On the Coffee Table: Kenan Malik

Title: The Quest for a Moral Compass: A Global History of Ethics

Author: Kenan Malik

via Amazon

The Quest for a Moral Compass is an ambitious project.  As the subtitle indicates, Malik follows the history of moral and ethical philosophy from Homer's epics to the present.  While "global" is a bit of an exaggeration, he does reach far beyond the usual Western subjects to acknowledge the contributions of India, China and the anti-colonialists of the 20th century.  

I never took a philosophy class in college.  After art history, it's probably the biggest gap in my own liberal arts education.  As such, the survey course of the big names - Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Descartes, Hobbes, etc. - is meaningful for me.  More comfortable ground for me are discussions about religion.  My own faithless upbringing left me deeply curious so I have studied the world's religions more eagerly, even if I've never been completely sold on any of them as a believer.  

Obviously, 344 pages is barely enough to scratch the surface of available material.  However, Malik's thesis is well presented and defended: morality is not absolute.  It shifts dramatically with both time and geography.  If I could encourage him to probe deeper, it would be further discussions of how philosophical thinking impacts the way people actually live.  I feel like I know plenty about how religion does that.  And we all know plenty about how both Marx's and Nietzche's musings shaped the 20th century and beyond, if more monstrously than either intended.  But those shifts from Socrates to Plato to Aristotle... how did they impact the daily life of the average illiterate Athenian?  Or did they?  Does any of it affect anyone beyond an intellectual few.  In reality, does philosophy reflect daily life more than it influences it?  Surely, someone has written that book.

I am especially grateful for Malik's inclusion of the anti-colonialist philosophers, about whom I knew exactly nothing previously: CLR James, Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon.  Reasonably, such writers questioned how Europeans could reconcile Age of Enlightenment morality with the realities of slavery and colonial oppression, questions still powerfully resonant in 2022.  Also relevant are Malik's examination of the evolution of the concept of "race" from the early 19th century to the present.  

We are all faced with moral questions as we confront our world both near and far.  Empathy for Ukraine is high and for good reason.  Meanwhile, those fleeing Mexico's horrific drug wars test our collective sympathy.  Why?  And what of our continual blindness to the violence and poverty within our own countries?  It's not a comfortable conversation - trust me, I've tried having it with people.  But the distinctions matter.  

Final analysis: it's a good book and I still have a lot to learn.