ABSTRACT
The intellectual origins of the radical humanist paradigm can be traced back to the tenets of German idealism and the Kantian notion that the ultimate reality of the universe is spiritual rather than material in nature. The subjective idealists within radical humanism focus upon the pathology of intentionality, whereby, in creating the external world, man separates himself from his true ‘Being’. The radical humanist paradigm comprises the subjective and objective idealist strains of thought, both of which have their origins in German idealism. Existentialism differs from phenomenology in its vigorous humanism and its political commitment to the desirability of change in the existing social order. The work of theorists located within the radical humanist paradigm is underwritten by a common concern for the freedom of human spirit. Radical humanists focus upon human consciousness within the context of the totality which characterises a particular social formation.
