In a time that is unabatedly accompanied by so-called “Leitkultur” debates and religiously articulated conflicts, it is often overlooked that Europe is profoundly shaped by a lineage that is influential in terms of intellectual history, philosophy, politics and human rights.
“Humanism” is a cultural movement, an educational program, an epoch, a tradition, a world view, a form of practical philosophy, a basic political attitude that advocates the implementation of human rights and humanitarian practice. The compendium “Humanism: Basic Concepts”, now published by De Gruyter, is the first to capture the simple and general concepts in their context and presents the benefits for understanding current problems in medicine, ethics, economics, law and politics. This volume, which is unique in its thorough design and careful reference to the current state of research and debate, contains a systematic section and a section with the alphabetically arranged basic terms as well as corresponding reference terms where a subject is dealt with under a different title. The various directions and institutions of the humanist movement in a history of over 2000 years and in a multicultural present are outlined. At the same time, the new fields and tasks that have arisen for humanist research in the last fifty years as a result of the development of modern medicine, human rights policy and gender studies, the digital revolution and globalization are indicated. The humanist heritage from antiquity, the Renaissance and the Enlightenment is critically mediated with these new global demands. Among the authors of the more than three dozen articles are renowned personalities in their fields such as Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Jörn Rüsen, Prof. Dr. Walter Jaeschke, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hermann, Prof. Dr. Eric Hilgendorf and Prof. Dr. Enno Rudolph. The editors are Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Hubert Cancik, Dr. phil. habil. Horst Groschopp and Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Frieder Otto Wolf. Commenting on the recently published compendium, the President of the Humanist Association of Germany, Frieder Otto Wolf, said, “The volume as a whole is an exercise in humanistic studies – and even a prime example of what humanistic studies, which relates freely to modern practical humanism, is already able to achieve today. And in doing so, it puts the problems and theories of this humanism on the agenda of those academic fields that deal with the problems of politics and culture or of lifestyle and society.” This is a step forward compared to all “attempts to discuss the Big Bang, relativity or evolution instead”, says Wolf. Among other things, the volume aims to “clearly demonstrate that modern practical humanism not only has something relevant to say about many central questions of the present, but above all also offers starting points, models and approaches that people can use to competently ‘think for themselves’.”
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