A Refutation of Moral Relativism.

Peter Kreeft, A Refutation of Moral Relativism.

San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1999. 177 pages,

Peter Kreeft, the Boston College philosophy professor who has written at least twenty books on religious topics, refutes relativism here in a series of eleven interviews or Socratic dialogues. In a puckish foreword he explains that he took the liberty of changing the names of the characters and the location of the events: "The interviews actually took place not in my house on Martha's Vineyard but in my house in Boston, which is a real place (except to New Yorkers) and in my mind which is a real mind (except to New Age thinkers). 'Isa Ben Adam and Libby Rawls really live there but they have no Social Security numbers and though I call them by their separate names, others call them both by the name Peter Kreeft."

The question they are discussing is "Are there moral absolutes?" The image of a moral absolutist which has been branded on our minds by our media, Kreeft writes, "is barely distinguishable from that of a vampire. It is something darkly dogmatic and heavy bootedly hypocritical--a kind of Fundamentalist Fascist." "By this book, "he continues, "your admission ticket to peer into the weedy deeps of the psyche of the monster-see the last dinosaur before the species becomes as dead as the dodo."

In the first discussion Libby explains why most Americans, and most Europeans view moral absolutism with alarm. They look at the violence going on is Islamic countries like Iraq and Iran, in Lebanon, in Syria and Palestine. In fact they see two different kinds of country in the world-free countries which are pluralistic democracies, and monolithic countries which enforce their official orthodoxy, whether Islamic or Communist or Catholic or whatever and do not tolerate dissent diversity, or pluralism. That's why most Americans opt for a pluralistic free society despite all the problems it brings. Through education and social programs they hope to get rid of the problems. "You see," she says "Americans don't look at the issue of absolutism by abstract logic and philosophical arguments but by sociological evidence that's concrete....'

'Isa in reply makes the surprising statement that Auschwitz is the fruit of moral relativism. In support he quotes a passage from a book by Mussolini, Diuturna:

"Everything I have said and done in these last years is relativism by intuition--if relativism signifies contempt for fixed categories and men who claim to be the bearers of an objective, immortal truth--then there is nothing more relativist than fascistic attitudes and activity. From the fact that all ideologies are of equal value, that all ideologies are mere fictions, the modern relativist infers that everybody has the right to create for himself his own ideology and to attempt to enforce it with all the energy of which he is capable."

The expression "food for thought" is badly overused, but it fits what Peter Kreeft provides: each of the eleven chapters in this book offers plenty of material for reflection. The last chapter, "The Cause and Cure of Relativism," illustrates how wisdom, courage, and self-control combine to make up justice. Then it shows how the sexual revolution's abandonment of self-control, the supposed key to happiness, twisted things around and produced moral and social turmoil. Dr. Rock's pill, which brought reproduction under our control, separated sex from its essence- the origin of life-and reduced it to its accident -fun- so that we now look on its essence as an "accident" to be "controlled" and prevented. As well, Kreeft shows the link between abortion and deceit-"If you're willing to kill your kids why should we trust you not to kill the truth?"

Justice matters; right thinking matters; philosophy matters, but there is more. 'Isa says, "We need good philosophy, because bad philosophy is justifying bad living, but we need something else, much more." Libby asks, "What" And he answers, "We need saints-only saints can save the world."

Peter Kreeft gave two very stimulating lectures in Toronto last February. Those fortunate enough to have been present will undoubtedly agree that he is the kind of speaker whom it is worth driving a hundred miles to hear. He is full of humour, he it intellectually brilliant, and he is master of the telling phrase. His mind is stored with quotations from his favourite authors, especially C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton. In this book, he responds to Libby's attack on absolutism with Chesterton's aphorism that tolerance is the only value you have left when you've lost all your principles.

He will be speaking at a Campaign Life Conference in Toronto, October 26-28. It will be the part of wisdom for you to plan to be there.