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HUMANISM

Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2012

Humanism is an ethical doctrine that asserts the central importance of human life and experience on earth and the right and duty of each individual to explore and develop their potential. 

Humanism is, to some extent, in opposition to religious doctrines, like Christianity, that diminish the importance of earthly life and assert that human existence is merely a stage of preparation for heavenly life after death. 

In the social sciences humanism is evident in those groups who argue that social theory must conceive of the human actor as a subject rather than an object.

Humanism affirms the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appeal to universal human qualities.

Materialism and Humanism - Organization Theory's Odd Couple 
Allyn A. Morrow, Frederick C. Thayer, University of Pittsburgh 
Many argue that work should meet individual needs for fulfillment (humanism), while meeting needs for personal income and organizational productivity (materialism). Using a comparative analysis drawn from organization theory, organizatronal hu manism, social philosophy, and political theory, the article demonstrates that compatibility of the two modes is a critical issue throughout social thought . Arguing that contradictory premises prevent satisfying marriage and that the dominant paradigm of materialism be abandoned, perhaps by separating work from income. - aas.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/10/1/86

Animal Rights Versus Humanism - The Charge of Speciesism 
Kenneth J. Shapiro, P.O. Box 87, New Gloucester, ME 04260. 
About the compatibility of humanistic psychology with the emerging animal rights movement. Beyond working out my position, the paper has the additional educational and, frankly, political purpose of bringing animal rights issues to the attention of humanistic psychologists. The article applies certain concepts of contemporary animal rights philosophy, notably "speciesism," to both the philosophy of humanism and humanistic psychology. While on a philosophical level, certain concepts are discussed that would likely block a rapprochement, I feel that humanistic psychologists as individuals are likely to extend their compassion to non-human animals. A review of philosophical humanism reveals that its important concept of individuality excludes non-human animals. Within this conception, animals simply are not individuals. In fact, animals are employed as a categorical foil representing precisely the absence of reason and relative autonomy, hallmarks of individuality. In humanistic psychology, the concept of self-actualization is open to similar charges. A compatability and, hence a reconciliation, is suggested through a phenomenological rendering of empathy, a second concept critical to humanistic psychology. - jhp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/2/9

Agnes Heller and the Question of Humanism - John Grumley, University of Sydney 
This article explores the vagaries of Agnes Heller's relationship to humanism. It initially outlines a brief account of both the historical adventures of humanism and of the great debates in the middle of the 20th century that conditioned the contemporary reception of the concept of humanism. It then analyses Heller's own unique intellectual formation under the tutelage of Lukács. After briefly outlining her initial commitment to his humanist programme for the ‘Renaissance of Marxism’, it looks in more depth at her initial critique of its humanist philosophical anthropology and her efforts, under the auspices of Arendt, to develop a more sophisticated account of the human condition. The article points to both the commonalities and differences with the contemporary critical humanism of Tzvetan Todorov. It is argued that despite the many parallels, these differences signify Heller's final parting of the ways with humanism strictly speaking and also represent unresolved issues for any reanimation of contemporary humanism. - ept.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/6/2/125

In Dispraise of Existential Humanism in Educational Administration 
Sammuel H. Popper, College of Education, University of Minnesota 
Educational Administration Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 3, 26-50 (1971)
Conceptions of "humanism" and "freedom," it is argued, evolve within the value matrix of an indigenous culture and, therefore, each society fashions its own definitions of them as well as its own institutional sanctions for their enforcement. This constitutes the major premise of a "response" to Professor Harry J. Hartley's chapter, "Humanistic Existentialism and the School Administrator," in Toward Improved Urban Education. - eaq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/7/3/26

Psychology and Humanism 
M. Brewster Smith, Stevenson College, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064. 
Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 22, No. 2, 44-55 (1982) © 1982 SAGE Publications
Humanistic psychology as a social movement was indigestible for many humanistically oriented academic psychologists. Their students wanted easy therapeutic gimmicks, and they saw humanistic psychology as justifying a comfortably optimistic view of people in the world. Leaders of humanistic psychology advanced other worldly concerns over worldly ones. "Secular humanism" in the style of Chein, Fromm, and Murray was essentially unrepresented in the movement, and May's tragic view did not prevail. With recent changes in psychoanalysis and in behaviorism/cognitive psychology, humanistic psychology should keep the windows of psychotherapy, and of arts and letters, open for psychological insights. It might welcome challenges from artificial intelligence; it should focus on the implications of self-reference and cultivate alliance with the burgeoning movement of life-span human development. As personality psychology revives from dormancy, it should become the new humanistic psychology, merging explanation and interpretation. - jhp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/22/2/44

Humanism and the Training of Applied Behavioral Scientists 
Lawrence N. Solomon, La Jolla, California. 
The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 7, No. 5 (1971) © 1971 NTL Institute
A philosophy of humanism provides a valuational base for the activities of applied behavioral scientists. The historical roots of the humanistic orientation are traced and contrasted with the normative orientation in Western thought. Implications of this philosophy for development of social change agents lead to speculation regarding training programs; and the outline of a model for such a training program is presented. Abuses of the humanistic perspective within the behavioral sciences, nascent in current attempts to implement humanistically oriented training programs, become manifest as a generalized fear of control, a movement toward anarchy, and a narrowing anti-intellectualism. Amelioration of these dangers should enhance the future actualization of a humanistic model in applied behavioral science. - jab.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/7/5/531?ck=nck

Postmodern Liberalism as a New Humanism - Andrzej Szahaj, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun - Diogenes, Vol. 52, No. 2 (2005) © 2005 International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies
John Gray argues that the modern conception of man is common for all variants of the liberal tradition. The version of liberalism which is defended in this paper cannot be called ‘classical’ because it refuses the conception in question (it refuses such elements of it as, for example, claims of universality, idea of neutral Reason, idea of human nature). That is why the best label which can be given to it is ‘postmodern’ or ‘communitarian’ liberalism. Moreover, postmodern liberalism does not express any reluctance toward community as such. It only requires a community which respects the rights of individuals to autonomous, moral and comprehensive choices. In this sense one can say that postmodern liberalism renounces anti-social biases while remaining faithful to individualism, which - starting with the social and the common - arrives at the truly individual. In this way it can revitalize the sense and meaning of humanism understood as the idea of life of human beings who can create their own lives independently and freely in the political and social milieu, promoting justice and solidarity. - dio.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/52/2/63

For a Feeling Humanism: The Political Emergence of the Emotions 
Muniz Sodré, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - Diogenes, Vol. 52, No. 2, 71-78 (2005) © 2005 International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies
If the revival of humanism depends on closing the gap between differences, western and eastern perspectives on the world diverge: the first uses History as its guide and the second uses the notion of destiny. Between the logical power of western instrumental rationalism and the affective power of the feeling modes of knowledge like liturgy and music, the West should be able to accept difference and reject both closed identities and absolute alterities. - dio.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/52/2/71

The Reconciliation of Humanism and Positivism in the Practice of Consumer Research: A View from the Trenches - Timothy B. Heath, University of Pittsburgh - Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 20, No. 2, 107-118 (1992) © 1992 Academy of Marketing Science
Consumer researchers commonly assert that humanism differs from positivism (what is referred to here as naturalism) on a number of dimensions. However, it is shown here that once terminological differences and methodological similarities are recognized, the remaining differences between humanism and naturalism within consumer research are few. While arguments persist at the philosophical extremes, it appears that practicing researchers have achieved considerable reconciliation. - jam.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/20/2/107

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