Catholic Medical Quarterly Volume 75(1) February 2025
Book Review
What Would Socrates Say?
An Introduction to Philosophy by the
Socratic Method
by Peter Kreeft. Ignatius Press
Reviewed by Dr Pravin
Thevasathan
The
popular Catholic writer and philosopher Peter Kreeft imagines that we are
having a dialogue with Socrates in all aspects of philosophy in this book.
It is brilliant.
For the purposes of this review, I will look at what Kreeft or Socrates has to say about ethics. Even a brief overview is reminder of how shallow much of contemporary medical ethics has become as we move from Kantian subjectivism to utilitarianism. Kreeft starts with an examination in contrasts between moral absolutism and relativism. Relativism means that morality is subjective. Absolutism means that morality is objective, universal and unchanging. Socrates, of course, argues superbly in favour of moral absolutism.
Following this, Socrates notes that modern philosophers generally have a narrow understanding of ethics. For them, ethics is about individual actions. For Socrates, ethics asks the question: what is the greatest good, the absolute good to which all other goods are relative?
The chapter on abortion is excellent. If pro-lifers are right, all abortion is murder. If pro-choicers are right, all prohibitions of abortion are a tyrannical oppression of a woman's body. The idea that abortion is morally bad in some circumstances only is shown to be contrary to reason.
In the chapter on sexual morality, Kreeft notes that all the major religious traditions were against contraception until the Church of England changed its teachings in the nineteen thirties. A Church that was founded on adultery was destined to flounder in it. The essential question for Socrates is: what is sex for? The sexual organs make up the reproductive system and not the entertainment system.
There are consistent pithy observations. A reminder to us that good philosophy is common sense.
Another good and recommended read