Humanism

Humanism is the body of philosophies and ethical perspectives that emphasize the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers individual thought and evidence (rationalism, empiricism), over established doctrine or faith (fideism). During the Renaissance period in Western Europe humanist movements attempted to demonstrate the benefit of gaining learning from classical, pre-Christian sources in and of themselves or for secular ends such as political science and rhetoric. It should not be said that the Renaissance humanists were not religious; rather, they simply sought secular activities and thought in addition to religious ones. Nor should it be that they accepted classical thought where the Medieval scholastics did not, given that that many scholastics, for example, Dante, deeply valued Greco-Roman influences. In modern times, many humanist movements have become strongly aligned with atheism, with the term Humanism often used as a byword for non-theistic beliefs about otherwise theistic or spiritual ideas such as meaning and purpose. The term humanism can be ambiguously diverse, and there has been a persistent confusion between the several, related uses of the term because different intellectual movements have identified with it over time.