In Humanism, chapter 23 in Steven Pinker’s 2018 book Humanism Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress, Pinker lays out his arguments that the ideal of humanism is superior to other ideologies or belief systems that lay claim to being best for humanity, and its morality and long-term well-being. Broadly speaking, humanism is a movement that enlightens the meaning of life and morals based on non-supernatural grounds.
Humanism holds, among other things, that ethical and moral values derive from human needs, empirical evidence and rational analysis leads to knowledge of the world. Progressive cultures “working to benefit society maximizes individual happiness.” Collectively, all of that refers to what can be called human flourishing. Based on the historical and scientific evidence he relies on, Pinker firmly rejects the notion that humans must look to any God for deep meaning, morality, happiness, fulfillment or social progress. Instead, humanism is based on principles such as impartiality, e.g., ‘your interests are as good as mine’, to provide a secular basis for morality. In that conception moral sources, everyone has an equal right to major concerns such as life, safety, health, free expression and social and emotional attachments, all of which contribute to human flourishing. Major humanistic concerns include blocking major social influence by “rational sociopaths” and to justify human needs we morally ought to respect.
Balancing conflicting morals and desires: This aspect of Pinker’s vision of humanism is fully in accord with the balancing of moral, freedoms and other conflicts the B&B anti-bias ideology advocates:
Unlike ascetic and puritanical regimes, humanistic ethics does not second-guess the intrinsic worth of people seeking comfort, pleasure and fulfillment . . . . . At the same time, evolution guarantees that these desires will work at cross-purposes with each other and with those of other people. Much of what we call wisdom consists in balancing the conflicting desires within ourselves, and much of what we call morality and politics consists in balancing the conflicting desires among people.(emphasis added)
That is a bit of 3rd party validation for the balancing act that the anti-bias ideology is significantly based on.
The utilitarianism objection refuted: Humanism has been criticized as blind utilitarianism, which could lead to bad outcomes such as euthanizing some unlucky people to harvest their organs for the good of a greater number of others who need new organs. Pinker argues that human flourishing is not a humanistic utilitarian morality of just seeking the greatest happiness for the greatest number, as the happy organ harvesters would have it. Instead, humanistic morals are evaluated by the consequences of our actions. One can say that lying is bad and immoral, as B&Bs anti-bias ideology posits, but there are times when the consequence of a lie justifies itself. For example, it is defensible or good to lie to a person seeking to do a bad thing, e.g., murder someone, to prevent the worse thing, i.e., the murder. In this regard, humanistic ethics and morality are pragmatic and rationally flexible according to circumstances. In a sense, that reflects a rational anti-ideology ideology.
That said, Pinker admits that humanism has a strong utilitarian streak in it, but that is not a lethal flaw. He argues that well-known utilitarians such as Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill came to the conclusion that slavery, cruel criminal punishments and even animal cruelty were all bad and outside acceptable bounds of utilitarianism. Apparently, evolution has conferred on most members of the human species a common belief that some things are just not right and they draw lines: “That’s why in practice, humanism and human rights go hand in hand. . . . . since people can always spin doctor their selfish acts as benefiting others, one of the best ways to promote overall happiness is to draw bright lines that no one may cross.”
Pinker also points out that historical evidence shows that when cultures, or people of different cultures, come in contact and they need to get along, the human tendency is to converge on humanistic values, e.g., I won’t kill you if you won’t kill me. He cites the origin of American constitutional church-state separation: “The only way to unite the colonies [with incompatible religions and practices] under a single constitution was to guarantee religious expression and practice as a natural right.
Competing moral frameworks refuted: Pinker asserts that when people are being rational, culturally diverse and need to get along, they converge on humanism. Theistic morality holds that God’s morals are right and supernatural rewards and punishments await depending on how one behaves. For believers in an immortal soul, that can loosen attachments to humanistic morals. The reward for punishing heretics and infidels can lead to immortal rewards, while slackers are forever punished.
Another anti-humanist mindset, romantic heroism, is equally daffy and just as dangerous, if not more so. Romantic heroism arose from 19th century romantic heroism, and continues today as authoritarian populism (Donald Trump), neo-fascism (Trump again), neo-reaction and the alt-right (definitely Trump). This mindset holds that morality lies in “purity, authenticity and greatness of an individual or a nation.”
Some who don’t fully profess to adhere to theistic morality or romantic heroism nonetheless see their value by providing a theistic, heroic or tribal psychological basis to argue that humanistic humanism cannot sustain a nation or society for the long run. Pinker’s criticism of that thinking is blunt and historically correct: “It’s a short step from the psychological claim to a historical one [but]. . . . . the moral, psychological and historical arguments are wrong.”
Other points: Pinker discusses several rationales in opposition to humanism. For example, he discusses and rebuts attacks based on the ‘hard problem’ of consciousness. He argues that God of the Gaps arguments to account for what we do not yet understand about consciousness is logically flawed. Our current state of incomplete understanding in no way opens a rational door for any God or immaterial soul: “Nothing that we know about consciousness is inconsistent with the understanding that it depends entirely on neural activity. . . . . the phenomena of consciousness look exactly as you would expect if the laws of nature applied without regard to human welfare. If we want to enhance that welfare, we have to do it ourselves.”
No immaterial soul or anything else immaterial. Dualists will definitely take exception to that brazen assertion.
Pinker discusses and criticizes Nietzsche at length, arguing that he was and still is a mortal enemy of humanism. He considers Nietzsche to be a major force behind modern resurgent authoritarianism, nationalism, populism and fascism: “Nietzsche argues that it is good to be a callous, egotistic, megalomaniacal sociopath. [quoting Nietzsche ] ‘I do not point to the evil and pain of existence with the finger of reproach, but rather entertain the hope that life may one day become more evil and more full of suffering than it ever has been. . . . . Man shall be trained for war and woman for the recreation of the warrior. All else is folly. . . . . Thou goest to woman? Don’t forget thy whip.’”
That sounds very anti-humanist. Pinker asserts that Nietzsche is riddled with logic flaws and has no moral authority to speak for anyone other than himself. Despite that, Pinker observes: “Nietzsche is among the most influential thinkers of the 20th century and continuing into the 21st. Most obviously Nietzsche helped inspire the romantic militarism that led to the first World War and the fascism that led to the Second.”
Regarding theistic morality and secular morality, Pinker comments:
The Euthyphro argument puts the lie to the common clam that atheism consigns us to a moral relativism in which everyone can do his own thing. The claim gets it backwards. A humanistic morality rests on the universal bedrock of reason and human interests . . . . For this reason, many contemporary philosophers . . . . . are moral realists (the opposite of relativists), arguing that moral statements may be objectively true or false. It’s religion that is inherently relativistic. . . . . Not only does this make theistic morality relativistic, it can make it immoral.
To support this, Pinker points out that, for example, the Old Testament includes admonitions permitting immoral behavior including mass rape, genocide, death for homosexuality, death for talking back to one’s parents and death for working on the Sabbath. He describes modern believers’ response like this: “Today, of course, enlightened believers cherry-pick the humane injunctions while allegorizing, spin doctoring, or ignoring the vicious ones, and that’s just the point: they read the Bible through the lens of Enlightenment humanism.” In his view, religion is morally relativistic compared to the moral realism that flows from humanism. His reasoning seems rather sound.
B&B orig: 2/23/19
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