Revolutionary Humanism Today!

This topic has been taken from the Book -HOMO DEUS by Yuval Noah Harari. I tried my best to explain this topic to you and consequently, the credits still belong to the author of the book. Before you start reading, I want to convey to you all readers that there might be no takeaways from this topic but you’ll definitely have insight on better understanding and the real meaning of humanism. let’s begin.

Humanism is a vast and subjective part of the philosophical world. But to give the accurate meaning, below the abstract definition is given by dictionary —

“ A rationalist outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters “

I hope you get a rough idea about it and still confused then keep reading. We are living in an era where we all humans observing massive growth in individualism in developed nations and somehow people are also debating on religionism, liberalism, communism, and other countable “isms”. The basic meaning of humanism is that human himself is valued for his own judgment on anything he wants. His judgment on what is best for him and what is bad for him, what is beautiful for him, and what is ugly to them solely depend on his inner core value. He is the definitive origin of meaning, therefore, he cannot firmly rely on some external entity to determine the authority of his will, as he autonomously depends upon his own feelings and desires.

Now let me take you back to the approximately 700 years behind, in the ancient European culture. In this epoch, humanism was merely an idea that was majorly ignored. Why? Because during that time people believed that humans couldn't be consistent with their own values. They Believed, the person who thinks that today what he loves most from all his heart, he will find it awful tomorrow. Hence, their values or feeling cannot be measured as authority and meaning to their own life. To understand the eternal truth and meaning of life, they needed external supervision from superhuman. And this mentality made god a supreme source of worth and power. Below is the line integrated from the book -

“Meaning and authority go hand in hand. Whoever determines the meaning of our action, whether they are good or evil, right or wrong, beautiful or ugly — also gains the authority to tell us what to think and how to behave”

Agh, still confused about what I said? okay, let me explain it to you with a quick example for both — medieval and modern approaches to humanism. According to former ideology, when married women in the medieval years, slept with one of the neighbors and enjoyed sexual pleasure immensely, she found it difficult to determine the act she did was faulty or valid? Of course, she couldn't decide as there was no presence of humanism. So what she did was went to the priest — the person used to be versed in holy sculptures. she confessed the act and asked the holy father for supervision. Then the priest decided from the word of god ( according to holy books and sculptures ) that she had committed an ethical crime and hence to prevent her from doing so again, she had to pay few gold coins, avoided eating meats and other punishments. As you observed, god was subjected to be an authority whose words rule what’s wrong and what to do.

Coming back here in the progressive world — in the modern century. Now the lady is part of a nation where humanism has been supported. She enjoyed great sex with neighbors. Now she is confused about the deed she executed. Now, what steps she will take? The first thing she will do is invite her close buddies for lunch and describe the situation. One of buddy gives suggestions to consult a psychologist- hold on don’t you think his role is the same as a priest? Nope, not exactly, the role of both individuals is far different. The priest tried to find authorization by god’s sculpture and holy books whereas the duty of psychologists is to help you find your core values and what you feel about it. The first expression of the priest was “ how dare you, you fool did something against the almighty”. And to say for psychologist it will be “ Well, that’s good for you”. If you don't feel it ethical then you must figure out what’s best for you to avoid that situation and if you feel it good, well you got the point.

The point here is to convey to you that in the latter — modern understanding of humanism makes more sense as of now. People are accepting it nicely. The best example of this concept is — gay and lesbian marriage. If both individuals feel good about it without it then why not they live like Romeo Juliet? I hope you got at least understood what humanism tries to convey. If not then don't worry, you will examine and experience it sooner or letter in upcoming years.

However, there are still possibilities and in fact, it has been observed that people are taking this philosophy to justify their external affairs. But remember the core that humanism is something by which you can determine what is good and what supports the development of society. I would like to end this blog by putting a few lines from the book which makes sense and in fact, it can be controversial but it supports humanism.

“Murder is wrong, not because some gods once said, “ Thou shalt not kill”. Rather Murder is wrong because, it causes terrible suffering to the victim, to his family member, friends, and other associated entities”.

“ Theft is wrong not because some ancient text says “Thou shalt not steal”. Rather theft is wrong because when you lose your property, you feel bad about it. And if an action does not cause anyone to feel bad, there can be nothing wrong with it”.

Reference and content Credit: Yuval Noah Harari. ( from Book Homo Deus )