On Human Nature

The New Bioethics A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body ISSN: 2050-2877 (Print) 2050-2885 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ynbi20 On Human Nature Toni C. Saad To cite this article: Toni C. Saad (2017): On Human Nature, The New Bioethics To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20502877.2017.1345095 Published online: 29 Jun 2017. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ynbi20 Download by: [Mr Toni Saad] Date: 29 June 2017, At: 07:35 the new bioethics, 2017, 1–3 Book Review On Human Nature. By ROGER SCRUTON. Pp. 151. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. £18.95 (Hb). ISBN:978-0691168753. Those who have read Roger Scruton will not be surprised to discover that On Human Nature is typically wide-reaching, stimulating and learned. Based on lectures he delivered at Princeton University in 2013, this latest offering from Scruton’s pen is a pithy revisiting of themes which run through his philosophical writings. Scruton is one of few modern philosophers who refrains from demystifying human existence. Instead of engaging in a project of scepticism, Scruton has sought to reinvest with due reverence those aspects of humanity which are intangible, puzzling and, in a broad sense, spiritual. On Human Nature extends his humane vision of philosophy to the ever-present questions concerning human nature, relationships and responsibilities. Chapter One sets out to show that evolutionary theory and its appended fields of inquiry fail to give a satisfactory account of human experience. Scruton demonstrates impressive conversance with his subject matter. Perhaps his main point can be simply summarised as: something’s origin in not equivalent to its significance. Hence, he rejects common ‘explanations’ of human conduct and psychology in favour of a broader view which reckons with the significance of human being as it is, and not merely its origins. To be a human being is more than being a human organism: ‘I would suggest that we understand the person as an emergent entity, rooted in the human being but belonging to another order of explanation than that explored by biology’ (2017:30). Ideas of personhood and intentionality, matters not easily explained by evolutionary theory, are introduced. Thus begins Scruton’s rejoinder to scientistic philosophies of man. Chapter Two is broadly about personhood. The question of what it means to be a person is particularly exigent in the field of bioethics. Readers will here find an intriguing, if brief, treatment of it. Unlike many, Scruton’s account is constructive. It does not seek to dissolve the self in the chilly waters of otherness, but rather reaffirms and respects the common-sense notions of ‘I’ and ‘you’. Everyday interactions are premised on these categories. Without them, there can be no sense of self, intentionality or responsibility, and therefore no genuine co-operation between individuals. Subjectivity and its significance occupy a worthily prominent place in Scruton’s work; they are a useful reminder of the complexity and depth of what many take for granted: By our use of the word I we set the body aside, replace the organism with the self, and present to others a target of their interest that is reserved and which must be brought forth in order to treat with those who address it (2017:71–72). DOI 10.1080/20502877.2017.1345095 2 BOOK REVIEW Scruton’s contention is that doubting these categories threatens not only moral inquiry, but even basic human interaction. Overall, this chapter might appear somewhat abstract, though it is necessary background to the next two. Chapter Three is a forceful defence of personal morality, in the sense that moral conduct is underwritten, not by abstract outcomes or calculating principles, but by the nature of relationships between persons. Consequentialism’s artificial ethical dilemmas fail due to their ‘eliminating from the situation just about every morally relevant relationship and reducing the problem to one of arithmetic alone’ (2017:92). Morality is necessarily shaped by relationships. Because moral conduct (as Chapter Two showed) is all about inter-personal interaction on the assumptions of intentionality and responsibility, to think that morality can be abstracted from relationships is incorrect. Morality’s purpose is not to maximise a particular outcome or sensation: ‘the fundamental intuition behind my argument in this essay is that morality exists in part because it enables us to live on negotiated terms with others’ (2017:98). It is an ineluctably personal endeavour. I believe this prolegomena to moral philosophy could prove balm to those on pilgrimage through the arid wastes of contemporary ethics. Scruton, by putting persons back into ethics, supports the ancient aphorism that metaphysics is prior and basic to ethics. In other words, ethics must be about persons and their relationships because of what it means to be a person. We therefore agree with Scruton when he says: ‘getting clear about the concept of the person is, for us, an intellectual priority’ (2017:108). Chapter Four seals this small volume with an exploration of examples of human morality and conduct which evidence the mystery to which evolutionary theory is blind. Sexual morality, desire, pollution, piety, the sacred and profane are considered. These are treated in greater detail in Scruton’s many other writings, though they here usefully illustrate the humanness of our humanity, and remind us that human nature is not substrate for the scientific method. It should be explored on its own terms: within the humanities. Doing otherwise will undoubtedly fail to yield useful knowledge of ourselves, or distort it unrecognisably. In finishing, Scruton hints at the possibility that these mysterious aspects of our human nature can be elucidated, not only by philosophy, but by also by faith. It is not to be doubted that many readers will object to much of this. Specialists will find its brevity frustrating; most readers will be left with many unanswered questions. But these are hardly criticisms, for Scruton points us to numerous works (his own and others’) to expound On Human Nature. The book is probably best viewed as a selective summary of Scruton’s philosophy, not an exhaustive treatise on anthropology and ethics, though it nevertheless merits close reading. In summary, Scruton has here given us a succinct but properly philosophical account of human nature. It is a timely and useful corrective against the sterile ethical theories which dominate the medical ethics literature. Students and educators alike will find its content stimulating, and its fine prose enjoyable. Many philosophers take it upon themselves to dismantle our black-and-white notions, and help us see the world in its true shades-of-grey complexity. But few BOOK REVIEW 3 inject into it the colour needed to make it a joy. Scruton is one such philosopher, and thus his work is to be commended now as ever. TONI C. SAAD Cardiff University School of Medicine, Cardiff, UK tonisaad1@hotmail.com © 2017 Toni C. Saad