Humanism In A Brief History Of Thought Analysis

Humanism in A Brief History of Thought was defined as “ man found himself for the first time alone, deprived of the support of both cosmos and GOD.” Before this idea of humanism came around the cosmos was in the forefront along with God. The cosmos was a way of looking at things in a natural order and God was sought after for salvation. Humanism came in and changed it and created a new revolution with different ways of thinking and attaining ideas. Humanism gave people more reassurance that it is okay to question and doubt things like religion. Having open criticism helps societies to improve upon the old ways of doing or thinking about things, in my opinion. Now humanism did not completely get rid of past ways of thinking about philosophy, …show more content…
According to Schafersman (1995) humanism can be defined three ways, studies of humanities such as history, European Renaissance rebirth of curiosity and critical inquiry in Western traditional literature, and last humanitarianism. Although he describes it in those three distinct ways he actually focuses more on naturalistic humanism, also referred to as Humanism. This type of Humanism focuses more on the news and less about the side of Humanism that is supernaturalism. He defines it, as “Humanism is the naturalistic philosophy or way of life centered on human concerns and values that asserts the dignity and worth of humans and their capacity for self-actualization through the use of reason and scientific inquiry.” If you compare this definition to A Brief History of Thought definition of Humanism you will notice that there are some difference such as the focus on God and the cosmos is big in A Brief History of Thought definition but in Schafersman’s definition he stays away from the supernatural and religious view of it. Gruchy (2015) looks at humanism in two distinct ways; humanism and religion and incarnational humanism. Humanism and religion is geared towards secular society and is more philosophical. While incarnational humanism is theological mainly, which connects with church and Christians. Incarnational humanism is more closely related in my opinion to A Brief History of Thought definition of humanism mainly because of the church aspects, which brings in God. Incarnational humanism relates even closer to A Brief History of Thought definition because theology is the study of religion essentially. Lastly, lets look at one more opinion on humanism. “Humanism is a progressive life stance that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability