Contributions of Humanism

For College Students and Adults of All Ages

Humanism and the Arts: Does Art Convey Knowledge?  by Paul Kurtz.  Kurtz begins his thought-provoking article with this thought:

Many recent critics of the humanist movement including humanists themselves argue that humanists have overemphasized the purely cerebral aspects of humanism that focus on scientific knowledge and philosophy. They maintain that humanists must redirect their focus. We must appeal to the whole person, including the poetic imagination and feelings. We need to stimulate the aesthetic response more than we have.

And he ends with this:

Thus humanism needs to untap the poetic metaphors of the creative human imagination and to use these to dramatize humanist ideals in eloquent form. Art is not a subjective substitute of intuition for knowledge claims justified by reason and experiment; it is not a replacement for objective methods of inquiry. It simply adds an eloquent dimension to experience by rendering humanist truths and humanist values in aesthetic form. And as such it can help to inspire intensity of conviction and devotion to commitment. It is thus able to make humanism both intellectually true and aesthetically satisfying. As such, art has a powerful role to play in life. It is thus intrinsic to the fullest expression of humanist eupraxophy.

You will want to read the entire article which can be found at:
www.humanismtoday.org/vol10/kurtz.html

Three resources from Dr. Carol Wintermute, Co-Dean of The Humanist Institute

• "Humanism and the Arts: Art as Truth" by Carol Wintermute in the January/February 2006 issue of The Humanist
  
  Dr. Wintermute maintains that art is a source of knowledge that humanists have come to recognize and the arts are more than "mere life-enhancing adornments". She sees aesthetics as leading us to understand human experiences. She then sites John Dewey at some length. For Dewey, experience is the center of his philosophy and aesthetics. She writes, "The aesthetic experience is appreciating, perceiving, and enjoying that which was lovingly rendered and speaks to the human spirit."

• "The Aesthetic Pillar of Humanism" - Chapter in Beyond Reason? in Humanism Today, Volume 13, 1999 [Essays from the Humanist Institute]
  
  The two pillars of humanism Dr. Wintermute affirms are science and reason. But to these she adds aesthetics which "may even be he keystone to the entry arch" since it addresses both the cognitive and affective aspects of human nature or, as she says, the "head" and the "heart". Science, she notes, gives us verifiable knowledge, philosophy presents systems of meaning, and aesthetics leads to understanding human experience. Again she draws heavily from John Dewey as she maintains that Dewey's aesthetics broaden the humanist horizon in that truth can be found in the artistic experience as well as science and reason. Art, for Dewey, is the highest human achievement. She notes that "Dewey points to a kind of spirituality based on aesthetics."

• "The Postmodern Challenge to a Humanist Aesthetic" - Chapter in Multiculturalism: Humanist Perspectives edited by Robert Tapp, 2000. Prometheus Books
  
  This chapter restates much of her perspective in the previous article about science, reason and aesthetics and about John Dewey. The rest of her chapter deals with a profound discussion of postmodern architecture and postmodern painting.

• "Humanism and the Arts", Chapter 8 in Jim Herrick's book, Humanism: An Introduction. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2005.
  
  Herrick states that artistic creations are an essential part of human activity and also that humanists sometimes are accused of being dry rationalists... but that we do have (among other things) "a vital appreciation of the arts that are far from dry." While "we do not believe in a god of the Beethoven's late string quartets," we appreciate beauty in all its forms and see art "as an essential part of human existence." He also submits that "The arts can enlarge and enrich our knowledge of the diversity of humanity, to cross boundaries of nation, of race, of time."