Appendix: Humanist Manifestos

Summary

The first document in the appendix is the Humanist Manifesto I, produced in 1933, by Roy Wood Sellars and Raymond Bragg. It takes into consideration the value of humanism in light of world conditions during that historical moment—racial discrimination, the underbelly conditions of industrial life, and so on. After the trauma of war, the struggle for social transformation on a variety of fronts including race, gender, sexuality, and nuclear weapons, and other world conditions, a second manifesto was produced (1973), the primary authors being Paul Kurtz and Edwin Wilson. The appeal to humanism as an important corrective to traditional thinking and action is carried through both manifestos. A third manifesto—Humanist Manifesto III—was published in 2003. It offers ongoing support for the structure of humanism as having value on the levels of rational thought, ethics, and policy. Readers should pay careful attention to the transformation in the use of “religion” in the progression from the first to the third.

The final document is the Neo-Humanist Statement of Secular Principles and Values, written by Paul Kurtz in 2010. This document seeks to recognize but advance humanism beyond traditional formulation (hence, “Neo-”) through attention to sixteen principles or recommendations that cover a variety of aspects of individual and collective life.

While there are numerous other documents that provide an outline of humanist belief and practice, space restraints make it impossible to include them all here.