Briefly talk about the development of humanism in modern Europe?

Judging from the supplement to your question, you have a wrong understanding of the concept of "modern times". In Chinese history, "modern times" refers to the period between the beginning of the Sino-British Opium War (1840) and the May Fourth Movement (1919). For world history, "modern times" refers to the period from the end of the Middle Ages in 1453 to around the middle of the 18th century, after which it is called "modern times".

The end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modern times is the beginning of the Renaissance! You are asking about world history, and of course you use the "modern" concept of world history, and one of the characteristics of modern times in world history is the rise of humanism. So my answer to your question is exactly right to start with the Renaissance, not "too much" at all.

As for the end of modern times, corresponding to the development of humanism, it was almost the Turbulent Movement in Germany. It was around this time that Goethe completed his masterpiece "Faust".

If you insist on applying the "modern" concept of Chinese history to world history, then I have answered you, which is the fourth point of the original answer. But it is obviously wrong to do so. It is a bull’s head talking to a horse’s mouth, Chinese history is a world history, laugh~ If this is the case, then the topic itself is wrong!

Attachment: Original answer

Look at this article: The Western Humanist Tradition—Past, Present and Future

The summary of the article is as follows.

1. Renaissance Era

Centered on Florence. Latin is the most exclusive text.

Generally speaking, Western thought is divided into three different modes of viewing human beings and the universe. The first mode is beyond nature, focusing on God, and humans are part of God’s creation; the second mode is Natural, the focus is on nature, that is, the scientific model, and humans are part of the natural order; the third model is the humanistic model, the focus is on humans, and human experience is used as a basis for humans to treat themselves, God, and nature. starting point for understanding.

This distinction is only a distinction between three tendencies that can be combined in many ways. There are no strict boundaries, and it is not another copy of Comte's three-stage law: the humanistic model transcends theology. The scientific model and the humanistic model surpass the humanistic model, because all three models are successively represented and continue to exert influence, and the relationship between them oscillates between competing claims to monopolize truth and different forms of existence.

The most attractive thing about ancient Greek thought is that it is human-centered rather than God-centered. Humanism sharply attacks scholasticism because they focus on logical categories and metaphysics. Questions, abstract thinking and logical reasoning are divorced from people's daily life. However, the humanism of the Renaissance did not want to replace scholasticism with another philosophical thought. They only wanted to resurrect the role that scholasticism had ignored.

A favorite topic in humanistic discussions is, which one is better, an active life, or a contemplative life? The life of contemplation no longer occupied the most important place as it did in the Middle Ages.

The second topic is the impermanence of fate and the spirit that refuses to surrender to it. This determination to conquer fate generated an interest in people's personality and self-awareness, so the number of portraits, self-portraits, biographies and autobiographies increased more and more, and they were painted in a realistic style rather than a symbolic or figurative style.

We cannot avoid the conflict between Augustine’s sinful existence and the Renaissance’s view of man. Most Renaissance people were untroubled by this conflict and continued to take Christianity for granted.

As for the confused few, there are two paths to take: Neoplatonism and Biblical Humanism, which in different ways represented the religious element in Renaissance humanism.

Neo-Platonism believes that harmony and symmetry are the fundamental principles of the universe. Through contemplation, the highest human activity, people can achieve consistency with these two principles. This belief was very important to the Renaissance. thinkers have great appeal. In the hierarchy of the universe, man is the center of creation. The link with all created things belongs to the lower level of matter, but he can still improve himself and seek communication with God.

It is easy to go from Neoplatonism to mysticism, so the Renaissance was also fascinated by magic and astrology, and was interested in Pythagorean number symbolism, mythology and fables. All had a profound impact on European literature and art.

Biblical humanism is the application of humanistic scholarship to the study of biblical texts and the writings of church elders. For them, although the Renaissance was human-centered, it was not necessarily weak in religion. Biblical humanism is mainly based in Northern Europe. Therefore, Northern Europe became one of the main sources of the religious reform movement. Many Christian humanists initially had the purpose of reforming the church. They believed that they were proficient in classical research and used it in the Bible. , is the key to restoring the true nature of Christian teaching. Moreover, Luther's intermediate role for the pastor and his insistence on direct personal communication with God may well be seen as a natural development of humanism, as was his insistence on the translation of the Bible into the local languages ??of each country.

Within Germany, Luther was attracted to the nascent national sentiments, but outside of Germany, if other Christian humanists wanted to follow him, they had to overcome at least two major obstacles: 1. Luther was abandoning church tradition. In terms of beliefs and beliefs, he went to more and more extremes, and finally broke away from the church altogether. 2. Luther and Calvin revived an emphasis on man's sinful nature; this would ultimately be completely incompatible with humanism.

Burckhardt has a famous saying: The Renaissance is about discovering the world and discovering people. Return to nature, return to the ancients, and be an imitator of all visible scenery.

They depict something concrete and universal, combining universal truth with concrete experience.

After Rome was sacked in 1527, Naples and Florence were besieged, followed by famine and plague. The last remaining republic in Italy was Venice, which survived because it was good at adapting to changing circumstances.

When Blézer painted "The Triumph of Death," early humanism's confidence in human dignity and creativity became a satire of the actual situation. This irony would reappear after the confidence in progress in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries collapsed in the twentieth century. If you want to hold on to your faith amidst this disillusionment, you have to make peace with tragedy. This is the reason behind Shakespeare's tragedy. Shakespeare no longer believes that courage and virtue can control destiny. All a person can do is to face his failure with perseverance.

The failure of the Japanese citizen spirit also led to Machiavelli's "The Prince": To achieve the goal, the means will justify the means.

They no longer view characters as Neoplatonic: like gods, or Michelangelo: like heroes. But, despite this, man remains at the center.

During the religious wars, both the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation set out to suppress people's spiritual freedom and no longer emphasized life in this life.

Renaissance humanism was individualistic by its nature, so as a historical force it had obvious weakness, and when some people organized it as heresy This weakness becomes even more obvious when suppressed by false fantasies. However, the ideas it represents, its central position on human experience and value, and its insistence on human dignity are too powerful. Once they are Recovered and re-proposed, they could not be permanently suppressed, and although it was difficult to realize this at the end of the sixteenth century, the future was on their side.

2. The Age of Enlightenment

A loose, informal, and completely unorganized alliance of cultural critics, religious skeptics, and political reformers, with Paris as the center and French as the *** Enjoy the language.

Before the Age of Enlightenment began, there were already Copernicus, Galileo, and Bacon exploring and sailing.

Religious wars began to separate all thoughts from theology. Descartes, Spinoza, and Hobbes. Hobbes placed the foundation of a moral society on self-preservation, best seen in the anxiety caused by the English Civil War.

The eighteenth century, the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment, began to move away from the skepticism of religious wars, and its optimism was based on experimental science. Bacon, who had anticipated this in the seventeenth century, died in 1626, and Newton was born. Newton was born in 1642 and died in 1727. Nature begins to move away from mystery and becomes knowable.

The greatest influence of the Enlightenment was the use of the impact of natural science to separate the humanities from mysterious religious revelations.

Locke: Government is a contractual relationship, and trusts can be revoked. Hence the justification for the British Revolution. Locke objected to Descartes' claim that human thoughts come from innateness, arguing that they come from our sense impressions.

Just like Newton discovered the scientific laws of the natural world, he discovered the scientific laws of the human heart.

Newton and Locke were both Englishmen who exerted great influence in the first period of the Enlightenment. This is the result of Britain enjoying freedom relatively early.

The Age of Enlightenment began to attack Descartes’ rationalism. When they spoke of reason, they were speaking of the critical, destructive use of the intellect, not of its ability to build logical systems. They are empiricists.

Therefore, the humanism of the Enlightenment Era and the Renaissance Era has continuity, not identity. Their solutions are different. The Renaissance could still combine classical thought and philosophy with Christian beliefs and trust in God, or more or less accommodate each other. The sacred was still their central theme.

During the Enlightenment, religious revivals had lost momentum. Although the power structure established by religion still exists, including wealth, persecution of dissidents, deprivation of freedom of thought, monopoly of education, etc. Therefore, the enlightened people attacked the church with all their strength.

Nowadays they can get the support of naturalistic cosmology, successful scientific method, as well as criticism, skepticism and empiricism. This new way of thinking is extended to the transformation of human condition and human society. The science of people and society.

Voltaire or Newton were actually people who were devout to God. It’s just that they shifted from the aspect of humankind’s fall and salvation to God’s love, a perspective that is more integrated with natural religion (we may call it creationism, Yun Lin’s note).

Of course, this kind of critical reason is also used for authority, tradition, and customs, whether they come from religion, law, government, or social habits. Asking questions, asking for experiments, and not accepting what has always been done or said or thought in the past was the methodology and spirit of the age of Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment thinkers of the eighteenth century were very ambitious and wanted to do for human and social research what Newton did for the study of nature in the seventeenth century. The formation of such an idea was their boldest and most ambitious One of the most influential ideas that has become part of the humanist tradition. The record of mixed success and failure of the Enlightenment has a prophetic effect on future generations.

Economics: Turgot, Adam Smith

Montesquieu: "The Will of Law" can be said to be the enlightenment of modern sociology, and it has a profound impact on climate, law, religion, and governance principles. , past examples, habits and customs, etc., everything that forms the general spirit of society has been comparatively studied. Although this would lead to social determinism and historical relativism, he placed the moral necessity of freedom over deterministic relativism. And he also violated his own logic and insisted on opposing authoritarian rule, believing it to be immoral. . Analyze the basis of "separation of powers" in the British Constitution.

There has not been as much success in the psychological and moral analysis of human nature as in the social analysis.

The biggest difference between the Age of Reason in the seventeenth century and the Age of Enlightenment in the eighteenth century is that the Age of Enlightenment overthrew the rational premise and put forward empiricism.

Hume's use of the word rationality is limited to drawing inferences related to thoughts and distinguishing truth from falsehood. It has nothing to do with the actions, values, motivations and emotions that moral judgments are concerned with. The premise of morality is emotion - the pursuit of happiness and happiness, and the avoidance of pain and misfortune. We recognize that motivation and behavior all come from emotion, not reason or revelation. Any belief or value that has nothing but human experience. So find the happiness that the most people want. "Seeking the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people" is a better foundation for politics, government, and law than "contract."

Hume influenced the next generation of Bentham. He proposed in "An Introduction to Moral Principles and Legislative Work" published in 1789 during the French Revolution that the touchstone of legislation and institutions is whether they can maximize the improvement of the majority. His happiness would later become the driving force behind the legislative, political, and economic reforms that he and philosophical radicals advocated in the first half of the nineteenth century.

The new turning point in the Age of Enlightenment was Russo. Russo claimed that the lessons learned from experience, feelings, and soul are truths that the rational mind can never learn, and they are the only truths that can provide guidance for correct action. Russo stimulated a resurrection of emotion and a cult of sensuality.

The root of morality is not reason, nor the consistency of self-interest and public interest, nor the principle of utilitarianism, but the "voice of the heart."

I hate the corrosiveness of civilized society and want to return to nature. The goodness of human nature is the will of nature, and morality comes from uneducated conscience. Therefore, it is completely opposed to the fact that man is fallen and sinful.

The "Social Contract Theory" created based on his views deduces that sovereignty lies with the people and all people, and all people should try their best to express the general will. He was the first to explain popular sovereignty; other Enlightenment thinkers focused on enlightened monarchy and distrusted democracy. Russo's political views are consistent with his theory of human nature.

Baumgarden’s history of aesthetics makes aesthetics independent.

Winckelmann made art history.

In the 1870s, the Turbulence Movement emerged in Germany, opposing the rationalism of the Enlightenment era and condemning rationalism for subordinating the spontaneity of emotion, human personality, and the inspiration of genius to cold classicism. Rationalized rules and unnatural taste. They also opposed French hegemony.

The representative figure is Goth.

Another representative figure is Hurd. Separate the rational methods of scientific research from the study of human phenomena, and study human beings through historical science: groups and their cultures, including language, law, literature, religious beliefs, myths, symbols, systems, etc., and consider each period and nation , culture, and society are all unique in terms of characteristics. There is no universal ideal or universal human nature, there is only diversity, emphasizing individuality and diversity.

This area of ??knowledge needs to be mastered from within, through imaginative sympathy, placing oneself within the human group or society in which it operates.

Finally, there is Kant. The portrait in Kant's study is Russo.

Kant bridged reason and experience. His philosophical studies also focused on man rather than the transcendent or natural world. Human thinking, human experience, human imagination creation. All we can know is what we come into contact with in human experience. Human thinking ability does not treat experience casually, but follows certain patterns and categories. This is the bridge between empiricism and rationalism.

Then came the American Revolution and the French Revolution.

The Enlightenment was an ideological revolution, and its target was intellectuals. Except for Russo, it did not trust the masses, but its destruction of the old system made the revolution possible. The French Revolution was not primarily ideological, but a combination of many practical factors, but the radicals used the ideas of the Enlightenment and turned them into slogans: citizenship, social contract, general will, human rights, and liberty, equality and fraternity.

The Renaissance ended with religious wars against humanism. The Age of Enlightenment ended with the anti-humanist Reign of Terror.

Third, Nineteenth Century (1789-1914)

The application of rationality and freedom in politics and economy made this stage forever influence the twentieth century. People at that time believed that if all people's energy was completely released, the world would always progress and move forward, and they were full of optimism.

Science replaces philosophy and challenged religion, providing spiritual security and mastery of nature. The "prime force" that Newton was looking for was released from theology and replaced by the first and third chapters of thermodynamics. Two laws to explain.

Comte attempted to apply effective methods in natural science to social and moral research. Spencer and Max both claim to have done this. They arrived at a set of deterministic laws comparable to Newton's laws of motion, leaving no room for chance, divine intervention, or personal choice. Darwin abolished the dividing line between natural science and human research.

The basis of Darwin's theory is the view of evolution and the process of natural selection during evolution, which ended the special status of humans and equated humans with animals.

France: Political Use

It was the young Norman nobleman who first foresaw that the demands for equality were irresistible and who went on to raise the consequences of democracy Tocqueville published "Democracy in America" ??in 1825. From his observations of the United States, he foresaw that "in order to ensure equality, people will demand an increase in the centralization of state power, thus creating new forms of democracy even if unintentionally." Tyranny, they seek freedom in order to achieve equality, but the more equality is established with the help of freedom, the harder it is to obtain freedom itself, which is inversely proportional.

"People increasingly look to the state to provide them with security, to provide them with necessities in anticipation of their needs, to facilitate their entertainment, to direct their industry, to provide for the inheritance of their property and the distribution of their inheritance, except that it does not do it for them." Save their thoughts and lives." "Perhaps this is God's will, which would rather allow all human beings to obtain less happiness than allow a few people to reach the edge of perfection." Tocqueville believed that supporting freedom is supporting human dignity. Therefore, he devoted his life to participating in opposition parties and emphasizing decentralization. But he witnessed the short-lived Second French Republic 1848-1852. After the government was overthrown by Napoleon's coup, he established the first plebiscite dictatorship under the title of Napoleon III. The electorate expanded from 200,000 to 9 million, but the new voters willingly handed over power to the man who promised everything to everyone, and whose only asset was a great name. He represents the combination of equality of conditions and tyrannical power.

Tocqueville therefore wrote a book to prove that centralized government institutions were not created by the revolution, but were established by the old system before the revolution. The French Revolution not only did not overthrow it, but continued it, and the regime mutated. But the centralized structure remains the same.

Socialism goes one step further. Originally socialists had always emphasized the inequality of wealth and opportunity based on humanitarianism, but Malthus clarified that wages could not be raised above the level of living, otherwise any growth would be offset by the population growth it brought.

It was not until Marx that socialism was put on a different but solid foundation, citing historical determinism. In fact, this foundation runs counter to the humanist tradition, but Marx created a new attitude towards society and history, giving human knowledge a new approach.

Germany: Application in Art

Germany, like Italy during the Renaissance, found ways of expression in art. Music reached a perfect classical form, combining deep human emotions with new ideas. A perfect combination of unrivaled innovative power in form development.

Gothic can represent the characteristics of this period. Deliberately cultivate balance and harmony, integrate literature with other disciplines, study natural science, and use the objective world to restrain the common problem of excessive subjectivity. Because of scientific research, there is the concept of organism, and we do not believe that mechanical principles can be applied to any living thing. They don’t believe that the ontology of organic life can be broken down using analytical methods.

The formal laws that govern nature are the same as those that govern a poem, a piece of music, or a work of art. Man must develop all his faculties—sense, reason, imagination, understanding—into a true unity, and he must distrust any one of them in itself, whether imaginary, abstract, or of will.

Another representative figure is Schiller.

Under their influence, Germany has a unique belief in the power of ideas to shape life and the ability of individuals to cultivate themselves.

Schiller particularly believed that the experience of art forms - in his case poetry and drama - can awaken people more than anything else. "Through the morning door of beauty, we enter the realm of truth."

Germany was criticized by Tocqueville and Mill for not caring about the current situation because of its emphasis on self-cultivation.

Humboldt devoted himself to education.

As for Schleiermacher, his influence on Germanic Protestantism was second only to Luther.

He proposed a humanistic view of religion, in which belief in God comes not from theological arguments or Christian dogma—the atonement through the suffering of Christ—but from one’s own sense of humanity: “In the heart of the individual The supreme instruction of the inner God invites you to live an immortal life outside the realm of time, not bound by the strict laws of time. "The discovery of God at work in the human heart, the most sublime discovery of human nature, requires conscious passage. Cultivate one's inner life and express it in behavior. This is a "theology of feeling." (Herder, Hegel, Marx)

Britain

The relationship between man and nature is a great theme of British poetry. With the pollution caused by industrialization, this theme has been intensified. Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth.

Coolidge corrected Bentham's previous views and believed that Bentham's views could only be applied to the economy. However, for the philosophy of society, history and culture, Coolidge emphasized the organic view. They believed that serious problems had occurred in the development process of capitalism. The value of human beings is ignored.

Mill admired Coolidge very much. Mill's "On Liberty."

If we only emphasize the potential ability of ordinary men and women to achieve dignity, kindness and greatness, and ignore that most of us have split personalities, and few people can achieve the level that humans should achieve, then such a This kind of humanism is shallow and unreasonable.

The novelist plays this role. The novel presents the ugly human nature and the suffering world.

The female writer George Eliot, and the poet and critic Arnold.

Critics Ruskin and Morris criticized the middle class of society.

It is entirely reasonable to generally call the period from 1870 to 1914 the peak period of liberalism. The humanist tradition has made a lot of contributions to this. But since then it has lost the power and momentum to continue to grow. Trade protectionism, socialism, and imperialism have emerged.

Four. The Twentieth Century

In 1883, the Danish critic George Brandes published "Men of the Modern Breakthrough" (Men of the Modern Breakthrough). The word "modern" became popular. Nietzsche inspired a fascination with the irrational, Bergson's intuitionism, Soler's theory of violence, and Freud's exploration of the unconscious and dreams. and the aesthetic cult of art for art's sake, experimentation, a sensual chaos. All this creates confusion in the humanist tradition, since there is no check on subjectivity by objectivity.

Swedish dramatist Strindberg (1849-1912), the characters in the play: "Because they are modern characters... more intensely hysterical, divided, and shaken than before, they It is a combination of the past and the present, bits and pieces of books and newspapers, fragments of humanity, rags of fine clothing, pieced together, as in the human soul. "His own life was also a hellish crisis, a spiritual crisis. collapse. (He influenced Bergman.) His readership emerged in large numbers after the war.

In short, an alienated, discontinuous, irrational, divisive, and often despairing worldview begins to emerge in place of reason, optimism, and order.

Anthropology, sociology and history cannot be separated, otherwise each will be in danger of becoming intolerant.

Among the two leaders of modern sociology, Durkheim followed the French rationalist tradition and showed distrust in history, preferring to conduct research through definition and analysis; Weber followed the German historicist tradition and Shows distrust in definitions and prefers theoretical discussions based on historical circumstances. The former is to turn sociology into an empirical rational science and to make sociology transcend the subjectivity of historical humanities, while the latter is to combine it with historical humanities.

Psychology of Religion: William James, Jung

Psychology: Freud, Adler

Modern art and literature through them The new form achieves a double revolution: first, recognizing the divisive nature of human beings and the role of irrational factors in personal life and society; second, recognizing the fragmentation of consciousness, the ambiguity of experience, and the relativity of truth.

Thus, a new version of what constitutes humanism emerged.

But the core elements of humanism remain unchanged: 1. People are the center, 2. People have value and dignity. In order to make people valuable and dignified, it is necessary to educate and fight for freedom, so that people can have The ability to choose and freedom of will. 3. Pay attention to ideas, and neither isolate ideas from social and historical backgrounds nor simply attribute them to class interests, economic interests, sex or other instinctive impulses.

Reason has become both the core of humanism and the subject of debate. It has been brought up again and again for debate: What is its scope and achievements? Rousseau and Goethe had already questioned the excessive elevation of reason. Extreme rationality and irrationality are contrary to the balance required by humanistic thought.

None of the three core elements of humanistic thought will prevent humanism from having a religious dimension. History has repeatedly proven the integration of religion and humanistic thought.

The biggest difference between humanistic thought and religion is not in secularity, but in the theory of human depravity and humanism's trust in human abilities. These two extreme examples are shown in the theologian Barth's insistence that there is no path between man and God, and Russell's insistence that human beings must rely entirely on themselves and strive for ideals in a universe that is hostile to humans. Only ideals are worthy of respect. .

Between these two extremes, there is a combination of religious and humanistic ideas. From Erasmus's humanistic academic method, to natural religion, emotional religion, and even combined with agnosticism.

The values ??of humanism are all compatible with Niebuhr’s Christian realism, Schweitzer’s respect for life, and Martin Buber’s I-Thou relationship, and are even necessary ingredients in their philosophical thoughts.

Humanism in any form combines religious belief with the belief that there is a power in the universe greater than ourselves and that we can count on it to help us.

Another big issue that humanism has to face in the twentieth century is its relationship with science. Studying people can never be equated with studying their physiological carriers. It was first proposed by Vico, then developed by Voltaire, Cassirer and other German thinkers, and then developed by Croce and Colinow. They have repeatedly proposed that the human cultural world beyond the natural world needs to be understood through the humanities, that is, the social sciences. Mastery and understanding. The balance advocated by Goethe is the unity of the natural world and the human world, the objective world and the subjective world.

The future facing humanism in the twentieth century requires that this great separation be put to an end and that the two be combined without losing their respective independence and effectiveness.

5. The Future of Humanism

Between the 1880s and the 1930s, a new version of humanism began to emerge, breaking with the more traditional The optimistic assumption in the early days was that the starting point should be to recognize the dual nature of human nature and the irrational power of individuals and society. This was long ago clarified by pioneers such as Ibsen, Freud, and Weber.

No philosophy about human beings can remain intact after the mid-20th century. Just like the humanistic viewpoint, Christianity, Marxism, and scientific viewpoints are all In this way, it takes a struggle to realize the depth of human suffering and the unfathomable evil of human nature revealed by the experience of this historical period. So there is bound to be a new version.

Some people claim that humanism is an ideology that belongs to the stage of bourgeois individualism, but this situation only appears at a certain stage in the history of humanism, not only humanism in the ancient world, or literature and art The humanism of the renaissance period cannot be fit into this statement; it also obviously ignores the critical attitude towards economic individualism in humanism. This kind of economic individualism finally emerged after repeated criticism, and the politics of government intervention emerged. program.

There is therefore no reason to equate economic individualism with the fundamental importance of human individuality, which is of central importance to the humanist tradition. Individuality is not an atomistic isolation. On the contrary, according to a humanistic perspective, the impulse to socialize, the desire to develop interpersonal relationships, the need to care and cooperate, and the need to belong to a group of people are all human. Necessary components of life without which an individual's identity remains incomplete.

Taking action in conjunction with others is one of the greatest potential assets of human beings. People are not only individuals with different characteristics, but also social beings.

What the humanistic tradition has stood for for six hundred years: the rejection of deterministic or reductionist views of man, the insistence that although man does not enjoy complete freedom, he still has some degree of control freedom of choice. But a humanistic attitude does not guarantee that we will make good choices, predict consequences correctly, or avoid disasters. It only guarantees that if we can find the courage and will to choose, there will still be many choices for us to make.