What does it mean to be human?

A humanist manifesto for de-humanizing days on Jacques Maritain's death date + an invitation to discuss and win a book about puzzles and the meaning of life

Gracious reader,

This week, we’ll explore:

• What does it mean to be human? A humanist manifesto for de-humanizing days

• Join me for a dialogue with bestselling author AJ Jacobs next week, May 4th, at 2pm!

• Win a copy of AJ’s new book! The Puzzler: One Man's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life

What does it mean to be human?

A recurring theme that we explore here at Civic Renaissance is that no person’s education is complete without them having the chance to ask, and answer for themselves, life's foundational questions. Some examples of these primary questions include:

• What is the meaning of life?

• What happens when we die?

• What is the best way to live?

Another one of these central questions, relevant to our theme of exploration today, is what does it mean to be human?

People have been reflecting on this question for as long as humans have been around.

Aristotle said that to be human is to be social.

Blaise Pascal said that to be human is to have reason.

Immanuel Kant said that to be human is to have free will.

In the history of humanism—a philosophy premised on a high view of the value and potential of the human person—there have been two main schools of thought.

In one view, man is the center of the universe.

As the Ancient Greek sophist Protagoras said, “Man is the measure of all things.”

In another view, God is at the center, and man’s value and worth exists because it is conferred by God.

As Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

This verse from Genesis forms the basis of imago Dei, the idea that the human person has dignity because he bares the imprint of the divine.

During the European Renaissance this latter form of humanism flourished. In response to the Middle Ages, which diminished life here on earth in favor of the life to come, the renaissance re claimed a high view of humanity and dignity and focused on cultivating man’s ability to the highest to achieve a richer life here and now. It turned to antiquity—the literature and ideas from Ancient Greece and Rome—to help it define its vision of humanity and the life well-lived.

Civic Renaissance is inspired by this intellectual tradition, both in name and in person. You can learn more about this publication’s mission here.

Genesis 1:27 is the origin of the concept of human dignity, as noted, but it is also the origin of our modern concept of human rights: the idea that all persons are entitled to basic respect and decency, purely by virtue of being a member of the human community.

The greatest declaration of the value of the human person is found in The United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document was created in the wake of World War II, where human atrocities—from genocide to ethnic cleansing and experimentation on human subjects—so seared the world’s conscience, that it was galvanized to create a document that unequivocally affirmed the intrinsic worth of every human being.

One of the architects of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was French catholic philosopher, Jacques Martain. He is arguably one of the greatest humanists and defenders of human dignity of the 20th century, making the case for the idea of personhood and the dignity of all human beings in his over six books written throughout his life.

Martain was born in 1882, and died 49 years ago today, on April 18, 1973.

(We explored Maritain’s views on education on his birthday last year, which you can read here.)

In his 1938 work True Humanism, Martain defines humanism as an idea that “essential tends to render man more truly human and to make his original greatness manifest by causing him to participate in all that can enrich him in nature and history… It at once demands that man make use of all the potentialities he holds within him, his creative powers and the life of the reason, and labor to make the powers of the physical world the instruments of his freedom.”

He continues: “Thus understood, humanism is inseparable from civilization and culture.”

Humanism is about cultivating our humanity, opening ourselves up to the world ever further, and nurturing our capacity to make the most out of this life. As we cultivate our potential as humans, we expand our freedom and capabilities and are therefore enabled to build community—or civilization and culture—together.

Why does humanism matter today?

Jacques Maritain came to his humanism honestly. He lived in an era of gross dehumanization. His wife was Jewish, and together, they were forced to flee Europe for America because of the rise of Hitler’s Third Reich and the spread of anti-Semitism in Europe.

He cared deeply about humanism because he saw first hand what an absence of humanism led to: a cavalier disregard for human life that resulted in genocide, death, suffering, and despair.

Throughout his life’s work, he was responding to the horrors he witnessed. He created an intellectual response to the horrors of totalitarianism on the political left and right. Humanism was central to his vision of rebuilding civilization after World War II.

Civilization is essentially a pro-human endeavor: we cannot to life together with others without first appreciating our own humanity, and that of others.

As German philosopher Max Scheler put it, humanism is “dilating man to the world”—and, I would add, to one another—and “concentrating the world in man” by “making man as large as the world.”

For Maritain, education—especially the humanities and the liberal arts—was an essential part of growing humanistic sentiments, and preserving civilization. You can read more about Maritain’s views on education, sent out on his birthday, in a prior CR issue here.

In Ancient Greece, the word for education was Paideia—a word that also meant cult. Paideia was also linked to the Ancient Greek word philanthropia—or love of humanity. This is because education was seen as a means of cultivating our love of humanity—and that of others.

The link between education and humanism is tightened in the Ancient Roman context. In the Romance concept of paideia was humanitas, and it also explicitly had a public-spirited valence: education was the project of cultivating our humanity to the fullest so we could contribute to the world around us.

In the renaissance, humanitas was revived as civility—because the pro human ethos is explicitly linked to pro-human conduct.

Humanism is twofold

Humanism has a twofold nature.

Humanism is about the essence of man. This incudes what we currently are as members of the human community, the imprint of the divine, and beings with dignity and worth.

Humanism is also about what we can be. This is why education is so important. It unlocks human potential. It cultivates our possibility, our gifts, our ability to participate with community, and to contribute to the world around us.

We need humanism today for the same reason Maritain thought we needed it during and after the horrors of WWII: to counter dehumanization.

There is an all-too-human tendency in the human condition to diminish the value and worth of other human beings—especially those we do not like, those we do not agree with, those who are not like us, and those who can do nothing for us in return—when it is convenient.

Today, our divided and tribal culture feeds this unfortunate aspect of our nature. It nurtures our base instincts—our desire to protect ourselves and our own—instead of focusing on our duties to the rest of the human community.

As we diminish the humanity of others, we diminish our own humanity, too.

My theory of civility, which I unpack in my forthcoming book on civility, is humanist in nature, and grounded human dignity. Civility, I argue, is about more than manners. It is about what we are owed, and owe to one another, by virtue of our shared humanity. (You can read more about my book here).

Our future—one with greater civility, decency, and basic goodness toward our fellow man—must be grounded in need a high view of humanity.

We need humanism today to curb against the tide of “other-izing” those unlike us—the same behavior that led to the myriad catastrophes of World War II.

We need humanism to flourish—to unlock our own capabilities, to nurture those of others, and to realize the fullness of our humanity in relationship with others.

This is why I think we need humanism today.

Do you agree?

Here are some questions for you to consider, questions that I still reflect on regularly:

• Do you consider yourself a humanist? Why or why not?

• Do we need a concept of the divine to believe in human dignity, and by extension human rights?

• Relatedly, Do we need to accept Jacques Maritain’s theological precepts—Christian, Catholic—in order to accept his ideas of personhood, the dignity of man, and universal human rights?

• What are some modern sampled, and also some contemporary costs, of ways in which we ignore the humanity of others?

• What promise do you think that being a humanist holds for our future?

Please write to me at ah@alexandraohudson.com and share with me your thoughts.

I’d love to hear from you!

Let’s discuss the meaning of life

Join me for a dialogue with bestselling author AJ Jacobs next week, May 4th, at 2pm!

My friend, AJ, just published his book The Puzzler: One Man's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life

And to celebrate AJ’s book, I’m giving away FIVE copies. If you’re interested in receiving one, write to me at ah@alexandraohudson.com

Thank you for being part of the Civi Renaissance community!