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208 TOPICOS arabe y judia (especialmente Galileo Galilei y Juan de Santo Maimonides y Averroes) como Tomas entre otros autores. un reconocimiento del valor de En definitiva, solo nos queda esta filosofia de cara a la cons- agradecer al profesor Saranyana titucion del patrimonio filosofi- esta nueva edicion de un manual co medieval, Asimismo, se trata que, gracias a las nuevas correc- mas detenidamente la incipiente ciones y actualizaciones realiza- filosofia renacentista (Erasmo de das servira sin duda para seguir Rotterdam, Luis Vives, Tomas conociendo cada vez mejor las Moro, Francisco de Vitoria) raices medievales del pensa- destacando xm extenso epigrafe miento moderno, nuevo centrado a la figura de Domingo de Soto, haciendo Jose Angel Garcia Cuadrado justicia a sus aportaciones en el Universidad de Navarra campo de la logica siendo ade- mas uno de los precursores de la J. B. SCHNEEWIND: The In- ciencia modema, Es preciso vention of Autonomy: A His- destacar tambien, como noveda- tory of Modern Moral Philoso- des significativas, los paragrafos phy, Cambridge: Cambridge dedicados a algunas escritoras University Press 1998, 624 pp. medievales del siglo XII y XIII surgidas en los ambitos cultura- The Invention of Autonomy is les centroeuropeos, a superb book. The main goal of Por lo demas, el ultimo capi- Schneewind's systematic re- tulo, que lleva por titulo "La constmction of the history of Filosofia renacentista en vispe- moral philosophy firom Aquinas ras de la Revolucion modema", to Kant is to distinguish two es totalmente nuevo y nos tras- rival understandings of morality lada a la conjuncion de la filoso- —morality as obedience versus fia renacentista con la filosofia morality as self-govemance— moderna: alli se encuentran tra- and to chronicle the emergence tados los grandes teologos y of the latter conception, which filosofos del Barroco espanol, culminates in Kant's "invention" como Luis de Molina, Domingo of autonomy. As we travel the Bafiez y Francisco Suarez; se long road leading from the anaden tambien unos breves Summa Theologiae to the apuntes sobre Miguel Bayo, Groundwork for the Metaphy- sics of Morals, we are introdu- RESENAS 209 ced to a staggeringly large cast century theorist of natural law; of characters, some of whom are the second, the gradual triumph household names, most of whom of volimtarism over intellectua- are recognizable but considera- lism. bly less well-known, and a few The Grotian problematic starts of whom are positively obscure. off from the frank acknowle- All in all, more than forty thin- dgement that there is an endu- kers —everyone from Duns ring tension between two facets Scotus to the Marquis de Sade— of human nature: our deeply find a place in Schneewind's rooted selfishness, on the one pages. hand, and, on the other, our need Given its ambitious scope, it of society. According to Grotius, might well be wondered how we can resolve this conflict such a book could avoid being between egoism and sociability chaotically eclectic and appa- by following natural law, whose llingly superficial. However, prescriptions (i) are not innate or there are no worries on that sco- a priori, but empirically disco- re here: we are in the hands of a verable; and (ii) are .not to be master with a gift for lucid and derived from a substantive con- disciplined exposition. The book ception of the highest good. falls neatly into four sections, in Schneewind uses the framework which a coherent and highly of the Grotian problematic to unified narrative slowly unfolds. illuminate the writings of some Part I deals with natural law key figures in the modern natu- theories; Part II, with perfectio- ral law tradition (Suarez, nism; Part III, with the attempt Hobbes, Pufendorf, and Locke), to secure morality's indepen- as well as some dissenters and dence from revealed religion; sceptics (Machiavelli and Mon- and Part IV, with Kant and his taigne). immediate predecessors. Let us The second thread running now look briefly at each of these through Part I is the conflict sections. between intellectualism and Part I ("The Rise and Fall of voluntarism. According to inte- Modem Natural Law") centers llectualism, morality is not around two topics. The first is created by, or dependent upon, the so-called "Grotian proble- God; on the contrary, God is matic", named after Hugo Gro- bound to acknowledge moral tius, the influential seventeenth norms or standards that possess 210 T6PIC0S validity independently of His matic. Perfectionists understood will. According to volimtarism, our predicament quite diffe- however, God created morality rently, however. Instead of and imposed it "by an arbitrary viewing the central problems of fiat of his will" (p, 8), morality as resulting ftom civil Schneewind perceptively exa- strife a la Grotius, they were mines how the intellectualist inclined to see the root of the account of natural law defended problem as epistemological, by Aquinas gradually lost inasmuch as they insisted that ground to different versions of "ignorance and error resulting voluntarism (whose diverse from failure to use our reason array of defenders included properly are what stand between Scotus, Ockham, Luther, Calvin, us and a life of harmony and and Pufendorf), Voluntarism's virtue" (p, 169), Furthermore, defenders carried the day by whereas natural law theorists arguing that only their doctrine directed their attention to resol- was capable of preserving God's ving problems in the community omnipotence, since it imposed at large, perfectionists tended to no limitations or restrictions on focus on how an individual mo- the divine will. The result was a ral agent can achieve a state of theory which understood mora- tranquility and peace. Finally, lity primarily in terms of a hum- perfectionism eschewed the ble and unquestioning sub- empiricism of the natural law mission to the arbitrary tradition in favour of rationa- commands of a Supreme Being, hsm. Perfectionists maintained, Accordingly, then, the volunta- in other words, that the first rism that came to dominate the principles of morality are to be modem natural law tradition found by examining the human constituted a powerful formula- mind (especially its relation to tion of the idea that morality is the divine intellect), not by re- first and foremost a matter of lying on observation and expe- obedience, as opposed to self- rience. government. In Part II Schneewind insigh- Part II ("Perfectionism and tfiilly discusses these and other Rationality") We have seen that leading themes of perfectionism, the modem natural law tradition especially as they are articulated was largely defined by its ac- by the Christian neo-Stoicism of ceptance of the Grotian proble- the sixteenth century, by the RESENAS 211 Cambridge Platonists, as well as book, I trust the reader will for- by Spinoza and Malebranche. give me if I mention only two of But arguably the most intriguing the many topics explored in it. thing here is the treatment of the First, there was a growing neglected moral philosophies of controversy over whether the Descartes and Leibniz. foundation of morality lies in Schneewind offers a fascinating sentiment or in reason. Hume account of how the former drew famously argued that the dis- heavily (but selectively) on tinction between right and Stoic ideas to articulate a mora- wrong was derived not from lity of self-governance, and how reason but from sentiment, so the latter sought to refute vo- that morality is "more properly luntarism without denying that felt than judg'd of (cfi:. A Trea- God was central to morality. tise of Human Nature. Book III, Part III ('Toward a World on Part I, Section II). His simple its Own"). For the most part, but powerful argument —that both the defenders of natural law morals must affect our conduct; and the champions of perfectio- but reason, being inert, cannot nism tended to link morality do so— seemed a clincher. with religion, typically by affir- However, the rationalism cham- ming that morally good conduct pioned by the perfectionists and was a necessary condition of by Clarke did not fade away: it salvation. However, this set of received new formulations at the assumptions eventually came hands of Price and Reid, both of under fire. whom were staunch defenders of Surprisingly enough, the as- intuitionism. sault came primarily not from Secondly, we witness the rise unbelievers, but from thinkers of a novel idea: that of morality who were far from hostile to the as self-govemance. The attempts cause of religion: Pascal, Nicole, to understand morality in its Gassendi, Clarke, Hutcheson, own terms, without divine Butler, and Reid, among others. commands or supernatural sanc- These philosophers, who sought tions, resulted in the conception to secure morality's indepen- of morality as obedience losing dence fi-om religion, are the its stranglehold on the philoso- subject of Part III. Since this is phical imagination. This tenden- the longest (and, to be frank, the cy is nicely exemplified in the most tedious) section of the writings of Shaflesbury, who 212 T6PIC0S denied that we needed to look The second main issue in Part outside ourselves to some exter- rV concerns Kant's originality: nal authority for moral guidance; the so-called "invention of auto- and it culminates in Hume, for nomy". Although Kant was un- whom "morality calls for no- questionably influenced by the thing that transcends the natural ideas of others, Schneewind world in which we live; and urges that his conception of within it, our common human morality as autonomy —^his nature makes us all self- thesis, that is, "that morality governing" (p. 369). centers on a law that human Part IV ("Autonomy and Di- beings impose on themselves, vine Order") deals with two necessarily providing themsel- main topics, the first of which is ves, in doing so, with a motive Kant's considerable indebte- to obey" (p.

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