The English word Humanism has also been translated into humanism. It originated from the "humanities" in the Renaissance. At that time, the emerging bourgeois scholars despised the feudal culture centered on Christian theology and were keen to explore the cultural heritage of ancient Greece and Rome and study ancient languages, literature, natural sciences and philosophy. They think that the difference between these disciplines and "theology" is that they take people and nature as the research objects. It is "humanity". Those new cultural people who study humanities call themselves "humanities scholars". The appearance of the word "humanity" not only refers to the change of the direction of academic research, but also means that the new worldview centered on secular people and advocating humanity or humanitarianism has replaced the old worldview of religious theology, reflecting the interests and aspirations of the emerging bourgeoisie in opposing the feudal system and developing capitalism. In the+06th century, people gradually realized the broad meaning of the word "humanism", and it was not until the19th century that European academic circles began to use the word "humanism" to summarize the world outlook of humanists in the Renaissance.
The core of humanism is bourgeois theory of human nature and humanism.
Humanity refers to the characteristics and basic attributes that distinguish human beings from other animals. It has been a long time since human beings realized their own characteristics from philosophy. Historical materialism summed up the achievements of human understanding and made a scientific explanation of human nature for the first time. Historical materialism does not deny that people exist naturally, and human tissues determine people's functions and desires such as eating, drinking and having sex. However, if we leave human social activities, we will examine these functions and desires abstractly. It is wrong to regard them as the only and ultimate purpose of human activities. Man is a social animal, and some natural attributes of man cannot but be social. Historical materialism holds that the so-called human nature refers to the fundamental difference between normal people and other animals, mainly in social labor; The realistic human nature changes with the development of society. The bourgeois theory of human nature does not recognize the relationship between human nature and society, nor does it recognize the historical evolution of human nature. It only recognizes a so-called eternal human nature shared by all mankind, and the capitalist system is an eternal system that conforms to this human nature.
Humanism is a trend of thought and theory about human nature, mission, status, value and personality development. It is a philosophical category of development and change. Humanism germinated as human beings entered the civilization period, but as a trend of thought and theory of the times, it was formed in the Renaissance. Renaissance humanism is bourgeois humanism, which broke through the ideological shackles of God-centered under the rule of the medieval church. It holds that man is a part of and dominates nature, and the pursuit of happiness is man's natural right and the driving force of social development. It criticized the asceticism of the feudal church, which regarded carnal desire and secular life as evil, and affirmed that people have the right to enjoy all happiness in the world, thus making the progressive ideas of conquering nature, pursuing happiness in life, creating freely, striving for individual liberation and establishing a just social system widely spread. The progressive role of bourgeois humanism at that time became the ideological weapon of bourgeois revolution against feudal church autocracy. From the Renaissance in Europe to the Enlightenment in the18th century, humanitarians were mostly artists, writers, thinkers and scientists, who promoted bourgeois humanitarianism in different fields and made contributions. /kloc-the humanitarian theory of French enlightenment thinkers in the 0 th and 8 th centuries requires that everything in reality should conform to human rationality. The book Human Rights and Citizenship was born in the French Revolution.
However, bourgeois humanism also has its own contradictions, such as the contradiction between personal interests and public interests, the contradiction between individual free development and public social system. Some enlightenment thinkers have considered various solutions to these contradictions, but they have not seen that the capitalist system is the root of these contradictions. The humanitarianism they advocate is precisely to maintain this system, so it is impossible to find a solution with bourgeois humanitarianism. Theoretically speaking, when examining people, bourgeois humanitarianism completely divorced from social relations and regarded people as natural people, which demonstrated people's pursuit and yearning from this angle. This makes it fall into an abstract theory of human nature and has the illusion of transcending class and times. However, the freedom and enjoyment of rights pursued by this abstract theory of human nature and the so-called "just" social system are not abstract, they are based on private ownership and characterized by individualism.
Bourgeois humanitarianism played different roles in different historical periods: it played a very revolutionary role in the Renaissance; Until the19th century, it was always an important ideological weapon for the bourgeoisie to establish and consolidate the capitalist system. With the development of contradictions in capitalist society and the upsurge of proletarian revolutionary movement, it gradually lost its historical role of progress.
According to the different functions of humanism and humanism in different historical periods, in order to distinguish them, in China, people used to call this trend of thought humanism in the Renaissance and humanism after the Renaissance.