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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 unthinking acceptance of dogma or superstition. The meaning of the term ''humanism'' has fluctuated according to the successive intellectual movements which have identified with it.〔Nicolas Walter's ''HumanismWhat's in the Word'' (London: Rationalist Press Association, 1997 ISBN 0-301-97001-7) gives an account of the evolution of the meaning of the word ''humanism'' from the point of view of a modern secular humanist. A similar perspective, but somewhat less polemical, appears 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 (April–June, 1985): 167–95.〕 Generally, however, humanism refers to a perspective that affirms some notion of human freedom and progress. In modern times, humanist movements are typically aligned with secularism, and "Humanism" typically refers to a non-theistic life stance centred on human agency and looking to science rather than revelation from a supernatural source to understand the world.〔See for example the 2002 ''Amsterdam Declaration'' (http://iheu.org/humanism/the-amsterdam-declaration/) issued by the International Humanist and Ethical Union 〕〔 The British Humanist Association's (definition of Humanism ) 〕 ==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 φιλανθρωπία (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 παιδεία (paideia); that is, what we call ''eruditionem institutionemque in bonas artes'', or "education and training in the liberal 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 humanity alone of all the animals, and for that reason it is termed ''humanitas'', or "humanity".〔(Aulus Gellius ), ''Attic Nights'', XIII: 17.〕 Gellius says that in his day ''humanitas'' is commonly used as a synonym for philanthropy – or kindness and benevolence toward one's fellow human being. 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".〔''Humanissime vir'', "most humane man", was the usual Latin way to address scholars. (Giustiniani, "Homo, Humanus, and the Meanings of Humanism" : 168.)〕 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.〔 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'' (University Press, 2002 ), p. 54.)〕 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.〔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'' (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'' (York: HarperCollins, 2000 ), p. 45)〕 During the French Revolution, and soon after, in Germany (by the Left Hegelians), ''humanism'' began to refer to an ethical philosophy centered on humankind, 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.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 url=http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/edwin_wilson/manifesto/ch2.html )〕 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.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Text of Humanist Manifesto I )〕 Signatories included the philosopher John Dewey, but the majority were ministers (chiefly Unitarian) and theologians. They 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.〔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.〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.iheu.org/humanism-is-eight-letters-no-more )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「humanism」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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