Humanist Manifesto I

1933 · Chicago (United States)

Thirty-four signers, John Dewey among them, publish the first Humanist Manifesto in 1933: religious humanism, holding that the universe is self-existing, that man is part of nature, and that ethics is autonomous. The document names the movement the associations then organize.

Tagged: Humanism Secular and Non-Theistic

The Event

Date
1933 (exact)
Era
Secular Modernity; Standard periodization of secular and non-religious history
Location
Chicago; today United States
Traditions
Secular
Streams
Humanism
Key figures
John Dewey, Roy Wood Sellars
Key texts
Humanist Manifesto I

Primary Sources

  • Humanist Manifesto I, The New Humanist, 1933.

Secondary Sources

  • Gottlieb, Anthony. The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy. New York: Liveright, 2016.
  • Jacoby, Susan. Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2004.
  • Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
  • Zuckerman, Phil, ed. Atheism and Secularity. Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2010.

Provenance: HIST-1322; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-28.

Related on This Site