Human Exceptionalism

Pressed by the Trump Administration, the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents has ordered a review of its museums for what President Trump calls “improper, divisive or anti-American ideology.” Mike Gonzalez at the Heritage Foundation observes that “The ordered review can’t come fast enough.” He writes: The Smithsonian has wholeheartedly enlisted in the leftist imperative to “decolonize the American mind” and to change America’s narrative from one that made citizens proud of this nation’s astonishing achievements to a counternarrative that focuses on where America has fallen short and drums shame into citizens. Unfortunately, this shift has accelerated since [Dr. Lonnie] Bunch became the leader of the Smithsonian in 2019. Gonzalez provides dismaying examples from the National Museum of American History, the National Gallery of Read More ›

Wesley J. Smith appeared on Ave Maria in the Afternoon with Dr. Marcus Peter to discuss Smith’s recent article, “The IVF Clinic Bomber Was Infected by Anti-Humanism.” Together, they discuss the recent bombing of an IVF clinic, the pro-death and anti-human ideologies that inspired the attack, and how these ideologies pervade the culture.

Back in 2010, a mentally disturbed anti-human terrorist was shot to death by snipers after he took hostages at the Discovery Channel, demanding that the television service stop “encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants,” and instead air “programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility.”

Now, a similar disturbing scenario befell Palm Springs, Calif., where a young man named Guy Edward Bartkus killed himself, injured four people, and caused widespread property destruction when he detonated a huge car bomb in front of an in vitro fertilization clinic. The motive? According to Newsweek’s reporting, Barkus was a “‘pro-mortalist’ (believing death is preferable to living) or an ‘anti-natalist’ (believing no more human beings should be born).”

Anti-natalism is a form of anti-humanism, which isn’t just believed by mentally disturbed people capable of violence. Indeed, various forms of anti-humanism have been promoted in professional journals, the media, and popular culture, as a consequence of which, nihilism has been slowly seeping through the culture like a stain.

What are the primary pretexts for such species self-loathing? A neurotic fear of suffering, misguided forms of feminism, and radical environmentalism. Consider the following non-comprehensive examples:

• Last year, the Cambridge Quarterly of HealthCare Ethics published an article by a philosopher urging that people stop having children because “all lives are occasionally miserable, some lives are predominantly miserable, and individuals may think, justifiably, that their lives have no meaning. My reason suggests that it would be unwise and unkind to bring new people into existence and thereby expose them to these risks.”

Science writer Matt Ridley has always had a reductionist view of the moral importance of human beings. He’s at it again in a piece about the likelihood that scientists will eventually find proof of life beyond this world. Ridley thinks that chances of such a momentous discovery are good. No argument there. The universe is so vast and inhabitable (as we understand the term) planets so numerous, it would be truly remarkable if life only existed here. But Ridley thinks that finding proof of such life would dent human exceptionalism: It will be a fifth ‘Copernican moment’ when extra-terrestrial life is finally discovered: scientists putting yet another dent in human self-importance. They showed that the earth orbits the sun, not vice versa (Nikolaus Read More ›

The Human Life Review held their 50th Anniversary Gala on November 13, 2024. Wesley J. Smith was invited to give tribute to Nat Hentoff and Rita Marker. Following are his remarks. Thank you all for being here at this important event and thank you, Maria and Anne, for inviting me to say a few words. You know, as I pondered what I would say tonight, I thought about what it is that people with excellence in advocacy — what are their attributes. I came up with five. One is integrity. Two, know your stuff. Three, be unremitting, never quit. Four, don’t be expedient. That’s a hard one sometimes — don’t be expedient. And five, have a willingness to sacrifice. And Read More ›

Only a philosopher could claim seriously that humans owe significant moral duties to microbes. But NYU bioethicist Jeff Sebo delivers precisely that thesis in his new book The Moral Circle: Who Matters, What Matters, and Why (W.W. Norton, 192 pp.). Don’t look for a sanctity of human life argument here. Rather, Sebo takes readers on a step-by-step simplified course in moral philosophy. He writes that moral standing depends on whether duties are owed to the entity or being under consideration. If so, these entities or beings belong in “the moral circle” and possess “intrinsic value.” The general idea that most life has at least some intrinsic value is unobjectionable. But Sebo takes it to an extreme. He advocates widening the Read More ›

Wesley J. Smith joined host Simon O’Connor on Family Matters, a show from Family First New Zealand, to discuss human exceptionalism. Together, they discuss what makes humans different from animals, the problem with mainstream bioethics today, why euthanasia is wrong, and more!

The following is an article by Gregg Henriques, originally published at Psychology Today. Henriques brings attention to the arguments for human exceptionalism, and highlights the work of Wesley J. Smith, Chair and Senior Fellow of Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism. Imagine you are driving down the street, and from the left side of the road, a dog runs out in front of you. You begin to swerve to avoid it when you see that on your right is a young girl. If you continue to swerve, you will hit her. But if you don’t keep swerving, you will run the dog over. What do you do? As brutal as the choice is, the vast majority of people would say Read More ›