This book forms part of a series “The Art of Living”, which aims to bring philosophical questions and debates to a wide audience. The series takes as its starting point the question “how should I live?” It covers predictable topics such as Love, Faith and Death, but also includes some philosophically unusual subjects such as Pets, Clothes and Middle Age, which presumably emphasize the series’ appeal to a popular readership. Commitment, the topic covered in this volume by Piers Benn, sits at the more abstract end of the range covered by the series.

It is difficult to assess the readership for a book of this sort and this is reflected in Benn’s writing, which veers back and forth between a popular style when covering topics which the average reader might naturally associate with the topic of commitment, such as relationships, and a more academic style, discussing the ethics of belief, for example. The result is that the book has a slightly patchwork feel, but this is not necessarily the author’s fault. Commitment is a slippery concept and analyzing it philosophically across a number of different subject areas is not straightforward.

Benn begins well. He tries to unearth the philosophical problems which lie behind the concept of commitment. It is immediately clear that this is a fruitful area. When we make a commitment, a promise is often involved as is the responsibility and the strength of character to uphold it. There is much to say philosophically about promise-keeping and weakness of will, as students of philosophy will know. Equally, there may be times when it is right not to make commitments or even to break with commitments we have made in the past. If our political views turn out to mean that we support a oppressive regime, there is no virtue in being a committed person in that sense. So when is doubt and skepticism the right stance? What happens if one finds that one is not committed to anything or anybody? Benn ends his book with chapters on the meaning of life and deals with the ever-popular philosophical problems of ennui, boredom, and existential angst which frequently accompany the lack of commitment. The rest of the book is broadly divided into an assessment of commitment in three main areas of life: love, work and faith.

The chapter on love is rather unbalanced, spending a disproportionate time on debating whether there is more to sexual morality than adult consent and not enough on examining long term committed relationships. A trademark of Benn’s writing is his even-handedness, however, and readers with strong views on either side of a debate will find that the other side gets a fair hearing. Benn tends to accept a liberal viewpoint as the default position for his discussions, but is in no way dogmatic and happily introduces arguments from philosophers such as Roger Scruton, who has a conservative view of sexual morality and marriage.

The chapter on work introduces interesting points about ambition and the nature of vocation, but is otherwise rather predictable in its comments, particularly about the relationship between work and the establishment and maintenance of personal identity. The book picks up again in philosophical pace when Benn examines commitment in the area of faith; we sense this subject has particular resonance for the author who has peppered the book to good effect with references to his own relationship or lack of it with religion and associated practices. In this chapter, the reader is asked to move beyond the stale debate between atheists and believers and to consider whether there could be an ethics of belief or, as Benn puts it: are there epistemic vices and virtues? Some more casual readers who have enjoyed the chapter on love might now find themselves struggling with terms like ‘ethical evidentialism’ and ‘epistemic incompetence’, whilst others who might have been stifling a yawn will sit up and enjoy this part.

Does this book go some way to answering the question “how should I live?” Philosophy is not in the business of providing answers and so Benn’s book simply provides more questions about commitment which one might not have otherwise considered. Although the subject matter means the book is inevitably patchy, Benn has the happy knack of writing well and choosing helpful and witty examples which stick in the mind to illustrate his points. (His book on ethics for first year philosophy students written over a decade ago is still popular for this very reason). Benn is genuinely interested in the role commitment plays in his own life and although the book is not autobiographical, the personal ‘commitment to commitment’ adds spice and a certain poignancy to the subject.

© 2012 Elizabeth Drummond Young

Elizabeth Drummond Young has tutored in philosophy for some years at the University of Edinburgh, where she gained her doctorate in moral philosophy. Her research interests include the philosophy of love and friendship, in which she is running a course at University of Edinburgh’s Office for Lifelong Learning.