The Road to Reason

by Pat Duffy Hutcheon

Book Overview

There would seem to be a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding in the public mind about the life stance of modern humanism and its philosophical underpinnings. As a committed humanist Pat Duffy... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0968601413
• ISBN13: 9780968601419
• Release Date: December 2001
• Publisher: Canadian Humanist Publications
• Length: 198 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An indispensable resource!

The Road to Reason is a vital touchstone for anyone studying humanist thought or exploring various non-religious or scientific world-views. I have been studying Humanist philosophy and the history of science for over 15 years, and Dr. Hutcheon's small book summarizes a broad cross-section of key humanist thinkers from The Buddha to Richard Dawkins. The format is at once eminently digestible and easy to tackle, while at the same time providing a level of detail that is both academic and well referenced/researched. Each chapter deals with a particular thinker who influenced the evolution of humanist thought. I have used the book extensively as a spring board for more in-depth study of particular thinkers or topics that are broached in the book, and have found the citations extremely valuable and fully accurate. Just as with any book, editorial or typographical errors that may have escaped notice during editing will no doubt be corrected in the second and subsequent printings - however I personally have come across none. I have read the book several times, coming back to it as a starting point each time I wish to delve deeper into a particular topic or area of thought. Dr. Hutcheon does a fantastic job highlighting the salient features of each thinker's influence and relating their contributions to the overall development and evolution of a naturalistic system of thinking. She writes in academic language, but explains the ideas in a lucid and easily understandable way that makes the book equally ideal for academics or the average inquisitive member of the general public. I have particularly found the chapters on The Buddha (1), Lucretius/Epicurus (2), Albert Schweitzer (11), Carl Sagan (15), and Edward O. Wilson (16) to be interesting and return to them often. As the founder and President of the Camosun Carpe Diem Club, a local Humanist non-profit organization, I fully endorse The Road to Reason. As a service to our members our organization supplies a copy of the book to each new member for free - that's how valuable we think Dr. Hutcheon's book is as a sources of information.

Excellent summation of an important current in philosophy

I thoroughly enjoyed _The Road to Reason_. While I have for a number of years referred to myself a humanist, and held predominantly humanistic beliefs throughout my life, I had never given much thought to the background behind the label. Now, having read this book, I'm confident that this is where I fit, ideologically.I was utterly hooked in the store when I flipped through this title and found names from antiquity (Buddha, Omar Khayyam, Confucius) linked with classical/romantic philosophers (David Hume, Albert Camus) and modern scientists and writers (Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, Edward O. Wilson).I'm an atheist, a skeptic and a naturalist (aka empiricist or materialist), and had concluded that most philosophy held little enlightenment or value for me. Only the philosophies of politics and ethics, which discuss how we should act, retain any meaning to me. Hutcheon manages, refreshingly, to avoid bringing politics into it, and wraps up this collection of essays, most of which were originally published elsewhere, with three main premises of humanism:Ontological - Naturalistic (scientific) findings about the origin of the universe, and part played in it by the human species.Epistemological - The empirical way of acquiring and testing knowledge as the only reliable way.Axiological - An approach to knowing what is good, and how we should act.