Humanism and humanisms: Stretching the term

Abstract

In this paper, the authors have offered an overview of various teachings that fall under the umbrella of humanism. Although the paper primarily focuses on the humanist doctrine, it is often not easy to distinguish the theory of humanism from humanism in practice. In both cases, it turns out that humanism is such a wide-ranging concept that perhaps it is instructive to talk about humanisms instead. Although a single review article cannot present a detailed and comprehensive history of (the idea of) humanism and all the variations it has gone through, the authors believe that this work can provide readers with a basis for understanding and a framework for further research and reflection on humanism/humanisms.