I agree with four of the five major elements of Humanism: individualism, secularism, focus of life on earth, and innovation. I mostly consider myself a humanist, except that I don’t find Roman or Hellenistic culture to be superior and better than Medieval culture.
First of all, I agree with individualism because individualism believes that we are all individuals that have the right to pursue dignity and pursue our aspires within reason. Before the rise of Humanism, people were considered subjects of the Catholic Church, subjects of their nation, and subjects of their landlord. Individualism paved the path for all movements of equal rights and universal suffrage that rose in the following centuries. These ideas were all centered around one point; that we are all individuals that have dignity.
Second, I also believe in the focus of objective and tangible aspects of life, which include secularism, focus of life on earth, and innovation. These ideas insisted that we should place more emphasis on technology, science, quality of life, and entertainment. Obviously, the advancement of these things make our lives much more comfortable, convenient, and fun. Before the rise of Humanism, everything in Medieval Europe was centered around religion; which meant (only) heaven and hell for many people. After humanism started to bloom, people begun to have other aspires and targets in their life; for instance, to check out the ring like structure around Saturn, or to simply paint some beautiful murals for wall in Milan. I believe that humanism pathed the way for nearly everything we have today, ranging from technology to ideology, from art to music. Therefore, I would unyieldingly support the focus on objective and tangible aspects of life.
Despite my approval for the first four elements of Humanism that I’ve spoken about, I remain some doubt over the last element: the revival of Greek and Roman ideas. Admittedly, Greek and Roman culture was very advances and had a lot of shining points that we could still learn from, even nowadays. However, some humanists went a bit over with their admiration for classical civilizations and decided that Medieval culture, architecture, and art was bad and barbarian. I would consider this belief to be somewhat biased, as their were many agricultural and societal advances, such as the formation of the merchant class, that happened during the Middle Ages. Therefore, framing the Middle Ages as “dark” and “totally stagnant” would be a heavily biased statement.
In conclusion, I would consider myself a humanist as I agree and celebrate most of the ideas that humanism includes. However, I would restrain from believing that Roman and Greek cultures are superior and better than other cultures.
Sources:
Italian Renaissance Snapshot Reading
What Was Humanism? AP Euro Bit by Bit #2
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