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Questions tagged [humanism]

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It is best humans don't destroy each other, because then there is less humanity to them: what might be the missing assumption?

It is best humans don't destroy each other, because then there is less humanity to them: what might be the missing assumption? It sounds a little Aristotelian, but also fairly reasonable and intuitive,...
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Why Did Sartre Regret “Existentialism is a Humanism”?

Why did Sartre regret his essay Existentialism is a Humanism? Background and Evidence Existentialism is a Humanism is an essay published by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1946. In an introduction by Mary Warnock ...
Just Some Old Man's user avatar
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Is my existence contingent in experiences of nausea, and if so what is authenticity?

The feeling of nausea that Roquentin, the main character of Sartre’s novel, famously experienced in a public garden while obsessively watching a chestnut tree, accounts for his sensitivity to the ...
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What moral philosophers would say it is ever permitted to dehumanize others?

What moral philosophers would say it is ever permitted to dehumanize others? Obviously, I haven't defined 'dehumanize', but that may not suffice to make the question unanswerable. I ask becasue I ...
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What does Marx say about the humanity of the ultra wealthy?

What does Marx say about the humanity of the ultra wealthy? I recall from a lecture handout that he says they are alienated, not from labour, but each other. How does this reflect on the species being,...
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Were the English and French Enlightenment thinkers influenced by Renaissance humanists?

Were the English and French Enlightenment thinkers[1] influenced by Renaissance humanists[2]? [1] I mean Locke, Hume, Montesquieu, Voltaire and Hobbes. [2] Petrarch, Montaigne, Erasmus, More, Rabelais,...
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2 answers
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Is human nature a problem for Marxists?

Is human nature a problem for Marxists? So I am very broadly speaking familiar with the idea that before the scientific phase of Marx's work he was more humanist, argued that human nature was being ...
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1 answer
544 views

What is the difference between a "human being" and an "individual"?

What is the difference between a "human being" and an "individual"? I have the intuition that "human being" is more associated with concepts such as dignity, a ...
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Is tolerance for other cultures and peoples an essential trait of Western Humanism?

Is tolerance for other cultures (including religions) and peoples an essential trait of Western Humanism (by Western Humanism I mean here: Renaissance Humanism and Enlightenment humanism). By ...
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2 votes
1 answer
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How Humanism, the philosophy of the Enlightenment, and classical liberalism are related?

How Humanism (as the philosophical movement of the Renaissance historical period), the philosophy of the Enlightenment, and classical liberalism are related? I have some difficulties distinguishing ...
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Secular humanism and ethics

Concerning ethics, secular humanism is consequentialist ("Secular humanists hold that ethics is consequential, to be judged by results." [1]). It seems also to be epicurean ("Secular ...
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Is Confucianism a humanism?

To what extent Confucianism is a humanism, in the Western meaning of the term? I propose to tackle this question by framing it this way: what are the similarities and differences between Confucianism ...
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3 votes
5 answers
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Where exactly does the value of an individual human lie?

I mean to ask where the value of a human lies, not within the context of the universe but within the room of humanity. What exactly makes a human important? And, is it always something she puts out ...
icyrus's user avatar
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4 answers
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Is the foundation of morality subjectively survival and happiness, and why or why not?

Many rational minds have come to attribute the foundation of morality to humankind's survival and happiness. I have been discussing with friends about why that 'humankind survival and happiness' must ...
Sazzad Hissain Khan's user avatar
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1 answer
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What do Marxists make of contemporary technophobia?

What would Marxists make of contemporary luddism, technophobia, etc.? In 1867, Karl Marx wrote that it would be some time before workers were able to distinguish between the machines and "the ...
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3 votes
1 answer
608 views

Is harming others always considered bad?

Do any philosophers either explicitly avoid condemning harm, or condone it, especially harming others, in their ethics? Why do humans consider causing bad to others as bad and represent it as bad act ...
Amruth A's user avatar
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Humanitarianism of increasing world efficiency

After reading Factfullness by Hans Rosling and others I would like to claim the following: It is humanitarian to to spend one's life increasing world efficiency. I would like to verify / discuss ...
RikH's user avatar
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Is it possible to live a life in which we never ever tell a lie? [closed]

How will we explain such a schema of life in which we never ever tell a lie according to the philosophical point of view?
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2 answers
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What does the term "ego" really mean?

According to different sources and authors, ego is referred to as one's self-perception by one's self concept. It is sometimes considered as selfishism. But what can a person do that will not refer to ...
Gratien Asimbahwe's user avatar
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2 answers
1k views

Can objective morality exist apart from the existence of a transcendent being?

I've heard explanations by Sam Harris and Michael Schermer, but I'm not super convinced on this one. People like Harris and Schermer seem to be trying to get an ought from an is.
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What evidence is there for Nietzsche's division of people into higher and lower types?

What evidence is there that there are two types of people, specifically an elite higher type? Did Nietzsche have authentic reasons to suppose that?
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Humanism and Its Aspirations (Humanist Manifesto III): Individual or collective "life fulfillment?"

Referring to Humanism and Its Aspirations (Humanist Manifesto III), the fourth premise is: Life’s fulfillment emerges from individual participation in the service of humane ideals. ...what does ...
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1 answer
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About ideologies or movements for an unwanted werewolf, is Dualism? [Spanish accepted] [closed]

Good Day, how are you? Today I want to ask about philosophical ideologies or movements that can help me understand what is happening behind a character that I want to analyze. First a bit of ...
Sobyro's user avatar
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1 answer
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Is anger an adaptive trait? If so why should/not we get rid of it in a progressing civilization [closed]

I am posting this question just out of curiosity. I don't support any side of the aisle of the answers it may receive, unless it is too convincing. But, I personally think we should start thinking ...
everestial's user avatar
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The role of the fool in philosophy

The Shakespearean fool, though not necessarily well educated and by most appearances a simpleton, is nevertheless often wiser and cleverer than, and consequently outwits, his superiors of higher ...
MaviPranav's user avatar
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718 views

Has any philosopher, ever, claimed that the life of some people is of no value whatsoever?

Has any philosopher, ever, claimed that the life of some people is of no value whatsoever? Not just that someone is e.g. dangerous, but some people can have no moral claim whatsoever to life? ...
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2 answers
131 views

Are "intelligent systems" really intelligent? [closed]

For the scope of this question, let's consider an intelligent system as something with the properties of accomplishing some kind of goal(s). By this definition, all people are technically intelligent ...
Compatible Lover's user avatar
-3 votes
2 answers
195 views

In a way, isn't everyone biased somehow? [closed]

You hear people say that you ought to see an "expert" to get unbiased viewpoints. Isn't that largely based on the assumption that experts are unbiased? Or is it believed that smarter people in, say, ...
Compatible Lover's user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
729 views

Is sophistry useful?

I read from Lazlo Versenyi's Socratic Humanism (p. 1-72, 1963). "The first part of this book offers a thoughtful and provocative defense of the Sophists" (D. A. Hyland, The Origin of Philosophy: Its ...
Darcy Davis's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
3k views

Why does human race has to survive and continue to exist? [closed]

For some questions in philosophy and ethics, the ultimate answer is the welfare and continuation of the human race. Nations are spending millions of dollars on space programs in case of a global ...
gaj's user avatar
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3 votes
0 answers
279 views

Why do we want to be happy? [closed]

The question is really simple, but at the same time really deep. Why do we seek for a life that would make us happy? Why for example wouldn't we want to be sad? Or to be neither happy nor sad? Why do ...
user8578's user avatar
4 votes
6 answers
768 views

Is there a secular argument for the immortality of the soul?

I was inspired by the following question, which is unfortunately on hold: Has the question of after-life been discussed in philosophy? There has also been some discussion about the general question ...
yters's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
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How not to judge? [closed]

People constantly say not to judge people, but how is this possible? We all make mental remarks based on our past experience, for instance if I see a single mother smoking cigarettes, I will judge ...
Conrad C's user avatar
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1 answer
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Moral Arguments for Deity? Russell's refutation

Reading Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian I stumbled upon a passage (The Moral Arguments for Deity) I don't seem to understand. Kant, as I say, invented a new moral argument for the existence of ...
iphigenie's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
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Question on Thomas Hobbes De Ciev, Of Liberty

This mans will to hurt ariseth from Vain glory, and the false esteeme he hath of his owne strength; the other's, from the necessity of defending himselfe, his liberty, and his goods against this mans ...
Renegade's user avatar
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8 votes
4 answers
752 views

Where does 'continental' philosophy fit in the subcategories of modern philosophy?

If one considers a abstract systematization of what constitutes modern philosophy, it is very natural to come up with something like wikipedia's outline: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, logic, ...
Mitch's user avatar
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34 votes
5 answers
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Does humanism's rejection of God necesitate relativism?

I had the following discussion on Programmers.SE: @Peter Turner, Which is a good example of how religion warps morality, leading people to imagine their concerns are moral when they are profoundly ...
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