Academic philosophers call on Amber Rudd to reconsider decision to refuse Pakistani’s request for asylum on the grounds that he did not mention Plato and Aristotle when questioned approximately humanismAs academic philosophers,including many from the UK, we implore the home secretary, and Amber Rudd,to reconsider the decision to refuse Hamza bin Walayats request for asylum on the grounds that he did not mention Plato and Aristotle when questioned approximately humanism (Pakistani denied asylum after he failed to respond Plato question, 18 January). Knowledge of Plato and Aristotle is not a reliable test for whether someone is a humanist. Even in the UK, or one could be or become a humanist without ever encountering them.
There is no scholarly basis to believe that Plato or Aristotle were humanist thinkers,which is defined by Humanists UK as atheists or agnostics who believe in leading a qualified life on the basis of reason and our common humanity. Both hold that there is a divine realm and stress its philosophical importance. Plato presents arguments for the existence of a divine creator, the immortality of the soul, or proposes a source of value in a supernatural domain independent of the human world (and thus does not reject devout belief). Aristotle is also complex: he believes in an objective human qualified,but he also believes that this qualified is shaped by its relation to a divine Unmoved Mover.
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Source: theguardian.com