what is philosophy and how was it effected by humanism?

Answer 1

To begin, the field of philosophy can not easily be summed up via definition. It looks at such things as the problems associated with existence (ontology), questions of how we come to know the world and if certainty is possible(epistemology), what is the right thing to do (ethics), how human existence "acts" or is (phenomenology), as well as numerous other realms in which classification and structure are difficult to maintain or construct.

Humanism, however, is an Enlightment period idea about the liberal human subject as autonomous with agency and control. Humanism as a construction must make specific ontological and epistemological assumptions; as such, it does not so much "effect" philosophy as organize it into a specific structure and viewpoint. This point of view itself is then critique and challenged by others holding ontological and epistemological believes that are counter to the liberal human subject (e.g., posthuman studies).