The first thing that strikes me is how many different things it can mean. I sort of start with that confusion and try and see it as a rich diversity rather than some sort of dreadful state of confusion. There's other meanings as well, a kind of philosophical sense of any thing that puts human experience at the centre of things. What it is is a very pretty accurate description of the many faces of humanism, the great variety that you find in it. But my starting point is that it’s not a bad thing, I mean it leaves them all chaotic but I think that it's not chaos."
The writer Sarah Bakewell explores the long tradition of humanist thought in her latest book, Humanly Possible. She celebrates the writers, thinkers, artists and scientists over the last 700 years who have placed humanity at the centre, while defying the forces of religion, fanatics, mystics and tyrants.
But placing humans at the centre isn’t without problems – critics point to its anthropocentric nature and excessive rationalism and individualism, as well its Euro-centric history. The philosopher Julian Baggini guides the listener in unpicking the tenets of humanism. His latest books is How to Think Like a Philosopher: Essential Principles for Clearer Thinking.
Humanism may have relegated the divine to the side lines, but for the characters in Leila Aboulela’s novels faith and devotion are integral to their sense of themselves. In her latest book, River Spirit, set in Sudan in the 1880s, her young protagonists struggle to survive and find love amidst the bloody struggle for Sudan itself.
Producer: Katy Hickman