One of the recurring themes that come up as people ask me about Humanism is how do Humanist solve problems. One of the reasons I am a Humanist is precisely because it helps me solve my problems effectively.
There are several elements of problem solving I find Humanism in particular helps me with.
1) Identifying the real problem.
Humanists use critical thinking. In fact, most Humanist teachers, teach critical thinking as a critical life skill. Why? Because if you can't think critically, you may misidentify the problem you have and work on solving a problem you don't have and end up not fixing the problem.
For instance, do we have a labor shortage because we are paying people to remain unemployed? Or have people found better employment for more money working in other industries? It is a labor market after all. Unless you know why we don't have enough workers to take low paying jobs (ie: jobs that don't pay enough to live off of), we may end up solving the wrong problem and causing more hardship and hurt our economic recovery.
A Humanist challenges their own assumptions and looks for evidence to figure out if what they think is so is really so. Only after figuring out what their real problem is do they start trying to solve it.
2) Ethical Reasoning
Humanists don't just want to solve our problems. We want to solve them well. That means, we have to have some idea of what a good solution is. This is why ethics are so important. If you do not have a clear idea of what your ethical principles are, then you won't have a good idea of what a good solution even is. I have no idea how people engage in problem solving without actively referring to their ethical principles. Once I know what problem I want to solve, the very next thing I do is I spend some time thinking about what an ideal outcome would be. How can I accomplish as many of my ethical objectives as I can while solving the problem.
Want to be an effective problem solver? Actively invoke your ethics as part of the problem solving process.
3) Science based solutions that work
The next step in problem solving is figuring out what will really work to really solve your real problem. To do that, you not only need to know what your real problem is, you also need to know what actually works to solve it.
I teach people how to stop bullying using behavioral science. Not only does it work, it is the only thing that does and we have 70 years of science to back that statement up.
Again, critical thinking and scientific literacy are key here. What does science say works. What are the known problems implement that?
4) Plan for Reality
One of the benefits of being a humanist is that we are dedicated to dealing with reality as it is. Yes, it would be nice if the world would accommodate us. But it won't. We can't just wish our problems away. Accepting reality means being able to plan for reality. That way, we have contingencies for known problems we expect to occur. When those problems occur, we deal with them as we planned to deal with them using the best science at our disposal.
5) Personal Responsbility
This final bit is key. There is no friendly hand in the universe to guide or help me. Praying doesn't fix problems. Wishing on stars doesn't either. If something is going to change, someone has to do it. Part of accepting this reality means, I take responsibility to get things done.
If you want to learn more - I have a book/course that will teach you these techniques in more detail. It's called Reality Based Decision Making for Effective Strategy Development.
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