HUMANISM. Humanism is the name given by F. C. S. Schiller, of Oxford, to a form of Pragmatism (g.v.) which he has himself developed. The name of the philosophy seems to be due " to the fact that it makes man the measure' (homo mensura), or bases itself in human nature and human experience " (Davidson). The i appeal is to experience and consequences. " Truth, in order to be true, must have practical results, must work—yea more, in the wider humanism, it in consequences, more especially if these are good. Our beliefs are determined by practical interest. We believe what serves our purpose, or what points to an end which we desire, or what satisfies our needs : we disbelieve what serves no purpose, or what has proved to be mis leading or inadequate to meet our wants. So, too, of morality : human needs and their satisfaction determine between right and wrong, and give us the ethical notions." W. L. Davidson points out that pragmatism or humanism on its negative side is a protest against a priorism and Absolutism, neither of which submits to experience. " Indeed, it owes its existence to reaction
against that extreme intellectualism which so long ruled, where man was contemplated simply as a rational being, his emotive and his volitional nature being ignored. It is, consequently, essentially inductive in its method, and breathes the scientific spirit throughout. It will not permit truth to be relegated to a transcendent sphere to which experience has no access, nor will it allow experience to be dictated to by mere unverified and un verifiable a priori conceptions." The defects of Humanism, according to W. L. Davidson, are (1) that it over-emphasizes action or the will, and (2) that, though strong psychologically, it is weak metaphysically. See William L. Davidson, The Stoic Creed, 1907.