Customer Reviews

In Defense of the Soul: What It Means to Be Human

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Why, oh why, is this book (as of early January '09) only available used (or 'new' below market price)? Fortunately, at least, the current prices are low enough to welcome buyers; unfortunately, they suggest it's not worth much. On the contrary, Professor Machuga's _In Defense of the Soul_ (IDS) is a very clear and compelling introduction to (or survey of) the impact that Aristotelian-Thomistic metaphysics has on current trends in science, and vice versa. Not only does each chapter begin with a summary of the contents (viz., for skimming or review purposes), but also Machuga clearly has long practice in explaining metaphysics to non-specialists.

Despite its brevity, IDS covers a great range of topics: ontology and phylogenetic continuity, form versus shape (hylomorphism), evolution and species, mind and brain, causation and teleology, artificial intelligence and meaning, free will and rationality, etc. If any or all of these topics interest you, get this book. It's a quick read and would make a superb reader for serious beginning philosophical students. It would also make for a quick wake-up call to more advanced readers, in so far as it orients the readers to a vital and robust tradition capable of critically appropriating the gains of exact science in the classical humanist tradition. (In case you're wondering, Machuga makes trenchant criticisms of intelligent design as a quasi-Cartesian confusion of form with shape, insofar as it claims formal design is physically discernible.) Machuga also has a fascinating assessment of Cairns-Smith's clay-sediment theory of biological origins and how, if it were borne out scientifically, it would still find a comfortable place in Aristotelian ontology, which he aptly classifies as "ascientific without being unscientific."

The most important element of IDS is, as Machuga notes more than once, the light it throws on previous and greater work by others in the "Thomistotelian", or realist (and anti-scientistic), tradition: Gilson, Jaki, Adler, Polanyi, Popper, et al. The only claim to "originality" Machuga might make is the stress he places on per se (law-like) versus per accidens (completely particular) efficient causation and how the distinction grounds free will as a *rational* yet wholly physical *power* to inform matter (analogous to the way words inform phonemes).

I would have liked to see a larger bibliography and an index in the IDS. I was also startled by how many typos and basic copy-edit errors made it to press. Nonetheless, IDS is a great primer and addition to the current "Artisthomistic" renaissance underway in the work of people like G. Klima, J. Ross, J. Haldane, W. Wallace, W. Smith, D. Braine, A. Reimers, E. Feser, N. Clarke, D. Oderberg, et al.

Professor Machuga has written a lively, clear and impassioned defense of what it means to be human from an Aristotelian point-of-view. This book is well worth your time and effort in presenting an alternative perspective to the dominant physicalist/naturalist attitude pervasive in contemporary society. Although there is much that will seem `archaic' by most reader attitudes, in fact Machuga has not told us to go back to Aristotle but rather he has updated and breathed new life into Aristotles basic ideas. He pulls Aristotle into the twenty-first century.

The book is clearly written and systematically argued. Machuga does not dabble in obscurity; he presents his ideas according to a careful outline that is easy to follow. However, be warned that this is not a suitable text for someone with no background in philosophy. Machuga uses many terms that are part of the academic community that average readers would be unfamiliar with. My suggestion is that if you are interested in the topic of his book, that you first get acquainted with philosophy in general and more basic literature before attempting Machuga's text. That being said, it is quite accessible for a professional work of philosophy. Most people should be able to grasp the concepts without too much difficulty.

As for the argument, is it convincing? Well, I think where Machuga uses the concepts granted by physicalists and naturalists, the answer is yes. He takes scientism's own tools and uses them to undermine the naturalist project. But there remains a lingering doubt throughout whether or not Aristotle's typology really is appropriate for the quantum age. Many of the classical distinctions, such as materialism/immaterialism do feel inadequate to capture the categories of reality as we experience them today. This isn't a criticism of chronological snobbery, that we know better now than Aristotle did. It's just the admission that we have phenomena today, especially in physics and in theories of language, that simply are not captured by Aristotle's ideas. It leaves one to wonder how much of what Machuga argues for can be useful for talking about our latest discoveries and ideas. Nonetheless, he does make the case that Aristotle is still relevant, and for those who want to find out whether they have a soul (or are a soul, as Machuga would put it), this is definitely a must-read.