The Ethics of George W. Bush - A Book Review

[Freedom_from_Chains]

The President of Good and Evil: The Ethics of George W. Bush by Peter Singer, 2004 (Dutton, $25/Granta £8.99 paperback) 1-86207-693-6.

The following is a book review that I found interesting and thought others might enjoy. Particularly the following line.

Bush is simply a political animal, telling voters whatever they want to hear so long as it furthers his acquisition of power. In Bush's case we might call this the ‘Machiavelli from Mayberry


The President of Good and Evil by Peter Singer

Scott O’Reilly reviews Peter Singer‘s review of George W. Bush‘s statements on ethics.

Inquiring after the ethics of George W. Bush might seem to many like a Herculean task, and possibly doomed to failure, but worth a try anyway. Peter Singer, one of the world's best-known philosophers, has taken up this daunting challenge in his The President of Good and Evil: The Ethics of George W. Bush, and the result is a superbly instructive lesson on the strengths and limits of applying the methods of philosophy to current events.

Immanuel Kant once wrote that “out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.” The thought is worth bearing in mind as Singer attempts to apply the sharp edge of logic and sound reasoning against the sometimes-twisted reasoning proffered by Bush and his administration. As Plato recognized long ago, philosophers are rarely kings, and kings are rarely philosophers, hence it might be unreasonable from the outset to expect Bush's public utterances and policies to conform to any rational understanding or explanation. Perhaps Bush is simply a political animal, telling voters whatever they want to hear so long as it furthers his acquisition of power. In Bush's case we might call this the ‘Machiavelli from Mayberry' conjecture – a working assumption that Bush is a cynical operator with the cunning of a fox, and the strength and ferocity of a lion, but who attempts to pass himself off as a meek and humble lamb. Singer rejects this assumption, deciding to take Bush's pronouncements at face value, in effect asking if Bush's words and deeds stand up to philosophical scrutiny. In this, Singer is very much performing the role of a modern day Socrates, asking common sense questions, applying clear reasoning, and using his interlocutors own words as the standard by which they are judged. And like Socrates, Singer makes for a rather formidable gadfly.

(con't) http://www.philosophynow.org/issue49/49oreilly.htm

[TexasLawyer]

1. Ethics of GWB? I'll bet it's a pretty thin book!

Sorry-- I had a momentary Borscht Belt humor episode. All over now, nothing to worry about.

[Lisa]

3. you beat me to it!

I was still trying to decide whether a single-page publication would be classified as a "pamphlet".

[BrklynLiberal]

4. My first thought too!!!!!

[Up2Late]

2. Peter Singer is good, he wrote "Cooperate Worriors"...

...which is all about the "Private Military Contractors" aka "Mercenaries" that make up the 3rd largest force in Iraq.

He's a Brooking's Fellow.:hippie:

[Up2Late]

7. oops, sorry, of course I meant Corporate Warriors n/t

:silly:

[applegrove]

5. In the 1970s they put out a book called "The Wit & Wisdom of Spiro T.

Agnew". Design on cover, spine & publishing information. You open the book and there is nothing but blank pages inside.

[punpirate]

6. Another interesting quote well down...

... in the review is: "Singer examines Bush's ethics from a number of points of view – Utilitarianism, a Judeo-Christian value system, and a Libertarian perspective – and in every case fails to find a consistent framework that would make sense of Bush's moral reasoning. Turning to psychology Singer speculates that Bush's sometimes-rigid adherence to the ‘letter of the law' (but not its spirit) indicates that the president is stuck at what Harvard psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg termed the Conventional Stage of morality, which he describes as, an orientation toward authority, fixed rules, and the maintenance of social order.' Kohlberg describes this as the level of moral development most often associated with 13 year olds. (The idea that the president of the United States has not yet graduated to the Post-conventional level of moral reasoning associated with Kantian-style universal principles is a troubling conjecture, but it might explain a lot)."

Singer apparently also makes the suggestion that Bush may well be a puppet of the Straussian "intellectual elite" surrounding him. Long section about Bush's inconsistencies, not only with the facts, but with his previous statements.

Good review, and looks like an interesting book.

[Demit]

8. I read it. It was an excellent study of *. Laid him out bare.