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Michael Frayn
THE HUMAN TOUCH
Our part in the creation of a universe
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Book review by Anthony Campbell. The review is licensed under a
Creative Commons License.
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Michael Frayn is best known as a novelist and playwright but
also has a training in philosophy, and this is a book of
philosophy - Frayn's philosophy. Its form is a little unusual,
for in part it takes the form of a dialogue between Frayn
himself and "you", who is less the reader than Frayn's alter ego
who poses questions or objections to which Frayn responds. It
has five main parts, each containing several sections or
chapters. These are certainly wide-ranging.
The first part, Principles, discusses the laws of nature and the
nature of laws, causation, the structure of space and time, and
the philosophy of arithmetic. Part 2, Action, is about intention
and purpose and the act of deciding. In Part 3, Stories, Frayn's
experience as novelist and playwright comes to the fore as he
looks at fiction and religion (which he seems to regard in much
the same light). Literature, of course, depends on language, and
Part 4 is entitled Words: Frayn considers grammar, citing
Chomsky a good deal though not, to my disappointment, Terrence
Deacon. Part 5, Homewards, touches on consciousness and the
nature of the self.
This is a long book; almost certainly too long. Reading it, I
found my interest flagging fairly often. To include Russian
poems in the original surely smacks of self-indulgence, and in
general one gets the impression that Frayn has simply thrown in
whatever happens to interest him.
On the other hand, Frayn has an acute intelligence and is very
well read in many areas, especially physics. He is therefore an
agreeable companion for much of the time and my attention was
frequently caught by an idea or an insight; there are also
plenty of jokes. So although I could not read the book
continuously I did come back to it at intervals until I reached
the end.
But I wonder for whom it was written. Not for professional
philosophers; those who have noticed it have generally been
dismissive. Not too many people with a passing interest in
philosophy will plough through it either.
Reading it, I was reminded of a book by another
novelist-philosopher, Iris Murdoch. Her Metaphysics as a Guide
to Morals, which appeared in 1992, was greeted, according to
Peter Conradi, "with a certain baffled respect". My feeling
about Frayn's book is rather similar, although it has to be
said that Frayn is much the more readable of the two; there are
no jokes in Murdoch's book. But both authors, I think, wrote
primarily for themselves - not that I have anything against
that; I've generally done the same. But it tends not to sell.
Not only is this a long book, but it is made even longer by the
extensive (but often interesting) notes at the back. These
almost constitute a book in themselves (there are even footnotes
to the notes!). Both in the main text and in the notes Frayn is
continually qualifying his own ideas as well as challenging
those of others.
In essence, this is one very intelligent and well-informed man's
account of the situation that many non-religious intellectuals
find themselves in at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
The world appears to have no meaning apart from any we may give
it ourselves. And so Frayn concludes his book with a paradox.
"The world has no form or substance without you and me to
provide them, and you and I have no form or substance without
the world to provide them in its turn." But eventually the last
man on earth will finally close his eyes, and what will happen
then? The universe will go on exactly as before. "The paradox
remains. We have not even begun to resolve it."
We need thinkers like Frayn, not because they provide answers,
but because they prompt us to reflect on the questions.
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%T The Human Touch
%S Our part in the creation of a universe
%A Michael Frayn
%I faber and faber
%C London
%D 2006
%G ISBN 0-57123217-5
%P 505pp
%K philosophy
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Anthony Campbell - ac RemoveThis @acampbell.org.uk
Microsoft-free zone - Using Linux Gnu-Debian
http://www.acampbell.org.uk (blog, book reviews,
on-line books and sceptical articles)
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