Humanists International Policy Chronology 3: “Amsterdam Declaration 1952”

This congress is a response to the wide spread demand for an alternative to the religions which claim to be based on revelation on the one hand, and totalitarian systems on the other. The alternative offered as a third way out of the present crisis of civilisation is humanism, which is not a new sect, but the outcome of a long tradition that has inspired many of the world’s thinkers and creative artists and given rise to science itself.

Ethical humanism unites all those who cannot any longer believe the various creeds and are willing to base their conviction on respect for man as a spiritual and moral being. The fundamentals of modern, ethical humanism are as follows:

1. It is democratic. It aims at the fullest possible development of every human being. It holds that this is a matter of right. The democratic principle can be applied to all human relationships and is not restricted to methods of government.
2. It seeks to use science creatively, not destructively. It advocates a world-wide application of scientific method to problems of human welfare. Humanists believe that the tremendous problems with which mankind is faced in this age of transition can be solved. Science gives the means but science itself does not propose the ends.
3. Humanism is ethical. It affirms the dignity of man and the right of the individual to the greatest possible freedom of development compatible with the right of others. There is a danger in seeking to utilise scientific knowledge in a complex society individual freedom may be threatened by the very impersonal machine that has been created to save it. Ethical humanism, therefore, rejects totalitarian attempts to perfect the machine in order to obtain immediate gains at the cost of human values.
4. It insists that personal liberty is an end that must be combined with social responsibility in order that it shall not be sacrificed to the improvement of material conditions. Without intellectual liberty, fundamental research, on which progress must in the long run depend, would not be possible. Humanism ventures to build a world on the free person responsible to society. On behalf of individual freedom humanism is un-dogmatic, imposing no creed upon its adherents. It is thus committed to education free from indoctrination.
5. It is a way of life, aiming at the maximum possible fulfilment, through the cultivation of ethical and creative living. It can be a way of life for everyone everywhere if the individual is capable of the responses required by the changing social order. The primary task of humanism today it to make men aware in the simplest terms of what it can mean to them and what it commits them to. By utilising in this context and for purposes of peace the new power which science has given us, humanists have confidence that the present crisis can be surmounted. Liberated from fear the energies of man will be available for a self-realisation to which it is impossible to foresee the limit.

Ethical humanism is thus a faith that answers the challenge of our times. We call upon all men who share this conviction to associate themselves with us in this cause.

IHEU congress 1952

‘Amsterdam Declaration 1952’, Humanists International, World Humanist Congress, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1952

The International Humanist and Ethical Union’s declaration was a monumental achievement for the global humanist movement. It served as a comprehensive framework for contemporary humanism, marking a significant milestone in the formal organization of humanism. Its influence was enduring, remaining unchanged until 2002 and 2022, with the second and third iterations of the declaration.

The International Humanist and Ethical Union’s declaration, now Humanists International, addresses five key principles: democracy, science, ethics, liberty, and fulfillment. It was born out of a pressing need for an alternative to the destructive influence of dogmatic religion and totalitarian systems. The declaration viewed both revelation and totalitarianism as societal ills, underscoring the urgency and relevance of humanism.

This is peculiar and part of a more fundamental issue in dogmatism. In a way, a more succinct concern is the dogmatism of which political ideologies and religious fundamentalisms are derivative reflections bifurcating into two distinct pathways. They came out of World War II looking at the crisis of civilization. They saw humanism as the path forward.

Humanism, in its generous interpretation, encompasses all modern freethought. However, it has evolved to offer a variety of paths, narrowing in some aspects and expanding in others. The Amsterdam Declaration 2022 explicitly references the historical particularist precedents of humanism, highlighting its evolution and relevance in the modern period.

Even in 1952, it was not seen as a Western item solely or uniquely European, but it emerged formally in Europe in the middle of the 20th century by happenstance of history. They mention something interesting and unique about ethical humanism. It may be a mix of the use of the original title of International Humanist and Ethical Union, in which ethical culture and humanism were more united rather than distinctive communities. Now, they are associated with distinct communities and forms of freethought.

The first stipulated value focuses on democratic values. We see this pervasive throughout humanistic institutions. They tend to come from democratic countries. They tend to form in democratic countries. There is a voting structure; people typically vote in rather than be appointed. This is the nature of democratic action in humanistic institutions and the values we hold.

As we all realize at some point and often, science is a neutral instrument. It can be used for the creation and destruction. These signatories from the massive devastation wrought by the Second World War indicate the issue there. The science of war is an application of technologies developed by scientific methodologies.

The focus on ethics seems straightforward. In a way, it is a larger point than a single principle stipulates. Most humanists come as atheists and agnostics, or nothing in particular, in part due to the fact of the lack of an ethical foundation in the movements. As seems obvious, you can find Marxist atheists, Libertarian atheists, Buddhist atheists, and the like. They can have different systems of belief, even ethics like Objectivism and egoism, while being atheists.

So, a focus on dignity, individual rights, freedom, dangers in scientific knowledge, and the like is important for many people. Religion becomes less important. Humanism fills the gap for some, but not all. Following this, the emphasis on individual liberty and social responsibility seems to strike a good balance between being a social species and having individual interests. Many secular philosophies have this overlap in ethics without recourse to supernatural beings. I love that. The point is the building and guiding, as poets in a way, rather than coercion at the point of a gun or a godhead.

Fulfillment is the last part of “ethical humanism” mentioned here. Democracy, ethics, social responsibility, and the like are part of the general mapping of ethics to a single system, inchoate and forming in the middle of the 20th century. They emphasize “men,” I would have preferred people or human beings, but the times were slightly different then. Humans are liberated for more joyous contentment with the finite time given to us rather than wasted in the “fear of the Lord” or some such thing.

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