Humanism, Secular

While the word humanism is recent, the idea of humanism is one of the oldest and most transnational worldviews in human history. Most world-views are defined in terms of the distinctive beliefs they hold, but the principal feature of humanism is not so much its core articles of belief, but the method by which inquiry into the world is undertaken.

The American philosopher Paul Kurtz has provided the best understanding of humanism when he defined it in terms of its four constituent features. First and foremost, humanism is a method of inquiry; second, it presents a cosmic worldview; third, it offers a set of ethical recommendations for the individual's life stance; and, fourth, humanism expresses a number of social and political ideals. It is important to note the order in which these characteristics have been listed. Number 4 is the least important of them, not because social and political ideals are unimportant, but because the nature of those ideals has changed most over time and between continents. Numbers 2 and 3 are more important because the details of the worldview and the ethical recommendations have greater commonality between the various humanist civilizations of the world.

But the most important, because the most constant, is feature Number 1:Humanism is best understood as a method of inquiry. From the Carvakas and Ajivikas in India, from Kongfuzi and Wang Chong in China, from Thales and the Greek thinkers, through the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, to the 21st century, humanism is best understood as a method of inquiry. The conclusions of that inquiry—Numbers 2, 3, and 4 in Kurtz's definition—change between cultures and between centuries, but themethod of inquiry has remained essentially the same.

Symptomatic of the uniqueness of humanism is that for most of its existence, it has functioned very well without the word. Humanism as aconcept has its origins in ancient India,China, and Greece, each one arising independently, but the actual word was not coined until 1808, in Germany. To make things more complicated,humanist existed as a word long before humanism, originating in the Renaissance. But as humanism is defined principally by its method rather than by its conclusions, the lack of a word to act as a catchall for those conclusions is a trivial issue.

Another account of humanism, by the philosopher Mario Bunge, seems at first sight to come from a different perspective. In fact,Bunge's approach ends up saying things similar to Kurtz's shorter outline. Bunge speaks of humanism as involving concern for the lot of humanity. This concern he spells out in what he calls the seven theses of humanism, in this order: cosmological thesis: whatever exists is either natural or man-made; anthropological thesis: the common features of humanity are more significant than the differences; axiological thesis: there are some basic human values, like well-being, honesty, loyalty, solidarity, fairness, security, peace, and knowledge, and these are worth working, even fighting, for; epistemological thesis: it is possible to find out the truth about the world and ourselves with the help of experience, reason, imagination, and criticism; moral thesis:we should seek salvation in this life through work and thought; social thesis: liberty, equality, solidarity, and expertise in the management of the commonwealth; political thesis: while allowing freedom of and from religious worship, we should work toward the attainment or maintenance of a secular state.

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