{"id":3914,"date":"2023-02-07T22:17:14","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T22:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/?p=3914"},"modified":"2024-11-29T14:29:33","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T14:29:33","slug":"the-naive-views-of-yuval-harari-in-home-deus-second-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/2023\/02\/07\/the-naive-views-of-yuval-harari-in-home-deus-second-criticism\/","title":{"rendered":"The Naive Views of Yuval Harari in Home Deus \u2013 Second Criticism<\/a>"},"content":{"rendered":"\nIn his book: Homo Deus (Chapter 7: The Humanist Revolution), Harari views Humanism as replacing the religious mythologies of the past with a humanist religion. I think that his view of humanism is both unscholarly and naive. It is unscholarly for ignoring the Humanist Manifesto of 1933, and it is naive by offering his own idiosyncretic version of a manifesto.\n

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\nIn order to better understand the Humanist Manifesto I (1933)<\/a>, the reader can read its history in The Genesis of a Humanist Manisfesto (1995)<\/a> by Edwin H. Wilson. Briefly, it was the brainchild of Unitarian ministers who recruited the philosopher Roy Wood Sellars to compose the first draft. And to understand Sellars\u2019 mind-set in characterizing humanism with the words \u201creligious\u201d and advocating \u201csocialism\u201d, it is advisable to consult his two earlier books: \u201dThe Next Step in Democracy\u201d (1916)<\/a> and \u201cThe Next Step in Religion\u201d (1918) <\/a>[Both words were omitted in Humanist Manfesto II (1973) and III (2003)]<\/p>

\nThe word \u201creligion\u201d is ambiguous. Normally, it is used to refer to religions basesd on a belief in the supernatural. But given that Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism are included in studies of religions, the concept of a religion may be expanded to cover also what are called ideologies and world views, as is done , for example, when Communism is described as a religion. In this expanded sense of \u201creligion\u201d, both Sellars and Harari characterize \u201csecular (i.e., non-supernatural) “humanism\u201d as a religion.<\/p>

\nAs to the word \u201csocialism,\u201d it too is ambiguous. In contemporary usage, it means State control of industry and more. But what Sellars means by “socialism\u201d is the ideal of amelioration of the living conditions of all human beings through liberty and justice. And he advocate doing this through an unspecified \u201cdemocratic\u201d process.<\/p>

\n\n\nIn dropping the words \u201creligion\u201d and \u201csocialism\u201d, Humanist Manifestoes II<\/a> and III<\/a> mean to be more generic is advocating a common good.<\/p>

\n\nHarari, by contrast, is very specific in what he means by \u201chumanism.\u201d He means to contrast the pre-humanistic appeal to God and authority with the \u201chumanistic\u201d appeal to the umbrella term — \u201cfeeling.\u201d And his characterization of humanism is in fact a characterization of capitalism and liberal democracy through the following misleading and inappropriate slogans. \n<\/p>

Humanistic Politics: The voter knows best.
\nHumanistic Economics: The customer is always right.
\nHumanistic Aesthetics: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
\nHumanistic Ethics: If it feels good \u2013 do it.
\nHumanistic Education: Think for yourself.<\/p>

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\nIf the reader thinks I am presenting a caricature, below is a reproduction of pp. 234-5.<\/p>

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In his book: Homo Deus (Chapter 7: The Humanist Revolution), Harari views Humanism as replacing the religious mythologies of the past with a humanist religion. I think that his view of humanism is both unscholarly and naive. It is unscholarly for ignoring the Humanist Manifesto of 1933, and it is naive by offering his own … Continue reading “The Naive Views of Yuval Harari in Home Deus \u2013 Second Criticism<\/a>“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bullshit-scholarship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3914"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3936,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3914\/revisions\/3936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}