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Eupraxsophy is designed for the public arena where ideas contend. Unlike pure philosophy, it focuses not simply on the love of wisdom, though this is surely implied by it, but the practice of wisdom. Moral philosophers should be interested in developing the capacity for critical ethical judgments. That is an eminent goal. But eupraxsophy goes further than that, for it focuses on creating a coherent ethical life stance. Moreover, it presents hypotheses and theories about nature and the cosmos that at any particular point in history were based on the best scientific knowledge of the day. Humanist eupraxsophy defends a set of criteria evaluating the testing of truth claims. It may espouse at any one time in history a particular set of political ideals. Eupraxsophy combines both a Weltanschauung (a worldview or personal philosophy of life) and a philosophy of living. But it takes us one step further by means of commitment; based upon cognition, it is fused with passion. It entails the application of wisdom to the conduct of life.

Eupraxsophers make choices—the most reasonable ones in the light of the best available evidence—and this enables them to act. Theologians, politicians, generals, engineers, businessmen, lawyers, doctors, artists, poets, and plain men and women have beliefs upon which they act. Why deny this right to the informed eupraxsopher-scientist-philosopher? It is our conviction, however, that one’s beliefs should be based upon reason, critical intelligence, and wisdom. This is what the suffix -sophy refers to. Wisdom in the broad sense includes not only philosophical and practical judgments, but also scientific understanding.

Intrinsic to this definition is a scientific component, for wisdom includes the most reliable knowledge drawn from scientific research and scholarship in the various fields of inquiry. Theoretical research is morally neutral. The scientist is interested in developing causal hypotheses and theories that can be verified by the evidence. Scientists describe or explain how the subject under study behaves without evaluating it normatively.

Humanist eupraxsophy, on the other hand, attempts to draw the philosophical implications of the sciences to the lives of men and women. It seeks to develop a cosmic perspective that is based on the most reliable findings discovered on the frontiers of science. It recognizes that there are gaps in our current knowledge that still need to be investigated. It is keenly aware of human fallibility about what we do and do not know, yet it boldly applies practical, scientific wisdom to life.

Accordingly, the primary task of eupraxsophy is to understand nature and life and to draw concrete normative prescriptions from this knowledge. Eupraxsophy involves a double focus: a cosmic perspective and a set of normative principles and values by which we may live.

Humanists do not look upward to a heaven for a promise of divine deliverance. They have their feet planted squarely in nature, yet they have the fortitude to employ art, science, reason, sympathy, and education to create a better world for themselves and their fellow human beings.

From the standpoint of the individual, happiness is achieved not by a passive release from the world, but by the pursuit of an active life of adventure and fulfillment. There are so many opportunities for creative enjoyment that every moment can be viewed as precious; all fit together to make a full and exuberant life.

--from www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&pag...