Humanism / Umanism / bashar engari

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umanism is a neologism that defines a socio-politicaldoctrine (" -ism ") whose bounds exceed those of locally developed cultures , to include all of humanity and all issues common to humanbeings. Because doctrines of cultural distinction and exclusivity are often phrased in terms of religion , secular umanism grew as an answer to theneed for a common philosophy that trancended the cultural boundaries of local moral codes and religions. Many humanists are religious, however, and see umanismas simply a mature expression of a common truth present in most religions.

Renaissance umanism was the cultural movement in Europe beginning in central Italy in the late14th century, that revived and refined the language (in particular the Greek language ), science , philosophy and poetry of classical antiquity . As in " Renaissance umanism ", modern umanism is charactized by an attitude and way of life centered onhuman interests or values, stressing an individual's dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization through reason andlogic, assessed by a logical critical approach and other human skills.

Among the humanists neo-Platonic thought once more reassumed centralimportance, from which Aristotelianism had displaced it in the 12thcentury. Because the writings of Antiquity were translated by Renaissancescholars, they and those who agree with them are sometimes called humanists. Medieval values such as humility, introspection, and passivity were replaced among the aristocracy by an emphasison a nobility of spirit and action called virtu. Humanists encouraged leaders to cultivate generous and altruisticactions in order to gather the esteem of fellow men. Beauty was held to represent a deeper inner virtue and value.

The term refers to several belief systems and worldviews that combine the central position of human concerns with otherpreoccupations: See Secular umanism , Religious umanism , or Christian umanism .

Finally, the word is sometimes, but probably incorrectly, used either to describe humanities scholars (particularlyclassicists) or as a synonym for " humanitarianism ".

Modern umanism depends on reason and logic and rejects supernaturalism, but some religious people consider themselveshumanists because their religious beliefs are moral, and therefore humane.

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Other forms of humanism

Humanism is also sometimes used to describe "humanities" scholars, (particularly scholars of the Greco-Roman classics). As mentioned above, it is sometimes used to mean humanitarianism. There is also a school of humanistic psychology, and an educational method.


Educational humanism

Humanism, as a current in education, began to dominate school systems in the 17th century. It held that the studies that develop our intellect are those that make us "most truly human". The practical basis for this was faculty psychology, or the belief in distinct intellectual faculties, such as the analytical, the mathematical, the linguistic, etc. Strengthening one faculty was believed to benefit other faculties as well (transfer of training). A key player in the late 19th-century educational humanism was U.S. Commissioner of Education W.T. Harris, whose "Five Windows of the Soul" (mathematics, geography, history, grammar, and literature/art) were believed especially appropriate for "development of the faculties". Educational humanists believe that "the best studies, for the best kids" are "the best studies" for all kids. While humanism as an educational current was largely discredited by the innovations of the early 20th century, it still holds out, in some elite preparatory schools and some high school disciplines (especially, in literature).

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A Secular Humanist Declaration



In 1980, the Council for Secular Humanism, founded by Paul Kurtz, which is typically more secular in its outlook than the AHA published what is in effect its manifesto, entitled A Secular Humanist Declaration. It has as its main points:

1. Free Inquiry
2. Separation Of Church And State
3. The Ideal Of Freedom
4. Ethics Based On Critical Intelligence
5. Moral Education
6. Religious Skepticism
7. Reason
8. Science And Technology
9. Evolution
10. Education

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New Humanism or neohumanism were terms applied to a theory of literary criticism, together with its consequences for culture and political thought, developed around 1900 by the American scholar Irving Babbitt, and the scholar and journalist Paul Elmer More. Babbitt's book Literature and the American College (190 first gave it a definite form; it was aimed at a perceived gap between the ideals of liberal arts colleges, and university education as it actually existed.

Babbitt himself did not accept the qualification new as applied to his humanism, which became influential as a strand of conservative thought in the following years, up to the 1930s. Other authors associated with the New Humanist group included George Roy Elliott (1883-1963), Norman Foerster (1887-1972) and Stuart Pratt Sherman (1881-1926). Numerous attacks came from outside, especially during the 1920s.

This group was also at times known as The Nation criticism, from More's time editing The Nation from 1909. The adoption by Seward Collins of its philosophy, or some trappings, in his publication The Bookman did something to tarnish it, in a way that external critics had up till then failed to. Some of the members renounced the approach.

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Secular humanism is a humanist philosophy that upholds reason, ethics, and justice and specifically rejects rituals and ceremonies as a means to affirm their life stance. The term was coined in the 20th century to make a clear distinction from "religious humanism". A perhaps less confrontational synonym is scientific humanism, which the biologist Edward O. Wilson claimed to be "the only worldview compatible with science's growing knowledge of the real world and the laws of nature".

Relationship to other concepts

When humanists use the phrase secular humanism it is typically to emphasize differences relative to religion or religious humanism.

There are a number of ways in which secular and religious humanism can differ:[2]

* Religious humanists may value rituals and ceremonies as means of affirming their life stance. Secular humanists are typically not interested in using rituals and ceremonies.
* Some religious humanists may seek profound "religious" experiences, such as those that others would associate with the presence of God, despite interpreting these experiences differently. Secular humanists would generally not pursue such experiences.
* Some varieties of nontheistic religious humanism may conceive of the word divine as more than metaphoric even in the absence of a belief in a traditional God; they may believe in ideals that transcend physical reality; or they may conceive of some experiences as "numinous" or uniquely religious. Secular humanism regards all such terms as, at best, metaphors for truths rooted in the material world.
* Some varieties of religious humanism, such as Christian humanism include belief in God, traditionally defined. Secular humanism is skeptical about God and the supernatural and believes that these are not useful concepts for addressing human problems.

While some humanists embrace calling themselves secular humanists, others prefer the term Humanist, capitalized and without any qualifying adjective. The terms secular humanism and Humanism overlap, but have different connotations. The term secular humanism emphasizes a non-religious focus, whereas the term Humanism deemphasizes this and may even encompass some nontheistic varieties of religious humanism. The term Humanism also emphasizes considering one's humanism to be a life stance.

Secular humanism advocates secularism but is a broader concept. Secularism has a number of usages but generally emphasize limits on the role of religious or supernatural considerations in the affairs of society or government. Secular humanism adds to these positions a comprehensive perspective on life, including affirmation of human dignity and the importance of ethics.

Secular humanism is a broad philosophic position and not simply a statement about belief or non-belief in God. As such, it is inaccurate to identify secular humanism as being the same thing as nontheism, atheism, or agnosticism. While secular humanists are generally nontheistic, atheist, or agnostic, the converse may not be true. Many nontheists, atheists, and agnostics adhere to the tenets of secular humanism, but this is not intrinsically the case.[3]

Secular humanism has appeal to atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, empiricists, objectivists, rationalists, skeptics and materialists, as well as to some Buddhists, Hindus and Confucians.

Christian fundamentalist opponents of humanism typically use the term secular humanism pejoratively to mean atheism or secularism or to lump together all nontheistic varieties of humanism. Humanists object to such usage, finding it misleading or overly broad.


Tenets

Secular humanism describes a world view with the following elements and principles:[4]

* 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 on faith.
* Reason, evidence, scientific method - Commitment to the use of critical reason, factual evidence, and scientific methods of inquiry, rather than faith and mysticism, 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 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.
* 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 an argument for and statement of belief in 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).


Secular humanism today

While secular humanist organizations are found in all parts of the world, one of the largest humanist organisations in the world (relative to population) is Norway's Human-Etisk Forbund,[5] which had over 69,000 members out of a population of around 4.6 million in 2004.[6]

In certain areas of the world, secular humanism finds itself in conflict with religious fundamentalism, especially over the issue of the separation of church and state [citation needed]. Many secular humanists tend to judge religions as superstitious, regressive and closed minded, while religious fundamentalists may see secular humanism as a threat to the values they say are set out in religious texts, such as the Bible and the Qur'an.[7]


Criticism

Some criticize the philosophy of secular humanism because it offers no eternal truths nor a relationship with the divine.[8][9] They comment that a philosophy bereft of these beliefs[10] leaves humanity adrift in a foggy sea[11] of postmodern cynicism and anomie.[12] Humanists respond that such criticisms reflect a failure to look at the actual content of humanist philosophy, which far from being cynical and postmodern, is rooted in optimistic,[13][14] idealistic[15] attitudes that trace back to the Enlightenment,[16][17][18] or further, back to Pre-Socratic Greek philosophers and Chinese Confucianism.[4]


Is secular humanism a religion?

Some Christians maintain that secular humanism is a religion. Humanists say that secular humanism is not a religion, while acknowledging that some varieties of humanism may be religious in some senses of the word. Disputes around this subject are largely semantic.

There is a continuum of humanist philosophies which may be divided into several categories:

* A. Nontheistic non-religious humanism
* B. Nontheistic religious humanism
* C. Theistic religious humanism

Adherents of the first category of humanism, A, emphatically do not regard their variety of humanism as a religion. Adherents of the last two categories of humanism, B and C, regard their variety of humanism as a religion.

Confusion arises because proponents and opponents of humanism tend to define the term secular humanism differently.

* Among proponents of humanism, secular humanism refers to category A. The current article relates primarily to secular humanism as defined in this fashion.
* Among Christians who oppose humanism, secular humanism is used to refer to categories A and B, or even A, B and C.

Fundamentalists use the descriptions of those in category B of their humanism as a religion to "prove" that "Secular Humanism is a religion." This angers those who actually call themselves secular humanists, those in category A, because their variety of humanism is "by definition not religious."

So, the question of whether secular humanism is or is not a religion devolves into a question of semantics, and a question of whether or not people are to be trusted to know whether or not their own beliefs are religious in nature:

* If one uses self-reporting of adherents to determine which beliefs are "religious" then:
o Using the definition of those who self-identify as secular humanists, then secular humanism is emphatically not a religion. To these individuals, the word "secular" means "not religious" and is an assertion of their desire to be not associated with religion.
o Using the fundamentalists' definition of secular humanism, the question of whether secular humanism is a religion or not is not coherent: secular humanism denotes a range of world views, some of which are religious and some of which are not.
* If one does not use self-reporting of adherents to determine which beliefs are "religious" then:
o What definition of "religion" one adheres to will determine whether or not some varieties of nontheistic humanism should be regarded as religious or not.

Related legal questions are considered in a subsequent section.

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In literary and critical theory, posthumanism, meaning beyond humanism, is a European emergent philosophy and is the dominant rational, secular humanist philosophy. It transcends the ideas and images of the world of classical Renaissance humanism to correspond more closely to the 21st century's ideas of scientific knowledge. It mainly differentiates from classical humanism in that it restores the stature that had been made of humanity to one of many natural species. According to this claim, humans have no inherent rights to destroy nature or set themselves above it in ethical considerations a priori.

Human knowledge is also reduced to a less controlling position, previously seen as the defining aspect of the world. The limitations and fallibility of human intelligence are confessed, even though that doesn't mean abandoning the strong rational tradition of humanism.

Performance philosopher Shannon Bell argues that posthumanism attempts "to develop through enactment new understandings of the self and other, essence, consciousness, intelligence, reason, agency, intimacy, life, embodiment, identity and the body."

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ومانيسم و حقگرايى

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