Humanism

[stroller]

Humanism is a broad category of active ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appeal to universal human qualities—particularly rationality, common history, experience, and belief. Humanism is a component of a variety of more specific philosophical systems, and is also incorporated into some religious schools of thought.
...

In 1929 Charles Francis Potter founded the First Humanist Society of New York whose advisory board included Julian Huxley, John Dewey, Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism



The Amsterdam Declaration 2002 is a statement of the fundamental principles of modern Humanism:

The fundamentals of modern Humanism are as follows:

1. Humanism is ethical. It affirms the worth, dignity and autonomy of the individual and the right of every human being to the greatest possible freedom compatible with the rights of others. Humanists have a duty of care to all of humanity including future generations. Humanists believe that morality is an intrinsic part of human nature based on understanding and a concern for others, needing no external sanction.
2. Humanism is rational. It seeks to use science creatively, not destructively. Humanists believe that the solutions to the world's problems lie in human thought and action rather than divine intervention. Humanism advocates the application of the methods of science and free inquiry to the problems of human welfare. But Humanists also believe that the application of science and technology must be tempered by human values. Science gives us the means but human values must propose the ends.
3. Humanism supports democracy and human rights. Humanism aims at the fullest possible development of every human being. It holds that democracy and human development are matters of right. The principles of democracy and human rights can be applied to many human relationships and are not restricted to methods of government.
4. Humanism insists that personal liberty must be combined with social responsibility. Humanism ventures to build a world on the idea of the free person responsible to society, and recognises our dependence on and responsibility for the natural world. Humanism is undogmatic, imposing no creed upon its adherents. It is thus committed to education free from indoctrination.
5. Humanism is a response to the widespread demand for an alternative to dogmatic religion. The world's major religions claim to be based on revelations fixed for all time, and many seek to impose their world-views on all of humanity. Humanism recognises that reliable knowledge of the world and ourselves arises through a continuing process. of observation, evaluation and revision.
6. Humanism values artistic creativity and imagination and recognises the transforming power of art. Humanism affirms the importance of literature, music, and the visual and performing arts for personal development and fulfilment.
7. Humanism is a lifestance aiming at the maximum possible fulfilment through the cultivation of ethical and creative living and offers an ethical and rational means of addressing the challenges of our times. Humanism can be a way of life for everyone everywhere.

http://www.iheu.org/adamdecl.htm

Different 'branches' of humanism:

Literary Humanism is a devotion to the humanities or literary culture.


Renaissance Humanism is the spirit of learning that developed at the end of the middle ages with the revival of classical letters and a renewed confidence in the ability of human beings to determine for themselves truth and falsehood.


Cultural Humanism is the rational and empirical tradition that originated largely in ancient Greece and Rome, evolved throughout European history, and now constitutes a basic part of the Western approach to science, political theory, ethics, and law.


Philosphical Humanism is any outlook or way of life centered on human need and interest. Sub-categories of this type include Christian Humanism and Modern Humanism.


Christian Humanism is defined by Webster's Third New International Dictionary as "a philosophy advocating the self- fulfillment of man within the framework of Christian principles." This more human-oriented faith is largely a product of the Renaissance and is a part of what made up Renaissance humanism.


Modern Humanism, also called Naturalistic Humanism, Scientific Humanism, Ethical Humanism and Democratic Humanism is defined by one of its leading proponents, Corliss Lamont, as "a naturalistic philosophy that rejects all supernaturalism and relies primarily upon reason and science, democracy and human compassion." Modern Humanism has a dual origin, both secular and religious, and these constitute its sub-categories.


Secular Humanism is an outgrowth of 18th century enlightenment rationalism and 19th century freethought. Many secular groups, such as the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism and the American Rationalist Federation, and many otherwise unaffiliated academic philosophers and scientists, advocate this philosophy.


Religious Humanism emerged out of Ethical Culture, Unitarianism, and Universalism. Today, many Unitarian- Universalist congregations and all Ethical Culture societies describe themselves as humanist in the modern sense.

http://www.jcn.com/humanism.php4


Also:
"Introduction to Humanism" http://www.religioustolerance.org/humanism1.htm

[benbaaa]

Ok. Now what?

[Skulldigger]

Now we sit back and wait for somebody to tear into the thread with their fangs and dismiss it as 'hippie liberal pipe dreams' and post an article about how those pesky humanists are in fact covert evil terrorists and do rude things to barnyard animals.



Seriously speaking, I think that was an enlightening post, I needed to refresh my memory about 'humanism'. It's funny how this word has all but fallen into oblivion of late though. Is it an outdated philosophy already?

Good work stroller.

[in4zip]

nice collection of nice words expressing interesting thoughts however...
REALITY of our recent past, the present and forseeable future, I fear, is something very distant from the concepts above.

We all would like to live in Plato's style world of Utopia, but in the last few centuries.. last century ... this new millenium.. to me it seems we are more and more progressing towards a "hood" type of world, populated by all sorts of chavs, from the hi-so exploitative ones to the no-so low class ones, and where -only- the "might is right" type of thought prevails and what is sad, not many of our present day Illuminati dare make such an assertion due to the new prevailing pc doctrines and dogmas. It jez ain't cool.

Unfortunately the reality of our little world can prolly be summed up in the following sentence "I'm all right Jack!" with the interesting definition of the phrase taken from the Urban Dictionary http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=I'm+all+right+Jack!


(originally: "Fuck you, Jack, I'm all right!!" - described the bitter dismay of sailors ("jacks") returning home after wartime in the Navy to find themselves not treated as patriots or heroes, but ignored / sneered at by a selfish, complacent, get-ahead society - phrase was subsequently toned down for acceptable general use.)
Attitude of "every man for himself, survival of the fittest, devil take the hindmost", ... but also, that all the possible advantages (however gained), success (however won) and satisfaction (whatever the cost to others) belong to me first!" Narrow-focus, narrow-gauge pseudo-Darwinian selfishness glorified as a sensible philosophy of society and life.
People who find it hard to say "I'm all right Jack!" outright, say to anyone they find no longer useful: "I'm trying to get my life in order right now, so can you respect that, please?!..." (just before they throw themselves laughing into more fun and merry chaos!)


Hence this new modern Humanism way of thinking I wonder if it's not just another piece of bullshit to control the Masses, as judeo christianism credos and all otter pseudo politico-religious past thinking

[stroller]

Seriously speaking, I think that was an enlightening post, I needed to refresh my memory about 'humanism'. It's funny how this word has all but fallen into oblivion of late though. Is it an outdated philosophy already?

Good work stroller.

Thank you.

The thread was inspired by B'fly asserting US 'liberals' are humanists, first time I read this one.
I posted a similar thread on a couple of forums some time ago, as indeed, the meaning of the term seems to be almost forgotten.
I had a 'humanist' education myself, although I wouldn't describe myself as a "humanist", I took it for granted that these are generally accepted values in the Western world.

But it seems that with the new 'religiousness', authoritarian style governments and the focus on terrorism, humanism is degraded into a "pinko-liberal" cliche many feel has no place in presnt day reality.

It isn't a political belief, nor a particular philosophy by itself, rather an underlying ideal which informs a variety of schools of thought.

[Butterfly]

Humanism is traditionally the exercise to find harmony and happiness in our world, in our reality. Also Epicurians were humanists and a number of subgroups in search for happiness can be classified as humanists. The cornerstone of happiness is movement, freedom.

OTH, religious groups love misery, restrictions, and fear. The anti-humanist by definition. However, religion can also bring peace and harmony in society, so they could be defined as "humanists" but here lies a contradiction as the origin of religion is to find enligthment through god, while humanists advocate enlightment through individual freedom, individual achievement.

Another group of humanists are the Freemasons

[Marmite the Dog]

Another group of humanists are the Freemasons

Please enlighten me.

[stroller]

Christian humanism is a philosophical union of Christian and humanist principles, and like much humanism often refers to a commonality among all humanity as its basic ethos[1].
James Davison Hunter believes that Christian humanism carries within it a potential for reaching across the metaphysical divide separating the two sides of what he calls "the American culture war," in which one side places moral authority in something transcending the individual, and the other places moral authority in personal human experience.
...
Prominent Christian humanists

* T. S. Eliot
* Erasmus
* Christopher Fry
* Søren Kierkegaard
* Jacques Maritain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_humanism



What is Religious Humanism? I can offer here only the sketchiest outline of the most salient features of this distinctive approach to religion, which originated in the U.S. among Unitarians at about the time of the First World War.
...
The religious humanists were convinced that religion was created by humans, not gods, who always speak the words of humans. These humanists provided a functional interpretation of religion: it was created by humans to serve certain purposes. Hayden spoke of religion as "the mother of dreams." The task is to impose human purpose upon the cosmic process, to shape the course of the flowing stream of life with its millions of conflicting drives, so that it will converge toward the practical expression of creative idealism. Sellars maintained the function of religion was to preserve and further human values. Generally, humanists thought of religion as intelligent participation in the human quest for the good life in a shared world.

http://www.humanistsofutah.org/1996/artapril96.htm

[Butterfly]

Another idea behind humanism is also to become a "good" man. In that regard religion share that objective but not for the same reasons. I find "Christian humanism" very suspicious to say the least. Not that humanists couldn't be religious but more like the contradiction in their core beliefs can't bring coherent actions. Is a good humanist atheist and a firm believer in the "good" nature of man ? not entirely as religion could be the first steps before becoming a real humanist. The real humanist believe in the nature of man and how he can project himself in this world.

[Butterfly]

Another group of humanists are the Freemasons

Please enlighten me.

well they could be classify as humanists, not sure if they are "officially" humanists.

If you look at the origin of the freemasons, they are the first "Franchise" workers. Be careful with the word "Franchise" in this context, it doesn't mean what you think it means in modern terms. "Franchise" or "Franc" in French means "abolished", basically "abolished" workmen, that is they were not forced to work, but would choose where to work and move accordingly, a unique luxury at that time. The only reason for that was because of their "skills" to build church and cathedral and I am guessing they earned that respect or that special perk from the Church as a balance of power or as reward. Who knows.

anyway, their "Freedom" made them special and unique and they probably questioned at some point if that destiny will always be preserved or unique. It's really impossible to know what happened then between the time they went from a fellowship of skilled workers to a secret organization with their philosophical beliefs. However, I think the members of that organization are still strongly motivated by spreading the "Good" for humanity while preserving their uniqueness and their elite status. This is probably the only thing that make them "humanists" but I am sure they are many other things too that could define them more specifically.

[Marmite the Dog]

That's not the weakest arguement you've put out, but not far off.

[Butterfly]

^ not sure how it's weak, if you disagree with the definition of how freemasons are not humanists, please enlighten us. If you know more than I do here on that organization, I will be happy to see where I am mistaken or misguided.

[stroller]

I know nothing about the freemasons, in which period of history did they originate? Any connection to the Renaissance humanism?


Anyway, interesting to note how the concept of humanism has pervaded a multitude of fields:

Humanistic Psychology

Humanistic psychology is a school of psychology that emerged in the 1950s in reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis. It is explicitly concerned with the human dimension of psychology and the human context for the development of psychological theory. These matters are often summarized by the five postulates of Humanistic Psychology given by James Bugental (1964), mainly that:

• (1) Human beings cannot be reduced to components.
• (2) Human beings have in them a uniquely human context.
• (3) Human consciousness includes an awareness of oneself in the context of other people.
• (4) Human beings have choices and responsibilities.
• (5) Human beings are intentional, they seek meaning, value and creativity.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanistic_psychology

Sorry I pulled Wikipedia again, but it is good for concise overviews, though they omitt Wilhem Reich, who could be described as a predecessor, since he was one of Freud's students who early on broke away from the concept of a dark, chaotic and threatening subconscious and believed in a basically "good" core-self to the human psyche, and a number of humanistic psychologists, including Fritz Perls, were strongly influenced by his work.

[Butterfly]

Psychology can be regarded as a spinoff of philosophy. A lot of questions being asked are fundamentally philosophical and humanist. What drives us, make us happy are the same questions that humanists ask themselves.

[in4zip]

...I know nothing about the freemasons, in which period of history did they originate? Any connection to the Renaissance humanism?....

little is known of the origins of this, how shall we define it?... organization... and apparently it is purposely kept secret

the little I know is that if a catholic, in the days of old, joined the masonic circle, he was excomunicated

a recent masonic scandal of some import, that received intl news coverage was the bankruptcy of the Vatican bank under cardinal Paul Marcinkus, the American head of said bank; he turned for help to member Roberto Calvi, chairman of Banco Ambrosiano head/member of the secret Masonic P2 lodge org. (that was branded as "state within a state" ...) - who in turn suicided himself (murdered?) when Marcinkus asked him to make good on a loan. Calvi was found hung under a London bridge - very shady story still unclear today where several people lost their life and two major banks went bust causing greef to many that in the process lost their life savings

on a personal note my Father sternly warned me never to join any masonic circle since according to him, with the benefits received also came an inescapaple debt of gratitude and favours would be asked from the member, favours that did not esclude doing something dishonest, murder not excluded! 'nuff said

[Boon Mee]

Another group of humanists are the Freemasons

So Mote It Be...

[Boon Mee]

on a personal note my Father sternly warned me never to join any masonic circle since according to him, with the benefits received also came an inescapaple debt of gratitude and favours would be asked from the member, favours that did not esclude doing something dishonest, murder not excluded! 'nuff said

That is total hogwash...

[in4zip]

on a personal note my Father sternly warned me never to join any masonic circle since according to him, with the benefits received also came an inescapaple debt of gratitude and favours would be asked from the member, favours that did not esclude doing something dishonest, murder not excluded! 'nuff said

That is total hogwash...

and why is it hogwash Boon Mee? your hogwash comment might wash over well on TV but not here Boon Mee!

Here I'm are not talking sepo vanilla flavoured country style freemasonry that you got back in Davy Crockett land, but rather something a little more sinister and deep rooted in the EU... to the point that even the Vatican feels threatened by its power...and nobody fucks with the Vatican to the point that all your presidents come over to Rome to kiss popeass at one time or another!

be a good sport BM, do your research, and then illuminate us, give us some of your profound insights into the matter ...don't just leave one liners a la prolific dr pp wanker style!

[stroller]

Material for a new topic:
Secret societies and their influence.

I wouldn't wait for BM to come up with anything worthwhile, though...

[Butterfly]

Calvi was found hung under a London bridge - very shady story still unclear today where several people lost their life and two major banks went bust causing greef to many that in the process lost their life savings

on a personal note my Father sternly warned me never to join any masonic circle since according to him, with the benefits received also came an inescapaple debt of gratitude and favours would be asked from the member, favours that did not esclude doing something dishonest, murder not excluded! 'nuff said

A lot of mystery around that organization. Only if you are at the top, you will learn the origin. But traditionally, it was a workmanship, meaning the "free" or "liberated" is a better word, builders (they were building church). How did they come to that secret society is unknown. Did they rebell against their true origin and the Church ? maybe.

The secret organization is said to have mutated or "originated" in its current form in England.

When you join, you become a citizen of a "new" class and are expected to give favor back at a certain level. I doubt murder is part of the deal, but who knows. Usually you need to be a successful leaders, entrepeneurs, person to join. The cream of the elite. No chance for us sexpats to join.

[Butterfly]

Material for a new topic:
Secret societies and their influence.

I wouldn't wait for BM to come up with anything worthwhile, though...

Very good idea. Would need a little bit of research first. Wikipedia have a whole section on this I believe.

[Marmite the Dog]

When you join, you become a citizen of a "new" class and are expected to give favor back at a certain level. I doubt murder is part of the deal, but who knows. Usually you need to be a successful leaders, entrepeneurs, person to join. The cream of the elite. No chance for us sexpats to join.

Previously, yes, but nowadays anyone seems to be invited. The modern day Masons at the lower levels is more of a social club than anything else.

[stroller]

You a member then?

[Boon Mee]

You a member then?

Often tried, never denied and willing to be tried again...

[Boon Mee]

on a personal note my Father sternly warned me never to join any masonic circle since according to him, with the benefits received also came an inescapaple debt of gratitude and favours would be asked from the member, favours that did not esclude doing something dishonest, murder not excluded! 'nuff said

That is total hogwash...

and why is it hogwash Boon Mee? your hogwash comment might wash over well on TV but not here Boon Mee!

Here I'm are not talking sepo vanilla flavoured country style freemasonry that you got back in Davy Crockett land, but rather something a little more sinister and deep rooted in the EU... to the point that even the Vatican feels threatened by its power...and nobody fucks with the Vatican to the point that all your presidents come over to Rome to kiss popeass at one time or another!

be a good sport BM, do your research, and then illuminate us, give us some of your profound insights into the matter ...don't just leave one liners a la prolific dr pp wanker style!

I've "researched" this topic > 40 years now and what I said about murdering someone if told to do so by another Mason is, and always will be...Hogwash.