Written by Nigel Bruce, HSS Member and former President of the Edinburgh Group.

 

 

 

Humanism, as I see it, is a world-view, an ethic and a commitment.

Throughout the Western world, most children are told, at home and at school, that there is a God and that He is watching us; that he has sent prophets and holy men to tell us what he wants, and that these messengers have compiled Holy Books, which are the Word of God. When we reach an age when we can think for ourselves, however, this elaborate structure starts to crumble, and once the dam has started to leak, its days are numbered. Initial doubts will lead either to compromise or rejection. This may cause alarm, or despair, but it may also bring with it a sense of personal liberation. Humanism is a fearless response to the death of God.
We are living at a time of disillusionment, with both religion and politics, a time when the younger generation are confused about the meaning of life, at a time when the future is concealed in a cloud of uncertainty.
Humanism replaces world-views which proceed downwards from God to Man, with one which is based firmly on the needs and potentialities of men, women and children.
Humanism offers an orientation toward life which is inspired both by the  philosophers of ancient Greece and of the European Enlightenment, such as Voltaire and David Hume, and by the scientists of subsequent centuries such as Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Francis Crick and contemporary physicists and neuroscientists.
From philosophy and science Humanists have constructed an ethic suited to the world today, one which is capable of evolving in order to remain suitable for the world of the future.

 

We inherit from the Greeks and the Enlightenment thinkers a set of ethical ideals which include Individual Liberty, Social Justice, Freedom of Thought and Belief, Respect for Life, Compassion, and a Sense of Common Humanity. These ideals underlie Humanist ethics at each of three levels, the personal, the social and the planetary.

Rapid advances both in our knowledge of human genetics and in our ability to observe the human brain have provided a scientific basis for understanding human nature in general  and the concept of personal identity in particular. All of this is knowledge which the philosophers of the Enlightenment would have loved to have possessed.
The next generation will demand greater knowledge about their parentage and their early upbringing than has been customary to date. They will also expect an education which is designed to develop their individual potential.
The key concept here is that it is the process of ‘self-creation’, based on introspection, not fantasy, which can give purpose to our lives. Individual self-creation will be facilitated if the child is able to bond at an early age with both mother and father.
In the long run, the trend toward greater individuality may be expected to lead to a more ethically conscious type of human being and a happier one.

Social ethics are also evolving rapidly as a consequence of the codification of conventions on rights, new knowledge, new technology and faster communications.
Concern for others lies at the heart of Humanist ethics, as it did for the many philosophers in history who advocated ‘the Golden Rule’. Immanuel Kant taught that we should treat other people as ends in themselves, never simply as means. David Hume spoke of ‘sympathy’ as being the prime moral virtue; today we speak of ‘empathy’, meaning skill in understanding the motives of other people. Paul Kurtz regards the foundations of social ethics as lying in the observance of ‘the common moral decencies’. Outstanding in his list of these decencies are fairness, trustworthiness and benevolence.
Daniel Goleman has drawn attention to the vital need in social ethics for what he has called ‘emotional intelligence’, which in essence is the aptitude, which we all have to some extent, for keeping a balance between the emotional and rational mechanisms in the brain. This balance is the key to reaching wise decisions and taking wise actions. Emotional intelligence is a talent which can be cultivated.

Just as the process of natural selection underlies the Humanist understanding of animal life, so the processes of cultural evolution underlie the Humanist understanding of the past, the present and the future. Humanist Manifesto 2000 marked a courageous expansion of Humanist ethics. It was subtitled ‘a plan for peace, dignity and freedom in the global human family: a call for a new planetary Humanism.’
In the same year, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, whose first Chair was Humanist Julian Huxley, published The Earth Charter, which set out the ethical objectives for the future under the headings of Respect for Life, Ecological Integrity, Social and Economic Justice, Non-violence and Peace. These Humanist messages are now capturing the attention of the public of the world. They are beginning to take centre stage in world politics.

Humanists accept a commitment to the welfare of future generations. Our aim is to leave them a better world than the one we have experienced ourselves. Ethics is a human response to human needs, not only to the needs of today but also the needs of our children. The most urgent needs of today are to abolish war, to protect the planet and to make poverty history. We must openly oppose violence, cruelty and injustice at every level in human society, starting at the crucial level of the family.
These needs can only be tackled by advances in scientific, technological and ecological knowledge, combined with the evolution of nationalism into internationalism and a strengthening of the authority of global institutions under the supervision of the United Nations. It may seem a bold claim, but Humanism has the potentiality to provide a moral content both for science and politics.
As individuals we have to seek goals and a sense of purpose if we are to find a way to that personal happiness which Humanism holds out as a promise. Humanism is not a faith, nor a creed, but it is a system of beliefs, based on our ever-evolving knowledge, about the world, our planet, life on earth and human nature.
It is a world-view, an ethic, and a commitment. It helps us to make some sense of our lives.