Predecessors Traces of humanism can be found in
ancient Greek philosophy.
Pre-Socratic philosophers were the first Western philosophers to attempt to explain the world in terms of human reason and natural law without relying on myth, tradition, or religion.
Protagoras, who lived in Athens , put forward some fundamental humanist ideas, although only fragments of his work survive. He made one of the first agnostic statements; according to one fragment: "About the gods I am able to know neither that they exist nor that they do not exist nor of what kind they are in form: for many things prevent me for knowing this, its obscurity and the brevity of man's life".
Socrates spoke of the need to "know thyself"; his thought changed the focus of then-contemporary philosophy from nature to humans and their well-being. He was a theist executed for atheism, who investigated the nature of morality by reasoning.
Aristotle (384–322 BCE) taught rationalism and a system of ethics based on human nature that also parallels humanist thought. In the third century BCE,
Epicurus developed an influential, human-centered philosophy that focused on achieving
eudaimonia.
Epicureans continued
Democritus' atomist theory—a materialistic theory that suggests the fundamental unit of the universe is an indivisible atom. Human happiness, living well, friendship, and the avoidance of excesses were the key ingredients of Epicurean philosophy that flourished in and beyond the post-Hellenic world. It is a repeated view among scholars that the humanistic features of ancient Greek thought are the roots of humanism 2,000 years later. Other predecessor movements that sometimes use the same or equivalent vocabulary to modern Western humanism can be found in
Chinese philosophy and
religions such as
Taoism and
Confucianism. Arabic translations of
Ancient Greek literature during the
Abbasid Caliphate in the eighth and ninth centuries influenced Islamic philosophers. Many medieval Muslim thinkers pursued humanistic, rational, and scientific discourse in their search for knowledge, meaning, and
values. A wide range of Islamic writings on love, poetry, history, and philosophical theology show medieval Islamic thought was open to humanistic ideas of individualism, occasional secularism, skepticism, liberalism, and free speech; schools were established at Baghdad, Basra and Isfahan.
Renaissance painted by
Altichiero in 1376 '' by
Michelangelo, 1501–1504. Artistic work during the Renaissance illustrates the emphasis given to anatomical details of humans. In the Middle Ages, core humanist principles emerged and were enhanced in religious culture due to the synthesis of classical works and theological ideas. Renaissance humanism was a continuation of humanist advancements from the Middle Ages particularly from Italian and French scholasticism. The intellectual movement of Renaissance humanism first appeared in Italy and has greatly influenced both contemporaneous and modern Western culture. Renaissance humanism emerged in Italy and a renewed interest in literature and the arts occurred in 13th-century Italy, with
Florence as a key center of activity. Italian scholars discovered Ancient Greek thought, particularly that of Aristotle, through Arabic translations from Africa and Spain. Other centers were
Verona,
Naples, and
Avignon.
Petrarch, who is often referred to as the father of humanism, is a significant figure. Petrarch was raised in Avignon; he was inclined toward education at a very early age and studied alongside his well-educated father. Petrarch's enthusiasm for ancient texts led him to discover manuscripts such as Cicero's
Pro Archia and
Pomponius Mela's
De Chorographia that were influential in the development of the Renaissance. Petrarch wrote Latin poems such as
Canzoniere and
De viris illustribus, in which he described humanist ideas. His most-significant contribution was a list of books outlining the four major disciplines—rhetoric, moral philosophy, poetry, and grammar—that became the basis of humanistic studies (
studia humanitatis). Petrarch's list relied heavily on ancient writers, especially Cicero. The revival of classicist authors continued after Petrarch's death. Florence chancellor and humanist
Coluccio Salutati made his city a prominent center of Renaissance humanism; his circle included other notable humanists—including
Leonardo Bruni, who rediscovered, translated, and popularized ancient texts. Humanists heavily influenced education.
Vittorino da Feltre and
Guarino Veronese created schools based on humanistic principles; their curriculum was widely adopted and by the 16th century, humanistic
paideia was the dominant outlook of pre-university education. Parallel with advances in education, Renaissance humanists made progress in fields such as philosophy, mathematics, and religion. In philosophy,
Angelo Poliziano,
Nicholas of Cusa, and
Marsilio Ficino further contributed to the understanding of ancient classical philosophers and
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola undermined the dominance of Aristotelian philosophy by revitalizing
Sextus Empiricus' skepticism. Religious studies were affected by the growth of Renaissance humanism when
Pope Nicholas V initiated the translation of Hebrew and Greek biblical texts, and other texts in those languages, to contemporaneous Latin. Humanist values spread from Italy in the 15th century. Students and scholars went to Italy to study before returning to their homelands carrying humanistic messages. Printing houses dedicated to ancient texts were established in Venice, Basel, and Paris. By the end of the 15th century, the center of humanism had shifted from Italy to northern Europe, with
Erasmus of Rotterdam being the leading humanist scholar. The longest-lasting effect of Renaissance humanism was its education curriculum and methods. Humanists insisted on the importance of classical literature in providing intellectual discipline, moral standards, and a civilized taste for the elite—an educational approach that reached the contemporary era. Politics was also heavily influenced by humanism, with King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V being influenced by a circle of Spanish and Italian humanists, including
Mercurino di Gattinara,
Alfonso de Valdés,
Juan Luis Vives and
Antonio de Guevara. Spanish humanist
Francisco de Vitoria, founder of the
School of Salamanca, was heavily influential on
international law and
free market economics.
Enlightenment During the
Age of Enlightenment, humanistic ideas resurfaced, this time further from religion and classical literature. Science and intellectualism advanced, and humanists argued that rationality could replace deism as the means with which to understand the world. Humanistic values, such as tolerance and opposition to slavery, started to take shape. New philosophical, social, and political ideas appeared. Some thinkers rejected theism outright; and atheism, deism, and hostility to organized religion were formed. During the Enlightenment,
Baruch Spinoza redefined God as signifying the totality of nature; Spinoza was accused of atheism but remained silent on the matter. Naturalism was also advanced by prominent
Encyclopédistes. Baron d'Holbach wrote the polemic
System of Nature, claiming that religion was built on fear and had helped tyrants throughout history.
Denis Diderot and
Claude Adrien Helvétius combined their materialism with sharp, political critique. Also during the Enlightenment, the abstract conception of humanity started forming—a critical juncture for the construction of humanist philosophy. Previous appeals to "men" now shifted toward "man"; to illustrate this point, scholar Tony Davies points to political documents like
The Social Contract (1762) of
Rousseau, in which he says "Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains". Likewise,
Thomas Paine's
Rights of Man uses the singular form of the word, revealing a universal conception of "man". In parallel, Baconian empiricism—though not humanism
per se—led to
Thomas Hobbes's materialism. Scholar J. Brent Crosson argues that, while there is a widely held belief that the birth of humanism was solely a European affair, intellectual thought from Africa and Asia significantly contributed as well. He also notes that during enlightenment, the universal man did not encompass all humans but was shaped by gender and race. According to Crosson, the shift from man to human started during enlightenment and is still ongoing. Crosson also argues that enlightenment, especially in Britain, produced not only a notion of universal man, but also gave birth to pseudoscientific ideas, such as those about differences between races, that shaped European history.
From Darwin to current era French philosopher
Auguste Comte (1798–1857) introduced the idea—which is sometimes attributed to
Thomas Paine—of a "
religion of humanity". According to scholar Tony Davies, this was intended to be an atheist cult based on some humanistic tenets, and had some prominent members but soon declined. It was nonetheless influential during the 19th century, and its humanism and rejection of supernaturalism are echoed in the works of later authors such as
Oscar Wilde,
George Holyoake—who coined the word
secularism—
George Eliot,
Émile Zola, and
E. S. Beesly. Paine's
The Age of Reason, along with the 19th-century
Biblical criticism of the German
Hegelians
David Strauss and
Ludwig Feuerbach, also contributed to new forms of humanism. ,
Portrait of Jeremy Bentham, 1829. Advances in science and philosophy provided scholars with further alternatives to religious belief.
Charles Darwin's theory of
natural selection offered naturalists an explanation for the plurality of species. Darwin's theory also suggested humans are simply a natural species, contradicting the traditional theological view of humans as more than animals. Philosophers
Ludwig Feuerbach,
Friedrich Nietzsche, and
Karl Marx attacked religion on several grounds, and theologians
David Strauss and
Julius Wellhausen questioned the Bible. In parallel,
utilitarianism was developed in Britain through the works of
Jeremy Bentham and
John Stuart Mill. Utilitarianism, a moral philosophy, centers its attention on human happiness, aiming to eliminate human and animal pain via natural means. In Europe and the US, as philosophical critiques of theistic beliefs grew, large parts of society distanced themselves from religion. Ethical societies were formed, leading to the contemporary humanist movement. The rise of rationalism and the scientific method was followed in the late 19th century in Britain by the start of many rationalist and ethical associations, such as the
National Secular Society, the
Ethical Union, and the
Rationalist Press Association. In the 20th century, humanism was further promoted by the work of philosophers such as
A. J. Ayer,
Antony Flew, and
Bertrand Russell, whose advocacy of atheism in
Why I Am Not a Christian further popularized humanist ideas. In 1963, the
British Humanist Association evolved out of the Ethical Union, and merged with many smaller ethical and rationalist groups. Elsewhere in Europe, humanist organizations also flourished. In the Netherlands, the
Dutch Humanist Alliance gained a wide base of support after World War II; in Norway, the
Norwegian Humanist Association gained popular support. In the US, humanism evolved with the aid of significant figures of the
Unitarian Church. Humanist magazines began to appear, including
The New Humanist, which published the
Humanist Manifesto I in 1933. The
American Ethical Union emerged from newly founded, small, ethicist societies. The
American Humanist Association (AHA) was established in 1941 and became as popular as some of its European counterparts. The AHA spread to all states, and some prominent public figures such as
Isaac Asimov,
John Dewey,
Erich Fromm,
Paul Kurtz,
Carl Sagan, and
Gene Roddenberry became members. Humanist organizations from all continents formed the
International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), which is now known as
Humanists International, and promotes the humanist agenda via the
United Nations organizations
UNESCO and
UNICEF. == Varieties of humanism ==