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/hjˈumənˌɪzəm/ Listen

noun

Humanism n.

Human nature or disposition; humanity. "(She) looked almost like a being who had rejected with indifference the attitude of sex for the loftier quality of abstract humanism."

The study of the humanities; polite learning.

A doctrine or ethical point of view that emphasizes the dignity and worth of individual people, rejects claims of supernatural influences on humans, and stresses the need for people to achieve improvement of society and self-fulfillment through reason and to develop human-oriented ethical values without theism.

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Etymology of 'Humanism'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Humanism" Quotes from Famous Books

... minor points. Mr. Symonds is to be warmly congratulated on the completion of his history of the Renaissance in Italy. It is a most wonderful monument of literary labour, and its value to the student of Humanism cannot be doubted. We have often had occasion to differ from Mr. Symonds on questions of detail, and we have more than once felt it our duty to protest against the rhetoric and over-emphasis of his style, but we fully recognise the importance of his work and the impetus he has ...

— Reviews • Oscar Wilde

... universal recognition. His main distinction is that he released the Hebrew language forever from the forms and ideas of the Middle Ages, and connected it with the circle of modern literatures. He bequeathed to posterity a model of classic poetry, which ushered in Hebrew humanism, the return to the style and the manner of the Bible, in the same way as the general humanistic movement led the European mind back upon its own steps along the paths marked out by the classic languages. No sooner did his work become known in the north countries and in the Orient ...

— The Renascence of Hebrew Literature (1743-1885) • Nahum Slouschz

... came to the fore during the last fifty years. The University of Groningen taught a humanism, which created a reaction towards the ancient confessors of the creed, the 'reveal,' or awakening. Subsequently modern cosmosophy tried to adjust its opinions to modern science and the results of modern research in every branch of ...

— Dutch Life in Town and Country • P. M. Hough

... far distant past deism and pantheism served as a polite subterfuge for atheism. There is a growing tendency in this present age to dress one's atheistic belief in an evening suit, and for the sake of social approbation call such a belief "religious humanism." A quotation from the Associated Press, appearing recently in one of our magazines, states the need for this "new religion" as being the inadequacy of the religious forms and ideas of our fathers, and the ...

— The Necessity of Atheism • Dr. D.M. Brooks

... nature of the milieu through which the liberal movement in Boston had to make its way. To re-assert the dignity and usefulness of the beautiful arts was, {432} perhaps, the chief service which the Massachusetts Unitarians rendered to humanism. The traditional prejudice of the Puritans against the ornamental side of life had to be softened before polite literature could find a congenial atmosphere in New England. In Channing's Remarks on National Literature, reviewing a work published in 1823, he asks the question, "Do we possess ...

— Brief History of English and American Literature • Henry A. Beers

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