John Coss gave the May meeting at GMH.
The talk was divided into the four headings of: A. Humanism – meaning and language B. Key themes of humanist thinking C. Some key thinkers in the development of humanist thought D. Organised humanism
The first of these, Humanism – meaning and language, covered both the modern interpretation and the evolution of humanist thinking through its notable phases: ancient Greek and Roman thinking; Renaissance humanism; Enlightenment humanism; the 19th century ethical movement. It also covered an overview of 19th century activists like Owen, Carlisle and Holyoake, and included an explanation of words related to humanism, e.g. freethinking and secularism.
Moving on to Key themes of humanist thinking John expanded on: non-belief; rational explanation and scientific thinking; freedom, individualism and secularism; non-religious morality; and human rights.
The talk then went on to cover Some key thinkers in the development of humanist thought, e.g. Epicurus - ancient Greece, Erasmus - the Renaissance, Hume - the Enlightenment, J S Mill - 19th century, and Abraham Maslow - 20th century. Women and Humanism was also discussed in this part of the talk.
Lastly John gave an overview of the history of Organised Humanism in England. It covered the organisations we know today, e.g. the BHA, the National Secular Society and the Rationalist Association, some of the key buildings like South Place Chapel and Conway Hall, and a brief history of the Freethinker publication.
The January Meeting of Greater Manchester Humanists was a presentation about David Hume the Humanist Philosopher by Robin Grinter.
David Hume, a Scotsman, was born in 1711 and died in 1776, which coincidentally is the year the US wrote the Declaration of Independence. He was one of a number of distinguished Scots involved in the Scottish Enlightenment. He was also among other original thinkers of that period in Western Europe whose aim was to shine the light of reason into the darkness of superstition. Other such renowned thinkers were Voltaire from France, Kant from Germany as well as Thomas Paine and Jeremy Bentham from England. (Voltaire is said to have referred to the Scottish Enlightenment as a hotbed of genius.)
Hume was one of a number of influential thinkers of the enlightenment who were part of an intellectual discussion group that debated philosophical and secular ideas. Others of the group and their respective subjects, of which they were recognised as the founders, were:
Adam Smith – Economics
Adam Ferguson - Sociology
James Hutton – Geology
Joseph Black - Chemistry [this was challenged by members of the audience]
James Barnet - Linguistics
The view of this group was that their thinking should be practical with a view to improve the world. Only one of the group however was a non believer – Hume.
Although today Hume is recognised as a great philosopher, in his day he was better known as historian. Hume went to university at the age of just 12 but was later unable to pursue an academic career as a professor because of his non-belief; this despite him being something of a monarchist and politically conservative.
Among his publications were:
An Enquiry into Human Understanding - 1740
An Enquiry into the Principles of Morals – 1751
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion - 1779
The latter of these is notable because it examines the concept of intelligent design; it says that design and order in nature is not evidence for the existence of God. Hume was very much a scientific thinker who needed evidence for the belief in anything. He campaigned against speculative thinking, saying that miracles are subjective and violate the laws of nature.
He believed that common sense could explain the ways of the world: understand why things happen through observation; recognise patterns based on constant connections; predict likely outcomes. But being a realist he accepted that you can never be 100% sure about your conclusions from observation.
He also questioned the religious view of morality saying effectively that all religions are dogmatic and they can’t all be right. He believed you could be good without God, deriving your morals by looking to reason, to compassion and the benefit both for oneself and society; and to the ability to see right from wrong based on personal observation and experiences.
Another philosophical conundrum he dealt with was that which we might now call free will but which he referred to as freedom of action and the incumbent responsibility of it. He believed we relied on patterns and connections in life to allow us to understand how to act. And while this could result in us always taking the same action given the same patterns and connections (perhaps with negative consequences for ourselves and/or others) we have the ability to recognise the pattern and the freedom to act differently to improve the outcome.
This was a talk given by David Seddon at the November GMH Meeting.
David began by stating that while much has been written about Shakespeare, little is actually known. He then summarised what we do know from the historical record:
- He was christened on the 29th April 1564 and that in those days it was the tradition to perform the christening within the first month of the birth – so his exact date of birth is not known.
- He died on the 23rd April 1616.
- His father was probably a glove maker.
- In 1582 aged 18 he married Ann Hathaway who was 26 at the time and gave birth to their first baby some 6 months after the marriage.
- He went to a Grammar School in Stratford.
- Within a few years of being married he moved to London.
- In 1585 his wife Ann gave birth to twins Judith and Hamlet, but sadly Hamlet died at the age of 11 in 1596. (There’s no reason to believe that the play Hamlet which was written in 1599 had any association with his son of the same name.)
David next talked briefly about Shakespeare’s life as a playwright in London where he wrote 37 plays which were performed in the various theatres of the day including the Globe. Some years later Shakespeare returned to Stratford to live. Several reasons have been proposed for this including that it was due to a gay relationship but the fact is nobody really knows why.
David then moved on to the topic of the talk, i.e. Shakespeare the Humanist. He addressed this by referring firstly to the 3Rs: Renaissance, Reformation and Revolution (the French one). The Renaissance, he explained, was the rebirth of classical thinking; the re-examination of classical history and literature from the Romans and Greeks; of scientific learning from the Arabs; of dangerous ideas like democracy from the Greeks; and the creativity of the Italian masters like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. He also highlighted the work of Erasmus who was more interested in the human than the divine. It was known, David explained, that Shakespeare had read Erasmus’s works; he’d also read Thomas North’s translations of Plutarch’s works on Roman history. From these influences Shakespeare starts to think about people’s motives for their actions in history; and in the context of Roman history therefore, the story of Julius Caesar, Marc Anthony, Cleopatra, Augustus et al which feature in the play Julius Caesar.
As well as his attention to people’s thinking, David identified Shakespeare’s use of rhythm and language as something unique in his writing. Shakespeare frequently used phrases based on 3 stressed beats to a line as well as the more common iambic pentameter of his predecessors (5 to a line). One other feature, he said, was Shakespeare’s lack of references to God, referring instead to ‘nature’, which is a more humanist expression.
Moving on to the Reformation David referred to the period between 1483 and 1546 when people like Martin Luther started to critically examine religious doctrine, and to expose the nonsense of original sin and the power of the Catholic Church. Luther, David continued, makes the point that individuals matter. So it is on the back of this thinking that Shakespeare talks about individuals. He introduces in his plays the motives, thoughts, actions and ways of behaving of individuals, and uniquely he uses the soliloquy as a form of expressing and individual’s thoughts to the audience.
David observed how this idea is developed in the book, Shakespeare the Invention of Character by Harold Bloom, where Bloom talks about the ability of Shakespeare’s characters to over look themselves (meaning to think about themselves). And that in this book Bloom also proposes that Shakespeare created the two greatest characters ever in the form of Hamlet and Falstaff; two complete extremes character wise. Hamlet because he starts out being self satisfied but ends up full of self loathing. And Falstaff who is a complete rogue who steals, lies, womanises, and basically does whatever he wants but is entirely likeable nonetheless. David’s own view is that Lady Macbeth is another extreme of character. The play Macbeth is all about her strength of character and her use of psychology to encourage Macbeth to commit murder against his will. This play also delivers the idea that when life is over – it’s over - a very humanist idea.
David finished by saying that while Shakespeare’s humanism doesn’t conform to our views of humanism today, he invented the idea of what we now call personality. And while there’s a lot of politics in his plays, most of all they are love stories. If there were ever a perfect piece of literature, he believed, it is Romeo and Juliet.
