Fons Elders

From Philosopedia

Elders, Fons (1936— )

Fons, professor of the University for Humanist Studies in Utrecht, discussed the meaning of humanism and the nature of its cultural context at the 1993 Congress of the European Humanist Federation in Berlin.

In a debate with Paul Kurtz, Fons cited the heterogeneous traditions of humanism a pagan Graeco-Roman tradition; an Alexandrian tradition with hermetic gnosis and ramifications in Arab humanism; catharism; kaballah; Renaissance humanism; Chasidism (a mystic movement spread among Polish Jews in the second half of the 18th century); Freemasonry. He also named Christian humanism, an Enlightenment humanism, and a post-modern humanism.

The humanism he prefers resembles Mondrian’s “Boogie-Woogie” painting: the interplay between vertical and horizontal colors—a dynamic between the visible and invisible dimension of human existence. For him, humanist spirituality is the source of inspiration for the arts and for lifestyles, for the erotic and nature-oriented values, and for an open attitude to non-Western cultures. Elders added,

• I would like to contribute to a revival of the pagan and gnostic humanist traditions, not in opposition to the Enlightenment values, but to liberate the classic and romantic values of the Enlightenment from their mutual stalemate; to liberate Western culture and Western humanism from their superiority complex. Along these lines we have a chance to develop a humanism worthwhile to the new generations on the different continents and in the various cultures, while slowing restoring our disequilibrium with Gaia.

At a 1995 conference in India, Elders said that humanism had been enriched by the culture of India. Alexander the Great had two teachers, the Greek Aristotle and an Indian guru. Arab humanism from the 8th to the 12th century was essential to the development of the Renaissance, he explained. Socrates and the Buddha were comparable in their empirical observation, questioning, and observation on suffering. Humanism, he added, is a multi-cultural phenomenon that should be broad and inclusive so that a liberal Muslim or a Christian in sympathy with a human position should be allowed to participate.

He is said to be proud of having been the first actor to appear frontally nude on Dutch television.

Elders is one of the members of the IHEU’s Committee on Religious Extremism and Rational Inquiry.

He was a participant at the 1996 Humanist World Congress held in Mexico City on the idea of “Tolerance as a Core Value of Secularism.”

In 1997 Elders wrote Humanism Toward the Third Millennium.

{International Humanist News, December 1996; New Humanist, February 1996 and December 1996} ]]Category:Authors]]