On Equilibrium: Six Qualities of the New Humanism [Hardcover]

John Ralston Saul (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 2004

Is it moral to sacrifice one's life for a higher goal? Why do many in the U.S. think it admirable to join the army but despicable for Palestinians to sign up with Hamas? How can we actually determine "evil" and "good" in the daily world? These practical questions cut to the heart of what it means to be human. John Ralston Saul, in his matter-of-fact discussion of six basic human qualities — ethics, common sense, intuition, imagination, memory, and reason — confronts basic concepts in a manner not done since Thomas Paine more than two centuries ago. In an easy-to-understand style, Saul explains why essential qualities of being human cannot exist in isolation but instead depend on and enrich each other. On Equilibrium persuasively explores morality and how it can be used to foster equilibrium for the self and achieve an ethical society.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This intriguing but often murky treatise on political philosophy extols balance and moderation in an incongruously vehement tone. Saul, an economist and philosopher and author of Voltaire's Bastards, sees humanism as a "dynamic equilibrium" between the six "qualities" of common sense, ethics, imagination, intuition, memory and reason; trouble starts when balance is disrupted and one quality overshadows the others. In particular, reason-which modernity elevates into a false god, he says-must be tempered by other qualities. Otherwise, we develop a simplistic, "linear" mindset fixated on illusory "certainties," and eventually succumb to "ideology"-especially to the rationalist (but ultimately irrational) orthodoxies of free-market economics and technological determinism. Saul's "six qualities" schema links considerations of individual character to a larger social polemic on the need to subordinate markets and technology to the demands of conscience, tradition and democracy. His ambitious and far-ranging argument is studded with thought-provoking riffs-on the similarities between fascist and modern-day democratic politics, for example, or libertarian conceits about the withering away of the state. But Saul is also prone to psychologizing and his insights can get lost amidst abstract pronouncements ("Ideology, being in the possession of truth, has no need for compassion..."). His ideas are not systematically developed (perhaps because systematic development smacks of rationalist ideology), and the book can feel, at times, like bits of a manifesto for the author's left-liberal views on, say, factory fishing. Saul's is a serious, politicized, if laborious restatement of classic humanist values-broadmindedness, empathy, civic responsibility, distrust of technocracy, attunement to complexity and compromise, opposition to fanatics and absolutists-but it doesn't quite live up to its intellectual pretensions.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 380 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (January 8, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568582935
• ISBN-13: 978-1568582931
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #977,635 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much food for thought, but may also give some indigestion, April 5, 2004

By 

Todd I. Stark "Cellular Wetware plus Books" (Philadelphia, Pa USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: On Equilibrium: Six Qualities of the New Humanism (Hardcover)

"On Equlllibrium" follows in the tradition of Saul's earlier trilogy of philosophical works, extolling the classical humanist virtues and attacking various forms of modern corporatist rationale and systematic manipulations of human reason.

This book is like a very rich pastry, full of insights that bear savoring and re-savoring. On the other hand, as Saul is very much aware, it does not lead to a very satisfying conclusion. In the end, it is the reflective balance between the various intentionally vaguely defined qualities that make us human tha Saul equates with essential human wisdom. This sides the author with Rawls and a number of other progressive theorists who favor an uneasy dynamic balance over apparent certainties. And consistent with his critique of pure reason in "Voltair's Bastards," this leads him to poise classical Socratic doubt against reason and false certitude.

The incautious reader might well rush to accuse Saul of being irrationalist, and his sometimes murky style might reinforce that impression. He is attacking "pure reason" in the sense of clear-cut trees of propositional logic, not human reasoning in the broader sense. He is changing the emphasis regarding what it means to <i>reason</i> from a dependence on logic ... to the reflective use of numerous natural abilities. His main problem here is that he often accomplishes this in a relatively obscure and indirect way.

While it is not as difficult or confusingly complex as Voltaire's Bastards, and is somewhat better focused from the start, it still bears Saul's characteristic meandering ("reflective?") style and will annoy readers who prefer their philosophy to get to the point directly.

Saul deliberately avoids clear succinct definitions of his terms, even tentative definitions, and this makes reading this book somewhat like filling in a crossword puzzle. You are never completely sure what he means by his central terms like "memory" or "reason" or "common sense" until you see them contrasted with each other in other chapters. When you see all the other intersecting lines filled in, you can begin to guess at the missing word.

The result is a writing style that eventually rewards your patient efforts at reading and reflecting, but will probably fend off the less reflective reader very early on.

I recommend this book to fans of Saul, fans of difficult crossword puzzles, and others who enjoy rich, complex philosophical perspectives on human nature and human social interdependence. It is not at all technical, but still a difficult book requiring some patience and even some re-reading at times.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's true; we need each other, January 11, 2005

By 

J. Stratton "Philosopher" (Northwest USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On Equilibrium: Six Qualities of the New Humanism (Hardcover)

Saul's main idea is that there are six qualities - common sense, ethics, imagination, intuition, memory, reason - we need to keep in appropriate balance ("equilibrium") if we are to live in prosperity and peace. What this comes down to in overly simple terms is that we need to be aware that other people have points of view that are not identical to ours, but are not all that distant, either. In other words, we should pay attention to, and take seriously, what others have to say. Saul believes that when we make wealth our primary goal, we ignore the differences presented by others and force the world into our vision of it. This makes for dullness. He has a great point; we don't reach the good life by marching to our own beat. We get their by sharing shoes with others. The book can be frustrating at times, since he digresses every now and then. But there are many gems.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 3.5 Stars...Good Ideas But Poorly Executed, December 23, 2010

By 

David Milliern "Velkar182" (Mitchell, IN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: On Equilibrium: Six Qualities of the New Humanism (Hardcover)

Saul's overall idea of a balanced humanism is a good idea. He thinks that living in a way that balances the employment of six qualities will achieve a greater humanism. This is a very interesting idea. The disappointment is the fact that he does not develop this concept well enough, in my opinion, writing a lackluster book that just doesn't seem to ever drive home his ideas. This is puzzling, because he makes these very quotable statements, but, everywhere else, writes a fairly disorganized and vague book that bounces around.

Another pro and con is in Saul's scholarship that he infuses in this book. On one hand, he cites many thinkers and uses these to present a strong context for his thoughts. In other places, he doesn't reference quotes, which left me unsure of from where they came. Having read some authors extensively, and finding that Saul uses interesting quotes from those authors that I had not previously encountered, made me curious of their origin. I would blush if I wrote a work that lacked so many necessary citations.

I think the real wonder of this book is marred by Saul's inability to really formulate a convincing discourse. what I am talking about is "reason." I think that future historians will refer to our era as "The Age of Reason," and probably in the perjorative sense. Just as rationalism was dismantled by transcendental philosophy and logical positivism abrogated by Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, I am confident that our current idea that "all is reducible to reason" will go to the way side, eventually. After all, the importance of the phenomenal world, and axioms chosen, precede the actual reasoning structure. I just didn't think Saul put into perspect the modern misuse of and misconception of reason. We live in a time where our courts of law always ask "What was person X's reason for killing person Y?" The problem is that, in some (possibly many) cases, there is not reason. I think Saul would have profitted greatly from using Voltaire's Pangloss to make his point better than he did. Our culture is seemingly structured in such a way as to turn all youths into college professors, an actuality that can never be. Sir Ken Robinson has made this point, and well made, I think. However, Saul does not use any of this to get his point across. His chapter on reason makes me feel, at times, as though he is "in hate" with reason. I know this is not the case, but do all of his readers know this?

Humanism is an important movement, and it is one that I think all people need to examine, whether religious, atheist, or just a spiritual person. Optimizing human being is an enrichment that is crucial to the content of human integrity.