Category: Humanism

Humanism is a philosophical stream that is based on a belief that the life of human beings and their development can be and should be improved through gaining empirical knowledge and learning. Basically, humanism is about exploring and moving forward. Humanists deny the fact that some established set of rules can remain unchanged through the generations of people. Humanism is a progressive movement that sees a human as a part of the universe around.

The affirmation I have selected for this work is the one that says: Humans are an integral part of nature, the result of unguided evolutionary change (Humanist Manifesto III, 2014).

The first suggestions that some of the animals could derive from other animals started to appear in ancient Greece. This idea has travelled though centuries without gaining any significant recognition, it finally started to attract attention in the eighteenth century and in the nineteenth century it became an officially accepted theory of the development of human beings as organisms. These days this theory has been supported by multiple archeological findings, yet the religious views remain unchanged. The church strictly denies the idea of unguided evolutionary development of any living beings, humans included.

The Renaissance started in the fourteenth century in Europe. That was the era of higher interest towards education and knowledge. The life and people started to be studied from the perspective of science, not from the religious point of view. Exploration and learning attracted more minds than the established norms of unchangeable religion.

The age of the Renaissance started the chain reaction that lasted for centuries. Humanist views on the world and knowledge started to affect all spheres of human life and social ideas. The growing influence became so strong that it started to impact the church in Western Europe. This led to the Age of Reformation. The doubt of traditional thought started by the philosophers and scientists of the Renaissance resulted in multiple questions of religious traditions of Christianity and Roman Catholic Church.

The practice of selling indulgences was one of the religious norms of that time that had to be cancelled. The strength of progressive humanist thought has proved that even conservative and old-fashioned norms of medieval Christianity could be reformed.

The age of Enlightenment was the era of massive metamorphoses in the field of educational theory. This was the period when the meaning and power of critical thinking started to be appreciated. Humanist views on cognition started to be used widely. This age began in the eighteenth century and became the age of application of reason. The society started to believe that by application of critical thinking they could significantly improve their lives and themselves. Finally, this was the time when theory of evolution gained its popularity and power, and the humans started to be officially named as a part of nature and studied inherently within the natural processes, happenings and physical reactions.

Humanism gave a serious and necessary push to the science and education and drove the process of empirical cognition that shaped the modern education and the development of science in present days; it served the basis for forming progressive and revolutionary views, independent from the religious doctrine. These days, just like centuries ago, the truths of the Script and the affirmations of humanists disagree with each other and exist as two completely separate sets of beliefs stating mainly absolutely different opinions and perspectives.

Reference List

Humanist Manifesto III. (2014). ProQuest. Web.

The question of whether life has any sense has always been one of the most disputable issues in philosophy and ethics. Using various perspectives and frameworks, individuals have tried to determine whether their lives have any meaning. However, it is impossible to find a universal answer as it remains relative and subjective.

Secular humanism is one of the philosophies that can help to answer the question. It rejects religious dogma and introduces the idea that human life and the right to be happy are the major values. From this perspective, the meaning of life is life itself and the ability to enjoy numerous benefits available to a person.

The religious perspective introduces another view on the meaning of life. Following this framework, life is a miracle created by God, meaning that it has sense only if a person serves him and follows religious dogmas. The major weakness of the given model is that it limits a person within the frames of religion and deprives atheists of the right to happiness.

Finally, from the pessimistic perspective, life can be viewed as suffering because every human being will die in the end. For this reason, life does not have any meaning as all actions of an individual will not alter its end and, as a result, will not make a person happier. It can be viewed as a weak philosophy as it promotes helplessness.

Altogether, secular humanism gives the most plausible answer to the meaning of life question. It considers some relativist ideas, such as peoples ability to judge what is right or wrong (Lawhead 425). At the same time, it shows that life is priceless, and to make it meaningful, a person must be happy. This answer will motivate people to move forward and enjoy every moment.

Work Cited

Lawhead, William. The Philosophical Journey: An Interactive Approach. 7th ed., McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2018.

Introduction

Unlike most of the 20^th century plays, Our Town is an example of artistic works that violated the traditions of theater, primarily due to its simplicity in terms of themes and plot as well as the absence of complex characters. In particular, the plays setting is short, with no aspects of suspense, anticipations, or expectations (Lumley 333). Nevertheless, an outstanding aspect of the play is humanism, an approach that has made the piece retain its popularity for decades after publication.

Humanism

Derived from the Italian art, poetry, science, and literal movement that attempted to deviate from the traditions of religion and atheism, humanism is a system of thought that centers on humans, their values, worth, and capacities by rejecting the traditional religious beliefs (Lumley 333). It is concerned with human needs, welfare, and interest rather than supernatural aspects of human and natural life.

Humanism in Our Town

In his play Our Town, the renowned 20^th-century American poet Thornton Wilder develops of humanism based on his ideas of the inherent beauty and goodness of existence and mans inability to recognize or appreciate them (Lumley 334). To develop humanism in this play, Wilder structures act to reflect the stages of a persons life. In this play, Act I, Act II, and Act III describe the human aspects of birth and daily life, love/marriage, and death respectively.

Although Wilder introduces the religious aspects in Grovers Corner (such as the presence of catholic and protestant churches), it is worth noting that the section pays more attention to human values than their religious life. The beauty of life is a humanistic theme reflected through the presence of gardens with beautiful flowers, such as those in the homesteads of the wives of Gibbs and Grover (Wilder 122).

Birth is also cited in the play, where it is portrayed as a humanistic aspect in the first Act. According to the Stage Manager, Dr. Gibbs is involved in providing nursing services to the population, which contributes to the continuation of the generation at Grovers Corner. Rather than invoking the idea of creation, Wilder seems to describe the role of birth to the continuation of generations and the role that physicians play in conserving human values. In addition, the daily activities of the people in the small town are highlighted, with every person seemingly happy with his or her activities (Lumley 333). For example, Joe Junior, seen in the Crowell House, is happy to get up and deliver morning newspapers while Shorty Hawkins seems happy in his work at the railway station (Wilder 91).

Moreover, Wilder introduces some human activities that undermine humanism or human values. For example, the stage manager says all that education for nothing when referring to Joe, a young man who graduated at the top of his class, but died in the First World War before he could make good use of his education (Wilder 128).

In Act II, Wilder emphasizes the issues of love and marriage, reflecting their importance to human life, relations, and values. For example, the first scene in the Act begins when George, the son of Gibbs, marries Emily Webb. In a flashback, the stage manager introduces the audience to George and Emilys love affair. He describes how the two individuals fell in love with each other before settling in marriage. In this case, Wilder wanted to show the importance of love and marriage. It is a humanistic aspect that shows that every person must pass through this particular stage.

In the last Act Wilder discusses the crucial stage of death and its position in society. Although people are not aware, Emily, the new person among the dead, converses with the other dead soul in the graves. The author wanted to show that death is a compulsory stage through which everybody must pass. It destroys human nature, yet it is a passage to another stage. The dead are able to reflect on their past life, which is not common in religious beliefs.

Works Cited

Lumley, Frederick. New Trends in 20th Century Drama: A Survey since Ibsen and Shaw. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Print.

Wilder, Thornton. Our Town: A Play in Three Acts. New York: Coward McCann, 2008. Print.

As a leader living during the Renaissance, I am focused on the qualities of humanism, individualism and secularism based on Machiavelli’s book. The Prince, written by Niccolò Machiavelli, is a guide for successful monarchial rule. From its origins in 14th-century Florence, the Renaissance spread across Europe adapted to local cultural thinking and conditions.

The Renaissance value of humanism greatly influences The Prince because Machiavelli, a humanist himself, targets human nature in portraying the ideal monarchy. Humanists of the Renaissance were promoters of human potential. The Prince is a handbook on political science describing how to run a state and do it successfully? What is so notable is that this is the first purely secular approach to political action. Before this, the political stage worked between feudal monarchs/servants who were from Church-related institutes. Any past essay was political idealism. The Prince is political realism and describes what is happening in actuality. Throughout The Prince, Machiavelli examines the dynamics of humanity. He understands that while a good ruler should possess some admirable qualities, it is impossible for any human being to be entirely good. Therefore, Machiavelli introduces the concept that characteristics like cruelty and dishonesty are necessary to effectively hold power over a state.

Based on The Prince, I would rather be a feared ruler than a loved one. Love is fickle whereas fear is forever. To be the successful leader, I learnt from Machiavelli, “The ends justify the means.” Machiavelli is not saying to be immoral. He doesn’t ask questions about good/bad. He is just realistic and writes what the leader must do to be successful. He leaves morality out of it. His point is that you, as the prince, must know your job, do it well, and leave your mark on society in the position in life you have chosen to embrace. As Machiavelli’s prince, I am focused on political security, how to be successful as a leader. Unlike a leader during the Middle Ages, I, a prince living during the Renaissance, will not go on crusades which will leave my state floundering with no leader. Unlike other humanists of his time, Machiavelli was perhaps the first to creatively explore relatively unethical methods of rule while roaming within the intellectual bounds of humanism. The Prince is considered to be a great work from the Renaissance period: Machiavelli attempts to summarize human nature from an accurate and realistic standpoint.

Humanism places human beings, not God or faith, as the center of attention in life. Living during the Renaissance, I commissioned a painter, based on Renaissance ideals, to draw my portrait. This is radically different than medieval artwork which was purchased exclusively by or for the church. Italian Renaissance reveres the body and portrayed the human body as a thing of beauty in its own right. Similarly, during my lifetime, Raphael painted The School of Athens in accordance to the themes of Renaissance artwork. Raphael depicted a celebration of the scholars of ancient times. It shows the point of the renaissance campaign which is a revival of these glorious times. The School of Athens demonstrates how humanism had so captured the intellectual human life. Raphael painted faces of known Renaissance Men to be the ancient philosophers. Through this, Raphael is subtly saying the artists are the jewels of society now as opposed to the ancient philosophers.

Along those lines, Renaissance philosophers saw humans as intelligent creatures capable of reason (and questioning authority) rather than mindless pawns helplessly manipulated by God. Even the term for Renaissance philosophers, ‘humanists’, shows how the focus of peoples’ attention had shifted from Heaven and God to this world and human beings. It also described the group of scholars who drew upon the more secular Greek and Roman civilizations for inspiration.

Humanists redefined what it means to be educated. And not only that, but also what to do with that education. Civic humanism emerges during the Renaissance. Civic humanism is putting your efforts and talents into the service of the state so your mark should be felt in a broad sense. Participation in public affairs is essential and as a prince, I am doing my civic duty to the state. It is an era to use my education to have a vita activa. This is in contrast to the medieval scholar who lived and expounded a vita conteplativa. The civic humanists don’t like the monks living a vita conteplativa because they aren’t utilizing the knowledge in a curriculum that engages the individual. Civic humanists were all about using the individual prowess for a purpose. Trying to achieve virtue in the traits that are necessary to achieve great things – more than moral excellence – maximize your potential so that you impact society.

During the 13 hundreds till the 16 hundreds, there was a period of time in which humans suffer a drastic change in the way of thinking they had; this period of time is called the “Renaissance”. They started to think that humans were the center of all replacing God; and the intellectual movements that focused on human potential and achievements. This way of thinking is called the humanism. The main cause of why humanism began was because the dark plague forced the people that lived in the rural cities to move into urban cities because the dark plague came from the rural cities. This change helped the merchants to rise and from those merchants, that at those times they had a wealthy life, emerged the idea of living with luxuries without offending God. Humanism brought a lot of consequences to humans in those days. One of the main aspects that changed by humanism, was education, it changed in many ways, how important education was? New changes in education, etc all this will be explained later. In our daily lives were still having a little bit of humanism; and here it comes the million dollars question: How does humanism influence education?

Humanism influenced education in some way that made education introduce new subjects. For example, the Basic Latin Grammar was practiced in the home, boys were taught at home. The vernacular was not taught as a language at all. The Latin Grammar was taught because Latin was the alternate first language. The boy put in practice the latin interacting with others, this was very important because now we can answer ourselfs, how humanism influence education? one main aspect is the different and new subjects that were introduced that made everything easy in society. So we continue, after the boy had put in practice latin, he was able to read Caesar and more difficult texts so they began to read more difficult and poetic texts Aeneid, orations of Cicero, etc. After this, the boy was ready to think a little bit more deeply about some ideas present in these books texts. There also were introduced mathematics, science with a very important man called Nicolaus Copernicus. But why we only talk about latin? because latin is the base for everything, was the language all may knew.

Humanists during the Renaissance believed that humans beings could be changed by education. In education, for example, it was a big difference between education for boys, and education for girls, boys have more opportunities and receive much more education than girls. Boys who planned to go to a university studied classical education based on Latin, but there was also education through apprenticeships for boys who planned to perform a trade. Nevertheless, education taught more things. What humanists taught in the schools were “Humanities” grammar, history, poetry, etc. Humanists believed that the human body needs to be glorified, and the purpose of humanism was to create a universal man, a man combined with physical and intellectual excellence. Education mainly was based on literature and poetry.

Schools in Renaissance took an important role in education, the basics of the schools were to create students who were well-balanced, knew all the values of their society and to focus on the new way of thinking (humanism). One of the most important schools in the Renaissance was the one created by Vittorino da Feltre in 1423. The foundation of the school was mainly to teach liberal studies which allowed humans to achieve their goals and reach their full potential. Liberal studies included philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, etc. Here comes again this the real meaning of humanism “The human potential and achievements” this school based on this, giving freedom and more opportunities to humans. People who attended the schools were the children from upper-class families and females were not usually allowed to attend but were encouraged to know history, learn dance, etc. Despite, there were also different kinds of schools during the Renaissance. The Flemish Schools were not located in the Italian city-states, they were located in the “lower countries” such as the Netherlands and Belgium; this school focuses on music. There they studied all related to music and the elaboration of complex music, there they use some techniques like the imitative counterpoint, learned the harmony, what was dissonant, what was a consonant, etc. But if we talk of a humanism school or humanism teachings the first school that pops to our mind would be the school from Vittorino Da Feltre since they focused on the humans’ beings.

Now that we know what humanism is, we can affirm that the most impact humanism had in was in education. This is because when humanism started it changed the mind of people and started focusing man as the center of all, so this has a lot of repercution in education because more children started to receive education compared to the middle ages. So, with the inclusion of humanism in education, the students went out of school with another point of view of how they see the world. Also, education helped humanism to develop and spread and without the implementation of humanism in education the effect humanism had in the world wouldn’t be the same because the new generations wouldn’t have it in the mind.

In conclusion, education is the base of all. If children are well educated, they will be good adults that are not ignorant. Furthermore, education is also important because without it there will be no other careers; so, this is really relevant because the different careers make a civilization to develop. Now, we know that education is essential; so, humanism in education was the base for the new generations to took the path humanity will have in the next years. So, without humanism education, new generations would easily forget the essence of humanism, which has the human as the center of all, and this will cause that the humanism would not have the range of spread it had. In the final conclusion, the inclusion of humanism was essential not only for helping the humanism to spread but to continue with the humanist legacy.

Background of humanism

Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence (rationalism and empiricism) over acceptance of dogma or superstition. The meaning of the term humanism has fluctuated according to the successive intellectual movements which have identified with it. The term was coined by theologian Friedrich Niethammer at the beginning of the 19th century to refer to a system of education based on the study of classical literature (‘classical humanism’). Generally, however, humanism refers to a perspective that affirms some notion of human freedom and progress. It views humans as solely responsible for the promotion and development of individuals and emphasizes a concern for man in relation to the world. In modern times, humanist movements are typically non-religious movements aligned with secularism, and today humanism typically refers to a nontheistic life stance centered on human agency and looking to science rather than revelation from a supernatural source to understand the world. The word ‘humanism’ is ultimately derived from the Latin concept humanitas. It entered English in the nineteenth century. However, historians agree that the concept predates the label invented to describe it, encompassing the various meanings ascribed to humanitas, which included both benevolence toward one’s fellow humans and the values imparted by bonae litterae or humane learning (literally ‘good letters’).

Those who have spoken Latin and have used the language correctly do not give to the word humanities the meaning which it is commonly thought to have, namely, what the Greeks call φιλανθρωπία (philanthropy), signifying a kind of friendly spirit and good-feeling towards all men without distinction; but they gave to humanitas the force of the Greek παιδεία (paideia); that is, what we call eruditionem institutionemque in bonas artes, or ‘education and training in the liberal arts’. Those who earnestly desire and seek after these are most highly humanized. For the desire to pursue of that kind of knowledge, and the training given by it, has been granted to humanity alone of all the animals, and for that reason it is termed humanitas, or ‘humanity’.

History of Humanism

In 1808 Bavarian instructive magistrate Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer instituted the term Humanismus to portray the new established educational programs he wanted to offer in German auxiliary schools, and by 1836 ‘humanism’ had been retained into the English language in this sense. The coinage increased all inclusive acknowledgment in 1856, when German student of history and philologist Georg Voigt utilized humanism to depict Renaissance humanism, the development that thrived in the Italian Renaissance to restore established learning, an utilization which won wide acknowledgment among antiquarians in numerous countries, particularly Italy.

However, in the mid-eighteenth century, amid the French Enlightenment, a progressively ideological utilization of the term had come into utilization. In 1765, the writer of an unknown article in a French Enlightenment periodical discussed ‘The general love of humankind … an excellence up to this point very anonymous among us, and which we will dare to call ‘humanism’, for the time has come to make a word for such an excellent and vital thing’.The last piece of the eighteenth and the mid nineteenth hundreds of years saw the making of various grass-roots ‘humanitarian’ and kind social orders devoted to human advancement and the spreading of information (some Christian, some not). After the French Revolution, the possibility that human excellence could be made by human reason alone autonomously from conventional religious organizations, credited by rivals of the Revolution to Enlightenment philosophes, for example, Rousseau, was fiercely assaulted by persuasive religious and political preservationists, for example, Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre, as a worship or excessive admiration of humanity. Humanism started to gain a negative sense. The Oxford English Dictionary records the utilization of ‘humanism’ by an English minister in 1812 to demonstrate the individuals who have faith in the ‘minor humankind’ (rather than the heavenly nature) of Christ, i.e., Unitarians and Deists.[19] In this spellbound air, in which set up ministerial bodies would in general circle the wagons and reflexively contradict political and social changes like broadening the establishment, widespread tutoring, and so forth, liberal reformers and radicals grasped the possibility of Humanism as an elective religion of mankind.

The revolutionary Proudhon (best known for announcing that ‘property is burglary’) utilized ‘humanism’ to depict a ‘culte, déification de l’humanité’ (‘revere, exaltation of humankind’) and Ernest Renan in L’avenir de la science: pensées de 1848 (‘The Future of Knowledge: Thoughts on 1848’) (1848– 49), states: ‘It is my profound conviction that unadulterated humanism will be the religion of things to come, that is, the clique of all that relates to mankind—all of life, blessed and raised to the dimension of an ethical value.’ At about a similar time, ‘humanism’ as a rationality focused on mankind (rather than standardized religion) was likewise being utilized in Germany by the Left Hegelians, Arnold Ruge, and Karl Marx, who were condemning of the nearby inclusion of the congregation in the German government. There has been a relentless perplexity between the few employments of the terms altruistic humanists look to what they consider their precursors in basic reasoning and human-focused rationality among the Greek logicians and the extraordinary figures of Renaissance history; and academic humanists stress the semantic and social orders expected to comprehend and translate these thinkers and craftsmen.

Types of humanism

‘Renaissance humanism’ is the name later given to a custom of social and instructive change occupied with by metro and religious chancellors, book authorities, instructors, and essayists, who by the late fifteenth century started to be alluded to as ‘humanists’ .It created amid the fourteenth and the start of the fifteenth hundreds of years, and was a reaction to the test of academic college training, which was then ruled by Aristotelian reasoning and rationale. Scholasticism concentrated on getting ready men to be specialists, legal counselors or expert scholars, and was instructed from affirmed course readings in rationale, normal logic, prescription, law and theology. There were critical focuses of humanism at Florence, Naples, Rome, Venice, Mantua, Ferrara, and Urbino. Humanists responded against this utilitarian methodology and the limited exactness related with it. They tried to make a citizenry (often including ladies) ready to talk and compose with expert articulation and clearness and in this way fit for drawing in the city life of their networks and influencing others to righteous and reasonable activities. This was to be practiced through the investigation of the studia humanitatis, today known as the humanities: language structure, talk, history, verse and good philosophy.

While according to a “Religious humanists’ are non-superstitious humans who nevertheless see ethical humanism as their religion, and who seek to integrate (secular) humanist moral philosophy with congregational rituals centered on human needs, interests, and abilities. Though practitioners of religious humanism did now not formally organize below the title of ‘humanism’ till the late 19th and early twentieth centuries, non-theistic religions paired with human-centered moral philosophy have a long history. A unified Ethical Culture motion used to be first based in 1876; its founder, Felix Adler used to be a former member of the Free Religious Association, and conceived of Ethical Culture as a new faith that would retain the moral message at the coronary heart of all religions. Ethical Culture used to be spiritual in the experience of playing a defining function in people’s lives and addressing troubles of ultimate concern. Nowadays religious humanists in the United States are represented by companies such as the American Ethical Union, and will genuinely describe themselves as ‘ethical humanists’ or ‘humanists’. Secular humanists and religious humanists organize together as section of large countrywide and worldwide groupings, and differentiate themselves primarily in their attitude to the merchandising of humanist thinking.

Early attempts at inventing a secular religious way of life knowledgeable the Ethical Culture movement. The Cult of Reason (French: Culte de la Raison) was once a faith based on deism devised throughout the French Revolution with the aid of Jacques Hébert, Pierre Gaspard Chaumette and their supporters.[70] In 1793 during the French Revolution, the cathedral Notre Dame de Paris used to be grew to become into a ‘Temple of Reason’ and for a time Lady Liberty replaced the Virgin Mary on quite a few altars.[71] In the 1850s, Auguste Comte, the Father of Sociology, established Positivism, a ‘religion of humanity’.[72] One of the earliest forerunners of present day chartered humanist organizations used to be the Humanistic Religious Association fashioned in 1853 in London. This early group was once democratically organized, with male and female contributors collaborating in the election of the management and promoted understanding of the sciences, philosophy, and the arts.

The big difference between so-called ‘ethical’ humanists and ‘secular’ humanists is most pronounced in the United States, although it is turning into less so over time. The philosophical big difference is not mirrored at all in Canada, Latin America, Africa, or Asia, or most of Europe. In the UK, where the humanist motion was once strongly influenced by Americans in the nineteenth century, the leading ‘ethical societies’ and ‘ethical churches’ evolved into secular humanist charities (e.g. the British Ethical Union grew to be the British Humanist Association and later Humanists UK). In Scandinavian countries, ‘Human-etik’ or ‘humanetikk’ (roughly synonymous with ethical humanism) is a famous strand inside humanism, originating from the works of Danish logician Harald Høffding. The Norwegian Humanist Association belongs to this tendency, recognized as Human-Etisk Forbund (literally ‘Human-Ethical League’). Over time, the emphasis on human-etisk has emerged as less pronounced, and today HEF promotes each ‘humanisme’ and ‘human-etisk’. In Sweden, the primary Swedish humanist group Humanisterna (‘Humanists’) began as a ‘human-ethical association’, like the Norwegian humanists, before adopting the more standard secular humanist model famous in most of Europe. Today the big difference in Europe is often superficial.

Conclusion

In conclusion, humanism are feelings of human beings who believe in a natural universe as understood via reason, people who wish to stay moral and meaningful lives except belief in the supernatural, and people who care for their fellow human beings. Humanists are floating Ethics Science knowledgeable by means of science, inspired by way of art, and motivated by compassion.

Introduction

This essay will explore how the humanistic perspective in psychology relates to Montessori education and how it can be applied in a Montessori classroom to enhance teaching and learning. The humanistic perspective was developed within the field of psychology in the 1940s onwards in critical response to the limitations posed by the reductionist and determinist dominant psychodynamic and behaviourist perspectives within psychology (Pavlovic, 2017; Jingna, 2012). Developed and expanded upon by theorists including Otto Rank, Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow, Rollo May and Maria Montessori amongst others humanism by contrast recognises that an individual has an inherent drive towards self-actualisation and focuses upon the whole person (Jones-Smith, 2011).

Notably Maria Montessori believed that it was critical to develop the whole person over the course of their lives. Her Montessori Method adopts a child centred educational approach which sees the young child as naturally eager for knowledge who is able to imitate learning when provided with a supportive and prepared learning environment (Montessori, 1966). This essay will explain how Montessori education and humanism are connected, will describe how a Montessori teacher could use humanism in teaching and learning within a Montessori context and will explore how humanism can influence education in a Montessori context. This paper will also reflect upon the author’s educational role as a Montessori teacher and provide examples of the application of humanism for the development of a classroom lesson plan in a Montessori classroom with specific reference to the theorists that underpin the examples given of teaching and learning.

In tackling the first element of this paper, this discourse will now explain how Montessori education and humanism are philosophically connected. The humanistic perspective was developed within the field of psychology in the 1940s onwards in critical response to the limitations posed by the dominant psychodynamic and behaviourist perspectives within psychology (Pavlovic, 2017; Jingna, 2012). Psychodynamic theory, developed by Sigmund Freud (1909; 1900) and expanded upon by Jung (1964), Adler (1927) and Erikson (1950) has its limitations in that it ignores thinking processes, places excessive emphasis on psychological factors without consideration of biological and genetic factors that can influence mental health, is overly deterministic and simplifies the human mind into the id, ego and superego making it overly reductionist (Pavlovic, 2017). The humanistic perspective criticises psychodynamic theory because it proposes that we have no conscious free will over our own behaviour which leaves very little space for the concept of personal agency or free will (Aloni, 2013). Likewise limitations of behaviourism as proposed by John Watson (1913) and expanded upon by others including Watson & Rayner (1920), Thorndike (1905), B.F. Skinner (1971; 1948), Hull (1943) and Chomsky (1959) is that it too is overly deterministic, suggesting a lack of free-will on the part of the individual while also being reductionist and ignoring our own thinking processes and biology.

Developed and expanded upon by theorists including Otto Rank, Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow and Rollo May humanism by contrast recognises that an individual has an inherent drive towards self-actualisation and focuses upon the whole person (Jones-Smith, 2011). This view is shared by Maria Montessori who believed too that children were naturally eager to learn and were able to imitate learning in a supportive and prepared learning environment (Montessori, 1966). Her philosophy values the human spirit and the holistic development of the child with due regard for their cognitive, physical, social and emotional domains (Montessori, 1966). Montessori believed in fostering a respect for the young child who is seen as a worthy person ‘occupied with the task of developing himself into a mature human adult’ (Montessori, 1966; p. 34). Nutkins et al (2013), Melhuish et al (2013) and Naughton & Williams (2009) maintain that Maria Montessori’s methods embraced the view of the child as independent, self-confident and naturally curious with a natural desire to learn and work towards self-actualisation. In her The Absorbent Mind Montessori noted that ‘no one can be free unless he is independent’ thus recognising the importance of autonomy towards helping a child towards self-actualisation (Montessori, 1995; p. 54). In this way we see a strong connection philosophically between humanism and Maria Montessori’s approach to teaching and learning.

This next section shall explore how a Montessori teacher could use humanism in teaching and learning within a Montessori context and how humanism can influence teaching and learning. This author argues that humanism can influence teaching and learning as it promotes the view that the learning process should work towards helping children to achieve self-actualisation, self-understanding and self-realisation (Berehova, 2017). Self-actualisation according to Abraham Maslow helps an individual grow towards fulfilment of their highest needs or as man’s aspirations to achieve his goals and fulfil his potential (Maslow, 1943). Self-realisation refers to knowing oneself (Berehova, 2017). Teachers could therefore adopt Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to assist children towards the process of self-actualisation which includes satisfying a child’s psychological needs including by providing warmth, water, food and rest and providing an environment which is full of movement (Pavlovic, 2017). In a Montessori classroom children are free to move around with the activities of Practical Life providing a fertile backdrop for the chance to enhance gross and fine motor movements (Pavlovic, 2017). The second element that Maslow claims is important on the path towards self-actualisation is the need for safety which the Montessori classroom can adopt by creating a classroom which is safe, accessible and organised so that a child is able to feel secure by knowing their world is in order (Maslow, 1943). The third need of ‘belonging’ could be easily adopted into a Montessori setting by ensuring a mutual respect for the Montessori environment where children are encouraged to develop friendships with their peers in lessons on Grace and Courtesy and encouraged to show kindness, compassion, understanding and empathy towards others (Pavlovic, 2017).

The fourth need identified by Maslow is the need for self-esteem which can be encouraged in a Montessori classroom by fostering success amongst children (Maslow, 1943). This is ideally suited to a Montessori classroom because it supports the adoption of material and lesson plans that promote self-correction that builds in control of error such that children can identify their own mistakes and correct it themselves (Hallam et al, 2016). Maria Montessori was a firm believer herself that correcting every error that a child makes in the classroom was not conductive to healthy learning and development and it could lead eventually to a child becoming depressed (O’Donnell, 2014). Self-Actualisation was the final and ultimate need that all individuals had which could only be achieved once the earlier needs had been obtained (Hallam et al, 2016). This could be supported in a Montessori classroom by promoting independence, autonomy and helping a child reach their full potential (Fromm, 2013). Fortunately, this humanistic element is already a key feature of the Montessori Method which utilises self-correcting material to help a child self-correct thus promoting autonomy, self-reflection and their own desire to learn and grow (Fromm, 2013). However humanism has the value of reinforcing the use of such materials and lessons in the Montessori classroom as a means of promoting a child’s self-actualisation.

Humanist Tim Kasser (2006) in his book ‘The High Price of Materialism’ reinforces Maslow’s own theory, highlighting that the psychological needs for greater human happiness lie in safety, security, competence, efficacy, self-esteem, connectedness and autonomy which is the freedom of being self-directed (in O’Donnell, 2014; p. 117). Montessori teachers then could draw upon humanism in teaching and learning by promoting all of these various elements in the early years setting so that children feel safe and secure and engage with materials and lessons which promote their competence, self-efficacy and self-esteem. Connectedness can be promoted by preparing an environment that supports natural peer-to-peer social interactions to enhance socio-emotional development (Pavlovic, 2017). Additionally autonomy and independence can be supported by providing materials that self-correct and support learning instead of focusing on just direct instruction.

Additionally lessons could encourage children to engage in project work, experiments and to play with material that promotes exploration and play. For instance moveable alphabets, a pink tower, sound cylinders and hands on tasks such as watering flowers are all autonomous activities which children could engage in that enhances learning and development, on the child’s own terms. Carl Rogers believed that to achieve self-actualisation people needed to be open to experiences, live in the moment, trust their feelings, employ creativity and have a fulfilled life where an individual is happy and satisfied with their life (Rogers, 1961; Rogers, 1959; Rogers, 1951). He argued too that children have the need for a positive regard from other people and to feel self-worth (Rogers, 1961; Rogers, 1959; Rogers, 1951). These can be adapted in the Montessori classroom by promoting respect for every child, listening to them, involving them in decisions and adopting an emergent curriculum which is responsive to children’s interests in order to create meaningful learning experiences. The endorsement and application of the sixteen quality standards of the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education in Ireland is also paramount to fostering self-worth amongst children in the delivery of a quality early years learning environment (CECDE, 2006). In this way we can see how Montessori teachers could use humanism in teaching and learning and how humanism can influence education in a Montessori context.

This paper will now reflect upon the author’s educational role as a Montessori teacher. The Montessori teacher is responsible for implementing the Montessori Method and the philosophy of Maria Montessori in her teaching pedagogy. The role of the teacher here is to be present by being physically, mentally and emotionally prepared to support the child in the classroom setting to enhance their learning and development (Montessori, 1966). The teacher in the Montessori classroom is an observer who is prepared to intervene less and less as the child develops and grows but who is able to create and provide a prepared classroom setting to enhance self-directed learning opportunities (Montessori, 1966). Their role then is to create stimulating, engaging, empowering, informative and interesting environments which are emergent and inspire children while also enhancing their autonomy and independence (Montessori, 1966). This paper argues that in doing so the humanist perspective in psychology supports this approach and adds further value in shaping the quality of the learning experience for children. The educators role as a Montessori teacher is to ensure that the principles which underlie Montessori schools are adopted in practice into their own setting including the promotion of self-education, individual instruction, the use of didactic materials, a specially prepared environment and adopting the role of a trained directress where the emphasis is on playing an enabling role which supports learning rather than teaching and who is always available to respond to the unique needs of each child while serving as a positive role model who can guide children towards independence, greater self-confidence and self-actualisation (Montessori International, 2019).

This paper will now provide examples of the application of humanism for the development of a classroom lesson with specific reference to the theorists that underpin the examples given of teaching and learning. This sample classroom lesson would be based upon the ‘practical life’ element which is a fundamental part of Montessori education where they provide children with opportunities to learn how to do living activities in a purposeful way (Montessori, 2013). The primary aim of Practical Life activities is to aid in the development of social skills and independence and indirectly they help to promote fine motor skills alongside enhancing concentration, a sense of responsibility, intellect and personal will (Montessori, 2013). This provides a perfect opportunity to adopt humanistic principles into the Montessori classroom. The lesson plan itself would be based upon an emergent curriculum, that of the interests expressed by the children themselves. Previously children had expressed an interest in flowers, herbs and plants outdoors and so an activity which involved looking after plants and flowers in the outdoors seemed an appropriate Applied Exercise within the Practical Life aspect of the Montessori curriculum. Humanism then is adopted early on in this lesson plan with the exercises in question centering on the interests of the child thus promoting the self-directed learning that is put forward by Carl Rogers in his work (Rogers, 1954).

The sample lesson would begin with circle time where children would be introduced to the activity with this time providing an opportunity to promote a child’s safety needs and a sense of belonging which have been identified as important factors in enhancing a child’s motivation towards self-actualisation (Maslow, 1954). Student-centred teaching and self-directed learning are core features of Carl Roger’s own psychological theory on education (Rogers, 1954). We can draw on it in the application of activities to promote looking after the plants, herbs and flowers that are in the garden attached to the Montessori school. Children will fill a watering cans from the outdoor tap and will water all the plants, flowers and herbs in the garden. This promotes their psychological needs including being able to move around in the outdoors and having the freedom to utilise materials which promote self-direction i.e. watering can is able to be filled with water and emptied. They will also spray weeds that have accumulated on the stones using a spray bottles and they will use hand tools to scoop up plant food and place it on the soil around the flowers and herbs to promote their growth. Children will also be provided with material including small pots, fresh soil, compost and bulbs. The bulbs will be laid out in such a way that there is a picture of what each flower looks like. Children will be encouraged to plant a bulb and will look after it in doors until it is big enough to be planted. This promotes self-direction such that children can draw upon their own knowledge to plant the bulb, feed and water it and take care of it which supports a humanistic approach, respecting the autonomy and independence of the child. Additionally to support a positive emotional relationship with the child it is important that the Montessori school teacher adopts genuineness and acceptance of the child (Rogers, 1961).

In conclusion it is quite evident that, based upon an analysis of humanism and Maria Montessori’s philosophy of early childhood learning and development, that they are highly compatible and congruent and are mutually reinforcing. This is because Maria Montessori herself was a humanist and so she designed her Montessori Method to reflect the classic principles of humanism; that of autonomy, free will and a desire for self-actualisation (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). The Montessori Method emphases active learning, autonomy and self-directed learning (Montessori, 1966). Humanists content that children have an innate potential and desire to learn and an ability to realise their own direction in life (Elkins, 2009). Humanists can also enhance the Montessori Method further including through the work of Carl Rogers amongst others who emphasise the importance of developing a climate which fosters positive regard from others and promotes feelings of self-worth in children (Rogers, 1961). In a society that is witnessing a rise in mental health issues impacting children and young people it is now more than ever that we need to promote self-worth in young children. In conclusion the humanist perspective quite clearly relates positively to Montessori education with this setting being an ideal environment to support and reinforce the values underpinning humanism.

There are three ideologies under religious which are reveal and preserve, reveal but interpolated and not reveal but based on human wisdom. However, there are many ideologies under non-religious. For example, scientism, rationalism, humanism, agnosticism, atheism, materialism and etc.

RELIGIOUS IDEOLOGIES

“Religion usually describes the belief in a superhuman controlling power involving God or gods; it entails a system of faith and worship” (Burrowes, 2016). The three ideologies under religious are:

1. Reveal and preserve
2. Reveal but interpolated
3. Not reveal but based on human wisdom

REVEAL AND PRESERVE IDEOLOGY

The only religion that reveal and preserve in this world is Islam. “Islam, major world religion promulgated by the Prophet Muhammad in Arabia in the 7th century CE. The Arabic term Islam, literally “surrender,” illuminates the fundamental religious idea of Islam—that the believer (called a Muslim, from the active particle of Islam) accepts surrender to the will of Allah (in Arabic, Allah: God)”. (Muhsin S. Mahdi Annemarie Schimmel Fazlur Rahman, 2019). Basically, the people who called as Muslim need to perform any good deeds in religion because of Allah so they believe that all the happen things caused of Allah will and He knows what we know not.

The characteristics of Islam are make Al-Quran and Sunnah as a priority in Muslim’s life. They used Al-Quran and Sunnah as a guidance in life to be a better Muslim for chasing dunya and hereafter. Next, the true Muslim will distinguish between truth and false. They enjoining good and forbidding wrong in life to avoid from God’s anger.

For example, people that are born in Islam, was adzan by their father. They learn about Islam from parents while growing up. They reveal with prayer, pillar of Islam and faith since a child. It means that when they are practicing in Islam since child, they will strengthen their believe in Allah and prophet.

REVEAL AND INTERPOLATED IDEOLOGY

The reveal and interpolated religious are Christian. “Christians are monotheistic, they believe there’s only one God, and he created the heavens and the earth. This divine Godhead consists of three parts: the father (God himself), the son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit” (Luther, 2017). Christianists believe that Jesus is a god’s son that born from Mary. They are ordered to follow bible and obey their Father. They need to know the right and wrong in Christian.

The characteristic of Christian is the cross that a symbol of Christianity. They believe that the cross can protect them from any harm. Thus, the use of cross is widely used such as they used it in the neck as an amulet and place it in church. Sunday known as the day that believer devoting themselves. Next, bible is the main source for Christian as a guidance to be good person. They believe that everything in the bible is right that comes from Jesus as known as God’s son.

For example, Eucharist or Holy Gathering is the dinner of bread and wine as a sign of unity between Christians and Jesus. The most powerful church leader is the roman bishop called the pope in the West and Patriach in Constantinople in the East. Among the holy festivals in Christianity are Christmas, Easter and Good Friday. Christians are in encouraged to gather in the Church to worship and live of life according to God’s moral rules.

TAOISM

Taoism is the religion from China. The founder named of Taoism is Lao Tzu. Huston Smith in his article said that Tao “means path, or way. There are three senses, however, in which this “way” can be understood” There are three types of ways to knowing ‘Tao’ which are believes that Tao is the way of ultimate reality. Second is the way of the universe. While third is the way of human life. Taoism started when Lao Tzu makes Tao popular. Then, Zhang Daoling makes Tao became the official religion. Most of the believers is Chinese (Tioang Hua).

Taoism symbol is Ying-Yang. The ‘Ying’ means feminine while ‘Yang’ is masculine. They believe that in this world there is dualism such as day and night, man and women, left and right and so on. That’s why, it can be seen that Ying-Yang symbol have a same size of white and black. The center line on the Ying-Yang symbol means that, nature can change. In the Ying-Yang symbol there are two small points which are the black dot in white and the white dot in black. It’s means that in this world there are no things that perfect. For example, if you become success it will lead to arrogance while if you’re falling down it will lead to being humble. Hence, all the things that have done to us have their own positive and negative.

Tao Te Ching is a book for followers of Taoism. It has 81 poems and consists of 25 pages. The book was written by Lao Zi in the 6th century. One of the contents in the book is teaching about Wu Wei. Wu Wei is a teaching about maintaining life. Other than that, Chuang-Zhu book, that tells of stories and entertainment in philosophy. In addition, Chinese people worship idols as their gods. They have 60 gods which are Thay Shang Lao Jun, Er Lang Shen and others.

Taoism can be seen in ‘Kung Fu Panda’ movie which is there is a scene that one- character quote about Taoism philosophy which is “This is where Oogway unravelled the mysteries of harmony and focus”. This is a reference to Taoism since Taoist philosophy teaches about harmony and balance in life. Besides that, Taoism also influenced the Chinese painting. For example, ‘Shan Shui’ means ‘mountain-water’ is a style of Chinese traditional painting and has a reference to Taoist motifs.

NON- RELIGIOUS IDEOLOGIES

Non-religious ideologies do not believe any Gods and free from any rules and teachings. There are many ideologies under non-religious such as scientism, rationalism, humanism, agnosticism, atheism, materialism and etc.

LIBERALISM

“Liberalism is an ideology based on beliefs of economic and personal freedom, and the fact that social inequalities are a part of nature.” (Svengali, 2004). From the article Liberalism from the context of building foundation of Malaysia “The concept of liberalism is actually having broader context and can be divided into the basics such as social-liberalism, economic-liberalism and political liberalism.” Social liberalism can be seen in manner and cooperation between two countries. It means that, they want people to not fight or against with other, otherwise from the wrong action it will lead to the war and destruction of a country. The economic-liberalism can be seen in a trade with foreign countries. From this cooperation the dependence from each other can be created and the national market can be expanded. Next, the political-liberalism is they fight for personal rights without measuring their social status.

Among the characteristics of liberalism are firstly, individual freedom is priority, which means that society can do all things as long as it does not violate the rules and government does not have the right to interfere with the individual affairs. Secondly, the equality of individual right, every citizen should be given the same rights without need to measure their race. Thirdly, the country is just a symbol where leaders can do as they please. Forth, individual rights are recognized by the state as the country cannot be developing without citizen. Therefore, without respecting the individual a country will not be balanced. Fifth, the system of government is liberal democracy, which means the government cannot make decisions that violate individual rights. Lastly, the role of the state is limited because the government cannot interfere with economic affairs.

The examples that can relate to liberalism are the countries that use liberalism as their main ideology which are United Stated, Australia and German. Other than that, it can be seen in gender equality and women’s empowerment which fought by United Nation (UN) and NGO bodies. In Malaysia the liberal party is Liberal Democratic Party Sabah, the majority of members is Chinese. This ideology also can be seen in western music as examples from the song ‘we can’t stop’ which is in the lyric states “it’s our party, we can do what we want” the singer talking about freedom among individual.

SCIENTISM

“Scientism is the belief that sciences have no boundaries and will, in the end, be able to explain everything in the universe. Scientism can, like religious literalism become its own ideology” (Todd, 2007). The Encyclopedia of Science, Technology and Ethnics defines scientism as “an exaggerated trust in the efficacy of natural science to be applied to all areas of investigation. (as in philosophy, the social sciences and the humanities)”.

It means that scientism does not believe on anything that can’t be proven true through the investigations or experiments. Most of the scientism deny the existence of God. Most of the scientists will not believe on something until it prove by science because they worship science its rituals and result and claim the science to replace God as the source of knowledge. Scientism believe that science can explain everything in the universe without relying on God.

The characteristics of scientism is denying the existence of God. Knowledge is a priority for scientism, for example, someone must assume on process or anything that he or she want to know so it will begin a scientific investigation to know the truth. If it can’t be proven by the science so it will not be clarified. Next, scientism will make people lack of morality. This is because, scientism doesn’t have any boundaries to know about something so it will across the natural of human beings. For example, scientists will do any experiments on human or living things without any sympathy that very contrary to morals.

For example, John Hampden was an English scientist that believe on flat earth theory. He offered anyone 500 dollars who can proved to him about round earth. It is clear that he trying to make other people confused. But, most of the scientist believe about the round earth and have been proved by the science and revelation.

RATIONALISM

“Rationalism is the philosophical stance according to which reason is the ultimate source of human knowledge. It stands in contrast to empiricism, according to which the senses suffice in justifying knowledge” (Borghini, 2019). Rationalism believe all knowledge can be understood based on reason and human knowledge without any sources as long as it is logic. Some of rationalists reject the revelation because of illogical.

The characteristic of rationalism is referring to human cognitive powers than supernatural faith or revelation. This is because rationalists want a reasons about what was happen or how was it happen. It must have a reason that related to any situations to know the truth. They used the mind abilities to know about something. Next, rationalists gain knowledge without experience compared to empiricism. It means that their knowledge based on innate ideas, reason and deduction. They don’t need any experience to know about something.

For Instance, a mathematical question is the best way to explain about rationalism. Mathematical questions are offer people to find the answer through logic on mathematics. Mathematical questions cannot be answered by a wrong formula because it will never find the solution and every formula has a reason for each solutions.

HUMANISM

“Humanism is a philosophical view that upholds value and positions of human and makes it as a criterion of all things.” (Hadi, 2012) By the late 1940s, a new psychological perspective emerged. People involved in the adoption of psychology serving in this development, such as clinical psychologist, social workers and counselors. This movement is developed, and is later known as humanistic, existent, perceptual, or phenomenological psychology. This psychology seeks to understand one’s behavior from the perspective of the perpetrator, not from the observer.

Characteristic of humanism. Humanism has divide by two categories, which is humanism from renaissance tradition and humanism secular from upgrade technology and globalism. People from secular humanism thought and believe value of human come from a self-knowledge and logic. They think, they have their own answer for all question on an importance of general philosophy which for them it did not have different between culture caused by customs and religion in one places.

For humanism secular, they more posit that human beings are capable of being ethical and moral without religion or a god. However, assume that humans are not inherently either good or evil, nor does it present humans as being superior to nature. Rather, the humanist life stance emphasizes the unique responsibility facing humanity and the ethical consequences of human decisions. For example, they more focus on humanism approach, which is the importance of emotion and feeling plus open communication too. Another that that, they believe humanism should give a focus on appreciation with each other without feeling prejudice for help the individual to solve their daily life problems.

Humanism can be likened in teaching education. Teacher is of the most importance component of the learning system in school because there is no teaching process without teacher. In addition, to the teacher’s teacher is also one of the importance components because what is the use of a teacher if the absence of a student to be educated so that the learning process requires a right and obligation of the humanity that exists.

MATERIALISM

“Materialism is a view of life the governs the basic of everything that belongs to our life in the realm of materialism alone, by pulling out anything that overrides the senses” (Liedman, 2008) in other word, materialism is an understanding that states that something invisible (cannot be sensed) did not exist. That is, the unseen world (including God, angels, jinn, etc.) does not exist. Because it cannot be sensed by humans.

For materialism believe, they think everything that exist comes from one source the material. They did not believe in the existence of the unseen. They only trust what they seen and can prove with logical knowledge. It means like they only making senses of achieving knowledge. Another that than, people in this category put poisoning science as a substitute for religion in laying the law. So, there not believe in another way to prove something including religion except science as they holding. People in this category also talked about the enchantment of modern times. Contemporary human beings are bewitched by technology and its constant advancements. They are obsessed with the conviction that everything must surely be calculable, usable and made manageable.

For our information about this, materialism person has given their opinion on God. To the idealists, ‘God’ is just the name given to all that seems grand, good, or beautiful, but which exists external to humanity. Here, the God of theology is replaced with the God of metaphysics, and it is the sanctity of these ideas, which is worshiped.

In example like, natural sciences such as physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine are a form of materialism because the objects of the study of natural sciences are fully material so that can be explained mechanically and mechanically. However, human knowledge such as sociology, psychology is also said to be materialism, if it is assumed that the object of the study is that human behavior is material that occupies space and time.

ATHEISM

“Atheism is the absence of belief in gods” (Cline, 2017) and lack of belief or a strong disbelief in the existence of a God or any gods. “But whether an atheist is a person who has never heard of gods, doesn’t care about gods, doubts their existence, or absolutely denies their existence. Atheism being first found as early as 1566” (Martiall 1566). The etymological root for the word atheism originated from the ancient Greek which is atheos, meaning “without Gods”. “The first individuals to identify themselves using the word atheist lived in the 18th century during the Age of Enlightenment” (Armstrong, 1999).

Atheists do not have faith, no commitments and no declarations. They don’t see any reason to believing in any Gods. There are two types of atheism which are strong atheism and weak atheism. Strong atheism is the doctrine that there is no God or gods and weak atheism is the disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.

We can found the examples of atheism in movies such as Life of Brian (1979) and Cosmos. Besides, “Dear God” is a song written by Andy Partridge of the English rock band XTC. This song is about struggling agnostic who writes a letter to God while challenging his existence.

MODERNISM

“Modernism, in arts is a radical break with the past and the concurrent search for new form of expression” (Kuiper, 2019). Modernism refers to a reforming movement in art, architecture, music, literature, drama and the applied arts during the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. Then, modernism rejected traditional and they were interested in new way by doing old thing. In addition, they believed that science and technology could change the world in better way. Moreover, modernist also thought about new ideas in psychology, philosophy, and political theory for new modes of expression.

“Modernism also rejected the certainty of Enlightenment thinking, and many modernists rejected religious belief” (Lewis, 2000). New ideas in psychology, philosophy, and political theory for new modes of expression. Some Modernists saw themselves as part of a revolutionary culture that also included political revolution.

For instance, the modernism in music is they desire “to make new”. No less than artist and writers, composers and musicians were fascinated by possibilities of new song, previously unheard of modes of expression, new techniques, new creativity as well as cultural effects. Next, we can find modernism ideology in literature by film such as “The Old Man and The Sea”.

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Throughout history, many factors influenced the way western architecture developed. The most powerful movement in classical architecture was humanism during the early renaissance. The philosophy of humanism generally speaking is centered on the values, interests, and potential of the human being. Humanism influenced the western civilization in many ways particularly in the way architecture was formed. Humanism reformed people’s beliefs, and traditions and that was a key factor in why architecture began to change. Architecture changed in a way that adapted to the society’s needs, interests, and traditions. One of the main characteristics of humanism was that people began to believe that they were of central importance. They started to pay architects for their own benefit. Humanism changed the society’s view on what buildings were built for and why they were designed the way they were.

Most ancient Greek buildings were designed to honor the Greek Pantheon. One of the most important ancient Greek buildings is the Parthenon, built between 447 and 438 BC. The Parthenon was built on the Acropolis of Athens and was designed to honor the goddess Athena. In methe 5th century AD, the Parthenon was turned into a Christian church. The design of this building was strongly influenced by humanist characteristics, one of them being perfection and symmetry. It was designed to be aesthetically perfect to the human eye. The architect Aphid’s was inspired by the golden ratio while designing the building to maintain symmetrical perfection and used this rule in the order of columns, blocks, walls, even in the arrangement of the spaces inside. The idea of the architect trying to achieve perfection is an ideal example of how people were influenced by the humanist movement.

Another example of how humanism influenced western architecture is the Roman Baths, which were part of ancient Roman daily traditions. The Roman Bath was a form of social gathering which functioned as an important day to day task. The Romans would have a social gathering where they would relax, stay clean, and discuss the latest news involving social, political, and economical factors. Although these baths were used to honor the gods, the idea of making these places luxurious and aesthetically pleasing to the eye is one of the main characteristics of the Renaissance Humanism.

Throughout history, humanism has been one of the most important key elements in the development of classical architecture in the western world. The ideology of humanism and its influence it had on the architecture of the western world is the reason why some ancient buildings are still in great shape until this current day.

Neoclassical architecture first appeared in the mid 18th and was influenced by the Rococo (late baroque architecture) which was derived from Palladian architecture. It dates back to ancient Greek and Roman architecture. Unlike other movements that occurred during that age, Neoclassical architecture focused completely on the form of classical art and architecture rather than taking parts of it and changing it in reference to the traditions of cultures back in that age. Neoclassical architecture was characterized by massive scale buildings, and the perfect geometric forms.

The characteristics of humanism in architecture are still commonly used in today’s world, where some architects tend to go back to humanistic architecture as inspiration to their new projects and designs. Modern architects are designing spaces where people can feel the most of themselves, which was one of the main characteristics of the humanist movement. This proves how much of an impact humanism had on the built architecture and the society evolving around it. Architects, artists, musicians, in the modern world still travel to Italy in search for classical inspiration, just as ancient intellectualists and architects did during the age of the Renaissance. Architects still search for inspiration from the organic forms that Italian towns were themed upon, which is what creates for the modern age, a unique urban landscape. Since the very beginning ages where architecture was formed, it has always been about the materiality and the construction of a structure, whether it’s from steel or glass, and has always focused on the human scale in perspective to its form, and was always influence by the people’s concern, and the people’s needs and traditions in the society.

Throughout the past centuries, the modern architectural culture has been influenced by a rapid growth of technological advancements. It has been caught up in the repeated search for new scientific discoveries, which increase human limits. During the past centuries, people have been giving high priority to advanced machinery and equipment which led to the new levels of mastery and technological intelligence. These technological advancements control people’s success and human skills. However, the current world is still built upon certain traditions and cultures based on what people need. These elements prove that humanism is still living through cultures and will always evolve around the needs and traditions of people.

The Himalayas Center, known as the humanistic nature and society exhibition is located in Shanghai, China, and is an example of how renaissance architecture and humanism influenced the built architecture in our modern world. The exhibition space is curated by Wong Shun-Kit who wanted to combine the ideas of the past, the present, and the future together to form a whole experience of China’s traditions. He wanted to explore how Chinese villages were influenced by social transformation, and how to adapt to them. In the process of designing and curating this award-winning exhibition, architects attempted to visualize and discover a future filled with traditional Chinese nature. The exhibition presents a wide range of images, photography, videos, Chinese ink paintings, installations, and traditional Chinese literature. The elements that the exhibition offers to the public, helps the audience experience both still and active artwork from around a hundred different artists from China and abroad.

The architecture of the Himalayas Center is a story of its own. Japanese architect Arata Isozaki designed soft curves and carved out holes in the walls in a really delicate way to give a sense of experience on what a Chinese forest looks like. Architect Arata Isozaki studied the natural shapes that exist in a forest and mimicked them into his creative design. After observing the forest in detail, elements including curves, holes, symmetrical lines and patters were used to complete the natural sense of the structure. The idea of using inspiration from natural elements by itself is a major characteristic taken from the Renaissance Humanism, as it shows how one can get inspired by nature to help the life of others. Different parts of the exhibition are designed with Chinese writings to highlight the importance of text in Chinese culture. The structure does not only function as an exhibition space, but it is accompanied by a hotel which is carefully designed to highlight the traditional Chinese teahouse, with a modern look. In addition, this teahouse provides books on Chinese history and culture, which shows how the architect used historical tradition in a modern way.

Liberal humanism is one of the earliest literary theory. It is the traditional approach of literary criticism which did not appear suddenly. The concept of liberal humanism come to site as a piecemeal of progressing English literature. The history of English study influenced liberal humanism. However, English was not introduced as a subject till 19th century because it was not considered as a significant subject. In the middle age in England there were only two universities Cambridge and Oxford to serve the purpose of education but, they did not offer English as a subject till 19th century. Moreover, the universities were not open for all. Education was only limited for the Anglican churches and only for the Anglican peoples. Correspondingly, there were other norms which were perform religiously as a tradition of renaissance.

The other races like Methodist, Catholics or general peoples were not allowed to get the education. Dissatisfaction arise and the authority felt the necessity to open the university for all to remove disparity. So, for the first time in 1826, A University College was found in London which offered degrees to man of all races. Consequently, in 1828 English was offered as a subject for all. In 1831, another college was established known as King’s College, which introduced English literature as a subject for the first time. In 1840, a very prolific literary person called F.D. Maurice was appointed as professor in that specific college. Maurice was aware about the situations of that time like how peoples were dissatisfied, and they were alienated and detached from the country, rulers, upper classes, etc. The persisting situation was observed by Maurice. Thus, he proposed that the English study should be introduced. Meanwhile, He delivered a profound lecture on English literature and according to Peters Barry this lecture has been considered as the foundation of liberal humanism.

Apart from that, Peters Barry in his book ‘Beginning Theory’ states that the real foundation of English studies has been established in Cambridge University when the three pioneers of English literature I.A. Richards, William Empson and F.R. Leavis was there. Initially, I.A. Richards in the year 1929, published a book named ‘Practical Criticism’ where he gave a method of practical criticism. The method says to focus on the text and to perceive the meaning based on its structure and close-reading. Likewise, F.R. Leavis in 20th century developed the close-reading method. He successfully expanded the ways of close-reading methods from poetry to novels, passages, essays etc. This close-reading method gave a new dimension to interpret and from this liberal humanism evoked. Liberal Humanism was popular at the beginning of 1900’s and it was considered as a philosophical orientation which valued the worth of human as an individual. Well, Liberal Humanism can be enumerated as a scholarly development where man and his potential are the focal and of principal concern. Liberal humanism considers human being as free agents and therefore, literary texts is also free from its contexts and surroundings. Liberal humanism deals with universal theme and does not categorize anything under any aspect.

Formalism

The word Formalism comes from the word form. Formalism basically means to look at the formal devices and formal structure of the text and then try to understand its meaning. Formalism is a literary theory based on the philosophy of Liberal Humanism which came around in 1920’s and started in the European countries like Russia and America and United Kingdom. This literary theory in Russia was termed as Russian formalism which is the counterpart of the Anglo-American criticism. So, what was happening in Russia at that time somewhat similar was also happening in America and United Kingdom. In Britain and America, it was termed as Practical criticism and New criticism. Before Formalism and New criticism were adopted by the European countries the literary texts were interpreted through historical or through socio-economical lenses. Whereas, formalism focused on the texts only without considering authors biography or without considering socio-economic status of the society when the text was written. However, there are some slight difference between Russian Formalism and New criticism. For instance, geographical location was different that is Russian formalism is the Russian literary movement and New criticism is the American literary movement. Other than that, there are stylistic difference too that is New Criticism focuses on the close-reading of the text along with form and content hence the meaning is generated through the text. Whereas, Russian formalism focuses on the form and the way the literary piece has been written on the basis of structure, style and symbol.

In Russia, there were two major groups of Formalism one was Moscow Linguistics Society and the other was Prague Linguistic Society. Roman Jakobson was the leader of Moscow linguistic group and Viktor Shklovsky was the leader of Prague Linguistic Society. The formalist came up with the Defamiliarizing theory in order to separate the language from the ordinary language. It works well enough in case of poetry. Besides, in 1921 Jakobson introduced literariness which makes the literary text different from journalistic report. Along with that in 1925, Boris Tomashevski juxtaposed two concepts that is Fabula (straight-forward account) and Syuzhet (presentation or manipulation to create effect). These cause the defamiliarizing effect in prose.

Structuralism

Structuralism talks about the structure. Everything in a structure can be understood only in a relation to the other thing which is a part of same structure. For instance, to understand a novel we have to understand the sentence and to understand the sentence we have to understand the words. On this contrary, Ferdinand De Saussure have a theory known as semiotics. Semiotics is basically the study of sign. A word or an image itself is a sign. Hence, sign is made up of two things signifier and signified. Signifier is the word and signified is the concept that comes in our mind when we look at the word or image. The relationship between signifier and signified is arbitrary.