What's Wrong With Humanism?
On Religion, Philosophy, and Human Dignity
Humanism—say critics—is wrong in at least two ways: 1) it over-focuses on our obligation to fellow humans, to the detriment of non-humans, and 2) it defines our humanness in such a narrow way as to exclude many humans. Here’s Martha Nussbaum:
Finally, cosmopolitanism is a form of humanist rationalism. Our duties are to other humans only, and their ground is the claim that all humans partake in rationality. I reject both the rationalism and the humanism found in this tradition. Even within our species, we should treat as full equals people with severe cognitive disabilities that rationalism does not include. But we also have stringent duties to other animals and the world of nature. I’ll go further: All forms of rationalist humanism typically cast aspersions on our animality and teach us to have disdain and disgust for ourselves insofar as we are animals. This is a pernicious idea that has done untold damage.
So, why should we care about animals or the earth? Why should we care about humans who aren’t fully rational, in the way we’ve defined rationality?
My contention is that we must either appeal to non-rationalist humanism (humanism that finds dignity in something other than reason) or to Revelation (an inarguable appeal to divine authority). I’m not sure the former is persuasive, leaving religion and not philosophy, as the better bet, to secure the rights of the cognitively disabled. This isn’t to say that religion can’t be interpreted through a rationalist-humanist lens. It’s only to say that it needn’t be. We should afford dignity to the vulnerable, the marginalized, and the sub-human—the argument would go—because we are commanded by God to do so. Perhaps this is why Nietzsche criticized Judaism and Christianity as forms of “slave morality.”
Why am I wrong?
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