HUMANISM : HUMAN- CENTERED PHILOSOPHY

A Project submitted to Manipal University Jaipur

in partial fulfilment of requirements for

BA. LL.B (Hons.) – 3RD SEMESTER

IN

PHILOSOPHY - I

SUBMITTED TO SUBMITTED BY

Dr. MANIK KONCH TANVI ANAND

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR 181301100

DEPT.OF PHILOSOPHY Section - B

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 CERTIFICATE OF GUIDE

This is to certify that the project report titled ‘HUMANISM : HUMAN- CENTERED
PHILOSOPHY’, submitted to Manipal University Jaipur, in partial fulfilment of
requirements for Semester 3 , BA. LL.B (HONS) course is an original bona fide
research work carried on under my supervision and guidance. No part of this research
has been submitted to any university, institution or organisation for any research or
award of any degree or diploma whatsoever.

…………………………

Dr. MANIK KONCH

Assistant Professor

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 CERTIFICATE OF STUDENT

Date: 25/11/2019

This is to certify that MS. Tanvi Anand, ( REGISTRATION - NO : 181301100 ) a student of BA . LLB
(HONS.) MANIPAL UNIVERSITY JAIPUR , has undergone a project work from 18TH-25th Nov, 2019. Titled
‘HUMANISM : HUMAN – CENTERED PHILOSOPHY’.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I express deep sense of gratitude to our teacher Dr. MANIK KONCH under
whose guidance, valuable suggestion, constant encouragement and kind
supervision, the present project was carried out. I am also grateful to the
college, and especially Faculty of Law for their feedback and for keeping us on
schedule.

I also wish to express my sincere thanks to my friends who held directly or

indirectly by giving their valuable suggestions.

TANVI ANAND

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 CONTENTS
 INTRODUCTION………………………………………………… 6-8
 ORIGIN AND HISTORY………………………………………… 9-12
 CRITICISM……………………….……………………………... 13-14
 HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY...………………………………. 15-16
 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………… 17
 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………… 18

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 INTRODUCTION

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 and empiricism) over acceptance of
dogma or superstition.

Humanism is a philosophy, world view, or life stance based on naturalism-the

conviction that the universe or nature is all that exists or is real. Humanism
serves, for many humanists, some of the psychological and social functions of a
religion, but without belief in deities, transcendental entities, miracles, life after
death, and the supernatural. Humanists seek to understand the universe by using
science and its methods of critical inquiry-logical reasoning, empirical
evidence, and sceptical evaluation of conjectures and conclusions-to obtain
reliable knowledge. Humanists affirm that humans have the freedom to give
meaning, value, and purpose to their lives by their own independent thought,
free inquiry, and responsible, creative activity. Humanists stand for the building
of a more humane, just, compassionate, and democratic society using a
pragmatic ethics based on human reason, experience, and reliable knowledge-an
ethics that judges the consequences of human actions by the well-being of all
life on Earth.

It is a philosophy of life that considers the welfare of humankind – rather than

the welfare of a supposed God or gods – to be of paramount importance.
Humanism maintains there is no evidence a supernatural power ever needed or
wanted anything from people, ever communicated to them, or ever interfered
with the laws of nature to assist or harm anyone. Humanism’s focus, then, is on

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using human efforts to meet human needs and wants in this world. History
shows that those efforts are most effective when they involve both compassion
and the scientific method – which includes reliance on reason, evidence, and
free inquiry.

Humanism says people can find purpose in life and maximize their long-term
happiness by developing their talents and using those talents for the service of
humanity. Humanists believe that this approach to life is more productive and
leads to a deeper and longer-lasting satisfaction than a hedonistic pursuit of
material or sensual pleasures that soon fade. While service to others is a major
focus of Humanism, recreation and relaxation are not ignored, for these too are
necessary for long-term health and happiness. The key is moderation in all
things.

Humanism considers the universe to be the result of an extremely long and

complex evolution under immutable laws of nature. Humanists view this natural
world as wondrous and precious, and as offering limitless opportunities for
exploration, fascination, creativity, companionship, and joy. Because science
cannot now and probably never will be able to explain the ultimate origin or
destiny of the universe, I think Humanism can include more than atheists and
agnostics. The lack of definite answers to these ultimate questions leaves room
for reasonable people to hypothesize about the origin of the natural universe,
and even to hope for some form of life beyond this one.

In fact, two of Humanism’s greatest luminaries, Thomas Paine and Robert

Ingersoll, maintained a hope for an afterlife. On the issue of whether God exists,
Ingersoll was agnostic, and Paine believed in a deistic God who established the
laws of nature but then stepped away and never intervenes in the world. Those
beliefs did not interfere with their ability to lead outstanding humanistic lives.

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Thus, people holding such views can be Humanists if they believe that
humanity is on its own in this world, and the lack of any evidence for an
afterlife means this life should be lived as though it’s the only one we have.

At its most basic, humanism involves any concern with humans, first and
foremost. These including human needs, human desires, and human
experiences. Often, this also translates into giving human beings a special place
in the universe on account of their abilities and faculties.

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 ORIGIN AND HISTORY

Human-centered ideologies have been popular among various philosophers and

religious leaders since at least 1500 B.C.E. While Humanists today might credit

any number of these figures as a contributor to contemporary Humanist thought,

no one proto-Humanist philosopher is seen as the creator of Humanism. Instead,

many Humanists point to the ubiquity of humanist ideologies across time and

place as a sign that such a system of looking at the world is natural, rational, and

self-evident.

Humanism in the East

Around 1500 B.C.E., the core components of the Rig Veda, the first of the
Hindu Vedas, were being written. The Rig Veda deals heavily with skepticism
and contains one of the earliest recorded declarations of agnosticism:

“But, after all, who knows, and who can say

Whence it all came, and how creation happened?

the gods themselves are later than creation,

so who knows truly whence it has arisen?”

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Later Indian philosophical systems similarly rejected the supernatural in favor
of human-centered philosophies. The Lokayata school of Indian materialism,
whose texts were primarily written after 600 B.C.E., sought to establish
universal truths gained through the knowledge available from the material
world.

Around the same time, Zoroaster was developing a philosophy in Persia that
acknowledged a supreme being but understood every person as an autonomous
moral thinker who is wholly responsible for her or his choices in this life. At the
same time in China, Taoist teacher Lao-Tzu was spreading his philosophies
based in human values rather than supernatural edicts.

Greek philosophers, too, were attempting to understand the world through the
lens of human reason and abilities, rather than through the supernatural
workings of gods. Several hundred years later, Epicurus, writing in c. 300 BCE,
rejected the possibility of an afterlife and questioned whether it is reasonable to
believe in a god that either allows evil or is powerless to stop evil. Epicurus
famously advocated practices that minimized physical suffering.

During the Middle Ages (c. 400 C.E. – c. 1400 C.E.), humanistic ideologies
flourished in the Islamic world—particularly the values of reason and of
freedom of speech. Like the philosophy espoused by Lao Tzu centuries earlier,
early Islamic humanism was typically marked by a belief in a deity that gives
free will and free moral discernment to its creation. Rationality and freedom of
speech were emphasized on the grounds that humans must embrace their
responsibility to exercise such traits.

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Humanism in the West
As Zoroaster and Lao Tzu were developing similar philosophies in the East,
Greek philosophers were rejecting the supernatural and embracing empirical,
observable knowledge as the best way to understand the universe. Anaxagoras,
one of Socrates’s famed teachers, used scientific inquiry to gain knowledge
about outer space and the nature of the universe. He hypothesized that the
universe has always existed, but once existed as small fragments in a chaotic
mass. His materialist worldview led to a death sentence in Athens that sent him
into exile.

Cicero (106-43 BCE) is often credited as having coined the term humanitas,
best defined as that which distinguishes humans from all other creatures: the
ability to reason, to speak, and to create laws that allow them to live in peaceful

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societies. Humanitas referred to both the human ability for scholarship and
reason—the pursuit of knowledge and the study of the liberal arts—and to
benevolence, the ability to live in peace with others under rule of law.

By the early 1800s, "humanism" was primarily used in English to connote

education—namely, the revival of classical learning. However, in the second
half of the 1800s, the French Enlightenment wrought changes to the meaning of
the term. As many grass-roots philanthropic and benevolent societies cropped
up during this time, humanism became tied to efforts at human betterment and
the spreading of knowledge.

Ultimately, humanism came to refer to a specific ethical philosophy of

humankind: a philosophy centered on human needs and abilities, purposely
distanced from the supernatural.

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 CRITICISM

Polemics about humanism have sometimes assumed paradoxical twists and

turns. Early-20th-century critics such as Ezra Pound, T. E. Hulme, and T. S.
Eliot considered humanism to be sentimental "slop" (Hulme)[citation needed] or
"an old bitch gone in the teeth" (Pound).[74] Postmodern critics who are self-
described anti-humanists, such as Jean-François Lyotard and Michel Foucault,
have asserted that humanism posits an overarching and excessively abstract
notion of humanity or universal human nature, which can then be used as a
pretext for imperialism and domination of those deemed somehow less than
human. "Humanism fabricates the human as much as it fabricates the nonhuman
animal", suggests Timothy Laurie, turning the human into what he calls "a
placeholder for a range of attributes that have been considered most virtuous
among humans (e.g. rationality, altruism), rather than most commonplace (e.g.
hunger, anger)". Nevertheless, philosopher Kate Soper notes that by faulting
humanism for falling short of its own benevolent ideals, anti-humanism thus
frequently "secretes a humanist rhetoric".

In his book, Humanism (1997), Tony Davies calls these critics "humanist anti-
humanists". Critics of antihumanism, most notably Jürgen Habermas, counter
that while antihumanists may highlight humanism's failure to fulfill its
emancipatory ideal, they do not offer an alternative emancipatory project of
their own. Others, like the German philosopher Heidegger. considered
themselves humanists on the model of the ancient Greeks but thought
humanism applied only to the German "race" and specifically to the Nazis and
thus, in Davies' words, were anti-humanist humanists. Such a reading of

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Heidegger's thought is itself deeply controversial; Heidegger includes his own
views and critique of Humanism in Letter On Humanism. Davies acknowledges
that, after the horrific experiences of the wars of the 20th century, "it should no
longer be possible to formulate phrases like 'the destiny of man' or the 'triumph
of human reason' without an instant consciousness of the folly and brutality they
drag behind them". For "it is almost impossible to think of a crime that has not
been committed in the name of human reason". Yet, he continues, "it would be
unwise to simply abandon the ground occupied by the historical humanisms.
For one thing humanism remains on many occasions the only available
alternative to bigotry and persecution. The freedom to speak and write, to
organise and campaign in defence of individual or collective interests, to protest
and disobey: all these can only be articulated in humanist terms."

Modern humanists, such as Corliss Lamont or Carl Sagan, hold that humanity
must seek for truth through reason and the best observable evidence and endorse
scientific scepticism and the scientific method. However, they stipulate that
decisions about right and wrong must be based on the individual and common
good, with no consideration given to metaphysical or supernatural beings. The
idea is to engage with what is human. The ultimate goal is human flourishing;
making life better for all humans, and as the most conscious species, also
promoting concern for the welfare of other sentient beings and the planet as a
whole. The focus is on doing good and living well in the here and now, and
leaving the world a better place for those who come after. In 1925, the English
mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead cautioned: "The
prophecy of Francis Bacon has now been fulfilled; and man, who at times
dreamt of himself as a little lower than the angels, has submitted to become the
servant and the minister of nature. It still remains to be seen whether the same
actor can play both parts".

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 HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

Humanistic psychology is a perspective that emphasizes looking at the whole

individual and stresses concepts such as free will, self-efficacy, and self-
actualization, rather than concentrating on dysfunction, humanistic psychology
strives to help people fulfill their potential and maximize their well-being.

Humanistic psychology, also often referred to as humanism emerged during the

1950s as a reaction to the psychoanalysis and behaviourism that dominated
psychology at the time. Psychoanalysis was focused on understanding the
unconscious motivations that drive behavior while behaviorism studied the
conditioning processes that produce behavior.

Humanist thinkers felt that both psychoanalysis and behaviorism were too
pessimistic, either focusing on the most tragic of emotions or failing to take into
account the role of personal choice.

However, it is not necessary to think of these three schools of thought as

competing elements. Each branch of psychology has contributed to our
understanding of the human mind and behavior. Humanistic psychology added
yet another dimension that takes a more holistic view of the individual.

Key Focus
As it developed, humanistic psychology focused on each individual's potential
and stressed the importance of growth and self-actualization. The fundamental
belief of humanistic psychology is that people are innately good and that mental
and social problems result from deviations from this natural tendency.

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Humanism also suggests that people possess personal agency and that they are
motivated to use this free will to pursue things that will help them achieve their
full potential as human beings. This need for fulfillment and personal growth is
a key motivator of all behavior. People are continually looking for new ways to
grow, to become better, to learn new things, and to experience psychological
growth and self-actualization.

The humanist movement had an enormous influence on the course of

psychology and contributed new ways of thinking about mental health. It
offered a new approach to understanding human behaviours and motivations
and led to developing new techniques and approaches to psychotherapy.

Today, the concepts central to humanistic psychology can be seen in many

disciplines including other branches of psychology, education, therapy, political
movements, and other areas. For example, transpersonal psychology and
positive psychology both draw heavily on humanist influences.

The goals of humanistic psychology remain as relevant today as they were in

the 1940s and 1950s. Humanistic psychology strives to empower individuals,
enhance well-being, push people toward fulfilling their potential and improve
communities all over the world.

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 CONCLUSION

Humanism does not seem to be merely a philosophical or intellectual tradition,

but also a plan of action. The efficacy of humanism appears to be intricately
intertwined with its ability to tackle the real-life problems that confront the
people. In the twentieth century, one has witnessed the rise and fall of many
isms and the action plans associated with them. Many systems, institutions,
ideologies, philosophies and the religious traditions appear to have lost their
moorings and went in to the oblivion. They failed to live up to the expectations
of the people. Hence, either they were rejected outright, or left way side, as they
were not in tune with the rising expectations of the people. In this age of
science, democracy, mass communications, spread of education and
enlightenment, people are not ready to accept any ism or plan of action which
will not cater to people’s needs and aims and aspirations.

Democracy seems to be the hall mark of progress and the battle cry of the
twentieth century. Democracy withered many a storm and proved its ability to
cater to the needs of the people in the twenty first century. Humanism and
democracy appear to be inseparable. They seem to aim at strengthening the
democratic and secular ramparts one guards. Humanism appears to strive for
further widening the scope and enriching the content of democracy.

Humanism seems to aim at devising ways and means to further strengthen the
democratic values, human rights, individual freedom and enhancing democracy
as a way of life. Humanism appears to be intensely political in its action, social
in its commitment and egalitarian in its outlook.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Questgardern.com
2. Psychart.com
3. Britannica Encyclopaedia
4. Gale Directory Of Databases, Vol. 1
5. Hiorth, Finngeir. Introduction to Humanism. Pune: Indian Secular
Society

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