Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists
by Susan Neiman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Susan NeimanEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-05
ISBN: 0151011974
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Harcourt Trade Publishers
Book Reviews of Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists
Book Review: Lacks Clarity
Summary: 2 Stars
This is a well intentioned but muddled book. I'm sympathetic to the author's politics, ethical position, and her goals in writing this book but the analysis and quality of writing are relatively weak. This book is driven by Neiman's disgust with the Bush administration, the general conservative predominance in American life, and the unjustified assumption that religiosity confers an ethical advantage. Neiman advocates a secular, rational form of ethics. This book is divided into 3 sections. In the initial section, Neiman provides a diagnosis of the present problem. In her analysis, leftists/liberals have abdicated the moral high ground to conservatives because of failure to explicitly espouse moral values. Neiman argues that in this conflict of `ideas have consequences,' leftist/liberal intellectuals have become preoccupied with post-modernist relativism and on a practical level with narrow interest group politics. Neiman suggests also that the collapse of Marxism as a creditable doctrine deprived leftist intellectuals of an organizing framework. While this assessment contains some particles of truth, a lot is questionable. The impact of post-modernism is greatly exaggerated and Neiman overrates the impact of intellectuals in general. As for the collapse of Marxism, while she could be correct about Europe, Marxism was not a very potent doctrine in the USA. What is particularly striking about Neiman's analysis, however, is that it conforms closely to standard conservative critiques of liberalism. Virtually everything she writes has popped up, repeatedly, in conservative attacks on American liberalism. But is the conservative/Neiman assertion of the left/liberal retreat from moral language and moral assertion correct? Is such a retreat responsible for the decline in liberalism as a political success? Probably not. What has particularly hurt liberal politicians over the last 50 years is not the failure left/liberal assertion of moral positions but rather the relative success of some left/liberal moral positions. Policies such as opposition to the Vietnam War, opening access to abortion, and increased environmental regulations all detached significant fractions of previously liberal supporters. The oft cited (including by Neiman) moral apogee of liberalism, the Civil Rights movement, resulted in a racist backlash exploited by conservative/Republican politicians to detach a crucial fraction of the New Deal/liberal coalition, particularly in the South. A significant contributing factor to the problems of ontemporary left/liberalism is not failure to assert moral positions but complications of taking such positions.
In the second and best section of the book, Neiman sketches out a secular moral framework based on an assertion of Enlightenment values with a strongly Kantian orientation. Much of this is well done. Neiman makes a generally accessible case for her secular, rational ethics. She does well also at defending the Enlightenment from some of the crude caricatures presented by critics from both the right and the left. Unfortunately, this section also has both minor and major deficiencies. Neiman tends to jump around when writing and her defense of the Enlightenment could have been more coherent. Her use of terminology is sometimes confusing. For example, she uses the term metaphysics in different and sometimes conflicting senses. She makes some significant factual errors surprising in a well trained philosopher. Describing Hume as a conservative advocate of the status quo and emphasizing the skeptical aspects of his epistemology at the expense of his naturalism is misleading. Neiman's major error is the suggestion that the view of life she is presenting offers a vision of transcendence that can be usefully offered to the many who seek transcendence in traditional and especially radical religious ideologies. While I agree that than an ethical system along the lines she espouses could be inspiring, its unlikely to provide the kind of emotional rewards sought be people attracted to traditional religious (and some secular) ideologies. The emphasis on autonomy, individual choice, and humanity as a source of values are quite different from ideologies promising that the cosmos is taking a personal interest in you and promising rewards in the next life, if not in this one.
In the last section, Neiman has a discussion of heroism, something she thinks would be pedagogically important. There is a somewhat diffuse discussion of heroism and presentation of the lives of several admirable individuals she regards as heroic. I'm not sure this section adds much to her general thesis.
Neiman identified an important topic. Asserting, on rational grounds, a strong secular system of ethics in contrast to the dubious ethical claims of traditional theists is a laudable goal. It's a pity that Neiman hasn't written that book.
Summary of Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists
An inspiring and jargon-free look at how morals guide and inform our lives
Moral philosopher Susan Neiman makes the tools of her trade relevant to real life in Moral Clarity, steering us clear of political dogma to offer instead a framework for forming clear opinions and taking responsible action on today?s urgent political and social questions. Neiman reaches back to the classic virtues?happiness, reason, reverence, and hope?that were held high by every Enlightenment thinker and draws on literature, evolutionary theory, and contemporary research to show that the pursuit of moral clarity is open to all who are committed to these ideals, believers and nonbelievers alike.
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