section_path: Secular philosophy
section_name: Secular philosophy
paragraph_text: Secular philosophy
  
  Secularism is considered in political philosophy and philosophy of religion. As a philosophy, secularism is closely associated with naturalism and materialism, rejecting consideration of immaterial or supernatural substances, such as a soul, in favour of a material universe. This secular materialism and rationalism forms the basis of most modern empirical science. During the Age of Enlightenment, liberal European philosophers such as Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, David Hume, Adam Smith, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau all proposed various forms of separation of church and state. The work of well known moral philosophers such as Derek Parfit and Peter Singer, and even the whole field of contemporary bioethics, have been described as explicitly secular or non-religious.
  
  A major issue considered by secular philosophy is the nature of morality in a material universe. Secular ethics and secular morality describe systems of right and wrong that do not depend on religious or supernatural concepts. Much of the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche is developed in response to this issue. Under secular ethics, good is typically defined as that which contributes to "human flourishing and justice" rather than an abstract or idealized conception of good. Secular ethics are often considered within the frame of humanism.