Evolutionary Humanism

Julian Huxley (1887-1975) was one of the twentieth century's leading exponents of evolutionary theory. Also like his grandfather, he espoused a humanistic approach to life. Indeed, much of his popular writings addressed the connections to be found between these two areas of interest. He called for a concerted effort to both appreciate the implications of evolution for the human species, and for that species to finally begin to take a hand in directing its own evolutionary course. For this, a new idea-system was necessary. In his introduction to the 1961 anthology The Humanist Frame, Huxley wrote:

This new idea-system, whose birth we of the mid-twentieth century are witnessing, I shall simply call. Humanism, because it can only be based on our understanding of man and his relations with the rest of his environment. It must be focused on man as an organism, though one with unique properties. It must be organized round the facts and ideas of evolution, taking account of the discovery that man is part of a comprehensive evolutionary process, and cannot avoid playing a decisive role in it.

Huxley called this approach "evolutionary humanism.".

Julian Huxley’s idea of evolutionary humanism, can be seen as a subset of social Darwinism. His message is that we are part of nature in all that we do. It is through our evolution that the cosmic process has become conscious and has begun to comprehend itself. Therefore, a supreme task of educationists is to increase that conscious comprehension and, as the most powerful agent of planetary change, humanity has to apply this understanding to manage the future course of events on Earth. The aim of education today should be to discover and promote humanity's destiny as planetary managers of human well being and biodiversity because these are desirable outcomes of the evolutionary process. In this process we are part of the environment, not an outside force making impacts upon it.