Key Terms in Evolutionary Biology of Sex, Gender, and Sexuality: Humanism

= Introduction =

Humanism is a branch of philosophy that is defined by an outlook that places humans and their abilities as its primary focus. Humanism itself branches into a very wide range of humanistic philosophies that vary considerably and more often than not contradict each other; the term “humanism” is very ambiguous. Unlike religion, humanism doesn’t have a dogma that explicitly defines its set of beliefs (although it does have a set of three manifestos, but these also vary from one another). Therefore, it is very hard to provide a definition of humanism as a whole since what is true for, say, secular humanism, is not true for Christian humanism. This article will attempt to establish an overview of humanism and provide a rough outline of its wide range of manifestations, which prevent us form forming a simple, universal definition of humanism. Despite the complexity and the fact that a true understanding of humanism necessitates a close reading of many different sources, Fredrick Edwords, executive director of the American Humanist Association holds that we can still summarize the ideas held by Modern Humanism (also called Naturalistic Humanism, Scientific Humanism, Ethical Humanism and Democratic Humanism). He provides the eleven following “basic ideas” of modern humanism, which may be helpful for forming a conception of what humanism is, but not as a definition:


 * 1) Humanism is one of those philosophies for people who think for themselves. There is no area of thought that a Humanist is afraid to challenge and explore.
 * 2) Humanism is a philosophy focused upon human means for comprehending reality. Humanists make no claims to possess or have access to supposed transcendent knowledge.
 * 3) Humanism is a philosophy of reason and science in the pursuit of knowledge. Therefore, when it comes to the question of the most valid means for acquiring knowledge of the world, Humanists reject arbitrary faith, authority, revelation, and altered states of consciousness.
 * 4) Humanism is a philosophy of imagination. Humanists recognize that intuitive feelings, hunches, speculation, flashes of inspiration, emotion, altered states of consciousness, and even religious experience, while not valid means to acquire knowledge, remain useful sources of ideas that can lead us to new ways of looking at the world. These ideas, after they have been assessed rationally for their usefulness, can then be put to work, often as alternate approaches for solving problems.
 * 5) Humanism is a philosophy for the here and now. Humanists regard human values as making sense only in the context of human life rather than in the promise of a supposed life after death.
 * 6) Humanism is a philosophy of compassion. Humanist ethics is solely concerned with meeting human needs and answering human problems--for both the individual and society--and devotes no attention to the satisfaction of the desires of supposed theological entities.
 * 7) Humanism is a realistic philosophy. Humanists recognize the existence of moral dilemmas and the need for careful consideration of immediate and future consequences in moral decision making.
 * 8) Humanism is in tune with the science of today. Humanists therefore recognize that we live in a natural universe of great size and age, that we evolved on this planet over a long period of time, that there is no compelling evidence for a separable "soul," and that human beings have certain built-in needs that effectively form the basis for any human-oriented value system.
 * 9) Humanism is in tune with today's enlightened social thought. Humanists are committed to civil liberties, human rights, church-state separation, the extension of participatory democracy not only in government but in the workplace and education, an expansion of global consciousness and exchange of products and ideas internationally, and an open-ended approach to solving social problems, an approach that allows for the testing of new alternatives.
 * 10) Humanism is in tune with new technological developments. Humanists are willing to take part in emerging scientific and technological discoveries in order to exercise their moral influence on these revolutions as they come about, especially in the interest of protecting the environment.
 * 11) Humanism is, in sum, a philosophy for those in love with life. Humanists take responsibility for their own lives and relish the adventure of being part of new discoveries, seeking new knowledge, exploring new options. Instead of finding solace in prefabricated answers to the great questions of life, Humanists enjoy the open-endedness of a quest and the freedom of discovery that this entails.

Additionally, the writer George Eliot provides us with a succinct explanation of what humanism is on a more fundamental level that is applicable to a much wider range of humanistic philosophies: "the fellowship between man and man which has been the principle of development, social and moral, is not dependent on conceptions of what is not man … the idea of God, so far as it has been a high spiritual influence, is the ideal of goodness entirely human (i.e., an exaltation of the human)." But still, these explanations are inadequate, and to really understand humanism, further investigation is necessary.

= History =

Humanism has its earliest roots in ancient Greece, but humanism as we know came about with the revival of these ancient texts during the Renaissance. The first humanist is believed to be Petrarch, who “first to put into words the notion that the centuries between the fall of Rome and the present had been the age of Darkness.” The remedy he provided for this situation was what we now call Renaissance Humanism, which was not a set ideology but rather a skill set developed by a “revival of good letters”, or a return to the great thinkers of antiquity in search of answers about the human condition and guidance for the human race. The arrival of Renaissance Humanism was a very significant historical development because it provided the basis of the Renaissance, in which thinkers and their thoughts that had been dead for a millennium were revived, and in the process our worldviews and the path of history changed forever. Following the fall of the Byzantine Empire in the late middle ages, Rennaissance Humanism began to form, seeking to syncretize ancient philosophy with Christian beliefs, and provide a comprehensive, Christianized model for society. At this point in history, humanists did not see themselves in conflict with Christianity, but in fact can be seen as developing early forms of Christian humanism. Renaissance Humanism helped history transition from the confines of Medieval Scholasticism and set the stage for the arrival of the Age of Reason that followed in the 17th century.

= Humanism &amp; Science =

Many scientists often embrace secular humanism as an alternative to religion. While many scientists are humanists, and the two have a long history together, sometimes they are not compatible. Recently, some scientists have expressed views that certain forms of humanism are incompatible with. Some points of controversy include rationalism, biological/genetic determinism, and the concept that humans are more indistinct from other animals than not.

Rationalism
Rationalism provides us with the fundamental basis of science, and one of the major fundamental tenets of traditional humanism. But some humanists, like the existential humanist Dostoevsky and the Christian existentialist humanist Kierkegaard, reject the worship of rationalism. While both philosophers believe that logic and science has its place in society, they also feel that its frequent abuse and dependence, which they noticed in their own societies, is dangerous. They both reject rational certainty – Kierkegaard with the famous line “truth is subjectivity”, Dostoevsky with “reason is but choosing." Both agree that science is very seductive, and that this is potentially very harmful. To Dostoevsky, this is a foolish endeavor: “man has such a predilection for systems and abstract deductions that he is ready to distort the truth intentionally, he is ready to deny the evidence of his senses only to justify his logic." Such “bad science” is found in many of the extrapolated, theory-laden fields such as sociobiology and biological determinist.

But even when man uses “good science”, this can still be harmful to humans. Despite man’s ability to reason, his choices are often “utterly and stubbornly opposed to reason," such as when he refuses to go to the doctor despite a very painful toothache, like the narrator in Dosteovsky’s Notes from the Underground (modeled after himself) does. “But reason is nothing but reason,” Dostoevsky argues, "and satisfies only the rational side of man's nature, while will is a manifestation of the whole life, that is, of the whole human life including reason and all the impulses." This is an explicitly humanistic statement, even though it rejects one of the tenets of traditional humanism. The narrator decides against going to the doctor (which is the rational thing to do) as a way to assert his free will and prove the fact that “he is a man and not a piano key” – that is, to reaffirm that fact that he is an individual. Dostoevsky summarizes: "'Of course, this very stupid thing, this caprice of ours, may be in reality, gentlemen, more advantageous for us than anything else on earth, especially in certain cases. And in particular it may be more advantageous than any advantage even when it does us obvious harm, and contradicts the soundest conclusions of our reason concerning our advantage--for in any circumstances it preserves for us what is most precious and most important--that is, our personality, our individuality.'" Like any humanist, Dostoevsky is interested in fulfilling as much of his potential to be an individual (since it is our most valuable possession) as possible, even when this is physically uncomfortable for himself. This is a very humanistic stance, as it acknowledges the paramount importance of the individual human.

Biological/Genetic Determinism
At the heart of many fields in science – such as Sociobiology, Evolutionary Psychology, and Evolutionary Biology – lies the belief that human behavior is rooted in our genes (i.e. bodies), and that these genes are passed down to children through parents by means of reproduction, and that over time the genes which were passed down have been selected on the basis of how they benefit our fitness. The theory of Adaptationism and the computational model of mind also conform to this view. This standpoint is explicitly anti-humanist because it denies humans the ability to determine themselves. In general, humanists tend to embrace the nurture side of the nature vs. nurture debate, scientists in the aforementioned fields advocate for the “nature” side. Although humanists are interested in what constitutes “human nature”, most believe that humans are more plastic than not, and that culture is of profound importance and has an incredible impact on the individual. Furthermore, humanists take issue with these fields because often times they serve to excuse harmful practices that are not to humanity’s advantage, such as the various manifestations of inequality that these scientists effectively legitimize when they seek to explain that they are “natural.” In the case of sociobiologists in particular, although the criticism is applicable to scientists in other fields as well, the feminist Ruth Bleier says that they "reinforce ancient stereotypes of women as coy, passive, dependent, maternal, and nurturant and base these temperaments in our genes. At the same time, and despite their liberal protestations, they explain and justify the existence of women’s social and physical oppression by asserting the genetic origins, and hence inevitability, of rape, the sexual double standard, the relegation of women to the private world of home and motherhood, and other forms of the exploitation of women. Furthermore, its use of shoddy methodology and incorrect logic to support insupportable claims suggest a motive force other than the dispassionate pursuit of knowledge." By providing scientific explanations for the existence of society’s woes, biological determinists effectively say that it is “natural” – the way things have always been and should always be. For them, “not only is the division of labor given by biology, but we go against it at our peril, for it is functional. Society needs both dominant, productive men and dependent, nurturative, and reproductive women.” By doing so, these scientists provide excuses for harmful societal practices that humanists argue we would be better without, and are not necessary but harmful.

= References =

= See also =

Lewontin, Rose, &amp; Kamin, "The Politics of Biological Deteminism." 1984. Gray, "In the Belly of the Monster." 1997. Bleier, "Sociobiology, Biological Determinism, and Human Behavior." 2009. Herrnstein Smith, "Super Natural Science." 2006.http://www.dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=1854

= Author =

B. Talbot