Classical origins of term[edit]
The Latin word humanitas corresponded to the Greek concepts of philanthrôpía (loving what makes us human) and paideia (education) which were amalgamated with a series of qualities that made up the traditional unwritten Roman code of conduct (mos maiorum).[1] Cicero (106–43 BCE) used humanitas in describing the formation of an ideal speaker (orator) who he believed should be educated to possess a collection of virtues of character suitable both for an active life of public service and a decent and fulfilling private life; these would include a fund of learning acquired from the study of bonae litterae ("good letters", i.e., classical literature, especially poetry), which would also be a source of continuing cultivation and pleasure in leisure and retirement, youth and old age, and good and bad fortune.[2]
Insofar as humanitas corresponded to philanthrôpía and paideia, it was particularly applicable to guiding the proper exercise of power over others. Hence Cicero's advice to his brother that "if fate had given you authority over Africans or Spaniards or Gauls, wild and barbarous nations, you would still owe it to your humanitas to be concerned about their comforts, their needs, and their safety."[3] Echoing Cicero over a century later, Pliny the Younger (61–112 CE) defined humanitas as the capacity to win the affections of lesser folk without impinging on greater.[4]
Humanitas as benevolence[edit]
In Roman humanism, benevolence (benevolentia) was considered a feature of humanitas. This is particularly emphasized in the works of Cicero and Seneca.[15] In this context, benevolence drives the idea of humaneness and is understood as a feeling either of love or tenderness that makes "someone willing to participate, at the level of feeling, in whatever is human."[15] Such participation entails a willingness to engage both in human suffering and joy. This was echoed in the Kantian position on love, which cited a so-called rational benevolence driven by natural sympathetic joy and pity.[16]
Others have also discussed benevolence in modern humanism. Max Scheler, for example, used it in his discourse on sympathy. In one of his works, he linked benevolence and the concept of "fellow-feeling," which allows self-love, self-centred choice, solipsism, and egoism" to finally be wholly overcome.[17]: 98 Scheler equated benevolence with humanitarianism, explaining that these concepts — along with fellow-feeling — embrace all men, "simply because they are men."[17]: 99
Humanitas as benevolence is also a cornerstone of the credo of Freemasonry and constituted one of the bases for its position that nationality and religion do not matter, only universal humanity.[18] Some orders of Freemasonry are called "Humanitas".