Focused definition
For Arkoun, humanism is not merely an ethical call to glorify the human being; it is a shift in the very center of inquiry: from the text as a closed authority to the human being as a historical creature who understands, errs, interprets, and produces meaning within his or her own conditions. It returns religion and knowledge to the horizon of understanding rather than monopoly, and links meaning to freedom, responsibility, and education.
Its place in the project
This concept appears at the heart of Arkoun’s project as a condition for rebuilding the relationship between religion, thought, and education. It is connected to history, education, freedom, and to reopening the field to critique rather than submission. It also stands alongside the idea that tradition is not the opposite of the human being, but a historical domain in which philosophers, theologians, literary figures, and jurists took part, and that human value becomes apparent when this tradition is read in an open-ended way.
Example or witness
The concept is embodied when Arkoun asks not what must be preserved, but how meaning was formed, who acquired the right to interpret it, and how this affected the image of the human being within culture. It also appears in his linking of humanism with education, insofar as teaching is the place where critical sensitivity is formed or suspended.
See also: Humanism (concept page)