Philosophers Without Chests*

I finished Francis Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man. All in all I would describe it as an easy read. His writing style is pleasantly accessible, and his brand of political philosophy is unobtrusive and relativist in form, if not in content. In that way, he exemplifies the Last Man who he describes in the last section of his popular volume.

Like the Last Man, Fukuyama lacks the megalothymia (egotistic drive) that would push him to promote his theories strongly. Rather, "The End" has a bit of the flavor of a textbook, explaining others' philosophies, but not systematically explaining his own or firmly rejecting some of the competing visions of others like Marx, Hegel (whom Fukuyama worships), Kojeve, Locke, Nietzche and Bacon. The best parts of "The End" are when Fukuyama does challenge or debunk modern liberal thinking. The mushy centrism popular in today's media, professoriate, and political establishment makes very little philosophical sense.

I recommend "The End" for those who are interested in a lite introduction to political philosophy and with a bit too much time on their hands. It's not a bad read, and it's not too hard to get into, it's just not quite as good as a lot of other books.

*The inspiration for my title, and for one of Fukuyama's titles, comes from Nietzche (who talked of hollow chests) by way of C.S. Lewis, who was an eminently solid-chested philosopher. In The Abolition of Man Lewis writes, "such is the tragi-comedy of our situation—we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more 'drive', or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or 'creativity'. In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful".

If you want to read some good social commentary, skip Fukuyama and the library, and click on over to Lewis' essay. It starts slowly, but it's a scintillating rebuke of 20th-century liberalism once you get into it.