Curiosity: And Its Twelve Rules for Life

by F.H. Buckley

Curiosity is the instinct that prompts us to act, and a book about curiosity should tell us how to live. Thisis the first to do so, with its twelve rules for life.While a fatal sin in Eden, curiosity is a necessary virtue in our world. It asks us to search for new experiences, to create, to invent. It tells us to look inward, to be curious about the needs of other people and about our own motives. It tells us not to be a stick in the mud or a bore. In particular, curiosity asks us to examine the most fundamental questions of our existence. When you put all this together, curiosity tells you how to live a life in full.While there's a natural desire to explore, there's also a natural desire to stay home. We have a dark side that wants to hide from the world. We've also been made incurious by the rise of bitter partisanships and narrow ideologies that have sent things and people we should care about to our mental trash folders. That’s why this book is needed today.

Kindle Edition

Published April 27, 2021

About the author

Francis H. Buckley: Son of F.J. & H.B. Buckley; M. Esther Goldberg; child Sarah.
BA, McGill University 1969
LLB, McGill University 1974
LLM, Harvard University 1975
Exec Dir/Assoc Dean of Geo Mason Law & Economics Center & Foundation Law Prof who's taught there since '89 & was Visiting Olin Fellow at the U of Chicago Law School in '88/9. Shimer College trustee. Twice visiting professor at the Sorbonne/ Paris II, in fall '07 he was visiting professor at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris. He writes on law & economics & has published in journals, including the Journal of Legal Studies, the International Review of Law, Crisis & Economics & Public Choice. He's defended free markets before the American Enterprise Inst. His books include Fair Governance (Oxford '09), The Morality of Laughter (Michigan '03) & Just Exchange: A Theory of Contract (Routledge '05).
Geo Mason's Law & Economics Center, focusing on issues like tort reform, declines releasing fundraising & donor information. Documents released by the Community Rights Counsel, including some released as part of the nat'l tobacco settlement, show that its officials asked R.J. Reynolds Tobacco for $20,000 for its federal judges program, according to a Reynolds internal email. The center received $40,000 from Philip Morris from '96-99 & was listed among "key allies". It also received $40,000 from Exxon Mobil Foundation in '04. Buckley said their policy of silence as re donors is best for all. He declined to say where the seminars take place, citing security reasons: "We've been advised that there are more ethical problems if you disclose than if you don't."

Reviews

[Tommy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won't deny that Mr Buckley knows his history - Greek philosophers, Ancient Rome, art, literature, architecture, and more, but his repeated dive into deep details around each of these on almost every page leaves little room for his twelve rules to breathe. The rules themselves are beneficial, but they get lost in the murk of his approach, writing a dissertation rather than a book of guidance.

I also had a big problem once I realized the aim of this treatise was to pin the waning of our collective curiosity on political progressives. When I Googled the author, I discovered he was once a speechwriter for Trump, who has also written a book about how Trump's 2016 victory was "just what we needed". Needless to say, I have a hard time buying an argument that progressives have smothered curiosity when this author served under the least curious president in American history. As I watch the far-right do just as much 'canceling' as the far-left, his whole premise falls through, in my opinion.

Yet, I continued - perhaps out of spite - because this is a book on curiosity, I'm a progressive, and I didn't want to stop being "curious" about this author's point-of-view, despite knowing he was ultimately building to laying blame at my own feet. So, I muscled through, tedious though it was. I can't recommend it, though, unless you are a Trump-supporting intellectual (did I just use that phrase?) who wants to gather up historical anecdotes to toss around at an American Spectator BBQ about why those lining up to support social justice are stifling your freedoms.

It's funny. Given Mr Buckley feels the left is to blame for our incurious culture, I wonder who he bumps into the most at libraries, bookstores, museums, films, etc., where curiosities are most ambitiously met with challenging ideas and inspirations. I bet he's in the minority...which may be what bugs him.

[Robert V. Schneider · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book that is marred by the author’s political predilections. Very strange to lay the responsibility of this era’s intolerance at the doorstep of the progressives. There’s plenty of blame to go around.

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Common sense, but presented in an entertaining way.

[Alan Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was going to give this book four stars, but the last chapter, "The Death of Curiosity," blew me away because it captures what's wrong with people right now. But more of this in a moment. Curiosity is what makes life worth living. Without it we are...not like other animals, because animals are curious. Did you ever see a hummingbird in action? Without curiosity we are less than animals. Buckley's twelve rules are a good start. I especially like "Be entertaining." We don't have to be a juggler or a magician, but just be able to tell a story in an interesting manner. Another good one is "Be interested in other people." It's not new. Dale Carnegie made the same point in his book, "How to Win Friends and Influence People." But how true it is. There are lots of good stories in the book about people from history and allusions to classical literature where important questions are asked. And then there's the last chapter, which we're living in right now. A chapter in which we're trying to banish risk and put a wall between ourselves and anyone who thinks differently than we do. Nobody is interested in the opinion of anyone else anymore. If a scientist says something that disagrees with my narrow viewpoint, I cancel him. Our son declared himself a free-range kid when he was nine, and said he didn't even need a babysitter anymore. If he did that today he'd be captured by Child Protective Services in about ten seconds. This book is worth reading, just for the last chapter.

[Ronald J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I normally don’t read books by law professors, but I’m glad I did Curiosity by F.H. Buckley. It’s an argument that curiosity is necessary virtue in the new world, even though it was a fatal sin in Eden. Curiosity lies on the off-ramp, not copying others, or blindly following what Orwell called “the smelly little orthodoxies of the day.” There is such a thing as too much curiosity as well. He contrasts this work from Jordan Peterson’s Twelve Rules for Life. His twelve rules:

1. Don’t make rules
2. Take risks
3. Court uncertainties
4. Be original
5. Show grit
6. Be interested in other people
7. Be entertaining—“We’ve offloaded the duty to entertain on the media. That’s made us duller and less curious.”
8. Be creative
9. Be open to the world
10. Don’t be smug
11. Don’t overreach
12. Realize your knocking on heaven’s door

There’s a chapter exploring each rule, which contains fascinating stories from a myriad of past thinkers, such as Blaise Pascal, Immanuel Kant (who had a rule for everything), Aristotle, Plato, Oscar Wilde, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Albert Camus, Thomas Aquinas, among others. Buckley says America’s colleges is where curiosity goes to die, a sad state of affairs. A deep look at curiosity that is well worth reading.

Notable
W.C. Fields: “I spent half my money on gambling, alcohol and wild women. The rest I wasted.”

British prime minister Harold Macmillan, asked what would determine his government’s policies: “Events, dear boy, events.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841-1935) at 90, sees a pretty woman pass by his house and said, “Ah, to be eighty again!”

[Diane Esson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I learned a few interesting snippets of history, I liked some of Buckley’s observations, and I appreciated the ‘ode to curiosity’ as a premise. But I felt that his rules (and evidence for them) were reminiscent of an ugly stepsister squeezing her foot into Cinderella’s shoe. Not everything is about curiosity, surely? I think this would’ve been more compelling with fewer rules and fewer (ie only the most powerful) examples, as a short treatise or paper. That said, I’ve still earmarked a lot of pages for future reference.