Humanism

pp. 387-390

in: William Richardson, Heidegger, The Hague, Nijhoff, 1963

Abstract

The word "humanism" is a specifically Roman phenomenon, insofar as it derives from the republican era when the word humanus was used to distinguish the homo romanus from the homo barbarus by reason of the Roman's cultural superiority. This was based upon the Roman's appropriation of the Greek παιδεία, interpreted in the Platonic schools of the later period as eruditio et institutio in bonas artes.