Pragmatic Humanism - 10 Practical Guidelines
Torben Larsen
Abstract
In the 18th Century, British Empiricism founded modern
empirical science to overcome human prejudices by religion, tradition and
personality. Pragmatic Humanism supports personal responsibility by 10
positivist guidelines serving to unfold our human potential:
• Applied Neuroeconomic Psychology (NeP) Guides
Individual Economic Behavior:
(1) Sensitivity training, (2) Entrepreneurship and (3)
Stress management. (4) Prevention of subjective biases in behavioral science.
(5) Mutual understanding between genders.
• Universal Technology Assessment (UTA) Guides the
Priority of Collective Needs:
(6) The marginal global net growth effect will be
negative before 2050 pushing burdens to future generations and (7) A subsidy to
non-fossil energy alternatives (ES) is recommended to protect the ecosystem.
(8) Social welfare by short-term stabilization policies and Universal Basic
Income. (9) Democratic collaboration across-the-center serves implementation of
(8). (10) UTA divides the global economy in the rich North and the developing
South, opening an option for a unilateral implementation of ES by the Global
North.
The Discussion focuses both on the relation between
Pragmatic Humanism and democracy, and how ES in a globalized economy must
replace the mainstream recommendation of a tariff on CO2 emission (ET).