The Philosophy of Humanism by Corliss Lamont (full-length book online)

[Alex]

The Philosophy of Humanism
Eighth Edition
by Corliss Lamont
published April, 1997 (Second Printing March, 2001) by Humanist Press, a division of the American Humanist Association, 1777 T Street NW, Washington, DC 20009-7125
print edition ISBN 0-931779-07-3
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 96-77244

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[Alex]

"...When Francis Bacon wrote his Novum Organum, he attempted to formulate a new synthesis of human knowledge. He pointed the way out of the darkness of the Mediterranean into the broader waters of the Atlantic. He urged individuals to depart from scholasticism and 'pursue science in order that the human estate may be enhanced.' The direction was away from supernaturalism to naturalism, from concern with the next world to the life that now is, from revelation and magic to science and reason. ..."

Edwin H. Wilson
Executive Director (1949-1961), American Humanist Association

(page xxx)

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(Page 2)

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To define twentieth-century humanism briefly, I would say that it is a philosophy of joyous service for the greater good of all humanity in this natural world and advocating the methods of reason, science, and democracy.
(page 13)

There are, as I see it, ten central propositions in the Humanist philosophy:
1 naturalistic metaphysics, supernatural as myth
2 mind conjoined with the functioning of the brain, no conscious survival after death
3 human beings possess the power or potentiality of solving their own problems
4 human beings possess genuine freedom of choice
5 an ethics or morality that holds as its highest goal this-worldly happiness
6 good life by combining personal satisfactions and the welfare of the community
7 development of art and the awareness of beauty
8 throughout the world democracy, peace, and a high standard of living
9 reason and scientific method, freedom of expression and civil liberties
10 unending questioning of basic assumptions and convictions, including its own
(pages 13-15)



If we are considering the history of culture, the term [Humanism] usually refers to the European Renaissance or awakening, which started in Italy during the fourteenth century and later spread to the rest of the continent and to England.

Renaissance Humanism was first and foremost a revolt against the other-worldliness of medieval Christianity, a turning away from preoccupation with personal immortality to making the best of life in this world. Renaissance writers like Rabelais and Erasmus gave eloquent voice to this new joy in living and to the sheer exuberance of existence. For the Renaissance the ideal human being was no longer the ascetic monk, but a new type—the so-called universal or "Renaissance man," who was a many-sided personality, delighting in every kind of this-earthly achievement. The great Italian artists, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, typified this ideal.

The Renaissance also constituted a revolt against the authority of the Catholic Church and against the religious limitations on knowledge. And there developed among the most influential figures of this period an increasing reliance on reason instead of faith. ...
(page 21)



The Humanist philosophy which is the subject matter of this book can be distinguished primarily from these other types by referring to it as naturalistic Humanism. The adjective naturalistic shows that Humanism, in its most accurate philosophical sense, implies a world-view in which Nature is everything, in which there is no supernatural, and in which human beings are an integral part of Nature and not separated from it by any sharp cleavage or discontinuity. This philosophy, of course, recognizes that vast stretches of reality yet remain beyond the range of human knowledge, but it takes for granted that all future discoveries of truth will reveal an extension of the natural and not an altogether different realm of being, commonly referred to as the supernatural.
(page 24)



One of the most important groups believing in naturalistic Humanism calls itself religious Humanists. These derive their main strength from the ranks of the Unitarian clergy...
(page 25)



The Humanist Tradition: Philosophic Forerunners:
Protagoras (page 34)
Aristotle (page 36)
Spinoza (page 37)
John Dewey (page 40)
Democritus (page 42)
Epicurus (page 43)
Lucretius (page 44)
Hobbes (page 44)
Feuerbach (page 46)
Comte (page 47)
John Stuart Mill (page 48)
Herbert Spencer (page 49)
Bertrand Russell (page 49)
Santayana (page 50)
Schweitzer (page 51)



Approximately a hundred years after the founding of Unitarianism
the more advanced members of this sect, most of
them from the Middle West, started the movement known as
religious Humanism. Dr. Curtis W. Reese, a Unitarian pastor,
precipitated the discussions that led to religious Humanism
by a challenging sermon at Des Moines in 1917 and an
address at the Harvard Divinity School in 1920. Philosophers,
teachers, writers, and clergymen quickly entered into
the debate; and the result was the definite emergence of Humanism
in religion, eventually culminating in Humanist Manifesto I of 1933. ...
In a sermon delivered in 1925 the Reverend John H. Dietrich
showed how Unitarianism had naturally laid the basis
for Humanism. "Unitarianism," he asserted, "offered opportunity
for the enunciation of Humanism by virtue of its underlying
spirit of spiritual freedom, by its insistence upon
intellectual integrity rather than intellectual uniformity, by its
offer of religious fellowship to every one of moral purpose
without regard to his theological beliefs. But this is not the
important thing. The real reason why Unitarianism was the
natural soil for the growth of Humanism is the fact that Unitarianism
was a revolt against orthodox Christianity in the
interest of the worth and dignity of human nature and the interest
of human life."
(page 58)



The issue of mortality versus immortality is crucial in the argument of Humanism against supernaturalism. For if human beings realize that their careers are limited to this world, that this earthly existence is all that we will ever have, then they are already more than half-way on the path toward becoming functioning Humanists, no matter what our general attitude toward the universe and no matter what we think about a Deity. In my opinion the history of philosophy and religion demonstrates that in the West, at least, the idea of immortality has on the whole played a more important part than the idea of God. ...Christianity in particular, with its central emphasis on the resurrection and eternal life, came into being first and foremost as a death-conquering religion.
(page 89)

The very process of dying throws additional light on the relation between body and personality. As at the beginning of an individual's life, during gestation and infancy, the body is controlling, so it is, too, at the end of life.
(page 92)

...central tenet of the naturalistic psychology. Human bodies think. Precisely!
(page 95)

To summarize, my brief survey of scientific facts concerning
the mind-body problem, buttressed by the reactions of
simple common sense and the insistence of supernatural religion
upon the need of some kind of future-life body, builds
up a most compelling verdict in support of the unbreakable
unity of the body and personality, including the mind and
consciousness. Testifying always and everywhere to the union,
one and inseparable, between body and personality, the
monistic or naturalistic psychology stands today as one of
the greatest achievements in the history of science. That psychology,
while not yet able to describe in exact detail all the
intricate workings of the body-personality, does on the whole
provide a satisfactory account of the complex human organism.

The monistic relation, then, between body and personality
has the standing of a proved psychological law and makes
untenable any theory of a worthwhile personal survival after
death. Even if there existed a wise and good God-being who
had guided the evolution of life upon this earth, it would presumably
continue to follow the natural laws that it had itself
established. And it could bring about immortality for human
beings only by violating the monistic principle that it had
used in the development and construction of human beings;
only by becoming a miracle worker and preternatural magician
in the old style. Hence one can give credence to the idea
of personal immortality only by believing in miracles; and
whoever believes in miracles can literally believe in any
fantasy whatsoever.
(page 103)

Life affirms itself through death, which was brought into existence
by life and derives its entire significance from life. In the dynamic
and creative flux of Nature the same living organisms
do not go on indefinitely, but retire from the scene at a certain
stage and so give way to newborn and lustier vitality.
(page 112)

Humanists look death in the face with honesty, with
dignity, and with calm, recognizing that the tragedy it represents
is inherent in the great gift of life.
(page 115)

In any case, the value of our happiness
and achievement is not measured in terms of infinite
duration. The philosophy of Humanism, with its conscious
limitation of the human enterprise to this existence, sets us
free to concentrate our entire energies, without distraction by
either hopes or fears of individual immortality, on that
building of the good society that has been the dream of saints
and sages since the dawn of history.
(page 124)