Becoming Human: An Invitation to Ethics by William E. May (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 333 he then examines the reasons why people disagree about esthetics. Next, after a historical inquiry into the essence of beauty, the author presents his own "essential definition" of beauty, then demonstrates it "speculatively, both at the physical (empirical) level and at the metaphysical level " (p. 184) , employing the esthetic method which he has previously explained. Proceeding by syllogisms, the author demonstrates that at the physical level " every beautiful material being is an organized whole," and " all material beauty consists in order, that is to say, in a unity that is integral and proportioned." (pp. 184 and 185) At the metaphysical level "every beautiful being is an integral whole, with or without proportioned parts," and "beauty in general is integral unity with or without proportion of parts." (p. 185) The author thereafter discusses the division of beauty, its " transcendentality " (always according to a syllogistic method), and its privation (ugliness). Finally, in his concluding chapter, he studies esthetic experience. One readily sees that the entire endeavor of the author is to show the objectivity of beauty. The criticisms which he addresses to Maritain (apropos of transcendental beauty and esthetic beauty) indicate clearly that he wishes at all costs to avoid esthetic subjectivism (see pp. 262-263). From this standpoint his effort is very interesting. But it seems that he does not altogether succeed in establishing an adequate realism as a basis for safeguarding objectivity. In order perfectly to safeguard the reality and the objectivity of the beautiful (while at the same time recognizing the subjective component which it implies) , should he not have begun with esthetic experience? The beautiful does not have the objectivity of the true, nor that of the good; it has an objectivity of a very particular type which entails a certain subjectivity. In analyzing what the beautiful is, ought he not to distinguish the beautiful as founded in reality from the beautiful as perceived by man as artist (since the beautiful, in the famous phrase of Saint Thomas, is "that which pleases in being seen")? I may perhaps be allowed to refer, on this point, to my study, L'activite artistique, Volume 2, pages 246-295 (Paris: Beauchesne, 1970). University of Fribourg Switzerland MARIE-DOMINIQUE PHILIPPE, 0. P. Becoming Human: An Invitation to Ethics. By WILLIAM E. MAY. Dayton: Pflaum Publishing, 1975. Pp. 155. Paper, $4.50. This small book is an introduction to Christian moral theory, presented through a survey of what has been happening in Christian ethics over approximately the last ten years. The major points most discussed at the 884 BOOK REVIEWS present time are all touched: the relation of Christian ethics to the human moral enterprise in general; questions of relativism and truth in ethics; the meanings of conscience and its rights before authority; what at root makes an action good or evil; the social dimensions of personal morality; the concrete natural and supernatural factors that make men able or unable to recognize what is good and to do it. Only a few of the books listed in the annotated bibliography antedate 1965. But May does cite most of the leading Christian moralists who have participated in the debates of the last ten years. The author's own position is clearly a classical one; significantly he expresses his personal judgment that " [Germain] Grisez and [Paul] Ramsey are the very best analysts of moral action writing in English." (p. 146) But he shows also how hospitable a traditional Christian moralist can be to the many rich suggestions flowing from contemporary moral thought. Still he does sharply reject an ancient position that is being revived by a number of Catholic moralists: a consequentialism that finds no kind of action intrinsically wrong, that insists that any kind of action whatever is justifiable if one has a " good enough reason " for doing it. In a brief treatment of the relationship between ecclesial authority and moral scholarship he reveals a genuine sympathy for the position of those whose views have tended to weaken the acceptance of the Church's moral authority. Yet he insists that it is clear that even in her "noninfallible teaching" (a phrase that needs and does not receive careful analysis) the Church...