Humanism

Lore & Background

The word 'humanism' derives from the Latin humanitas, first used in ancient Rome by Cicero to describe values related to liberal education. In the 18th century, Samuel Johnson's dictionary defined 'humanist' as a philologer or grammarian. During the Unitarian disputes of the 1780s, Thomas Howes used 'humanists' to refer to those who maintained the mere humanity of Christ. In the early 19th century, the term humanismus was used in Germany, likely coined by Bavarian theologian Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer to describe a classical curriculum. Scholars such as Georg Voigt and Jacob Burckhardt later adopted it.

Reader's Guide

Humanism's significance lies in its enduring focus on human potential and responsibility, shaping education, ethics, and social policy across centuries. During the Italian Renaissance, it revived classical learning; during the Enlightenment, it gained confidence from scientific advances. By the early 20th century, organized humanist movements flourished in Europe and the United States, and have since expanded worldwide. Contemporary humanism is mostly non-religious, aligned with secularism, and relies on science and reason rather than divine revelation. It advocates for human rights, free speech, progressive policies, and democracy, viewing humanity as responsible for promoting individual development and the equal dignity of all. The term has been refined over time, with 'secular humanism' emerging in the 20th century as a non-religious philosophy, while 'Christian humanism' serves a rhetorical function. There is no single widely accepted definition, but common themes include naturalism, rejection of supernaturalism, and emphasis on human well-being and freedom.

Did You Know?

• The word 'humanism' derives from the Latin humanitas, first used by Cicero in ancient Rome.
• Bavarian theologian Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer likely coined the German term humanismus to describe a classical curriculum.
• Many contemporary secular humanist organizations work under the umbrella of Humanists International.

A Node in a Vast Network

Humanism occupies a single entry within what is essentially an enormous alphabetical catalog of philosophies, schools of thought, and philosophical movements. From Absurdism at the top of the A section through to the N entries, the list stretches across dozens of pages of named traditions. Humanism sits in the H section, sandwiched between Huang–Lao and Humanistic naturalism, a position that reflects its alphabetical placement rather than any hierarchical ranking. What the catalog makes clear is that humanism is one thread among thousands, sharing the same shelf as Analytic philosophy, Aristotelianism, and Atomism on one side, and Idealism, Identityism, and Ignosticism on the other. It is listed alongside movements as diverse as African philosophy, Agential realism, and Aztec philosophy, suggesting that the philosophical landscape treats humanism as one distinct voice in a chorus of thousands. The very structure of the list, organized by letter with each entry separated by a dash, underscores that humanism is cataloged as a peer to every other named tradition, neither above nor below them in the taxonomy.

The Humanism Constellation

The list reveals that humanism is not a single isolated entry but the anchor of a small constellation of related movements scattered across different letters of the alphabet. In the C section, Christian humanism appears as its own distinct tradition, positioned between Christian existentialism and Christian neoplatonism. In the H section, Humanistic naturalism sits immediately after Humanism, suggesting a close conceptual kinship. In the M section, Marxist humanism is listed among the various Marxist traditions, appearing between Marxism and Marxism–Leninism. And in the N section, Neohumanism stands as yet another variant, nestled between Neoconservatism and Neoliberalism. This distribution across multiple alphabetical sections indicates that humanism has spawned or been absorbed into several distinct philosophical lineages, each carrying the humanist prefix or suffix while embedding it within a broader doctrinal framework, whether Christian, Marxist, naturalist, or neo-revisionist in character.

Neighbors in the Alphabet

In the H section of the philosophical catalog, Humanism is flanked by entries that reveal the density of the landscape around it. Before it sit Haskalah, Healthcare (philosophy of), Hedonism, Hegelianism, Hellenistic philosophy, Henotheism, Hermeticism, Heterophenomenology, Hindu philosophy, Historical materialism, Historicism, History of religions school, History (philosophy of), Holism, Homaranismo, and Hongaku. After it come Humanistic naturalism, Hylozoism, and then the I section begins with Idealism, Identityism, Ideological criticism, Ignosticism, and Illegalism. This clustering shows that humanism is cataloged in close proximity to movements spanning religious philosophy, historical methodology, and metaphysical frameworks. It shares its alphabetical neighborhood with traditions as varied as Haskalah and Hedonism, with Hegelianism and Hellenistic philosophy, and with Holism and Homaranismo. The proximity in the list does not imply doctrinal similarity, but it does place humanism within a dense field of competing and complementary ways of thinking about the human condition, knowledge, and reality.

The Breadth of the Landscape

The full scope of the philosophical catalog in which Humanism appears is staggering in its breadth. The list spans from Absurdism and Academic skepticism at the beginning through to entries in the N section, encompassing movements from every major world tradition and intellectual lineage. African philosophy, Afrocentrism, and Aztec philosophy sit in the same volume as Analytic philosophy, Aristotelianism, and Augustinianism. Buddhist philosophy, Confucianism, and Daoism are cataloged alongside Cartesianism, Continental philosophy, and Critical theory. The list includes dedicated entries for the philosophy of nearly every discipline, from art and biology to economics, engineering, mathematics, music, and even eating. Within this vast taxonomy, Humanism holds its place as one named tradition among thousands, listed with the same typographic weight as Absurdism, Atomism, and Atheism. The catalog's structure, purely alphabetical with no hierarchy or ranking, treats every entry as an equal node in the map of human thought, and Humanism is no exception to that principle of flat, democratic listing.