Jean Paul,
In the sixties, you worked closely with a great humanist, Bertrand Russell. Didn't you and he ever discuss these compassion/empathy-based aspects of humanism?
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Originally Posted by JPSartre12
1. How do you propose to "minimize the inequities of circumstance and ability"?
2.Is this just an extension of Karl Marx's "from each according to his means; to each according to his needs"?
3. What is a just distribution of nature's resources? Does that mean that everyone in the world is entitled to benefit from Middle Eastern oil, for example?
4. How does one distribute the fruits of human effort justly?
5. Is it fair to characterize Modern Humanism as an offshoot of Socialism?
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The Humanist Manifesto's title itself causes many to assume that humanism is synonymous with communism.
1: From building wheelchair ramps to financial aid to developing nations, all the way to universal healthcare.
2: Humanism predates Marxism by several centuries. Although I'd say Marx was for the most part a humanist.
3: Approximately. (Oil is a long conversation)
4: In large cloth bags? Sorry, I don't understand how you would like me to answer this question.
5: Many, but not all modern humanists, define themselves as socialists. Modern humanism is an "offshoot" of humanism. The political system known as socialism came much, much later in world history.
I should note that (to my chagrin) some modern humanists define their philosophy as nothing more than atheism. In fact, there are Randian libertarians who call themselves humanists.
I expect you figured I might be entirely defensive about the suggestion of communism/socialism. I live in Canada (or Kanada, as some republicans prefer), and grew up with less "Commies are evil! Bread lines! Russians wanna nuke us 'cause they're pinkos! Dem dere Ruskies
and
our
-dom of speech! Kill! Kill! Kill!" than other peoples in the Western world. (I'm not saying that you seem ignorant to me JP. You don't)
In closing, I should say that I've NEVER met a humanist (and I've met hundreds) who told me they thought heart surgeons and gas station attendants should make the same amount of money.
Hope you're well,
Derek