THE NEW HUMANISM AND THE PARADIGM OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE GLOBALIZATION ERA

The Renaissance Humanism, based on the principle "man is the measure of all things", exalts man and sets him at the centre of the universe. The human type created by Humanism is homo universalis, and the humanistic paradigm of knowledge is the holistic knowledge. The contemporary world promotes a new humanism, which is centered on man, on his fundamental values, rights and freedoms. The European Union is itself built on the principles of this vision. The New Humanism develops in the context of globalization and of the global expansion of new technologies. Globalization involves processes that lead to the massification of human society, culture and knowledge, to the massification and mediocrization of the individuals. Information technology, through the access to a huge amount of information, fosters a new kind of knowledge: the surface, informative knowledge. In the New Humanism, through the effect of globalization and technology, the paradigm of knowledge is formed by the computerized, globalized and massified knowledge, quantitative, not qualitative, superficial, not profound. In this framework, man is the center of the universe, but of the virtual universe, becoming himself a virtual man. The new age is thus defined more by a virtual anthropocentrism than by a real one. The man of globalization and technology, in which the New Humanism is trying to develop, is homo virtualis.