Humanism and Its Aspirations
{{Short description|2003 publication by the American Humanist Association}}
{{italic title}}{{Primary sources|date=July 2011}}
Humanism and Its Aspirations (subtitled Humanist Manifesto III, a successor to the Humanist Manifesto of 1933) is the most recent of the Humanist Manifestos, published in 2003 by the American Humanist Association (AHA).{{cite web|title=Humanism and its Aspirations|url=https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/manifesto3/|publisher=American Humanist Association, 2003|access-date=2 July 2017}} The newest one is much shorter, listing six primary beliefs, which echo themes from its predecessors:
- Knowledge of the world is derived by observation, experimentation, and rational analysis. (See empiricism.)
- Humans are an integral part of nature, the result of unguided evolutionary change.
- Ethical values are derived from human need and interest as tested by experience. (See ethical naturalism.)
- Life's fulfillment emerges from individual participation in the service of humane ideals.
- Humans are social by nature and find meaning in relationships.
- Working to benefit society maximizes individual happiness.
It has been used as source material for secular and atheist ethics.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sctimes.com/story/life/2014/08/11/st-pauls-atheists-coming-closet/13883771/|title=St. Paul's atheists are coming out of the closet|website=St. Cloud Times|language=en|access-date=2019-08-23}}
Signatories
Academics and other prominent persons were signatories to the document, attesting "We who sign Humanism and Its Aspirations declare ourselves in general agreement with its substance":
= Notable signatories=
- Philip Appleman (poet and distinguished professor emeritus of English, Indiana University)
- Khoren Arisian (senior leader, New York Society for Ethical Culture)
- Bill Baird (reproductive rights pioneer)
- Frank Berger (pharmacologist, developer of anti-anxiety drugs)
- Howard Box (minister emeritus, Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, Tennessee)
- Lester R. Brown (founder and president, Earth Policy Institute)
- August E. Brunsman IV (executive director, Secular Student Alliance)
- Rob Buitenweg (vice president, International Humanist and Ethical Union)
- Vern Bullough (sexologist and former co-president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union)
- David Bumbaugh (professor, Meadville Lombard Theological School)
- Matthew Cherry (executive director, Institute for Humanist Studies)
- Joseph Chuman (visiting professor of religion, Columbia University, and leader, Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County, New Jersey)
- Curt Collier (leader, Riverdale-Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture, New York)
- Fred Cook (retired executive committee member, International Humanist and Ethical Union)
- Carl Coon (former U.S. Ambassador to Nepal)
- Richard Dawkins
- Charles Debrovner (president, NACH/The Humanist Institute)
- Arthur Dobrin (professor of humanities, Hofstra University and leader emeritus Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island, New York)
- Margaret Downey (president, Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia)
- Sonja Eggerickx (vice president, Unie Vrijzinnige Verenigingen, Belgium, and vice president International Humanist and Ethical Union)
- Riane Eisler (president, Center for Partnership Studies)
- Albert Ellis (creator of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and founder of the Albert Ellis Institute)
- Edward L. Ericson (leader emeritus, Ethical Culture)
- Roy P. Fairfield (co-founder, Union Graduate School)
- Antony Flew (philosopher)
- Levi Fragell (president, International Humanist and Ethical Union)
- Jerome Isaac Friedman (Nobel Laureate, Physics)
- Arun Gandhi (co-founder, M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence)
- Kendyl Gibbons (president, Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association)
- Sol Gordon (sexologist)
- Ethelbert Haskins (retired treasurer of the Humanist Foundation)
- Jim Herrick (editor, the New Humanist)
- Pervez Hoodbhoy (professor of physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan)
- Fran P. Hosken (editor, Women's International Network News)
- Joan Johnson Lewis (president, National Leaders Council of the American Ethical Union)
- Stefan Jonasson (immediate past president, HUUmanists)
- Larry Jones (president, Institute for Humanist Studies)
- Edwin Kagin (founder and director, Camp Quest)
- Beth Lamont (AHA NGO representative to the United Nations)
- Gerald A. Larue (professor emeritus of Biblical history and archaeology, University of Southern California)
- Joseph Levee (board member, Council for Secular Humanism)
- Ellen McBride (immediate past president, American Ethical Union)
- Lester Mondale (retired Unitarian Universalist minister and signer of Humanist Manifestos I and II)
- Henry Morgentaler (abortion rights pioneer)
- Stephen Mumford (president, Center for Research on Population and Security)
- William Murry (president and dean, Meadville Lombard Theological School)
- Sarah Oelberg (president, HUUmanists)
- Indumati Parikh (president, Center for the Study of Social Change, India)
- Philip Paulson (Church-state activist)
- Katha Pollitt (columnist, the Nation)
- Howard Radest (dean emeritus, the Humanist Institute)
- James "Amazing" Randi (magician, founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation)
- Larry Reyka (president, the Humanist Society)
- David Schafer (retired research physiologist, U.S. Veterans Administration)
- Eugenie Scott (executive director, National Center for Science Education)
- Michael Shermer (editor of Skeptic magazine)
- James R. Simpson (professor of international agricultural economics, Ryukoku University, Japan)
- Warren Allen Smith (editor and author)
- Matthew les Spetter (associate professor in social psychology at the Peace Studies Institute of Manhattan College, NY)
- Oliver Stone (Academy Award-winning filmmaker)
- John Swomley (professor emeritus of social ethics, St. Paul School of Theology)
- Robert Tapp (dean, the Humanist Institute)
- Carl Thitchener (co-minister, Unitarian Universalist Church of Amherst and of Canandaigua, New York)
- Maureen Thitchener (co-minister, Unitarian Universalist Church of Amherst and of Canandaigua, New York)
- Rodrigue Tremblay (Emeritus professor of economics and of international finance, Universite de Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
- Kurt Vonnegut (novelist)
- John Weston (ministerial settlement director, Unitarian Universalist Association)
- Edward O. Wilson (professor, Harvard University, and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner)
- Sherwin Wine (founder and president, Society for Humanistic Judaism)
=Nobel laureates=
22 Nobel laureates were among the signatories:
- Philip W. Anderson (Physics, 1977)
- Paul D. Boyer (Chemistry, 1997)
- Owen Chamberlain (Physics, 1959)
- Francis Crick (Medicine, 1962)
- Paul J. Crutzen (Chemistry, 1995)
- Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (Physics, 1991)
- Johann Deisenhofer (Chemistry, 1988)
- Jerome I. Friedman (Physics, 1990)
- Sheldon Glashow (Physics, 1979)
- David J. Gross (Physics, 2004)
- Herbert A. Hauptman (Chemistry, 1985)
- Dudley Herschbach (Chemistry, 1986)
- Harold W. Kroto (Chemistry, 1996)
- Yuan T. Lee (Chemistry, 1986)
- Mario J. Molina (Chemistry, 1995)
- Erwin Neher (Medicine, 1991)
- Ilya Prigogine (Chemistry, 1977)
- Richard J. Roberts (Medicine, 1993)
- John E. Sulston (Medicine, 2002)
- Henry Taube (Chemistry, 1983)
- E. Donnall Thomas (Medicine, 1990)
- James Dewey Watson (Medicine, 1962)
=Past AHA presidents=
- Edd Doerr
- Michael W. Werner
- Suzanne I. Paul
- Lyle L. Simpson
- Bette Chambers
- Lloyd L. Morain
- Robert W. McCoy
- Vashti McCollum
=AHA board members=
- Melvin Lipman (president)
- Lois Lyons (vice president)
- Ronald W. Fegley (secretary)
- John Nugent (treasurer)
- Wanda Alexander
- John R. Cole
- Tom Ferrick
- Robert D. Finch
- John M. Higgins
- Herb Silverman
- Maddy Urken
- Mike Werner
= Drafting committee =
- Fred Edwords (chair)
- Edd Doerr (also included above as a past AHA president)
- Tony Hileman
- Pat Duffy Hutcheon
- Maddy Urken
See also
- Amsterdam Declaration 2002, a similar document from the International Humanist and Ethical Union.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/manifesto3/ Humanism and Its Aspirations]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110522114926/http://www.americanhumanist.org/Who_We_Are/About_Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_III/Maddy_Urken_Speech Humanism and Its Aspirations – Speech by Maddy Urken]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20100619130831/http://americanhumanist.org/Who_We_Are/About_Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_III/Notable_Signers Notable Signers]
- [https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Critical+commentary+on+Humanist+Manifesto+III.-a0104971392 Critical commentary on the Humanist Manifesto III]