This Council Member of the National Secular Society is, not surprisingly, very taken with the idea of a progressive secular society and so was delighted to note the title of Tom Rubens' latest book. It is in fact the first essay of 28 altogether, of varying lengths, several of which will be familiar to readers of Ethical Record. They have been written since 2002.
A progressive secular society is one committed to the widening of scientific knowledge and humane feeling, Rubens states. ‘It regards humanity as part of physical nature and opposes any appeal to supernatural agencies or explanations. In particular, human moral perspectives are human creations and the only basis for ethics.’ So far so admirable.
The blurb further claims that ‘secular values need re-affirming in the face of the resurgence of aggressive supernatural religious doctrines and practices’. Authors aren’t necessarily consulted about what appears in the blurb and I am sure as a teacher of humanities, Rubens would know that doctrines per se can’t be aggressive, only their proponents though practices might be. The blurb then promises me ‘secular thoughts for the day’. That is a marvellous idea for Humanists who are still banned from Thought for the Day, as they refuse to succumb to theological platitudes but wish to think for themselves.
Unfortunately, the blurb writer has not discussed this with the author or the index compiler and one has to work out the length of each article from the page numbers to ascertain which may be of suitable length to qualify. It is not clear whether articles of two page length are to be included in this category. Anyway, readers should not have to work so hard. ‘Secular Stoicism’ is less than one page, an interesting example of one with a pithy title.
Humanists do need bravery to live a life without hope of reward in any heaven, even if we manage not to be haunted by the threat of damnation after death.
This author is to be commended for not seeking easy popularity, even if the publishers do their best with the blurb. His previous two books are even less likely to catch the eye of the casual browser, Minority Achievement in an Evolutionary Perspective (1984) and Spinozan Power in a Naturalistic Perspective (1996).
Rubens does not claim that secularism is his major focus in his latest book: he sees all the essays having a focus of mechanistic naturalism. Indeed he expands this idea to become a position of ‘mechanistic energism’ calling upon the physicist Heisenberg in support. I don’t see the need to use this phrase – I think it is an example of a basically arts-based writer trying to sound more scientific but feeling mass (equivalent to energy) as not being attractive enough in metaphorical terms. Einstein taught us that energy equals mass times the speed of light squared (E = MC2). One of the essays is called ‘Plato, Shakespeare and Energy’ – this would sound less attractive to the arts community, I think, as ‘Plato, Shakespeare and Matter’. It seems Rubens is attempting to ground his theories in a view of the material universe in which the concept of energy is placed centre stage. Sofia readers should assess this for themselves.
Writers familiar to those of us who have listened to Rubens’ lectures either at the Ethical Society or PFA (Philosophy for All) feature in the name index such as Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim, Bertrand Russell, George Santayana, Arthur Schopenhauer and Herbert Spencer. It is thus possible to look up personal favourites. A less well known name is S.K. Ratcliffe, the grandfather of the late Nicolas Walter and author of the short history of South Place Ethical Society.
He was an Appointed Lecturer there and Rubens highlights a talk he gave in 1945 called The Eclipse of Liberalism. Another issue for Sofia readers to engage with is ‘Do Humanists Need the Concept of Evil?’ The author feels we certainly do because it will ‘fill a crucial gap in an already existing general framework of morality’. He then adduces the usual suspects – Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot but does not delve deep enough into the aetiology of this unpleasant trio’s actions. He claims that Humanist morality is independent of any supposed deity – true and therefore the reviewer feels we need to study behaviour at the edges of a human psychological continuum, not revert to a christian term impervious to useful analysis.
I recommend this book – there is much for thoughtful readers to consider.
Jennifer Jeynes is the Ethical Society Librarian at the Conway Hall in London.
Progressive Secular Society and other Essays by Tom Rubens, Societas 40, Imprint Academic (Exeter 2008), Pbk, 128 pages, £8.95, ISBN: 9781845401320