What does it mean to be a Humanist?

 A few weeks back I gave a talk to a local stoic group. They asked me to explain Humanism to their stoic group. I must have done well because they asked if I could lecture to them every week.  ummm, no. But, I was glad they found what I had to say helpful.

So, for my audience, a quick lesson on stoicism. Stoicism is a philosophy. They defined philosophy as a kind of practice or exercise (askêsis) in the expertise concerning what is beneficial. In this way, it's similar to Humanism, which can be thought of as the applied study of what it means to be a good human being. So it's no wonder that they found learning about the Humanist approach to philosophy so engaging. Here is more if you are interested in learning more: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/ 

The talk I gave them was this one, but modified slightly to be open for Q&A. In it, I take the definition of Humanism from the American Humanist Association and break out each segment to explain why each element of the definition is included to create a holistic philosophy of life.   Hope you enjoy.