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"It is obvious that humanism is a sheer faith. It has no more scientific basis than does traditional religion. But to its adherents, it is an utterly pragmatic view ; it is a version of enlightened self interest, springing from a conviction that the alternatives to it contribute to a social order that is doomed to degradation if not total destruction.'
Humanistic Sociology: Phantom
Movement or Reality ?
THOMAS FORD HOULT
I am at the moment concerned with just two questions. Both arose in connection with a hearing held recently at a California university. The hearing was convened at the request of a young sociology professor whose departmental personnel committee had voted to deny him tenure. The denial grounds were that his several articles and a book concerned with the development of so-called "humanistic sociology" do not constitute respectable social science.
Further, "Humanistic sociology is a phantom movement," the hearing committee members were told by the sociology department chairman who also serves as his department's personnel committee head. The hearing committee asked me as an "expert witness" if the department chairman's statement was accurate. When I gave the reasons why I thought it was not, the department chairman himself seemed mildly impressed. But he then took a new position. He said, “We're all humanists,” explaining that since social scientists are humanists by definition, it is meaningless to use the term in a special descriptive sense.
There appears to be some general significance in the sentiments expressed by the quoted chairman. I therefore address myself to these two questions: Is there a phenomenon that can realistically be termed "humanistic sociology" ? and, Are all sociologists humanist?
Revised version of a paper presented at the 1973 meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association; portions of the paper have appeared in the author's Sociology for a New Day (New York: Random House, Inc., 1974) -Ed.