There is no unified definition of humanism, because many different people claim to be or are called humanists, and their views on the world and people may be very different. Some humanistic ideas are very contradictory. Among liberal democracy, Marxism–Leninism and Protestant or Catholic schools of thought, there are humanistic schools. Even in ancient Rome, there was a humanistic trend of thought that can be called today. Humanism at that time was of course very different from that of the Renaissance or the Enlightenment. The humanism of Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Friedrich Schiller is usually called historicism, while that of william von humboldt is completely different from that of the Enlightenment. Renaissance philosophy is regarded as the basis of thought, while Humboldt's science is regarded as the basis of thought.

Humanism is a philosophical theory and a world outlook. Humanism is based on the interests, values and dignity of people, especially individuals. For humanitarianism, tolerance, non-violence and freedom of thought among people are the most important principles for people to get along with each other.

Modern humanism began in the Enlightenment, in which humanism was regarded as the answer to moral problems independent of religion. In the humanism of the Enlightenment, the supernatural explanation was generally ignored, and people called this humanism "secular humanism".

The concept of words

As that core idea of the Renaissance

The anti-feudal social thought of the emerging bourgeoisie in the European Renaissance. The original form of bourgeois humanism. It affirms human nature and human value, demands to enjoy the joy of the world, demands human personality liberation, freedom and equality, and respects people's perceptual experience and rational thinking.

As a historical concept

In the history of European history and philosophy, humanism is mainly used to describe the more advanced ideas in the Middle Ages from 14 to 16. Generally speaking, today's historians call the cultural and social changes in this period the Renaissance, while the educational reform movement is called humanism.

The word humanism actually appeared very late. It comes from the Latin humanitas, which was used by Cicero, an ancient Roman writer. Philosophers in the German Enlightenment collectively called human beings Humanit? Humanists at that time called themselves humanists. The word humanism only appeared in 1808.

Unique method

According to the previous reconciliation, the characteristics and effects of humanism in different stages of development in western culture are different, but the contingency of its establishment is surprisingly consistent, that is, Tang Junyi said: "Its rise is due to the desire to rule or to resist some cultural prejudice", and it never comes from people's own consciousness. In these two approaches, the former brings the external anti-dominant view into humanism, while the latter brings the internal subject enlightenment into humanism. The former can't open the door of "moral subject"; The latter can open the door of "moral subject". However, only by opening the door of "moral subject" can real humanism reach the form of comprehensive photography and become the highest principle leading cultural life. Therefore, the failure to open the door of "moral subject" is the biggest feature of western humanism at all stages and the fundamental reason for its limitations.

The reason why western humanism can't open the door of moral subject is closely related to the way of thinking in western culture. As I said before, western culture is dominated by "god-based" or "material-based". As far as "god-oriented" is concerned, it is to empty or even revoke human subjectivity and deliver everything to the supreme god. Therefore, the more religious you are, the more you should dispel your subjectivity and "throw yourself before God and convert to God completely". Of course, there is no question of opening the topic here; As far as "object-oriented" is concerned, the minds of western culture are all about mastering the principle of external things. In this way, if you want to master the object-oriented principle, the most important function of the subject is to "reason", which is to pounce on foreign objects and move without moving. If the subject is limited to the intellectuality of pouncing on foreign objects, he can only try his best to observe, analyze and reason. We can't open the door of the subject and analyze and criticize the various abilities of the subject a priori. So, the main door is still closed here. As far as western humanism is concerned, although western humanists clamor to return to "humanism", as mentioned above, their humanism has not really returned to "humanism", or has not really opened up "people". As far as the form of humanism they pioneered is concerned, it actually stays on the "material basis", at most it is only a special "material basis". That is, they just regard "people-oriented" as a special "material-oriented", which of course cannot open the door of "people". From this point of view, no matter "God-based", "Material-based" or the so-called "People-based", we all stand on the "Material", and we can't retreat to stand on the "subject" and knock on the door of the subject to see what we have achieved. In western culture, it is Kant, the finisher and conqueror of the Enlightenment, who can really touch the door of the subject. Kant retreated from the object and revealed the subject's ability to realize knowledge, morality and aesthetics with three criticisms. His Copernican turn in these three aspects made him not only reveal the intellectual subject on the basis of the "abstract intellectuality" put forward by the enlightenment thought. In this sense, he is the finisher of the Enlightenment. Moreover, the boundary of intellectual subject is further investigated, thus further revealing moral subject and aesthetic subject. In this sense, he is the conqueror of enlightenment. However, Kant is a pure philosopher after all. He reveals various subjects through transcendental criticism, and he wants to get rid of the inherent sense of existence in life. This is a purely abstract philosophical thinking. This applies to critical philosophy, but not to humanism, because humanism, as mentioned above, must be inherent in life and open a substantive intermediary field. However, the subject revealed by Kant's transcendental criticism cannot avoid its abstraction, and the various subjects he reveals are only logical perfection of knowledge. In other words, he just put all kinds of disciplines as knowledge in his semantic system to analyze, verify and clarify the boundaries. In this way, all kinds of subjects are only conceptual and formal to Kant, so we say that Kant only touched the door of subjects.

However, if humanism is to become the highest principle of leading cultural life, it cannot enter through Kant's concept subject door. Because all concepts have certain connotations and extensions, this means that any concept has certain limitations. As the leading principle of cultural life, humanism should be "the foundation of all construction and all achievements", which is the basic view of modern neo-Confucianism on humanism. Therefore, Tang Junyi said: "Humanism will not only be hostile to all theories containing truth, but also fairly affirm the relative value of various theories in all fields of human culture." In other words, true humanism is to build people's own culture based on people, not a kind of philosophical theory, so it should integrate and melt all valuable ideas and cultures. The question now is: where is the starting point of humanism? To find this starting point, we can't take the external anti-explicit understanding mode adopted by western humanism at various stages, because, as mentioned above, they have not really returned to the subject of human beings; We can't use Kant's transcendental criticism to reveal all kinds of subjects, because as mentioned above, these subjects can't complete the ideal form of humanism because of their limitations in form and concept. In this way, if we want to find the starting point of humanism, we can only take the road of reverse perception and enlightenment in China culture.

Mencius said, "What's the difference between humans and animals?" ("Mencius? Li Lou "). China culture is to highlight this kind of "hope" in people's concrete life, so as to open its inner human life and the humanistic world of life. This "hope" not only ensures the meaning of being a man, but also opens a real life. However, this "Ji Xi" is different from the concept of "personality" put forward by German humanists such as Goethe in the18th century with Plato's "rational model". It is a spiritual entity, which is realized through inner life and life. This spiritual entity can talk about "body" according to Mencius' "theory of good nature" and "heart" according to Yangming's "theory of conscience", which are actually "moral subjects". China culture has always affirmed that there is a moral subject in people's life who can decide for himself. As long as we try to control ourselves, this kind of theme will naturally appear in our lives. So Confucius said, "Is benevolence far away? I want benevolence, and I am benevolent. " ("The Analects? When it comes to ")," Benevolence depends on oneself and others "("The Analects of Confucius? Yan Yuan "); Mencius also said, "Compassion is benevolence; Shame and nausea, righteousness also; Respect and courtesy; The heart of right and wrong is also wise. Benevolence, righteousness, courtesy and wisdom are not foreign, but I am also inherent, and I think for myself. Therefore, if you seek, you will get it, but if you give up, you will lose it "("Mencius? Gao Zishang "). In China culture, the moral subject (mind or body) presented through personality cultivation is the real "foundation" of human beings, and the humanistic world is opened by this "foundation". Just because the humanistic world is opened by moral subjects, it is not a just system, but a spiritual realm, even a strong attitude towards life ("being strong" means "a gentleman strives for self-improvement"), which is beyond the reach of western humanism. Therefore, Tang Junyi said: "When translating China's humanism into humanism, he was wronged in connotation." China's humanism is to absorb all truths and melt all values in the spiritual realm opened by the moral subject, that is, in this spiritual realm, all truths and values will not be paranoid and harmful. If you borrow Zhuangzi's words, it is: "It is based on the original, macro-jun, profound and prosperous, and it is based on the Sect, which can be described as generous and suitable" ("Zhuangzi? The world ").

In order to cure cultural prejudice and malpractice, humanism at all stages in the west has constructed a justice system externally and clearly. As a result, although it overcame this kind of paranoia and malpractice, it unconsciously produced another kind of paranoia and malpractice. The key point here is that they have never found the origin of culture. As far as China culture is concerned, if the moral subject is not open, culture cannot be perfected by people's consciousness. The result is: "You can learn more from yourself", but you can't "prepare the beauty of heaven and earth, which is called the capacity of the gods" (Zhuangzi? The world "). The key to China's humanism is that it has created a moral subject that is "grand and bold, profound and bold", so everything here can be "prepared in the beauty of heaven and earth, which is called the capacity of the gods". How did this happen? It is because all the cultural achievements of mankind are gradually developed by this moral subject according to his own consciousness "grand and grand, profound and bold". In this way, the cultural achievements of human beings are not the subjective construction of "how to learn from ourselves", but the outflow of this moral subject as the cultural basis. At this point, Mou Zongsan had a wonderful solution. In his view, China culture lies in the moral subject realized through life and life itself. It is a round wheel and a center point, or a "pivot". If people can't live here and get all this, this round wheel can also be opened and closed, opened and closed, and added and subtracted. This is the world's various cultural systems and philosophical systems:

1, up and down. Once the subject of morality becomes the master of life, God can also be internalized. If people can't improve their life with this kind of internalization, they will curl up under the majesty of God's omniscience, omnipotence and goodness from the perspective of human passivity (such as sin) and finiteness. This is a form of Christianity.

2. Internal and external openings. The moral subject is "grand and bold, deep and bold", which shows that the cultural department is opened by this subject from the inside out. However, if people just stand at a certain point outside, they will see their relative objectivity and independence, which will extend to culture or philosophy. For example, as far as cosmology is concerned, "leave the center of subjectivism and move towards objectivism, and establish an objectively constructed cosmology"; As far as ontology is concerned, "leave the center of subjectivism to experience the objective and independent existence itself and establish the ontology of objective self." ..... stand up in front of the reality, empty yourself, no nature, no essence, but completely serving the reality is human nature, human nature. "All kinds of cosmology in western culture are similar to ontology (or ontology), which, in the words of Yijing, is the beginning of" serving the sky the day after tomorrow ". However, if these cosmology and ontology (or ontology) want to seek their ultimate basis, they must overcome the moral subject and achieve the combination of "nature and nature are opposite" in order to finally stand up.

3. Positive and negative openings. From the moral subject's practice of benevolence to perfection, everything is flat and everything is implemented, which is what Confucianism calls the realm of "prospering in poetry, standing in ceremony and becoming happy". However, if people only see the metaphysical device in this plane, it is easy to observe the life of the universe from a negative perspective, from the aspects of "emptiness" and "nothingness". From the aspect of "nothing", it is said that "nothing" is the persistence of things relative to events, artificial and unnatural, showing the realm of natural inaction, which is Taoism; From the aspect of "emptiness", saying "emptiness" is due to the self-nature of circulation, which is called Buddhism.

4. Finally, if the moral subject tries his best to practice benevolence, then "looking up and looking up, all knowing the body and seeing things" means "the world belongs to benevolence". However, if people can't stop here, they don't know that they are "seeing the body" and only see the physiological activities of "looking up and looking up". If so, only studying physiological activities is a science in itself.

The above-mentioned religions, philosophies and sciences are all developed by moral subjects, which truly embodies the idea that "humanism is the foundation of all achievements" and truly makes humanism a comprehensive system. It does not oppose all cultures containing truth and value, and can make it adapt to and become the leading principle of leading cultural life. Because of this, we can say that only by opening the door of "moral subject" can we complete all the connotations of humanistic spirit.

However, the above division by Mou Zongsan is a theoretical explanation and a theoretical analysis of the "moral subject" as the cultural basis. But humanism, as mentioned above, must lie in life itself in order to open a substantial intermediary field. The inner existence of human beings lies in life, and the substantive intervention fields of life mainly include: the satisfaction of desire (happiness), religious prayer and the pleasure of beauty (aesthetics). True humanism must mean these three aspects, so as to internalize "God-based" and "Material-based" and truly return to "People-oriented". This is the real "extremely bright moderation". This paper will mainly discuss how China's humanism advocated by "moral subject" is expressed and has profound connotation on the issue of "happiness". The latter two issues will be discussed in the next article of this article.

Development and deficiency

Although the word "human nature" is inherent in China culture (Yi Zhuan: "Observing astronomy, observing time changes, observing human nature and transforming it into the world." ), but humanism is the translation of the word humanism in western culture, and some people have translated it into humanism The so-called "people-oriented" is relative to the "material-oriented" and "spiritual-oriented" in western culture. The dominant position of western culture is "material standard" and "spiritual standard", the former achieves science and metaphysics (philosophy); The latter realized religious belief. Humanism only does some work between "material-based" and "spiritual-based" to fill the gap and save the disadvantages. It is in this sense that Tang Junyi said: "Almost all western' humanism' is out of domination or resistance to certain cultural prejudice." It is precisely because of this that Mou Zongsan said: "In the western academic tradition, humanism is not the mainstream. Moreover, it is also lurking there, so it has never been revealed and completed its own system, thinking that it is the backbone of leading its cultural life. " That is to say, although humanism is a concept put forward in western culture, its development in western culture cannot be fully reflected because "man" is suffocated by "material" and "spirit". Then, in the view of modern neo-Confucianism, what are the limitations and shortcomings of humanism in the development of western culture?

The development of humanism in western culture can be divided into Cicero humanism, Renaissance humanism and18th century German humanism. The concrete contents or contents of humanism in these three stages are different. But as far as their basic character is concerned, no one can undertake the mission of leading western cultural life, which is due to their * * * nature. Because they have their insurmountable limitations and shortcomings. For the limitations and shortcomings of western humanism, Mou Zongsan made a detailed analysis and explanation in the article The Completion of Humanism. First of all, look at humanism in Cicero's period: the concept of humanism was not established in Greece, but in Rome in Cicero's period, so Cicero was the first person to realize the content and value of humanism in western cultural history. Mou Zongsan thinks that this kind of consciousness is "because Rome is a barbaric nation", so Cicero's humanistic consciousness "only means that the barbaric and uneducated nation begins to realize its barbarity, and its purity is the deficiency of naked primitive life, reflecting on its poverty and wanting to live a cultured life. ..... Cicero's humanism is fulfilling this responsibility. " However, because this responsibility is only implemented on the basis of "freedom, respect for rationality and beauty in real life, which is a broad sense of life", humanism at this time only pays attention to etiquette norms in breadth, and has not further developed inward, thus showing the ultimate foundation of cultural life in which humanism can be established. Here, we can see that the humanistic consciousness at this time, as Tang Junyi said, is based on external knowledge to make up for the shortcomings, rather than directly starting from people themselves and demanding self-reliance. This is actually not conscious, but what he feels, depending on him. In this way, humanism at this time has both its achievements and its limitations. The results are as follows: this humanism can become a well-educated and standardized social and political life; Its limitation lies in: this educated and standardized social and political life only emphasizes order and harmony externally, and cannot be condensed into people's lives and finally settled down. Therefore, it can be said that what humanism has achieved at this time is only an external, formal and beautiful view of human environment, which can slide down at any time because it is external, formal, loose and collapsed. This is because humanism is untenable if it is only implemented in the realistic state of mind of life, that is, it is loose and has no "foundation" and "foundation". Secondly, let's look at humanism in the Renaissance: it was during this period that humanism gained the meaning of the world. However, humanism in this period still inherited the development tradition of humanism in western culture, which was an opposition and transcendence to the shackles of Christian theology in the Middle Ages. Therefore, humanism at this time still stays in the remedy after external comparison, rather than people's own independence. Renanissance originally meant "human regeneration", that is, to save people from the dormant state of God. The so-called "rebirth", according to Mou Zongsan's understanding, is: "For the real life, for the real self, for the individual self, there is a feeling of spring, and there is a real human love." In this way, due to the emphasis on individual self, the universal rationality of human beings is ignored, and the human temperament is particularly valued. Therefore, it can be said that humanism at this time is an affirmation of human temperament, such as talent and intelligence. Therefore, during the Renaissance, many scientists and artists showed their creativity in talent. The affirmation of people's special temperament, like the humanism in Cicero's period, only stays in the external harmonious social and political life, which can be said to be further absorbed by people themselves. This is a great progress in the development of humanism and the greatest achievement of humanism in the Renaissance, because for humanism, it is gradually returning to "man". However, it must be pointed out that if humanism only reflects on life to this extent, and the "foundation" of humanism is based on human nature, there are still insurmountable limitations. This restriction-according to Mou Zongsan's statement-is mainly manifested in: at this time, humanism can not be further introspected by individual self, so as to show a universal self connected with "God". Therefore, humanism in the Renaissance is always obviously established with Christian theology, and the key lies in the "human" at this time, that is, the personality self is just a muddled whole, and there is still no internal time for the breakdown of reflection and the decomposition of transcendence, but a transcendental universal self is regarded as the leading principle of personality self. In this way, "Renaissance humanism represents the awakening of human nature and personality, but its so-called human nature is still only for the fall from God itself, and the fall from itself is only a vague theory, and personality is only a whole, so it is only biased towards talent." Thus, the glory of the Renaissance came out, and its disadvantages also came out. Its wonder lies in: it can do its best to create great science and art; On the other hand, as Tang Junyi said, "all human natural instincts, savage desire for power and desire to conquer the outside world have been given the opportunity to show as much as possible; And form another kind of entanglement between human divinity and animality in modern culture. "This is its disadvantage. Finally, let's take a look at German humanism in18th century: humanism in this period was established for the "abstract intellectuality" of the Enlightenment. Enlightenment thought is the condensation, contraction and calmness of humanistic reflection in Renaissance. As mentioned above, humanism in the Renaissance made great achievements in science and art because it was obsessed with the joy of individual life, but this achievement was based on the love and pursuit of nature by individual life, and it did not retreat to the subject for transcendental reflection and decomposition. Therefore, most of the scientific achievements in this period remain at the empirical level, and the reason that science is scientific knowledge is not established. Enlightenment is a calm and rational spirit, which is contracted from the personal hobbies of humanism in the Renaissance. The so-called intellectuality is the "subject of thought" stipulated by logical mathematics (note that this "subject of thought" is not subjective, but objective, because it-according to Kant's philosophy-is only some innate forms, such as time and space or categories, such as quality, quantity, relationship and mode, so it is universal, objective and abstract. Descartes' "I think therefore I am" is in this sense. In this way, as soon as "intellectuality" appeared-according to Mou Zongsan's statement-"the concrete and muddy activities of the human mind were broken and decomposed into various forms. Intellectuality and intuition are separated. Therefore, understanding human nature is also regarded as human nature by' abstract rationality'. The subject is pure intellectuality, the object is pure nature, and intellectuality is the condition for knowledge to become possible. This contraction introspection and decomposition based on the transcendence of the subject makes the knowledge of "learning for learning" established. This is the greatest contribution of the Enlightenment. On the other hand, as Mou Zongsan said, the enlightenment thought broke away from the mother of humanism and became "non-humanism". Because, if we only regard "abstract intellectuality" as the essence of human beings, it will inevitably empty out the rich and substantial content of human beings, and humanism must treat human beings from the perspective of integrity, richness and materiality. This is the fundamental reason why German humanists rose up against the Enlightenment in the18th century. /kloc-german humanism in the 0/8th century was originally initiated by a group of writers, and it was called the hurricane movement. Starting from their new life experience, they opposed the rigidity and emptiness of the "abstract intellectuality" of the enlightenment thought. Although the hurricane movement, like the humanism in the Renaissance, entered from a feeling of life, it has the following characteristics: the humanism in the Renaissance is opposite to the divinity in the Middle Ages and does not blend with religion; Through the profound experience of life, hurricane movement shows the infinity and ubiquity of big life in the universe, so it has the tendency of pantheism. Although this is far from the true religious spirit, it can be seen that humanism and divinity are not absolutely incompatible at this time. But as Mou Zongsan said, after all, it is the romantic spirit of subjectivism based on literary sentiment, and it is absolute subjectivism. However, humanism must move from subjectivism to objectivism and subjective objectivism. Later, Lessing and Goethe put forward the concept of "personality" in time, which is to pull humanism from subjectivism to objectivism.