Table Of ContentHumanism
The book describes humanism in a systematic and historical perspective.
It analyzes its manifestation and function in cultural studies and its role in
the present.
Within the book, special attention is given to the intention of contempo-
rary humanism to overcome ethno-centric elements in the cultural orienta-
tion of contemporary living conditions and to develop humane dimensions
of this orientation. This is linked to a fundamental critique of the current
post-human self-understanding of the humanities. Furthermore, the inter-
cultural aspect in the understanding of humanism is emphasized, because
for non-Western cultures also have their own humanistic traditions. Two
further aspects are also addressed: the Holocaust as the most radical chal-
lenge to humanistic thinking and the relationship of humanism to nature.
Sitting at the intersection of history and philosophy, the book is perfect
for those exploring humanism from a historical perspective.
Jörn Rüsen is Senior Fellow at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut
(Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities) at Essen, Germany. He
specializes in the theory and didactics of history and intercultural human-
ism. His recent books include History: Narration, Interpretation, Orien-
tation (2005) and Evidence and Meaning: A Theory of Historical Studies
(2017).
Routledge Approaches to History
37 Far-Right Revisionism and the End of History
Alt/Histories
Edited by Louie Dean Valencia-García
38 Africa, Empire and World Disorder
Selected Essays
A.G.Hopkins
39 History in a Post-Truth World
Theory and Praxis
Edited by Marius Gudonis and Benjamin T. Jones
40 The Primacy of Method in Historical Research
Philosophy of History and the Perspective of Meaning
Jonas Ahlskog
41 Archives and Human Rights
Edited by Jens Boel, Perrine Canavaggio and Antonio González
Quintana
42 Historical Experience
Essays on the Phenomenology of History
David Carr
43 Humanism
Foundations, Diversities, Developments
Jörn Rüsen
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.
com/Routledge-Approaches-to-History/book-series/RSHISTHRY
Humanism
Foundations, Diversities, Developments
Jörn Rüsen
First published 2021
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Jörn Rüsen
The right of Jörn Rüsen to be identifed as author of this work has
been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-77261-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-77267-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-17050-1 (ebk)
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Contents
Foreword vii
Introduction 1
1 What is humanism? 5
2 Classical humanism – a historical survey 12
3 Intercultural humanism – how to perform the
humanities in the era of globalization 31
4 Towards a new idea of humankind – unity and
difference of cultures in the crossroads of our time 43
5 Historizing humanity – some theoretical considerations
on contextualization and understanding with an
outlook on the idea of humanity 54
6 Humanism: anthropology – axial times – modernities 63
7 Humanism in response to the Holocaust – destruction
or innovation? 80
8 Humanism and nature – some reflections on a complex
relationship 91
Bibliography 101
List of first publication 111
Index of names 113
Foreword
This book is a compilation of articles which were published at different
places in the last 12 years. This diversity in place and time cannot hide
their close connection. Therefore, it is obvious to assemble the single texts
together into a book. All texts are outcomes of a research project on “Hu-
manism in the Era of Globalization – An Intercultural Dialogue on Culture,
Humanity, and Values”. This project was pursued by the Kulturwissen-
schaftliches Institut (Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities) at
Essen (Germany) in close connection with the universities of Bochum, Dort-
mund, and Duisburg-Essen. It took place between 2006 and 2009. It was
sponsored by the foundation Stiftung Mercator. I conceived the idea of this
theme in intensive discussions with Rüdiger Frohn, the leading spirit of this
foundation. I am deeply grateful for his critical engagement and support.
The Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities at Essen hosted the
project from the beginning to its end. Its intellectual atmosphere essentially
contributed to the vitality of sound academic discussions. Additionally, the
project profted a lot from the support of other institutions like the Institute
for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences of the National
Taiwan University, the Goethe-Institutes in Kolkata and Alexandria, the
Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study in South Africa, the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing and departments of many universities
all over the world.
In the framework of the humanism-project I received numerous stimula-
tions in conferences, workshops, lectures, and discussions by the cooperat-
ing scholars. It would lead too far to enumerate them all. So I limit myself
to a few names only. I want to express my gratitude to: in Germany – Jürgen
Straub, Erhard Reckwitz, Heiner Roetz, Dieter Sturma, Helwig Schmidt-
Glintzer; in East Asia – Huang Chin-Chieh, Chen Qineng, Jiang Peng,
Chang Chih-Ming; in Mexico – Oliver Kozlarek; in South Africa – Johann
Tempelhoff; in Brazil – Estevao de Rezende Martins. Thanks also to the as-
sistants of the project for their engaged work in administrating and organ-
izing its many activities: Martin Gieselmann, Irmtraud Seebold, Carmen
Meinert, Aladdin Sarhan.
viii Foreword
Finally (last not least) I thank Angelika Wulff for her critical editing and
my wife Inge for her understanding companionship not only in the making
of this book.
Bochum, September 2019
Introduction
Wherever we look around, we can see that traditional forms of life which
have long been regarded as stable and capable of continuity lose their
self-evidence. Gender, family, nation, nature, and even the traditional con-
cept of culture loses its conceptual contours and dissolve into different, even
opposing determinants of human life practice. Nature, for example, breaks
out of the framework of determination of a mere object of human dispo-
sition and, for the purpose of securing the life of man himself, requires a
cultural meaningfulness that clearly limits human exploitation. In this way,
the clear contrast between nature and culture, which has determined West-
ern culture and global modernity for a long time, becomes an interpretation
problem. The same applies to the sexual differentiation of humans. Their
natural conditions are culturized and thus move into the horizon of cultural
attributions with corresponding challenges to new interpretations.
At the same time, of course, the tiresome identity problem is on the wall-
paper. Can the question of individuals and social communities, who they
are, be rejected as inadmissible or convincingly answered with diversity or
the hybridity’s deformity? Is there still any reliable historical knowledge or
has the historical self-image of man been dissolved into a mere aesthetic
play of objectless signifers?
This series of probing questions of the diagnosis of the present could be
continued almost arbitrarily. In its horizon, the present wins the signature
of a crisis. That’s nothing new. Remember Ernst Troeltsch’s remarks on the
“present crisis of history”.1 He diagnoses a “general world revolution” and
locates this crisis “in the general philosophical foundations and elements
of historical thought, in the conception of historical values from which we
should think and construct the context of history”. Under the impact of the
catastrophic events of the 20th century, he sees a cultural orientation crisis
taking hold, forcing him to make strong words. He speaks of a “destruction
of historical education and of historical knowledge”, which can only be
regarded as “a decision on barbarism and only feasible on the return to bar-
barism in all other areas of life”. With that, he foreshadowed a barbarism
in his horizon of expectation which, when it came with the rule of National
Socialism and Communism, dwarfed everything he could imagine.
