Eleutherian Humanism

Eleutherianism (also called Eleutherian Humanism or Nicodemianism) is a school of philosophy originating in Sirradra initiated by Nicodemus circa Carpis of the 135th year of Sehnay. As its name suggests, it is a school which emphasizes the value and importance of humanity and human liberty.

Nicodemus the Censor
In addition to his political offices in the Autokratoria of Sirradra, Nicodemus gained the honorary title of "Censor" circa Mistiklur of the 116th year to reflect powers he more-or-less already exercised at the Autokrator's discretion which were not given to him by his existing titles. Nicodemus designed and conducted the Second, Third, and Fourth Autokratorial Sirradran Censuses, and continues to design the census and report census data. Nicodemus, in his capacity as Censor, also moderates public discourse in Sirradra.

On the Second, Third, and Fourth Autokratorial Censuses, Nicodemus included questions concerning the establishment of a national religion or philosophy for Sirradra. The results of the Third Census, conducted between Aurel of the 117th and Aurel of the 118th years, suggested that there was a clear majority in Sirradra who supported creating a national philosophy or ideology, far more than the proportion who supported creating or adopting a national religion. With the permission of Autokrator Kogan and Consul Ryou Bakura, Nicodemus set to work on developing a national philosophy.

Aphorisms
Aphorisms is the first work of Eleutherian philosophy composed by Nicodemus. Aphorisms consists of a series of short essay-like fragments on various subjects relating to political philosophy and the human condition in Rathnir. Nicodemus periodically sought comments from his countrymen in Sirradra concerning the aphorisms, especially the Rectors Provinciae of Sirradra, Ryou Bakura, Llywelyn von Wolf-Ifrildhim, and Onyital Amphed von Ifrildhim. By Valenlur of the 128th year, Aphorisms was nearly complete.

Tractatus Humanico-Politicus
Although Nicodemus personally enjoyed the style of Aphorisms, he realized that its fragmentary nature might hinder its popularity. Additionally, despite its critique of the conditions of human life in Rathnir, Aphorisms lacked a clear normative ethical theory. Accordingly, circa Carpis of the 129th year, Nicodemus decided to create a new work which re-organized Aphorisms into a more systematic treatise. In addition to articulating a theory of virtue ethics, Tractatus includes brief entries concerning friendship and free will, and a concluding section to drive home the most important normative implications that arise from Nicodemus' ethical stances.

Ten Core Theses of the Tractatus
While Nicodemus abhors the idea that true philosophy can be easily boiled down into a list of simple theses, his reorganization of Aphorisms into Tractatus lends itself more easily to the idea that his philosophy does in fact have core tenets. The core theses of Tractatus are as follows:


 * 1) What makes humans human is our moral, intellectual, existential, and spiritual nature.
 * 2) Liberty, or freedom, is the ultimate political ideal of humankind.
 * 3) Virtues are excellences of character which contribute to, or are constituent of, living well.
 * 4) Virtues are within our power to cultivate.
 * 5) Avarice, cruelty, and dogmatism make Rathnir a hostile place for humanity.
 * 6) Political power is the ability to influence others’ behavior.
 * 7) The total power of an entity can be modeled by the formula $$TP = \eta \cdot \sum_i (P_i \cdot D_i)$$.
 * 8) Authority is the legitimate exercise of power by sovereign states.
 * 9) Democracy, monarchy, and oligarchy each have merits as well as flaws.
 * 10) Eleutherians advance the cause of human liberty and its preconditions.

Whether all of these theses will stand the test of time within the Eleutherian Humanist school is unclear. Nonetheless, theses 1, 2, and 10—and their interpretations—seem to be of particular importance with regard to what thinkers will choose to identify with the school.

Humanity
Whereas other thinkers define humanity in terms of biology or race, Nicodemus' definition of humanity in Aphorisms 1 and Tractatus 1 is intended to be far more inclusive. In theory, virtually any intelligent creature can be regarded as fully human so long as (i) it generally strives to live and flourish, (ii) it has moral senses such as care, fairness, loyalty, etc., (iii) it is capable of symbolic reasoning and language such that it can engage in humane disciplines (e.g. philosophy, science, art), and (iv) it is concerned with its own existence and mortality.

Liberty
Tractatus distinguishes between three different theories of liberty (negative, republican, and positive). Overall, while Nicodemus seems to think well of the republican theory, he spends the most space articulating the positive theory of liberty. Unlike the other two theories, the positive theory of liberty isn't about freedom from external coercion. Rather, liberty in the positive sense is freedom from internal barriers to acting according to our rational, authentic, or virtuous aims. A person free in the positive sense is autonomous, self-determined, or self-actualized.

The Eleutherians
Tractatus 10 serves as a sort of ethical statement for admission into the Eleutherian school.

Humane Disciplines
In a few places in Aphorisms and Tractatus, Nicodemus mentions five disciplines which he takes to be distinctly human: philosophy, science, art, politics, and theology. Because of its political nature, Tractatus talks much about ethics, politics, and political philosophy, but devotes little space to theology, art, science, or even other areas of philosophy (metaphysics and epistemology). Future works may discuss these subjects in more detail.