Dr. Alan Tuffery is a life-long humanist, a former university lecturer, a dilettante and writer on matters related to humanism.
Julian Huxley’s essay, ‘The Humanist Frame’, in the 1961 book of the same name, could be considered a seminal text for humanists. In it, Huxley explores the application of evolutionary ideas to every aspect of humanity and human societies. These ideas provide the ’organising principle’: a comprehensive and coherent way of thinking about ourselves, our place in the world and our future.
Evolution shows us our place in the world: we are animals among other animals and related to all other living things by descent from common ancestors.
Evolution shows us our place in the world: we are animals among other animals and related to all other living things by descent from common ancestors. We are dependent upon our environment which we share with other living things in the ‘web of life’. Where we differ from all other living things is in our more complex brains which have allowed us — uniquely — to develop complex language to use abstract reason and even to think about our own thoughts.
Huxley’s first great insight was that our evolution of complex language has moved us to a new phase of evolution. After the inorganic phase when the stars and the elements were formed and the organic or biological phase when living things arose and evolved, we are in the psychosocial phase. (We use the term ‘cultural’ nowadays.) The inorganic and biological phases were slow — lasting billions and hundreds of millions of years, respectively. In contrast the cultural phase is extremely rapid because complex language allows the spread of skills and ideas at ever faster rates. Thus, it took more than a hundred years for the principles of double-entry book-keeping to spread throughout Europe, but in the age of the internet an idea can spread around the world in seconds.
Huxley’s second insight was that humans are now by default in charge of the evolution of ourselves and our planet. Whether we like it or not, we humans have the power to control all living things and our environment. We can determine the direction of our future evolution.
Diversity is the very stuff of evolution and we cannot know what qualities will be needed to solve future problems.
It follows that each individual human has value as an agent of evolution. Cultures should allow the development of every individual’s potential as far as possible: ‘…the well-developed, well-integrated personality is the highest product of evolution, the highest realisation we know of in the universe.’ Diversity is the very stuff of evolution and we cannot know what qualities will be needed to solve future problems.
Huxley use evolutionary ideas to explore several aspects of culture, such as education, the arts, the presence of beauty, and meaningful ritual. The scientific method is the unifying concept. (In this, Huxley follows Condorcet and Comte, philosophes of Revolutionary France; Steven Pinker is the modern proponent of the unifying effect of the universal acceptance of the scientific method.)
Huxley was open to many ways of exploring our nature. For example, he hoped that Freud might offer new insights to the human mind and was very attracted by the mystical views of the heretical Jesuit, Teilhard de Chardin. Neither’s ideas have stood the test of time, but for Huxley they were worth investigating.
Huxley also wanted to find a suitable humanist form of religion to act as a cohesive force in secular societies. Some may dislike his use of terms such as ‘destiny’ and ‘sacred’ in relation to human goals — his friend Bertrand Russell gently mocked him for ‘his flirtations with the episcopate’. Naturally, in the 60 or so years since it was written, parts of the essay have not worn well. For example, his use of masculine terminology throughout grates on our modern sensibilities and Communism is no longer seen as a major threat to civilisation. But these are minor considerations and over-population, destruction of the environment, and nuclear war are still existential problems facing humanity.
It offers an alternative to existential despair in the face of the vastness and indifference of the universe: we must look at our own lives and our own world unsupported by magical outside agencies.
Overall, the essay is fundamental to humanist thought in mapping out an evolutionary approach to our world and our role in it. It offers an alternative to existential despair in the face of the vastness and indifference of the universe: we must look at our own lives and our own world unsupported by magical outside agencies. That recognition is empowering. If we are the only species capable — at least in principle — of regulating our environment in a deliberate and conscious way, then we have the responsibility to get on with it. At the same time the value of the individual human being is paramount. We should organise our world as best we can to maximise the potential for all individuals.
I think these are powerful ideas and help to guide us to right actions and to lead good lives.
Huxley’s books are out of print, although second-hand copies are available. Some texts are available through the Internet Archive and other webpages but their copyright status is dubious. Huxley was a great recycler of his work — for example, the bulk of the essay, ‘A Humanist Frame’ is a reprinting of a 1959 address on the centenary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. Versions of the essay are in other books, such as Essays of a Humanist (1964) and most of the key ideas are present in various essays in New Bottles for New Wine (1957).
New Bottles for New Wine (1957). Chatto & Windus
The Humanist Frame (1961). Allen & Unwin
Essays of a Humanist (1964). Chatto & Windus
For general overview of the development evolutionary thinking through the lives of T.H. Huxley and J.S. Huxley, see Bashford, A (2022). An Intimate History of Evolution: The Story of the Huxley Family. Allen Lane.