Outline of Humanism - Branches of Humanism

Branches of Humanism

• Religious humanism – philosophy that integrates secular ethics with religious rituals and beliefs that center on human needs, interests, and abilities.
  • Buddhist humanism – philosophical perspective based on the teaching of inherent dignity of all human beings, their potential for attaining highest wisdom about their condition and their essential nature of altruism exemplified by the Bodhisattva spirit of compassion. In practical terms, humanism is expressed on the individual level through action: to “relieve sufferings and impart joy”, to contribute to the welfare of society, abiding by the attitude of nonviolence supporting human rights, and acting for world peace, effectively advocating the concept of global citizenship.
  • Christian humanism – emphasizes the humanity of Jesus, his social teachings and his propensity to synthesize human spirituality and materialism. It regards humanist principles like universal human dignity and individual freedom and the primacy of human happiness as essential and principal components of, or at least compatible with, the teachings of Jesus Christ.
    • Christian existential humanism – theo-philosophical movement which takes an existentialist approach to Christian theology.
  • Humanistic Judaism – movement in Judaism that offers a nontheistic alternative in contemporary Jewish life. It defines Judaism as the cultural and historical experience of the Jewish people and encourages humanistic and secular Jews to celebrate their Jewish identity by participating in Jewish holidays and life cycle events (such as weddings and bar and bat mitzvah) with inspirational ceremonies that draw upon but go beyond traditional literature.
• Secular humanism – philosophy or life stance that embraces human reason, ethics, social justice and philosophical naturalism, whilst specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, pseudoscience or superstition as the basis of morality and decision making. Alternatively known by some adherents as Humanism, specifically with a capital H to distinguish it from other forms of humanism
  • Personism – ethical philosophy of personhood as typified by the thought of the preference utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer. It amounts to a branch of secular humanism with an emphasis on certain rights-criteria.
  • Posthumanism – "after humanism" or "beyond humanism". It has at least 5 contexts, and may refer to:
    • Ideas concerning the Posthuman condition –
    • Cultural posthumanism –
    • Philosophical posthumanism –
    • Transhumanism – (see below)
    • Antihumanism – set of ideas, beliefs, and practices in the realm of social theory and philosophy which respond critically to traditional humanism or to traditional ideas about humanity and the human condition. Central to antihumanism is the view that concepts of "human nature", "man", or "humanity", should be rejected as historically relative or metaphysical.
  • Renaissance humanism –
  • Transhumanism – international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. That is, striving to become posthuman. According to transhumanist thinkers, a posthuman is a hypothetical future being "whose basic capacities so radically exceed those of present humans as to be no longer unambiguously human by our current standards."