What does it mean to be a Humanist?  I define it as someone who believes that, except for a few natural disasters, such as volcano eruptions or earthquakes, the problems of humans are caused by other humans, and they can only be solved by humans. Also, the solutions to those problems should be based upon what would be best for as many other humans as possible.  That may sound simple and reasonable, however those ideas have rarely been put into practice in any society. We will discuss in the course how the few people who have espoused that philosophy openly have usually been rejected, persecuted, and ostracized.

 In this course we will help define Humanism and examine the works of people who fit that label, such                             as Voltaire, his girlfriend Émilie du Châtelet, Baruch Spinoza, Desiderius Erasmus, Mary Wollstonecraft, David Hume, George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), Martin Luther King Jr., and Daniel Dennett, among others.  I hope we can clarify both how influential Humanist thinking has been, and also understand why it has always been met with so much resistance, and still is.  I’ll introduce a topic or a person, we’ll discuss for 15-20 minutes, and then move on to the next.  There should be 3-5 discussions per session. 

Weekly preparation time will be from half an hour to as much time as you want to spend.