Socialist Humanism [antikvár]

INTRODUCTIONOne of the most remarkable phenomena of the past decade has been the renascence of Himianism in various ideological systems. Htimanismin simplest terms, the belief in the unity of the human race and man's potential to perfect himself by his own efiFortshas had a long and varied history stretching back to the Hebrew prophets and the Greek philosophers. Terentius' statement, "I believe that nothing htiman is alien to me," was an expression of the Humanist spirit, echoed centuries later by Goethe's "Man carries within himself not only his individuality but all of humanity, with all its potentialities, although he can realize these potentialities in only a limited way because of the external limitations of his individual existence."Over the ages some Humanists have believed in the innate goodness of man or the existence of God, while others have not. Some Humanist thinkersamong them Leibniz, Goethe, Kierkegaard, and Marxparticularly stressed the need to develop individuality to the greatest possible extent in order to achieve the highest harmony and universality. But all Humanists have shared a belief in the possibility of man's perfectibility, which, whether they believed in the need for God's grace or not, they saw as dependent upon man's own efiForts (which is why Luther was not a Humanist). Nom-eligious Humanists like Gianbattista Vico and Karl Marx carried this further to say that man makes his own history and is his own creator.Because Humanists believe in the unity of humanity and have faith in the future of man, they have never been fanatics. After the Reformation they saw the limitations of both the Catholic and the Protestant positions, because. ! f-rir. ' 1 ,r '! I.' , ' t'I I II I