Humanism

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Humanism \Hu"man*ism\ (h[=u]"man*[i^]z'm), n.
     1. Human nature or disposition; humanity.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              [She] looked almost like a being who had rejected
              with indifference the attitude of sex for the


              loftier quality of abstract humanism. --T. Hardy.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The study of the humanities; polite learning.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. A doctrine or ethical point of view that emphasizes the
        dignity and worth of individual people, rejects claims of
        supernatural influences on humans, and stresses the need
        for people to achieve improvement of society and
        self-fulfillment through reason and to develop
        human-oriented ethical values without theism.
        [PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  humanism
       n 1: the doctrine that people's duty is to promote human welfare
            [syn: {humanitarianism}]
       2: the doctrine emphasizing a person's capacity for
          self-realization through reason; rejects religion and the
          supernatural [syn: {secular humanism}]
       3: the cultural movement of the Renaissance; based on classical
          studies

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  34 Moby Thesaurus words for "humanism":
     Christian humanism, Religious Humanism, anthroposophy, bibliolatry,
     bibliomania, bluestockingism, book learning, book madness,
     bookiness, bookishness, booklore, classical scholarship,
     classicism, culture, donnishness, eruditeness, erudition,
     free thought, freethinking, humanistic scholarship,
     integral humanism, intellectualism, intellectuality,
     latitudinarianism, learnedness, letters, literacy,
     naturalistic humanism, new humanism, pedantism, pedantry, reading,
     scholarship, secular humanism