By DONALD DeMARCO
Toward the end of his Harvard lectures, presented in 1936-1937, Etienne Gilson warned that “if we lose philosophy itself, we must be prepared to lose science, reason, and liberty; in short, we are bound to lose Western culture itself together with its feeling for the eminent dignity of man.”
So quietly stated, Gilson’s warning did not invoke a storm of protest as did Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Harvard commencement address of 1978.
The latter stated: “A decline in courage may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the West in our days. The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, each government, each political party, and, of course, in the United Nations.”
The author of The Gulag Archipelago warned of a “perishing society” in which “the human soul longs for things higher, warmer, and purer than those offered by today’s mass living habits, introduced by the revolting invasion of publicity, by TV stupor, and by intolerable music.”
Gilson spoke softly and in the subjunctive. Solzhenitsyn spoke frankly and in the indicative. The latter’s words made those assembled most uncomfortable and provoked many to boo. As a result, and despite telling the truth, the Nobel Prizewinner for literature became, virtually overnight, a nonperson, thereby mocking Harvard’s motto — Veritas.
Nonetheless, Gilson and Solzhenitsyn were saying the same thing, namely, that the loss of philosophical values signals the end of Western culture.
Philosophy is unique in that its vocabulary can be held in high esteem all the while the words that constitute that vocabulary have been drained of meaning. Philosophical terms are routinely hijacked by those who have no understanding of what they truly signify. Thus, Harvard can pride itself in adopting the motto Veritas, but when truth appears in an existential form, it makes many of its denizens squirm with discomfort.
The vocabulary of philosophy remains pure and ideal. Consider the following seven words: Goodness, Truth, Justice, Freedom, Equality, Rights, and Dignity. No one opposes these words in principle, though many oppose them in practice. Moreover, each of these terms, so rich in promise, so lofty in aim, are often used in today’s society to convey the very opposite of what they were originally intended to mean.
A couple of years ago, a dozen nurses filed a lawsuit against their employer, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, which told them they had to assist in abortions or risk losing their jobs.
Here is an example of what happens when philosophical values are misunderstood and misapplied. Abortion is considered as something “good.” That is the “truth” of the matter. And since a woman has a “right” to an abortion, she has a “freedom” that, in “justice,” should not be thwarted. In addition, since men do not give birth, women, being “equal” to men, should not be compelled to give birth when they have an unwanted pregnancy. Abortion, then, honors the “dignity” of all women.
(The suit was successfully settled, with the agreement that the nurses did not have to participate in abortion.)
Western culture has lost philosophy, though it continues to champion its language. What remains is not philosophy, but fragments from its wreckage. Goodness loses its objectivity, truth becomes subjective. Freedom is understood negatively only in term of being unfettered. Equality is confused with identity. Rights are whatever people want them to be. And dignity is no longer a quality of the soul, but an external and transitory condition.
Real philosophy is complex. In this regard it is a network, an integration of values. Goodness is an objective value and forms the proper object for the will. We should all seek to do what is good. Truth is needed so that justice can be served. There can be no justice without truth. Freedom, in its most important sense, is the opportunity to choose what is good and pursue what is true. Freedom from all restriction leads to the dissolution of freedom.
Equality means equal in humanity and equal in the eyes of the law. Rights, in their most fundamental sense, are natural rather than conventional or arbitrary. The unborn have a natural right to continue to live. A woman’s legal right to abortion should not override her unborn child’s natural right to go on living.
And dignity refers to an irremovable and sacred quality of the soul. The phrase “death with dignity” makes no sense because a human being is never without dignity.
It is an odd thing that a society can lose philosophy, the very basis of its civility and coherence, and yet stubbornly cling to its terminology. As long as it calls itself good, it believes it to be so. It can preserve the shadow while rejecting the substance. In this way, it can maintain the illusion that it is still a civilization all the while it continues to decline. Of course, it is far easier for a society to flatter itself, than to roll up its sleeves and actually honor philosophical values in practice.
Solzhenitsyn’s words are worth revisiting. He speaks as a surgeon who performs a healing service, but one that is not without some degree of discomfort. “Truth seldom is pleasant,” he stated. “It is almost invariably bitter. There is some bitterness in my today’s speech too, but I want to stress that it comes not from an adversary, but from a friend.”
We need the honesty of a friend. We do not need the timidity of the flatterer. Despite his rejection at Harvard, the author of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich continues to widen his audience. He speaks to us. We should honor his wisdom.
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(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.)
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