The Quest for Moral Foundations: An Introduction to Ethics by Montague Brown (review)

664 BOOK REVIEWS the woman at the well leaving her water jar as she goes into the city, corresponding to hurrying in the conventional betrothal scene; the drinking of blood (6:53-56) to signalize acceptance of death and the flow of water (7:37-38) to signalize life and spirit, which come out of Jesus' side together (19:34) to manifest loss and gain, death and life. What one reader will say is a psychologizing of the gospel another will, with the author, say is a spiritual message implanted by John to be discovered. All students ofJohn's gospel are at ease in declaring it a book of symbols in which spirit is consistently manifested in flesh. Brodie has found a secondary meaning of every word and phrase, which in his view the evangelist intended as primary. The Dominican friar scholar is by any reckoning a member of the exegetical guild. Many will undoubtedly find his word hard and walk with him no longer. But if they persevere with him they will find themselves thinking a few new thoughts. The Catholic University ofAmerica Washington, D.C. GERARD S. SLOYAN The Quest for Moral Foundations: An Introduction to Ethics. By MONTAGUE BROWN. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1996. Pp. 192. $45.00 (cloth), $14.95 (paper). ISBN 0-87840-602-6 (cloth), 0-87840-613-1 (paper). This clearly-written and thoughtful book makes an important contribution to the debate about moral foundations. Brown offers a well-reasoned and succinct exposition of a contemporary theory of natural law. His non-technical language and careful exposition make the present debate on foundations accessible to the educated reader. He writes for the "ethical amateurs" (xiv), who will be so vital to any renewal of moral foundations in society at large. Relativism dominates the debate on moral foundations in the United States. "I have my values and you have your values and as long as we don't hurt each other everything is fine" is a commonly heard expression of this popular point of view. Brown's work challenges the validity of these ideas. He seeks to show that relativism is an incoherent moral position. He contends that only a theory that holds absolute moral norms makes ultimate sense. Brown develops his book in a logical and systematic way. He begins with a discussion of relativism. He then devotes chapters to emotivism, egoism, and utilitarianism. He proceeds to Kant's utilitarianism and to natural law. Toward the end, he revisits all the theories as he seeks to include their best aspects in BOOK REVIEWS 665 his overall synthesis. His consistent tone is balanced and the chapters are packed with information on the theories proposed. His first chapter is an extended discussion of relativism in its many forms. He begins to address a question that plays a large role in his discussions throughout the work-the role of science. Science and technology are major factors in our contemporary world as they have been for several centuries. "To insist on scientific method as the sole method by which knowledge can be justified is to assume that all that is real is material" (12). Brown argues convincingly that if "meaning is real then materialism is false." Our acts of understanding and judgment transcend the merely material. It is "incoherent to hold that only matter is real" (13)-though, of course, one cannot deny that matter itself is real. A second critical question which Brown discusses in the first chapter is human freedom. First he discusses the "freedom to do as one pleases." This is an external political or social freedom. If there are moral norms, then this freedom is constrained. He then discusses moral freedom: "the deepest meaning of freedom is moral freedom, the freedom of choice. Without freedom of choice, which depends on the ability to know that some intentions and actions are really better than others, all one's choices are ultimately meaningless, mere reactions rather than self-initiated actions" (20). If all decisions are relative, then there is no right and wrong, and thus no moral choice. We are then determined by our emotions, self-concerns, pragmatic results, and the like. Relativism...