Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
184
1. Introduction
Philosophically speaking, the early 19th century German
educator, Niethammer, coined the word humanism,
meaning an education based on the Greek and Latin
classics ([4], p. 395). Humanism was applied to intellectual
and cultural developments in previous eras. A teacher of
classical languages and literatures in Renaissance Italy was
described as "humanista", and what is today called "the
humanities," in the fifteenth century was called studia
humanitatis, which stood for grammar, rhetoric, history,
literature, and moral philosophy ([2], p. 397). Humanism is
defined as a philosophy of joyous service for the greater
good of all humanity in this natural world and advocating
the methods of reason, science, and democracy. It is to be
stated that humanism in general is not considered a way of
thinking only for professional philosophers, but is also a
credo for average men and women seeking to lead happy
and useful lives. Humanism concerns various aspects of
human nature, and it insists that reason should utterly
recognize the emotional side of human beings although it
looks upon reason as the final arbiter of what is true and
good and beautiful. In reality, one of humanism's major
functions is to set free the emotions from cramping and
irrational restrictions ([12], p. 13).
185
2. Humanistic Education
Moskowitz [14] is of the contention that humanistic
education is related to a concern for personal development,
self-acceptance, and acceptance by others, in other words,
making students more human. According to her view, the
humanistic education is most directly related to humanistic
psychology and the human potential movement. Moskowitz
[14] states that "there seem to be two major emphases of
which the first one is on feelings. Humanistic education
focuses on such fact that learning is affected by how
186
187
7. Conclusion
188
References
[1] Arnold, J. Towards more humanistic English teaching. ELT Journal,
52, (3), 1998, 235-242.
[2] Audi, R. The Cambridge dictionary of
Ed.).Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (1999).
philosophy
(2
Vitae
nd
189