humanism /'hju:meniz(e)m/ n. an outlook or system of thought concerned with human rather than divine or supernatural matters. What is humanism and why does it matter? If it rejects religion, what does it offer in its place? Can we defend humanism in the wake of crimes against humanity and environmental crisis? On Humanism is a timely and powerfully argued philosophical defence of humanism and an impassioned plea that we turn to ourselves, not religion, if we want to answer Socrates' age old question: what is the best kind of life to lead? Richard Norman argues that although humanism has much in common with science, it is far from a denial of the more mysterious and fragile side of being human.Turning to big questions such as the environment, Darwinism and ' creation science', euthanasia and abortion, he argues that it is ultimately through art and the basic human need for stories that humanism is nothing less than a philosophy of life. Drawing on a colourful range of examples, including Aristotle, Nietzsche, Darwin, Primo Levi and the novels of Virginia Woolf and Graham Swift, On Humanism is a lucid and much needed reflection on this much talked about but little understood phenomenon.
