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Real American Ethics: Taking Responsibility for Our Country
America is a wonderful and magnificent country that affords its citizens the broadest freedoms and the greatest prosperity in the world. But it also has its share of warts. It is embroiled in a war that many of its citizens consider unjust and even illegal. It continues to ravage the natural environment and ignore poverty both at home and abroad, and its culture is increasingly driven by materialism and consumerism. But America, for better or for worse, is still a nation that we have built. So why then, asks Albert Borgmann in this most timely and urgent work, are we failing to take responsibility for it? In Real American Ethics, Borgmann asks us to reevaluate our role in the making of American values. Taking his cue from Winston Churchill—who once observed that we shape our buildings, and then our buildings shape us—Borgmann considers the power of our most enduring institutions and the condition of our present moral makeup to propose inspired new ways in which we, as ordinary citizens, can act to improve our country. This, he shows, includes everything from where we choose to live and what we spend our money on to daunting tasks like the reshaping of our cities—habits and actions that can guide us to more accomplished and virtuous lives. Using prose that is easy and direct throughout, Borgmann’s position is grounded neither by conservative nor liberal ideology, but in his understanding that he is a devoted citizen among many. In an age in which the blame game is the only game in town, this patriotic book is an eloquent reminder of the political strength we all wield when we work together.
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
235 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 8, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 8, 2018
This is a different kind of a book by Albert Borgmann. Although he has previously written about contemporary issues (see esp., Crossing the Postmodern Divide or Holding Onto Reality), this book is a very direct and personal statement about the direction he believes American politics and personal ethics should go.
Borgmann's book takes its guidance from a 1943 quote from Winston Churchill: "We shape our buildings, and afterward our buildings shape us." Borgmann believes that, in contemporary American culture, we haven't taken Churchill's point sufficiently to heart. American ideology is nothing if not individualistic, but morality, in Borgmann's interpretation of Churchill's point, is inescapably public. The environment we build for ourselves together -- our physical environment, our environment of cultural and political institutions, our economic structures, the structures of our communities -- shape the kinds of persons we can become. Our individualistic ideology tends to discard that environment as a kind of neutral basis for our ethical and political choices, failing to deliberate about how to design and build an environment that will best afford our living good lives, lives of virtue.
Paying proper attention to how we together shape the lives that we can live places a much brighter light on the public -- not only public politics, but also community practices, family structures and practices, and many other environmental variables that are more informal than formal. Borgmann's critiques of technology in his other works, strongly influenced by Heidegger, have always carried this emphasis on the life of the community. Clearly, Borgmann has personally taken a great interest in the community in which he lives, Missoula, Montana, and the potential that community has for fostering good lives.
Another strong influence is Rawls' combination of liberal individualism with a very public, communal sense of justice. The ideal that both Rawls and Borgmann pursue is one in which individualism thrives on the basis of a strong sense of the common good -- the availability to all of the wherewithal for a good life, no matter what choices individuals then make for their personal pursuit of the good life, what virtues are most important to them, what goals and means they choose for themselves. Both are clear that those individualistic choices must be enabled by that strong and just conception of the public good, contrary to a purist ideology of individualism.
I suspect that Borgmann's understanding of "real" owes something to Hegel. His conception of ethics has much in common with Hegel's insistence that ethics is neither private nor in some sense an "internal" matter of conscience -- an ethical life is inherently "real" in the institutions and practices of a community.
I've always liked Borgmann. He does come off as a bit of a curmudgeon here, though, casting a negative light on commercialism, "commodification", and other waves of modern culture. Resisting those waves is critical, though, in his eye, as those are exactly the "buildings" that shape us, such that the lives we pursue become constrained to the lives of consumers.
The book is very readable, probably the most readable of Borgmann's books. It's pretty impressive that he can write in both the technical style required by contemporary philosophy and in this much more accessible style required to make a statement to all of us within contemporary culture. It's a good book, probably not given the notice it deserves.
Borgmann's book takes its guidance from a 1943 quote from Winston Churchill: "We shape our buildings, and afterward our buildings shape us." Borgmann believes that, in contemporary American culture, we haven't taken Churchill's point sufficiently to heart. American ideology is nothing if not individualistic, but morality, in Borgmann's interpretation of Churchill's point, is inescapably public. The environment we build for ourselves together -- our physical environment, our environment of cultural and political institutions, our economic structures, the structures of our communities -- shape the kinds of persons we can become. Our individualistic ideology tends to discard that environment as a kind of neutral basis for our ethical and political choices, failing to deliberate about how to design and build an environment that will best afford our living good lives, lives of virtue.
Paying proper attention to how we together shape the lives that we can live places a much brighter light on the public -- not only public politics, but also community practices, family structures and practices, and many other environmental variables that are more informal than formal. Borgmann's critiques of technology in his other works, strongly influenced by Heidegger, have always carried this emphasis on the life of the community. Clearly, Borgmann has personally taken a great interest in the community in which he lives, Missoula, Montana, and the potential that community has for fostering good lives.
Another strong influence is Rawls' combination of liberal individualism with a very public, communal sense of justice. The ideal that both Rawls and Borgmann pursue is one in which individualism thrives on the basis of a strong sense of the common good -- the availability to all of the wherewithal for a good life, no matter what choices individuals then make for their personal pursuit of the good life, what virtues are most important to them, what goals and means they choose for themselves. Both are clear that those individualistic choices must be enabled by that strong and just conception of the public good, contrary to a purist ideology of individualism.
I suspect that Borgmann's understanding of "real" owes something to Hegel. His conception of ethics has much in common with Hegel's insistence that ethics is neither private nor in some sense an "internal" matter of conscience -- an ethical life is inherently "real" in the institutions and practices of a community.
I've always liked Borgmann. He does come off as a bit of a curmudgeon here, though, casting a negative light on commercialism, "commodification", and other waves of modern culture. Resisting those waves is critical, though, in his eye, as those are exactly the "buildings" that shape us, such that the lives we pursue become constrained to the lives of consumers.
The book is very readable, probably the most readable of Borgmann's books. It's pretty impressive that he can write in both the technical style required by contemporary philosophy and in this much more accessible style required to make a statement to all of us within contemporary culture. It's a good book, probably not given the notice it deserves.
February 5, 2019
Borgmann takes us on a trip through the personal and communal virtues that he says make up uniquely American ethics. Having read the whole book, I'm not sure what about them are particularly "American" or how universal they truly are. Basically he wants us to stop buying into consumer culture and focus on living socially responsible urban lives. I don't disagree with his ideas about what constitutes the "good life" but I don't know that everyone would agree or necessarily should. And I really don't understand how his ideal is distinct from anywhere else in the world. That said, this book wasn't nearly as painful to read as I thought it would be.
May 20, 2017
I had to read this for a graduate course in my doctorate program. The author is a radical liberal while also managing to be a Christian. Since I am not a radical liberal nor a Christian, this had limited appeal to me. There are some interesting discussions of the ethical theories here- Kantianism, Utilitarianism, Evolutionary Psychology, Social Justice, etc but this author is just way too bleeding heart liberal and religious for me.
June 19, 2019
Another book for class. I appreciate its take on Kant- actually gives significant challenge to the point I would want to assert in my dissertation (in addition to bringing up the point that him and Jefferson were contemporaries and felt the same about miracles). Otherwise it’s an eyeroll’s worth of typical complaints about America from both sides of the aisle. Plus, if practical ethics aren’t practical enough to the point of you got to make up “real ethics”, you’re stupid. Sorry not sorry.
December 6, 2012
I read this because of how good his book on Technology and Contemporary Culture was. However this book never seemed to really go anywhere and the solutions it offered, when it took a breath from its pedogical ideas, was the same tired ideas we have heard before ... that don't seem to be workable and come off a little elitist.
I'll give you the best from the book:
He begins with what he calls the "Churchill principal" which is that the buildings we make will shape us in the future. He then shows that has wide application to all structures and needs to inform our actions in building. This is exactly what he explores so well in his book on Technology ... how we are being formed by the structures we have built.
He then makes an attempt to explain happiness as a term in america. Ultimately he argues that ethics has to do with what is a good life ... normally we get lost in the dilemmas (abortion, cloning, ethical business practice, etc.) but all these are trying to suss right and wrong and are sitting on the edges ... what is in the center is how we go about defining the good life. And in america that seems best summed up in the "pursuit of happiness"
But what did Jefferson intend or imagine in that phrase vs. what we think of it today. Jefferson imagined development and flourishing; education and knowledge; happiness is inseparable from community. But he brings in Mill and his utilitarianism and says that we have opted for his easier defined, easier measured principle - maximize pleasure, minimize pain for the most people. And then he further says we have dumbed it down to Monetary Utilitarianism or GDP.
And this brings in a further thought I think he discussed some in the other book, that we are a culture fascinated with quantitative measurement ... we are constantly bombarding debates with statistics, numbers, dollars, populations, etc. What we don't seem to discuss very often is how theadbare and reductionist all this is ... and even whether it is really the best way to debate certain questions.
So .. that's the best and he covers all this in the first 60 pages. The rest offered little to my interest, besides learning a little about Kant, Jefferson and Rawls, which I probably could learn just as easily elsewhere.
I'll give you the best from the book:
He begins with what he calls the "Churchill principal" which is that the buildings we make will shape us in the future. He then shows that has wide application to all structures and needs to inform our actions in building. This is exactly what he explores so well in his book on Technology ... how we are being formed by the structures we have built.
He then makes an attempt to explain happiness as a term in america. Ultimately he argues that ethics has to do with what is a good life ... normally we get lost in the dilemmas (abortion, cloning, ethical business practice, etc.) but all these are trying to suss right and wrong and are sitting on the edges ... what is in the center is how we go about defining the good life. And in america that seems best summed up in the "pursuit of happiness"
But what did Jefferson intend or imagine in that phrase vs. what we think of it today. Jefferson imagined development and flourishing; education and knowledge; happiness is inseparable from community. But he brings in Mill and his utilitarianism and says that we have opted for his easier defined, easier measured principle - maximize pleasure, minimize pain for the most people. And then he further says we have dumbed it down to Monetary Utilitarianism or GDP.
And this brings in a further thought I think he discussed some in the other book, that we are a culture fascinated with quantitative measurement ... we are constantly bombarding debates with statistics, numbers, dollars, populations, etc. What we don't seem to discuss very often is how theadbare and reductionist all this is ... and even whether it is really the best way to debate certain questions.
So .. that's the best and he covers all this in the first 60 pages. The rest offered little to my interest, besides learning a little about Kant, Jefferson and Rawls, which I probably could learn just as easily elsewhere.
April 4, 2014
A fine examination of the meaning of the good life in the contemporary United States. Very much worth reading, though I preferred the author's Crossing the Postmodern Divide for its clarity in tracing the historical causes of our moment.
August 4, 2011
This is the book I have to read over and over again! A truly enlightening book. And this is certainly the most readable book by Borgmann:) It's a must-read for all American citizens!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews