INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF HUMANISM

From Philosopedia

International Academy of Humanism

In 1983, the Council for Secular Humanism established The International Academy of Humanism. It is composed of non-theists who are (1) devoted to the principle of free inquiry in all fields of human endeavor; (2) committed to the scientific outlook and the use of reason and the scientific methods in acquiring knowledge about nature; and (3) upholders of humanist ethical values and principles. It was founded with thirty members, the total membership is limited to sixty living individuals, and additional Humanist Laureates are nominated and elected by Academy members.

Prospective Laureates must have demonstrated a commitment to the principles of humanism in order to be eligible for consideration. They should also have distinguished themselves by creative scholarship, scientific discovery, artistic or literary production, or other achievements of outstanding merit. They hold lifelong membership in the Academy.

Humanists in the International Academy of Humanism reject supernaturalism or occult explanations of the universe, focus on the use of reason and science, and seek to encourage the moral growth and ethical development of the individual, based upon experience.

The activities of the Academy include the convening of seminars and congresses, the issuing of public statements, and the publication of articles, monographs, and books presenting the humanist outlook. In 1985, the Academy met at the University of Michigan; in 1986, at the University of Oslo; in 1988, at the State University of New York; in 1992 at Universiteit Voor Humanistick in Utrecht, The Netherlands; and in 1996 in Mexico City, Mexico.

Its Secretariat includes Paul Kurtz (President), Vern Bullough, Antony Flew, Gerald Larue, and Jean-Claude Pecker. Its membership in 2002 was as follows:

• Peter Admiraal, medical doctor, The Netherlands; Steve Allen, author, humorist; Shulamit Aloni, Israeli Education Minister; Ruben Ardila, professor of psychology, Universidad de Colombia; Kurt Baier, professor of philosophy, U of Pittsburgh; Etienne-Emile Baulieu, French inventor of RU-486, the abortion pill; Baruj Benacerraf, immunologist and 1980 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiciology or Medicine; Sir Isaiah Berlin, professor of philosophy, Oxford U; Sir Hermann Bondi, Fellow of the Royal Society, Past Master of Churchill College, London; Yelena Bonner, noted defender of human rights and wife of the late Andrei Sakharov; Paul D. Boyer, American who shared with John E. Walker half the 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering the enzymatic mechanism by which adenosine triphosphate is synthesized in living cells; Vern Bullough (Secretariat), Historian, California State University at Northridge; Mario Bunge, professor of philosophy of science, McGill U; Jean-Pierre Changeux, Collège de France and Institut Pasteur; Patricia Smith Churchland, professor of philosophy, U of California at San Diego; Sir Arthur C. Clarke, C.B.E., writer, Sri Lanka; Bernard Crick, professor of politics, U of London; Francis Crick, Nobel Laureate in Physiology, Salk Inst.; Richard Dawkins, Fellow of the New College, Oxford University; José Delgado, chairperson of the Dept. of Neuropsychiatry, U of Madrid; Danniel C. Dennett, American philosopher and cognitive scientist; Jean Dommanget, astronomer, Belgium; Umberto Eco, Italian semiologist; Paul Edwards, professor of philosophy, New School for Social Research, New York; Luc Ferry, professor of philosophy at the Sorbonne and the University of Caen; Sir Raymond Firth, professor emeritus of anthropology, U of London; Antony Flew (Secretariat), professor emeritus of philosophy, Reading University; Betty Friedan, author, founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW); Yves Galifret, professor emeritus of physiology at the Sorbonne and General Secretary of l’Union Rationaliste; John Galtung, professor of sociology, U of Oslo; Stephen Jay Gould, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard; Adolf Grünbaum, professor of philosophy, U of Pittsburgh; Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel Laureate in physics, California Institute of Technology; Jürgen Habermas, University of Frankfurt; Herbert Hauptman, Nobel Laureate in Medicine and professor of biophysical science, SUNY at Buffalo; Alberto Hidalgo Tuñon, president of the Sociedad Asturiana de Filosofia, Oviedo, Spain; Donald Johanson, Institute of Human Origins; Sergei Kapitza, Chairman of Physics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology; George Klein, Swedish cancer researcher; Gyorgy Konrad, Hungarian novelist; Sir Harold W. Kroto, atheist who received the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; Paul Kurtz (President of the Secretariat), professor emeritus of philosophy, SUNY at Buffalo; Gerald Larue (Secretariat), professor emeritus of archaeology and biblical studies, U of Southern California at Los Angeles; Thelma Lavine, president of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy; Richard Leakey, Kenyan paleo-anthropologist who discovered the 1.6 million-year-old homo erectus “Turkana Boy”; Jean-Marie Lehn, French organic chemist who shared the 1987 Nobel Prize for Chemistry; Jolé Lombardi, Organizer of the New University for the Third Age; José Leite Lopes, Director, Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas; Paul MacCready, president, AeroVironment, Inc.; Adam Michnik, Polish historian and writer; Jonathan Miller, theater and film director, physician, actor; Taslima Nasrin, Bangladeshi physician, novelist; Conor Cruise O’Brien, Irish author, statesman; Indumati Parikh, president, Radical Humanist Association of India; John Passmore, professor of philosophy, Australian National U; Jean-Claude Pecker (Secretariat), professor of astrophysics, Collège de France, Académie des Sciences; Steven Pinker, Canadian atheist and experimental psychologist who teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Wardell Baxter Pomeroy, psychotherapist and author; W. V. Quine, professor of philosophy, Harvard; Marcel Roche, emeritus researcher, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científica (IVIC), Venezuela; Max Rood, professor of law, former Minister of Justice in Holland; Richard Rorty, professor of philosophy, U of Virginia; Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., history educator; Jens C. Skou, Danish membrane physiologist who shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; J. J. C. Smart, Australian philosopher; Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate in Literature, Nigeria; Jack Steinberger, sharer of the 1988 Nobel Prize for Physics for his groundbreaking research using a high-energy neutrino beam; Svetozar Stojanovic, professor of philosophy, U of Belgrade; Thomas Szasz, professor of psychiatry, SUNY Medical School; V. M. Tarkunde, chairman, Indian Radical Humanist Association; Richard Taylor, professor of philosophy, Union College; Sir Keith Thomas, President, The British Academy; Rob Tielman, formerly, co-president, International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU); Peter Ustinov, noted actor, director, writer; Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian novelist, politician; Simone Veil, Deputy to European Parliament, France; Gore Vidal, novelist; Kurt Vonnegut Jr., novelist; Mourad Wahba, professor of education, U of Ain Shams, Cairo; Steven Weinberg, Nobel Laureate in Physics; G. A. Wells, professor of German, U of London; Edward O. Wilson, professor of sociobiology, Harvard. Deceased: George O. Abell, Isaac Asimov, Sir Alfred J. Ayer, Dame R. Nita Barrow; Brand Blanshard, Bonnie Bullough; Milovan Djilas; Joseph Fletcher; Sidney Hook, Lawrence Kohlberg, Franco Lombardi, André Lwoff, Ernest Nagel, George Olincy, Octavio Paz; Chaim Perelman, Sir Karl Popper, Carl Sagan, Andrei Sakharov, Leopold Sedar Senghor; Lady Barbara Wootton.

See an up-to-date listing of members