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Rodrigue Tremblay

The Code for Global Ethics: Ten Humanist Principles Hardcover – April 27, 2010

by Rodrigue Tremblay (Author), Paul Kurtz (Preface)

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Humanists have long contended that morality is a strictly human concern and should be independent of religious creeds and dogma. This principle was clearly articulated in the two Humanist Manifestos issued in the mid-twentieth century and in Humanist Manifesto 2000, which appeared at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Now this code for global ethics further elaborates ten humanist principles designed for a world community that is growing ever closer together. In the face of the obvious challenges to international stability-from nuclear proliferation, environmental degradation, economic turmoil, and reactionary and sometimes violent religious movements-a code based on the "natural dignity and inherent worth of all human beings" is needed more than ever. In separate chapters the author delves into the issues surrounding these ten humanist principles: preserving individual dignity and equality, respecting life and property, tolerance, sharing, preventing domination of others, eliminating superstition, conserving the natural environment, resolving differences cooperatively without resort to violence or war, political and economic democracy, and providing for universal education. This forward-looking, optimistic, and eminently reasonable discussion of humanist ideals makes an important contribution to laying the foundations for a just and peaceable global community.

Print length

300 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Prometheus
Publication date

April 27, 2010
Dimensions

6.29 x 0.84 x 9.27 inches
ISBN-10

1616141727
ISBN-13

978-1616141721
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dr. Tremblay offers not just armchair philosophizing, but solid, historical argument and proposals for integrating humanist philosophy into both our everyday lives, and our social institutions. Policy makers, and laypersons alike should heed Tremblay's account of humanist principles, for in them lies a path to greater peace, tolerance, and societal progress." --David Koepsell, JD, PhD, former executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism, and assistant professor of ethics at the Delft University of Technology

"Dr. Tremblay points out in The Code for Global Ethics that we need to abandon selective moralities and move to a higher plane in which all members of the human family are treated equally as persons. Rodrigue Tremblay eloquently defends this form of rational humanism." --Dr. Paul Kurtz, Founder and Chairman, Center for Inquiry.

"The Code for Global Ethics represents a valuable and indispensable guide through the complexity of modern life and moral issues facing us every day. It offers a natural and far superior alternative to traditional religious moralities." --Marian Hillar, MD, PhD, professor of philosophy/religious studies, and editor-in chief and founder of the Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism.

"The principles proposed by Dr. Tremblay are dignity and equality, respect for life, tolerance and openness, sharing, anti exploitation, reason, ecology, peace, democracy and education. -This is a timely book to read." --Daniel Baril, Canadian anthropologist and author.

"Tremblay's ten principles provide us with a rational jumping-off point toward a new society no longer exploited by the power elites of church, state, and business." --Victor J. Stenger, author of the New York Times bestseller, God: The Failed Hypothesis.

About the Author

Rodrigue Tremblay (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a prominent Canadian-born economist with a PhD from Stanford University. He is a former Woodrow Wilson fellow and a Ford International Fellow. He is now professor emeritus at the University of Montreal, after having occupied the positions of full professor of economics at the University of Montreal, president of the North American Economics and Finance Association, president of the Canadian Economics Society, and advisor to numerous organizations. From 1976 to 1979, he was minister of Industry and Commerce in the Quebec government. He is presently vice-president of the International Association of French-speaking Economists. Professor Tremblay has written thirty books dealing with economics and finance, some also tackling moral and political issues.

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Product details

Publisher : Prometheus (April 27, 2010)
Language : English
Hardcover : 300 pages
ISBN-10 : 1616141727
ISBN-13 : 978-1616141721
Item Weight : 15.5 ounces
Dimensions : 6.29 x 0.84 x 9.27 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,746,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,719 in Humanist Philosophy
- #15,175 in Philosophy of Ethics & Morality

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Jan Czekajewski

Opinion about the book, The Code For Global Ethics

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2013

Verified Purchase

I found the book, "The Code for Global Ethics" quite interesting. It helped me to solidify my own opinions derived from my own observations of social behavior, economy and war in three countries, Poland under Hitler's and Stalin's yoke, Sweden under social democratic government, and over 40 years residence in the US, spanning from the time of the Vietnam War through recent experiences in "liberating" Iraq and Afghanistan. Book deals a lot with organized religion and depreciates its absolute value as a universal moral guidance. It deals mostly with three major religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It is missing two other large religions, Buddhism and Hinduism. It is well-documented with 30 pages of references to other books and published papers. Being of similar frame of mind as the author, Rodrigue Tremblay, I found that his opinions confirm my own undocumented observations. Still I have a difference of opinion with an author who blames all misfortunes of war on religious zealotry. Two wars which I experienced as a small child were guided by deranged despots, Hitler and Stalin, who were nonreligious and who in fact proclaimed, that "religion constitutes opium for the masses" and should be eliminated. The idea of a better world order professed by author in "The Ten Principles for a Global Humanism" smacks of global ambitions to rearrange a world of hundreds of societies and nations into one guided by one "humanistic" culture. It is nothing new, as similar ideas had President Woodruff Wilson when creating the "League of Nations" after the First World War , which failed to prevent WW II. Or, the creation of the United Nations by Franklin D. Roosevelt which morphed into the battle ground of national politicians to justify, one more war under UN sanctions.The troubling question for me is who will be in charge of policing this super humanistic culture? Such a super-organization will be made by humans for humans and as such will tend to corrupt the humans in charge. There is saying that "power corrupts, but total power corrupts totally". The book is very much worth reading, by both people of faith and agnostics, but fortunately it falls short of describing how "The Ten Principles For Global Humanism" should be implemented. Not so long ago, hundred millions of people lost their lives, when the idea of communism, under the disguise of people's democracy and social justice was tested in Europe and Asia. Would we like that to be repeated under a different "humanistic" disguise? Obviously not.
Jan Czekajewski
Columbus,Ohio

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Gastongravel

Positive and Generous Morals for the Future

Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2010

I found this book to be a fantastic breakthrough as a way to present humanist ethics. The book is both revealing and extremely informative. It is well written, clear, concise, and persuasive. The author thoroughly investigates what humanism is all about and how it presents a superior worldview and ethics to solve human problems on an increasingly shrinking planet. --Humanism is not a religion without a god. It is a positive, rational, practical, generous and ethical philosophy of life.

In "The Code for Global Ethics, Ten Humanist Principles", the author presents a humanist moral compass that is straight and worth following. This is done in three hundred pages of pedagogically clear prose.

Most humanists will greet such an accessible and jargon free presentation of the fundamental humanist principles at a time when humanist moral philosophy seems to be sorely needed. The book is not a book of philosophy proper, written for the specialist. It is rather a clearly written and easily readable demonstration for the nonprofessional reader that moral values are necessary for human survival in the long process of human evolution. That's what the author calls "the moral dimension" of things.

Tremblay makes clear that "humans are social animals, and human interaction is a requirement for survival," and that means acting reciprocally or better, empathically. Human morality is partly innate, partly a product of the long natural evolutionary process and partly learned. This is a distinction that the author clearly emphasizes when he writes, "human morality is both an intuitive phenomenon and a learned attribute of human behavior" (p. 25). Thus, the pedagogical tone that he adopts throughout.

The book contains the potentially more controversial and debatable demonstration, at least for some readers, that humanist values are better adapted to our time of global challenges than more sectarian religion-based values. --The author deals here with universal utilitarian morality as opposed to in-group theistic morality. Indeed, being a pragmatic economist, Tremblay follows David Hume in thinking that ethical systems must primarily be judged according to their results. As he writes in the Introduction: "Since our worldview affects how we interact with others, any moral code must be judged as to how its adherents treat other people and whether or not it improves people's lives. If the adherents treat others badly and their moral values reduce others' quality of life, it is a bad moral code; if the adherents treat others with dignity and respect and their actions improve the lives of the greatest number, it is a good code of ethics. This is the ultimate pragmatic test of reality and results." (p. 22)

Of course, I cannot agree more. A moral code must be a meaningful guide to action, before being esthetically, conceptually or intellectually attractive.
Tremblay is no utopist. He devotes a full chapter (chap. 11) to the applicability of moral rules in general and of humanist rules in particular.

In the real world, one rarely encounters absolute pure human good or absolute pure human evil. In reality, people have the capacity to be both good and evil. In fact, we can observe a spectrum of good behavior to bad behavior, following a sort of normal curve from the very good to the very bad. The trick is to avoid the very bad behavior with better morals, better knowledge and better institutions. --That's what the book outlines.

14 people found this helpful