In Mirror, Mirror: The Uses and Abuses of Self-Love, Simon Blackburn takes up the difficult and complex topic of vanity. Blackburn draws upon a multitude of classical thinkers in addressing various aspects of the topic, e.g. Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Rousseau, and Nietzsche. Blackburn also nicely incorporates recent examples to illustrate his points, e.g. Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, and George W. Bush. Blackburn takes up the issue in a style that is accessible to individuals not familiar with the texts and theories being employed. Blackburn, a philosopher, reaches outside of philosophy to psychology, literature, and history in the book. Obviously, a discussion of the myth of Narcissus is included. His careful use of examples, both classical and contemporary, are both illustrative and educational.

          Blackburn begins the book by stating, “This is first an essay about emotions and attitudes that include some estimate of the self, such as pride, self-esteem, vanity, arrogance, shame, humility, embarrassment, resentment, and indignation. It is also about some qualities that bear on these emotions: our integrity, sincerity, or authenticity.” (pg. 1) Given this opening, it is clear that the book will cover a wide range philosophically, including the metaphysics of the self and ethical considerations related to the characteristics a person should strive to embody. Importantly, the wide range of topics discussed is developed in a non-technical manner that allows one to follow along with Blackburn without any previous philosophical knowledge. 

          The central point of the work is that self-love (vanity, narcissism, pride, etc.) is more complex than we normally think of it as it possesses both good and bad aspects. We normally think of narcissism in negative terms, but that is overly simplified. In arguing for this, Blackburn moves from a discussion of the self through discussions of self-esteem, respect, temptation, to a discussion of integrity. These discussions use not only philosophical theories, but Blackburn includes religious discussions as well. Although the religious discussions are brief, Blackburn discusses, amongst others, the Buddha and Buddhism, the Islamic scholar Ibn Khaldun, Jainism, Hinduism, and various Christian thinkers as well Christianity more generally in multiple places. Blackburn uses religious discussions judicially as the book is primarily focused upon secular philosophical theories. Additionally, Blackburn reaches outside of traditional philosophy and religion to discuss a wide variety of thinkers. For example, Blackburn also draws upon thinkers from Cicero to Iris Murdoch. The breadth of the book is impressive. However, this same breadth is also one of the shortcomings of the book. The book does not provide the detailed exposition or analysis that readers may desire. At various points the book skips along the surface of some very difficult issues without acknowledging the depth or difficulty of the ideas being discussed. Many works that try to bring technical philosophy to a wider audience suffer from this shortcoming. Since one of Blackburn’s main points is to bring out the complexity of the issues surrounding self-love, the shortcoming is worth noting.

          An important aspect of the discussion of self-love is the connection to psychology. By sacrificing depth for breadth, these connections are really underdeveloped. For example, narcissistic personality disorder is discussed in Chapter 4 on “Hubris and the Fragile Self.” Blackburn mentions that this disorder is often connected to people with low self-esteem. Blackburn could make much more of this discussion as he moves through the other topics and appears to miss an opportunity to make some important connections when he gets to Chapter 8 on “Integrity, Sincerity, Authenticity.” However, Blackburn does a nice job of setting the connections which should prompt individuals into some new insights which could be more fully explored.

          An attempt to summarize the main thread of the argument would go against the style of the book. In the preface, Blackburn describes the book by stating that it is not like a book with a straightforward plot or storyline. Blackburn describes the book in the following manner:

I am not sure this book is like that; while writing it I have sometimes thought it is more like a piece of cake that tastes better when all the layers are chewed together. Perhaps it is more of a perambulation than a quest or a journey. It is, at any rate, an exploration and meditation. On the other hand, it does have a moral…There is, therefore, a train of thought, but perhaps it is a train in which one can wander at will from one carriage to another. (pg. ix)

By the end of the book, the journey gets you to an understanding of the complexity of the topic, but not to a clear conclusion. Blackburn, to his credit, acknowledges this in the final chapter. His point is the complexity itself. The style of the book helps to bring out the complexity he wants to focus upon. Ultimately one may want more developed arguments in places, but that seems contrary to the goals of the book.

© 2014 Christopher M. Caldwell

Christopher M. Caldwell, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Virginia State University.