Reflective Naturalism: An Introduction to Moral Philosophy by Vincent Punzo (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 857 Christians, and especially Catholics, have a duty to enter into it. From the published results of a symposium like this we can learn at least one thing: it is no time to lose one's nerve in the face of more general atheistic positions. It will be a long time before the present modern phase of thought will even begin to approach, in rigor and depth, the most ordinary and common positions of the great Scholastics. There is something to start from, and a lot we owe to the future to preserve. St. Mary's Monastery Wendouree, Vic. Australia A. J. KELLY, c.ss.R. Reflective Naturalism: An Introduction to Moral Philosophy. By VINCENT PuNzo. New York: The Macmillan Co.: London: Collier-Macmillan Ltd., 1969. Pp. 387. $7.50. Vincent Punzo, a member of the philosophy department of St. Louis University, has made a commendable effort to provide a better textbook. His work deserves consideration by anyone who teaches a required college or seminary course in the subject. The ethics presented in the book is essentially a personally rethought and reformulated version of thomistic theory, but Punzo does not present his textbook as a thomistic manual. Instead, the problems of ethical theory are extricated from contemporary philosophical debate, and the more or less thomistic solutions are reached by criticism of some alternative positions. Punzo refers to his method as "expositorycritical "; it is an application of Aristotelian dialectical method. The book is divided into two parts, almost equal in length. The first part deals with a number of central issues of ethical theory, while the second part takes up a few moral problems. The book might be considered for use in a one-semester course. If an instructor feels there is too much material for such a course, either half of the book could be used by itself. The arguments developed in the treatment of moral problems in the latter half of the book do not depend on the theory outlined in the earlier chapters. In the first chapter, Punzo argues against forms of metaethics-particularly emotivism-which would render normative ethics impossible. Chapter two defends freedom of self-determination against various arguments drawn from recent British and American philosophy. Chapter three argues against reductionistic naturalism and also against rationalistic theories, such as Kant's formalism, and in favor of a version of natural law theory (although Punzo avoids the expression "natural law"). 358 BOOK REVIEWS According to Punzo, practical reason discerns moral value by comparing the possibilities of human satisfaction and frustration-which belong to the objective facts of nature-with an ideal conception of human community. Possibilities that can be realized by human action and that are suitable to the human community are morally good; those unsuited to it are morally evil. Chapter four clarifies the theory proposed in chapter three, particularly in regard to the ideal of human community involved in the definition of morality. Punzo uses Kant's ideal of human community, the kingdom of ends, to limit utilitarian consequentialism, and he simultaneously uses Mill's concrete humanism to limit Kant's formalistic conception of duty. The resulting position is plausible, but not completely clear; the limitations of Punzo's theory as a useful normative criterion appear clearly enough in the second half of the book, which treats moral problems with dialectical arguments for the most part independent of the theoretical part of the book. Chapter five treats the cardinal virtues. Punzo does not tightly integrate this treatment with the moral theory outlined in the previous chapters. The treatment is mainly traditional, the presentation less dialectical than most of the chapters. An analysis and critique of Joseph Fletcher's position is provided in connection with the treatise on practical wisdom. Chapter six, the first chapter of the second part of the book, deals with premarital intercourse and abortion under the title: ":Morality and Human Sexuality." Chapter seven argues against Hayek's classical liberalism for a welfare conception of social-economic justice. Chapter eight deals with some problems of the political order, including capital punishment and warfare. Chapter nine, arguing against Dewey's "closed naturalism," offers the alternative of an " open naturalism "-that is, one...