The Theme of Humanism in 'The Prophet' and 'The Little Prince' (original) (raw)

An Inquiry on Humanism

Humanism is a broad system of values, a program of learning, and a historical development that does not belong to a particular period, people, or place. It cannot be confined within the European context, in particular the Renaissance period, as Lauro Martines does by describing humanism as “a program for the ruling classes”. Martines’ class analysis does well in capturing the class dimension of the Renaissance, the misuse of humanism as a political tool by the elites. However, his analysis is only applicable to a certain place which is Europe, and at a particular time, the fifteenth century. Hence, to describe humanism as merely an elite propaganda is only to recognize a characteristic of the Quattrocento humanism than humanism more broadly. To get a better conceptualization of humanism, this essay aims to take humanism outside its later stages of development in Europe and into the Islamic world wherein earlier stages of development had taken place. Therefore, a great emphasis is given to Islamic humanism.

Prophetic Humanism in PesantrenImpian Novel by Asma Nadia and Relevance to The Study of Literary Theory

IJRSI, 2019

This study aims to describe and explain the form of prophetic humanism in the PesantrenImpian novel by Asma Nadia and its relevance in the study of literary theory. The method used in this research uses the descriptive qualitative method. The object of his research was the Dream Pesantren novel. Data collection techniques in this research are reading and note-taking techniques. Data analysis techniques in this study used content analysis. The results of this study indicate that the prophetic form of humanism in the novel, namely, maintaining brotherhood, looking at someone totally, and throwing away the nature of hatred. The results of these studies can be used in literary theory courses, especially in enrichment programs by instilling human values in the nation's next generation.

Humanism and its Discontents

A defining term for the Renaissance, " the human " is today a perilous term. But is it still a useful one—or is its intellectual history in early modernity too fraught, too deeply implicated in critiques of anthropocentrism? This essay argues for a reap-praisal of " humanism " as a philosophical tradition and suggests how the history of " the human " in the early modern period already contains its postmodern and posthumanist unraveling. As a humanist's humanist, Spenser plays a key, emblematic role in this history as his careful and sparing use of the term " human " in its various forms points to the idea of humanity as a boundary condition, a description of a limit. The essay concludes with a reflection on the continued importance of humanist modes of reading through an understanding of the text's own agency.

HUMANISM. Reflections on an Eponymous Idea. «Munera», Quaderno 2019

«MUNERA», Quaderno 2019, pp. 73-96, 2019

1. Humanism: the byname of European civilization 2. Jurisdictional function of humanism 3. The dignity of man and the superiority of judgement over force 4. The experiential nature of humanism and the relationship between rhetoric and speculation 5. A distinction: humanism and humanistic 6. Contemporary prejudices about humanism: subjectivism and anti-scientificity 7. The principal cultural dimensions of the problem: religion and utopia 8. Conclusion: a method for research.

Humanism: A New View on an Eternal Problem

2013

The article reveals that the main socio-philosophical doctrines: 1) approach social development mainly in an abstract way, regardless of human nature; 2) do not take into consideration the factors of vagueness and self-organization which are an integral part of human being’s vital activity; 3) do not adequately inquire into the role of cultural facts in a historical perspective. Cataclysms in the modern world, socio-economic, ecologic and other crises appear in a different light if considered in the context of conceptions about human nature. A move of society towards genuine humanistic existence depends, to a great extent, on the prospects of all round development of a human being, his/her personal moral qualities. It is highlighted that the inability to reasonably manage social processes, which are determined by the archaic human nature, causes danger to humankind. The human mind has its own history and many traces of the previous stages of development are imprinted into the psyche...

European Humanism and Its Challenges

Primerjalna književnost, 2018

The question of a human person, which is the starting point of every humanism, is the initial, fundamental, almost inevitable question of every culture. On the other hand, it is highly complex and practically impossible to delimit. If one sees humanistic thought as philosophical anthropology, its character is understandably transcultural, one that can appear anywhere in history, and is always radical: it reaches the very foundations of culture and civilization. In this sense, it can be seen as a universal human phenomenon. In its narrower sense, the origins of humanism are marked by the return of Western Europe to the forgotten sources of its cultural identity, hidden in classical antiquity. Moreover, its peak, the Renaissance, is defined by its artistic achievements, which are nevertheless founded in the sphere of intellect and in its new understanding of being human. In this perspective, humanism is one of the most significant and complex phenomena in European cultural history. It is difficult to imagine any research project ignoring its variety. This is the topic to which this particular volume is primarily dedicated. Both established as well as younger European scholars explore different literary, philosophical, ethical, aesthetic, religious, cultural, and social aspects of humanism. Most of the studies highlight its historical dimension: humanism was grounded in ancient literature and thought, and has shaped the conceptual framework of reception and interpretation of antiquity for centuries (Weiss, Kersten, Movrin, and Senegačnik). At the same time, its cognitive and ethical dynamics developed and upgraded its traditions, and thus directed the flow of European culture and, in some respects, even transformed the foundations of its civilization. However, humanism was not shaped exclusively by its relation to antiquity: a valuable source, as well as contrast to its anthropology, was medieval Christian anthropology, mainly as reflected in its supreme expression, Dante’s poetry (Širca). In the following chapters, history is analyzed from several perspectives: on the one hand, there are investigations of conceptual movements in the understanding of the world, time and human being, which have expanded the general, “global” horizon of humanistic thinkers (Szönyi, Molnár, Łukaszyk). On the other hand, there is research exploring national and regional luminaries (Marinčič on the influence of P. P. Vergerius on P. Trubar, Pobežin on P. P. Vergerius, and Hriberšek on Ž. Herberstein) and literary phenomena. These studies frequently redefine the established literary and historical image of the humanist period. The second thematic area of this volume is devoted to the challenges of humanism. To the influence of its central ideas on contemporary culture, particularly on literature (Kuret); to cognitive, ethical, and social dilemmas arising from the conflict of humanistic anthropology and the new patterns in understanding the human condition; and finally to the possibilities opened up by the fresh readings of the humanist tradition. The studies of this volume offer several original insights and new perspectives on the cultural issues of the present time, with contributions that analyze the fundamental experience of humanity in the horizon of humanistic self-understanding (Russo). With globalization as well as with the revolution in media and communication, humanistic culture faces radical changes, which require new reflections regarding the concept of individual disciplines (Zabel).

Post-Humanism Humanity beyond the Realm of Humanism

Leonardo Da Vinci has provided the classical definition of Humanism in the form of ‘ideal’ Vitruvian Man and there has been numerous efforts into making it work in a universal context, to make an ideal definition to represent all of the Humanity in one point. This effort has lit a fire of dispute among the scholars and has given birth to different opinionated sub-divisions in context of critique, analysis and further discoveries. Humanism has travelled from Eurocentric, imperialistic concept with massive opposition and critique on individualism, superiority over ‘others’ in a path of Anti-Humanism and finally we are standing with the concept of Post-Humanism where the scholars are trying to find another way to reach the definition in an ‘Affirmative” way. From Rosi Braidotti’s text “Post-Human: Life beyond the Self”, we see that to reach a proper definition of Humanism, it is so far has been proved that none of the classical concepts are enough to build the definition of Humanism. Rather, in different contexts, we have to go back to some dissected ideologies and build our argument over their ashes while the previously contradicted ideologies are rising as Phoenix over and over again. Coming from the Anti-Humanist background, Braidotti is convinced that the classical definition of Humanism is not satisfactory and her years of experience along with her ethical, political and scholarly efforts in Anti-Humanism, she has reached a point where she is more convinced to Post-Humanism from a critical point of view. Posthumanism deal not only with the concept of ‘Self’, but also it takes into account the ‘Other’. Where the ‘Other’ does not belong to the boundary of species. In this point, the identity of species enters the argument. This text will shed light on this point with the help from Donna Haraway’s text “When Species Meet”. The discussion will follow the journey Humanism took to evolve throughout the passage of thoughts, time and history while trying to figure out a way to define identity of the actors involved. A brief discussion on ‘Identity’ will be a part of this paper. Moreover, how our perception of the world and how the elements define our communication with other species are also discussed briefly.