Evolutionary humanism

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The Vitruvian Man is an often-used symbol evolutionary humanists.

The evolutionary humanism is a humanist worldview naturalistic characteristics, which the people of a comprehensive evolutionary process locates. This worldview has philosophical precursors in antiquity. The expression can be traced back to the work of the same name by Julian Huxley , the first UNESCO Director General and a major contributor to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , from the 1960s. Today, in the German-speaking countries, the Giordano Bruno Foundation in particular advocates the further development and dissemination of the concept.

Concept history

Julian Huxley, founder of evolutionary humanism

The term evolutionary humanism was coined in the early 1960s by the evolutionary biologist and first director general of UNESCO, Sir Julian Huxley. The forerunners of this worldview go back to antiquity - for example to the Greek philosopher Epicurus, who already anticipated essential knowledge of modernity 2,300 years ago, including the theory of the atomic structure of the world, of the rise and fall of species, the infinity of the universe, the mortality of the soul, the social contract and the individual pursuit of happiness as the linchpin of a humane ethics and politics. Partly inspired by Epicurus , partly independent of him, thinkers such as Giordano Bruno , Montaigne , La Mettrie , Jefferson , Paine , Darwin , Marx , Nietzsche , Einstein , Russell or HG Wells created essential foundations for the concept of evolutionary humanism in later centuries which Julian Huxley could fall back on in the middle of the 20th century.

symbolism

The representation of the Vitruvian man according to the idealized proportions formulated by the ancient architect and engineer Vitruvius (ius) is often used by evolutionary humanists at events and in public relations as a stand-alone symbol with a high recognition value. The most famous drawing comes from Leonardo da Vinci , so that the aesthetics of the Renaissance and Leonardo's scientific orderly thinking are symbolically taken up.

concept

On the basis of scientific knowledge and humanistic values, evolutionary humanism provides answers to the basic existential questions of being human (where do we come from? Where do we go? What is the meaning of life? What is ethically fair?). As a result, he is in a tense relationship with other ideological perspectives, which answer these questions of humanity, for example by referring to a divine creation or a predetermined system of values ​​such as Sharia .

From Huxley's point of view, science is able to explain not only biological evolution, but also inorganic developments such as the evolution of stars on the one hand, and human and social developments on the other, within the framework of a general theory of evolution. Huxley sees humans as the highest product of evolution, who is also able to control evolution and, for example, through genetic engineering in humans, to advance it. Nonetheless, he recognized that scientific findings are always prone to errors and therefore need to be corrected and that ethical-political norms are also subject to a historical development process.

Evolutionary humanism thus shows features that are atypical for world views. He does not set himself absolutely, but tries to develop a framework model that takes other ideological or religious points of view into account fairly. His worldview is not static, but geared towards constant further development. The openness to new insights and alternative perspectives is shown by the fact that evolutionary humanism, as represented in Michael Schmidt-Salomon's Manifesto of Evolutionary Humanism from 2005, differs significantly from Huxley's positions from the 1960s.

The evolutionary humanism manifesto advocates a naturalistic philosophy . It is based on an image of the cosmos in which everything "above board approaching" in which there is no metaphysical mythical creatures (gods, demons, witches or goblins), the (supernatural) on supranaturalistic way by miracle intervene in world affairs. In the introduction it says:

"We live in a time of non-simultaneity: while we are technologically in the 21st century, our worldviews are still shaped by legends that are thousands of years old. This combination of the highest technical know-how and the most naive children's beliefs could have fatal consequences in the long run. We behave like that Five-year-olds who were given responsibility for a jumbo jet. " (P. 7) "Anyone who today wants to develop a logically consistent (= non-contradictory), consistent with empirical knowledge (= our systematic empirical knowledge) and ethically viable view of people and the world must necessarily fall back on the results of scientific research. The traditional Religions that previously shaped the human self-image can no longer fulfill this task. " (P. 7)

However, according to Schmidt-Salomon, it should not be overlooked in this context that some traditional humanistic ideas have come into conflict with today's expanded knowledge of man and nature. This current of humanism is evolutionary not only because it understands human beings as a chance product of natural evolution, but also "because we do not start from absolute, inviolable, eternally valid truths and values, but rather mean that our ideas about the world are permanent critically questioning and then having to change if necessary. So it is not a rigid world model, but an open, dynamic one that is geared towards evolving. " The concept of human dignity is tied to the individual's right to self-determination, which results in a purely formal, ideologically neutral concept of human dignity that can be understood as follows: The dignity of the individual is determined by the fact that the individual determines his or her dignity - not the state , not the family and also no religious or ideological community. As a framework model, evolutionary humanism also protects those beliefs that appear irrational from its own ideological perspective. Here he names the right of a believer to suffer in "following Jesus" and to renounce palliative medicine or euthanasia. It would be far from evolutionary humanism to impose their own worldview on those who think differently. He advocates an ideologically neutral state that grants every person the freedom to live according to their own ideological or religious convictions - provided that this does not violate the rights of third parties. The approach follows the concept of the open society described by Karl Popper , which is based on the four fundamental principles of liberality , equality , individuality and secularity .

In the Ten Offers of Evolutionary Humanism , which Schmidt-Salomon contrasts with the Ten Commandments of the Bible , he suggests serving the great ideal of ethics to alleviate suffering in the world; to behave fairly towards the next and most distant; not to be afraid of authorities, but to have the courage to use one's own reason; To follow the tradition of those who want (d) to make the world a better, more livable place and to enjoy life, as most likely only this one is given. In hope man. A better world is possible from 2014, he puts an emphasis on presenting the positive balance of human development. The biological and cultural development of the human species shows that humans have the potential to become more and more "humane". He names positive developments, especially from the areas of ethics, science, technology and art, which should be built on in the future. The text contains various indirect references to evolution and is based on scientific findings from sociobiology , brain research and an evolutionary explanation of religiosity.

Gerhard Engel (former board member at the Humanist Academy Germany ) emphasizes that evolutionary humanism is not a worldview, but rather a method of working on a worldview in order to gain an objective overall picture of the world in the sense of a humane design of the future. According to this, it is the program, mandate and challenge also in terms of social and cultural evolution. Evolutionary humanism promotes the search for intellectual gains in cooperation. These can be achieved not only in a conversation between the sciences, but also in a conversation between science, art, religion, literature, music and philosophy. Rightly understood, evolution means not only differentiation and adaptation, but also integration - that is, the connection of systems to increasingly powerful complexes. Humans can live anywhere, even (for a limited time) in space. Evolutionary humanism so accentuated would be a theory of biological difference; she would have to investigate how and why man could push forward those limits which nature seems to impose on other living beings. A synopsis of all scientific disciplines, as Kant envisaged in his architecture of pure reason, is the only way still open to achieve a rationally justifiable understanding of the world. Evolutionary humanism is therefore a step on this path.

distribution

Germany:

  • In German-speaking countries , the concept of evolutionary humanism is closely linked to the Giordano Bruno Foundation , on whose behalf Executive Board spokesman Michael Schmidt-Salomon created the book Manifesto of Evolutionary Humanism in 2005 and whose theses are regularly presented to the public. With a sold circulation of 50,000 copies, the manifesto is the most widespread representation of this worldview.
  • In 2014 the party of humanists was founded, which has anchored the concept of evolutionary humanism in its mission statement.
  • The social movement of effective altruism , with the practical implementation of a critical-rational ethics, covers a "central part" of evolutionary humanism, as the Foundation for Effective Altruism , founded in 2015, explained.
  • The Secular Refugee Relief (English name: Atheist Refugee Relief ) is based on evolutionary humanism in its self-image from 2017.
  • The association "The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster eV" (KdFSMD) refers in its statutes of 2018 with a "special focus" on evolutionary humanism.

Foreign countries:

  • In Croatia, the Centar za gradansku hrabrost (Center for Civil Courage) was founded in 2011 , which adopted the concept of evolutionary humanism from the Giordano Bruno Foundation.
  • In the Czech Republic, the Technical University in Liberec awarded Michael Schmidt-Salomon an honorary doctorate in 2019 for work on evolutionary humanism and the defense of the open society.

Controversy

Yuval Noah Harari writes in his world bestseller A Brief History of Humanity from 2013 that humanism consists of three "splinter groups" (liberal, socialist and evolutionary humanism) and that only one "single humanist sect" has renounced monotheism , namely the evolutionary humanism, "of which the best-known representatives were the National Socialists". Evolutionary humanism is a religion "that worships man" and the "top priority" is the "protection of mankind from degeneration into subhumans and the breeding of superhumans". In this context, Harari assigns the evolutionary humanism, which "misunderstood" Darwinism , to the National Socialist racial ideology and the fight against liberalism and human rights. In the last 70 years since the "victory over Hitler" a connection between humanism and evolutionary theory had been taboo - today the future of evolutionary humanism is unclear.

  • Michael Schmidt-Salomon replied that Harari was making "hair-raising mistakes" and that he not only misunderstood the theistic-religious (sometimes occult) character of Nazi ideology, but also undermined all criteria by which humanistic and anti-humanistic worldviews can be differentiated in a meaningful way. National Socialism could under no circumstances be called humanistic if this term was to have some hard-wearing meaning. Harari tries to save his concept by placing the attribute "evolutionary" in front of the supposed humanism of the National Socialists. Conceptually, this is nonsensical. Because if the attribute "evolutionary" would lead to humanism mutating into anti-humanism, one would have to speak of "evolutionary anti-humanism" - instead of evolutionary humanism. The worldview of the Nazis was neither humanistic nor evolutionary if these terms were used in a serious way. Harari himself could easily have recognized this if he had gone into what the term evolutionary humanism, which has been introduced into the international debate for decades, actually means.
  • The Richard Dawkins Foundation pointed out in a post that Harari used the terms religion and humanism in an idiosyncratic way. According to him, religion is any complex of ideas that order a society in which most of the members of that society believe in it. Whether it contains one or more gods would be irrelevant to him. For Harari, humanism is the ruling religion of modernity, regardless of whether the narratives that generate the ruling values ​​are about gods or not. Hariri defined idiosyncratically and his concept of humanism thus has a different meaning than that which is usually used. In any case, it is remarkable that for Harari the history of theistic religion as a determining force is complete.

literature

  • Gerhard Engel: Evolutionary humanism as an integration science . In: Horst Groschopp (Ed.): Humanism perspectives . tape 1 of the series of publications by the Humanist Academy of Germany. Alibri, Aschaffenburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-86569-058-6 , pp. 112 ff .
  • Julian Huxley : The evolutionary humanism: ten essays on the main ideas and problems . Beck, Munich 1964.
  • Uwe Lehnert : Why I don't want to be a Christian . My way from the Christian faith to a naturalistic-humanistic worldview. 6th expanded edition. Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-8288-3475-0 .
  • Jochen Oehler : The human being - evolution, nature and culture . Springer VS, 2011, ISBN 3-642-10349-9 , pp. 54-58 .
  • Michael Schmidt-Salomon : Manifesto of Evolutionary Humanism . Plea for a contemporary leading culture. 2nd, corrected and enlarged edition. Alibri, Aschaffenburg 2006, ISBN 3-86569-011-4 ( table of contents and text excerpts ).
  • Michael Schmidt-Salomon: Bioethics in Evolutionary Humanism , in: Dossier Bioethics of the Federal Center for Civic Education, July 9, 2018, License: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 DE
  • Gerhard Vollmer: Evolutionary Humanism . In: In the light of evolution . S. Hirzel, Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-7776-2636-9 , pp. 415 ff .
  • Bernd Vowinkel. Knowledge instead of belief. The world view of the new humanism. Lola, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-944203-33-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Julian Huxley: The basic ideas of evolutionary humanism . In: Julian Huxley: The evolutionary humanism. Ten essays on the main ideas and problems . Munich 1964.
  2. ^ Gerhard Vollmer: Evolutionary Humanism . In: In the light of evolution . S. Hirzel, Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-7776-2636-9 , pp. 415 ff .
  3. ↑ a b c Michael Schmidt-Salomon: Bioethics in Evolutionary Humanism. In: Bioethics Dossier. Federal Agency for Civic Education, License: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 DE, July 9, 2018, accessed on April 15, 2020 .
  4. ↑ gbs channel on YouTube. Accessed April 15, 2020 (German).
  5. ^ Paul Kurtz , 2001: Skepticism and Humanism: The New Paradigm, ISBN 1412834112 , ISBN 9781412834117 , p. 244f ( online )
  6. ↑ Michael Schmidt-Salomon: Manifesto of evolutionary humanism . 2nd Edition. Alibri, Aschaffenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-86569-011-1 .
  7. ↑ Joachim Scholl: Philosopher Schmidt-Salomon - With humanism against moral stubbornness. Deutschlandfunk Kultur, March 10, 2019, accessed on April 15, 2020 (German).
  8. ↑ Ten Commandments of Evolutionary Humanism. gbs, 2005, accessed April 15, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Gerhard Engel: Evolutionary Humanism as Integration Science . In: Horst Groschopp (Ed.): Humanism perspectives . tape 1 of the series of publications by the Humanist Academy of Germany. Alibri, Aschaffenburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-86569-058-6 , pp. 112 ff .
  10. ↑ Gerhard Engel: Evolutionary Humanism as Integration Science (as pdf). 2010, accessed April 15, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Michael Schmidt-Salomon in conversation with Susanne Fritz: Evolutionary humanism as a form of belief - "I believe in people". Deutschlandfunk, April 13, 2015, accessed on April 15, 2020 (German).
  12. ↑ Maren Tiemann: Good, better, human? Spektrum.de, May 1, 2014, accessed April 15, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Book reference: Manifesto of Evolutionary Humanism. In: gbs. Retrieved April 15, 2020 .
  14. ^ Mission statement of the party of humanists. Retrieved April 28, 2018 .
  15. ^ Effective Altruism Foundation. Retrieved April 15, 2020 (American English).
  16. ↑ Foundation for Effective Altruism: How does Effective Altruism compare to Evolutionary Humanism? hpd, November 24, 2015, accessed April 15, 2020 .
  17. ^ Self- Image and Practical Work - Atheist Refugee Relief. Accessed April 15, 2020 (German).
  18. ↑ Articles of Association and Fee Regulations from May 26, 2018. In: Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Germany. Accessed April 16, 2020 (German).
  19. ↑ the center. Retrieved June 1, 2015 .
  20. ↑ Honorary doctorate for Michael Schmidt-Salomon. hpd, November 5, 2019, accessed April 15, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Yuval Noah Harari: A Brief History of Humanity . 22nd edition. Pantheon, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-570-55269-8 , pp. 280 ff .
  22. ↑ Michael Schmidt-Salomon: Were the Nazis really "humanists"? The great Harari confusion. hpd, August 1, 2017, accessed April 15, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Harald Stückers: Humanism is just a word. Richard Dawkins Foundation, August 8, 2017, accessed April 15, 2020 .