Humanitarianism

Philosophical Origins

The great thinkers of the 18th century supported a rational science of morality based upon the tenets of reason and nature. The general belief during this historical period was that the order of nature reflected a moral order as well as a natural one; the nature of reality, as discovered through rationality and science, not only articulates what is but also what ought to be. In contrast to the thinkers of the medieval era, who were guided largely by the doctrines of the church, the thinkers of the Enlightenment turned from theological perspectives on human knowledge toward a rational, scientific understanding of humankind. The quest became to discover a naturalistic ethic, or the natural, universal order of morals apparent across cultures and across time, uncorrupted by traditions and displayed as a socially useful set of practices. For these reasons, 18th-century thinkers engaged in what is called a morality of reasonableness, discarding what was deemed irrational or unnatural in traditional ethical frameworks and emphasizing those practices that seemed reasonable for the construction of the good life.

Benevolence became the highest virtue that one could possess, and the ideas of utility and happiness shaped the conditions of morality. Some schools of the morality of reasonableness, such as was proposed during the Scottish Enlightenment by Lord Shaftesbury and Francis Hutcheson, held that all persons innately possess knowledge of right and wrong that balances one's self-interest with the concern for others. Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, and Adam Smith held self-interest as the most important motive for human action, while the sentiment of sympathy bridged these self-interested sentiments to an understanding of the experiences of others. In addition, the principles of utilitarianism emerged during this period, as philosophers Claude Adrien Helvétius and, later, Jeremy Bentham argued that the natural order of self-interested humankind is determined by principles of reward and punishment: All of society should be engaged in reasonable action that benefits all. The emerging ideals of humanitarianism, then, originated from strong utilitarian identifications.

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