How to understand the humanistic spirit of European literature

Humanism in a narrow sense refers to a trend of thought in the European Renaissance. Its core ideas are as follows: first, caring for people, putting people first, paying attention to people's cost, and opposing theology's suppression of human nature; Second, carry forward human rationality and oppose theology's depreciation of rationality; Third, advocate the harmony between spirit and flesh, based on the transcendental spiritual pursuit of the life of the dust people, and oppose the theological kingdom of the opposition between spirit and flesh to deny secular life.

Humanism, in a broad sense, refers to a cultural tradition that began in ancient Greece in Europe: caring for people, especially their spiritual life; Respect the value of human beings, especially the value of human beings as spiritual beings.

The development of western humanism has gone through three historical stages: the movement of wise men in ancient Greece, which began in the middle of the 5th century BC, is a period of humanistic spirit; The European Renaissance from14th century to16th century was a period of revival and development. /kloc-The Enlightenment from the 0/7th century to18th century was the maturity of humanism.

In the middle of the 5th century BC, the ancient Greek wise school put forward the viewpoint that "man is the measure of all things", which was the initial embodiment and origin of humanistic spirit in the history of western thought. Socrates, who was contemporary with the school of the wise, paid more attention to human ethics and pursued the true meaning of life. The formation of these thoughts had a very important influence on the later European Renaissance.

Renaissance refers to the cultural and ideological development trend of Europe, mainly Italy, from14th century to16th century. Its characteristic is to revive the forgotten classical culture of ancient Greece and Rome, but it is actually the bud of European capitalist cultural thought and the product of emerging capitalist relations of production. It opposes religious teachings and medieval scholasticism, advocates academic research, advocates freedom of thought and liberation of personality, and affirms that man is the world.

The Enlightenment refers to the democratic cultural movement initiated by the European bourgeoisie from the17th century to the18th century, which inspires people to oppose the shackles of feudal traditional thoughts and religions, and advocates the freedom of thought and the development of individuality. This is the mature period of humanism, the advanced thought in the embryonic stage of capitalism, and the social movement that makes the society accept new things and make progress through publicity and education.