I'm a Humanist

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

Thirst is…

  • …a humanist. I am also a humanist.
  • …a humanist. I am an inhumanist.
  • …an inhumanist. I am a real humanist.
  • …an inhumanist. I am also an inhumanist.
  • …an idiot.
0 voters

Hello F(r)iends,

What is humanism?

I am not sure. Humanism, according to many of its practioners, is a philosophy that affirms the value of people everywhere through our own ability to judge what is right and what is wrong–an ability that is common to all people thanks largely to the notion that we share common human nature. As such, humanism seeks truth and desires to establish universal morality. Furthermore, humanism rejects religion or faith based morality. Humanism tells us that man is a loving being, a caring being, a selfless being, a being of worth, a being of rationality, a being of logic.

What does it mean to be a humanist?

I am less sure of this one. I hear it often said, ‘I am a humanist’. I hear it thrown around by several enlightened persons, by those that know of The Way, or know they are seeking The Way. I hear it coming out of the mouths of liberals, hippies, vegatarians and vegans, homosexuals, concerned citizens, and/or new age thinkers. Being a humanist means you seek equality for all. So you see, the term humanist is sometimes used to indicate moral superiority over one’s adversary because as a humanist you are seeking solutions that would be “fair” to all of humanity. Well, I am not a homosexual, nor a liberal, nor a vegetarian, nor any of those above that are typically associated with the humanist movement. In fact, I eat meat, I am full of hate, I am conservative to the core. Does that mean that I am not a humanist? Does that make me an inhumanist? Because if you are not a humanist you are therefore seeking to be unfair to all of humanity. Oh, foul inhumanist monsters! I reject this totally. For I am a humanist.

Yes, I am a humanist. Only I choose to focus on the side that liberals, queers, and hippies ignore. I focus on the “dark” side of mankind. I focus on the part of human nature that most humanists ignore. I focus on everything that man actually is, rather than what most humanists wished man was… BECAUSE man is a being full of love and full of hate. Man is a being full of altruistic desire and full of selfishness. Man is a peace-loving romantic and a war-mongering warrior. Man is a self-sacrificial being and a survivor at all costs. Man can be rational and irrational. Man can be logical and illogical. Man can be fair and unfair. Man can be valuable and worthless.

In fact, just like some vegetarians, I think that animals are our equals: animals kill for food and so can we. Like a homosexual, I believe that the government should be forced to recognize my point of view and my lifestyle and my desires and my wishes. Let us universalize morality.

I’m a humanist. I’m a fan of man!
Wait, what does it mean to be a humanist again?

-Thirst

2

Thirst, you know the answer already - “humanism” is a euphemism for “atheism”. Like every other euphemism, it is meant not to enlighten, but to mask. Often, what it masks, it masks from the speaker himself. I do not know that it has ever had any currency in academic philosophy. It is most often, in my experience, used by liberals to apologise for not being conservative christians.

What would you like it to mean?

f

3

If this is true, then I suspect a paradox. If my suspicion proves justified, then such a concept would have a paradox as a foundation. Which is always a bit of a thorn in the back.

However, as faust astutely remarked with his refulgent wit, humanism often is a baby-name for atheism/agnosticism, although not always.

I think there is something called the American Humanist Association or something, where Vonnegut is president. Or something. You could go to them, thirst4humanism, and ask what all the fuss is about and if you might pass the preliminary tests.

4

Hello F(r)iends,

Mucius/Faust:

So, saying something like: “I am a humanist” is not different from saying “I am an atheist”?

And Faust, I would like “humanist” to mean what it means…

-Thirst

5

Hi, thirst.

The word “humanism”, like a great many other words, means different things in different contexts, and when used by different speakers. There is no one meaning. I meant to say, if I didn’t actually say it, that it often, or usually means “atheist”. I don’t want to tell you something you already know, but philosophers often take a common word and give it a fixed meaning - for philosophical purposes, a technical meaning. One way to do this is to make a case - the case, for instance, that “humanism” means “atheism” if it means anything at all. I do not wish to make that case. I like the word “atheism” just fine.

You may wish to make that case, or you may not. I’m not sure I can see where you are going with this. Perhaps you’d care to give us your view, so I will know. If you are not sure, guess. It’s only a message board. You certainly have some handle on it. But in common parlance, it has no one, fixed meaning. That is why it works well as a euphemism.

Perhaps you could help me with something. What is “The Way”? I think I have heard this, but I do not know what it means. Can this be Googled?

regards,

f

6

Hello F(r)iends,

A thought struck me…
At what point is violence necessary?
Or more to the point, at what point is violence necessary for the typical humanist??

Hi Faust: I think describing humanism as simply another word for atheism is unsatisfactory… That is, in my experience, atheism does not tend to focus on altruistic ideology the way that humanism often does… I do realize the a lot of the proponets of humanism are not believers in typical religion; however, that does not exclude theists. As for where I am going with this… I am not sure myself. For starters, I want to know if I can define myself as a humanist despite my belief that there is no universalized morality… But this thread is more about exchanging thoughts than about finding solutions… it is more about exploration than it is about asserting positive/negative positions.

-Thirst

7

I once ran across a short document called the “Humanist Manifesto”. It was atheistic, but affirming man in that athiest way.

I’ve heard “humanism” as defined as belief that life as a human in the world is worthwhile.

I describe myself as a christian humanist, but I cannot find a site online with my understanding of the term. I see myself in the line of christians from St Jerome, to Erasmus and St Thomas More, to the personalist politicians of today (if you can find them) who were scholars and lived in the world while working out their salvation. I believe with St Iranaeus that, “The glory of God is the human being fully alive.” The worst thing about the fundamentalists, although they seem nice people, is that they are not humanists – and they make all christians sound stupid.

mrn

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Thirst - agreed. Humanism is not a synonym for atheism. Never was my point.

I’m not so good at random throw-it-all-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks stuff. Kind of difficult to determine the necessity of violence for an entity you haven’t defined yet.

“Typical”?

Do you really mean “necessary”? Why would violence be necessary for a typical humanist at a different point than for someone else? “Necessary” is a fairly closely defined word. What do you mean by “violence”? That is not so closely defined - there are different degrees of violence that may, or may not, be necessary at different points.

I still say that you do know where you are going with htis, and simply do not wish to show your hand. Either that, or your thoughts are as vague as your statements. If this is so, then you should try to define your terms a little better. That is part of the philosopher’s task. It comes well before “solutions”.

Just some friendly advice.

Bracing myself.

f

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Hello F(r)iends,

Does this suggest that humanists are no different than anyone else or that “necessary” is universally the same for all?

What definitions of violence are available?

:smiley: Maybe… :wink:

If that’s what you call exploration, I think we just may be done. :slight_smile:
Or do you have it all figured out?

-Thirst

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I guess I’m done. No point trying to find you if all you’re doing is trying to hide. Outie.

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Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out…

-Thirst

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That’s right - it doesn’t. It is too ambiguous/fluffy and as you mention, often used politically.

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One could say the same about poststructualism. Hell, one could say the same about any -ism. But this is particularly true of humanism, which as a political movement seeks to subsume for the sake of having large member numbers. Kinda like ‘Christianity’ - a loose confederation of warring tribes masquerading as a united force.

Oh look, another similarity between the religious and the atheistic. They just keep on coming, don’t they? :smiley:

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Doorman, do you have a theory as to why atheism and christianity have these similar traits? Is it more than that atheism can be a substitute for religion?
“Homo hominibus deus est,” “man is the god of man,” in the words of Ludwig Fuerbach?

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In the strongest terms, I denounce the attempts to
tie in humanist with atheism. One is not code word for the
other. Humanism is about the idea that man is the measure
of all things. The Greeks for instance believe that man must
take and accept responsibility for himself. You cannot be
held responsibly for events outside of your control. An earthquake
happens and destroys your town, you are not responsibly, nor
is responsibility due to some outside metaphysical reason.
Humanism is about ownership of our lives, our ideas, our past,
and our purpose. Atheism is simply about the idea
that there is no god. Humanism is about a broader idea
that says, in a big and broad universe and humans exist here
in the overall scheme of things. Not at the top, not at the bottom,
but here, somewhere in the middle. Humanism is an attempt to
put our lives into a context that makes sense. Atheism deals
with a small part of our lives, the religious, humanism deals
with the wider issues in our universe.

Kropotkin

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Hey, PK, would you consider Sartre a humanist? His oft-quoted saying, “man is condemned to be free” sounds almost like your definitiion of humanism.

On the other hand man’s highest faculty might be seen as reason. Is not humanism living according to reason? This ties in with your statement, “Humanism is an attempt to put our lives into a context that makes sense.” But perhaps more than just reason: as the playright Terence said, “I am a human, and nothing human is foreign to me.”

Can humanism be living a fully human life – however noble one sees that to be? I add in that last part since a christian humanist and a classical humanist and a contemporary humanist have different ideas of that of which man consists. But it’s close enough to get me to continue posting on a philosophy board with secularians. :smiley:

mrn

17

Peter Kropotkin:In the strongest terms, I denounce the attempts to tie in humanist with atheism. One is not code word for the
other. Humanism is about the idea that man is the measure
of all things. The Greeks for instance believe that man must
take and accept responsibility for himself…"

MRN: Hey, PK, would you consider Sartre a humanist? His oft-quoted saying, “we wre condemned to be free” sounds almost like your definition of humanism.

K: the less one thinks of Sartre, the better.
I prefer camus myself. I don’t think of freedom as being
condemned to anything, because condemned has
a religious connotation I dislike. Freedom is.
Like you are a certain height, or have brown hair, or
you fit into a certain shoe size, you have freedom.
Now what? I say take ownership of it. Make it yours.
“I am free”.

MRN: On the other hand man’s highest faculty might be seen as reason. Is not humanism living according to reason? This ties in with your statement, “Humanism is an attempt to put our lives into a context that makes sense.” But more than just reason: as the playright Terence said, “I am a human, and nothing human is foreign to me.”

K: I am human and nothing human is foreign to me,
(but the statement should go on)
I exist in a universe not of my making,
but nothing in the universe is foreign to me.
I am free to explore the universe.

MRN: Can humanism be living a fully human life – however noble one sees that to be? I add in that last part since a christian humanist and a classical humanist and a contemporary humanist have different ideas of that which man consists. But it’s close enough to get me to continue posting on a philosophy board with secularians.

K: Humanism is the only real way to live a fully human life.
Being human is not about trying to escape yourself with some
religious escapism. ( I almost said twat, in an attempt to
keep up with current usage) You exist in the here and now.
The past means nothing because it is done,
the future means nothing because hundreds
if not thousands of roads lead to the future.
As free individuals, we only have the here and now.

Kropotkin

18

Thirst, I think I’m ready to vote now.

Humanism is about what is good in humanity.
…There is no honor, nor effort required, in being the worst.

If man is both rational and irrational, remaining rational has to do with intellectually informing the irrational (by which I man the emotional, which is not truely against reason). Vice, however, is against reason, according to the classical view, and it thereby makes us less human when we become vicious.

I have mentioned three types of humanism. We may call your (hopefully affected) view a humanism as well, and it may someday be widely accepted as a form of humanism; but the meaning is so far from what humanism traditionally means that I discount it for the purpose of answering your opening question.

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Hello F(r)iends,

Thanks to a friend, I learned that being a humanist means that “cruelty is one of the worst things one can do” and that this perspective made into a principle requires no justification by god or by state.

With that definition in mind, no, I am not a humanist. But I think I want to be…

-Thirst

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Does anyone have an opinion on whether it is wrong to be cruel to oneself?