FREE INQUIRY is pleased to continue to

present statements hr well-known humanists

of what humanism means to them. —E n.

The Homo Religiosis of a humanist

persuasion is not just filled with indignation

about this trampling of humanity but makes

a concrete decision to attempt to be effective

and militant in building its very opposite.

Maybe to speak of the need for a Homo Militans is not too prideful.

Each of us knows evil, but we also

know the hope and the fearlessness that

liberates us from stagnation. It requires a

restructuring of personal and social life.

Robert Frost wrote:

We dance around in a ring and suppose ... But the secret sits in the middle And knows ...

For humanists, that "secret in the middle"

is revealed through the determination to

nourish hope and compassion justified by

labor. We can learn to know and conquer

the causes that prevent humane growth. As

we conquer that which warps and distorts,

we will discover a measure of happiness and

will with Camus be "neither victims nor

executioners." Our deepest need is not for

more explanation. We know that we can

organize numbers; we know that with great

rationality we can pursue causes that are

utterly irrational. What are needed are social

institutions geared to solve problems rather

than ideology. What is needed is to shelter

life and so to counteract cynicism and

deception. That will mean fostering a pas-

sionate respect for the acts of decency and

solidarity that hase moved humankind for-

ward. When we learn not to withhold our-

selves—hut to liberate the richness of our

emotional and intellectual resources we

will build an appetite for life. It is this, in

the end, that saves us from isolation and so

makes possible partnership, the co-

humanization that helps to see life as a gift

beyond destructive obsessions. I think this

is what Isaiah meant when he said, "A man

shall be as a hiding place from the wind." •

The Distinctions of Humanism

Richard Kostelanetz

Humanism is immediately concerned with decisive answers to

questions that will not wait for the resolution of pu::les and

the settlement of age-old disputes— H.J. Blackham, Humanism

(1968).

freedom control decentralization

hierarchy

option

necessity

responsibility excuses

autonomy

dependency

skepticism

dogmatism inquiry assumption

universal

parochial

tolerance

obstinacy

knowledge

innocence

man gods self-realization obedience

democratic

authoritarian choice acceptance

social

individual

fulfillment

deprivation

verification

presupposition

reasonableness

faithfulness

clarification mystification

life

afterlife

Intellectual issues so rarely divide into clear contraries; but

when precise columns of distinctions can be drawn, it is more

appropriate to graph them than write an exposition.

Richard Kostelanetz is a noted critic and author based in New York

City. His hooks include Metamorphosis in the Arts and the Old

Poetries and the New.

Spring 1984 47