The Nature of Humanism and Its Modern Crisis

The essence of the humanistic worldview and the main stages of the evolution of the humanistic thought are analyzed. The emphasis is on the humanistic ideas of the Renaissance, as they constitute the essence of the humanistic worldview. These ideas influenced the subsequent development of philosophical thought — Modern times, Enlightenment and modernity. The authors of the article adhere to the classical approach in understanding the essence of humanism, interpreting humanism as a doctrine that arose in the Renaissance, and subsequently applied to new conditions. In modern philosophy, there has been a desire to correct some ideas of humanism taking into account the realities of modernity, but without changing the fundamental principles of humanism. The article also shows a trend taking place in modern Western philosophy, namely the emasculation of humanistic ideas. In this regard, the features and specifics of the crisis of humanism in the modern era are analyzed. The relevance of this study is due to the fact that it shows the essence and evolution of the ideas of humanism, which is important in the context of modern multidirectional anthropological discourses. The relevance is also explained by the study of the main points of the crisis of humanism taking place in modern Western philosophy. In this regard, the article provides a reasoned criticism of the anti-humanistic ideas of Western philosophers. The aim of the study is to compare the fundamental ideas of humanism and its ideological foundations with anti-humanistic and anti-anthropocentric positions widely represented in modern Western philosophy. In the course of the research, such methods as the method of historical and philosophical analysis and the comparative method were used. The novelty of the research consists in identifying a peculiar tendency of dehumanization, that is, the antihumanistic orientation of a number of concepts of Western philosophy (F. Nietzsche, M. Heidegger, M. Foucault, J. Baudrillard, J. Deleuze).