Pluralistic Humanism
Democracy and the Religious
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/eph.v23i1.27663Keywords:
Humanism, Atheism, Theism, Pragmatism, Democracy, Scientific atheismAbstract
I propose we discuss pluralistic humanism as an alternative to both atheism and traditional theism in an effort to establish a democratic faith to which we, despite our differences, can bind ourselves. I draw on the thought of American pragmatists (James, Dewey, Rorty, and Kitcher) to articulate a constructive criticism of new atheists (Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, and Hitchens). This criticism primarily focuses on the unacknowledged affinities between religion and scientific atheism – namely, a naive realism and a conversion experience – with the hope of using such common ground as a starting point for not only shared experience but for self-examination. I conclude with the proposal that we take up a Deweyan conception of democracy as a common faith aimed at effecting religious or spiritual experiences despite the traditional oppression of institutional religion.
References
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Kitcher, Philip. 2014. Life After Faith: The Case for Secular Humanism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Lewis, Thomas, Fari Amini and Richard Lannon. 2001. A General Theory of Love. New York: Random House.
Popp, Jerome A. 2007. Evolution’s First Philosopher: John Dewey and the Continuity of Nature. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Rorty, Richard M. 1979. Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
———. 1999. “Religion as Conversation-Stopper.” In Philosophy and Social Hope, 168–174. New York: Penguin Books.
———. 2007a. “Cultural Politics and the Question of the Existence of God.” In Philosophy as Cultural Politics: Philosophical Papers, volume 4, 3–26. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812835.002
———. 2007b. “Pragmatism as Romantic Polytheism.” In Philosophy as Cultural Politics: Philosophical Papers, volume 4, 27–41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 2007c. “Kant vs. Dewey: the Current Situation of Moral Philosophy.” In Philosophy as Cultural Politics: Philosophical Papers, volume 4, 183–202. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 2011. An Ethics for Today: Finding Common Ground Between Philosophy and Religion. New York: Columbia University Press.
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Zak, Paul J. 2013. The Moral Molecule: How Trust Works. New York: Plume.
Dennett, Daniel C. 1995. Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life. New York: Simon & Schuster.
———. 2006. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. New York:
Viking.
———. 2011. “A Lesson from Hitch: When Rudeness is Called For.” On Faith article for the Washington Post, December 18.
Dewey, John. 2007 [1910]. The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy and Other Essays in Contemporary Thought, edited by L. A. Hickman. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
———. 1989 [1925]. Experience and Nature. The Later Works of John Dewey, volume 1, edited by Jo Ann Boydston. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
———. 1962 [1934]. A Common Faith. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
———. 1988 [1938]. Logic: The Theory of Inquiry. In The Later Works of John Dewey, volume 12, edited by Jo Ann Boydston. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
———. 1989 [1939]. “Creative Democracy—The Task Before Us.” In The Later Works of John Dewey, volume 14, edited by Jo Ann Boydston, 224–230. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Dunbar, Robin. 2012. The Science of Love. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Flanagan, Owen and David Barack. 2010. “Neuroexistentialism.” EurAmerica 40(3): 574–590.
Harris, Sam. 2005. The End of Faith. New York: W. W. Norton.
Hitchens, Christopher. 2007. God is Not Great: How Religions Poisons Everything. New York: Hachette Book Group.
James, William. 1907. Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking. New York: Longmans, Green, and Co. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/10851-000
Johnson, Mark. 2014. Morality for Humans: Ethical Understanding from the Perspective of Cognitive Science. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226113548.001.0001
Kenneson, Philip D. 2015. “What’s in a Name? A Brief Introduction to ‘Spiritual But Not Religious’.” Liturgy 30(3): 3–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0458063X.2015.1019259
Kitcher, Philip. 2014. Life After Faith: The Case for Secular Humanism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Lewis, Thomas, Fari Amini and Richard Lannon. 2001. A General Theory of Love. New York: Random House.
Popp, Jerome A. 2007. Evolution’s First Philosopher: John Dewey and the Continuity of Nature. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Rorty, Richard M. 1979. Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
———. 1999. “Religion as Conversation-Stopper.” In Philosophy and Social Hope, 168–174. New York: Penguin Books.
———. 2007a. “Cultural Politics and the Question of the Existence of God.” In Philosophy as Cultural Politics: Philosophical Papers, volume 4, 3–26. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812835.002
———. 2007b. “Pragmatism as Romantic Polytheism.” In Philosophy as Cultural Politics: Philosophical Papers, volume 4, 27–41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 2007c. “Kant vs. Dewey: the Current Situation of Moral Philosophy.” In Philosophy as Cultural Politics: Philosophical Papers, volume 4, 183–202. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 2011. An Ethics for Today: Finding Common Ground Between Philosophy and Religion. New York: Columbia University Press.
Tschaepe, Mark 2014. “Neuropragmatic Reconstruction: A Case from Neuroeconomics.” In Pragmatist Neurophilosophy: American Philosophy and the Brain, edited by John R. Shook and Tibor Solymosi, 111–126. London: Bloomsbury Press.
Twenge, Jean M., Julie J. Exline, Joshua B. Grubbs, Ramya Sastry and W. Keith Campbell. 2015. “Generational and Time Period Differences in American Adolescents’ Religious Orientation, 1966–2014.” PLoS ONE 10(5): e0121454. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0121454
Zak, Paul J. 2013. The Moral Molecule: How Trust Works. New York: Plume.
Published
2015-11-23
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Solymosi, T. (2015). Pluralistic Humanism: Democracy and the Religious. Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism, 23(1), 25-43. https://doi.org/10.1558/eph.v23i1.27663
