News
31 January 2003
This booklet was published in January 2003 with financial support from the European Commission. The contents are reproduced here as a series of separate pages. The biographical notes on the authors are those from 2003. CONTENTS Introduction Reflections on Humanism – by Jean Pierre Vanden Branden Humanism and Values – by Richard Norman Humanism and the Global Community: a Planetary Approach - by Paul Kurtz Humanism and Laïcité, a Project of Human Potential Development – by Marc… read more »
An article by Georges C. Liénard from Humanism and Laïcité in Europe, published by EHF in January 2003. Dr. Georges C. Liénard is Former President of the Centre d’action laïque de Belgique and General Secretary of the European Humanist Federation (EHF). The original paper was written in French. Not surprisingly, the terms “secularism” and “humanism” may have rather different – and sometimes even opposite – meanings, depending on whether they are used in Latin countries… read more »
An article by Anne Marie Franchi from Humanism and Laïcité in Europe, published by EHF in January 2003. Anne Marie Franchi is Vice President of the French Ligue de l’enseignement. The original paper was written in French. How can people live together in harmony without necessarily sharing the same beliefs? The following article aims to draw a balance sheet of the different solutions adopted in Europe and suggests that laïcité is the best way forward… read more »
An article by Grazia Marchiano from Humanism and Laïcité in Europe, published by EHF in January 2003. Grazia Marchiano is professor of aesthetics and history and civilizations of Eastern Asia at the University of Siena-Arezzo (Italy). She is Honorary President of the Italian Association for Aesthetics (AISE) “In memory of my beloved husband Elémire Zolla (1926-2002), one of the great European minds of the XXth century” That humanism has been a conquest of European civilisation… read more »
An article by Frieder Otto Wolf from Humanism and Laïcité in Europe, published by EHF in January 2003. Frieder Otto Wolf is Member of the Federal Board of the „Humanistischer Verband Deutschland“; he teaches philosophy at the Freie Universität Berlin More than a decade after the unification of the two Germanys in 1990, German society is now clearly displaying the characteristics of a post-secularist society, i.e. a society in which the cultural divide between religious… read more »
An article by Bert Gasenbeek from Humanism and Laïcité in Europe, published by EHF in January 2003. Dr Bert Gasenbeek is Managing Director of the Humanist Archives and researcher at the University for Humanist Studies, Utrecht, the Netherlands. An analytical framework A full catalogue of these humanist organizations would hardly be enlightening. Instead, I will try and sketch an analytical framework that may be useful to describe and analyse humanist organizations within national contexts. Illustrative… read more »
An article by Marc Campine from Humanism and Laïcité in Europe, published by EHF in January 2003. Marc Campine is Researcher in the Vrije Universiteit, Brussels Connecting Globally and Global Co-operation Since the beginning of our history, since the beginning of the chronology of Homo Sapiens, our direct ancestors, diversified and spread over the entire world, resulting in a multitude of histories and cultures. It has however been just recently in our chronology that humankind… read more »
An article by Paul Kurtz from Humanism and Laïcité in Europe, published by EHF in January 2003. Paul Kurtz is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, at the State University of New York at Buffalo; he is Editor-in-Chief, FREE INQUIRY magazine Humanism represents the oldest ethical and philosophical tradition in Western civilization. Developed in Classical Greece and Rome, it was expounded by thinkers as diverse as Socrates, Protagoras, Aristotle, Democritus, Epicurus, and Lucretius. It emphasizes that human… read more »
An article by Richard Norman from Humanism and Laïcité in Europe, published by EHF in January 2003. Richard Norman is a member of the Humanist Philosophers’ Group of British Humanist Association Humanists typically find it easy to agree on the rejection of religious belief, but more difficult to agree positively on what they are for. The word ‘humanism’, however, deliberately emphasises the positive side: that a belief in human beings can, in some sense, serve… read more »
An article by Jean Pierre Vanden Branden from Humanism and Laïcité in Europe, published by EHF in January 2003. Jean Pierre Vanden Branden is Honorary Keeper of the Erasmus Museum in Brussels (Belgium). The original paper was written in French. Humanism is no doubt a fashionable term that has its rightful place in subtle and searching academic discourses whose aim is to denounce the excessive pragmatism and materialism of our times. In this sense, humanism upholds… read more »