Melanesiatimes.com – Humanism, an educational system and way of inquiry that originated in northern Italy during the 13th and 14th centuries and then spread throughout continental Europe and England. The term is alternatively applied to a variety of Western beliefs, methods, and philosophies that place a central emphasis on human nature. Also known as Renaissance humanism, the history program is so broad and influential that it is one of the main reasons why the Renaissance is viewed as a distinct historical period.
Although the word Renaissance is a more recent coin, the fundamental idea of that period as one of renewal and revival comes from humanistic origin. But humanism sought its own much earlier philosophical base and, moreover, continued to exert some of its forces long after the end of the Renaissance.
The origin and meaning of the term humanism, Ideals of humanity
The history of the term humanism is complex yet enlightening. It was first used (as humanismus) by 19th-century German scholars to designate the Renaissance’s emphasis on Classical studies in education. These studies were pursued and supported by educators known, as early as the 15th century, as umanisti—that is, professors or students of Classical literature. The word umanisti comes from studia humanitatis, a course of Classical studies that, at the beginning of the 15th century, consisted of grammar, poetry, rhetoric, history, and moral philosophy.
Humanitatical studies are considered the Greek equivalent of paideia. Their own name is based on the concept of humanity of the Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero, an educational and political ideal that was the intellectual basis of the entire movement. Renaissance humanism in all its forms defined itself in its tension towards this ideal. Therefore, no discussion of humanism can have validity without an understanding of humanity.
Humanity means the full development of human virtue, in all its forms. The term thus implies not only qualities as attributed to the modern word humanity—understanding, benevolence, compassion, mercy—but also more assertive characteristics such as fortitude, judgment, prudence, eloquence, and even love of honor. As a result, the owner of humanity cannot simply be a philosopher or a sedentary and isolated man of letters but is a necessity as a participant in active life. Just as action without insight is considered aimless and barbaric, insight without action is rejected as barren and imperfect.
“Humanity calls for a good balance between action and contemplation, a balance born not of compromise but of complementarity.”
The purpose of such fulfilled and balanced virtues is political, in the broadest sense of the word. The sphere of Renaissance humanism included not only the education of young people but also the guidance of adults (including rulers) through philosophical poetry and strategic rhetoric. It includes not only realistic social critiques but also utopian hypotheses, not only painstaking historical reassessments but also bold reshapings of the future. In short, humanism calls for comprehensive cultural reform, the transfiguration of what humanists call a passive and ignorant society in the “dark” age into a new order that will reflect and encourage the greatest human potential. Humanism has an evangelical dimension: it seeks to project the humanity of the individual into the state at large.
The wellspring of humanity is Classical literature. Greek and Roman thought, available in a flood of rediscovered or recently translated manuscripts, gave humanism much of its basic structure and methods. For Renaissance humanists, there was nothing outdated or obsolete about the writings of Aristotle, Cicero, or Livy. Compared to typical productions of medieval Christianity, these pagan works have a fresh, radical, almost avant-garde tone of voice. Indeed, restoring classics to humanism is tantamount to restoring reality. Classical philosophy, rhetoric, and history are seen as models of the proper method—the attempt to reconcile, systematically and without prejudice of any kind, with perceived experience.
Moreover, Classical thought regards ethics as ethics qua ethics, political qua politics: it lacks the dualism inhibited in medieval thought by the often conflicting demands of secularism and Christian spirituality. Classical virtue, in examples of abundant literature, is not an abstract essence but a quality that can be tested on forums or on the battlefield. Finally, Classical literature is rich in eloquence.
In particular, humanists considered Cicero to be a subtle and exaggerated pattern of discourse, as well as a model of eloquence combined with wise statesmanship. In humanist eloquence finds far more than exclusive aesthetic qualities. As an effective means of moving leaders or fellow citizens toward one political direction or another, eloquence is akin to pure power. Humanists cultivate rhetoric, consequently, as a medium through which all other virtues can be communicated and fulfilled.
Humanism, then, can be accurately defined as a Renaissance movement that has its primary focus as the ideals of humanity. A narrower definition of the Italian term umanisti despite this, all Renaissance writers who cultivated humanity, and all their direct “descendants”, can rightly be called humanists.
