Tea at Trianon: Transfiguring the Unborn

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, November 7, 2022

Transfiguring the Unborn

From The Public Discourse:

With the recent Dobbs decision, the abortion debate is entering a new phase in the United States, as citizens will have a say in the abortion law of their states. There is thus more at stake now in the effort to convince others of one’s view on abortion. Yet many believe that the abortion debate is at an impasse. Both sides—“pro-life” and “pro-choice”—seem settled in their positions and unlikely to budge, and few are undecided. What argument has not yet been tried that is actually going to move the needle on the debate?

What we need most is not new and improved arguments, but a new and improved way of seeing. In other words, we need a transfigured vision. As Iris Murdoch once observed,

moral differences look less like differences of choice, given the same facts, and more like differences of vision. In other words, a moral concept seems less like a movable and extensible ring laid down to cover a certain area of fact, and more like a total difference of Gestalt. We differ not only because we select different objects out of the same world but because we see different worlds.

I maintain that moral differences over abortion need to be regarded as differences of vision.

In the first part of this essay, I begin with the central pro-life argument: the human equality argument. Despite the compelling nature of this argument, I discuss how some people simply have difficulty seeing early human life as fully amongst us. Neither side of the debate has adequately reckoned with this problem. Those on the pro-life side often just appeal to the need for consistency. On the pro-choice side, one is faced with a dilemma: one needs either to bite the bullet and abandon belief in fundamental human equality or else find a way of coming to see early human life in a new light, which would require abandoning the pro-choice position. I recommend the latter path of transfiguring the unborn.

What we need, I argue, is to develop a sense of awe and reverence before the sheer fact of human existence. While this sense may come more easily for those who see life as a gift from God, non-theists can also share it. The key point, though, is that the proper recognition of fundamental human equality depends upon this sense of awe and reverence before human life. (Read more.)