Devon Humanists

What is …

humanism:

1. Humanism is the belief that we can live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs. Humanists make sense of the world using reason, experience and shared human values. We seek to make the best of the one life we have by creating meaning and purpose for ourselves. We take responsibility for our actions and work with others for the common good. [1]

2.A very wide-ranging set of philosophies that have at their core the belief that human interests and dignity should be of primary importance. … With variations, the humanist philosophies stress with Protagoras that 'man is the measure of all things', or with Alexander Pope that 'the proper study of mankind is man'. Most commonly, humanism involves a rejection of religions which place a God at the centre of their thought. Humanist Associations throughout the world (as embodied, for example, in the journal The Humanist) affirm that 'the nature of the world is such that human intention and activity may play the determining role in human enterprise, subject only to the conditioning factors of the environing situation' (C. W. Reese, The Meaning of Humanism, 1945). [2]

3.Most generally, any philosophy concerned to emphasize human welfare and dignity, and either optimistic about the powers of human reason, or at least insistent that we have no alternative but to use it as best we can. [3]

4.An intellectual and cultural movement, linked to the revival of classical learning in the Renaissance (Petrarch, Lorenzo Valla, Pico della Mirandola, Erasmus, Thomas More, etc.), which adopted an ideal of the full development of the individual, rejecting religious asceticism, narrow scholasticism and humble piety alike. The ideal of a rich flourishing of individual potentiality, enhanced by the study of classical languages and literature, was revived towards the end of the eighteenth century by neo-humanists in Germany: Goethe, Schiller, Wilhelm von Humboldt. Especially in the English-speaking world, humanism has since the nineteenth century come to designate a non-religious or anti-religious world-view, usually based on a belief in man's capacity for self-cultivation and self-improvement, and in the progress of mankind. In contemporary French philosophy, humanism is the conception of man as an autonomous being, capable of self-determination, together with the assumption that an individual's choices can make a real difference to a society, or to the course of history. Against this, anti-humanists (Levi-Strauss, Lacan, Althusser, Foucault) point to the decisive influences of social, economic and psychological structures. These determine the ways in which individuals act; the self-determination of the individual is an illusion; all consciousness is causally or structurally determined. The anti-humanist view is that man can only be a pawn in the game of life, while the humanist view is that man can be a player. There are various other senses of 'humanism', for instance F. C. S. Schiller's version of pragmatism. [9]

5.The Amsterdam Declaration, agreed by The International Humanist and Ethical Union in 1952 and updated in 2002, describes the fundamental principles of modern Humanism.

secularism:

1.The attitude or belief that religions or religious doctrines should have no place or say in the conduct of a public education system and in the civil affairs and policies of a nation. [4]

2.(Philosophy) The doctrine that religion, religious dogmas, etc., have no place in the formulation of a system of ethics. [4]

3.We want a society in which all are free to practise their faith, change it or not have one, according to their conscience. Our belief or lack of it should neither advantage nor disadvantage. Religion should be a matter of private conscience, for the home and place of worship; it must not have privileged input into the political arena where history shows it to bring conflict and injustice. [5]

rationalism:

1.The practice or principle of basing opinions and actions on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response. [6]

2.(Philosophy) The theory that reason rather than experience is the foundation of certainty in knowledge. [6]

atheism:

Either the lack of belief that there exists a god, or the belief that there exists none. Sometimes thought itself to be more dogmatic than mere agnosticism, although atheists retort that everyone is an atheist about most gods, so they merely advance one step further. [3]

agnosticism:

Philosophical viewpoint according to which it is impossible either to demonstrate or refute the existence of a supreme being or ultimate cause on the basis of available evidence. It was particularly associated with the rationalism of Thomas Huxley and is used as a reasoned basis for the rejection of both Christianity and atheism. [7]

faith:

The conviction of the truth of some doctrine which is the result of a voluntary act of will. [3]

theism:

Belief in the existence of a god or gods, especially belief in one god as creator of the universe, intervening in it and sustaining a personal relation to his creatures. [8]

deism:

1.Belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe. The term is used chiefly of an intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind. [8]

2.The belief that remains is abstract to vanishing point, as witnessed in Diderot's remark that a deist is someone who has not lived long enough to become an atheist. [3]

References

1. British Humanist Association.
2. A Dictionary of Sociology. John Scott and Gordon Marshall. Oxford University Press 2005.
3. The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Simon Blackburn. Oxford University Press, 1996.
4. The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary. Tony Deverson. Oxford University Press 2004.
5. National Secular Society.
6. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, Eleventh edition revised. Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2006.
7. World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2005.
8. The New Oxford American Dictionary, second edition. Ed. Erin McKean. Oxford University Press, 2005.
9. The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy, Thomas Mauntner, 2000.

Dictionaries are on-line at Oxford Reference Online. Your public library card number may allow access.