Ethical Record
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The ISSN 0014-1690 Ethical Record Vol. 96 No. 10 NOVEMBER 1991 CONTENTS Page Humanist Strategy - A sharpened perspective 3 Business and Accounting Ethics in Islam 8 Mysterious Cult misuses Humanist label 11 Does Humanism have a future? 17 Anarchism and Religion 20 Letters. Syllabus of 'Altruism' meetings 24 Is Pure Quantity a Straitjacket for Science? 25 PROGRAMME OF EVENTS Lectures and forums are held in the library and are free (collection). NOVEMBER Sunday, 17th I I am Lecture: "Discovering Ideology", GORGE WALFORD. editor of 'Ideological Commentry' and author of 'Beyond Politics , an outline of systematic ideology'. Ideology is not just false consciousness and it is not limited to politics. It explains why belief in religion continues and why humanists remain a-minority. 3 pm Forum:"The Philosophy of signs of C.S. Peirce",CFnusTINE WERTHEIM looks at the philosophy of the American CS. Peirce, Mathematician, scientist, philosopher, friend of William James and considered by many to be the greatest intellect of his day. In Peirce's view, philosophy tries to understand, therefore it takes as its principle assumption that the laws of reason and the laws of nature are one. 6.30 pm Concert: PETER CROPPER (Violin) and IAN LAKE (Piano) Beethoven Friday, 22nd 7 pm Book Launch: An evening of songs, poetry, dissent and defiance to launch 'The Chatto Book of Dissent', edited by Mike Rosen and David Widgery. Wine will be served. Admission £1.50. Sunday, 24th I I am Lecture: "Nietzche - Twilight of the Idols". MARK NEOCLEOUS takes a fresh look at this controversial philosopher. 3 pm Forum: "My World - outlook and philosophy of life". 4 members of S.P.E.S. expound and defend their own points of view. 6.30 pm The Cummings String Trio Schubert, Schnittki, Mozart. Continues on back page The views expressed in this journal arc,not necessarily those of the Society l'ublished by the South Place Ethical Society, Connay Hall, Red Lion Square, London WCI SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY The Humanist Centre, Conway Hall 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. Telephone: 071-831 7723 Hall Lettings: 071-242 8032. Lobby: 071-405 4125 Trustees Louise Booker, John Brown, Anthony Chapman, Peter Heales, Don Liversedge, Ray Lovecy, Ian MacKillop, Barbara Smoker, Harry Stopes-Roe. Appointed Lecturers Harold Blackham, T.F. Evans, Peter Heales, Richard Scorer, Barbara Smoker, Harry Stopes-Roe, Nicolas Walter. Officers Honorary Representative: Norman Bacrac. Chair General Committee: Nicolas Walter. Deputy Chair Louise Booker. Honorary Registrar: Anne Wood. Honorary Treasurer David Williams. Hall Manager Stephen Norley. Honorary Librarian: Edwina Palmer. Editor, The Ethical Record: David Murray. Secretary: Nina Khare, Special General Meetings of the South Place Ethical Society A Two Special General Meetings, which were held on 25 September and 3 November 1991. had been called by the General Committee under Rule 25 following the Resolution passed by a decisive majority at the Annual General Meeting on 19 May 1991. calling for a Special General Meeting to consider a change in the Rules of the Society which would allow Members to remain on the General Committee for more than three years in succession, though they would still have to be re-elected after each period of three years. After short discussions, a Resolution to this effect was passed at both Meettngs with the necessary two-thirds majority. As a result the whole of Rule 11 (5) now reads as follows: Six members of the Committee shall retire annually at the Annual General Meeting, being those members who were elected at the Annual General Meeting in the third year previous to the current year and those (if any) elected in accordance with Rule 11 (4). but all members so retiring shall be eligible for re-election. Officers of the Society who have not also been elected to membership of the Committee shallcease to be members of the Committee at the expiration of their period of office. This change will take effect from the Annual General Meeting in May 1992 B The other Special General Meeting, which was held on 25 September 1991, had been called under Rule 22 by more than twelve Members of the Society to consider the questions of responsibility for the acquisition and of payment for the purchase of an electronic typewriter during 1990. After a long discussion, a Motion and several Amendments were put to the vote, and in the end the f ollowing Motion as amended was passed by an overwhelming majority: This Special General Meeting: 1 Real firms confidence in the elected General Committee and elected Officials of the Society in administering.the affairs of the Society: 2 Requests the General Committee and Officials of the Society to begin to seek a speedy and satisfactory conclusion to this matter in accordance with both legaland ethical considerations: 3 Requires all Members of the Society to act within the Society in conformity with both the explicit and the implicit principles of the Society; and 4 Resolves that this should be the end of the matter. Nicolas Walter Chan General Committee & Norman Bacrac — Honorary Representative Membership of the Society includes subscription to The Ethical Record Non-members may subscribe to the journal for LB/year. Contributions should be sent to the Editor, at Conway Hall. Deadline for contributions for any month's issue is the first day of the preceeding month. Contributions should conform to one of the following standards: On Disc - Word Star, Word Perfect, MS Word. Include print-out. Typewritten — A4 paper, double-spaced with wide margins. Handwritten — A4 paper, narrow lined with margin. Printed, with clear distinction between capitals and non-capitals. 2 Ethical Record, November, 7997 H UM ANIST STRATEGY — A Sharpened Perspective Eric Stockton Keynote Address to SPES Annual Reunion. 29 September 1991 Mr Chairman, I thank the Society for the honour of inviting me to address this meeting. • It is some Rimy years since my one and only previous visit to a meeting of the society. The occasion was notable for an address by Archibald Roberston in which he made a critical compitlisOn .of Huxley's Bravc New World and, the then recently published, 1984 by George: Ohyell: Huxley. got .the best of it and I, as a then member of that ultimate middlercla's;-prOtestaht sect known as the British Communist Party, applauded that assessment. I _would noW, about (Oily years after my leaving that party, rate those two cautiqnaiy. tales as 'equal but different'. A ve'rY "great deal ha's been b'rewing these forty years and it has come to a head in somewhat less than forty months of the immediate past. Many well-meaning people took years to absorb the significance of' the Kruschev Report to the 1956 congress of the Soviet Communist Party. We have not, I think, got year upon leisurely year to absorb what has now happened as historic sequel to that report — the withering away of homo sovieticus. It is no part of our business to discuss general politics while wearing our secular humanist hats except in so far as 1) there are political threats to humanist values and 2) there are effective humanist contributions to be made to the easement of poiitical problems. I suggest that we have to draw those lines very firmly but also to recognise that we do not all draw them in precisely the same way, limiting precisely the same areas. The unsureness of our touch in these matters has been illustrated amply by the discussions of the Gulf War that have diverted us in recent months. The fact remains that the political world has changed enormously; 1988 is a long time ago and we have to make some political analysis as a preliminary to the discussion of our future humanist strategies. The model upon which I base my political assessment for humanist consideration is that of the mythical monster which, freshly beheaded, instantly sprouted three equally horrible heads. The monster of terminal 'communism' has been beheaded and has sprouted the three monstrous heads of capitalism unrestrained, nationalism unthinking and religion unreformed. Those are the monstrous things at large in the former Soviet Empire and they all threaten humanist values directly. The complacent propaganda, to the effect that democratic enlightenment has now the chance of a clear run in the former communist sphere, is to be taken with a large grain of salt. We are not at 'the end of history'. We must not be misled by the cosy norms of our own little world. Our capitalism has been tempered by a long process of ameliorative reform — underwritten by a once flourishing imperialism whose slackening momentum we often mistake for a divine right of ours to be wealthier than most of the wider world. Capitalism in the former Soviet empire is likely to be the ruthless purveying of anything that the locals can be persuaded to welcome as 'western'. The lawless pushers of hard drugs and the lawful pushers of nicotine will see the Second World as, perhaps, even more attractive than the Third. Nationalism, in our society, is mostly a matter of patronising the person who has the misfortune not to be native British, English or Scottish or whatever. Nationalism 'over there' is much more likely to take the form of burning down the next village. Religion here is mostly a domesticated pet thing that Monday-to-Saturday Humanists Ethical Record, November, /991 3 keep up for old times' sake. The Orthodox/Catholic divide is not like that at all; it is a killer and militant Islam, too, is on the loose again all over much of Asia and South-cast Europe. Humanists, however defined, embody only one trend within society and before attempting any assessment of our humanist perspectives it is necessary to locate our 'class' in contemporary history.