Based on work by Corliss Lamont, the heart of humanism is: “Humanism, having its ultimate faith in humankind, believes that human beings possess the power or potentiality of solving their own problems, through reliance primarily upon reason and scientific method applied with courage and vision.”
This isn’t bad, but is probably a bit out of date and it unfortunately uses that “ultimate faith in” phrase that always bothers me. It also has extraneous verbiage like “with courage and vision”; I don’t see how that should be part of the definition of Humanism. The bit about “reliance primarily upon reason and scientific method” is good.
“Humanism is a progressive lifestance that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead meaningful, ethical lives capable of adding to the greater good of humanity.”
So here is the first blatant example of what Carmen was talking about; they had to include “without supernaturalism”. I think the roots/base of Humanism are a life stance that is separate from supernaturalism, so this phrase really degrades the meaning here and isn’t needed. If they had left that out, it would be close, but then it doesn’t say much either (just that Humanism is a philosophy of being good, hmmm).
“A system of thought that rejects religious beliefs and centers on humans and their values, capacities, and worth.”
This one is even more blatant by saying “rejects religious beliefs” and for this it clearly misses the mark. Humanism came out of the Renaissance Christians who thought reason and intellect should apply to everything, including religion (as Humanists do); also, the first Humanist Manifesto was primarily written by Unitarian ministers.
“A system of thought that centers on humans and their values, capacities, and worth.”
I like this one, it is clean, simple and to the point. Unfortunately it is so broad that it might include almost everyone.
“Humanism is a broad category of ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appeal to universal human qualities—particularly rationalism.”
Leave it to wikipedia to come up with one of the best. If they had replaced “rationalism” with the “reason and scientific method” from Lamont’s, I might think it was perfect.
“Humanism is a world view informed by science, inspired by art, and motivated by compassion. Affirming the dignity of each human being, it supports liberty and opportunity consonant with social and global responsibility. Free of supernaturalism, humanism thus derives the goals of life from human need and interest rather than from theological or ideological abstractions, and asserts that humanity must take responsibility for its own destiny”
This is another good one and much more complete than the others, though it does have that “Free of supernaturalism” clause; it also has that “Theological or ideological abstractions” - that sounds kind of like a shot at religions. I like the last phrase a lot and use it in my explanations.
