Tribute to Paul Kurtz - Secular Humanist Philosopher

TRIBUTE

by Ravela Somayya

The sudden death of Dr Paul Kurtz on October 20 in the USA at the age of 86 is a great loss to the world humanist movement. He was a renowned philosopher and founder editor of the Free Inquiry magazine. He was the founder of a publishing house, Prometheus Books, which was intended to propagate the values of humanism, secularism and free inquiry. He was also the founder of the Institute for Science and Humanism. He was the author of 40 books. In addition he founded the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, Council for Secular Humanism and Centre for Inquiry. He was the co-editor of Humanist Manifesto, an updated version of the 1933 original.

I became an admirer by reading his articles in the Radical Humanist magazine since two decades. I met him in 1997 at Buffalo, NY state, USA, along with two other Indian friends, and discussed about the humanist and socialist movements. This interview was fixed by my friend, Dr N. Innaiah.

Just as renowned social psychologist Dr Erich Fromm introduced the socialist component into the humanist movement, Dr Paul Kurtz introduced the secular component into the humanist movement. Dr Paul Kurtz was not just an academic philosopher but was also a great activist. He travelled all over the world propagating secular humanist values. He attended a World Humanist Conference in Mumbai.

We should study the ideas and ideals of Dr Erich Fromm and Dr Paul Kurtz of the West, humanist thinker M.N. Roy and socialist thinker Dr Rammanohar Lohia of the East, in order to build a new human civilisation and for the development of a new human culture.