Philosophy and Human Values

K. Srinivas

My main concern in this paper is to show how philosophy contributes to the promotion of basic human values that are essential for the furtherance of human race on the earth. The very continuance of human race is under constant threat due to natural and non-natural disasters. Of course, to a great extent, humans can be on guard against natural disasters as they are capable of predicting them in advance. Thanks to the advancement of scientific knowledge. But, non-natural disasters, which are purely human creations, are mainly intended to show the supremacy of one nation or race over the other. In the pursuit of showing their might over the others humans have completely ignored the basic human values. There is no value attached to human life. Humans are treated as mere means to achieve the ends of some other humans. The developed nations use the men of underdeveloped nations as Guinea pigs. Thus, the people belonging to certain regions of the globe are treated as inferior to the people belonging to certain other regions. We are carried away by artificial segregations. Unless and until we realise the fact that the essential nature of all humans is the same everywhere we will not be able to put an end to this mindless discrimination. Therefore, the focal point of our study must be man. We must approach man as a man.

It is often said of philosophy that its main interest is the pursuit of wisdom, and a philosopher is one who is wise. There is a definite role to be played by the philosopher in guiding society to its right destination. He is like a pilot in the ship. Unlike the scientist, a philosopher is interested in understanding the various phenomena. His / her understanding involves reflection. It is the essential nature of any act of philosophizing. It is also true that the subject matter of philosophy is not restricted to any particular area, which is normally the case with majority of specialised sciences. Its scope is very wise. Philosophy is the bone of any nation. Its role in shaping the interests of any nation cannot be simply ignored. If science is treated as an enterprise that provides material comforts to humankind, philosophy is treated as an enterprise that alleviates people from those sufferings which cannot be tackled by science. For instance, the Buddha held that human life is suffering. He also prescribed the way out of suffering. If science as a discipline that has extrinsic value, philosophy as a discipline has intrinsic value. This does not mean one discipline is replaced by the other. They are the two sides of the same coin. As rightly observed by Aristotle, rationality is the essential feature of human beings. But this rationality has two important dimensions, namely, moral and scientific. At the cost of moral rationality scientific rationality is pursued in the west for immediate material progress. This resulted in the lopsided development of, by and large, western societies. There is no equilibrium between these two components of rationality. In order to attain genuine happiness, freedom, and justice both the dimensions of rationality should be promoted.

The present era is no more an era of science or religion, but of man. If human race is wiped out completely, then for whose sake are we going to have science or religion? It is time that everyone of us must realise this fact. Every individual seeks happiness, freedom, and justice. Unless these three basic human values are guaranteed to every individual the life of the individuals on the earth is going to be miserable. But before we embark on the nature of these human values, let us know what value is. A value is something worth pursuing. However, the worth of a value may change from person to person. What is valuable to one person may not be valuable to the other. Such values have only extrinsic worth. Our search is for those values which are of interest to every human being. Such values alone are worth pursuing, therefore, have intrinsic worth.

The term “humanism” has different connotations. In the West humanism is regarded as a philosophy which attaches the highest value to rational human individual. It also considers human individual as the ultimate source of value. Also, there are the various forms of humanism. The Deweyan form of humanism is naturalistic, while the form given to it by F.C.S. Schiller is evolutionary and pragmatic. The communist form of humanism aims at economic equality, whereas the theological form of humanism is based upon Catholic thought. The existentialists like Sartre identified existentialism with humanism, for it is concerned with basic concerns of humans. Of course, I do not propose to get into the details of these versions. But what I want to highlight is that a common thread that runs through all these forms of humanism is their emphasis on man and his values. This clearly shows that the present age is an age of humanism. We are witnessing the tremendous development in the realms of science and technology. This is done at the basic human values. Therefore, there is a lopsided development in the social realm, where men are discriminated against each other on the basis of race, caste, creed, religion, region, language, and so on. Some men are used as the means to achieve the ends of some other men. Where is the equality? If there is equality in one realm, it is missing in another realm. All these differences arise due to the lack of understanding of basic human nature. We are under the sway of appearances. We should realise that the essential nature of humans is the same everywhere. Once it is realised, we should strive to create basic human values that encompass all the humans on the earth. The aim of the metaphysical, humanism is to put forward the basic human values that are acceptable to all the human values. Prima facie such a form of humanism appears to be autopian. But, it can be realised, only when there is a dispassionate study of the basic human nature. As aptly pointed out by Radhakrishnan:

The world has found itself as one body. But physical unity and economic interdependence are not by themselves sufficient to create a universal humanity, a sense of personal relation-ships among men. Though this human consciousness was till recently limited to the members of the political states, there has been a rapid extension of it after the war. The modes and customs of all men are now a part of the consciousness of all men. Man has become the spectator of man. A new humanism is on the horizon. Now it embraces the whole of man kind.¹

Philosophy must become the philosophy of life of man. The ultimate aim of philosophy must be the preservation of values of human life.

II

Men desire to understand each other more intimately than ever. All men belong to the same species called humanity in spite of their different outlooks and cultural traditions. But the common concern of all men is to locate those values for which men are struggling in the different parts of the world. Every philosophical tradition tries to explain the nature of man and his place in the universe. Man as a historical being expressed himself in a variety of ways in different races and cultures. However, true humanism is that which tries to know what kind of human value or life is the best to be sought after. Though the different traditions upheld the different vales of life, the ultimate aim of all the traditions is to inquire into the nature of human life from different dimensions.

Man can be approached from the points of view of materialism, teleology, psychology, sociology, ethics, religion and so on. But each approach in itself is inadequate to unravel the complete nature of man. Thus man is a wonderful creature on the earth who offers obstinate problems to thinkers. Some phases of human life are smooth going in some parts of the world, but the same phases of human life may create problems in the other parts of the world. Men started giving importance only to those aspects of human life that are problematic. Thus we have different value structures in different parts of the world inspite of the fact that the basic human nature is the same everywhere. Now the question arises: Is the essential nature of all humans same? If so, why is that humans behave differently? This is due to their being brought up in a particular culture. As a matter of fact, humans share the same urges, instincts, aspirations, and ideals.

In order to substantiate the view that the essential nature of all humans is the same we can take a practical example. When a psychologist studies a person in terms of emotions, sensation, thought etc., the general laws that he formulates about humans are applicable to all humans irrespective of their external differences. Because of this reason one has to assume a priori that the essential nature of all humans is the same. Man is a social and creative being. He can create cultures, frame ideals and transform them. But man’s creation does not exhaust his essential nature. The teachings of the great religious leaders are not merely meant for a particular creed, but to the entire humankind. Such an idea is the product of the belief that the essential nature of all humans is the same. Man can ably adopt to the changing patterns of the environment - social as well as natural. What is after all to be noticed is that the man behind the culture is more important than the culture itself, which may progress or decay.

The artificial barriers erected among humans will disappear when they realise the highest universal ideals which are common to all humans. These universal ideals must become the categorical imperative for all humans. The true human values which are not known to other cultures will be presented to them. These values will be received by all cultures with so much enthusiasm as they are true human values. The true human values form into a culture which is common to the entire humankind. In that case “the problems and solutions of one culture will be the problems and solutions of all.” ² Every individual must be allowed to live his fullest life possible and to realise the true values of human life. Every individual must be given a free hand to enjoy all the human rights. Only then the individual will realise the problem faced by fellow humans and look for possible solutions to free them from the problems faced by them. The idea is to develop a world perspective which alone can safeguard the interests of the humankind.

If we are really successful in establishing a true world philosophy, which will encompass all the genuine values of human life, then the various cultures will propound philosophies that bear essential similarities in thought, action, outlook, and aim. Thus, there will be “cultural synthesis, which implies not domination but development, not imposition but assimilation, not narrowing of outlook but its broadening, but not limitation of life but expansion.” ³ The important problems of human life remain the same everywhere. The active life of humans shows it to be so. Democracy, justice, freedom, and happiness are sought after by every human being. The cultural progress is blocked by the factors such as ignorance, indifference, intolerance, and arrogance. By proposing a world philosophy we are not seeking a uniformity in the lifestyle of the individuals, rather the uniformity in the human values. For instance, the ideals of beauty, goodness, and truth are the same in every culture. But each culture has assimilated it in its peculiar way. Similarly, the ideals of human life must be common to all cultures, though they are assimilated and exhibited in various ways.

In the present day world some individuals are trying to create differences among humans where they do not exit. But, we should not be carried away by these artificial divisions. In fact, “The culture of man is like a tree with a number of branches spread out in many directions. If we take the branches to be different from one another without noticing the trunk, we miss the tree, the inter-relationship among the branches, the contribution of each to the others and so the whole.”⁴ Therefore it is the man behind the culture who is important but no the culture. It is the responsibility of every tradition to recognise the highest human values. Just because man is the builder of the modern society due to science and technological developments, it is not necessary the he is happy. If it were the case the kings and queens must be the happiest persons on the earth as their economic and biological needs are taken care of. But it was not the case Then, what is that gives men utmost happiness and a sense of satisfaction? This question necessarily leads to the study of human values that are worth consideration.

The task of world philosophy, which represents metaphysical humanism, the humanism of highest kind, is to arrive at universal ethics. The future of humanity depends on whether we can arrive at such an ethical code. The ideologies and the philosophies of the various nations differ. But no ideology or philosophy ever claims that it does not have any respect for human life and the will-to-live. The chief concern of every ideology or philosophy must be the fulfilment of human life and the promotion and preservation of those human values which contribute to the furtherance of human life on the earth. If it were the aim of every ideology and philosophy, then it is the meeting point of every ideology and philosophy.

The service of philosophy to humankind is possible only when the philosophers start with the reality of man and his life as a basic hard fact. It is unfortunate that humanism as a philosophy has not attracted much attention of the academicians. The reason is that they thought that humanism is opposed to all forms of logic and metaphysics. Philosophers must advance world-views that are applicable to entire human race. Man cannot be approached by natural sciences as they are only concerned with the external features of man. The real nature of man can be assessed by examining the meaning and purpose of human life. The outward being of man finds its expressions in a variety of ways, but the study of the creative man which represents his innermost being is basic.

III

To conclude, metaphysical humanism aims at providing those human values which are meant for all the humans. In other words, the human race realises the need for such a humanism for its own progress. All that one has to realise is that the underlying spirit in every man is the same. The names and forms are mere human creations. It is the human experience which suggests what is desirable and what is undesirable, what is eternal and what is non­eternal. It is not out of context here to bring in the views expressed by Comte on humanism. He felt that the mankind is the true God of every individual. Every individual should serve the humanity which is the great being. If at all there is any religion, it is the religion of humanity. If every individual realises this truth, then there is no need for us to have Human. Rights Commissions to monitor human activities on the earth.

NOTES

¹ S.Radhakrishnan, Eastern & Western Thought, (London, 1940), p. vii
² P. T. Raju, Introduction to Comparative Philosophy, (Nebraska, 1962), p. 288.
³ Ibid.
⁴ P. T. Raju, Lectures on Comparative Philosophy, (Poona, 1970), p. 27.