Contextualizing An overview:
Humanism is a philosophical system centered to human being.
It concerns about the
human being, their
place and position in relation to the world. It studies about the
present and future of
human being. It raises voices for the common interest and
betterment of human
being. It seeks respects for human dignity. Its aim is to free
human being from all types of injustice and atrocities. It
strives to create beautiful and
harmonies world based
on justice, love and fraternity. It does not believe on any
supernatural and omnipotent power like God and Goddess. It
believes in the capability
and dignity of human
being. Man is the center if its study. So , it gives a supreme value
and responsibility to man. Humanism assumes that if there is
something that can make
human life worth and
livable that is nothing other than human being. It keeps a firm
belief that the
present word can be changed with the effort if human being. It attempts
to fraternity right relation between man and man based on
love, co- operation and
fraternity. For this it appeals for the unity and good
understanding among human
being. ‘ The American
Heritage dictionary defines humanism as, “a system of thought
that centers on human being and their values, capacities and
worth”. Similarly
,’Webster’s New world dictionary’ defines it as “any system
of thought or action based
on atheistic, rationalistic movement that holds man is
capable of self fulfillment, ethical
conduct etc without
recourse to any supernaturalism.” The above dictionary meanings
too show the same idea
about the concept of humanism. Humanism is a system of
thought based on secularism. It is atheistic in its spirit.
It is free from dogmatic views like
castiesm, supernatural belief, and orthodox etc. Dr. D. R.
Jatava in his book, Social and
Humanist Thinker writes, “humanism means the type of
thought that is centered on
man himself that
raises question concerning his ultimate nature, and tries to answer
them without transcending the limits of what is human”(vi).
M. Patrosyan in his book
Humanism writes, “the concept of humanism is traditionally linked
with the question of
man’s place in the universe, his today and tomorrow”(8). The
aforementioned
definitions also reveal that humanism is a philosophy that
makes man the center of its
study. It attempts to
change the world into a more beautiful and harmonious one. In
fact, human life is
praiseworthy and beautiful, but due to the lack of our understanding,
excessive pride,
ignorance, and blind beliefs have fettered our life. However, humanism
still tries to bring
and maintain order, peace, unity and harmony in the world. About
humanism, similar idea
does Radhakamal Mukergee give in book, The
Way of
Humanism, “ humanism may be defined as an
integrated system of human meaning,
goal and values and
harmonious programme of human fulfillment individual and
collective”(1). Humanism, in brief, can be taken as a
philosophical system based on
scientific and
rational ground. It fights for the common interest of all human being. Its
main objective is to
create the better and beautiful world. Many times , we are
confused with the words-humanism and humanitarianism, but
they are quite different.
Humanism is a
philosophical system based on reason, thought and certain principle. But
humanitarianism is a
personal feeling, emotion and sentiment of doing something good
for other fellow-human being who are in trouble. It is a
feeling of amelioration. So,
humanitarianism is a
personal but humanism is social and universal system Humanism:
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