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This site, Everything Progressive, provides a Humanistic perspective on nearly the entire range of human concerns.

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Did you know?

Humanism is an international movement, with organizations in most parts of the world, especially north-western Europe. (It is, however, poorly represented in Africa at this time.)

The most Humanistic (and probably most overall successful) country is Finland.

What is Humanism?

"My country is the world and my religion is to do good."

—Thomas Paine

"There is one mind common to all individual men. Every man is an inlet . . . . What Plato has thought, he may think; what a saint has felt, he may feel; what at any time has befallen any man, he can understand."

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Humanism is, above all else, a value system. It is like a religion in offering an orientation to life and to the world; but it is unlike traditional religions, insofar as it is grounded in rationalism, the tenet that one should always strive for logical consistency and to have good evidence for all of one's beliefs.

Humanism has no one, single, universally accepted scripture outlining what all Humanists believe, though some Humanists have produced a series of "Humanist manifestoes" which have tried to articulate common, core convictions. There have also been a number of highly influential philosophers, from ancient times to modern, who have offered a variety of compelling related perspectives.

The most eminent of these in modern times was Brand Blanshard. Blanshard's book "Reason and Belief" exhaustively evaluates both Catholic and Protestant forms of Christianity, argues that they are very seriously flawed on a wide variety of grounds, and concludes that they cannot serve well as value systems in the modern world. He then goes on to describe a humanistic alternative, which was further elaborated in his subsequent book "Four Reasonable Men".

Somewhat confusingly, there are more conventionally religious humanisms, which do retain some belief in a moral order in the universe, and perhaps even some sort of God, though little can be known about this with any certainty.

 

The Origins of Humanism

Humanism originated in the West with the Greek philosopher Socrates, and in the East with the Chinese philosopher Kung Fu Tzu (Confucius) about 2,500 years ago. Socrates felt that in order to develop sound values people should learn how to think for themselves. Kung Fu Tzu believed that "A society ought to work for the benefit of all its members rather than be used merely as a pretext for the excesses of its rulers," and that "virtue means to love one another." (Paul Strathern, Confucius in 90 Minutes, pages 15 and 19. (More concerning Confucian humanism will be appearing here soon.)

 

The Core Beliefs of Humanism

Humanism has two core beliefs, with two important implications. The core beliefs are:

The two important implications are: People should try hard to get the facts before forming opinions or commiting to values; and people should base their values primarily upon the sacredness of life.

The idea that all people are much the same everywhere, and are equally entitled to justice and opportunity, regardless of race or gender, owes much to Humanism.

 

Humanism and Religion

Humanism is a down-to-earth philosophical movement that represents a turn toward creating a high quality of life for everyone, and the fulfillment of human potential, here and now. Humanism therefore typically lacks much interest in the supernatural and theological, or in an afterlife. This doesn't mean that Humanists are necessarily atheists, although many are. Though it may come as a shock to some, there are, and long have been, many religious Humanists, too.

(Christians and Humanists alike would do well to keep in mind that there was a time when Christian thinkers like St. Thomas Aquinas consciously incorporated the humanism of Aristotle into Christianity, and that eminent Humanist thinkers like Erasmus were Christians.)

Linking religious and secular humanists is the belief that nothing should be accepted primarily or exclusively on faith. There should always be good evidence for all beliefs, religious or otherwise. This is the most fundamental tenet of rationalism. But nothing specific to Humanism completely precludes belief in God. However, most humanists agree that the controversy concerning the existence of God is far less relevant to values than is ordinarily supposed.

 

Humanism and Science

While greatly interested in the sciences, and indeed very supportive of them, many contemporary Humanists nevertheless reject the leveling reductionistic materialism that some of those in the scientific community advocate. This is because they believe instead in emergentism, or non-reductionistic materialism. This is the view that the whole is indeed often greater than the sum of its parts in the natural world generally, and especially in the case of the human mind. Indeed, we would go so far as to say that anyone who completely rejects emergentism is no genuine Humanist at all. The total non-existence of a real mind or self are both inescapably implied by reductionistic materialisms, however much their advocates refuse to acknowledge this.

 

Summary: The Essence of Humanism

In summary, then: Humanism is an anti-authoritarian philosophy, that emphasizes the importance of reason and the indispensability of both evidence and compassion for others in the development of values. Contemporary humanistic morality judges the value and justice of acts primarily on the basis of their effect upon other human beings. Humanists believe that many of the purposes of life are found in the meeting of human needs —physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual—and in the fulfillment of human capabilities.

 

More Concerning Humanism