The Classics of Secular Humanism Western Civilization Has Produced a Rich History of Secular Humanist Literature

The Classics of Secular Humanism Western Civilization has produced a rich history of secular Albert Ellis humanist literature. Many of these books are classics, while others have been forgotten or lost. We invited a number of Bertrand Russell, The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell (New York: Simon and leading humanist intellectuals to provide a list of those books Schuster, 1961). Lays some of the important that influenced them most, with a special emphasis on the philosophic groundwork for twentieth- classics of secular humanism. We are pleased to present their century secular humanist thought. selections — Ed. Corliss Lamont, The Philosophy of Humanism, fifth edition (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1965). A simple but Brand Blanshard is professor emeritus at Brand Blanshard profound summary of some of the main Yale University. He is former president of tenets of secular humanism. the American Philosophical Assn. and the David Friedrich Strauss, Leben Jesu (1835, Humanist Manifestos I and II (Buffalo: American Theology Society. Among his Eng. trans. by George Eliot). The most Prometheus Books, 1978). Pioneer state- books are Reason and Goodness and thorough and decisive work of higher ment of secular humanism, nicely updated. Reason and Analysis. criticism yet written. George H. Smith, Atheism: The Case W.E.H. Lecky, History of the Rise and Against God (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, Joseph Fletcher was professor of pastoral Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in 1979). Scholarly presentation of some theology and Christian ethics, Episcopal Europe (1865). A masterly account of the aspects of secular humanism that are often Theological School, Cambridge, and taught rise of freedom of thought in modern times. neglected. medical ethics at the University of Virginia Andrew D. White, History of the Warfare Albert Ellis, Humanistic Psychotherapy: Medical School. He is author of Situation of Science with Theology (1896). A The Rational-Emotive Approach (New Ethics, and other books. temperate and accurate account of the York: Crown Publishers and McGraw-Hill clashes between science and super- Paperbacks, 1973). My own attempt to Albert Ellis, a clinical psychologist, is ex- naturalism. combine some of the best elements of the ecutive director of the Institute for J.M.E. McTaggart, Some Dogmas of existential-humanistic psychology of the Rational-Emotive Therapy. He is the Religion (1906). A remarkably lucid discus- human potential movement with the hard- author of numerous books, including The sion of some central concepts of religion by headed, realistic views of modern secular American Sexual Tragedy and A Guide to a mind of the first competence in humanism, and to apply both of these Rational Living. philosophy. philosophies to the field of psychotherapy. George Santayana, The Life of Reason Robert Rimmer is the author of The (1905-06), in five volumes. (See especially Robert Rimmer Harrad Experiment and many other novels. Reason in Religion). A work of power and grace, written by a Catholic who became a Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward (1888) Garrett Hardin is the chief executive officer naturalist. and Equality (1897). The two novels taken of The Environmental Fund (Washington, together propose a humanist oriented world, Equality, which is not D.C.). He is professor emeritus of human Joseph Fletcher especially the sequal ecology at the University of California, well known. Kamongo (New York: Santa Barbara. Among his books are The John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859), Homer W. Smith, Tragedy of the Commons and Promethean because it is the first essay to make adequate Viking Press, 1932). A short novel com- paring Man's adaptability to the African Ethics. sense of a precious principle too easily uttered. Lungfish. The Troika Incident Isaac Asimov is the famous author of Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, James Cooke Brown, science and science fiction. He has publish- edited by Bernard De Voto (New York: (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, ed over 200 books. Harper & Row, 1962), because we tend to 1970). This is the only novel written by forget that we need humor to protect us Brown. He invented a complete language Richard Kostelanetz, noted critic and from believing in things we cannot know. and still teaches it (so far as I know), in San author, has published dozens of books, in- George Santayana, Life of Reason (1905- Diego. Jim Brown also invented the game a story of a cluding The End of Intelligent Writing and 06, in five volumes), anywhere in the five Careers. The Troika Incident is Esthetics Contemporary. volumes, because of its brilliance and future world with meanings for our world. humility. King C. Gillette, The Human Drift For biographical sketches of Sidney Nook Garrett Hardin, Nature and Man's Fate (Delmar, N.Y.: Scholar's Facsimiles and and Antony Flew, see pages 7 and 27. (New York: Rhinehart, 1959), because it Reprints, 1976). The inventor of the safety gives us a biological setting for our attempts razor was a humanist, closely involved with Joseph Blau is professor emeritus of to understand our life and thought.. Upton Sinclair. The Human Drift is a great religion at Columbia University. His books Bertrand Russell, Human Society in American classic — together with Gillette's include Men and Movements in American Ethics and Politics (New York: Simon and The People's Corporation (New York: Boni Philosophy and Cornerstones of Religious Schuster, 1954), because of its wisdom and and Liveright, 1924), and World Corpora- Freedom in America. social sensitivity. tion (Boston: The New England News Com- MkWin- ¡Tate 36 pany, 1910). (most have been reread many times). It Abraham Maslow, The Farther Reaches seems to me that all of them should be con- Sidney Hook of Human Nature (New York: Viking Press, sidered "secular classics," because they are 1971). This is a collection of Maslow's es- certainly not religious. I feel more comfor- Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline says. I am proposing "Theory Z" as a new table with a personal list than an "objective" and Fall of the Roman Empire. An il- management technique in a novel which I one which may ultimately be a reflection of luminating account of how barbarism have just completed, The Birdwhistle Op- fad, literary-politicking or other inauthentic without and barbarism within (fanatical tion. "Theory Z" approaches, contrasted by process. Christian fundamentalism), destroyed Maslow with "Theory X" and "Y," are George Orwell's essays, for the clarity and Roman civilization. totally humanistic. courage of his intellectual style, not only in George Santayana, The Life of Reason (And chuckling): My novel, Love Me articulating his perceptions efficiently but (1906). A felicitous expression of a Tomorrow (New York: Signet, 1978), which also in resisting deception (1959). naturalistic philosophy of life which I wrote under the title Looking Backward Paul Goodman, Growing Up Absurd recognized that all things natural have an I!, and which no humanist publication has (New York: Random House, 1960); for ideal fulfillment and that all ideals worthy of ever reviewed. showing me at the age of twenty how the fulfillment have a natural basis. anarchist critique of the world around me John Stuart Mill, Autobiography (1874). was invariably more true than the Marxist, Mill has been called the saint of secular Garrett Hardin and for implicitly persuading me to avoid, at humanism, and like all saints has personal Benjamin Lee Whorf, Language, Thought, all costs, the perils of a steady job (1960). and intellectual failings. Whatever the and Reality (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1956). Hannah Arendt, The Origins of limitations of his utilitarianism, at its heart Percy W. Bridgman, The Intelligent In- Totalitarianism (New York: Harcourt, lies a vibrant sympathy for the sufferings of dividual and Society (New York: Mac- Brace, 1951); for its incomparable un- mankind, and a rational will to modify millan, 1938). derstanding of a distinctly modern malaise social institutions that needlessly intensify Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the (1961). or pepetuate them. Modern World (New York: Macmillan, Herman Kahn, On Thermonuclear War Morris R. Cohen, The Faith of a Liberal 1925). (second edition, Princeton: Princeton (New York: H. Holt and Company, 1946). Joseph Townsend, A Dissertation on The University Press, 1960); for realizing one Illustrations of the play of a profound Poor Laws: By a Well-Wisher to Mankind definition of a "brilliant" book, persuasively critical intelligence on some current (Berkeley: University of California Press, transcending, not only in evidence but in problems of our times. Liberalism is broadly 1971). concepts, previous critiques of its subject conceived as commitment to the use of in- Thomas R. Malthus, An Essay on the (1963). telligence in furthering the cause of human Principle of Population. Buckminster Fuller, Nine Chains to the freedom. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species Moon (1963) and Education Automation John Dewey, Experience and Nature (1859); and his Autobiography (1892). (1962) — both published in Carbondale by (Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company, R.A. Fisher, The Genetical Theory of Southern Illinois University Press — for 1925). A profound exploration of the rela- Natural Selection (New York: Dover, suggesting a profoundly radical, up-to-date tion between nature and human nature in an 1958). social thought based on neither "left" nor attempt to show how, without relying on any George Orwell, Animal Farm (New "right" but on the possibilities intrinsic in myths about the transcendent, creative in- York: Harcourt, Brace, and Jovanovich, technological development and social telligence can function effectively and 1954). change (1966). humanely in building a better society. Helmut Schoeck, Envy: A Theory of L. Moholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion Social Behavior (New York: Harcourt, (Chicago: P. Theobald, 1947); for explaining Antony Flew Brace, and World, 1969). recent art to me, two decades after the book was actually written, and for identifying the Hume has to figure prominently on my list principal precursors of contemporary ex- since he was the first major thinker in the Isaac Asimov perimental literature (1966).

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