Humanist

[elijahcraig]

Do you consider yourself a Humanist? If so, why? If not, why not?

Sartre wrong, “Existentialism is a Humanism” and Heidegger wrote “Letter on Humanism” in response.

Humanism, according to Sartre, is present in Existentialism because Existentialism recognizes Man as the only way which through Action Being is. Being is through Action only. He uses the Cartesian cogito, conscious human subjectivity, to show this. Humans exist in complete freedom, in complete responsibility for their actions. Through action alone does Being exist. Sartre says that existence precedes essence, and that this does away with any “human nature”. And leads to the Action of Man as Existence. Meaning: Humans are the sole reason by which Existence occurs, and is the center of the subjective universe. Therefore, Humanism.

Humanism, according to Heidegger, is the acceptance that Being comes first…and follows Humanity as guardian as the truth of Being. Heidegger says that Sartre (and Marx for that matter), all use metaphysics to analyze existence. He says that they have skipped over the question of Being, fundamental he claims, and any investigation without investigating first the question/truth/meaning of Being is useless. He calls Humanity the guardian of the truth of Being. In what way does he guard it (meaning holds the key to discovering Being)? Language and Thinking. Language (essentially in poetry), Thinking manifests, and exposes Being. Heidegger says that sense man holds the guardianship over the truth of Being, he is therefore a central character. Therefore, Humanism.

To put it simply: Sartre claims that Man makes existence through action, Man has the only path to existence. That through Man, Existence. Heidegger claims that through Being, there is Man, and Man is therefore the product of Being. Being is the only path.

I see a flaw in Heidegger, and that is that he offers up Being on a plate, yet does not recognize from which he obtains this “Being”. Sartre delves to the essence: and that is subjective Cartesian cogito. Through action alone man wills Existence. Really, Heidegger has no ground for “Being”, he merely asserts it to be so, and calls everyone who accepts otherwise as “Metaphysical”.

There are other kinds of Humanism, the Christain-religious types. I don’t give these much merit, they lie in the bourgeois.

[elijahcraig]

BTW, I consider myself a Humanist.

[Rastafari]

Originally posted by [email protected] 8 2003, 01:30 AM
BTW, I consider myself a Humanist.
you didn't in the religion debate. Of course, knowing you, anything but your gender is liable to change in a matter of days...

[Pete]

I, of course, am not a humanist. The arguements that you lay forth do not coincide with my world view, and are pretty irrelevant.

To me a humanist is one who believes in the superiority of humanity over all other forms of life, which is obviously bullshit.

[SpinelessLiberal]

Ok to begin, Sartre amd Marx had litlle to nothing in common, Heidegger wrote long, before Sarte did......and for the record a humanist is simply one who sees peoples points of view and can easily undersand why people do what they do.

[Jesus Christ]

i dont consider myself humanist because I believe humans are a horrible plague inflicted on other animals, i dont know how to put that in an easier way
but due to the fact that we have to live with ourselves, we should coexist peacefully with other animals
many would argue that we are too advanced a species to live civilized while these animals roam, but that is just a bunch of bullshit

[Chapel]

I think we should dominate and control nature.

[elijahcraig]

you didn't in the religion debate. Of course, knowing you, anything but your gender is liable to change in a matter of days...

Humanism has nothing to do with religion; it opposes all anti-human practices.

So, yes, I was the Humanist; you were the enemy of Humanity.


To me a humanist is one who believes in the superiority of humanity over all other forms of life, which is obviously bullshit.

We are superior over all other forms of life (which we know of). We are the only thinkers on the planet.


Ok to begin, Sartre amd Marx had litlle to nothing in common,

False, considering Sartre was a Marxist.


Heidegger wrote long, before Sarte did......and for the record a humanist is simply one who sees peoples points of view and can easily undersand why people do what they do.

That is also false. Humanism is as I have described it. What you describe is a Liberal.

Ie:


i dont consider myself humanist because I believe humans are a horrible plague inflicted on other animals, i dont know how to put that in an easier way
but due to the fact that we have to live with ourselves, we should coexist peacefully with other animals
many would argue that we are too advanced a species to live civilized while these animals roam, but that is just a bunch of bullshit

You have to be sarcastic, because that is extremely unfounded and nihilistic.


I think we should dominate and control nature.

We are in that position no matter how you see it; we are nature, and we are the head of nature at the moment.

Since no one has answered my original post, except for idiotic insults and rantful musings, I am a bit disappointed.

Keep up the good work, Liberals!

[Pete]

We are superior over all other forms of life (which we know of). We are the only thinkers on the planet.

This is completely unprovable. We are niether the only thinkers nor are we the top of the food chain, or the creatures who are the most productive nor the most sustainable.

[elijahcraig]

This is completely unprovable. We are niether the only thinkers nor are we the top of the food chain, or the creatures who are the most productive nor the most sustainable.

Do elephants write/think/philosophize Mr Buddha?

I am a Vegetarian, but I also know that dogs and humans are not equal.

[Jesus Christ]

elijah, i have the feeling that you like to start topics just to get in an argument

[Rastafari]

Originally posted by [email protected] 8 2003, 10:46 PM

you didn't in the religion debate. Of course, knowing you, anything but your gender is liable to change in a matter of days...

Humanism has nothing to do with religion; it opposes all anti-human practices.

So, yes, I was the Humanist; you were the enemy of Humanity.

Oh, I guess I was wrong! Your dicked dropped off and you did change genders. To a hypocritical, whining, explosive little "it"

[Pete]

Do elephants write/think/philosophize Mr Buddha?

So I am Mr. Buddha, eh? Well that must say something. I'll get back to escaping samsara now and leave my teaching world behind...

How do you know that they do not? What about dolphins? Or chimpanzee's? We do not understand their langauges. Or can you communicate with one of these creatures?

Most philosophy is little more than playing with langauge, and is greatly confined by the power of our language. That is why we borrow words like karma or samsara to explain things we would be otherwise incapable of understanding because our langauge fails us there.

Humanism, when defined as seeing humans as superior to other animals, is just as damning of claiming the validity of one race over another, or one class over a nother. Or do you want to be of the lowest varna or even an untouchable all your life?

[Saint-Just]

We have studied dolpins and such, we have deciphered some of their language and have been able to communicate with them. Humans are capable of creating anything, potentially. We are capable of highly complex abstract thought. We have largely made the physical element of life irrelevent by being able to shape nature as we want. We could wipe out entire species and alter ecosystems to retain them after having done so, we have risen above the laws of nature.

We have not developed to our full potential yet but we are developing extremely fast nonetheless. We do have a duty to protect natural life but also we will advance the human cause to see what more great achievements of human life can come be created.

'We have risen above the laws of nature' - what this means is that we can achieve many things, but we can still co-exist with natural life on earth and it is desirable and correct to do so, since as Crazy Pete pointed out animals have feelings and emotions too.