethics A search for viable individual, social and political principles of ethical conduct, judging them on their ability to enhance human well-being and individual responsibility. Justice and fairness an interest in securing justice and fairness in society and in eliminating discrimination and intolerance. Building a better world A conviction that with reason, an open exchange of ideas, good will, and tolerance, progress can be made in building a better world for ourselves and our children. A Secular Humanist Declaration was issued in 1980 by the Council for Secular Humanism's predecessor, CODESH. It lays out ten ideals: Free inquiry as opposed to censorship and imposition of belief; separation of church and state; the ideal of freedom from religious control and from jingoistic government control; ethics based on critical intelligence rather than that deduced from religious belief; moral education; religious skepticism; reason; a belief in science and technology as the best way of understanding the world; evolution; and education as the essential method of building humane, free, and democratic societies.

American Humanist Association

General doctrines of Humanism are also set out in the Humanist Manifesto prepared by the American Humanist Association.

Ethics and relationship to religious belief

In the 20th and 21st centuries, members of Humanist organizations have disagreed as to whether Humanism is a religion. They categorize themselves in one of three ways. Religious Humanism, in the tradition of the earliest Humanist organizations in the UK and US, attempts to fulfill the traditional social role of religion.[10] Secular humanism considers all forms of religion, including religious Humanism, to be superseded. In order to sidestep disagreements between these two factions, recent Humanist proclamations define Humanism as a "life stance"; proponents of this view making up the third faction. All three types of Humanism (and all three of the American Humanist Association's manifestos) reject deference to supernatural beliefs; promoting the practical, methodological naturalism of science, but also going further and supporting the philosophical stance of metaphysical naturalism.[11] The result is an approach to issues in a secular way. Humanism addresses ethics without reference to the supernatural as well, attesting that ethics is a human enterprise (see naturalistic ethics). Secular humanism does not prescribe a specific theory of morality or code of ethics. As stated by the Council for Secular Humanism,

Secular humanism It should be noted that Secular Humanism is not so much a specific morality as it is a method for the explanation and discovery of rational moral principles. Secular humanism affirms that with the present state of scientific knowledge, dogmatic belief in an absolutist moral/ethical system (e.g. Kantian, Islamic, Christian) is unreasonable. However, it affirms that individuals engaging in rational moral/ethical deliberations can discover some universal "objective standards". We are opposed to absolutist morality, yet we maintain that objective standards emerge, and ethical values and principles may be discovered, in the course of ethical deliberation. Many Humanists adopt principles of the Golden Rule. Some believe that universal moral standards are required for the proper functioning of society. However, they believe such necessary universality can and should be achieved by developing a richer notion of morality through reason, experience and scientific inquiry rather than through faith in a supernatural realm or source.[citation needed] Fundamentalists correctly perceive that universal moral standards are required for the proper functioning of society. But they erroneously believe that God is the only possible source of such standards. Philosophers as diverse as Plato, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, George Edward Moore, and John Rawls have demonstrated that it is possible to have a universal morality without God. Contrary to what the fundamentalists would have us believe, then, what our society really needs is not more religion but a richer notion of the nature of morality. Humanism is compatible with atheism and agnosticism, but being atheist or agnostic does not, itself, make one a Humanist. Nevertheless, humanism is diametrically opposed to state atheism. According to Paul Kurtz, considered by some to be the founder of the American secular humanist movement, one of the differences between Marxist-Leninist atheists and humanists is the latter's commitment to "human freedom and democracy" while stating that the militant atheism of the Soviet Union consistently violated basic human rights. Kurtz also stated that the "defense of religious liberty is as precious to the humanist as are the rights of the believers". Greg M. Epstein states that, "modern, organized Humanism began, in the minds of its founders, as nothing more nor less than a religion without a God". Many Humanists address ethics from the point of view of ethical naturalism, and some support an actual science of morality.[12] Some philosophers like Peter Singer see Humanism as speciesist and lend themselves to more of a Personism.[citation needed]

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Modern context
Secular humanist organizations are found in all parts of the world. Those who call themselves humanists are estimated to number between four and five million people worldwide in 31 countries, but there is uncertainty because of the lack of universal definition throughout censuses. Humanism is a non-theistic belief system and, as such, it could be a sub-category of "Religion" only if that term is defined to mean "Religion and (any) belief system". This is the case in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on freedom of religion and beliefs. Many national censuses David Niose, president of the American Humanist contentiously define Humanism as a further sub-category of the Association, speaks at a 2012 conference. sub-category "No Religion", which typically includes atheist, rationalist and agnostic thought. In England, Wales and Australia,[13][14] around 15% of the population specifies "No Religion" in the national census. However, in its 2006 and 2011 census Australia used Humanism as an example of "other religions". In the USA, the decennial census does not inquire about religious affiliation or its lack; surveys report the figure at roughly 13%. In the 2001 Canadian census, 16.5% of the populace reported having no religious

Secular humanism affiliation. In Scotland, the figure is 28%. One of the largest Humanist organizations in the world (relative to population) is Norway's Human-Etisk Forbund,[15] which had over 70,000 members out of a population of around 4.6 million in 2004 (1.5% of the population).[16] The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) is the worldwide umbrella organization for those adhering to the Humanist life stance. It represents the views of over three million Humanists organized in over 100 national organizations in 30 countries.[17] Originally based in the Netherlands, the IHEU now operates from London. Some regional groups that adhere to variants of the Humanist life stance, such as the humanist subgroup of the Unitarian Universalist Association, do not belong to the IHEU. Although the European Humanist Federation is also separate from the IHEU, the two organisations work together and share an agreed protocol.

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Starting in the mid-20th century, religious fundamentalists and the religious right began using the term "secular humanism" in hostile fashion. Francis A. Schaeffer, an American theologian based in Switzerland, seizing upon the exclusion of the divine from most humanist writings, argued that rampant secular humanism would lead to moral relativism and ethical bankruptcy in his book How Should We Then Live: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture (1976). Schaeffer portrayed secular humanism as pernicious and diabolical, and warned it would undermine the moral and spiritual tablet of America. His themes have been very widely repeated in Fundamentalist preaching in North America.[18] Toumey (1993) found that secular humanism is typically portrayed as a vast evil conspiracy, deceitful and immoral, responsible for feminism, pornography, abortion, homosexuality, and New Age spirituality.[19] In certain areas of the world, Humanism finds itself in conflict with religious fundamentalism, especially over the issue of the separation of church and state. Many Humanists see religions as superstitious, repressive and closed-minded, while religious fundamentalists may see Humanists as a threat to the values set out in their sacred texts.

Levi Fragell, former Secretary General of the Norwegian Humanist Association and former president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, at the World Humanist Congress 2011 in Oslo

Humanist celebrations
Some Humanists celebrate official religion-based public holidays, such as Christmas or Easter, but as secular holidays rather than religious ones.[20] Many Humanists also celebrate the winter and summer solstice, the former of which (in the northern hemisphere) is the root of the celebration of Christmas, and the equinoxes, of which the vernal equinox is associated with Christianity's Easter and indeed with all other springtime festivals of renewal, and the autumnal equinox which is related to such celebrations such as Halloween and All Souls' Day. The Society for Humanistic Judaism celebrates most Jewish holidays in a secular manner. The IHEU endorses World Humanist Day (21 June), Darwin Day (12 February), Human Rights Day (10 December) and HumanLight (23 December) as official days of Humanist celebration, though none are yet a public holiday. In many countries, Humanist officiants (or celebrants) perform celebrancy services for weddings, funerals, child namings, coming of age ceremonies, and other rituals.

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Legal mentions in the United States

The issue of whether and in what sense secular humanism might be considered a religion, and what the implications of this would be has become the subject of legal maneuvering and political debate in the United States. The first reference to "secular humanism" in a US legal context was in 1961, although church-state separation lawyer Leo Pfeffer had referred to it in his 1958 book, Creeds in Competition.

Hatch amendment
The Education for Economic Security Act of 1984 included a section, Section 20 U.S.C.A. 4059, which initially read: "Grants under this subchapter ['Magnet School Assistance'] may not be used for consultants, for transportation or for any activity which does not augment academic improvement." With no public notice, Senator Orrin Hatch tacked onto the proposed exclusionary subsection the words "or for any course of instruction the substance of which is Secular Humanism". Implementation of this provision ran into practical problems because neither the Senator's staff, nor the Senate's Committee on Labor and Human Resources, nor the Department of Justice could propose a definition of what would constitute a "course of instruction the substance of which is Secular Humanism". So, this determination was left up to local school boards. The provision provoked a storm of controversy which within a year led Senator Hatch to propose, and Congress to pass, an amendment to delete from the statute all reference to secular humanism. While this episode did not dissuade fundamentalists from continuing to object to what they regarded as the "teaching of Secular Humanism", it did point out the vagueness of the claim.

Case law
Torcaso v. Watkins The phrase "secular humanism" became prominent after it was used in the United States Supreme Court case Torcaso v. Watkins. In the 1961 decision, Justice Hugo Black commented in a footnote, "Among religions in this country which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God are Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism, and others." Fellowship of Humanity v. County of Alameda The footnote in Torcaso v. Watkins referenced Fellowship of Humanity v. County of Alameda,[21] a 1957 case in which an organization of humanists[22] sought a tax exemption on the ground that they used their property "solely and exclusively for religious worship." Despite the group's non-theistic beliefs, the court determined that the activities of the Fellowship of Humanity, which included weekly Sunday meetings, were analogous to the activities of theistic churches and thus entitled to an exemption. The Fellowship of Humanity case itself referred to Humanism but did not mention the term secular humanism. Nonetheless, this case was cited by Justice Black to justify the inclusion of secular humanism in the list of religions in his note. Presumably Justice Black added the word secular to emphasize the non-theistic nature of the Fellowship of Humanity and distinguish their brand of humanism from that associated with, for example, Christian humanism. Washington Ethical Society v. District of Columbia Another case alluded to in the Torcaso v. Watkins footnote, and said by some to have established secular humanism as a religion under the law, is the 1957 tax case of Washington Ethical Society v. District of Columbia, 249 F.2d 127 (D.C. Cir. 1957). The Washington Ethical Society functions much like a church, but regards itself as a non-theistic religious institution, honoring the importance of ethical living without mandating a belief in a supernatural origin for ethics. The case involved denial of the Society's application for tax exemption as a religious organization. The U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the Tax Court's ruling, defined the Society as a religious organization, and granted its tax exemption. The Society terms its practice Ethical Culture. Though Ethical Culture is based on a humanist philosophy, it is regarded by some as a type of religious humanism. Hence, it would seem most accurate to say that

Secular humanism this case affirmed that a religion need not be theistic to qualify as a religion under the law, rather than asserting that it established generic secular humanism as a religion. In the cases of both the Fellowship of Humanity and the Washington Ethical Society, the court decisions turned not so much on the particular beliefs of practitioners as on the function and form of the practice being similar to the function and form of the practices in other religious institutions. Peloza v. Capistrano School District The implication in Justice Black's footnote that secular humanism is a religion has been seized upon by religious opponents of the teaching of evolution, who have made the argument that teaching evolution amounts to teaching a religious idea. The claim that secular humanism could be considered a religion for legal purposes was examined by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Peloza v. Capistrano School District, 37 F.3d 517 (9th Cir. 1994), cert. denied, 515 U.S. 1173 (1995). In this case, a science teacher argued that, by requiring him to teach evolution, his school district was forcing him to teach the "religion" of secular humanism. The Court responded, "We reject this claim because neither the Supreme Court, nor this circuit, has ever held that evolutionism or Secular Humanism are 'religions' for Establishment Clause purposes." The Supreme Court refused to review the case. The decision in a subsequent case, Kalka v. Hawk et al., offered this commentary: The Court's statement in Torcaso does not stand for the proposition that humanism, no matter in what form and no matter how practiced, amounts to a religion under the First Amendment. The Court offered no test for determining what system of beliefs qualified as a "religion" under the First Amendment. The most one may read into the Torcaso footnote is the idea that a particular non-theistic group calling itself the "Fellowship of Humanity" qualified as a religious organization under California law.

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Controversy
Decisions about tax status have been based on whether an organization functions like a church. On the other hand, Establishment Clause cases turn on whether the ideas or symbols involved are inherently religious. An organization can function like a church while advocating beliefs that are not necessarily inherently religious. Author Marci Hamilton has pointed out: "Moreover, the debate is not between secularists and the religious. The debate is believers and non-believers on the one side debating believers and non-believers on the other side. You've got citizens who are [...] of faith who believe in the separation of church and state and you have a set of believers who do not believe in the separation of church and state."[23] In the 1987 case of Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County a group of plaintiffs brought a case alleging that the school system was teaching the tenets of an anti-religious religion called "secular humanism" in violation of the Establishment Clause. The complainants asked that 44 different elementary through high school level textbooks (including books on home economics, social science and literature) be removed from the curriculum. Federal judge William Brevard Hand ruled for the plaintiffs agreeing that the books promoted secular humanism, which he ruled to be a religion. The Eleventh Circuit Court unanimously reversed him, with Judge Frank stating that Hand held a "misconception of the relationship between church and state mandated by the establishment clause," commenting also that the textbooks did not show "an attitude antagonistic to theistic belief. The message conveyed by these textbooks is one of neutrality: the textbooks neither endorse theistic religion as a system of belief, nor discredit it."

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Manifestos
There are numerous Humanist Manifestos and Declarations, including the following: Humanist Manifesto I [24] (1933) Humanist Manifesto II [25] (1973) A Secular Humanist Declaration [26] (1980) A Declaration of Interdependence [27] (1988) IHEU Minimum Statement on Humanism [28] (1996) HUMANISM: Why, What, and What For, In 882 Words [29] (1996) Humanist Manifesto 2000: A Call For A New Planetary Humanism [30] (2000) The Affirmations of Humanism: A Statement of Principles [31] Amsterdam Declaration [32] (2002) Humanism and Its Aspirations Humanist Manifesto III (Humanism And Its Aspirations) [33] (2003)

Related organizations
American Atheists American Humanist Association Brights British Humanist Association Camp Quest Campus Freethought Alliance Center for Inquiry City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal Council for Secular Humanism (formerly CODESH) Council of Australian Humanist Societies Ethical Culture European Humanist Federation Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations Fellowship of Reason Freedom From Religion Foundation Godless Americans Political Action Committee Humani (the Humanist Association of Northern Ireland) Humanist Association of Canada Humanist Association of Ireland Humanist Society of Scotland Institute for Humanist Studies International Humanist and Ethical Union Internet Infidels Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers National Center for Science Education National Secular Society (UK) New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society Quackwatch Scouting for All Secular Student Alliance Secular Web Sidmennt (Iceland) Skeptics Society Society for Humanistic Judaism Swedish Humanist Association Washington Area Secular Humanists World Transhumanist Association

Notes
[1] A decidedly anti-theistic version of secular humanism, however, is developed by Adolf Grnbaum, 'In Defense of Secular Humanism' (1995), in his Collected Works (edited by Thomas Kupka), vol. I, New York: Oxford University Press 2013, ch. 6 (pp. 115-148) [2] See "Unemployed at service: church and the world", The Guardian, 25 May 1935, p.18: citing the comments of Rev. W.G. Peck, rector of St. John the Baptist, Hulme Manchester, concerning "The modern age of secular humanism". Guardian and Observer Digital Archive (http:/ / archive. guardian. co. uk) [3] "Free Church ministers in Anglican pulpits. Dr Temple's call: the South India Scheme." The Guardian, 26 May 1943, p.6 Guardian and Observer Digital Archive (http:/ / archive. guardian. co. uk) [4] See Mouat, Kit (1972) An Introduction to Secular Humanism. Haywards Heath: Charles Clarke Ltd. Also, The Freethinker began to use the phrase "secular humanist monthly" on its front page masthead. [5] Humanism Unmodified (http:/ / www. thehumanist. org/ humanist/ articles/ DoerrND02. htm) By Edd Doerr. Published in the Humanist (November/December 2002)

Secular humanism
[6] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ Secular_humanism#endnote_Webbs [7] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ Secular_humanism#endnote_Blackham [8] Holyoake, G. J. (1896). The Origin and Nature of Secularism. London: Watts & Co., p.50. [9] Walter, Nicolas (1997). Humanism: what's in the word? London: RPA/BHA/Secular Society Ltd, p.43. [10] This book quotes the constitution of the Humanistic Religious Association of London, founded in 1853, as saying, "In forming ourselves into a progressive religious body, we have adopted the name 'Humanistic Religious Association' to convey the idea that Religion is a principle inherent in man and is a means of developing his being towards greater perfection. We have emancipated ourselves from the ancient compulsory dogmas, myths and ceremonies borrowed of old from Asia and still pervading the ruling churches of our age". [11] Eugenie C. Scott, National Centre for Science and Education, "Science and Religion, Methodology and Humanism". Example quote: " The same principle applies to philosophical materialism, the view at the foundation of our Humanism; we may derive this view from science, but an ideology drawn from science is not the same as science itself... I have argued that a clear distinction must be drawn between science as a way of knowing about the natural world and science as a foundation for philosophical views. One should be taught to our children in school, and the other can optionally be taught to our children at home. " (http:/ / ncse. com/ religion/ science-religion-methodology-humanism) [12] Secular humanists John Shook and Sam Harris advocate, for example (http:/ / www. centerforinquiry. net/ blogs/ entry/ the_science_of_morality/ ) [13] RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION (http:/ / www. abs. gov. au/ Ausstats/ abs@. nsf/ 0/ BFDDA1CA506D6CFACA2570DE0014496E?opendocument) Australian Bureau of Statistics [14] RELP Religious Affiliation 1st Release (http:/ / www. abs. gov. au/ Ausstats/ abs@. nsf/ 0/ B783FA5B03524218CA256B3B00149F9B?opendocument) Australian Bureau of Statistics [15] Human-Etisk Forbund The Norwegian Humanist Association (http:/ / www. human. no/ templates/ Page____2067. aspx) [16] Statistics Norway Members of religious1 and philosophical2 communities outside the Church of Norway. 19902004. Numbers and per cent (http:/ / www. ssb. no/ english/ subjects/ 07/ 02/ 10/ trosamf_en/ tab-2004-10-21-01-en. html) [17] American humanist association (http:/ / www. americanhumanist. org/ publications/ morain/ chapter-8. html) [18] Randall Balmer, Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism 2002 p. 516 [19] Christopher P. Toumey, "Evolution and secular humanism," Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Summer 1993, Vol. 61 Issue 2, pp 275301 [20] "A humanist discussion of RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS AND CEREMONIES" (http:/ / www. humanism. org. uk/ site/ cms/ contentviewarticle. asp?article=1501) [21] Fellowship of Humanity v. County of Alameda (http:/ / online. ceb. com/ CalCases/ CA2/ 153CA2d673. htm), 153 Cal.App.2d 673, 315 P.2d 394 (1957). [22] Ben Kalka v Kathleen Hawk, et al. (http:/ / pacer. cadc. uscourts. gov/ common/ opinions/ 200006/ 98-5485a. txt) (US D.C. Appeals No. 98-5485, 2000) [23] Point of Inquiry (http:/ / www. pointofinquiry. org/ ) podcast (17:44), 3 February 2006. [24] http:/ / www. americanhumanist. org/ Who_We_Are/ About_Humanism/ Humanist_Manifesto_I [25] http:/ / www. americanhumanist. org/ about/ manifesto2. html [26] http:/ / www. secularhumanism. org/ index. php?section=main& page=declaration [27] http:/ / www. iheu. org/ node/ 2140 [28] http:/ / www. iheu. org/ node/ 178 [29] http:/ / MHEC. humanists. net/ HUMNISM. HTM [30] http:/ / www. secularhumanism. org/ index. php?section=main& page=manifesto [31] http:/ / www. secularhumanism. org/ index. php?section=main& page=affirmations [32] http:/ / www. iheu. org/ adamdecl. htm [33] http:/ / www. americanhumanist. org/ Who_We_Are/ About_Humanism/ Humanist_Manifesto_III

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Further reading
Bullock, Alan. The Humanist Tradition in the West (1985), by a leading historian. Friess, Horace L. Felix Adler and Ethical Culture (1981). Pfeffer, Leo. "The 'Religion' of Secular Humanism," Journal of Church and State, Summer 1987, Vol. 29 Issue 3, pp 495507 Radest, Howard B. The Devil and Secular Humanism: The Children of the Enlightenment (1990) online edition (http://www.questia.com/read/22874763) a favorable account Toumey, Christopher P. "Evolution and secular humanism," Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Summer 1993, Vol. 61 Issue 2, pp 275301, focused on fundamentalist attacks

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Primary sources
Adler, Felix. An Ethical Philosophy of Life (1918). Ericson, Edward L. The Humanist Way: An introduction to ethical humanist religion (1988). Frankel, Charles. The Case for Modern Man (1956). Hook, Sidney. Out of Step: An Unquiet Life in the 20th century (1987). Huxley, Julian. Essay of a Humanist (1964). Russell, Bertrand. Why I Am Not a Christian (1957).

External links
ThinkHumanism (http://www.thinkhumanism.com) SecularSites (http://www.secularsites.freeuk.com) "Secular Humanism" from Project Worldview (http://www.projectworldview.org/wvtheme10.htm) The Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard (http://harvardhumanist.org/) Humanism With A Capital H (http://www.americanhumanist.org/humanism/Humanism_with_a_Capital_H) by Harvey Lebrun of the American Humanist Association

Humanism is Eight Letters, No More (http://www.iheu.org/node/180) Endorsed by Harold Blackham, Levi Fragell, Corliss Lamont, Harry Stopes-Roe and Rob Tielman of the IHEU Human Rights Brief No. 3 (http://www.hreoc.gov.au/human_rights/briefs/brief_3.html) Assessment of international law pertaining to freedom of religion and belief from Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organisation (http://www.iheyo.org/) Romanian Association Solidarity for Freedom of Conscience Romanian/ English (http://www.humanism.ro) HUMANISM: Why, What, and What For, In 882 Words (http://MHEC.humanists.net/HUMNISM.HTM) (1996) 10 Points of Humanism: A Definition (http://www.ihumanism.org/2005/01/ the-10-points-of-humanism-a-definition.html) from The Philosophy of Humanism (http://www.corliss-lamont. org/philos8.htm) by Corliss Lamont The History and Philosophy of Humanism (http://www.freeinquiry.com/humanism-uu.html) Speech given by Steven D. Schafersman in Oxford, Ohio (24 September 1995) Australian Bureau of Statistics 1996 Census Dictionary Religion category (http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/ abs@.nsf/0/AD25AA55EB7FDC75CA25697E0018FD84?opendocument) Religion, 2001 census, Canada (http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Reference/dict/pop110. htm)

Related to religion
Secular Humanism in U.S. Supreme Court Cases (http://members.tripod.com/~candst/sec-hum3.htm) Ben Kalka v Kathleen Hawk, et al. (US D.C. Appeals No. 98-5485, 2000) (http://pacer.cadc.uscourts.gov/ common/opinions/200006/98-5485a.txt) Is Secular Humanism a Religion? (http://atheism.about.com/od/abouthumanism/a/secularreligion.htm) by Austin Clyne (http://atheism.about.com/mbiopage.htm), a Regional Director for the Council for Secular Humanism

Secular humanism Magazines "What is secular humanism?" (http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=main&page=what) Introduction from the publishers of Free Inquiry magazine The Humanist (http://www.thehumanist.org/) (magazine) The Australian Humanist (http://home.vicnet.net.au/~humanist/resources/AH79/AH-Index.html) (magazine)

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Secular ethics
Secular ethics is a branch of moral philosophy in which ethics is based solely on human faculties such as logic, reason or moral intuition, and not derived from purported supernatural revelation or guidance (which is the source of religious ethics). Secular ethics comprises any ethical system that does not draw on the supernatural, such as humanism, secularism and freethinking. The majority of secular moral systems accept either the normativity of social contracts, some form of attribution of intrinsic moral value, intuition-based deontology, or cultural moral relativism. A smaller minority believe scientific reasoning can reveal moral truth. This is known as science of morality. Approaches like utilitarianism, subjective moral relativism, and ethical egoism are less common, but still maintain a significant following among secular ethicists.[citation needed] Little attention is paid to the positions of moral skepticism and moral nihilism; however, many religious and some secular ethicists believe that secular morality cannot exist without a god or gods to provide ontological grounding, or is at least impossible to apprehend apart from authoritative revelation. Secular ethics frameworks do not necessarily contradict theological value systems. For example, the Golden Rule or a commitment to non-violence, could be supported by those within religious and secular frameworks. Secular ethics systems can also vary within the societal and cultural norms of a specific time period.

Tenets of secular ethics

Despite the width and diversity of their philosophical views, secular ethicists generally share one or more principles: Human beings, through their ability to empathize, are capable of determining ethical grounds. Human beings, through logic and reason, are capable of deriving normative principles of behavior. This may lead to a behavior preferable to that propagated or condoned based on religious texts. Alternatively, this may lead to the advocacy of a system of moral principles that a broad group of people, both religious and non-religious, can agree upon. Human beings have the moral responsibility to ensure that societies and individuals act based on these ethical principles. Societies should, if at all possible, advance from a less ethical and just form to a more ethical and just form. Many of these tenets are applied in the science of morality, the use of the scientific method to answer moral questions. Various thinkers have framed morality as questions of empirical truth to be explored in a scientific context. The science is related to ethical naturalism, a type of ethical realism. In How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living, Rushworth Kidder identifies four general characteristics of an ethical code: 1. It is brief 2. It is usually not explanatory 3. Can be expressed in a number of forms (e.g. positive or negative, single words or a list of sentences) 4. Centers on moral values[1]

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Humanist ethics
Humanists endorse universal morality based on the commonality of human nature, and that knowledge of right and wrong is based on our best understanding of our individual and joint interests, rather than stemming from a transcendental or arbitrarily local source, therefore rejecting faith completely as a basis for action. The humanist ethics goal is a search for viable individual, social and political principles of conduct, judging them on their ability to enhance human well-being and individual responsibility, ultimately eliminating human suffering. The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) is the world-wide umbrella organization for those adhering to the Humanist life stance. Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality.[2] Humanism is known to adopt principles of the Golden Rule, of which the best-known English formulation is found in the words of Jesus of Nazareth, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Also consider the quote by Oscar Wilde: "Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live." This quotation emphasizes the respect for others' identity and ideals while downplaying the effects one has on others.

Secular ethics and religion

See also: Morality and Religion There are those who state that religion is not necessary for moral behavior at all.[3] The Dalai Lama has said that compassion and affection are human values independent of religion: "We need these human values. I call these secular ethics, secular beliefs. Theres no relationship with any particular religion. Even without religion, even as nonbelievers, we have the capacity to promote these things."[4] Those who are unhappy with the negative orientation of traditional religious ethics believe that prohibitions can only set the absolute limits of what a society is willing to tolerate from people at their worst, not guide them towards achieving their best.[citation needed] In other words, someone who follows all these prohibitions has just barely avoided being a criminal, not acted as a positive influence on the world. They conclude that rational ethics can lead to a fully expressed ethical life, while religious prohibitions are insufficient.[citation needed] That does not mean secular ethics and religion are mutually exclusive. In fact, many principles, such as the Golden Rule, are present in both systems, and some religious people, as well as some Deists, prefer to adopt a rational approach to ethics.[citation needed]

Examples of secular ethical codes

Humanist Manifestos
The Humanist Manifestos are three manifestos, the first published in 1933, that outline the philosophical views and stances of humanists. Integral to the manifestos is a lack of supernatural guidance.

Girl Scout law

The Girl Scout law is as follows: I will do my best to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring,

Secular ethics courageous and strong, and responsible for what I say and do, and to respect myself and others, respect authority, use resources wisely, make the world a better place, and be a sister to every Girl Scout.

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United States Naval Academy honor concept

"Midshipmen are persons of integrity: They stand for that which is right. They tell the truth and ensure that the full truth is known. They do not lie. They embrace fairness in all actions. They ensure that work submitted as their own is their own, and that assistance received from any source is authorized and properly documented. They do not cheat. They respect the property of others and ensure that others are able to benefit from the use of their own property. They do not steal."

Minnesota Principles
The Minnesota Principles were proposed "by the Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility in 1992 as a guide to international business activities": 1. Business activities must be characterized by fairness. We understand fairness to include equitable treatment and equality of opportunity for all participants in the marketplace. 2. Business activities must be characterized by honesty. We understand honesty to include candor, truthfulness and promise-keeping. 3. Business activities must be characterized by respect for human dignity. We understand this to mean that business activities should show a special concern for the less powerful and the disadvantaged. 4. Business activities must be characterized by respect for the environment. We understand this to mean that business activities should promote sustainable development and prevent environmental degradation and waste of resources.[5]

Rotary Four-Way Test

The Four-Way Test test is the "linchpin of Rotary International's ethical practice." It acts as a test of thoughts as well as actions. It asks, "Of the things we think, say, or do": 1. 2. 3. 4. Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

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Military codes
See also: Ranger Creed As the United States Constitution prohibits the establishment of a government religion, US military codes of conduct typically contain no religious overtones. West Point Honor Code The West Point honor code states that "A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do." The non-toleration clause is key in differentiating it from numerous other codes.

Nature and ethics

Whether or not the relationships between animals found in nature and between people in early human evolution can provide a basis for human morality is a persistently unresolved question. Thomas Henry Huxley wrote in Evolution and Ethics in 1893 that people make a grave error in trying to create moral ideas from the behavior of animals in nature. He remarked: The practice of that which is ethically best what we call goodness or virtue involves a course of conduct which, in all respects, is opposed to that which leads to success in the cosmic struggle for existence. In place of ruthless self-assertion it demands self-restraint; in place of thrusting aside, or treading down, all competitors, it requires that the individual shall not merely respect, but shall help his fellows... It repudiates the gladiatorial theory of existence... Laws and moral precepts are directed to the end of curbing the cosmic process. Famous biologist and writer Stephen Jay Gould has stated that "answers will not be read passively from nature" and "[t]he factual state of the world does not teach us how we, with our powers for good and evil, should alter or preserve it in the most ethical manner". Thus, he concluded that ideas of morality should come from a form of higher mental reason, with nature viewed as an independent phenomenon. Evolutionary ethics is not the only way to involve nature with ethics. For example, there are ethically realist theories like ethical naturalism. Related to ethical naturalism is also the idea that ethics are best explored, not just using the lens of philosophy, but science as well (a science of morality).

Key philosophers and philosophical texts

Holyoake
George Jacob Holyoake's 1896 publication English Secularism defines secularism thus: "Secularism is a code of duty pertaining to this life, founded on considerations purely human, and intended mainly for those who find theology indefinite or inadequate, unreliable or unbelievable. Its essential principles are three: (1) The improvement of this life by material means. (2) That science is the available Providence of man. (3) That it is good to do good. Whether there be other good or not, the good of the present life is good, and it is good to seek that good."[6] Holyoake held that secularism should take no interest at all in religious questions (as they were irrelevant), and was thus to be distinguished from strong freethought and atheism. In this he disagreed with Charles Bradlaugh, and the disagreement Holyoake, agnostic split the secularist movement between those who argued that anti-religious movements and activism was not necessary or desirable and those who argued that it was.

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Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche based his work on ethics on the rejection of Christianity and authority in general, or on moral nihilism. Nietzsche's many works spoke of a Master-Slave Morality, The Will to Power, or something stronger that overcomes the weaker and Darwinistic adaptation and will to live. Nietzsche expressed his moral philosophy throughout his collection of works; the most important of these to secular ethics being The Gay Science (in which the famous God is dead phrase was first used), Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil and On The Genealogy of Morals.

Nietzsche, atheist

Kant
On ethics, Kant wrote works that both described the nature of universal principles and also sought to demonstrate the procedure of their application. Kant maintained that only a "good will" is morally praiseworthy, so that doing what appears to be ethical for the wrong reasons is not a morally good act. Kant's emphasis on one's intent or reasons for acting is usually contrasted with the utilitarian tenet that the goodness of an action is to be judged solely by its results. Utilitarianism is a hypothetical imperative, if one wants _____, they must do ______. Contrast this with the Kantian ethic of the categorical imperative, where the moral act is done for its own sake, and is framed: One must do ______ or alternatively, one must not do ______. For instance, under Kantian ethics, if a person were to give money to charity because failure to do so would result in some sort of punishment from a god or Supreme Being, then the charitable donation would not be a morally good act. A dutiful action must be performed solely out of a sense of duty; any other motivation profanes the act and strips it of its moral quality.
Kant, theist (disputably Christian)

Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism (from the Latin utilis, useful) is a theory of ethics that prescribes the quantitative maximization of good consequences for a population. It is a form of consequentialism. This good to be maximized is usually happiness, pleasure, or preference satisfaction. Though some utilitarian theories might seek to maximize other consequences, these consequences generally have something to do with the welfare of people (or of people and nonhuman animals). For this reason, utilitarianism is often associated with the term welfarist consequentialism. In utilitarianism it is the "end result" which is fundamental (as opposed to Kantian ethics discussed above). Thus using the same scenario as above, it would be irrelevant whether the person giving money to charity was doing so out of personal or religious conviction, the mere fact that the charitable donation is being made is sufficient for it to be classified as morally good.

John Stuart Mill, developer of Jeremy Bentham's utility-based theory

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Objectivism
According to Ayn Rand in her book Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, A moral code is a system of teleological measurement which grades the choices and actions open to man, according to the degree to which they achieve or frustrate the codes standard of value. The standard is the end, to which mans actions are the means. A moral code is a set of abstract principles; to practice it, an individual must translate it into the appropriate concreteshe must choose the particular goals and values which he is to pursue. This requires that he define his particular hierarchy of values, in the order of their importance, and that he act accordingly. Thus, she stated in her book For the New Intellectual that her morality is contained in a single axiom. She described it as the fact that "existence exists and in a single choice: to live. The rest proceeds from these." Objectivist ethics holds that the only true moral standard is that a person should act to do what is in their rational self-interest in benefit of themselves. No other standard of judging behavior should exist otherwise. The twin related principles of reason and of free will are key in allowing an individual to determine their self-interest.
The mythological figure of Atlas is an icon of Objectivism.

Ayn Rand has also coined the phrase "I am, therefore I'll think" as a summary of the process. In the novel Atlas Shrugged, the character John Galt said that he based his actions on his belief that "I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."

References
[1] Kidder 2003. 82 [2] Humanism's Unfinished Agenda (http:/ / www. iheu. org/ node/ 3253) [3] Is Atheism Consistent With Morality? (http:/ / www. infidels. org/ library/ modern/ mark_vuletic/ moral. html), paper (2001) by Mark I. Vuletic [4] Interview with the Dalai Lama (http:/ / www. progressive. org/ mag_intv0106), The Progressive (January 2006), scroll to Question: Apart from Buddhism, what are your sources of inspiration? The Dalai Lama: Human values. [5] Kidder 2003. 8384 [6] Holyoake, George J. (1896). English Secularism. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company.

Bibliography
Kidder, Rushworth M. Kidder (2003). How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living. New York: Harper. ISBN0-688-17590-2.

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Humanist Manifesto
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Humanist Manifesto is the title of three manifestos laying out a Humanist worldview. They are the original Humanist Manifesto (1933, often referred to as Humanist Manifesto I), the Humanist Manifesto II (1973), and Humanism and Its Aspirations (2003, a.k.a. Humanist Manifesto III). The Manifesto originally arose from religious Humanism, though secular Humanists also signed. The central theme of all three manifestos is the elaboration of a philosophy and value system which does not necessarily include belief in any personal deity or "higher power", although the three differ considerably in their tone, form, and ambition. Each has been signed at its launch by various prominent members of academia and others who are in general agreement with its principles. In addition, there is a similar document entitled A Secular Humanist Declaration published in 1980 by the Council for Secular Humanism.

Humanist Manifesto I
The first manifesto, entitled simply A Humanist Manifesto, was written in 1933 primarily by Roy Wood Sellars and Raymond Bragg and was published with thirty-four signatories including philosopher John Dewey. Unlike the later ones, the first Manifesto talked of a new "religion", and referred to Humanism as a religious movement to transcend and replace previous religions based on allegations of supernatural revelation. The document outlines a fifteen-point belief system, which, in addition to a secular outlook, opposes "acquisitive and profit-motivated society" and outlines a worldwide egalitarian society based on voluntary mutual cooperation, language which was considerably softened by the Humanists' board, owners of the document, twenty years later. The title "A Humanist Manifesto"rather than "The Humanist Manifesto"was intentional, predictive of later Manifestos to follow, as indeed has been the case. Unlike the creeds of major organized religions, the setting out of Humanist ideals in these Manifestos is an ongoing process. Indeed, in some communities of Humanists the compilation of personal Manifestos is actively encouraged, and throughout the Humanist movement it is accepted that the Humanist Manifestos are not permanent or authoritative dogmas but are to be subject to ongoing critique.

Humanist Manifesto II
The second Manifesto was written in 1973 by Paul Kurtz and Edwin H. Wilson, and was intended to update and replace the previous one. It begins with a statement that the excesses of Nazism and World War II had made the first seem "far too optimistic", and indicated a more hardheaded and realistic approach in its seventeen-point statement, which was much longer and more elaborate than the previous version. Nevertheless, much of the unbridled optimism of the first remained, with hopes stated that war would become obsolete and poverty would be eliminated. Many of the proposals in the document, such as opposition to racism and weapons of mass destruction and support of strong human rights, are fairly uncontroversial, and its prescriptions that divorce and birth control should be legal and that technology can improve life are widely accepted today in much of the Western world.[citation needed] Furthermore, its proposal of an international court has since been implemented. However, in addition to its rejection of supernaturalism, various controversial stances are strongly supported, notably the right to abortion. Initially published with a small number of signatures, the document was circulated and gained thousands more, and indeed the AHA website encourages visitors to add their own name. A provision at the end noted that signators do "not necessarily endors[e] every detail" of the document. Among the oft-quoted lines from this 1973 Manifesto are, "No deity will save us; we must save ourselves," and "We are responsible for what we are and for what we will be," both of which may present difficulties for members of

Humanist Manifesto certain Christian, Jewish, and Muslim sects, or other believers in doctrines of submission to the will of an all-powerful God. Expanding upon the role the public education establishment should play to bring about the goals described in the Humanist Manifesto II, John Dunphy wrote: "I am convinced that the battle for humankind's future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers that correctly perceive their role as proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what theologians call divinity in every human being...The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and new -- the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism, resplendent with the promise of a world in which the never-realized Christian ideal of 'love thy neighbor' will finally be achieved."[1]

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Humanist Manifesto III

Humanism and Its Aspirations, subtitled Humanist Manifesto III, a successor to the Humanist Manifesto of 1933, was published in 2003 by the AHA, which apparently wrote it by committee [2]. Signatories included 21 Nobel laureates. The new document is the successor to the previous ones, and the name "Humanist Manifesto" is the property of the American Humanist Association. The newest manifesto is deliberately much shorter, listing seven primary themes, which echo those from its predecessors [3] : Knowledge of the world is derived by observation, experimentation, and rational analysis. (See empiricism.) Humans are an integral part of nature, the result of evolutionary change, an unguided process. Ethical values are derived from human need and interest as tested by experience. (See ethical naturalism.) Lifes fulfillment emerges from individual participation in the service of humane ideals. Humans are social by nature and find meaning in relationships. Working to benefit society maximizes individual happiness. Respect for differing yet humane views in an open, secular, democratic, environmentally sustainable society

Other Manifestos for Humanism

Aside from the official Humanist Manifestos of the American Humanist Association, there have been other similar documents. "Humanist Manifesto" is a trademark of the AHA. Formulation of new statements in emulation of the three Humanist Manifestoes is encouraged, and examples follow.

A Secular Humanist Declaration

In 1980, the Council for Secular Humanism, founded by Paul Kurtz, which is typically more detailed in its discussions regarding the function of Humanism than the AHA, published what is in effect its manifesto, entitled A Secular Humanist Declaration. It has as its main points: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Free Inquiry Separation of Church and State The Ideal of Freedom Ethics Based on Critical Intelligence Moral Education Religious Skepticism Reason Science and Technology Evolution

10. Education

Humanist Manifesto A Secular Humanist Declaration was an argument for and statement of support for democratic secular humanism. The document was issued in 1980 by the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism ("CODESH"), now the Council for Secular Humanism ("CSH"). Compiled by Paul Kurtz, it is largely a restatement of the content of the American Humanist Association's 1973 Humanist Manifesto II, of which he was co-author with Edwin H. Wilson. Both Wilson and Kurtz had served as editors of The Humanist, from which Kurtz departed in 1979 and thereafter set about establishing his own movement and his own periodical. His Secular Humanist Declaration was the starting point for these enterprises.

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Humanist Manifesto 2000

Humanist Manifesto 2000: A Call for New Planetary Humanism is a book by Paul Kurtz published in 2000. It differs from the other three in that it is a full-length book rather than essay-length, and was published not by the American Humanist Association but by the Council for Secular Humanism. In it, Kurtz argues for many of the points already formulated in Humanist Manifesto 2, of which he had been co-author in 1973.

Amsterdam Declaration
The Amsterdam Declaration 2002 is a statement of the fundamental principles of modern Humanism passed unanimously by the General Assembly of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) at the 50th anniversary World Humanist Congress in 2002. According to the IHEU, the declaration "is the official statement of World Humanism." It is officially supported by all member organisations of the IHEU including: American Humanist Association British Humanist Association Humanist Canada Council of Australian Humanist Societies Council for Secular Humanism Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association Human-Etisk Forbund, the Norwegian Humanist Association Humanist Association of Ireland Indian Humanist Union Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society (PATAS)

A complete list of signatories can be found on the IHEU page (see references). This declaration makes exclusive use of capitalized Humanist and Humanism, which is consistent with IHEU's general practice and recommendations for promoting a unified Humanist identity. [4] To further promote Humanist identity, these words are also free of any adjectives, as recommended by prominent members of IHEU. [5] Such usage is not universal among IHEU member organizations, though most of them do observe these conventions.

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References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Dunphy, J., A Religion for a New Age, The Humanist, January-February 1983 http:/ / www. americanhumanist. org/ who_we_are/ about_humanism/ Humanist_Manifesto_III/ Notable_Signers http:/ / www. americanhumanist. org/ humanism/ Humanist_Manifesto_III http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ Humanist_Manifesto#endnote_Webbs http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ Humanist_Manifesto#endnote_Blackham

External links
Manifestos
Humanist Manifesto I (http://www.americanhumanist.org/Who_We_Are/About_Humanism/ Humanist_Manifesto_I) (1933) Amsterdam Declaration 1952 (http://iheu.org/content/amsterdam-declaration-1952) Humanist Manifesto II (http://www.americanhumanist.org/Who_We_Are/About_Humanism/ Humanist_Manifesto_II) (1973) A Secular Humanist Declaration (http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=main& page=declaration) (1980) A Declaration of Interdependence (http://www.iheu.org/node/2140)(1988) IEHU Minimum Statment on Humanism (http://www.iheu.org/node/178) (1996) Humanism: Why, What, and What For, In 882 Words (http://mhec.humanists.net/HUMNISM.HTM) (1996) Humanist Manifesto 2000: A Call For A New Planetary Humanism (http://www.secularhumanism.org/index. php?section=main&page=manifesto) The Promise of Manifesto 2000 (http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=main&page=promise) Amsterdam Declaration 2002 (http://www.iheu.org/adamdecl.htm) Humanism and Its Aspirations: Humanist Manifesto III (http://www.americanhumanist.org/Who_We_Are/ About_Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_III) (2003) PDF Printer Friendly Version (http://aha-files.s3.amazonaws.com/63/238/HumanismandItsAspirations. pdf) Manifeste pour un humanisme contemporain (http://www.humanisme-contemporain.com/) (2012)

Miscellaneous
The Genesis of a Humanist Manifesto (http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/edwin_wilson/manifesto/ index.shtml) by Edwin H. Wilson HUUmanists, an association of Unitarian Universalist Humanists (http://huumanists.org/)

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A Secular Humanist Declaration

A Secular Humanist Declaration was an argument for and statement of support for democratic secular humanism. The document was issued in 1980 by the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism ("CODESH"), now the Council for Secular Humanism ("CSH"). Compiled by Paul Kurtz, it is largely a restatement of the content of the American Humanist Association's 1973 Humanist Manifesto II, of which he was co-author with Edwin H. Wilson. Both Wilson and Kurtz had served as editors of The Humanist, from which Kurtz departed in 1979 and thereafter set about establishing his own movement and his own periodical. His Secular Humanist Declaration was the starting point for these enterprises.

Table of Contents
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Free Inquiry Separation of Church and State The Ideal of Freedom Ethics Based on Critical Intelligence Moral Education

6. Religious Skepticism 7. Reason 8. Science and Technology 9. Evolution 10. Education

Signatories
Before the list of signatories, the declaration has the following disclaimer: "Although we who endorse this declaration may not agree with all its specific provisions, we nevertheless support its general purposes and direction and believe that it is important that they be enunciated and implemented. We call upon all men and women of good will who agree with us to join in helping to keep alive the commitment to the principles of free inquiry and the secular humanist outlook. We submit that the decline of these values could have ominous implications for the future of civilization on this planet."

United States
George Abell (professor of astronomy, UCLA) John Anton (professor of philosophy, Emory University) Khoren Arisian (minister, First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis) Isaac Asimov (science fiction author) Paul Beattie (minister, All Souls Unitarian Church; president, Fellowship of Religious Humanism) H. James Birx (professor of anthropology and sociology, Canisius College) Brand Blanshard (professor emeritus of philosophy, Yale) Joseph L. Blau (Professor Emeritus of Religion, Columbia) Francis Crick (Nobel Prize Laureate, Salk Institute) Arthur Danto (professor of philosophy, Columbia University) Albert Ellis (executive director, Institute for Rational Emotive Therapy) Roy Fairfield (former professor of social science, Antioch)

Herbert Feigl (professor emeritus of philosophy, University of Minnesota) Joseph Fletcher (theologian, University of Virginia Medical School)

A Secular Humanist Declaration Sidney Hook (professor emeritus of philosophy, NYU, fellow at Hoover Institute) George Hourani (professor of philosophy, State University of New York at Buffalo) Walter Kaufmann (professor of philosophy, Princeton) Marvin Kohl (professor of philosophy, medical ethics, State University of New York at Fredonia) Richard Kostelanetz (writer, artist, critic) Paul Kurtz (Professor of Philosophy, State University of New York at Buffalo) Joseph Margolis (professor of philosophy, Temple University) Floyd Matson (professor of American Studies, University of Hawaii) Ernest Nagel (professor emeritus of philosophy, Columbia) Lee Nisbet (associate professor of philosophy, Medaille) George Olincy (lawyer) Virginia Olincy W. V. Quine (professor of philosophy, Harvard University) Robert Rimmer (novelist) Herbert Schapiro (Freedom from Religion Foundation) Herbert W. Schneider (professor emeritus of philosophy, Claremont College) B. F. Skinner (professor emeritus of psychology, Harvard) Gordon Stein (editor, The American Rationalist) George Tomashevich (professor of anthropology, Buffalo State University College) Valentin Turchin (Russian dissident; computer scientist, City College, City University of New York) Sherwin Wine (rabbi, Birmingham Temple, founder, Society for Humanistic Judaism) Marvin Zimmerman (professor of philosophy, State University of New York at Buffalo)

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Canada
Henry Morgentaler (physician, Montreal) Kai Nielsen (professor of philosophy, University of Calgary)

France
Yves Galifret (executive director, Union Rationaliste) Jean Claude Pecker (professor of astrophysics, College de France, Academie des Sciences)

Great Britain (i.e. Scotland, Wales and England)

Sir A.J. Ayer (professor of philosophy, Oxford University) H.J. Blackham (former chairman, Social Morality Council and British Humanist Association) Bernard Crick (professor of politics, Birkbeck College, London University) Sir Raymond Firth (professor emeritus of anthropology, University of London) Jim Herrick (then editor of The Freethinker) Zhores A. Medvedev (Russian dissident; Medical Research Council) Dora Russell (Mrs. Bertrand Russell) (author) Lord Ritchie-Calder (president, Rationalist Press Association) Harry Stopes-Roe (senior lecturer in science studies, University of Birmingham; chairman, British Humanist Association) Nicolas Walter (editor, New Humanist) Baroness Barbara Wootton (Deputy Speaker, House of Lords)

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India
B. Shah (president, Indian Secular Society; director, Institute for the Study of Indian Traditions) V. M. Tarkunde (Supreme Court Judge, chairman, Indian Radical Humanist Association)

Israel
Shulamit Aloni (lawyer, member of Knesset, head of Citizens Rights Movement)

Norway
Alastair Hannay (professor of philosophy, University of Trondheim)

Yugoslavia
Milovan Djilas (author, former vice president of Yugoslavia) Mihailo Markovic (professor of philosophy, Serbian Academy of Sciences & Arts and University of Belgrade) Svetozar Stojanovic (professor of philosophy, University of Belgrade)

External links
Text of the Declaration [26]

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International Humanist and Ethical Union

International Humanist and Ethical Union
Formation Regionserved Website 1952 Worldwide www.iheu.org [1]

Part of a Philosophy series on

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Renaissance humanism Humanism in Germany Humanism in France Humanist Manifesto Secular humanism

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Ethical culture Marxist humanism Deistic humanism Cosmic humanism Existential humanism Neohumanism Rationalist humanism Integral humanism Transhumanism Personism Posthumanism Antihumanism Philosophy portal

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The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) is an umbrella organisation of humanist, atheist, rationalist, secular, skeptic, freethought and Ethical Culture organisations worldwide. Founded in Amsterdam in 1952, in 2011 the IHEU consisted of 117 member organizations in 38 countries. Julian Huxley (the first director of UNESCO) presided over the founding Congress of the IHEU. In 2002, the IHEU General Assembly unanimously adopted the Amsterdam Declaration 2002 which represents the official defining statement of World Humanism. The Happy Human is the official symbol of the IHEU. IHEU has Special Consultative Status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). IHEU holds a World Humanist Congress every three years, hosted by one of its members. The next is to be held in Oxford, UK, in 2014, hosted by the British Humanist Association.

Minimum Statement
All member organisations of the International Humanist and Ethical Union are required by IHEU bylaw 5.1 to accept the IHEU Minimum Statement on Humanism: Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality.

History
Amsterdam 1952 - IHEU founding congress
Five Humanist organisations, the American Ethical Union, American Humanist Association, British Ethical Union (now the British Humanist Association), Vienna Ethical Society and the Dutch Humanist league hosted the founding congress of the IHEU in Amsterdam 22-27 August. On the last day of the congress five resolutions were passed, which included the fundamental of 'modern, ethical Humanism' - A resolution which would become to be know as the Amsterdam declaration

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Amsterdam Declaration 2002

On the 50th anniversary World Humanist congress in 2002 passed unanimously a resolution the "Amsterdam Declaration 2002" an update of the original Amsterdam Declaration

Strategy
The aim of the IHEU is to promote the identity of Humanism, including the name and symbol of Humanism. The IHEU promotes Humanism, defined by the Amsterdam Declaration 2002, by advocating freedom of religion. Goals of the IHEU range from achieving worldwide separation of religion and state to providing assistance in establishing humanist youth organisations around the globe.

Activities
Based in London, England, the IHEU is an international NGO with Special Consultative Status with the United Nations, General Consultative Status at the Council of Europe, Observer Status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, and maintains operational relations with UNESCO. Core IHEU activities are: 1. International conferences [2]: to bring Humanists together and inspire them 2. 3. 4. 5. Campaigns [3]: to promote and defend human rights and Humanist values Representation at international and regional bodies: to further Humanist goals Growth and Development: to support Humanist groups in developing countries Organisational Development: developing the youth movement, a womens network, membership and support

IHEU has a wing for people aged 35 and under called the International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organisation (IHEYO). The IHEU and Amnesty International led the campaign to try to obtain the release of Younus Shaikh.

IHEU chairmen and presidents

Years Position Jaap van Praag Mihailo Markovi Howard B. Radest Holder(s)

1952-1975 Chairman

1975-1979 Chairman troika Piet Thones 1979-1985 1985-1986 1986-1987 1987-1990 1990-1993 1993-1994 1994-1995 1995-1996 1996-1998 President 1998-2003 2003-2006 2006Levi Fragell Roy W Brown Sonja Eggerickx Rob Tielman Bert Schwarz

Svetozar Stojanovi Paul Kurtz Levi Fragell Kari Vigeland Jane Wynne Willson

Vern Bullough

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IHEU Awards
International Humanist Award
The International Humanist Award recognises outstanding achievements and contributions to the progress and defence of Humanism. 1970: Barry Commoner (USA), environmentalist professor 1974: Harold John Blackham (UK), founding member IHEU, IHEU secretary (1952-1966) 1978: Vithal Mahadeo Tarkunde (India), former judge of the Bombay High Court 1982: Kurt Partzsch (Germany), former Minister for Social Affairs 1986: Arnold Clausse (Belgium), professor emeritus of education 1986: The Atheist Centre (India) 1988: Andrei Sakharov (USSR), nuclear physicist, developer of the hydrogen bomb for the Soviet military, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace 1990: Alexander Dubcek (Czechoslovakia), leader of Czechoslovakia during the "Prague Spring" of 1968 1992: Pieter Admiraal (Netherlands), a Dutch anaesthetist, and euthanasia advocate 1999: Professor Paul Kurtz (USA), writer and founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry 2002: Amartya Sen (India), economist, social theorist, Master of Trinity College (Cambridge), and winner of the 1998 The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2005: Jean-Claude Pecker (France), astronomer 2008: Philip Pullman (UK), best-selling author of children's literature, including "His Dark Materials" trilogy 2011: Sophie in 't Veld, (Netherlands) MEP and vice-chair of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, and PZ Myers (USA), biology professor at University of Minnesota Morris, and author of the Pharyngula blog

Distinguished Service to Humanism Award

The Distinguished Service to Humanism Award recognises the contributions of Humanist activists to International Humanism and to organised Humanism. 1998: Corliss Lamont; Indumati Parikh; Mathilde Krim 1990: Jean Jacques Amy 1992: Indumati Parikh; Vern Bullough; Nettie Klein {also volunteer IHEU secretary general (1982-1996) 1996: Jim Herrick; James Dilloway 1999: Abe Solomon; Paul Postma 2002: Phil Ward 2005: Barbara Smoker; Marius Des de Strio 2007: Keith Porteous Wood 2008: Roy W Brown 2011: V B Rawat (India); Narendra Nayak (India); David Pollock (UK) 2012: Margaretha Jones 2013: Josh Kutchinsky

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Other Awards
1978: Special Award for Service to World Humanism: Harold John Blackham; Jaap van Praag; Sidney Scheuer {also IHEU treasurer (1952-1987)} 1988: Humanist Laureate Award: Betty Friedan; Herbert Hauptman; Steve Allen 1988: Humanist of the Year Award: Henry Morgentaler 1992: Distinguished Human Rights Award: Elena Bonner 1996: Humanist Awards: Shulamit Aloni; Taslima Nasrin; Xiao Xuehui 2008: Lifetime Achievement Award: Levi Fragell
[4]

References
Human Rights Brief No. 3 [5] Assessment of international law pertaining to freedom of religion and belief from Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. IHEU listing of all member organisations [6] IHEU Officials [7] IHEU Presidents [8] IHEU Awards [9]

Footnotes
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] http:/ / www. iheu. org/ http:/ / www. iheu. org/ conferences/ http:/ / www. iheu. org/ campaigns/ International Humanist and Ethical Union: IHEU Awards (http:/ / iheu. org/ content/ iheu-awards). Retrieved 2 November 2013 http:/ / www. hreoc. gov. au/ human_rights/ briefs/ brief_3. html http:/ / www. iheu. org/ contacts http:/ / www. iheu. org/ node/ 1949 http:/ / www. iheu. org/ node/ 1951 http:/ / www. iheu. org/ node/ 1948

External links
Official website (http://www.iheu.org/)

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Marxist humanism
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Marxist humanism[2] is a branch of Marxism that primarily focuses on Marx's earlier writings, especially the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 in which Marx espoused his theory of alienation, as opposed to his later works, which are considered to be concerned more with his structural conception of capitalist society. The Praxis School, which called for radical social change in Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslavia in the 1960s, was one such Marxist humanist movement. Marxist humanism was opposed by the "antihumanism" of Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, who described it as a revisionist movement.

The theory of Marxist humanism

The term "Marxist humanism"at the notion of alienation remains a part of Marx's philosophy. Teodor Shanin[3] and Raya Dunayevskaya go further, asserting that not only is alienation present in the late Marx, but that there is no split between the young Marx and mature Marx.

Criticisms

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Marxist humanism The most potent criticism of Marxist Humanism has come from within the Marxist movement. Louis Althusser, the French Structuralist Marxist, criticises Marxist Humanists for not recognising the dichotomy between 'Young Marx' and 'Mature Marx'. Althusser believes Marx's thought to be marked by a radical epistemological break. For Althusser, the humanism of Marx's early writings influenced by Hegel and Feuerbach is fundamentally incongruous with the "scientific", structure-concerned theory found in Marx's mature works such as Das Kapital. Of the Marxist Humanist's reliance on the 1844 Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts Althusser writes, "We do not publish our own drafts, that is, our own mistakes, but we do sometimes publish other people's" (cited in Gregory Elliot's "introduction: In the Mirror of Machiavelli" an introduction for Althusser's "Machiavelli and us", p. xi). The Humanists contend that Marxism developed lopsidedly because Marx's early works were unknown until after the orthodox ideas were in vogue the Manuscripts of 1844 were published only in 1932 and to understand his latter works properly it is necessary to understand Marx's philosophical foundations. Althusser, however, does not defend orthodox Marxism's economic reductionism and determinism; instead, he develops his own theories regarding ideological hegemony and conditioning within class societies, through the concept of Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA) and interpellation which constitutes the subject.

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Marxist humanists
Notable thinkers associated with Marxist humanism include: Gyrgy Lukcs (1885-1971) Hungarian Marxist philosopher and literary critic. Ernst Bloch (1885-1977) was a German Marxist philosopher. John Lewis (philosopher) (1889-1976) British Unitarian minister and Marxist philosopher. Antonio Gramsci (18911937) an Italian writer, politician, political philosopher, and linguist.[4] Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) German-Jewish Marxist literary critic, essayist, translator, and philosopher. Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979) German philosopher and sociologist, and a member of the Frankfurt School. Erich Fromm (1900-1980) internationally renowned social psychologist, psychoanalyst, and humanistic philosopher. C. L. R. James (1901-1989) Afro-Trinidadian journalist, socialist theorist and writer. Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991) was a French sociologist, intellectual and philosopher who was generally considered a Neo-Marxist. Gnther Anders (1902-1992) was a Jewish philosopher and journalist who developed a philosophical anthropology for the age of technology. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. Salvador Allende (1908-1973) Former President of Chile. Raya Dunayevskaya (1910-1987) founder of the philosophy of Marxist Humanism in the United States of America. Christopher Hill (historian) (1912-2003) English Marxist historian. Lucien Goldmann (1913-1970) French philosopher and sociologist of Jewish-Romanian origin. Paulo Freire (1921-1997) Brazilian educator and influential theorist of critical pedagogy. Andr Gorz (1923-2007) Austrian and French social philosopher. E. P. Thompson (1924-1993) English historian, socialist and peace campaigner. Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) Psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary, and author from Martinique. Ivan Svitk (1925-1994) Czech social critic and aesthetic theorist. Karel Kosk (1926-2003) Czech philosopher, synthesized phenomenology and humanistic Marxism. Wang Ruoshui (1926-2002) Chinese journalist and philosopher.

John Berger (b. 1926) English art critic, novelist, painter and author. Leszek Koakowski (1927-2009) Polish philosopher and historian of ideas.

Marxist humanism Che Guevara (1928-1967) Argentine revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist. David McReynolds (b. 1929) American democratic socialist and pacifist activist. Frankfurt School (1930s onwards) The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist critical theory, social research, and philosophy. Marshall Berman (1940-2013) American Marxist Humanist writer and philosopher. Peter McLaren (b. 1948) one of the leading architects of critical pedagogy. News and Letters Committees (1950s onwards) is a small, revolutionary-socialist organization in the United States. It is the world's most prominent Marxist-Humanist organization. Lewis Gordon (b. 1962) Black American philosopher. Nigel Gibson British & American philosopher Praxis School (1960s and 1970s) Marxist humanist philosophical movement. It originated in Zagreb and Belgrade in the SFR Yugoslavia.

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References
[1] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?title=Template:Marxism& action=edit [2] "Marxist Humanism and the 'New Left': An index to the writings and biographies of Marxist-Humanist writers", Marxists Internet Archive (http:/ / www. marx. org/ subject/ humanism/ index. htm) [3] Theodor Shanin (http:/ / www. amazon. com/ Late-Marx-Russian-Road-Peripheries/ dp/ 0853456461) on Amazon.com [4] Embodiment and Agency, by Sue Campbell & Letitia Meynell, Penn State Press, 2009, ISBN 0-271-03522-6, p. 243

Further reading
Novack, George. Humanism and Socialism. First ed. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1973. Without ISBN

External links
Marxist-Humanist Initiative (http://marxisthumanistinitiative.org) Marxist Humanism, subject index (http://www.marx.org/subject/humanism/index.htm) Raya Dunayevskaya Archive (http://www.marx.org/archive/dunayevskaya/index.htm) Libertarian Communist Library Marxist Humanism holdings (http://libcom.org/library/taxonomy/term/172) C L R James Archive (http://www.marx.org/archive/james-clr/index.htm) News & Letters, the Newspaper (http://www.newsandletters.org/) Socialist Party USA - contains a Marxist-Humanist current. Socialist Humanism is mentioned in its handbook. (http://sp-usa.org/handbook/multitendency.html) The Hobgoblin, a Journal of Marxist-Humanism (http://www.thehobgoblin.co.uk/) U.S. Marxist-Humanists official website (http://www.usmarxisthumanists.org/) Marxist-Humanist Dialectics (http://Marxist-HumanistDialectics.blogspot.com)

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RELIGIOUS HUMANISM
Religious humanism
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Ethical culture Marxist humanism Deistic humanism Cosmic humanism Existential humanism Neohumanism Rationalist humanism Integral humanism Transhumanism Personism Posthumanism Antihumanism Philosophy portal

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Religious humanism is an integration of humanist ethical philosophy with religious rituals and beliefs that center on human needs, interests, and abilities.

Origins
Humanism as it was conceived in the early 20th century rejected revealed knowledge, theism-based morality and the supernatural. In the late 20th century the Humanist movement that affirms the dignity and worth of all people came into conflict with conservative Christian groups in the United States and "Secular Humanism" became the most popular element of organized Humanism. Though practitioners of religious humanism did not officially organize under the name of "humanism" until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, non-theistic religions paired with human-centered ethical philosophy date to the Enlightenment era.[citation needed]

French Revolution
The Cult of Reason (French: Culte de la Raison) was a religion based on deism devised during the French Revolution by Jacques Hbert, Pierre Gaspard Chaumette and their supporters. In 1793 during the French Revolution, the cathedral Notre Dame de Paris was turned into a Temple to Reason and for a time Lady Liberty replaced the Virgin Mary on several altars.[citation needed]

Positivism
In the 1850s, Auguste Comte, the Father of Sociology, founded Positivism, a "religion of humanity". Auguste Comte was a student and secretary for Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon, the Father of French Socialism. Auguste Comte coined the term "altruism".

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Humanistic Religious Association

One of the earliest forerunners of contemporary chartered humanist organizations was the Humanistic Religious Association formed in 1853 in London. This early group was democratically organized, with male and female members participating in the election of the leadership and promoted knowledge of the sciences, philosophy, and the arts.

Ethical Culture
The Ethical Culture movement was founded in 1876. The movement's founder, Felix Adler, a former member of the Free Religious Association, conceived of Ethical Culture as a new religion that would strip away the accumulated unscientific dogmas of traditional religions while retaining and elevating the ethical message at the heart of all religions. Adler believed that traditional religions would ultimately prove to be incompatible with a scientific worldview. He felt that the vital aspects of religion should not be allowed to fall by the wayside. Religions provided vital functions in encouraging good works. And religions taught important truths about the world, albeit these truths were expressed through metaphors that were not always suited to modern understandings of the world. For example, monotheistic religions were based on a metaphor of an authoritarian monarchy, whereas democratic relationships were now understood to be the ideal. Initially, Ethical Culture involved little in the way of ceremony and ritual. Rather, Ethical Culture was religious in the sense of playing a defining role in people's lives and addressing issues of ultimate concern. Some Ethical Societies have subsequently added a degree of ritual as a means of marking special times or providing a tangible reminder of humanistic ideals.

United States
Before the term "humanism" was ever coined or even thought of being integrated into religion it had existed in America in at least an ideological sense for a very long time. Groups like the Free Religious Association (FRA) which was formed in 1867 and other less radical groups mainly consisting of extreme forms of early American Protestants such as the Unitarians and Quakers had existed from the very first landings of the Europeans in the Western Hemisphere. In 1915, a Positivist defined the term "humanism" in a magazine for the British Ethical Societies. Another Unitarian Minister John H. Dietrich read the magazine and adopted the term to describe his own religion. Dietrich is considered by some to be the "Father of Religious Humanism" (Olds 1996). In 1929 Charles Francis Potter founded the First Humanist Society of New York whose advisory board included Julian Huxley, John Dewey, Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann. Potter was a minister from the Unitarian tradition and in 1930 he and his wife, Clara Cook Potter, published Humanism: A New Religion. Throughout the 1930s Potter was a well known advocate of womens rights, access to birth control, "civil divorce laws", and an end to capital punishment. A Humanist Manifesto, also known as Humanist Manifesto I to distinguish it from later Humanist Manifestos, was written in 1933 primarily by Raymond Bragg and was published with thirty-four signatories. Unlike the later ones, the first manifesto talked of a new "religion", and referred to humanism as a religious movement meant to transcend and replace previous, deity-based religions. However, it is careful not to outline a creed or dogma. The document outlines a fifteen-point belief system, which, in addition to a secular outlook, opposes "acquisitive and profit-motivated society" and outlines a worldwide egalitarian society based on voluntary mutual cooperation. The Fellowship of Humanity was founded in 1935 by Reverend A. D. Faupel as one of a handful of "humanist churches" seeded in the early 20th century as part of the American Religious Humanism movement. It was the only such organization to survive into the 21st century and is the first and oldest affiliate of the American Humanist Association.

Religious humanism In 1961, Webster's Third New International Unabridged Dictionary defined religious humanism as "A modern American movement composed chiefly of non-theistic humanists and humanist churches and dedicated to achieving the ethical goals of religion without beliefs and rites resting upon superstition." American Religious Humanist organizations that have survived into the 21st century include the HUUmanists, formerly the Friends of Religious Humanism, and the Humanist Society, formerly the Humanist Society of Friends. A high percentage of members of Unitarian Universalist congregations today identify themselves as humanists. HUUmanists[1] is the main representation of religious humanism within the Unitarian Universalist Association.[2]

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Related or similar traditions

Some distinguish religious humanism from Jewish humanism, Christian humanism, and secular humanism. In the past, humanist versions of major religions, such as Christian humanism, have arisen. In addition, many Indian religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and other Asian religions and belief systems like Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, Shenism, and Zoroastrianism, that focus on human nature and action more than theology, were always primarily humanistic. Currently, however, humanism is dominated almost exclusively by secular humanism. This has given rise to a newer version of humanist religions which are similar in philosophy to secular humanism. Secular humanists and revealed religious humanists primarily differ in their definition of religion and their positions on supernatural beliefs. They can also diverge in practice since religious humanists endorse religious ceremonies, rituals, and rites.

Dharmically-derived approaches
The humanist approach to Buddhism shares the fundamental principle of analysing and evaluating the tradition according to natural, human values, but the particular interpretations and results various Buddhist humanists come up with will naturally vary. An early exponent, U Dhammaloka, combined western freethought and atheist positions with orthodox Burmese ritual practice and a strong critique of missionary theism. Most Buddhist groups are more or less humanistic anyway, but there is also a particular modern Chinese Buddhist organisation that calls itself 'Humanistic Buddhism'. The teachings of the modern Chinese Buddhist thought of Humanistic Buddhism encompass all of the Buddhist teachings from the time of Gautama Buddha to the present. The goal of Humanistic Buddhism is the bodhisattva way, which means to be an energetic, enlightened, and endearing person who strives to help all sentient beings liberate themselves. Humanistic Buddhism focuses more on issues of the world rather than on how to leave the world behind; on caring for the living, rather than the dead; on benefiting others, rather than benefiting oneself; and on universal salvation, rather than salvation for only oneself. Other Buddhist scholars are exploring a humanist method of analysis and evaluation of the Buddha's teachings based exclusively on the pre-sectarian early texts, which were probably mainly composed pre-300BCE. The focus of this form of humanistic Buddhism is analysis of the implicit authority theories contained in the different stages of evolution of Buddhist tradition, and critiquing the misunderstanding and misuse of religious 'authority' to justify abuse of individuals. It also re-emphasises value-pluralism, which is a humanistic way of reasoning about ethics.

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Abrahamically-derived approaches
Another approach, Christian Existential Humanism, related to the work of the Danish philosopher Sren Kierkegaard, features a humanist perspective grounded in Christian religious belief; where humanity is something to be excited about, but not as a replacement for the divine. Many medieval Muslim thinkers pursued humanistic, rational and scientific discourses in their search for knowledge, meaning and values. A wide range of Islamic writings on love poetry, history and philosophical theology show that medieval Islamic thought was open to the humanistic ideas of individualism, occasional secularism, skepticism and liberalism.[3] Certain aspects of Renaissance humanism has its roots in the medieval Islamic world, including the "art of dictation, called in Latin, ars dictaminis," and "the humanist attitude toward classical language." Humanistic Judaism is a movement that holds that Jewish culture and Jewish history, rather than religion, are the source of Jewish identity. Humanistic Mormonism is a movement and a form of religious humanism that holds that Mormon history, Mormon culture, and those who self-identity as Mormons based on their personal life experiences rather than religion, are the key sources of Mormon identity.

Notes
[1] http:/ / www. HUUmanists. org [2] http:/ / www. uua. org/ aboutus/ affiliates/ search. php?category=Other%20UU%20Organizations [3] Lenn Evan Goodman (2003), Islamic Humanism, p. 155, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-513580-6.

References
Olds, Mason (1996). "Chapter 4: John H. Dietrich: The Father of Religious Humanism". American Religious Humanism (Revised ed.). Fellowship of Religious Humanists. p.53.

External links
Humanist Society (http://humanist-society.org/) HUUmanists (http://www.huumanists.org/) The Society for Humanistic Mormonism (http://societyforhumanistic.wix.com/sfhm#!about_us/c55t) Religious Humanism at the Open Directory Project (http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/ Humanism/Religious_Humanism/) Why Christian Existential Humanism? (http://kitoba.com/pedia/Christian Existential Humanism.html) Religious Humanism: The Past We Inherit; The Future We Create (http://www.humanismtoday.org/vol12/ hoertdoerfer.html) Theism and Religious Humanism: The Chasm Narrows (http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle. asp?title=1874) Church of Spiritual Humanism (http://www.spiritualhumanism.org) The Founding of the Humanist Church and the History of Religious Humanism (http://www.croftpress.com/ david/religion/sermons/2003-09-16/) What Is Humanism? (http://www.americanhumanist.org/humanism/whatis.php/)

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Christian humanism
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Christian humanism emphasizes the humanity of Jesus, his social teachings and his propensity to synthesize human spirituality and materialism. It regards humanist principles like universal human dignity and individual freedom and the primacy of human happiness as essential and principal components of, or at least compatible with, the teachings of Jesus. Christian humanism can be perceived as a philosophical union of Judeo-Christian ethics and humanist principles.

Origins
Christian humanism has its roots in the traditional teaching that humans are made in the image of God (Latin Imago Dei) which is the basis of individual worth and personal dignity. This found strong biblical expression in the Judeo-Christian attention to righteousness and social justice. Its linkage to more secular philosophical humanism can be traced to the 2nd-century, writings of Justin Martyr, an early theologian-apologist of the early Christian Church. While far from radical, Justin in his Apology finds value in the achievements of classical culture . Influential letters by Cappadocian Fathers, namely Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa, confirmed the commitment to using preexisting secular knowledge, particularly as it touched the material world.

Early Middle Ages

After the fall of the Roman Empire and the civilization of barbarians, there were thoughts of a more Christianized humanity for society. Western Christian clerics controlled education, since only the monasteries remained as seats of learning. Charlemagne requested that scholars set up places of learning that would become universities in the 12th century. Eastern Christians meanwhile continued the late Antique practice of studying in the homes of secular masters, studying the same curriculum of "classical" Greek authors as their predecessors in the Roman period: Homer's Iliad, Plato's dialogues, Aristotle's Categories, Demosthenes' speeches, Galen, Dioscurides, Strabo and others. Christian education in the East largely was relegated to learning to read the Bible at the knees of one's parents and the rudiments of grammar in the letters of Basil or the homilies of Gregory Nazianzus.

High Middle Ages

Formal aspects of Greek philosophy, namely syllogistic reasoning, began in the 11th century to inform the process of theology in both the Byzantine Empire and Western European circles . However, during the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (10811118) the Byzantine hierarchy convicted several thinkers of applying "human" logic to "divine" matters. Peter Abelard's work encountered similar ecclesiastical resistance in the West in the same period. Nonetheless, Western universities including Padua and Bologna, Paris and Oxford resulted from the so-called Gregorian Reform, which encouraged a new kind of cleric clustered around cathedrals, the secular canon. The cathedral schools meant to train clerics for the growing clerical bureaucracy soon served as training grounds for talented young men to train in medicine, law, and the liberal arts of the quadrivium and trivium, in addition to Christian theology. Classical Latin texts and translations of Greek texts served as the basis of non-theological education. A primitive humanism actually started when the papacy began protecting the Northern Cluniacs and Cistercians and the Church formed a unifying bond. Monks and friars went on crusades and St. Bernard counseled kings. Priests were frequently Lord Chancellors in England and in France. Christian views became present in all aspects of society, and there was an emphasis on serving God and others. Furthermore, there was a view of human nature that was both hopeful and Christian. All offices, civil, and academic works had religious elements. In addition, religion influenced medicine with the Good Samaritan of the Gospels and St. Luke. The idea of free people under God came from this time and spread from the West to other areas of the world.

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Renaissance
Christian humanism saw an explosion in the Renaissance, emanating from an increased faith in the capabilities of Man, married with a still-firm devotion to Christianity. In this regard, Petrarch (13041374) is also considered a father of humanism, being one of the earliest and most prominent Renasissance figures. In his letter "The Ascent of Mt. Ventoux" he states that his climb of the mountain was inspired by Livy, but found its true meaning in St. Augustine's Confessions. His masterful contributions to language and literature triggered the development of studia humanitatis which began to formalize the study of ancient languages, namely Greek and Latin, eloquence, classical authors, and rhetoric. Christian humanists also cared about scriptural and patristic writings, Hebrew, ecclesiastical reform, clerical education, and preaching. Plain Humanism might value earthly existence as something worthy in itself, whereas Christian humanism would value such existence, so long as it were combined with the Christian faith. One of the first texts regarding Christian humanism was Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of Man, in which he stressed that Men had the free will to travel up and down a moral scale, with God and angels being at the top, and Satan being at the bottom. Christian principles took effect in places other than Italy, during what is now called the Northern Renaissance. Italian universities and academia stressed Classical mythology and writings as a source of knowledge, whereas universities in the Holy Roman Empire and France based their teachings on the Church Fathers.

Reformation
Christian humanism finally blossomed out of the Renaissance and was brought by devoted Christians to the study of the philological sources of the Greek New Testament and Hebrew Bible. The confluence of moveable type, new inks and widespread paper-making put potentially the whole of human knowledge at the hands of the scholarly community in a new way, beginning with the publication of critical editions of the Bible and Church Fathers and later encompassing other disciplines. This project was undertaken at the time of the Reformation in the work of Erasmus of Rotterdam (who remained a Catholic), Martin Luther (who was an Augustinian priest and led the Reformation, translating the Scriptures into his native German), and John Calvin (who was a student of law and theology at the Sorbonne where he became acquainted with the Reformation, and began studying Scripture in the original languages, eventually writing a text-based commentary upon the entire Christian Old Testament and New Testament except the Book of Judges, Book of Ruth, Books of Samuel, Books of Kings, Books of Chronicles, Book of Ezra, Book of Nehemiah, Book of Esther, Book of Proverbs, Book of Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Second Epistle of John, Third Epistle of John, and the Book of Revelation). John Calvin was the most prominent of the many figures associated with Reformed Churches that proliferated in Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and portions of Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, and Poland. Each of the candidates for ordained ministry in these churches had to study the Christian Old Testament in Hebrew and the New in Greek in order to qualify. This continued the tradition of Christian humanism.

Enlightenment
The Enlightenment of the mid-18th century in Europe consolidated the separation of religious and secular institutions that has led to what some consider to be a false rift between Christianity and humanism. But while the Enlightenment crystallized humanism as a distinctly secular, liberal philosophy, it did have sectarian roots that reached back to early 18th-century England. There rationalists known as Deists rejected traditional theology and clericalism in favor of natural religion. Non conformists, they preferred to sidestep the churches and seek God personally by way of reason and innate moral intuition. These Deists triggered a scholarly quest for the historical Jesus which often cast him as a quasi-divine beacon of virtue dispensing homilies that accorded nicely with precepts of bourgeois liberalism. They gave new currency to Christs humanist ethics and spawned wave of social gospel liberalism in the 20th century. They effectively reasserted the Judeo-Christian ethic which would play an important role in animating the political and social reform movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. Perhaps the most

Christian humanism valuable contribution of this liberal Christianity is that it gave rise to the first British movement for the abolition of slavery, which was founded by the Quakers in the late 18th century. However, it was the Evangelical Christian humanism of William Wilberforce (24 August 1759 29 July 1833) that led to the successful abolition of the slave trade.

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20th century to present

The carnage of World War I shattered liberal optimism. Boundless idealism was eclipsed by the dark side of humanity and this prompted a realist backlash amongst Christian scholars and theologians. Known as neo-orthodoxy, its leading protagonists were Reinhold Niebuhr and Karl Barth. Both were erstwhile political liberals but they now insisted on getting back to basics. The curse of original sin seemed born out by the horrors of the war and any humanist aspirations would now have to be rooted in a theology of redemption and acceptance of complete human dependence on God. It was not until the 1970s that a strident social Christianity re-emerged. Taking root in the fertile soil of rampant injustice in Latin America and the anti-apartheid struggles in South Africa, Liberation Theology aimed at harnessing Christianity to the cause of social justice and even revolutionary socialism. However the title itself was misleading as it was never really a theology. Over the past century the legacy of social gospel humanism has been carried forward by notables such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dorothy Sayers, Charles Williams, Flannery O'Connor, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. However since the advent of postmodernism, many radical, progressive Christians have tended to see the Christ of faith as irreconcilable with the Jesus of history, regarding the latter as a mere mortal and a distinctly fallible one at that. One such writer, for instance, argues for a religionless non-theistic form of Christianity: The Christian Humanist: Religion, Politics, and Ethics for the 21st Century [1], which many Christians see as a logical impossibility. As progressives, they generally take a deconstructionist view that dogmatic theology is suspect and spiritual truth is mainly a personalized and subjective pursuit. They tend to align with liberal secular humanism and one of their outspoken advocates is retired US Bishop John Shelby Spong. There have been various attempts to reclaim a more traditional Christian humanism. One of these, represented by the Centre of Religious Humanism [2] and its director Gregory Wolfe, embraces Christianity's rich cultural heritage. This Christian humanism emphasises Jesus as the incarnate fusing of humanity with the divinehumanity in the image of Godespecially as manifested in the sublime, creative achievements of Western civilization. These ideas had previously reached their peak in the Renaissance and Wolfe particularly draws inspiration from the Renaissance humanists that supported the Catholic Church, such as Erasmus, Thomas More, Johann Reuchlin and John Colet.

Prominent Christian humanists

Tony Campolo G. K. Chesterton A. J. Cronin Christopher Dawson T. S. Eliot Desiderius Erasmus Francis of Assisi Christopher Fry Dietrich von Hildebrand Richard Holloway John Paul II

Immanuel Kant Sren Kierkegaard Jacques Maritain

Christian humanism Thomas Merton Thomas More Emmanuel Mounier John Henry Newman H. Richard Niebuhr Reinhold Niebuhr Boris Pahor Blaise Pascal Charles Pguy Dorothy L. Sayers John Shelby Spong Paul Tillich Jim Wallis

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Notes
[1] http:/ / www. christianhumanist. net/ [2] http:/ / imagejournal. org/ page/ journal/ editorial-statements/ religious-humanism-a-manifesto

References
Arnold, Jonathan. "John Colet Preaching and Reform at St. Paul's Cathedral, 15051519." Reformation and Renaissance Review: Journal of the Society for Reformation Studies 5, no. 2 (2003): 2049. D'Arcy, Martin C. Humanism and Christianity. New York: The World Publishing Company, 1969 Lemerle, Paul. Byzantine humanism: the first phase: notes and remarks on education and culture in Byzantium from its origins to the 10th century trans. Helen Lindsay and Ann Moffatt. Canberra, 1986.

External links
No Christian humanism? Big mistake. (http://onlinecatholics.acu.edu.au/issue115/news1.html), Online Catholics, by Peter Fleming. (Accessed 6 May 2012) Christian Humanist (http://christianhumanist.net/). Arthur G. Broadhurst

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Christian existentialism
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Christian existentialism is a theo-philosophical movement which takes an existentialist approach to Christian theology. The school of thought is often traced back to the work of the Danish philosopher and theologian Sren Kierkegaard (18131855), who is considered the father of existentialism.[2]

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Kierkegaardian themes
Christian existentialism relies on Kierkegaard's understanding of Christianity. Kierkegaard argued that the universe is fundamentally paradoxical, and that its greatest paradox is the transcendent union of God and humans in the person of Jesus Christ. He also posited having a personal relationship with God that supersedes all prescribed moralities, social structures and communal norms,[3] since he asserted that following social conventions is essentially a personal aesthetic choice made by individuals.[citation needed] Kierkegaard proposed that each person must make independent choices, which then constitute his existence. Each person suffers from the anguish of indecision (whether knowingly or unknowingly) until he commits to a particular choice about the way to live. Kierkegaard also proposed three rubrics with which to understand the conditions that issue from distinct life choices: the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious.

Sren Kierkegaard

Major premises
One of the major premises of Christian existentialism entails calling the masses back to a more genuine form of Christianity. This form is often identified with some notion of Early Christianity, which mostly existed during the first three centuries after Christ's crucifixion. Beginning with the Edict of Milan, which was issued by Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 313, Christianity enjoyed a level of popularity among Romans and later among other Europeans. And yet Kierkegaard asserted that by the 19th century, the ultimate meaning of New Testament Christianity (love, cf. agape, mercy and loving-kindness) had become perverted, and Christianity had deviated considerably from its original threefold message of grace, humility, and love. Another major premise of Christian existentialism involves Kierkegaard's conception of God and Love. For the most part, Kierkegaard equates God with Love.[4] Thus, when a person engages in the act of loving, he is in effect achieving an aspect of the divine. Kierkegaard also viewed the individual as a necessary synthesis of both finite and infinite elements. Therefore, when an individual does not come to a full realization of his infinite side, he is said to be in despair. For many contemporary Christian theologians, the notion of despair can be viewed as sin. However, to Kierkegaard, a man sinned when he was exposed to this idea of despair and chose a path other than one in accordance with God's will. A final major premise of Christian existentialism entails the systematic undoing of evil acts. Kierkegaard asserted that once an action had been completed, it should be evaluated in the face of God, for holding oneself up to divine scrutiny was the only way to judge one's actions. Because actions constitute the manner in which something is deemed good or bad, one must be constantly conscious of the potential consequences of his actions. Kierkegaard believed that the choice for goodness ultimately came down to each individual. Yet Kierkegaard also foresaw the potential limiting of choices for individuals who fell into despair.[5]

The Bible
Christian Existentialism often refers to what it calls the indirect style of Christ's teachings, which it considers to be a distinctive and important aspect of his ministry. Christ's point, it says, is often left unsaid in any particular parable or saying, to permit each individual to confront the truth on his own.[6] This is particularly evident in (but is certainly not limited to) his parables. For example, in the Gospel of Matthew (18:21-35 [7]), Jesus tells a story about a man who is heavily in debt (the parable of the unforgiving servant). The debtor and his family are about to be sold into

Christian existentialism slavery, but he pleads for their lives. His master accordingly cancels the debt and sets them free. Later the man who was in debt abuses some people who owe him money, and he has them thrown in jail. Upon being informed of what this man has done, the master brings him in and says, "Why are you doing this? Weren't your debts canceled?" Then the debtor is thrown into jail until the debt is paid. Jesus ends his story by saying, "This is how it will be for you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." Often Christ's parables are a response to a question he is asked. After he tells the parable, he returns the question to the individual who originally asked it. Often we see a person asking a speculative question involving one's duty before God, and Christ's response is more or less the same questionbut as God would ask that individual. For example, in the Gospel of Luke (10:25 [8]), a teacher of the law asks Jesus what it means to love one's neighbor as oneself. Jesus replies by telling the story of the Good Samaritan. In the story a man is beaten by thieves. A priest and a Levite pass him by, but a Samaritan takes pity on him and generously sets him up at an innpaying his tab in advance. Then Jesus returns the question, "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?". Jesus does not answer the question because he requires the individual to answer it, and thus to understand existence in the Bible, one must recognize who that passage is speaking to in particular. To Kierkegaard, it is the individual hearing the passage. A good example of indirect communication in the Old Testament is the story of David and Nathan in 2Samuel 12:1-14 [9]. David had committed adultery with a woman, Bathsheba, which resulted in her pregnancy. He then ordered her husband, Uriah, to come home from a war front so that he might sleep with his wife, thus making it appear as if Uriah had in fact conceived with Bathsheba. Instead, Uriah would not break faith with his fellow soldiers still on the battlefield and refused to sleep with her. David then ordered him back out to the battlefront where he would surely die, thus making Bathsheba a widow and available for marriage, which David soon arranged. David initially thought he had gotten away with murder, until Nathan arrived to tell him a story about two men, one rich and the other poor. The poor man was a shepherd with only one lamb, which he raised with his family. The lamb ate at his table and slept in his arms. One day a traveler came to visit the rich man; instead of taking one of his own sheep, the rich man seized the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for his guest. When Nathan finished his story, David burned with anger and said (among other things): "As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die!". Nathan responded by saying "You are the man!". Realizing his guilt, David becomes filled with terror and remorse, tearfully repenting of his evil deed. An existential reading of the Bible demands that the reader recognize that he is an existing subject, studying the words that God communicates to him personally. This is in contrast to looking at a collection of "truths" which are outside and unrelated to the reader.[10] Such a reader is not obligated to follow the commandments as if an external agent is forcing them upon him, but as though they are inside him and guiding him internally. This is the task Kierkegaard takes up when he asks: "Who has the more difficult task: the teacher who lectures on earnest things a meteor's distance from everyday life, or the learner who should put it to use?"[11] Existentially speaking, the Bible doesn't become an authority in a person's life until they permit the Bible to be their personal authority.

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Notable Christian existentialists

Christian existentialists include German Protestant theologians Paul Tillich and Rudolph Bultmann, British Anglican theologian John Macquarrie, American theologian Lincoln Swain,[12] American philosopher Clifford Williams, European philosophers Karl Jaspers, Gabriel Marcel, Emmanuel Mounier, Miguel de Unamuno and Pierre Boutang, and Russian philosophers Nikolai Berdyaev and Lev Shestov. Karl Barth added to Kierkegaard's ideas the notion that existential despair leads an individual to an awareness of God's infinite nature. Some ideas in the works of Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky could arguably be placed within the tradition of Christian existentialism. The roots of existentialism have been traced back as far as St Augustine.[13][14][15] Some of the most striking passages in Pascal's Penses, including the famous section on the Wager, deal with existentialist themes.[16][17][18][19] Jacques Maritain, in Existence and the Existent: An Essay on Christian Existentialism,[20] finds

Christian existentialism the core of true existentialism in the thought of Thomas Aquinas.

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References
[1] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?title=Template:Historical_Christian_theology& action=edit [2] M.J. Eliade & C.J. Adams (1987). Encyclopedia of Religion (v.5). Macmillan Publishing Company. [3] Sren Kierkegaard (1846). Concluding Unscientific Postscript, authored pseudonymously as Johannes Climacus. [4] Sren Kierkegaard (1849). The Sickness Unto Death Trans. Alastair Hannay (New York: Penguin Books, 2004), 14. [5] Sren Kierkegaard (1849). The Sickness Unto Death Trans. Alastair Hannay (New York: Penguin Books, 2004), 24. [6] Donald D. Palmer (1996). Kierkegaard For Beginners. London, England: Writers And Readers Limited. p. 25. [7] http:/ / www. biblegateway. com/ passage/ ?search=Matthew%2018:21-35;& version=31; [8] http:/ / www. biblegateway. com/ passage/ ?search=Luke%2010:25;& version=31; [9] http:/ / tools. wmflabs. org/ bibleversefinder/ ?book=2%20Samuel& verse=12:1-14& src=! [10] Howard V. Hong (1983). "Historical Introduction" to Fear and Trembling. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, p. x. [11] Sren Kierkegaard (1847). Works of Love. Harper & Row, Publishers. New York, N.Y. 1962. p. 62. [12] Lincoln Swain (2005). Five Articles (http:/ / www. somareview. com/ contributors. cfm?authorID=75), Soma: A Review of Religion and Culture. [13] Gordon R. Lewis (Winter 1965). "Augustine and Existentialism" (http:/ / www. biblicalstudies. org. uk/ pdf/ bets/ vol08/ 8-1_lewis. pdf). Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 8,1, pp. 1322. [14] Michial Farmer (6 July 2010). "A Primer on Religious Existentialism, Pt. 4: Augustine" (http:/ / www. christianhumanist. org/ chb/ a-primer-on-religious-existentialism-pt-4-augustine/ ). christianhumanist.org [15] Craig J. N. de Paulo, ed. (2006). The Influence of Augustine on Heidegger: The Emergence of An Augustinian Phenomenology. Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press. [16] Desmond Clarke (2011). "Blaise Pascal" (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ pascal/ ), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. [17] Clifford Williams (July 3, 2005). "Pascal" (http:/ / www. cliffordwilliams. net/ pascal). cliffordwilliams.net [18] Michial Farmer (20 July 2010). "A Primer on Religious Existentialism, Pt. 5: Blaise Pascal" (http:/ / www. christianhumanist. org/ chb/ a-primer-on-religious-existentialism-pt-5-blaise-pascal/ ). christianhumanist.org [19] Michial Farmer (27 July 2010). "A Primer on Religious Existentialism, Pt. 6: Apologetics" (http:/ / www. christianhumanist. org/ chb/ a-primer-on-religious-existentialism-pt-6-apologetics/ ). christianhumanist.org [20] Jacques Maritain (1947). Existence and the Existent: An Essay on Christian Existentialism (Court trait de l'existence et de l'existent), translated by Lewis Galantiere and Gerald B. Phelan. New York: Pantheon Books, 1948.

External links
A website that explores the existential teachings of Jesus, with references to Kierkegaard and Tillich (http:// www.existentialchristianity.net/)

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Humanistic Judaism
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Judaism

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Humanistic Judaism (Hebrew: Yahdut Humanistit) (Yiddish: ) is a Jewish movement that offers a nontheistic alternative in contemporary Jewish life. It defines Judaism as the cultural and historical experience of the Jewish people and encourages humanistic and secular Jews to celebrate their Jewish identity by participating in Jewish holidays and lifecycle events (such as weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs) with inspirational ceremonies that draw upon but go beyond traditional literature. Its philosophical foundation includes the following ideas: A Jew is someone who identifies with the history, culture, and future of the Jewish people; Judaism is the historic culture of the Jewish people, and religion is only one part of that culture; Jewish identity is best preserved in a free, pluralistic environment; People possess the power and responsibility to shape their own lives independent of supernatural authority; Ethics and morality should serve human needs, and choices should be based upon consideration of the consequences of actions rather than pre-ordained rules or commandments; Jewish history, like all history, is a human saga, a testament to the significance of human power and human responsibility. Biblical and other traditional texts are the products of human activity and are best understood through archaeology and other scientific analysis. The freedom and dignity of the Jewish people must go hand in hand with the freedom and dignity of every human being.[2]

Origins
In its current form, Humanistic Judaism was founded in 1963 by Rabbi Sherwin Wine. As a rabbi trained in Reform Judaism, with a small secular, non-theistic congregation in Michigan, Wine developed a Jewish liturgy that reflected his, and his congregations philosophical viewpoint by emphasizing Jewish culture, history, and identity along with Humanistic ethics while excluding all prayers and references to God. This congregation developed into the Birmingham Temple, now in Farmington Hills, Michigan. It was soon joined by a previously Reform congregation

Humanistic Judaism in Illinois led by Rabbi Daniel Friedman, as well as a group in Westport, Connecticut. In 1969, these congregations and others were united organizationally under the umbrella of the Society for Humanistic Judaism (SHJ). The Society for Humanistic Judaism has 10,000 members in 30 congregations spread throughout the United States and Canada. The International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism was founded in 1986. It is the academic and intellectual center of Humanistic Judaism. It was established in Jerusalem in 1985 and currently has two centers of activity: one in Jerusalem and the other in Lincolnshire, IL. Rabbi Adam Chalom is the North American dean. The Institute offers professional training programs for Spokespersons, Educators, Leaders (also referred to in Hebrew as madrikhim/ot or in Yiddish as vegvayzer), and Rabbis, in addition to its publications, public seminars and colloquia for lay audiences.

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Principles of belief and practice

Humanistic Judaism presents a far more radical departure from traditional Jewish religion than Mordecai Kaplan ever envisioned. Kaplan redefined God and other traditional religious terms so as to make them consistent with the materialist outlook, and continued to use traditional prayer language. Wine rejected this approach as confusing, since participants could ascribe to these words whatever definitions they favored. Wine strove to achieve philosophical consistency and stability by creating rituals and ceremonies that were purely non-theistic. Services were created for Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and other Jewish holidays and festivals, often with reinterpretation of the meaning of the holiday to bring it into conformity with Secular Humanistic philosophy. Humanistic Judaism was developed as a possible solution to the problem of retaining Jewish identity and continuity among non-religious. Recognizing that congregational religious life was thriving, Wine believed that secular Jews who had rejected theism would be attracted to an organization that provided all the same forms and activities as, for example, Reform temples, but which expressed a purely Secular Humanistic viewpoint. The International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, which is sponsored by the Society for Humanistic Judaism and the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations, trains rabbis and other leaders in the United States and in Israel. The Society for Humanistic Judaism was organized with the mission to mobilize people to celebrate Jewish identity and culture consistent with a humanistic philosophy of life.

Jewish identity and intermarriage

Within Humanistic Judaism, Jewish identity is largely a matter of self-identification.[3] Rabbis and other trained leaders officiate at intermarriages between Jews and non-Jews, and the Humanistic Judaism movement, unlike the Conservative and Orthodox Jewish denominations, does not take any position or action in opposition to intermarriage, rather it affirms that "Intermarriage is an American Jewish reality -- a natural consequence of a liberal society in which individuals have the freedom to marry whomever they wish...that intermarriage is neither good nor bad, just as we believe that the marriage of two Jews, in itself, is neither good nor bad. The moral worth of a marriage always depends on the quality of the human relationship -- on the degree of mutual love and respect that prevails."[4] Secular Humanistic rabbis and leaders will also co-officiate at intercultural marriages between Jews and non-Jews. These views concerning Jewish identity and intermarriage are criticized by those who believe that they will hasten the assimilation of Jews into the general society and thus adversely affect Jewish continuity.

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Egalitarianism
Humanistic Judaism is egalitarian with respect to gender and gender identification, Jewish status, and sexual orientation. Baby-naming ceremonies, similar for boys and girls, are used rather than the brit milah. Those who identify as Jews and those who do not, as well as LGBTI members, may participate in all ways in all Humanistic Jewish rituals and leadership roles. Humanistic Judaism ordains both men and women as rabbis, and its first rabbi was a woman, Tamara Kolton, who was ordained in 1999. Its first cantor was also a woman, Deborah Davis, ordained in 2001; however, Humanistic Judaism has since stopped ordaining cantors. The Society for Humanistic Judaism issued a statement in 1996 stating in part, "we affirm that a woman has the moral right and should have the continuing legal right to decide whether or not to terminate a pregnancy in accordance with her own ethical standards. Because a decision to terminate a pregnancy carries serious, irreversible consequences, it is one to be made with great care and with keen awareness of the complex psychological, emotional, and ethical implications." They also issued a statement in 2011 condemning the then-recent passage of the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act by the U.S. House of Representatives, which they called "a direct attack on a womans right to choose". In 2012 they issued a resolution opposing conscience clauses that allow religious-affiliated institutions to be exempt from generally applicable requirements mandating reproductive healthcare services to individuals or employees. In 2013 they issued a resolution stating in part, "Therefore, be it resolved that: The Society for Humanistic Judaism wholeheartedly supports the observance of Women's Equality Day on August 26 to commemorate the anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution allowing women to vote; The Society condemns gender discrimination in all its forms, including restriction of rights, limited access to education, violence, and subjugation; and The Society commits itself to maintain vigilance and speak out in the fight to bring gender equality to our generation and to the generations that follow." In 2004 the Society for Humanistic Judaism issued a resolution supporting "the legal recognition of marriage and divorce between adults of the same sex," and affirming " the value of marriage between any two committed adults with the sense of obligations, responsibilities, and consequences thereof." In 2010 they pledged to speak out against homophobic bullying.

References
[1] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?title=Template:Judaism& action=edit [2] "What is Humanistic Judaism?" The Society for Humanistic Judaism. [3] http:/ / www. humanisticrabbis. org/ conversion/ "We believe: 1. That Jewish identity is primarily a cultural and ethnic identity. 2. That belief systems are too diverse among Jews to serve as criteria for membership. 3. That joining the Jewish community is a process of cultural identification. 4. That a person who seeks to embrace Jewish identity should be encouraged to do so and should be assisted in this endeavor. [4] "Statement on Intermarriage". Association of Humanistic Rabbis, 1974.

External links
Society for Humanistic Judaism (http://www.shj.org/) International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism (http://www.iishj.org/) Association of Humanistic Rabbis (http://www.humanisticrabbis.org/) BBC - Religions - Judaism: Humanistic Judaism (http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/ subdivisions/humanistic.shtml/) International Federation of Secular Humanistic Jews (http://www.ifshj.org/) Leadership Conference of Secular and Humanistic Jews (http://www.lcshj.org/) Israel program of International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism (http://www.israelijudaism.org.il/) Portal of Jewish Secular Rites in Israel (http://www.tkasim.org.il/)

Buddhist humanism

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Buddhist humanism
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Buddhist humanism

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Buddhist humanism is a philosophical perspective based on the teaching of inherent dignity of all human beings, their potential for attaining highest wisdom about their condition [1] and their essential nature of altruism exemplified by the Bodhisattva spirit of compassion.[2] Buddhist humanism focuses on the interdependence of humanity, all sentient beings and the environment, seeking to create harmony through these interrelated relationships.[3] In practical terms, humanism is expressed on the individual level through action: to relieve sufferings and impart joy,[4] to contribute to the welfare of society,[5] abiding by the attitude of nonviolence [6] supporting human rights,[7] and acting for world peace,[8][9] effectively advocating the concept of global citizenship.[10] The diversity of Buddhist schools generated various humanistic movements, such as Engaged Buddhism, Humanistic Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhism, SGI Value Creation Organization,[11] and others, with a common message of sharing humanity and surpassing differences.

Origin
The central focus of the teachings of Gautama Buddha, 563 BC- 483 BC, was on eliminating misery and sufferings from human life and leading the individual to realize the highest potential of enlightenment.[12] Making no reference to an external power of God, Buddhism essentially is a humanistic philosophy, based on principles derived from deductive observation of reality, such as the Interconnectedness of all phenomena (nothing exists in isolation),[13][14] and the Inseparability of Self, Others and Environment:[15][16] At deeper levels, there is a consciousness connecting all humanity, and all this functions upon the foundation of the natural environment.[17] Humanity is united by the inevitable phases of human sufferings, common to all people: The Four Noble Truths, and also by the universality of Buddha nature: the equal potential for all people to live a creative harmonious life: The manifestation of Humanism is evident in Buddhist teachings. For example, the concept of Noble Eightfold Path (or the way leading to the cessation of suffering) in Agama Sutra and the spirit of altruism (or compassion) in Mahayana Buddhism are based on the beliefs of self respect and goodwill toward other individuals; both are fundamental viewpoints of Humanism.[18] The Buddha's humanistic teachings marked a historical shift from all doctrines which viewed humanity as dependant on or influenced by the external power of gods, doctrines which could not free people from their sufferings and from injustice experienced in daily life. Buddhist humanism started with overcoming hardships and barriers through great efforts to introduce equality to Buddhas society based on discrimination: Shakyamuni waged a head on struggle against dogmas that enchain and divide human beings,[19] a spirit of struggle against discrimination which also characterizes current Buddhist movements: From the recognition that all people share a common humanity, a sense of brotherhood replaces obsession with such differences as nationality, ideology and culture.[20]

Values
Despite diversity of their schools, Buddhist scholars converge in specifying the ideology of Humanism as based on human interests, values, and dignity, without the shackles of theology, so that one can enjoy freedom of thinking and tolerance and respect toward other individuals, and eventually achieve a proud existence in the universe.[21] While Buddhism is a man-originated belief, it does not, however, put the human being above or at the centre of nature: We are not independent, self-sufficient beings but a part of the natural world, where all forms of animal and plant life depend on each other for existence.[22] The common values which various schools of Buddhism associate with humanism,[23][24][25][26] centre on the inherent dignity of all people, the oneness of self and others and the spirit of compassion, as well as other related values prompting humanistic action in todays contemporary world:

Buddhist humanism The inherent dignity of human beings: the individual is worthy of respect by virtue of being born as a human being: "Buddhist humanismis a philosophical perspective that reflects the core spirit of the Lotus Sutra, one founded on faith in the inherent dignity of human beings and profound confidence in people's capacity for positive transformation.[27] Bodhisattva spirit, altruism and compassion: The oneness of self and others is the background of altruism and the aspiration to help others lead a life free from sufferings. The Bodhisattva exemplifies the state of compassion, or altruistic life, and a person in this state aspires to help all people.[28] Self-mastery: Various Buddhist schools differ in their teachings regarding the subject of mastery of human desires, nevertheless there is a common agreement that behavior or actual conduct is a proof of a persons humanity and self-development, as humanism starts from the individual Buddhism is concerned with the essential nature of humanity. As Nichiren Daishonin teaches behavior as a human being that perfectly accords with reason is what constitutes the heart of Buddhism.[29] Some Buddhist schools focus on following the precepts to manifest ones highest form of humanity.[30] Peace and nonviolence: The essence of Buddhist concepts of eternity of life, interconnectedness of all beings and the sanctity of life form the ground for nonviolence: ...the Buddha was the greatest teacher of ahimsa (non-violence),[31] A single life is worth more than the major world system [universe]..[32] To resolve conflicts, Buddhism offers the way of dialogue and sharing responsibility. Respect for human rights: Many Buddhist texts emphasize the equality of all members of society regardless of class or gender: [The Lotus Sutra] is also a grand declaration of human rights that refutes ideas and beliefs that discriminate against women.[33] The right to live without oppression and the right of the individual for self-development are essential for attaining enlightenment.[34] Contributing to society: Contributing to art, culture, education and social welfare is part of acknowledgement of our humanity.[35] The Buddhist principle of Interconnectedness of the individual, society and the environment implies also peoples responsibility for taking action: To add significance to our lives we must generate value that we ourselves create, and for that we must preserve our autonomy and contribute to our social and natural environment by the creation of noble values.,[36] aiming at the well-being of all people: Buddhism, in common with other religions, strives to eradicate all evil and works for the well-being of humanity,.[37][38] Advocating world citizenship: Humanism has the power and capacity to unify humanitys diverse racial and ethnic manifestations[39] into one global entity: At deeper levels, there is a consciousness connecting all humanity,[40] where diversity is rather treasured and celebrated: The Buddha's teaching begins with the recognition of human diversity.[41]

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Mind, body, spirit

The three properties of the individual human being: "mind, body, spirit" - can be transformed to express the highest qualities of "wisdom, courage and compassion", characterizing a person of humanistic approach in the reality of daily life: /1/The wisdom to perceive the interconnectedness of all life and living. /2/The courage not to fear or deny difference; but to strive to understand people of different cultures, and to grow from encounters with them, /3/The compassion to maintain empathy that reaches beyond one's immediate surroundings and extends to those suffering in distant places.[42]

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Comparison with secular humanism

Common between secular humanism and Buddhist humanism is the rejection of the concept of external super being, and the emphasis of both types of humanism on social justice and reason : Without common sense, religion develops into blind belief and fanaticism, which have no place in Buddhism. Nichiren writes: Buddhism is reason. Reason will win over your lord. In other words, reason will win over authority.[43] Buddhist literature refers to the human being (man) by the Sanskrit word manu which indicates reason or thinking.[44] Secular humanists' maxim All men are brothers[45] which was the basis for their struggle against slavery in the 19th century - has parallel in the Buddhist teaching on "equality of all human beings". There are, however, some arguments differentiating secular and Buddhist humanism, the first pointing to the exclusiveness of secular humanism through its rejection of religious thoughts. Humanism is a whole encompassing perspective, and in this light rejection of any religious thought by secular humanism creates a certain tension of "us" and "them" within humanity itself: As long as human beings exist, there will always be some kind of religious spirit.[46] Another disparity relates to the rejection of the concept of divine in secularism. While Buddhism rejects the concept of God, it still maintains strong belief in the divine nature of life: ...in a general sense, all living things in the universe are sacred...in contrast to Secular humanism, this [Buddhist] humanism is respectful of the sanctity of all things, including even mountains, rivers, plants and trees.[47] Humanistic ideas of secular humanism cannot ensure security and protection of humanity without emphasis on nonviolence and human rights as the most valuable or sacred values: Unless we see that the divine exists in all people, the idea of respect for human beings will remain empty and rootless.[48] A further difference in views between secular and Buddhist humanism relates to paying little attention to the interconnectedness of humanity with the environment: The error of the European Enlightenment was that it put humans above nature.[49] Making no mention of the relatedness of humanity to its origin, nature itself, is what secular - and religious - humanism share in distinction from Buddhist humanism.

Comparison with religious humanism

Religious humanism is defined as an integration of humanistic philosophy - which does not pertain to the divine and religious beliefs which center on the human being. Buddhist humanism - on the other hand - does not avoid the concept of the divine: Buddhism locates the divine within the life of the individual,[50] yet it does not attribute to the human being a special position above other forms of life. The holistic view of humanity as being an inseparable part of other forms of life - a similar view to the concept of Gaia - constitutes a shift from the anthropocentric beliefs about humanity, prevalent in the teachings of various religions: The idea that nature exists for humankind is a view of nature based on the creation myth and a human centered understanding of the universe.[51] The term religious humanism, however, can be applied to the philosophy of Buddhists: who chart a middle way between theism and materialistic secularismwhat is of vital importance is realizing the ideal possibilities of human existence, not religion, as an end in itself.[52] In this perspective, neither religious nor secular views on humanism can be helpful in integrating humanity itself into oneness, and neither can claim custody of humanism, in general, because of the dualistic approach of seeing humanity through "either religious" or "non-religious" perspective, while Buddhist humanism can break down the dualism of the sacred and the secular, the religious life and everyday life.[53] Another subject of focus relates to the values and ethics in religious humanism. Some researchers make a distinction between specific religious systems of belief and religious humanism in general: "Unlike Christian humanism, religious humanism does not appeal to God's relationship to humans to justify our inherent dignity and liberty. Religious humanism puts humanism first and religion second. Humanism in general emphasizes our moral responsibilities in this life and finds human intelligence up to the challenge of figuring out

Buddhist humanism how to live ethical lives.[54] This view is consistent with acceptance of religious humanism to the diverse nature of rights of individuals, and which may not be identical to particular religious teachings. In general, all types of humanistic thoughts adopt the Golden Rule: Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful, a unifying humanistic principle of behavioral ethics.

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References
[1] http:/ / www. daisakuikeda. org/ main/ philos/ buddhist/ buddh-05. html [2] http:/ / zenbuddhisttemple. org/ about. html [3] http:/ / himalaya. socanth. cam. ac. uk/ collections/ journals/ bot/ pdf/ bot_1998_03_01. pdf [4] http:/ / www. iop. or. jp/ 0515/ ikeda_unger. pdf, page 4 [5] http:/ / www. accesstoinsight. org/ lib/ authors/ jones/ wheel285. html [6] http:/ / www. wabashcenter. wabash. edu/ syllabi/ g/ gier/ 306/ gbnd. pdf [7] http:/ / www. buddhanetz. org/ texte/ rights. htm [8] http:/ / www. uthumanist. com/ 2011/ 02/ secular-ethics-necessary-for-world. html [9] http:/ / www. iop. or. jp/ 1121/ Journal21_Y. Kawada1. pdf [10] http:/ / www. columbia. edu/ cu/ buddhism/ document/ tc1996. pdf [11] http:/ / www. sgi. org/ buddhism/ buddhist-concepts/ creating-value. html [12] Tibetan Society Canberra http:/ / www. sakya. com. au/ lifeofbuddha/ [13] http:/ / www. presentationzen. com/ presentationzen/ 2007/ 08/ interconnectedn. html [14] http:/ / www. sgi. org/ buddhism/ buddhist-concepts/ interconnectedness. html [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] http:/ / www. rc. umd. edu/ praxis/ buddhism/ economides/ economides. html http:/ / www. geshu. org/ index. php/ articles/ buddhist-principles/ 29-the-oneness-of-self-and-environment http:/ / www. iop. or. jp/ 1121/ Journal21_Y. Kawada1. pdf http:/ / isites. harvard. edu/ fs/ docs/ icb. topic716467. files/ HSIAO_Lihua_summary. doc Reference to (Sutta Nipata), My Dear Friends p.334, World Tribune Press,ISBN 9781932911817 http:/ / www. daisakuikeda. org/ sub/ books/ books-by-category/ dialogues/ hr_21century. html The Spirit of Humanism in Buddhism Xiao Lihua, National Taiwan University (isites.harvard.edu) https:/ / www. comp. glam. ac. uk/ pages/ staff/ srharris/ buddhism/ HandB. html http:/ / www. ikedacenter. org/ thinkers/ rockefeller_talk. htm Tibetan Humanism http:/ / journal. uwest. edu/ index. php/ hljhb/ article/ download/ 8/ 6 Humanistic Elements in Early Buddhism http:/ / ccbs. ntu. edu. tw/ FULLTEXT/ JR-JHB/ jhb94216. htm FoGuang ShanHumanistic Buddhism http:/ / blag. biz/ humanistic-buddhism http:/ / www. daisakuikeda. org/ main/ philos/ buddhist/ buddh-05. html The Bodhisattva Ideal and Human Rights Culture, SGI Quarterly, October 2011, p.9 Faith into Action page 7, World Tribune Press ISBN 9780915678662 http:/ / zenproject. faithweb. com/ zen_teachings/ buddhist_precepts. html http:/ / www. class. uidaho. edu/ ngier/ GB. htm http:/ / www. sgilibrary. org/ view. php?page=955& m=3& q=a%20single%20life The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra vol. p393/94 . ISBN 9780915678716 http:/ / www. buddhanetz. org/ texte/ rights. htm http:/ / www. thezensite. com/ ZenEssays/ CriticalZen/ buddhist_contribution_to_social_welfare. pdf On Being Human p.157 Middle way Press, ISBN 0972326715 http:/ / www. dhammatalks. net/ Books6/ Bhante_Dhammananda_Human_Dignity_in_Buddhism. pdf http:/ / www. accesstoinsight. org/ lib/ authors/ jones/ wheel285. html Master Thich Nhat Hanh http:/ / www. buddhanet. net/ masters/ thich. htm http:/ / www. iop. or. jp/ 1121/ Journal21_Y. Kawada1. pdf (page1) http:/ / www. sgi. org/ buddhism/ buddhist-concepts/ treasuring-diversity. html http:/ / www. columbia. edu/ cu/ buddhism/ document/ tc1996. pdf Faith into Action, page 243, World Tribune Press ISBN 9780915678662 http:/ / www. dhammatalks. net/ Books6/ Bhante_Dhammananda_Human_Dignity_in_Buddhism. pdf http:/ / husky1. stmarys. ca/ ~wmills/ course316/ 16Slave_Trades. html http:/ / www. sokaspirit. org/ resource/ justice/ religion-is-the-stronghold The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra vol.3 page 267/268 ISBN 9780915678716 The Wisdom of the LS vol3, p.149 World Tribune Press ISBN 9780915678716

[49] Global Civilization, a Buddhist Islamic Dialogue, Ikeda/Tehranian/ page 56/ British Academic Press ISBN 186064810X [50] Prayer in Buddhism http:/ / www. sgi. org/ buddhism/ buddhist-concepts/ prayer-in-buddhism. html [51] Space and Eternal Life,p.73 Wickramasinghe/Ikeda, ISBN 185172060X

Buddhist humanism
[52] Buddhist Humanism and Religious Democracy, Humanism and Religion http:/ / www. ikedacenter. org/ thinkers/ rockefeller_talk. htm [53] Humanism and Religion http:/ / www. ikedacenter. org/ thinkers/ rockefeller_talk. htm [54] http:/ / www. centerforinquiry. net/ blogs/ entry/ christian_humanism_religious_humanism_and_secular_humanism/

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Further reading
Books
Humanistic Buddhism, Xingyun, Master Hsing Yun, ISBN 1932293035 Humanistic Buddhism for Social Wellbeing, Ananda W.P. Guruge ISBN 097174523 Search for New Humanity, Ikeda/Derbolav, Tauris & Co Ltd, ISBN 978-1-84511-598-2 World Crisis and Buddhist Humanism, John Crook, Wisdom Books Planetary Citizenship, Ikeda/Henderson, Middleway Press, ISBN : 0-972-32672-3 New Social Face of Buddhism, Ken Jones,Wisdom Publications,ISBN 9780861713653 Good Citizens, Creating Enlightened Society, Thich Nhan Hanh, ISBN 9781935209898 A New Humanism, D.Ikeda, Weatherhill, Inc. 1990, ISBN 0-8348-0334-8 A Passage to Peace, Global Solutions, Ikeda/Yalman, ISBN 978-1-84511-923-2 For the Sake of Peace, Ikeda, Middleway Press, ISBN 0-9674697-2-4 Global Civilization, Ikeda/ Tahranian, British Academic Press, ISBN 1-86064-810-X Human Rights in the 21st Century, Ikeda/Athayde,Tauris &Co.Ltd, ISBN 978-1-84511-988-1 On Being Human, Ikeda/Simard/Bourgeault, Middleway Press, ISBN 0-9723267-1-5 The Globalisation of Buddhist Humanism, Seager, Richard Hughes ISBN 0-520-24577-6 New Horizons in Eastern Humanism, Weiming/Ikeda, Tauris &Co Ltd, ISBN 9781848855922

Articles
Buddhist Humanism (http://www.daisakuikeda.org/main/philos/buddhist/buddh-05.html) Humanistic Buddhism (http://www.blia.org/english/publications/booklet/pages/15.htm) Was the Buddha the First Humanists? (http://www.humanists.net/pdhutcheon/humanist articles/buddha.htm) Buddhism and Humanism (http://www.lakehouse.lk/mihintalava/sasana12.htm) The Virtues of Asian Humanism (http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/307/budhumanism.htm) Humanism in Buddhism (http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/bot/pdf/bot_1998_03_01. pdf) The Spirit of Humanism in Buddhism Xiao Lihua, National Taiwan University Humanistic Elements in early Buddhism (http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-JHB/jhb94216.htm) Humanistic Momentum in Buddhist literature (http://buddhim.20m.com/8-5.htm) Humanism and the Buddha (https://www.comp.glam.ac.uk/pages/staff/srharris/buddhism/HandB.html) Buddhism and Intercultural Humanism (http://www.theberendelfoundation.com/node/56)

External links
All Buddhist schools and temples can be considered as local organizations for studying and practicing the principles of humanism. Buddhist centers vary in their activities aimed at spreading the ideals of Buddhist humanism in society, such as interfaith dialogue, contribution to society - in particular at the time of crises or environmental disasters -, sharing in seminars with various humanists and promoting understanding of the concepts of humanism. Some of the global Buddhist organizations/institutions are: Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order (http://www.fgs.org.tw/english/index.html) Tsu Chi Foundation (http://www.tzuchi.org/) Buddhist Global Relief (http://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/main.html)

Buddhist humanism Value Creation SGI/ Humanitarian Activities (http://www.sgi.org/community-initiatives/ humanitarian-activities.html) Interfaith dialogue/ SGI (http://www.sgi.org/community-initiatives/interfaith.html) Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, Dialogue (http://www.ikedacenter.org/staff.htm)

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Humanistic Buddhism
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Ethical culture Marxist humanism Deistic humanism Cosmic humanism Existential humanism Neohumanism Rationalist humanism Integral humanism Transhumanism Personism Posthumanism Antihumanism Philosophy portal

e [1]

v t

"Humanistic" (human-realm) Buddhism (Chinese: ; pinyin: rnjin fjio) is a modern Buddhist philosophy practiced mostly by Mahayana Buddhists. It is the integration of people's spiritual practice into all aspects of their daily lives[citation needed]. Buddhist monastics such as Taixu and Yinshun are seen as earlier pioneers of the movement [citation needed], which migrated to Taiwanese Buddhism through other Buddhist leaders, such as Cheng Yen, Hsing Yun, and Sheng Yen. Humanistic Buddhism claims to encompass all of the Buddhist teachings [citation needed]from the time of Gautama Buddha to the present. Its goal is to live the bodhisattva way, which means to be an energetic, enlightened, and endearing person who strives to help all sentient beings liberate themselves. It focuses on issues of the world rather than on how to leave the world behind; on caring for the living, rather than the dead; on benefiting others, rather than benefiting oneself and on universal salvation, rather than cultivation for only oneself. This orientation reflects the fundamental spirit of the Lotus Sutra.[1] Central to this philosophical stance is an essentially optimistic belief in the core dignity of humans, and their ability to transform themselves in a positive way. Humanistic Buddhism is a based on the fundamental awareness of the interconnectedness of self and others [citation needed] , a state of enlightenment which overrides distinctions between human beings - and focuses on their core oneness, their humanity [citation needed]. The oneness of self and others is the background of altruism and of the aspiration to help others lead a life free from sufferings: The Bodhisattva exemplifies the state of compassion, or altruistic life, and a person in this state aspires to help all people gain happiness, seeking in Nichirens words to attain enlightenment only after having first saved others from sufferings. [2]

Nomenclature
Taixu, a reformist pioneer in early 20th century Chinese Buddhism, was one of the first to popularize the term "Buddhism for Human Life" (Chinese: ; pinyin: rnshng fjio), [citation needed] though may not have been the inventor of this term. The first two characters, "human" and "life", indicating his criticism of several aspects of late Ming dynasty and early Republican Chinese Buddhism that he wished to correct, namely, an emphasis on spirits and ghosts (viz "human"), and funeral services and rites (viz "life"). His disciples continued this emphasis. Taixu also used the term "Buddhism for the Human World", or popularly "Humanistic Buddhism" (Chinese: ; pinyin: rnjin fjio). It appears that at first the two terms were largely interchangeable. One of Taixu's disciples, Yin Shun, used the term "Humanistic Buddhism" to indicate a criticism against the "deification" of Buddhism, which was another common feature of much of Chinese Buddhism, in his articles and books. It was Yinshun, and other disciples of Taixu, who brought both of these two terms to Taiwan in the wake of the

Humanistic Buddhism Republican's defeat during the civil war against the Chinese Communist Party. It was in Taiwan that the term "Humanistic Buddhism" became the most commonly used term, particularly amongst the religious leaders who originally hailed from China. The term (pinyin: rnjin fjio) has also been translated as "Engaged Buddhism" or "Socially Engaged Buddhism," attributed mainly to Thich Nhat Hanh and his rendering of the Chinese into Vietnamese as Nhn gian pht gio. Both share historical and structural features in emphasizing the relief of suffering in the here and now. An international conference on "Humanistic and Engaged Buddhism - Patterns and Prospects" was held May 1824, 2009 at Foguang University in Ilan, Taiwan to reflect on the history, teachings, practices, and future of these movements.[3]

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Pure Land in the human world

The proponents of this reformation did not see it [citation needed]as a rejection of other forms of Buddhism, but a reinterpretation. One classic example is the idea of "creating a Pure Land in the human world" (Chinese: ; pinyin: jinsh rnjin jngt), which can be seen as a new interpretation of the Pure Land form of Chinese Buddhism. This latter school, of course, has been one of the most popular forms of Chinese Buddhism for over 1000 years, particularly amongst the laity. Many of the forms and practices are maintained; however, the aim is redirected - rather than practicing in the hope (or vow) of rebirth in Amitabha Buddha's Pure Land, the practitioner seeks to better themselves and society, to create a Pure Land here on earth. This interpretation is also quite well justified in many Mahayana scriptures [citation needed], which indicate that the bodhisattva (Mahayana practitioner) "travels from Pure Land to Pure Land, learning from the Buddhas and bodhisattvas", before creating their own, as an expedient means to liberate sentient beings.

Humanistic teaching in Nichiren Buddhism

Nichiren Buddhism is based on the Lotus Sutra, one of the major Mahayana sources, in which the Buddha declared the equality of all human beings and introduced the teaching of Buddha Nature as common to all people. Nichiren viewed the essence of the Lotus Sutra as an expression of humanism: the Lotus Sutra that leads all people to Buddhahood, and we ordinary human beings are in no way different or separate from one another.[4] and viewed the Buddha as a role model for all humanity: The purpose of the appearance in this world of Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, lies in his behaviour as a human being.[5] According to modern Buddhist movement of Nichiren Buddhism, the essence of Buddhist humanism lies in treasuring diversity: The humanism of the Lotus Sutra comes down to the tenet of treasuring the individual [6] and in valuing the individual human being: To place supreme value on the human being is the teaching of the Lotus Sutra. It is the humanism of the Buddhist Law, which coincides with the belief that each person has the potential for Buddhahood. [7]

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Current activities of Buddhist Humanism

Sharing the ideal of global citizenship and the oneness of all humanity is practiced by various Buddhist activities around the globe.[8] In one of its practical meaning on the world stage, Buddhist humanism strives to spread peace and oppose threats to humanitys survival.[9] Another aspect of manifesting the teaching of Humanistic Buddhism is the interfaith dialogue and the study of the common tenets of non-violence.[10]

Six characteristics
According to Hsing Yun, Humanistic Buddhism has the following six characteristics: Humanism The Buddha was neither a spirit--coming and going without leaving a trace-- nor a figment of ones imagination. The Buddha was a living human being. Just like the rest of us, he had parents, a family, and he lived a life. It was through his human existence that he showed his supreme wisdom of compassion, ethical responsibility, and prajna-wisdom. Thus, he is a Buddha who was also (in the past) a human being. Emphasis on daily life In his teachings, the Buddha placed great importance on daily life as spiritual practice. He provided guidance on everything, from how to eat, dress, work, and live, to how to walk, stand, sit, and sleep. He gave clear directions on every aspect of life, from relations among family members and between friends to how we should conduct ourselves in the social and political arenas. Altruism The Buddha was born into this world to teach, to provide an example, and to bring joy to all beings. He nurtured all beings, for he always had the best interests of others in his mind and heart. In short, his every thought, word, and action arose from a heart filled with deep care and concern for others. Joyfulness The Buddhist teachings give people joy[citation needed]. Timeliness The Buddha was born for a great reason: to build a special relationship with all of us who live in this world. Although the Buddha lived some 2,500 years ago and has already entered nirvana, he left the seed of liberation for all subsequent generations. Even today, the Buddhas ideals and teachings serve as timely, relevant guides for us all. Universality The entire life of the Buddha can be characterized by the Buddhas spirit of wanting to liberate all beings, without exclusion. [The Buddha loved beings of all forms, whether they were animals or humans, male or female, young or old, Buddhist or not Buddhist, etc.]

In Taiwan
Yinshun was the key figure in the doctrinal exposition of Buddhism, and thus Humanistic Buddhism, in Taiwan. However, he was not particularly active in the social or policital spheres of life. This was to be carried out by a younger generation: Hsing Yun, Sheng-yen, Wei Chueh and Cheng Yen. These four figures, collectively known as the "Four Heavenly Kings of Taiwanese Buddhism", head the "Four Great Mountains", or monasteries, of modern Taiwanese Buddhism: Fo Guang Shan, Dharma Drum Mountain, Chung Tai Shan, and Tsu Chi.

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References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Buddhist Humanism (http:/ / www. daisakuikeda. org/ main/ philos/ buddhist/ buddh-05. html) D. Ikeda The Bodhisattva Ideal and Human Rights Culture, SGI Quarterly, October 2011, p.9 http:/ / www. cuhk. edu. hk/ crs/ cshb/ conference/ 09-3-home. htm The Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life (http:/ / www. sgilibrary. org/ view. php?page=216& m=3& q=the Lotus Sutra that leads) WND1 p 852 Treasuring Diversity (http:/ / www. sgi. org/ buddhism/ buddhist-concepts/ treasuring-diversity. html) Every Human Being is a Buddha (http:/ / www. sgi-es. org/ civglobal/ Gosho_ing_feb09. pdf) Spreading Buddhism Humanism in the Community (http:/ / www. sgi. org/ about-us/ members-stories/ spreading-buddhist-humanism-in-the-community. html) [9] Toward a World of Dignity for All: The Triumph of the Creative Life (http:/ / www. daisakuikeda. org/ main/ peacebuild/ peace-proposals/ pp2011. html) [10] Gandhi and Mahayana Buddhism (http:/ / www. class. uidaho. edu/ ngier/ GB. htm)

Further reading
Guruge, Ananda Wp (2003). Humanistic Buddhism for Social Well-Being: An Overview of Grand Master Hsing Yun's Interpretation. Buddha's Light Publishing. ISBN0-9717495-2-3. Jacqueline Ho. The Practice of Yin Shuns Ren Jian Fo Jiao: A Case Study of Fu Yan College, Dharma Drum Mountain and Tzu Chi Buddhist Compassion Relief. MA thesis, University of Calgary, 2008. ISBN 978-0-494-44221-0 Hughes Seager, Richard (2006). Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai, and the Globalization of Buddhist Humanism. University of California Press. ISBN0-520-24577-6. The Virtue of Asian Humanism, Prof, Nick Gier http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/budhumanism.htm The Globalisation of Buddhist Humanism, Seager, Richard Hughes -ISBN 0-520-24577-6, March 16, 2006 A New Humanism, D.Ikeda - ISBN 978-1848854833, Oct. 15, 2010 New Humanism for world peace, Kawada http://www.iop.or.jp/1121/Journal21_Y.Kawada1.pdf Pittman, Don Alvin (2001), Toward a Modern Chinese Buddhism: Taixu's Reforms, University of Hawaii Press

External links
Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order (http://www.fgs.org.tw/english/index.html) Tzu Chi Foundation (http://www.tzuchi.org) Hsi Lai Temple (http://www.hsilai) Buddha's Light Publishing (http://www.blpusa.com) Buddha's Light International Association (http://www.blia.org) University of the West (http://www.uwest.edu) Booklets - Hsing Yn (http://www.blia.org/english/publications/booklet/booklet.htm) Buddhist Global Relief (http://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/main.html)

Article Sources and Contributors

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Article Sources and Contributors

Humanism Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=599323232 Contributors: 10FingerJoe, 152.163.201.xxx, 172, 1wheel, 21655, 2ct7, 5 albert square, 92anonymous92, A Geek Tragedy, ABF, AV3000, Abdullais4u, AbsolutDan, Abtract, Adam9389, Adamahill, Adamsmi10, Afasmit, Afiya27, Ahoerstemeier, Airborne84, Aitias, Aksi great, Al-Andalusi, Alan Liefting, Alansohn, Alarics, Aldaron, Aldnonymous, Alec Fischer, Alexanderpas, AlexiusHoratius, Alienus, All Is One, Aloo1960, Alphachimp, AmiDaniel, Analogue Kid, And Rew, Andonic, Andres, Andrew Kernohan, Andy Marchbanks, Andycjp, Anetode, Animum, Anonymous editor, Antaeus Feldspar, Antandrus, Anthony Appleyard, Anthony R Miller Sr, Antiuser, Anupam, ArielGold, Artblakey, Atethnekos, Atfyfe, Atomon, AtticusX, Aunt Entropy, Ave Caesar, Awikiwhat, Awwiki, BM, BRUTE, Baccaruda66, Bachrach44, Bbatsell, Beagle17, Before My Ken, Beloki, Belthil, Ben Ram, Ben Standeven, BenTrotsky, Benhocking, Benw, Bergendude, Bermicourt, Bernardwoodpecker, Betterusername, Bill37212, Bill52270, Billinghurst, Billymac00, Binary TSO, Birminghamhumanists, Bjorn Martiz, Bladesmulti, Blainster, Blehfu, Blind designer, Bloodshedder, Bo99, Bob Burkhardt, Bob.Churchill, Bobo192, Bobrayner, Bodnotbod, Bolatbek, Bomac, Bookofjude, Borislav, Born2cycle, Bornhj, Bped1985, Bradgib, Brandon, Brhavig, Briaboru, Brick Thrower, Brockert, Btwied, Bucketsofg, Burfdl, Buridan, Bus stop, Bushcarrot, Byelf2007, CCeducator, CPColin, CSMR, CSvBibra, CTZMSC3, Cactus.man, Calton, Can't sleep, clown will eat me, Canucka, Capricorn42, Carole Jean, Catgut, Cbrick77, Ceedave, CesarB, Ceyockey, Charles Matthews, Charlesdrakew, Chealer, Chip123456, Choihei, Chonfuacian, Chonfucian, Chris the speller, ChristopherWillis, Christum, Chriswaterguy, Chsbcgs, Chuckiesdad, Circes, Ckatz, Cladist, Clarisse Louise, Clark89, Climbatize 87, Clngre, ClockworkDracula, ClockworkSoul, Clossius, Cnyborg, Coat of Arms, Comatosedude, Cometstyles, Commander, Compositionlover, Conch Shell, 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Article Sources and Contributors

Platonism in the Renaissance Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=574567262 Contributors: Bacchiad, Biruitorul, Charles Matthews, Ckatz, Eyeball kid, Haputdas, Johnbod, Mathiasrex, Pierpietro, Pollinosisss, Practical321, Quenstedt, Rich Farmbrough, StAnselm, Tony1, 6 anonymous edits Hermeticism Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=598563807 Contributors: 999, AdamFunk, Adom2000, Akeenan, Alansohn, Aleister Wilson, Algorithme, All Is One, Alphapeta, Altenmann, AndrewHowse, Antioco79, Arb, Arion 3x3, Armadel, Art LaPella, Ashami, Astrolog, Audaciter, BD2412, Babbage, Basawala, Basileias, Bastique, Beowulf314159, Blueboar, Bookerj, Byrgenwulf, CFPeterson, Car Henkel, Charles Matthews, ChrisGualtieri, Clarknova, Clinkophonist, Cmdrjameson, CorinneSD, Cuchullain, Curious Blue, Cybercobra, DNewhall, DVD R W, Dan Gluck, DanBLOO, DanielCD, Davecrosby uk, Dbachmann, Deb, Debresser, Dejvid, Deschreiber, Deville, Dkoiia1154, DocWatson42, Dogaroon, Dougweller, Dr. John Gold, Dream of Nyx, DreamGuy, Dtremenak, Enviroboy, FeelyViewy, Ferma12e3pe, Flygongengar, Frater FiatLux, Frater Xyzzy, Gabe777, Gaius Cornelius, Gehadad, GeoffHoeber, Gil-Galad, Graham87, Greyscale, Gschiffino, Gurch, Hanuman Das, HappyInGeneral, Hermetizam, Hermotimus, Heylel, IPAddressConflict, IPSOS, Ian.thomson, Ihcoyc, Ina custers, Infinitysnake, IvanLanin, JEMead, Jeraphine Gryphon, Jheald, Jim.henderson, Jncraton, John Carter, Jojalozzo, Jonathan.McGregor.Bethel, Jorge Stolfi, Jorjun, Joshua Jonathan, Journalist492, Jpb1301, Jstar37, Justin Eiler, KamiLian, KellyArt, Kenatipo, Khuenaten, King Vegita, Kinu, Kirbytime, Kostisl, Lauralilly, Lenoxus, Leutha, Lichtkind, Ligulem, Loremaster, Lx 121, MSJapan, Manosty, Marcika, Martarius, McSly, Mellery, Metadox, Michael Hardy, Mogism, MolodoiG, Monkeycheetah, MoogleDan, Moreschi, Moreschi2, Morgan Leigh, Mr. Stradivarius, Mseanbrown, Nalvage, Nandesuka, NatusRoma, Nihiliststar, Ninly, Nixdorf, Nk, Norwikian, Oakwood, Oatmeal batman, Oferrriko, Ogdred, Ojigiri, Omnipaedista, OrganicAtom, PFHLai, Perfecto, Petropoxy (Lithoderm Proxy), PiPhD, Pigman, Pollinosisss, Professor marginalia, Psilosphere, Ptcamn, Ptdecker, QaBobAllah, Quarl, Quenstedt, Qwyrxian, R'n'B, RHaworth, RL Barrett, Raistlin Majere, Ray Dassen, Rd232, Revery, RexNL, Rgbea, Rhadryn, Rico77, Riversong, Rje, Rjwilmsi, Robert Prummel, Ronhjones, Salome777, Sam Weller, Samuel Grant, Sardanaphalus, Savidan, Shelhabiron, Shinju, Shralk, SiobhanHansa, Sionus, Sloth monkey, Slrubenstein, Smiloid, Solar, Sophia, Sophie means wisdom, Sowlos, Stepa, Stevertigo, Sweetmoose6, Syncategoremata, Synergy, TShilo12, Tassedethe, TheOldJacobite, ThePeg, ThriceGreat, Tide rolls, TimBentley, Tomcusack, Tomisti, Tothebarricades.tk, Trinsic1, True Pagan Warrior, Twang, TwoHorned, Tyler8779, Ultron, UnionJack123, Vegaswikian, Viriditas, W. B. Wilson, Wahrmund, Wikijens, XxTimberlakexx, Yonderboy, Yworo, Zostrianos, Zzuuzz, 301 anonymous edits List of Renaissance humanists Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=570071695 Contributors: 3Flix, Afasmit, Benson85, CSvBibra, Charles Matthews, Claudio Pistilli, Dragontorch14, Favonian, Gary, Gioto, Hopeoflight, Hugo999, Jesus geek, Jpbowen, Shirulashem, Tillander, Uoeia, Voceditenore, Woohookitty, 25 anonymous edits Secular humanism Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=597062547 Contributors: !melquiades, 0, 200.191.188.xxx, 2ct7, A bit iffy, A.K.Khalifeh, ARTEST4ECHO, AUN4, AV3000, Ace ETP, Ackie00, Acmartin, Adambiswanger1, Adraeus, Alan Liefting, Alanbkahn, Alansohn, Alby, Alexjohnc3, Altenmann, Amperman, Anarkisto, Anaxial, Andriesb, Animan360, Anonymous02138, Ant, Antandrus, Appu001, AriTotle, Athene cheval, Aunt Entropy, Autarch, Avedomni, AxiomOfFaith, AzaToth, Azcolvin429, BD2412, Ban Bridges, Baristarim, Batmanand, Bbb23, Bearcat, Ben Standeven, Benw, Bkwillwm, Blainster, Boothy443, Bowei Huang 2, Brad Polard, Brammers, Bridies, Bryan Derksen, Buddhaamaatya, Bugg1979, Buridan, Byelf2007, Cadfile, Cahill1, Carole Jean, Cavenba, Chodorkovskiy, Chris the speller, ChrisGualtieri, ChrisTW, Cladist, Clan-destine, Clayto, Coelacan, Cooper24, Cos Oro, Count Caspian, Curb Chain, Curufinwe, Cyan, Cyde, Daanschr, Dacoutts, Daniel J. 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Anderson, Stevenrasnick, Stevertigo, Stjamie, Storkk, Str1977, Studerby, SuMadre, SvGeloven, THB, TaintedMustard, Tasc, Tayste, Tb20000, Tcravens, Tctopcat, TechBear, Tentinator, Tesseract2, ThAtSo, The Bread, TheBarchettaMan, Theinfamousm, Theoneintraining, Thetasigmapi, Thinking of England, Thrissel, TimothyPilgrim, Tobias Hoevekamp, Tommy2010, Tomsega, Topbanana, Tualha, Twas Now, Twinsday, Varunpramanik, Vastu, VeryVerily, Vgranucci, Victor falk, Viriditas, Vsmith, WadeSimMiser, Wavelength, Wesley, Wetman, Wfaulk, Widr, Wikidemon, Wikignome0530, Wikipedia brown, Wikkrockiana, William Trevor Blake, Wimmsk, Windinmysails, Wisdomtenacityfocus, Witbrock, Wknight94, Wwagner, Xasthuresque, Xblkx, Yahnatan, Zahid Abdassabur, Zamphuor, Zenohockey, Ziphilt, 670 anonymous edits Secular ethics Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=586418431 Contributors: Acalamari, Airborne84, Aldo samulo, Alrik, Aryah, Atari25, AxiomOfFaith, BMF81, Bnordlund, Bowei Huang 2, Bryan Derksen, Canadianism, Capt Jack Doicy, Charlesdrakew, ChrisGualtieri, Chrisrivers, CommonsDelinker, Cousin Kevin, Darobian, Darolew, Dave souza, Deus911, Dino, Donner60, Eazyskankin, Edward, Elembis, Euthydemos, Evb-wiki, Gareth E Kegg, GoingBatty, Gpaul1, Heironymous Rowe, Imperatoromnium, ItsZippy, JamesBWatson, Jeffrey Mall, Jnewton37, Jojalozzo, Lbeaumont, Lenschulwitz, LilHelpa, Lockeownzj00, Lugia2453, Maqsarian, McGeddon, Mjsaz4018, Mogism, Naraht, Neelix, NellieBly, Newagelink, Noommos, PelleSmith, Pogogyneabramsii, Prmcd16, Proxima Centauri, RL0919, Rjwilmsi, Samuel Salzman, Silence, SomeHuman, Sorceress Jade, Starghost, Tesseract2, Thomas Ash, Trovatore, Ungtss, Wavelength, Wensei78, Wikididact, Wikignome0530, Woody, Yogesh Khandke, 43 anonymous edits Humanist Manifesto Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=573068546 Contributors: 2ct7, Airborne84, Anarchocelt, Austinfidel, Bellerophon5685, BillyPreset, Brockert, CL, Derktar, Duncharris, Ed Poor, Fra59e, Ghmyrtle, Happyhuman, HarZim, Ivangarcia44, Jfhutson, JonHarder, Kpearson99, Masterpiece2000, Medecine Wheel, Mercury McKinnon, Stephan Leeds, Swed Simon, Tdadamemd, Ted.strauss, Tesseract2, Toussaint, Vcelloho, VeryVerily, Vsmith, Vvevo, WhyBeNormal, Yudvirsidhu, 57 anonymous edits A Secular Humanist Declaration Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=551743467 Contributors: Adicarlo, Alan Nicoll, Austinfidel, Bellerophon5685, Calaka, Charles Matthews, Cymru.lass, Dacoutts, Duncharris, Fra59e, George100, Gold1618, Icairns, Itai, Jevansen, Jfhutson, JustAGal, Kate, NawlinWiki, OinkOink, Premeditated Chaos, Quuxplusone, Rastko Pocesta, Rsabbatini, Rschneider29, SimonP, Steinsky, Susvolans, Tassedethe, Template namespace initialisation script, Tom Morris, Toussaint, Trivialist, Ulric1313, Unara, Vsmith, Woohookitty, 15 anonymous edits International Humanist and Ethical Union Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=598325624 Contributors: 2ct7, Adoniscik, Arneberg, AtticusX, Bejnar, Bob.Churchill, ChiZeroOne, Chinju, DTNewman, Dacoutts, Davidhume, Derktar, Dino, Dl2000, Dobie80, Download, Duncharris, Dwanyewest, Erianna, Filemon, Frankol77, George100, Ghmyrtle, Gregbard, Griswaldo, Harsimaja, IHEU, Icairns, Ingersoll, Jeandr du Toit, John Vandenberg, JohnLloyd, Koavf, Lquilter, MGTom, Magioladitis, Malcolmxl5, Masterpiece2000, Mike Rosoft, MikeLynch, Mmyotis, Mre5765, Nihola, Open 2, Paul K., Pmpdurrant, Rhanabanana, Rhwentworth, Rohirok, SomeHuman, StewE17, Tom harrison, Trovatore, Twinsday, Vieque, VolatileChemical, Vsmith, Welsh, Wku2m5rr, XandeBox, Zdravko mk, Zeitlupe, 72 anonymous edits Marxist humanism Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=591782822 Contributors: Allan.lummus, Arges, Banes, Bjorn Martiz, Bobblehead, Bobfrombrockley, Byelf2007, Catch, Causa sui, Charles Matthews, Cherubinirules, Chill doubt, Colonies Chris, Deutschervolke, Dialecticas, Edward Turner, Ernalve, Esperant, Fconaway, Franklin Dmitryev, Gary123, Ghirlandajo, Hanshans23, Inkani, J. Milch, J04n, JaGa, Jeff5102, JenLouise, Johnbod, Joseph Solis in Australia, Joy, Koavf, Lapsed Pacifist, Legotech, Life in General, Madcoverboy, Mhavp1955, Monty Cantsin, Msrasnw, NMChico24, NawlinWiki, Netsnipe, NicoJara, Passportguy, Reatlas, Redthoreau, Rejax, Rob Maguire, Rrburke, RussellRockwell, Sabine's Sunbird, Sango123, Santa Sangre, SeNeKa, Sekwanele 2, Skittled, Sobolewski, Tassedethe, Tauai, The Human Trumpet Solo, Ulric1313, Yozzer66, Zdravko mk, 81 anonymous edits Religious humanism Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=593355747 Contributors: -- April, 2ct7, A Ramachandran, Animated Cascade, Arjun024, Bjdehut, Brockert, Bryan Derksen, Calton, Cewvero, Ched, Cplot, Dangerous Angel, David Hockey, David Wallace Croft, David unknown, David wallace croft, Deathphoenix, Dougofborg, EagleFan, Educationnotpropaganda, El C, EoGuy, Evercat, Evrik, Excelsior1774, Falliciouslogic, Flyer22, Gaius Cornelius, GeeJo, Gregbard, Haow, Happy Humanist, Jagged 85, JohnOwens, Jojalozzo, JonHarder, JonathanBrown82, Kfc1864, Kitfoxxe, Kitoba, Knight1993, Koavf, Laurence Cox, Metron, Michael Hardy, Mjsteiner, Mmyotis, MollyMac13, Nathanielfirst, Nealmcb, Nihiltres, Nina Gerlach, Nitpyck, Nived 90, Pearle, PhilKnight, Poor Yorick, R'n'B, RDF, Rangestand, Rhwentworth, Rjwilmsi, Rlsiddall, Roscelese, SamHarris1982, SamanthaPuckettIndo, Samuell, Sandstein, Savidan, Seanwr10990, SimonP, Spartian, Stephan Leeds, The Transhumanist, Thedarkestlight, Toussaint, Universist, Vsmith, Wesley, Wild Bill, Yid613, Yodamace1, Yworo, Z10x, , 73 anonymous edits Christian humanism Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=596825244 Contributors: Adambiswanger1, Afasmit, Ale jrb, All Is One, Allen3, Amillar, Andreas Philopater, B1mbo, Bacchiad, Bobsingle, C.Fred, Capricorn42, Cawsocia, Chiwhitesoxfan11, Christum, Chuck369, Closedmouth, Coalpatch, Cwolfsheep, DMSBel, Darklilac, Dbickford, Dewine, Dj manton, Dovetailed, Editor2020, Edward, Englishnotbritish, Evrik, Excirial, Favonian, Gaius Cornelius, Gallopaddict, GoGeo, Goodone121, Gregbard, Happy Humanist, Hassouni, Henningsthegreat, Homagetocatalonia, Ian.thomson, Ilario, Iselilja, Ixfd64, Jayron32, Jhobson1, Jobin RV, JoeCarter888, Johnbequette, Jonathunder, JosephCCampana, Jpeob, JuanMarchant, Jusdafax, KConWiki, KHM03, Kevlarsen, Kitoba, KnightRider, Koavf, LarRan, LeMaster, Leandrod, Leon..., Ligulem, Lloegr-Cymru, Magioladitis, Mark K. Jensen, Mind meal, Mlangager, NZUlysses, Nathanielfirst, NewEnglandYankee, Nirvana2013, Ohnoitsjamie, OlEnglish, Optichan, Parkc030, Pastordavid, Philip Trueman, Pigman, PlasmaTime, Praise of Folly, Premkudva, Reformatikos, Ross Burgess, Savidan, SchreiberBike, Silence, Smallman12q, Srnec, StAnselm, Stevertigo, Tastemyhouse, Toddsschneider, Tom harrison, Triddle, UncDto5, Vanish2, Vanky, WOSlinker, Wereon, Whateverlolawants, William Avery, 169 anonymous edits

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