Humanism

Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the agency, and the individual and social potential of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term has changed with the successive intellectual movements that identified with it: during the Italian Renaissance, scholars inspired by Greek classical scholarship gave rise to Renaissance humanism, and during the Age of Enlightenment humanistic values were reinforced by advances in science and technology. By the early twentieth century organizations dedicated to humanism flourished in Europe and the United States, and today the term generally denotes a focus on human well-being and advocacy for human freedom, happiness, autonomy and progress.