By Lawrence Blum, September 2024
The Nature of Metaphysical Thinking (1946)(234 pp)
Written during the pauses between air raid sirens during WW2, is a text in the methodology of metaphysics – although Emmet also defends some of her own specific metaphysical views, including her own account of perception (which draws on Bergson, Whitehead, and Alexander) therein. Emmet explains that she is writing at a time of ‘crisis’ for metaphysics. The influence of linguistic philosophy and logical positivism on British philosophy, Emmet explains, mean that metaphysics is in need of a revolution – a new paradigm for metaphysics needs to be ushered in, and Emmet’s text is an attempt to make some progress in that direction. At least two key features of the text are noteworthy. First, Emmet argues that analogies should play a central role in metaphysical thinking. Such analogies, Emmet argues, are important if metaphysics is to help us to ‘see life steadily’ (a phrase she borrows from the poet Matthew Arnold). Second, Emmet argues that metaphysics should not operate in splendid isolation; metaphysicians should work hand-in-hand with experts in other disciplines, like physics or theology, who are also (after all) also engaged in the project of trying to understand the world around us.
Function, Purpose, and Powers (1958, 2nd edition 1972) (294 pp)
grew out of an anthropology seminar Emmet participated in at the University of Manchester. “Function” relates to the doctrine of “functionalism”—that the institutions and customs of a society are to be explained by their role in supporting the structure of the society in which they are embedded. Emmet is critical of this view. She uses the notion of “powers” (as exercised by individuals) to think about individuals in light of the structural and functional approaches of anthropology and sociology. Some chapter titles: “Societies,” “Purpose,” “Function and Powers in Religious Symbols,” “Charismatic Power,” “Vocation.”
Rules, Roles, and Relations (1966) (215 pp).
Grew out of an interdisciplinary seminar at Columbia University (US) in the early ‘60’s, and especially work with Robert Merton, a leading American sociologist, who encouraged Emmet to write the book. Concerns relations between sociology and ethics. Topics: relations between “is” and “ought”; how sociology contributes to moral understanding; how morality and moral philosophy contribute to sociological understanding; roles as a social/moral phenomenon; criticism of Sartre for not recognizing claims of social and role morality; discussion of Buber as wrongly confining morality to purely personal one-to-one encounters.
- Some chapters: “The Alleged Autonomy of Sociology,” “The Alleged Autonomy of Ethics,” “Moral Relativism,” “Sociological Explanation and Individual Responsibility,” “Roles and Their Morality,” “Persons and Personae,” “Living with Organizational Man.”
The Moral Prism (1979)(168 pp).
Emmet’s only solely ethics book, though exemplifying her usual interdisciplinarity, organized around two ideas: (1) that no single ethical theory (deontology, utilitarianism) can capture the full complexity of morality; each shines one “prism” on the larger whole. (2) whether there are domains of human life or human aspiration that are “beyond good and evil,” in the sense of not being governed by moral considerations. She considers politics, science, art (as created and experienced), religion and the daemonic in this regard, concluding that none escape the reach of morality.
The Role of the Unrealisable: A Study in Regulative Ideals (1994)(130 pp)(dedicated to Iris Murdoch)
Regulative ideals, an idea drawn from Kant, are ideals that cannot be fully attained or instantiated in human life but provide constructive to guidance to reason and will in the course of pursuing them. Emmet considers such ideals in a wide range of domains, thinkers and disciplines—the good will (Kant), the general will (Rousseau), utopia/perfect society, Truth (not just particular truths), Will of God, love of neighbor (in something like Christian sense), the Good (Murdoch, Plato).
Outward Forms, Inner Springs: A Study in Social and Religious Philosophy (1998) (127 pp)
Collection of previously-published works, rethought to connect to the theme of the expression of inner powers of human beings in relation to their social “outer” world. But involves somewhat more explicit engagement with religion (and religion as treated by anthropology and sociology). Reflections on her own trajectory of engagement with anthropology. The “social and religious” in the title captures a distinct set of connected interests that mark Emmet as distinctive in 20th century philosophy.
Philosophers and Friends: Reminiscences of Seventy Years in Philosophy (1996)(126 pp)
Fascinating as well as charming account of Emmet’s colleagues and friends over the course of her long life, thus providing a kind of history of 20th century philosophical thought. But she does not limit the “philosophers” in the title to solely professional philosophers, but includes Max Gluckman (anthropologist), Reinhold Niebuhr (American theologian), M. Polanyi (scientist). Penetrating insights of Emmet on all these figures, it is only minimally an account of her own thought and its development. She discusses pre-analytic figures such as Samuel Alexander, A.D. Lindsay, R.G. Collingwood, and John MacMurray, omitted in standard histories of 20th century British philosophy such as G. Warnock’s and Urmson’s.
Emmet’s other books
Whitehead’s Philosophy of Organism (1932. First book on Whitehead’s metaphysics; Emmet studied with Whitehead in the US in the late ‘20’s)
The Effectiveness of Causes (1985)
The Passage of Nature (1992)