Humanism: Understanding the West

An important precursor in understanding different cultures/civilizations is to dig to the root of their ethical philosophies. If people can understand where, why and how civilizations derive their philosophies from, we can take a giant leap in understanding each other.

After the separation of the church in the affairs of the State, the West has increasingly relied on humanist philosophies for their ethics and morals. Wikipedia defines humanism as, “a commitment to the search for truth and morality through human means in support of human interests. In focusing on the capacity for self-determination, humanism rejects transcendental justifications, such as a dependence on faith, the supernatural or divinely revealed texts.” For a more detailed explanation, click here.

So why did the West do away with the orthodox system of the marriage of church and state? The answer is complex and it spans over thousands of years! The crux of the matter lies in the fact that the Europeans were – as were the Arabs, believe it or not – always influenced by Greek philosophy. The Greeks were so influential in their philosophy that Christianity itself induced a lot of ideas from the Greeks. The advent of the Printing Press and the consequent Protestant movement had a major role to play in this change as well.

History is proof that the Church did take a good hiding from the new “dangerous doctrine” of humanism. The crisis of Renaissance humanism came with the trial of Galileo, which forced the choice between basing the authority of one's beliefs on one's observations, or upon religious teaching. Clearly, the church was preaching contrary to physical evidence. In almost all instances, the Church was proven wrong repeatedly. This ideological victory set the mood for Europeans to formulate and legislate laws based on the humanist approach. Pragmatism was to be the quintessential component in the development of humanism.

How good this solution is depends on whom you ask this question. It has worked for the Westerners and it is their experience that makes them so passionate about their beliefs. The problem today is that the West is being intolerant towards the East – Islam in particular – and wants them to adopt their system hook, line and sinker. To the Westerner they have “been there, done that”. It is no surprise then that the West fails to understand the Muslims deep attachment with their faith.

However, the West needs to come to a realization: Is their experience relevant to Islam and Muslims? Is the Qur’an preaching something contrary to physical evidence as was the case with the Bible? All idiosyncrasies kept aside, are the Westerners ready to admit that Muslims are not facing the same dilemmas as the West did vis-à-vis their Divine Texts? The variables and dynamics of the Muslim World are very different to 14th century Europe. The sooner the West comes to this realization the better for all of mankind.