The Case Against The Preposterous

• 8 years ago

By DONALD DeMARCO

It would seem unnecessary to build a case against the preposterous. It would seem like arguing against things that are self-evidently foolish, moronic, or idiotic. Yet, there is a certain proclivity alive in society for doing things that are preposterous, a phenomenon that warrants both attention and correction.

This problem came to my attention many years ago when I was teaching a philosophy course to undergraduates. I knew that many of them were in love with what I call “incomplete ideas.” Such students championed freedom, but not responsibility, justice, but not truth, and sex without the complications of personal attachment and pregnancy. My challenge was to wean them of their affection for singularity, that is, the mistake of isolating a single idea from its proper matrix and according it supremacy.

I began the course by using three philosophers as excellent examples of thinkers who were skilled at putting several ideas together to form a unified whole. In other words, three philosophers whose thinking was systematic. First, representing antiquity, I chose Plato. Next, as a representative of the Middle Ages, I selected St. Thomas Aquinas. My third philosopher, exemplifying systematic thought in the modern era, was Mortimer Adler.

All of these philosophers, though different in certain ways, understood two important aspects of philosophical thinking: 1) that no idea stands alone, independent of other ideas; 2) that ideas must be placed in the right order and not thrown together willy-nilly.

It was both disappointing as well as astonishing to me that several students could not count to two! As an old cigarette commercial stated, “I’d rather fight than switch.” These students held tenaciously to their preferred notion of philosophy, one in which a single, isolated idea (like “choice”) was self-justifying. At that point I realized that a case was needed to expose the utter foolishness and unacceptability of the single idea masquerading as a unified philosophy. This is the case against the preposterous.

The study of Latin is often very helpful toward the understanding of words. The word “preposterous” is derived from two Latin words: “pre,” meaning “before,” and “posterius,” meaning “after.” Bringing these two words together tells us that to put something “before” which really should come “after” is foolish and unrealistic. It is preposterous, therefore, to try to put one’s shoes on before putting on one’s socks, or trying to dive into the water before learning how to swim, or trying to erect a third floor without putting in a second floor. The examples are numberless.

It is true that the meaning of “preposterous” has been stretched to include the outrageous and the outlandish. But I wanted to show my students how that word was helpful and appropriate as an argument against the unrealistic assumption that people are free either to choose their own order or to reject the notion of order entirely.

Ecology, which all my students want to protect, involves a great deal of balanced order. We disrupt this order at our peril. Morality is ecological in the sense that one thing follows another according to a predetermined plan. I did not need to convince any of my students of the nature and value of ecology. Morality was an entirely different matter.

Consider the notion of “justice.” Everyone is in favor of “justice,” especially “social justice.” Nonetheless, justice does not stand alone. It is built on truth, just as the second floor is built on the first floor. It is simply preposterous to deny this order. In order to render justice, a judge must discover the truth of what took place. Did the suspect or did he not commit the crime? Justice follows truth. That is the natural order of things. If we put justice ahead of truth, we find that in our preposterous way of thinking, we have completely lost sight of justice.

If we put man first and God second, we soon lose sight of God. Similarly, if we put ourselves first and the Church second, we find that we no longer have any need for the Church. In order to preserve things, we must know where they are, which is to say, how they follow or precede other things. A melody can never be preposterous because it consists of the right notes in the right order.

The case against the preposterous is also the case for the proper place and order of things. The formula for JOY, as some clever individual has pointed out, is “Jesus” first, “others” second, and “yourself” third. Former football great Gale Sayers had the same idea when he titled his autobiography, I Am Third.

When sex is isolated from love, commitment, and marriage, it becomes difficult to grasp the value of this triad. In the natural order of things, one thing prepares for the reception of what follows. Love prepares the way for marriage, marriage prepares the way for children, and children prepare the way for grandchildren.

That which is preposterous is indeed outrageous and outlandish, but precisely because it inverts the order of reality. Plato, Aquinas, and Adler all agreed that one thing follows another naturally, and not arbitrarily. The natural law is the basis for morality. When people try to suspend morality in space, without any foundation for it, they discover that they have completely lost the very meaning of morality.

The case against the preposterous is needed largely because of its importance. Abortion should not follow conception, divorce should not come after marriage, and despair should not be the consequence of old age.

I continue to maintain that, despite the normal frustrations of the educator, teaching should result in learning. The student who thinks he already knows what he has not learned offers us a prime example of the preposterous.

+ + +

(Dr. Donald DeMarco is a senior fellow of Human Life International. He is professor emeritus at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario, an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College in Cromwell, Conn., and a regular columnist for St. Austin Review. His latest works, How to Remain Sane in a World That Is Going Mad; Poetry That Enters the Mind and Warms the Heart; and How to Flourish in a Fallen World are available through Amazon.com.)