Why is Humanism so Important?

Philosophy isn’t what we think. It’s how we think. It’s the framework within which we do our thinking.

Your thinking, to a certain extent, is constrained by your philosophy. If you want to free your thinking from it’s built in constraints it’s a good idea to consider why you think what you think. In other words, it’s a good idea to reconsider your operating philosophy to ensure that it’s still working well for you.

And this is why I promote Humanism. Humanism is a practical philosophy. Our goal is to do good and to be good so that we can thrive and be happy and hopefully help other people along the way.

It seems simplistic, but this basic framework for how we think has some really nice attributes. For one, it is a philosophy about always needing to improve. We are never finished. That’s a feature of the philosophy, not a defect!

In order to do and be good we have to know what good is and means. And this requires thinking. It requires reality based decision making. It requires compassion – which isn’t easy to apply to other people and it means taking personal responsibility to do- because it is only through doing that we are.

I was asked recently what I think the most important thing Humanism has done for society. My answer is humanistic medicine. Reality based, science backed, compassionate care means we no longer treat things like epilepsy as demonic possession problems. It also means we don't house mentally ill in insane asylums to keep those demon possessed folk away from the rest of us.

Compassion and Science - powerful tools for improving society and for the individuals who inhabit that society. Humanism matters because humans matter.

Epicurus said:

“Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul. And to say that the season for studying philosophy has not yet come, or that it is past and gone, is like saying that the season for happiness is not yet or that it is now no more. Therefore, both old and young alike ought to seek wisdom, the former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been, and the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old, because he has no fear of the things which are to come. So we must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed towards attaining it.”

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To learn more about Humanism - consider reading Jen Hancock's Handy Humanism Handbook

Or, if you are ready to do some deep thinking about your thinking habits, consider taking Living Made Simpler - a 6 hour online workshop that will help you better define who you are and how you want to live your life. https://humanistlearning.com/livingmadesimpler1/

Improve your thinking

One important trick to improve your thinking.

There is one trick that is key to thinking better. That trick is to doubt.

Now, I know what you are thinking.  Doubt?  That’s it?  Well, obviously that’s not it.  Too much doubt paralyzes. You have to doubt your doubt. Too little doubt and you make mistakes in your thinking.  The trick is to get the balance right.  How do you know if you got the balance right?  Doubt.

Ok, this is all getting a bit too circular, even for me. So let’s break down the benefits of doubt and how to avoid going over the edge with too much doubt.

• Doubt allows you to question your assumptions.  Assumptions you may not even know you are making.  This is the first skill of freethought and critical thinking. Question your assumptions.

• Doubt allows you to be skeptical of the claims made by others. Are there really space aliens living in volcanoes dictating how you will act? I don’t think so. Why not see what the scientists who research volcanoes have to say about that.

•  Doubt allows you to question whether a proposed solution to a problem will even work. Heck. Doubt allows you to question whether or not there are other solutions that may work better than the one proposed. 

How do we avoid the dangers of too much doubt? Doubt our doubt. If you find yourself doubting everything and refusing to make a decision because nothing seems reliable, it means you are doubting too much.  We can never have perfect information. The best we can hope for is to be less wrong then we were before. 

At some point, you have to make a decision. That is the point of thinking after all. So if you find you can’t make a decision, stop thinking and make the best decision you can with the information you have.  It’s all any of us can ever do.

What does it mean to think compassionately?

4 ways compassion helps us to think better.

1) Compassion works to calm our minds so we can think more clearly. I don’t do my best thinking when I am angry or upset.  I find I think better when I am calm and actively choosing to consider my problem or adversary compassionately helps me to reduce my anger and calm my mind so that I can think clearly.

2) Compassion helps us frame our interpersonal problems in a way that helps us better solve them.  Most of our difficulties are interpersonal. Either someone is annoying us or making our lives more difficult, or we are waiting on someone to do something for us so we can move forward with whatever it is we need to do. People are problematic. I find that when I stop focusing on what I need and start remembering that this other person, as much as I find them annoying, are doing what they do because they have their own problems and issues they are attending to, helps me to not only be less frustrated, but it helps me to figure out whether I can help them and thus help myself, or whether I need to work around them entirely. Regardless, compassion for even the most annoying people helps me to solve my problems with them more effectively.

3) Compassion helps us to exercise self-control when we should. When I am facing a problem, often, the best thing for me to do is nothing. But that’s really hard to do when I’m upset or frustrated. I find that compassion helps me calm myself down and calm my fears and frustrations and this in turns helps me not act rashly so that I am less likely to do something stupid that would make my problem worse.

4) Compassion helps us to find the courage to act when we must. Robert Ingersoll talked about wielding compassion like a sword. Compassion is an interesting emotion.  It is both fierce and unyielding and calming at the same time.  It is my compassion that makes me furious about public policy that causes the death of children through institutionalized violence against poor communities. And yet, it is also my compassion that helps me to calm the anger my compassion evoked so that I can actually solve the problem effectively. Anger is a great motivator, but I always find when I remind myself of the compassion that caused my anger, it is easier to invoke my compassion to reap the benefits of self-control and a calmed mind that only compassion can provide.

What does it mean to think compassionately?  It means to actively choose to be compassionate when you are most agitated and upset. Is it easy to do? No. It takes practice. But the more you practice, the easier it gets and the improvements in your thinking and outlook are immediate. Your  assignment for this week is to spend some time thinking about how you think about compassion.

Enjoy.

Why is Ethical Decision Making So Hard?

4 steps to ensuring your decision making is ethical.

It turns out that ethical decision making isn’t easy. If it were, people would not struggle with this.  Here are 4 tips to help you make better, more ethical decisions.

1) Decide on your ethics. You cannot make ethical decisions if you have no concept of how to judge whether something is ethical or not.  Most ethical systems are basically the same, so it doesn’t really matter which one you pick. As long as compassion is ranked high on your list of things to care about, your ethical system will be consistent with most of the rest of humanity, who are the ones who will judge whether your decisions are ethical or not.

2) Be Prepared to Make Hard Decisions. A lot of people seem to be under the impression that ethical decision making is easy. All they need to do is apply their ethics.  It doesn’t work like that.  The big decisions, where what is good and bad is obvious, don’t require you to decide anything. What is hard is deciding between the better of two goods or the lesser of two evils. Those are the situations that require ethical decision making. Accept that up front and have the courage to decide what you think is the most good or the least evil. The essence of ethical decision making is, after all, the act of making a decision. It is sometimes unpleasant, but be prepared to do it anyway, or admit that your decision making isn’t based on rational ethics.

3) Learn How to Think Well. In order to make good decisions, you have to have some basis of deciding. This is where critical thinking comes in. First, to be ethical, you have to know what is true and what is false. This is the foundation of ethical decision making. If you think something is true that isn’t, you could end up doing something unethical by mistake.

4) Use your ethics to decide. Think through your options and work hard to figure out what the best solution to your problem is. Use your ethics as a guide to what you think is the most good and the least harmful.

So there you go. Ethical decision making requires you to think about your ethics so that your decisions do the most good and the least harm. At the center of this is thinking. Take the time to learn how to think well and your ethical decision making should improve too.