What is Modern Humanism?

welcome back to carnegies.org today we're going to be continuing with our series dumb founding definitions dissing distinctions and diabolical doctrines a series sorting through some of the jargon of philosophy in this video we're going to be taking a look at what is modern humanism now modern humanism should not be confused with either renaissance humanism or civic humanism check out our previous videos for more on those particular but distinct positions modern humanism which is also often referred to today as just humanism can be seen as an extension of the secularization of civic duty and political participation advocated by civic humanists to the entirety of ethics so this is a position that expands the idea that we can get an ethical framework from somewhere outside religion from just the political sphere to the whole of morality alternatively it can be viewed as a reaction to and rejection of the theistic anti-nihilist claim that the only way to be good or find meaning in life is through religion now simply put modern humanism argues that one can be quote unquote good without god modern humanists claim that religion is not necessary for a good moral and meaningful life different strains of humanism make different arguments for what can replace religion including reason science human connection or some combination of these humanism can also be seen as a rejection of anti-nihilism check out my video on nihilism for more on this we'll cover it a little bit here but if you want a full in-depth take check that one out anti-nihilists claim that without a belief in god humans will descend into immorality and hopelessness in other words nihilism basically the anti-nihilist claim is that you must have god for morality and meaning and as soon as you lose god you must lose the ability to be moral and the ability to have meaning in your life humanists reject that claim they contend that there are alternative sources of morality and meaning which do not require religious belief some humanists claim that morality can be found through science and rational investigation such humanists are often referred to as scientific or rational humanists they might pursue a kantian project of explaining morality through logical truths or consult scientific studies of which actions do the most good and which do the most harm such humanists are trying to base their own philosophy of what is good and bad on things that can be measured through the world or can be reasoned out not on a biblical text or a holy text of some kind while many humanists do hold science in high regard this is not a requirement of the position other humanists argue that morals are drawn from emotional reactions and connections between people and communities the central conceit of humanism is that a moral and meaningful life does not require religious belief does not prescribe what that system of morality should be based in simply that there is one often as the name suggests humanists put other people at the center of their morality devoting themselves to serving other humans or humanity writ large as opposed to a particular religion church mosque or deity as a skeptic i'm not sure that morality exists which makes me question if you can live a good life at all with or without god i don't know that science or reason can provide us with true answers to questions of what we should do in all situations that said i don't find the anti-nihilist claim at all convincing that theistic claims as theistic claims of moral truth are at least as dotible if not much more spurious than rational or scientific claims what do you think can you be good without god can morality be based in science and reason can it be based in connections with other humans and emotions does morality even exist give me your answers in the comments below subscribe hit the notification bell if you like this content and you want to see more watch this video and more here at cardeads.org and stay skeptical everybody you

Channel: Carneades.org

Views: 8,367

Keywords: Philosophy, Carneades, Carneades.org

Id: UgtJBAPVHj8

Length: 4min 33sec (273 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 30 2020