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Fall 1988
Volume 16 Number 1
Aristide Tessitore
of
Socrates in
Nicomachean Ethics
of
23 61
87
Victor Gourevitch
Wilhelm Hennis
Nature
Tocqueville's Perspective
of
Recent
Scholarship
Mind"
in Medieval
Philosophy
of the American
and
99
101 111 139
Discussion: "The
William A. Galston
Closing
Socratic Reason
Lockean Rights
and
Harry
V. Jaffa
Humanizing
Certitudes
Impoverishing
the
Doubts
the
Roger D. Masters
Philosophy, Science,
American Mind
and
Opening
of
145
157
Will
Morrisey
Neumann
Harry
Closing
of
Editor-in-Chief
Editors
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1988
volume 16 number 1
Aristide Tessitore
of
Socrates
3 23
in
of
Victor Gourevitch
of
Nature
Wilhelm Hennis
Tocqueville's Perspective:
America in Search
Politics"
Democracy
of the
"New Science
61
Charles E. Butterworth
An Account
of
Recent
Medieval Islamic
Scholarship Philosophy
in
87
University
Certitudes
of
in
Liberal
101
Democracy Harry
V. Jaffa
Humanizing
Doubts:
a
and
Critique
The
Philosophy, Science,
American Mind
and
the
Opening
and
of
the
139 Principle in
Will
Morrisey
Neumann
Closing Closing
of
H5
a
Harry
The
Philosophic Mind:
Review
The
Closing
157
copyright 1988
interpretation
of
Socrates
clarify.
It may be best to begin by stating what this article does and does not seek to The subject under consideration is Aristotle's political presentation of
referred
to
simply
as
the to
follows does
Ethics
with a view
discovering
Indeed,
of encounter
what
the historical
Socrates.
the effort to
character we
in the
works of
Plato, Xenophon,
who
and
Aristotle
would appear
to be
some
limited
value since
it is the latter is
a character who no
of greatest
doubt bears
students
resemblance
to the original
interest to
of phi
losophy.
It is, nevertheless, necessary to qualify this statement in one important There is one historical fact which is crucial for an understanding of Socrates; namely, his trial and subsequent condemnation on charges of impiety
and corruption of the young. cite
respect.
About this
fact, however,
there can
be
no
doubt. I
significance
of this
prominently (whether explicitly or implicitly) in all subsequent accounts of Socrates. That significance might be stated in a general way as follows: In the historical figure
of
of
the
was
brought into
sharpest
focus;
justice
the
and
life
of radical
wanting.
inquiry
way
summoned
to the tribunal of
found
Socrates the
to
some
undermined
the
deep
although vulner
In
disturbing
way Socrates
refused
to
worthy by his fellow citizens. If his activity own in effect and combined with
Socrates'
in intent it
was
intransigence, it
and
elicited
the severest
possible penalty.
These
are
historical facts concerning the trial inseparable from his influence on later generations of
well-known
death
of
Socrates
one
students.
Perhaps is
might public
say face
that
of
Socrates,
more
than
any
other as
philosopher,
personifies
the
philosophy; that
by
the
exigencies of political
it
confronts and
confronted
of philosophers were to
Socrates
was
an
event
to be
fellow citizens, the life and death of This concern is obvious in the
explicitly
apologetic
writings of
Plato
and
Xenophon,
in
Interpretation
This death
concern
character.
is
also present
in the
writings of
Aristotle, particularly
had intervened
in his
moral-political works.
Although
an additional generation
since the
of
Socrates,
were not a
thing
of the past as
Aristotle's
own
forced
exile
to Chalcis
made all
too
clear.1
If philosophy
who
were ever
to be
accepted
by
had
would phon
Socrates for his often outlandish and galling manner Socratic way of life in a new light. If Plato and Xeno had begun this task, they had not completed it. Could the "gadfly of
once condemned see the
have to
Athens"
come to
be
regarded as
the city's
greatest
benefactor In
what
as the
Platonic
Socrates gratingly claimed (Apology 30c-e; to show that Aristotle sought to extend the circle
edge
36d-e)?2
follows I hope
of
assertion.
Although it may
prove
impossible to
civic
for
life,
the
apologetic character of
is
suggested
how philosophy is able to offer respectful and substantial clarity regarding matters of vital importance for those who bear primary responsibility for the city. If the preceding remarks suggest something of the general importance attrib
by
they
reveal
uted to
Socrates
by
later
generations of
particular
with respect
to his
on
this
work
ily
of persons referred
to in
classical
literature hope to
most
presume
that Ari
the concerns of
philosophically-minded students
in this work, I
that Aristotle's
point of
presentation of
obvious
view,
might
be
called
Ethics
his
concern
gentlemen readers.
In the
bring
his
gentlemen readers
I.
to some positive
of
for
Socrates'
life
and
teach-
impiety
to trial,
matter came
lest,
it, he
the
Athenians
it
second
opportunity to
losophy.
2.
The incompleteness
was undertaken
by
Plato is further
suggested
by
the
following
Socratic
statement
(among
others):
"Now the
men who
have become
members of
[philosophers] have
blessed
a possession
it is. At the
same
time, they have seen sufficiently the of the cities does anything healthy
3.
and a
business
Rep
496c.
Gentleman (xaXoxayaftog) is a term of distinction connoting both social-political status certain level of moral excellence. The gentleman is a citizen in the fullest and best sense of highest
aims of
the polis.
of
See EE
I248b8-I249al8.
pp.
Cf. Leo
Strauss, Natural
Right
and
History
(Chicago:
University
142-43.
the
Nicomachean Ethics
What is
at stake
is
not
merely
good
acceptance of
Socrates'
influential in the
first
part of
Aristotle's
"philosophy
the human
treatment
of
would seem
the problematic relationship between philosophy and the city. It reasonable to view Aristotle's presentation of Socrates in this book
part of
as an
important
his initial
life,
a presen
by
Aristotle's
gentlemen readers.
appears seven
Socrates
in
the
to
within
following
(2)
and
will
four
contexts:
truthfulness and
prudence
1147^4-17).
attention will
Each
Particular
be
given
impressions
to speak of
and
by
Socrates,
of
as well as
by
the
movement
discussion
COURAGE
Socrates Aristotle's
the
makes
his first
appearance
in the Ethics
within
the context
of
account of courage
major elements
(Iii5a6-ni7b22). It may be helpful to recall in Aristotle's treatment of courage before turning to the
Socrates
occupies within
that treatment.
This thesis
runs
lntyre, for
Socrates"
the morality of
re
spect."
A Short
History
seeks
Macmillan, 1966),
pp.
influential study
which
the extent to
as a
they
evidence more
more
Aristotle
"developed"
thinker, the
ment, trans.
he
the
views of
Richard Robinson,
2nd ed.
his teacher. Aristotle: Fundamentals of his Develop (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1948). The correctness of my
the evidence this article brings to light.
be judged
on
the
basis
of
5.
Although there is
book is
a a
as a
of dividing and rearranging Aristotle's works in Ethics in particular, recent scholarship has tended to emphasize the integrity of this whole. Typical in this regard is Amelie Oksenberg Rorty who writes, "Even if the book
scholarly tradition
thing
the
organization of
pattern."
perfectly
Essays
on
University
of
California Press,
1980),
p. 3.
best among possible alternatives. Moreover, the remark Aristotle's references to Socrates in the Ethics provides a further piece of
the
of
Harry Jaffa,
Thomism
and
IV,"
and
Aristoteli
(Chicago:
University
"Spontaneity, Justice, and and J. W. Chapman, eds., Coercion, Nomos XIV (Chicago: Aldine/Atherton, 1972),
Chicago Press, 1952), especially Chapter 4, Coercion: on Nicomachean Ethics, Books III and
of
85,
n.
6.
Interpretation
courage as a mean with respect to the emotions of
most
Aristotle describes
and confidence.
which
fear
Courage is displayed
namely, death.
especially
even
with
reference
to that
is
most
fearful
However,
death does
not
in
all
opportunity for courage. The fullest measure of to the noblest form of death. This is death on the battlefield
has the opportunity to defend himself courageously or die nobly. provides the standard for courage is, Aristotle observes,
the
by
fact that
public
honors
are conferred
Although Aristotle
of
acknowledges
that it is possible
illness
The
or a storm at
sense
(xvgiojg
avdgeiog) is
found
midst
the perils
of war.
in Aristotle's treatment
the
of courage
is his insis
noble.
Whereas Aristotle
had
initially
described
between
excess
and
deficiency, it is
that he amplifies
especially
virtue
within
the context
his
consideration of courage
formal
cause of
is best
explained
as
mean
between
as an
excess
and
deficiency,
the final
cause
of virtue
is best
understood
attachment
to the noble.
Aristotle
explains so
that although
right manner xakov
fear, he does
on account of
in the
(cbg del)
are
and as principle
(Xoyog) dictates
evexa) (iii5bu
appropriate
13).
at
Two
observations
this
virtue
point.
that this
is essentially
Courage
death
on
in the
the
proper sense
is
exhibited
by
one who
fearlessly
confronts noble
in
general and
courage
by
revealed.
emphasizing the political or civic horizon within which Perhaps the obvious and necessary dependence why Aristotle chooses to begin his treatment Whether or not this is the case, Aristotle draws
to support this
view of courage.
the city
of moral virtue
in this
way.
experience
Whether
one
lives in
service stotle's
that is, monarchy, it is courage on the battlefield polity to one's country that is most highly esteemed (1115329-32). Ari solicitude for the civic horizon of his gentlemen readers is evidenced by
a
or
his
willingness
to
appeal
to that which
is
most valued
by
is
the
city
as
that
which
for
courage
which
one
might as one
in
con
might also
be borne
ought, accord
sake of the
noble) fails to
provide the
of
full
measure
on
because, Aristotle
emphasis
death is death
the
battlefield. This
eros,
or pain
is
reinforced
by
Aristotle's
explanation at order
the end of
not courageous
to
face death in
to
escape
poverty,
therefore cowardly.
to illustrate how
one might
unlike
fearlessly
death
on
face death
the
it is
an of
also
striking that
or
each one
battlefield
is
to
individual
merely
personal
within
experience.
the context of
most
highly
prized
by
which
is
essential
for its
continued existence.
In the
which
second part of
Aristotle's
account of courage
he takes up five
qualities
bear
some resemblance
The five
"types"
of courage
discussed
are:
(i) (4)
political
courage,
and
cheerfulness,
spiritedness,
Of these five qualities, political courage (f\ bles courage in the sovereign sense. Citizens exhibiting
their bearings from the laws (written and unwritten)
twv vopcov of
most
closely
resem
to which
courage
iJTiTiuia) (iu6ai8-i9). Aristotle's account brings out the extent political courage both approximates and at the same time falls short of
sense. and
in the full
virtue
Whereas the
an
virtue of courage
is
motivated
by
desire for
motivated although
which
itself
attachment to the
noble,
political
courage
is
by
a sense of shame
(aldcog) (which is
Aristotle
sometimes refers to
not
may be noble but is not the same thing as the noble (1116327-29). Aristotle's description of political courage emphasizes the desire to avoid
reproach.
As such, it is both is
characterized
similar
to and yet
virtue of
courage which
by
a more
of political courage
maintain
their post
because their
threaten physical
violence
ical
courage
if they do not. Although Aristotle indicates that this is inferior to polit in the best sense, it is a form of political courage nevertheless.
consideration of political courage as a whole suggests
Aristotle's
that it falls
of compul
insofar
as
it
results
from
a certain
kind
necessity (avayxr\) rather than adherence to the noble (m6b2-3). If this is seen most clearly in the case of those who must be threatened with
physical
of
those who
maintain
their post
fear the
fellow
citizens.
The latter
exhibit a
behavior
Aristotle's
to
be that the
that
defective
to the
extent
they
from
without.
of
the noble
way:
within an
he defines in the
following
for,
of opinion produced
by
law through
thing
"the preserving is
see, his
terrible"
(Rep
429c).
Aristotle
appears
as we shall
own
account
is essentially
idea.
Interpretation
explicitly political horizon, his consideration of political courage as something which falls short of courage in the sovereign sense, suggests that the noble,
although
it may
of
needs
presuppose
politics,
cannot
be simply identified
the
with
the
horizon
account
and
concerns
fashioned
by
body
politic.
Aristotle's
clearly indicates that actions undertaken because they are noble are both higher and better than those undertaken for the sake of political honors or
out of not
fear
of public
present
disgrace. It
must
(in the
context)
on
suggest
be noted, however, that Aristotle does any conflict between actions based on the
the city. He simply main
provide
based
the
laws
and customs of
consequently
the
standard
for
latter. In fact, far from being in opposition to the noble, the law is pre sented in this discussion as commanding what virtue requires. Political courage be
a
appears to
sense.
training
ground
for
courage
in the fullest
or most authoritative
The fidence
second mistaken or as
imperfect
experience
view of courage
identifies it
with con
it
results
from
in the face
of some
particular
danger
(in6b3-23). It is
within
first
speaks of
Socrates,
type of
superior
asserting that this view was at the origin of is knowledge (morrj[ir]) (m6b3-5). Aristotle
courage
that this
is
exhibited most
clearly
appear
by
professional soldiers.
Due to their
alarms
experience,
real
distinguish false
from the
of
thing
owing
to the
ignorance
their
of
fellow
soldiers
Moreover, the greater experience fighting, for they know how best
arms
to
their arms
both for
defense. like
Generally,
armed men
of professional
soldiers
them
fighting
against unarmed or
trained athletes
fighting
against ama
teurs.
Despite their
soldiers possess cal courage.
superior
fighting
ability, Aristotle explains that professional those citizens who act on the basis
professional soldiers
of politi
less
courage than
The
reason
by
Hence,
way,
whereas
citizen
soldiers
shameful
professional
soldiers
prove
imposes too
equipment.
they
are at a
Aristotle concludes that the type of superiority shown in this case Is only incorrectly understood as courage in the proper sense of the word. It is striking that Aristotle chooses this context for his first statement about Socrates in the Ethics. Several aspects of this account warrant further com
ment.
The first
view,
point
Aristotle's
not
Socrates'
point of
understanding knowledge
of courage was
with courage
the virtue
of courage as
Aristotle has
elucidated
it. The
bears
on
the
Nicomachean Ethics
the particular example which Aristotle uses in this section, that of professional
soldiers
of
who, according to
courage.
Aristotle's
example
Socratic understanding
sional soldiers.
related
of courage with
clearly invites his readers to compare the the kind of courage exhibited by profes
of courage
However,
this type
may be
even more
intimately
of
to
further
resemblance
by
Socrates himself, particularly as he faced the prospect of death at his trial? A few tentative comparisons suggest themselves. In the first place, like
professional
not appear
to
be especially
makes not
attached to the
polis,
at
least
the
fashion
of
whom
Aristotle has
just finished discussing. Moreover, if (as the context speaking of foreign mercenaries (^evol), this does
clear) Aristotle is
an altogether
seem
who
must
have
seemed
like
"for
i-jd.
"stranger"
or
Second,
Aristotle
although
to
of
Apology
do
not possess
out, it is
not
second point
necessarily the most courageous men who are the is applied to Socrates it suggests that he may it is
a
at
least
not as
under
exhib
ited
by
gentlemen.
on
This
second observation
which
the
major point
to a third,
knowledge
alarms
of war
(Aristotle specifically
ones)
false
from
real
training in
and on
consequently Socrates?
knowledge
of professional soldiers
have any
bearing
not particularly attracted to Socrates would probably have been his unwavering refusal to beg for mercy or plea bargain at his by trial. Might this Socratic courage be based on an ability to distinguish between false and true alarms? Perhaps, as Socrates maintained at his defense, death (at
Even those
impressed
least in does
some
not
befit
(cf.
Apology
of
29a-
and 34c
-35b).
way We
which
might
life
inquiry
possible
and clever
in fact
provide
him
with
the best
of
training
and arms as
death, ostensibly
Whatever
we
at the make
hands
of
Aristotle clearly in
dicates that
neither the
teaching
Socrates
nor
soldiers reveals
the
virtue of courage
in its
Aristotle's
is
of
Courage in the
courage
sovereign sense
for the
Political
is
undertaken
because
10
Interpretation
which
by
have the
ties
must
be his
ranked
still
them
is
not
constrained
by
honor
and
disgrace
as
it is
by
the
city.
Aristotle
atten
concludes
consideration of
by drawing
who
limitations; in
away,
particular
thinks it
disgraceful to
lack
and
run
professional
soldiers
do
not
attachment
to any
city his
and
by
its laws
of
gentlemen
Socrates'
"strangeness,"
apparent
to
what
as it quietly his lack of attach particularly reprehensible. At the same time, readers
insofar
however it
should
be
observed
characterized
by
understood as
courage, is in
superiority which, although not prop way based upon knowledge or expe
With
respect
add
is
suf
ficient to
the third
imperfect
(iu6b23- 111739).
harsh in his
ened man
criticism of spiritedness.
He begins
by
comparing those
by
spiritedness to wild
of
beasts. Aristotle's
account emphasizes
the subhu
a wild or are
quality
&v/j.6g
by
blind to
dangers beast
Aristotle's
comparison of a spirited
individual to
a wild
effec
tively
emphasizes
of spiritedness.
The
spirited
in
dividual is indiscriminate in his action; like a wild beast he blindly strikes out at all who appear to pose a threat. In light of Aristotle's immediately preceding
account, his harsh
problem. criticism of spiritedness might stem
The
spirited
individual is
likely
to act without
from
against all
polis
they
are
enemies on
living
within
the city
The
softens
second emphasis
of spiritedness criticism.
in
some
way
ac
the
harshness
of
dominant)
Aristotle
knowledges that
they
because
of
any far
feeling
as
noble
(to xakov)
is
guided
by
principle
so
may
Spiritedness
by itself,
.
however, is
This
sufficient; it
requires
the addition
of
second emphasis as
mitigates the
first insofar
it
suggests that
spiritedness, properly
to the
virtue of courage.
What is
needed
presence of some
principle
the
Nicomachean Ethics
11
should note
IRONY
After
up
of
liberality
the
he begins
an ascent
the high
points
magnanimity in Book IV The magnanimous man is one who not only possesses all the other virtues but possesses them to a great or extraordinary degree. In the latter part of Book IV Aristotle descends from
this peak in
names,
are
order
Ethics, his
lacking
proper
part
human
excellence
as
whole.
He discusses ambition, It is
not
of
truthfulness and,
surprisingly,
the more
specific context of of
his
(i
consideration of
irony by
that
he turns for
a second
Socrates.
127313-
truthfulness
Ii27b32)
ex
in
matters
speaking in the present context of honesty in agreements involving justice and injustice, but rather that virtue which mani
when
fests itself
even
nothing is
at
stake
because it is the
result of a
fixed
disposition (e<c). The boaster (6 cxka,d)v) pretends to praiseworthy qualities which he does not possess whereas the ironic or self-depreciating individual (6
etgojv) disclaims praiseworthy
qualities which
he does
possess.
The
mean
is
found in the
about
straightforward man
(6 ati-dexaorog)
who acknowledges
the truth
himself
The
and
when
quality is considered morally good (imeixrjg) because the one who loves truth (6 cpiXakrj&ng) even is likely to be even more truthful when something is.
this
excess
and
deficiency
in
(boastfulness
depreciation)
ulterior
may be
Lacking
an
question reveal an
individ
foolish
Thus, Aristotle
no
ulterior
with
motive
be
considered more
pretensions
individual is
to
censure
have glory or honor as their aim, such (although not severe censure). It is,
object of one's
however,
striving is
money or something that will get money. In contrast to the boaster, Aristotle indicates that the
his
beautiful (xagiioxegog)
he is
by falling
gain
but
by
a concern
to avoid ostentation.
Aristotle
the most
sometimes
deny
or reject
12
Interpretation
generally accepted and highly praised opinions (ra evdo^a). It is Socrates whom Aristotle cites as his example. He then goes on to speak of those who disclaim insignificant
and obvious qualities.
These, he
maintains, are
appropri
ately despised. Aristotle suggests that this latter sort of self-depreciation might even be understood as a kind of boastfulness, for both excessive attention and
extreme negligence
bespeak
an
element
of
pretense.
understatement
in
a measured or obvious
ing
who
things
which
are
not
commonplace
to
be
gracious
(xagievTEg)
is the
expresses
(ii27b29-3i).
opposite of
with
Hence, Aristotle
man
the truthful
himself
irony.
Several
points should
be
observed
regarding this
the
character
account of an
apparently
To begin
most obvious
point, Aristotle
the
man
of
straightforward
(6 aiMxaoxog) because he
and self-depreciation.
embodies
an
the
virtuous mean
between boastfulness
Such
of
individual, Aristotle
It
should
the
naturally be noted, however, that the same word which Aristotle uses to describe the straightforward man also describes someone who is blunt or Although these latter if the type
respect qualities are not such as to
itself in
things will
embrace greater
things
plain.
incur
moral
blame,
a
one
in this
is in every
the one
to the one
refers
who
uses
irony
in
measured within
way
whom
Aristotle twice
"gracious."
to as
makes
It is
the to
Aristotle
his
second reference
while
Aristotle
wishes
to give the
straightforward
his due, he also wishes to direct his readers in a gentle way to some ap preciation for the more gracious and certainly more complex character of Socrates? As
we
or
one
fulness
case
irony
with or without
any
ulterior motive.
(those do
who
act
from
an
ulterior
amples, those
who so
who exaggerate
honor
and
those
for monetary
gain.
are
boastful, Aristotle
perceptively remarks that when pretense is undertaken for another purpose, it is no longer pretentiousness which best describes the character of those in
question.
What is
most
revealing
about the
individuals in Aristotle's
examples
is
not
which
they
make
for honor
of
pertain might
boastfulness,
one
the
reader
is left to
wonder what
way.
motive motive
lead
to use
irony
in
deliberate
Indeed,
reference
the to
only indication
furnished clearly
by
Aristotle in the
present context
of
is his
Socrates
who
is
placed
irony
in
a measured
way to
13
things
which
are
not obvious or
easily
seen.
Why
did Socrates
speak
ironically?
one might offer a number of
Although
different The
answers specific
immediate
ation
in
particular.
topic
is the
his love
of
the truth
of
((pLXaXTJ&ng) in
Socrates'
consequence,
love
irony
in
matters of great
or
import?7
Does Socrates
manner?
use
irony because
is best
approached
in this
irony
Book IV
as a whole.
such an
In his
man, Aristotle in
dicated that
individual
fortune
station
whereas
he is
measured vulgar to
(ftexgiov) in dealing
lord it
over the speaks
weak with
those of
moderate
because it is
when
(1124^7-23). More
over,
ironic
self-depreciation
character which
(elgoiveia)
separates
so as not
a superior man
inferior
or
describes the
ordinary is marked
one.
In
fact, Aristotle
by
a curious combina
tion of truthfulness
(aXtr&evxLxog)
and
irony
(H24b26-3i).
truthfulness
of
the
minor virtue of
magnanimity.
By
in Aristotle's
exposition of moral
virtue, his
present
in
a new and
irony
that trait
striking light. Most pertinent in this regard is the fact that for which Socrates stands as Aristotle's sole exemplar in the
cannot
always
present context
be
understood
as
deficiency
but is
some
times employed in a
excellence.
measured
way
by
those
who
PRUDENCE
and
fourth
references
to Socrates occur
within
the context of
consideration of will
moral virtue as a
whole.
matter
prove
own one.
teaching
on
this
remarks about
Aristotle's
might
consideration of prudence
and moral
virtue
(ii44a6-ii45au)
from
either of
revolving door
which can
be
entered
two
sides.
hand,
the
virtue,
since
that
it is
moral virtue
a clever speaker
7.
At the
outset of
acknowledges
he is
but,
unlike
initially
his accusers, he speaks cleverly with reference to the truth (i7a-b). In fact, Socrates is presented in the Apology as an unusual combination of 6 air&ixaorog, who will speak
plainly in his accustomed manner, and 6 eiqcdv, who acknowledges his ability to speak cleverly. In the defense which follows, the Platonic Socrates proceeds to give the reader a remarkable demon
stration of great
subtlety
clothed
in simple,
straightforward speech.
14
which
Interpretation
furnishes the
means
good at which a prudent man aims.
particular
Since the
good
only
for
individual may
called prudent
be
clever
in the
choice of means
which
unless
the end at
he
aims
by
moral virtue.
On the
other
hand, Aristotle
maintains
that
cannot
exist
without
prudence.
Although Aristotle
acknowledges
that
the
dispositions for
particular
moral
already present by nature, he points out that even good dispositions (al (pvoixai e^eig) can be harmful without the guidance of
uses
intelligence. Aristotle
lost his
moves. one
powerful
frame
fall
who
has he for
particularly
heavy
If
when
It is precisely
a
"moral
vision"
with
strong
disposition
for
virtue.
someone
pos
sessing
sition
natural excellence
(f\
cpvoixr] agexr))
resembled
acquires
dispo
or
which
previously only
virtue
becomes
in the full
sovereign sense
(f\
xvgia agexrj).
Hence, Aristotle
also
it is
does
After offering this helpful but not entirely satisfying account of the ship between prudence and virtue, Aristotle considers and amends the
of others on of
opinions
inquiry
was
right in
one
thinking
that
all
virtues
of Socrates, maintaining that his line way but wrong in another. Socrates was mistaken in were forms of prudence, although he spoke well in
maintaining that
explains that
they
(1144^7-21). Aristotle
Socrates
be
forms
knowledge
overstated
relationship between reason and contemporaries understate it. They maintain that
the
accordance with
disposition determined in is
meant
right
is
what
a
by
prudence.
In this
case
sary to offer
reason
as
to
accompanied
Virtue does not merely conform to right something external (xaxa xov dgftov Adyov), rather virtue is by right reason (uexo xov dg&ov Xoyov) (1 144^25-27). The
slight modification.
from
which virtue
man,
it is
rather
something
him
which
enables
him to be
Aristotle
views.
and
contemporary
On the
tification of virtue
cannot exist
hand, Aristotle criticizes the paradoxical Socratic iden with knowledge, although he agrees with Socrates that virtue
without
although
unwilling to
being accompanied by a rational principle. Moreover, identify all the virtues with prudence, Aristotle does
necessarily
possesses
the
Nicomachean Ethics
his
15
the rest
(114531-2). On the
maintains
other
hand, in
contradistinction to
contem
poraries, Aristotle
because he issued
We
acts
according to
(for example,
commands
by
a prudent
lawgiver)
to
in the full
do
well snd
try
of
these
different
positions
on
most
Socrates
tion
this question.
especially the difference between Aristotle snd In the Meno, the Platonic dialogue to which Aristotle
appears to
with
be referring in the present instance,8 Socrates begins his conversa Meno by confessing complete ignorance about the nature of virtue
statement
so since
(71b).
Socrates'
startles,
not
and
under
standably
as
the common experience of decent persons, both of which lead most people
to assume that
they know
and adds
what virtue
Meno's ridicule
knows
hardly
describe this
manner of
rates'
inquiry
as conciliatory.
Indeed, in light
challenge
confession of
Socrates'
ignorance
almost sounds
remarks
are
intended to
investigation
something which he believes he already understands. In the Meno (as in other dialogues), insistence on knowing
of
Socrates'
and
subsequent confession of
own
ignorance is
seem to
shown to
have know
direct
bearing
is,
on
his
way
of
life. As
long
the most
be the
attempt to
discover
it is (some
not
the extent
in getting Meno to do precisely very that Meno remains unconvinced of his own ignor
successful
Such
activity,
one could
famous teachers,
of
great
statesmen,
or even
the laws
of
inquiry
should
be
"virtuous"
regarded as the
of
only truly
the
life
whereas all
Meno,
are
In
contrast to
Socrates'
jarring
this
to the question
of
virtue,9
Aristotle
addresses
question
in
more acceptable
to his
gentlemen readers.
but had
complicated experience of
decent
persons
by
clarifying that
of
experience
to
that
clarification.
Aristotle
mark of a well-educated
Socrates'
8. In the Meno, Socrates undertakes an investigation of virtue. paradoxical iden tification of virtue and knowledge emerges in the course of this dialogue, where it takes the particu lar form referred to by Aristotle in the present context: namely, the identification of virtue with
prudence (88a- 89a).
9.
It may be
that
appropriate
effect of
Socratic
also
argument
contact with
it. It is
interesting
to
note
Socrates in
no
16
person
Interpretation
to expect only that degree of precision
of which a subject matter admits question while at
(i094bi2-27).
precise
By de-emphasizing
clarity
the problematic
and
concerning the
the
same
virtue,
time
bringing
and rigor to
his treatment
of virtue as a
whole,
Aristotle is
to acknowledge the
dignity
however,
we
or precision about
the nature
the good.
Perhaps
Socrates'
inquiry
of
Socrates'
expression
knowledge
contrast to
his
subject matter.
Whether
this
the impression
moral
conveyed
by
the
surface
the life of
virtue
as
it is
of
practiced
by
gentlemen
presented
by
Aristotle
as a
shadowy kind
tually
of
life
which
is intellec
Socrates
on
this
issue
should of
not, the
however,
obscure
deeper
agreement.
The
well-known
conclusion
Ethics explicitly teaches that a life devoted to the practice of moral virtue is not the simply best or happiest way of life. Moreover, we should also bear in mind that what Aristotle does recommend to his readers as a serious, if secon
dary, way
amended
of
life is the
it has been
elucidated and
modifies
by
Aristotle the
view
In the
present
context, Aristotle
the contemporary
virtue
by
moving
closer
he
insists that
major
virtue requires
The
his
contemporaries
on
this
question
appears
which
of gravity away from those norms individual toward those which come from within.
Aristotle's human
regime.
subtle
emendation
rules
out
the
standard
for
excellence could
be
provided might
by
be
Such
an
individual
considered a
simply
good man
I277b25~29
conclud
and I278a40-i278b5).
The fuller
significance of this
section.
distinction is
suggested
by Aristotle's
ing
remarks
in this
If it is true that
sovereign virtue
(i) xvgiojg
agExrj) soul,
deliberative
part of the
Aristotle
all nor
prudence,
even
though
more
it both
presupposes and
directs
does it
govern
would be like asserting that political science, since it governs everything in the city (including religious festivals), also wields authority over the gods (ii45a6-n). Aristotle concludes his treatment of moral and intellectual virtue
says,
by holding
ment of
up the
of
wise man
and not
merely the
prudent one
as
the embodi
points
gently
to the
limits
his preceding
consideration.
Although
virtue
in the
sovereign
17
properly
qualifies one
to rule in the
city,10
human
excellence.
Although
as citizens
famous, strident, Socratic teaching on this issue; namely, those who rule, indeed the city itself, should be subject to the- greater authority of the wise.
be helpful to
Before turning to the final three references to Socrates in the Ethics, it may order (at least to some degree) the impressions conveyed thus far
by viewing Aristotle's references to Socrates within the broader context of the Ethics as a whole. Aristotle introduced Socrates at the beginning of his consid
Socrates'
thesis about
courage which
referred
virtue
first
came
to sight as a
strange
corrected.
spoke
with
irony,
often
confounding the
also appeared
Although
Aristotle
some
maintained
habitually
indulge in
understatement are
in
way deficient, he
of
some
thing
the subtlety
of
human
was at
irony. Aristotle's
intellectual
the end of
his
consideration of
does from
not
simply
to the
endorse the
Socratic
view of
virtue, it is
that
he is far
with
dismissing
paradox
reference eration at
knowledge), his
consid
(virtue is knowledge;
stotle's
prudence
is
virtue).
general whereas
terms
Ari
the
initial
consideration of
paradox
emphasized
relationship between
of
virtue and
(as
the horizon
inquiry
was at
virtue), in
Book VI Aristotle
terms. (This
its
own
is
inquiry
now embraces
both intellectual
that
virtue.) It is
inquiry
be
Aristotle
voices
considerable with
appreciation
for is
Socrates'
view
without,
must
it (moral
virtue
not
knowledge but
virtue
by
rational
principle;
of
all
prudence other
is
not
simply
but it does
even
presuppose
the
presence
the
virtues).
Nevertheless,
as
the
of
inquiry
established
in Book VI is limited
remarks.
Aristotle
acknowledges
in his concluding
this
the affairs
his
consideration of
virtue which
by
acknowledging the
namely, that
godlike
properly belongs to the wise who, by wisdom, embody the highest and most authoritative
Pericles
who
io.
Aristotle's
is
said
for
discerning
what
things were good both for himself and for mankind, a capacity which, Aristotle
maintains,
is
capable of
and cities
(I
I40b8-
1 1).
18
Interpretation
excellence.
human
Are
we meant
to think
of
Socrates
although
by
wisdom
a wisdom as
which,
was
merely human,
20e)?
was
described
divine
by
those who
condemned
(Apology
Perhaps
and must
Socrates'
teaching
considered
and mode of
investigation regarding
the
city.
virtue are
be
point of view of
However,
per
this still
leaves
open
point of view
Socrates'
haps
a more
detached
paradoxical
teaching
we
and manner of
inquiry
may
prove
to
contain
still
greater
truth than
acknowledge
thus far.
In any case, it is
a
at
this
point
beginning,"
undertake
"new
of
one
excellence
heroic, indeed
surprised
kind
divine,
(1145315-33). We
the
should not
be
figure
and
teaching
of
are all
Aristotle's concluding remarks about found within the context of his new beginning in
Socrates'
Socrates.
for the final time Aristotle takes up thesis regarding the relationship between knowledge and
problematic
virtue.
INCONTINENCE
Aristotle's final
cussion
references
his dis
theme
con
of continence/incontinence. parts.
His
general a
consideration of opinions
of this
Aristotle lists
regarding
six problems
(aKogiat)"
in those
(U45b2i-H46b8),
and
interest to
us
It is the very first anogia which is of greatest for it is here th3t Aristotle returns to the problem raised by
possible
Socrates: How is it
same
for
someone to set
what
in
he is
by citing the view of those who say that one cannot act in this way if he knows (moxauvog) the set to be wrong since, as Socrates supposed, it would be strange if, while knowledge was present, something else
should overpower
it
and
drag
it
around
like
slave
(ii45b2i-24). In fsct,
Aristotle observes, Socrates used to comb3t this view altogether (that 3 man could know what is right and do what is wrong) in such 3 wsy ss to imply th3t
there was no such 'Anogia
or
thing
as
11.
can also
be translated
which
or
and
is likened
by
Aristotle
to a
knot
tangle
(8eop,6q)
a
9953271!. cf.
NE 1146321-27).
for understanding the argument, I have Joachim, Aristotle: The Nicomachean Ethics, ed. D. A. Raes (London: Clarendon Press. 1951), p. 219, and John Burnet, ed., The Ethics of Aristotle (London: Methuen, 1900), pp. xl xii.
connotations of the word are essential
retained the
Greek. For
discussion
the meaning
of
ajrogia, see H. H.
the
Nicomachean Ethics
what
19 only
he does is bad;
one
We
are now
to observe thst
of
Socrates
to the
in the Ethics,
problematic
moral
all
but
(Aristotle's
reference to
Socratic irony)
pertain
Socratic thesis regarding the relationship between knowledge and goodness. At the very least, Aristotle's sixfold reference suggests
of
something
teaching.
the
weight
and
seriousness
add
which
he
attaches
to this Socratic
referred
with
To this
we
might
that although
st
Aristotle has
to the
Socratic thesis
thematic way.
several
times, it is only
it in
It is
within
indicstes the
tion of
nence.12
most radical or
jarring
Socrates'
aspect of
approach
to the ques
moral
deny
In fact,
his
own
extreme character of
Indeed, he
sympathy for
on
Socrates'
outlandish
teaching
such
sn
the Socratic view something like frustrated indignation of this matter, Aristotle asserts, is clearly at odds with the most obvious facts (U45b27-28)! Given the character of Aristotle's previous references to this
important
matter with
Socratic teaching
thematic treatment
as well as
which
his
expression of surprising.
its
It
spparent
inconsistency,
the
follows is
as
would
be difficult to
construe
Aristotle's final
endorsement
anything other than a rehabilitation and even (although qualified) of the Socratic view, notwithstanding the fact
evaluation
that it
is
Given the
study it is not necessary to list esch of the five Aristotle finds to be entsngled in current views regarding
worth
incontinence.
anogiat,
which
However, it is
noting that
whereas
Aristotle lists
six
his
own consideration of
he has just furnished. Although Aristotle's treatment does he has brought to light, he
one
which reflects
the
a
orders
he
attaches about
anogiat
which
he has is the
What is
most
striking
Aristotle's
paradox.
order of consideration
emphasis which
it
places on the
Socratic
As Burnet
with
incisively
points
the
Eldoxsg
fj
together."13
Socrates'
The
radical
character of
denial
of
incontinence is
in light
3ssert
of
Socrates'
his
there is no
pleasure.
occurs. and
analysis of
thst
knowing
how to
choose
the greatest
of the
Socratic
consideration of
ties of decent
persons.
but
not
surprising that
of
inquiry
eventually
13.
elicited
the
condemnation
citizens.
Burnet, Ethics,
p. 298.
20
Interpretation
Socrates'
of
a preface
four (difficult
and
abbreviated) arguments
evaluation
(U46b24-U47bi9)14
It
is
sufficient
for
our
purposes
summarize
the
on
conclusions
of
each
of these
arguments,
noting especially
argument
their
bearing
who
Aristotle's final
evaluation of
Socrates.
After
a preface
in
which
he dismisses the
modified
of those
adhere
form, Aristotle
concludes
offers
three
dialectical
that it
(Xoytxog)
would not
possessed
arguments.
The first
argument
with
the
assertion
be surprising if
but
was not
someone were
he
he
acted against
knowledge
argument
he
was
Aristotle's
would not
second
amounts
to a technical
of
the first.
It
in
be
strange
if
one
knew both
food is healthy, but fail to realize that the food before one was dry.) Aristotle adds, however, that it would be astonishing (ftavfiaoxov) if the individual in question knew in the
the
one might
a particular
case,
considered
only the
know that
dry
sense
that
both
universal
and
particular
propositions
were
apprehended
as
concrete particulars.
Aristotle's
analysis
knowing. However, he has not yet joined the issue since it is only the last kind of knowing that is involved in incontinence; namely, when one undertakes a
particular
wrong.
(that
is,
concrete)
action
which
he knows (in
the kind of
some
sense) to
be
In his third
argument
Aristotle
speaks of or
knowing
which charac
is asleep, mad,
of
knowing
to young
students who
correctly
formulae but
without under
standing the
significance of what
they
are saying.
same way.
some
knowledge is in
may act against what they know but that way defective for it has not become part of them or, to
They
14.
three 3re
Commentstors generally agree that these four arguments break up into two types: the first Xoyixog (based on the distinction between having and exercising knowledge) whereas the
cpvoixwg.
fourth is
However,
are evaluated.
Robinson
maintains
although
Aristotle to
present a
point of view
bearing
Ethics
on what
Aristotle takes to be
2 of
logical
puzzle:
in
and
Politics, Vol.
Articles
the other
hand, Burnet
that
maintains
Aristotle (New York: St. Martin's. 1978), pp. 84-87. On that the first three arguments are essentially dialectical whereas
on real
answer to
the problem
(Ethics,
p.
299).
Walsh
grouping together these four arguments, Aristotle indicates that there is no funda mental difference between these two approaches: James Walsh, Aristotle's Conception of Moral Weakness (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), pp. 99-100. Randall makes the general
by
suggestion that
"talker"
a pattern of
investigation
which moves
from the
Xoyixog
I
or
of nature:
into the
i960),
in the
present case.
the
Nicomachean Ethics
21
this in
more precise
not characterized
explsin
by
Aristotelian terms, it is a kind of knowing which is ovftcpvoig (1147322). While each of Aristotle's srguments knows to be kind
right
how it is
(in
opposi
tion to the
Socratic view), it
be
observed
ments points
to another way of
knowing
perhaps the
knowing
which
Socrates
sought
astonish-
ing, if
of
one were
by
one's sctions.
Aristotle's finsl
in
Socratic
psrsdox
from the
viewpoint
control
to that produced
for
our purposes
acting
repeat
under
the
influence it in
a
edge or possesses
way. much
like
drunken
the sound moral maxims of Empedocles without their altering his behav
conclusion
is
striking:
"We
not
seem
to be led to the
sover
nor
Socrates
sought to establish
which
it is
knowledge in the
incontinent act,
(xvgiwg inioxr\\ir])
about
is
overcome
in
an
is
such
knowledge dragged
all
by
passion"
(1147^4-17).
For
the
difficulty
is
clear.
of
Aristotle's
one
particular arguments
On the
opinion."
hand, Aristotle argues that it is in fact pos In opposition to the Socratic paradox,
exists
and
Aristotle
other which
that
incontinence both
consideration also
is intelligible. On the
a
hand, Aristotle's
cannot
brings to light
emotions.
kind
of
knowing
by disagreeing with apparently Socrates in such a way as to shed light on an all too familiar aspect of human experience, Aristotle also begins to suggest the proper way to understand a
overcome
be
the
While
much
maxim.
What
initially
seemed to
be
outlandish
is
extent
that one
lacked
a proper appreci
knowing
which
Socrates
sought.
Whereas Aristotle's
Socrates helps to clarify the experience of incontinence, vindication of Socrates provides his readers with some appreci Aristotle's final
disagreement
ation and
for "sovereign
knowledge"
as
it is
sought
by
the
philosopher
that rare
in someway
godlike
knowledge
to the
which
previous refer
ence to
Socrates)
attributed
wise.
The
Aristotle
makes which
in this
section address
the
horizon
which
constrained
no
longer
himself to the
of gentlemen
but
himself willing to
attempts
consider
the question of
goodness
from the
of
It is
within
this
an
broader horizon
inquiry
that Aristotle
to
bring
his
readers
from
initial frustration
some,
even
with
the pstently
outlsndish charscter of
Socratic
to
inquiry
which
to
psrtisl,
spprecistion
obvious truth
that
22
Interpretation
was
inquiry
edge
provides
his
devoted. In effect, Aristotle's justification readers with a greater appreciation for the
sense, that
of
requirements of
knowl
in
a strict
is, knowledge
as
it is
sought
by
the
philosopher.
CONCLUSION
The
aim of
this paper
has been to
suggest that
Aristotle's
presentation of
than
is
often
The
more
of of
human
do
not
inquiry
taking
both his
in the Ethics in
particular and
his
political writings of
generally.15
It is
by
seriously the
apologetic
dimension
Aristotle's
political writings
that
awareness of
his
apprecia
mode of
inquiry
assume
their
full
and proper
force. I have
in the
course of
bring
his
to some
positive appreciation
for
life
and
teaching. On the
aspects of
which of
one
hand, he
his
mutes and
in
disturbing
Socrates'
teaching
reflects own gentlemen readers. ciation
on moral
concern
his
On the
to
an appre
for the
seriousness of
it
might
initially
was
appear.
Socratic inquiry, however outlandish and galling Without trying to persuade his readers that the "gadfly
city's greatest
Athens"
of
in fact the
appreci
ation
for the
radical
suited
dignity of moral virtue as it is lived by gentlemen and the life of inquiry as it was embodied in the life and death of Socrates is uniquely to bring his readers to a new and positive appreciation for the Socratic
life. For Aristotle, as for Plato (although in a way which differs from Plato), Socrates continues to personify the public face of philosophy. Aris
way
of
the philosophic
can
be
his larger
of
effort
to secure an at
city.
least
partial acceptance
for the
importance
philosophy in the
13.
Consider, in
addition
to
Maclntyre
a slave
and
who
identifies
culture
Aristotle's teaching
the ethic
on
human
excellence with
ideals
of
Greek
of an upper class
in
society."
Aristotle,
p. 248.
of
Nature
new edition of
Men1
the Discourse
us
on the
Origin
and
Inequality Among
of
invites
to
rethink
Rousseau's
the
"pure"
the state
nature,
and more
particularly
of what
he
calls
Meier has
Peyrou
definitive text
of
collated
the two 1755 editions and the posthumous 1782 Moultou and Du
which
edition
incorporated Rousseau's
the Letter to
criticized the
numerous
corrections
and
additions; he has
which
"Philopolis,"
re-edited
the pseudonym
the
under whom
Discourse;
of 28
Reply
to Le
until
Roy,
earlier editors
referred
to as "An Unknown
Naturalist"
Ralph Leigh
Dedicatory;
footnotes.
and
and all
known fragments
and
drafts
Intention"
index in
facing German translations, and by extensive They by long Introductory Essay on "The Rhetoric of the Discourse, and followed by a very complete and useful French to key terms and concepts. by
are preceded a
appear
Meier's
should
surprising that the most authoritative edition of the be the work of a scholar not writing in French. Yet
reminded scholars of
is
almost
immediately
"foreign"
studies
are
to the labors
of
for
standard
the texts: C.
E.
a
remained unrivaled
for
over
half
first
Discourse
on
Sciences
writings
and
Arts;
occasioned um
by
den
the
Ludwig
Tente's
three-
volume
Die Polemik
ersten
Rousseau in Frankreich
und
Deutschland;
de Rousseau
Ralph Leigh's
will
Correspondance
complete
surely
remain
definitive for
short and
in this
come.
Meier's
Starobinski's
since
completes
had,
the
its
appearance
twenty
regarded
as
Meier has
in the
notes
sdditionsl
drafts
and
fragments;
sur
and
his
Fragmenten
ediert,
xcii
den
den Handschriften
neu
Ubersetzt
kommentiert.
By Heinrich
24
are
Interpretation
informed
by
argument.
Not
all
keen sensitivity to the political character of his corrections will significantly affect
of
Rousseau's
a
minute of
even
scholar's understanding of the text. But every conscientious student Second Discourse will henceforth have to take his edition into account.
the
Indeed,
with
edition.
It does
not
bring
us
face to face
Rousseau's text,
us
with
text; rather, it
notes situate
rather
that text
editorial
learnedly
and
detailed
information, identify
or real or presumed
references,
sometimes
passages
call
attention,
and
pointedly, to Rousseau's
meaning
intentions.
Meier is particularly in
other words
sensitive
to
problems of rhetoric.
and
in
numer
book he
censorship
under
Rousseau
and
his
contemporaries
wrote,
he
calls attention
to the
places where
that threat
clearly influenced
of
time, he is
mindful
the self-cen
sorship
from the
author of
sorship manifests itself perhaps most clearly in the distinction draws between his different addresses: Geneva, in the Epistle
118-28); the likes
of
Rousseau
(pp.
Dedicatory
and
Plato
and
in the
concluding
paragraph of
Part I, he
calls
his
"Judges,"
and
in the
penultimate
and
paragraph of the
Discourse he
"attentive
readers"
those whom,
cp.
p.
in the last
paragraph of
Part I, he
than
calls
"vulgar
to
see
(p. 169,
the
135).
Thus,
his
while
many
commentators
continue
Epistle
Dedicatory
ized
to Geneva as nothing
native
more
Rousseau's
somewhat
vision of
document designed to
help
heal the
deep divisions between the party of the Citizens and the ruling patriciate that had repeatedly brought the city to the brink of civil war during the preceding
half
century.
which
the
Now,
to
the
most
perplexing
by
Rousseau
is it
conjectural or
one rather
is it factual;
way that
the consequences of
deciding
that it is the
may be Rousseau's
reasons
argument
with
in
appears
to
leave this
Meier
and
an open question?
the very
first
passage which
examines
Intention"
closely in the
of
Introductory
aside all the
Essay
facts.
the
Discourse, namely
setting
Rousseau's
invitation to the
reader to
begin
by
to
It did
the mind
state of
whereas
Holy Scriptures,
that
Roussseau'
25
and precepts
the
not
first Man,
having
lights
immediately
from God,
was
are granted
the credence
owed them
by
Flood, Men
Let
us question.
were ever
every Christian Philosopher, it has to be denied that, in the pure state of Nature
even
before the
therefore begin by setting aside all the facts, for they do not affect the The Inquiries that may be pursued regarding this Subject ought not be taken for historical truths, but only for hypothetical and conditional reasonings;
better
(P-
Nature
of things than
to
show
139)-'
Meier
are
agrees with
the
long
line
of scholars who
have
facts
we
here invited to
be
called
"the biblical
facts."
He
further
have
argued
the only
therefore
fscts
not
we sre sccept
state
invited to
at
set sside
face
value
thst we should
that
assertions
his
account of
the
of nature
in Part I
should,
instead,
open
take that to
account as
having
reading is
i i
question.4
The invitation to
facts:"
aside
"the biblical
also
Moses"
"Let
us therefore
lation
indicates
on
account
"the Writ
of
ings
of
the one
hand,
them
and
that
account other.
more
"the
sets
credence owed
He
aside
on account
the
far
categorically than he sets aside the account itself. Just before inviting the reader to set aside all the facts, he had
2.
remarked
that
All
together with
and annotated
edition of
and the
Essay
by
Row,
1986);
references
to
Rousseau's OZuvres
indicated
by OC,
followed
by
volume and
page numbers.
"conjecture,"
3.
For Rousseau's
"reveries:"
use of
which
see op.
lately
called
for
bold, basic
calling
terpretation
p.
scientific experiments,
"
he
called
what others might
will
call
Revery
49, n.T,
de la nature, Varloot and Diekmann eds., in OZuvres completes, Vol. IX (Paris, 1981) Dugald Stewart came to speak of "Theo and nos xxxi-xxxviii. Half a century later,
retical or conjectural
history;
an
expression
which
coincides
with
Natural
some
Smith"
History,
as employed
by
Mr.
Hume see
his Natural
History
Raisonnee."
French
writers
have
called
Histoire
vn, 31L
cp.
"Account
Naturgeschichte
Philosophers,"
der burgerlichen R. L. Emerson surveys "Conjectural History and Scottish especially in Exkurs II, pp. 305-13; in Canadian Historical Association Historical Papers 1984 Communications in Beyond Good and and Nietzsche is writing "Naturgeschichte der pp.
Moral"
vi, 4; discussed by Hans Medick, Naturzustand und Gesellschaft (Gottingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1978),
historiques,
4.
63-90;
As C. E. Vaughan had already indicated: The Political Writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau University Press), 19 15, Vol. I, p. 13. n. 3.
26
it had
Interpretation
never so much as occurred
to most of
our philosophers
Philosophers"
state of nature
man was ever
although
"Christian
have to
deny
and
that the
state of nature.
Now,
and
the "state of
state.
"pure
well role
nature"
state of
As Rousseau
nature"
play a in two very different traditions, the theological tradition, and the philo sophical tradition. More precisely, Christian theologians traditionally distin
expressions of state of
knew,
the
"state
nature"
"pure
guish
between the
(pura
and
natura or
in
pur is
naturalibus) ,
the
state
of restored nature or of
By
mid-seventeenth
become
a central
century the status of the "state of pure issue in the differences dividing the Jansenists and the
had
come
of
had
neo-
scholastics.
The
neo-scholastics
to
use or
"state
of
nature"
of pure
to refer
prior
man
destination,
the
unaided
aspiration,
natural
or assistance.
also come
to distinguish between
law
considered
of pure nature or
natural
law;
and
law
considered
from the
which, although it is
natural
is
nevertheless said to
be
"in
a relative
The Jansenists,
of a
on
the other
nature.
possibility
of
state
of
pure
rejected a
the very
of
metaphor
Augustine's,
fallen
allowed no more
the state
nature than
between
being
undressed and
being
nsked, snd
he
re
the
tantamount to a
revival
Rousseau is evidently alluding to this debate when he says that the biblical account does not allow for the pure state of nature; and when he
adds
"
that therefore
.
what
he
will
say
5.
habet
suam propriam
naturam,
cui
connaturale est
lumen infusum, cui etiam connaturale est non solum dirigere homines ad rectam. et honestam, ac debitam operationem supematuralem, sed etiam depellere tenebras, et errores circa ipsammet legem
pure
ipsiusmet legis
naturalis,
naturalis observationem.
Sic
ergo
lex
naturalis
una pure
alia simpliciter
supernaturalis,
et
naturalis
gratiam."
Deo Legislatore
warn
(1612),
8, i);
while
that
the philosophers
certain
have
with a
felicity
. .
.
in this life,
since
living
life,
it in
peace and
justice
end of
However,
it is
doctrine
of the
faith that
to the supernatural
sacred
by fitting
natural
means
this
theology
rightly
more positive
men require
from Suarez's De Gratia quoted by Starobinski, OC in, 1303. 6. Cornelius Jansenius, Augustinus, 1640 (Minerva Nachdruck, 1964), Tome II, the last 3 books, pp. 678-980; p. 679; "Statum purae naturae in Eclesiam introduxerunt 1, 6, xi, p. 361. For the background of these debates, Etienne Gilson, Introduction a etude de Saint Augustin, 2nd ed. (Paris: Vrin, 1943), p. 193 n. 1; Henri de Lubac. S. J., Augustinisme et theologie moderne (Paris: Aubier, 1965), especially pp. 140-44, 152-65, 274L, 284-87; also Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1953), p. 184 n. 23.
see also the passage
Pelegiani,"
1'
27 be conjectural, he
who
uses
(pp.
140,
142)
will
the
same
formula
freedom
silent
as
that used
most
by
innumerable theologians
The issue is
of will
commonly debated in terms of the kind of grace, that is, of or of choice, Adam might initially have enjoyed. Rousseau is
of
of
regarding grace, and he postpones any consideration of freedom later in the Discourse (p. 148). Here he speaks, instead,
prior to where
Adam
God,"
"the lights
precepts"
and at
which
he
received
"immediately
from
"precepts"
clearly
But
the
and
knowledge
day
that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Genesis 2:17);
"lights"
clearly
to heed that
at the
and
was
precept.7
very least refers to the lights needed to understand In a passage which he added while the Discourse
in press, Rousseau guardedly indicates that the biblical account but the interpretation of that account will make sense especially only to
Divines'
. .
those
in the intention
would not
of
human
actions which
they
have
giving from the beginning a morality to acquired for a long time, the reason for
a precept
indifferent in itself
and
divine
inexplicable in any other System: Those, in a word, voice called all Mankind to the enlightenment and
.
the
happiness
of celestial
Intelligences
(p.
213).
Divines'
The biblical
account
account
is
at odds with
himself."
but especially the interpretation of that what did or would have happened naturally, to man
"abandoned to
To demur
which,
good
arbitrary prohibition is a natural inclination, but conforms to the order of things and to man's in itself vicious, being constitution; since he would not be able to attend to his preservation if he
against a useless and
far from
had
not a
privileges as
very lively love of himself and of the preservation of all his rights and he received them from nature. He who could be anything would wish
what would restrained
be
useful
to
him; but
a part of
feeble
Being
and
whose power
is further
reclaims
as
by law, loses
of.
himself,
in his heart he
he is
being
deprived
what
as a crime
is to impute to him
a crime that
he is
he is
he be
being; it
true
would
be to
wish at one
and not
order
infringed
by
Adam
appears
to
me
to
have been
from
not so much a
prohibition as a paternal
advice; a warning to
conforms
abstain
a pernicious and
deadly
fruit.
Surely
this
idea
better
to the
idea
and even
7.
On
"precepts,"
cp.
e.g.,
(quoted in
note
precepts, la
sec;
Suarez,
op.
cit.
11,
10,
i;
the dictates of
Hobbes's
natural or
law
are
still
Philosophicall Rudiments
Concerning
Government
and
Society,
Press,
"A
law of
nature, (Lex
"
Rule, found
use of
out
by Reason, by
see
which a man
is forbidden
Hobbes, Vol. Ill, 1983, H. Naturalis,) is a Precept or generall Leviathan, ch. 14; for Rousseau's
Index.
"precept,"
op. cit..
28
Interpretation
Genesis,
than do the
of
to the text of
ideas
which
Divines
are pleased
to
prescribe
to us;
for
with regard
to the threat
the
shown
has
they
attach
it,
and
hebraism
[also]
used elsewhere
[in
Scripture],
is only be
out of
place.8
by
setting
aside
the
facts; but it is
no more
more
the orthodox
Divines'"
interpretation
facts: their
claim
he did
explicitly referring debstes surrounding this issue, Rousseau proceeds to give an mankind abandoned to itself alone (p. 141). Since on his rather
writings of
reading, the
Moses do
not allow
for
man's ever
having
found
compares
his
account
reasonings"
which
"our Physicists
daily
the
It is hypothetical
the
Divines'
and conditional
head-on
would
with
interpretation
and
invite their
reason
censure.
But it
condi
be
why it is
tional and
hypothetical,
frequently
says, conjectural.
"Divines'"
939f.,
note.
Regarding
the
interpreta
anyone
finds
difficulty
altered
by
in understanding why other sins do not alter human nature as it was first human beings, so that on account of it this nature is corruption we feel and see, and to death, and is distracted and tossed with contending emotions, and is certainly far different from then lodged in an animal body if, I say, anyone is
was a small and except what
many furious
and
it
was
before
were
moved
by
this, he
light
was
one
because it But
food,
feli God
bad
nor
because it
sort, the
forbidden; for in
city God
could not
have
any
evil thing.
by
is, in
creature,
of
that submission
is
advantageous to
it,
while
the
fulfillment
ment
its
own will
in
enjoining easy to
of
abstinence
from
a
kind
of
command other
kinds
was so
keep
in lust,
so
light
its
observance
which
only
the
sprung up
sin, the
iniquity
violating it
was all
in
proportion 12
to the ease
it
might
have
morieris.
surely
Lion
and the
Interpretation, 1980, 8:54; for the interpretation of the double death, Augustine, De Civitate Dei xiii, passim; for the heterodox and interpretation, see Isaac de La Peyrere Proeadamitae (1655), translated under the title
Divines'
a Discourse upon the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth Verses of the Fifth Chapter of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans. By which are prov'd, that the first Men were created before Adam (London, 1656); and Systema theologicum, ex Proeadamitarium hypothesi (1655), translated under the title A Theological System upon that Presupposition that Men were before Adam (London, 1655). La Peyrere has his pre-Adamites in the state of nature
living
without and
ch.
xvm,
p. 45.
Roussseau'
29
"state
nature"
1.2. i
all
In the
and
of
is, for
intents
men
without
term
we
of art
by
Hobbes: "the
call
state of state of
state
may properly
remains
the
nature)."9
For
intents
and
purposes, that
most
widely "State of
conditions,
accepted
definition
of the expression
in the
tradition.
nature"
so understood refers
which
it is important to distinguish:
society, and so to
of civil
being
civil-ized; the
civil societies
in their
to
by
nature."
Formally, then,
defined
theologians'
philosophers'
and the
by
the
of positive
law, be it divine
of
human. Still,
as
Jakob Thomasius
nature"
most
theologians
closely corresponds to what the nature"; he ignores what they call the
"state
9.
and
of pure
i.e.
prelapsarian
nature."10
De Cive, Preface (ed. cit., p. 34); also "the naturall state of Ibid. 11, I, Annotation, 11, 13 (ed. cit., pp. 52, 68), which compare and contrast with the use of the expression
,
state"
men,"
"naturall
10.
understood as
remark
proper
state,
e.g.
p. 72).
Thomasius's
is
reported
by
his
student
explicitly acknowledges as much regarding his own In a ditty to which readers of the Second Discourse
deliberately
nature":
run
nature"
"pure
state of
Mon
Je
cher
Adam,
mon vieux et
triste pere,
crois
Eve,
ma mere.
Deux Singes verds, deux Chevres pieds fourchus Sont moins hideux au fond de leur feuillee; Par le Vos
soleil votre
face halee,
ecaillee, crochus,
votre main
Votre
Dont
les
charmes
flatteurs
aventure,
Sous
un vieux chene
ils
soupent galament
Avec de l'eau, du millet et du gland; Ce repas fait, ils dorment sur la dure: Voila l'etat de la
pure
Nature.
"
However,
remained
elsewhere
Voltaire
also speaks
various
places
in America
2
where
mankind
nature."
in the
state of pure
Essai
les
mceurs
(1765), Ch.
(i.f.).
of
In
de Prades
was censured
by
the
Faculty
a
Sorbonne
as
by
the
Parliement;
Charles de
as
condemned circulated
to be burned
Pastoral Letter
of a
it.
Diderot, posing
in the form
30
Interpretation
On
several occasions
1.2.2
Hobbes does
"
speak of a state or
before
such
time as
men
had
engag'd
themselves
"bare"
by
any Covenants
state of
Bonds
and
he
"meere"
refers to
or
nature."
His
sometime
secretary, Samuel
seau would
Sorbiere, in whose French translation of have studied Hobbes, renders "bare state of
following
passage
confusion
from wittingly or unwittingly running the two readers familiar with the Second Discourse will
It
seems
"pure
nature"
state of
Again,
to
me
being
for
man
[as de
picted] in
Genesis, it
over
have been
more
to the
point
his descendants;
of
wandering
the
face
the earth;
with
innocent man,
enlightened and
difficulty from
since
extraordinary gifts from heaven, or with corrupted man, banished, and emerging with dark ignorance. If M. D'Auxerre had taken this trouble, he would have seen that man as he now is, is the only man known and acknowledged by the adversaries I had to
was
combat, it
for
discussion
can
only begin
and
with
the
human
nature viewed
in terms
since
of
the
origin of
its knowledge. He
would
have
seen
that,
these
[intellectual faculties
and
knowledge],
and
to
bring
he is
without
any ideas, to the pitch of perfection when he is acquainted even with the profundities of religion; from the point of imbecile nature when he appears to be lower than a number of
animals, to the
revelation state of
dignity
when
he
so to speak
and
is
raised
by
intelligences; I
and
my
model
emerged perfect
of
his creator,
by
himself
alone possessed
in
instant If M.
his
entire
posterity together
will acquire
in
all
future
centuries. me
D'Auxerre had
other
many
observations;
his
long
Pastoral Letter
have been
shortened
by
has
some
twenty
Adam's
of pure
clearly
my thesis
escaped
him;
that he
not understood
by
easily
of
his
about
how theologians
him
of
In the meantime, and until the Sorbonne instructs him regarding the latter, I shall inform of what the former is according to the new philosophy. The state of nature is not the state
reasoning.
Adam before his fall; that momentary state must be the object of our faith and not of our What is at issue among philosophers is the actual condition of Adam's descendants
in herd (en troupeau), in
and not
considered
in society;
with which
a condition which
is
not
only
possible
but
live,
it is entirely
to discover philosophically, not the vanished grandeur of human nature, but the origin
and order of
its knowledge, in
has distinctive
on the same level [as it]; finally, defects or, if one prefers, less lively qualities that lower him beneath [it]; a condition which lasts more or less long depending on the circumstances that may lead men to form political societies and to move from the herd state to the state of society. By herd state
him
above
the
beast;
others
it
and that
keep
him
(etat de troupeau) I mean the state where men. brought together nature, like monkeys, deer, and crows, etc., have not formed any
to
by
the simple
prompting
of
conventions
duties,
nor established
where ressentiment
that passion
with which
nature,
which attends
to the preservation
of
the
beings, has
only
completes,
endowed
injustice."
curb of
Diekman,
every individual in order to render him formidable to his kind is the Suite de 1'apologie de M. V abbe de in Diderot, CEuvres Proust, Varloot, eds., Vol. IV (1978), pp. 333f.
Prades,"
or
"purely
while
state."
natural
nature"
"the
mere or
bare
nature"
state of
consists
in
the
state of nature as
such
is the
common political
bonds,
the
the
mere or
bare
state of nature
is the
any
acknowledged
bonds
whatsoever.
It
would
without
prior
to
family
properly
so
called,
even
family
by
institution.12
However,
adhere to the
distinction
which
or part civil
he
uses
only the
as
with
more general
expression,
and refers
society
the "state of
nature."
In conformity
nature as
that practice,
the stste of
the state
which everyone
in
is
conceived to of
birth
by
thing
or
face
the
is]
established either
humanly
inspired to
by
Divinity;
with all
;
man
that
in that
state would
be
as
entirely
abandoned to
himself;
when
whose qualities of
Body
are as
limited
as
they
are now
found to be
or
they have
neither
been cultivated,
of
nor
been
assisted
by
his kind
favored
by
the Divinity.
Pufendorf
considered
purely
He draws Reason
by
alone
and on
"... the
the same
detailed
enlightenment provided
by
Revelation
Elsewhere Diderot
sur
refers
to
what
he here
2,
calls the
herd
state as
nature":
Essai
"herds,"
le
merite et
sect.
pp.
note
2;
on p.
cp.
Languages,
op.
172,
cp.
178,
Rousseau, Discourse, Replies, cp. pp. 180, 328; but also Plato,
Statesman 264a-267c; Aristotle, Politics I, 2, I253a8, History of Animals 487034, 488a20; on see also the last paragraph of Rousseau, Second Discourse, Note X, "celestial
intelligences,"
quoted on p.
n.
103
of
27 above. De Cive I, x and Annotation; cf. ibid. 11 18; v 2; and vm I as well as Leviathan ch. 20 (p. reduced to a the 1651 edition, cited in n. 16 below); Robinson Crusoe was at first
"
nature."
meer state of
and
Penguin,
12.
1965),
p.
130.
etat
Leibniz therefore says, "Mr. Hobbes calls the natural state the least art; perhaps not taking into account that human nature in its l'art
elle)."
naturel) that
which
has
perfection
involves
art
(porte
avec
Theodicy, I,
nature
221.
13.
Droit de la
et
revised
and
enlarged.
Amsterdam: Pierre de
Coup,
1712), 11,
ii,
1, 2, 4. Pufendorf
are as
goes
Hobbes
of
"engagements"
De Cive, according to whom men in the state of nature only: "Let us return again to the state of nature,
out of the earth, and
other."
if
if but
even
now
sprung
of engagement
to each
come
to
full maturity
without all
kind
32
For
Interpretation
example:
in
order
to represent
Man's
primitive constitution,
from
which
the
foundation
us
is deduced,
one abstracts
by
Sacred History,
and
same
men nowadays
have
world;
is
since
reasoning Hence I say that in expounding Natural Right " the Fall
. .
alone can
farther
one
has to
consider
Man
as
he
Rousseau
accepts
Pufendorf 's
itself"
the same
when
he,
in his turn,
142).
"abandoned to
practice of
(pp.
140,
follows Hobbes's
referring to the state without any in other words the "on authority as the "state of "each is judge is his own However,
most part
case,"
for the
nature."
passage quoted
calls
inequalities,"
political
"moral
or political
without
hence
without relations
authority
"pure"
or
"moral"
any
"pure"
whatsoever, the
corresponds
state of
state
of nature
to
Hobbes'
14. Les devoirs de I'homme et du citoyen (The Duties of Man and Citizen), J. Barbeyrac tr. (Amsterdam: Pierre de Coup, 1735); Author's Preface, m, vm; cp. the passage from the Exor dium of the Second Discourse cited p. 24 above; Pufendorf 's statement can be read as an almost word for word rejection of the orthodox position: cp. e.g. Suarez, cited in note 5 above; indeed: other things, dear Sir, I find it rather amusing that he [sc. Veit Ludwig v. Seckendorf] sets forth the theory of the state of integrity [or pure nature]; for when that theory is stated distinctly in terms of our hypotheses, human life appears so different from what it is now, that
"Among
theologians'
theirs."
there
is scarcely any
agreement
between
our
natural
laws
and
v.
("Unter
andem
m[ein]
h[ochgeschatzter] H[err]
integri ausfiihret; denn
leges
naturales zu
Seckendorf]
theoriam status
hypothesibus
wird, bekommet das menschliche leben eine solche differente gestalt von dem
ienen
Christian Thomasius
1693).
E. Gigas
(Munich &
the
us
to believe that
since
out of
they are unequal because he wanted them to be Second Discourse, Exordium, in Discourses, Replies, Languages, op. cit., pp. 139L;
of
State
Nature
immediately
after
the creation,
so."
"
promises
to
do
or to
forbear
freedom."
children
Emile 11, OC iv, 336, Bloom tr., leave the state of nature almost upon
addition to the passage state of occurs
nature"
p.
101;
by
"
.
being
born
16. sion
In
"pure
the
have
.
from the
need
for Languages
was no
"
p.
154.
Meier
p.
120;
state of
Nature
longer the
the
Society
[states]
a new
p.
176, Meier
p.
192,
is that
of all
in
which men
would
earth."
Unpublished
of
so-called
happy,
the
most
numerous on
"
State
OC m, p. 475, Meier p. 422 #14; began in that the first was the state of Nature in
corruption."
its purity,
whether
whereas this
in the
Nature the
chance
it is
rather
p. 197, Meier p. 262; is commonly with child again and encounters or the impulsion of temperament alone would
"
woman
"
"
have
produced as
frequent
effects
in the
pure
State
of
Nature
as
in that
of conjugal
Society
33 it
corresponds even
and
more
or
state of
nature,
and
closely to
of nature considered
purely
simply in
itself:"
it, too, is
and
and
artifice or conventions of
rule,
bonds,
covenants,
hence
In
sum:
theologians'
is the in
state of
corrupted
nature,
whereas
is
the state of
men engaged
in
another,
and
particu
lar the
especially his
At the
state of
nature, but
philosophers'
concep
the decisive dif
and civil-ized man
primarily because
his insistence
on
ferences between
on
hand,
the other.
1.3
The
greater the
will
differences between
on
be,
the more
problematic
be inferences based
the
have been. Rousseau is the first to have clearly seen, or at may least to have clearly stated the central paradox of what has come to be known as historicism: that the reasons why historical inquiries are said to be neces
sary,
are
"originally"
the very
same reasons
why
such
inquiries
are
necessarily
conjectural
(p.
129).
He is thus led to
to
and to and p.
reflect on
how difficult it is
from
what
disentangle
what
is
original
is
artificial
in
Nature,
did exist,
know accurately a state which no longer exists, which perhaps about which it is nevertheless necessary to have exact Notions
.
("Preface,"
130).
p.
223, Meier
p.
358,
Hobbes's
"'
state of meer of
Matrimony;
no
Law of Nature, and the naturall inclination of the Sexes, one to another, and to their Leviathan, ch. 20, p. 103. To my knowledge, this is the only occurrence of the expression "state of in the Leviathan, where Hobbes's preferred expression is condition as in "natural condi
nature"
tion"
nature."
or
"condition
state of
of mere
Rousseau did
not
at
first hand.
"Pure
nature"
Discourse. It does
occur
in the exclusively formal, legal sense, does not occur in the Second in the Discourse on Political Economy: as soon as one man claims
.
to subordinate another
to the
himself in
except
relation
to that
in the
is
never prescribed
necessity."
by
as
[19];
cp.
laws[,] he lives in
for any
of
nor
to anyone
his
action."
Unpublished
fragment known
603.
Rousseau's
"pure"
According
also account
understand
Yet in
at
"primitive"
as
are
in "primitive
not
state"
condition."
"primitive
manifestly
Languages,
176,
quoted on p. 36 with
nature"
pure state of
is interchangeable
below. However, in the Second Discourse "man in the "natural (op. cit. pp. 130, 132. 168, 207). In the
man"
Emile, by
which
"The difference is
considerable
between
natural man
living
p.
in
living
in the
society"
state of
205),
is
as much as to
reason
nature"
pure state of
has
not
the status of
fact;
to be the
in the Emile.
34
Interpretation
the
state of nature
Now,
most
broadly
speaking, the
exist,
state of man
"without
to
exist.
civil
society,"
now
It
is,
173; Meier
190; 156,
180).
17
But
ably
may
prior
to
lations,
and
covenants,
re
convention of any kind, have existed; it certainly does not now exist; and it is most hereafter. Human life may always, everywhere, necessarily, the natural and the artificial or conventional, and it may be
"natural"
that this
one
be
so.
In
order
of man
free
of
convention,
is
Such
conjectures
Still,
having
seen what
Let my Readers
seems to me so
myself with
difficult to
. .
I have initiated
some arguments;
I have hazarded
some conjectures
(p
130).
However compelling
Discourse, they
that
remain
may find Rousseau's conjectures in Part I of the conjectures. He knew that they are conjectures; he said
one and
they
are
conjectures;
he very clearly
spelled out of
from"
it,
or of
any
rhetorical
They
are conjectures
because
of
the
nature of
the problem
he
The difficult
make
rhetorical question
is:
when
and
why
and
it
clear whether
he is speaking
about
the
"pure"
qualifications.
One effect,
readers
his failure
is fsr
to do so, is to than
leave
with
more radicsl
the
Discourse, let
alone of
its
relation
subjects.
17.
contrast
"
Rousseau is
to "in the
.
not alone
state"
civil
or
in the
wild
State
of
in using in interchangeably with "in the state of and hence "civil-ized"; cp. for example, Hobbes, De Cive, vm, 18; Nature wild People must have an Instinct to understand
"
"savage"
nature,
"
one another, which they lose when they are Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees, Part II, The Sixth Dialogue; F. B. Kaye ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), Vol. II, pp. 286, 285; and some naturalists e.g. Buffon and, a full century later, Darwin classify animals as either "in the state of or The political implications are clear, and Rousseau repeatedly calls
nature"
civiliz'd."
"domestic."
attention to them.
18.
Harald Weinrich
of the
in Part I
narrative
strictly linguistic grounds: the verb forms primarily discussive (besprechend), and in Part II predominantly (erzdhlend). "Erzahlte Philosophie oder Geschichte des Geistes: linguistischc Bemerreaches a similar conclusion on are
Discourse
kungen
zu
Descartes
eds.
Rousseau."
und
und
Erzahlung, R. Koselleck
and
W.-D. Stempel
411-26;
Roussseau
2.
when
35
considers
In the last
Part 1 Rousseau
how best to
proceed
two
.
facts
be
connected so
by
a sequence of
.
intermediate
facts
believed to be
given as
(p
169).
In Meier's
point"
view
the "two
facts
of
real"
he
calls
"the starting
sets out
and
reconstitute
"the
point"
end
the development
Rousseau
to
point"
"starting
up
man not
to be the account
of man
in the
and
so much of
Part I
of
the
Discourse,
real"
the "end
point"
to be the account of
despotisms. Although he
first is
in the
same sense
is, he
proceeds, here
and
his
not
commentary, as
if it
were.19
Rousseau's does it
remark about
Does
for, indeed
Discourse,
not require a
different,
Rousseau is outlining what he proposes to do in Part II and how that plan is related to what he did in Part I:
to consider and
of
the
human
reason while
it sociable,
and
bring together the various contingencies that can have perfected deteriorating the species, make a being wicked while making from so remote a beginning, finally bring man and the world to the
find
them (p. 168,
of
Meier,
p.
166).
He then
this plan in
. .
goes on
view of
to review some
out
the
other,
hand rejecting
certain
hypotheses without,
of
on the
facts;
two
facts
given as real
be
connected
by
a series of
intermediate facts
to read
world
In the
context of
this program, it
as
as saying:
"man
and
the
p.
168;
cp.
the bipartite work, Rousseau calls the state of nature a 'fact': the
given as
in
linking
facts.'
'two facts
'by
a sequence of
intermediate
and
actually
or
unknown and
The
op.
given
facts
despotism."
are
History,
du
also
cit., p.
Les
principes
systeme
267 n. 32; so, too, V. Goldschmidt, Anthropologic et de Rousseau (Paris: Vrin, 1974), PP- 39f> 755- J- Derrida,
pure state of nature as
following
"factual"
J. Mosconi,
the difficulties
he
encounters
in his deconstruction
of
Rousseau's Rousseau's
De la
interpretation is
succinctly indicated
by
pure state of nature as the state of pure nature, an expression and a concept that
p.
55),
Voltaire,
or
Diderot (see
note
10 above),
pp.
but
never
may in Rousseau:
Of
au
Grammatology G.
XVIIIe
(1),"
University Press,
1974),
pp.
231!, 236f.,
252L, 274; J. Mosconi "Analyse et genese: Regards sur la theorie du devenir de l'entendement Cahiers pour T analyse No. 4, 1966, p. 75. siecle
36
.
Interpretation
[at]
them"
is
one
fact
there are
extreme
political
despotism
may therefore
whose
be
said
in
expression
(p.
It is
another
fact
given as real
that
way
of
life is
such as modern
have reported; in
"state
of state of
other
words,
there is
historical,
that
is,
pre
nature."
In this factual
. .
nature,
contempt shown
everyone
punishing the
him in
stock
he
set
by himself,
vengeances
became terrible,
bloodthirsty
and cruel.
This is precisely the state reached by most of the Savage Peoples known to us; and it is for want of drawing adequate distinctions between ideas and noticing how far
these Peoples that
man
gentle
already were from the first state of Nature, that many hastily concluded is naturally cruel and that he needs political order in order to be made [Tadoucir], whereas nothing is as gentle [doux] as he in his primitive state
when, placed
by
Nature
at equal
fatal
of the
brutes
and
the
The many
savage
man
who
drew this
hasty
conclusion erred
because they
this error,
the
attributed
to
man.
They fallaciously
they
politic
rea
soned post
hoc
ergo propter
hoc. As
a result of
of
also erred
regarding
manifest are
natural
right
and
the true
foundations
body
(pp. 131,
the
us
they mistakenly
recognize
assumed that
and
bloodthirstiness
existence.
known to
are
They
and
failed to
that
they
deriv
of complex
"moral"
lives.
They
possibly failed to
contingent
developments in
"most
of
the
known to
us"
in the "first
nature."
Reason
more primitive
peoples
known to
us
us.
Rousseau therefore
assigns most of
of
known to
nature,
a stage which
begins
with
by
and
by
gives
way to
a third and
sedentary families settled in huts (p. 173), final stage in the state of nature
of metallurgy and agriculture (p. 177), the enclosure and land (pp. 179, 170), and the attendant and irreversible division of labor (pp. 177, 179L). The second or middle stage of the state of nature, the
the
introduction
division
of
stage of
ning"
"most
of
us,"
is
"begin
or
state of
society (pp. 176, 182). In the preceding, first stage of the men lead a nomadic life in more or less loosely structured nature,
"troops"
"nascent"
bands
or
(pp. 173, 262L) possessing languages "approximately like have (p. 173), languages which
today"
But
never
"societe
sauvage":
238.
37
conventional proper
least
some
articulated, that
is,
and
instituted sounds,
strictest sense
and which
in the
(pp.
Their life is certainly not simply free of artifice and conven 173, 244, tions. It certainly does not represent the state of nature, understood as
"pure"
the
state
without
and
conceivably
prior
to
all
artifice
and
convention.
Rousseau only
never claims
The
means
by
which
to get to know
what
it,
by
which
"to disentan
gle what
is
original
from
is
artificial
in
nature,"
is,
as
he
frequently
facts. The
systematic
says, to
"meditate"
on
alternatives,
cannot
and
to
try
a
they
is
a
be
asserted as
for the
thought-experiment,
relations;
needs
"bracketing"
and
hence
also
of all
and
moral
and
relations:
"[b]y
It is
an exercise
stripping the in
Being
The
so constituted course of
(p. 141;
us,"
Meier,
is
p. 78).
"analysis."
this
regressive analysis
guided
by
as real":
ized
The
most
distinctive feature
post
this
regressive analysis
is the
effort
to
avoid
drawing
the
any
hoc
ergo propter
view,
as
and
hoc inferences as, in Rousseau's indeed all of his predecessors did. As far
analysis
will
possible
of
the
regressive
be
confirmed
by
aim
analysis moves
beyond the
state of
fact
recedes and
fades into
conjecture.
The
limits
or
conditions
to establish fact. It
is to
extrapolate
are not
to the
or conditions
real."21
sense of
the term
sketched
let
alone
"facts
given as
They
are
in any "general
21
Rousseau
the
strategy
of
full ten
with
years earlier:
of the
Philosophers
are
filled
Laws
and maxims
pertaining to two
general
One,
which
they
by
from the
simple
to the
to teach to others
what one
knows;
they call Analysis or method of resolution and which one uses in learning what one does not know; for example, when inquiring into a family's genealogy, one traces it backward from the
present,
which a relation
by
relation, ancestor
with
by
is the Analytic
way.
After house
table
is drawn up,
of the
at
its head, [and] moving forward generation by generation right up to the present, that is I would, then, wish always to begin my discussions with the weakest proofs. In some fields, the most convincing arguments are drawn from the heart of the matter itself; such
synthesis
are questions of
Physics. Knowledge
of the soil
for example,
nourish
well
be fur
specific
thered
by
knowledge
in
which
they
them, their
be properly known without examining without considering their total internal structure, their fibers, volvules, tracheae, bark, pith, leaves, flowers, fruit, roots and, in a word, all the parts that go into their makeup. In moral inquiries, by contrast, I would begin by examining the little we know about
properties, but their them in themselves,
mechanism and springs will never
considered
few
labyrinth, I
would
hasten
38
Interpretation
or
"principles":22
causes"
at a
minimum, beings
are
who are
physically
constituted
as
we
know
constituted,
in
balance, who are therefore materially and psychologically self-sufficient, that is, free, hence morally and politically equal, and thus "good"; and who are
to examine man in
his
relations and
host
in
of
would compari
dispel the uncertainty of my arguments and would be son. "Idee de la methode dans la composition d'un OC iv, 434.
and
seen
light
by
livre,"
OC n,
Emile in,
Discourse.
Consider There is
also
Hobbes's Clue
as
account of
his
procedure:
a certain we are
of
Reason,
whose
beginning is
in the
Conduct,
led
'twere
by
the
clearest
dark, but by the benefit of whose light, so that the Principle of Tractafor the
Darknesse,
irradiating
any writer, doth either weakly forsake that Clue, or wilfully cut it asunder, he describes the Footsteps, not of his progresse in Science, but of his wandrings from it. And upon this it was, that when I applyed my Thoughts to the Investigation of Naturall
often therefore as
its doubts. As
Justice, I
was
giving every
one
presently advertised from the very his Owne) that my first enquiry
word was
Justice, (which
to
be, from
proceeded not
did
afterwards
any thing rather his Owne, than another mans. from Nature, but Consent, (for what Nature at first laid forth in common, men distribute into severall Impropriations) I was conducted from thence to another
to what end and
rather upon what
steady Will of it proceeded, that any And when I found that this
signifies a
whence
Inquiry, namely
common,
men
Impulsives,
did
think
man should
have his
Community
Goods,
arise
Contention
whose
dably
which
be greatest, and from that Contention all kinds of Calamities must unavoyensue, which by the instinct of Nature, every man is taught to shun. Having therefore
at
thus arrived
Nature,
from the
concupiseiblc
part,
a
desires to
all others
have
a
joynt
interest,
naturall
from
every
man
to
fly
contre-
Dissolution,
seem
that can
arrive
to
laid down, I
work of
by
a most evident
Contracts,
both
of
the contrast
between the
analytic and
Kennington, "Analytic and Synthetic Methods in Spinoza's Spinoza. Studies in philosophy and the history of philosophy Vol.
.
Ethics,"
in The
Philosophy
ed.
of Baruch
7, R. Kennington
293-318.
(Washing
University
of the
of
pp.
Part I
etat
Discourse, Rousseau
(p.
p.
speaks of
having dug
if it
le
p.
veritable
de
nature
wahrhaftc
spoke of
Naturzustand
the true
(Meier,
wahre
161
); but in his
of nature,
note
an
80,
166, he
"quotes"
der
state
expression which
Rousseau
nowhere uses;
215 and,
read
cit., p.
344,
note ad
n[4]; also,
p.
29 line 7,
and
p.
130
for
"true"
"genuine."
Admittedly
it is difficult to translate
veritable
consistently; and in
least
some cases,
Rousseau may have chosen it in preference to vrai for reasons of euphony. However, that cannot have been his reason for choosing to speak about la veritable jeunesse du Monde, "the genuine
the (p. 177), which, as Meier notes (p. 194. note 240) directly alludes to Lucre tius, but which, it must be added, does so by taking issue with him. It would seem that, at least in the Second Discourse, Rousseau uses veritable to indicate a contrast with the broad of an
youth of
World"
tendency
unlimitedly
prove
(p.
149):
animals,
animals.
or
what
in hindsight
will
2.1
Rousseau
"natural"
sometimes speaks of
most
man as
state"
in the less
"animal"
state,
corresponds
or condition.
For the
more or
of
to
Hobbes's
"brutish,"
as
short."23
in: "...
not
the life
brutish,
his
and
It is
primitive
human
state.
particularly
support of
or
in
facts
about animals
us"
putative animal
we
beginnings, but
equal
about
who and
are, as
man"
enlightenment of civil
distance from the stupidity of the brutes (p. 176). Thus the very first time he
of the senses
the fatal
the
mentions
in
savage and
in
Self-preservation
oped
being
faculties
must
almost his only care, his [sc. savage man's] most devel be those that primarily serve in attack and defence By
perfected
only by softness and sensuality must remain in his being in any way delicate; and since his senses differ in this respect, his touch and taste will be extremely crude; his sight, hearing, and smell, most subtle: Such is the animal state in general, and according to reports, it is also the state of most Savage Peoples (p. 147; Meier, p. 96).
a state of coarseness which precludes
Travellers'
In
other
state"
is
or,
more
precisely, is
also
the state
be civilized, certainly do have lan they may guage, arts and artifacts, and mceurs, morals or customs. The hierarchy or acuity of their senses may point to the condition of the lower However, their moral life places them at a considerable remove from it.
of peoples
not
animals.24
The "animal
alternative account:
state"
would,
his is the
and of
then,
the
appear
to
be
de
coextensive with
the "state of
account of
veritable etat
nature
in
contrast
consults, of
Hobbes,
his
fallacies
which
predecessors
too, the
be
see
jeunesse du
monde
is the second,
animals which
first
stage
in the
history
22.
say On "general
are
beasts, may
and
op.
perhaps
(p.
215).
and
causes"
"principles,"
Dis
courses,
Replies, Languages,
op.
cit.,
Index;
cp.
OC m,
604
and
methode,"
cit., OC 11,
1246.
The
relation of
fact
and principle
in the Discourse is
important study Anthropologic et politique: Les principes du systeme de Rousseau. Unfortunately his account of that relation is, in the final analysis, incoherent because he too fails to observe the distinction between the state of nature broadly speaking, and the
theme of Victor Goldschmidt's
pure state of nature; see n.
19
above.
23.
Leviathan,
live
ch.
13,
op.
cit., p.
62;
also
"For the
"
savage people
government of small at
Families,
the
dependeth
on naturall
p.
all;
and
at this
day
in this brutish
idem,
63.
CEuvres
philosophiques,
J.
between the acuity of man's senses and the animaux (1753) (Discourse on the Nature of Animals), in Piveteau ed. (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1954), pp.
comparison
325b36-326bi8.
40
Interpretation
At times Rousseau
extrapolates
nature."
from this
state
to the conjectural
"pure"
state of nature:
Savage Man
sense will
will
then begin
with
which
he
purely animal functions: (X) to perceive and to will have in common with all animals. To
will
be the first
only
opera
tions of
his
the
only
evils
he fears
what
hunger;
the
know
it is
to
die,
and
I say pain, and not death; for knowledge of death and of its
an
terrors was
one of man's
first
acquisitions on
animal condi
Meier,
pp.
104, 106).
animals'
Regardless,
is to be
animals are edition
ignorance
of
death
reconciled with
Rousseau's
ignorant
of
it is,
as
pity (pp. i6of.), the claim that Starobinski rightly reminds us in his Pleiade
account of who are or are presumed
note,
a commonplace. of
Human beings
to
death may be said to be in the animal state. That is why Fontenelle had but lately spoken in these terms of a boy born deaf-mute. be ignorant
He did
animal
not
really know
what
death is,
and
he
it. He led
purely
life, entirely
absorbed
by
objects,
and
by
the
few
ideas he
"Animal"
here
refers
to the
condition of a
human being,
or,
more
albeit
to that
of a
human
being
limited
precisely,
undeveloped
precisely because, as Fontenelle points out, he lacks language. But as Fontenelle goes on to report, before long the boy in question gained hearing, and as soon as he did, he learned language and achieved full human status.
Both Condillac
which
and
Buffon had
well.
quoted and
discussed this
speaks of
report
in
contexts
Rousseau knew
Indeed Condillac
which
it in
Rousseau
raises
in the immediate
to
the remark about death in the animal and the human condition: the confirmation
by
fact.25
comparisons
between
does
animal and
with
human behavior
(pp.
at
its
in
the
primitive, Rousseau
as when
invariably
so
qualifications
i6of.,
so
173); or,
order
he
compares
animal not
and
to underscore the
differences,
the similarities
between
man and
below;
165L;
cp.
153
as
Formally long as
25.
speaking,
man
may be said to be in the animal state or condition he remains under the sway of exclusively
ed.
(Paris:
Maspero,
1971),
pp.
I99f.;
Condillac. Essai
humaines Part I, section 4, chapter 2, 13. 26. In contrast, for example, to Plato, Laws vm, 836c; a passage cited by Pufendorf in connec tion with his assertion that conclusions about human conduct based on animal behavior persuade i i.f. only the vulgar: Droit, op. cit. 11, 3,
sur
I'origine des
Roussseau
"physical"
41
impulsions, that is to ssy subject to the lsw of nature or of the (pp. 132L, 175L, 184L); he may be said to have left the animal state insofar as he acts in terms of relations and constraints within the
stronger
"moral"
context of
society
and
in
particular of civil
civil-ized.27
society, in
other words
insofar
as
he
becomes
"sociable"
and
Certainly
permits us
man
nothing Rousseau
speechless,
as
in the
man
in the
state of
nature,
isolated,
in the
animal
any kind, is
man called
fact "given
real."
He
beyond positing
and
discussing
be hypothesis
"pure"
either
state of
state"
nature, or in what
"pure
"the
animality"
state of
might an
the
or a
conjecture.28
2.2
In
Note
on
which
many
readers
seau, reflecting
the "varieties
which a
indeed have
produced
in the human
[or
species,"
is led to
wonder whether
like]
men
[semblabes
aux
hommes]
which
travel
lers have
for Beasts,
either
because
of some
differences they noticed in their outward conformation, or merely because these Animals did not speak, might not indeed be genuine Savage men [de veritables hommes Sauvages]
occasion to and was still whose
woods
in
ancient
no
develop
in the
its
virtual
faculties,
had
any degree
2i4f.).29
of perfection,
primitive state of
Nature (Note X,
The
these
Rousseau
goes on
to
quote at some
27.
length,
([qui]
ont une
ressem-
This
man
from the state of nature to the civil state produces a very remarkable change in substituting justice for instinct in his conduct, and by endowing his actions with the morality which they previously lacked. It is only when the voice of duty succeeds physical impulsion and right succeeds appetite that man, who until then had looked only after himself,
passage
by
sees that
he is forced to
act on other
state
principles,
and
listening
to his
he deprives himself
many
advantages
he holds from
he
did
not often
he emerged, he
lessly
ms.,
28.
bless the
happy
moment
limited
animal made an
intelligent
being
and a
from it forever, and out of a stupid and man. Of the Social Contract, I, 8; cp. Geneva
OC m,
p. 292.
Writing
and
to the
describes
man as
says that
or
on
Inequality
he
"stupid"
"dumb,"
as some commentators
erroneously
also
Essay
on the
compare with
tendentiously have it, "a beast": A Christophe de Beaumont, OC iv, 936; consider Origin of Languages, (Discourses, Replies, Languages, op. cit.. p. 268n) and Discourse on Inequality, Note X (ibid., p. 217). Meier, incidentally, very correctly
fact that Rousseau
which
never refers
to man
as a
beast.
Rousseau
appended with
will, then,
begin
purely
functions.
42
Interpretation
exacte avec
blance
I'homme) walking
similar
ing
around
fires, building
so
themselves to
man
shelters,
and
African
"orangs"
(si semblable[s]
them
but
not
the
natives
thought
offsprings
humans
and
of stories
and of
Merolla's
which
women,
Purchas,
which
many others,
read
says must
be the
Ancients'
The
picture
labelled
"Orang
Rousseau
"anthropomorphic"
looking
reflecting look
on such
accompanying these reports in the them, depicts a strikingly humanbeing. It is not difficult to see how Rousseau, have been led to
conjecture
Outan"
reports,
might
that
they
are
really
reports of encounters
between
members of
they
in
especially in the
most part might
eyes of
depends,
to
have
gone on
frappantes
reluctant
discreetly,
the commentators
help
suspect, tongue in
cheek
belong
the "crudest
performed
observers"
by innocently
In
question
order
simple
experiment
which, as he adds,
could
be
only if its
to
outcome were
such
outset.
mind
understand
that the
of
(singes)
might
be lost tribes
primitive men
it
means
simply did not mean for Rousseau and his contemporaries what for us. There is no plain French or German equivalent for the distinc
"monkey"
"ape"
tion between
out,30
and
pointed
and as
Meier know
reminds
fewer did
apes and
knew less
about
of a modem zoo.
travellers'
They
not even
to challenge the
reports of
orangs
in Africa.
orang-outan
They did, however, know, and Rousseau specifically men is Malay for man of the woods (p. 216): and he cer
sylvestris
tainly knew
that
homo
is how Lucretius
referred
to "the first
men."31
when
he
understood to
whether certain
closely
not
resembling
"men
Rousseau's
and
Linnaeus's
woods"
and called
the
by
not seem
might
to be such
tion. Nor
30. 31.
does it
seem
particularly bold to
go on
sugges
context
Tinland, L'homme sauvage (Paris: Payot, 1968), pp. 94-97. On the Nature of Things, C. Bailey ed., e.g. V, 967, 970.
F.
Roussseau
whether other might not
43
said
enjokos, and
be
particularly
or,
more
bold to
wonder whether
"monkeys"
animals apes
were stupid.
precisely,
quite
because they
point
After all, he
rightly
bright
that
most of
larly
trustworthy.
alone
Rousseau's
is
not
"really"
apes, let
that
"descended"
they
are are
traders, adventurers,
might well mistake
and
missionaries
likely
unfamiliar-looking-and-acting
as
kind
Purchas,
"satyrs"
anthologies of
reports,
calls
Merolla,
ssid
firsthand,
were
"Ssvsge
women"
men
and
concern what
as
whole, is
not
with
beasts or, for that matter, with "celestial differentiates them from beasts snd celestisl intelligences, variety
or of
intelligences,"
the full
range snd
humankind;
and
it is
apes,
later
addition
to
men"
(p. 218;
cp. p.
213,
central this concern with the full range and variety of is to the Discourse, and he very correctly points out that Rousseau deliberately excludes from consideration questions about evolution or transmankind
particularly likely to raise. Yet his his readers to raise these very repeatedly questions. In particular, he maintains that Rousseau's readiness to envisage the possibility that some of the beings which crude observers call apes or satyrs may be human beings marks the culminating point of the Discourse, and that
which
formism
contemporary
readers
are
prompt
the
proves
the Discourse's
radical
scientifically
serious
character."32
order on the
man's
text,
by
point"
"starting
reading it as asserting that it is "a fact given as is the state of animality (note 211, pp. 168L),
or or even that
that
and as
culminating in the conjecture that orangs, ing point, Meier invites the transformist
32.
reading
as much
of
the
so
too,
and
he indicated
by
placing
these reflections
paragraph of
which
he
appended
his
middle
philosophical
Note (Meier, op. cit., note 409). He gives no other evidence of his claim highpoint of the Discourse. Yet in the very same passage in which he
importance
of the message
in the
middle
paragraph,
he
acknowledges
that Rousseau
had
restates
well as
clearly in the very first paragraph of his Note. The fact that he it in the middle paragraph would therefore seem to be a case of order arising by chance; as to confirm Montaigne's warning in the title of the middle essay of the Essays.
fully
and
44
Interpretation
which
Discourse
excluded
elsewhere
from
consideration s
and
94)."
rightly
says
Rousseau had
Certainly
appears
Rousseau
what
conjecture, if that is
not
that troops of
might
to be more
of
Part I
the Discourse
where,
speaking
about
sufficient says
individuals in
a world
in
which everyone
self-
have
trast, he is evidently
eternally dormant (p. 168, Meier p. 166). In Note X, by con prepared to envisage the bolder and more puzzling possi
and man's
other
bility
that
"perfectibility"
potential
faculties
In
might
remain
dormant
even
in individuals
and groups
in
possessing lan
part the conjec
guage, arts,
and an at
least rudimentary,
"nascent"
because,
to repeat,
we read
it
as
if it
were
orangs, chimpanzees,
what
and
whereas about
he did know
and
was
how little he
and
his
contemporaries
knew
these
on
beings,
musing
33.
this subject
he repeatedly stresses that the reports which set him to are apt to be misdescriptions of human beings who are
contrast
his
conjectures with
Kant's:
crying,
since
What
the
be
nature's aim
in
letting
children come
into the
in
bare
state of nature
[im
rohen
Naturzustande]
pig attracted birth. Indeed,
to the
utmost
mother
danger? For
a wolf or even a
by
that
cry
could
devour the
child
if the
is away
or exhausted
by
the
no animal other
is),
would
loudly
announce
its
existence at
birth,
which seems
by
the wisdom
preserving their
species.
assumed
that in the
epoch of nature the children of this class of animals were not noisy;
being
noisy
made
its
appearance
culture
attained the
[level of]
when
parents
without our
knowing
brought
development. This
observation
be followed
by
third,
when an
orang
fashion the
organs used
understanding,
Part II,
1974),
section
p.
E,
note.
and speaking, into a human frame containing an organ for the gradually develop itself through social culture. Anthropologic Cassirer ed., vm, p. 222; M. McGregor tr. (The Hague: Nijhoff, and
188.
Quite
calls the
aside
Kant
projects
into he
is
he clearly thinks
occurred
in the Kant's
past,
he here
bare
state of nature
categorically
and as a
fact
given as real;
Rousseau
way
about what
he
nature; and
frankly
transformist
without parallel
"still"
at
possible
hint
of
the word
The
changes which a long practice of walking on two feet may have produced in man's struc ture, the similarities that can still be observed between his arms and the forelegs of Quadrupeds, and the inference drawn from the way they walk, may have given rise to some doubt which way of walking must have been most natural to us (p. 201).
However,
man.
of
the
upright posture
has
always
been
natural
to
Roussseau
45
pygmies must
have
He is
268*).
they
cannot maintain a
cp.
The fact that they do not speak may no more prove that they lack language, than the fact that children crawl on all fours or that feral men run about on their
hands
and
feet
proves
that
man
is
quadruped
(pp.
218, 216;
201-203).
Rousseau's
conjecture
in this Note is
apt
humankind
as one.
Yet insofar
human origins, they point in the direction of the polygenist the transformist hypothesis. Rousseau had introduced the conjec
with the reflection that both ancient snd modern reports very indicate that prior to conquests, migrations, and commerce, when clesrly peoples lived more isolated, they differed in appearance, size, shape, bearing,
tures
in this Note
and ways
far
more
than
they do
now
(pp.
2i4f.).34
When,
after
these reflec
said were remark
tions, he
beasts
the beings
which
travellers have
might not
be
"dispersed"
savage men
anciently
the remark
has to be
read
in
conjunction with
in the
Essay
on
the
Origin of
Languages:
I
'first'
call
dispersion,
and the
indication,
In
two pages
below,
is
post-Noahdic
(pp.
the the
262L,
264).
other words,
he indicates that he is in
effect
Bible's ten
antediluvian
generations; hence he is in
effect also
bracketing bracketing
was
Bible's
Rousseau
certainly
The
conjecture
p.
830, Bloom
p.
cit., p.
35.
In
228) he
refers
(1647) by
people
the most
naming the
early polygenist, Isaac de la Peyrere, its author. La Peyrere and Grotius engaged in
when
he prudently
avoids
the
inhabiting
America
were native
or Norwegians, or Ice who had migrated. Grotius argued that they were Greenlanders landers: De Origine Gentium Americanorum (1642). La Peyrere argued that they were not, and
landers
could not
be
(Relation,
where
op.
cit., pp.
of
from the
no
Relation
than to
recalls that
debate. It tells
Greenlanders
so
and
Icelanders
who
farther
died
Denmark,
they became
homesick that
some
died
of
it outright,
while others
trying
would
moral of
homeland
the
certainly not have settled in faraway America. One issue in the debate was Americans were descended from Adam, or not. Grotius held that to deny that they
undermine religion.
whether
were was
to
La Peyrere
op.
was on record
denying
Systeme,
to Jan de
might
op. cit.,
to the
Discourse, Rousseau
with
by
name
Laet,
was engaged
in
a polemic
Grotius
how America
(Dis
course,
11, 2,
Replies, Languages, p. I47n). Regarding the polygenist thesis, see also Pufendorf, Droit, 7, 8. Buffon, after reviewing the arguments for and against America's having been settled
from Greenland
or across
by
migrations
the
Bering Strait,
concludes with
46
might
Interpretation
be lost tribes
of primitive men
and
is
perhaps
context
of the polygenist
hypothesis
Be that
may be
different
The
and
subspecies.
as
it
question
whether
orangs, pongos,
fauns
regardless of
how
for
might
be
answered gives no
by
being. Rousseau
experiment
might might
mating one of them with an acknowledged human indication of what he expects the outcome of such an
open
be men, he is
not
they
"the why
be. He
says
observers."
crudest
Since throughout
this
long
Note he
explains
he thinks that
most
when
they say
ing
his
reader
even men of
the meanest capacity that very Calibans may be human beings. that he
points and expects
But it is
reasonable observers.
not
As he
be known for
at
least one,
to be seen
possibly
nature, a
not
for
For it
whether
there is
an
is one,
it is
"monster"
a mere sport of
in the language
us suppose
of this
Note,
or whether
it
can
have
offsprings of
its
own.
Let
that
it
can
have them, and so proves to be a member of the That would be the only fact which the experiment can possibly establish. It certainly cannot trans form the conjectures about the pure state of nature into fact, any more than it
species.36
can
might
be
lost tribes
centuries on end
in herds
who
populations,
2.2.1
without
developing
Once
we enter
any of their virtual faculties. into the spirit of such conjectures, we have to
should prove
allow
that if the
"animal"
issue
of the
experiment
to
be
parent
may
well
be
descendent
of outcasts
from human
ties
forgot language
they may
same as our
that, "even
146
independently
a
of
the theological
p.
reasons,"
the
Americans'
origin
cp.
"is the
own."
Del homme, M.
Ducheted.,
and
311,
cp. pp.
309-21;
(i.p.). For
detailed
'
par ordre
Journal d'un voyage fait Paris: Nyon Fils, 1744, Vol. I, pp. 1-43; the most authoritative current account of these debates is Guilliano Glozzi, Adamo e il nuovo mondo. La nascita antropologia comme ideologia coloniale: dalle genealogie bibliche alle teorie
de Charlevoix, "Dissertation
preliminaire sur
I'Origine des
Ameriquains,"
du
septentrionnale ,
dell'
razziali
36.
"A
(1500-1700), Florence, La Nuova Italia, 1977. species [is] nothing but a constant succession
and
of
individuals
references
[semblables]
Donkey,"
together reproduce
"
Buffon, Histoire
naturelle. Vol. IV
(1753),
"The
in CEuvres philosophiques,
see e.g.
op.
cit., p. 356352-54.
For full
to the relevant
learned literature,
Meier,
nn. 406L
Roussseau
have for
47
of potential
possessed,37
than the
descendant
human beings
living
any
more
countless centuries
together
kind. Its
primitive
being
human
being
or arts of
into
stage would
certainly be
Rousseau
means
by
"perfectibility."38
It would, incidentally,
be
natives'
consonant with
the
story that apes remain silent out of Rousseau invites such speculations when, in order to underscore how unreliable he thinks the travellers are who report that orangs and pongos are
prudence.39
would
feral
child who
and
"gave
no sign of sounds
reason,
walked on
same
feets,
had
no
218).
language, Still, it is
lesser
the
(p. way resembling those of a most unlikely that he thought of entire bands or troops of pongos as human beings who had relapsed from a state of greater to
no
"perfection."
formed
in
man"
However, he does,
rejected
on
one
occasion,
appear
to
consider
total loss
by
all
men of all
human
acquisitions.
readers
He had apparently
this possibility
just before
inviting
his
requires us
deny
facts aside, on the grounds that the biblical it.40 Yet in the Essay on the Origin of Languages
living
on
account
which
37.
"Isolated individuals
own
lan
guage."
Discourses, Replies, Languages, p. 264. "At his first coming on board with us, he had so much forgot his Language for want of Use, that we could scarce understand him Woode Rogers, reporting the rescue of Alexander Selkirk who had lived abandoned on Juan Fernandez
"
Island for nearly four and a half years, ed., Robinson Crusoe, op. cit., p. 306.
38.
and whose
story
served as
Why
is
man alone
liable to become
the
an
imbecile? Is it
not
that
he thus
returns
to his
primitive
that,
whereas
Beast,
which
has
acquired
nothing
other
and also
ity
pp.
had
keeps its instinct, man, losing through old age or made him acquire, thus relapses (retombe) lower
has nothing to lose, accidents all that his perfectibil Beast itself? (p. 149, Meier
than the
102-104);
cp. also
Diderot's
reference
to
"
be lower than
39.
a number of animals
in the
passage quoted
in
note 10 above.
Patas
by
they
into
are
to
fear
of
being
slavery."
Histoire
generate
(Paris:
Didot,
1746), Vol.
II,
p.
521;
see also
Bk. IX,
ch. vm
(Vol.
IV,
Yesterday
not wish spoken.
I had
a visit
seeing that I
went
spoke
to speak to
rather
me
in English,
expedient:
so that
the interview
to
by
with
hardly
a word
being
my neighbours, if I have any, and even if I should learn English I will never speak anything but French to them, especially if it is my good fortune that they know not a word of it. That is more or less the ruse of the monkeys
like this
will resort
it
with all
that
they
might
be
made
to
work
(Rousseau to
they are capable of doing so, for fear Hume, 29 March 1766, Correspondence
XXIX,
p.
66).
if the Writings
of
Moses
them
opher,
were ever
48
Interpretation
during
his lifetime
of
reserva
tions, into
and refers
to the dispersion
condition.41
Noah's descendants
"relapse"
just
the
primitive
That
is
transparent
unless
to
some
altogether
extraordinary Occurrence relapsed into it; a Paradox impossible to prove (p. 1 39 Meier p. 70).
not
mosl
embarrassing
They
presumably
be in the
on
now
Flood, because of God's inhabitants (Genesis 8:20, 9:9-19), and drew between man and beast (Genesis 9:2-4); it would
pure state of nature after the
state prove that
manifestly be a paradox to have men relapse (retomber) into a been in; but if they were in that state, it would be impossible to
from
some other
state,
and
in
particular
from
a state of grace.
Adam spoke; Noah spoke; granted. Adam had been taught by God himself. When they sep arated, the children of Noah gave up agriculture, and the common language perished together
with
would on
have happened
even
if there had
never
been
tower of
babel.
living
own
languages.
several generations
rarely
preserve
their original
language,
the
even when
they
work
desert
(retomberent) into
dull
have been in if they had been bom of the earth. By following [the thread of] these entirely natural ideas the authority of Scripture can easily be reconciled with ancient records, and there is no need to treat as fables traditions that are as old as the people that have
would
barbarism they
handed
20,
and
them
down to
us.
p.
264;
cp.
I9:3if.)
with
"Although it is known
a
very
particular effect of
certainty that the first men early learned the most necessary arts by Divine Providence Mankind would not have escaped being rather
miserable, if Civil
the mention of the natural!, adds the
Society
had
not
been instituted
arts,"
"necessary
", Pufendorf, Droit, op. cit. 11, 2 ii. After Barbeyrac, drawing on Pufendorf 's treatise De statu hominum
.
following
to
pertinent note:
That
wife
would appear
be the
case
from
what
did
the
Lord God
make coats
of skins
and clothed
is said, (Gen. 3:21) that Unto Adam and also to his them; that is to say, in the manner of the
Hebrews,
efforts,
that he taught them to make coats. For how could these first men otherwise
in
so
short a time
of such an
invention
and mastered it
by
their own
lacking
they did
one
all metal
tools,
and
before the
practice of
killing
animals
had been
From this
things that
were no
less
needful
or
God
having
expressly
commanded our
must at
first
parents
their bread
in the
season
ered
sweat of their
brow, he
the same time have taught them the nature of grain, the
bread,
all of which
they
could
have discov
the
by
According
Agriculture
to
History,
Ancient inhabitants
by
I know
of
for
long
time lived
was restored
among them. Yet the first child of Adam tilled the earth, from which it appears that this Art was As for Fire, the ancient already well known and hence that iron was also already in use. Greeks regarded its invention as so remarkable that they imagined a Prometheus to bring it down from Heaven. It is said about the inhabitants of the Canary Islands, of the Phillipines.
and of
Spaniards;
and
Jardenas, that they had no knowledge of Fire at all before they had remained thus ignorant for perhaps several centuries
49
must not
The
question of whether
of
Noah's descendants
and
arts
"relapse"
have
some
memory
their
former language
their
therefore does
is
such a transparent
feint, it is
stste of
relspse not
into
"pure"
into
living
in
fsmilies,
or
and
languages"
from
the first (pp. 260, 272). At the same time, since this lapse
or relapse presum
all mankind
begin
begin
anew
same primitive
state, it
"pure"
how troops
in
presumably
"perfected"
centuries on end
in
contact with
human beings
of their open
acquired language or developed any That may well be the reason why Rousseau leaves the possibility that his experiment will not prove orangs to be humans in
have
"virtual
But let
us
set
all
such
speculations
prove
aside,
to
and
assume
that after
necessarily
strictly
words,
prolonged
inquiries, they do
biological, and only in the strictly biological they do, indeed, prove to be human beings prior
"virtual
arts and
faculties,"
in
other of
development
and of
any
of their
prior
to the acquisition
of
language,
leave
any
other
skills,
would still
unanswered
the question which Rousseau had challenged the Aristotles and Plinys of the
age
would
be necessary in
order to come
to
know
within
man; and
by
what
means can
society?"
(p.
130).
remove
both
parents and
For the mating experiment would offspring from the "pure state of
recover
immediately
and plunge
nature"
together without
their mind to
it
or
See
Georg
Hornius
[1620-
1670], De
Americanfis] Book I,
for
a
8,
and
long
time
did
not
know the
use of
Book II, Chapter 9. There have also been nations which Iron although iron mines existed in their own country. It
and other
Life. So that if
long
afterwards
lost,
found among whom the use of some to the fact that an arid land fell to their lot; or to the
were
Peoples
fact that
troop
of
people,
having
been forced
by
the
violence of a
few
they
could not
deprived
of all the
implements they had been accustomed having gone to settle in some remote country
or
utterly desert land, found themselves to use in the place they left; or to the
neglected
to take their
imple
them;
by
some accident
lost them
on
difficult to
because frequent
make
had
not yet
been
established.
However,
oyster
less
well-suited or
up for this loss by using as best they could other to the purposes of Life. Thus several peoples of America
and similar things
use
teeth, reeds,
instead
of
was
common; again
Pufendorf, Droit,
section
11, 2,
of
iv; Condillac, in
with a
a context
to
refers
I'origine des
connaissances
I, Introduction,
to
Bishop
points out
50
Interpretation
highly developed,
enable us
culture.43
It
would
therefore not
"to know
natural
and
it
would
leave
as
how
in fact have
emerged
from
the
state of
in fact have
originated
come and
how language
naturally, in
man's
and
relations
might
have
short what
is
or was the
"genealogy"
of
the human
heart,44
humanity. Yet
is
supposed
to
resolve
necessarily
remain
they
3
were
conjectures. understands
The test
how Rousseau
of
the
be
sought
in his discussion
the
origin of
language,
the
and
hence
of
the origins of
problem of
"moral"
in
particular of
"moral"
and
that of
or
relations are
language?"
inseparable,
and
the
"which is
of the
2.3.1
body
that
of
the
as
follows:
neces
The first
sary;
difficulty
arises
have become
necessity
possibility
of
this invention if it
after
the
in
the condition
they
would
every
progress of
removes
it in
even
primitive
state,
the more new knowledge we accumulate, the more we deprive ourselves of the means of
most made
important knowledge
of
all, and
sense,
it is
by
dint
of
studying
man
it impossible for
original
us
disentangle
curately
will
what
is
from
what
is
artificial
in
man's present
Nature,
and
to know
ac
a state which no
longer exists, which perhaps never did exist, which probably never which it is nevertheless necessary to have exact Notions in order ac
Whoever
might undertake
curately to judge
might of
tions required to make solid observations on this subject would need even more
Philosophy
than
be thought; and a good solution of the following Problem does not seem to me unworthy the Aristotles and the Plinys of our century: What experiments would be needed in order to know
natural
come to
society?
man: and
by
be
performed within
Far from undertaking to solve this Problem, I believe that I have meditated upon the Subject sufficiently to dare answer in advance that the greatest Philosophers will not be too good to direct these experiments, nor the most powerful sovereigns to perform them; a collabo
it is scarcely
reasonable
ration which
rather
with
the sustained or
by
both
parties
in
order to succeed
(pp.
44. 45.
130L).
A Christophe de Beaumont, OC, iv, 936. "The first difficulty that arises is to imagine how languages
could
for,
men
having
"
any
it,
which was
already
united of
Languages,
or
lishment
Society?"
51
I would be ready to say, as many others do, that Languages arose in the domestic dealings between Fathers, Mothers and Children: but not only would this fail to meet the objections, it would be to commit the of those who, in fallacy
reasoning
about
Society,
members
family
in
dwelling
and
its
intimate
they do
many common interests unite them; whereas in this primitive state, without Houses or Huts or property of any kind, everyone bedded down at random and often for only a single night; males and females united fortuitously, among us,
where so
according to
chance
encounters, opportunity,
and
desire,
without speech
being
an
especially necessary interpreter of what they had to tell one another; they parted just as readily (XII). The mother at first nursed her Children because of her own need; then, habit having made them dear to her, she nourished them because of theirs; as
soon as
they had
the strength to
forage
on their own,
they left
even
the Mother
(P-
153)-
In
other no
on
have
of
"physical"
biological
The
need
to live together or to
does
not require
of
no more needs
than he needs
provide
hers. In particular,
offsprings
which
is
by
nature
both inclined
and able
for her
entirely
her
own.46
In the Note
he
appends
to this passage,
He
criticizes
that the
by
nature
her
offsprings
of a
favor
In
her own, and for therefore apparently arguing in entirely basis to "conjugal (pp. 221-25). More precisely:
society"
several
explores the
possibility that
ana
tomically,
expect
and effort
or
humans
are
herbivores. It
to
"conjugal
among herbivores because they require more time than do carnivores to forage and to feed their offsprings; and hence to
society"
"physical"
expect a offsprings.
basis for
having
both
parents contribute
to the care
of
their the
Yet,
once
"physical"
man and
other animals
leads Rousseau to
even
difference,
nsture
not
ties
between them:
if humans
"physical"
society"
be herbivores, there is no by them. For the upright posture among to carry her child with her as she moves
Languages,
46.
See
also the
"Letter to
"
Philopolis,"
in Discourses, Replies,
with
and
op.
cit., p.
237; Rousseau's
authority,
reflection on
this subject
original
are continuous
Hobbes's
which conclude:
Dominion
"
over children
belly."
among
men no
less than
other creatures:
rizing
either
De Cive, ix, 3; after summa the purely Natural State (I'Etat purement Droit vi, 2, ii. Sovereign, or Family
"
.
Choderlos de Laclos
elaborates
Rousseau's
reflections
on
the
self-sufficiency
of mothers
in De
11. 3.
52
about
Interpretation
for food
more
do
so
by
herself
alone sees
because
she
bears
it,
the point at
rarely issue
between himself
Locke
can
therefore be to be
reduced
to the question:
how
frequently
nature?
likely
with child
in the
"pure"
state of
good
deal
of
uncertainty
fact
which serves as
the
basis for
Mr. Locke's
pure state of new
entire argument:
For in
order to
know whether,
as
he claims, in the
a
Nature the
birth
long
woman is commonly with child again and brings forth too before the former is able to shift for himself, would require experi not
performed,
is in
a position
to
The
continual cohabitation of
Husband
and
Wife
provides such
direct
fortuitous
as
rather
alone would
of conjugal
have
produced
.
frequent
223).
"7
in the
pure state of
in that
Society
(p.
Locke
state of
of course
as about
does
not speak
here
or anywhere else
what
about the
"pure is
nature,"
in the
striking "principal
difficult to
most
deny
Locke's
fact."
He is
(p.
believe"
223).
The issue
could
by
however, "no
no one
one
is in
a position
to
perform"
these experiments.
The
reason
why
is in
them is
putative
not
far to
effectively
the
by immediately removing the parties from that plunging them into a state of highly developed, structured social relations and culture. Once again Rousseau very clearly indicates why the pure state of nature cannot be known as a fact given as real. The principal question
pure state of nature
state,
and
most
immediately
has to
that it may
at
issue is
be
whether
by
the time
the
mother
attend not
argues
it
could.
He
assumes
or
or conjectures
dependency
as the
would
be
was
less
deal
with
long-lasting
law
of
Sparta dealt
defective
children
(p.
142).
in the
be
or were
so self-sufficient
that
they
of
and
not
kind
society, is
frankly
conjectural conclusion
based
frankly
conjectural
premises.
Rousseau tacitly
acknowledges as much
in the Emile:
47. A full discussion of Rousseau's criticism of Locke would have to take account, as Meier does (pp. 350-55), of the discrepancies between Mazel's French translation of the text which Rousseau used and Locke's original (Treatises II, 79, 80); and of the context of Locke's re marks; but in addition, it would also have to take into account Locke's remarks in Treatises 54.
I,
and
Essay
1, 3,
9-12.
53
for
such a
long
mother as well as
they
themselves
would
find it difficult to do
without
father's
attachment and
the
due to
them.48
Men
united
and women
under one
roof,
by
"the
cp.
sweetest sentiments
known to
men,"
love
(pp. 173L,
153L).
Such But
highly
the life
structured, sedentary
family
life certainly
is
fact
given as real.
"moral"
reason and
family,
was
like
other
aspects of
of
known to us,
preceded simpler
by
other,
simpler ways.
alternative
to
the
stable,
sufficient,
with
their
kind,
contacts
or
communication
components of
assumes
family,
men
animals"
the
taboos.49
more primitive at
society"
least
one sense of
to
elements.
On the
real,"
the
evidence
indicates that,
with respect
Rousseau
considered the
family
in this broad
sense of
hence
artifice or convention
life,
and
sense of
the term,
"natural."50
2.3.2
By
contrast, the
isolated,
beings
of
Part I
of
perhaps most
accurately
characterized as premises.
On the
premise
to conceive of
how
language
accept
sary.51
could
have
arisen.
difficulty
(p.
154).
arises:
for if Men
more
needed speech
in
order
they
.
needed even
order
to find the
maintain
It
would
to
make
sense
to
that the
"invention"
of
language
requires
48. 49.
thought, for
much
p.
the
same reason
p. 430.
Cp.
Essay
on
the
peoples wander
Origin of Languages in op cit., p. 255. Before the division of land, and disperse in pastures and forests. Marriage will not be as stable among
where
it is fixed
by
can there
as
fore
do."
more
readily
change
indifferently
.
beasts
Languages, op. Montesquieu, Of the Spirit of Laws, xvm, 13. On early incest, Essay on cit. 11, xiii, 5. op. also note ad p. 272 and Suarez, loc; cit., 50. Consider Discourses, Replies, Languages, op. cit., pp. 260, 262L, 271L, Of the Social
Contract
51.
1,2.
reflections
on the origin of
language
"
by imagining
two
infants left
after the
Flood: "As
long
as
He says nothing the next paragraph begins: "Once they lived together separately 1, 2. how that change might have come about. Condillac, Essai. op. cit.. Part II, ch. I,
54
even
Interpretation
the greatest to
minds
scarcely likely which it is capable (pp. 154, 157), makes sense. But upon reflection, the best success in perfecting a language proves to be quite irrelevant to the
succeed
minds'
for
the
centuries
on
end
are
pitch of perfection of
problem.
The best
minds
do their
"inside"
work
within
the context of an
language; they
problem,
"outside'
work
from
language,
for the
so
to
speak.
by
contrast,
is to
"invention"
account
of
fully According
assumption
can not
be resolved,
that
Rousseau
view,
the
view
suggests
itself
on
the
ideas"
of at
the
"way
at
which
Rousseau here
initially
accepts,
language is
object
154).52
least
is
first built up of names for the objects of our ideas: an identified at the same time as it is assigned a name (p.
assign
On this
names
it is impossible to
names
or
to account
for
assigning
to "ideas which
have
by
gesture or
by
(p.
154).
Such
objects could
be publicly singled out and identified only if they already had a name or if they could be described. On either assumption, the institution of language presup
poses
the existence
was
of
language. This
circle cannot
be broken
contract.
language
instituted
by
common consent or
by
by
communal.
of
But any
establish
account of
or,
other practice or
institution
of contract
indeed, is,
the
beginnings
establish
discourse
and
understanding where,
a
hypothesi,
none existed
of such
unanimous some
this
(p. 155); it
presupposes
sssump-
understanding
worth
tion thst
regress
understanding
an
infinite
of such
prior agreements.
It is
stresses
its defects
description
of speech
of
how
or,
more or
precisely,
language
some
presupposes a
which cannot
be derived
deduced from
or
prior,
Nor
can speech
be derived
Its
deduced from
some
hypothetically
"the
almost
only be taken note of. Rousseau therefore speaks of demonstrated impossibility that Languages could have arisen and
become
established
by
purely human
means"
formula
if
by human,
successive
by
divine
of
institution.53
Yet Rousseau
"invention"
recognizes
that
the
failures God
his
efforts
to elaborate a the
prove that
52. 53.
satisfactory of language
2.
language
of
no more or gods
required the
intervention
55
difficulty
of
of
fire
or
the
on
arts proves
Admittedly
all
fours: the
in raising the
language is
not
to
among many
possible arts or
conventions,
condition of the
or empirical as
historical
that
very possibility of art or convention. inquiry at all. The story of the successive
the inevitable failure the
of read as
inquiry
can
if it
efforts,
certainly be
of the
correlative"
"objective
language.54
slow,
arduous
the
mind
and
But
read
as
attempt or
to to
ad
assign an absolute
moral
relations
beginning is inevitably
to
mutual
understanding,
circular,
serves
as
conclusive
reductio
absurdum of
the premise of
wholly isolated,
self-sufficient,
speechless
individ
"fact
real."
given as
3.
of
"the
savages
known to
plausible
us"
as
its
point
departure
itself to the
realm of at men
least
fact,
cannot go nomadic
lived in loose-knit,
families, bands
time, have
or
troops,
and that
and a
few imitative
noises
must, for
long
is,
as
up the
universal
Language, [and]
it, in every
of which
Region,
of a
few
institution
too
made
for
particular
languages,
still
crude,
various
Savage Nations
have
Essay
to
on the
"popular"
contrast
"domestic"
calls
them
in
Beyond this
limit,
cease,
Rousseau
he
the pure
state of
ference between
alone,
and
fact
or
one
which,
like Rousseau's,
seeks
to extrapolate to
causes
principles:
What
we see
is
not the
ideal but is he
a
is the
savage
living
in
as
deserts
a
a placid animal;
happy
in
we will not
assume,
does
Philosopher,
a greater
that there
is
distance between
savage and
ages
that
speech were
far
greater
centuries needed
languages;
set aside
because it
seems
to
me
if
one wants
to
reason about
facts,
one
has to
see
54.
"Regarding
on
human mind,
p. 258n.
of
the Discourse
Inequality."
p.
556n., tr.
Bloom,
56
Interpretation
Nature
almost
places at our
invoking them only after everything that fully exhausted. Now, we find that by an
from the
most enlightened and
imperceptible
polished nations to
but
still
subject to
Kings
and
laws; from
do politically
ordered
peoples; that
form
living
in
a smaller
society,
are subject
among them
nevertheless
only to customs; that, finally, the most solitary and independent form families and are subject to their fathers. An Empire, a
two
extremes of
Monarch, a family, a father, these are the limits of Nature; if they extended farther, traversing
all of voice as well as to
society;
they
have been
of
found, in
deprived
females dispersed, the young abandoned, and so forth? I hold that, short of claiming that the body's constitution was different from what it is today and its maturation much more rapid, it is impossible to maintain that
man can ever
have
existed without
and
forming families,
after
if they
prove
were not
helped
looked
for
several
years;
only for a few months. This physical necessity alone suffices to that the human species could last and multiply only by means of society; that
mothers and
the association of
fathers in tum
with children
is
natural
because it is
necessary.
Now this
union cannot
fail to
lasting
for
attachment
between the
themselves, in
a word since
is
also proven
by fact,
the
solitary savages,
like
all other
is
living
in the desert,
and
living
in
known
by
making himself
Rousseau
about
fully
agrees with
Buffon
about
with
him
how to The
order and
He disagrees
with
him
about
principles.56
3.1
aim
of
or
causes which
in the light is
of which not of a
they
might
be
under
stood. as
In particular, "the
and experiments
nature"
pure state of
kind that is
fact. It is
or can
be
or
fact,
55.
cannot
possibly
confirm
it
as
original
op.
-374355;
Buffon
to these
issues in
lengthy
comparison
in
which
he
attends most
of
infant
dependency
be
singes
(1767)
op.
For
parallel
situation,
consider
also
and
of nature:
Origin of
Languages,"
Discourses, Replies, Languages, op. cit., p. 270 n. 1 together with discussion in V. Gourevitch, "The First in Rousseau's Essay on in Essays for Richard Kennington, Graduate Faculty Philosophy Jour
137L
pp.
57
principles.57
in the
sense of
or
being
a principle or set of
Principles
can
only be
mating
conjectured
thought.
That is
one
reason
why,
after
offering the
goes on to
suggestion
of the crudest
require reports
observers, Rousseau
from
philosophical
200f.),58
travellers,
such
from the
men
Buffon among others (p. 220, cp. Aristotles and Plinys he had called for
in
other words
earlier.
will
When
animal
is
man"
and
"that is
law or,
beast,"
they
have to be right. in
Argu
The Discourse is
study in
natural
more
precisely, in
natural
According
either of
to Grotius's influential
distinction,
of
be
established
in terms
"by
drawn from the very Nature of the or a posteriori in terms of the effects or, as he says, "by Reasons taken from something In other appeal it can be established either an appeal to or an words, principles, by by
ments
external."
to
facts.
The former way of reasoning is more subtle or abstracted; the latter more The Proof of the former is by showing the necessary Fitness or Unfitness
popular. of
any
when
Thing,
be
by
the
latter is,
Certainty,
which
by
the Law of
Nature,
be any
most civilized,
Nations. For,
Sense.59
an
Probability, very is generally believed to be so by all, or at least the universal Effect requires an universal Cause. And
yet with
conclude that to
there cannot
called
well
other
Cause
assigned
for this
general
Opinion,
than what
is
Common
Grotius himself
proceeds a
posteriori,
by
an appeal
to
what
he here
calls
the
by
an appeal
to effects
or
to
Careful
readers will
have been
formula, "[l]et
us
therefore
"
begin
.
by
setting
Rousseau's meaning from the first: the famous (p. 139) echoes the remark, a few
facts."
Edifice setting (p. 134) apparently arbitrary and accidental social relations are found to be intelligible and based on firm foundations. Unfortunately Rousseau's point gets blunted in Meier's translation, which
paragraphs earlier, that after
aside
the
dust
renders
but
pp.
61,
71).
Or like Claude Levi-Strauss, who defines the sciences as the quest for Rousseau's "pure state of
58.
mission of
human
nature:"
Natural
man
is
to recover
his form,
which
is
state,
condition
program of
and
to
ascertain
'by
what means
society.'
But this
model
that
is Rousseau's
solution
is
Tristes Tropiques
(Paris, Plon, 1955), ch. 28 i.f., p. 423; cp. ch. 29 /./. p. 339; tr., J. and D. Weightman (N.Y.: Atheneum, 1974), pp. 392, 316; see, further, Hanns H. Ritter, "Claude Levi-Strauss als Leser in eds. Wolf Lepenies and Hanns H. Ritter, Orte des wilden Denkens (Frankfurt
Rousseaus,"
a/M:
van
Suhrkamp, 1974), pp. 1 13-59; as well as Ton Lemaire, Het Vertoog Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Basisboeken Ambo, 1980), pp. 225-33.
over
de Ongelijkheid
59.
Of the
Right of War
qualification
and
Peace
(1735 tr.),
was added
I, I,
xii.
In the
phrase
"reasonable
and socia
ble
nature,"
"sociable"
the
by
58
Interpretation
facts. Hobbes, in an important passage which directly echoes Grotius's text, flatly denies that there is a common sense or practice of civilized nations, and he accordingly rejects Grotius's a posteriori in favor of the a priori him,61 Rousseau, like Pufendorf and Locke before fully accepts Hobbes's
criticism of
way.60
Grotius's
"analytic"
a posteriori or
procedure, and
of
Grotius from the very first: the epigraph on the title page of the Discourse, "What is natural has to be investigated not in beings that are drawn from Aris depraved, but in those that are good according to
difference
with
nature,"
totle's discussion
of natural
slavery, is cited
accepts
which
by
Grotius in
and
support of
his
own a
posteriori procedure.
Rousseau
conclusion
Aristotle's
turns
it
against
the
"synthetically,"
proceeds a priori or
by
it.62 Accordingly he they draw from Arguments drawn from the very Nature
"
. .
of
the
Thing"
as
of
Grotius
characterizes
Nature
us
things
all
as
he himself
says
he
will
do
immediately
at
inviting
to set aside
and as
he
or
says
"
. .
he did do
of
Meier,
p.
166);
of
Man
in the Preface he
(p. 131),
1).63
says
lish
natural right p.
Part II he
says
he did
proceed
27
Hobbes's
deduction
of natural
60. if any man say, that somewhat is done against the Law of Nature, one proves it hence, because it was done against the generall Agreement of all the most wise, and learned Nations; but this declares not who shall be judge of the wisdom and learning of all Nations Hobbes, De Cive il.i; "But howsoever, an argument for [sic] the Practice of men, that have not sifted to the bottom, and with exact reason weighed the causes, and nature of Commonwealths, and
"
suffer
daily
all
lay
the
foundation
c.
of their
houses
"
on the sand,
be inferred, that
science of
so
it
ought
to
be."
Leviathan
xx
[in fine};
the
causes of
equitable and
inequitable,
be demonstrated
because
table,
we ourselves make
is the
and covenants,
the
equitable and
ix; for a searching discussion see J. B. Schneewind, Synthese, 72 (1987); 123-55, esp. pp. 130-38; at best an Argument from what has been, to what should of right be, has no great force 103. "Where there is no property, there is no injustice, Locke, Treatises of Government, 11, viii,
vii, viii,
of
Ethics,"
History
is
a proposition as certain as any demonstration in Euclid: for the idea of property being a right to any thing; and the idea to which the name injustice is given, being the invasion or violation of that right; it is evident, that these ideas being thus established, and these names annexed to them, can as certainly know this proposition to be true, as that a triangle has three angles equal to two right
ones."
Locke, Essay of Human Understanding iv, 3, 18; cp. 19, 20, and iv, 4. 7, 8, 9. 62. Grotius, Of the Right of War and Peace (1735 English tr.), 1, I, xii; cp. Of the Social Contract, 1,2. Barbeyrac had traced Grotius's a posteriori way to the procedure Aristotle follows
in
moral
criticisms of
note
/'
1.
the
history
of the
sur
histoire du droit
(2 vols., London
55-82.
proceeds synthetically and begins with natural man[,] I proceed Handschriftlicher Nachlass, in Gesammelte analytically and begin with social (gesittet) Schriften (Berlin: Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1912-1923), Vol. XX, p. 14.
noted:
man."
63. As Kant
"Rousseau
Roussseau'
59
attend
Like
his predecessors,
will guard against
Hobbes had
hoc
hoc. Rousseau
doing
so
in his
for the
perceive
meditating on the first and simplest operations of the human Soul, I believe I in it two principles prior to reason It is from the association and combi
. .
making between these two Principles, without its being necessary to introduce into it that of sociability, that all the rules of natural right seem to me to flow (pp. 132L; Meier, p. 56).
capable of
is
In direct
contrast
to
Grotius,
who
had
right
would establish
reasonable
and
Unfitness
of
any Thing,
with a
asserts
that it
must establish
the
fitness
or unfitness of
is
not
reasons
already clearly
sociable.65
stated
by Hobbes,
to
should not
be
assumed to
be
reasonable or
The
I
of
which
he for
all
intents
and purposes of
devotes Part
principles:
his
self-sufficiency
virtue
of
freedom,
of
short
and
hence
and
moral or political
equality,
by
the
balance
needs
powers
and
of
the concert of
and the natural capacity for convention, restoring a balance between in short "perfectibility". More been needs and powers when it has upset, precisely, Part I of the Discourse may be looked upon as Rousseau's statement self-preservation and
pity, in
"natural goodness";
particular
for
artifice and
and
in
of
his
principles
conjectured
and given a
local
habitation
and a name.
These considerations,
which
indicate why,
man without
and
in
what
"moral"
any
easily be expanded, may suffice to pure state of nature, the state of Rousseau's sense, relations, artifice, or convention, is necessarily
could
conjectural.
It is but
that it
one of
the many merits of Meier's edition of the Second Discourse the premises of that
important
and
absorbing text.
Of the
Spirit of Laws, I,
2.
Tocqueville's Perspective
Democracy
in America: In
search of
the "new
science of
Wilhelm Hennis
University'
of Freiburg
In
a well-known
passage.
oc
cidental and an
is
marked
by
clearly datable
beginning
had its
to
a
equally
political thought
definite
no
beginning
in the teachings
Plato Karl
and
came
less definite
end
in the theories
(1805-
Marx."1
be
true. But
in Alexis de Tocqueville
properly be
and senior
by
13
years, we see once more a thinker who has that bold thought shared
can called
by
all who
"political thinkers":
or, in
other
Everything
most
depends
words, the
important
is
Was Tocqueville
political
scientist?
It
seems
which might appear rather superficial and pedantic, opens a path not more
only to
precise
questions
of
Tocqueville, but
also
to the reactivation
of
That Tocqueville
would not
was not a
he
have been
his intentions
work
were
totally
other than
of political
his
belongs to the
history
Frenchman, feel
themselves
which opposes
Democracy
for
monde
in America, Tocqueville
"A
new
political science
politique
is
needed
a
un
a world
itself
new."
quite
("II faut
une science
nouvelle
tout
nouveau.")4
This sentence,
placed
at
1.
2.
and
p.
17.
1094a
important
and
leading
sketched
science);
the
most valuable");
the art of
government).
"Die
Moderne"
Glaubensgeschichte der
succession of
(Zeitschrift fur
pp.
1-15), their
is discern
those sciences in
placed
hopes, from
of
facets in
46
recent
Tocqueville
59-75-
research, see
Robert Nisbet, J. P
"Many
Mayer
ci
Tocquevilles,"
(1976/77),
4.
and
Alexis de
trans.
George Lawrence,
ed.
Max Lemer (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), hereinafter abbreviated tations in parentheses refer either to J. P. Mayer's CEuvres Completes, "edition
Beaumont
edition
as
D.i.A. The
or
definitive"
to the
as
(B). (Users
of
the 1969
that translations
differ,
does
the pagination.)
62
Interpretation
point
dramatic
stood
as
in this
highly
dramatic
introduction,5
can
scarcely be
under
author.
ambition
of
its
highly
ambitious
and
Democracy
in America,
his
I
This is the
question
to answer.
able
To be
to do this,
we
must
first deal
with
concerning Tocqueville's
political no scientific
writings
which
would
distort the
his "new
assuming that it exists. The first is the opinion that there is intent underlying Tocqueville's work; that he is a liberal thinker of the first order, but not a scientist. To so characterize him, however, is to fail to
the peculiarity of his scientific purpose and to thereby misunderstand his continuing, timeless significance. The second view is closely linked to the first. He who sees in Tocqueville the liberal thinker in an age of emerging
recognize
science,"
democracy
times,"
and
understands
on as
America only
as
will
be inclined to
Tocqueville
settled
regard
This
picture of
as
Montesquieu's
to be one of
the most
would
firmly
of
views
in the
research
on
Tocqueville. In contrast, 1
not
supply the
key
to an
to a
understanding failure to
Tocqueville,
his
and
leads
one
understand
modernity.
Tocqueville's
actual
teacher, if
is
to be ascribed to
in the way
his
of an
understanding
of
his,
i.e.,
Tocqueville's
uality
shall
work.
of
individ lies. I
for
establish
systematic treatment of at
science."
of
Tocqueville's "new
political
I
When
pal
work an
undisputedly
obvious
princi
ought to
work
be
and
that the
such a
obvious.6
Is there any
reading behind
Tocqueville's
work?
otherwise
full
of
admiration character.
for
In
Tocqueville's book,
5.
longer
recognize
its
scientific
D.I.A.,
p.
6 (O.C
1, p. 5).
suggestion were
Clarendon,
Gesellschaft. Zur
soziologischen pp.
in The Social and Political Though of Jurgen Feldhoff in Die Politik der ega'litarcn Dcmokratic-Analyse bei A. de Tocqueville (Cologne: Wcst-
Jack
Lively
1962)
and
ii7ff.
Tocqueville'
Perspective
63
years after
Bryce's words,
written
in 1888, fifty-three
the
appearance
of
the
first
volume of
Democracy
remembered
that, in
spite of
science
its
.
scientific
"
.
form, it is really
as a work of again no
And
not so
much a political
edification."7
a man who
devoted his
entire
life to
book book's
Tocqueville,
to a similar
and
conclusion.8
Tocqueville's
explain
on
defects,
Pierson
of
can
only
the the
rank and
by
the personality
one of
its
author and
by
sociologist,
it
results
from
identifying
in
we owe
Tocqueville is
contends
again a
admiration and
for its
object.9
that whoever
literary
a
work
is
on
looks for
intent in Tocqueville's
for his
edge
Frenchman writing for France, for political education and therewith a better future countrymen. He aims for a political effect and is not seeking pure knowl
for knowledge's
and success.
sake.
He is
not
practical political as
utility
such
He
writes neither as
sociologist, but
and
Frenchman
it is
as
that
both he
and
his
work are
to
be
judged.10
For Vossler, the determinative bar to Tocqueville's book on America being to the first volume: "I scientific lies in a sentence in the "Author's
Introduction"
admit that
saw
in America
...
more
than
America; it
shows
was
the shape of
democracy
or
itself
which
sought
so as at
least to know
what we
have to fear
hope
not
therefrom."11
This
sentence
purportedly
first,
that Tocqueville
did
seek
sake of
knowledge,
as
for its
utility,
and
third, that he
pursued this
sake of
a particular
Vossler is concerned,
these inten
tions separately,
from
7.
being
scientific.12
of
Hamilton
Tocqueville,"
and
in Studies in
History
and
University
I,
p. 325.
und
Gleichheit (Frankfurt
a.
M.: Klos
termann,
10.
1973).
pp.
Ibid.,
65, 83.
p.
11.
12.
all"
D.i.A. 1,
12
(O.C. 1, 1
p.
12).
Vossler
never
tires of
testifying
that Tocqueville
is "no
scientific
at
(Vossler,
ously.
pp.
is thus
to be taken seri
64
Interpretation
seeks scientific
must
Now it is certainly true that Tocqueville utility as an intellectual aid to France. But
scientific
this preclude it
from
In
being
field
in
character?
If I
understand
it
for knowledge
no
for the
of
sake of
knowledge
was
until
nineteenth century.
knowledge
the
central
it
its Wertbeziehung. The meaning could be theoretical, practical or technical. The science politique of Tocqueville still stands squarely in the tradi
nology,
tion
of
political
science
as
practical-philosophical
discipline.13
As
with
everyone own
seeks
in this field is
Nor
can
sought not
for its
action.14
ville pursues
his study
democracy in
France
keep
it
from
being
Gerhard
modern
concept
being
defined
by
from the bonds of the practical community surrounding the In the historical-political sciences, too, there has been no shortage
power of
of attempts more
judgment
with
precise,
instruments
Outside
is only
minus
the realm
of quantifiable
magnitudes
(with
which
political
science
have been
demand
upon
he radically
political
abstract
"prejudices"
community has triumphantly prevailed. Oriented to the standard of theoretical science, "It must in Kriiger's words, "in order to know, and not for the purpose of
his
leading
ever,
a social
Tocqueville. But
and
understanding of science is entirely foreign to justify denying him any scientific intention whatso in the manner of Vossler, no longer thereafter, looking for such an
an can
life."16
Such
this
intention in Tocqueville's
works?
Tocqueville
wants
to become acquainted
even or
with
democracy
as to
in America, to
we,"
subject
it to
scientific
of
examination,
know
what
i.e.,
fear
refer
the French to
a
from."
Hope
and
good, to the
in
which
life is
which
not
just any
sort of
is
possible
Only
when such
hope
fear
legitimately
or
enter
into scholarly
of
inquiry
13.
politics,
if
you
lives
are
directed, be appropriately
und praktische
For
Regarding
1977).
Philosophic
2d ed.
(Stuttgart,
14.
not changed
15.
16.
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 109535-6; I I03b27. The purpose of political knowledge is in Machiavelli or Hobbes, either. They only radicalize it. Gerhard Kriiger, Grundfragen der Philosophie (Frankfurt a. M.: Klostermann, 1958). Ibid., p. 183.
Hans Jonas
argues
17.
for
"heuristic
fear"
of
in Das
a.
M.:
Insel,
1979).
Tocqueville'
Perspective
was
Tocqueville this
unscientific
self-evident.
of
an
indication
our
of
the
character
his findings
about
contemporary
Tocqueville.
on
was
Tocqueville's book
it),18
ouvrage
politico-
the
scientific
com
It
was
tiny. In
Tocqueville's terminology,
point of
which
is identical
with
"legislators,"
the
of
France. The
also
that of an
imaginary legislator,
in
search of
the knowledge
he
needs.
science since
one of the classical scholarly approaches to political Plato's Laws. In the United States Tocqueville seeks and finds
we"
lessons "from
derive
spective
which
and
"can
benefit."
To
and was
ask questions
in this
not
merely
an
attempt at popular
education,
which
for the
modem scholar
epitome of an unscientific
design.19
If
one seeks
extent
pre-
the scientific
character of
Tocque
and early history of this, classifying it in the too, conflicts with Tocqueville's own understanding of his work. He spoke only very condescendingly of Saint-Simon and his school and of Comte. And what if not his self-understanding as a political scientist could have prompted
ville's work
by
sociology,20
as an
president
of
the Academie
on
et
important lecture
a certain
"Politics
as
which
in
with
systematic
of the required
science.
will
briefly
with
understanding lec
ture, Tocqueville's only extended statement concerning his idea of political Confronted with the conventional objection that the field of politics
science.2'
unstable which
belongs to the is
art of
statesmanship from
Politics
as a science
grounded
constant:
Politics
as a science
and
"lies
his
interests, his
times but
capacities
instincts,
suit
whose
whose
essence
is unchanging, imperishable
his
itself."
species
This
1
science
teaches "which
laws best
being
of
8. Cf. James T. Schleifer, The Making of University of North Carolina Press, 1980), pp. 83,
19.
Tocqueville'
165.
This
aspect of
Tocqueville's
scientific
perspective
Drescher in Dilemmas of Democracy: Tocqueville Pittsburgh Press, 1968), pp. 23ff. ("He was always
citizens"
and
addressing
p.
25.)
op. cit.
20.
21.
CEuvres Completes (Beaumont edition), ix, pp. 1 1 iff. The most important passages are in the collection edited by Albert Salomon, Alexis de Tocqueville. Autoritat und Freiheit (Zurich:
Rascher,
1935),
pp.
138-52.
66
Interpretation
Tocqueville
"greatness"
continues:
The
(grandeur)
if
of
this
science
prevents
one
were
to observe
"this
significant
it is
com
posed would
the whole.
For
such an
longer
of confusion.
Some,
laws
the natural
of the societal
body
individual exercises,
upon which character
i.e.,
istics
the
laws
which
best
depending
they
they
possessed
from their
acquired.
They
seek
the
are
according to
These
to
the great
mention
authors:
Rousseau,
only
But, he
science
asks
rhetorically, why
demonstrate the
made
existence of political
in
country
the
where
its
has
itself
manifest on
every hand?
You
deny
deeds
of political science!
Look
around yourselves!
Who has
return
the
face
of
to earth,
he he
laws,
customs which
knew
short, who
brought
about
he
once spoke?
In
momentous event
in
history?
Was it the
great
feudal lords?
Nothing
of
the kind!
were
The
who one
great creators of
had
never
in the
slightest
precisely the men of that time degree, in the affairs of state. Every
new seeds
knows
that political writers, political science and often even the most abstract
in the
fathers the
from
which
suddenly
many
political
institutions
to their
forefathers.
Among
birth to the
general
ideas,
or at
arise
the events in
whose midst
the
laws
which
they
think
they
are
inventing.
The barbar
ians
are
the
only
ones
in
of of
determining
a
its field
only practice. Our Academy, preparing a place for this useful and fruitful science and activity. This is its honor, but also a danger.
It is
the condition of
danger for the very reason that this science could only prosper under freedom. Tocqueville's speech is a subtle treatment of the
decline
of
freedom
one
under the
dictatorship
of
Louis Napoleon.
ahead of myself)
Now if
tal axiom of
that
fundamen
only derivative
people,
which
symptomatic,
except
was "that everything in politics is for the ideas and feelings of the
else,"22
embody the causes of everything know that Tocqueville was equally convinced "that
22.
and
if
one
docs
not
Letter
of
October
26.
1853, in
Salomon,
op. cit., p.
Tocqueville'
Perspective
67
are
laws, but
and
habits
of the
from the very beginning determined hearts and minds of their felt
compelled
speech an
by
the
members,"23
then one will not be able to understand why he to this science. But if what he says
to
ascribe such
in his
to the
Academy
is
true,
i.e.,
from
intellectual
atmos
every society,
which
the spirits
of
which
they
their
behavior,"24
why he attributes such fundamental importance to this science and why he feels himself a part of it. Nevertheless, one might question whether it is really to the point to ask
then
whether
it is
Tocqueville
should
be
Is
Tocqueville has to say to us the same in either case? But this is not To read Tocqueville as a sociologist is to pose questions or ascribe ques
really
did
not regard
himself
as a sociologist
by
tions.
On the
other
hand,
reply from an author him sociological ques posing understand what he may have
get a
had to say to us if we refuse to receive it in the language which he speaks. Everyone knows that in translating a poem from one language to another, much is lost. But how much more must be lost when we are deaf to the questions
expressed
in the idiom
of a particular science
"relevant"
because
we
believe it
scientific sense
only
when we
have (to
"reconstructed"
term)
Tocqueville
as all
To
stand
understand
is to
fundamentally
misunder
him. For
truly
longer
once
political
citizen
is the
central
political
thought, the relationship between man and problem, but for sociological thought it is a
problem which no
exists.25
As
successor
to Machiavelli and
Rousseau,
Tocqueville fights
again private
the
specifically Western struggle against the and the public. He does this in the tradition,
In
a
complains:
belong
to
another era.
We
are
to a
might soon
be displayed in
natural
history
to show
how beings
once
looked
that loved
freedom, equality
and
honesty. All
are strange
tastes,
which presuppose
totally different
It is
a
inhabitants."
different"
"totally
manner of
thinking
which
distinguishes the
his time
and
political
science of
ours.
Tocqueville from the incipient sociology Not that Tocqueville would automatically be
Letter The
of
of
from that
were
of
understood
if he
to be
23.
24. p.
address
September 17, 1853, in Salomon, op. cit., p. 214 (O.C. Beaumont vi, pp. 226f.). to the Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques in Salomon, op. cit.,
Siegfried Landshut's Kritik der Soziologie
1969).
144. 25.
of
und andere
Schriften
zur
Politik,
26.
(Neuwied: Luchterhand,
See
also
ville:
1954)-
68
read as
Interpretation
a
political
Tocqueville
when one
is
him
as
he himself
wanted
evi
to be understood.
Nothing
in his
work evidences
an affinity,
everything
dences In his
the
decided
his time.
entire
separation
from
citizen.
He
was
not
concerned,
as
his
younger
contemporary, Marx, was, with the elimination of this polarity in a definitive solution to this problem. More realistically than Marx, Tocqueville could only
conceive of
this
problem's
solution
in the
shape
of
egalitarian
was
democratic force
tyranny.
To
prevent
this
form
of solution effort.
to the problem
the
driving
is
behind his
Just
as
passionate
intellectual
access
obstructed
when we overlook
reflected on
the
problem
of politics
in the
science, so also
do
we
him
cal
him the wrong genealogy in the history of thought. Tocqueville himself precipitated this fate in a peculiar way.
when we, as
it were,
give
II
Insofar
as the effectiveness and
brisance
tree
of a political thinker
is concerned,
his
placement
in
particular
family
is
not
matter of
indifference. A
tradition of
same
"exciting"
than one
and of
in the
Aristotle;
in this
composed
and
the
relation of an
Hegel to Kant
passage
regard.
In
often-quoted
from
Tocqueville's letters
during
"There
he
wrote:
in
whose
each side.
and
Rousseau."27
Diez del Corral has sympathetically investigated Tocqueville's connection him.28 to That Tocqueville stands in the intellectual tradition of Montesquieu is
a
commonplace
since
comparison
of
the first
volume
of
Democracy
disciple
century.
ler,29
in America
with
of the
Montesquieu"
of
(Raymond
Aron),
years
the
Montesquieu
identifiable"
of
the
nineteenth
writes a
Otto Voss
on
who
the space of
few
published
large
monograph
Rousseau
27.
P-
and one on
Tocqueville
on
which
especially
\m.
1
emphasizes
Tocqueville's
op.
Letter to
Kergolay
p.
418.
In Salomon,
cit.,
19328.
mentalidad politico
de Tocqueville
con
especial
referenda
Pascal (Madrid,
29.
Vossler,
close
cit.,
pp.
51,
204.
Although Vossler
emphasizes
with
such
love
of
detail
attachment
to his great-grandfather.
Malesherbes, he
and
mentions
one
not one
word con
friendship
between Malesherbes
man,"
Rousseau. If
have been
accepts
Vossler 's
thesis
Rousseau
must
rather close to
him.
Tocqueville'
Perspective
69
with
aristocratic
family
freedom,
name erroneous with
could
be
easier could
than to
Montesquieu
Tocqueville in the
same
breath? What
be
more
Tocqueville,
relation
bourgeois from Geneva, the resentful outsider, the patriarch ship of the Revolution, Jean-Jacques? However, I know of no "epistemologicalsociological"
chain of
one.
reasoning that is
more
decisively
and
Certainly, it is fruitful
with
to compare Montesquieu
Tocqueville, especially
forms
of of
regard
to Tocqueville's
theory concerning
man
the new
despotic
to
domination.
Certainly,
the younger
stands
in
sort
succession
the man born 116 years (and what years!) before him. Nor could
thing
our seeing in him a new something similar to what that great man of his own social had achieved. But under what radically changed conditions! They are
against
accomplish
to their places in
political science
is
needed
for
a world
quite
There
can
be
no
doubt
starting point and which contains a judgment of science, is essentially directed toward Montesquieu. In Democ
our a whole series of passages which and continue with classifies as
is
begin
roughly:
"I
am
speaking
which
about
familiar
viewpoints of sense
Montes
positions
quieu not
Tocqueville
indisputable,
of of
common sort of
elaboration.30
Typical
this
tacit dismissal of
a
examination
Montesquieu is
At the
assert,
of
tor."
beginning
and
of
Book 29
of
it
appears to
The Spirit of the Laws is the statement: "I written this work only for the purpose
proving this contention: The spirit of moderation must govern the legisla Tocqueville writes in order to prove a totally different contention, namely,
America,
of man.
He
seeks to cultivate
moderation, the
to it
but is
and
not
fond
of
democracy. He
which
it
can produce
him,
all
his
nothing
other within
creation of
sensitivity
framework
of
unavoidable moderation.
citizens of
democracies
"may
in the
end
emotions
refresh
but
them."31
For that
which
but
scorn.
30. 31.
"I have
Cf., for
608-609
(O.C. 1, 2
p. 257).
D.i.A. 11,
619
(O.C. 1,
2 p. 269).
70
a
Interpretation
And what, if
not
chimera."32
Montesquieu's theory
of
despotism, is
the
target of the
following
in
the
you
proud passage?
The
chief and,
a sense,
supreme power
do
so.
necessary in order to succeed in democratic society is to love equality or to make Thus the art of despotism, once so complicated, has been
the only
condition
in
simplified; one
may
almost
reduced
to a
principle!.]"
single
According
closes
to
Montesquieu,
as
the
despotic
in
domination is.
with
we
democracy
chapter
of
dull "General
that reads
like
tortured exercise
diligence. The
7.
be found
at the end of
Book IV.
a continuation of
Book IV,
chapter
6,
which
Fear."
This,
despotism,
reads
have learned to
future
and
that
makes
men
keep
sorte
watch
for freedom,
et
to that
flabby
and
de
terreur
molle
oisive)
which
makes
men's
hearts
and enervates
them."14
It is
surely
in the final
sentence of a work
dealing
with modem
despotism, fear is
In this
times
with
"salutary."
penultimate chapter,
Tocqueville
times.
compares
those of
democratic
is
Naturally, he knew
of
47
states:
"The
of
oracle who
[of the
preservation
liberty,
and
powers] is the
celebrated
Montes
quieu."
But
since
Madison had
completely.
The
endangered
good
remained
freedom
were
and
human
elsewhere.
They
equality than in the era of personal rule. remarked: "Other dangers and other needs [than in aristocratic times] face the men of our own day. The political world changes, and we must now seek
age of
new remedies
in the
for
new
ills."35
of
Montesquieu had little to tell Tocqueville concerning either the identification the new evil (the degradation of mankind in individualistic egoism and
propre)
on
amour
or
the
Rousseau,
correctly
strike one
the other
remedy (democratic sharing of responsibility). hand, could tell him much. In all of Tocqueville 1 find
new
Rousseau's teachings
are countless of
work.
his lines
all
which
as pasted-in excerpts
from
Jean-Jacques'
For,
differences
p. p.
p.
232
(O.C. 1, (O.C. 1,
p.
262).
654
p. 309).
2 p.
676 (O.C. 1,
335).
D.i.A. 11,
p.
675
(O.C. 1,
2 p. 334).
Tocqueville'
Perspective
71
fundamental affinity
with
Tocqueville's
ro
portrays
the change
in
of
feelings
the
of the
relinquishment
beginning
of the
At first
one thinks
only
formation
of
hastily
filled
One labors
Middle Ages to
Finally,
Estates-General
one
disap
whole mess.
In the beginning,
only
speaks of
how the
regulated. pure
be better balanced, the relationships between classes better Soon, however, one follows, pursues, then frantically chases the idea of democracy. At first, Montesquieu is quoted and explained; in the end one
powers might
speaks
solely
of
Rousseau. He became
36
the
only teacher
of the
Revolution in its
heyday
Thus, I believe
and
that the
key
they
to understanding Tocqueville
relate to the new
his
principles
his
political maxims as as
despotism
is to be found in
Montesquieu may ordering
of
Rousseau insofar is
it
"forerunner."
or real
the
analytic
subjects
concerned.37
Rousseau is Tocqueville's
which
to substance,
36.
37.
indeed,
the substance
is
at
issue: human
240.
and
Beaumont,
op. cit., p.
of
Montesquieu
undertaken
by
similarity of the chapter headings. A rebuttal of this aside Melvin Richter, "The Uses of Theory: Tocqueville's Adaptation of
Pierson is
in
M. Richter, ed., Essays in Theory and History (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970), pp. 74-102. Richter sees Tocqueville as Montesquieu's successor primarily in terms of
method, stances,
in
an adoption of
Montesquieu's
is
analytic
categories.
of circum
institutions
and morals
not peculiar to
and
Aristotle
Rousseau, in every political thinker who approaches the of a legislator, i.e., with an eye to purpose and formative
to
tools even
of
Rousseau,
[1968]).
that
is,
governmen
Roger D.
Masters
sity
worked out
in The Political
Philosophy
context of
of Rousseau
2d ed.
Press,
Richter
1976
places
Tocqueville in the
Pocock has
named
"civic
humanism."
Scots,
the
Federalist, among
This
connec
many others are assembled by Pocock within tion is too tenuous to make Tocqueville the
38.
humanism."
distinction be
principles
Tocqueville
(popular sovereignty,
naturally requires that one very clear in totally changed circumstances. Rousseau s revolutionary freedom and equality) are now prevailing law. One must live with
was
writes
Tocqueville's
them and make them fruitful. Tocqueville's political world also stood open
for
change.
It
was no
longer
a matter of a
prudential,
practical-philosophical
"science du
legislateur,"
but
rather of actual
at whose
disposition the
by
and
large
stood.
how
much
Rousseau
signified
for
theoretical mind of
Tocque
in understanding the contemporary world, is underscored by Lorenz von Stein. Von Stein (born in 1815 and thus ten years younger than Tocqueville) wrote in his The History of the Social Movement in France, 1789-1850 (Totowa, N.J.: Bedminster Press. 1964): "Montesquieu
72
Interpretation
deal more closely with the fundamental agreement an agreement not extending to Tocqueville's thinking manner in which Tocqueville sees in the but one course, consisting
cannot and
of
details,
the
of
problem
of man
under
the
conditions a of
of equality.
Examples Rousseau
must
and
When
one
one
stumbles almost
across
connection
between
Tocqueville,
naturally
ancien
is
in danger
underestimating the
still under
differences
which
exist
between them:
Rousseau,
the
conditions of while
the
regime,
intellectually
anticipated
Tocqueville
encountered such a
society in full development in America, in its continued existence. Indeed, the belief that a (much
large
less,
democracy)
was one of
before his
eyes
in
America
huge empire,
less
organized
in
republican
endangered
than any of
chies. plains
Further, it is
Rousseau's
that
he
ex
this astonishing
is happen
ing
in America. When he
allows
one,"
writes in summary that America's federal form it to enjoy "the power of a great republic and the security of a small it matches almost word for word a sentence from Rousseau's work on
Poland.39
But
ville
more
basically,
new
which
Tocque
with
the
destiny
the
of
i.e., democracy? Or
the
will
understand a
country in in
a
which and
of
laws,
public
opinion,
a will
by
morals grounded
religiosity
freedom in
describing
itself,"
by
society
upon
distinguishing
it from
constitutional
in
which
progress."
to
authority "in a sense outside the body social, influences it and forces it "In the United States the motherland's presence is felt every
All the
maxims of
where."40
Rousseau's
political genius
had
aimed at
produc-
merely showed what the old constitution 108). Allan Bloom refers to the "intimate
might
have been,
not what
the
be"
to
(p.
relation"
between Tocqueville
Texts."
and
Rousseau
a surpris
ing discovery
39.
for him,
as
well.
Education, M. Richter,
end
ed.
(Princeton:
Political
Theory
and
Political
1980),'
pp.
135-37.
by
D.i.A. 1, p. 264 (O.C. 1, 1 p. 300); Rousseau. The Government of Poland xi. toward the in CEuvres Completes, Bibl. de la Pleiade 111. p. 1010, translated with an introduction and notes Willmoore Kendall (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1972), p. 72. To be sure, Montesquieu, too,
the possibility of a
saw
federated
I
of
(small)
numbers
federation,
).
Regarding
importance to Tocqueville,
patrie se
cf.
Schleifer,
40.
11
2-
18.
D.i.A. 1,
53,
85,
362, (O.C. 1, 1
pp. 56,
fait
sentir partout")
Tocqueville's Perspective
73 Tocqueville
quotes
ing
this result.
"It is
just
Hamilton, "the
people
errors."
commonly intend the public good. This often applies to their very Rousseau?41 Who could overlook the fact that Hamilton was quoting
to
According
of
Tocqueville,
means
stands
before the
alternative
individual,
bourgeois.
this
being
citizen
or
subject problem
citoyen
or
Tocqueville sees,
as
moral
in
a world
in
which
equality has
concern
dependence
and
belonging. In every
conceiv
themselves with
the bonds of
brotherhood,
of
bonds anew,
central
as the case
this is Rousseau's
problem, formulated in
concerned with
lines
the
same thing.
Perhaps the
frequently
more than
of
used
word
in Tocqueville's
work
is
"bonds"
the word
(liens). No
wish
to extinguish the
individuality
what
the person.
who
However, for
is
threatened
ity
and
by
society, must
Rousseau
be
surrounded
in every
conceivable
way
with
the
bonds
of
brotherhood.
Only
his
the political order which tears the individual out from behind the
ego can secure
walls of
Tocqueville is
are,
extent
that
they
the
they
are
liberals
very
govern of
mental
order
from the
perspective
of
motive of
Certainly
its
freedom
and
this
freedom,
order,
too.
and
and political
constantly laid
to
by
political order
the
bourgeois. What
be
cultivated
is
freedom,
not upon
freedom,"
the "satisfaction
law."
of
being
unites
"dependent
but
upon
God
and the
This freedom
men;
it is
not
the free
dom
of the
individual
who withdraws
into his
Tocqueville
shares with
Rousseau
thoroughly
could
pedagogical,
formative
view
If Rousseau
written
was
the
en
book
on
education,
philosophical
deavor itself
nature,
centered on
nothing
his true
needful
to
him
and
perhaps
As is
well
Contract is
presented
book
Tocqueville
41. 42.
D.i.A. 1,
p.
139 (O.C. I,
p.
156).
d'
individual isme
chez
uni
versitaires
de France,
1970).
74
must
Interpretation
have known especially well;
second volume of
moral-educational of parallels
in the
Democracy
in
America.43
The in
to an understanding
politics or
probing is tied to something else which is important Tocqueville in the light of Rousseau. If we distinguish
principles and
pedagogy between
presents
is
almost
exclusively
a compendium of
instructions,
of maxims of
Indeed,
the
book
sentence:
"This collection
of
reflections and
observations,
on the
The Social
Right"
Contract,
(ou
Politi
cal
principes
du droit
In the first
sentence of
The Social
civil order of
Contract
of
one reads:
"I
wish
be in the
of principle
(regie) for
in the
legitimate
and
incontestable form
government."
Generally
"principles"
then,
one
sees
political
Contrat Social. In
tutions."
Germany
work on
"Political Insti
with much
in any
case
have dealt
than
just
principles.
Even
at
itself,
law
are established
has been
its foundation
with
(iv,9). That
is,
foundation
of
the
help
of
Three-quarters
deals its
with
and
to the
and with
body
for
preservation"
(n,6),
how
according to
more
fashionably
interest"
[Erkenntnisinteresse] but is
properly called the "need to [Wissensbediirftigkeit] from which the knowledge of political science in Rousseau's sense, beyond the question of universally applicable principles, is sought, is the perspective of the legislator,
and,
know"
in the
course
of
time,
of
the statesman.
His
knowledge,
viewed
as
whole, is empirical, substantive and saturated with experience. Like the Greek
cpgovnoig, it is
situation
prudential
from
another.
as much
learned
43.
at
least
able to differentiate one in these matters, Tocqueville could have from Rousseau as from Montesquieu.44
and practical
in character,
Precisely
This is
on
Volume II,
which
Democracy
44.
Mores
must
Properly
So
Called."
Here I in
let these
suggestions and assertions suffice and "inspiration" the term rigidified picture of
hope
at a
later time
to
be
able
to portray
other
by
is
perhaps more
fitting
than any
Rousseau,
cians of
"identiidren
by
410.)
Tocqueville's Perspective
75
III
Guided
by
deeper levels
of
Tocqueville's relationship to Rousseau we find the path into the his thought. What Rousseau says of himself in anti-Cartesian
fashion, namely that he feels and senses before he thinks, is also true of Tocqueville. He considers men's feelings as more important, more fundamental
to their
life together, than their thinking, i.e., than their rationally considered rights and interests. "1 am he writes in a previously quoted letter dated September 17, 1853, "that political societies are not the products of their
convinced,"
laws, but
ideas,
are
and
beginning
nature
and
determined
by
the
feelings, beliefs,
Tocqueville's
and minds of
through
concerns
do
not originate
an organ of
hoping
soul.
convinced
between the
feeling
for freedom
and
sentiment"
taming
and
soul"
of
the
(ibid.).
problem
not
be that
of
freedom
Just
as
epistemological-sociological of
Montesquieu instead
that of
Rousseau,
so
do
is in fact the
dominant
real-historical
problem
bourgeoisie
and
and
proletariat,
or
if
you
will, of
were
in the
of
struggle over
education, the
franchise,
power and
the
bourgeoisie,
situation,
Weber
and
no
his
philosophical
instinct,
and
human dignity,
it.46
permit
him the
same as
real-historical conflicts of
Revolution
period
Tocqueville
egalitarian
of a new
always saw of
but
one alternative
and weak
either an
unfree,
society
disconnected
or
individuals
society
of
under the
domination
free it
despotism,
the free
egalitarian
through close
association.
Each
of
these possibilities is
defined
by
equality.
They
league,
which makes
possible
for
equals
to
therewith their
of men
freedom.
Democracy,
45
46.
danger
succumbing
226f.,
in Salomon,
op.
cit., p. 214.
Naturally,
place
this must
be taken
Tocqueville the
active politician of
had his
in the
his
day
he
always remained a
"defender
prop
(A. Jardin). Michael Hereth convincingly discusses the stale thesis that Tocqueville is the classical author for the opposition of freedom and equality. "Die Gleichheit als Gegner der Frei
erty"
heit?"
in Aus Politik
und
Zeitgeschichte
b 31/80
(August 2, 1980),
pp. 34ff.
76
Interpretation is
no road which
leading
binds
back to
all men
aristoc
racy,
to a society
founded
upon
an
inequality
idea
of
tightly
freedom is finished.
"According
in
democratic,
and
I dare say
freedom, every
everything
all
man
which
touches on himself
from
which
only
proceed
"From this
obedience"
point
on,
from the coming together of the decisions of Tocqueville here means person lost its
moral
ally
owed obedience
"has
also
foundation;
and
between the
virtues of
the
citizen and
lowly
other
compliance of
ground."47
mutual
detachedness,
men what
the
side
of
equality,
threatens
with
freedom;
Tocqueville's "new
political must
sees
itself faced
the
democratic."
do to
escape
tyranny
in
and
degen
after
wrote
1836
Democracy
in America
was
the most
idea
book.48
IV
With that
we can
finally
political
Tocqueville,
for the
and still
understand
ing
of the
political philoso
pher,
he
wished
democracy
and
Christianity,
casts them us
reconcile
convinced
moderate and
joint effort,
soon
the
swamp into
missing."49
which
democracy
wants to
as
one of these
supports
is
He
also
the
men of
his
own class
to
democracy,
call
from this
talk of
so
purpose.
Why
he does nothing which could detract Rousseau the forefather of the revolution, why
and of
fraternity,
and
when
Rousseau,
it is fraternity, the
points
equivalent of the
friendship
which supports
harmony
47.
to those central
social et politique
ideas from
which
something
1789"
"L'Etat
de la France
avant el
and
depuis
(in
Landshut,
dination
141L).
The
domination
Rousseau's
as with
freedom)
appears to me to
be Rousseau's
most
Rousseau, it is
all the more crucial that those consequently abandoned to individual isolation (Vereinzelung) be joined together through intensive "social contracting That is the fundamental idea, common to Rousseau and Tocqueville, of the "science politique The new science of associations is
nouvelle."
only its
48. 49.
most
important
subdiscipline.
1836
(O.C. \m,
1 p. 431)
Salomon,
op. cit., p.
193.
[B]
vii. p. 295).
Salomon,
op. cit., p.
213.
Tocqueville's Perspective
like
"system"
77
science"
of
his "new
political
"Rousseauan,"
can
be inferred. In
sentences
very
wrote
to
friend in
You
can
1856:
hardly imagine,
and time.
it is for
mc
to live
in this
of
moral
isolation, to
if 1
were
living
my country
would
be
no
this
isolation in
the midst of
will confess
always
frightened me;
be
happy
able
always
had to
be
understanding To me es
"It is
not good
to be
alone."50
of man as a
being
characterized
by
speech,
i.e.,
way by sociality, munity in order to develop fully as toiov noXirtxov there have been many linkages made between anthropology and politics. They occur in the central
a special and
in
themes of classical
even
political
philosophy,
of modern rational
natural
law,
and
in the
work of
Marx
purportedly
super
of
hopelessness"
"hoping
The bitterness
affirms
of
loneliness is
human
experience.
Tocqueville prevalently
in
modem
by
making
history
only
it is
good,
it
weakens and
destroys
spiritual
if he is
not torn
walls of
his
ego
into constant,
which
"naturally"
social
and
brotherly
responsibility.
The broadest
association
in
this can be
on
accomplished of
is the
state.
account
In the
society itous
of equals
it
must
be
pursued
However,
this
sible on a
basis
which
is in
each
instance
historically
can
given and
and contingent.
America
shows
how it
stances, the
laws,
and
stemming from equality of conditions. It is the task of the legislator, (from whose ideal perspective and for the sake of "leaders of
society"
enlightenment
a given social
Tocqueville's
political science
is pursued) to
utilize all
the ties
in
to
"artificially"
fabric,
of
to
strengthen or
in
order
promote the
"natural"
bonds
which was
in
aristocratic
be
pursued
equals, Tocqueville is
steps of
50.
p. 224.
Entirely
To
Rousseau, he
of
establish
Letter
January
[B]
vn, p. 295).
Salomon,
78
Interpretation
them
and protect
just
as
it is
the
his talents
and
If the interpretation
point
of
Tocqueville's
to
political
science
takes as
its starting
mutual
of
not good
be
with
we are past
the relationship of
freedom
equality
aid.
and
are
dealing
human togetherness in
central
dependency
which
and
everything else,
his doctrine
of
the new
on
despotism, is
explicable.
will
clarify this
aristocratic and
by
volume of
Democracy
chapters
individualism in the
second
In
societies,
are
citizens
above,
below
cent
inside their
another.
In
speaking,
they
are adja
to one
They
the
"closely
tied to some
themselves,"
thing
rarer.
outside on of
and other
democratic ages,
"The bond
hand,
themselves."
In be
being
would
human
Under the
condi
and
"at the
same
time,
alien
to one
"Aristoc
of all citizens a
long
from the
peasant
up to the
itself."
not
only does democracy make men forget their ancestors, but it also clouds descendants and isolates them from their contemporaries. Even
on
himself alone,
and
there
shut
up in the
his
own
heart.51
This is despotism's
golden opportunity.
Fearful
by
nature,
it
perceives
in
men's
isolation the
so suits
surest guarantee of
its
own
duration. No
vice of
it
as
does
egotism.
"A despot
not
will
lightly
forgive his
. .
for
not
loving him,
at all
provided
they do
love
one another.
Despotism, dangerous
democracy."52 times, is therefore particularly to be feared in ages of How is one to combat this? "Citizens who are bound to take part in public
affairs
must
turn
from their
than
private
interests
and
occasionally take
of
look
at
themselves."
something
nity's
other
In the
the
commu
affairs,
"he is
independent
his fellows
his
aid
as
he
used
help
he
to
them."
One
whose
live.
Those frigid
passions that
keep
hearts
asunder must
then
retreat and
hide
at
the back
of consciousness. afraid of
itself.53
Pride
must
be disguised;
be
seen.
Egotism is
51. 52.
53.
p. 478
p.
(O.C. 1,
2 p.
106).
109). 2 pp.
481
(O C.
1. 2 p.
pp. 481-82
(O.C. 1,
iio-ii).
Tocqueville'
Perspective
perfected
79
sees
In America, the
was possible
democracy. Tocqueville
that it is possible.
any rate, to combat the democratic isolation which leads morally to the numbing of hearts and politically to despotism. "The Americans have used liberty to combat the individualism bom of equality; and they have
there at
won."
By
gave
preventing the
region
centralization of
political citizens
every
"its
own
life
that there
should
be
an
infinite
for the
day they
The
on one another.
That
conduc
was wise
Squarely
they
by Rousseau,
Tocqueville virtually
and
enthuses:
free institutions
every
citizen that
he lives in
society.
At
the
every interest
moment
they bring
be is
his
mind
back
to this
idea,
that
it is the
duty
as well as
of men to
useful
to their
fellows.
Having
no particular reason
to
hate
others, since he
necessity
interest,
afterward
by
choice.
calculation
becomes instinct.
habit
By
dint
of
working for the good of his fellow citizens, he in the for serving them [D.i.A. II, p. 484).
end acquires a
and
taste
spreading this inclination are the unifying alliances, sometimes for political purposes but more "which arise in bourgeois life and have no political
great means
of such alliances are
The
"associations,"
the
importantly
those
purpose."
How important
he
seems
for Tocqueville is generally known. It is precisely here that to be continuing Montesquieu's teaching concerning the freedompouvoirs
intermediates. But that is entirely incor different that the reference to Montesquieu totally in Tocqueville's writings. The rather clouds the meaning of intermediate powers of Montesquieu only have their place in monarchy; their
so
"associations"
presence
"forms the
11,4).
form
governm
of
(Spirit of
the
Laws
Mechanically, they
monarchy into despotism. Because Tocqueville's concept of freedom is entirely in different from that of Montesquieu, the task of Tocqueville's
"associations"
preserving freedom, in morally establishing both community and freedom, is totally different. I can not demonstrate here how subtly Tocqueville distances himself from Montesquieu on this point. Tocqueville insinuates that even in
relation
to
aristocratic
society, to
which alone
Montesquieu
recognized
limitation
quieu no
of power.
more
aspects
of
the
comprehend."54
There is in Montes
barriers"
discussion
of
well-known
but
not
less
powerful
of
inclination,
which
opinion,
ring"
"invisible
around
54.
286
(O.C. 1,
1 pp. 326-27).
80
the
Interpretation
state.55
Montesquieu,
thus
child
of
the
Enlightenment, had
actual reason
underestimated of
religion
and
failed to
recognize
the
despotic regimes,
same
whose roots
lay
in
religious
feeling
and not
in fear. In the
way he
misperceived
in
con
they hindered despotic degeneration. Tocque is also thoroughly imbued with the teaching concerning observational acuity and the moral spirit of Rousseau. This, as he emphasizes,
stitutional ville's
monarchy,
where
associations
"science
nouvelle"56
of
the
art
of
association
becomes
the
"fundamental
sink
science"
science
mere
in
democracy.57
The individual
would
into ideas
the
impotence
men are
and
debility
and culture
itself
would
be threatened
by
barbarism if
and
did
constantly
upon
of associations.
"Feelings
by
reciprocal
essence of
These lines
contain
the true
Tocqueville's "political
so, it is
clear
science."
This
atic
being
be,
oppose
"human
modem
What brings
answer, already found in the Enlightenment and in Hobbes, is clear: interest. Tocqueville, no less than Rousseau, knew that to move men one must interests.59 appeal to their But as on the one hand the "human inclines
to the
toward the
banal, material and useful, so on the other hand it is "naturally drawn infinite, the spiritual, and the beautiful. Physical needs hold it to the
when
earth, but
of on
its
own
accord."60
the basis of
even
ideas,
bind
passions
and
together,
if in hatred toward
only"
one an
men
together
(democracy's
danger),
dust
shape."6'
When,
as
to
February
private
Revolution,
5556.
"restricted
taken from
D.i.A. 1, p. 287 (O.C. 1. D.i.A. 11, p. 486 (O.C. 1, Make of Associations in Civil
diaires"
2 p. 1 14).
The
chapter entitled
Life"
begins
with a clear
"
distancing
from the
of
"
pouvoir s
intermealso
of
The designation
(his
"science
nouvel
secondares"
"associations
consistent choice of
D.i.A. 11,
pp.
pp.
power of
associations must
be
in the
has, in
An
the absence
of even a
been
researched at all.
overview
is
provided
by
early socialists). Tocqueville's position within minimally satisfactoiy biography, virtually not Maxime Leroy, Histoire des idees soiiales en
(Paris. 1962).
D.i.A. 11,
pp.
Classically
stated
p.
486, 487 (O.C. 1, 2 pp. 114, 115). in The Government of Poland, Chapter IX [op 424 (O.C. 1, 2 p. 44).
cit., p. 79).
p. 396
(O.C. 1,
2 p.
15).
Tocqueville'
Perspective
81
place of
life
and
and
its
interests"
"general views,
revolution
sentiments
ideas,"62
downhill,
of
and
is just
around
well-known address of
January
I, 1848,
also
Deputies
express
of
must not
state
by
views
and
opinions
form the
social
that only
they
isolation
and the
dissolution
of the chain
second volume
Democracy in
beliefs."
With It is easily seen "that no society could prosper without such out ideas in common, there can be no common action; without common action,
there are of course men, but there
is
no societal
body.
for society to prosper, it is essential that all be rallied and held together by some leading
them sometimes came to draw
happen
unless each of
his
from the
ready to
accept some
beliefs ready
made
Dogmatic acting in
men
man's
"living
alone than
for
his
It is
his
existence compel
that."64
La loi
more
condition
long
and
decisive
anthropological
declaration in Tocqueville.
Tocqueville's
might
"cogito"
is
diametrically
opposed
formulate it
the others,
as
follows: "I
am able to
be
a man
like
and
all
human dignity, Tocqueville rehabilitated prejudice. "[A]ny man accepting continues any opinion on trust from another puts his mind in good use of to make Tocqueville. "it is a salutary bondage, which allows him
bondage."
freedom."65
Men
can
not
survive
without
possession
is desirable; is
and of all
dogmatic beliefs,
regarded
from
beliefs
which
are
"the
most
"hardly
any human
action
does
His
not result
from
some
have
of
God,
of
relations with
the
fellows."
These ideas
religions
"the
common
spring from
which
all
else
All
which
do
not strive
on
62. Address to the Chamber 63. D.i.A. 11, 65. D.i.A. 11,
66. D.i.A. 11,
p. 398
of
Deputies
p.
January
254.
(O.C. 1, 2
17).
16).
2 p.
399 (O.C. 1,
2 p.
p.
17).
p. 408
(O.C. 1, 2
27).
82
Interpretation
intellect."
control on
the
contribute
and though
they do
in the
next
world,
they "greatly
I
shall
dignity
point
in
this."67
leave to
peoples
one
many
advantages
which
religion
confers
on
democratic America
cal
in
the central
of
comparison
between
and
France is
and
only direct
idea
which
almost a
means of socialization.
of
warranty of salvation: the combating of egotism by From Machiavelli via Hobbes, to Rousseau, the relation
patriotism as
the
is the
tried,
Rousseau
of
Contract, "to
reunite
eagle."
This is Tocqueville's
which
lem,
Rousseau he
unity is himself
I
destroys
contradiction with
worthless."
are
expresses
letter
as
follows:
should
like it if the
of
priests would
Christians,
bound to
mother
belong
in
to one
these great
human
by
which
one another.
These
that
territory
soul
the
land. I
wish
we might
stamp it entity
deeply
and
every
everyone
belongs first
to this collective
who
only then to
himself.68
Here is der
someone
to see that
God
"doubtless"
can
look
over
God's in
shoul
order
to
liens, by
virtue,
individuals
are
bound
one our
motherland; nor
weakens
dare
of
this indifference
spiritless
"which
some
instincts."
noblest
"When
of
a people's
religion
highest faculties
state pares
the
mind and
half
paralyzes all
Such
a skeptical
"inevitably
a
enervates the
soul,
and
people
for
bondage."69
Again
and
relaxing the springs of the will, pre again he states that skepticism in the
world."70
always seemed to
him to be "the
worst evil
are
What
which
one
finds
most scarce
today
and
and guide
it. We
longer desire,
no
longer love
and
no
incapable clumsily
performing
either
humanitarianism completely paralyze us; make good or evil in a grand style; force us to flutter
of which not one attracts
us
around a myriad
petty things,
us.71
us,
powerfully
repels us or
forcibly
arrests
67. D.i.A. 11, pp. 408, 409 (O.C. 1, 2 pp. 27, 28). 68. Letter dated October 20, 1856 (O.C. [B[ vi, p. 347), in Salomon, 69. D.i.A. 11, p. 409 (O.C. 1, 2 p. 28).
op.
70. Letter dated August 1, 1850 (O.C. [B] vi, p. 154) in Salomon, op. cit., p, 207. Certainly Tocqueville, as a modern man, must have repeatedly had to wrestle with skepticism within himself. Nevertheless, it is a fundamental misunderstanding to think that Tocqueville's way of thinking can
be
reduced
to the formula
of
"skeptical
liberalism"
(thus, R. Leicht in
117), in
Hoffken,
op.
cit., p. 408.
and
Siiddeutsehe Zeitung, July 26/27, 1980). 71. Letter dated August 10, 1841 (O.C. [BI
vi, p
Salomon,
197L
Tocqueville'
Perspective
83
V
Tocqueville has
concern was
always
been
could
regarded as a great
how freedom
be
preserved
in
equality.
was,
if
liberal,
sort,"
would
be in this
manner misunder
stood,
wrote:
was
Tocqueville's
constant
worries.
They
the
are
absolutely
set upon
love
of
freedom
and
making me a party man, although I am not one. They I only have opinions; or better, I have only one passion human dignity.72
It is hard to
ville's.
see where
He had but
for its
sake
he
sought
The
weak
of man
lies in egotism;
spiritual
self-degradation
follows
upon
is intensified
by
their
isolation,
not
the
liens
of
of equals.
Therefore,
new"
quite
demands
a new
political
science.
For
reason
important
of all
The diagnosis
of
the new
form
of
regarded as
Tocque
in the field
of political science.
this.
However, his
given
undue
accomplishment
flections
are
weight,
when
he is
from the
scientific per
it is
overlooked of
that Tocqueville
and
in the tradition
Plato
Rousseau
if
you
will, an analyst of the order and disorder of the human soul in the age of
democracy.
In
mind,
order we
do
well of
to the
elucidate
Tocqueville's
analysis
of
egalitarian
with
the
help
categories of
Max Weber.
Montesquieu
which threatened
to degenerate into
of
Louis XIV
and
his
successor.
Tocqueville
wrote within
any entirely different world: a such as that of both Bonapartes, legitimized itself in
way.
democratic world, in
mle,
a plebiscitary-democratic
This democratic
of personal
caesarism no chain
character of personal
mle,
i.e.,
not
loyalty. The
and
is broken, the
new master
is faceless. He is
interesting,
man who
about
"despotism
it
much more
than
the
imposes
and, "I
question
72.
73.
Letter dated March 22, 1837 (O.C. [B] vi, D.i.A. 11, p. 668 (O.C. 1, 2 p. 325).
70L), in
cit., p. 193.
84
who
Interpretation
master
my
of
obedience."74
If
we adopt
Tocqueville's
man"
analytic tools
for the
"strong
is
of no
interest. He is, as Tocqueville said of Napoleon I, a mere accident. Tocqueville's theme is no longer personal domination, but in Max Weber
sense, rationally legitimated domination
which
and
the
specific motives
to submission
are
motives
equality.
In
aristocratic
times, the
Here the
submission:
oboedientia
facit
im-
domination is
not
defined
by
the mler,
but
princi
pally, as in
classical
politics,
by
the
character of
the ruler.
overtly (but remember that he is addressing the "lead society"75), does Tocqueville revert to what he considers an antiquated
at
not
least
theme
seeks cratic
He
in
vain
for
a word
word
for the
threatens demo
peoples, a
that would
exactly
"despotism"
and
do
it.76
not
find
a word
for it, I
must
try
to define
are
What he describes
souls'
the small
motives
for
submission
in
a system of
domination
provision of
which
legitimizes itself rationally, objectively, through increasing security and social welfare. He never speaks of a personal
"ruler,"
but
rather
of the
"sovereign,"
power"
the
"tutelary
The image
of
or,
most
often, entirely
mild and peace
power."
"regulated,
"it
ful
servitude"
which
he draws is
much more
easily
outward
forms
of
freedom than
one might
think,
so that
be
nest
in the very
sove
shadow of popular
for
being
under schoolmasters
by thinking
put
that
they have
for he
sees
that the
it is
person, or
a class of persons,
holds the
end of
chain.77
Tocqueville become
74. 75.
form
a mental picture of
the extent to
of our
which men
technical-scientific civilization
of
time
would
to the conditions
p.
pampering
of amour
D.i.A. 11,
668 (O.C. 1,
who
2 p. 325).
Concerning
these
might
and
as
Rousseau
was.
Here
theory in
D.i.A. 11,
D.i.A. 11,
p.
77.
pp.
Tocqueville'
Perspective
85 from
one's
propre, the encouragement of every sort of emancipation others, has become the guiding maxim nations. We have difficulties conceiving
of
duties to Western
meant
democratic
politics could
in
all
what
Tocqueville
have
by
freedom. Tocqueville's freedom (here, too, in conformity with Rousseau) has nothing to do with freedom from distress, burdens or the circumstances in
which man
matter
vis-a-vis nature or
man's
his
own
of
independence,
of
self-reliance
in
little things.
Rousseau
prepared
the path
is
nevertheless
for him, but Tocqueville. among the theoreticians of politics, the first realistic analyst of that disenchantment of the modern
and
world
cracy.
resulting from rationalism, industry, improved productivity Certainly, and he clearly says so, the concepts of despotism
bureau
and
tyranny
are
do
not
fit. But
and
what
he describes is the
even when
illegitimacy
of relations
which
illegitimate
mate
inhuman
(and
illegiti
popular approval.
Here is the
key
democracy. Political
tures of obedience.
from the
Thus, he
that he is
case not
in any
explicitly,
although
is Tocqueville concerned with the illumination of rule, certainly implicitly but rather with that illumination which might awaken the souls of citizens. That
is his
souls as actual
in
an
theme, his only theme: How age of equality which has been
man
can
we prevent
the degradation of
in his
the
road or the
low
willed by destiny? For Tocqueville humanity is defined by his freedom. He can choose road. Keeping him from choosing the more comfort
determines the many institutional suggestions and considera tions to be found in Tocqueville. In themselves they are unimportant and dated.78 What is important is that man's sense for the higher things he pre
able path served and that
his sensitivity to
greatness
be
prevented
from
falling
asleep.
Therefore he
Let
us
writes at
then
that
for freedom,
salutary fear which makes men keep flabby, idle terror which makes men's
hearts
them.79
The
political
world
changes, "and
we must now
for
new
ills."80
This
Democracy
in America is
a response to
the
demand for
in the "Author's
Introduction."
Tocqueville
Naturally,
for his
with
the
principal
"classic."
sioned are
fascinating
p. p.
and
these occa
philosophic-
nouvelle,"
his basic
D.i.A. 11,
2 p. 335). 2 p. 334).
675
(O.C. 1,
86
It
Interpretation
that
a
sovereigns now
would seem
only
seek
to
do
wish
that
they
would
try
little
more
to make
men
great, that
they
should attach
less impor
remember
and more
they
is
should
constantly
that a
one
nation cannot
long
a
remain great of
if
each man
individually flabby
has
yet
devised
form
it is
society
what
Tocqueville
was
really
concerned with
in
lines
by
his
literary
There is
They Dog in
are
in the
volume of and
the
Sun")
helped
like to
quote
them:
auxins"
animus
/uturi
deeply
unhappy is the soul that anxiously thinks about the future. How true. He who thinks about the future is not happy. But to think anxiously about the future is human. It is
a
truth of the
first
live:
Only
hope
with
the
the uncertain, the anxious care, the prospective view, the the
at worry's
man
fear for
the
future
only
the
then
does that
sun.
which
distinguishes
no
begin. Without
future is
dog
in the
There is
times.
dog in
the sun
has
honors in
modern
great promise.
The leaders
sun
have
promised
for
so
long
that
in
model.
dog Gradually it
for
in the
is
becoming
clear what
lies
bottom
it
a colossal contempt
humanity.*2
Tocqueville
was
not
the
first
who
saw
through
the
new
despotism,
the
degradation
of man
the service of
by having first
modern civilization.
elevated
this theme
the
dog
in the sun,
modem
81. D.i.A. n, p. 676 (O.C. 1, 2 pp. 334-35). 82. Erhart Kastner, Der Hund in der Sonne (Frankfurt
1975).
P- 5-
a.
An Account
of
Recent
Medieval Islamic
Charles E. University
Scholarship Philosophy
in
Butterworth
of Maryland
Al-Farabi's
(The British
Commentary
with
and
Short Treatise
and
on
Aristotle's De
Interpre-
tatione. Translated
an
Introduction
and
Notes
by
F. W. Zimmermann.
Classical
clii
+ 287
pp.:
$145.00.)
Mabadi' Ara'
Al-Farabi
al-Madlna
al-Farabl's
Ahl
and
al-Fadila. A Revised Text with Introduction, Translation, Commentary, by Richard Walzer. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985. vii + pp.: $65.00.)
By
University Press,
of
1985. xii
+ 208
pp.:
$12.95.) $16.95.)
Averroes State
and
the Metaphysics
of
Causation.
By Barry
S. Kogan. (Albany:
University
a
Al-Matn
ace
al-Rushdi:
Corpus: Pref
to
New Reading].
1986.
By
Jamal
al-DIn
al-'AlawT.
(Casablanca: Editions
Toubkal,
245
pp.: paper,
$12.00.)
two translations, one with an
comprise
ophy;
edition of
analysis
of a
problem
central
to
metaphysical
teaching;
accepted
the heretofore
on
of will
writings,
especially his
commentaries
Aristotle. In
and
follows, I
try
to
explain
briefly
what each
book is
about
features. Aware that many readers of Interpretation will identify not be totally familiar with the details of scholarship about medieval Islamic philosophy, I will try to place each book within its scholarly context and draw
its
salient
attention to the
whose work
larger
questions
that surround
it
or
it is
addressed.
al-Farabi (about 870-950) is generally considered to important among the Islamic philosophers. If not the first, that honor going to Abu Yusuf Ya'qub Ibn Ishaq al-Kindl (d. about 866), Farabi is certainly the one who most captured the imagination of his readers by his
be the
subtle
investigations
His
that he
88
came
Interpretation
teacher,"
to be known
within
second
the
first
being
Aristotle.
Thanks to Muhsin Mahdi, Farabi's famous treatises The Philosophy of Plato, The Philosophy of Aristotle and The Attainment of Happiness are now available in English. Another work, his Aphorisms of the Statesman, is avail
,
able
in
fairly
reliable
English translation;
and
part of
Regime has been aptly translated by Fauzi Najjar in the Lerner-Mahdi Source book in Medieval Political Philosophy.
But few
ars
were of
Farabi's
works on
therefore desirous of
and
having
on
Zimmermann's translation
,
of
Farabi's
desir
Commentary
Short Treatise
Aristotle's De Interpretatione
price of
almost
Their hopes
in
vain.
the
long
introduction seeking to explain how Farabi may have gathered the ideas ex pressed in these works justifies the price. We are told in the introduction that Farabi
general.
was
anti-Christian,
anti-Muslim,
and
critical
of
Arabic thought
in
Zimmermann
also claims
degree,
ig
he
Syriac,
style.
and without
knowledge
of
he
would
rewrite
many
of
examples
exxix-exxxvii).
He then
goes on
to revise
emendations, omissions,
and additions.
Zimmermann is best
tradition of tion to that
at
recounting the
tedious atten
and
history
is
so
pronounced,
however,
its
he deems
idea to
consist
in
a relation of
genesis and
tate"
Moreover,
of
it
(xi:32-
indication
the
sources
known
by
Farabi that
or
have
prompted
Farabi's
general
observations
about
Aristotle's text
to
an
explanation of
how the
Whatever the
historical setting influenced Farabi's thinking. for instructing us about the history
too
of thought prior to
Farabi, it
what
all
frequently
leads Zimmermann to
erroneous
conjectures
about
Farabi
Muslim
living
ninth
to middle
century he must have considered Islam to be above question and philoso to be universal religion. Unable to make Farabi's discussion of jurispru phy dence (fiqh) and theology (kalam) in Chapter Five of The Enumeration of the
tenth
Sciences
mesh with
that
judgment, Zimmermann
incident to
Farabi's larger
resolve the
difficulty
(see xliii,
n.
Yet
attention to
political
teaching
or reflection
Recent
upon
Scholarship
in Medieval Islamic
Philosophy
would
89 have
allowed
Farabi's
philosophy
Zim
mermann
to avoid such a
By far
contempt superior much
Zimmermann's
for Farabi's
is
lead him to
notes
so as
in the
to the
of
introduction
and
texts as
in the
body
using
number of
different English
the same
conversely,
English
to translate a number of
and
different
difficult terms;
square
by
in
brackets.
uses
Plentiful
as are
justify
as
the
He
even
alters
simple
stylistic
devices
such
parallel
constructions
while
ignoring
style.
more complex
constructions,
to Farabi's
When
prompted
by
some
unspecified
urge,
Aristotle's
name
as
insertion;
indirect
the sentence
have
by
phrasing.
Finally, Zimmermann
be
resolved
passes over
in
by
reference to similar
passages elsewhere
in the text
or
Though it
the
hardly
compensates
simply emends them without comment. for the price, the one uncontestable merit
of
Zimmermann
The
great
appends
to
his
work.
appearance
of
Walzer's
scholars.
edition
and
rejoicing among 1970s, its fate had been the Gerhard Endress Walzer
Though it
first
announced
1975.
explains
in
footnote that he
and
his
students of
by
did nothing to add to or correct the manuscript completed Walzer before his death except for attempting to fill in the cross-references
and
ing, drawing up
inconsistencies in the
in the
cited
footnotes,
and com
piling detailed indexes. However commendable such dedication on their part, it did not suffice to overcome many shortcomings. Walzer holds that the way to understand Farabi is to find the source for his
commentary are thus replete with suggestions about texts might have prompted various thoughts by Farabi. His
and
is
so
deeply
all
rooted
that
when unable
to
identify
a particular author or
text, Walzer
surmises
the existence
of an author
to
us.
Consequently,
apply to Walzer's. Once again, the price of the volume is exceedingly high. The
90
Interpretation
reader notes
photocopy
Arabic text
a pho
tocopy
of a
sometimes so
carelessly copied text written by hand. Moreover, the Arabic text is faint as to be nearly illegible.
Walzer's
learning
was
for his
careful atten
however,
did
not as
teaching
itself,
being
The Principles
City
i
and not
as
of
he
suggests
in the Introduction,
Farabi
p.
features]
nal).
State"
(brackets in the
origi
More
importantly,
when
explains
cities
opposing the
virtuous
city
rendered
here
by
Walzer
as
"the
excellent
city"
Walzer translates
cities"
"individuals
55).
who make
up the
common people
in the
various
(pp.
253-
The Arabic is
without
ambiguity (min afrctd al-nds nawdhit al-mudun) and terminology in the Political Regime with an exten
no room
that
leaves
"weeds"
(nawdbit)
refers
to "common
people"
(see Kitdb
1964],
,
Najjar [Beirut:
Imprimerie Catholique,
p.
87:5-7
or
Najjar, in Lerner-Mahdi Sourcebook, pp. 41-42). As with Zimmermann, then, so with Walzer, we
and explanation of a
await a
very important text by Farabi. In Walzer's case, it is even difficult to be grateful for the edition of the Arabic text. Too many errors have
slipped
are
surely due to
carelessness,
but
others can
only
be
understood as
of mistaken readings of
the Arabic
manuscripts.
we reach
The
errors
key
philosophical
terms,
not
to
mention are
the grievous in
conventional
scholarly procedure,
for
publication.
including
lengthy
one
by
("On
Oriental The
cerned
Conventions,"
volume
each, one
part con
primarily with theoretical philosophy and the other with practical. To introduce his readers to Islamic philosophy, Leaman starts from the arguments
Abu
of
Hamid
al-Ghazal!
(1058-1111)
such
writings
on
theological
nature of
questions
and
about
issues
and
the soul
its
immortality,
al-Walld
God's knowledge
He
or
then
explains
how
philosophers
al-Husayn
Ibn Sina
or
Recent
Scholarship
in Medieval Islamic
and
Philosophy
91
Averroes (1126-1198),
same
issues.
offers no
Leaman
philosopher none
Jewish
philosophy.
no
The
exegesis provides
Had Leaman
historically, he
might
dialectical unfolding of Islamic philosophy and thereby justified including Ghazali and Maimonides. That is, he might have begun by identifying the
arguments
in Farabi
and
Avicenna that
aroused
upon
by
In that way, he
and yet place
basic themes
how
debate
was carried on
intro
re
duced Averroes, emphasizing his explicit attempts to refute Ghazali habilitate philosophy or at least to defend its pursuit. At this point, in
and
order
to
justify
what
is ostensibly
a slight
an
introduction to
explain set
have
made
digression to
own philosophical
forth
and
draws extensively
philosophers
The
part of
Leaman begins
are
by
considering the
deemed to be
subjective or objective.
In Islamic
context.
philosophy,
totally different
Farabi's
Leaman
would
better
advised to
or
begin
with
account of
of Happiness
and
to
explain
how
moral virtue
that
is,
ethics
He
could
account
is
by Avicenna,
attacked
by Ghazali,
a
tated
by
is
perceived
in Islamic jurisprudence
and theology.
This
eventually
leads him
themes.
is primarily
an
reading namely, Leo Strauss, Ralph Lemer, and myself. For some reason, ophy Leaman does not include that other well-known practitioner of esoteric reading, Muhsin Mahdi, in this
unwarranted
Averroes'
in
what
he terms
"esoteric"
an
of philos
coterie.
His
attack
on
Lemer
consists of
drawing by
an
inference from
a phrase
of
of puerile
Commentary
on
Plato's
about
Strauss is
Farabi
attacked
means or
countersuggestions
how to
read
on
Plato's Laws
suggestions about
Maimonides'
explain
reveal more about
procedure
that
Strauss is
in
each
92
Interpretation
about
shortcomings in his exegesis. But it is my interpreta Three Short forth in the introduction to my tion of Averroes as set Commentaries (Albany: SUNY Press, 1977) that receives Leaman's most
instance than
any
Averroes'
careful attention.
Since I have
above, I the
will
"esoteric"
responded myself
limit
approach.
essay mentioned here to presenting the basic themes of his critique of Leaman thinks that reading philosophy is "just a
to
his
arguments
in the
review
matter of
looking
at the
interesting
by
points and
judging
182).
. .
contain"
the reasoning
out what
of
process which
they
(p.
Those
put
who prefer
forward
hermeneutic
religion
techniques"
assume
"that the
between
of
and
importance to the
within
construction
philosophy"
that
(pp.
182
the arguments
original).
Leaman
conflict was
commentaries and
in fact terribly important and points to the many expositions on Greek philosophers composed by the Islamic Those familiar
with
philosophers as proof.
these writings
will
recall,
however,
his
that
they
are
serve
philosophy.
book
In fact, many of the texts Leaman refers to in the first drawn from those very commentaries and expositions.
It
is
well-written,
researched,
teaching
careful
attention use
Kogan
pays
and
the
judicious
he
makes of
(Incoherence of the Incoher ence), that is, his famous reply to Ghazali's attack upon the philosophers in the Tahdfut al-Faldsifah (Incoherence of the Philosophers). Kogan focuses upon
al-Tahdfut
Averroes'
Tahdfut
(a)
causes
(b)
we can
know they do
(a)
a act
so.
As it is
set
basic
position
implies that
of
causes
by
means of an
certain
kinds
to
effects,
and
(c) have
necessary
connection with
(d)
are prior
them,
and
(e)
explain
their effects.
upon
the
divine
Competent
engaging
as
efficacy leads him to deny the preceding. is Kogan's explanation, it is not without prob
rhetorical appeal
lems. The study opens with a general the dispute by placing the argument
for the
significance of
about causal
broader
context
in the
history
of philosophy.
ing
Averroes'
book, Kogan
he
concentrates
rejects
the basic
upon
Instead,
his
efforts
Recent
Scholarship
argument
in Medieval Islamic
with
Philosophy
93
procedure
entering into
unfortunate
Ghazali
and
Averroes. That
has the
consequence of
depriving
issue. Moreover, Kogan's insistence upon plunging immediately into intricacies of the extraordinarily complicated problem of causal efficacy the
texts at
without
learning
contextual
place or
setting prevents the reader from how it fits into Ghazali's attack upon
Averroes'
defense
of them.
emphasizes and
how
response
to
Ghazali leads to
whether
Farabi
Avicenna
as well as of
Ghazali
and
own
teaching
use
about causation.
It is questionable, however,
manner
Averroes does
cenna. against
as
Avi
Ghazali's
original charges
Farabi, he
as
never pauses
to
investigate
whether
rabi's position.
Nor does he
of
show
that Averroes
is
as
strong in his
Farabi
he is
Avicenna.
larger analysis, these
criticisms are minor. of a
Still,
plex
Kogan has
problem, and
probing investigation for this he deserves high praise. is best known for his
highly
com
Jamal Averroes
as
al-Din and
al-'AlawT
publications
of
works
by
otherwise
known
trea
Ibn Bajjah
Avempace (d.
on
1138).
several
tises
by
Averroes
logic
and
physics
in
manuscript
from the
al-Tlm
entitled
Maqdldt ff al-Mantiq
wa
(Treatises
on
Logic
and
was published
in Casa
blanca
at
Dar
al-Nashr al-Maghribiyyah.
same year,
by
Ibn
al-'AlawT appeared,
both
on
was a
detailed
bibliography
of
presentation of several
Bajjah's works, Muallifdt Ibn Bajjah (The Writings of Ibn Bajjah), the other a philosophical treatises by Ibn Bajjah, many of which
never
had
before been
published
Casablanca
A
year
(Philosophical Treatises of Abu Bakr Ibn Bajjah); both books were published in at Dar al-Nashr al-Maghribiyyah and in Beirut at Dar al-Thaqafah.
Averroes'
later
on
al-'AlawI
brought
Middle Com
mentary
al-'Alam)
based
the
Arabic
manuscripts
and
University
of
of
in Fez
at
the
Faculty
also
Literature
the
University
in this
related
of
While working
their
engaged
extensive
on
questions
him discussed
These
philosophical
questions, on
now come
as
it
were.
reflections
have
to
fruition in
reconsiders
Averroes'
94
Interpretation
as
these
have
come
down to
us
in
Arabic.1
writings
taries
new book, al-'AlawI calls into question the way Aristotle have traditionally been divided into Short Commen (Jawdmf). Middle Commentaries (Talklus, pi. Taldklus), and Long
In his
Averroes'
about
Commentaries (Sharh, pi. Shurith, or Tafsir, It is not that al-'Alaw! denies the validity
clature used
pi.
Tafasir).
of such a more
division
and
or the nomen
to denote it.
His
point
is both
limited
broader:
more
limited in that he
and
broader in that he
to enlarge the
really fall into this division division to include works like the
1983.
logical be
so
he
published
in
The latter he
considers to
many instances of Averroes coming back to precise questions first raised in one or another of his commentaries and attempting to resolve doubts that had plagued him in those earlier discussions. This aspect of al-'Alaw!'s argument
shows
in the book
uses
and as
these treatises
for
such a purpose.
is
designations.
the
According
category:
on
series of
Commentaries Commentary
Aristotle's Logic
treatise
now
identified
as
the
Short title,
on
Aristotle's De Anima. He
on
these a new
new
namely, Summaries
meant
Logic
and
Summary
titles are
work
is the summary
Averroes'
of a subject,
by
Aristotle.
treatises on logic
on
Since
have direct
"Topics,"
bearing
Averroes'
on
my
"Poetics"
Aristotle's
a criti
"Rhetoric,"
and
Press,
1977)
cal
Arabic
English translation
these works,
introduction
my
in this collection, I
respect to
would
more about
his
argument.
With
adduces
three
reasons
for his
proposed
revision of
another
(1)
that
"Summary"
to them
by
the term
in
(2) that none of the old book lists assigns to them the title "Short Commentaries"; and (3) that they differ from his other Short Commentaries in
work;
structure and
and
citations
that
follow,
see
pp.
49-57)-
Commentaries, 1 discussed
and concluded was
the prob
were not
lems
raised
by
points
and 2 at some
length
that
they
decisive (pp.
1
.
5-14).
My
argument
there, in brief,
in Arabic
or
that
Averroes'
reference
The
caveat about
these works
medieval
being
arises
that
only in
Hebrew
original
lost for
a number of reasons.
Recent
Scholarship
in Medieval Islamic
Philosophy
direct
the
95
on
Aristotle's
thus
are
Physics
not
citation and
old
indicative
how he
meant
to name them.
Secondly,
book lists
notoriously inaccurate
questionable.
and can
The third
tions.
reason
adduced
on
by
al-cAlaw!
does, however,
other
raise
major ques
These treatises
Short Commentaries in
not organize
intent.
They
Instead,
the
tises
introduce the
subject of
when
logic in
Isagoge. In addition,
be
Aristotelian texts, he
speaks at
Farabian
paradigms to explain
the forms
of syllogisms.
invert the traditional Aristotelian order, placing the discussion of sophistry after that of demonstration and before that of dialectic something tantamount to placing On Sophistical Refutations after the Poste rior Analytics and before the Topics. He does something similar in the treatise
even goes so
far
as to
on
the soul
work
various
faculties
of the
which
that
his
"is to
abstract
from every
how
one of the
explaining"
consists of
identifying
so
is formed
in the His
arts of
demonstration, dialectic,
sophistry, rhetoric,
poetics.
for
limiting
it is especially necessary to have this extent of the art in order to study the arts that have already been perfected, in the way most of the arts have been in this time of
ours.
He then
to
speak about
these arguments
is
either
arts that
performed or
it is useful, but in
than what
is
more excellent
in this
time of ours
also
is
be
almost
excellent"
here
can
in both instances
understood as
[afdal].)
For al-'AlawT, it is especially significant that Averroes limits himself to speaking about what is necessary for an understanding of the logical arts in
these treatises because he does something very
soul.
similar
in the treatise
on
the
in the latter work, namely, at the end of the he excuses himself for the brevity "The Discussion of At
one point
Taste,"
tion and
says:
96
Interpretation
discussion
of
an exhaustive
for
discussion
than
this, but
with respect
is
necessary.
If God
a
grants
longer life
and removes
this
distress,
these things in
we
more
distinct,
be
Yet
what
have
written about
for human
perfection and
by
which
human
ranks can
Averroes then
this time of treatise:
adds:
"For
anyone able
to
much
is
a great
deal in
of
Taking
opening lines
the
our purpose
about
in this discussion is to
establish
as
the
science of
in
greatest
conformity
with what
is
explained
in
in
agreement with
Aristotle's
purpose
al-'AlawT
works
stand
apart
from the
other
works
by
on
Averroes known
Short Commentaries.
He notes, for example, that Averroes begins the Short Aristotle's Physics
Our
Commentary
by
declaring:
purpose
of
Aristotle
and abstract
scientific
most reliable
doctrine;
and we will
of other ancients
besides him.
All
of this
he
cites
as
evidence
that
Averroes has
different
purpose
as
in the Short
treatises on logic
and on
Commentaries
on physical science.
none of
Now I dispute
each of
deny
the treatises on
Aristotle's
rather
by
making
his intention
al-
to speak about a
book
'AlawT in that I do
structural
not
attach
of
differences
and of
logic, it is
of
clear
that
is to
explain
Aristotle's understanding
much
Averroes
refers
to Farabi as
does
so
in
order to
clarify
on
particular points of
is true
with
the treatise
the soul.
about commenting upon a particular book or books by Aristotle in these treatises does not appear to me to provide sufficient evidence
Averroes'
silence
of a
different
approach
on
either, for I
note
Commentary
upon
De Anima he
says even
less
about at
his intention
about
of
commenting
of
without
speaks
length
the importance
further
Aristotle's
Recent
Scholarship
use of
in Medieval Islamic
"he
said"
Philosophy
beginning
97
from
or
De Anima is his
paraphrases of
(qdl)
at
the
of quotations
Aristotle's
on
arguments.2
the soul and those on logic differ from the other Short
Commentaries in that Averroes explicitly declares his goal as one of providing what is necessary to understand the subject matter rather than explaining
Aristotle's doctrine. In both
instances,
the
importance
of
the
subject
justifies
this limitation. That same emphasis on subject matter seems to account for the
structural plain
differences
noted above.
He has
no qualms
about
beginning
the
to ex
logic from something like a Porphyrean framework Aristotle's treatises, for he is intent above all on showing is
and on
art of
reordering logic
correcting
of
current
misunderstandings of
same
line
of
division
roes'
reasoning explains his inattention to the traditional tripartite Aristotle's De Anima in the treatise of the soul.
with
al-rAlawi about
this
aspect of
Aver
entitled a
Short Commentary
on
on
s s
De Anima
and
Short Commentaries
Aristotle'
Logic.
with
Nonetheless, despite
al-'AlawT's on these
this disagreement
book
formal
draws
impor
perfected
in his time
thing
on
exceptional about
s
his
Commentary
Plato'
Republic
as
for
Averroes'
broader teach
ing
is
Perhaps
tion of the different parts of the corpus and the various programs of commen
tary followed by Averroes at various stages in his life that may be, he clearly provides a solid overview of
corpus and makes it possible
are relevant.
However
for
scholars with
knowledge
Latin
about
parts
to investigate
whether
these confirm or
deny
his many
Averroes'
activity
as a commentator of
Aristotle.
2.
extant
Hebrew
Arabic written in only in Judaeo-Arabic manuscripts by al-'AlawI. The treatises on logic are likewise extant
only in Judaeo-Arabic manuscripts except for my previously cited edition and translation of three of them. His reference to a phrase from the introduction to these treatises (p. 51, n. 6) mistakenly cites the Paris Bibliotheque Nationale manuscript as a source. At this point, however, that manu
script
has
a major
lacuna.
Discussion
This is the first of what, it is hoped, will be several rounds of discussion of Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind.* The editors of Interpreta
tion
welcome
comments
from the
author
as
well
as
from interested
readers
.
generally.
The
Dannhauser
cussion,
one. and
and
practical reasons
kept Werner J
of dis
present round
hope
they
will
find it
in
a subsequent
1987.
393
pp.: cloth,
$18.95;
paper,
$7.95.
Socratic Reason
The Place
of
and
Lockean Rights
in
a
the
University
Liberal
Democracy
William A. Galston
I
Like Rousseau
awoke
after the
publication
of
the First
to find
his
age
at
the
point of
its
He dared to
most
suggest
that "our
untrammeled tolerance
what an
destmctive
of vices.
And
attack!
By
took on
his
subject
in
a manner
utterly
contemptuous of current
fashion,
and
virtually
reviewed
Instead,
with rare
exceptions, it was
respectful
journals,
and
those rare
Closing literary
The
of the
of the American
it quickly Mind is
reveals
to the
than a
deeds that
the
doubts,
the
fears,
and
the
longings
of
its
audience.
reception of
inquiry
of
its own,
as an
indication
deep foreboding
complacent
surface of
contemporary culture. The Closing of the American Mind has three distinguishable, though inti
strands: a
mately related,
v ewed
detailed description
of modern an
American society,
expla
historical-analytical
nation of the
ills
revealed elements
by
that
description;
and as
finally,
a proposed cure
for
esting
is to be
explained"
(p.
255).
a
In this respect,
of a
American Mind is
defense
ing,
and of
the
modem
institutional
the university
not
that shelters
so
just objectively,
and
to
ac
speak, but
also subjectively.
intensely
personal
self-revealing
way
of
life. It is not,
as some
have
argued, a
jeremiad; it is
Bloom's Apology.
II
On the level
of
description
not
of
because I
contemporary society I will have relatively am sure Bloom is right but because I do
102
Interpretation
the
requisite evidence and
not possess
to say he is
wrong.
(In
one area,
though, I do
the
have
some evidence,
I feel
constrained
to
remark
that his
account of
alleged
lack
of natural connection
between fathers
[p. 115]
than the
conforms neither
to my
my generation.) If there is a difficulty, it lies in the accuracy of Bloom's description. He states that his
rather
"sample"
consists
in
stu
the future elite. But he some twenty thirty best universities times speaks as though what he says about these students is true of American
dents
at
the
or
society
as a whole.
Based
on
my
include
lengthy
and
systematic
discussions is
with much
"ordinary
less relativism,
moral
across
the country,
I have
for traditional
than might
virtues,
the
family
be
a sample of
elite students.
difficulty,
and
he
at
appears to respond to
and
it
as
follows: Influential
downward. First
comes
gradually filter top dangerous philosophy, then the corruption of the intel
of opinion
begin
the
lectuals,
leaders,
and
finally
wholly implausible, it is
arena of a struggle
between those
advance,
During
the past de
moral rel
cade, in
fact,
there
has been
and
the perceived
ativism of the
wide.
elites,
Of
course
not socially and is capable of resisting what it does not like. In as for worse it is the people who ultimately
very many of those who are likely to be have healthy opinions. But the public
a
is
now
democracy
for better
as well
rule.
Ill
Why
rights of
has the
elite
American
mind
deserted its
founding
convictions
the
in favor
of an openness
official
answer,
the plot
line for
much of
relativistic
German
yoke of alien
can
hardly
be the full
answer.
enormous success
needs
it
gratified
American
mind was
that
is,
why this
Continental victory
occurred.
really Bloom
so well-ordered
suggests
to ask,
two seemingly
contradictory but ultimately reconcilable answers. First, Nietzsche as mediated through Freud interpreted the higher in light of the lower, an approach that
proved
especially
popular
in
democracy
supposed
special
of what makes
(p.
232).
But
Socratic Reason
second,
an
and
Lockean Rights
103
an essential corrective
Americanized Nietzsche
whose
provided
to early
democratic theory,
man
low but
solid
foundation failed
to flatter democratic
sufficiently,
by holding
age
out the
autonomous,
moral,
possibility that everyone could be creative, the very definition of nobility in a transIn short, Nietzsche
as
received
postphilosophic
(p.
144).
in this
us
country simultaneously
all
undermined
opportunity being aristocrats. These suggestions, in turn, make me doubt that the story can simply be the victory of foreign corruption over domestic health. It is more nearly adequate
the
of
latent problems,
and ac
provides us with an
indigenous trends, already present in American life. Indeed, Bloom impressive catalogue of such phenomena. Liberal tolerance
it
seeks
fosters
claims
relativism when
to superiority outside the realm of freedom fosters relativism when it seeks to become
rational
by
limits (p.
28).
Democratic
egalitarianism
fosters
relativism
grating heroism and delegitimating rank-ordering among human beings (pp. 66, 90). Egoistic individualism fosters relativism by denying natural relatedness
among, and duties toward, other human
liberal-contractarian
account suggests
view of
the
that
modem
liberal
family democracy
(pp.
less it is
somehow
mitigated
by
external
straints, aristocracy)
with which
it is
(see
stratum of
his
argument are
is
by
Liberal democracies
the
home
of
by
the effort to
dangerous
tmth
passions
for
aristocratic
political
power,
for
religious
in the
living: "Neither
of course
longing
natural
nor enthusiasm
belong
to the
But
these
desires
cannot
torted
expression
be wholly eradicated, and they thus find stunted, dis in democratic societies (pp. 183, 3296.). The appeal of
Nietzsche, like
existence not
was
that of
Rousseau, is
or
leaves fallow,
lays
waste.
mind of
America did
have to be
rammed open
by
alien philosophy,
Enemy
IV
If
to the invader
by
our
inchoate
relativism
is the
modem
democratic disease,
what
is the
cure?
can
best
approach
this
question
It
was
in the fall
of
1963,
during
Bloom's
unforgettable
"Introduction to
104
Interpretation
Philosophy,"
Political
that I
first
first
encountered pages
and
powerful
on, I
immediately
that I
was
in
it
Strauss's Introduction
challenged
Americans
not to
and
German relativism,
that
is,
teleological
read on
eagerly,
hoping
to
find
an account of
the
grounds on which
be rationally reaffirmed and the problem posed by modern science surmounted. But as I finished Natural Right and History, I was perplexed. Far from
reaffirming the
those rights
rights of
philosophic
ground of
Hobbes'
and
Locke's
had been
decisively
his
criticized
by Rousseau,
who carried
predecessors
to its logical
conclusion.
(My
Philosophy?,"
perplexity only deepened when 1 that Nietzschean nihilism thought, the inevi
is the
culmination and
highest
self-consciousness of modern
for the
problem
Strauss had
made
it
clear at
be
clarified within
the
step in his narrative, Strauss showed that the political thinkers of modernity accepted the antiteleological implication of modern science and shaped their political teachings in its light. Evidently the
of the social sciences.
But
at each
problem posed
by
science could
be deferred but
not
indefinitely
find
no
evaded.
Yet
as
Strauss's writings, I
could
definitive
account
of
this matter. In the preface to the seventh impression of Natural Right and
History (1971),
nearly two decades after its initial publication and only shortly before his death, Strauss explicitly reaffirmed his "inclination to the natural right teaching of classical antiquity. But to the best of my knowledge, he
never cleared
away
what
as
intellectual
is poison,
obstacle
to
that
To
summarize:
at
the heart
of
Bloom's
narrative.
He
suggests, for example, that there is an essential conflict between the human ities including philosophy and modem natural science (p. 372). At the
same
time, he
notes that no
influential
modern
thinker
has tried to
(p.
return
to the
pre-Enlightenment
teleological
understanding
or suggests
of nature
181).
More to
be
situated within
the
Yet
much of
Bloom's book
consists
in
a critique of pp.
every
193.
301-302).
There is
must
no third path.
If the
be
ex
sidestepped, it
be addressed,
is
this choice:
he
Socratic Reason
and
Lockean Rights
to
105
nor confronts
irrelevance
difficulties
engendered
by
its
antiteleological stance.
Bloom's
recapitulation of
Strauss's
other conundrum
the status of
modern
states
natural right
is
even more
fundamental to his
entire enterprise.
Bloom
teaching
establishes
the "frame
university"
(p. 288),
which
institution
it is his
rooted of
purpose
natural
right, in turn,
is
in the
state of nature
(p.
In particular, the American understanding undergirds the American university, rests on the
162).
state of nature as
depicted
by
Locke (pp.
argues
165-66).
decisively
find
a
by Rousseau,
he had
"Locke, in his
problem,
eagerness to nature
or automatic
made
do
much
do"
than
(p.
176).
The
modem
of nature
teaching
that
university Bloom wishes to defend thus rests on by his own account must be judged defective.
profound
wrong.
a state
This
chain of
inference has is
insecurely
If Locke is wrong, then the university founded. Yet at this critical juncture, in
pulls
hardly
rigor of
argument.
Rousseau, he declares,
nature and
mine).
"explodes the
[Lockean]
be"
harm-
oniousness
ise"
between
(p.
177;
emphasis
society that seems to be the American prem lurks the In this ambiguous "seems to
at
natural
rights
Americans
still
subscribe
justice,"
only ishes
institutions Bloom
of our rational
rights
of man,
conceived, worthy
devotion? in this
That is the
otherwise
question.
it
compelling book.
V
It may be argued that the immediately preceding argument is deeply unfair. After all, Bloom distinguishes between modern and Socratic rationalism. The impasse of modern rationalism, which Nietzsche both observed and exem
plified, is not the impasse
of reason simpliciter
(p.
310).
Indeed,
that
impasse
It
classical understanding.
is Socratic
of
rationalism rationalism
that
is the
the
university, and
it is the defense
Socratic
307).
253>
Locke's defeat
heart
of
Bloom's
enterprise.
This
return
argument
is however
to classical
rationalism cannot
Bloom's
own account
106
out
Interpretation
modern
first surmounting the obstacle posed by which, as 1 have indicated, Bloom does not
natural
science,
task
ad
even
begin to
undertake.
In
dition, it is by
count)
rest
or
how
Socratic
rationalism
leads to
own ac as
(again,
on
Bloom's
both liberal
democracy
and
the
modern
university.
Finally,
Bloom
argues at
a crucial
disagreement between
classical civil
society.
Classical
rationalism
between philosophy and politics and that the trial and execution was a dramatic manifestation of that tension. Modern rationalism,
sees
Socrates
contrast,
by
relation
between philosophy
and rendered
it
society
can
be
improved by,
reason.
of philosophic and
Bloom
espouses
both
Socratic
conception
reason
post-
Socratic
between
The
question
necessarily arises whether this combination is tenable. This tension comes to a head in Bloom's depiction of the
providing highest justification. The dom
a public
university.
It is in
reason
by fostering
The
use of reason
true openness,
which
is free
248-49).
essence of the
cultivation of the
"noninstrumental
for its
Those
who spend
of noninstrumental reason
human faculties
than
and
hence
are
benefactors
their
for
what
they
are
for
what
(and,
how
no matter
comfortable, no
matter
tender sentiments
can
be
civilized"
called
respectable), no society how technically adept or full of (p. 21). In and through the univer
being
diluted to
such an
Socrates
can
become
a respected
proof
even useful
member of civil
"The
successful
university is the
(p.
252).
the well-being of all, without stunting human potential or to the goals of the
regime"
imprisoning
his society
the mind
As Bloom
summarizes
credo:
"Never
did I think that the university was properly Rather, I thought and think that society is
ministerial to the
around
it. I
a
bless
eternal
childhood
for some,
(p.
245).
blessing
society"
to
If,
Bloom
the
highest task
have
reached
its
culmination
of ancient political philosophy was to for philosophy (p. 276), this task would appear to in modern liberal democracy's artful dissolution
inescapable.
Yet
matters are
not so simple.
Early
on.
Bloom tells
us that
every
educa-
Socratic Reason
tional system
and
Lockean Rights
moral
107
has
specific
human
being
or
in
fundamental
principles
01 ad
it
not, wants and needs to produce men and women who have the
regime"
tastes,
knowledge,
to
26).
inevitably
it
will
comes
under
pressure
to become
we
democracy
after all.
To the
extent that
it is
not
ministerial,
may confidently
sition.
predict that
sooner or
later
encounter political
oppo
But Bloom's university is far from wholeheartedly democratic, in at least three respects. First, modem democracies concentrate on the useful, while the university is directed toward the noninstrumental (p. 250). Second, democracies rest on settled principles equality and the rights of man
modem
which call
it is the
question
purpose
of philosophic reason,
sheltered
in universities, to
(pp.
into
in the
248-49).
Third,
of
modem universities
genization of
human beings,
superior
tendency
inequality
of natural spirit
aristocracy (pp.
"Socrates'
The university,
Bloom, began in
himself from the
contemptuous and
insolent
distancing
(p.
of
Athenian
versity]
and
on
people"
(p. 311),
and
it
must maintain
must
be
opinion"
contemptuous of public
Bloom is
shocked
dismayed his
own
when
free
public exercise of
of
reason, is entirely
It is the triumph
politics,
Socrat-
ically
understood, over the public exercise of Socratic reason. From this stand
official account of
point, Bloom's
the
fall
of
the
must be re victory of a vulgarized Nietzsche over the vestiges of Socrates vised. It would be at least as tme to say that the fall of the university represents the revenge of the demos on the last embattled remnants of aristocracy in an
increasingly
VI
I come,
democratic
age
(see
pp.
319, 326,
353).
finally,
to the
question of students.
Bloom
maintains
that,
unlike
the
students of the
neither
in the Bible
of
nor
in
the tradition of
these traditions
need"
has
made
today's students
narrower and
flatter,
without
the "felt
for the
kind
of noble openness
university teaching can take root, (pp. 51, 61). is too thin to "sustain the taller
soil
growths"
in
that soil
But I
can speak of
108
Interpretation
the students of
twenty
years
ago that
was
Bloom
evokes
with
such
nostalgic af mem
one of
them. It
indeed
a marvelous time.
But my
fully
square with
Bloom's
account.
many
of us were
particularly well versed in the Bible or I know I was not. Most of us had how
television was not yet a
and
up in
families
was
where
dominant force,
respected.
families in
reached
which
encouraged
learning
was
We
midst of
the
biggest, longest
economic
boom in
the
history
world, and
or
we never worried
we were willing to take intellectual risks because had to worry about the effects of risk-taking on our living. At that time, the United States was the undis with a
virtually
We trusted
our government.
We
were
not
really
We
were patriots.
(We
were
also
relativists,
by
the
cured us of that of
brash,
how
was
open
hubris
quickly enough.) The United States had the Athens before the Sicilian expedition, and we all some
willingness
participated
in large
measure
kind
of aristocratic
distinction that
might
be
possible
within a
democratic
across
society.
As I look
generation, I
separates
am struck
by
the importance
of socioeconomic
forces
and political
events,
most of which
Bloom
hardly
mentions:
stagflation, television,
divorce,
gasoline
the Vietnam
have helped
today
s students career-ori
ented,
closed to
speculation,
afraid of
taking
foreign
policy fiascoes have undermined confidence; that repeated breaches of public tmst have bred cynicism; and that television has perceptibly eroded both the capacity to concentrate and the taste for reading. I also agree with Bloom that
family instability and rising divorce rates have wounded children in ways that reduce healthy openness when they reach the university. None of this is to deny Bloom's basic thesis that if true learning is to be
possible,
nature needs the assistance of convention.
un
duly
em
in affecting the
for
openness,
in the
history
as
produced
almost
entirely
by
the dissemination of
stagnation and
matter, the
and
epidemic of
broken families
can
Nietzsche
Heidegger.
as
his baseline
It
of comparison an all-too-brief
was a
American higher
am
education.
Golden Age,
no
doubt
ex
as
it. But 1
forced to
wonder
whether
were most
not
ceptional
by
history
is
not
part,
particularly hospitable to
the
Socratic Reason
and
Lockean Rights
109
Philosophy in
chain.
America
will
always
be
vulnerable
to the
practical
by
a venerable
The
problem goes
violence of the
vacuity
of
least
an ambivalent
with
bourgeois society
as a whole.
(Is it
by
chance that
the emotional
peak of
his
introductory
absence
of
lecture
on
cherishes
despises the
is only to be found in liberal democracy, but he longing in the soul of the bourgeois. He wishes to
of
defend the university through an appeal to the principles but the thinkers to whom he appeals with the greatest
throughout
liberal democracy,
and effect
frequency
are all crit Socrates, Plato, Rousseau, and Nietzsche ics of liberal democracy. Locke, he suggests, is more politically salutary than Rousseau, but less psychologically profound. And besides, he insists, Rous
seau was
his book
ing
ultimately the more consistent thinker. Until the grounds for support liberal democracy are more firmly established than this, the status of reason
therewith of the
and
university insecure.
in the
modem
world
will
of
necessity
Humanizing
A Critique
of
Certitudes
The
and
Impoverishing
Doubts
Closing
by
Allan Bloom
Harry V Jaffa
At the
end of
July
1987, Mark
McGwire,
of
Claremont, California,
and
the
Oakland As, had hit 37 home runs, and led both major leagues. He had equaled the home run record for rookies in the American League, and was only one
short of
Records, however,
"Feenom."
are
young Mr. McGwire still had nearly half the without question what in sports is called a
and
year's games
is
At book
time McGwire
was
of the American Mind, by Allan Bloom, was pub lished. Its rise to the top of the nonfiction best seller list has been as explosive as young McGwire's bat. Its staying power at the top of that list extending over many months is no less astonishing than its swift anabasis. The demand
The
Closing
for it is
and
widespread radiating outwards from Chicago, New York, Boston, Washington (not to mention Paris, where it is said to be going like "hot
crepes")
much a
to
top
most regional as
event
lists,
in
as
well
as the national.
It is surely
as
"Feenom,"
Whatever the
ultimate
recent sports
as to the
be
no
an ex
Something,
doubt,
be
conceded
to the
of traditional
denunciation
of
morality is accompanied by a great deal of immorality like the famous reformer who, at the
turn
of
of
highly
publicized
invasions jammed
of
the red
light districts
on
the ensuing
Sundays,
when
his
congregation
(as
reporters)
assembled
to hear of his
virtuous
iniquity. With
well.
much greater
sophistication,
Bloom
also
does it very
wake of women's
"liberation"]
Men
one of
the strongest,
the
old
for marriage is no longer easily enjoy previously could be had only in marriage. It is strange that the tiredest "He won't stupidest bromide mothers and fathers preached to their daughters
operative.
can now
sex that
and
respect you or
marry
you
if
you give
him
what
he
easily"
wants
too
turns
out
to
be the truest
and most
probing
analysis of
the
current situation
(p.
132).
Reading
sion
the
first
part of
The
Closing
one
with
its discus
"Sex,"
along the
foregoing lines
"Eros,"
"Race,"
of such
"Divorce,"
"Love,"
and moral
is
forcibly
stmck
by
its
resemblance to the
aspects of
Rev.
Jerry
112*
Interpretation
and
of
Falwell
correct
the homilies
of
the Rev.
about
relativism
seducing young
also right
men
thereby saving
other
when
their
boy
com
in pointing to the
and much
troubles
that
young
reason
in the
"liberated"
pany
of their
unsupported
"value"
women.
If
or
"values"
equally
nificant.
by
by
revelation,
which
becomes just
another
"opinion"
or
or
insig
deal."
Thus Bloom
young
women as
saying that
those
and
sex
is "no
big
sex
is
always a
big deal,
and
ever-widening trail of
one
disaster, disease,
death in their
wake.
He is
vigorous
of
the
sexual
promiscuity, as the
foregoing
observations of
the
frozen in "The
Sixties,"
his
end of that
decade,
and remained
in
self-imposed exile
for
most of
the decade
that
followed.) His
remarks about
feminism,
the
and the
changing
not
because they
are mistaken, or
irrelevant,
movement,
intervening
years
so-called
"gay
Bloom
not
hardly
challenge,
As 1 have
and can
argued
merely to sexual morality, but to all morality. in "Sodomy and the Academy: The Assault
'Liberation' Ethics"
on the
Family
Ameri
Morality by
(American Conservatism
pp.
and the
the recognition of
both
a moral and a
legal
the
most
complete repudiation
dards
of
human
but
conduct.
The
reason
why
we regard
the
killing
of other
human
beings
not
the
killing
of cattle
as murder,
is because
we are members
That is to say,
The
as
reason we
but
not
of cattle
wrong,
is
because
species.
equality
reason
This is
also
the
discrimination
can, I
as
wrong.
Every
which
of rights among fellow members of the same for regarding racial or religious or even sex moral distinction that can be called to mind
believe,
human
be
shown to
have the
same origin or
ground,
including by
the very
appeal.
idea
of
rights
to
lesbians themselves
individuals
But the
species
is defined
the presence
in
it
of
individuals is the
of
of opposite
sexes
who
can
generate new
of the
Nature is the
"male
ground of all
ground of nature.
adds
The Bible, in
describing
he
as
man
as
created
in the
image
God,
and
female
them,"
created
implying
nature's.
that God's
so-called
own existence
is
grounded
in the
same
distinction
The
and
rights"
"gay
movement
is then the
ultimate repudiation of
nature,
therewith
a
morality.
around
for
long
Humanizing Certitudes
time
as
we
and
Impoverishing
we
Doubts
faced
1 13
with
are
here is
not
demand that
are
between consenting adults. We homosexuality faced with a public demand for the admission into law and morality of an
a private matter right of
be
equal
homosexuality
and
never
in my
experience
been anything like the Gay campus with a GLAD week every
sanctioned
Lesbian Centers,
and
(Gay
now on
by
by
local (and
than
national)
politicians.
never seen
more
years
Bloom,
and
I have
today.
It is difficult
enough
in boy/girl,
question.
man/woman
relationships.
But this
difficulty
is
compounded
called
boy/girl,
of
man/woman
into
This is is
belong
to the
human
perhaps
race
now
thousands
hundreds
of thousands
country,
who never
had
by
overpowering
pressure
of
ganda.
Many
young men,
as
who
do
not
"liberated"
with
with men
"liberated"
women, who
any
more
(except
enemies), take
moral
refuge
in sodomy
constituted
the great
crisis of
Bloom is
almost
entirely
of
silent about
it.
corresponds
The chronology
public movement
the
AIDS
epidemic
and
precisely
as a
with
this
sodomy lifestyle. In nothing has the power of relativism can higher education manifested itself more
to
establish
lesbianism
and the
recommended of
disgrace
Ameri
of
than
in its
endorsement
homosexuality. But
and nature
whatever
have
exacted
terrible
proved
to be a
assault
has
mounted
its
humanity, chastity
upon
the monogamous
family
may be This
seen to
be
old
Unfortunately,
for
for the
the
argument
self-preservation.
argument
the
discovery
for their
And, I
be very unwise for them ever to bet against God. A few years ago, this remark would have provoked gales of laughter. This time I looked out upon the most
solemn
faces I had
ever seen!
we
have
certitud
ing
arguments
Nicomachean Ethics),
must
merely
Bloom's
"enriching "humanizing
doubts."
Morality
The
arguments
be seen,
not
as
Aristotle
sees
it,
as a means to
ness, and
merely
desire for
114*
Interpretation
made not
must
be
pursue a good
as to
how
one
may avoid a bad death, but how one can find those arguments in The Closing of the
speaks
and even of
American Mind.
Notwithstanding
the evils that he is
are to
not
the
foregoing. Bloom
eloquently
not mean
wisely
of relativism.
And,
it turns
out
just
another
Bible thumper. (I do
be despised, but only that they have no standing in our universi of of political all things, a professor philosophy, pointing to ties.) He is, rather, his fellow university teachers as the source of this poisonous and literally
demoralizing
Bloom for
must go a
long
guidance
are
to
find their
optimism
short-lived.
Having
eloquently
portrayed
does
"bro
human
conduct
implied in its
rejec
in his
own
invocation
writes
concerning
It is
not
chastity.
Thus he
the
immorality
the
of relativism that
I find
appalling.
What is astounding
239).
and
degrading
going lack
is
dogmatism
that means
for
our
lives (p.
In
one
issue
of
Insight magazine,
was
as well as
in feature
stories
in The
Washing
ton
Times, Bloom
who
hailed
as
"the
general
in the
relati
war against
But those
implied
with
a stand
in favor
care
or
of
they did
repeat rejects
not read
him
sufficient
astuteness.
immorality
going"
appalling."
of relativism
is only
"easy
turns
relativism.
"low"
at the
in the light
of
the
"high,"
"high"
the
of
be the One
"extraordinary
might
German
and
nihilism.
is
comic
in its blandness
whereas
indifference to the
man version
genuine significance of
choices
in its Ger
of
fundamental human
of
dignity
high
Bloom's
philosophical
for
example,
Nietzsche
once
Heidegger
wrote
tragedies.
well
wrote
extraordinarily
with
pp.
Bloom,
cially,
Harry
Othello. (See Shakespeare's Politics, by Allan Jaffa, Basic Books, 1964, Chapter 3. See espe
on cannot
woman would
surmise
betray
her
husband
world."
even
only
how
students
for
the play. One guesses only that for them it is a big black comedy about crazy people. The greatness of Othello is inextricably bound up with the fact once so powerfully expounded by Bloom himself
whom sex
read
is "no
deal"
of partners
in
Children
of
Israel
by
the
God
of
Israel. Bloom
wants
Humanizing Certitudes
to turn
and
Impoverishing
"impoverishing
Doubts
115
to
his
students
seems
from their
certitudes"
"humanizing
was a
doubts."
But it
certitudes" certitudes."
erishing necessary in
the minds of
marriage.
be
by "enriching
as to
After all, it
condition of
the
tragedy in Othello
Desdemona
doubt,"
that there
be
no
doubt
whatever
in
Othello
and
fidelity
less than any other kind, would dissolve the tragedy into a tale of silly mistakes. It seems to me that Nietzsche's and Heidegger's theoretical teaching is far more profoundly subversive of the
"Humanizing
no
universe of
the sitcoms of
we must ask whether a
Woody Allen,
which who
draw
so much of
And
recommended more or
the
less
apt to
been
replaced and
by
be young benefit from it, if her cheap generic drugstore relativism had the high and tragic nihilism of the parent of all relativism
chastity,
woman would
"bromide"
Nietzsche
Heidegger? Do
agonize over
we
really
want
abyss
of
nothingness
and
whether
to have sex
a
her boyfriend? As
phrase
Bloom
must
familiar
of
Leo
Strauss),
whether
the outcome,
least
or
first,
nine times out of ten, will be the same, just hops into bed. Thus Aristotle, in the
Nicomachean Ethics
Nor does
goodness or
badness
with regard
to
such
things [viz.
passions such as
upon
committing adultery with the right woman, at the right time, but simply to do any of them is to go wrong (i I07ai5ff. ).
in the
right
way,
argument of
by
basic
moral
education.
that
liberal
education should
of moral choice
basis
of
liberal
Bloom, it
A moving passage in The Closing of the American Mind, and the one that to me conveys Bloom's critique of relativism most effectively, is the following:
My
only
grandparents were
ignorant
people was
by
our
standards,
rich
and
my
all
grandfather
held
only
lowly
what was
because
the things
in it,
the commentaries on
them,
and
had
their
imaginative
in the deeds
grandparents
found
for the
existence of
family
My
of
they interpreted their special sufferings with respect to a great and ennobling past. Their simple faith and practices linked them to great scholars and thinkers who dealt with the same material, not from outside or
their
duties in
from
an alien perspective,
guidance.
but
believing
as
providing
There
they did, while simply going deeper and for real learning, because it had a felt
116
Interpretation
their
connection with
lives. This is
and
what a
community
and a
history
mean,
a common
experience
inviting
high
low into
a single
body
of
1 do
idea
of authoritative
tra
how it dignifies human life. Of course, Bloom is referring to the Jewish tradition the most conservative of all traditions, beginning as it
dition,
beginning."
am confident
like my
tradition that
was represented
am
sure
that
they felt,
on as
as
by Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln. did Moses Seixas, sexton of Newport's Touro
of
the
occasion
Washington's
visit
to Newport.
the
He he
another
Joshua
people
who
by
Lord,
as
of this new
Zion Rev
olution
and even
have
not
become
victims of a univer
sity
education
have
beginning, America
the new
Israel,
as
light to lighten
all
the nations,
concerning the principles of political and religious liberty, has been a theme of public discourse. And for the very reason that America could become a Zion to
all the
nations, it
could
become
the
first time in
any
more
than
recognized as citizens of
nation.
It
repre
history
that
as equal
and
fellow
tive
because it
Father
came
from the
one man
who,
President in
Head
of
State,
and as
of
his
Country,
as
equal
Washing
recognized them as
possessing
under
human participants,
add
here,
a
by
the
combination order of
peculiarly American synthesis the Bible, and of the no less moral and
of
into
less
the
Declaration
Independence. In Lincoln's
second
inaugural
in
the Bible
both Old
and
New Testaments
and the
ble
but
profound
this, in their hum does Bloom look Why only abroad, to that German traditions, nihilism, for that which is already his by
way.
then
inheritance?
of
Bloom's genuinely
poetic
and
nostalgic
I do
not
American way,
believe that my generation, my cousins who have been educated in the all of whom are M.D.s or Ph.D.s, have any comparable learning.
Humanizing Certitudes
When they talk
parents and
and
Impoverishing
earth, the
Doubts
between
1 17
men and women,
about
heaven
and
relations
children, the
human condition, I hear nothing but cliches, superfici satire. 1 am not saying anything so trite as that life is fuller
have
myths to
live by. 1
that
life based
research
upon
the
Book is
to
for deeper
in
and access
the
real nature of
great revelations,
epics,
and philosophies as
vision, there is nothing to see out there, and eventually little left
not
the only
means of
to
furnish
mind,
but
without a
book
of
gravity, read
with
the gravity
the potential
believer, it
will remain un
Bloom
to that
says that
of
his
generation
his
cousins
have
no
"comparable
learning"
that there
makes
is any
"comparable"
learning
rejects
no
attempt
they
as
understood recognizes
them
selves,
and
he tacitly
life,
even
he
in it
something rich and wonderful that is lacking in his own. Bloom's evocation of his grandparents is touching, but it is barren. He denies that he is saying "anything so trite as that life is fuller when people have What then is he saying? That "a life based on the Book is myths to live
by."
things?"
closer
to the truth
[and]
provides
access
But
what
is the
source or ground of
knowledge that
to Leo
According
and
Strauss,
"na
is
discovery
of
philosophy,
is
alien
By
by God,
self-subsisting reality independent of the will of God. Of course, Judaism, like medieval Christianity, assimilated the idea of "the laws
God"
within
is
of course
in
our
own
Declaration
of
Independence.
from the
Bible itself
great
judgment
of
"Without the
"
Bloom writes,
of the
out there
The descent
Bible is
being
only
one of
"revelations."
many
"epics"
And
"revelations"
such
lower
"books,"
case
along
part of our
"philosophies."
with natural
and
vision."
We
Bloom, "as
artifacts
But books
are
artifacts.
If, however,
there
determine the
content of our
vision, if
without
these
artifacts
vision"
visual
reality is in tmth
such
an artifact.
"Natural
no optical reality)!
Conversely, if
objects of
there is
thing
as
be
natural
these
or
be independent
of
of
be
accounts of
reality,
interpretations
reality, but
they
speak.
To say that
without
Yet
118
Interpretation
manifest
Bloom's nihilism,
as we
have
seen,
contradicted
things."
by
his
reference to
both "natural
vision"
"the
real nature of
This
contradiction runs
throughout
beginning
to
end.
of
Mind,"
there is in
truth little or nothing American about the mind or minds that are characterized,
other
in the tradition
of
different sense)
of
Henry Henry
Pa
can
risian-Bohemians
Hemingway. He
breathe
freely
aristocratic stood
only in the presence of the symbols (and ruins) of Europe's past. American democracy, as Americans themselves have under book to him.
about pages
it, is
a closed writes
Bloom Names
thinkers
more
often
French like
and
drop
upon
his
summer
German philosophy and literature. flies. There are the great modem
Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Heidegger. There are the literary types, Ibsen, Joyce, Dostoyevsky, Proust, Kafka, Celine, Mo liere, Flaubert, Schiller, and of course Goethe. There is not a single reference
Cooper
or or
to
Hawthorne
or
Emerson
or
Whitman
or
Dreiser
Sinclair Lewis
or
Edith Wharton
(p. tioned, but only because he represented a "side of Rousseau's thought 171). Above all, there is nothing about Melville or Mark Twain! In "Tom Sawyer: Hero of Middle (Interpretation, Spring 1972, reprinted in
America,"
The Conditions of Freedom, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975) I attempted to capture the art by which Mark Twain had transformed Plutarchian
we
see
the
of
refounded, how
we witness
being
of a of
"new order,
Tom is
a new prince
boy
is father
Tom may be a rogue, but he is a charming one. Bloom's Tom Sawyer is Celine's Robinson, the hero of Journey to the End of
young."
by
the
the
Night, described
Bloom
complains
as an
"utterly
and
selfish
liar,
pay"
(p.
239)-
loud
long
is
that
Americans do
not
have
national
or
books
or
Frenchmen
Germans
Italians
or
some
complaint.
But that
is because the
political
America
as a civilization writers
above all to
be found in its
political
institutions,
and
and
its
greatest
greatest
of
men,
Jefferson
Lincoln
and
books, is
itself,
as the
the
It
was not
the
mere matter of
the separation
of
the colonies
from the
motherland
|said
Lincoln
his way to Washington in February of 1861] but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this
on
Humanizing Certitudes
country,
promise and
and
Impoverishing
for
all
Doubts
was
119
that
which gave
but, I hope,
that
to the world,
future time. It
weight would
chance.1
have
of
an equal
Lincoln's metaphor,
with
course,
was
that
of
Christian, in
Pilgrim's In the
Progress,
his back
representing
rebirth of
original sin.
Gettysburg
Address the
the
death
on
the
has
ever surpassed
poetry
and poetic
tragedy
no
ever so coincide
life story
of a people
and
a coincidence
in itself
Of
course
it is the themes
America's
greatest
literary
with
works.
Huckleberry
a
Finn
uniquely American poetic transforma Rousseau. It is one that, I believe, equals, if it does not
freedom, in
anything that European literature of the last 200 years can show. The like the weight that Lincoln wished to see lifted from the
is
also a
shoulders of men,
of
distinctively
of
American
evil,
within the a as
framework
book"
Dick too is
"people's
as much
Biblical allegory ("Call me Ishmael"). in the tradition of the Iliad and be. Of
either of
Moby
of
the
Odyssey
says nothing.
any There is
modem
book
could
irony
by
Saul Bellow,
only to have this in common with Bloom: that "European observers sometimes classify me as a hybrid curiosity, neither fully American nor satisfactorily
European,
I had
historians,
and poets
consumed
higgledy-piggledy
(pp. 14,
15).
Bloom
writes:
Reading
regimes
what we call
decline of Greece was purely political, that importance for understanding it. Old little history had traditional roots, but philosophy and science took over as rulers in
Thucydides
shows us
that the
intellectual
is
of
problems
have decisive
political effects.
One
imagine
modern political
history
without a
discussion
of
Locke, Rousseau
Marx (p.
aside
197).
Leaving
history,
is
meant
by "purely
history"
political"
can one
imagine
discussion
of
"modem
political
"a discussion
What
of
Locke, Rousseau,
in
and
asserts
beforehand in the
modern politics
writings of
Locke
and
Rousseau,
the
scenarists
of
(p.
162).
1861.
1.
p. 240.
120 He
Interpretation
Hobbes had "led the
and. as
adds that
he proceeds, it becomes
clear
with a
fig
ism,
atheism, and
materialism
of
it,
French Revolutions
who
written
shot
by
fol
Rousseau! The
and
embattled
"fired the
heard
round
world"
the great
protagonists
world
historical
events
that
lowed
Samuel Adams,
Patrick Henry,
Benjamin Franklin,
John Adams,
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, are mere actors, following a script. Do we not have here an historical determinism equal to
Hegel's?
Only
history"
the
"cunning
of
is
replaced
by
modem philosophers.
Leaving
can
only
of
on
the Ameri
Revolution
statesmen
them those
Greece"
"a
graver
bench than
ever
frowned in
And they
or
Rome, certainly
they
(Coriolanus,
m.i.106).
if
we are
stand
them as
understood
themselves
about
mind."
purports
to
write
everything But he is
perfectly oblivious of the presence of this expression in one of the most fa mous documents of American history. In a letter to Henry Lee, May 8, 1825, Thomas Jefferson explained the sources, the purpose, and the manner of the
writing of what Lincoln would Calvin Coolidge (observing in "the
most call
humanity,"
and
event)
called
important
civil
document in the
But
with respect
to our
was
rights and
British
government
but
the water.
resort
subjects. of
for redress,
to the tribunal
of
deemed
proper
for
our
justification. This
in
the object
the Declaration
.
new arguments
but to firm
as
place
before
terms
so plain and
neither
to be tone
the
aiming it
at
was
originality intended
mind, and to
give
for
by
occasion.
nizing
sentiments of the
day,
whether
All its authority rests then on the harmo expressed in conversations, in letters, printed
right, as
essays or
of public
Sidney,
We
etc.
must ourselves
lay
emphasis upon
the "one
phy"
opinion"
at the
time
of
There really was a "public philoso Founding. The party conflict of the
S. Foner, Halcyon House,
802.
2.
Basic Writings
of
Thomas Jefferson,
edited
by Philip
p.
Humanizing
1 790s exceeded
Certitudes
in
and
Impoverishing
Doubts
121
even
intensity
called
that of the
address
in 1801,
say "We
have
by
brethren
of
the
same principle.
We
the
Republicans."
To
speak as
Jefferson did, in is to
a
sentiments of
the
day,"
imply
two
consensus
transcending
the
normal
differences
of opinion
among
free
people. are
Of "the elementary books of public ancient, two are modern. I think it safe to
right"
mentioned
by Jefferson,
assume that
according to Jefferson's
understanding of the American mind, that mind found harmonizing sentiments among the books of public right no less than among the conversations, letters,
and printed essays.
Certainly
Americans then
which
read
John
sense, in
Locke
quotes
Hooker for authority for his doctrine, and through Hooker Christian scholasticism, and through it to Aristotle. Bloom
scenarios
not
reaches
back to
by
only believes that the English and American Revolutions were Locke he says that "the new English and American regimes
instructions"
founded themselves according to his [Locke's] ing to Bloom one can save oneself all the trouble
constitutional
(p.
162).
Accord
of
history
most
like Bloom
important
was
and
just
read
political
Bloom
read
Locke?
discovery"
"Perhaps the
upon which
Locke's teaching
. . .
was
based,
according to
Bloom,
at
Man
nor
for
the
beginning
for
himself."
God
neither
looks
after
him
He
[therefore]
care
(p.
163).
The
complete
break
with
Biblical religion,
totle and
philosophy, as represented
by
Aris
Cicero, is
world
the necessary
presupposition of
Bloom's Locke.
of
Once the
or
has been
reveals
purged of ghosts or
spirits,
[meaning
immortality] it
is
not 165).
to us that the
critical problem
is scarcity
What is
required
brotherly
love
or
faith, hope,
and
charity, but
self-interested rational
labor (p.
"Americans"
says
Bloom,
work
are
is necessary (no
longing for
a nonexistent
Eden),
not
following
their
natural
inclinations moderately,
because they possess the virtue of moderation but because their passions are balanced and they recognize the reasonableness of that; respecting the rights of From the point of view of God or heroes, others so that theirs will be respected
.
the all this is not very inspiring. But for the poor, the weak, the oppressed the promise of salvation. As Leo Strauss it is of mankind overwhelming majority
ground"
put
it,
the
moderns
"built
on
low but
solid
(p.
167).
We
can
of
Locke to
deny
that the
Ameri
us
has
been the
mind
represented
by
that
interpretation. Let
122
Interpretation
obiter
dicta
at
foregoing
passage.
This is his only mention (or quotation) of Leo Strauss, although Strauss's words and Strauss's thoughts echo and re-echo (without attribution) throughout his book. However,
uted to
as
Strauss
are not
Kirk Emmert recently reminded me, the words attrib albeit words Strauss himself Strauss's but Churchill's
can
frequently
quoted.
But
regime
to
which
Churchill
so
could
give
such
unstinting devotion
owe so much
a regime
in
whose
finest hour
to so
few;
a regime whose
thousand years
be
a regime
person
despised
I have
many not be of
would come
to
day, but
of a
ever
suggest
view of
is
adverse or
How
can
a regime which
Bloom himself
salvat
"promise
of
for
"the overwhelming majority of greatest heroism? Why did the Union died to
make men
mankind"
be anything but a theme for the armies march to battle singing, "As He
free
"
holy, let
us
die to
make men
Why
did Churchill
for the singing of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, in Westminster Abbey, at his funeral? Abraham Lincoln is reported as saying that he made so many of them. But God must have loved the common people
himself leave
orders who
that
has
Testament,
says
or the
Sermon
on the not
Mount in the
labor"
New,
be in
could
have
said what
Bloom
"rational
service of
so.
faith, hope,
own
that
of
Bloom's
grandparents
thought
Bloom's
of the
success
American Lockeanism is testimony to the proposition that this is precisely the kind of regime that the God of the Bible, who cares for the poor, the weak, and
the oppressed would
kind
of
God
most
Americans have
favor. Bloom to the contrary notwithstanding this is the always believed in. This is what they be
America."
lieve
when
Let
mind
us
at
his inaugural,
declaring
of the
American
that it
enlightened
yet all of
by
benign
religion, professed,
indeed,
and practiced
in
various
forms
man;
inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispen
them
of man
here
and
his
greater
happiness
hereafter
(p.
333).
As far
as I can see, everything Bloom says on subject of the American Found is derived from his readings of Hobbes, Locke, or Tocqueville. I have found not a word of serious interpretation apart from his birdseed scatter
ing
ings
Hamilton,
coming from an American source: not Jefferson, Washington, Madison, or Lincoln. No one has maintained more persistently than I have,
the past thirty-five years, the
as
during
work
Founding
of
Locke's teachings
they
by
the
Founding
a radical atheism
Humanizing Certitudes
Locke's
esoteric
and
Impoverishing
of what when
Doubts
123
teaching
it,
was
part
they
single
understood,
believed,
and
every
document
bearing
on the
is
it
is
just
plain crazy.
Bloom
It
writes:
should
be
is
theme
all
hardly
mentioned
not
preservation,
their
procreation,
than
love,
lives to their
a work
(p.
187).
Surely
One
sex
no sillier remark
has
ever
been
made
in
purporting to be
serious.
can
by
the
wonder what of
Bloom
could
have in
mind: a
treatise on the
joy
of
of
his
country?
Something
the
Washington
the raciest
monument?
of
In
1
point of century.
some of
the
8th
Head
Heart,"
and
although
in
no
indecorous, is
That it.
nonetheless
highly
in Bloom he
old and
its
subject.
with
Paris,
would
and
during
Jefferson's
romance
sure
But Bloom
says can refer
what
was
only that
civil
bachelor for
who
whom
self-preservation
individual self-preservation,
and
divorced
society. of
What is tme
not
however true
is
as
well
family,
as
the object of
self-
nature
fear
and
directed to the
cat that comes
nest
In the
case
of
humans,
behavior
the
instinct
of self-preservation
as
the political
community,
of particular
individuals,
never understood
to
be directed
by
individual happens to it is to be
as such.
Consider the
following
from the
Federalist
which
be the
of
central number.
Madison writes,
with respect
rather
Articles,
by
recurring to the
absolute
necessity
God,
declares
political
that the
happiness
of
society institutions
are
be
sacrificed.3
3.
Modern
Library Edition,
p. 287.
1 24
There is
Interpretation
no question
refers
to "the
safety
very
and
happiness
of
and not to
words of
the Declaration of
subject.
of the
There is
have
supposed
between the
the
unalienable right
to
life,
proclaimed
in the
second paragraph of
pledge of the
honor."
Signers,
to each other, of
Declaration, and the mutual "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred
right
It
would
to
life,
with
which
by
their
Creator,
was a right
to act
basely,
to
Moreover,
and
as stated
by Madison,
of
is dedicated to the
cal
ends of
safety
happiness,
life. This is in
the the
Founding,
ground
expressed political
in the Declaration
Federalist,
sense,
takes nature as
of
life
in
the
teleological
not
in
the
non-
Founding, but
all political
Bloom has completely misread not life, since he does not read politi
they
the
or
know it Founders
or
not.
The
political
nature
of man
and not
is however
understood
by
if
they
and
say,
only
what
Hobbes
as
or
Locke
as
Kant say in the light of the light of the inequality of man closely with the first book of Genesis. But such inequalities
cal right are grounded
inequality
of man
and
beast,
well
in the
God. This understanding corresponds very the Politics, and as it does with the first chapter of
imply
politi
in
purposeful
reality accessible to reason, one that biblical faith. When Madison speaks of
fortiori that
institutions to the safety and happiness of society, he implies the safety and happiness of individuals may or must be sacrificed
the safety
or
Founders,
of
happiness
of
society
that
is to
say, of a
constructed
legitimacy
forth
interests
while
or subjective
citizens
individuals. That is why Lincoln in 1861, of the seceding States possessed the same denied that they ought to inconsistent with the purposes for which
ancestors,
with
right of revolution as
their
Revolutionary
exercise
their ancestors had exercised that right. To extend slavery was inconsistent
the purposes of the
could conceive of a preservation at
no more
than
Aristotle,
of
self-
The baseness
ple,
was
the principle of Hobbesianism as a moral princi any cost beyond their imagination. Hence for them there could be no interest in
self-preservation separate
from
or
independent
well-being
of
everything they loved. In truth, fear is not more powerful than love. The Founding Fathers, as one of the most exceptional generations
of
politi-
Humanizing
cal men
Certitudes
and
Impoverishing
be
were rather
Doubts
125
who ever or
lived,
are not to
understood as
primarily Hobbesians,
Lockeans,
cally
wise
portraits of virtues
Aristotelians.
They
of characters
from
whom
were,
from
speculative
The
source
of
his ability to
recognize
not
reality
the source of
Bloom looks to philosophy only as For him, political philosophy is nothing more nor less than the cleverly disguised question, What have you done for me lately? But men who lead revolutions, who found and preserve states, cannot
which was
the ground
"humanizing
be
guided
only
by
their
doubts.
They
require convictions.
And they do
not
look
upon
themselves as responsible
convictions.
Looking
life
only only to books, politics for Bloom is a closed book. And instructively on the relationship between political life and does
not
the philosophic
who
know
what political
life is.
philosophy statesmanship of the American Founding reality of political life itself. In the light of that reality rights divorced from right. There can be no such thing
of
The vitality
the
of classical political
does
not speak of
as a right to
of
do wrong
never
as
Lincoln
said
when
consent
justify
forgot,
others was to
the extension of slavery. And we must never that the rights Americans valued so
endowed as
forget,
Lincoln
by
their
Creator. Their
highly duty
were
the rights
with which
not ensue
thinks
solely because it
duty
duty
duty
which
was
entirely
unconditional.
Notes
on
Virginia,
liberties
of a people
And
can the
be thought secure,
when we
have
removed
their
only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?
are of the
Concerning
the
central
event
in American
history
in
which
Abraham
Lincoln found entirely plausible Jefferson's prophetic judgment concerning the wrath of God for the sin of slavery Bloom has this to say:
The only quarrel in our history that really involved fundamental differences was over slavery. But even the proponents of slavery hardly dared assert that some human
beings
are made
deny
with
the
by nature to serve other human beings, humanity of the blacks. Besides, that question
of
as
to
was
the Declaration
Independence. Black slavery was an aberration that had to be feature of our national life. Not only slavery, but
126
Interpretation theocracy
were
laid to
rest
by
Constitution (p.
248).
Kirk's
excommunicating the Declaration of not even characteristi not conspicuously American not a work of political philosophy or an instrument of
allocution
.
in
which so
few
words encompassed
We very
who
note
first
of all
our
"differences
used
of principles
are
fight"
small
compared to
men
to
(p.
248).
This
by
Tocqueville (who
visited
1830s and
none
canonical or
Bloom. It is
trying
university professor. I finally abandoned the effort. My pupil had a German English textbook that he had brought with him from Europe, and he simply
would not accept
agree with
about the
not
Bloom
come
cannot
form
a
not
to
him from
European
Tocqueville
of
but,
and
as
Aristotle
says of the
discourses
original,
searching they may have been, "it is difficult to be right about (Politics, 1265314). It hardly seems to detract from Tocqueville's
differences"
every
greatness
to
say that he is not the greatest interpreter of a war he did not live to see. Bloom
writes about the
"fundamental
yet
there is no
of
attempt
pronouncements
Lincoln,
the peak of
of
what
is American,
and
pronouncements
that
belong
in the company
Demosthenes. Cicero,
a greater a greater war
Burke.
oration
Leo Strauss
than that of
believed the
Gettysburg
as
Address to be
was
funeral
Pericles, just
Lincoln
clearly
University
I had first
of
Chicago Press
encountered
Crisis of the House Divided I noted that the Lincoln- Douglas debates in 1946 when I was
reprint of
reading Plato's Republic with Leo Strauss. I was astonished to discover that the issue between Lincoln and Douglas was identical in principle with that between
Socrates
and
of popular
We in Illinois
tried
finding
p.
4.
that it
was not
profitable, we abolished
1858.
slavery [said Douglas], kept it up for twelve years, and it for that reason (Joint Debate,
Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. Ill,
"What
Intentions'
were the
'Original
of
States?"
tution of the
380-83.
Spring
1987. esp. at
Humanizing Certitudes
Whatever the
and
whatever
and
Impoverishing
said
Doubts
127
vote
people think
is in their interest,
in,
of
they
out.
This is
exactly
what
does
what
is in his interest, he is
no
being
neither
nor
people.
Tyrannical justice is
of
democratic justice.
Southern
version
In Douglas's
version
popular
disappears.
and
of natural
a
they
to guide
when
human
Bloom
choice.
There is
distant
echo of
Divided
writes
compromise with
but is the
sees
condition of their
having
elections
in the first
a
place
But Bloom
people
Lincoln's
argument as a of
is it merely
as
right
theirs? Bloom never asks. He never entertains the possibility that the tion of this allegedly
regime
founda
abstract
is,
times"
(Ibid., Ill,
p.
376).
my knowledge, the election of 1800 in the United States was the first time in human history that a national government was replaced by its
To the best
of
bitter
offices
political
enemies on
offices
gave them up without any physical struggle. Those who gained the to execute, imprison, expropriate, or exile did nothing to proscribe those who lost. And those who lost looked forward confidently to a future in
which
they
or others
like themselves
might again
hold those
offices.
We
are so
accustomed to such
we
blessings in
the
fail to
appreciate
uniqueness
everything we hold dear depended upon the successful test the Declaration of Independence in the election of 1800. It is
the
well
the
principles of
to bear in
mind
that
King
was
driven into
exile
way
of
changing the
the
chief executive on
to Parliament. Al supremacy,
established
the principle of
Parliamentary
King
(or
Queen)
remained
the
executive
head
of
ministers of
the crown
to
Crown,
course,
not,
of
effectively
without majorities
in the Parliament,
the patronage
but these
by
manipulation of
(that is to say,
to the
"rotten"
by buying
the votes it
electors
needed
in the Commons)
unreformed
as
by
deference
with
electorate.
And the
of
the
Parliament
were
its
"rotten"
boroughs
as well as
equally
rural seats
128
Interpretation
standard
the American
of
democratic
in
1800.
said
believe,
what
he
British
of a
and
Constitution,
become
unworkable.
The idea
King
yet of
or
Queen
that
but did
to
a
not rule,
and of a
Prime Minister
cabinet
was responsible
democratically
in the House
elected
legislature, had
whenever
not
vote
so the
idea
of
the
changed
the
majorities
Commons,
was yet un
of a government registered
resting upon the continuing and changing in free elections, was a discovery of the
to the
world.
and was
its
precious gift
1800 proved to
refused
be inconclusive. In i860,
Here indeed
the
losing
and
election
supreme
test of
really
capable or not of
establishing
good government
from
politi
choice,
or whether
they
are
forever destined
to
Modern
Library
edition,
p.
3).
held in
restraint
by
limitations,
and always
changing easily
only true
with
deliberate free
is the
sovereign of a
people
(Collected
Works, IV,
to
p.
268).
And
so
it
remained
people
demonstrate
bullets;
to the world
that
when
that ballots
are and
successors of
and
ballots
have
fairly
can
be
no successful appeal
back to
bullets
(Ibid.,
Bloom to the contrary notwithstanding, this question of bullets versus ballots as fundamental a difference as any over which men have ever fought.
represented
We
noted
Bloom's
pronouncement above
dared
human beings
"
by
nature to serve
matter
did Aristotle
of
He has
got
the
exactly
They did so by biological inequality of the races. Aristotle says that someone of human birth would be servile by nature, if he differed from the generality of mankind "as widely as the soul does from the body and the human being from the lower (Politics, 1254a 16). The usefulness of such persons, by reason of the by
nature
animal"
just.
Negro slavery did assert that that slav asserting long before Nazi theory
imperfection
of
their rational
faculties,
of animals;
Humanizing
bodily
tally
as service I254b25).
Certitudes
and
Impoverishing
life is
Doubts
129
.
for the
necessities of calls
akin
forthcoming
from both
(Ibid.,
men such
who are so
defective
persons
retarded,
and
"mental"
are
somewhat
to distinguish
expect
might
Aristotle
to
form
The
answer
is that he did
that
actually formed in the ancient In Book VII of the Politics he says that
"it
is
advantageous
"
set
before them
cannot
as
a reward
rewarded
(1330332). But
a natural
called,
be
by freedom,
of natural
any
more
than a horse or a
dog
or an ox.
Aristotle's
discussion
slavery leads to the conclusion that the actual institution of slavery rested, not on nature, but on convention or law. Its sanction was force, or justice understood as the interest of the stronger (cf. 1255319 with
I255bi5).
Aristotle's
would
proposal
in Book VII
of the
Politics,
applied
to
antebel
lum America,
have led to the policy that Lincoln commended: that of compensated emancipation. The fact that no such policy was politi gradual, cally
conceivable
that
is to say, that
made
no
legislation to this
end
could
be
adopted
by
constitutional means
Slavery
was
in fact destroyed
necessity.
by
The
antebellum
recognizes.
of
Bloom
argument
harsher than
"race"
(as in
"racism,"
justify
Nothing by
in Aristotle's
argument would
a stupid white.
was
Bloom thinks
"settled"
was
an
whose place
by
the
Declaration
shown
of
Independence.
Nothing
could
by
the
following
excerpts of
speech
of
April
Fort Sumter)
by
Alexander
dent
of the
The prevailing ideas entertained the time of the formation of the African
was
by [Jefferson]
old
of nature:
and most of
were
leading
statesmen at
Constitution,
in
violation of
the
laws
that it
was
wrong in principle,
socially, morally,
and politically.
Now, however,
those ideas
we
know that
wrong.
were
fundamentally
They
rested upon
the assumption
of
the
equality of the races. Our new government [the Confederate States of is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its
rests upon
America]
cornerstone
the
great
is
not
man.
That
slavery
tion.5
the
subordination
is his
5.
The Political
p.
History
Washington, D.C.,
1865,
103.
130
Interpretation
Stephens further
edly
natural aptitude
compared
inferiority of the Negro his alleg was a discovery of modern science, and he for slavery it to Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood. He identi
asserted that the natural
of
of science.
The
Confederacy
to the
of
based
upon
just
such
an
advance of
is therefore
"old"
superior
Constitution
of 1787.
The
notorious
claims made
National Socialism
and
Marxism-Leninism
for the
that
truth
they
in the
progress of scientific
were anticipated
in
principle
by
assertion
had in
be
86 1
extinguished"
counterpart of was
conviction
an
aberration
to be extinguished.
Like
recognition.
truths, he said, it would take time for its diffusion and general With this recognition, however, would come acceptance of the
of
justice
and
propriety
altogether
forgotten
if he has not Bloom simply dismisses Lincoln's House Divided speech, which warned that the Negro
slavery.
nation was at a
whether
crossroads, and that a decision had to be reached and taken, to become all free
and or all slave. an
the
Bloom
writes as
if "all
slave"
was politician.
possibility,
Lincoln
irresponsible
inflammatory
American historians wrote precisely as most before the publication of Crisis of the House Divided in 1959. In truth, how
He
"revisionist"
writes
progress can
be
used
to vindicate either
freedom
or slavery.
In
1861,
however,
The
question of
slavery
was
extension
went
government, but it
would continue
to decide who
in
a republic.
By
i860 the
doc
which
root
throughout the
South
had completely divorced the idea of natural rights and human equality from the idea of political sovereignty, and hence from the idea of State sover
eignty.
It
was
this
divorce
which gave
legitimacy
seen
right of secession.
in the light
the Declaration
of
Independence, is
person to
of
be
governed with
the
rule of
rule
law
was
itself
understood to
be the implementation, in
dictates
of prudence, of
"the laws
These laws
They
were understood
life, liberty,
happiness
human
person.
In severing the
between
constitutional altogether.
This fact
disguised to idea
because
of
mid-century
were
commitment to the
and
scientifically
technologically
advanced were
morally
superior.
Humanizing
The
Certitudes
and
Impoverishing
Doubts
131
and their
discovery
to
impelling force,
the
application
military
purposes
have forever
ascendancy
between
on
former. (A Disquisition
Calhoun
assumed
as
same
written about
the
did his contemporary Karl Marx, whose Manifesto was time as the Disquisition that the outcome of physical
of
conflict,
whether
that
proletariat
and
bourgeoisie,
refers
or
that of
white
and
colored races
would
indicate
moral no
less than
material superiority.
then
ultimately to nothing
government.
the
to
be moral)
at
no abstract or rational
way to distinguish
and
as
in the
of
of
the
unjust
powers
Those
are
are
assumed
And if the
slaves
suddenly
latter
was
argument.
be rightfully what he is! This not something Calhoun contemplated, but it follows the logic of his It is not for nothing that Calhoun has been rightly called (by Richard
the masters, then
each will still of
the
Master
This is to
imply
If it
correctly, I believe
certain
fundamentals,
true,
as
theocracy"
by
then why
had the
thought of John
C. Calhoun become
ful?
Why indeed
was
by
the present
writer.
A Bicentennial
of
Essay
by
University
Dallas.)
Bloom
was
Next, I
was an
come to a
Bloom's
account of
the "The
Sixties."
forced to
live through
event
revolutionary political event which he never really understood. It in American history, the serious study of which Bloom has
He looked
Ameri
Nazi
youth of
is
some
validity in
however, is
ism already
present
important
parallels
to Calhoun in
Thoreau,
who,
ostensibly on images of
theoretical
would
and
slavery,
although
antagonists,
nonetheless collaborated
in
have
cmshed
Their
radical
hostility
our
and
practical
coopera
tion closely
resembles
the way in
destroy
had
no
century Nazis and Commu the Weimar regime, which both hated worse
which
in
than
they hated
and
each other.
strength of
the
American
Founding,
Germany
132
Interpretation
movement which
brought Cornell
University
to
its knees
in 1969 (and drove Bloom into exile) was movement, in the aftermath of the victory
of
a transformation of the of
Civil Rights
that
movement
by
the enactment
the great civil rights laws of 1964 and 1965. In this transformation there was
the same severance of the connection between civil and constitutional rights, on the one
hand,
the other,
as
had been
own
earlier accomplished
in the thought
ever
justification for
once
what
demands it
exact, just
as
the ownership
of slaves
justified
whatever
exact.
Power
movement were at
bottom the
same as
leading defenders
of
nonetheless
tme.
Bloom, however, is
least
unconscious
this, because he is
made
unconscious of
ideas in
conflict that
war ever.
avoidable great
Bloom's his
pride
alienation
political
tradition is illuminated
by
his
students went
ing
in
(49ie-492b)
many
who
which
characterizes the
demos itself
Most
as
radical students
antidemocratic prejudices.
But the
passage also
Marx
ist interpretation however spurious because, according to the Republic, among the causes of the corruption is private property, and the leading cure for it is communism. It is difficult to imagine what effect other than inflamma
tory
One
passage might
have had
on
the rioters.
characteriza
reflect,
however,
as
Bloom does
not, that
Socrates'
tion of
democracy in the Republic is peculiarly inapplicable to the popular government envisaged by the American Founding Fathers. Theirs was a regime
law
of
in
principle and
by
desire. To the
as a regime
and
extent that
which
human
ingenuity
it so, it
was
intended
in
of
equal
recognition
was
was
to the
requirements as
of wisdom
consent.
Consent
of
designs
the claims of
Philosophy,"
that
(rule
of
the
of
best)
presented
itself
the best
political order.
As Thomas Jefferson
put
it, "That
form
tion
of government
is the best,
the most
effectually for
a pure selec
of
[the]
natural aristoi
into the
of
government."6
Villanova
University
pp.
enough
to
in this
celebrated essay,
central thesis
6. In What Is Political
Philosophy''
Humanizing Certitudes
of classical political
and
Impoverishing
Doubts
133
the nature of the best regime with a quota philosophy letter of Jefferson to Adams. She has also pointed out
central passage
it
appears to
be the
in Strauss's
essay.
However
one
finally
judges the
wisdom of
the
Founding,
of
ferson,
regarded
this assimilation
aristocracy into
that
democracy
from
mass
its guiding
thought.
written
Liberal
is the ladder
by
which we
try
to
ascend
democracy
to
democracy
originally
meant.'
as
it is
meant"
"democracy
as
as
originally
"low."
is
inadequately
characterized
a
something
After
ladder to
ascend
to it?
Yet Bloom is
The
students were unaware that the teachings of equality, the promise of the
Declara
and
tion of
Independence,
the
study
of
the
Constitution,
the
knowledge
of our
history
many
painstakingly
earned and
stored-up
Someone
stmctions,"
say that "the English and American regimes [had been] founded according to [Locke's] in is hardly in a position to reproach others for the lack of "the study
by
Locke
and
Rousseau,
history."
of
But
were
history
as
Bloom
the
says
here
as
or were
they
not
in
agreement with
Bloom's
own view of
Founding
"not very
inspiring,"
and as
bottom
the
themselves
however
Bloom himself
rejecting the low in favor of the high? Had forms that he did not
expect or wish?
On Senate
est
February
of of
21,
of
1861,
addressed
the
the State
New Jersey. He
of a small
earli
days
I
his childhood,
the
remember all
accounts
and struggles
for the
liberties
fixed themselves
the crossing
of
my imagination
so
deeply
my have
as
Hessians;
the
great
hardships
single
endured at
fixed themselves
on
all memory been boys, how these early impressions last longer than any others. I recollect think ing, then, boy even though I was, that there must have been something more than
more
than any
Revolutionary
know, for
you
for. I
am
exceedingly
than
thing
that
they
struggled
for;
that something
even more
National
Independence;
7.
Liberalism Ancient
and
1968,
p. 5.
1 34
Interpretation
out a great promise
to all the
people of
the
world
to all time to
exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that I
shall
be
most
happy
indeed if I
shall
be
an
humble instru
in the hands
of
the
Almighty,
and of
this, his
for
perpetuating
Works. IV,
235, 236).
Leo Strauss's
coln's all
and
Jefferson's
of what the
meant,"
"original
idea"
and
all
Lin
the people of
world"
the
by
noble
legacy
in the
not
the
moral no
lacking
educa
speech
Trenton,
Socrates'
denunciation
rioters
of
to illuminate the
folly
of the
away,
Richer than
all
v.ii).
Lincoln,
ground as
who
had
Douglas's idea
of popular
Thrasymachus'
nothing but the interest of the stronger, duction to the Republic than Bloom's. He inner
connection
have
better intro
students
have
the
the
and
between the
principles
of classical
political not
Bloom
could
account of
argument of
on the
fact that he
cannot
and
decide
between the
skepticism,
sche and
Socratic Nietz
by
Heidegger. He is only
doubt is
of
superior
the principles
resolved.
Are Nietzsche
the question
rationalism.
is
and
Heidegger
and
Plato
and
Aristotle?
They
rightly
saw
that
here,
both
rationalism
is his
avoided
Perhaps they did not take seriously enough the changes wrought by hence the possibility that the Socratic way might have the modern impasse. But certainly all the philosophers, the proponents of
reason, have
something in
less
directly
reach
back to
Aristotle,
Socrates'
spiritual grandchild.
is
most
profoundly modern leads Socrates is the one thing degger look to the
possible to
inevitably
needful.
of
the
problem of and
It
Socrates
who made
Niet/sche
Hei
seems
pre-Socratics.
years,
it
begin
might
try
to figure
out what
Plato
was
talking
about,
because it
available
(p. 310).
Humanizing
The study
of
Certitudes
and
Impoverishing
was
a
Doubts
135
of
the problem of
Socrates
life-long
Indeed,
preoccupation much of
Leo
Strauss,
passage
addition
who was
might
Bloom's teacher
and mine.
the
foregoing
In
conversation.
political
ings,
all of
forewords
it
by
Bloom. In addition, he
an
wrote
Socrates
of
Aristophanes.
problem of
Together,
as
these constituted
might
exhaustive
articulation
"the
Socrates,"
be
uncovered were
in
non-Platonic
(and
pre-So com
cratic)
sources.
These
writings of
Strauss
as
in
addition to
his
lengthy
mentaries on
Socrates
the
he is
presented yet
the
Statesman,
makes
Apology,
Crito,
and
Bloom
mention.
In his
overview of
the
history
of political
philos
ophy, "From
Socrates'
Apology
to Heidegger's
Rektoratsrede"
(pp. 243-312),
In
our
the study of
anyone who or
most
was Heidegger, practically alone, for whom Greek philosophy became truly central (p. 309, 310). How had studied with Strauss or had read "What Is Political Philoso
"
. .
Philosophy"
could
speak thus of
have
written
this
is
al
mentioning Strauss, is like speaking of Hitler, without mentioning Churchill. For, if the tmth were known, Strauss was as surely Heidegger's nemesis as Churchill was
beyond
To
Heidegger,
without
Hitler's. One
can
only
conclude
that if Bloom
says
thing
needful
is
Socrates,
Strauss's
study
of
Strauss
might now
lame
to
conclusion as
Bloom's,
Plato
makes
that we talk
four hundred
years
"try
figure
out what
was
ing about, because it might be the best thing for the right way of life sound like the quest for
of prohibition!
available."
This
prewar
whiskey
during
out"
echo of a passage
from
He is therefore
compelled
to give a novel
is
not natural
result
of figuring it
out
He thus
mind
.
decisively
as
prepares
the modern
an end
"ideal"
notion of
as a work of the
nature.
human
distinguished from
p.
imposed
added.)
on man
by
(Liberalism Ancient
and
Modern,
241
Emphasis
What Bloom is
at
looking
to
for is
out"
"figuring
of
Plato
which
is in fact
not
Plato
all
all, but
"ideal,"
a modem
ostensibly
grounded
modern reason.
ideals,
Bloom has
gratify a passion, rather than to subordinate passion to no intention of facing squarely the issue of philosophical
and
realism
(Socrates, Plato,
no such
Aristotle)
versus
nihilism
(Nietzsche
and
Hei
degger). He has
presented
136
the case
Interpretation
for the former in terms he
cannot refute
s
but
on
Consider
Modern
the
following
Right"
from the
end
of
Strauss
and
chapter
"The Crisis
of
Natural had
in Natural Right
History. Rousseau,
name of
according to
Strauss,
a reservation against
society in the
To have
a reservation against
society in the
without
name of
have
a reservation against
society
being
to
indicate the is
made.
way
of
life
for the
The
notion of a return
to the state of
nature on
the
level
not
of
humanity
was
for claiming
which
is
Rousseau,
Rousseau
as
interpreted here
by Strauss,
is the
of
Bloom's
soul.
It is
informs Bloom's reading of Plato's Republic, and who has tipped the balance within him irrevocably towards Nietzsche and Heidegger.
who
Bloom's ideal
state
of
the university is just such a place where one can "return to the
on
of
nature
the
level
humanity."
of
The
attractiveness
of
this sup
posed
return, says
Strauss, is
that
It
was an
an appeal of
finable,
to an ultimate
sanctity
from society to something indefinite and undethe individual as individual, unredeemed and freedom
came
unjustified.
This
was
precisely
what
to mean
for
a considerable
number of men.
of the
individual
individual"
as
sanctity
modern
unfettered either
by
God
or nature
a quintessential
liberal, is
that
one of
that "consid
erable number of
Concluding, Strauss
writes
Every
freedom
which
which
is justified
by
reference
than
sarily restricts freedom or, which is the same thing, establishes a tenable distinction between freedom and license. It makes freedom conditional on the purpose for which it is
claimed.
Of
course
Bloom does
not
claim
unconditional
freedom for
man
in society
conven
any
more than
attack
those necessary
tions of academic life that make it comfortable and agreeable to persons like
his
own soul
nor
does he teach
man
any
man.
freedom that is
upon
excludes
both Athens
Jerusalem
as
was
Bloom to the contrary notwithstanding, we have known all along what Plato talking about. He was talking about Justice (for example, in the Republic), in the
other
and
about man.
moderation, courage,
law,
and, in general,
not what
The
question about
Plato is
he
was
talking
about,
he
just, but
whether
grounded
in any
ultimate
reality,
whether
it
Humanizing Certitudes
existed
and
Impoverishing
(or law),
or
Doubts
137
unknowable
by
nature,
by
convention
by
some
divine
question
justice do
you
Thoughts
on
Machiavelli Strauss,
says
"that the
must
notion
of the
beneficence
derived"
of
of
Good
be
restored
by being
it is
the
rethought
fundamental
experiences
from
which
(p.
the
In Strauss's
rejection of progress
would
in favor
of return,
us
books
of
classical philosophers
be indispensable to
as modem
men, needing
unlike
emancipation
never
from our peculiarly modern cave. But Strauss, failed to distinguish books from the "fundamental
to articulate. The
Bloom,
experiences"
the books
"primacy
of
the
Good"
is Strauss's
is
primacy
always
books
and all
art,
even that of
Plato.
Plato's dialogues
subject
reveal
to us far
more
of our
ignorance
of each
discussed, than knowledge of that subject. In revealing our ignorance, however, they always reveal something of our knowledge of that ignorance.
And that knowledge
of
ignorance
always reveals
of what
it is that
to go on,
we wish and
enough enough
to to
appetites, to
make us wish
know
more of what
it is that
of
we
do
not
accordance
with
the
knowledge
igno
the
rance
the
tmly
skeptical
life,
is, by
light
of unassisted
to the
living
of this
All
other
lives
be
judged in relationship to this life and this regime. The goodness of the best life and the best regime is not arbitrary. It is not to be characterized as Bloom
suggests as
is
in
to
available."
goodness
nature."
moral and
"according
nature."
We
return
to
Bloom's
assertion
Socrates."
obsessively to
They did
is
[Socrates']
ously
might
rationalism."
take seri
enough
by
possibility
that the Socratic way might have avoided the modem the
impasse."
encapsulate
life
work
of
"perhaps."
Strauss proved, I believe, that "the changes wrought by modem had mistakenly discredited the possibility that reason might discover the right way of life and the best regime. According to Strauss, it was not true that "Our
rationalist
[viz.,
and
modem
man's]
rationalism
is his [viz.,
Socrates']
rationalism."
Modem
rationalism
is
"scientific"
including whatever is regarded as good or bad for man everything in it in terms of what Aristotle called efficient and material causes, while denying
138
Interpretation
formal
and
final
and
causes.
All formal
and
final
to
in
modern
science
modern
philosophy
as
epiphe-
nomena or explain
by-products
They
are attempts
the high
as
by
the low.
This is from
if
one would
try
of the physical
force
applied
by
the
artist
omitting
any
reference
to the
brain,
Socratic
assumes
had
purpose, even
attempted to give
what
it effect,
or even
it
was.
Indeed, it
For
of
assumes
purpose
if it had
potentiality
an
of
his human
nature.
philosophy,
eternity Michelangelo's
as
art
is simply
causes
accidental
outcome
Michelangelo,
or
so
utterly indifferent to his art, as they were blind to anything intelligent intelligible. The premises of modern philosophy are the result of a doubt
radical as
need
was
Socratic rationalism, as its shadow. By replacing skepticism with dogmatism in philosophy, it would at the same time obviate any need for faith in God. Strauss, by showing that the self-destruction of reason in modem
philosophy
return not
was
the self-destruction
of modem
rationalism
alone, prepared a
restoring Socratic skepticism, he restored Socratic but the place that that skepticism left for biblical rationalism, only
to premodern rationalism.
By
faith. Nietzsche
rejection
of
and
Heidegger
represented
with
and
modem
rationalism,
although
they
seem
at
have
modern
purpose,
willed
wills
outside of
man,
all purpose
be
by
But the is
good.
has
itself. What
will
one own
as
good
What
one
as
evil,
is
evil. s
The
is its
justification, because
"Triumph
of of
there can be
whatever
no other.
as
Hitler
famous
propaganda
film
the
Will,"
its defects
art, is an authentic
manifestation
of the
no ground
for the
or
God,
or of the noble
pleasing illusions. These must be willed by man, although are believable they by hoi polloi only if their origin is concealed. For the true Thinker who replaces the Philosopher there is
and good except as useful neither myth nor reality. abyss alone
fictions
The Thinker
having
without
with
lives
without
illusions,
out
hope
or
fear, but in
it
an
unprecedented
freedom.
Bloom lives
considerable
which
discomfort in this
he
would give up.
not yet
figured
anything for
Philosophy, Science,
and
the
Opening
of
Roger D. Masters
It is exceptionally rare for a philosophic book to find its way to the New Best Seller list. It is also unusual for a work condemning Amer ica's culture and university system to generate widespread praise from the
York
Times'
it is
The
above all
extraordinary to
book focused
My
own assessment of
Closing
of the
American Mind
can
be
summa
rized under
three
headings, corresponding
reader
to the
book's
organization.
First,
and
the
in Part 1 is brilliant is
spared
a
and accurate of
only
description
the
consequences
flowing
of
from the
cultural emptiness of
America's
educated class.
brightest"
One might,
effect
and
has the
of ugliness
shaping the cultural horizon of everyone else, with results including the cult in the arts and crafts (often in the name of originality, but some
times
blatantly
for its
or
own
morals
in business
of
and public
life
("inside
trading"
"guns for
hostages"),
and
the decline
industrial "com
nessmen
(as American technology is sold to foreigners and American busi only find profits from buying and selling each other's jobs and corpo
analysis of the
rate names).
Second, Bloom's
impact
of philosophic themes
and espe
on American opinion is simply cially of the German tradition II of The Closing of the American Mind makes connections of
us
awesome.
Part
which most of
have
never
dreamed
added
what
Aristotle
nihilism.
of spiritual goals
character of philosophic
phenomenon
Democratization
of
of
education one
is,
after
all, in
part related
to the spread
hand,
down
(Rousseau had
to express
his
opposition to
on
labor-saving
devices in his
constitutional proposals
for Corsica);
the other,
the
require
different
Putting
most of
instruc its
The
massive
effects
technology
on
our
universities
are,
in turn,
related
to
impact
on
televi-
140
sion
Interpretation
though its effect on the ability to read and think
should
not
be
under
high
school graduate
is
said
Rather, I
A
telephones,
cars, ski
spoiled
lifts,
and
running hot
water.
generation of spoiled
"conveniences"
by
modern
the consumer
durables that
fuel
have
This is
to Bloom's
critique:
fulfilled in
Lockean
II
of
Rather, it is
a suggestion
philosophic argument
in Part
The
Closing
life."
by
a precise called
account our
(anthropological in the
of
Aristotle
would
have
"way
Finally,
about the
the third part of Bloom's book says much that greatly needs saying
scholars and universities
way
have
Some I
it's
not
in
some
European
universities
know
some
young French
because demic
much
more preprofessional.
But to
see the
disarray
are
only two
key
points worth
understates
by
can
admin
think
they
fill the
interdisciplinary
causes called
being
that formed the Twentieth Century"). Not all of the baneful effects of contem
porary higher education can be laid to the door of the professors. A second question gets to my only major disagreement with The
the American Mind.
Closing
miss
of
Bloom's image
"Science"
of of the
is
no
longer entirely
seems
accurate.
Among
other
natural
sciences
to
the
profound possibilities of
This is especially
argument.
worth
it
contradicts
in his
can
but
significant
detail. One
of
in The
Closing
between humans
This
On
p.
133,
all
species
puberty, it is
all
it
will ever
be. is
is the
clear
end
toward which
of
its
and
learning
perhaps
directed. The
starts
animal's
downhill.
Only
it
beginning."
It's
jus
tifiable to
in them), though
state
"animals"
mind: mammals
here,
(dogs, horses, birds, wolves, etc.). Even by the importance of activities other than
Philosophy, Science,
and
the
Opening
with
141
the
play,
sociability,
learning
about
The in
actions not
narrowly
or
most of
no
activity
capacity that formerly was attributed uniquely to been observed in chimpanzees if not in other monkeys
of the self and of others as
and apes:
identification
altruistic
"culture,"
ter, Nietzschean
ing"
self-sacrifice to
"brute"
save
The
(a term Bloom
often) has
no
"mean
is
a continuation of
cannot watch
One
for hours,
and still
chimpanzee or gorilla
puberty.
solely is emphatically not all he or she will be on reaching This is important insofar as Bloom appears to have accepted Nie
is
becoming"
pure
(p.
203).
It is simply incorrect to
say that "the actuality of plants and other animals is contained in their potenti
alities, but this
is
is indicated
by
essentially
unlike one
On the
hand,
all
living
forms have
a range of
potentialities, so that
of organisms; on the
of philos
actuality depends
life histories
unlike"
"essentially
and
Nietzsche's
own project.
all cultures
function
essentially
say to
bad
then
Bowerof
birds
different
only differ on superficial matters. by making gaudy nests, it is said, and each bird builds but all the nests serve the same function.
alike and
Bloom's
contradicted
of
human
nature
can
by
contemporary biology,
animals).
and
is
on
Bloom
"materialistic, hence
so
deter but
no
ministic"
(p.
195).
That
might
have been
science
in the
nineteenth
century
longer.
Contemporary
not
natural
seems
to be none of these.
Scientists
themselves may
philosophic who made
recognize
implications
of scientific
discovery
is
noted was
change
real and
overwhelmingly
evident.
It
was
Nietzsche himself
who
first
Democracy,'
Now,
and
things have
further. Physics is
than
and
has been
since
Bohr
Heisenberg
"ideal"
radically
are
everywhere
1.
142
Interpretation
clearly
prior not
properties are
to
the
perceived
material physics
itself.
Heisenberg
us
may
be
he
and
sees
modern
forcing
notably to Heraclitus and Plato (see his Physics and Philosophy); Capra may exaggerate in the The Tao of Physics in seeing Eastern religion imminent in contemporary theories.
to return to ancient Greek philosophy
with such radical
Even so,
and
school physics of
Newton
phrases.
Philosophers
could
do this, for
regard
physicists won't
do it for
us.
Much the
same
be
added
to biology.
it flatly:
reductionism
biology
Aristotle
is
Nor does it
the
That is
and
another of
comfortable scrutiny.
myths that
cite
would
have
shocked
won't
withstand
manic-
To
but two
recent examples:
(i)
mental phenomena
like
depressive biological
expression
and
schizophrenic
illness
are
in the
process
of
being
traced to
causes
(in the
case of
depends to
icits in reading and writing (and now we are discovering exactly how the brain handles linguistic information by learning the ways that these processes can be
disturbed).
In general, the
progress
in these
we are
areas
is
so great as to
be truly dangerous;
about
far from
logical
being impossible,
behavioral
only too
capable of
learning
the neuro
To say nothing is achieved in studying the soul with contemporary scientific methods is to say that the Characters of Theophrastus was not a philosophic work. Such assertions can
and concomitants of thought.
only be
maintained
if the
and,
"soul"
word
is defined in
theological
rather
than a
philosophic sense
even
then, only in
some religious
traditions
will
would
it
free
is
requisite
for
discussion
"soul"
of
human
ends or purposes.
It may be true that modern science has simply devastating effects for the concept of in some Christian texts. It is not true that modern science has
the same implications
for
Plato
or
Aristotle
used
understanding of the soul as that term. Quite to the contrary, for it is now possible to
a philosophic or rational
psychology
of
Hobbes, Locke,
and the
behaviorist
This
order.
presents
us,
paradoxically,
The
put
to sleep
by
our
Founding
Fathers
of
others
seems
the
internally
is
a religion
in the
sense of
the first
Amendment)
Ayatollah Khomeini
able assertions of wrong:
describing
the
American
regime as
God is
not
modernity are disappearing. Nietzsche seems to have been dead He (like Rip Van Winkle) was just asleep.
Philosophy, Science,
and the
Opening
143
Continued scholarly research, particularly linking the ing of nature with the philosophic issues dear to Bloom,
understand
as
necessary
today
as
it
was
or
because its
is
at
the
University
in
an
ol
limiting
one "s
dialogue to insti
end
with experience
tution of
of
higher
scholarly
individuals
who
closed minds.
These
reflections
At least
were
desperately
forever. But
writes
perhaps
Certainly
a
what
Bloom himself
of
in The
Closing
Mind has
striking way
and
Principle
Closing
Will Morrisey
At least two questions arose in the early reviews of Allan Bloom's book. Given its extraordinary popularity (outstripping even the confessions of Patty Duke during the long, hot summer of 1987), how much has the. "American
mind"
really
closed?
of copies of a
Socrates'
Apology
of
Rektoratsrede"
deserves
some credit
could
for
open-mindedness at the
more copies
have bought
the
album
about
or
Elvis, but
"Swift's
no:
it
preferred to read
"The
Nietzsche-
of
the
Left
Vice-Versa,"
"Rousseau's Radicalization
and
the
German
University,"
Doubts."
and
Are Americans
quite so
matter of
Allan Bloom's
virtues.
Cultivated,
powerful,
incisive, witty
reviewers
getting: a phy.
no one
denies its
But
what
assumed
that what
they
saw
on
they
were
defense
a more
firmly
Greek
philoso who
and
But
noticed
the
details, betray
hand
within
a puppet
Plato. Does Bloom secretly revel in the very decadence he decries? These questions about both minds in question, America's and Bloom's,
were raised
tellingly in
the one
review, "The
Closing
of
Reconsidered"
by
Charles R.
Kesler.1
Harry
V. Jaffa in
a public
1987, developed many of the same points, more amply, and added some, as did Professor Thomas G. West in remarks delivered at the 1987 American Political Science Convention. These critics agree that Bloom fails sufficiently
to appreciate politics: he has little to say about civic, as distinguished
from
liberal,
education; he
speaks
eloquently
of eros
but
not enough of
thymos; he
preaches without
having
recourse
University
effects
of
of
Chicago, he ignores
he fails to
regarding them
music;
appreciate
founders, instead
Bloom
of
as
mere
harboring
between
Socrates
1.
review
and
Nietzsche.
pp.
14-17.
For the
most stupid
by
an
intelligent
man, see
Mind,"
in Chronicles: A Magazine
pp. 30-33-
146
Interpretation
substantial objections
These
deserve
careful
so much tmth
avoid
civic education.
(he introduces
almost
every
page).
Bloom
as
nonetheless gives
few indications
how America
might educate
citizens,
Bloom
seems to want
distinguished from cultivating decent intellectuals. the rose without its protective thorn. He does not seem to
the thorn.
when
appreciate
the virtues
of
for
some
men make glaring errors, readers intention before Has sighing, 'Homer underlying interpreter of Plato's Republic and Rousseau's Letter to what makes a political
political man?
competent
nods.'
Has he forgotten
for,
even
for
civic education?
Some twenty
years
ago, Bloom
Today
religion, philosophy, and politics play little role in the formative years. There is openness, but that very openness prepares the way for a later indifference, for the young have little experience of profound attachments to profound things; the soil
is
he
unprepared. must
Previously
prejudices
a professor
students
from
prejudices: now
instill
in them if he
liber
ation.2
now
simply
given
up
leaving
philosophy to
by
its
Both civility
Closing impoverishing
although
of the
American Mind,
souls,
most
with
subtitle
failing democracy
and
likely
has
more
critics
charge
Bloom's
works
critics nor
with confusing politics with rhetoric, his defenders have shown adequately how Bloom's professor
Bloom
how
semiobscure
managed
to
galvanize
the
American
Only
after
guess
why he
writes
what
seeing he really
thinks.
Only
then
does
by its
cover, for
a moment.
The title
appeals
primarily to
that "the
'liberals,'
'conservatives.'
contemporary American
persons
who
mind"
to
To
assert
as
to close,
will
pride
keeping
matter of
failing democracy
must also
trouble
be
to address? These
repugnance
locutions
to any
just
enough to over
"Souls"
come the
contemporary liberal's
to conservatives,
mention of souls.
"Foreword
by
Saul
Bellow"
worry about education failing democ in just about everyone, too: liberals,
in Robert A. Goldwin,
pp.
2.
of
Liberal
Education,"
ed..
Higher Educa
tion
and
121-40.
147
have
our
of
similarly
professor
wide
range:
liberals
trust Conor
Cruise O'Brien
and
a woman
from
'neo-
Harvard
(they
liberal);
conservatives,
or at
least
and
conservatives.'
happily
at words of praise
by
Walter Berns
Har
students.
But
dedication
speaks as a
("no
real
teacher can
against
his
pupil
to
fulfill human
He
nature
all
deforming
forces
a
of convention
and prejudice").
also tact
fully
bit
more about
teaching
than
they do
(look
at
angry,
he advises,
"will
yourself too
much
with
charges of
number"
"small
of students who
lives in
an effort
to be auton
omous,"
use of
of philosophy, are "models for the undertaking the "solitary the noblest human faculties and hence are benefactors to all of us, more
quest"
for
what
they
are than
for
do."
what
they
(When
reviewers call
Bloom
a philo
man, they are simply telling us what he says of himself in his first four pages.) Though solitary, philosophers are not apolitical, paradoxically enough; Bloom concludes the argument of his preface by observ
sophic
and
not
a religious
ing
in its
uses"
various
(emphasis
added)
tightly
among the reason that discovers theories, the reason that finds
production, passion,
among
to
other
things),
and
politics
anger,
which
attention of
teachers,
soon to
become his
an
untimely
man.
But the
success of
The
Closing
Introduction,
perhaps the
timing. The
by
Professor
Jaffa,
or
some
'liberationists'
thing
ation.
having
about
liber
Bloom identifies
egalitarianism,
that
and used
has
replaced
"the inalienable
natural rights
to
be the
"a
traditional
American
grounds
for
free
society."
Observing
the
that
"every
of
educational system
has
a moral goal
that it tries to
calls
attain,"
formation has
certain
kind
of
human
being,"
Bloom
democratic
such
a
personality,"
"openness."
characterized
"tendency"
by
Although liberalism
the American
freedom,"
toward "indiscriminate
founders,
and
and
the
of
they
read,
finally
insisted
on
certain
slavery,
148
Interpretation
not
determined
by
but
by
the self-evident
of the
truth that all men are created equal tion of Independence gets left out
reasons
of
by
Declara
for
philosophic an audience
but surely
also
for
addressing
and
for
who pri piety nonetheless appealed to God in the Declara of denied the Jesus, vately divinity tion, knowing how their countrymen would conceive of God, Bloom's rhetori
whom
traditional
Whereas Jefferson
Franklin,
cal problem
is different. He
individuals
suspicious of
God, especially in political discourse. any Bloom is nonetheless firm on the moral point. Moral
mention of
relativism
denies the
life."
existence of
and
"extinguishes]
"Openness"
for the
good
contemporary
or relativist
Only
digs
deeper
Reason-as-modern-science does
us or
not
transcend
the
cave,
regime
because it
in its
son,"
cannot
drive
lure
'up.'
us
It is
anerotic.
The American
original
form does
"Liberty!"
say, simply,
It says, its
"Liberty
found
a
to rea
in politics, religion,
and education.
"What
makes
political
structure
possible
is the
use of
people,
Bloom
some
claims
no
gift
of prophecy. new
He knows he
that
will
cannot
plausibly
assert
ennobling,
entirely
prejudice
help
to point
his
readers
liberalism
virtues
and
treatment"
of
(and
vices) in
people.
Moral
relativism often
does
rest
on more
than
egalitarianism; there
is
a certain
dim; Bloom
means not might
avail
himself
of
it.
"respectful"
By
merely living-and-letting-live, but examining these myths as if they be true, or contain some truth, as determined by reason "to seek the
reason."
good
by
Showing
exempts
refutes
(fostering
sociate
'facts'
extremism, not
and
toleration,
minds
and
reason
from
not
"values.'
of men
to segregating
natural
about the
Creator-God
or the
law
would
work
with
individuals. In
order
Bloom begins
those prejudices.
appealing to
some
features
of them while
dissolving
others.
body
of
"Students,"
parts:
"Nihilism,
American
"The University": the taught, the teaching, the teaching meainstitution. He does not have a section called preferring to
and
"Teachers."'
Style,"
149
readers
his
criticisms of
his
in small,
sometimes
concentrated
doses. In
period
"Students,"
he begins
but
nostalgia.
He invokes the
more
^S-^S,
purposes,
new
really
students
and,
many of today's senior faculty for these American students, and in that they
when so
fresh."
were students.
were right,
But there were also victims, victims of the perennially university, which failed to give them a truly liberal education. Bloom thus begins skillfully to
subtle alternate
complaints
about
today's
wayward
youth
with
and apparent of
sympathy for their elders. these assessments, Bloom does indeed he talks books,
not
commit
the
critics:
the
Book; he
almost
not
ignores
spiritedness.
But this is
nihilism; it
deliberately
body,"
is rhetoric, concededly for a philosophic not a religious purpose. Bloom is bookish because his audience is accidentally bookish. To put it another way as Bloom does in his commentary on Plato he "abstracts from
the
wants
not
his
auditors
materialist
historicism
bodily
against
and
the
bookish, tending
uses
ideology
against
materialism,
thus
finally
historicism
itself,
which
tends to regard
books
as mere epiphenomena.
Far from
believing
books merely
partly artificial but also originating in nature and pointing at nature. "Without is a rhetorical exaggeration; surely no one books there is nothing to imagines that, without Bloom's book, there would be no crisis of the university
see"
to see. Least of all does Bloom succumb to the illusion that the American mind
would not
be closing if he had
eros characterizes
not said
it
was.
Physical
the
student
generation.
Bloom
exploits
the
tendency
this state
of of
inclined to
other
vices, to
by
'liberation'
ideology. He his
also manages
audience
old-fashioned;
after at
up
on
Elvis.3
to
do be
with
timing;
it
might even
become fashionable to
some reviewers
unhip.
Mesmerized
by
Bloom's discussion
of
eroticism,
overlook of music.
his introduction
He
shows
how
can
prepare
nearly
such
spoil
it. He
remarks
believed it defense
could
do
without
removed a good
against irrational-
"old-fogeyish"
3.
object
to Bloom's
intercourse."
having
of sexual
of the
'soul'
the Four
No, but
pace. Professor
folksinging
and
McCartney's cutesy little melodic hooks paroxysms in the girls of its day.
And
even
it induced
erotic
150
Interpretation
how to tame
for
rougher passions
ism
bad
by forgetting
consequences
with
subtler ones
yielding
rhetorical will
He
even gets
in
few
jabs
by
associating
music
rock
music
with
that
horror,
but
capitalism.
That
make
excounterculturites
stop
a
and think
no small achievement.
one with social
Rock
makes
solipsistic world,
prim
consequences;
observes
'relationships.'
they
what
are called
by
an
oddly
latinism,
a social a
Here Bloom
happens
fact instead
of a moral and
Young
ately but a
people are
"spiritually
a
anything
exaggerates
in
great stage on
bookish way, claiming that "America is actually nothing which theories have been played as tragedy and
teachers for whom
of praise and
'concrete' 'abstract'
come
Speaking
sent
to
a generation of
and
repre shows
the nadir of
blame, he
social
how
ideas
sexuality.
Teacher, in
your
liberalism had
equality
and
sexual passion to
be twin
goods?
sobering thought
for
liberation
deal."
"passionlessness,"
the re-conceiving of
activity
gets
as
liberalism,
eros.
"no
colorless
Even com-passion, the very fuel of social fuel of egalitarianism. For if all are the
and
Self-protectiveness (anger
young
people
fear)
replaces
Lacking
firm
attachments,
attach
themselves
to
themselves, fearful of anything much beyond that. Hectored by moralists who do not know how to educate either the reasonable or the passionate parts of the
soul, students blink uncomprehendingly
not even
"last
men"
but last
persons.
Because
all
but the
youngest
memories of old
rhetoric
effectively
superiority to their
errors.
carefully teaching
central
longstanding
uncovers
The book's
and
part,
"Nihilism, American
of
Style,"
the
moral
a
intellectual foundations
those
errors:
Nietzschean egalitarianism,
do
the
not
teach relativism or
Bloom clearly states that the American founders historicism. But he also says. "The great mystery is
to American souls that were not
it."
This
Critics rightly
complain
as
and
Howells
never
find
way into the book. But to take the central name on the list, Emerson was the man who popularized German historicism in the United States; the first
their
American
with
'intellectual'
adumbrates
nothing less (or more) than Hegelianism was one of Nietzsche's intellectual
somewhat
heroes. This
vulnerable
to such
corruption almost
Bloom does
offer
explanation,
albeit
problematic
one.
He describes
It'
151
man who
Enlightenment
a
intends "to
extend
reason
This is not only but primarily the subspecies of useful reason that serves the conquest of nature. Eros and thymos do not disappear, but they
preserve of
reason."
tamed,
that
or
is,
to the
.ve7/Lcentered.
in
when
finds his
quest
for
joy
too
joyless, he looks
central
not to as
happi
"creativity,"
anticipated
by
of
at
chapter
(the
eighth
fifteen),
"Creativity,"
titled
Bloom
nihilists'
attacks
the
exaltation of
making
the expense of thinking. Democratic America shrinks from the pride of these
philosophers.
Rather,
"there is in America
a mad rush
to distinguish oneself,
something has been accepted as distinguished, to package it in such a way that everyone can feel Bloom deplores this vain egali tarianism, in part because it affords so little solid ground for statesmanlike
and, as soon as
included."
After the
founding
generation, genuine
in America,
and
here.
modern political philosophy, even
Hence
in its
soberest
vulnerable replace
cannot a
divine
because
scientific progressivism
is
lie
with respect
to the soul, if not with respect to the body. Insofar as the Founders partake of that philosophy and,
rhetoric
aside,
and
Franklin
although
all
did,
deeply
not
if
the
not
exclusively
ways;
is
also
vulnerable,
perhaps
in
same
founding
political
regime
is
not
philosophizing. refutation of
In the book's
central
passage, Bloom
and
summarizes
Nietzsche's
rationalist
will
egalitarianism
elitism, his
warlike
to
power.
Peaceful
republicanism stands
perennially
passage
threatened
by
its
philosophic premises.
Then, in
publicly
unnoticed
by
fight for
culture
knowing
it is
not
true.
This is
somehow
impossible,
Nietzsche
struggled
the
problem
throughout
his career,
perhaps without a
satisfactory
resolution.
company with Nietzsche precisely on the issue of the rational pursuit of tmth. While conceding the force of Nietzsche's objections to En lightenment rationalism, he concedes nothing to Nietzsche's attack on Socrates
Bloom
parts
and
Plato. He
also
failings,"
at
least kept
demns.4
reason
"at the
of
the soul
praising
what
Nietzsche
con
4.
wants
not culture
for its
own
for the
life. The
real antagonism of
or the rational
of unaided reason
Nietzsche, is not culture but life. Bloom never quest for it, are somehow incompatible with life. (If serves truth, or life, one gets on the road not to
Germany
Athens, but
to
Jerusalem.)
152
Interpretation
style
democracy
while
breaking
the
natural
limits
on
that egali
when
Nietzsche
goes to
Fort Lauderdale, is
rhetorical argu
has
attracted
criticism:
"It is
and
appalling.
we accept
What is astounding
such our
the
or
relativism with
I find
which
relativism,
means
for
lives"
easygoing lack of concern about what it (emphases added). Does no one see the wit, here'.' Hav
and our
ing
already
as a
addressed
the
moral
defects
of
relativism
in "Our
to
Virtue"
and
"Students,"
Ignorance,"
he does
his
audience
simply
tract
This
would
make
'conservative'
with
limited
circulation.
In this
passage
initially
surely
to
shake
downplays the
no good
moral
defects
demur?
of relativism and
to deplore
"dogmatism"
teacher will
over
(remoralizing,
a
now)
invites
our
us
our
heads
the
lamentable
Can there be
far
gone
in
bourgeois bolshevism
knockout: "As
reminded of
to remain untouched
of our current
by
for the
an
image
intellectual condition, I
keep being
the
at the
Frenchmen splashing happily in the water annual vacations legislated by Leon Blum's
1936, the
same year
It
Hitler
was permitted
to
Rhineland."
These
doesn't
under
rhetoric, or who
fails to
"Western
rationalism
has
culminated
in
a rejection of reason.
University,"
Is this
the
result
contains
longest
Socrates'
Rektoratstrede,"
Apology
to Heidegger's
suggesting
history
of reason as embodied
in
educational
institutions.
But he begins
ment
with
America.
Citing
Tocqueville
on the
danger
of
"enslave
opinion,"
to public
Bloom
in the
preface, on
knowing
oneself
only by one's students. Democracy increases this danger, and modern democracy increases it still more, by making popular consent legitimate and
insisting
sort
of
that it can
be
rational.
prejudice
is the
worst
prejudice, because
reason
prejudice."
Then there is
is the only instrument for liberation from sentence Bloom's critics overlook, a sentence that
ways:
in two
"For
live in
a world abstrac
formed
by
by
by thinking
have
these abstractions
help
of
lead
us
difficult
impossible
Bloom's
help."
to
without their
The
bookish
'abstract'
or
character of
argument
is, in
by
the character
of
contemporary Americans,
particu-
larly
those
of
the
'intellectual'
classes.
of
Bloom's
and
critics
apparently do
not
perceive
Bloom's understanding
was
modernity,
the
as
from
except on
'abstract'
issue
American
of
founding
nearly
so
Bloom
The
question
the
effectiveness of civic as
education
in today's climate,
necessarily depends not only on whether Bloom's rhetorical argument portrays the founders accurately, but on the extent to which he portrays today's Ameri
cans accurately.
Bloom
calls
"the best
of
regimes,"
of
the modem
rationalism,
[the]
Enlightenment
which
but
a political
Again he does
"The
not
acknowledge the
of
Declaration's language
about the
Creator-God.
States."
authors pre
in the
of
is
rudderless.
Put
somewhat
differently, if
between
tion admits no
'bury'
inconsistency
reason and
Creator-God,
no surprise
and
if
you
therefore
it is
that you
find
reason mdderless.
In my opinion,
although
not
Their Declaration is
irreligious hues.
the nature of
However,
God
of
given
Bloom's audience, he
which
ranges
from
reli-
the
Declaration, knowing
be
resurrected
in
such
minds
by
Allan Bloom's
will not
powers,
they may (in fact very old) way, a way that enables them to discover the ends of human life instead of reducing those ends to the subhuman. Bloom begins by arguing that Enlightenment philosophers are
are.
If intellectuals
be brought to think, to
reason
not
philosophers,
men
who
attempt
whole."
account of the
"Philosophy is
defense
not a
doctrine but
"openness"
tice,
here, Bloom's
all
ultimate
of genuine
no philoso
phers, for
another
than
with
anyone not
Modern
philosophers
in their
but in their
political program.
But they
can never
benefits
no populace,
and
consoles
no
be tmly popular, for it inspires no awe, person. Reason will never truly enlighten
philosophers
reflects
nonphilosophers,
pretend
Enlightenment
modern
know that,
the
even
as
they
otherwise.
The
university
Enlightenment
political
powerful
are persuaded of
that
letting
as
the professors do
they
want
is good"; instead
educating aristocrats,
1 54
Interpretation
educates
Enlightenment
modern
the
populace.
This
pretended
enlightenment
is the
version
of
civic
education.
popularized
rationalism
is,
indeed
would of
superficial
is
not
argument
the
philosophers.
They
knew it
be that
way."
prejudices
his
audience
of
teaches
them
what
those
premises rhetoric
are, and
even
what
they logically
entail.
while
"
Bloom
observes:
an educational
endeavor,
purpose of which
softening the
pity."
hard
tute
hardening
in The
the
Substi better
teachers"
"gentlemen"
"contemporary
of what
and
you
will
not
find
summary
Bloom is
doing
Closing
of has tenure
the
therefore need
hard; he is
fashion
as
often
prey to thymotic
passions, crystallized
in
mod
ideology;
He
a post-Christian,
he
but
now
in true
modern
fashion, he is
aristocrat.
allergic
is
not a true
abili
it) liberal,
that
so
is, liberating. A
far
political
underground, or
aboveground as
to lose
sight of
the
ground,
must
be brought back to
political
by
his heart. It helps if recently he has bruised his foolish head on some reality, and is ready to listen to a more sober voice. This voice asks him a question:
"Does
reason,
a
society based
on
reason
necessarily closely
modern
make
unreasonable
demands
on
or
does it
approach more
reasonable?"
tions of the
question
To
prepare
intellectuals to think
about that
"perhaps"
is
a small
Nietzsche
and
by
the modern
avoided
step in the right direction. And to suggest that Heidegger "did not take seriously enough the changes wrought rationalists and hence the possibility that the Socratic way might
impasse,"
have
the modern
conveys
way Strauss
attention.
rediscovered
namely,
without
bringing
Strauss's
name to public
Finally,
to cohabit may
'liberals'
be seen in Soviet tyranny, and to do this so that contemporary may find it plausible, is a public service. In his final chapter, "The Student and the Bloom shows how he
University,"
would reintroduce
humanities,
the classic
in
literature,
which should
be
part of a political
education, left
a void
in the
soul
particularly
extreme and
Here Bloom
uses
the snobbery
same
their current
political egalitarianism.
At the
time he manages to
It-
155
not
that a
certain
fully
is
political
And there is
more:
"Political both
looks
science and
prehensive
than economics
because it
studies
peace
war
war
their
relations";
unusual
it is "the only
all, political
social
science which
in the
face."
"Most
of
science
is the only discipline in the university (with the philosophy department) that has a philosophic
wisdom
Not only moderation, justice, and courage, then, but even the love of may be found among members of the American Political Science
although
Association,
Bloom
anger,
they do
would
reintroduce politics
the
prudent
study
of stem
justice
and
by
the means of
flattery
and
curiosity
of eros.
In
chosen
any
nihilist as
says, as Bloom
does, "Philosophy is
But this does
we
still
nihilist would
say,
of all not
to
of cosmic support
for
about."
in
are.
Are
beings
anima
first
of
and
last
by
love
of our own
our
lives,
children, cities?
Is death the
"we"
best to be courageously overthrown? Or are convinced that philosophy means "learning how to die"? Do we regard "the intense pleasure of to be sufficient compensation for the knowledge
king
terrors
for us,
at
insight"
that we must die? Those are the principal alternatives for the Socratic philoso
phers. are
Among
not
nihilists.
and
fight the
pain
with
self-
assertion.
Epicureanism
be
Bloom,
Part
were
he
to
leave
of the anti
of
dote to
is
more
delivering
answers.
It is right to
as prior to
liberal
education.
Unfortu
civic
liberated from
who see
matters,
of this
way.
even
from the
'Conservatives'
obligations of civility.
the
folly
simply Students
They
can
be
addressed
in
different
be
addressed
in
Many
love
patriotism, a desire
for
some
sort more
of
beyond the
universe
bounded
by
Sesame Street
someone
and
MTV. A
give
directly
may
reach them.
But
has to
so.
there are
of
do
Bloom
to the unable
majority
his
Mirabile dictu,
some are
listening.
The
Closing
of
of
the
Philosophic Mind
A Review
Bloom's
Closing
Harry Neumann
Error is
error
not
blindness.
Nietzsche
is
cowardice.
shares
the
error
informing
this
book
with
most
liberals.
is their
for their
liberal I
subordination
to
individual freedom
or
self-interest.
By
more
important than
obligation gives rise
the state;
political
liberalism
to
nonphilosophers, for
philoso
phy over politics, for Socrates over Achilles, for peace over war. The anger or moral indignation of Achilles, the chief political passion, is, for Bloom, "of all the experiences of the soul the most inimical to reason and
hence to the
philosophy.
(pp. 327,
71).
He
sees
it
as
To be sure, Mozart to
moral
charms
and
daintiness
(p. 69).
of
whom
Bloom's
eagerly introduced
Moral indignation is
Bloom
the
minority: castigates as
more
akin
to
"McCarthy
and those
like
him"
whom
"clearly
nonacademic and
antiacademic, the
barbarians
at
(p.
324).
not place
Bloom in the
outraged
academic
"Most
McCarthy."
He is
that many
liberals (for example, the AAUP) opposed to McCarthy were not opposed to freedom in the late sixties. Against these threats,
the
opponent of moral
Bloom,
phers:
of
most
philoso
fully
the university.
However bad
an
universities or a
was always a
about"
divination that If
Aristotle
there
were all
(pp.
271-72).
of the
moral
indignation is
antiphilosophical and
philosophy
is the
and
soul
"philosophy"
its university) reveals his hostility to the university's very soul. I believe that Bloom, however unwillingly, is opposed both to philosophy
Author's
note:
The
research
for this
by
grants
and
in the
is
more
fully
Education's
Only
Serious
Question,"
discussed in my articles: "Political Philosophy or Nihilist Science? in Natural Right and Political Right: Essavs in Honor of
Harry
V. Jaffa (Durham, N.C., 1984), pp. 365-74; "Politics or Nothing! Nazism's Origin in Journal of Value Inquiry (Vol. 19. 1985), pp. 225-34; "Nihilism Scientific Contempt for Claremont Review of Books (Fall, 1984), pp. 26-28. Challenged and
Politics," Defended,"
158
and
Interpretation
do
not
the university. I
courage to acknowledge
fault him for this opposition, only for the lack of it. In reality, Bloom shares my atheism or nihilism, is
obfuscated
however
much
our
agreement
by
his
need
acceptable
(liberal) fig
nihilist nakedness
anti-McCarthyism, and Mozart. championing of "great I found the chapter informed by Bloom's indignation, his very political condemnation of his colleagues of the late sixties, to be the most lively and
alive part of the
men,"
347-56).
It indicated that,
perhaps enough
unlike the
"last
he
still star
has
(politics) in him,
It
showed
to give birth to
as opposed
dancing
I
(pp.
194-207)?
how
deeply
political,
to
"philosophic"
agree with
Bloom's
prejudice
world:
"It is
essential not
relevant"
(p.
283).
"ultimately
in
America"
majority"
(pp. 246-56,
and
319).
Opposing
nihilists
such
as
Thrasymachus, Bloom
of and not
equality"
"the
enormous and
ity
far
in
America."
Lincoln in
common
his best
more
with
or
I do. We
if
we
dare to know
sophic.
self-knowledge.
want
to be philo
philosophy's
dethroning "by
(PP377-78).
democracy
democracy
a
took away
philosophy's privileges
philo
Bloom
and
wants
to turn this around, making politics subservient to philosophy "'Never did I think that the university was properly ministe
ministe
its
university.
rial to rial
the society around it. Rather I thought and think that society is
university"
to the
a
(p.
245).
This
ambition
is
inherently
misunderstanding of what philosophy is, tion informed by philosophy is. Nietzsche knew better. His
opposition and
from
institu
to Socrates
was
directed
against
both
philosophy
problem of
schools
shaped
by
it.
Bloom
sees
Socrates is the
problem.
philosophic
(p.
308),
part
of an
dialogue among
constitute
few
cosmopolitan
intellectuals
in the
(p.
for
Bloom,
united
"the
real
community
of man,
"
the
self-
contradictory
simulacra of common
by
"their
381).
These
cosmopolitans are
good
of
improbable
all
They
(pp.
have
true
other
of
Bloom's university
and
its
education.
Not Nietzsche's!
The
Closing
common
159
Nietzsche's
nothing
Socratic dialogues. In that nihilism, there is nothing individual! To be something rather than noth
rejection of reason and science
ing
required
of
Nietzsche's
(knowledge
of
reality)
uncon
in favor
redemptive virtue of a
of
Dionysian
scious and
The
real
horror
of
essential
destructiveness
Venice
and
Wagnerian love
of
death, is
in Mann's Death in
(p. 234).
its "cries
nothingness"
Far from sharing Bloom's reverence for his true community of philosopherkings and their ageless dialogues, Nietzsche wanted to purge his state of
anyone with so-called
'educated'
drive
poets; this
Nietzsche's terrorism
tion of the
Bloom's
revered
heart
of
Socrates
and of philosophy,
or at
knowable,
point of
least divinable,
rejection of
by
is
a pure mind.
From
Socratic
view,
this faith
which philoso
faith
or opinion
nihilism's core.
men"
Nietzsche
"the famous
to
wise
responsible
for
enslavement
politics.
However
or anger
much
they
by
indignation
of the
(a
powerful
"tarantula,"
pretence!),
they really
are
victims
the spirit of
common
revenge, that
is,
of politics.
They
are enslaved
by
instinct,
and its essentially moral-political bias. Common sense, the herd instinct, is never egalitarian. It
always
good
inculcates
in
all
care
is to
get what
is
for oneself,
herd
to
live
a good
"cave"
life. This
or
is informed
by
one's
unphilosophic
herd members,
philosophic
forever
eludes
striv
them.
Philosophers,
political.
that
is,
herd members,
spend
their
lives
ing
Consequently
radically
The
rational
There
only is
philosophic
herd
members.
philosophic
primacy
not revealed
by
inquiry
upon
since
it
sets
the
is forced
both
philosophic
instinct
of
any herd.
to the herd
instinct
as
men"
communities"
the
What Bloom (p. 285) calls "the uncompromising difference that separates from nonphilosophers is not about death and dying, as he
about
whether
philosophers"
believes, but
1.
p.
the
tme
common
good
and
without
which
both
edited
by
Colli
Montinari, Berlin,
1967!!., hi 3,
172.
160
Interpretation
and politics
philosophy
although
adequate
is
meaningless
exists. not
Like
all
good
herd
members,
they, grasp
unlike
that it exists, know, merely believe! unphilosophic herd members, believe that they lack an
5053-51 id).
as their most
of
it (cf. Republic,
knowledge both
Like
good citizens,
they
sec
acquisition of this
main object of
pressing
the
Aristotle, Rousseau
and practice,
virtue.
or
Bloom,
philosophers cal
do
between theoreti
main practical
(philosophic)
is
and
(moral-political)
Their
concern
Their thought
which
never
transcends
their birth
(nature)
lib
them.
or
Scientists
eral,
beyond
Like
good
all unphilosophic
truly is
for themselves;
not.
by
they do
Thus
the
main
question
for
philosophers
is
whether
the good
(questioning
This is the
untenable
are
in
an
psychological
tension
between their
to
for unquestioning
loyalty
really
discredit)
and
However
attempt
in
our
century to recover awareness of philosophy's necessarily political rootedness. If Bloom really were interested in being philosophic, he would have taken the Rektoratsrede
much more
seriously (p.
or
311).
Jaffa,
that depth of
or
loyalty
to their people.
They
283).
cannot, like
Bloom, Machiavelli,
Aristotle
what
consider
"it
essential
not
is
relevant"
politically
what mon
(p.
For
what
is
most relevant
is
most relevant
good"
(p.
381).
hold there is in
no sin
the need philosophically It is therefore not sufficient philosophically to declare "I but (p. 292), unless the man asserting it also
ignorance"
or Jaffa, an unquestioning (and therefore "ignorant") rooted his herd holds to be good and right. Bloom is not alive to this, the
not
necessary, if
sufficient,
condition
for
philosophy.
Consequently
his
philoso
floating
on
good precludes
Bloom's
philosopher-kings
to
precludes
insofar
as
it
is philosophy
insofar
as
it legitimates
a meaningless
science of
(pp.
194-
or myself, was
basically
Still he
between
ultimate
(philosophy
or
The
Closing
161
nihilist
business. He
above
emptiness
(by
elevating it
Genuine philosophy is a risky business, a two-edged sword directed against politics in the name of philosophy (""I hold there is no sin but ignorance.") but also against philosophy in the name of politics ("McCarthyism my country,
right or wrong!").
Philosophers
remain
ously questioning their worth, a difficult, necessarily esoteric enterprise. Bloom wrongly believes that Thrasymachus "sees the truth about
(p. 283)
when
Socrates"
city."
not respect
the
Insofar
as
he is
philosophic,
respect, the
Socrates both
does
not
respect
the city
but the
concern, is primary
can
for
philosophy.
Only
scientists such as
Bloom
of
or
Thrasymachus
simply
not
respect
"philosophy"
is
clearest not
or
or
and
daring
to realize
it, Bloom is
closer
to
Nietzsche
that scientific
tyranny
satirized
of
by
of
men
from the
of
actual
politics
their
"community"
the apolitical
Protagoras
337c-d).
I doubt that there is anything like catalogues and other propaganda. The
"American
Mind"
except
in
college
springs univer
notion that
from Bloom's
sity."
that
"society
Thus America's
mind.
to enslave
should
close
its
or
Bloom's book
and
Mind
Beyond Good
Evil
or more
paraphrasing Bloom on Swift: How Scientists Exploit The Nonscientists So As To Live Their Version Of The Contemplative Life (pp. 295-96).
Following Nietzsche,
means
nihilism.
Weber
realized
that science,
knowledge
of
reality,
Unlike Nietzsche,
of
Nietzsche's
including
the
all
overpowering reality's nihilism: the heart of willing, is nothing. Nietzsche saw that the herd instinct
moral-political
inspiring
primary
which
faith that
also
of
living
in
a coherent,
intelligible
world of
in
those
are
at
1,
354).
Deprived first
this
comforting myth,
ist"
men
(and beasts)
as
empty
of
experiences, impressions
Hume
called
them. As "Europe's
perfect nihil
science was
nihilist,
revealing
of
a world
consisting
points
view,
methods
of experi
to speak
bluntly
as recommended
by
prejudices,
bigotries,
can
superstitions nihilism or
(p.
253).
nihilist
No
man
avoid
be less
Everything,
162
Interpretation
all moral-political
passions
as
particularly
pressions. nihilist
("values"),
Bloom (p.
authentically
to
than
Camus.
Celine's futile
to
be
something,
transcend nihilism,
is
or
no more realistic
than Aschenbach's
or,
for that
mat
Lincoln's
or anyone else's.
Dostoyevski's
underground
rightly nobody knowledgeable about himself be or become anything not even an insect: even to be lazy
observes that
creation cv nihilo\ might
and
his
world
would require
impossible America)
over
To be sure, Bloom (or the victory of Russia of liberal democratic students whose
bigotries tend to be
nightmares of a
(nazi-communist)
joyous libera believe
to
me
Celine for
Nietzsche's
pale criminal
(p.
151).
When
attacked
despising
nihilism as
tion, 1
said
men who
bigotry
or superstition.
This
seems
knowledge is
bigotry
or prejudice
including
This
and
of
scientific
see
awareness relation
made
Nietzsche
reason
Weber
that "the
between
or science
liberation"
and
the human
good"
"big
It is why in Nietzsche "the joy of like Marx (p. 218) "has turned into
easygoing or self-satisfied atheism with ago nized atheism, suffering its human Rather than suffer those consequences he would have preferred to be a university professor but, as he
wrote
terror
Nietzsche
replaces
conseque
Burckhardt
courage
(January 6,
compelled
1889), he
his
that
far. His
him to
realize
that
he, like
life,
He
was
a god
would
have
as a
professor
membership in the
nities."
Instead his
war
courage
doomed him to
confront
between
(no
life's only serious struggle: the Reason (insight into reality's nihil
is destroyed
stars).
ism) is
science
repellent
to passion
unless
passion
or
emasculated
by
so
more chaos
to give birth to
remain
dancing
All
passions
not
emasculated
(depoliticized)
teleological, striving to
goods
Consequently
irrational, subsisting
faith in
teleological world of
them.
When
genuine science,
abandonment of this
against
faith,
frustration
external
of
liberalism (their
passions now
political
demand their
the
"rights."
reality itself. Like reflection) the rabid, because enlightened, This demand becomes more strident, more is
realized.
is directed
communist or nazi,
more
its
inanity
No
powerful
desire
can
genuinely liberal, liberating education, unless it is domesti cated, that is, degraded into uplifting propaganda. Aschenbach's refusal to
or
tolerate science
The
Closing
163
domesticate
of embrace an career need
science
"Dionysius."
The
courage
is
responsible
for Nietzsche's
university
to
insane
become
(p.
professor
"whose "no
has been
one"
to prove
education"
Bloom's
celebration of the
of
he supposes,
university and science (of science, and not, as philosophy!) is accurately evaluated in his quotation from
Vocation: "Finally,
.
Weber's Science
as a
as the path to of
happiness, I believe 1
which
in light
who
Nietzsche has
still
'the last
men'
believes in
in
editorial
few
big
babies in university
chairs or
offices?"
(p. 194)
As I
cal,
remarked earlier.
Bloom
lively
at
his
the
most politi
inspired
democratic-egalitarian
This indignation
threats
to
shows that
Republic too seriously because he did not take its ignorance of the good seri ously enough. Thus he transformed its philosophy, its wavering between politi
cal repression and philosophic
freedom, into
of
nothingn
Bloom,
tory of Political Philosophy rejected Jaffa's request that Heidegger and Burke be balanced by Churchill and Lincoln. Prevented by their scientific orien
tation
of not want to sully a history Had they had the courage of their real convictions, their editorial policy would be that demanded at the end of Hume's Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding: eliminate (actually Hume as philosophic as mere
"philosophy"
from
being
with
statesmen.
advocates
gin with
burning)
all
nonscientific
Hobbes
and
Nietzsche
with perhaps a
opposi
tion to
Socrates'
universal
good.
Strauss too
would
(as he is from
with philos
exception)
as
since
insofar
they
were philosophic
these
more
purges
would
be
scientific
over philosophic
"progress"
superstition
or,
accurately
one
to the
realization
that scientific
enlightenment means
trary
his have
reason
substituting bigotry for another; there is no nonarbi for anything. Bloom disagrees, but his disagreement is vitiated by
in the
to
have
reasons
for
.
what we
. .
do. It is
a sign
of our
There may be possibility of community have to make a case for themselves, but they
phers"
be
tramps
(p.
238).
The
philosopher's of
essentially
moral-political
rootedness
compels
him to
seek
knowledge
justify
his
enterprise.
Bloom
overemphasize
Plato's
opposition to
Homer,
164
Interpretation
the creator of
Achilles,
spirit of
vengeance, moral
politics
Nietzsche rightly finds at the heart of all indignation, fore, of all philosophy (Will to Power, 765; Zarathustra,
which
and, there
11:7-8).
Anger
or
indignation,
faith that
sider
from
the herd-instinct
unlivable
one
has
life becomes
apostate
(con
of
Psalm
137).
Hatred (Bloom's
reaction
to those
intellectuals
the
tzsche's superman
late sixties) is the natural reaction to whoever threatens those goods. Nie is characterized by redemption from this spirit of revenge or
and
Rousseau,
not
Socrates
and
of politics.
Without the
courage
to
on education
the
Republic,
Death in
Venice \
Reflecting
14,
on
1897) to
Cunninghame-Graham's
that
Singleton,
the simple,
'Singleton
education'
with an
Nigger of the Narcissus, be better educated: "You say Everything is possible. However I think Single
is impossible.
unconscious man
Would
you
seriously,
of
malice
prepense,
cultivate
in that
become
conscious
. . .
and
very
unhappy.
Now he is
simple
and great
Would
Understand that
you are
nothing,
wish
shadow,
more
insignificant than
dream?'
drop
of water
in the ocean,
more
fleeting
of a
Would
you?"
the
October 1988
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The Picture
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