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Title: The Unaborted Socrates: A Dramatic Debate on the Issues Surrounding Abortion by Peter Kreeft ISBN: 0-87784-810-6 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: July, 1983 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.57 (21 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Good but could have been better and fuller
Comment: The indictment is clear, but the argument for it is still rather sketchy and limited. Those who perpetrate abortions are murderers (though a woman who allows her fetus to be killed is merely an unwitting murderer, tricked by modern philosophy). This is a somewhat brief, breezy, and entertaining look at the question of abortion, and it is surely no surprise that Peter Kreeft, a Catholic apologist of some fame and doggedness, has his rational Socrates come down squarely against the practice. Still, you've got to give Kreeft some high marks for not once refering to the Bible or religion to make his case against abortion. The three quick dialogues wander a bit, seemingly to make the characters appear real and their conversations off-the-cuff, but when the participants finally get around to making their best points, they all make fairly good ones. In my view, Kreeft is correct to center the entire moral argument for and against abortion on the personhood of the human embryo and fetus. Nevertheless, his case for considering the human fetus as a person -- made through Socrates' question-answer dialectic -- is sound but weak. Much more could be said in objection to Socrates' rapid, blithe conclusion that the human zygote should be considered a person than Kreeft allows his pro-choice opponents to say. Also, Kreeft does not even enter the world of law and democratic politics, which are, of course, as firmly in the center of the abortion debate as the definition of the fetus. Still, let me be clear, I am pro-life and agree with Socrates' conclusions. I just don't think his opponents in this debate are given the best or fullest challenges to the pro-life position. All in all, this is a worthwhile read. Sad to say, though: it has probably had little to no affect on the abortion debate. But all those who are pro-life must keep on talking, trying to persuade people to see the evils of this practice, in the dim hope that some day we shall overcome. We have no other choice.
Rating: 4
Summary: Do you trivialize the sacred?
Comment: Peter Kreeft's essay against abortion employs Socratic dialectic as vehicle of moral illumination. For committed Pro-lifers much of what is discussed is manifestly obvious and True. This does not diminish its importance: the fetus is complete ontologically. It is not "potentially" a person...it is potentially a specific kind of person (baseball player; mother; astronaut; yuppie).
That committed Pro-abortionists do not accept this is also manifestly obvious through 30 years of political struggle asserting "a" Value over against "a" Reality (pp 145-150)....and PREVAILING.
Who is this book really written for then? Though there have been
approximately 45 million legal abortions (cf: The Guttmacher Institute statistics) since 1973 Roe v. Wade decision by The Supreme Court, there are still many otherwise informed citizens who claim "invincible ignorance" of the reality of abortion and The Culture it furthers/subbtends.The fact never in three decades of Pro-choice have more than 2%-5% of these abortions been to save a mother's life or protect her health (cf:Guttmacher Annals; or Ryan Reports)might seem startling enough to shake ethical foundations of any but the most complacent or self-absorbed...at least into inquiry about the most important moral issue confronting this nation since SLAVERY. Kreeft is clever but hardly as profound or persuasive as he might be. The substantive arguments (where "gloves" come-off, as it were)don't begin until page 106 (with classic references to our Supreme Court vis-a-vis NAZI "anthropology" and its legal application during The Third Reich and WWII.)The thrust of the book, however,is on page 151: Do you accept sanctity of Life? Or do you trivialize the sacred? THE UNABORTED SOCRATES is written as prod to readers of conscience who still regard the value the latter portends, yet deny reality of vital(!) anti-life forces in society where they live as complicit,if passive, abettors.(3 and 1/2 stars)
Rating: 5
Summary: Keen
Comment: I loved the book so much that I translated it in French and have used it with some of my students in Quebec. It has wit and insight, bundled with kindness.
Peter Kreeft is a philosopher who talks to the brain instead of splashing about philobabble.
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Title: Best Things in Life by Peter Kreeft ISBN: 0877849226 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: July, 1984 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Between Heaven and Hell by Peter Kreeft ISBN: 0877843899 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: June, 1982 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Socrates Meets Jesus: History's Greatest Questioner Confronts the Claims of Christ by Peter Kreeft ISBN: 0830823387 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: February, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Socrates Meets Marx: The Father of Philosophy Cross-Examines the Founder of Communism by Peter Kreeft ISBN: 0898709709 Publisher: Ignatius Press Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Philosophy 101 by Socrates: An Introduction to Philosophy Via Plato's Apology by Peter Kreeft ISBN: 0898709253 Publisher: Ignatius Press Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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