Humanism's classical epic Gilgamesh articulates what historian of religion Jonathan Z. Smith names a "locative" world-view: it is essentially conservative in the sense that it attempts to reconcile human beings to their mortal nature. This view is echoed and encapsulated in Pindar's third Pythian ode: O my soul! Do not aspire to immortal life but exhaust the limits of the possible.
The locative world view was placed in question during the Axial Age when utopian impulses gave rise to the so-called "prophetic tradition" in the Eastern Mediterranean. After the advent of Alexander, the prophetic tradition re-asserted itself in new florid hues with apocalyptic literature and political movements. The locative world view has remained in tension with various shades of utopian thinking ever since.
Blake's "apocalyptic humanism" is but one expression of this unmitigated tension. Edward Said's advocacy of humanism combined with "democratic criticism" is another. Essentially, what distinguishes post-Axial humanism from its conservative pre-Axial counterpart is the conviction that reconciliation with personal mortality ought not to be reduced to capitulation to the status quo. The ratio achieved by means of the logic of either/or is eschewed in favor of a new ratio: one achieved by means of the logic of both/and. It is an impossible logic: but such is the stuff of which dreams are made.
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