This book is a collections of essays in moral/political philosophy and
philosophy of education, written over
the years by the American pragmatist philosopher John Lachs. The main thesis of the book is, as suggested
by the title, that philosophers have an
obligation to address the problems of daily living. The intended reader is thus
the professional philosopher but the language is not always technical and the book might interest a
generally educated audience. The book consists of five parts (Premise, Values
and Relations, Problems of Social Life, Life and Death, Human Nature) each aiming to treat an aspect of the main
concern.

To explain his view on the role philosophy and philosophers ought to
play in society, the author compares philosophy to medicine. In contrast with other professions which are
compatible "with a minimal reading" of their responsibilities, in
philosophy as in medicine "the stakes are too high". In particular
"by failing to connect critical thought with the concerns of daily
existence in the minds of students, philosophers contribute to the
impoverishment of personal life and the persistence of social
irrationality" (p. 4). Among the obligations of philosophers is that of acting on their own teaching. The
ideal is that of unity of theory and practice in philosophy. Such a unity must
be realized in practice by making real
actions follow real thoughts, and not
in theory, only with the writing of books.  
Thus, philosophers might very well stop at this point (Premise) and
prepare themselves "for painful action". They decide to go on with the reading, they will have the
occasion to exercise their philosophical training in many debatable subjects such as Moral Relativism, Rationality
and Tolerance (where the author argues
against Hilary Putnam on Nazism), Human Nature (where he argues against Francis
Fukuyama’s view of history), Violence, Technology and Mediation, Education,
Life and Death (where he dissents from the thought that life by itself is a
value), Euthanasia, Nonresuscitation and Mercy Killing (which discussion
involves the difficult definition of
"being a person"), and Decision Making (treating the extreme case of
selling human organs).

The most original contribution of the
book is the introduction of the category of "choice-inclusive facts".
These are intermediate facts between the objective and the conventional. For example, according to Lachs, facts about
human nature are choice-inclusive rather than objective. The application of
such a category leads to interesting readings of some events of social life but
also is the cause of a rather regrettable slip in Lachs’s analysis who ranks
the admittance of women, blacks, members of different religions, persons with
disabilities and even "our" enemies as full-fledged human beings as a
result of the choice-inclusive intepretation of the facts of real life.

© 2003 Giuseppina Ronzitti

Giuseppina Ronzitti holds a Ph.D in
Philosophy of Science (2002). Her research interests inlcude Logic and
Philosophy of Mathematics.

Categories: Philosophical, Ethics