Recently, I was asked where one should begin when reading Christian philosophy. In this Dispatch, I will present a little-known book by an almost forgotten Catholic philosopher of the twentieth century that presents Christian philosophy as wisdom for navigating life in the world.
Doing Philosophy as if People Matter
The German economist Ernst Friedrich Schumacher (1911-1977) is one of the twentieth century's most influential—yet unknown—Catholic philosophers. His 1973 bestseller "Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered" became the founding text for environmentally conscious individuals in the 1970s and still influences political and philosophical debates today. The origins of the book are controversial and often shrouded in secrecy. Many of its fans are embarrassed by it. The reason? "Small is Beautiful" is based on the social teachings of the popes, beginning with Pope Leo XIII’s "Rerum Novarum."
Schumacher was born in 1911 in Bonn, Germany. In 1930, he became a Rhodes Scholar at New College, Oxford, and he moved to the United Kingdom before the Second World War. During the war, he was held captive on a farm as an “enemy alien.” The fact that his wife was the sister of the German quantum physicist Heisenberg, who worked on the Nazi nuclear weapons program, may have contributed to this. During his internment, Schumacher worked on the fields of a farm, using his spare time to collaborate with the economist John Maynard Keynes on economic theories.
After the war, Schumacher became the Chief Economic Advisor to the National Coal Board. During his visits to India in the 1950s, he became interested in the idea of human flourishing and the protection of the environment.
After studying Catholicism—philosophy, theology, and art—for many decades, Schumacher was received into the Catholic Church in 1971. Shortly before he died in 1977, he finished his second major work in which he set out to explain the underlying spirituality and philosophy of "Small is Beautiful" in the book "A Guide for the Perplexed." In this guide, Schumacher reacts against the shift in the history of thought from philosophy as wisdom to philosophy as mathematically precise knowledge:
“The change of Western man’s interest for the ‘slenderest knowledge that may be obtained of the highest things’ (Thomas Aquinas) to mathematically precise knowledge of the lesser things – ‘there being nothing in the world the knowledge would be more desirable or more useful’ (Christian Huygens, 1629-95) – marks a change from what we may call ‘science for understanding’ to ‘science for manipulation’. The purpose of the former was the enlightenment of the person and his ‘liberation’; the purpose of the latter is power: ‘Knowledge itself is power’, said Francis Bacon (1561-1626), and Descartes promised men to become ‘masters and possessors of nature.’”
A Guide for the Perplexed, p. 64.
A Guidebook to the World and Your Place in It
In "A Guide for the Perplexed," Schumacher provides the reader with a philosophical guidebook or map to examine the world as a whole and one's own place within it. Then, he proceeds to introduce four topics that need to be studied: first, the world; second, humanity and its capacity to engage with the world; third, how humans learn about the world; and finally, what it means to truly live in this world.
Schumacher writes that important truths ("Great Truths") underpin each topic. The first truth is that the world is a hierarchical structure with at least four levels of being (mineral, plant, animal, human) representing our makeup elements. These four elements form a sequence of increasing rarity and vulnerability (p. 32). The great truth about human beings meeting the world is 'adequateness.' Everything in the world must be matched to some sense, faculty, or power within us; otherwise, we remain unaware of it. The great truth of learning consists of the four fields of knowledge.
1) What is really going on in my own inner world?
2) What is really going on in the inner world of other beings?
3) What do I look like in the eyes of other beings?
4) What do I actually observe in the world around me?
Finally, the great truth of living in the world is the ability to distinguish between two types of problems: convergent and divergent problems. Convergent problems can be solved. Divergent problems defy logic because they can only exist in pairs of unsolvable opposites, such as growth versus decay, freedom versus order, justice versus mercy, and stability versus change. Schumacher writes that any "final" solution would be a "death sentence" for our humanity.
Why you should read Schumacher
The layout of Schumacher's book demonstrates the influence of two important Catholic thinkers: Thomas Aquinas (especially the Summa Contra Gentiles) and the French philosopher Jacques Maritain. Yet, Schumacher's text is quick to introduce sources from other traditions, such as Stoicism, Jewish thought, or Islam. Furthermore, one can observe his great love for the works of Shakespeare, Dante, and Dorothy L. Sayers.
In conclusion, "A Guide for the Perplexed" is a beginner's guide that introduces the field of Christian philosophy in just under 166 pages. It may sometimes feel a bit dated, but there is still enough content to inspire new generations of Christian students to engage with philosophy. What sets it apart from other books is that Schumacher is not interested in Christian philosophy as apologetics but as wisdom for life. Now, more than ever, we can all benefit from guidebooks to navigate our lives amid the economic, political, and environmental challenges of our times.
Edition used: E.F. Schumacher, A Guide for the Perplexed, London: Vintage Books (1977), edition 1995.
Picture: Salisbury Cathedral, summer 2023 © RS