Eldridge, Richard Thomas

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Swarthmore College Works Philosophy Faculty Works Philosophy 10-1-1993 Review Of "Morals And Stories" By T. Siebers Richard Thomas Eldridge Swarthmore College, reldrid1@swarthmore.edu This work is brought to you for free and open access by . It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact myworks@swarthmore.edu. Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-philosophy  Part of the Philosophy Commons Let us know how access to these works benefits you  Recommended Citation Richard Thomas Eldridge. (1993). "Review Of "Morals And Stories" By T. Siebers". Philosophy And Literature. Volume 17, Issue 2. 377-378. DOI: 10.1353/phl.1993.0009 https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-philosophy/281 0RUDOVDQG6WRULHVUHYLHZ5LFKDUG(OGULGJHPhilosophy and Literature, Volume 17, Number 2, October 1993, pp.377-378 (Review)3XEOLVKHGE\-RKQV+RSNLQV8QLYHUVLW\3UHVVDOI: 10.1353/phl.1993.0009For additional information about this article                                                      Access provided by Swarthmore College (19 Aug 2015 14:24 GMT)http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/phl/summary/v017/17.2.eldridge.htmlReviews377The range of Ohly's scholarship and his analytical discrimination have pro-duced a monograph of significant interest, even though much of its materialmay appear to have lost its relevance for our time. It should be acknowledgedwith no less a sense of pleasure that its English version has been prepared withmeticulous care, a number of misprints in the Notes notwithstanding, and thatthe translator (and her editor) have rendered the sometimes tortuous style ofthe original and its many quotations from various stages of German, Latin, andFrench in a lucidly idiomatic English that sounds graceful and natural as if noblessed soul had ever toiled on the rock.RiceUniversityMichael WinklerMorals and Stories, by Tobin Siebers; ? & 235 pp. NewYork: Columbia University Press, 1992, $29.50.Siebers offers a picture of human life, of a human need for morality, andof how stories may help us to know our moral interests. His main diesis is that"to be human is to tell stories about ourselves and about other human beings"(p. 7). "We understand character," including which characters are worth having,"only by telling and retelling stories" (p. 15). Siebers hints that the charactermost worth having, at least in our modern world, is that of a Kantian moralperson, who acts out of respect for the categorical imperative. Kant is the subjectof the two most connected chapters of the book, in which the following sortsof claims are made: "Kant's story is way ahead of us, which means that Kantis here more modern than his modern critics" (p. 116); Kant's "unbreakableprinciple," though "distasteful to modern sense," "is also nauseating to thatmodern form of evil represented most clearly by German history" (p. 133). Sopresumably Siebers holds that Kant's moral theory somehow stacks up wellagainst its competitors. Apart from this work on Kant, there are other chapterson Jane Austen, on Hillis Miller's theory of criticism as a form of positivism (acharge carried over from Siebers's 1988 Ethics and Criticism), on Homer, onPlato, on Achebe and proverbs, and on Tolstoy.It is not a bad idea to try to combine a commitment to Kantian morality witha narrativist conception of persons. But Morals and Stories is a misbegottenmishmash of a book, conceptually, stylistically, and in scholarship:1 . What does Siebers really think about Kant? How are we to reconcile thesetwo passages? (a) "The project [of a Kantian ethics of pure reason] is sublime,ridiculous and inconceivable" (p. 102). (b) "The categorical imperative puts oneinto communication with 'the humanity in one's own person' . . ." (p. 109).378Philosophy and LiteratureWhich is it? Is humanity in our person there commanding obedience to thecategorical imperative in each of us, or not?2.How does the apparent, albeit guarded, support of Kant comport with agenerally instrumentalist conception ofmorality as serving the Hobbesian needfor security? Siebers writes, "at the heart of ethics resides the overriding humandesire to live in community with other people" (p. 13). But if that is so, thenit is hard to make sense of Kant's emphasis on the duties of an isolated, finiterational will.3.How much philosophy does Siebers know? There are no references todie major expositors and critics of Kant. Only Paton appears in the bibliography(not the index), and such figures as O'Neill, Hill, Nagel, Scanlon, Herman,Korsgaard, and Rawls appear nowhere. Perhaps this would not be a problem,if one could trust the formulations of Kant's views diat Siebers has putativelygleaned direcdy from Kant's texts. But this is not the case, since one findsoutrageous claims like this: Kant "speaks as if there really were a concept ofduty deriving from outside the sphere of willing" (p. 115).4.There are significant stylistic problems in MoraU and Stories. Abstruse andnear uninteUigible pronouncement is frequentiy substituted for argument. Hereare some all too typical sentences. "The modern age marks the end of philos-ophy, if only because our moral choices are now well rehearsed. The place ofmodern philosophy is one that we have seen before, with the difference thatwe have never before stood in a place where all the views are so familiar" (p.135). "The ethic of otherness is often so and-Kantian in principle that it endsby being Kantian in practice. Similarly, its Aristotelianism is so severe that it isnot always recognizably Aristotelian" (p. 144). "If a choice could be made, therewould be no need for a decision, a decidere, a cutting. Decision involves theimpossible and necessary task of cutting one thing that we want into one thingdiat we can want and another thing we cannot want" (p. 202). And so on.It is hard to see how Siebers's thinking and prose would satisfy anyone whotakes a serious interest in the problems that the book seeks to engage.SwarthmoreCollegeRichard EldridgeSomewhere I Have Never Travelled, by Thomas Van Nort-wick; xiii 8c 204 pp. New York: Oxford University Press,1991, $29.95.Thomas Van Nortwick's tide raises the possibility of an approach reflectiveof a reworking of Heraclitus' metaphor which has intrigued such writers as

Review Of  Morals And Stories  By T. Siebers

Richard Eldridge

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&lt;i&gt;Morals and Stories&lt;/i&gt; (review)

Swarthmore College 
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Philosophy Faculty Works Philosophy 
10-1-1993 
Review Of "Morals And Stories" By T. Siebers 
Richard Thomas Eldridge 
Swarthmore College, reldrid1@swarthmore.edu 
Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-philosophy 
 Part of the Philosophy Commons 
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Recommended Citation 
Richard Thomas Eldridge. (1993). "Review Of "Morals And Stories" By T. Siebers". Philosophy And 
Literature. Volume 17, Issue 2. 377-378. DOI: 10.1353/phl.1993.0009 
https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-philosophy/281 
This work is brought to you for free by Swarthmore College Libraries' Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in 
Philosophy Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact 
myworks@swarthmore.edu. 
Philosophy and Literature, Volume 17, Number 2, October 1993, pp.
377-378 (Review)
DOI: 10.1353/phl.1993.0009
For additional information about this article
                                                      Access provided by Swarthmore College (19 Aug 2015 14:24 GMT)
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/phl/summary/v017/17.2.eldridge.html
Reviews377
The range of Ohly's scholarship and his analytical discrimination have pro-
duced a monograph of significant interest, even though much of its material
may appear to have lost its relevance for our time. It should be acknowledged
with no less a sense of pleasure that its English version has been prepared with
meticulous care, a number of misprints in the Notes notwithstanding, and that
the translator (and her editor) have rendered the sometimes tortuous style of
the original and its many quotations from various stages of German, Latin, and
French in a lucidly idiomatic English that sounds graceful and natural as if no
blessed soul had ever toiled on the rock.
RiceUniversityMichael Winkler
Morals and Stories, by Tobin Siebers; ? & 235 pp. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1992, $29.50.
Siebers offers a picture of human life, of a human need for morality, and
of how stories may help us to know our moral interests. His main diesis is that
"to be human is to tell stories about ourselves and about other human beings"
(p. 7). "We understand character," including which characters are worth having,
"only by telling and retelling stories" (p. 15). Siebers hints that the character
most worth having, at least in our modern world, is that of a Kantian moral
person, who acts out of respect for the categorical imperative. Kant is the subject
of the two most connected chapters of the book, in which the following sorts
of claims are made: "Kant's story is way ahead of us, which means that Kant
is here more modern than his modern critics" (p. 116); Kant's "unbreakable
principle," though "distasteful to modern sense," "is also nauseating to that
modern form of evil represented most clearly by German history" (p. 133). So
presumably Siebers holds that Kant's moral theory somehow stacks up well
against its competitors. Apart from this work on Kant, there are other chapters
on Jane Austen, on Hillis Miller's theory of criticism as a form of positivism (a
charge carried over from Siebers's 1988 Ethics and Criticism), on Homer, on
Plato, on Achebe and proverbs, and on Tolstoy.
It is not a bad idea to try to combine a commitment to Kantian morality with
a narrativist conception of persons. But Morals and Stories is a misbegotten
mishmash of a book, conceptually, stylistically, and in scholarship:
1 . What does Siebers really think about Kant? How are we to reconcile these
two passages? (a) "The project [of a Kantian ethics of pure reason] is sublime,
ridiculous and inconceivable" (p. 102). (b) "The categorical imperative puts one
into communication with 'the humanity in one's own person' . . ." (p. 109).
378Philosophy and Literature
Which is it? Is humanity in our person there commanding obedience to the
categorical imperative in each of us, or not?
2.How does the apparent, albeit guarded, support of Kant comport with a
generally instrumentalist conception ofmorality as serving the Hobbesian need
for security? Siebers writes, "at the heart of ethics resides the overriding human
desire to live in community with other people" (p. 13). But if that is so, then
it is hard to make sense of Kant's emphasis on the duties of an isolated, finite
rational will.
3.How much philosophy does Siebers know? There are no references to
die major expositors and critics of Kant. Only Paton appears in the bibliography
(not the index), and such figures as O'Neill, Hill, Nagel, Scanlon, Herman,
Korsgaard, and Rawls appear nowhere. Perhaps this would not be a problem,
if one could trust the formulations of Kant's views diat Siebers has putatively
gleaned direcdy from Kant's texts. But this is not the case, since one finds
outrageous claims like this: Kant "speaks as if there really were a concept of
duty deriving from outside the sphere of willing" (p. 115).
4.There are significant stylistic problems in MoraU and Stories. Abstruse and
near uninteUigible pronouncement is frequentiy substituted for argument. Here
are some all too typical sentences. "The modern age marks the end of philos-
ophy, if only because our moral choices are now well rehearsed. The place of
modern philosophy is one that we have seen before, with the difference that
we have never before stood in a place where all the views are so familiar" (p.
135). "The ethic of otherness is often so and-Kantian in principle that it ends
by being Kantian in practice. Similarly, its Aristotelianism is so severe that it is
not always recognizably Aristotelian" (p. 144). "If a choice could be made, there
would be no need for a decision, a decidere, a cutting. Decision involves the
impossible and necessary task of cutting one thing that we want into one thing
diat we can want and another thing we cannot want" (p. 202). And so on.
It is hard to see how Siebers's thinking and prose would satisfy anyone who
takes a serious interest in the problems that the book seeks to engage.
SwarthmoreCollegeRichard Eldridge
Somewhere I Have Never Travelled, by Thomas Van Nort-
wick; xiii 8c 204 pp. New York: Oxford University Press,
1991, $29.95.
Thomas Van Nortwick's tide raises the possibility of an approach reflective
of a reworking of Heraclitus' metaphor which has intrigued such writers as


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