Modern western humanism is one of the two main streams of contemporary western philosophy, which originated in Europe with violent social unrest in the middle of19th century. Schopenhauer, a German voluntarist philosopher, and Kierkegaard, a Danish mystic philosopher, are pioneers of this trend of thought. They follow Feuerbach's naturalism, regard human nature as irrational feelings, intentions and desires, and regard subjective psychological experiences such as terror, boredom, depression and despair as the fundamental objects of philosophical research. Nietzsche turned Schopenhauer's will to live into a strong will, and put forward a philosophy with tragic mood but full of life creativity. In Dilthey and Bergson's philosophy of life, the extension of life instinct impulse has become the most basic reality, and we can only rely on intuition to grasp the eternal flow of life. This irrational tendency of advocating intuition has been continuously strengthened in the development of modern western humanism. Phenomenologist Husserl systematically demonstrated the inherent intuitive method of humanism from methodology. He declared that the research object of philosophy is pure consciousness phenomenon and demanded that all external traditions be "suspended", which was the earliest subversion of essentialism. Due to the increasingly serious alienation caused by the development of science and technology under the capitalist system, especially because of the rampant fascism, human nature, which has always been regarded as noble, has been ruthlessly trampled, and the value of life can only be experienced in loneliness, trouble and death. Existentialism represented by Heidegger and Sartre came into being. Existentialism takes people's living state, the meaning of life, freedom, value and related social problems as the research objects, and forms a complete form of modern humanism in philosophy. Psychophilosophy, represented by Freud's psychoanalysis, strives to see clearly the essence of human beings from a scientific point of view and make bold exploration and research on the unconscious spiritual phenomenon of human beings. Gadamer's hermeneutics studies humanities from a new perspective of historical and cultural system, and makes a deep study of the historicity, creativity and openness of understanding, and holds that history is the integration or unity of subjective and objective horizons. Maslow's scientific humanism puts forward an optimistic prediction that scientific development and human development can go hand in hand through the empirical study of outstanding figures, and strives to bridge the rift between science and value, rationality and irrationality, reality and ideal on the basis of humanism. Habermas's research on communicative rationality broke through the understanding of rationality in traditional philosophy and deepened the understanding of the essence of human society.
Throughout the development track of western modern humanism in the past century and a half, many new breakthroughs have been made in theoretical content and research methods. First of all, Nietzsche's philosophy, philosophy of life, phenomenology, existentialism and other schools were born at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century, which was the result of the divergence and struggle between humanism and scientism. The opposition between technological progress and individual spiritual needs, and the separation between science and morality force thinkers to look to the real society. They broke through the abstract discussion of human nature and paid more attention to the individual's living state and emotional will. Secondly, with the further investigation of human spiritual phenomena as the core, it has opened up a new field of philosophical research. For example, psychoanalysis systematically discusses the psychological structure and unconscious spiritual field of human beings, and genetic epistemology re-examines the origin of human cognition and the relationship between subject and object. They adopted a large number of modern applied scientific methods in their research methods, which promoted the development of humanism. Thirdly, from the basic perspective of paying attention to people's real life and the perfection and self-realization of human nature, the critical consciousness is strong again, especially the rebellious postmodernism, which has carried out a new round of more thorough theoretical impact. At present, the general trend of the development of modern western humanism is: on the one hand, the post-modern trend of thought has completely deconstructed the current social system, human nature and human consciousness structure; On the other hand, the efforts to uphold the lofty values of human nature and rebuild rational authority have never been relaxed. The collision and dialogue between these two thoughts strongly promoted the development of modern western humanism.
Second, modern western humanistic philosophy theory
The theoretical research of modern western humanism is centered on the principle of subjectivity with individual standard as the core. This principle holds that everyone is a unique and unrepeatable subject, his meaning in life should be respected, and his value and potential, that is, the initiative of the subject, should be displayed; Individual freedom and rights are the reason and foundation for the existence of the state and society. Since the 20th century, various humanistic schools in the West have made a lot of explanations on this principle from different angles, and its basic research direction can be summarized as the following four aspects.
The first is the motivation analysis of the subject behavior. The research in this field is mainly carried out by the schools of philosophy of life and psychology. Earlier humanistic schools attributed the initiative of the subject to the primitive impulse of life, such as Bergson's "stream of life" and Nietzsche's "strong will", and regarded subjectivity as a self-transcendence ability from the origin of life, which was an affirmation of subjectivity in abstract and speculative language. With the deepening of the understanding of subject, some schools put forward that instinct is the decisive driving force of subject behavior. Freud's theory of sexual instinct, Fromm's theory of love desire and Marcuse's theory of instinctive revolution all emphasize the irrational instinctive power. Their research enriches the understanding of people's psychological structure, fills the gap in the field of unconscious spirit, but also exaggerates the role of irrational psychological factors. Maslow's scientific humanism puts forward the hierarchy of needs as the main driving force of behavior, especially pointing out that social development should be driven not only by material needs, but also by spiritual needs, such as human dignity, love, creation and self-realization, which are also indispensable fundamental needs similar to instinctive needs. Obviously, this theory enriches and develops the need theory of historical materialism. The theoretical study of unconsciousness and the discussion of spiritual needs have deepened the understanding of human spiritual essence.
The second is the affirmation of the choice of subject value. The theory of choice is embodied in existential philosophy. Sartre attributed the spiritual freedom of the subject to choice. The value and meaning of life is the result of one's own choice. Moreover, the choice can only be made in the face of various possibilities in the environment, and the choice of human nature cannot but involve the social environment. This is the "life world" discussed by phenomenology and existentialism, which is a vivid world full of variables and challenges. Choice theory is not only a dynamic study of the essence of human society, but also a new interpretation of the relationship between subject and object in epistemology. Opportunity is object to subject, and choice is subject to object. These two concepts are at the level of practical philosophy. When we criticize the idealistic tendency of existentialism, we should seriously absorb its new viewpoints such as the theory of choice, affirm the value and significance of life, and pay attention to the ecological environment of human development.
The third is to explore the cognitive structure of the subject. In the relationship between subject and object, modern mechanical materialism advocates the passive reflection theory of subject around object, German classical idealism advocates the active transcendental theory of object around subject, and Marxism puts forward the active reflection theory, which is a major breakthrough, but it leaves the empirical explanation to future generations. Piaget's activity and construction theory points out that the material structure of the human brain only provides the possibility of cognition. From the perspective of genetics, the beginning of life time is not a practical theme. Through the acquired activities and communication with the objective world, people gradually establish the relationship between subject and object, which is two-way. This new theoretical model is based on scientific observations such as psychology and physiology. More importantly, Piaget's construction theory distinguishes the physical experience of passive reflection from the logical experience of active operation. The so-called active operation is a purposeful activity of human beings and embodies the character of practice. Only through purposeful practical activities can we gain logical experience, that is, theoretical thinking. This is a powerful explanation of how perceptual knowledge jumped into rational knowledge, and also a more practical and convincing explanation of the origin of human thinking.
The fourth is the research on the rationality of subject communication (intersubjectivity). Habermas started with the study of language and found that language is not only the shell or carrier of thinking, but also directly related to human behavior, especially the cooperative behavior between people. Language inherently contains the possibility of coordinating the behavior between subjects. Through language, we can deeply study people's communicative behavior, and then make a new explanation of rationality. His research conclusion is that the traditional philosophy regards rationality only as individual cognitive ability, which is too narrow; In the extensive and vivid social relationship network between people, human rationality is actually the sum of communicative relationships, that is, a social relationship. On the basis of communicative rationality, he established the ethics of consultation, holding that all moral norms and political legitimacy should be produced through necessary discussion and consultation, and all stakeholders should be involved in order to take care of everyone's interests. In fact, this requires that the foundation of morality and politics be transferred from the abstract "conscious rationality" to the "communicative rationality" of the life world. However, Habermas still provides an idealized model, and he only demonstrates the communicative rationality in the procedure; However, in social life, there is no realistic possibility for all stakeholders to participate in negotiations, so there is still representation and representative system, which involves the values and representativeness of representatives, as well as more complicated conditions and basic problems of practice.
The above research involves different branches such as philosophical ontology, epistemology, axiology and socio-political theory. The evolution of modern humanism truly reflects the face of the ideological circles and humanities and social sciences in western developed countries, and its complexity, richness and profundity are no less than those in the field of modern science and technology. If we only treat it with a simple ideological demarcation method, we will blur our theoretical vision.
Third, the modern characteristics of humanism and its evaluation
Around the viewpoint of human subjectivity, modern humanism shows some characteristics different from modern humanism.
First, modern humanism believes that man and nature, sensibility and rationality are unified, and the basis of this unity lies in rationality. Reason determines people's cognition, and then determines people's behavior, so people are born rational animals. Modern humanism highlights the opposition between sensibility and rationality, and holds that the expansion of rationality suppresses human instinct and limits human freedom. While criticizing rational totalitarianism, it emphasizes the decisive role of irrational factors in people's understanding and behavior.
Second, modern humanism regards human subjectivity as a cognitive ability, aiming at understanding, utilizing and dominating the objective world. Modern humanism's understanding of subjectivity is more an instinctive impulse within the subject. It wants to realize its own life potential and operate around the subject's own needs, showing strong originality, and its goal is that human nature transcends nature and self.
Third, in the view of modern humanism, human nature is universal humanity, that is, the stipulation of class. Modern humanism has changed from class-based to individual-based, paying attention to individual's living condition, life value and significance, and emphasizing individual's unique experience, inner experience and free will. In traditional society, due to the limitation of productivity and civilization, the space for personal development is limited, and human subjectivity cannot be established. Only in modern society, with the gradual solution of class and national survival rights, the independent significance of individual development has become increasingly prominent in reality.
Emphasizing irrationality, subjectivity and individual standard has become three remarkable characteristics of modern western humanism. Of course, the absolutization of these three tendencies also has its negative effects. The excessive publicity of irrationality leads to the dissolution of all values and meanings, resulting in the loss and confusion of thoughts; The unconditional expansion of subjectivity leads to the overbearing attitude of "anthropocentrism" to dominate and conquer nature, and as a result, it is retaliated by environmental pollution and ecological deterioration; The extreme expansion of individual "ego" leads to people's unrestrained desire and vicious utilitarian pursuit, which hurts the interests of others, society and the public and will also bring disastrous consequences. The negative value of modern humanism in development has been questioned by western theoretical circles. The current political and philosophical discussions such as public sphere research, communicative rationality research and reflection on "globalization" and "western centralism" are just a manifestation of the self-criticism tendency of humanism.
When it comes to the evaluation of modern western humanism, it is necessary to clarify some basic concepts.
Some people say that humanism and humanism in ancient China are the same thing. This is untenable. There are three essential differences between them. (1) The "people" in the people-oriented thought is relative to the "official", which is about the balance between the ruler and the common people. Humanism is about the equal relationship between people as independent subjects. (2) People-oriented doctrine only talks about imperial power, not human rights, and only expresses sympathy and charity to those who have no rights; Humanism first focuses on the rights of citizens. (3) People-oriented thought is a kind of ruling skill, whether it is said that "people can control and don't know" or "water can carry a boat and also overturn it", it is a kind of ruling skill; People-oriented thought takes people themselves as its starting point and purpose, and holds that people are the highest value. These substantive differences cannot be confused.
Another question is, what is the relationship between "people-oriented" and western humanism? The relationship between Marxism and humanism involved here can be understood from the following three aspects: First, Marx clearly expounded the close relationship between * * * materialism and humanism in 1844 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, and he believed that * * * materialism was humanism with the intermediary of abandoning private ownership. "This kind of * * * productism, as a complete naturalism = humanitarianism, as a complete humanitarianism = naturalism, is the real solution to the contradiction between man and nature, and the real solution to the struggle between existence and essence, objectification and self-confirmation, freedom and necessity, and between individuals and classes." [1] Secondly, on the premise of recognizing Marxist humanitarianism, it should be correctly understood as a value rather than a historical view. In other words, in the relationship between man and society, we should still adhere to the historical materialism that society is the foundation. Thirdly, it is the necessity of theoretical development and the realistic requirement of the times that the fundamental purpose of China and party member has been upgraded from "serving the people" to "people-oriented". "Man" is a superordinate concept in logic, including group and each individual. Therefore, "people-oriented" covers the problems of people and individual citizens, and it should be developed in a coordinated way.
Fourthly, modern humanism as a broad social and academic trend of thought.
Humanism is not only a philosophical viewpoint, but also a modern social and academic trend of thought with extensive influence. It plays an extraordinary role in the development of aesthetics, literature and art, psychology, education, management, law and other disciplines.
Aesthetics The representative schools and figures of modern western aesthetics are inextricably linked with humanistic philosophy. For example, Schopenhauer's and Nietzsche's voluntarism aesthetics, Croce's and Collingwood's expressionism aesthetics and Bergson's intuitionism aesthetics first show the anti-traditional tendency that modern aesthetics replaces rationality with irrational intuition; The psychoanalytic aesthetics founded by Freud introduced the theory of "unconsciousness" into aesthetics and revealed some important psychological characteristics of literary and artistic creation. Phenomenological aesthetics and existential aesthetics emphasize the creativity and initiative of the subject in aesthetic activities, and begin to examine the artist-work-appreciator as a dynamic and unified process, which is a precedent for later reception aesthetics, and so on. Contemporary aesthetics emphasizes the decisive role of subject in aesthetic activities, and explains the essence of artistic creation and appreciation with irrational factors such as intuition and instinct sublimation, which is the result of humanistic philosophy.
Literature and art are influenced by modern humanism's criticism of traditional consciousness. A group of radical writers and artists in western literary and art circles are scrambling to attack traditional cultural beliefs and literary norms under the banner of "pioneer", "decadence" and "experiment". The "black humor" novels called desperate comedies appeared in the United States in the 1960s, the magical realism literature popular in Latin America, and the stream-of-consciousness novels, surrealism, expressionism, neo-fiction school and "confessional school" poems influenced by psychoanalysis. Cubism, futurism and abstract expressionism in modern painting; In modern music, the sense of rhythm and standard melody are ignored, and various schools that highlight the subject's self-feeling with discordant voices instead. In addition to literature, drama, music and painting, we can all see the visual expression of humanistic philosophy in the broader cultural fields such as sculpture, dance and architecture. Using various new forms, new styles and new styles to express the chaotic state of contemporary society and people's unstable and rebellious emotions, thus forming a variety of variations on the humanistic theme in the field of literature and art.
Psychology The rise of humanistic psychology has brought psychology into a brand-new era. In the past, psychology has been studying people as the object, trying to study people by so-called objective and scientific (physical, chemical and physiological) means, but failing to bring the complicated life experience and changeable internal subjective consciousness of people with the most human characteristics into the disciplinary field of vision. Modern humanistic psychologists take "the inner life experience of human beings", a "black box" that traditional psychology can't avoid, as their research object, and extend their tentacles to the urgent problems and real feelings of life. New viewpoints, new methods and new explorations of humanistic psychology often become hotbeds of philosophical theory innovation.
The new humanistic education view of pedagogy holds that the purpose of education is to pay attention to and help everyone reach the best state he can achieve, so that students can freely and fully exert their inherent potential and actively and happily absorb and use knowledge according to their own expectations. The new views on students, teachers and students and teaching are based on personality theory, and new methods such as personalized teaching, group teaching and activity teaching are put forward, aiming at shaping people according to their inherent requirements. The rise and fall of humanism has greatly influenced the development of educational theory.
Management humanism is also one of the mainstream ideas of modern management. For example, the "Behavioral Science-Interpersonal Relationship Management Theory" put forward by Mayo and Rotlisberg in the United States holds that the decisive factors in the management process are respect for personality, participation, emotional catharsis, morale, small groups and their restrictive mechanisms, and rules and regulations, laws and disciplines only play an auxiliary role. This view fundamentally betrays the traditional management theory and is called "new social science". Maslow's humanistic management theory holds that modern managers should pay attention to the realization of people's creativity, sense of responsibility and values. By satisfying people's spiritual needs, people can maintain a positive attitude and stimulate their inner enthusiasm for work, so as to achieve the purpose of improving work efficiency. Therefore, management behavior must be full of humanity, and people cannot be managed as passive machines and "things" like the old management science.
Jurists and social jurists believe that the important fact in today's world is the deepening interdependence between people, and human activities must be based on maintaining social unity. Therefore, the law should not only study the trial norms of the court and the written laws of the country, but also study the "living law" that can actually restrain the behavior of the masses and maintain the order of daily life. The economic problems, welfare problems, education problems and national health problems caused by contemporary social contradictions make the focus of law shift from individual rights to social obligations. The guarantee of people's right to life and the concrete embodiment of people's thought of freedom and equality can be realized through "legal socialization" Modern society attaches importance to the development of human personality and the trend of social communication between people, which makes the humanistic legal thought develop greatly.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) The social function of modern western humanism and its enlightenment to us.
As a value concept, humanistic philosophy is integrated into social system, social culture and people's daily behavior. The basic value of a society is the intermediary between its macro-political ideas and people's daily words and deeds, which is of great significance to social stability, civilization and progress. For example, an American philosophy professor once summarized the basic values of American society into the following five aspects. (1) Personal value: human natural rights and human rights, human freedom; (2) Democracy under the rule of law: rule of law instead of man, constitutionalism, election and representative system, power checks and balances, service-oriented government; (3) Market economy: free trade, contract culture; (4) Religious life: The transcendental understanding of the meaning of life provides ethical principles for real life; (5) Multiculturalism: It embodies the characteristics of a vibrant immigrant culture. The German Social Democratic Party put forward the basic values of democratic socialism: freedom, justice and mutual assistance in the Goldberger program of 1959. These basic values are not only the guidance and restraint of citizens' words and deeds, but also the basic requirements for exercising power, as follows: (1) as the political guidance and ethical basis for formulating policies; (2) As the evaluation standard of specific political decision-making and political behavior; (3) As the moral driving force of government behavior. With the development of society, they have added a fourth basic value to these three basic values: responsibility, that is, responsibility to family, society and country. 199 1 February, the white paper on * * * shared values issued by the Singapore government put forward Singapore's five * * shared values: (1) country first, society first; (2) Family is the root and society is the foundation; (3) care and support, help each other in the same boat; (4) Seeking common ground while reserving differences and reaching consensus through consultation; (5) Racial harmony and religious tolerance. In a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country like Singapore, these basic values have played a positive role in maintaining national stability and promoting social development.
Humanistic philosophy is one of the achievements of spiritual civilization in the process of human historical progress, and this progressive concept has reference significance for our socialist modernization. If we respect life, people-oriented should first respect the lives of ourselves and others, and all people are equal in the right to life; For example, independence, establishing the subjective consciousness of self-esteem and self-improvement, opens the way for the deep liberation of human beings, that is, the realization of human spiritual freedom and the full play of human creativity; If you take responsibility, on the basis of independent choice, you should play your family role and social role responsibly, show a good sense of professional responsibility in your work, and be enthusiastic about taking due responsibility for social welfare undertakings; For example, * * * enjoys mutual assistance, shapes and displays full humanity in good interpersonal relationships, develops a healthy psychology to share with others and society, and takes helping others as the greatest pleasure; Such as fairness and justice, which is the highest embodiment of "people-oriented" thought in social relations, and also the value scale to measure social systems, institutions and policies; If pluralism coexists, it is one of the basic concepts of building a harmonious interpersonal relationship and a harmonious society to handle all kinds of relationships with an understanding, tolerance and negotiation attitude. For example, democratic participation is the most spiritual modern basic political concept; Wait a minute.
The above thought is not only the essence of contemporary western humanism, but also the civilized concept of modern society.