A New Humanism
The term ‘humanism’ became prominent during the Renaissance. It was developed at the end of the Middle Ages; resulting from the revival of classical letters. This rebirth focused upon humans as the center of an effort to reassert self-determination. This early humanism focused on culture and learning, in an effort to center intellectual efforts on the human need and interests rather than on the divine.
Modern Humanism is "a naturalistic philosophy that rejects all supernaturalism and relies primarily upon reason and science, democracy and human compassion. Modern Humanism has a dual origin, both secular and religious, and these constitute its sub-categories.â€
A critical characteristic of Modern Humanism is the fact that there existed two factions of humanism, those whose world view centers on the divine while a second faction whose world view centers on secularism.
In America a New Humanist movement began in the early part of the twentieth century, which sought to solve the crises in knowledge. They sought a New Birth of rational humanity. “The goal was human happiness and dignity; the ideals were classical; the means were reason and critical intellect; and the enemy was many-headed.â€
The New Humanists opposed the mechanistic worship of stuff while denying the nature of the human spirit; it respected subjectivity and revered the “depth and uniqueness of man’s spirit†but distrusted the irresponsible, emotional, weak, and uncritical nature of Romanticism. They detested superstition, supernaturalism, and authoritarianism. Their idea was to train an intellectual elite who could “reintroduce responsible humanity into the mechanical shell of modern living…The weapon was to be a new humanistic education; the ammunition was the vast store of literature accumulated by the great and balanced minds of the best ages of history.â€
The New Humanism fathered the Great Discussion in the form of the Great Books.