Customer Reviews

Rational Man

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Probably the finest tribute to this book comes from Mortimer J.Adler, who, in the addendum to "The Time of Our Lives", and repeated in "Desires, Right and Wrong", gives Mr Veatch credit for writing the only common sense interpretation of Aristotle's Nichomean Ethics in modern times. In easy to read, entertaining fashion, Veatch makes Aristotle, as it applies to today's world, as clear and simple to follow as though you had Adler [or Veatch] at your side to coach you. He presents Aristotle's guideline to finding the way to a good life well lived that is easy to grasp, and easy to adopt. How to make a genuinely good life for one's self was never more appealingly examined.

Henry Veatch's RATIONAL MAN is both an introduction to ethics and an introduction to Aristotelian ethics. Although published in 1962, the book remains one of the best introductions to ethics. It's written in non-technical language and contains plenty of examples from literature and life.

Following Aristotle, Veatch develops a theory of ethics broadly within the natural law tradition. Contrary to the skeptical or relativistic approach, man can have ethical knowledge. Ethics is based on human nature and the goal ("end") of man's life determines what is right. For man, that end is "intelligent living" or the "examined life." Veatch disagrees with Aristotle, however, in arguing that a life of contemplation is not ethically superior to intelligence applied to the problems of everyday life.

Along the way, Veatch discusses a number of questions and counterarguments, such as the "is/ought" problem, utilitarianism, whether a belief in moral absolutes leads to intolerance, and the possibility of ethics without God. In a few places I thought Veatch skimmed over objections too lightly (for example, the obvious counterargument that crooks like Goebbels and Stalin were intelligent in their own way), but this is a minor complaint.

The Liberty Fund edition contains a useful introduction by Douglas Rasmussen. Veatch (1911-1999) was an important voice in the twentieth century Aristotelian renaissance and those who know him only through this book will be impressed with his list of publications in most areas of philosophy

The ancient Greek aphorism, "The unexamined life is not worth living" is attributed to Socrates, but Aristotle worked out its meaning in his book "Nicomachean Ethics." More than 2,300 years later, American philosopher Henry Veatch revives Aristotle's ethics of rational man to show that we can lead moral and intellectually virtuous lives.

Veatch argues that a virtuous life is possible because self-reflective individuals can use reason to inform the conduct of their lives. Reason is more than the sum of practical or professional knowledge. Reason is that self-aware, critical gaze that moves us to make the proper choices in our conduct. In any situation, if our choices are wise and intelligent, then we will have acted virtuously, which is the natural end or purpose of our development.

Veatch centers his ethics in the person, with an eye toward crowning reason as the key to an examined, and thus happy life. He asserts that values and facts are not separated in human nature. Our lives are infused with values, and reason turns values into virtues. When applied correctly, rational thinking can lead to the perfection of human nature. When applied to the wrong ends, such as wealth or power, rational thinking can lead to unhealthy or shriveled selves.

The moral virtues--courage, temperance, honesty and self-respect--are real values that are present in human nature and are needed for the good life. Yet, there are no fast and firm rules on how and when to act virtuously. Virtues are the ends to which we should direct our thinking, but the specific situation and issue will determine what the virtuous response should be.

The relationship between moral virtue and intellectual virtue is paradoxical. Our purpose, or aim, is to live virtuously, yet we do not know prima facie what the virtuous course is. Instead, virtue is a potential in all of us that can be realized if we think intelligently on how to conduct our actions.

Veatch argues that other schools of ethics--relativism, utilitarianism, existentialism, and fatalism--miss the mark in describing the relationship between values and fact in human experience. These schools place the source of ethics in various passions or irrational facets of human nature. Relativists come in for an especially withering critique. Veatch points out that Relativism has produced a wide variety of incompatible ethical prescriptions--tolerance, might makes right, conformity, and libertinism. This diversity of prescriptions exists because the relativist school lacks a strong central core.

In some ways, Veatch's critique of other schools of ethics is his most valuable contribution. His goal of reconstituting rational man for the modern (or post-modern) world comes up short. At the end, one is left to wonder if Veatch's sunny views of human nature and rationalism are more of an ideal than a reality. He rebukes the nihilism that underlies existentialism, but does not the cruelty of war, famine, and death mitigate against perfection? In the end, we are all dead, and perfection remains far away. All we are left with is our hopes for things to get better.

Veatch admits that human beings can form notions of "absolute and infinite good." Yet, even with a superbly examined life, illuminated by reason, human beings remain empty at the core, stuck in the interminable fight between what we are versus what we are not. Nevertheless, the school of "practical wisdom" elucidated by Veatch stands out for its optimism and common-sense appeal.

It is a testimony to the readability and quality of this book that I was able to read all but 20 pages of this in hospital and anyone who knows hospitals will know that they have this uncanny ability to sap the will of all desire to do anything! Why so? Well Veatch is a consummate teacher - even though sadly he no longer is in the land of the living, reading this book is like having him here in the living room with you - he radiates personality and a kind of simple joy in teaching. He is the kind of guy I would have liked to have met - alas being in separate continents made that would have been difficult!

Leaving aside that Veatch is a great communicator, why is the content of the book any good and what is it about anyway. Well, the basis thesis is that just as the proper end of an acorn is to become an oak, so too man has a proper end and that proper end can only be achieved through living an examined life, living intelligently so that the emotions are controlled and are trained to respond appropriately. In other words, we have to go into training. Put simply, our proper end is to become a virtuous man or woman, as the case may be. Now, Veatch is quite clear that his conclusion on this is completely independent of religion - thus if there is no God, the proposition still holds good - like the acorn we have a proper end and if we go against that and live our lives unintelligently and without fostering the virtues, we will be unhappy.

A key point for Veatch is that virtue is embedded in the fact of nature - it is not something we superimpose. It will be obvious that such thinking goes against the modern grain where relativism reigns supreme but as Veatch shows relativism is contradictory - everything we do in life requires that we weigh up choices i.e. we decided that one course of action is better than another. If relativism were right why would chastity be better than lust? Now it is clear that the general public (but not, of course, the intelligentsia) know that living immorally is not a good thing. Here is England we have had problems with some footballers and in the US there have been problems with another type of sportsman - notice how ordinary folk don't shout out relativist slogans of "X is living as he wants to live, leave him alone" - no people expect people to live well. Here in England we have the Government requiring that catholic schools provide information about access to abortion and requiring that such information is given as information with no moral input. But, does anyone live their life that way where moral decisions are treated purely as fact finding. As I say the issue is not so much with the common people as with the intelligentsia.

Is Veatch successful - would he convince a relativist? It would be nice to think he would be successful but I fear a dyed in the wool relativist would likely turn up his nose. A person earnestly seeking to understand the relevance of Aristotelian ethics for modern life and who is concerned that there is an inherent inconsistency in the relativist creed will be cheered that this book provides a sensible alternative.

I am most grateful to Fr James V Schall's reading list without which I would be even more ignorant than I am!

Originally written as a counterargument to Wm Barrett's "Irrational Man", this book stands alone as the best and clearest explanation of Aristotle's ideas concerning man's ultimate objective-- to be rational. The bedrock of western thought written in clear and straightforward language. Prof Veatch grew up in Indiana and was extremely proud of his common sense roots in the midwest. It was no wonder he was so drawn to the "common sense philospher" --Aristotle. Prof Veatch taught at Indiana U, Northwestern and at Georgetown University where he was Chair of the Philosophy Dept in the 70s. I took six classes from Prof Veatch and he was my advisor. A privilege I will never forget. My daughter is majoring in Perspectives at Boston College-- a four-year, interdisciplinary course of study grounded in the great texts of Western Culture. She's using Professor Veatch's books as secondary source material to help focus her studies. You might ask, in these times, what does the study of philosphy and Aristotle in particular, have to do with the practical world? Everything, I suspect. And if you think that your time would be better spent ruminating on statistical analysis and quantitative modelling, that's what Citibank,Lehman and Bear Stearns thought to all of pur regret. Many financiers trained in philosophy saw through the dubious constructs of the rating agencies and Wall Street and thrived.