By DONALD DeMARCO
“The disease afflicting the modern world,” wrote Jacques Maritain, “is above all a disease of the intellect.”
How serious is this disease? Scripture has adequately warned us: “If your eye is worthless, your whole body will be in darkness” (Matt. 6:23; Luke 11:34). The mind provides light so that we can see where we are going and know what we are doing. Who would drive an automobile with his eyes shut? Driving while under the influence of alcohol is a criminal offense, underscoring the importance of a clear head and a sound mind.
Yet, it is all too common for people in our generation to live under the influence of a culture that disdains clear thinking and sound judgment, a culture that puts appetite before understanding, desire ahead of thinking, and impulse over reason. A certain primacy naturally belongs to the intellect according to the commonsense maxim that we should think before we act. Reason’s place of primacy must be reinstated.
David Hume, a philosopher known for his intractable skepticism, stated in his Treatise on Human Nature, that “reason is, and only ought to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.” He saw reason as primarily an effective way of securing pleasure. Thus, he made pleasure paramount.
Hume passed away in the year 1776, a year better remembered for the birth of a nation. Did Hume bequeath to America his skepticism together with his inversion of the natural order of reason and will? It is a tempting thought. Nonetheless, if passions are in the driver’s seat, how can we avoid catastrophe?
This disease of the intellect may be more virulent in the modern era, but it has had a longstanding tenure. Pope Leo XIII, in his 1879 encyclical Aeterni Patris, noted that if the intellect sins, the will soon follows. On a more hopeful point, he remarked that “if men be of sound mind and take their stand on true and solid principles, there will result a vast amount of benefits for the public and private good.”
Philosophically, the solution is simple; in practice, however, it is supremely difficult to implement. Nonetheless, there is a vitality deep within the intellect which, if stirred to life, can remedy the disease. The intellect can be self-healing. To be able to see that thinking should precede acting, that reason is a gift of great practical importance, that knowledge is illuminating and a great benefit to mankind, can rouse the intellect back to its proper function.
Wilhelm Reich, deservedly regarded as the Father of the Sexual Revolution, insisted that thinking was a disease and that we should live guided solely by our “biological impulses.” Friedrich Nietzsche, who famously announced the “Death of God,” preached “above all the intoxication of sexual pleasure.”
It is not insignificant to point out that Reich died, a ruined man, in a federal penitentiary having been diagnosed by a psychiatrist as paranoid, and Nietzsche, hopelessly delusional, spent the last ten years of his life in an insane asylum.
The sane man cherishes the blessings of reason. He utilizes language, thought, and common sense to his advantage. He honors the great institutions of marriage and the Church. He refuses to be at the mercy of his biology. At the same time, his life is not devoid of pleasure. “Nobody,” St. Thomas Aquinas comments, following Aristotle, “can do without delectation for long.”
But pleasure should not cause dissipation, a condition that is hardly beneficial to the human being. Reason accepts pleasure in its rightful place and safeguards it from crossing over into pain. A little wine is fine, but too much can create a problem. The reasonable use of pleasure helps to ensure the enjoyment of additional pleasures.
It is better to be sane than to be mad. This is an incontrovertible truism. It is preposterous (prae + posterius), in the original meaning of the word, to place appetite before reason. It is akin to putting the cart before the horse, or trying to put one’s shoes on prior to putting on one’s socks. We should take care to avoid putting first what should come second, or putting what is “posterior” before what should be “prior.” It belongs to the wise man to place things in their proper order. The light of reason illuminates the path of life.
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(Donald DeMarco is a senior fellow of Human Life International. He is professor emeritus at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario, and an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Conn., and a regular columnist for St. Austin Review. Some of his recent writings may be found at Human Life International’s Truth & Charity Forum.)
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