Elements of Humanism

I recently gave a talk to a Humanist group in Tallahassee.  We discussed the elements of Humanism and why they are included in the definition.

The American Humanist Association defines Humanism as a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.

Humanism is Progressive

We think we can do better - and that we should do better. We can always make progress and should never stop trying to make things better.

Humanism is without supernaturalism

This is more pragmatic than theological. We want solutions that actually work so we look for evidence to prove that things work. As my friend Edgar Mitchell once told me - there is no such thing as supernaturalism. If something happens - it is by definition, natural. There is no need to ever appeal to supernaturalism. People who do - just aren't willing to admit that they believe something that has no factual basis to support it.

Humanism is about Human Agency - we have the ability to make the world better.  

You don't have to be a victim of fate, you can do something to make the world better.

Humanism is about taking responsibility to make the world better. 

You are the change you want to see. Do it - be it and don't wait for others to make things better. It's your responsibility.

Humanism is about living an ethical life

The way to make the world a better place - is to be a better person.

Humanism is about personal fulfillment

 Life is to be lived. You have this one opportunity. Don't waste it. To paraphrase Albert Camus - if there is a sin in life, it must surely be hoping for another life while ignoring the implacable grandeur of this one. Live Life Fully!

Humanism is about working for the greater good of humanity. 

I lost count of how many times I used the word - "better" in this post.  Make the world better. Be a better person. All of this combines into helping the greater good of humanity. We strive to be ethical - not just for ourselves, but because being ethical contributes to the greater good of humanity. The idea that it's us vs the world is a false dichotomy and a dualistic way of viewing the world. We are the world. When we help the world, we are helping ourselves.

So live life fully, love other people and leave the world a better place. 

I'm told I give really good advice.

Whether you are dealing with a difficult situation at work, or you want to reconcile with an estranged family member.  I can help you think more clearly and therefore more effectively about your problems so that you can solve them in a way you are going to feel really good about.

How do I do it? Applied humanist philosophy. Actively invoking your ethics as you decide what to do about any given situations, tends to yield good results. Seriously it does.

First, taking the time to think, interrupts your instinctual response so that you can choose your response.

Second, thinking about what a good response would be - first requires you to do some thinking about what a good or ideal outcome is.  Notice, this involves the word - good - which involves moral judgement.

Third, once you know what it is you ideally would like to have happen, you can be strategic about how you go about accomplishing that.  I spend a lot of time talking to people who have an outcome in mind and are doing the exact opposite thing to what they should be doing to get what they want.  It's crazy to me.  Take some time to think about the consequences of your actions so that you can have some idea of whether want you want to do will work or not.

Finally, I help give permission to people to strive to be a good person. It's really ok.  Your struggles are normal. Life is hard. Choosing to embody your values doesn't guarantee success, but spending some time  engaging in critical thinking and challenging your assumptions helps.

One way to think of Humanism is that it is the applied study of what it means to be a good human being.  Think of what a good person would do - and then do that.

The compliment to Humanist morality is critical thinking.  We humanists do both.  Compassion tell us what a good outcome is. Critical thinking helps us create a strategy to actually accomplish it.

Finally - the last component is responsibility. We know what the right thing to do it. We have a plan on how to accomplish it. But none of that matters if we don't take action.

Reason and compassion in action. That is what Humanism is. And it really does make life easier.

If you want to learn more about how to actually apply the humanist philosophy in your daily life- I have an online course to help: https://humanistlearning.com/livingmadesimpler1/

Humanism and Pragmatism

Pragmatism informs Humanism. It is the foundation on which our morals rest.

There is a great article in the Humanist Magazine – which if you don’t subscribe to it, you should. The editor Jennifer Bardi does an excellent job of curating each issue. Anyway – in Humanism 101 Michael Werner, the author, discusses Humanism and pragmatism. In it he says, “The pragmatist offers a staircase toward the light, asking what works toward human and global welfare. Pragmatism offers knowledge that is always provisional, fallible, and probabilistic, but that works.”

Link to the article here: http://thehumanist.com/magazine/july-august-2014/commentary/humanism-101-our-pragmatist-tradition

I am asked all the time, if you don’t believe in god, how can you have a foundation for ethics. Doesn’t the lack of god imply moral relativism? The answer is no. Not for a Humanist. We still have a moral conscious because we choose to have one.  Our moral compass does not rest on science or on culture exclusively. It has no absolute basis. It is born of our social experience and tested by our experiences and the experiences of others.

The more we learn about others and their experiences, the more we can refine our moral code of what is good and what isn’t. To quote Werner, ”the interplay of science and culture points us toward the best ideals,”  

We have morals because we chose to have morals. Because having a morality is pragmatic and helps us live our lives more effectively. This may not be an entirely rational thing to do. But it is an imminently pragmatic thing to do.

The Power of Why

Why asking yourself these 3 questions will help you find meaning and purpose in your life. 

Emotive Brands had a blog post about 7 reasons why it’s time to transform your business through meaning. http://www.emotivebrand.com/2012/11/08/7-reasons-why-its-probably-time-to-transform-your-business-through-meaning/

I liked the post. I’m a big fan of being purpose and meaning driven. Having a purpose and meaning gives us a reason to get up in the morning. A reason to do the things we do.

The problem is that not just any reason will do. The best reasons are driven by deep emotions and motivations.  How do you find out what truly motivates you?  By asking yourself questions. We Humanists call this process of asking ourselves deep questions, critical thinking or alternately “freethought.”  The best question to start with is “why.”

This is why this post is titled the power of why.  If you want to know what is really driving you, you need to ask yourself 3 “why” questions.

For instance, if you are looking for meaning in your business.

• Why did you choose this business?
• Why is that needed?
• Why will this help people?

You can obviously use this for personal motivation as well.  When you have drilled down to the why this will help people question that is usually where your deep meaning resides.

As much as we might be motivated to be in business to make money so that we can eat and have things like shelter and transportation, it turns out that this is not a very good motivator.

What really motivates us to get up in the morning to work is to change the world and make it better. So instead of answering these why questions selfishly, focus on how what you do helps others. Once you understand how important your work is to others and how you impact others, your work becomes a calling and a mission. And that’s something that is truly motivating.

What is Learning?

What is learning and why should you bother to learn stuff?

Most Humanists I know are voracious learners. And by voracious I mean we are interested in everything and in learning all that we can learn. Given that there is a lot to learn it’s a never ending quest.

Not only are Humanists interested in learning, we are also interested in learning how we learn so that we can better learn. Is your head hurting yet?

The reason Humanists engage in all this learning is because by learning, we gain new knowledge. By learning we come to know things. By learning, we come to be able to do new things and acquire new skills. By learning, we come to understand better.

Humans are an interesting creature. We are capable of instinctual behavior, but we are also capable of learning new behaviors. And these new behaviors are really very helpful in the quest for survival and reproduction. In a word, learning is very sexy (in a survival of the fittest sort of way). People who know how to learn have a better chance of survival.

When you think of it, there is no downside to learning. True, it can be difficult at times, but that shouldn’t stop us. Because it turns out that the more you learn, the funner learning becomes.

Why are Humanists lifelong learners? Because Humanism is the applied study of what it means to be a good Human being.  In some ways, Humanism is the best of what we've learned so far and what we continue to learn.

What is Humanism?

What did Linus Pauling and Albert Schweitzer have to say about Humanism?

“Humanism is a philosophy of joyous service for the greater good of all humanity, of application of new ideas of scientific progress for the benefit of all.” – Linus Pauling.

For those of you who don’t know, Linus Pauling was the chemist and a peace activist and a Humanist. He won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1954 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962. He was Humanist of the Year in 1961.

What I like about the Linus Pauling definition is how much his definition is echoed in the current definition from the American Humanist Association, which includes a bit about Humanists affirming our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment to the greater good of humanity.

Humanism, for all its emphasis on morality, critical thinking, and personal responsibility is actually a joyful approach to life.  We choose to be moral, critical, and responsible so that we can be happy.  And yes, it does work – check out my other post on wisdom.

When I was researching the Linus Pauling quote, I came across this one from Albert Schweitzer.

 “Humanism, in all its simplicity, is the only genuine spirituality.” – Albert Schweitzer upon accepting the Nobel Peace Prize for coming up with Humanism (he was one of many but the only one to get an award for it)

What’s cool about Schweitzer was not just that he was an accomplished organist and that several of his published works are actually transcriptions of Bach organ pieces, but that he literally won the Nobel Peace Prize for coming up with a philosophy and moral system that was rational and based on a reverence for life, otherwise known as Humanism. Now obviously, he wasn’t the only one to formulate Humanism, but it’s really cool to know the philosophy was recognized as globally important.

The reason I am so tickeled with Schweitzer is because he was so stereo-typically a Humanist. Check out the Wikipedia article on him (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Schweitzer)  He didn’t have a singular interest. He was interested in everything from philosophy to theology to organ music to recording organ music (there is actually a technique for recording organs that bears his name) and medicine. If you were to pick a Humanist role model to emulate, Schweitzer would be a good one.

This makes me wonder. Who is your favorite famous Humanist? And why?

Mindfulness in everyday life

3 ways to be mindful in everyday life.

Humanism is not an abstract philosophy. It has real world and immediate implications for how you choose to live your life.  In order to be a truly moral person it is important to think.  The question is what should you think about and how can you think in a way that improves your life instead of causing you to get into a endless thought rut.

Here are 3 ways you can think about your everyday actions that will help you to be more mindful and to gain greater enjoyment from life at the same time.

1) Think about what is moral. Being mindful isn’t helpful if it is selfish. Think about what you are doing as a question of morality and you will automatically be more mindful. You will also feel better about who you are as an individual.

2) Start with small things. Like – do you return your shopping cart and why at the supermarket? Are you smiling and making eye contact with people at the supermarket?  Choose one thing at a time to work on that you do multiple times a week and you will find it not only effects your mood immediately, it will also become habit forming because you get to practice it often. These habits will also transfer over to other areas of your life as you experience the benefits of a more mindful approach.

3) Remind yourself to be compassionate with the jerks in your life. When we are dealing with a negative situation, our focus is often on how to defend ourselves. When you find yourself getting stressed and defensive, remind yourself to think compassionately about the person who isn’t behaving properly. Don’t insist they behave better, they aren’t capable of it and insisting that they do is part of why the conflict is persisting. Just compassionately accept that for whatever reason, they are incapable in this moment of behaving better. Forgive them and move on. This will help you feel better immediately and help you navigate these difficult situations in a way that you will feel good about instead of beating yourself up afterwards for what you could have or should have said. Feelings of compassionate eliminate that need.

If you want to learn more, consider my Humanist life skills course – Living Made Simpler. (http://humanisthappiness.com)

Family Rules for a Happy Household

Being explicit about expected behaviors helps children learn responsibility towards others. It teaches them that other people matter and are to be valued.

I was discussing family rules with some friends. These are rules of how members of a family are expected to treat one another. The goal is to have a happy household.  My friend Pam said her children came up with the following rules. 

• ·         Be kind
• ·         Be gentle
• ·         Exercise self-control

Her kids figured that everything fit within those three things and they did. The biggest hassle of being in a family is that your actions impact others directly. Being self centered hurts your family in a way that may not be evident or as direct and immediate as it is with your other friends.

For instance, if someone fails to put the milk away and it sours overnight, then no one will have milk for their breakfast cereal. Use the last of the hot water because you just had to have an extra-long shower and everyone else has to take a cold shower, which is rather annoying and unpleasant.

By focusing on being kind and gentle you remind yourself to take other people’s needs into account in addition to your own. By exercising self-control you take responsibility for your actions. You actively work to make sure you don’t negatively impact the other people in your house.  In short, these rules help make sure you balance your needs with the needs of those around you.  Which to me, is what Humanism is all about.

Does your family have rules of conduct? If so, what are they? My family’s rules are be nice, do your fair share of the housework and if you are in a bad mood, give yourself a time out so that you don’t negatively impact others.