In a previous post about feminism, I left you this question: Why not humanism? 1) Humanism is a philosophical stance geared towards the human nature, reason and logic, contrasted to religious doctrine and faith. (Although there is religious humanism but that’s a different discourse). It is not a term usually used in political movements and social change. 2) If we are to consider humanism as a political and social movement, it is important to take note of this: “[H]umanism’s foundations were lain during the European Enlightenment, which attempted to remake the humans of the New World (and the Old) in the image of its own “enlightened” crusaders: privileged white European men. Contemporary humanism is touted as the “outcome of a long tradition of free thought,” but this grand tradition is not free from bias. As Judith Butler explains, humanism “supposes that there is just one single idea of what it is to be human.” Humanism turns away from difference and diversity. Equality in humanist terms means equal our way. Therefore, humanist solutions to current social problems – based on science, secularism, and “artistic creativity” – at the same time reinforce western, privileged, patriarchal values in ways too numerous to detail here. Humanist ideals also fall down in practice: what can humanism do for those barred from “personal development” through “literature, music, and the visual and performing arts–such as children in the global south who cannot get basic schoolbooks?”
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 03:53:19 +0000