Humanist Tradition Research Articles

For a new humanism

This guest editorial proposes a ‘new humanism’ in response to the challenges facing traditional humanist thought. Although humanism has been criticized by both left‐wing postcolonial and right‐wing populist viewpoints, it is argued that completely renunciating humanist ideas could have harmful effects. Instead, it proposes a revitalized humanism that disregards the previous humanism's emphasis on novelty and advancement at the price of custom and continuity. This new approach emphasizes rejuvenation rather than repudiation of the past and seeks to relearn coexistence with all planetary beings. It challenges accusations of anthropocentrism and Eurocentrism, proposing a ‘multiversal’ conversation that acknowledges human exceptionalism in speech while respecting diverse voices and regional attachments. The guest editorial concludes by calling for a praxis of study, potentially anthropology, that prioritizes the reproduction of human life and its kinship with other beings over technological advancement.

„In tyrannos“ !? – Sicco Polentons Ovidvita zwischen mittelalterlichem ‚Aberglauben‘, ‚republikanischem Diskurs‘ und pragmatischem Bildungsideal

Abstract The paper offers a new interpretation of the Life of Ovid in the Scriptorum illustrium Latinae linguae libri XVIII of Sicco Polenton. While so far scholarship has mostly criticized the lack of historical and philological accuracy in this Life and Sicco’s dependency on medieval speculations, the paper tries to take a closer look at the implications of Sicco’s own methodological stance towards poetry, historiography and rhetoric. A discussion follows whether Sicco’s own biography has shaped his outlook on the ancient poet, and to what extent Sicco’s treatment of Ovid’s relegation can be integrated into an early humanist tradition of anti-tyrannical discourse. It is argued that both Sicco’s literary ideals and the elaboration of the Life of Ovid, especially the description of the exile, reflect Sicco’s own life story and social background, but also his fundamental purpose of promoting his humanistic teaching.

“Education as the Art of Making Oneself at Home in the World with and Through Others”: The Call to Bildung in Meister Eckhart and the Film Of Gods and Men

This paper explores the mystical structure of education as Bildung in medieval theologian and Dominican friar Meister Eckhart’s work and the 2010 French film Of Gods and Men (Des Hommes et Des Dieux). I start this paper with a short introductory sketch of the Bildung tradition, in order to situate my discussion of Eckhart within the more well-known humanist tradition. Here, I claim that Bildung (as we understand it today through the classic Bildung philosophers) points back to its theological heritage and horizon of meaning, when it is claimed as the general tekhnê (art, craft) of making oneself at home in the world with and through others. In my first step, I then explore the intellectual heritage of this mystical structure of Bildung. Drawing on a range of Meister Eckhart’s writings (esp. his German sermons), I elaborate three features pivotal to his concept of Bildung (as image-ing) of the imago Dei (image of God) in the human soul/action: (1) divine grace, (2) human cultivation and (3) the harmonisation of both in (what I shall call) ‘careful gestures'. In my concluding second step, I illustrate this mystical structure of Eckhartian Bildung—with a particular focus on the emergence of careful gestures—through the motion picture Des Hommes et Des Dieux.

The Influence of the Truth of the Characters on Chinese Films in the 1990s: A Case Study of Farewell My Concubine

The 1990s represent a unique period in Chinese history, during which the characters real-life experiences have a significant impact on both the audience's perception of the characters and their aesthetics, debate and criticism of social reality, and, to some extent, the long-term trajectory of Chinese cinema. This period coincides with the release of Farewell My Concubine in this decade. Under the special background of the times, it tells the story of Duan Xiaolou and Cheng Dieyi. The story, featuring a diverse cast of characters from various social classes, can be regarded as a compilation of humanistic traditions in the 1990s. It encompasses critiques of feudalism, social turmoil, the struggle for survival, and a compassionate exploration of human nature. Additionally, it establishes a solid cinematic groundwork for future investigations into the social context of this era. This story reveals a concealed crisis of survival within a seemingly peaceful social setting, bringing together protagonists with diverse personalities. This paper employs discourse analysis and audio-visual language analysis research methods to examine the impact of character truths on Chinese films from the 1990s. Using the film Farewell My Concubine as an example, the research reveals the personality truths through each persons unique and profound character truth.

The Influence of the Truth of the Characters on Chinese Films in the 1990s: A Case Study of Farewell My Concubine

The 1990s represent a unique period in Chinese history, during which the characters real-life experiences have a significant impact on both the audience's perception of the characters and their aesthetics, debate and criticism of social reality, and, to some extent, the long-term trajectory of Chinese cinema. This period coincides with the release of Farewell My Concubine in this decade. Under the special background of the times, it tells the story of Duan Xiaolou and Cheng Dieyi. The story, featuring a diverse cast of characters from various social classes, can be regarded as a compilation of humanistic traditions in the 1990s. It encompasses critiques of feudalism, social turmoil, the struggle for survival, and a compassionate exploration of human nature. Additionally, it establishes a solid cinematic groundwork for future investigations into the social context of this era. This story reveals a concealed crisis of survival within a seemingly peaceful social setting, bringing together protagonists with diverse personalities. This paper employs discourse analysis and audio-visual language analysis research methods to examine the impact of character truths on Chinese films from the 1990s. Using the film Farewell My Concubine as an example, the research reveals the personality truths through each persons unique and profound character truth.

The affective pedagogies of horse-human interventions: a more-than-human perspective on equine assisted learning with marginalised young people

ABSTRACT This article offers a more-than-human perspective on an equine assisted learning programme undertaken by marginalised young people attending a flexi-school in Australia. In contrast with therapist led equine programmes, our research examined horse assisted activities as a site of embodied learning. Paying attention to the affective dimension of horse-human relationality we explored how student and teacher narratives articulated learning in terms of affective pedagogies (being moved to learn differently). We discuss the theory-method tensions that arose through our shift from a mixed methods humanist design to a more-than-human analysis. Questioning the limitations of traditional humanist theories of attachment and individualised agency, we trace the agentic capacities afforded by the horse-human learning assemblage involving horses, volunteer coaches, young people, teachers, yards, grooming tools, etc. Our article contributes to explorations of more-than-human learning at the intersection of embodied movement, therapeutic interventions and informal education.

From the Ideal Human Perspective in Ludwig Feuerbach’s Philosophy to the Practical Human Perspective in Karl Marx’s Philosophy

Humans are a category that philosophers are always interested in research as they are the object and the subject of cognitive activity in social life. From a humanistic point of view, humans were mentioned in Renaissance philosophy as well as in the Enlightenment era as “Liberty – Equality - Fraternity”. Continuing that humanistic tradition, the ideal human perspective was analyzed more broadly and humanely by Ludwig Feuerbach based on the spirit on Enlightenment philosophy. Nevertheless, an humanistic view of humanity has not helped people liberate themselves to have a real life as Ludwig Feuerbach wanted. Humans – living and creative entities – want to liberate themselves and must participate in labor and struggle in practice life, which Karl Marx absorbed and developed in his research. Through Karl Marx’s theory of men, workers fight for a realistic happy life for themselves.

Intelligence and Philosophy

Intelligence and Philosophy

ECOHUMAN IN NEW MATERIALIST HUMANISM: “ENERGY AND CHANGE” BY CLAYTON CROCKETT

This commentary to Clayton Crockett’s Energy and Change: A New Materialist Cosmology details his use of systems concepts as it extends his energy framework to conceive of the ecohuman, a new concept that broadens anthropocentric and humanist traditions’ forms of thinking the human being. A review of Crockett’s book gives way to speculations about what the ecohuman is, and how it might be thought across discourses in posthumanism, new materialism, systems theory, and philosophy.

Transformative Visions of Qualitative Inquiry: Performative, Philosophical, and Artistic Transformations

I am writing this review, Transformative Visions for Qualitative Inquiry, considering performative, philosophical, and artistic transformations as an essential reading for faculty and students—novice and veteran. It inspires readers, writers, and novice and veteran researchers in various social sciences disciplines and educational landscapes to envision innovative approaches to healing from crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and/or earthquakes. These processes encourage resisting, recovering, connecting, finding joy, and embracing life. Likewise, Transformative Visions for Qualitative Inquiry centers on the concept of transformation and its potential for the future of qualitative research amidst a world grappling with the multifaceted implications of COVID-19, climate change, political unrest, inequality, and various forms of oppression. In these times of uncertainty, distinguished scholars from around the world are looking forward with a rejuvenated sense of optimism while staying rooted in the understanding that there is still much work to be done. So, I realized that research must give rise to the challenges of our hopeful yet ever-changing future. The contributors of Transformative Visions for Qualitative Inquiry ponder a variety of topics, including academic healing, environmental justice, the dominance of higher education and its challenges to critical education, arts-based research such as songwriting, participatory workshops, and auto poetics, disruptions to traditional humanist and Western thought, and explorations of empathy and life writing.

Buddhist Transformation in the Digital Age: AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Humanistic Buddhism

Humanistic Buddhism is one of the mainstreams of modern Buddhism, with special emphasis on the humanistic dimension. With the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Humanistic Buddhism is also at an important stage of modernization and transformation, thus facing a continuous negotiation between religious values and technological innovations. This paper first argues that AI is technically beneficial to the propagation of Buddhism by citing several cases in which AI technology has been used in Buddhism. Then, by comparing Master Hsing Yun’s Buddhist ethics to “Posthuman” ethics, it points out that the theories of Humanistic Buddhism share similarities with AI and Posthuman ethics. Among them, Master Hsing Yun’s theory of “the nature of insentient beings” provides an important theoretical reference for the question of “whether AI can become a Buddha”. From the technical and ethical dimensions, it points out that the interaction between Humanistic Buddhism and AI can promote original uses or implementations of AI technology. However, it should also be noted that compared to the cases of “Artificial Narrow Intelligence”discussed in the paper, the “Strong AI” could lead to much more ethical crises. It is also likely to cause the cult of science and technology, and thus subvert the humanistic tradition of Buddhism with a new instrumental rationality. In addition, there are some potential pitfalls that Humanistic Buddhism may encounter when using AI. Hence, while it is necessary to encourage the use of technologies such as AI in contemporary Buddhism, it is also important for Buddhism to keep a critical distance from digital technologies.

Roberto Marchesini. Etologia del desiderio. Riscoprive la propria animalità

This interview addressed to Professor Roberto Marchesini concerns one of his main spheres of reflection: the concept of desire. Contrary to the classical humanist tradition, in fact, Marchesini develops a conception of desire as internal redundancy, a vital force, that is in constellation with the concept of Spinoza’s conatus. In this meeting we explored what he expressed in his book Ethology of Desire. Rediscover your own animality.

The Reformatio – and Deformatio – of Ritual: German Catholic Preaching on Ceremonies between the Later Middle Ages, Luther, and Trent

ABSTRACT Ritual performances and discourses counted among the most vital and visible signs of German Catholic renewal in the wake of Trent (1563) and especially during the Baroque era, and were crucial to the formation of Catholic identity after earlier decades of uncertainty. But Catholic preachers seized upon the centrality of ceremonies much earlier than scholars have understood, as is well attested by the lectionary sermons (postils) they published en masse after 1530. In these sermons they remained in dialogue with late medieval and humanist traditions, constantly criticized contemporary Catholic abuses, and sought to refute the charges of their Protestant opponents. When addressing ceremonies, Catholic divines preached in terms that encompassed both “Catholic Reform” and “Counter-Reformation,” and had worked out much of what we consider post-Tridentine ritual theory much earlier than we have thought. Prominent sermon authors included Johannes Eck, Friedrich Nausea, Johann Wild, Georg Witzel, Michael Helding, and Johannes Hoffmeister.

Reading Resistance in Damon Galgut’s The Promise: An Analysis of Narrative Perspective

ABSTRACT This paper concentrates on the self-reflexive and multi-voiced narration in Damon Galgut’s The Promise. Adopting Elleke Boehmer’s analysis of postcolonial poetics and Derek Attridge’s notion of resistance, the discussion shows how Galgut’s novel both invites and resists modes of reading associated with the third-person narrative, specifically the principles of detachment and narratorial omniscience. The first part of this article investigates the narrator’s complex interaction with the protagonists and the narratees. One feature of narration in The Promise is that it shows the narrator as belonging to the same racial group as the protagonists, at the same time seeking to transcend the limitations of their viewpoint. The fact that the protagonists’ racially inflected perception of the world is projected onto the narratees impacts the readers’ reception of the narrative text, denying them a stable subject position from which to judge the thoughts and actions of the protagonists. The second part of the article is devoted to the treatment of narratorial omniscience, which is consciously and self-reflexively limited by Galgut’s decision to focus on the perspective of white South Africans. It is shown that the narrator’s limitations direct our attention to the boundary between the said and the unsaid, thus resisting modes of reading connected with the realist novel. The conclusion of the article considers The Promise in the wider context of the liberal humanist tradition, arguing that the novel can be situated in the broad tradition of reconstructed liberalism, though it should be kept in mind that Galgut’s treatment of this stance is characterized chiefly by cautiousness and political realism.

How Isabella Whitney read “Her” Christine de Pizan

ABSTRACT This essay provides the first evidence that Isabella Whitney read and imitated Christine de Pizan’s Epistre au Dieu d’Amours through Thomas Hoccleve’s 1402 translation in his Letter of Cupid, first published in Chaucer’s Works in 1532. The Copy of a Letter is the first example in print of an Englishwoman writer engaging with the work of this foundational early feminist author. Although Whitney may not have known she was reading Christine, she is especially attuned to the radical implications of this work. Whitney takes from The Letter of Cupid an ethos of female authorship, in which learned women act as cultural arbiters, and a template for how a woman author could engage in a humanist debate about the purpose of vernacular literature. One of the key differences from Christine’s work is that Whitney is addressing new constituencies for secular vernacular literature and a new class of readers, made up of both women and men, who were outside the court and traditional humanist centres of learning. Whitney’s imitation of Christine de Pizan in The Copy of a Letter adds to our understanding of the scope of her reading and her centrality to humanist culture, in all its diversity, in the mid-Tudor period.

The Passionate Dispassion of the Vienna Circle

This article represents the author’s reflections on the book by Karl Sigmund “Exact Thinking in Demented Times. The Vienna Circle and the Epic Quest for the Foundations of Science” and the fate of the Vienna Circle. Sigmund paints a vivid portrait of the Vienna Circle against the background of the difficult historical period in which its members lived and worked. The Vienna Circle established the tradition of liberating consciousness and science from metaphysics. But the participants of the Vienna Circle and their entourage did not manage to get rid of the humanistic issues, despite the declaration of strict scientific character. The author of the article draws attention to the internal contradiction between strict scientific topics and the existential-humanistic perception of this topic by the Vienna Circle’s authors and their likeminded people, and by Sigmund himself. The author concludes that it was thanks to this contradiction the Vienna Circle became not only a stage in the development of philosophical science, but also had a broad cultural influence on art, politics, architecture, museums, etc. The historical and philosophical tradition connects the activities of the Vienna Circle with the beginning of the divergence between the philosophical scientific and humanistic traditions in the understanding of philosophy, and the controversy between R. Carnap and M. Heidegger is an important point in this process. But Sigmund’s book gives the impression that this is not the divergence strictly scientific and humanistic traditions, but the difference between two humanistic traditions, one of them tends to express its thoughts strictly analytically.

СУБЪЕКТНО-БЫТИЙНЫЙ ПОДХОД В ИССЛЕДОВАНИИ ЛИЧНОСТИ: МЕТОДОЛОГИЯ И ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ РАЗВИТИЯ

The paper presents an analysis of the historical development of the subjective-existential approach to personality at Kuban State University. This review examines the most influential psychological concepts and theories that shaped the emergence and evolution of the subjective-existential approach within the broader field of subjective approach, over more than the past 50 years. It specifically focuses on the contribution of the Department of Personality Psychology and General Psychology at Kuban State University. It highlights the significant contributions of Soviet scholars, including B. G. Ananyev, S. L. Rubinstein, A. N. Leontiev, A. V. Brushlinsky, L. I. Antsyferova, and K. A. Abulkhanova, and of those who today determine the design of the subjective approach (V. V. Znakov, E. A. Sergienko, N. E. Kharlamenkova). The subjective approach has exerted a powerful influence upon the development of contemporary methodological discourse, particularly in the creation of a structural-dynamic model of personality as a subject of being/existence. The paper outlines the main theoretical and methodological provisions of the subjective-existential approach, which provides a panoramic vision of the studied reality and an interpretation of human psychological phenomenology from an axiological and existential perspective. The approach is based on the concepts of subjectivity, the unity of the individual and their being, and the individual's striving towards authenticity of being. It is proposed that the primary function of man is to be a subject of diverse existential domains, in which he asserts himself as a personality through the reorganization of these domains. The practical implementation of the subjective-existential approach to personality is exemplified by the investigations of researchers at Kuban State University. Their work concretizes and develops some ideas of the psychology of the subject and harmoniously integrates explanatory constructs and novel theoretical models within the humanistic traditions of psychological science. The potential of the subjective-existential approach to elucidate the procedural nature of diverse phenomenology is illustrated. The efficacy of this approach for addressing a number of fundamental problems in psychological science and acute social issues of our time, which are inextricably linked to global challenges of our time - bifurcation processes and social transitivity - is substantiated.

Необарочное концертирование в произведениях российских композиторов последней четверти XX века

The relevance of the stated topic is determined by the significance of neo-Baroque trends in the 20th century as a means of support for the high humanistic traditions that shaped classical musical art. In the research methodology, the authors rely on the general theoretical principles concerning the baroque concertos developed in the Russian musicological tradition (Yuri Kholopov, Natalia Zeifas, Svetlana Bakuto, Svetlana Goncharenko, etc.), as well as on the typology of compositional models in the contemporary concerto genre proposed by Irina Grebneva. A comparative method, applied to such historically distant phenomena as the baroque and neo-baroque styles, as well as to individual composers’ interpretations of the baroque form-generation is used. The article examines for the first time the group of concerti grossi composed during this period, and carries out a comparative analysis of them on the level of an integral organization, interpretation of the orchestra and the concerto form. The archetypal and kenotypic compositional models of Sofia Gubaidulina, Alfred Schnittke, Rodion Shchedrin and other composers who have provided innovations to similar 18th century stylistic models are systematized. By disclosing the general and the particular aspects in the interpretation of the principles of concerto performance, their interaction with the features of theatricality and meditative-vs.-conflicting symphonic dramaturgy, the author demonstrates that the concerti grossi composed during the time period between the 1970s and the 1990s reflect the multipolarity of the neo-baroque perspective of the modern world.

Развитие гуманистической направленности современной системы образования России: условия реализации

The education system includes the main social institutions that perform the functions of upbringing and education. A common characteristic of any education system is the orientation towards the transfer of knowledge and the formation of skills in order to develop students. At the same time, each stage of social development corresponds to an education system that meets the requirements for the results and goals of education in a particular society. Historically, the evolution of educational systems is interconnected with the transformation of the socio-political structure. The need for a serious reform of the Russian educational system arose under the infl uence of two interrelated factors: the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991 and its education system, and the rejection of the existing ideology of educating the younger generation. The protracted reform of the Russian education system is currently causing a lot of criticism from experts and the public, one of which is the deviation from humanistic traditions in teaching practice. The subject of analysis in the article is the conditions that ensure the implementation of the idea of developing the humanistic orientation of the modern education system in Russia. At the origins of the implementation of any idea is a person, innovations in educational practice are embodied by a teacher. Consequently, the backbone components capable of ensuring the embodiment of the idea of a humanistic orientation of the modern education system in Russia are the goals of education that are consonant with this orientation and the pedagogical staff that ensure their achievement. At the same time, the reforms of domestic education in the post-Soviet period led to the loss of the primacy of the educational component in the educational process. Currently, society and the state are making efforts to make up for this mistake. However, a signifi cant obstacle to solving this problem is often the unpreparedness of teachers to implement the educational functions of education based on the humane principles of pedagogy, the basis of which is to take into account the individual characteristics and personal needs of the pupil. The introduction of new forms and methods of working with students will not provide long-term results if it does not affect the foundations of the education system. The purpose of the article is to systematize and supplement information about the conditions that contribute to the development of the humanistic orientation of the modern education system in Russia. The author evaluates the evolution of two ideas: the humanization of education and the formation of a professional orientation in the system of teacher training. The humanistic orientation is substantiated by the author as part of a professional orientation. The origins, problems and approaches to the scientifi c analysis of the idea of the formation and development of the humanistic orientation of future teachers in the conditions of university education are analyzed. To obtain substantiated scientifi c results, the author analyses the normative documentation of the Russian education system, dissertation research, current periodicals and the educational environment of the university. The paper also indicates the reasons preventing the mass dissemination of humanistic ideas in modern Russian education. Thus, the author draws reasonable conclusions about the set of conditions necessary for the development of the humanistic orientation of the education system of modern Russia. Among the conditions mediated by the system of training of pedagogical personnel are: respectful relations of the subjects of the educational process; selection of the content of education; use of active forms and methods of training and education; participation of students in volunteer activities, including leader activities; creation of a special educational environment of the university. The general conclusion of the article is the emphasis on the dependence of the embodiment of the idea of developing the humanistic orientation of the Russian education system on the organizational and pedagogical conditions of the modern system of training teachers. The teaching staff in this historical period is a system-forming component of the Russian education system, on which the results of its transformation depend.

The Catechism through Andean Eyes: Reflections on Post-Tridentine Reform in Inca Garcilaso de la Vega’s Comentarios reales

The depiction of Andean religion in the Comentarios reales de los incas (1609, 1617) has centered on Garcilaso de la Vega’s providential interpretation of Inca pagan governance and the influence of the Christian humanist traditions that he mastered as an adult in Spain. However, scholars have not adequately recognized his attention to the ecclesiastical debates regarding the persistence of Inca cult beliefs and practices in the colonial Andean society of his day. This paper examines a new source for understanding the chronicler’s portrayal of Inca religion, the catechisms and canon decrees of South America’s definitive post-Tridentine assembly, the Third Provincial Council of Lima (1582–1583), which established the Church’s official stance on the fundamental “idolatry” of Inca morality and ritual customs and the need for their extirpation. It will be argued that Garcilaso’s knowledge of natural and canon law provided the basis for his defense of the Incas’ religion and justice system and his criticisms of the anti-Inca tenor of the council’s directives on Andean custom and intercultural dialogue. The chronicler’s response to the council’s pronouncements on the ritual of penance, in particular, offers novel insights about the indigenous reception of the Church’s missionary regime within an orthodox and culturally-integrated vision for Andean Christianity.