Humanism

The Mindset

As a mindset, humanism, on the one hand, denotes a level of education through which the individual is empowered to take care of himself or herself, cura sui, and to act responsibly on behalf of the community, the communitas. Consequently, both the mastering of civil virtues and knowledge of history, language and law, and the martial arts too, were implied in this education, from which the concept of ‘the humanities’ as a branch of science was later formed. On the other hand, humanitas also meant a moral or ethical attitude, the core of which was generosity, the generositas. It was closely connected to Cicero’s concept of equity, aequitas, an attitude expected from judges under Roman law, through which they had to perform by the guidelines to consider the situation of the offender before and during the crime. Deduced from Aristotle’s concept of epieikeia, from Nicomachean Ethics, the ideal of equity might even surpass the claims of empathy and mean magnanimity.

The core of the mindset of humanism today could be expressed as the endeavour to seek liberation and empowerment for oneself and others through knowledge and to relate with understanding, care and generosity to every single human being. The right to autonomous expression of one’s emotions, values and interests is pertinent to humanist endeavours. In these attitudes, analogies can be found in the aspirations of action research to understand the view of the other person.

The Movement

The movement has its origins during the period of antiquity in Classical Athens, spreading during Hellenism to more cities and finally to Rome. To conceive and treat everyone as a human being, irrespective of ethnic, national or linguistic origin and regardless of world view, was anticipated by Stoicism but was transformed into a perspective virtually covering the whole world by Christianity—with a little help from Roman imperialism. However, the sense of humanism as a movement is bound to the Renaissance, the Baroque and the Enlightenment. Historically, these periods are characterized by the power reduction of the Catholic Church, and hence of its ideologies, and by the forming of national states with civil rights. Political and social rights could also be seen as, among others, a consequence of a developed, differentiated and pervasive humanist attitude, but they belong to the past two centuries.

Humanism has often been seen as a process in which the individual becomes conscious of his powers and dares to pursue his talents and interests in spite of the ruling hegemonies of thought and the social hierarchies. One speaks about the typical ‘Renaissance man’, incorporating artistic talents, technical and scientific capacities, poetical skills, knowledge of languages and a profound philosophical attitude. Baldassare Castiglioni prescribed this ideal of the humanist gentleman in his 1528 book Il Cortegiano. Painters, sculptors and architects became the idols of humanist Renaissance in Italy. It was not until the Baroque, however, that humanism was identified with the ideal of accepting the other person, her culture, values and integrity, and with nurturing and emphasizing mutual understanding through dialogue.

...