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4 I The Best Online Education System in the world
OF CONTEMPORARY HUMANISM AND ITS PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
Kathlyn Q. Barrozo
Class of 1991, University of Santo Tomas
B.S. Medical Technology
The old school of thought of humanism had always focused on the ability of people to be perfect upon
themselves, regardless of others. Contemporary humanism, however, supports the idea that man doesn’t carry
the all-perfect ability to do good upon himself alone but with the help of others around him. This is a much
more agreeable concept than its ancient counterpart simply because well, no man is an island. More hands and
feet can do greater good for all humanity.
We interact with each other. This makes our experiences shared. The interwoven lattices within which our
lives revolve make us complete human beings. Remember Jerry Maguire? How he declared “You complete me.”
to his paramour? Well, we complete the lives of one another on the planet, no matter how far apart or how
distant we may all be from each other. There will come a time when we will have interacted with millions on
the globe without knowing it. There’s Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. We might not know
each other personally, but there will always be someone somewhere we may mutually be acquainted with.
I like inspirational quotes, and although Paulo Coelho may not personally know me or that I even exist, I have
joined the countless people that have expressed their likes on his numerous motivational quotes posted on
Facebook. The whole thing could just be the work of his publicist, but heck, I still get to express my
appreciation for his talent with words, one way or another.
I may not personally be on a first name basis with the cast of characters on The Big Bang Theory, but I enjoy the
fact that I can share quotes from the show or share videos and pictures of the cast members on my social
networking site wall any time. I love that remote people from many parts of the globe can be humanistic and
share their humanism with so many others on my side of the planet, all with the click of the mouse or the
stroke of a key.
Humanism has indeed, reached a more shared global scale that it has lost most of its individualistic, selfish
aspects. We can now be humanistic together. The world has succeeded at unifying humanists to see the beauty
of living in a shared world with shared beliefs and ideals. I guess relatively all ideologies simply become
tempered down in the long run and with time. It could be the effect of the world just mellowing down to
focus more on living and being and less on justifying why it needs to do so. Good for you, good for the whole
planet, I believe.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
1.
Do a research on contemporary humanism. Why is it a huge improvement from old schools of thought on
the ideology?
2.
What are the ancient concepts of humanism’s primary focus? Do you honestly support those concepts?
3.
Find information on humanist philosophers. Be able to talk about them briefly in class.
4.
Why is humanism imperfect? What can probably render it perfect?
5.
How does humanism justify itself? Be as thorough as you need to be.