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The Legitimacy of the Human
Remi Brague
The Legitimacy
of the Human
The Legitimacy of the Hunzan pres­ instances n1odern philosophy has
ents itself as a satellite work to a more helped hun1anity organize itself better
volun1inous effort by Ren1i Brague, in tern1s of justice, peaceful coexis­
The Kingcloni of Man. The larger book tence, and prosperity. But on the
argues the thesis of the increasingly basic question whether it is good that
visible failure of the n1odern project, humans exist, it is strangely tongue­
founded upon a view of n1an as thor­ tied. Other authorities n1ust be con­
oughly en1ancipated and autonon1ous, sulted, other sources drawn from, to
his own sovereign and the world's. credibly answer that fundamental ex­
This is most visible in our technolog­ istential question. The last two chap­
ical powers and predican1ents, with ters of the book hearken to the
their ever-growing capacity to destroy answer of the biblical God, as ex­
or fundan1entally transforn1 our hu­ pressed in Genesis 1 and recapitu­
n1anity, but understandings of free­ lated by the \Vord Incarnate of the
don1 and equality unable to justify Gospels.
then1selves before the bar of reason,
but willfully asserting then1selves,
con1plen1ent the picture. If n1oder­ The cover image of old gentleman at the
nity's precious gains are to be pre­ Notre Dame Cathedral (Paris, France)
from Elena Dijour, from Shutterstock.
served, and with then1 their bene­
ficiaries, 1nodern human beings, then
the founding thoughts of the n1odern
world need to be revisited and re­
vised, often in tern1s of a creative
reengagement with premodern ones.
A new, truly hun1anistic, culture
needs to be sought.
The Legitimacy of the Htl1nan
drives home that basic argun1ent, sur­
veying conten1porary challenges to
the very existence of hun1anity, then
interrogating n1odern thought and
philosophy for reasons it 1night have
for the continuation of the hun1an ad­
venture. Brague finds the self-pro­
clain1ed advocates of the n1odern stri­
kingly silent or even negative about
the proposition. To be sure, in n1any
Other Works of Interest from St. Augustine's Press
Remi Brague, 011 the God of the Christians ( &· on one or two others)
Remi Brague, Eccentric Culture: A Theory of Western Civilization
Philippe Beneton, The Kingdom Suffereth Violence:
The Machiavelli I Erasmus I More Correspondence
Albert Camus, Christian Metaphysics and Neoplatonism
Peter Augustine Lawler, Allergic to Crazy:
Quick Thoughts on Politics, Education, and Culture
Edward Feser, The Last Superstition:
A Refutation of the New Atheism
H.S. Gerdil, The Anti-Emile: Reflections on the Theory and Practice
of Education against the Principles of Rousseau
Gerhard Niemeyer, The Loss and Recovery of Truth
James V. Schall, The Regensburg Lecture
James V. Schall, The Modern Age
Pierre Manent, Seeing Things Politically
Marc D. Guerra, Liberating Logos:
Pope Benedict XVI's September Speeches
Peter Kreeft, Summa Philosophica
Ellis Sandoz, Give Me Liberty:
Studies on Constitutionalism and Philosophy
Roger Kimball, The Fortunes of Permanence:
Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia
George William Ruder, Principalities and Powers:
Spiritual Combat 194 2-194 3
Stanley Rosen, Essays in Philosophy (2 vols., Ancient and Modern)
Roger Scruton, The Meaning of Conservatism
Rene Girard, The Theater of Envy: William Shakespeare
The Legitimacy of the Human

Remi Brague
Translation and Introduction by Paul Seaton

ST. AUGUSTINE'S PRESS

South Bend, Indiana
Copyright @ 2017 by Remi Brague
Originally published by Flammarion SA, as Le Propre de
l'Ho1nme: Sur une legitimate menacee

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without the prior permission of
St. Augustine's Press.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

1 2 3 4 5 6 23 22 21 20 19 18 17

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Names: Brague, Remi, 1947- author.
Title: The legitimacy of the hu1nan / Remi Brague; translation
and introduction by Paul Seaton.
Other titles: Propre de l'homme. English
Description: 1st [edition]. I South Bend, Indiana:
St. Augustine's Press, 2016. I Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016012554 I ISBN 9781587314605
(clothbound: alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Humanism.
Classification: LCC B105.H8 B7313 2016 I DDC 144-dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016012554

oo The paper used in this publication meets the minimu1n re­

quirements of the American National Standard for Informa­
tion Sciences - Permanence of Paper for Printed Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1984.

St. Augustine's Press

www.staugust1ne.net
Table of Contents
..
Translator's Introduction Vll
Chapter I: Opening Movement:
The Rise and Fall of Humanism 1
Chapter II: The Threatened Hun1an 23
Chapter Ill: The Illegitimacy of the Human? 39
Chapter IV: A Medieval Questioning of the
Legitimacy of Man: The "Sincere Brethren" 55
Chapter V: The Word "Antihumanism": Alexander Blok 72
Chapter VI: Contesting Humanism: Michael Foucault 89
Chapter VII: The Legitimacy of Modern Times?
The Case of Hans Blumenberg 112
Chapter VIII: W ho Makes Man? 134
Chapter IX: Being as a Command 153
The Origin of the Texts 172
Index 174
Translator's Introduction
It is very difficult to keep up with Remi Brague (1947-), even
if you want to do so. You should want to do so because he is
one of France's, and even Europe's, leading intellectuals: cre­
dentialed, laureled, and in wide demand. Depending upon your
experience or image of "French intellectual," you may be sur­
prised by him. For one thing, he is a Catholic, practicing and
thoughtful. As such, he was the recipient of the Ra tzinger Prize
in 2012, named after another famous Catholic intellectual with
a longstanding interest in Christianity, Europe, and modernity,
Joseph Ratzinger, better known as the Pope emeritus, Benedict
XVI.
In what is probably not a coincidence, both the Bavarian the­
ologian and the French philosopher focus on "culture," making it
central to their analyses of history, the present, and prescriptions
for the future. The importance of the term and reality is visible in
its cognates "cultivate" and "cult." Culture involves the human re­
lationship to nature, self and other, and the divine. Both the Ger­
man and the Frenchman observe and diagnose a cultural
gigantomachia in Europe and elsewhere. For the Bavarian thinker
the contest pits "secular culture" against "all the historical, all the
religious, cultures." Secular culture was born in Europe and con­
ceives man as possessed of reason and freedom, with the farmer's
perfection found in scientific rationality and human freedom best
articulated as a canon of rights. Faith is optional in human life, so­
cietally, it is a private matter, and it must not be found among the
democratic city's authoritative elements. To cut to the chase: it is
atheistic humanism purporting to be the vision of man and world
required by democracy.

}vii {
THE LEGITIMACY OF THE HUMAN

Against it, Benedict pits a different view of democracy and an

ampler view of European culture, one rooted in its constitutive past
but open to a future forged by those who have knit together the
whole of Europe's experience. European culture was formed by
Christianity, the religion of the creative Logos, and its fraught but
fruitful engagement with the philosophical logos of antiquity. 1
Paul's apologetic efforts on the Areopagus were its first steps, the
Hellenistically-informed Epistle to the Hebrews brought it into
canonical Scripture,2 and Justin, Philosopher and Martyr, gave it
theological articulation. 3 Its culturally formative idea of man was
as "the image of God" with a vocation to Truth and the Good, and
the means and guides, natural and supernatural, to their attain­
ment. True, the ideal was often belied by recalcitrant reality and

1 Benedict XVI, The Regensburg Lecture (St.Augustine's Press, 2007).

"This inner rapprochement between Biblical faith and Greek philo­
sophical inquiry was an event of decisive importance not only from
the standpoint of the history of religions, but also from that of world
history-it is an event which concerns us even today. Given this con­
vergence, it is not surprising that Christianity, despite its origins and
some significant developments in the East, finally took on its histor­
ically decisive character in Europe" (#29).
"We can also express this the other way around: this convergence,
with the subsequent addition of the Roman heritage, created Europe
and remains the foundation of what can rightly be called Europe"
(#30).
2 James Thompson, Hebrews (Baker Academic, 2008). "[T]he book
most rooted in scripture uses the vocabulary of Hellenistic philosophy
more than any other NT document" (13).
"The author lives between the world of scripture and that of
Greek philosophy. He is one among many early Jewish and Christian
writers who struggled to describe their faith in the language of phi­
losophy" (24-25).
3 Benedict XVI, Church Fathers: From Clement of Rome to Augustine
(Ignatius Press, 2008). "Overall, the figure and work of Justin mark
the ancient Church's forceful option for philosophy, for reason, rather
than for the religion of the pagans ... Philosophy ...represented the
privileged area of the encounter between paganism, Judaism, and
Christianity ...." (19)

} viii {
TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION

imperfect 1nen, but the distinction between church and state, the
inviolability of the person, and rights of conscience for both reason
and faith, were and remain invaluable Christian contributions.
Conten1porary democracy need not fear theocracy from its erst­
while opponent, and its current malaise and 1nanifold challenges
should be a spur to reconsidering Christian faith's essential contri­
butions to the moral foundations of democracy.
Well known within academic circles as an expert in classical
and medieval thought, Brague came to the public's attention in
1992, that is, shortly after the collapse of Soviet communism, with
a book entitled Europe, la voie romaine-Europe, the Roman
way. 4 He was pron1pted to enter the public lists when the question
of Europe again became urgent. On what bases should a Europe
recently released from artificial divisions build its common life?
Should they be simply democratic, simply modern, or should the
full reality of European cultural history be taken into account?
The answer to that pressing practical question necessarily involved
posing the Socratic question, what is . . . ? , to a post-Socratic ob­
ject, Europe.
Brague's Catholic Socratic answer was learned, illuminating,
and provocative, tinged with apprehension about contemporary
Europeans' ability to live in keeping with Europe's distinctive na­
ture, faithful to its constitutive vocation. Europe, he argued, was a
distinctive cultural formation, compounded of the famous symbolic
pair, Athens and Jerusalem, but brought together and mediated by
R01ne, the Rome of Regulus and Augustus, the Rome of Peter and
Paul. World conquerors and world orderers, the Romans encoun­
tered the Greeks early on, and eventually came to recognize their
subjects' superiority to them in forming and expressing our com­
mon humanity. Cato the Elder was the historical emblem of this
recognition and reversal, while Horace immortalized it in his lap­
idary verse, Graecia cap ta ferz11n victorem cepit. 5

4 Translated in English as The Eccentric Culture: A Theory of Western

Civilization (St. Augustine's Press, 2009).
5 "Captive Greece captured the rude/wild/fierce victor."

}ix{
THE LEGITIMACY OF THE HUMAN

As for the other Rome, the Rome conquered by Christian faith

and blood, against Marcion (c. 85-c. 160) it held that the superi­
ority of the new dispensation must not be purchased by its severing
from the preceding revelation: the God of the New Testament is
the God of the Old. Again, reality did not always correspond to
ideal, but pagan Romans were schooled that their divinities must
bow before a God long worshipped outside its borders, and fol­
lowers of Christ such as Jer01ne learned Hebrew to understand the
fullness of revelation. In Brague's striking formulations, the Old
Testament is better called "the first" (premier), and it serves as
Christianity's "permanent foundation."
In these complex ways, Europe's way was the Roman way, ac­
knowledging its need for instruction in reason and faith, grateful
for what came its way from without, not inclined to boast of its
own intellectual and spiritual achievements except as faithful-al­
beit also creative-disciples. The latter element, creativity, was re­
quired not just because the two sources needed to be brought
together, but because both were marked by an aspiration to "the
universal. " 6 Plato's Ideas and Yahweh-Elohim, Lord of Israel and
of all humanity, oriented the Roman mens et anima toward the
most encompassing Transcendence.
Nor, one might add, was the particular slighted. Socrates was
never just a type of the philosopher, and biblical revelation focused
insistently upon the individual or the particular-Abraham, Israel,
Mary, the Incarnation itself. Christian theology in its turn made
major contributions to the concept of the person, as it considered
its confession of a Triune God, three Persons in one Godhead, and
an Incarnate Word, the second Person become fully human. 7
Against this complex attitude of receptivity and aspirational el­
evation, which flowered in the Middle Ages, Brague juxtaposed
what he called contemporary "cultural Marcionism" and another

6 Gabriel Marcel nicely captured this paradoxical combination in his

fine phrase, "creative fidelity."
7 Cf. Remi Brague, On the God of the Christians (and on one or two
others) (St. Augustine Press, 2013).

} x{
TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION

ancient temptation, Gnosticism. Contemporary Europe, he ob­

served, increasingly sundered itself from any esteem or openness to
the premodern past and its elevating models, and 1nodern science,
like the ancient heresy, presupposed that the world was indifferent
to humanity, while adding that any viable order must be man­
made. As I said, at the beginning of the 1990s Brague was more
than a little apprehensive about Europe's future as Europe. This
apprehension has deepened as the decades have passed.
To place the present work, The Legitimacy of the Human,
within its wider context, a few words about two trilogies are re­
quired. (Keeping up with Brague is a full-time occupation.) The
heavy lifting of the cultural analysis of European history was done
in a series of works that dealt, successively, with defining themes
in Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and Modernity. The Wisdom of the
World (1999) brought to light the Greek articulation of the world
as a kosmos; The Law of God (2005) deftly compared Jewish,
Christian, and Muslin1 conceptions of divine law, that is, of the di­
vine and its normative relationship with humanity; while Le Regne
de l'homme, Genese et echec du projet moderne (2015) articulated
modernity's characteristic anthropology, a figure of being-human
deemed sovereign over cosmos and Creator, defined and tasked
with thoroughgoing "self-determination. " 819 As the subtitle indi­
cates, Brague argues that the deliberate project of thinkers like

8 Le Regne de l'homme is forthcoming from the University of Notre

Dame Press.The title in English is The Kingdom of Man: The genesis
and failure of the modern project. The opening phrase is from Francis
Bacon, while "modern project" comes from Leo Strauss.
9 If these three hefty volumes were not enough, the same three periods
were covered by yet another trilogy: Introduction au monde grec.
Etudes d'histoire de la philosophie (Editions de la Transparence, 2005),
and Au moyen du Moyen Age. Philosophies medievales en chretiente,
judaisme et islam (Editions de la Transparence, 2006) added to our un­
derstanding of philosophy in its Greek origins and developments and
its continuation and fates in the three religions. To them was recently
added Moderement Moderne (Flammarion, 2014 ), which, as its title
indicates, attempts to articulate a chastened, more "moderate," version
of being-modern. It too is forcoming from St. Augustine's Press.

}xi {
THE LEGITIMACY OF THE HUMAN

Bacon and Descartes and Hobbes to create a City of Man has

failed; to quote Benjamin Constant, the nineteenth- century French
liberal: "there are weights too heavy for the hand of man." Brague's
criterion of success or failure, however, is rather distinctive-albeit
absolutely basic, as befits a philosopher-and is argued with rare
erudition and persistence. That criterion and that argument are the
focus and burden of The Legitimacy of the Human.
At the end of The Legiti1nacy of the Hi11na11, Brague relates it
(and another book) to Le Regne de l'hom111e: "This book of n1iddle
size, like the s1naller Les Ancres dans le ciel which preceded it in
2011, is a sort of satellite of my voluminous Le Regne de
l'homme." 10 Smaller in size than the chief planet, the satellite has
two advantages over its gravitational superior: it contains "develop­
ments" that the larger work could only "summarize" and it speaks
"more directly and with less precautions" than the "big book."
In keeping with the last feature, Legiti11zacy contains such direct
affirmations as the following:

[M]odern thought is short on arguments for justifying

the very existence of men. This thought sought to build
on its own soil, by excluding everything that transcended
the human, nature or God. In so doing, it deprived itself
of every Archimedian point. This exclusion renders it in­
capable of making a judgment on the very value of the
human.

On the other hand,

Now let us look at this "higher" which exclusive human­

ism denies . . . . This instance can be either God, or na­
ture. In the two cases, the "higher" was considered and
treated as something divine. To recognize an instance of
this sort makes possible a legitimation of the human.

10 Les Ancres dans le Ciel: L'Infrastructure Metaphysique (Editions du

Seuil, 2011). Forthcoming as The Achors in the Heavens.

} xii {
TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION

This is the alternative that Brague repeatedly puts before his

reader and modern society as such. His argument on its behalf runs,
briefly, as follows: Conten1porary facts and possibilities-the pos­
sibility of nuclear annihilation, environmental degradation and
worse, demographic decline to the point where nations' futures are
in jeopardy-pose an existential question that Brague variously for­
mulates for contemporary Western humanity: In the face of such
threats to the very existence of humanity, can you affirm that it is
good that humanity exists? Do you want the human adventure to
continue? Can you provide credible reasons to do so?
The first passage cited above indicates that in Brague's judg­
n1ent modern thought or philosophy cannot, and his erudition pro­
vides considerable evidence to support the conclusion. Then,
having exposed the modern Emperor's inability to respond, Brague
brings in a former King, the God of Genesis, creative by way of
authoritative speech, who brings not just being but articulate beings
into existence. His final creature, made in His own image and like­
ness, can hear His being-and-life-giving commands, reflect upon
their logic and meaning, and, in turn, articulate for hin1self what
the Creator authoritatively declared, that "it is very good" that the
world and the human exist.
Brague thus attempts to bring old gods back into the new city. 11
In this way, too, he is a Catholic Socratic, albeit with a twist.

Paul Seaton
St. Mary's Seminary & University
June 29th, 2017
Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul

11 The phrase "to bring the old gods to a new city" was coined by
Bertrand de Jouvenel. It inverts the charge brought against Socrates
in Plato's Apology.

} xiii{
Chapter I
Opening Movement:
The Rise and Fall of Humanism
Here I would like to pose the question of humanism in its widest
scope. It seen1s to me that it is this very fra111ework that has under­
gone a radical change in the past several decades. Before this part­
ing of the waters (and still today for some reactionary 1ninds),
"humanism" was a convenient way of designating what should be
promoted, or at least defended, to wit: a certain value given to man
and to what is specifically human.
I will begin by rapidly retracing four stages in the development
of the humanistic idea. Then I will recall how these stages have
been successively undone (I will pay special attention to the last of
these stages). Then I will pose the question of the legitimacy of the
human. And I will end with some thoughts on the resources that
might allow us to find an answer.

The "third humanism" as a point of comparison

The situation prior to the one in which we live today allows itself,
perhaps, to be rather quickly sketched by way of a comparison with
the last attempt aimed at giving new life to the humanistic program,
in other words, the project of a "third humanism." This expression
was proposed by the philosopher Eduard Spranger in 1921, who
used it in passing. 1 However, the most famous representative of the

1 E. Spranger, Aufruf an die Philologie (An Stelle der Vorrede), in Der

gegenwartige Stand der Geisteswissenschaften und die Schute [1921],
Leipzig, Teubner, 1925, p. 7.

}1{
THE LEGITIMACY OF THE HUMAN

movement it named was without doubt Werner Jaeger. The main

idea of the Gern1an classicist was that classicism (which was iden­
tified with Hellenism) would be a still-living source capable of ir­
rigating Western civilization, which would draw from it as from a
fountain of youth. It was to provide points of reference that would
be useful for putting the West back in order after the catastrophe
of the Great War and the troubles that immediately followed.
Jaeger considered his own enterprise, to use a Platonic image, as a
"third wave," after the Italian Renaissance and the classicism of
the Weimar Republic. 2
At the remove of time, today one might smile at the naivete of
such an endeavor. However, it was not lacking in grandeur. As for
myself, no one can expect me to attack the value of the teaching
and learning of classical languages; quite the contrary.
Be that as it may, Jaeger supposed that classical formation could
aid man in attaining a more adequate development of his own hu­
manity. It was this human formation that for the longest time was
considered to be the content of humanitas, which since Aulus Gellius
had been recognized as the Latin translation of the Greek word
paideia. 3 This is why the professors of classical languages and liter­
ature from the fifteenth century on were called humanistae. 4
In this way, it was both understandable and right that the study
and care of the heritage of Antiquity was called "humanism." It
appears that this term first occurred in 1 8 41, with the historian
Karl Heinrich Wilhelm Hagen, who was close to the left Hegelian
Arnold Ruge. 5 In 1 859 the tern1 entered the title of a book by the

2 Plato, Republic, V, 4 72a.

3 Aullus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, XIII, 17, M. Hertz ed., Leipzig, Teub­
ner, 1 8 77, t. II, pp. 84-85.
4 See A. Campana, "The Origin of the Wor d " Humanist" , " Journal of
the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, v. 9 ( 1946), pp. 60-63.
5 K. H. W. Hagen, Deutsch/ands literarische und religiose Verhaltnisse
im Reformationszeitalter. Mit besonderer R iicksicht auf \Villibald
Pirkheimer, Erlangen, Palm, 184 1, pp. 58-60, cited in W. Stroh, " De
ongme vocum humanitatis et humanismi, " Gymnasium n. 1 15
(2008), p. 564.

}2 {
OPENING MOVEMENT

German historian Georg Voigt. 6 And the next year, a much more
famous author, the Swiss Jacob Burckhardt, followed closely on his
heels with his pioneering book on the civilization of the Italian Ren­
aissance.7
All this rested on a presupposition: one must affirm man, or
more exactly: the human. Since forever-and more than ever
after two world wars and some particularly spectacular hor­
rors-we are aware that really existing men are not always (in
truth, are rarely) up to the heights of their own humanity. "The
human" has always been a criterion more than an observation,
belonging to the order of norms rather than description. But no
one doubted the value of the human, which was son1ething to
promote, to advance. Even today the temptation is great, for
every well-intentioned person, to plea for a fourth (or an nth-)
humanism. And who today would not clain1 to defend this sort
of hu1nanism ?

Our situation vis-a-vis the humanistic project

It is the first humanism, the one that founded and justified the "hu­
manities," that seen1s to me to be currently threatened. The ques­
tion of humanism has taken a new turn, one that is both n1ore
profound and radical. Previously it was asked: how can one pro­
mote humanism? This meant: how can one defend it against all the
types of inhmnanity ? Today the question is rather: should we pro­
pose and promote a humanism?
Humanisn1 itself is what s01ne have it in for. Today one is al­
n1ost entirely on the defensive, defending it against its critics.
Schopenhauer's saying, with which he opened his essay on morality,
is well known: "It is easy to preach morality, it is difficulty to

6 G. Voigt, Die Wiederbelebzmg des classischen Altertums oder das

erste Jahrhundert des Hmnanismzzs, Berlin, De Gruyter, 1 859.
7 ]. Burckhardt, Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien. Ein Versuch, in
particular III, 4: "Der Humanismus im 14. Jahrhundert, " in Das
Geschichtswerk, Frankfurt, Zweitausendeins, s.d., t. I, pp. 4 76-80.

}3 {
THE LEGITIMACY OF THE HUMAN

ground it." 8 One could adapt it as follows: "It is easy to preach hu­
manism; it is difficult to establish it." And for myself, I would add :
it is even easier to thunder against the enemies of humanism,
whether the danger is real, exaggerated, or invented out of whole
cloth.
May I be permitted to illustrate my point by a phrase borrowed
from a book by the British philosopher and sociologist, John N.
Gray. I do not have very much in common with this author, but he
seems to me to have written something that sheds real, albeit stark,
light on our situation. His sentence only indirectly concerns the hu­
manistic idea, while bearing directly on the Enlightenment project
( although the latter is not without some connection with the for­
mer). Gray writes : "In the period of late modernity in which we
live, the Enlightenment project is affirmed above all out of fear of
the consequences of its abandonment. . . . Our cultures are cultures
of Enlightenment not by conviction, but by default." 9
I therefore say in the same vein, as a thesis-statement (and in an
admittedly lapidary formulation): what we understand today by "hu­
manisn1" is not an affinnation, but the negation of a possible negation.
Our hwnanism at bottom is nothing more than an anti-antihunzanis111.

The development of the humanistic idea

I now would like to show how we have arrived at this point by
sketching the development of the humanistic idea. As I said earlier,
the word "humanism" is of relatively recent vintage. As a matter
of fact, the thing itself had to pass through a rather long period of
incubation before coming to be crystalized in the term. However,
it seems to me even older than that.

8 A. Schopenhauer, Preisschrift iiber die Grund/age der Moral [1840],

in Werke, ed. W. von Lohneysen, Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche
Buchgessellschaft, 1962, t. III, p. 629.
9 J. N. Gray, "Enlightenment's Wake," in Enlightenment's Wake. Pol­
itics and Culture at the Close of the Modern Age, London and New
York, Routledge, 1995, p. 144.

}4{
OPENING MOVEMENT

I will distinguish several stages that I will present in chronolog­

ical order. I n1ark four. They communicate with one another, with­
out, however, the previous one necessarily leading to the one that
follows. On the contrary, the following stage results from a jump
fron1 the one that ca1ne before, and hence a choice that was not ne­
cessitated.
( 1 ) Difference
In the first stage, man is understood as constituting a species
that is substantively distinguished from others by certain properties
he possesses exclusively. That man is something other than an an­
imal however is far from going without saying. The man in the
street, even today, is not always very conscious of his difference,
and regularly projects sentiments, even intellectual capacities, onto
his pets that are analogous to his ( "my dog understands me, my
cat speaks to me").
The distinguishing criteria were the subject of numerous stories
that attempted to explain their appearance. These criteria, however,
were not always positively evaluated. On the contrary, myths of
so-called "primitive" peoples often attempt to explain why man is
distinguished from the animals by explaining, for example, why he
must work and that he knows he n1ust die.
The initial decision perhaps left a trace in a change affecting the
representation of the divine. In ancient Egypt, for example, the gods
join a human body to an animal head, or vice versa. A Greek, Por­
phyry, interpreted this fact as testifying to an explicit concern to mix
beasts and men (honzoios pou ane1nixan theria kai anthropous). 10 The
gods of Greece, in contrast, are purely anthropomorphic. 1 1 But this
fact suggests that the observation of a difference between man and

10 Porphyry, De !'abstinence, IV, 9, 2, ed. J. Bouffartigue, trans.M.Patil­

Ion and A.-PH. Segonds, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1995, t. III, p. 14.
11 See Hegel's reflections in the Aesthetics (Asthetik [1832], ed. F. Bas­
senge, Frankfurt, Europaische Verlagsanstalt, 1955, pp.420-22), and
Feuerbach's in his Preliminary theses for the reform of philosophy
( Vorlaufige Thesen zztr Reform der Philosophie [1842], # 22, in
Kleine Schriften, ed.K.Lowith, Frankfurt, Suhrkamp, 1966, p. 129).

}5 {
THE LEGITIMACY OF THE HUMAN

the animal easily leads to a claim of human superiority, which is a

reason why the first of the stages that I have distinguished does not
allow itself to be grasped clearly in its purity.
In any case, it was also in Greece that one finds the two classical
definitions of the human, which bring into relief two important
specific differences: one, logos-for simplicity's sake, let us translate
it as "reason," although that is far from being adequate-thus
defining man as "the rational animal" ; the other, life in the polis,
the city -state, defining him as "the political animal." Aristotle
placed them in a comprehensive description of man which brought
together each of the different aspects brought to light by his natural
anthropology : man's upright posture, his orientation to look ahead
and above, his hand with its fine sense of touch, speech, his face. 1 2
Here, however, one finds a description of the hmnan that omits
any value-judgment. It can even slide from time to time into a neg­
ative evaluation of man. As of y et, it isn't clearly a question of his
absol ute superiority.
(2 ) Superiority
The second stage adds to difference, which did not y et include
explicit valuation, a hierarchy in man's favor. He appears better
than the other species. However, one doesn't go beyond the com­
parative to the s uperlative: he is not the best of beings.
Aristotle has a very nuanced view of the place of man. To be sure,
man is "the best among the living beings" (beltiston anthropos ton a/Ion
zoon). However, he is not the highest thing in the world. "In truth there
are many things that have a more divine nature than man" (anthropou
al/a poly theiotera ten physin). For example, the elements "that com­
pose the order of the world" (ex hon ho kosmos synesteken)- Aristotle
has in mind the celestial bodies-are clearly superior to him. And this
superiority is even obvious (phanerotata ge ). 1 3

12 See m y work Aristote et la question du monde. Essai sur l e context

cosmologique et anthropologique de l 'ontologie [ 1 9 8 8 ] , Paris, Cerf,
2009, chap. V, pp. 223-71.
13 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, VI, 7, 1 1 4 1 a34-1 1 4 1 61.

}6{
O PENING MOVEMENT

Six centuries later Plotinus takes up the same theme in his

polen1ic against the Gnostics. They fear and disdain the cosmic
powers, and grant man a greater value than theirs. That is why he
recalls that "if men are something that has value vis-a-vis the other
living beings, even less so do <the celestial spheres> exist to exercise
tyranny in the cosmos, but rather to create order and beauty in
it. " 1 4
In this second stage one can distinguish two ways of relativizing
human superiority:
(2a) This superiority among natural beings pertains to the fact
that among all the different productions of nature, man most fully
realizes the intention of nature. She glorifies herself in him, it is not
he who removes himself from the natural circle in order to con­
struct a superstructure. Moreover, his status as the greatest success
assures him greater proximity to the divine.
(26) In the two biblical religions, the greatness of man is
only relative, this time however not in a static manner, but dy­
namically. This grandeur is the result of a choice exercised by
what in itself is the highest of all that exists, to wit: God. This
choice does not depend upon man's merits: it is a free and gra­
cious gift.
This is what the Psalmist says in a sentence that is the only place
in the Bible, and one of the rare passages in ancient literature,
where the question what is man? is posed: "What is man, that thou
art mindful of him? " It is God who assigned to man that place that
is his, and it is not the highest: " Thou has made him a little lower
than the 'gods "' ( tehasserehit me'at 1ne-eloh11n ), probably divine
beings, perhaps angels (Ps. 8, 5-9).
Christianity bases the preeminence of man not on the properties
of his nature, but on the Incarnation of the Divine Word in the man
Jesus Christ.
These advantages confer a dignity on man. The idea is of Greek
origin as much as biblical; it ran through the patristic and medieval
periods before finding a thematic formulation in fifteenth-century

1 4 Plotinus, Enneads, II, 9 [33 ] , 1 3, 1 8-20.

} 7{
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36. Behind Time

The engineer said he had not seen Nelson until he was practically on
top of him. That, of course, is impossible. An engineer of a train
running on a straight-away can see nothing as close as ten 162
yards in front of him.

You cram these words into mine ears,

Against the stomach of my sense.
Shakespeare.

37. A Broken Engagement

Molly said she had retired at ten, after locking her door, and had not
awakened until Fordney had aroused her.

Yet a few minutes after Dot had been murdered, the Professor idly
‘shaped the wax’ of the candle on her desk. This would have been
impossible had not the candle been burning within a few minutes
before he entered.

Her insistence that she had been asleep, together with the strong
motive, convinced Fordney she was involved, as was later proved.

Love can make us fiends as well as angels.

Charles Kingsley.

38. The Holden Road Murder

Had the butler dashed in the front door as he said he did, there
would have been foot-tracks in the vestibule.

Remember, the Professor ‘splashed his way through the mud 163
and rain, to the door of 27 Holden Road,’ and found the
vestibule spotless. Therefore, Wilkins was lying, and as Cannon
corroborated his story, he was also necessarily involved.

Nay, her foot speaks.

Shakespeare.

39. Fishermen’s Luck

Holmes could not have seen the bag on the bottom of the lake
during a cloudburst. The agitation of even crystal clear water under
such conditions would have so disturbed the surface that an object
on the bottom could not be seen.

A man so lucky is rarer than a white crow.

Juvenal.

40. The Unlucky Elephant

Holman was lying face down with his topcoat buttoned; therefore, if
his watch crystal had been broken by his fall, none of the 164
glass could have been found on the floor.

For never, never wicked man was wise.

Homer.

41. The Professor Listens

The notice of the bank failure, appearing in the Jacksonville Herald,

was dated July 5th. This could not have reached Delavin at a remote
part of Cuba, unserviced by planes, in time for him to get back to
New York on the 6th.

His alibi, therefore, was completely broken, as he said the

newspaper clipping brought him back.

Time is the herald of truth.

Cicero.

42. Ten-Fifteen

The secretary said he heard Waters talking to Fordney over the

telephone. As Fordney’s name was not mentioned during the
conversation, the secretary could not have known to whom Waters
was talking.

It’s the little things that count—in crime detection. 165

Take care lest your tongue cut off your head.

Persian.
43. Rapid Transit

The driver could not possibly have seen from the front seat anyone
standing on the tail-gate of the big van.

If common sense has not the brilliancy of the sun, it has

the fixity of the stars.
Fernan Caballero.

44. The Professor is Disappointed

Fordney pointed to the raindrops glistening on a leaf in the shoe

impression.

According to Vi Cargo’s statement, the burglar had jumped from her

window after it had stopped raining.

The shameless have a brow of brass.

Hindu Proverb.

45. A Dramatic Triumph

Sibyl Mortimer said Boswell had telephoned her shortly after nine. As
he was on the stage continuously for forty-five minutes after 166
the curtain rose, he could not have telephoned her.
Obviously she had some reason for stating he did. Fordney was
quick to detect the flaw in her alibi.

It is not wise to be wiser than is necessary.

Quinault.

46. Murder at the Lake

A strong east wind blew off the lake; therefore, regardless of the
direction in which he was walking, Rice’s hat could not possibly have
blown into the lake.

The Professor was naturally suspicious of him when he told such a

ridiculous lie.

Is’t possible? Sits the wind in that corner?

Shakespeare.

47. The Professor Studies a Coat

As the man had removed his overcoat on entering the Professor’s

living-room, it was perfectly patent he had not been handcuffed.

He said he ran over to Fordney’s immediately after the bandits left.

Truth has not such an urgent air.

Boileau.
167

48. Too Late

Fordney doubted Palmer’s innocence because of his statement, ‘I’d

got there not more than five minutes behind him.’

There was, of course, no way he could have determined when Frank

had arrived at the cabin.

In general, treachery, though at first sufficiently cautious,

yet in the end betrays itself.
Livy.

49. Sergeant Reynolds’s Theory

The Professor told Reynolds, ‘There was no blood between the road
and the boulder.’

Had the man rolled down the embankment, there would have been
some blood on the rocks along the path his body took.

How hast thou purchased this experience?

By my penny of observation.
Shakespeare.

50. Daylight Robbery

As no safe locks unless the combination is turned, Shaeffer’s story of
banging it closed and then the robbers working on it five 168
minutes was ridiculous!

He cometh unto you with a tale which holdeth children

from play, and old men from the chimney corner.
Sir Philip Sidney.

51. A Simple Solution

Had Smith committed suicide, the window through which he jumped

would not have been closed as Fordney found it.

Every crime has, in the moment of its perpetration, its own

avenging angel.
Coleridge.

52. Who?

Kelley arrested Weeds, the butler. He said he dropped on the bed

the blood-covered towel with which he was trying to arrest the flow
from the maid’s wrist as Jones struck at him.

Yet Kelley and Fordney found the bed coverlet immaculate. Had
Weeds done as he said, there would have been blood-stains on the
bedcover.
Blood follows blood.
Defoe.

169

53. Murder in the Swamp

The three sets of Bob’s footprints in the path told Fordney the story.
Had Bob been at the house when his friend was shot, as he
contended, there would have been four sets of his footprints.

That is to be wise to see that which lies before your feet.

Terence.

54. Death by Drowning

Had the accident occurred as explained by Carroll, the oar of Ridge’s

boat could not have been found, as it was, at the dock opposite the
point where he jumped in. The current would have deposited it
downstream. Therefore, the Professor recommended the detention
of the brothers.

More water glideth by the mill, than wots the miller of.
Shakespeare.

55. Tragedy at the Convention

Fordney suspected Pollert because of his own statements that he did
not know Hurlenson had returned to the hotel. Yet, when he 170
said he heard a shot, he ran directly to Hurlenson’s room.

As his own room was down the corridor, he could not have known
from what room the shot came, and he had no reason to assume it
came from Hurlenson’s room.

Politics, as a trade, finds most and leaves nearly all

dishonest.
Abraham Lincoln.

56. A Murderer’s Mistake

These murderers, like many others, betrayed themselves by a simple

oversight. One look at the ladder and Fordney knew no man could
have climbed up or down it. The thirty-foot ladder was placed two
feet from the house. Any person ascending or descending the ladder
in such a position would have fallen backwards before reaching the
top or bottom.

To all facts there are laws,

The effect has its cause,
And I mount to the cause.
Lord Lytton.

171

57. Babe Comes Through

There is a screen on the grandstand behind the home plate.

Fordney had noticed a few seconds before, in the box next to him,
the man whom the policeman had caught running down the ramp.
As he could not have thrown a bottle through the screen, and, in the
time at his disposal, could not have reached either side of the
screen, Fordney knew he was innocent.

He had noticed the man after two strikes and three balls had been
called, and the pitcher delivered the next ball quickly.

We must have bloody noses and crack’d crowns,

God’s me, my horse!
Shakespeare.

58. A Soldier of Fortune

Hamilton knew the real Walter Briggs had gone to Africa as a child.
So, when this chap said he had shot tigers in Africa, Fordney was
very, very skeptical. There are no tigers in Africa. Oh, well—look it
up yourself!

A traveler without observation is a bird without wings.

Saadi.

172

59. Number Twenty-Six

The inconsistency is this: Farrell said he pushed open the door. Yet
Bradford, inside the house, pushed the door in Kelley’s face as the
Inspector was entering.

If Bradford pushed the door in Kelley’s face, Farrell must have pulled
the door to open it.

The smallest hair throws its shadow.

Goethe.

60. The Pullman Car Murder

Every piece of baggage had been examined and every inch of the
car inspected. All passengers, even the maid, porter, and brakeman,
had been searched. The knife was still in the car.

Remember?—there was nothing said about the conductor being

searched. The knife was found in his pocket.

He was in logic a great crytic,

Profoundly skilled in analytic;
He could distinguish and divide
A hair twixt south and south-west side.
Butler.

173

61. Forgery

The forged signature was copied from the blotter which Mead had
used.
Thou strong seducer, opportunity.
Dryden.

62. The Christmas Eve Tragedy

The Professor said to Brown, ‘Sheriff, look for a man in your

community who is skilled or adept in the use of stilts. Only a man on
stilts could have made the marks in the snow you described.’

P.S. The Professor was right.

Be the first to say what is self-evident,

And you are immortal.
Ebner-Eschenbach.

63. A Knight of the Bath

You recall that Leimert was eccentric. No mention of bath room was
made. Leimert’s bath had no top, so he climbed out!

Silly, what?

If anything is spoken in jest, it is not fair to turn it to

earnest.
Plautus.

174
64. Murder in the First Degree

The fact that none of the suspect’s fingerprints were on the dishes
or silver used while eating convicted him of first-degree murder.

In wiping his own prints from the things he had handled, he

destroyed all prints—those of the waitress, cook, etc.

A damning bit of evidence that proved premeditation.

The weakest spot in every man is when he thinks himself to

be the wisest.
Emmons.

65. A Rendezvous with Death

No one called at the Times for the answers to the advertisement, yet
Stone received a reply to his letter of application. The ad was
inserted by Carroll under the fictitious name of Jonathan Gills and
answered by Stone at his wife’s suggestion. She acquainted her
lover, Carroll, with this fact, and he wrote Stone, arranging the
meeting at which he disappeared.

When any great design thou dost intend,

Think on the means, the manner, and the end.
Denham.

175

66. A Rum Regatta

The old sailor whispered to each, ‘Run the other man’s boat.’ As the
owner of the last boat to reach Miami was to get the money, each
one raced the boat he was driving. By doing so, he hoped to beat his
own boat, which was being driven by one of the others.

Lookers-on many times see more than gamesters.

Bacon.

67. Who is the Heir?

John Morgan’s sister, of course!

Let us consider the reason of the case. For nothing is law

that is not reason.
Powell.

68. The Professor Stops a Blunder

Mundy had been unexpectedly called to Washington. Skidder’s

secretary said the note was habitually kept at the office. Mundy,
therefore, could not possibly have known of Skidder’s intention of
taking it home. That was exactly the weakness in the case of the
police. Despite the damning circumstantial evidence, motive could
not be proved unless it could be shown that Mundy knew the 176
note would be at Skidder’s house.

How little do they see what is, who frame

Their hasty judgments upon that which seems.
Southey.

69. The Perfect Crime

Alas! Peter Johannes had forgotten to remove his mask on leaving

the house!

Whoever thinks a perfect work to see,

Thinks what ne’er was, nor is, nor e’er shall be.
Pope.

70. The Professor Sees Through

It

When Hawkins said, ‘it’s twenty minutes after six’ and ‘it’s a quarter
to eleven,’ Fordney knew he was not a railroad man.

No railroad worker ever speaks of the time in any other manner

than, ‘it’s six-twenty’ and ‘it’s ten-forty-five.’

Ask the next conductor!

There is nothing more nearly permanent in human life than

a well-established custom.
Joseph Anderson.
177

71. The Kidnapers’ Cleverness

The express package contained a carrier pigeon.

A bird of the air shall carry, and that which hath wings shall
tell the matter.
Ecclesiastes.
Transcriber’s Notes

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