ETHICAL HUMANISM IN BRIEF

FEBRUARY 1, 2015

 [Play Higher Love by Steve Winwood]

I opened with the song Higher Love because for me it represents an aspiration for a sense of deeper connection in life – deeper purpose and meaning – higher love.

This is something that Ethical Humanism brings to my life.

Who am I?

Why am I here?

What should I do?

These are often referred to as the BIG QUESTIONS, questions that relate to existence and purpose in life.  Philosophers and the world’s religions address these existential questions.  Ethical Humanism does as well.

Ethical Humanism is a philosophical life stance. It is recognized as a Religion by the IRS and by many, but not all, of its members.

From its inception, Ethical Humanism has held its religious position open to individual interpretation and preference.  Felix Adler, who founded Ethical Culture – later to also be know as Ethical Humanism – wrote:

“Ethical Culture is religious to those who are religiously minded, and merely ethical to those who are not so minded.”

This ambiguous religious philosophical identity persists in Ethical Humanism today.

What is Ethical Humanism?

Ethical Humanism is both a community congregational practice and a philosophy.

The “Ethical” in Ethical Humanism, modifies Humanism, connecting it to the tradition of Ethical Culture, an American Non-Theistic Religion founded in New York City by Felix Adler in 1876.  Adler grew up as the son of a Reform Rabbi. As a young man, Felix was sent to Germany to complete his studies so that he could succeed his father.

In his studies in Berlin and Heidelberg he was drawn to philosophy.  In his study of philosophy he was particularly attracted to the ideas of Immanuel Kant. Adler’s studies caused him to first doubt, and later reject, the religious faith of his youth.

Through the exercise of his reason, Adler’s concept of a personal god had vanished. In a journal he wrote:

“The curtain that had intervened between my eyes and the world, on which was painted the image of an individual man-like God, slowly drew aside, and I looked upon the world with fresh eyes.”

Felix Adler returned to New York where his lack of belief in god disqualified him as his father’s successor.

Adler went on to found Ethical Culture, a religion of Ethics, without god.

Adler felt a deep connection between all people. Everyone is equally deserving of the opportunity to develop their full potential.

For Felix Adler, human Worth and human rights are paramount. Everyone deserves to have their inherent worth respected and to be treated with dignity and compassion.

Adler’s Ethical concerns focused on right action – how to treat others and act to improve the human condition. He felt that the best way to explore these issues was in community.

Adler believed that exploring ethical ideals and acting for social justice led to improved social conditions and positive personal transformation.

Felix Adler’s maxim, Act so as to Elicit the Best in Others and thereby Elicit the Best in Yourself, contains the idea that personal development is fully realized through relationships with others.

Our sense of meaning and purpose is enhanced by our ethical connection to others.

Community examination of Ethical Ideals and Aspirations allows us to strive for a fuller expression of our human experience.

Contemporary Ethical Humanism continues these ideas.

Ethical Humanism focuses on interpersonal relations and contemporary problems and issues.  The Ethical Humanist Society is a Non-Theistic community without a formal creed that focuses on what is right rather than what is true.

Non-Theism allows Ethical Humanism to be concerned with ethical living in this life, without supernatural elements.

Ethical Humanism’s non-Creedal position welcomes – everyone interested in pursuing Ethical and personal growth – to fully participate in our community.

The ethical Humanist adage, Deed Before Creed, encapsulates both the importance of right action and the subordination of beliefs. Right Actions are more important than beliefs.

Although our community practice is open to a variety of beliefs, Ethical Humanism contains a philosophical position that informs and addresses the existential questions about the nature of reality and the meaning and purpose of life.

Of course, you do not have to subscribe to the principles or philosophy of Ethical Humanism to participate in our community.

Philosophically, Ethical Humanism’s foundation rests on Metaphysical Naturalism.

Metaphysical naturalism maintains that nature encompasses all that exists throughout space and time. Nature, composed of the universe or cosmos, consists only of natural elements. Only nature is real. Carl Sagan described the cosmos as “all that is or ever was or ever will be.”

The universe, and life came about through natural processes.

Human reason, human experience and the scientific method are the best ways to find out about the world around us.

Reality is based on evidence, not superstition and folklore, no matter how comforting the stories may be.

Ethical Humanism accepts that human experience is within the natural experience; myself and everything that I know is part of a natural process. I start with natural experience and until confronted with evidence to the contrary, I stay there. Lacking such evidence, I see myself as part of nature.  Given no supporting evidence, the supernatural does not exist.

Metaphysical Naturalism is part of the Humanist perspective.

Although there are many different definitions on Humanism, I like this one:

HUMANISM IS: A progressive philosophy of life that, without supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.

The foundation of Metaphysical Naturalism is only the starting point of Ethical Humanism’s philosophical perspective.

Ethical Humanism is also a philosophy of Human Relationship.

Ethical Humanism starts with individual Human Experience – the individual in relationship.

Rather that connecting to some eternal truth or understanding, I start with what I know – my own individual subjective experience. It is an ethical experience interacting with other individuals of worth – each with their own subjective experience.

Each human being arrives into an objective natural experience – the world as it truly is – this world is experienced as a subjective human experience of relationship. I process the objective world through my human experience and relationships that I form. Even in existential loneliness, I take my whole relational experience with me.

It is the quality of these relationships that cause psychological pain and my sense of connection or disconnection. In the natural, relational reality, I must decide who I am in my relationships with others. Acting on that decision creates an ethical experience – an experience of choosing how to treat others.

Life is a journey of personal creation – an inter-relational journey of world creation through experience. Each of us may have genetic predispositions to certain personality characteristics – but that is only the beginning. I actually create myself in interaction. In my relationships I am continuously involved in creating who I am. This is a learning process in which I am also helping to create the personalities of others.

My understanding of life starts immersed in a relational process that is both personal and objective. I am continuously transformed through my human experience.

Having dispensed with traditional religions transcendent authority, and proposed the primacy of ethical relationships, how are the values associated with Ethical Humanism’s relational, communal experience developed?

What is Ethical Humanism’s source of moral authority?

Moral values are part of Human Nature and Human Culture and are therefore, a Human Creation.

Moral values come from my experience with the world and my processing of the experiences of others who have sought to answer important moral questions in the past.

A major influence on my ethical formation is the Ethical Humanist idea of Intrinsic Human Worth.

First, Intrinsic Human Worth is, an attribution. I do not have to treat others as individuals deserving respect but I find that there are compelling reasons to do so.

My relationship to the external world is one in which I am both dependent and independent. Each of us is autonomous with our own reasons for being, our own desires, our own sense of good, our own sense of purpose. Worth comes with existence as an individual takes their essential place as part of the whole. In each person’s individuality, they belong to themselves and this should be respected.

At its core, life is a relational experience with things, beings, entities, persons – whatever you want to call them – the human and non-human as well – who are in varying degrees my equals in their own individuality. They are not mine to simply use for my own gratification. Treating others as mere objects to use is exploitation, not relationship. I am not entitled to treat others as a means to my ends.

Second, attributing Intrinsic Worth to others is a tool for improving my experience of the world. The way that I relate to others helps determine how they feel about themselves and how I feel about myself as well. The way that people are treated defines the atmosphere of community and determines what is possible for each. A world of individuals treating each other with respect as co-equals is my ideal and a world of personal happiness.

In that understanding of worth, Felix Adler’s recommendation to: Act so as to elicit the best in others, and thereby elicit the best in yourself, becomes a universal approach to life.

Bringing out the best becomes the explanation of what it means to be good. I am not expected to go around searching for everyone’s best side. Bringing out the best is a way of living, not specific instructions. It is recognition of the individual nature of our world and the nebulous quality of good. Good intention is important – but what it does to others is also important. We can have nice feelings and thoughts, but we are what we do, how we relate, how we act, what we create.

Consider this metaphor:

In living we are like potters and the life around us is the clay – but it is living clay – it is a heaving collection of personalities. Finding the best in that clay means listening and relating to the clay, thereby being the best we can be.

The proof that an action is good depends not just on my feelings – but on what it does to others – did it bring out the best? If I am treating people as ends in themselves, I respect their unique perspective of life and I want to encourage it – to cooperate with it.

All this I try, I struggle to experience as part of my life and my participation in an Ethical Humanist Community.

Yet I find the most precious gift of attending the Ethical Humanist Society to be the insight that I gain into those who think differently than I do. Ethical engagement does not require that all of us reach the same conclusions. The process of mutual exchange of ideas, opinions, and experience is in itself enriching.

Ethical Humanism is grounded in the idea that we are part of the natural world and responsible for ourselves. There are diverse philosophical perspectives amongst our members and regular visitors. We share a common ground of ethical exploration, seeking human connection and right action rather than Truth.

I will close my talk with a quote from renowned Physicist Richard Feynman:

I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I’m not absolutely sure of anything, and many things I don’t know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we’re here, and what the question might mean.  I might think about it a little bit, but if I can’t figure it out, then I go on to something else.  But I don’t have to know an answer….  I don’t feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose, which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell, possibly.  It doesn’t frighten me.