The Invention of Humanism and the Reconfiguration of the Concept of Nature in the 19th Century

In the second half of the 18th century, in an article by Quesnay that appeared in Éphémérides du citoyen, the word “humanism” first entered the European philosophical-cultural lexicon with the meaning of “general love of humanity.” However, it was the 19th century that marked a decisive turning point for the concept, thanks to the publication of a work by the philosopher and educationalist F. I. Niethammer, Der Streit des Philanthropinismus und Humanismus in der Theorie des Erziehungs-Unterrichts unsrer Zeit (1808). Nevertheless, it seems significant, if not paradoxical, that in the very century in which the term “humanism” gained usage in philosophical, pedagogical, and literary contexts, a radically new conception of nature - and, consequently, of the link between man and nature - emerged. This conception called into question, on new foundations, the teleological vision and stylised image of nature as a set of resources and instruments that man could exploit for their own fulfilment and for the improvement of their living conditions. To address these issues, the chapters in this volume reconstruct the history of the concept of humanism in the 19th century and discuss various aspects of the relationship between humanism and a new (Darwinian) vision of nature that, on a scientific basis, entails a biological decentralisation of the human being.