# Let's define humanism

**URL:** <https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/lets-define-humanism/10619>\
**Category:** Humanism\
**Created:** [December 22, 2023, 9:52am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/lets-define-humanism/10619 "2023-12-22T09:52:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 24

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![thatoneguy](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/thatoneguy/32/28536_2.png) [@thatoneguy](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/thatoneguy)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2023, 9:59pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/lets-define-humanism/10619/24 "2023-12-22T21:59:29Z")

</div>

> [@Is the republic the best form of government?](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/is-the-republic-the-best-form-of-government/10604/106):
>
> @thatoneguy I move thic topic on a corresponding thread.
> 
> > [@Is the republic the best form of government?](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/is-the-republic-the-best-form-of-government/10604/106):
> >
> > Frankly, Secular Humanism is a watered-down version of liberal Christianity with god taken out. It’s a unique thing designed by and for White liberals.
> > 
> > What you both call Humanist values are just vague ideas, e.g. _be nice to others_, _live life to the fullest_, that religions have covered much better for thousands of years. Other people around the world don’t need Humanism because they have their own versions.
> 
> This is incorrect.
> 
> **Secular humanism** comes from the Enlightenment humanism, I would say even from Renaissance humanism (drawing upon a rediscovery of classical Greek philosophy), which was rationalist, materialist or deist, and hedonist. This is the humanism I adhere to, and this is the secular humanism as defined and defended by CFI, see their humanist declaration [A Secular Humanist Declaration | Free Inquiry](https://secularhumanism.org/a-secular-humanist-declaration/).
> 
> This declaration absolutely does not say things like “just vague ideas, e.g. _be nice to others_, _live life to the fullest_”. On the contrary. They are consequentialist, they are not here to moralize people.
> 
> There is another tendency in humanism called **religious humanism** , which comes, indeed, from a liberalization of Christianism (Catholicism at the very origin).  
> **Religious humanism** is the movement embodied by the American Humanist Association, organized at the beginning by protestants (Unitarians).  
> I think they are indeed more around ideas like, “e.g. _be nice to others_, _live life to the fullest_”.
> 
> * * *
> 
> In France, there is very brutal split between the “science emphasis” aspect of **secular humanism** (which was taken by French humanist associations caring exclusively about the defense of modern science, like “L’Union rationaliste” and “Association française pour l’information scientifique”), and the “philosophical” aspect of secular humanism which was taken charge of by the state (see Jules Ferry, the 1905 law, etc.).
> 
> So rarely “humanist” (ethical aspect) people in France will first an foremost self-identify as “humanist”, rather, they will self-identify as proponents of “laïcité”, “universalisme Républicain”, etc. See the _Franc-Tireur_ network (Fourest, Enthoven, etc.), or _ConspiracyWatch_ (Rudy Reichstadt, etc.), even _Charlie Hebdo_ to some extent. In general, these public intellectuals have ties with the government (something which also greatly differentiates these French “humanists” from their Anglo-Saxon counterparts). See also the political movement [Printemps Républicain](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printemps_r%C3%A9publicain). And so there, it’s almost like humanism goes really from being a philosophy, an ethics, to being a political philosophy (separation of Church and state, how which which phenomenon (e.g. the veil) should be tackled politically, etc.).
> 
> * * *
> 
> Personnally, I think humanism is a philosophy, so I suscribe to the Anglo-Saxon **secular humanist** movement, in particular the American one, that of Paul Kurtz and the CFI. But I am also interested in the French fringes I describe above. I have nothing to see with **religious humanism**.

Enlightenment values are not universal. Not even a little bit.

---

_[View the full topic](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/lets-define-humanism/10619)._