What is new humanism, and what is the difference between it and Renaissance humanism?

Humanism Humanism is the anti-feudal social trend of thought of the emerging bourgeoisie in the European Renaissance and the guiding ideology of Renaissance culture.

The English word for Humanism is humanism, which is also translated as humanitarianism. It originated from the "humanities" in the Renaissance. At that time, the emerging bourgeois scholars despised the feudal culture centered on Christian theology and were keen to explore the cultural heritage of ancient Greece and Rome and study ancient languages, literature, natural sciences and philosophy. They think that these subjects, which study man and nature, are new knowledge different from "theology" and "humanities". Those new cultural people who study humanities call themselves "humanists". The appearance of the word "humanity" not only refers to the change of the direction of academic research, but also means that a new worldview centered on secular people and advocating humanism or humanitarianism has replaced the old worldview of religious theology, which reflects the interests and aspirations of the emerging bourgeoisie in opposing the feudal system and developing capitalism. /kloc-In the 6th century, people gradually realized the broad meaning of the word "humanity". /kloc-in the 0/9th century, European academic circles began to use the word "humanism" to summarize the world outlook of humanists in the Renaissance.

The core of humanism is bourgeois human nature theory and humanism.

Human nature refers to the characteristics and basic attributes that distinguish people from other animals. It has a long history for human beings to understand their own characteristics from philosophy. Historical materialism summed up the achievements of human understanding and made a scientific explanation of human nature for the first time. Historical materialism does not deny that people are natural beings, and human tissues determine that people have functions and desires such as eating, drinking, and sexual behavior. However, it is wrong to study these functions and desires abstractly from human social activities and regard them as the only and ultimate goal of human activities. Man is a social animal, and some natural attributes of man cannot be without social color. Historical materialism holds that the so-called human nature refers to the fundamental difference between normal people and other animals, mainly in social labor; The realistic human nature changes with the development of society. The bourgeois theory of human nature does not recognize the relationship between human nature and society, nor does it recognize the historical evolution of human nature. It only recognizes a so-called eternal humanity that all mankind has, and the capitalist system is an eternal system that conforms to this humanity.

Humanism is a trend of thought and theory about human nature, mission, status, value and personality development. It is a developing and changing philosophical category. Humanism came into being in the period of human civilization, but humanism, as a trend of thought and theory of the times, was formed in the Renaissance. Humanism in the Renaissance is bourgeois humanism, which broke through the shackles of God-centered thinking under the rule of the medieval church, advocated that man was a part of nature and dominated it, and believed that the pursuit of happiness was man's natural right and the driving force of social development. It criticized the asceticism of the feudal church, which regarded sensual and secular life as evil, and affirmed that people have the right to enjoy all the happiness in the world, thus making the progressive ideas of conquering nature, seeking happiness in life, creating freely, striving for personal liberation and establishing a just social system widely spread. The progressive role of bourgeois humanism at that time made it an ideological weapon of bourgeois revolution against feudal church autocracy. From the Renaissance in Europe to the Enlightenment in the18th century, humanitarians were mostly artists, writers, thinkers and scientists, who publicized bourgeois humanitarianism in different fields and made contributions. /kloc-the humanitarian theory of French enlightenment thinkers in the 0 th and 8 th centuries requires that everything in reality should conform to human rationality. The Declaration of Human Rights and Civil Rights, which was born in the French Revolution, is a record of bourgeois humanitarian victory.

However, bourgeois humanism also has its own contradictions, such as the contradiction between personal interests and public interests, the contradiction between individual free development and public social system. Some enlightenment thinkers considered various ways to solve contradictions, but they didn't see that the capitalist system was the root of these contradictions. The humanitarianism they advocated was precisely to maintain this system, so bourgeois humanitarianism could not find a way to solve contradictions. Theoretically speaking, bourgeois humanitarianism is completely divorced from social relations when examining people, and only regards people as natural persons, and takes this as a starting point to demonstrate people's pursuit and yearning. This makes it fall into an abstract theory of human nature, with the illusion of super-class and super-era. However, the freedom, the enjoyment of rights and the so-called "justice" social system pursued by this abstract theory of human nature are not abstract. They are based on private ownership and centered on individualism, which clearly shows the characteristics of the bourgeoisie.

Bourgeois humanitarianism played different roles in different historical periods: it played a very revolutionary role in the Renaissance; Until the19th century, it was always an important ideological weapon for the bourgeoisie to establish and consolidate the capitalist system. With the development of contradictions in capitalist society and the upsurge of proletarian revolutionary movement, it gradually lost its historical role of progress.

According to the different functions of humanism and humanism in different historical periods, in order to distinguish them easily, in China, people used to call this trend of thought humanism in the Renaissance and humanism after the Renaissance.