In his article, "On humanism past and present," Perez Zagorin asks the question: Is there a place for humanism in the 21st century? While asking this, he simultaneously defines humanism as the stance of regarding "the life and happiness of human beings as a supreme value to be cherished and promoted in every possible way."[1]
Looking back through the annals of time, we find several versions of the concept of 'humanism,' starting with its birth in Greece during the fourth and fifth centuries BC, during the lives of Plato and Aristotle. According to Zagorin, it was the Sophists who originated the concept of humanism. While they did not use the term 'humanism' (in fact, there is no Greek equivalent for the term), yet the Greek philosophers discussed the ideas and concepts of humanism as it later came to exist. After Plato and Aristotle, other philosophers continued to develop the concept; however, they considered the study of humanism to be restricted to the elite of the society, the "free men of aristocratic background and independent means who had the leisure for the pursuit of excellence."[2] Defects abounded in this early Greek concept. Not only was it restricted to the elite of society, it also accepted both slavery and perpetual war as permanent features. The Greek humanism seems woefully inadequate. Today people want inclusivity, democracy, egalitarianism, and perhaps even a soaring ideal to fill the abyssal void brought on by the rampant materialism of the 20th century.
