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18 - Whistling in the Humanitarian Wind

from Part III - Toward Disabling the Person

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2019

John M. Rist
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Summary

After about 1660 much English-speaking Protestant Christianity transformed itself, not least among the élites, into first Unitarianism (especially in what would become the United States), then into an increasingly godless moralism – and even among the godly morality was increasingly identified as the essence of religion. The push towards seeing philanthropy as the best religion-substitute began in earnest with the Utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832). However, philanthropy seemed to require a revised philosophical foundation if it was no longer to be dependent on religion; that is, normally on the worship of a voluntarist and demanding God. And changes of religious belief will entail changes in attitudes to the person.

Type
Chapter
Information
What is a Person?
Realities, Constructs, Illusions
, pp. 178 - 183
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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