The Meaning of Civilisation
Since 2001
Many philosophers have striven to write about their subject in a way that can be understood by persons with only some general education. Almost all of us fail. But
The first chapter of his book introduces four speakers who offer definitions of civilisation. Each is given a plausible and beguiling speech defending his answer. First there is “a collective scheme of values, a way of living”. Islam, the West,
The first speech is the “tough minded” view, articulated most notably by
One of the uniformly good features of
Let me digress here a moment before going back to the author’s line of thought. In 1949, when I was a third-year philosophy student at
Returning to
In the chapter before he discusses the work of
“Protestantism at its best is grounded in an intense awareness of the drama of the individual conscience and takes a cautious approach to symbols. Catholicism at its best is grounded in an appreciation of the grandeur and depth of symbols and takes a cautious approach to the individual intellect as a guide to life.”
In Part Two of his book
But
But perhaps the human flourishing that
He argues that civilisation lies between barbarism, power “in the absence of reason, and taste”; and modern decadence, an inability “to connect high culture to the demands of daily life”.
Read on, ambassador, engrossed
The Outer Provinces are lost,
Unshaven horsemen swill
The great wines of the Chateaux
Where you danced long ago.
In the last section of the book,
One point one could make against
But I would not wish to end on a critical note. This is a wonderful and rich book. It is full of life, and thus is itself an instance of civilised discourse.
D.M. Armstrong is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney.
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