The Blue Monkey Review

I suspect that Pagina 12 must differ from most other Argentine daily newspapers. It carries a section devoted to “psychology” and seemingly draws opinion pieces from all over the western world. It also presents, from time to time, essays or interviews devoted to philosophy. In the Feburary 12 issue I noticed an article with the title, “Five imprudent remarks about Kant.” And, while I’m sure the article had been written for a general audience, it wasn’t “Kant for Dummies.”

The Pagina 12 for April 24, 2004 carried an interview with Fernando Saveter, a Spanish philosopher who recently presented a TV show in Latin America devoted to the Ten Commandments. The first line of the story points out that a basic premise of Savater’s thinking is his “agnosticismo confeso y militante.” So, he’s not talking about your father’s Ten Commandments. For Savater, the Decalogue, quite apart from its place in Judaism and Christianity, has become a moral reference point, allowing people in western culture to make a sharp distinction between good and evil. The commandments have persisted because human vices have persisted.

This short article contains some of the sharpest observations on the value of philosophy that I have seen in any popular format. Savater explains that we all ask philosophical questions concerning time, the universe, death. Philosophy contributes to human life by helping better understand life in this world.

Savater also includes an interesting observation on the development of western democracy. The interviewer, Silvina Friera, asked him how well the values of the French Revolution—liberty, equality, fraternity—held up in contemporary western societies. These should have all continued to be vital values, Savater responded, but “there is a very curious case. Now one would say liberty, diversity, and fraternity. Equality is viewed badly [sorry, bad trans.], even though it is much more revolutionary than diversity.” That statement alone should send you to the original.