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The Origins of Humanism

In the modern era there has been a trend toward increasing secularization and so away from religious influence in social and political life in Western society. This period has been one of considerable turmoil in Western society, with a number of intellectual movements developing from secular roots. One might think that the development of anti-religious Marxism as an enemy ideology would be met with a resurgence of religious fervor in the West, but this did not happen. Instead, the underlying forces that produced Marxism as well contributed to a more secular emphasis in the Western world, forces such as urbanization, the development of a new scientific paradigm, the ascendance of rationalism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and a new emphasis on nationalism.

Perhaps the primary force underlying many of these developments derives from the intellectual power of humanism, or the idea that what is most important for study are human interests and human values. Humanism also emphasizes the human capacity for self-realization through reason and a rejection of supernaturalism. An examination of the origins of humanism and the way it developed immediately thereafter shows a growing secular influence with the application of human reason to the affairs of this world.

The development of humanism in the Renaissance involved a shift in how people thought, and this occurred at the same time that the horizons of the West were expanding, be they geographical, mental, social, economic, or political. In the broadest sense, humanism was an educational movement, and for the humanists the classical writings were unique instruments for extending the consciousness of human beings. The humanists placed their emphasis on the human being as that individual would be revealed in the written records of classical antiquity. Humanism was a secular movement, and as such it inherently questioned the authority of religious doctrine in social, l...

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The Origins of Humanism. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 03:18, March 19, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1687588.html